Chapter I. The small house on a highland (part 3)

The name is Lenny

Lenny is seemingly even more confused.
"What are you talking about? Why am I here? Who are you?"

She frowned at him, then asks. "Do you remember anything?"

"No, my head hurts.." He closes his eyes try to recall something.

"Hmmm, this is bad. At first, I saw you were crawling up the Dead Zone, and then you don't remember a thing. Maybe you are an undead.", she then backs up.

"Undead? Dead zone? What?" He looks at the old woman.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. Just forget about it. I haven't seen anyone 'alive' lately anyway. But here, I found this in your pocket when me and Old Fart brought you here." She shows him a small, dirty lion doll. "It has something written under its belly, and also, it has the smell of a....father. A loving father." She continues. "I can not read, but my nose is sharper than Old Fart for sure."

Lenny looks at the doll, then slowly but surely, his eyes are filled with tears. "Joe.."

"You remember this doll, don't you?"

"I.. I don't think so. I had this dream. It likes it happened yesterday..my friend..Joe. He wanted to give this doll to his daughter. But it is just a dream. I meant..I don't know anything anymore. I don't even know why i am crying" His tears still fall out of his eyes, run down his temples and started to wet the pillow under.

"Hmm, a dream, and a vision of yesterdays...", paused a moment, she sighs. "My dad used to tell me stories about people who lost their memory, and in those stories, their memories come back to them in the form of dreams, unusual dreams."

"Then...is it true that...Joe is dead?"

"I don't know about that, young boy. But what else do you remember?" The grandma smiles gently.

"I ..was in a dark place. People died. Many of them.. I know their names...They called me..Lenny." He tries to get a hold of his emotion, why answering the grandma.

Her eyes light up, and she started to laugh out loud.
"What a surprise! Once I had a son, and his name is Leonard, but I always call him Lenny. haha".

Then she pauses a few second. "But he is dead now, just like everyone else I know." She starts to giggle again.

"What is funny about being dead? You are creepy." Lenny feels uneasy about her way of laughing.

"Oh sorry young boy. At my age, dead is not a tragedy, it is a miracle." The old woman continues to smile at him.

"A MIRACLE? DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW I FEEL RIGHT NOW?" He yells at her so loud that, for a moment, he feels like he can move his arms and legs.

"Of course I do, young boy. I know what you are feeling right now. But believe me, after a while, you will get over it. And now, you need to sleep. By this time tomorrow, when you wake up, you will be able to move around as your wounds are healed." She says, and starts to put her hand over his forehead, hover above it in a circle.

"But, I ..." Before he can say anything more, his eyelids become heavy, and his head feels light. He falls asleep almost instantly after.

When he woke up, it is already a day later. This time, as the grandma said, he can move all of his body parts, although they are still weak. No one is in the house but him, not even the dog yesterday, Lenny decides to leave the bed and walk around to discover where he is. The house is not big, but not too small. It has two rooms and a kitchen. His room is just in the left of the kitchen while the right one is locked. "That must be that granny's room." Lenny walks around the kitchen. It is a bit dusty, but there is a warm burned block of firewood inside the fireplace, indicates that it has been used recently. He can not find any food spared, the fireplace, the table, everywhere he looks, are empty of food. There is nothing edible in this house. For a moment, he wonders if the old woman eats anything at all. There is even no single evidence of food in this dusty kitchen, as if there is no one was living here for a long time.

He open the only door leads to outside, and walk out. There is no sunlight, but it is not dark. There is noway for him to tell if it is still day or it is evening already. The sky is covered with cloud and the air, it feels dreary. Turning around to look at the house, the house is appeared to be a very old and was made entirely of wood. He then realizes that the house and him are seemingly standing alone on the top of a sloppy hill. He cannot see anything below the slope except the tops of some trees spike out a heavy fogged field beneath. The house, the hill and the fog make it feels like he is standing on a lone island, a creepy one. Each time a wind blows pass his nape, a cold runs through his spine and shakes his whole body up. It is worth to mention that the wind is not that cold, it is just the feel.

And then, out of nowhere, there is a noise of something rubs the ground. It sounds like when people take two pieces of wood and rub them together to make an annoying sound. It comes from the fog. Despite of not being able to see what is happening inside the sea of fog, Lenny can feel the sound closer in every second. It is not fast but still, it is coming toward him, or the house.

"What's now?", he thinks to himself.

The fog seems to ebe disturbed, and long, dark figure slowly come closer to him from it. Lenny still stands there, stare into the fog, knows nothing about the danger he is about to face. As it comes closer to the house, the dark figure becomes bigger, and Lenny can hear a low, sinister male voice clearer. It is almost like "...shh...shh...my...mine.....shh...shhh" or something like that.

Lenny shouts to the dark figure in the fog, "WHO IS THAT?"

To which, it still mumbles "shhh...mine...mine...my....human...shhhh..shhhhhh". It is not crystal clear, but Lenny still can figure out that this thing is not very friendly.

Then it stops getting closer. He still cannot see anything but a dark, long and big figure because of the heavy fog. It is about one hundred feet away from him, and because he is on the higher ground, he can see that its body is at least twice that long. More than that, it is emerging from the fog, as if it wants to get closer to him. A pair of glowing green eye shaped balls are placed on its head. They are staring at his eyes with a cold look. Lenny feels empty. He can not move, nor stop staring back at those things. They are coming closer to where he stands.

"GO BACK TO WHERE YOU BELONG, AAPEP! LEAVE THE BOY ALONE!", a strong, high pitched voice raises behind him.

<To be continue>