New Monster Thing Part 2

(unedited)

Juan looked up at the massive entryway, pillars on each side and the glittering chandelier in the afternoon sun. His legs moved as if on their own, because he still couldn’t believe he was here. It was like a dream, as if someone else was controlling his body and throwing him into this place he didn’t belong. Don’t get him wrong, he certainly wanted to belong here. There is just nothing in his life that would possibly lead to this as a house that he would be staying at.

He glanced back to see Arturo, and arched an eyebrow.

“Don’t be shy, man,” Arturo said. “This is my place, and now… It’s yours.”

“And these others?”

Arturo turned with hands on his hips to look at the other mansions in the estate area. “They belong to me and my associates. Nothing to worry about, I’m not involved in some mafia over anything like that.”

“What then?”

“I’m sure you will learn in time. It is not something I can just tell you upfront. That would be like throwing you into the deep end to see if you could swim, with cement bricks tied your feet.”

Juan didn’t know what to say to that, so he simply nodded and moved aside for Arturo to open the door. Something about this fancy place made them just feel wrong trying to enter on his own. As if the cops would jump out and yell, “surprise!” Then they would rush him, from the ground, and put him under arrest. His paranoia might not have made sense, but too many years of being treated like the poor man that he was made him unable to truly accept what was going on.

Arturo pushed open the door, then said, “There is food in the kitchen. Help yourself. We have clean linen on the bed, and I’ll come back and check on you soon.”

“Where you going to be?”

“That house there.” Arturo pointed at one that resembled the White House. “I need to talk with my buddies, figure out how this is going to go down, they get back to you. Wait, are you going to be all right? Do you need to… talk about it or something?”

“Nah man.” He felt the heaviness on his chest, but was more of confusion than pure grief. His dad was gone, and it was horrible, but the guy had always been a bit of a dick. He’d hit Juan more than once. So what now Juan was supposed to shed a tear for the man? It was his mom he worried about more than anything, as she’d always been there for him even when shooting up. Or she tried to be there for him at least.

“Cool, cool.” Arturo was about to walk away, but he instead motioned to the surrounding estate. “Listen, okay? All of this is off limits for now. After we chat, and when I’ve told you more about what’s going on, then you can explore. But it would be very stupid to walk around on your own before that.”

“Man, Uncle A, you’re wrapped up in some crazy shit.” Juan shrugged. “It’s cool though.”

“Like I said, get something to eat. You need a beer, it’s there.” Arturo paused, then chuckled. “The whole underage thing… Don’t worry about it. Not here.”

“All right.” Juan took one more look at the open door, gave his uncle and not, then headed inside.

In here it was even more elaborate than he could’ve imagined. He’d seen pictures of fancy places from those shows that went into the celebrity houses. But seeing it firsthand was a whole other matter. There were staircases with gold on the banisters, fancy blue carpet on the stairs, marble and large paintings. Vases. Basically everything he could’ve imagined and the fancy house for the rich and famous, was in this place that Arturo had just told him with his temporary home.

He grabbed up a sandwich, frowning at the weird mustard and ingredients that were higher class than he’d ever been exposed to. How a sandwich can make them feel inferior was beyond him. But it did. He aided as he walked along the halls, admiring the many rooms and shaking his head at the strangeness of the day. Pausing at a bathroom that was twice the size of his old living room, he pulled out his phone and try to dial April. No tone. It wasn’t even that he had no reception, just that his phone didn’t work. It had battery, and the bar showed that they were full. But nothing was happening.

Frowning and pocketing his phone, he found a bedroom that looked like it was probably for him, if for no other reason than the bed looks comfortable. Since he had no luggage, he simply laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

“What. The. Fuck.”

It hit him then that he hadn’t slept the night before. His eyelids started to close, and a pang of guilt and sorrow hit him. In his tired state, the emotions were coming on strong. It didn’t last long though, because soon sleep took him. He had dreams of flying over this mansion, strange visions of fireballs and walls of ice and all kinds of fighting between monsters. One point he woke with a shudder, light sweat on his forehead, and thought he saw somebody watching him from the window. But when he went over to the window and looked, nobody was there. How was it already night?

He stood at the window, first taking in the half moon in the sky, then the grounds of this estate and that dim silver light. Something seemed to slither out of sight, he wondered if they were snakes around. Then his eyes moved to the top of a roof where part of it appeared to move. Squinting, he thought he saw a figure up there, a human with wings. It was frozen in place though, so he shook his head in his silliness. Fancy mansions like this had gargoyle statues, right? That’s all it was he told himself.

Again he tried his phone, but the same thing as before happened. Simply didn’t let him call anyone.

Creaking sounded from the house, so he figured it was Arturo walking around it but when Juan went out to the hallway, he saw nobody. “Arturo?” he called out. No response. He explored some of the stairs, but found there were too many hallways and stairs bedrooms for them to truly look around in.

Instead, he found himself at the front door, wondering why he was still here. Arturo should come for him by now. None of this is right anyway, and he wanted to know what the hell was going on with his friends, his parents, all that shit. Part of him still wanted to finish getting that blowjob from April.

“Forget this,” he said and started for the gate. A few steps later though, he saw light on one of the mansions, and shadows moving about. He figured he should at least tell Arturo he was heading out. It wasn’t like the man would try to stop him.