God damn you, Bob, you and your fucking depression...there\x92s a reason I didn\x92t want to do this alone, Alex thinks as he sits on the other side of a two inch thick pane of glass, staring blankly at a unmarked red door on the other side. He nervously balls his fists and pops his knuckles, letting his mind drift in an effort to relax himself; snapping back to attention and sending his heart beating as a uniformed guard leads out a wizened, graying flying fox, sitting him down in the chair opposite Alex. The old fruit bat picks up the receiver and slowly brings it to his ear.

Alex (picking up the small black phone off to his right, sighing): Hello James.

James: Hello yourself, kid. Guess there\x92s too much hate still in there to call me Dad, huh?

Alex just stared silently back, his fingers grinding into the phone.

James: Didn\x92t figure you\x92d end up a metal-head.

Alex (through strained teeth): Fuck you. You haven\x92t seen me since I was eight...since...you.... You know what, what am I doing here? I could of gone these next three years without seeing you, hoping you rot in some halfway house and drop dead on your shitty fifty-cents-an-hour job. But, No! You have to appeal to my sense of family...If you\x92re done ruining my Christmas, I\x92m going back to my friends.

James (scoffing): Who? That faggot mouse you were always hanging around with?

Alex (jumping up and throwing the phone at the glass): Fuck you!

James (wincing as the phone hits, then smirks): Yea, that\x92s it isn\x92t it? You a little more then friends, aren\x92t ya? Heh...never figured you for a pillow-biter either, kid.

Alex turns around and walks back down the hall towards the entrance, but not before slamming his fist into the wall, screaming.

The grave of Catharine Renford

There is no moon, no stars, no wind, as a figure scales and jumps the cemetery fence; winding through headstones and the occasional tree. It comes to stand over a simple plaque in the ground, the type most government services have reserved for unknowns, homeless, and the many who\x92s only impression left is a dignified, quick burial and a stone tablet to remind the caretakers that this was once someone.

Alex (looking down at the plaque, sighing): Hi Mom...

Guess I should of visited more...not that you\x92d notice, maybe for myself at least...Guess what? Dad\x92s still a prick, though, heh, I\x92m sure you know that. (He collapses to his knees, his paws on either end of the plaque, as tears begin to fall from his cheeks over it).

I miss you so damn much, Mom...

A basement nestled in the solid earth of the stable suburbs where a once solid male hovers over his once stable family, who, as of twenty minutes ago, sit tied to chairs, sweat turning their gags yellow. Alex, who at this point is eight, sits in a corner hidden by shadow from the naked bulb that hangs in the middle of the room, screaming through his gag. A younger, fuller James lingers over a bound and gagged fruit bat, his wife, Catharine, with an X-Acto knife.

James (waving the knife lazily across Catharine\x92s cheek, smirking): See Son, she is just no good...rotten even. Yeah, rotten through and through...and, Son...you never (emphasizing with a slash to her cheek, blood splashing on his shirt): put up with rotten females. (He walks around her, turning the knife over in his paw): How was he, honey? Huh? (He leans in, coming nose to nose with her wide-eyed, bleeding face; still smirking): He fill you up good? Make you see God? Hmm, baby? (She screams against her gag, rocking her body): Something to say, baby?...Say it (He slips off her gag).

Catharine (blood drying on her cheek, her fur is soaked in sweat): We\x92re...only...friends...Nothing...happened...

James (eyes widening in rage): Stop lying! (emphasizing with another slash, this time to her other cheek): You lie, Mom lied, all females lie! You\x92re not corrupting my son, you used cunt, you hear me!? He\x92s going to be a male without you turning him against me! (He punches her muzzle, hard, turning her head and knocking her chair over; it lands at an odd angle, turning her muzzle even further as she lands on it, snapping her neck)

James stands there, looking down on his unmoving former wife, giggling. Alex stops struggling, his eyes glaze over and his breathing relaxes in shock; he only stares silently as his father turns his head and focuses on him.

James (gliding across the floor over to Alex, he kneels, patting Alex on the chest): Alex...you listening?

(Alex nods)

Good...good...Now, son, Dad\x92s going to have to go away for awhile...but, someone may come here looking for me or Mom...well...they will there\x92s no maybe about it, so don\x92t worry, someone will untie you sometime...anyway, when they do...if you say one word about what happened...(he runs the blade under Alex\x92s chin, tracing a line to the top of his throat)...well...you\x92ll see Mom real soon...get me, kid?

(Alex nods again, blankly)

James (heading up the stairs): Tootles, junior. Be a man for Christ\x92s sake...and stop hanging around that faggot mouse kid...(he leaves, shutting the basement door behind him).

Alex just sits there, blinking every so often as the naked, now swaying bulb flashes its 100 watt beam in his eyes and sways back, then flashes, then back, flash, back, and so on the pendulum effect continues.

Tears pool over the plaque as Alex lays next to it, shivering and curling into a fetal position.

Alex (sobbing under his breath): I didn\x92t want to remember...that bastard...I didn\x92t want to remember...that fucker...Idon\x92twanttorememberIdon\x92twanttorememberIdon\x92twantto... (He pauses and stiffens as a twig snaps in front of him, his watery eyes open slowly and focus on a gray and blue blur that stands a couple feet away from the opposite side of the plaque).

Bob (coming more into focus, he looks down at Alex, his paw in pockets): Hey, kid, shake a leg...maybe you\x92re crazy in the head...

Alex (sitting up and wiping his eyes): Not funny...

Bob (sitting down opposite Alex): Wasn\x92t meant to be.

Alex: How the hell did you know where I was?

Bob: You\x92re not the only one who morns her...as much as you would like the honor. I heard what your Dad said about me whenever I came over, I didn\x92t understand all of it at eight, but later, you know. Your Mom did the best she could to hide me from him and shield me, and even comfort me on those more direct days he had...She was more of a mother to me than my own. Besides, that isn\x92t the real question you want to ask.

Alex (looking down, speaking low): Yeah, you\x92re right...where the fuck where you?

Bob (shrugging): If I knew, I\x92d tell you. Kinda bombed out in a mental sense and woke up under the bridge. Long story, don\x92t ask.

Alex grunted a "hm".

Alex (resting his arms on his knees, he looked down at his open paws, closing them, then opening them again): I\x92m only telling you this because you know him...and you\x92re my friend...

In three years...when he gets out...I\x92m going to kill him.

Bob (raising an eyebrow): Do I really need to give the "You\x92re Going to Be No Better Than Him" speech?

Alex (ignoring him): I\x92m going to do it...I don\x92t care if it\x92s what she would of wanted...I don\x92t care if by doing that I sink to his level...for what he put me through alone, I\x92m going to do it.

Bob: You realize in those three years, I\x92m going to do my damnedest to stop you.

Alex: I know. You\x92re welcome to try.