Chapter 19: Attacks

It was late at night after Allen had left Moses' house, and he got home just in time to see his sister, Lillian, with a tired look on her face, seemingly ready to go out.

Lillian wore a white crew-neck T-shirt and yellow jeans, which were washed out because she couldn't be bothered to buy new clothes.

"Allen, I was just about to call you. Why have you been coming home late lately?" Lillian asked as she looked at Allen.

Allen hesitated and explained, "I've been working part-time at a convenience store lately, so I'm back late."

Lillian nodded and walked to the door to put on her shoes. "I've been hearing that security hasn't been great lately. Police have been patrolling the streets, and I'm a little worried about your safety."

"Are you going out?" Allen asked.

Lillian nodded, "Mrs. Rose had to take the day off for something, and I needed to go to the hospital to care for my mother."

Mrs. Rose was the caregiver they hired for their mother.

"Why don't I go with you." Allen offered.

Lillian said, "No, Kevin will drop me off."

Kevin Edric was Lillian's boyfriend and middle school teacher. Allen had met him, and he seemed like a very mild-mannered man.

"I'm off. Remember to lock the door at night." Lillian said and walked downstairs.

Allen watched Lillian leave in Kevin's car from the window as he pulled out his cell phone and called Jerome. He had to get the guy's hundred-thousand-dollar payoff back.

At that moment, in a loud nightclub, Jerome's cell phone was sitting on the table, the ringing of the telephone muffled by the loud music. And Jerome was hugging a voluptuous beauty and stroking each other.

"What's this guy doing?" Allen saw that the call was not working and hung up. He had to get the money from Jerome and figure out how to explain to his sister where it came from.

"If my sister knew this was my reward for gambling, she would kick me out of the house." Allen shook her head and went back to the bedroom.

Late at night, in the darkness of his home, an elegant figure tumbled in through the window of Allen's house, none other than the Speckled Snake.

Allen, who was sleeping, was suddenly awakened by a nightmare in which he dreamed that a coyote had bitten his neck. Blood was pouring out of his neck, and despite Allen's desperate attempts to cover his neck and breathe hard, he couldn't get a single breath of air into his lungs.

Allen jumped up from the bed, gasping for air, when suddenly he heard movement outside his bedroom door.

The spotted serpent walked over to Allen's bedroom door and reached out to gently open it; there appeared to be a person lying on the bed, their body covered by a quilt.

The speckled snake walked over to the bed and lifted the covers, but only two pillows were in it.

Suddenly, Allen burst out from behind the curtains, baseball bat raised in his hand, and smashed it towards the head of the speckled snake.

When Allen heard the commotion outside the door, he looked through his perspective eyes and saw the gargoyle's figure. He disguised himself to protect himself and carried a baseball bat, ready for a sneak attack.

The sneak attack was unsuccessful, and the speckled snake's arm blocked the baseball bat as it came down, missing his head but causing a sharp pain in his arm. Just as Allen was planning to have another go, a burst of black smoke rose from the speckled snake's chest, and that black smoke turned into a black wolf in the air and bit towards Allen's neck.

"What the hell is this?" Allen was startled and hurriedly held the baseball bat in front of his body. The black wolf took a bite of the baseball bat, and the stick made of solid wood was directly bitten off in its mouth.

"Shit!" Allen kicked the black wolf away from him with a hard kick, and in the next second, his neck was strangled hard by someone, a flowery snake.

Allen's face flushed as he was strangled with a cross-hold around his throat, and he felt like he was going to choke.

"You destroyed my casino; I'll repay you with your life!" The Speckled Snake's sinister voice rang in Allen's ears.

'What does your casino have to do with me? I'm just going to win some money!' Allen spat in his mind while the choking sensation made him more uncomfortable.

Under the threat of death, Allen's will to survive seemed to be answered; his pupils turned golden yellow, and a marvelous power spread from his eyes to his brain, and then through his brain, blood quickly flowed throughout his body.

"Ah!" Allen suddenly erupted into a roar, his strength skyrocketing as he ripped Speckled Snake's arm away from him and slammed him hard to the ground with an over-the-shoulder slam.

The speckled snake was a little confused by Allen's sudden outburst, and by the time he got up from the ground through the excruciating pain, Allen had already crashed through the window and jumped from the second floor.

"Do you think you can escape?" The speckled snake walked over to the window and stroked the black wolf's head.

The black wolf's nose shrugged as he jumped through the window and chased after the direction Allen had fled in.