Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Everybody Hates Leon ❯ Alcohol and Attempted Murder ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

It was the dead of winter. The heater in the apartment was getting unreliable, so I decided to go ask the von Schroeders for a replacement.

In no time at all, I decided that I would much rather prefer a faulty heater to what I was witnessing. Herr and Frau von Schroeder were in the middle of a full-blown argument. The fight had apparently started over nothing. By the time I got there, the argument had degenerated into volleys of curse words.

I didn't know what to do. If I left, they might hear me leaving and get mad at me for eavesdropping. If I intervened, someone might get hurt. I decided to leave as they started throwing punches at each other.

For several hours, I didn't think much about what I had witnessed. This was actually not the first time that I had seen the von Schroeders fighting. Herr von Schroeder was drunk most of the time, and I strongly suspected that Frau von Schroeder had started cheating on him again. They hadn't had a major blowup in weeks, so I wasn't too surprised about what had happened. "They'll wear themselves out, like they usually do," I thought.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. The fight continued all through the day and into the night. Even after going at it for eight hours, the two were still so loud that they were keeping Leon from being able to go to sleep.

Finally, around midnight, it got ominously quiet in the mansion. At the time, my brain did not register the "ominous" part. I was just glad that I could go to bed at last.

I was just drifting off into sleep when I heard Leon scream in terror. I sleepily thought, "He's just having a nightmare. Who wouldn't after today?"

I stumbled down the hall, really wishing that I had gotten that darned heater fixed.

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I wanted sleep so badly, I started reassuring Leon without even turning on the light switch. When he continued screaming, I thought that maybe there was a bug in the room or something. I turned the light on so I could see where it was.

After a few seconds of adjusting to the light, I looked around the room. It only took a short while before I started screaming also. There was a huge butcher knife lying on the floor right next to Leon's bed!

After I finally calmed down, I started asking Leon questions. Let me tell you-there aren't many things that are as difficult as trying to understand a sobbing two-year-old. But from what I could gather, Leon had woken up because someone had opened his door. The cold draft from the hall had, in a stroke of unbelievable luck, caused Leon to look at the right place at the right time.

After that, Leon said nothing more that was intelligible, but I was now able to piece together what I thought might have happened. It would have made sense that Frau and Herr von Schroeder would have been having a fight about her infidelity. Naturally, that would have reminded Herr von Schroeder of Leon's existence. Since he was drunk, all his inhibitions were down. It would have been easy for him to sneak into the apartment. And he would have been successful in his mission, if it hadn't been for that wonderful, saintly broken heater!

(A/N: I just read over this. Geez, that paragraph was crap! It reminds me simultaneously of a cheesy detective story and those "inspiring" stories they have on Oprah.)

After I had had my "aha!" moment, I started worrying about Frau von Schroeder and Zigfried. But I didn't have to worry for long. Suddenly, Frau von Schroeder burst through the door. She was wearing a positively horrid fur coat. Behind her was Zigfried, who looked to be bundled up in every item of warm clothing he owned.

"Here, you take him. Get Zigfried and ...it...out of here. It's not safe to stay here right now!"

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the first rational idea that I had ever seen Frau von Schroeder have.

I obeyed her and took Zigfried. The silent war would have to wait.

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I only took a few minutes to pack after Frau von Schroeder departed to who-knows-where. In half an hour, the boys and I were stuffed into a car and speeding towards the airport. Now would be as good a time as any to go back home for a few weeks!


Whew! I'm pretty sure that this is the longest chapter yet! I may be wrong, but it's definitely one of THE longest!