Author's opening notes: I love Roach: Coming Home but there are something's I don't like about it too so I've made up my own People Under the Stairs universe using Sodapop765's characters, with her permission don't worry, and here it is for your enjoyment. So enjoy!
"No way she leavin' him in there alone." Said Leroy as he watched the woman drive away.
"There's gotta be someone else in there. Old folks, kids, or somethin'." Said Fool not knowing just how right he was.
"C'mon, we're going in." said Leroy turning the van on. Fool saw several things wrong with this.
"Spencer told us to stay out here, Leroy." Said Fool as he sat in the van next to Leroy. Spencer had been in there for a very long time and the lady had just left the house.
"So he can hide all the good shit for himself? Why not just kick your mom out on the streets along Ruby and the kids?" said Leroy. He pulled the van into the driveway, Fool wanted to tell him that this was stupid because they had no idea when the woman would be back and he seeing their van in her driveway was suspicious.
Leroy had managed to pry his way into the massive house but not before being attacked by the attack dog, Prince. Roach and Alice were watching all of this from within the walls; Roach to try and see if he could scare them out of the house before they were killed and Alice because she was curious about outsiders.
"He's just a little boy, like us." Whispered Alice as the people made their way through the house. Roach nodded.
"Can you at least make sure he gets out? I don't want to see Daddy kill another kid." Said Alice. Roach gave her hand a squeeze and nodded. The boy was going into the cellar now. Roach left Alice on the ground floor and went down the passage way into the caged part of the cellar.
"Roach has decided to grace us with his presence." Said Scribe, a boy not much older than Roach. He had been kidnapped by Daddy for food and pleasure but the thing between the walls before Roach had saved him and put him in the cellar.
"Shut up, Scribe!" said Twig, a blind boy who had been the son before Roach. He was somewhere in his early twenties, he thought.
"Messenger agree, shut up." Said Messenger, their leader. He leaned back onto his wife, Headbanger's, large stomach. There was a baby in there, ready to come out soon. When it did he'd smother it so it didn't have to live the way he did. He had been born under the stairs twenty seven years ago, he could tell because there was a cut on his arm for every time the frost melted.
"I will not." Said Scribe. He took big strides over to Roach. The old guard, people who had been under the stairs since Messenger was a child, were eating whatever they could of the person who had just died. Roach would toss them the body as soon as he at least got the boy out of the cellar.
"Please do what Messenger says, he's the leader." Said Molly quietly from behind Scribe. She was the girl child before Alice. She had been thrown in the cellar for the people under the stairs to use and eat after she had sated bleeding from her bad place for no reason. Scribe had married her soon after.
"Well, if you say so." Said Scribe. He'd do anything, even listen to the idiot boy known as Messenger, because she said so.
"Bring body here. Food good. Food not rats. None for Roach. He baby." Said Messenger as he got up on creaking legs. Despite being so much older than Roach he was also much smaller. He pulled his blanket, the only clothing he owned, closer around himself.
"Roach smart too. Food make crazy. Messenger think." Said Messenger going over to the TV, his window into the outside world. Someone on the outside moved it away from the bars.
"Boy here. Save, kill, send. Messenger not care." Said Messenger as he and Headbanger moved the mesh away from the bars. They liked TV, it was something to watch. A way to learn about the world which they had been denied.
Roach made his way out of the caged area. The others knew how to get out but they also knew better than to try. They moved too slowly to evade Daddy, and Roach had made traps for them to keep them away from Alice. Daddy had used Molly years ago and now she was in the cellar, Roach wouldn't let that happen to Alice. He could get her out if she'd just stop being so afraid. He remembered, vaguely, the outside world. He used to tell her secret stories about his real mother, father, sisters, and the little brother growing inside of his mother. Alice didn't believe him, he could tell, but he loved the way her eyes lit up when he told her the stories anyway.
"Who are you?" asked the boy as he pulled the body away from the cage. Roach wanted to tell him not to bother, Stairmaster was missing more of his tongue than Roach was. Roach knew he had to get the boy out of there before he either died or ended up in the cellar. He jumped onto the boy's back in an effort to get him out.
"Leroy we gotta get out of this place! Oh no!" yelled Fool. He didn't know what was happening and he didn't care to know. Something was wrong, Spencer was dead, and he needed to get out. This was like some kind of a bad dream. He threw the person off of his back and into a pile of tired.
"(Go! Get out!)" Roach tried to yell. He was thrown into a pile of tires against the wall. He was in pain, bad pain. The fall then jarred a barely healed break. The boy ran up the stairs and Roach followed him. The boy began to pound on the door and Alice opened it. He was cross at Alice for that, she could have gotten hurt. He chased he boy up the stairs and fell, hard. This was just not his day. The whole day felt…off…and not the usual off either.
"(Alice, we need to talk.)" muttered Roach as Alice opened the door for the boy and then ran away to safety. He hated how she did stuff like that, put herself in danger. It was fine for him because he was bad and therefore his life had no value outside of protecting Alice but she was good and there was still a chance that things could work out for her.
"Get off!" yelled Fool as this…person…tried to get him back into the cellar. This wasn't real. This wasn't happening. This was like some terrible dream. He managed to slam the door on the person and he continued to yell. He needed to find Leroy and get out of there.
"(Fine, be that way.)" muttered Roach as he picked himself up. Great. He lost a nail. Well that was certainly going to suck later. He slid down the stairs and back into the cellar. He ripped some of the shirt Alice made for him and wrapped it around his missing nail. He went into the furnace and climbed into the vents. From the vents he went into the walls and watched the boy and the man. He may have been the boy's father; he looked to be the right age for a father to be.
"I wonder how my real father is? Does he even remember me? Did my real family ever exist or are they just figments of my stupid imagination?" thought Roach as he watched the two people. The man was going to die and the people under the stairs were going to eat. Well, the Old Guard anyway…he and the ones he called his friends subsisted mainly on rats and mice.
"Leroy?" asked Fool tentatively as he saw his friend just laying there on the floor. Maybe the people got him too like that guy who tried to kill him. This wasn't happening; this was a bad dream. It had to be.
"Fool! You scared the shit out of me!" said Leroy jumping up. He had been listening and whatever was in the walls was certainly not a rat. It was probably Spencer hiding the gold coins for himself.
"I thought you was dead Leroy, you was just laying there!" said Fool. Ok, Leroy was alive and he was a grown up. He'd know what to do.
"A man ain't dead just 'cause he's layin' on the floor. I was listening, something's in there. In fact, why'd don't you crawl in there and see what it is?" said Leroy playfully slapping Fool on the cheek. Fool was not amused.
"You turkey brain! You hittin' on me and I come up here to save your ass?! You gonna stick your dumb head in there and lose it just like Spencer!" said Fool near tears. They needed to get out of there. They needed to get free.
"What you talkin', Fool?" asked Leroy now looking visibly worried. Something wasn't right about this hose. Maybe the rumors about the Robeson's were true.
"I'm talkin' we gotta get out of here, Leroy. That X-Ray Lady's back; she's out back right now by the van. She got a man with her the size of Detroit!" said Fool pleading with Leroy. He wanted to go home and just be at home and find some other way to pay the rent.
"Damn, you seen Spencer?" asked Leroy. This was bad, he couldn't go away again. Why'd he have to care about Ruby so much?!
"Oh I seen Spencer alright." Said Fool. Leroy let out a sigh of relief. At least something was beginning to go right. The important thing was that they get out and come in Sunday as they planned.
"He find anything?" said Leroy hopefully. Even a few gold coins would save Ruby and her family from being evicted.
"Something found him. He dead Leroy, I think scared to death." Said Fool solemnly. Roach smiled from his place in the wall. Good, more food for the people under the stairs. Alice was listening to them from further down the hall. She had already made a doll for the man and the boy but she didn't know what the other man looked like. Roach would tell her and she'd make a doll for him to hold his soul so he's be her property friend forever.
"You sure?" asked Leroy. The kid was wrong. The kid had to be wrong. Scared to death? No, Spencer wasn't dead. It wasn't possible.
"You thought he was white before? You should see that sucker now!" laughed Fool with tears born out of fear in his eyes. He just wanted things to be normal and right. He wished that this day had never happened.
"Ok, Messenger's gonna love this kid and not in the wrong way either. Messenger doesn't do that because he's our leader and he doesn't have to force anyone. Thank God for small favors." Thought Roach as he felt the pain in his finger. He decided to leave them be for a little while and steal an actual bandage for his finger. It wasn't so bad, he had been hurt much worse than this before.
Fool and Leroy made their way to the back door where they saw the man and the woman who owned the house. They looked like they had crawled out of an old timey sitcom with their hair and clothes. This entire place felt wrong.
"The door's been pried opened." Said the man. He must have been at least six and a half feet tall and over two hundred pounds.
"I told you there'd be another one." said the woman. The only word that came to Fool's head when he saw her was pointy. She was a hard, pointy, scary person. He idly wondered where the girl went to…she had helped him.
"Out the front!" said Leroy. They made a mad dash for the front door and Fool grabbed the nob. He could almost taste freedom when a thousand volts of pain shot through his entire body. He went flying back into the hard wood of the floor. His hand felt cold and numb from the electricity that shot through him.
"Pry it open at the bottom; enough so Prince can get it!" Came the cold, shrieking voice of the woman through the house. Roach and Alice both stopped breathing where they were. Mommy had that sort of power with just her voice. Roach thought she was a real life witch sometimes.
"Oh shit!" said Leroy. He thought fast and grabbed Fool. He'd have to kill the dog and then…well the owners maybe…Fool was just a kid. This was just supposed to be a regular job!
"Stand here out in the open to the dog can see you!" said Leroy pulling Fool to his feet in the middle of the room.
"You crazy?! That mother got teeth he ain't even used yet!" said Fool regaining feeling in his body. He just wanted to go home.
"Do like I say or I'm gonna take your head off!" said Leroy holding the crowbar threateningly. It may not have worked on the windows but it would work on Fool's head.
"I'm gonna nail that sucker, don't worry." Said Leroy reassuring himself more than Foo. He had never had a job go this wrong before.
"I'm worried." Said Fool he stood there in the living room a terrified sweaty mess. If he got out of this he promised to be the best possible person he could be. He'd do good in school, find religion, and do right by his woman if he lived through this and found one. The dog entered the room and just stopped, as if it was thinking about something.
"Where'd he go?" asked Leroy sticking his head up from behind the couch. He had gotten suspicious when he didn't hear Fool's screams of pain. As soon as he made himself visible the dog chomped down on his exposed arm. The pain!
"I'm gonna your head off! I'm gonna take your head off!" Said Leroy. Fool was trying to pull him away from the dog but was only making it worse. Leroy was about to start yelling at Fool to do something useful and hit the dog with the crowbar or something. His thought were a jumbled mess centering around the pain in his arm.
"God help me!" yelled Fool as he grabbed the electrifying door knob. The current somehow passed through him to the dog and Leroy like they were in a cartoon. Maybe they were. Maybe he was just hallucinating the whole thing.
"Told you I'd take your head off." said Leroy getting up from the floor. The dog was in pain and seemed possibly dying. Good riddance.
"I heard 'em yell! I heard 'em go down!" yelled the woman. Fool would feel a paralyzing chill go through him. That woman…there was something about her. It was like his very soul was trying tell him to get away before…something…happened.
"Man, these people crazy or what?" asked Fool unable to get up. His legs felt like they were made of jelly from the electricity.
"You ask 'em!" said Leroy pulling Fool to his feet and up the stairs. If this was a horror movie Leroy would have yelled at the actors not to ever go upstairs because that always spelled certain death. This was real life. They were back upstairs now and Leroy had just stopped trying in vain to kick the windows opened. Fool knew he was in a bad dream now. Here's the part where the ghost or zombie or monster or whatever would jump out of the closet. They ran back downstairs, maybe they could run out the back to safety. They were stopped at the top of the stairs when they saw the landlord and his wife.
"Little doggy baby, someone is in here." Said the woman stroking the dog with a creepy sort of affection. The man put bullets into a gun. He looked like he wasn't afraid to use it.
"The people under the stairs got the so called gas man." Said the man cocking his gun. Leroy pulled Fool back upstairs. This went from bad to worse.
"That's a big caliber automatic. You ever see the holes they tare?" asked Leroy quietly as they sneaked about in the upper levels of the house.
"We can hide under the bed!" said Fool trying to drag Leroy back into the creepy bedroom. It looked like a big enough bed for them to hide under and it would be the last place the crazy man and woman would think to look.
"No I ain't going back in there man, there's something about that place." Said Leroy. He found a closet and quickly hid in it.
"No room, find your own." Said Leroy. He hated Fool right then. He hated Fool for being so young. He hated Fool for having to live through this. He hated Fool for being related to Ruby. He hated himself for loving Ruby enough to try and pull what was possibly the last job he would ever pull.
"Poor boy. Roach, you had better save him." Muttered Alice. The man was certainly going to die and it looked like the boy would, too. Roach would try and save him. He had saved kids who went into the house in the two years he had been the thing between the walls.
"Might as well save the man too." thought Roach. He was in the walls and all the doors had just slammed shut. He began to make the yelping noises in the distance so the man would know he was there and not be scared. It didn't work, he ran out of the closet and into Daddy. Oh well, you win some you lose some.
"Run Fool!" yelled Leroy as the bullets pierced his body. As he died he thought about everything that had ever happened in his life and he came to the conclusion that he didn't want to die. He was a terrible father to his own kids both by Ruby and other women. He had done nothing with his life. He still had time to fix it. He needed the time. The force of the bullets sent him flying down the stairs.
"Roach…are you going to try and save the boy?" asked Alice as she leaned back towards the vent. Roach handed her a candle and the doll she made of the boy. She understood what she had to do without him miming anything. He loved how she understood him. They clasped each other's hands for a moment and enjoyed the warm feeling that came from that. Roach knew full well it was love. Alice knew it was love too but didn't know if Roach loved her back…so she said nothing. Sometimes words weren't necessary.