The neighborhood Toby had once grown up in, once full of families, was now full of empty, abandon houses, all except one house Toby's house, where his mother still lived.

Toby sat in his perch getting more and more pissed as he watched his father get out the car and walk up to the house. Somehow his father had survived Toby's beating though not without scarring he was able to walk almost normally though he couldn't talk as Toby's beating has destroyed his tongue. Toby liked this addition, but it wasn't enough for Toby to give up his vacation to protect his mother, his mother meant the world to him despite his new life. She's the only living family he had left, his father was not family.

His father was drunk again and he looked pissed and Toby knew his mother was home so this wouldn't go well. Once he entered the house Toby jumped down from the tree he had been perched in and walked up to the house. Already he heard yelling inside; quietly he tried the door handle and the door slid open. "Jonathan! Stop! Just take your medication!" Toby slid in through the open door hearing their voices coming from the kitchen he closed it quietly. He heard an annoyed growl from his father, a smack quickly followed by a yelp from his mother. Toby quickly stepped into the kitchen and caught his mother before she could fall. The slap was so hard she had spun and fallen face first into Toby's chest. "Touch her again…I dare you." The room went silent Toby hand grown since he was last in this house he now towered over not only his mother but his father as well though that wasn't hard as his father wasn't a tall man. "T-Toby?" Toby glared at his father. "Get out." His father glared back wanting to yell in protest but couldn't. Toby smirked under his mask "what? Cat got your tongue? Oh wait…" he chuckled and moved his mother behind him "I did." His father growled and lifted a fist throwing it, which Toby caught with ease. "Not this time daddy dearest." He twisted his father's arm around causing him to grimace in pain and fall to his knees. "You know I'm not allowed to kill you? Isn't that shame? I didn't succeed the first time and now I'm not allowed to get a second chance!" he pulled out his vibrating phone and answered. "Helloooo?" he said in a sing song voice. "We heard you might need a pick up?" Toby chuckled at Masky's voice. "Soon but not yet."

"We can wait."

"But I am gonna need some cuffs if it's not too much to ask and some rope."

"I'll bring some in." Toby hung up the phone and turned his attention back to his father "one moment." Toby cracked his neck before spinning his father around and pinning him on the floor as the sliding glass door slid open and Masky stepped in. "help me here would ya?" Masky pulled out a chair facing away from Toby's mother and Toby forced his father into it as Masky made quick work of tying him to it and Toby cuffed one hand to the arm of the chair. "Is that all Toby?" Masky asked smugly "one more thing." He placed a hand on Masky's cheek and slid an arm around Masky's waist "gonna need this." He said before stealing Masky's gun from the back of his pants and walking back over to his father. "Screw you Toby." Masky said annoyed "you wish don't cha'?"

"Shut up!" Toby chuckled removing all but one bullet in the gun and shoving the extras in his pocket and pulling out a chair facing his father. He sat down and set the gun in his father's lap. Jonathan looked at it confused. "Confused aren't you? 1 gun, 1 bullet, one of your hands free, 2 options. 1 try to kill yourself 2 try and kill me. I won't dodge, I won't run, I won't touch you. If you kill me, Masky here will leave taking my lifeless body with him and you may continue with your life as you see fit but you'll have to live with the fact that you killed your own son but I imagine that wouldn't be hard for you. If you kill yourself you will be given a proper burial and I'll even give a speech at the funeral if you like, down side? You'll be dead. So Jonny? Which will it be? You or me?" Jonathan turned his attention back to the gun and picked it up examining it. "Oh don't worry that's a real bullet I'm not that cruel." Toby said pushing down his hood and taking off his mask and goggles. Revealing a large burn on the side of his face so deep it exposed his teeth slightly. Toby grinned at his father's shock. "Neither of us made it from that day without a reminder." Jonathan looked at the gun before pointing it at Toby's head ignoring Connie's screams of protest. Toby leaned forward resting his head against the barrel of the gun. "Don't be a pussy…pull the trigger." Toby said tauntingly "bring…it."

A loud bang flooded the room as Masky caught Connie to keep her from running to her son's now limp body, but the body began to twitch again and Toby chuckled "can't kill the dead." He said laughing "didn't you listen?" he laughed again. "I said TRY to kill me." He sat up grinning. "I would have saved your life to! I said TRY to kill yourself! I wouldn't have let that happen! I told you! I'm not allowed to kill you! And I take my job very seriously." Toby's laughing subsided as he stood before leaning down to his now terrified father. He took the gun back and whispered in his ear. "Touch her again and I won't take my job so seriously." He grabbed his mask and goggles before nodding to Masky who as quietly as he'd entered exited the room leaving the shattered family alone.

Toby turned to his mother who was frozen her brain trying to process what just happened. He walked over and lifted her hand. "Here take this." He placed a small flip phone in her hand. "If you're ever in danger call me on this phone, I'll probably know anyway but just in case. There's only one number on there its mine don't hesitate to call and don't worry about charging it." he lifted her other hand. "when you're ready…" he placed a small key in her hand. " Let him go and you probably would have guessed don't tell anyone about this." She didn't say anything she just yanked him towards her hugging him tightly. "please don't leave me again." He gave a soft chuckle. "I have to but I can stay for the moment."

I may add more to this story but for now this is it. I currently working on another story that I wanna finish before continuing this one so who knows.
-dark images