Well, this took about almost a week, but thank goodness it's here. Now you can see how the rest of this story turned out. Enjoy!!

Chapter 3: Confronting Mantis

The next day, Mantis wandered around the tree, thinking about his mother and wanted to get away from her boyfriend. However, when he came got down to the tree, he sees the grasshopper looking angry as heck.

Mantis felt the fear coming out of his eyes as the grasshopper was about to get rid of him one and for all.

"So, you're the twerp who's been messing around my girlfriend, aren't you?" asked the grasshopper.

"Your girlfriend is my mom. I saw you how you messed with her last night and the day before. Do you know how much that kind scares me?" said Mantis.

"You're too young to know this much."

"Those eyes... they don't fool me. I'm just asking you nicely, just please leave my mom alone. You act as if it has something to do with me."

"It does."

"I didn't even mess with you at this point, so why take it out on me?"

"Just stay away from my girlfriend, understood?!"

"I can't do that. Why? Because she's my mom. I have to be there for me like she has for me, and that's the way it is and I love her. You're just too... paranoid and crazy."

The grasshopper shoved Mantis on the floor and slammed him, punched him and messed him up real bad. Mantis tried to fight back, but the grasshopper used every single move to take him on and used his fist to punch Mantis in the stomach, eye and in the knees. The grasshopper kept screaming and punching at him for too long. Then, suddenly, Mantis fell to the ground and tries to get up until the grasshopper decided to leave with his last words.

"Get anywhere near my girlfriend you're both dead! Got it?!"

He left and walked away from him. Mantis eventually felt intimidated by that grasshopper, unaware that his mom saw the entire fight.

Mantis went back inside the tree, looking scarred and bruised. His mom looked at him with complete shock. She asks, "What happened? Did my boyfriend messed with you? Did he beat you up?"

Mantis looked at her with tears in his eyes, and nodded. His mother dropped her jaw and said, "Oh, heck no, he didn't! Nobidy messes with my only son and gets away with it. We are so breaking up at this point!"

"You can't to do that! He threatened me that if I get anywhere near you, he'll kill us both! I don't wanna take that risk, but I want to be near you. I just... I just don't know what to do now." said Mantis.

His mom sighs and said, "Don't worry. We'll get through this. No matter what. I'm not gonna leave you, ever. I promise, I'll be here for you."

"You promise?" asked Mantis.

"I promise."

She comforts him and hugged him. She puts Mantis in his room in order for this to heal and get it away.

"You gonna be okay?" asked his mom.

"I hope so."

A few hours later, Mantis' had a terrible dream about himself, his mother and the grasshopper. He dreamt that the grasshopper was coming for Mantis and takes him away and puts him in his death and that his mom was gonna save him, but it was short-lived when the grasshopper followed her every move and took her down and punched her in the face and Mantis was falling out of his mom's grasp and the grasshopper slithered his body until...

Mantis woke up and screamed loudly and panted furiously with sweat dripping from his face and the horror from his nightmare was affecting him, emotionally.

When his mom heard him screaming, she decided to make sure he was okay. She asked, "Are you okay?"

Mantis sighed and said, "Yeah, I just... Just had a bad dream."

His mother sat down next to him and said, "It's about my boyfriend, isn't it?"

Mantis nodded his head and she realized that he had a nightmare about him and told him, "It's gonna be okay. We're gonna get through this."

"I hope you're right." Mantis said, worriedly.

"Go back to sleep."

Mantis went back to sleep, worried about the fact whenever he closed his eyes, he sees that scary grasshopper and hopes that it will pass. She took one last look at Mantis and thought so much about him and his life.

She walked out of his room and thinking she has had enough up to here and decides the best way to end this relationship is by breaking up with him, even though he's gonna beat the mess out of him, but she hopes he'll accept it for Mantis' sake.

I could definitely feel sorry for Mantis. His childhood wasn't that good at 11. The thought of his mom really bruises him and his boyfriend, man, somebody should do something to him. Lucky for you guys, this next chapter should answer that.