Hellsalem's Lot was... It was a lot of things, if one were to speak honestly.
Dangerous things were everywhere, but if a city dweller were asked about it, he would say it was normal, the bread and butter of the city.
Leonardo Watch was in complete agreement.
He had arrived only 4 months ago due to certain personal circumstances, and since then he had seen all sorts of things. He told himself that if the city hadn't crushed him with so many chaotic situations he was thrown into, it was because he was too stubborn.
But it was still a little frustrating.
4 months of searching, and he hadn't found anything that would help fix what happened because of his cowardice, it only made himself feel more and more guilty, a feeling that he was destroying bit by bit.
'Ugh... It's going to ring already,' he said to himself as he checked his phone, there were 13 minutes left until his alarm went off, which indicated that he had to get ready for that low-paying job at a pizza place that didn't give him life insurance or anything.
In addition to working as a pizza delivery boy, Leonardo had recently been taking some short courses in programming to earn some extra money, which he was already doing.
If he could hone his skills, maybe he could make a living at it. It was one of his constant thoughts.
"Hmmm...", putting aside everything that was going through his head, he sat on the edge of the bed knowing he wouldn't go back to sleep.
He slipped on some warm slippers and stood up heading for the bathroom.
When he got there, he turned on the sink faucet, grabbed some water with both hands and dabbed his face to clean off the spittle.
He was about to go back to the bedroom and start putting on his uniform, but... an instinct made him want to look in the mirror.
There, he opened his eyes and looked at himself.
They were still there, the symbol of his cowardice, of a mistake that even if it cost him everything, he was going to fix.
The All Seeing Eyes of God
It was strange for Leo to wake up with such pessimism and a certain cynicism, which was directed at himself.
He had advanced his trip to Hellsalem's Lot by 4 months, and even with that wide margin, he hadn't gotten any answers. The closest thing to one came from a street witch who told him about a hospital where there was someone who could expand his knowledge on the subject,
That had been two weeks ago now and he hadn't had a chance to look any further into the mysterious hospital.
"Hey, another day in a city on the edge of sanity."
... ... ...
... ... ...
Dressed in his work uniform, Leonardo came out of the apartment where he was living only to find a scene that in a time gone by, he would consider strange.
"Why did we volunteer to do this? I should be designing weapons," complained a tall, dark-skinned man with very long, ashy black hair. He wore a long green coat as well as thick gloves and boots.
"Shut up. We can't complain or the sadistic bitch is going to step on my eyes again."
The other man had dark skin as well as hair that matched his white suit. From the tone in his speech, Leonardo knew instantly that he was someone who was here out of obligation more than anything else.
The situation the two men found themselves in was as follows: helping with the move of one of their co-workers, they had to start bringing in large pieces of furniture that could be placed in the apartment. Among those pieces of furniture was a couch, a favorite of this co-worker's and one she was reluctant to sell.
Conclusion: they had jammed the couch with the door frame and if they made the slightest sudden forceful movement, they would break the frame and the couch.
'I almost feel pity... Almost,' thought the young adult ready to ignore the situation, when a memory invaded his mind. 'Wait a second...'
Leonardo remembered going through a similar situation.
A department store team was unwise to bring their new desk into the apartment. Luckily, the landlady of the apartment called her son, a 'handyman' who disassembled the door frame with great speed.
"Hey, excuse me,"he called to the two men. "If you're having trouble getting the couch in, you should talk to the landlady in the building. She can help you."
Not wanting to waste any more time, Leonardo turned around and started his way toward the stairs.
"... That's a very good idea," Zapp Renfro had to admit.
... ... ...
... ... ...
"What do you think you're doing, kid?!".
"Aaah!".
Startled by his boss's voice, Leonardo slipped and his forehead ended up hitting one of the decorative tools on the thing.
"Uuuhh...".
"Leonardo, why the fuck are you standing there like a limpet?".
"Uhmm... I heard we had an order, so I'm waiting to take it."
Leonardo's boss was still angry, but could be heard taking a deep breath to calm down a bit.
"Stevie, come here!".
From the male employee restroom, a non-human person ran out rather awkwardly. Like most non-human residents in Hellsalem's Lot, he had unique features such as a single eye, a mouth with more fangs than usual as well as blue skin and devoid of any hair.
"Leonardo, this is Stevie."
"Hello," the Beyondian greeted innocently.
"He's the new delivery boy for this establishment."
Everything around the young adult with special eyes froze.
The world lost its color and the billiards began to rise in his throat.
If it wasn't for the fact that this wasn't the first time this had happened to him, Leo's body would probably have started shaking with unease.
"... Does that mean fired?".
"What? By Hell no. Don't you remember you're starting in the kitchen today?".
Once again, Leonardo froze.
"Ah, fuck it. If I didn't know how clueless you are, I'd think you were suffering from amnesia or something."
Simply ignoring him, the pizzeria boss walked over to one of the lockers and with his set of keys, unlocked it. From there, he pulled out a full chef's uniform.
He took the uniform with everything and the hook from which it hung and threw it to Leonardo, then shouted something at him.
"Now, get to work, I'm not paying you because you're standing there like a lamp post!".
For the first time, Leonardo Watch was happy to hear those words.
... ... ...
... ... ...
It had been an eventful day.
The other two cooks at the pizzeria, a girl and another Beyondian, and Leo made a superb team, too bad they couldn't enjoy it as much because they had run out of materials in the kitchen at around 4 p.m., when they would normally close at 8 p.m.
The next two hours were spent setting up the place and waiting for more supplies to be delivered, which arrived too late so the boss decided it wasn't worth reopening since they were closed from 4 until 7.
Just as they were about to leave, Stevie invited them all to a stylish bar, one that, according to the Beyondian, "only businessmen with frustration to take out but who were too afraid of their wives to go to any other kind of bar went to."
Leo wasn't a big fan of alcohol, but he also didn't see the harm in spending some time with his coworkers.
So here he was, at 11 p.m. arriving at his apartment while having a slight headache that came on as he was walking up the stairs.
"Ugh... I don't understand, I just drank a diluted vodka with ice..."
It wasn't wrong to say that the boy with unusual eyes almost crawled towards his apartment.
However, there was a surprise waiting for Leonardo. And said surprise was in front of his apartment.
"Wow, looks like everyone is partying today."
Filtering through the door of the apartment across the street, he could see lights of different colors. It was obvious that they belonged to a colored sphere like the ones used in clubs.
Likewise, I could hear some muffled music even through the door. Boy, this building insulated the sound well.
Shrugging his shoulders, Leonardo decided it was time to enter his "home".
He barely opened his door a crack when he heard a creaking sound and the nonsensical chatter of a female voice behind him.
That voice... In the back of his mind, Leonardo thought it had a certain charm to it.
"Hip... And he left early... aaaaaaaaaaaah."
Needless to say, but the woman was drunk.
Leonardo looked at her curiously for two reasons, the first being that he wondered why she had left so abruptly. And the second...
He had no idea what the second reason was.
In an instant, his mind registered his new neighbor's appearance: short black hair, slacks and a rather wrinkled white office shirt and dark purple eyes that someone could get lost in.
'Wait, what?'
Said woman didn't even seem to have noticed Leonardo because as soon as she came out, she went back inside her apartment. It was then that the boy heard other female voices, although they were rather muffled.
Leo assumed they were her friends.
Now alone with his thoughts, the young Watch went over in his mind the scene that had just occurred, all to try to remember what was going through his mind at the moment.
He came to the quick conclusion that he was drawing a blank.
"That... that was weird."