Chapter 19 Time To Get Your Hands Dirty (1/2)

Laz paced back and forth for a bit before deciding to talk to his grandpa. Although he didn't know if there was anything that his grandpa could do, it was way better than to keep standing around doing nothing.

After walking outside and locking the door, Laz had a strange feeling walking down the steps. He could still hear the faint noise coming from Joey's place, even if he wasn't focusing on that. Knowing what was happening meant he couldn't ignore it.

If it was before, he would have most certainly did exactly that. Hiding away is easier than confronting something, more so when you can apply the 'out of sight, out of mind' principle. The problem now involved Laz himself. These messed up senses of his made it so that he couldn't ignore things, even if he wanted to.

Sure, powerful strength and superhuman like sight and hearing could be considered awesome, but this also lead to not being able to shut things out like before. If something didn't matter, then his mind would allow him to block it off. Because of this, he was still able to sleep at night despite knowing things happening around him.

It was like how you could fall asleep in class, despite the constant noise and such.

But this was different. This was like hearing people sitting right next to you talking about something that meant a great deal to you. Even if you didn't want to listen in, you would still listen in subconsciously.

Getting to his grandpa's door, he knocked and stepped back waiting for a reply.

His grandpa wasn't exactly fast getting there to open it, but he wasn't slow either. Laz could hear that he had been sitting down in the living room and probably sleeping.

”Oh Gabe, why did you knock? Did you forget your key again?” His grandpa asked with concern in his eyes.

'SHIT,' Laz thought to himself. Gabriel was his fathers name and if he was being called that, then that meant this was not a good day for his grandpa. He was always told he looked like his dad when he was younger growing up. Since moving here, he knew that it was a pretty accurate assessment since he was able to see old photos of his dad when he was Laz's age.

”Yeah dad, sorry about that. I just wanted to tell you I was going to go over and play at my buddy's house,” Laz responded thinking quickly.

”Ok. Don't be gone too late. We will have dinner when your mom gets home,” Grandpa Crowe smiled, his eyes a little cloudy.

”Right, but dad, don't forget. Mom works late these days and she gets mad if you wait for her to eat. Just set some aside for her so she can eat when she gets home.”

This was the usual way Laz handled things after several bad episodes. Making his grandpa think he would be out, using grandma to convince him to eat and make sure he goes to bed without waiting up was the easiest way to deal with it. Grandpa's mind always shoots back to a time when Laz's dad was younger and still living with them. Because of this, he would always play the part of a family man. The first time this happened, Laz didn't know what to do and tried to make his grandpa understand the truth. That just caused his grandpa to have a violent fit and shut down. It was not an experience Laz's likes to remember.

Instead, he finds it easier to play along and try to get his grandpa to go to bed early as he would usually sleep for a good 12 hours and wake up with his memories back in place. When he saw the dinner set aside, he would understand what had happened. Although Laz introduces these thoughts when he makes contact with his grandpa, his grandpa also does a similar thing when he is alone. It's kind of like an auto-pilot. Laz spent a few weeks trying to figure out this pattern.

”Oh, right, right. Thanks for reminding me. Alright, you go have some fun with your little friends and just come back before it gets dark.” With that, Grandpa Crowe walked over to the kitchen and started pulling out things to cook with.

Laz breathed a quick sigh of relief and turned around to leave. As he was about to close the door, he saw the building's keys hanging on the hook buy the chain lock. As he paused for a moment, his brained started working really fast and before he knew it, he had grabbed them and shut the door.

Looking at the keys in his hands, an idea started forming in his mind. He was dumb, risky, dangerous and completely unpredictable. But it was the best idea he had.