The Leo’s Mane of Life

Scratch, scratch. Leo’s handcuffs scratched against the table, as Leo wiggled around in the chair.

“Leo, stop moving!” a voice said, sternly.“You're just going to hurt yourself and you're not getting out of here.” “What am I even doing here?!” Leo screamed aggressively.

“You will know eventually,” the voice said, unfeelingly. Leo wondered if this person was even a person, or are they something else entirely.

The creature emerged from the shadows. It looked like a human with many different colors of hair. It was blonde, it was red, and it was brown all in different parts. Its eyes glistened and changed as they moved. It looked like a young man, probably in their late teens or early 20s. It threw a folder down on the steel desk as it sat in the metallic chair across from Leo.

“Let's get started,” it said, opening the folder and looking at the papers.

“Your full name is Leo Allen You're born December 11th and were arrested at the age of 27 for a bank robbery and you got 9 years in prison” they read off of the page to Leo “Can you confirm any of this information sir the creature” It asked As it waited for a response since eyes turned dark blue just like Leo's.

Leo Body shivered as he looked into it eyes said in a Stern but soft whisper “yes that information is correct”

The creature quickly scribbled down in the file something as Leo spoke.That settles up and realizes this thing is not a human being.

But before the idea of that creature not being human could fully sink in creature said with an excited, almost friendly, “Hey Leo.”

Leo looked up, his dark hair falling over his eyes as the creature made eye contact with him. Its eyes turned a light gray as it asked softly, “When did you start to like stealing, was it at age 8 when you stole that man's wallet, or was it at age 15 when you got your first big call of $2,800?”

Leo looked up in surprise. He looked at the creature and only managed to stammer out, “how did you know that? How did you know that I did those things?” he asked his usual deep brooding voice cracking as nervousness consumed him.

The creature didn't respond, only sat and stared as Leo thought to himself, No police officer would know that. Nobody would know that…no human would know that. After silence filled the room for a couple of minutes the creature said, “you're right, no human would know that. No police officer would know that…that’s because I'm neither human or police officer; I'm a decision maker.”

“What the hell is the decision maker,” Leo said, his lungs feeling heavy as if a brick was crushing them.

“So you haven't figured it out yet,” the creature grinned, its smile plastering its face like a mask.

“Figured what?” Leo asked. “I don't even know how I got here. The last thing I remember is going into a nightclub.”

The creature’s grin aded as it looked down at the file, and then glanced up at Leo. The creature said, “well that's probably for the best." It sounded nervous as it spoke those words, almost like it wished Leo had remembered, but didn't want Leo to have the pain of remembering it.

“What don't I know?” Leo asked the creature. The creature looked up at Leo and placed its hands on the steel table. It didn’t answer the question,it only brushed it off with one of its own.

“Leo, why did you decide to do the things that you did?”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is why did you decide to hurt the other people around you?”

Leo looked at him in surprise, and asked, “hurt people,” nervously trying to sound confused.

The creature responded, “Leo, just asking you these questions based off of your own thoughts.”

“How do you know what I think,” Leo asked, jokingly. Eventually after a couple nervous glances around the room, Leo answered, “I hurt people and did the stuff I needed to do to give my family what they deserved.” The creature nodded up and down, its eyes turning to light yellow as it wrote something down on the paper.

After that for about an hour the creature asked some seemingly normal questions like how Leo's childhood was…how his son was doing, stuff about his life, as if they were next door neighbors talking about their days.

Then the creature asked, “how do you think your family would deal with your death?” the second that question hit his ears he knew why he was there.

“Death.” As Leo said the word, it moved slowly across his lips. As he spoke it he said it a couple of times before he wrapped his head around the idea. “So I'm dead,” he gulped. He could feel his eyes filling with tears but he dared not cry - not now, not when he knew that he was losing everything. He stuttered as he spoke, “ can I go see my family again? Can I just see them to make sure they're okay?”

“They're fine," the creature said quickly, almost like he's had this conversation time and time again. Almost like it was normal to tell people that they were gone from the planet of Earth they once knew.

When Leo first heard that he was angry at the creature for saying that his family was fine, but then he realized of course his family was fine. He worked hard so that his family would be fine because they would have everything they needed. When he dragged his fingers against the metal table he realized that he gave his family all they needed to be fine. The only one that wasn't fine was Leo. He wasn't fine because he didn't get to watch his son grow up and succeed in the world that he worked so hard to give him.

Leo felt proud of himself for all that he had given and done. But at the same time, there was a bitter taste filling his soul. He worked so hard to give them all they wanted, but at the same time, in all of efforts, he lost 9 years that he could’ve spent with his son. 9 years that he could’ve watched his son grow up into someone better than him. The moment that he found out that his girlfriend was pregnant with his son, was the moment that he knew he had to make some tough decisions. He was only 17 when he found out the news. A week later he was offered a scholarship to play on a basketball team. But he decided to turn it down, because he thought he needed to provide for his family now, and not think about the future. What could that future have been? Leo wondered as he gripped the metal table. And as he thought, he realized that he didn’t have to make that decision to turn down the scholarship to give his family everything they deserved. All the pain that he caused others wasn’t only out of necessity - it was his own decision to choose the path of earning things quickly rather than earning them fairly.

The creature said, “we’re done here - are you ready to go?”

The once clinical space that he had sat in for hours now felt like a relaxing escape from the world. With all his fears and anguish that he’d experienced over his life, laid to rest like a blanket on a perfectly made bed. He was ready to go, and with that, he stood up and opened the heavy, metal door.