automobile was a luxury the family couldn’t afford and had no real use for, since the only way to get anywhere near their home was with both a boat and a keen sense of direction.
Any potential visitors to the St. Pierre home better have an invitation if they valued their lives. The entire family was heavily armed and had no qualms about using their weapons under any circumstances. There were reasons they lived apart from the world around them, reasons they preferred to keep to themselves. The Landry family was the closest thing they had to neighbors, and even they were skittish about encroaching on the St. Pierre clan unnecessarily.
Jean and Earline Landry had three children – Luann, the eldest and only girl, and Robert and Tre, her younger brothers. By comparison to their reclusive neighbors, the Landrys were a little better off and considerably more sociable. They lived on a patch of solid land, enjoyed the benefits of electricity and telecommunications, and possessed an automobile along with the obligatory watercraft.
Earline was the closest thing that Dorcelia had to a friend and the only access the St. Pierres had to the outside world. It was Earline that ensured that Jean would ferry them over to St. Gabriel’s for Sunday Mass and assist in acquiring whatever supplies they could manage to pick up in town.
It was common for the Landrys to quietly contribute toward their neighbor’s necessities since what little Dorcelia brought with her was never quite enough to acquire even the most basic of supplies. The St. Pierres had no knowledge of the costs of things in the world around them, but would have baulked at the very thought of charity. The entire clan, Dorcelia included, would have preferred starvation over charity, and the Landry family kept to themselves what assistance they provided.
Years had passed since Lillian died and little Billy entered their lives. His father remained cruel and hostile toward him, berating him at every opportunity and kicking him as a habit when he was underfoot. His brothers taunted him unmercifully and terrorized him for their own sadistic amusement, much to the approval of their heartless father. It was only his grandmother who showed him any kindness at all, and even this was lacking in enthusiasm.
Billy was a cross for her to bear, a penance that she was burdened with for her family’s wicked ways. Billy was a reminder of the family’s shame. Billy was told over and over again who and what he was. He was told by his father and he was told by his brothers. Even the only person in the world that showed him any kindness told him without using any words at all just what he was. Billy was a monster.
His unsettling appearance increased in severity as he grew. His malformed face gave him a menacing look. Dark red eyes gazed out at the world from the shadows of prominent brows, glowing with an internal fire as if from the pit of Hell itself. The rest of his face was relatively flat, the bottom half dominated by a wide mouth that bore jagged, pointed teeth reminiscent of the nocturnal predators that lurked under the swamp waters that surrounded them.
Billy’s arms were muscular and, even at a young age, his upper torso gained an almost unnatural strength. His chest was wide and his lungs were able to hold enough air to allow him to stay underwater and undetected for endless minutes. Each of his hands had six long, thick fingers with nails ending in sharp points, making his grasp nearly impossible to escape.
Although his legs were almost frog-like in form and curved so much that they often appeared folded underneath him, they were powerful. His wide feet looked even wider because each had six webbed toes that ended in claw-like points, enabling him to both swim and climb through the soft marshlands at an alarming speed. His unkempt hair and skin looked almost like scales; dried mud and Spanish moss clung to his matted hair, camouflaging his presence in the dense foliage of his
Amanda Young, Raymond Young Jr.