If you’re a resident of Raw, there are a lot of things you have to be afraid of. One of them is Leslie Torres.
The first time the Bennetts and I discussed Raw’s most feared man at length was one Sunday evening in summer about a year after my arrival at the orchard. I had gotten used to almost everything by then, but there were still some things about the town I hadn’t been introduced to. Such as Leslie.
We were sitting around the large dinner table waiting for Vasily to return from his trip to the convenience store. Siobhan had prepared a meal of enormous proportions for us like every weekend and Donovan was already eyeing his empty plate greedily.
“That boy better hurry,” he said for what had to be the tenth time when suddenly, the front door was thrown open and in stormed Vasily, obviously shaken and pale as a sheet.
“Leslie Torres is gonna come to town!” he announced in a shrill voice.
“What?” Donovan, who now seemed to have all but forgotten about his initial appetite, had risen from his seat. “Who said that?”
“Mrs Davis heard it from the mayor,” he explained breathlessly. “And he knows ‘cause Pure’s mayor called and told him. They left Pure in the early morning and drove off into our direction, apparently.”
“Shit,” Donovan murmured as he sank back down. “We’re so screwed.”
Siobhan nudged him. “The kids are still in the room, can it,” she muttered.
“Sorry, sweetheart.” He sighed. “Okay. So, this is bad, but we shouldn’t freak out. Did you hear anything about how long he’s gonna stay?”
Vasily shook his head. “Not really,” he admitted, sitting down on a chair I had pulled up for him beside me. “He stayed in Pure for like two days though. So maybe it’ll be two days here as well.”
“If he left Pure in the morning, he should be here come nightfall,” Siobhan remarked. “We’ll all just stay inside for the next two days.”
“Why though?” I asked.
The others spun around to face me in almost perfect unison.
“What?” I mumbled, a bit taken aback.
“Leslie Torres,” Vasily repeated with emphasis. “You don’t know who that is, do you?”
I slowly shook my head, feeling my cheeks heat up and my stomach sink. Everyone had gone silent. Siobhan and her husband were exchanging uncomfortable glances, Lisette was staring down at her empty dinner plate and Percy was hiding his face behind his glass of water.
Remmy was the first one to speak up. “Leslie Torres kicked a dog so hard it flew square across the street!”
The child’s words triggered a literal avalanche.
“Leslie Torres pissed on a guy for calling him a cripple!”
“Leslie Torres barged into a Sunday mass screaming Hail Satan!”
“Leslie Torres is immortal!”
“Leslie Torres has three guys who always run around with him and do everything he wants!”
“Leslie Torres set a school on fire!”
“Leslie Torres is–”
“Quiet down!” Siobhan called out, her voice sharp and angry. She turned to me with a look on her face I’d never seen on her before. Her eyes were soft and full of concern and her mouth was but a stern, stiff little line. “Leslie Torres is a bad person,” she said in a quiet voice.
That night, the Bennett children, Vasily and I met up to play before bedtime in the large room that held all their toys as always. We spent about an hour expanding on the railroad tracks of their train set, a timespan during which none of the kids appeared to want to keep their mouths shut for more than two seconds. Mr Torres was still the topic of the day. Before I knew it, I had heard more things about this odd character than I could have possibly comprehended. Eventually though, the kids were all tired enough to be tucked in and Vasily and I made our way upstairs.
“So…” I began as soon as I was certain no one else was in earshot. “Who is Leslie Torres?” Donovan and Siobhan had not seemed eager to talk about him and I didn’t want to bother them.
Vasily sighed. “He’s… he’s not a who. He’s more like an it. If half of the things I heard he did are true… then he’s an animal.”
“Stop being so cryptic about this for once, okay? What’s he do to make everyone so scared?”
Vasily bit his lip. “Did you hear the stuff the kids said?” I nodded. “Yeah, so… I kinda think pretty much all of that. I’m not sure about the Sunday mass thing though and I also wanna say him being immortal is made up as well. But his main deal is going from town to town robbing banks, stores and wealthier folks too. Healthy dose of vandalism in there. The worst part though…” He paused and I stared at him with wide eyes. “I guess the worst part is that every town they go to, Leslie picks a single resident and locks himself away with them for hours before letting them leave. It’s always the same person too. Once he makes his choice, he’ll come back to always haunt that same resident until the day they die. Like, he literally swears he will.”
“What does he do to them?” I uttered.
Vasily shook his head. “That’s the thing. No one knows. No one who’s been with him and his gang ever says a word about it.”
“My god.” I found myself speechless.
“So it’s definitely for the better if we stay inside,” he concluded.
And that’s just what we did. For the next two days, the only people setting foot outside the house were Siobhan and Donovan, and they only did that to feed our livestock. Thankfully we had only been shopping for groceries the day prior so nobody had to go out to run errands either. Then, finally, two days later in the evening, one of Mrs Davis’ sons, Winston, came knocking on our door to tell us Leslie Torres and his men had left Raw.
I heard many stories about what had happened in town during these two days, rumors through the grapevine basically. The only one I knew for certain was true was the one about the liquor store. Donovan had sent me out to buy a couple beers and some whiskey since him and his buddies wanted to celebrate the same night, so I went down to Mr Jones’. His store however wasn’t the way I remembered. There were entire shelves missing and even though him and his boys had apparently been trying to clean everything up, I stepped into what had to be around twelve glass shards on my way to the counter.
“What happened here?” I asked Dallas, one of Mr Jones’ sons who was working the cash register that day.
The young man shook his head and let out a deep sigh. “Be grateful Siobhan was smart enough to keep the lot of you locked up.”
“So… this got something to do with Leslie Torres then?”
“Yup,” Dallas replied. “I was here when they came in. Never seen him in the flesh before this, actually.” He shuddered. “Don’t want to again either. Man’s got a face like some kinda demon, I swear. So him and his guys, they came in and it was like a fucking floorshow. We had some customers at the time and he just looked around and told them to get out. When nobody moved, he pulled out a gun and shot one of the lamps.”
He pointed up at the ceiling to a sad, lonely little lightbulb that had apparently been hung up as a replacement for the broken one.
“They all ran out after that of course and so did we. Torres and his gang stayed here the entire time they were in town. Like their temporary headquarters or something. They weren’t good on the inventory but I think we managed to clean up pretty well. We had to throw out some of the shelves because they were broken though. They done cleared out most of our stock but we had enough left to open up almost right away again. That’s why it’s a bit empty around here today.”
“Woah,” I uttered. “Sorry. Anything you guys need help with?”
“Nope, you’re late for the cleaning I’m afraid. Thanks though.”
I fell silent, frowning before asking, “Why didn’t your dad do anything though? I thought he’s always prepared for riots and stuff.” Mr Jones was indeed known for bragging about the weapons he owned. He tells anybody who will listen how good he is at handling guns and how many he owns. He’s even invited people back to his house before to show them off.
Dallas however only shook his head. “Leslie Torres is a deadshot. I’d heard things about him being an accurate marksman but dad never liked to talk about it. He doesn’t wanna praise him, you know? But seeing him this scared…” His voice trailed off. “Makes you think twice about the stuff they say about him not being human.”
“Wait, you think he might be… like the things from the mountains?”
“Listen, I don’t know.” Dallas shook his head. “He scared the living shit out of me for sure though.”
As bad as that was, it was the last we heard of Leslie Torres in a long time. The mystery around this person slowly faded into the back of my mind until it disappeared completely. And then, years later, the incident at Dante’s happened.
I was twenty-two at the time and in a bit of a state. I had recently discovered the joys of drinking among friends and the best place to do that was–and still is–Dante’s, a bar next to the town hall. Technically, I wasn’t supposed to go there. As always, word of his arrival had proceeded him and it had been announced that Leslie Torres would come to Raw again. Siobhan and Donovan had wanted to keep us on the farm again. The kids obeyed without so much as questioning it, as per usual, but Vasily and I knew we’d be bored out of our minds. So when I told him I’d be going out to Dante’s, he gladly came along.
Siobhan and Donovan weren’t happy about it, but they weren’t going to stop us either. We were both adults and had to decide things like that for ourselves, they told us, but to be careful and to come back immediately when we would hear that Leslie had arrived. We said sure and went on our merry way.
The mood in the bar was a bit oppressed. Everyone was a lot quieter than usual, no one was laughing or talking loudly. Instead, all the patrons kept to themselves, mumbling to one another amongst their respective small groups. Vasily and I pulled up two stools right in front of the counter. Our friend Desiree was working the bar that day, so upon seeing us she grinned, came over and poured us both something to drink. I was having some vodka mixed with fruit juice in one of these tiny little shot glasses while Vasily had gone for a beer as always.
“Bit of a slow day?” I asked Desiree, trying to strike up a conversation.
“Wouldn’t say slow, just… weird. I don’t know, it’s this whole Leslie Torres thing. No one knows when he’s gonna arrive so just about everyone in town came in for a quick drink today before they’ll all be too afraid to go out again,” she replied, taking a fleeting glance at her phone. “It’s like what, six thirty now? Bet these guys here are all gonna go home early tonight.”
“Will the bar be open when they’re here?” Vasily inquired.
Desiree nodded. “Yes, but it’ll be mostly the boys working and not just two or three at a time as normal. It’d be too dangerous for so few people. I think it’s good we’re staying open. We’re a whole goddamn town, we shouldn’t be shitting our pants because of a tiny group of bullies. Still, better not to make for an easy target.”
Vasily and I nodded and murmured a few words of affirmation before falling silent again. Normally we would be happily chatting to each other this time around, but the bar was just way too silent for that. Instead, we listened to the others talking. It shouldn’t have been too surprising, but the general topic was our soon-to-be visitor.
“I heard that in Pure, they once had a town meeting to discuss what to do about him when they thought he wasn’t around. He was there though and he heard of it so he came into the town hall wearing only boots and a coat with nothing underneath.”
“Rumor has it Leslie Torres feeds firecrackers to stray dogs.”
“When he gets drunk on the weekends, Leslie Torres goes around and wrecks mailboxes with a baseball bat.”
“Leslie Torres gambles in church.” — “What? Leslie Torres has never been to church in his life.”
Desiree groaned. “Christ almighty, if I hear the name Leslie Torres one more time today, someone’s gonna get hurt!” she called out into the room, only for everyone to fall silent. But it hadn’t been due to her. Somebody had entered the bar.
“Well, I’ll be damned if I don’t like the sound of that.”
And there he stood. Followed by two men and a woman with bright red hair, he walked up to the counter. I had never seen him before but I remember thinking he looked oddly familiar, even though his face would have starkly set him apart from anyone else I knew.
The left side of his face was disfigured by a massive patch of scar tissue, running from right below his eye all the way down to his chin. I hadn’t meant to stare, but before I could look away, his gaze swept by me and our eyes met. For a split second, I thought I could spot a frown on his face.
He then let go of a deep breath and turned around, leaning his back up against the counter. “Out,” he said calmly.
Desiree let the glass she was holding sink down with a clink. No other sound could be heard all throughout the room. Everyone just sat and stared. Torres looked around, clicking his tongue before suddenly raising his voice and yelling, “I said get the fuck out!”
Hurriedly, the patrons began scrambling to their feet and leaving. The woman in Torres’ crew let out a giggle and hissed after them, imitating a cat. Even Desiree put down her cleaning rag and slowly made her way towards the exit.
Vasily and I exchanged frightened glances. It was only when the majority of people had already left that we dared to get up as well, seeing as we had been sitting almost right beside the newcomers the whole time. When I passed Torres however, he suddenly raised his arm up against my chest, causing me to stop in my tracks.
“Everyone except you,” he said quietly, but firmly.
One of the men, a tall guy with dark hair and eyes who had come in with him wolf-whistled, only for Leslie Torres’ head to snap around and shoot him a silencing glare. “Shut your horny ass up,” he ordered.
I didn’t know what to do. I was frozen in place, the situation having gone completely out of control. My mind was racing; it felt like my head was overheating.
“Leave her alone,” Vasily finally spoke up. His voice was shaking and so were his fingers as he grabbed me by the arm and carefully began to steer me away from him.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the girl sneered.
Leslie Torres gave us a lopsided smile, reached down to his belt and tapped the handle of the handgun that was strapped to it. “Be a good boy and don’t make me use it.”
This sent his female companion off into a fit of laughter. Vasily however stayed beside me, his eyes darting between Torres and the door. The man with the pistol smirked. “Sure brave of you to stand up for her, but that’s not how things work when I’m here. Don’t be scared for her. Just leave us alone now and I promise she’ll be in good hands.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Vasily asked quietly. “That’s my fucking sister, man, I’m not gonna leave her with you.”
“Heroic,” said Leslie, only to suddenly lurch forward and wrap his arm around my neck. My breath caught in my throat. I wanted to kick him, fight it, get his hands off of me but something told me to stay still. I could feel Torres’ stubble as well as his breath on the side of my face as he spoke. It smelled like he had already been drinking. I felt bile rise in my throat.
“I’m going to do whatever the fuck I want to this girl and you can either get out or stay here and watch.”
“Go,” I whispered to my brother, tears starting to form in my eyes. Vasily shook his head and instead tried to lunge at Leslie, only for the two men to grab him and drag him outside. The second the door slammed behind them, Torres lowered his arm and I stumbled away from him.
“Close shave,” he muttered. Turning to me, he added, “It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you.”
“I almost thought that boy was gonna get his hands on you,” the redheaded woman blurted out, still cackling like a maniac.
I simply stared at him in utter confusion. Torres pressed his lips together and nodded before holding out his hand to me. “I’m sorry I had to be rough with you but I got a reputation to uphold. Name’s Leslie Torres, but you can just call me Leslie or whatever.” He gave me a genuinely apologetic smile and I noticed that his mouth didn’t really stretch all the way on the scarred side. “Again, I’m sorry. Must have been pretty scary.”
I was still in shock and hardly able to breathe at all, yet I hesitantly rested my hand in his. He smiled once more and gave it a very easy shake. “Say, I know for sure I haven’t but I feel like I’ve seen you before.”