Virgil Chapter 10

The Beginning Of Trouble

Now, this may not seem like a big thing, but I’m fairly certain that this is the start of the veneer cracking: the evil succubus that sucked the joy out of the faux happiness that surrounded the trio that was my family before me. It was the early signs of the hell that was soon to come. See my brother was tired of the spotlight. Tired of not being allowed to play like the normal kids. Too many things were a sin in the strict Christian household. He just wanted to be a boy. A typical seven-year-old boy. 

The type of boy who wasn’t afraid to skip the prayer after his lunch sandwich for fear that God would send a message to his parents. Afraid to miss prayer in the morning when he woke up. He did once, and he prayed the entire car ride to school. Lucky for him this was the one time his parents did not question him about his morning and took it for granted that he did pray. He liked these days more and more. The drill of absolute perfection was limiting his abilities to even understand the things that normal, not so perfect children dealt with.

Revelations Chapter 10

L E O

Having planned to spend a lot more time with Danais, Leo got back to the inn on the mainland much earlier than intended. He had found out that Danais’ regular route included Licol Street, so he had purchased a room there on the way to the farm. Leo spent the time reading and was in the middle of a very tragic love scene when an annoying sound interrupted him.

“Well, you look amazingly happy,” Barton said as he took his seat at the table. One of the servers was already heading over with large mugs of ale, an extra-large one for Leo.

“I had a good day. Short but good. A walk through the market, lunch under the oak tree. Last night we swam. Well, I swam and held him up. He’s of the ‘since he’s Atorathian he’s much better than the rest’ mentality. And he doesn’t know his history.”

“Ah, not this again,” Barton said, feeling the need to gulp down his beer and call the server to fill up another glass. “Not everyone is a serious historian.” Barton gave an unnecessarily pleasant thank you to the serving girl. She gave him that beer for free and told him where she stayed. Leo gave him a glare and a smile.

Identity Chapter 10

C H E R A N N

“This scorching desert heat is unbearable.”

It was a week since they reached a point in temperature change into Mironi and Cherann’s brother was crying like a baby. She found this quite amusing. His rantings were a pleasant addition to her usual solitary thoughts when travelling. She was a chronic overthinker but had learned to wield her mind to better purposes over time. Dent seemed to be able to find something to say about anything—all in the form of complaints. But she could see most of them for what they were: ways to hide his genuine interest in the things she was teaching him.

“We could practice your Mironian again. That would distract you from the heat.”

“Stressing over learning a new language is supposed to be a better option.” Cherann reserved her laugh and waited in silence for what she knew was coming.

Dana Chapter 9

It was the first of December, and not much had changed—except for the date, of course. Dana had a full week of Adrian’s father and enjoyed his company much, but after he left just couldn’t bear to be in the apartment alone, so he moved into Adrian’s vacant room. He and the rest were studying hard. Exams were upon them, and they took tests very seriously. Dana went to the hospital to show Adrian the prints and models of what he was doing for his project. They were in the same class, actually doing this joint project—a model of a mall—but Adrian went into the coma right when they started to build. Dana was merely showing it off before he took it in. He then went on to campus gossip and friend-talk.

Broken Chapter 9

Found

The disappearance of Bryan’s sister had become a local sensation. Mostly because his mother had also disappeared thus making it perfect material for media speculation. There were all sorts of stories going around about how she had maybe eaten her or was keeping her alive in the woods somewhere to torture. Cut her into bits and scattered her remains across town. Without any signs of finding her all anyone could do was speculate. The disappointing part was that nothing was out of the realm for her.

Brothers and Frenemies Chapter 9

Realisation

Marcus was at the gym doing what he had to do. Burning of his frustration. He had tried a date with Lisa the night before. Went out, had dinner, laughed and everything seemed to go well—until they got back to the house. Arumand was sitting reading a book. He was always doing something like that, reading, drawing, watching the oddest things on television. And gaming. Now that Marcus didn’t find too weird.

Marcus said hi to the sitter, a mutual friend from back in the day, as he left the house. Arumand didn’t take any notice of Marcus, which was just fine by him. The boy had taken to verbally insulting him. His language was colourful for a boy of seven. It had been months. Marcy was looking ready to drop and totally unconcerned about his lack of concern to be a dad. Besides, she didn’t even know if it was his and he was in no hurry to find out. The New Year had just gone by, and Lisa was warming up some water for hot chocolate. She preferred to add cream instead of making it with milk. It was a welcome idea in this steadily growing cold weather.

Virgil Chapter 9

The Normal Days

Yes, there was a time when my family could be categorised as normal. Unfortunately, I was not here for those times. I’m actually in severe doubt of their existence as it’s more likely my parents were just biding time before revealing their true nature. The set up before the emergence of divine evil. But that doesn’t really matter. What is important is that they did appear normal. These were the showing off the son days. The getting excited about how fast he was growing considering how weak he was at birth. And of course the ‘isn’t God good to give us such a blessing’ days.

These days were full of first-time parent stuff. Trip to the park stuff. The occasional throw-up on the shoulder and pee in the face during a diaper change. It was normal sleepless and hectic, and they loved every single minute of it. Mostly because they were dying to practice all the shit they preached in their books. There’s no doubt in my mind that they saw raising a child as another experiment. Yet they somehow convinced themselves they were madly in love with my brother. And not only themselves, the whole world. No one, not even themselves, was aware of the misguidedness of the situation. How could they be? It looked just the same as any other parents that would be enamoured with their first born.

Revelations Chapter 9

Leo woke pleased to find himself still with Danais. Danais had a light snore that Leo thought was cute. He was about to get out of bed, but Xan jumped into the bed to give him a message.

“He suggests you take the boy across in the morning rather than spend the day in the city. He also says that Danais likes the large pastries.” Xan seemed to find the second bit of information quite amusing. “It seems he wants to help you but has informed me to ensure you tell no one he’s interfering.” Leo also found this amusing. It was clear that something was going on and others were supposed to let it run its course. But he had no doubt that there would be meddling.

Identity Chapter 9

S H A L I N I

They veered off about three streets in toward Pilal. There was no real goal in mind: just mindless wondering. It was a hot day as always in Mironi, so they decided a mug of chilled ale was desirable—or rather, Shalini just didn’t feel like walking anymore. The two of them settled in at a bar and Shalini found herself just entranced while looking at him. He’d left her to go gamble at a card table with some locals. They apparently loved him just as much as she did. He had a way with people. He was inherently good in a way that even she found hard to be sometimes. And he wasn’t afraid that she could destroy him. That was always a good sign.