by Quil Carter
No, that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I turned around and held up my flashcards. We were learning what sound each letter made, and this information held vital importance. I needed to find out what the next letter in my real name was. I already knew it was similar to Elias, and soon we’d be breaking new ground.
Spelling it was the only way I could communicate to them. No matter how many times I said Elish, they’d ignore me and continue to call me Elias. Eli I was alright with; Eli was the beginning of E-lish. But I was determined to have my little voice be heard.
“Cristo…” I called. I looked around the room and saw Nero sitting in front of the television watching Transformers in his diaper which was reinforced with duct tape, and Ellis was in the far corner playing with General Zhou’s daughter An-Mei. “Cristo? Please?”
He was gone, he must’ve left to put something in the garbage. I decided then to take matters into my own hands and grabbed my electronic alphabet. I walked past our toys, past our push car, past our books, our rubber balls, our Play-Doh set which Garrett was settling in to play with, and all of our other toys, and sat down in a quiet corner.
“E… L… I…” I already knew this one, and they’d marvelled at me that I could now spell my nickname. Master Silas had such pride in his eyes when I’d shown him, but it wasn’t good enough for me.
I laid out my flashcards in order A to Z and began matching the symbols on the cards to the electronic.
A was for apple…
“Aye…”
Elish… it doesn’t have an A in it. Moving on.
“Bee…” B is for balloon, like the red balloon that I still remember being given. There is no B in Elish.
I continued on and though I was finding nothing, I refused to get discouraged. I carried on matching the symbols to the electronic alphabet and patiently waited to find the sh sound.
“Ess…”
I stopped and pressed the button again. “Ess…” So the S letter says Ess… interesting. But my name is E-lish, not E-less.
This was absolutely frustrating! Where was the sh sound?
I went through the electronic alphabet, and when I didn’t find it, I threw the electronic against the wall and cried.
“See… he can concentrate for an entire hour on one thing, but then all of a sudden his world ends.” I was picked up and suddenly Silas was there. I didn’t even see him come into our daycare. “I don’t understand what’s wrong with him. He’d be such a perfect mellow baby if it wasn’t for these spaz attacks.”
“Have you ever tried asking him what was wrong?” I looked towards the voice and saw Perish, a tall man with short black hair and light blue eyes. He smelled funny so he must’ve just come back from another trip to outside. Perish spent a lot of time in the outside. I’d never been there but it must be dusty because he always came back grey and dirty.
I threw my hands back and pushed out my torso as I cried, trying to wiggle out of Silas’s arms. He let me down onto the floor and I picked up my electronic alphabet. “Cristo?” I called.
“Elias, tell Master Silas what is troubling you,” Silas said. He got down on his knees and held out his hands, welcoming me to come over to him.
“NO!” I screamed. “ELISH!” I walked past him. “Cristo? I WANT CRISTO?”
“Every fucking time he calls for him… he never calls for me.”
I turned at the harshness of his voice and my tears dried up. When Silas was angry it usually meant one of us was about to get a spank or a smacked hand.
Silas was glaring down at me, his eyes cold. Perish was beside him giving my master a smirking look. I’d seen that look before on Perish, he wasn’t a nice person, and Silas got mad at him when he called himself Uncle Perish and called me his nephew. I didn’t know why, but I called him Perish to make Silas happy.
“He spends every day with Cristo and the other two. What do you expect?” Perish chuckled. He leaned against the counter behind him and drummed his dusty fingers against the rim. “He goes to who he knows he can rely on, which obviously isn’t you.” Perish slapped Silas’s shoulder, the laugh still rolling from his lips. Perish laughed even when nothing was funny. “You only see them in the evenings, right?”
“I’m here for the weekends too,” Silas said defensively. “I’m fucking running Skyfall, Perish… I’m trying to repair the fucking world.”
“And I told you, you’re too busy to raise four babies. But you didn’t listen. I also told you Sky died with the secrets of immortality, but nope, you didn’t care one bit. Well, the clock is ticking, Silas. Before you know it, you’ll be burying your own kids. Okay, niece and nephews, Uncle Perish is going bye-bye” Perish walked away, his right hand waving. Master Silas was burning holes into the back of his head with his eyes; he looked like he was going to explode.
“Go fuck yourself,” Silas said bitterly.
“Go fuck yourself!” Nero suddenly yelled. I heard a gasp and a laugh from Caleb; I didn’t know why. I didn’t care either, I was on a mission.
“Cristo!?” I carried on. I walked past Silas, still holding my alphabet device. “Cristo? Please? Cristo? Help?”
I turned around when I heard a strange noise.
Silas had tears running down his face and his hand over his mouth. He was looking at the floor and seemed upset.
It must be his naptime.
“Cristo? Please help…” I looked around, and when I spotted him I smiled, laughed and jumped up and down. “Time for lessons!” I declared, and ran to him.
That night something strange happened. Cristo, Caleb, and Dylan were sent away and it was only King Silas, myself, and my siblings inside of the house. Never had this happened before, we always had our handlers around to take care of our needs.
Silas was on the floor with us and our baby gates were up to keep us corralled in the living room. Silas was playing Hot Wheels with Garrett and Ellis, and Nero was chewing on his toes. Alex and Domingo, two of our four cats, were inside of the pen but Squish was too small and fat to jump over so he was watching us from the kitchen. I could also see our family guard dog, a Rottweiler named Prince, looking through the sliding glass door.
I pointed to Prince. “Prince can come inside?” I asked. Silas looked over and smiled when the big black and tan dog opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue.
“Just as a treat, okay.” Silas got up and let Prince in. All four of us squealed with happiness when the dog came inside and stepped over the wooden barrier, and we took turns petting him as he laid down by Garrett’s Playschool garage. We all loved Prince, he was a gentle big dog and Silas had even trained him to pull us on a wagon. We had videos of it too. Usually Prince wasn’t allowed inside so this was a special occasion.
“Vrrrm…” Silas said, driving a red Hot Wheels into a garage. “Where is the car going?”
Garrett grinned. He was holding in his hand a Lego man with blond hair. “Lab,” he said.
“Oh, he’s going to the laboratory? Can you say laboratory, Garrett?”
“Laba…”
“Laboratory,” I said loudly. I looked down and pressed the L on my alphabet machine.
Silas laughed and he looked happy at this which made me happy as well. “That’s right, Elias.”
“NO!” I screamed. This again? “NO!”
“For fuck sakes!” Silas threw down the Hot Wheels, Garrett’s face dissolved and he started to cry. Silas glared at him but then his angry green eyes fixed on me. “Now look at what you did? Stop acting like such a fucking little brat, Elias.”
“ELISH!” I shrieked. I got to my feet, walked up to him, and hit him on the head. “Elish!” I screamed. “That’s right, ELISH!”
Silas snatched me by my arm, turned me over and smacked my butt three times. I howled at his audacity and laid on the floor on my stomach. I kicked my feet, slammed my hands on the ground, but he didn’t pick me up, or console me, or even acknowledge me.
Upon realizing I was being ignored I sat up. I looked to see Silas cont
inuing to play with Garrett, Garrett’s face tear-stained but he was no longer crying. Nero was behind him sucking on Alex’s tail, black fur stuck to his mouth and hands.
I couldn’t believe I was being ignored. Didn’t he know I was in emotional agony? He didn’t understand what it was like to have someone call you something that wasn’t your name. Was he doing it to just be mean to me? What had I done to receive such cruel treatment?
I whimpered, feeling dejected and upset. I crawled over to Silas so I could sit on his lap, but when he saw me coming, he snapped his fingers and pointed away. “I don’t want to see you or hear you. Get away from me.”
Horror claimed me, or what horror was to a one and a half-year-old. I took in a deep breath and cried out but he didn’t even look at me. I inhaled the air into my lungs and made a face, before exhaling.
Then something occurred to me, and I really had no idea how the idea entered my head but it did. Riding on the emotion of not only being misunderstood, but ignored, I took in a deep breath… and I held it.
And I kept holding it.
Silas didn’t look at me but I looked at him. I held my breath even though my head began to feel pressure and I didn’t even stop when lights started flashing in the corners of my vision.
Then Silas looked over at me, and I saw his facial expression drop. “Elias!” he screamed. He jumped to his feet and ran to me, and everything went black after that.
I woke up in a bright room and squinted my eyes.
“He’s waking up. See I told you, he’s fine,” a voice said.
“How do they even know to do that?” I heard Silas say angrily. “There is something wrong with this child. He’s too young to start being so passive aggressive.”
There was a chuckle. “You’re the one that wanted them super intelligent, Silas.” A hand tickled my cheek and I scowled at the touch. “It looks like you were outsmarted by a baby.”
Arms came and picked me up. I saw it was Silas who had gotten me, but he wasn’t who I wanted.
“Cristo?” I whimpered. I needed to get my flashcards to try and figure out how to spell my name. This won’t happen any more if I just learn how to tell them. “Cristo?”
“I’ll take him, Master Si-” Suddenly Silas whirled around with me in his arms and hit someone. I was too shocked to cry, but when I saw Cristo fall backwards and onto the floor, I screamed and extended my arms.
“Cristo!” I screamed. I kicked my feet and tried to slide out of Silas’s grasp. I managed to wiggle out and fall to the floor.
“Are you trying to lay claim to my first born?” Silas growled. I got to my feet and tried to run to Cristo, but I tripped and fell on the floor. I was scooped up after that by Dylan, and although I screamed and kicked, he didn’t let me go.
Silas walked over to Cristo, who had blood running down his nose. “Of – of course not,” Cristo stammered. “That’s a fucking insane thing to say. I’m doing everything you–” Silas kicked Cristo in the side and he grunted and clutched himself.
Then Silas kicked him in the face. Cristo’s head snapped back and I heard a crunch, blood gushed down his nose and mouth and his eyes rolled back into his head.
I’d never felt such terror, and I believe that was the first time I’d felt that emotion. Something so much stronger than fear, an ethereal sensation that was both invisible and incredibly thick.
I screamed and cried until I started gasping for breath, not being able to breathe made me cry harder and I found blackness coming and going like they were welcome friends of mine.
“I… need… Cristo!” I said in between gasps.
“Why!” Silas whirled around and screamed at me. He had a horrific shine in his eyes that made me feel more terror. “Why do you want him and not me?”
I stared at him, taken aback by his tone and the crazy look in his eyes. “Flash… flashcards,” I said. “Lessons.” I threw up my hands and wiggled out of Dylan’s gasp, and to my luck, I spotted my electric alphabet in my purple bag with the squirrel.
I grabbed it and turned around. Silas was staring at me, and on the floor, his face squished and swelling, was Cristo. I gave the alphabet to Silas and went back to the bag. I rooted through it but there were no flashcards, so I picked up a clipboard instead.
“What’s he… doing…?” Silas whispered. I handed Silas the clipboard and took the pen off of it and handed it to Cristo. I then climbed onto Silas’s lap and took the electronic keyboard from him.
“E… L… I…” I made it say.
Silas reached down and pressed the A and the S. “Eli-as, little love,” he said, his voice unhappy.
“No!” I yelled.
Cristo’s nose sniffed. He crawled over, blood getting everywhere. “Silas… he only gets upset after you call him Elias. Have you not noticed that?”
“Shut up,” Silas said harshly, then he focused back to me. “It doesn’t matter if you hate your name, Elias. It was implanted…” His voice trailed and faded.
He looked at me and sighed. “I suppose this is our first failure with implanting, isn’t it?” He turned me so I was looking at him. “What’s your name, golden boy?” he asked me.
“Elish,” I said to him. “E… L… I…”
“S…H,” Silas whispered back.
S and H? S and H makes a sh sound. I’ll remember that, that was quite important.
The alphabet could be deceptive, I see.
“Ee-lish,” I said slowly and nodded.
“Is that why you’ve been freaking out for no reason for the past seven months?” he asked.
I didn’t know how to answer that.
“I’m Elish,” I said instead.
Master Silas smiled and held me in his arms. “Yes, golden boy. I suppose it could be worse, yes? Elish isn’t that bad of a name.” He kissed my forehead. “Not even two years old and you’re already defying me. Am I going to have trouble with you in the future, Elish?”
~
I wish I could say that I laughed manically in his face while raising my fists up in the air, but I didn’t. At this point in time, I loved my master dearly, and didn’t understand the violence that was already playing out around me. I’d gotten brief hints of my master’s violent temper, but it wasn’t until I was older that I truly understood just what kind of person King Silas Dekker was.
Until then, I was his golden boy, and with my bouts of frustration over, I bonded and became closer to my master, and as time went on, I was his favourite and he was mine.
It would not last, but nothing in the Fallocaust ever does.
~
CHAPTER 2
I held tightly onto his hand as we walked from the black car to the pet store. Usually when I was in Skyfall, I was being shuttled from Silas’s office in the skyscraper, to our home in what is now called the outlands. There were other times we ventured out into the city, playing in Sunshine Park, Stadium events, movies or festivals, but today was something new.
I was five years old and I would be receiving my first pet. We were walking towards the Paws and Play pet store in Skyland, and in that store were my two new hamsters.
We entered the store and I was overwhelmed. There was Dek’ko pet food on shelves and toys and treats for dogs and cats. Cat scratching posts on the floor, some of them with cats on them, and bird cages hanging down from the ceiling. At the far end of the store, I saw glass cages with wiggling puppies and kittens that pawed on the glass, and to the left, fish tanks full of colourful fish.
“Oh, look at him!” a man’s voice sounded. I looked up and saw an older man with glasses behind the counter. He was peering down at me with a smile on his face; he had a sharp nose, but he looked friendly. “Little Elish! He’s grown so big. How are you, little prince?”
I stared at him, unamused with how he was speaking to me. “I’m not little,” I said to him airily. “I’m only 3.6 centimetres smaller than Nero, and 4.5 centimetres taller than Garrett.”
The man’s smile broadened. “You’re right, that
’s not little at all. You’re growing up to be quite the young man.” He looked to Silas. “I have their supplies in a cardboard box for you, my king. I included a book about hamster care as well. Your sengils were in here and they were bragging up a storm about young Elish’s reading level.”
I walked past the man and made my way to the puppies and kittens. I wished I was receiving a new kitten but Master Silas said four cats was enough. Two hamsters were acceptable though.
There were already rodents in the house. Garrett had two mice, Ellis had a rabbit, and once Nero was out of trouble he would be able to pick out an animal. He wanted a python.
Master Silas had told us that caring for animals was important. We would be ruling Skyfall beside him in a few years and it was vital for us to learn responsibility. I already had a lot of responsibility but I would never turn down an order from King Silas.
As long as it didn’t take away from my education, and Silas had assured me that the hamster wasn’t that much work. My schooling took up a lot of my days and when I wasn’t being tutored I was learning the piano or working on my book. All of Skyfall would one day depend on me since I would be king when Silas was indisposed, and I took this knowledge very seriously.
My name was called and I turned around. The man was holding a clear container with a blue lid and inside of it were my new friends.
They were separated by a piece of plastic since Master Silas says hamsters are solitary and would fight. The first one was peach coloured with a band of white on his stomach and the second was brown. I smiled at them and took the container. “What are you going to call them, love?” Silas asked.
I looked at the hamsters but I couldn’t think of a proper name for them. “What did you name your hamster, Master Silas?” I asked.
Silas put a hand on my back and directed me out of the pet store, saying a quick goodbye to the man as he did. I passed Dylan who was being given a box of my new hamsters’ things.
