by Quil Carter
Surely there is no connection with my runny, bleeding nose and this tin of crumpled tissues. Someone must’ve just dropped it…
Dropped it facing up?
It could happen.
I placed the tin on top of a slab of concrete that was acting as a wall for a raised flower bed, then with a quick glance around, I carried on towards Alegria. Not even realizing I was still holding one of the tissues until I was in the elevator.
CHAPTER 26
“Birthday! Birthday! Birthday! BIRTHDAY!” The booming voice of Nero started off as quiet, but as he ran through the apartment, finally stomping down the stairs to pound on my bedroom door, it increasingly became louder and more annoying. “BIRTHDAY! BIRTHDAY! BIRTHDAY!!” He continued to assault my door like the idiotic lunatic he was.
“Okay!” I yelled. I ground my teeth and continued putting on my socks. It was nine in the morning and since today was a royal holiday no one was going to work. I was being forced to spend the day with my siblings and King Silas, and tomorrow night we would be attending Stadium so the citizens could fawn over us. Or in actuality, so they could get handouts since the Stadium raffle was always generous for holidays.
I was going to be forced to attend that too. I hated my birthday.
An invisible hand grasped my chest with cold fingers and I visibly shuddered. Who was I kidding? It wasn’t the parties or being forced to be social, it was because today… I was fifteen.
And I knew what that meant.
Nero knew and Garrett knew as well. Nero had a god damn calendar in his bedroom where he eagerly checked off the days until our birthday. Garrett expressed fear and nervousness, but also giddy excitement.
I felt like I was counting down the days to my third mental breakdown. Or at least the death of something inside of me.
Fifteen years old today. I was a full adult according to King Silas’s laws. I’d say it was my childhood dying, but I think my childhood died with Cristo.
I walked up to the main area of the apartment and saw my siblings all sitting around the kitchen table. I smelled good food in the air, and I knew what it was.
Chocolate chip pancakes. Every year on our birthday, since we all turned one, Silas made them for us, as many as we could possibly eat. He also supplied us with whip cream, peanut butter, syrup, and bacon and hash browns as well. A secret family recipe was putting peanut butter and then syrup on pancakes, plain usually. It was a combination that made all of our friends wrinkle their nose… until they actually tried it. So having chocolate added to the combination was a nice, albeit diabetes-inducing, treat.
It was one of the few times Silas ever cooked. He said he used to cook all the time before the Fallocaust and was still enjoying not having to do it multiple times a day.
I sat down beside Nero, Nero’s plate looked like it had already been used, but Ellis and Garrett’s were still clean.
There was also blood on Nero’s fork.
I raised an eyebrow at my brother and he shrugged a shoulder in return. “She knows what she did.”
I looked over to Ellis and saw her glaring at Nero, a cloth napkin wrapped around her hand. “I made the grave mistake of trying to take a piece of his pancake.”
“Alright, you hyenas, I have more.”
Nero perked up like a dog that just heard the word ‘walk’. I looked past him and saw Silas walking towards us. He was wearing an apron that was smudged with flour and carrying a heaping plate of chocolate pancakes.
The horde went insane, of course. I let the animals have at the plate and picked off one when I didn’t feel like I’d lose a hand in doing so. Silas sat down with us at the head of the table, my seat being the closest to his right. He watched us with a beaming smile on his face. It looked like he was in a good mood again. I suppose it was obvious he would be with what was going to happen tonight.
He hadn’t outwardly said it… it was just the worst kept secret in all of Alegria.
“I can’t believe it’s been fifteen years since I brought you four home,” Silas said with a catch in his voice. He was staring at us with such love in his eyes. I thought the loving expression was strange considering Nero had an entire pancake hanging out of his mouth, Garrett was cutting his bacon with a fork and knife, and Ellis glaring at Nero with a steak knife in her hand, most likely waiting for a chance to avenge her wrapped hand.
“You’re such little adults,” Silas sighed. And right on cue, Ellis jumped forward, speared Nero’s bacon, three pieces of it, then shoved it in her mouth as my younger brother bellowed with rage. He reached across the table and started attempting to stab her with his fork, curses and threats falling from his mouth as Ellis leaned backwards laughing, or at least laughing in between choking on the food in her mouth.
My family everyone.
I watched as the idiots fought over their food and quietly ate my own. When we were done, Silas forced us to watch videos of us when we were little, so he decided on torture first thing in the morning. And once that was finished, ordered us to sit around a game board because he wanted to play Monopoly. Monopoly in our family (or Skyfallopoly. Yes, he called it that. I’m not making this up) was cut-throat. Silas allowed high interest loans to be given, ones that had to be paid back within a certain amount of dice rolls or they faced stiff penalties which included arson (their hotels and houses being burned down and taken away), repossession (the hotels, house, and properties went to the loan shark), and the banker could even run off with a portion of the bank money but would have to leave behind all but one of their properties as ‘abandoned’ which meant they were up for grabs via auction, thus destroying the appeal of running off with money. And when one went to jail, they could bribe the ‘jailer’ which meant every player received a part of the bail (this was decided by a dice roll x 100. So if you rolled a three you’d be forced to pay three hundred dollars to be let free).
͠
Yes, Skyfallopoly was quite the event in this family, and it was played like how Silas himself ran Skyfall.
And no, Jade. We’re not going to be playing it.
͠
Eventually, Nero, who was already being threatened with broken legs because he owed Silas a thousand dollars, stormed off when he landed on Garrett’s hotel-laden Park Place. And after swiftly cutting us down like the future mogul he was, Garrett slaughtered Silas, then Ellis, then me.
I could’ve won easily, but I just wanted this game to be over.
“Elish?”
I jumped, I hated myself because I fucking jumped when I heard him say my name directly behind me. I turned around, currently sitting on the couch doing my German homework, and looked to see what he wanted.
Silas smiled at me. That smile made me uneasy. I could never read them properly; I didn’t know if they were fake or genuine. “Are you looking forward to your party tonight?” he asked kindly.
Unease curled around inside of me, long icy tentacles that weaved through my veins to freeze my blood. “Yes,” I said quietly. My heart was pounding; fear was grabbing me. I didn’t fucking want to be scared of him and I hated myself because I was.
Silas extended a hand and brushed back my hair. “Good,” he said. My skin crawled at his touch, it meant so much more to me now than it did when I was a child. It felt… toxic. “We’re going to have ourselves a big talk soon, love. I’ll be having one with each of my boys.” His fingers slid down my jawline before gently grasping my chin. “You’re an adult now and after today you’ll be treated like one.”
I jerked my face away from his touch and quickly rose. I stammered an excuse, I don’t remember what one or even if it made sense, but I did, and I walked as fast as I could towards my bedroom.
He let me go. I didn’t think he would, but he let me go. I stayed in my room after that, my heart pounding for an hour afterwards, and hid out for as long as I could.
Tonight. It was going to be tonight.
Nothing will stop him. He’s the king and he always gets his way.
I’m c
ounting down the hours until he takes me against my will.
Never more than this day did I want to run away from here. Far far away from here.
Running was my only option now. I had no one to help me, and I myself was powerless.
An official adult… and still powerless.
The seventh floor had been transformed from a hall rarely in use, to quite the party floor. The usual track lighting had had their normal LED bulbs taken out, and screwed into them now were rainbow lights and black lights, the colours combining together to create beautiful spectrums across the dark walls and the floor.
To add to the electrified ambiance, rock music was blasting through speakers set up around the entire hall and purple, blue, and red crepe paper were draped across the ceiling, streaming down the walls, and even surrounding tables heaping with snack food. Balloons of course had been added, and even though I was stressed out and anxious being here, I smiled when I saw a blue balloon, one of my earliest memories bringing a faint bit of lightness to this otherwise terrifying evening.
I heard thumping shoes and turned to see Nero running up to me with an excited grin on his face. My brother was dressed in a fancy casual that only he seemed to be able to pull off: a black open blazer with a blue and purple plaid shirt underneath, and legion-issued fatigues with the camo being a navy blue shade. Nero had been running around excited since Silas had brought us down to the party room, every moment my brother discovering something that amazed him. He was in an excellent mood, Garrett was too, but I’d remained stationary, rooted to the spot, too scared to move far from my dark corner.
“Silas is making us drinks!” Nero exclaimed. He grabbed my hand and began dragging me towards the food and refreshments. “Come on, you can choose which one you want!”
I tried to pull away but Nero had his iron fetters wrapped firmly around my hand. “You’ve been drinking for two years!” I hissed. “Silas sometimes lets us have wine at dinner on special occasions.”
“Yeah, but now I can drink real alcohol in front of Silas,” Nero said grinning. Then he let out a giggle, an actual giggle. “I know what’s coming tonight!”
My face become hot and my larynx clamped, shutting off my oxygen and making me swallow hard. I… I didn’t want… “Nero… I don’t, I don’t want to go over–”
“Golden boy!” Silas’s ringing voice easily banished the rock music booming over the speakers. He was standing behind a bar, a sengil I knew from the kitchens standing back to let the king have full access to a bar that was built into the side of the large hall. “What’s your poison lovely?” The smell of alcohol was heavy on him, or perhaps the aroma from the bottles had created a halo around the four of us. “You loved bloodwine… but perhaps you want something new?”
I deflected my gaze, unable to meet his eye. “Whatever you like,” I said quietly, my voice drowned out from the sound of the music.
“How about vodka and ChiUp?” Garrett suggested. The only reason he was suggesting this was because I’d drank it before while hanging out with my brothers and Sacario. “Why don’t you make him that, Master Silas?”
“Sure, lovely. I know my golden man will loosen up once he gets some liquor into him. My beautiful boy is always so uptight.” I stared at the ground, unable to move or speak, and heard the tinkling of glasses. Nero soon thanked Silas eagerly for the drink, then walked off, and a moment later Garrett did the same.
The music then turned down, this made me glance up, and when I did, I saw Silas approaching me. He looked… controlled and calm, and there was a light smile on his face.
“Relax, love,” he said sweetly. He handed me the vodka and ChiUp, and it took all of my self control to not recoil when a hand extended to touch my cheek. “Drink, relax. Everything is just perfect.”
Everything… is not perfect.
I’m terrified.
Silas’s hand traced down the side of my face, his deceptively gentle fingers stroking my skin, then my jawline and finally they touched my lips.
I remained frozen, my heart inside of a cage, I continued to stare at the ground, just wanting it to be over.
“Stay still,” he suddenly whispered.
My eyes flew up, just in time to see Silas’s face come towards mine, but not soon enough for me to pull away.
His lips pressed against mine, and a hand grasped the back of my neck to keep me from pulling away. I was paralyzed on the spot, his lips were warm and welcoming, my own lips were trying desperately to close the door he was attempting to open.
Silas’s lips moved, attempting to ease mine apart. I didn’t reciprocate, and eventually he pulled away.
But he wasn’t upset. Oh did I wish he would just get upset and leave me, but he didn’t, when Silas pulled away I saw that there were faint hints of a smile on his face, and love deeply embedded in his eyes.
Yesterday I was a child to him… but overnight, I had turned into his lover.
“Drink, love,” he whispered, his glassy eyes taking me in like I was brand-new to him. “I know you’re nervous, but all you need to do is loosen up a bit.” He rested a hand on my glass, then leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Now come and sit with us. I have a surprise for my–”
“No way!” Nero’s voice rang out. Silas and I both looked towards where the sound had originated, and Silas laughed when a group of five scantily clad men came walking into the hall like they owned the place, bottles of liquor in their hands and grins a mile wide. “Silas fucking got us guys for our birthdays!”
“What?” I said flatly, the tightness locking my chest ever increasing. I looked at Silas and saw his grin, then he looked over at me and laughed again.
“A party with only four people isn’t much of a party, love,” Silas said smiling. “I even brought over…”
“Sacario!”
You’ve got to be kidding me…
“Tiberius is here too!”
But in the bowels of dread that was currently drowning me, I realized relief was growing. If Sacario and Tiberius were both here… perhaps that meant Silas wasn’t going to do what I feared tonight. There was no way he’d have other people involved with this, Silas wanted us for himself. So… everything, at least for now, it would be… it would be okay.
I knew that thought was a desperate one, but right now I was silently screaming where I stood. My chest was so tight I feared having a heart attack, the anxiety was killing me. I didn’t… I wasn’t ready. I didn’t want to have sex with Silas. The kiss… the kiss was bad enough.
“Come on, love.” Silas pulled my hand towards the growing group of people. I wiped my mouth when he wasn’t looking and followed him to the middle of the hall.
The five good-looking men that Silas had somehow gathered were all dressed in skin-clinging leather shorts, ones that amplified the bulge in their fronts, tighter leather vests with the zippers halfway down, and, well, that was it… unless you counted the shoes on their feet.
One of them spotted me, a blond one with his hair in dyed red spikes. He was easy on the eyes and had the look of a pixie, and when we made eye contact he smiled sheepishly and walked over to me.
I stared at him, wondering if Silas would slap me if I ordered him to turn and leave. The last thing I felt like being tonight was social, and I definitely did not want the stress of meeting someone new.
“Hey, prince,” the boy said with a honey-dipped smile. “You don’t seem to be having fun.” He grabbed a fruity drink that was being passed around by a sengil and tucked the pink straw between his lips.
“Not… not really,” I said, the heat rising in my face. “I’m… going to go just sit–” I looked behind me as the hairs in the back of my neck creeped up, and saw Silas glaring me down. Not a hostile glare, just one that dared me to reject this spikey-haired boy’s conversation.
“No, no, don’t sit down!” the boy laughed. He grabbed the pink straw with dainty fingers and raised it to my lips. “Drink, relax. You’re fifteen now, isn’t that like a chimera bat mitzvah or s
omething?”
The corner of my mouth twitched. I wasn’t sure if it was a smile trying to break past the permanent smile, or what, but it was there. I decided since Silas was watching, I’d take the offer for a drink, and I sucked some orangey banana sweet garbage that was fruity alcoholic drinks. “I guess that’s a way of saying it…” Once again I became distracted, but this time it wasn’t Silas. My eyes, and soon the eyes of the pixie boy, were on Nero as he whooped loudly. My brother was now on a chair and being danced around by another twinkish boy, the rest of the party members looking on with laughter and clapping.
If they dared try to do that to me I would douse this room in gasoline and celebrate my birthday my way.
“Your brother is such a riot,” the pixie boy said. And to my discomfort, he rested his hand on mine. “If you’re uncomfortable here… want to go someplace more private?”
At first I wanted to shoot him down, but then realized I could use this to my advantage. If I was somewhere quiet with this boy, Silas would leave me alone.
“Yes, let’s do that.” I looked around the party, the music and the noise of the partygoers rocking the walls and creating an intense energy around me. There were light trails of many colours sweeping the walls and the floors, illuminating the guests with their smiling faces. Nero was now getting a lap dance and Garrett was sitting beside him, Silas clapping with the crowd like he’d never been happier.
And right now I was being ignored which was perfect.
I followed the boy, and at first I had no idea just where he was leading me, until I realized this renovated floor still had a bedroom off to the side. When we entered it, I saw a king size bed in the middle of the coffee-painted room, no blankets on it, just two silk sheets the colour of lavender.
There was also… two bottles of lubricant on the twin night tables, and a wooden chest on the foot of the bed that looked to have been placed there recently from the slide marks on the carpet. That was… I don’t even want to know what was in…
