11

Chapter Eleven

J O K E S T E R : ONE BIG JOKE

Adam was getting real tired of passing out and waking up in strange places.

But feeling better than he's felt since coming to this damned place Adam let his eyes cake open and take in a long, deep breath.

It was dark.

Adam looked to the side.

Outside the window was a balcony with strong, thick, white pillars supporting the ledge. The sky was a dark, creamy blue, with not a cloud in sight.

Adam pushed himself to sit.

Soft, warm blankets slobbed off his shoulders.

Adam paused.

It was a child's room. Trinkets and toys filled most of the empty space. Everything looked new, untouched. Adam looked to his left. His heart clenched.

Fear.

He didn't dare move.

"How are you feeling?"

The King.

Adam's eyes struggled to hold his gaze, little hearts kicking up a fuss in rebuke.

He would take dealing with the Queen and her men over this.

Bile coated his mouth. He swallowed over and over and over and over and-

"I'm sorry."

The man's voice cracked. Adam looked at him. He was sitting in a chair like a newly lost dad.

It was appalling.

As he sat there with his elbows on his knees and head in his hands Adam couldn't help but seethe.

| A sprout broke through the ground. |

"Where am I."

Adam did not bother to respond with pity. These people were playing with him like he was a fucking doll. Like he wasn't human.

A toy will not fix this.

"The Silene Virginica Castle."

That told Adam nothing.

When Adam didn't say anything more the King took it as a sign that he should continue.

Adam really didn't mean that. He really didn't. He was hoping, by some miracle, that the mother fucker would have got spooked and left.

Unfortunately the man decided now was a good time to have a moment.

"I am so sorry Osiris."

Adam felt his little hearts ache.

The ache was fresh and a bit distant from his own.

Adam calmed the little one. It seems even he can still feel the child's love for his kin.

Adam rubbed his chest.

Or maybe it was genetic, a survival mechanism.

Or maybe it was simply Osiris missing his father.

Adam let his hand fall.

"I messed up."

The King sounded crestfallen. His woes as high as the sky. Adam watched the little play with dead eyes.

"I-I know I messed up… When Kina-your Mother died I…"

A pause.

"I was so angry at her." A flash of green. "How could she leave me, us, like that."

A moth hit the glass and bounced its way to the ground. Adam's breath calmly played a nearly silent tune.

"After her burial I got so caught up on my image of her, and who she was, that I tried to push them onto you."

The air was becoming stale.

"During the party…."

The child's gaze loomed.

"A weakness of yours is a weakness for her. I got so lost in that rage I ended up taking it all out on you."

The King's voice wavered.

"My precious boy, who was always so soft. Always so kind. The complete opposite of both me and your mother…."

Adam watched a few tears fall from between the man's arms.

"It didn't even occur to me that it could have been an accident."

The King balled up his fists.

"I don't even know where to begin to ask for your forgiveness."

..

…

.

..

.

.

.

"Are you done?"

Mikael looked up.

In the dark sat a little boy shrouded in shadows. Where Mikael expected to see anger, hate, betrayal sat nothing. Not a glimmer of sorrow, not even a touch of anger. The boy's face was e m p t y.

"If you're done, you can leave."

Osiris then turned his little head to the window and said nothing else. There was no crying, no screaming, no begging, no hitting, or kicking. Mikael could not help thinking he was looking at a stranger.

His stomach took a nose dive off a cliff. He had to fix this. He had to.

But before the King moved he really looked at his son. Though he was closed off, he looked tired. Maybe he was rushing it. Mikael got up and did what he felt was best.

He left.

L A L U N A : LULLABY OF A SLEEPING CALAMITY

Adam was finally alone.

With not a bug in sight, neither fake nor real, Adam let his entire body sag and fall back.

The small puff of his sheets filled the gloomy air and stirred up a bit of dust.

And then he closed his eyes.

There was a smell. Rancid. It smelled like someone hadn't showered for days and rolled around in a tub of tequila. Adam, by chance, tried to roll to the side only to get a knife straight into his shoulder.

The man had just missed his neck.

He screamed, of course he screamed. The pain was hot and wet and angry. Oh god, it was so angry. No one entered the room. Osiris's eyes shook. He didn't know what to do.

"-of metal. My son, he took my son." The man sobbed. "My baby, my beautiful boy-"

The man was mad.

Osiris could see not a coherent, stable thought come through. Hanging over the man was a small golden bell with a long, thin banner floating right above his head. At the top, where a tassel hung off of, sat an ornament with two white stripes.

At its center sat an eye.

An eye he's seen before.

An eye he's seen around the Queen.

"Myyy boyyy. My beautiful baabby boooyyyy. He killed him. He killed him. And for what. For wh-"

The bell chimed once.

'Noisy boys should go to sleep.'

"-so I'll do it, I'll bare that sin. If he wants to take my son-"

The man yanked the knife out of Osiris and reared his entire being up until he was kneeling over him at full height. Osiris could see the man's muscles begin to tense.

"-THEN I'LL TAKE HI-"

Then he was split in two.

Osiris could only watch.

What a show it was, to see a man split in two. The blood did not spray as much as it splashed across the entirety of his bed. There was a lot.

There was a lot that happened after that too.

He was moved from one room to another. Asked questions he could not answer, and made to sit in a chair as a bunch of glowing hands moving around his being. What the real kicker was, was that after he didn't' talk, or ask, or really do anything they just.. Sent him back to his room.

The doors closed with a thud.

A quick glance around told him that the room had been cleaned. Adam stood in the doorway, eyes now looking at the cold, tiled floor.

Silence.

It was so loud.

Adam glanced around the room and found a dresser. Slowly he slid his way over and found a shirt and shorts to change into.

Slouch.

The blood hadn't dried yet.

Adam used the clean bits of the dirty cloth to wipe himself down before climbing into his findings. They all fit a bit too big.

When he was finished with his work Adam glanced around and paused at a stuffed beetle plush. It was worn, old, and faded into ashen hues of greens, purples, pinks, and blues. It looked like a plush version of a teen's beetle painting.

Adam felt a heart squeeze.

Walking up to the plush Adam found a picture of a woman hiding behind it. She looked a lot like Osiris, you could even say he was a carbon copy of that woman, minus a few key features, like being male, and having a green eye.

Adam grabbed the plush and moved towards the bed.

His hearts clenched.

Right, so not the bed.

Adam looked down. Clutching the plush tight Adam got down on his hands and knees and crawled underneath the wooden bedframe. It was cold. Adam only stopped when he could plant his back against a wall like a vine searching for a lip.

From his spot Adam could see the bottom of the balcony, which was covered mostly by those stark white pillars. Between them the sky was turning pink.

Something fell from his cheek.

Adam had the urge to hum.

"Hmm, hm, hmmmm…hmm, hm, hmmmmm…hmm, hm, hmmmm, hmm, hm, hmm hmmmmmmm…"

It was a tune he's heard before, from a long time ago when his pops took care of a grand baby. It was soothing, even coming from that old man's broken, smoke riddled lungs. The baby at the time seemed to like it too.

THE SOCOTRA BASE BEGAN TO RISE.

As the tears fell Adam's tune kept playing until he couldn't keep his little eyes open anymore. But he did manage to see a flash of orange before those eyes dropped.

"What a scary place to be in, huh?"