Chapter Two

The new year came with unstopping rain. I lie upon the blue-and-gold sofa in the living-room alone, contemplating my whole life as I did every passing second.

"For fuck's sake!" I shouted at the ceiling.

From the kitchen, my butler came in a rush. "Suck a toe!" he hissed. "It's the fifth time today!"

"Do you know how to kill a snail, Wilson?"

"No, but I do know how to kill an unemployed faggot who curses around for a living."

"Wilson, how dare you?"

"Tell me where I'm wrong, my dear sir. I dare you."

"I do not associate myself with those queers!"

"I've never seen you with a lady."

"You've never seen me with a man either!"

"Putting that aside. You asked me about snail-demolishing."

"And you assaulted me in response."

"Surely, it will be an easy task for me, but the time I require to massacre the snail would depend on its size, my sir."

"Oh, nevermind. I already forgot about her anyway." Him, I corrected myself in silence.

I dismissed Wilson before he attacked me with further questions, and pondered some more.

Two years had passed since that day. It was more than enough to call that day a past of mine. A past of mine which I shared with him. Our past. God damn it!

It was not only that I had mistaken him as a girl that drove me insane, but the fact that I had told him my home address. Knowing this, I could not get a single peaceful sleep since that day two years ago. I had been living restlessly since then.

It really felt as if there existed a snail somewhere out there making its slow yet sure way to my residence, and by the time that snail reaches me, its frail touch will be enough to turn me dead.

"This is awful! Utterly unsettling!"

Wilson then came in with a cup of hot tea I did not order him to make. I sat up and touched the blue porcelain cup to bring warmth upon my frozen soul. He turned on the TV. Another news of missing people found dead appeared on the screen. I sipped my tea elegantly.

"The victims were all the same," said Wilson as he observed the news, "low life thugs with no place to stay. They're better off dead."

"Yes, they have no place in this world." The image of that boy made a home in my mind without my consent. I found it rather upsetting. "Whoever the mastermind is behind these cases, they did the right thing. They did what the police couldn't."

At that exact moment, the security intercom set off a loud beep. I dashed to the front door, where the monitor was, and there I saw before the entrance gates of my house, was a familiar figure soaking from head to toe.

I had wished for my eyes to deceive me, but the alarm would never ring unless there really was someone at the gates.

My time has come! I exclaimed in silence. The snail is here to bring me straight to my demise.

But if my memory serves me right, did anything happen between us on that night? Was there a fight? Was there a tension other than the moment I transparently mistook him as a girl?

Before I ran off at the crack of dawn, before we both leaped into the realm of temporal dreams, was there wrath? Grudge? Resentment?

"Bring that person in, Wilson," I instructed my butler.

"You told me to dismiss some relatives of yours the week after your parents' death, and here you are telling me to let a stranger in. On a day like this, Liam? In this economy?"

"You need to shut up and just do your job. Besides, I know this person on a deep level. We've reached the talking stage. After all, this is someone that existed in my past. Someone… dear to me."

As if disgusted by my words… No, without a doubt he must've found every word I said utterly disgusting, his ugly sour expression said it all, but he did as I told him anyway, like the good butler he was.

Just as he was about to open the front doors with an umbrella on his other hand, I stopped him.

"You go and prepare a nice warm bath, I'll pick him up myself."

"What is this repugnant behavior?" he not-so-politely asked, "What's up with you?"

But my Wilson is a good boy, so he did as I instructed, although his mouth couldn't stop spitting out foul mockery.

I took a deep breath and opened the front door, slowly making my way to the gates where my Emily—for fuck's sake!—my Elias knelt with his head hung low.

As my steps got closer, I felt my heartbeat picking up its pace. My Elias still looked as golden as the day I left him. Only this time his hair was longer. Are those the same clothes from that day? You poor little maggot.

"Ah, I knew you'd come."

With my umbrella hovered above our heads, my Elias slowly brought his face up to meet mine. Those summer sky blue pupils were perfectly framed by his reddish eyelids. Has he been crying? Oh, my poor little shit. Even his nose was red. Stupid clown.

"Liam," he sang my name like a desperate bird, "I have nowhere else to go."

My heart rejoiced.

"My place is made for us both. Come with me and stay. I'll take care of you."

I brought the wet little maggot in. Wilson was waiting for us with a clean towel by the front door of my house. Upon laying an eye on my trembling worm, Wilson's expression softened.

He took Elias to the bathroom, where he had prepared a warm bath with three rubber ducks which colors had faded to white, and left clean clothes for him by the door.

I sat on my sofa, amazed by this sudden turn of event. From now on, I won't be so lonely anymore. I shall make him stay and depend fully on me alone. Should anyone ever try to separate us, I'll make sure to separate their limbs from their body.

"Liam." Wilson's voice caught me off guard. "May I have a word with you?"

"Look who's the loser now!"

"No, Liam, seriously…" He approached me and impolitely joined me on my throne. "Are you sure you're not gay?"

"Accursed butler!" I slapped him. "Be damned! How dare you accuse me like so? You have no shame! Are you tired of living?"

"But, Liam… that boy is… well, a boy! I've never seen you so affectionate towards any girls before, and yet… the way you handled him…"

I slapped my butler again.

"Listen," he said, "do you like him because he looks like a girl?"

There was a glimpse of hope in his eyes. What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

"Yes," I told him. "Don't you think he's… beautiful?"

"I do. That fellow did captivate me with his feminine beauty at first, until I saw what's between his legs. Liam, forgive me for accusing you of being gay."

With that being said, I slapped him once more.

"You saw… what?"

"My apologies."

"And you did that before you knew he was a boy. Wilson, you perverted bastard!"

My rage became irresistible. I reached my both hands out to choke my butler raw, but he pushed me with his inhuman power. I fell to the floor, smashing my head onto the glass table, shattering it into pieces.

I did not surrender just yet. I grabbed a piece of glass and aimed it towards Wilson, threatening to stab him. But to my surprise, he just stood there with no fear on his face.

His expression reminded me too much of my father's and his wife's on the moment I took their lives.

They all looked… remorseless.

"I don't get it!" I shouted. "I can stab you in the eye right here, right now. Why aren't you afraid of me? Why do you not flee and seek help? Am I a fucking joke to you? Why aren't you begging for mercy? I can kill you, you hear me? I am not afraid of you, of anything! I've killed my father with my own two hands. What makes you so confident that I would spare you, a low butler?"

Wilson did not say a word, but his eyes were locked into mine sharper than the glass piece in my hand. My blood had spilled all over the floor, but I did not faint. I had become stronger than I was on the day I murdered my parents.

"Come at me!" I yelled.

That's when I noticed something was off.

Wilson's eyes had turned all-black. No, that's not it. His eyeballs were missing, leaving only two gaping void which stared directly into my soul. His mouth cracked open, sticking out a tongue that looked more like a collapsed intestine.

But those weren't the scariest things. I felt my soul leaving my body when I noticed there weren't any hair covering his oddly-shaped head.

Wilson was bald! That egg!

"Liam."

I jumped and fell onto the floor.

There was no shattered glass. There was no spilled blood. There were no gaping holes. There was no egg Wilson.

Standing before me were Wilson and, neatly covered in a light-blue kimono, my dear Elias.

"Did I scare you?" Wilson offered his hand to help me stand. "What are you? A hamster?"

"Did you enjoy the warm bath, Elias?" I turned to my honored guest.

He nodded. "Your friend here lent me a hand. I don't know how I could ever repay you, sir."

"Oh, no, no. You need not address me so formally. Just call me Wilson. I am Young Master Liam's most trusted and only one butler in this house, and starting today, I will be serving you as well, Young Master Elias."

There was something extremely sinister in the way Wilson curved his lips at Elias. I swear there was a flicker of disgraceful lust in his eyes and a despicable twitch on his gloved hands. I must keep an eye on him. I must protect my golden maggot from my egghead butler's rotten intentions.

"Lent you a hand?" I couldn't help but ask.

"He helped me clean myself."

"What on earth?" I cried out. "How could you let my ill-mannered butler witness your bare figure?"

"I wipe your asshole with your consent twice a day, my dear sir. How is my helping our special guest a sick behavior? Besides, I only gave our Elias a backrub. Compare that to ass-wiping!"

"You dare to embarrass me before our special guest?"

"Let our honored friend judge you for who you are. Won't he be living with us from now on?"

Cursed, cursed butler! How dare he? In a quick motion, I kicked him straight on the face, sending the tall man backflipping and crashing face-first onto the glass surface of the table. The floor was soon painted red. Wilson's stiff body laid among the pool of his own blood. I shifted my gaze to the beautiful Elias who was struck with dread.

"Be not afraid," I told him as I pulled his fragile figure into my embrace. "I will protect you." I planted a kiss upon his golden head.

He and I shall be inseparable for eternity.