Dying Ichor

FOUR

   As expected, Elias was instantly caught as soon as he tried sneaking his way back inside the estate. Several of the servants spotted him and instantly caused a commotion.

Lapetus was quick to be on the move once he heard Elias has returned from wherever he came from. He looked extremely pale and was scared about his master disappearing without a word.

His parents followed suit and instantly had Elias sit down with their personal doctor, tending to the boy since they noticed how ragged his clothes were. There were even several scratch marks on Elias' skin he didn't even notice he had.

"My child! Where did you go?" Lady Aikaterine nearly sobbed. "Look at your state! What are we supposed to do if you've gone so suddenly?"

The lord and lady were still sleeping soundly when Lapetus woke them up early in the morning. The man couldn't find Elias anywhere and already asked the majority of the servants and guards if they had seen the male, but none ever did.

The three of them now hovered above the boy. His parents kept asking about where he got his injuries from, yet Elias kept quiet throughout the whole ordeal and didn't really seem bothered about the scratches. He was too busy thinking of an explanation as to how he even walked out of the estate. Should he just tell them the truth?

While his parents kept ranting, Alec finally emerged from the hallways and stared down at his brother. He gave one at his messy state and frowned heavily.

"Alec," Elias lightly commented.

"Where have you gone?"

Elias pursed his lips and noticed Lady Aikaterine and Lord Denes shut their mouths, hoping to finally receive an answer.

With a sigh, the boy shrugged and muttered out, "I'm not so sure... I was sleeping and ended up at the outskirts of Corinth. I'm pretty sure I was sleep walking."

They were at a loss for words at how blunt Elias was. The boy had given up trying to make an excuse and figured it'd probably be better to tell what happened. Perhaps his parents could lock him up within the estate to prevent him from escaping. It sounded ideal to him anyways since he didn't like the thought of randomly appearing at a dangerous area. Elias was lucky he found kind people this time, who knows what'll happen next time?

"Sleepwalking?" His brother thought it was strange. "You've never done this before."

"It's best to just lock me up in my room," Elias replied.

"Lock you up?" Their mother looked horrified.

Elias gave a careless shrug. "I refuse to wake up again in the middle of nowhere. My legs hurt as well."

"My lord," the doctor interrupted. "While it's incredibly odd for him to sleepwalk all of a sudden, I think it's best to have someone watch over the young master for a while."

"How can we stop it?"

"T-That... I'm not so sure-"

"If you cannot help my brother then there's no use for you," Alec coldly said.

Elias hurriedly held a hand up. "There's no need to get hasty... I'll be fine. For now, I'll stay inside and let my injuries heal. As for someone needing to watch over me, Lapetus is perfectly capable of doing so."

"Lapetus," Lady Aikaterine turned her attention to the man suddenly. "That's right, you're here. You should stay beside Elias at all time, more than you have already."

For the first time in a while, Lapetus spoke, "Yes, my lady."

The man had been too preoccupied about his master's disappearance and had troubling thoughts about it occurring again. It was alarming to hear Elias has never done it before in the past up until now.