Blood of Decusia

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

    "Um, is there anywhere I could get some food or change?" I asked, realizing not only I hadn't eaten since this morning, but I was also still wearing my bloody and dirty clothes.
    Finn stared hard at me for a second, before nodding and leading me away. We walked in  complete silence for a few minutes, making our way past more and more houses until we reached a longer building. I could see through the windows people sitting down and eating.
    "Blanchflower," a voice said.
    Finn and I both turned.
    It was a man, probably a little bit older than Warner and Marcus, 24 or 25.  He was built, like everyone in this camp seemed to be, with blonde hair cut short and dark blue eyes. He walked over to us.
    "Breakspear," Finn answered, standing up straight.
    "Who's this?" he asked.
    "Clove-," Finn started.
    "Levette." I finished.
    Both of them raised their eyebrows in surprise.
    "Levette?"
    "Um, yeah," I answered, confused.
    Finn opened his mouth, but the man cut him off.
    "Asher Breakspear," he said, looking me up and down.
    He turned to Finn.
    "Duko needs some help."
    "But-," Finn started.
    "Now, Blanchflower."
    Finn hesitated, but nodded and left.
    "Follow me," Asher smiled.
    "Um, I don't know," I stammered, "Romulus-."
    "He's going to be chewing them out for hours," he interrupted, "I'll walk with you."
    He started off. I took one last look at the food before following him. Asher seemed like the kind of person you didn't want to argue with.
    "So," Asher said as I walked beside him, "Any family?"
    "What?"
That was the last thing I expected to come out of his mouth.
    "Making small talk," he said, smoothly, "Family?"
    "Um, my parents and brother died when I was eight," I answered, slowly.
    Asher let out a low whistle.
    "Damn," he sighed, "That's heavy."
    "Yeah," I said, unsure of what else to say.
    "What were they like?" he asked.
    I wasn't sure where he was going with this. His questions were similar to Marcus's, but he lacked the intensity. 
    "My family?"
    "Yeah."
    "What do you mean?"
    "You know, like your dad," Asher explained, not looking at me, "What about his family, his history, you know?"
    He picked up a lantern that was on the ground next to one of the houses and kept walking.
    "He didn't have any family."
    "Everyone's got family," Asher laughed.
    I stopped. Something was wrong. His tone was relaxed, it almost seemed like he knew the answers before asking.
    "What kind of questions are these?" I demanded.
    He stopped and looked at me, amusement in his eyes.
    "Nothing," he said, putting his hands up, "I'm just asking."
    "No, it's weird," I said, "I met you like two minutes ago and you're asking me all of these deep, personal questions."
    He turned to the house we were in front of, not responding. I turned too and my heart dropped to my stomach. In front of the door were wildflowers, like some sort of vigil or shrine, but what I was staring at was the name on the house. LEVETTE.
"What-?"
    I turned back toward Asher, but he was walking away, whistling, the lantern was on the ground by my feet. He led me here on purpose, he wanted me to see this. It could be a coincidence, Levette isn't an unusual name. But, too much weirdness had happened for me to just blow it off, especially after the incident with Marcus by the fire when I mentioned my family and the surprised expression between Finn and Asher. I looked around to make sure no one was watching and slowly pushed open the door. It was pitch dark, so I quickly went back outside and grabbed the lantern, turning the switch on at the base.
    The dim light bathed the room in a soft glow. It was a small and pretty simple set up, a bed pushed in the corner, neatly made and a dresser next to it, both covered in dust. In fact, everything was covered in dust, as if no one had been in here for years. There was nothing else in the room. It reminded me of what a soldier's quarter would look like.    
    I walked over to the drawers and opened them, empty. As I pushed them closed, I heard something rattle inside. I froze, I was sure that there was nothing in them. I opened them again, nothing.
    "What?" I muttered.
    I shook the dresser and again, there was a faint rattle. Suddenly an idea struck me out of nowhere. I opened the top drawer and felt around, knocking slightly at the back. Nothing. I did the same thing with the next drawer, nothing. When I got to the third drawer, I did the same thing, but this one sounded different, slightly hollow.
    "Bingo," I whispered.
    I ran my fingers around the edge of the back of the drawer, feeling for something, anything. I felt a slight crack in the corner of the drawer, I put my fingers in and pulled as hard as I could. All of a sudden, the back popped out. The momentum caused me to stumble back  and I caught myself before I fell over. I set the piece of wood on the bed and walked over to the drawer. It was hollow and in the space, there was a small wooden box. I picked it up, it was simple dark wood with an L carved into it.
    Inside were a bunch of letters and pictures, which I dumped on the bed. I picked up some of the letters. They were written in beautiful cursive, each of them addressed to "A" and signed "B". I pushed them aside and grabbed one of the pictures.
It was a group of 3 men, arms around each other's shoulders and large smiles. The picture was grainy, but I could make out the faces. One of them was definitely Romulus, about 30 years younger, but definitely him, same dark hair, piercing eyes, same scar across the jaw. The next man was one I didn't recognize. He was built like the others, with buzzed black hair, a square jaw and a tattoo on his neck that was the same wolf and moon symbol that was on all of the houses.
    When I saw the last man, my heart dropped into my stomach. It was Sage, same dirty blonde hair and crooked smile. But that was impossible, there's no way my brother could've been and also this picture was at least 30 years old. That's when something clicked in my head.  This wasn't Sage, it was my dad.
    My dad. My dad had been here, lived here. The name on the house, the L, carved into the box. I suddenly remembered the letters, my dad's name was Alex. I grabbed one of the letters.
A,
    I need to meet with you. Mother came into my room last night to talk. She found out about the baby, I don't know how, but she knew. I can't tell you about it now, not in this letter, it has to be in person. Meet me tonight at our old spot. I love you.
    Yours Forever,
    B
    Suddenly, a memory came back to me. Christmas presents under the tree, tagged from Santa. Her handwriting, a loopy cursive, with an exaggerated "A" on the gifts for my dad: Mom. This was a letter to my dad written by my mom, when she was pregnant. Pregnant with Sage, presumably, which would make this letter at least 25 years old.
    All of a sudden, I couldn't breathe. I started hyperventilating, my mind whirring. My parents were from Decusia, my father specifically from here. And Marcus knew, that's why he was acting weird the night I told him about my family. He knew about my family, they all did. Asher, Warner, Finn, probably Romulus too.
    They stood there, while I struggled with my identity and all along they had been lying to me, probably laughing at me. I could feel the anger rising up inside of me. I came here, followed them here in search of answers and I was left with more questions.
    "Clove!" someone called.
    Marcus. I grabbed the photo and burst out the door, almost colliding with both him and Warner.
    "Hey!" Marcus said, running over, "We've been looking everywhere for you."
    I shoved the photo in his face.
    "What the hell is this?"
    He squinted at the photo for a second, before looking for the name on the side of the door.
    "Shit," he muttered.
    "Marcus," I demanded, "Why didn't you tell me?"
    "Clove-."
    "No!" I exclaimed, "You don't get to talk your way out of this! You knew about my dad, you knew about everything!"
    "Clove-," Warner started.
    I whirled on him.
    "You knew too, didn't you?"
    He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out.
    "Clove, you don't understand-," Marcus started. 
    "That what?" I exploded, "That you lied to me?"
    I could see the people were looking at us, but I didn't care.
    "Listen to him, Clove," Warner said,  "It's more complicated than you think-."
    "My father lived here! My mother too! They were from Decusia, Marcus! They were from here and you knew! You knew this major piece of my history, my family, and you said nothing."
    "Clove."
    The angry tears were forming in my eyes and he became blurry, but I could see the pain on his face.
    "Listen," Warner said, stepping forward.
    "No," I said, the word catching in my throat.
    I turned and walked away.
"Clove!"
I expected them to follow me, but nothing. I didn't know where I was going, but away from them was one thing I knew for sure. Maybe I could look for Asher. He was the only one that was willing to tell me the truth.
    I was so distracted with my own thoughts that I collided with someone, hard.
    "I'm so sorry," I muttered, looking up.
    It was the man from the photo. His buzzed black hair was now gray, but had the same strong square jaw, and neck tattoo.
    "I wondered when I would be seeing you, Clove."
    His voice was deep and smooth. He didn't seem at all annoyed that I bumped into him.
    "How-," I started, but nothing else came out.
    "Of course," he smiled, "How rude of me."
    He stuck out his hand.
    "My name is Adolfus."