Beyond Shut Doors

Character Arc 1: Prince Syphilis | Chapter 1

„Shh! She's gonna find us...!"

My sister held my mouth shut as she stood in front of me behind a bush of our garden as I couldn't hold back my giggles. However it has been barely a year since I came to existence at that point in time. A child, merely playing an innocent game of hide and seek with their mother and sister. And as mother's voice reached me, I was not able to hold myself back from running up to her as she took me in her arms with a laughter. Meanwhile Yersinia, my sister, stomped back with a frown on her face.

„He doesn't play right, Mommy!"

Her voice displayed a whining, though mother gently caressed her head afterwards.

„Your Brother is still young, my love, he will understand eventually."

The way mother spoke was calming, not only to her, yet especially to myself.
Our kingdom was viewed rather positively amongst people. There rarely were any negative rumors about us and as I learned, my parents did their best to make me understand what my fate would have been one certain day; to step into my fathers role and become king. Despite being excited, as a child it appeared rather boring for the many responsibilities that have been listed up to me.
Not long after my second birthday I had been gifted a horse. Of course at first I was uncertain as to what exactly the intention was, yet soon I became somewhat attached to the creature. Father had chosen the name Caelum, which he had explained to be the latin word for „Sky". I only looked at him for a moment.

„That sounds weird, father."

„It does not, son. You will learn this language as well one day soon, perhaps even another. As soon as you do, you may change your mind."

His confidence felt intimidating, so I decided to simply agree with him while feeding the horse and stroking it. My sister would agree with father as well majority of the time. Until a certain time of life, she was more attached to him instead of mother, which was the complete opposite of how I felt. Mother was kind hearted and would be my going point to whenever I had something on my mind, whether it was positive or negative.
As a certain night arrived, I was unable to sleep for the full moon was high up in the sky. Just as I was about to step out of my bed, the door to my room opened as I quickly jumped back under my blanked, pretending to be asleep. However, mother was smart. Carefully she pinched my toe softly so it only tickled and I pulled back my foot with a giggle, turning to her smiling face.

„Why are you still awake, my child? It is late in the night, way past your bedtime even."

As she sat down at the edge of my bed, I crawled up next to her before she put me up on her lap and I looked at her.

„I can't sleep, the moon is watching me..."

While she couldn't help herself and softly chuckled, she answered in a gentle tone.

„The moon is watching you?"

„Yes, it's creepy."

She kept caressing me for a moment before singing a lullaby to me, which made me smile immediately as I held onto her. Mother would always do so, comfort both me and Yersinia with a song she knew of. It was mesmerizing, almost magical.
As my third year of existence began, father had in fact given me first actual tasks. One of them was to learn either Latin, French or the language of the viruses, which would have certainly been appropriate. However after he had given examples by talking to me in said languages my facial expression appeared shocked and confused, to which he only shook his head.

„Son, at least choose either of these to learn. It will be important for the future."

„They all sound so complicated, father."

I whimpered. He came kneeling down to me, holding my face up by my chin.

„Syphilis, you do not cry about such things. You may cry when the situation is appropriate, this is only child's play to learn another language than your own. You are going to do fine, yes?"

The whole time he spoke I wouldn't dare to look away as I once again agreed to what he said. „When the situation is appropriate". It was hard for me to understand what he meant by that, even after questioning it, he didn't explain it well enough to me. So for the first times of learning French, I sat next to Yersinia who was supposed to help me, yet it appeared that I was overthinking everything.

„It's „Ça va", you speak „Saaa" and „Waaa"."

„But... why is it not an S and a W if you speak it that way?"

„Because it's a different language. Just accept it."

Impatiently and somewhat annoyed I rested my head on the table. My sister sighed.

„Come on now, Syphilis, it's not that hard."

I disagreed, and my face certainly made that clear to her after I gave her an upset look. This was also the first time our cousin came to visit us. Her name was Lues-Mareean, yet despite owning such a special name, she was more of a troublemaker than anyone else I had met before. Even though she did as her mother told, she liked to pull a prank every now and then on both me and my sister when our aunt wasn't watching. At one certain point she appeared to have found it funny to put mice in my bed while I was sleeping. Without a doubt, that became a rather traumatic experience for me as I screamed in terror after noticing. Lues, of course, ran away laughing at my reaction. The following day I witnessed my mother and aunt talking about her daughters behavior, and even though our cousin was scolded, she would only stop for a temporare amount of time. What happened next however, changed every situation that was to follow in the future...