What Lies Behind the Door

Part 6 ~ Elliot Winsor, hidden in his own shadow

Winsor is a household name, written on every bill and coin. Every child knows that name, even if they don't know the face behind the name. Elliot has known the implications of that name for his whole life, carrying the weight with every step. The expectations and assumptions dragging behind him, a constant reminder of what he's supposed to be. What he will never be. 

Most people will think money, some will think of corruption, Elliot knows it to be another word for control. The Winsor family's been making money since the Romans, while not in constant production the coins have been used in some capacity for 2000-odd years, with their official control starting about 600 years ago. With that kind of power, the Winsor family has been closely knit with just about every government, slipping coins to kings to look the other way, ruining dukes for trying to stand against them. They never needed to tell people they would ruin them, it was an unspoken rule, don't out-pizza the hut. And because they never outwardly threatened anyone,  the Winsor's maintained plausible deniability. With time the stories edges smoothed, the whispers quieted, and no one questioned the wealth amassed. while it's known that bad things happen when you cross them, most people chalk it up to karma. 

Elliot knows not to cross his father, Elliot has seen what happens when you cross Richard, seen his friends leave town after their daddy was ruined. Seen the media jump without asking how high.  Elliott knows the power his father holds, known before he could walk. Before he could talk. Before he could think for himself.  He never wants to be on that side of his father's fist. He feared his dad and vowed to be nothing like that scared little boy masquerading around as a man. 

When his mom got a divorce he left with her, she got half of everything, and the child then left. Split from the US and moved to the western seaboard, settled in new Tenochtitlan, never looking back. Unfortunately, Elliott couldn't, his dad got him for the major holidays and major press events. Going back meant going back to living in fear, choosing everything you do or say based on the lesser of two evils. Where to step, when to smile, what to say, everything dictated by fear. Fear of his father, and fear of what might happen if his father is angry. 

Elliot was good at going through the motions, plastering on a charming smile then turning off. Elliot once told a therapist that all of his memories of the time spent with his father were in black and white, all the sound was like trying to listen to someone talking to you underwater. Elliot was then removed from that therapist's care. Few moments stick out to him, the one crystal clear memory he has is of the economic crash when he was 6. He'd heard his father talk to the empty suits he called his friends over some overpriced whisky, after everyone left he snuck in to try it and it tasted like dirt, and bird poop. He later found out that flavor was "piet". His father caught him in the hallway and in a drunken stooper said something about him winning, monopolies, how he'll force them into submission. Then he waddled off down the hall for a midnight snack (more whisky). Days later his father snatched up 3 companies from the brink of collapse. Next thing he knew, he was blinded by the flashing lights of the press. He attended every press conference and charaty event with his father. Stod by Richard's side to make the press sympathetic.  The last clear detail was that boy , same age as him, holding on to his mother's leg while the father received his last paycheck. It was bearly enough to cover a month of expenses. That family was forced to move on, but the look in his eyes was something he would give his entire inheritance away to never have to see again. 

Years went by of the same check-numbing smiles with his father. His mother tried to get him back into therapy but he couldn't trust that his words wouldn't get back to his father.  His mother did everything she could to help him. When he said he wanted to take material sciences at the local college, she got him into lectures. when he said he wanted space, she got him a luxurious penthouse so he could live alone in. When he said he wanted to go to the RMIMA, she helped him apply. When he got in however his father insisted to be the one to take him to Colorado. The plane ride was long and silent, but nothing could prepare him for the cold glares of his classmates. 

The world paused when he got to his room and he was once again face to-face with that boy. The look in his eyes only got worse as time passed. A desperate cry for help hardened into disgust. something he probably deserved, but the reason the truth hurts so much is because of the fact that you cant get away from it. One way or another, the truth lives on. And the truth behind those eyes was something Elliot would never be able to run way from.