Underground

Chapter 1: Pointless whining

 "Please can I go with you!? I wanna see Circus Baby!" Elizabeth whined. William grit his teeth in annoyance. He was about to walk out the door, when his daughter began to tug him the other way. "I told you Lizzy, she's not ready yet." William managed to say as calm as he could be. He crouched down and kissed Elizabeth on the forehead and left before she could protest. Elizabeth pouted her lip as she heard the door lock behind her father.

She stomped into her room and shut the door. She opened her last dresser drawer and was met with an array of drawings of various different people. Some were of herself, others were of her and William. Most of them however, were of Circus Baby. Obviously, her renditions of Circus Baby weren't as good as the real deal, but Elizabeth admired them either way. She picked up a fresh sheet of paper and her box of crayons and began to draw.

Elizabeth would only draw when her father was away. This was because a few months back, when she started making the drawings, she had made the foolish decision to show William. William had told Elizabeth time and time again to not disturb him, but she didn't listen. Her coming into his office for some silly drawing was the last straw for William. "Daddy look what I-" Thwack!

He had smacked her dead across the face. Tears filled Elizabeth's eyes as she fell to the floor by the power of her fathers hit.

"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO STOP BOTHERING ME?!"

William's voice was loud with anger. There was a big red mark across Elizabeth's face and her nose was dripping blood. By the time she left she was in a full sob, she left her drawing crumpled up on the floor.. Every time she drew since then William had expressed his hatred for the pictures. Gradually, Elizabeth learned to do her drawing in private.

She drew another picture of Circus Baby, but it wasn't accurate. None of them were. Elizabeth had never actually seen Circus Baby in real life, all she knew were her fathers descriptions. In Elizabeth's drawings, Circus Baby has red pigtails, a red dress, and red heels. In reality, she had a red top and skirt, orange pigtails, and red clown shoes with bells at the end.

The front door clicked open and Elizabeth scrambled to see who it was. She hoped it would be her father, but unfortunately it was just her older brother Michael. "Hey Liz, what's up?" Michael was holding his roller skates in one hand and taking off his shoes with the other. "I thought you were daddy." Elizabeth said, disappointed. Michael gave her a half chuckle and patted her head.

Michael and Elizabeth looked very different. Michael was tan with brown wavy hair, blue eyes, and very lean. Whereas Elizabeth was pale with freckles with straight ginger hair, green eyes, and a little chubby. This was because she and Michael were only half siblings. Michaels mother died before Elizabeth was born. Michael ruffled Elizabeth's hair, causing her orange bangs to fall in front of her face.

When Michael started walking to his room, Elizabeth followed. She liked Michael, mostly because he always reminded her of William. Sometimes, Elizabeth would pretend she was playing with her father whenever she was playing with Mike. She imagined that her father would one day have time for her. If she imagined hard enough, Michael would even start to sound like him. Even though William's British accent was thick and Michael's voice was much younger, Elizabeth's imagination would get to her.

Michael was fixing his messy hair, when he saw Elizabeth standing in his doorway. "Need something?" he muttered, running his thin hand through his hair to get it out of his face. Elizabeth nods, "Can you play with me?" Michael chuckles slightly. He takes off his dirty gray t-shirt and puts on an oversized band tee. "Not right now, I gotta get started on dinner before father gets home." Elizabeth realized that she had skipped lunch.

Due to the fact that William wasn't home much, and William was divorced from Elizabeth's mom, Michael was normally the parent of the house. When Michael wasn't around, Elizabeth's older brother Evan would be in charge. Evan has short light brown hair and blue eyes, and a few freckles just like his sister. Unlike Michael, Evan was Elizabeth's biological brother. Evan was shy and not all that talkative, whereas Elizabeth was the complete opposite of that. She was extrovertive and chatty and it was hard to believe her and Evan were related at all.

Michael pondered at the open refrigerator, thinking about what to make for tonight's meal. "Can we have pizza?" Elizabeth asked happily. "If you wanted pizza why didn't you go with father to the restaurant?" Elizabeth frowned at Michaels comment. "He wasn't going to Freadbears, it was Circus Baby's." Elizabeth said with a hint of sadness in her voice. "Ah, I see". Mike continued to rummage through the fridge, "What do you think about pasta for dinner?" "What kinda pasta?" Michael picked up a clear Tupperware container, "Whatever kind of pasta this is."

Elizabeth giggled and nodded at her older brother as he began to heat up the container in the microwave. "Go tell Evan dinner is ready." He said as the timer on the microwave slowly decreased. Elizabeth opened the door to her brother's room to find him reading a book on his bed. "Mikey says dinner is ready." Just as Elizabeth says that, the microwave beeps, but is cut short by Michael taking the tupperware out of the microwave. Evan nods his head and walks down the hall towards the kitchen.

Later that night, the three siblings are watching a bad sitcom on the couch. Elizabeth snuggles up against Michael, again pretending that he was her father. Speaking of which, the door clicked open and in walked William. Elizabeth's eyes light up as she scurries to the front door. William has his hand on the table and his other hand covering his eyes. "How was your day daddy? Is Circus Baby ready?" Elizabeth asks happily. William ignores his daughter and walks straight to his bedroom. Elizabeth's face drops as Michael and Evan peek their head out from the living room.

Michael walks over to Elizabeth and picks her up into his arms. Elizabeth buried her face in Mike's shoulder in disappointment. "Alright you guys, It's getting late. Let's get you two to bed." Michael said to his two younger siblings. Evan slowly walked to his bedroom and Michael carried his sister to her bed. "Why didn't daddy say hi?" Elizabeth mumbled as Michael pulled the covers over her.

"He was probably just drunk, unfortunately." Michael said with a frown. He pushed Elizabeth's bangs out of the way and kissed her on the forehead, before leaving her bedroom. Then, Michael walked into Evan's room to tell him goodnight. When he entered, Evan was sitting upright on his bed, staring at the floor. "How you doing bud?" Michael asked, sitting next to Evan on his bed. "I wanna go to moms house." Evan replied, his sleepiness showing in his voice. "I know you do." Michael agreed, "You'll see her soon."

The custody deal that William and Elizabeth's mother, Rose, had made was that Rose would see the kids every break and every other weekend. William would get the kids every other time. Rose was much nicer than William. She was blonde, had green eyes, soft pale skin, and was very sweet. She was even nice to Michael, even though he wasn't her son, she still treated him like he was.