The Eden Projects (Book I)

Chapter 1. The boy at the bottom of the Well.

Kasper didn't know much about what went into being the eldest.

He gathered the sleeve of his shirt under a sweaty palm. The humidity always spiked when it rained, it was the house's way of drawing out sickness. But those who dwelled there were a persistent sort. He thought of his family like roaches. Persistent as the devil and just as unkillable, not even fire could chase them away. It had tried. It had failed. He sighed. Watching the droplets jostle each other down the glass lazily. Maybe it wasn't so much to say they were pests, but whatever they were possessed the house. 

"Kassie, I'm bah-wored- Can we play a game?" The younger brother whispered shakily. His voice was muffled by a ratty blanket that framed his tiny shoulders. Its wrinkled edges hung with tiny strings that stood on end at all times. Much like his curly mop on top of his head; his blue eyes reflected off the glass palely.

"Quiet." Kasper squinted. "He'll wake up again." With a worried pause he turned, eyeing the slumped figure snoring in front of a muted TV. The makeshift antenna tapered off into the nothingness above it. Sipping off the foam cup slowly he listened to the rain pounding on; downed another pill; and admitted defeat to its effects. A favorite rainy day activity. Kasper felt the grainy tablet slide over his tongue and into the cavernous gape that was the back of his throat. It was a comforting familiarity that took the burning edges of himself away. There was a certain dampness to its effects that he had grown to love. He chewed on the cups edge, leaving teeth imprints along it.

Zero, the younger brother who was becoming quite restless turned over anxiously. Pulling the blanket up and over his head he began again. "What if I am very, REALLY, suuuuuper quiet and he won't hear us." His baby blues flashed.

It wasn't that Kasper didn't want to play. It was what followed that he was less fond of. He was nearly sixteen, though that didn't seem to matter. His last birthday happened so long ago. He might as well be thirty. The years flitted past with little care of him so he in turn paid it no mind. He had just begun what they called grooming and learning the arts of Adam's, his father's, trade and his body ached remembering the outcome of the last adventure. Do I dare do that again?

"Ok, but listen, if Adam hears us, you know where to go."

"Yeah." Zero bit down on the blanket, anticipation clinging to his face.

"Z, where-"

He cut in. "In the safe place."

"...and?"

"I stay in there and don't come out till it's quiet. Can you come this time?"

Kasper let out another huff. "That's not how this works. I won't fit in there." He was feeling especially ambitious today. Should I eat something old... or wait for tomorrow. I think it's trash day. His mind was elsewhere. Zero needs food soon. Maybe I can search the Laundromat. If the rain stops.

"You can fit if you go like this." Zero sucked in, wrapping his arms around himself.

Rolling his eyes Kasper pulled the blanket away from Zero, straightened it out and tied it around his neck. He was weak to his brother's soft gaze. Kasper was physically a kid, and though he desperately wanted to be. Time was not kind to him. He had already grown up. "Then who would fight Dad." He was tired, and it was the sort that couldn't be fixed with sleep. He was tired.

There were many things about this life of his that he didn't understand. It wasn't that he hated it at all. In fact, he figured if anyone had a chance of survival it would be himself, he was cold, he was careless, and he never hoped for anything. He was a blank nothing in a canvas so full of everything else. But Zero, Zero was something like a flower. Tenderly painted into a bed of soft greens and pillowing moss. A single misplaced step would destroy him. Kaspers emptiness had only one beautiful feature. And that was his brother, planted right at his edge. Just close enough to reach and see its innocence. To want for it. To never have it. He didn't dare try.