The Underbelly (First Draft)

Promises

That was three weeks ago, it has been three weeks since the main Underbelly city had fallen and my father had been killed. It has been three weeks since I told my brothers and sisters that we were all orphans and I had tried to comfort them through their grief. It has been three weeks since I made that promise to Chaz that I would do whatever it took to be free of the Surface's tyranny.

Today is my father's funeral.

We had no body of course, but we could still say our goodbyes and as I sat with my family and the various people who my father had ruled alongside for the last thirty years or so and waited for the funeral to start, I could feel myself replaying over what had happened when I got to the safe house that all of my younger siblings had retreated to.

All of the empaths burst into tears instantly, Yelena had thrown herself and howled with grievous grief. Her tears had torn me out of my own lethargic sadness and drove me into active mode. The next several hours were filled with a flurry of activities that had me focusing on the younger members of my family, especially Yelena and the younger twins, Micheal and Erin.

I was not the only one, Chaz and the other older ones were helping me, comfort the younger ones. We spent the night around the campfire and talking, roasting strawberries and crying when the smell of the strawberries would remind us of our father's eccentric taste in air freshener.

Today of course the pain was not as raw for them, they were sad sure but they would live. Like father would have wanted.

"But what about you?" I jerked to attention and I heard Chaz chuckle lightly, a far too rare sound these days, "sorry, you were murmuring under your breath and when you said that the younger ones will be ok, I asked what about you?"

I could lie but what would even be the point? I looked at Chaz right in the eye and said with brutal honesty, "I really and truly don't know, if you had asked me several months ago what I would feel at my father's funeral, I would say nothing. I buried any feelings I had for him a long time ago, but..." Chaz finished for me, "you realised that he was not the monster you thought he was, you began to love him like a daughter."

I nodded, tears falling and ruining my makeup. I didn't trust my voice so I just nodded.

A deep sonorous bell sounded and I knew that it was time. We stood up and Simon in a dark suit stood at the front of the congregation. The people of the Underbelly lived under the Surface for as long as anyone has remembered and have never trusted anyone above them, this in turn meant that there were no serious religions practiced in the Underbelly and so funerals were a community event and would be led by the people.

But every people needs a voice and Simon would lead us in the procession, "Alastair Funto was an extraordinary man. He will be missed." We echoed him, "He was a man of vision and integrity. He will be mourned." We repeated him, "even though he may be gone. We will remember him, now and forever. May he rest in peace."

Sometime later I was leaving the dinner that was thrown in honour of my father, truth be told I was more escaping than leaving. Constantly dealing with people who were whishing their condolences and feeling their insincerity as they clasped my hand. I didn't have to read their mind to know that they were only there to make a political move, to gauge me.

They made me sick.

That was why I was outside, as much as I can be outside underground, watching the fluorescent bugs dance and flicker in the air. It was not long before I was joined by someone and judging from how awkwardly they were moving, they would have to be old. A quick glance to the corner of my eye confirmed this. Simon settled down beside me on the seat and was silent.

We sat like that for a while and soon I grew curious, despite myself, "what is it that you want Simon?" Simon smiled slightly for a moment, "many of the politicians in that room back there never knew the extent of your fathers gift, I believe that they constantly underestimated him as a result." He paused for a moment, "I believe that you would be wise to do the same." I cocked my head to the side, "why would I do that?" Simon looked at me reproachfully, "come now child, don't play coy, you know as well as I do that your father was grooming you for the last few months to take over. Granted it happened far more quickly than he had anticipated but he would have thought of that and obviously still thought that it was worth pursuing."

I felt my thoughts churn and he continued, "I know that it's hard, it's never easy to lose a parent, regardless of the circumstances but your father was part of something much bigger than himself. He died to give that a chance to live."

I held up my hand but he continued, "you're a very capable young woman, you remind me of him when he was your age." He said the last part with a smile but it soon turned rueful, "he was a masterful manipulator and became a very powerful policatical figure very quickly. I had thought that he was just another young man lusting after power."

He paused to catch his breath, "I was so very wrong, one night he told me of his vision, one where a person can live, love and die without persecution. It was then I knew that he would start the war we needed to take on the Surface and win back our freedom."

He coughed and gestured about him, "this is no place for people to live, we crave sunshine, rain and the wind. We need the open sky, but the elite of the Surface has branded us criminals because we dare to defy. We-"

I interrupted, "I'll do it." Simon stopped mid-sentence, and I repeated myself, "I'll do it, I'll finish what my father started, I'll free the Underbelly from the influence of the Surface."

Simon grinned like a young boy who had just been promised a chocolate fountain after Easter, "good."