Oblitus (Forgotten)

Chapter Two: Reawakening.

"She sounded like a frivolous, stupid girl," Leonardo scoffed. "You expect me to marry her?"

Anthony sighed and looked at his friend, draped across a velvet sofa while luxuriously eating an apple. "We're no longer children, Leo.  Our dowry will not sustain us forever."

Leonardo sat up, his blond hair falling in front of his hazel eyes. "It's lasted us nine years. Surely, your parents would not have wanted us to marry for money." He rested his arms on his knees, perplexed. He did not look up. "I only tell you this because you're like my brother: I want to marry for love."

Anthony sighed once more. There they were, in their beautiful estate that they had inherited from his late mother. They had money, they could have beautiful women, but they could not have happiness. They were nineteen years old, and expected to marry soon.

"You could take a mistress after marrying," mumbled Anthony, "but you still wouldn't be happy. Would you?"

"Of course not!" Leonardo erupted and stood up suddenly. He walked across the vast room with wooden floors and stone walls. "I've had women. No, I've had girls. And I've been miserable since that damned fire. Nine years of misery is enough! I feel a thousand years old," he said, with the slightest bit of melancholy tinging his voice. Leonardo looked out the window and saw the city in the distance; it was like a time warp. Here, the lifestyle was Victorian. There, only thirty miles away, the lifestyle was...different. Innovative. Leonardo and Anthony rode horses. City folk used electric cars.

Everything was so different.

Leonardo felt tension from behind. He turned around.

Anthony was fuming in the center of the room. A vein was poking out of his temple, and his lips were pursed.

"What?"

"They weren't even your parents. They were mine," he spat,  "My parents died in the fire." He began to storm off.

"You idiot," laughed Leonardo darkly. "My parents died before yours. I didn't talk for months. And when your parents took me in. . ." He shook his head and his hazel eyes held fast onto Anthony's brown ones. "I found a family again. I felt loved." He struggled to continue. "I felt like I mattered. But obviously, not to you." Hurt had caused his heart to knock on his ribs, and he knew he had to leave before tensions mounted even more. The door was past Anthony, and three seconds later, so was Leonardo.

As the door slammed shut, Anthony realized he needed to take a breath. He inhaled and realized his mistake; he had overreacted. Running his fingers through his auburn locks, regret filled him like poison.

"Dammit!" he shouted, kicking over a nearby chair.

All that could be heard was the faint echo of footsteps in a hallway and the raggedy breathing of a nineteen year old boy with the heart of a thousand year old man.

But if you listened extremely closely, you could hear the sound of crying in a room with wooden floors and stone walls.

****

Oh my goodness.

DON'T HATE ME.

Hahaha, I completely forgot about this story! I remember getting so excited and writing down the whole plot.

But guess what? That was two years and I lost that sheet of paper.

So I'm rewriting it. ;)

I apologize for the shortness, but I wanted to offer something before I jumped into long chapters again. Here is a little taste of what is to come!

Next chapter, you will meet our heroine. :)