Fallen Hard

Doomed

  Wherever I go,

 You bring me home  

~~~

It has been seven months and fiftteen days since that awful night his fate was sealed forever. He had run away from the vampires to the sanctuary of his room but found little comfort there. A few minutes later Abigail had burst through the door and rushed to his side.

 She had held him in her arms as he cried, whispering comforting words in his ears, knowing even as she did it that whatever she said was not true. He was not going to be okay.

 Nothing would ever be okay again. 

She had left him in his bed to get some water and had come down, when she heard the vampires discussing Liam's fate to his parents and sisters. What she heard had brought forth a kind of fierce protectiveness towards Liam- but later as Liam fell asleep beside her, hugging her like his life depended on it, dried tear tracks staining his beautiful face, she knew she could do nothing to save him. 

He was trapped in the hell that was to be his life.

She wished she hadn't said what she heard to him, seeing his empty eyes, a face that held an easy smile and a mouth that only had comforting words in them fall into a mask of pain and hate. He had cleared the finals with marks others would have envied, but it didn't mean anything to him. He had willed himself to study the textbooks,  Abigail forcing him into it: thinking that it would take his mind off things. It did. But only for a brief period of time. After that he was left alone. His father  had  demanded that Liam stop seeing Ignatius and Liam did. He couldn't disobey his father. 

Five days after that night, Narcissa had been married to Lord Adlebourne in a grand ceremony. Almost like a fairytale wedding. All the supernatural beings were invited and it had been a happy event, only Liam wasn't aware of what was going on around him. He had felt guilty later, considering she was always kind to him, but he was too deep in his own misery to atleast act happy for her. He had been distant throughout the whole event. She had moved to the Adlebourne Manor after the wedding and came to visit the Payne family occasionally, always happy and full of joy. Liam tried to put up a happy facade in front of her, just so she wouldn't feel bad at living a happy life while her brother was doomed.

   And he was thankful that the guests didn't know about his fate. 

But he couldn't be for long. 

Soon after everyone in the country side knew of the King's command and talked about the human boy who had attracted the King's attention. Every time he walked through the corridors of Montadales, he heard the hushed whispers that swirled in the air. He knew they talked about him behind his back, their vile minds spinning tales of the deeds that would go about in the King's chamber through the night once Liam reached the Palace. The things he would do to Liam in the hours of darkness: he would be his slave, a toy to be played with, a thing, an object to satisfy the King's desires. Students with whom Liam hardly talked came up to him and blatantly asked him what he had done to seduce the King.

The humans who were well acquainted with the Paynes saw him with disgust, as if he were a thing living in the streets.  Some looked at him with pity, feeling sorry for his cruel fate- but he couldn't tell whether it was real or not. Since Jonathan seemed to be proud that his son was going into the Royal Palace, people had more reason to believe that Liam had actually lured the King.

The King, in order to make an impression on the Payne family, sent lavish gifts to the Payne Manor every week. And on the birthdays of  one of the Payne children, the gifts were twice more than the usual quantity. With each gift at the beginning of the month came a note from the King for Liam. No one supposed to open it other than Liam. And Liam, after reading them, would tear it up savagely and throw it in the kitchen fire. But his mother had asked the maids to put out the fire immediately and collect the burned pieces of paper in a box. They were later mended and put together, safely kept in a box that Liam wouldn't know about. No one read the seven notes kept in the box.