8. Fake your death

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"Alexander!" Peter Gaskarth yelled for what he felt was like the hundredth time. His son hadn't emerged from his chambers for the knights council meeting this morning and he was beyond furious. Not bothering to put in the tiniest bit of effort to yell again, he barged into his sons room only to be met with the skinny boy fumbling very inelegantly around attempting to tidy his room himself, half dressed, hair messily falling in his eyes and eyes still half closed.

Peter frowned. "What on earth are you doing boy? Why weren't you at the council this morning?" He demanded in his bellowing voice that Alex heard all too often for his liking. It meant he was angry.

Alex avoided looking at his father in the eye in fear that if he did so, Peter would realise he had been crying. "I uh, I over slept." He lied. He'd been awake since the early hours worrying about Jack.

"Why wasn't your man servant here to wake you up? What sort of a useless boy can't even do that. Where is he anyway, why are you tidying?" He said it as if he was disgusted that his son should be made to do the mediocre task. Tidying wasn't for those of royal blood.

"H-he's sick..Zack popped in a few moments ago and told me, real bad apparently." Alex nodded, trying to make the lie believable. Peter narrowed his eyes but have a crisp nod anyway but he still wasn't satisfied at his sons absence.

"I'm disappointed that you weren't there this morning son, that was an important meeting and you let me down. I've been too lenient on you and I think it's time your mother and I cracked down. No hunting for a week."

"What! Father no! You can't do that!" He protested but it was useless. Once Peter had made a decision that was final. He shot his poor son a dirty glance before storming out and slamming the door behind him.

Alex let out a strangled scream and threw the glass he held in his hand at the wall. How dare his father do that to him. He fucking missed one meeting and now Jack was going to suffer because without the excuse of hunting, there was no way Alex could go out and find him.

After the initial anger Alex sunk down on his bedroom floor, not bothering to avoid the glass shattered all over it. A piece became wedged quite deep in his hand but he hardly flinched, for he'd had much worse. He sat there for what felt like forever, sobbing quietly to himself with hot tears of frustration, anger and heartbreak rolling down his already wet-lined cheeks. The problem only arose a few minutes later when Alex checked on his hand after feeling it pulsating a little by his side and noticed the pool of blood that had coagulated on the tiles floor and the mass of red that now covered the majority of his hands and that was dripping delicately off the end of each finger. He sighed and pulled out the glass with his good hand. He guessed he'd have to get Zack to check that out but he decided to wait a little while and watch the blood trickle a little bit more.

Blood fascinated Alex and even after experiencing what he though for the most part was blood poisoning, he still found delight in the dripping red substance. He liked how it contrasted so delicately with his pale skin and dripped effortlessly like water despite being of a more viscose texture. Alex believed the colour of blood to be the most enchanting thing about it, the rich crimson vividness, turning almost opaque when pooled together yet translucent when thinning and running down the skin giving everything in it's path a red tint to see through. Alex believed blood to be both good and bad-it kept him alive, pumped around his limbs by his beating heart but when it escaped in too large quantities, death was imminent.

But for now, he watched the cut carefully, inspecting it closely with an emotionless expression and upon deciding that it was in fact deep enough to get infected and quite badly he decided to go an see Zack. Maybe check if Jack was back as well as to which he already knew the answer but it was worth a try. Or it would have been worth a try if Taylor hadn't come bursting through the door at that exact moment.

Enormity // JalexWhere stories live. Discover now