The King & the Brother

Chapter 1

     Huxley Orphanage was still quiet, breakfast hadn't even been served yet. There was no rule that said you must stay in your room until food was ready, but Cecilia, the head caretaker, would not take kindly if she caught you. Cessair had woken Jabez up after waking up countless times from the never sleeping city life outside his room window and dragged him along into a tucked away room that overlooked a rough grass patch and a beat up fence. This room had the most windows in it and even though the sun wasn't fully up yet, it has a tremendous amount of natural light. Light pink and soft orange hues painted the walls of the room Cessair nicknamed, 'Observatory' which was on the second floor of the Orphanage between another boys room and the bathroom dedicated to this floor.
     This room brought feelings of comfort to the boys in challenging times. The windows made the room feel bigger, allowing them to breath deeper; The color from the occasionally caught sunrise injected them with joy and this was the only room where you couldn't see any buildings outside the windows. The grass outside may be worse for ware and the fence could definitely use a few boards and some paint, but this was the most beautiful room in Huxley.
     Jabez especially liked when Cessair came to wake him, he was much more gentle about it than the other staff members. He didn't mind losing the extra sleep if it meant waking up comfortably. He was a young boy, only fourteen but he's been at Huxley for longer than any other child in the Orphanage currently.
   Jabez hasn't known much outside of Huxley Orphanage, he came here so early that he doesn't have any memories of his family. He has this inkling of a memory that feels like the skin of his mother before being taken away, though he's never told anyone that before.
    Officially, the orphanage has it filed away that his mother died during childbirth to unknown complications, she was a single mother and apparently there was no immediate family to take him in, so off to Huxley Orphanage he went.
     He has never liked it here much, but he never knew any different so he came off a bit more cheery than the other children in an overall dreary situation. He did have a feeling that it must be better than this out in the real world, even if there are bigger and scarier threats out there, at least they may come with real reward.
     Many children took his cheerful demeanor as fake or even annoying, it led to many undesirable situations; he was constantly being bullied and pulled into fights. After some time he learned how to handle himself more and found ways to avoid the more confrontational kids.
     When Cessair moved in, Jabez was sure he would need to avoid him. Cessair made quite the show on his first few days here. Orphans still talk about the time he broke the three windows in the front entry hall. Looking back on it Cessair does feel bad about that, the windows haven’t been fixed to this day and a nasty draft comes through despite being boarded up. 
     To Jabez's surprise, Cessair took his cheerfulness in stride and as Cessair began settling in, to the best of his ability, the two realized they had a lot in common despite their different upbringings. It didn't take long for the two to team up against their bullies and oppressors. Jabez looked up to Cessair, figuratively and literally as he was short even for his age, but standing next to Cessair who looks like he's already hit two growth spurts, Jabez felt like a troll at times. He was short and stocky with dark hair that tended to curl in undesirable fashion when it grew too long, compared to his Greek God of a friend. He felt he was still young enough to grow out of it, so it didn't tend to bother him most days.
    The two sat next to each other on top of one of the many dusty desks that were left to be forgotten in this room, looking out of the windows farthest from the door.
     "How much did you actually see outside?" Jabez asked nervously, Cessair wasn't always fond of discussing his life prior to Huxley.
     "What do you mean see? I saw plenty. Pretty broad question." He came off somewhat cold to Jabez, but it wasn't his usual reaction so he proceeded.
     "What did you get to do out there? I mean, I've been out in that grass once but that's pretty much it. Is there something more pretty than our view here?"
"Our view here ain't much, aside from the sunrise..." Cessair took a long breath out, "There was this one park near my old house, when my parents weren't home I'd sneak out and swing on the swings, climb a few trees. I especially liked the view from the very top, it felt like you could go anywhere. It was my little escape. I remember one time, my brother had decided to follow me. I remember thinking he was just going to tell mom and dad but he actually played with me for the first time."
There was a moment of pause between them.
"Unfortunately it was the only time. My parents found out, gave me one hell of a beating too. They even beat my brother just for associating with me. My brother wasn't too keen on talking to me afterwards and I certainly didn't get to go climb trees anymore."
     Jabez felt guilty for asking but hearing about climbing trees tall enough to see over buildings filled him with a sense of joy.
     "I'm sorry, that probably is not what you wanted to hear." 
    "It's not your fault; maybe once we are outta here we can go to a park on our own. No one to tell us otherwise then."
     Cessair cracked a smile but continued to look out the window away from Jabez. It was difficult to remain hopeful here at Huxley Orphanage, but Jabez always managed to do so and it was infectious to Cessair. He wanted to reciprocate what he had felt but before he could turn towards Jabez he was interrupted by a large thwack and a yelp that pierced the silence.
     Cessair's head spun around to see Cecilia standing there with the short metal rod she kept tucked in her skirt already out, Jabez beginning to cry from the pain shooting through his fingers and working up his arm.
"Yer never getting out of here! Who'd love the lot of you? Can't even follow simple rules!" She spat.
Cessair brought his hurt friend under his arm and clung him to his chest, helping Jabez stand and back away.
"Get back to yer rooms and I better not see yous until breakfast!"
     She watched them walk down the hall together until they separated to go to their respective rooms. Cecilia stomped back to her room, every child clutching their pillow as she made her way by.
     Cecilia has been caring for the children at Huxley University for as long as any kid there can remember but she's outlived most kid's stay at Huxley. She has overseen over 15 different groups of orphans, not including the few unadopted that tag along with other groups. 
     Despite having the most seniority she is very disliked among the children, even other staff members tend to shudder in her shadow. She looked much like an older woman in the slum would, grey thinning hair, teeth are browning or missing, a nose like a broken fence post and she had started to pick up a hobble.
     Cecilia was an orphan of Huxley and was one of the unlucky few to not be adopted. When it was time for her to leave the Orphanage she struggled deeply with the outside world, with no home she found it difficult to find work. A young girl living out on the street lead to many unsavory positions for her, rich men passing through would stop by thinking she's a prostitute and when she refused some men wouldn't take kindly, beating her or worse. The homeless communities were filled with men who would and have done the same. She came back to Huxley Orphanage years later after finally breaking, tired of the cold sleepless nights afraid of the next day. It was difficult to convince the current head caretaker to train Cecilia to replace her. She was grateful to come back and have a roof over her head but she hated this place. She felt the same as she did as an orphan, she just wanted to leave and it shows with how she treats the children, especially Jabez Huxley. She'd never admit it herself, but Jabez reminds her of herself at that age, except more cheerful. He has hope to get out one day and tries his best but Jabez's cheerful attitude felt like an insult to Cecilia and he was always first to receive her ill gotten punishments.
     A few more hours passed and the Orphans of Huxley groggily made their way to the dining hall to collect whatever slop the Orphanage could afford. The dining hall was the least favorite room for Jabez, it had the highest concentration of people looking to give him a hard time. The room was brightly lit by buzzing and blinking tubes, as well as two large windows only cleaned about halfway up and even the bottom half was covered in handprints and spittle. They had cheap picnic tables lined up in rows of three, all of which had random vulgar scratchings in them. Jabez would work himself up most mornings, dreading the possibility of being singled out at the start of the day.
    Jabez came out of his room with a deep breath, still clutching his hand but now he was holding a white shirt around it. When he entered the hall, his first thought was to find Cessair. It wasn't too difficult with Cessair's height, he stood over most of the orphans and even some of the staff. His eyes lit up when they found his friend and he hurried his way over to where he had sat down.
     "Are you okay?" Cessair asked.
     "Better now... it still hurts but it doesn't sting as much." He removed the wad of shirt wrapped around his hand revealing a thick red whelp that crossed over his fingers and back of his hand, you could even make out the threads at the base of the rod embedded in his knuckle.
     Cessair's face turned red, "One day she'll get what she deserves." He said through his teeth, his breath picking up. A bell was chimed and Cecilia and another woman came out of the hallway carrying a pot of food. They went around each table, rashly throwing down a grey watery blob they called Potatoes and gravy.
     When Cecilia finally came around to Cessair and Jabez, she threw a ladle full into Cessair's bowl so hard, it splattered upwards onto his already dirty clothes. She said nothing but maintained eye contact, then moved on to Jabez. 
     "If you wanna be a troublemaker, we'll treat ya like a trouble maker." She moved on without putting anything in his bowl, he kept his head down and held back another helping of tears.
     Cessair patted his back and offered him his bowl, "It's okay, I don’t even like gravy, you eat up." Jabez said through a sniffle. Cessair knew he was just trying to hide how he felt and not take any of the small amount of food Cessair actually had.
     "I don’t like gravy either... help me get through this bowl." He said with the best smile he could possibly put on. It seemed to reach through to him as he grabbed his spoon and took a helping.
    Cessair felt good, he wasn't as gifted at caring as Jabez was. He was sixteen, almost seventeen now, his blond hair had grown with the times, he would have to wait another month before he could get a haircut. By the time he reached the Orphanage he already felt numb, as he would describe it. His slender figure was exaggerated by the overall lack of food and what food was here, didn't have much nutrients to build the body. The only time he really felt anything was when he was with Jabez and there was only so much time with Cecilia around. 
    After breakfast the Orphans were sent off to various parts of the building to work, so the art of eating slowly was widely practiced among the children. Unfortunately since they were sharing a bowl, they inevitably finished earlier than anyone else. Cecilia was quick to snatch them up and assign them the most difficult of the chores Orphans were allowed to do.