The King & the Brother

Chapter 7

     Cecilia gave her goodbyes to the guards as the king's carriage had already left. She closed the doors and turned around to a crowd of confused staff with more than a fair helping of questions. The King at Huxley Orphanage? It was simply unimaginable as to what business he would have here of all places. She wasn't going to be able to get out of this without answering a few questions. 
      "If you'll let me speak I'll answer what I know." She waited for a moment of silence and then began to speak again, "The King, fer reasons I don't know, is here fer some children. They didn't let us know what er why, but they're troublemakers, I doubt they have the royal carpet out fer em when they arrive." Saying this sparked the crowd's imaginations. Some came to terms with what came to mind and others rejected the horrible thoughts; even protesting to Cecilia. "I don't got time for yer whining! I deal with that enough from the children. You go talk to the King, I don’t care."
    She pushed through the crowd wanting to get on with the rest of her day, she was already behind schedule from the King's sudden interruption. She had no feelings about the King one way or the other, she's even heard some of the more ghastly rumors about him. The only thing she knew was it annoyed her that he just barged in, no regard for anyone else's time, and now she'll be up all night finishing her duties. She grumbled to herself about the King assuming she was made of time, but she did take solace in knowing he’d be taking some orphans off her hands.
    She managed a few of the remaining orphans who were awake and left unattended during the momentary lack of staff. She felt the staff were a bunch of lazy looky loos, just wanting to waste time until they could go home. She rushed the children through dinner or whatever task they may have been completing so she could get them in bed since curfew had passed. She couldn't punish them for the interruption and incompetent staff, but her nasty demeanor due to the delay was punishment enough for the children.
   She cleaned up the staff room, which the guards had come through like an armored stampede. She was relieved no one was here to bother her while she cleaned. Afterwards she just had to lock down the Orphanage and shut down the lights for the majority of rooms.
    The lights were easy since she could control the light system from the staff room, but she had to lock each door herself and the few exterior doors they had were spread across the large building with a few admin type rooms in between. This part usually didn't bother her so much but the sun had long since set, parts of the Orphanage that were normally illuminated were now nearly pitch black at night. She didn't believe in the supernatural but it was still unsettling walking down the dark corridors, she did her best to find the correct keys on the ring quickly but with her aging eyesight she could only do so well. Today had been especially unpleasant, and she just wanted to go back to her room for the rest of the night.
     Hours after the boys had already been sent into their rooms and gone to bed, Cecilia was finally able to retire to her room. Though she was beginning her routine late, she started her typical process to get ready for bed. She slipped into more comfortable clothing, of which not much was available. She cleaned her face to the best of her ability with a moistened rag and once clean, she would reheat herself a meal in her personal microwave. She wouldn't even let other staff members use it, the kitchen didn't even have a microwave.
   She unpacked her meal from one of the plastic tubs she had collected over her life at Huxley and placed it inside, it wasn't the newest model and due to its age, took an extra minute or so to cook most things but it didn't bother her.
   There wasn't much entertainment at Huxley, or even in the slum for that matter. Usually when she would get to this step in her routine she would sit in her chair and watch the sunset as her meal cooled. The guards had unfortunately caused her to miss today's sunset, something she aimed to be on time for daily. She took pride in her ability to get everything done in time for her personal viewing of the sun falling, though winter months made this especially challenging. Maybe this was the cause of why she seemed more agitated later into the year.
    She sat in her chair, looking outside at the dark trees and the few stars that managed to peek through the black clouds, it wasn't much, but just enough to be appreciated. Cecilia's hunger had been gnawing at her stomach since the sun had set, her food was still steaming hot, but she decided to risk it anyways. The food, though slightly uncomfortable, felt like a warm wave washing everything away.
    She began to take another life-restoring bite but there was a knock at the door. She couldn't believe it, at a time like this? She huffed and set her food to the side to lazily hobble to the door. She was ready to give whoever was on the other side a complete earful. She unlocked her door and opened it about half way, and to her surprise, it was Cessair. He looked dreadful with the thick dark bags underneath his eyes; he clearly hadn't slept a wink since being sent to his room. His skin looked waxy and off color, like he could fall over from exhaustion at any moment. What was more noticeable to Cecilia was his angry expression, "If yer here to argue or try to convince me to not send ya away, don’t bother." She went to close the door in his face but he had already moved to block her, using his shoulders to wiggle inside before she could close the door. 
     Cecilia was in no mood to deal with children, let alone Cessair. She immediately began to call out for another staff member, hoping someone would show up to take him away, but before she could even get a full word out, Cessair had his hand over her mouth and the other on her left shoulder. He shoved her down into her chair, knocking over the meal she had prepared herself. 
   Now she began to physically resist, but even in his exhausted state he felt strong, he was significantly bigger than her and overpowering him was not going to be easy. Cessair was muttering something to her now, at least it sounded like muttering. She couldn’t make anything out in her panic, she began to find it harder to resist as he squeezed her even tighter, any exposed skin being cut by nails left untrimmed for too long.
   The muttering continued as the resistance became weaker and weaker, and eventually Cecilia stopped moving all together; but the situation never changed. Not even when her eyes began to fade and blood dripped from her shoulder to stain the seat, he continued angrily muttering.
   Not until her skin began to shrivel in front of his eyes did he come to a moment of clarity. He pulled away, letting go of her mouth and immediately, her head fell forward. Cessair jumped back and stared at Cecilia's sunken grey skin, practically every bone was visible behind the tight atrophic skin, even her clothes looked like they could be hanging on a skeleton. He waited, expecting her to suddenly gasp for breath and berate him for what he's done but she never moved and her color never came back. 
    She was dead and Cessair felt like he couldn't move, in all his outbursts he had never done anything like this; he had no idea how to proceed. After enough silent contemplation to fill a lifetime condensed into ten minutes, he decided there was nothing to be done and simply walked out, closing the door behind him.
    The walk to his room felt like a journey, he couldn't stop questioning himself, it almost felt like a dream to him. Had he really killed Cecilia, and in such a gruesome way too? It seemed beyond possibility but here he was, walking back to his room, without a doubt having killed a woman. The longer he questioned himself, the more he felt justified and the twangs of guilt he felt would fall away more and more.
    When he got to his room, it felt more inviting than it had his entire stay at Huxley Orphanage. He was glad to be alone in this moment, though the guilt was subsiding he still wasn't completely sure how he felt about all this, he could use the time to calm down and reflect.
    Taking a deep breath, he sat down at his bed, going over everything in his head. His stomach ached since Cecilia had sent him off without dinner again. He remembered the vegetables Jabez had given him, he knew they were cold but the over seasoned vegetable assortment on that moist napkin looked delicious right now.
    Laying on his bed and began picking vegetables up in groups of two, shoving them into his mouth. His stomach reveled at the first droppings of food, a cacophony of grumbles and growls as it began digesting food for the first time in days; feeling like cogs beginning to turn. It wasn’t long before he was out of his small portions of vegetables, he licked his fingers clean, unaware of the blood he had underneath a few of his fingernails. He wished he had been sent back with dinner, or maybe had asked Jabez for a little more of his food but maybe that's selfish, he thought.
    He stared up at the ceiling, going back to reflecting on what had happened. It was clear that his mind was going around in circles at this point but it was almost like counting sheep. He could feel his eyelids getting heavier and decided to greet the sandman with open arms as they hadn’t seen each other in a while.

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Chapter 8 coming soon. 

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