The Goal is to Live Leisurely (DISCONTINUED)

3

"What a pity."

The beautiful seven year old muttered, shaking his full head of light brown hair. His charming face was pinched in sadness, but his pale blue eyes were cold.

Bastien touched his sister's warm cheek, then moved his hand to the wet cloth plastered on her forehead. He pushed the fabric into her skin hard, causing the little girl to grimace in her half-conscious state.

"It must be hard. You can't go to school like me and Vince. All you can do is stay at home. Could you even pass a first grade test? Mother and Father are so worried everytime you get sick like this. They must be tired because of you."

His malicious words were covered in a sickly sweet tone, as if they were said out of care for her. Cosette wished she was well enough to roll her eyes and smack away that hand still pressing against her forehead.

She had done well in avoiding Bastien all these years. If it was troublesome, ignore it. Instead she became closer to her slav- her brother, Vince. Even after he started school, he never failed to make time for her.

This little demon seemed more and more aggravated recently though. His subtle glares had turned into hidden insults which turned into this kind of full-blown terrorising. Usually, he did his best to seem like an obedient kid so she didn't know what had triggered the sudden overt hatred.

"You know, if you're just going to keep getting sick,"

His tone grew less polite as a barely concealed anger filled his speech. Even through her pain, Cosette recognised what he was saying from a flashback in Reaching for the Skies.

[...keep getting sick, why don't you just die?"]

"Why don't you just die? You're just a burden to the family."

["Everyone would be happier if you were gone."]

"Everyone would be happier if you were gone."

Ah, this brat. Cosette really wanted to smack some sense into him. But her breaths grew heavier, and the pounding in her head got louder and louder until she passed out in cold sweat.

Bastien was supposed to say those lines when they were ten, right before she was poisoned. The self-hate he felt from that incident was a key part of his personality.

["It wasn't your fault." I said, wrapping my arms around the misunderstood man. His pale blue eyes filled with tears, honest for the first time.]

It was what made Eleanor forgive all the shitty things he did. By her twisted logic, it was completely fine that he toyed with her mind for his own amusement because he felt guilty because he was mean to his dead sister.

Cosette wanted to scream at Eleanor, and the author, and this demon who just told his own younger sibling to die. Sure, kids were cruel and dumb. But just because their parents paid less attention to him doesn't give him the right to crush his little sister's mentality.

She woke up in the middle of the night feeling better, but still annoyed. She didn't know why Bastien said his lines so early, but she didn't care.

Cosette thought of the overwhelming guilt that Bastien was plagued by in the novel, and the seven year old smirked evilly in her bed.

°

The next morning, the Pembrook estate was thrown into chaos. The youngest child, Cosette Pembrook was nowhere to be seen. Her room was found empty by her nanny, except for a note on the table.