Seren, En Dipity.
By, Jupiter. C
His hands… olive skin covering fine, long fingers… The hands of a pianist… Combing through locks of light brown hair, reflecting golden in the light, small beads of sweat glistening as they rested upon perfect brows and long black eyelashes casting shadows across his cheeks and shading his beautiful eyes which gazed upwards in a rather stoic yet refined expression…
And then… It changed as he tripped and fell over… His expression changing from refined to embarrassed, his sophisticated beauty falling away as he came to look more like a stupid and clumsy child with a dishonest scowl.
I couldn’t help but laugh, he shot a glare across at me and I gave him a quick wink before running off yelling, “Oh my! The young priest of Eden will place the devil atop my soul! How I fear for my life!” and with that, I knew he was after me. His name was Elias, but it amused me to call him Eli.
“You stupid… Worthless…prick!” He called between breaths, his voice almost a rasp.
“Ah! But I, unlike you am not a fraud.” I chuckled to myself and swiftly turned a corner, but me being me I forgot about where I was. I’d managed to corner myself.
“I’m not an idiot who’s about to get beat either though.” He stood in front of me, hands on his knees and panting. He couldn’t run far but I’d seen him fight and it wasn’t pretty. Not being very good at fighting I needed a way to escape.
“I’m sorry,” I sighed, trying to think of a way out. If I just scaled the wall and ran away then I’d give myself away as a member of the Wittenshire household, “but, I need you to keep a secret for me… Of course I’ll just get someone to kill you if you don’t but it’s not like there’s anyone to miss you.” Grinning I walked up to one of the three walls of the building surrounding me. Giving Eli a thumbs up I leapt up as high as I could, perching myself on the gutter. “I’m secretly a monkey with an above excellent talent for the art of escaping. Tell the teacher I went to the nurses office why don’tcha?”
“I hate you Louie! I really just hate you!” and with that he stalked off, hands in his pockets and his shoulders slouched.
“I love you too!” I called out trying for the most sanguine manner possible before waiting for him to part from my view before taking my own leave.
I reached my home much later that afternoon, after dawdling in the town centre and picking up a couple deliveries from the post office, I finally entered only to be greeted by the oh so beautiful…ly obnoxious Elaine Asquith, the tiny brat who had way too much anger and pent up rage to fit into her tiny childlike body and it was quite a shame too. She would look like the most adorable child if she smiled once in a while, especially with her gorgeous blonde ringlets and large brown eyes and that tiny little button nose which I always just wanted to poke, just to see the steam course out of ears in a jet of fiery rage.
“You! Look me in the eye and tell me why you were tormenting people again?” She screeched her eyebrows furrowing in an unpleasant scowl.
“How do you know that I was? Besides, it’s not cute when you frown, you may look like a child but who knows how long that’ll last. After all, you’re as old as my mother would be.” With that I flicked her in the forehead and walked away taking long and quick strides, knowing that Elaine with her tiny child’s legs in her frilly, unconventional and impractical old fashioned dress, would never be able to keep up, but despite that from the other end of the hallway you could still hear her screeching.
The home was grandiose and homed up to forty people and could cater hundreds but usually only ten to twenty resided (here) permanently. I knew that people from the outside or from school would often discuss the house as it was rather mysterious to them as they didn’t know the owner and it was very rare for such a large property in
as although being a suburb of the city of Junic, there was a very low population in the town, thus as everyone tended to know one another it was quite a popular topic. They raved about how resplendent they thought the interior halls were and how many rooms there might be and how castle like the structure was with its polished stone front and its thick entanglement of vines up the left side blocking the light from entering some of the lower rooms. The lavish and green gardens were rolled out tidily in front allowing for a small outdoor table to be almost hidden from the outside world. The outsiders opinions weren’t wrong either. The hallways were resplendent but only some of the rooms were opulent, it was a matter of who resided within them and as I approached my own room I remembered back to when this place was just ruins, of course nobody remembers that though, only the residents, the Wittenshire family, a family renowned for having abnormal capabilities and being involved in activities such as assassinations, kidnappings and street wars with rivalry gangs, of course it probably only looked that way, in reality half the time we weren’t even fighting humans, we were protecting something precious which we would only learn of when we reached the age of 18 and I still had two years to go.
Pushing open my door I stopped abruptly. The air wasn’t stale despite the fact that I had not entered for quite some days. Frowning I flicked on the light switch. Every crevice should have lit up, the room was designed that way, a circular room where nobody could hide except me, because the room didn’t move to anybody but me, but as I stared at the sight before me I realised the room was no longer round but octagonal. Moving forward further into the room I attempted to will it back into its usual shape before realising the extra bed.
“Get out here now or when I find you I’m going to gauge your eyes out and cut off your tongue before I pull your miniscule brain out through your nose!” I called, my voice low but still carrying lethal intent as I cautiously turned in a circle.
There was a light thud behind me and I spun around quickly, drawing into a fighting stance and steadying myself.
“You?!” Elias stood before me, his eyes wide and bulging, almost with rage, “I’m stuck with you?!” He spat my name out like he was cleansing his mouth from some unholy being.
“You?!” I spat back at him mockingly. “Why couldn’t you go in any other room? There’s plenty of them, why are you even here? Did that strange little telepathic freak find you? Maybe it was Seraphim…” I glared at him before taking a deep breath, “well, I have no more reason to make fun of you, obviously you’re of some use if you’ve even managed to get things. I’ll show you around later,” I spoke softly, it was difficult to speak to him like this, to even think that he was here in the Wittenshire household. A household for people with abnormal and sometimes even magical talents. A place for us to belong.
“The heck’s with that change of attitude?” Too my surprise he seemed unnecessarily taken aback.
“You’re going to be staying in my bedroom obviously, whether that’s temporary or not, I have no idea, but the chances are that we’ll be working together in the future. Don’t know what I’m talking about yet? That’s fine, unlike yourself I was born here…although if I had a choice I’d rather have been recruited, it’s difficult, especially seeing how the place is run like hierarchy. Unfortunately I’d be a prince. I’m supposed to take over when Arild passes on, but hopefully there’s a long time until that happens, but for now just tell me your specialty if you know it and I’ll take you down to meet some of the others, oh, but leave Arild’s office alone. Pops hasn’t got much time to deal with people without reason. I’ll show you where that is, but everywhere else is a matter of entering at your own risk.” Grinning I stood, “so tell me or show me what you’ve got?”
Elias heaved out a sigh, “I’m a priest. I told you that, I am connected with the Lords in a way that nobody else is. I am their body and soul. They work alongside me to provide my needs as I do their bidding and provide forgiveness and a listening ear for their followers, without encouraging all of that sitting around and praying. Besides, the praying is just irritating. Who wants millions, even billions of people constantly whispering in your mind? They lead me to Seraphim, I believe he is some kind of… genius?”
I scoffed, Seraphim? A genius? He was socially awkward, as most people with too much going on in their heads were but he was merely like Elaine, one of those fancy people who read others minds except his ability was a lot more developed than that of Elaine as he could push thoughts into other people’s heads too, that’s why in an exam hall it was possible for everyone to fail but him, it had also been mentioned somewhere along the lines that he had a photographic memory and his twin brother was exactly the same, in mind and nature, but there was something odd about their appearances. They were both, I found, difficult to get along with, overconfident, overly clumsy and overly tall. I was pretty sure that they reached seven feet tall but where seraphim, about twenty five years old looked like a regular and attractive Argentinean male with a light coffee coloured skin and Dark brown hair along with brown eyes, lips with just a hint more colour than his skin, and even a couple of freckles sprayed across his nose, his brother with albanism or melanism, I wasn’t sure which one(or if there was even a difference), had white hair, pale skin, soft almost light peachy coloured lips. When I was younger I remembered being terrified of his brother, Marquez, as when we took a photo of him his eyes would always appear red so I’d assumed he was a vampire and having met a vampire later on in life I’d realised my mistake and accepted that Marquez was as “human” as the rest of us and it turned out that vampires were pretty friendly anyway and they could live for quite some time without consuming blood of any sort.
“Not a fan of Seraphim, not his brother either.” I said, trying to stop myself from forming a scowl.
“He has a brother? I would like to meet him.” Elias burst out almost gleefully.
“Sure, later. Just so you know though, his brother is not a vampire apparently. It took me quite some time to figure that out.” I heaved out a sigh and walked out the door before pausing and glaring back at Elias, just to make sure he realised he should follow me.
“Why don’t you like anybody, Louie?” Elias muttered quietly behind me as he stumbled to keep up.
“I do like some people. I like my father who I’ve only ever spoken to on official business since growing up, I think I would’ve liked my mother, but oh wait! She’s dead. I like Elaine but she’s too bossy, probably because she’s my godmother and entitled to look after me. Oh! I also like Seraphim and Marquez, they tormented me my whole childhood…” I kept speaking sarcastically as I strolled down the halls, listing names and reasons I reasons I “liked” them and when I ran out of people I started making them up, the reality was that I didn’t dislike anyone. I just had an issue with expressing that fact, it was a flaw in my upbringing.
Finally reaching a set of large doors with a large golden emblem pressed to the centre of each. They were old and scratched and the bottom of the right had been burnt leaving a hold about the size of a basketball.
“What’s through here?” Elias asked quizzically.
“Well, Eli, you’ll just have to open the doors and find out.” I grinned and step back, waving my arms towards the door in a courteous manner and finishing with a swift bow, “after you.”
Elias let out a cold-hearted “Thanks.” And pushed them open as I stood up and followed him in.
“Ah! Marquez! There is a new specimen for you to play with!” I called into the large, open and octagonal room, gaining a quizzical and concerned look from Eli. I walked forwards, dodging around books that had been left on the floor and the occasional sword or ring or conical flask. Reaching a painting I stopped and frowned, “you’re in there again?” I crouched down and stuck my hand right into the painting, its surface moving away like water before quickly pulling it out. “You wanted to meet his brother right?” I called back over my shoulder to Elias who was struggling to get around the piles of items strewn everywhere across the room.
“In a painting?!” He stopped with a bewildered expression as I turned and moved to walk down into the painting.
“As if they’d want to live in this place. It’s much easier for them to just live at home. Oh, a lot of paintings in the building are like this. Same goes for the books in the garden. I don’t recommend you touch those. I fell into one once, came out at school. Last place you want to show up when you’re apparently ‘sick’.” I sighed. “You coming?”
My feet surfaced upon the creaky wooden stairs of the familiar home and I walked down, not even bothering to pause for Elias I began jogging down the lengthy staircase before coming to another large room, a laboratory.
“Ah! Um… Why are you here?” Marquez asked with a quizzical glance as he placed down a flask which began to slowly bubble over its brim.
“New specimen, I brought you a toy. What else? He’s coming… Slowly, presumably after he gets over the concept of passing through a solid object, of course I have no idea if he’s figured out how.” I grinned. “Have fun.”
I spun on my heals and hurried back up the steps and burst out of the painting to face a disgustingly joyous Elias talking to Seraphim.
“If you can’t get over the fact that it’s not a painting then you’ll never get through it.” I stated quickly before rushing out of the room and down the halls.
I’d managed to get distracted, I was supposed to be visiting Arild… My father, which was a rare incident to begin with, so I burst into a sprint to get to the room where I pushed open the heavy steel door to enter his room and stood still, not panting from the run, just standing still in the doorway. Just like a soldier as I waited to be informed of what my next task would be.
“Quentin Lawrence Louisa Wittenshire. Step forward and raise your head!” A deep voice commanded from deeper within the depths of the room.
As commanded I took a large step forth and raised my head. Looking the man in the eyes… searching for his soul. I always did this, but the reality was that there was no soul and there would never be a soul in that man’s body, and he would never really be my father.
“Sir…?” I let out.
“Louis. In two years’ time the agenda states that you will be told of your purpose, but due to your lack of engagement and enthusiasm in learning how to take my place when the time comes we have come to a conclusion that we will tell you in a months’ time. Because of this we have assigned you a governor… well actually a governess to keep you company.” He paused momentarily before continuing in a deep yet monotonous voice, “If you were to try to have children with her or anything else like that, there’s a 99% chance of them being mutated, of course it is forbidden anyway.” With that he stopped and glared at me, it was time to take my leave.
“Where is she?” I asked quietly as I stepped into the doorway.
My vision turned to a screen of black before slowly clearing again, but as it cleared I could see the willow wisps dancing down the hallway, and quickly I began to follow them, their soft fiery glow lighting up the crevices of the hallways which previously were very dimly lit.
“She’s near! Yes… Can you smell her?” Their voices began to fill my head. Vicious voices. Willow Wisps were not kind creatures, in fact they were quite nasty, they were carnivorous monsters and they could sniff out anything, that’s why they could lead you to wherever you liked because they were like the magical equivalent of blood hounds.
“How far exactly?” I called out.
“Seconds,” one whispered before pushing forwards, forcing me to go faster.
Finally they all scattered into the shadows and disappeared and it was only then that I noticed the unusual amount of them. Usually in an area, there were ten to twenty of them, in the building there were ten, plus or minus one, right then there had been at least fifty. Frowning I stopped at the nearest door and pushed it open, unprepared for the blinding light that followed my unusually irrational motion.
“SHIT!” I turned my back to the door and ducked, cursing and muttering. “Stop that blasted light!” I yelled.
“It’s your fault for coming in without knocking!” A girls voice yelled back, but the light that was engulfing me disappeared to just a dim glow.
Slightly shaken I stood and turned to face back to the room and took a cautious step in, “what sort of wretched hag are you?” I asked bluntly.
“What sort of stupid, impolite and unobservant imbecile are you?” A voice huffed out from the corner of the room.
“One who’s trying to find his stupid governess, and if the spirits are right then it’s you. My, how unfortunate,” I snapped unintentionally and startling at my own harshness towards someone I didn’t know I stumbled a bit further into the room.
“Oh, so that’s why you smell funny. You’re the boy with the unknown gifts… The one who somehow commands my children,” she said, her voice growing angrier as she spoke, contorting her face into an unpleasant animalistic snarl. She was in all earnest a plain looking young lady of the estimated age of twenty… That was judging by her appearance, not that appearance was a very accurate measure.
“Your children? Oh… That’s what he meant by mutation children. You’re some form of hybrid wisp or something? Explains that ugly snarl… At least I get along with the wisps.” I chuckled before turning to walk away.
“Wait!” She called, her voice changing to be almost pleading, “I will be here after midday tomorrow, come and find me.” Without looking I could tell her face had now softened, her tone was no longer threatening nor raised.
I gave a quick wave over my shoulder and strolled out of the room, for some strange reason I felt upset, like something absolutely tragic would happen to her in only a short period time and I began to wonder if my attitude was really the reason I was going to find out my purpose earlier.
Returning to my room I slammed the door behind me before throwing myself onto my bed with a lengthy groan.
“What’s up with you?”
A quizzical voice shot across the room. “I wonder,” I muttered and slid under my covers, pulling them over my head, “Tell me when dinner is ready.”
“Why are you like this? You’re so childish! You’re two faced, you’re overly enthusiastic but obviously that’s some type of façade! What’s wrong with you?” Eli blurted out, I heard him gulp at the end of his minor rant and I let out a harsh breathe.
“You don’t have a clue… I was raised by strangers… Some of those people died too. My father’s alive, yes, but he’s never spoken a remotely kind word to me. I wouldn’t consider him my father… I have these great expectations as well, you know? I’m supposed to lead us through a revolution and into something great, but that’s a role much better suited to yourself… I don’t hate you. I’m jealous… Because once upon a time I had everything that you do… I wasn’t always this person! I wasn’t just this trouble making mess… This is not what I wanted, this was a gift from your gods… This was a gift for letting my mother die… And I let her. I could’ve saved her…” I rolled over under the covers, “What’s the time?”
“Sorry, “Elias mumbled, “It’s only 3:40.” He said softly… “What time is dinner?”
“In two hours… It’s early because Seraphim and Marquez go out to work, I wouldn’t be surprised if Elaine went with them today to relieve stress.” I sighed and pushed myself upright. “So tomorrow is Saturday. I’m going to see my governess at midday, so you should probably go and book an appointment with Arild before then to see who you are appointed to… If you are to be appointed to anybody…” I paused… Arild wasn’t the best person to ask anything at the moment. His aura was of pure dishonesty… But this would be fine. “I’ll speak to him over supper. I believe that you would be partnered with Sebastian as he is a vessel for the angel Lilith, just… Behave yourself, it would be recommended.” I couldn’t help but grin, picturing Sebastian, an elderly man in his 90s. Soon Lilith would leave his body and fill that of his granddaughter Filipa, he was as strict as anything, but I got along with him better than most.
“Okay.” Eli smiled at me as he combed his fingers through his hair absent minded.
Jupiter's Impression 