Me, you and everyone else.
Chapter 1: There were two, then three, then four
In the beginning there was only me. The blue eyed raven haired babe that made momma smile and Giuseppe Salvatore proud to show me around. I basked in the glow of the love and attention that my parents cast on me. From family to servants to the young beauties, everyone coddled me. They kissed my cheeks tenderly, ruffled my hair playfully and made me feel noticed and appreciated. I would get treats, stolen cookies and whatnots, as well as special rides on horses, carriages and carts. Following mommas' skirt or Giuseppe's heels, I would prance around like a little joyful prince, adored and cherished in the realm.
All was peaceful, all was right. As I grew up, my mother was always by my side. She would play and teach, teach and play, and in both there was joy, laughter and companionship until I was six. Then he came, the baby I could not see but that momma told me lived in her belly. She said he was sweet and that I was going to love him very very much, but he made momma sick and I didn't like he at all. Since momma told me about him she was always tired and didn't want to play with me as often as she once did. If I asked her to teach me she would brush me away and promise to do it another day. Giuseppe also changed. He would hover around mother looking worried and upset. If I came to talk to her, Giuseppe would shout at me and push me out of the way. The servants were now too busy looking after momma to look after me and the few ladies and family that we saw looked at me with only pity and sadness in their eyes. There was no laugher anymore, not from momma, not from anyone and the least from me.
The bigger momma's belly grew, the more often the doctor was called in the middle of the night, the angrier Giuseppe got and the less of momma I saw. I was a destitute prince, I was the twin pauper that had lived the illusion of mattering and that now lived in the shadows of unimportance. Momma was always tired or sleeping and she wouldn't eat. She was pale as a ghost and her hands were too busy wrapping protectively around her belly and him to caress my cheek or rustle my hair.
One night momma cried. She cried so loud... A keening sound without beginning or end that echoed against my hollowed soul. The servants rushed about, the doctor was called urgently, Giuseppe paced the floor like a bull about to enter the arena. I placed my little hands over my ears and made myself small in a corner in the pantry as momma cried and cried and cried. Then she stopped and the silence was louder than her cries. I tried to hear further into the silence when a new wail invaded all the corners of the house. I knew then that the baby, my brother, had arrived. As if in a daze I got up from my hiding space and followed the sound up the stairs. I could no longer hear momma only the baby and Giuseppe screaming angry words I could not make sense of. Neither my father nor the servants noticed me approaching momma's bed. A year ago this would have surprised me, but by now I had gotten good at being invisible.
I saw Doctor Hanes bent over momma's bed and I came to stand by him. I looked up to see momma sleeping, but she looked paler than usual and her hair was matted and messy. I reached out to touch her hands as they lay on top on the bed sheets and I gasped at how cold they were. The Doctor finally took notice of me and shouted for a servant to come and get me at once. I tried to hold on to momma's cold hands, I tried to wake her up so she could ask them to let me stay, but momma never answered... It took me a few days to understand why she would never answer me again...
The servant took me to the same room as my brother, the selfish little being that had stolen my mother's attention from me. I approached the crib propelled by anger and frustration. As I peered over, my brother looked up at me with emerald eyes of kindness and curiosity. I was mesmerized and, although I couldn't forgive his transgressions, I knew I would love him unconditionally for the rest of my life. Days later however, when I understood fully the part he played in taking momma away from me, I nicknamed him a murderer, decades later, as if in a prophecy, he would become the deadliest murderer of them all.
AN: You know the drill :) R&R please. xoxo