Beginnings and After
Chapter 1
DISCLAIMER I OWN NOTHING!
Youngblood
"Why do I let him talk me into these things?" Richard Gage asked himself. He was a tall, rail thin man in his early forties. He was employed as the head butler at the Withering Estates just outside of Amity Park, and currently he was on his hands and knees while the young master of the house, Zachary Withering, was climbing on dressed as a cowboy.
"Giddyup!" he shouted, kicking Gage in the side, he'd included spurs on the boots, causing him to start crawling around on the floor. "Yeehaw!"
Gage groaned at this. The young master was very stressing at times, pulling pranks and other nonsense all around the estate. Not to mention the games he talked the aging butler to do, whether it was being his first mate or his horse, Gage was helpless against Zachary's wishes.
"Your supposed to make horsy sounds!" he shouted in Gage's ear.
"Neigh." he replied dryly. "Snort."
The game went on for over an hour. When it was over Zachary demanded that Gage fix him dinner. Soon Gage was standing over the stove making macaroni and cheese, as the rest of the servants were gone for a week for vacation and the master and mistress were also gone on business until tomorrow. Carrying it out to the massive dining room, where the young master sat at the head of the long oak wood table.
"Less cheese." Zachary said, looking down at the plate of food.
Gage went to make more.
"More macaroni." the young master said when the butler returned, forcing him back to the kitchen.
"More cheese." he whined again. Gage clenched his free hand shut tightly, for fear that it would lash out and hit the spoiled boy in the chops. So he once again returned to the kitchen and cook more, adding more cheese until it was even perfectly and carried it out to the table and set it down, right before Zachary smacked it, sending it crashing to the floor.
"I hate macaroni and cheese." Zachary said, hopping down from the table and running off somewhere, leaving Gage with a mess to clean up. He retrieved the mop and bucket from the closet and began to clean. When he finished Gage preceded upstairs and found Zachary playing with his blocks.
"Time for your bath young master." he said, almost immediately the boy started whining about how he didn't want to and that he was busy. "If you take your bath you can have ice cream."
Gage watched his eyes light up in delight and made his way to the bathroom to prepare the bathwater. Kneeling down he turned both knobs until the water was lukewarm and let it fill up. After turning the water off he heard the patter of Zachary's feet coming down the hall and went to open the door.
"I want chocolate ice cream." he said promptly, handing Gage the towel and hopping in the bath tub.
"I shall fetch it post haste." he replied, closing the door and making his way down to the kitchen. Gage thought about all the years of service he given to the estate, arriving at the young age of 19 and starting as the assistant of the head butler at the time, Julian Mercer, the 5 years he spent under the older man were the most enlightening of his life. He taken over as head butler when Julian retired after a severe stroke.
Entering the kitchen he noticed the dirty pots from dinner and decided to quickly scrub them clean and then fetch Zachary's ice cream, the boy probably was too busy splashing around to notice anyway. He now thought about the boy and remembered how it had been in the beginning. He had been the one to get up all hours of the night to tend to the baby, then perform his daily duties on top of that. In the middle somewhere he grew to love the boy.
Gage finished the dishes and placed them in their places and made his way to the refrigerator with bowl and opened the freezer, pulling the ice cream out he placed it on the counter and began scooping out the frozen treat until it was full. Putting the ice cream back he made his way up the stairs and knocked on the bathroom door.
"Sir I have your ice cream." Gage said. "Are you finished bathing?"
After not getting an answer he opened the door with his free hand and peeked in, finding it empty. He was used to this trick, he'd approached the tub, thinking it was empty and the young master would splash him.
"Oh it looks like the young master is gone." he said, faking surprise. "I'd better let the water out of the tub-"
When he reached the tub his voice hitched in his throat and he felt his blood ran cold. Zachary was lying on the bottom of the tub, still as a stone. He was vaguely aware of the ice cream hitting the floor as he quickly grabbed Zachary and pulled him out of the tub, he didn't notice the blood running through his left hand that was supporting his charge's head and missed the stain on the bottom of the tub.
He placed the boy on the floor and started performing CPR, desperately trying to get the young child to breath. He did this for several minutes before giving up and clutching Zachary to his chest, he didn't care that his shirt was soaked through, he only cared for the boy in his arms. Standing up he started down the stairs and out the door, the boy held carefully in his arms. Walking down the road he started toward Amity Park, a good three mile walk but that didn't matter at present.
Gage was barely aware that a car had stopped and that people were getting out, when they tried to take Zachary from him he sprang to life and snarled at them.
"You will not touch him!" he roared. "He is mine!"
Someone called the police and they arrived quickly to the scene, as did paramedics. They subdued Gage and put Zachary in the ambulance, after covering him with the sheet. That was the end of his job as a butler, Gage spent the rest of his days wandering from bar to bar, drowning his sorrows in cheap beer, until the day he just collapsed in the gutter.
He awoke on a large platform in a strange place, purple doors floated all around him. He took it all in and felt a presence at the other end of the platform and made his way over, he felt his heart leap with joy at seeing the boy again.
"Young master!" he exclaimed, hurrying over he scooped Zachary in his arms and hugged him tightly. "How I have missed you!"
He finally released him and looked at the boy for the first time in ten years, his soft brown hair was now glowing green, he was dressed as a cowboy.
"Wanna play cowboys?" he asked, causing Gage to smile, immediately he felt himself change to meet his masters need.
"Don't worry master I won't fail you again." he said, as the boy hopped onto his back.
"Yeehaw!" Zachary shouted.
"Neigh!" Gage added, full of excitement.
He had his boy, forever.
END CHAPTER 1
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