Chapter 2
The steel shutters of the windows began rising loudly to show that it was now safe to go outside as Mayhem rolled over in his bed. It was his birthday, he was now twenty-one and no closer to his transition. He opened his eyes and moaned as he rolled over back into his pillow. It was his birthday right? He didn't have to get up if he really didn't want to, he was after all the prince. Now his mind began racing with all the things a prince couldn't do.
He couldn't fight, he couldn't train with the others, he couldn't go out without an escort, he couldn't do anything without someone holding his hand. Mayhem took a deep frustrated breathe. If he could ask only one thing, he wanted to be like other pre-trans guys, he wanted to be back down in the training center, and he wanted to be learning how to kill his enemies.
The prince rolled back over and decided he just better get up since there was no use to sitting around. He sat up with a groan and looked down at his skinny body. He envied the Brothers, he envied his father, but he knew they all probably felt just as he did now, skinny, useless, and weak. Mayhem stood up and looked into the mirror that was placed in his room some time ago when Fritz thought the prince might want to start courting the glymera females and look nice. Fat chance of that, he was so nervous he barely made it out of the house before turning around and calling the whole thing off. Females and him were not something he could think about, ever.
He just got too nervous and when he did actually talked to them he could just see that they weren't really paying attention to him, just thinking about if they wed him they would become queen. Mayhem looked into the mirror once more. "Yea right like who would ever wed you, who would even bed you?" he said to himself. He suddenly wanted to giggle like a girl. He had made a rhyme and should probably wright it down in his notebook where he kept all his song lyrics.
Mayhem didn't look like much, he was skinny as a twig, lanky like one as well even though pre-trans weren't supposed to be tall. He had some soft features from his mother and dark hair like his father that feathered away from his ears in little wisps. He liked keeping it short, but not military short like his Uncle John. It was just shaggy and a dark mess and that's the way he liked it.
He pulled on a blue T-shirt and stepped into some nice jeans Fritz had picked out for him and headed down to the kitchen for some eats. He passed by the rooms with casual speed, knowing each and every nook and cranny he had explored as a child. He could remember playing sword fights with Wahr his cousin and being the knights when Nalla and Iris wanted to play princess. He had never asked either one of them if he could be the prince, not once.
Thinking of his cousin, Wahr suddenly appeared with a massive sandwich filled with more meat than anything. "What's up cuz?" Wahr said slapping Mayhem on the side. Wahr was Uncle Butch and Aunt Marissa's son, and Mayhem's best friend since before he could remember. His face was all his father's but his short hair was blonde like Marissa's and he had just gone through his transition even though he was a tad bit younger than Mayhem, which only depressed him more.
"Nothing, just getting some eats" Mayhem said hurrying past him to the kitchen. Wahr knew his cousin better than that and followed still munching on the sandwich. "Happy Birthday dude, what you gunna do now that you are legally a human adult?" Mayhem looked into the fridge rolling his eyes "Your a human adult when you turn eighteen dumbass, you can drink when you are twenty-one."
"Well then let's go! Let's hit the clubs with the boys!" Wahr said loudly and happy as a clam. "The Boys" were the other trainees that had been recruited along with Wahr. There was Bruhtal,who was a massive powerhouse, Hhate who was half asian and deadly with a sword, and Fhear who was a Moor but the son of a chosen. Mayhem always thought one of the Moors who hung out with Aunt Xhex was his father but he never asked Fhear. He was the only one besides Wahr that was his friend and he respected his wishes when he didn't want to talk about his parents.
"I don't know dude, my father will have a cow if he knows I'm going around partying, they don't even like me riding my motorcycle without someone following behind in a car" he said. It was true, his parents didn't let him go anywhere without an escort of some kind. Sure he could play his music as loud as he wanted, run screaming through the halls and even smash the precious china plates but the moment he wanted to leave the compound his parents went completely over protective. His father was king, his word was law.
"Come one, I'll be your escort, hell all of us will, we are all past our transitions, we can handle ourselv..." Wahr suddenly stopped as he put his foot in his mouth.
"Yea, because I haven't transitioned so I can't handle myself" Mayhem said with bitterness in his mouth. It was always going to be this way, the others would go off and fight, he had to stay at home, just because of his title. He had warriors blood in him too, hell his father was the last pure vampire along with his mother who was born from a warrior. He was born to fight, yet he was caged like a bird here. Suddenly Mayhem stormed off wanting nothing more to do with his cousin, his parents, or the mansion.
He headed out the double doors leading to the beautiful gardens that cascaded around the back of the compound. He moved fast, ignoring the smells of the flowers or the summer air catching around his hair. He needed to be out, to be away from this place, to just be free for only a moment. Mayhem hit the wall that surrounded the compound and found the entrance to the back of the woods. It was a steel door with many bolts and locks but with a great pull of a switch it opened to the dense woods and the sounds of nature.
He had only done this once before, back when he was about ten he had gotten into a fight with Wahr about who was allowed to play with a new boxing toy his father had gotten him. Wahr made the excuse that Mayhem was prince and he wasn't allowed to fight, which Mayhem in return popped Wahr in the nose hard enough to make him bleed. Mayhem got a stern talking to by his father which sent Mayhem right to where he was now.
Mayhem walked slowly, hearing the crunch of his feet hit the wild grass. The pines and great tree tops shot towards the night sky, the only sky he had ever really known. His parents were too afraid to let him out in the daylight, though Fhear said it wasn't anything special to begin with. But he longed to see sunrise, just once.
Taking deep breathes he felt peace envelope him in the wilderness, sensing that there were no restraints here. The grass grew where it pleased, the moss surrounded whatever it chose, even the trees had a choice and where the would fall and where they would rise. Mayhem felt trapped and never would have thought he would envy a tree. Suddenly he heard his name being called from the compound and knew he should head back even though he had barely walked into the forest. Closing the steel door tightly with the switch he trudged back to the mansion knowing somehow things were going to change tonight.