"M-m-m-mom..." Lhaklar shook violently; even though he had a heated blanket draped over his body, he was freezing.
"Shhh, baby." Angel said to her son. "Lie still and try to rest."
Bile gave his brother a gravely concerned look; the old man—his adoptive father—had brought a slew of things into the room several hours ago... just about all of what the man had brought in had been put to use.
The heated blanket, that had a temperature dial on a long cord on it, had been placed across Lhaklar's body; it had been removed periodically by the hour, one of the many cold wraps that the man had also brought in had taken its place afterwards. The orange drink, that the man had also brought in, which he had claimed would settle his brother's stomach, had been consumed in small increments—so far, it was doing as its description had said it would; Lhaklar, for the last three hours, hadn't done a bathroom visit to vomit.
More than "a few" paintbrushes, mason jars, jars of paint thinner, and newspaper pages had been brought in as well; Hazaar and Lazeer had gone to work in building their new models right after getting the items that they needed to build them with. Fifteen minutes after the paintbrushes, mason jars, paint thinners, and newspaper pages were brought in a small folding table was brought into the room—the old man, after seeing that Lazeer was having a time in putting his plane model together on the floor, had made the decision to provide him with a table so he'd have a better go in doing his model.
The armature of Hazaar's freaky model animal was all done; the clay was on it, and was around half-dry now. Hazaar had said something about wanting to wait until the clay was fully dry before going in to paint it—dad had said something around that being a good idea. For the last couple of hours, Hazaar had either been reading his magazines or had been watching the room's tv. For the most part, he had just grunted whenever the old man said anything to him; once every ten to fifteen minutes, he'd look up to see how Lhaklar was doing.
Lazeer's model plane was nearly, fully done; he claimed that it just needed another paint application before it was complete. The model of his three-headed dragon was around halfway complete—the question of whether ma would be so kind in transforming into her dragon form so he could see its vast colors and appendages and then attempt to apply them to his model had been asked; ma had said that she'd see about doing so in the next few days, after everyone and everything was calm and more settled. Like with Hazaar, he had read his magazines and then watched some of the room's tv after finishing his models.
With nothing—no models or anything, meaning—to do all he had done was sit and watch the room's tv, or read the magazines that Hazaar had gotten him, or just plain sit and worry about Lhaklar. Ma had mostly concerned herself with Lhaklar—she had either sat by him, speaking words of encouragement or comfort, or she had tended him when the need for doing so became present. The old man, other than bringing the material things into the room, and other than bringing them their lunch, and then a snack, and then supper and dessert, had done the same thing. Lhaklar had eaten nothing since breakfast; his stomach, and his mind and body, were just not allowing him to consume anything.
"It's the lack of nicotine that's caused him to become ill," the old man had said after coming in with all of what he had initially had in his arms, and after taking "a look" at Lhaklar. "Never should of started smoking son—it's a habit that only us grown-ups can handle."
While he hadn't said a word of his personal opinion to the man he had been thinking that it wasn't Lhaklar's sudden stop in smoking that had caused him to get sick—if that had happened then they'd all be sick. No, what was going on was very simple—the event of their being captured, and then being disciplined by the old man's belt, and then going on a several hour long trip through space, and then arrival to the mansion had caused them to experience a lot of stress. Of the four of them, Lhaklar had been the only one to succumb to his stress. While he was surprised over the fact that he and his two, younger brothers weren't experiencing a stress-related illness he was glad to know that they were healthy—he could just see it now if Hazaar or Lazeer had gotten sick... With the way they were now, the two would really be bouncing from the walls if the old man so much as came near them to see how they were doing.
After entering the room, then placing all that had been in his arms on the bench, the man who had taken him on as an adoptive son had gone over to see how Lhaklar was doing; he had checked his temperature, then he had "inspected" his color, before returning to the bench for the heated blanket. Swallow by tiny swallowful of the orange-looking drink, which the man had called Dislic, had been given to his brother next. Other than leaving to room to get lunch, and then supper, made up for them, and then to consume his own meal at them times, and then to bring them a snack between lunch and supper, and then to bring Lazeer his small folding table, the old man had remained by Lhaklar's side.
Bile glanced at the watch that, earlier that day, had been worn around Lhaklar's wrist; it was going on midnight and, from what he could tell, they were the only ones to still be awake. If he recalled correctly, the house would be powered down at around ten to ten-thirty; the staff would of been an hour to an hour and a half returned to their homes at the time that the mansion's main power was shut off. Back when he had been a kid, he and his brothers had been put to bed at around the time that the staff were all punching out to go home for the evening; his parents would normally go to bed an hour and a half to two hours after he, Eshal, and Lhaklar, and then, later on, Hazaar and Lazeer, were in bed and asleep.
The hallway outside of the room was dark; by way of the door being wide open, and by taking in the glow from the room's light catching against the carpet, he was able to note that the room that they were in was the only room on the level that's power was still on.
"A little over a hundred degrees," TazirVile said after taking the thermometer out from Lhaklar's mouth. "He'll be near to being back to himself in the morning."
"I h-have always h-hated them damn th-things." Lhaklar said of the thermometer. "Off...ensive."
"Takes after me," TazirVile nodded his head as he put the thermometer away. "Don't much like them myself."
"You hear that, Lhakie? You'll be feeling better in a couple of hours." Angel said to her son. "Try to get some sleep now."
Y-yes m-m-m-mom." Lhaklar said. He was slow but he managed to roll over to facing the foam siding of the bed on his own.
Lhaklar was one who snored lightly so, when he heard the faint snores coming from the bed, he knew that he was asleep; his adoptive father, after hearing the snores, grew rather alarmed, then surprised, in the face before standing and then starting towards the room's door. He said for them to get ready for bed then he left the room.
He was the first to get into the room's bed; Hazaar and Lazeer, after doing a near-silent groan over having to go to bed, followed behind him a minute to two minutes later. The blankets and sheets that were on the bed were gently "torn" up and then thrown over them then one of the bed's pillows was grabbed and then placed under their heads. Their mother was the one to turn the room's light off; while she didn't sleep on the bed she did sleep on the opposite side of the foam siding that Lhaklar was sleeping against.
It seemed that he had no more let his eyelids fall, and that he had uttered his first snore, before he was aroused.
"Hey!" Bile exclaimed in the lowest of whispers after a shadow was seen as crossing the room. "Who's—"
"Bile, hush!" Bile heard Lhaklar, who sounded just as healthy, and as strong, as ever, say.
"Lhaklar? What time is it? You feeling alright?"
"Feel like a million bucks," Lhaklar responded. "According to my watch, it's nearing eight."
"In the morning?" Bile asked both incredulously and stupidly.
"Yeah... think there's some Goblins up and about—not sure, but I've heard some shuffling going on outside the door." Lhaklar said. After saying this he commented, "I need a stretch."
"Do so in here then." Bile said.
"Outside the room," Lhaklar said.
Normally, it was he who made the overzealous decisions of adventure and exploration; hearing his brother, who was normally so against being overzealous in doing anything fun or exciting, was about to leave the room to explore some of the house made him feel like his position as the family's Risk Taker was in jeopardy.
Bile, after hearing what his brother was up to that morning, got up from the bed; after making sure that he hadn't woke anyone up by his hasty removal from the bed, then putting his socks, and then boots, on his feet, he went towards the small crack of light that had just become present in the room—Lhaklar had already left the room but he had left the door open just a tiny bit so that he would know where he was going. With it being as dark as it was in the room, he bet that he'd be making more than a little noise if not for that small crack of light being available to guide him to where he wanted to go. After leaving the room, he closed the door to ensure that his still sleeping family wouldn't be disturbed by anyone who was moving about the hallway.
"Except for a few differences in the decor, it's still the same." he said after taking in the level's hallway.
The old man had really decked the hallway out with bat-based decor—at every eight to ten inch intervals there was a gold, wall-art, bat that had ruby-painted eyes and silver-colored fingernails; a few photographs of various species of bats leaving either caves, or hollow tree trunks, or just flying around, consuming, or looking to consume, their insect diets were between each of the wall-art bats. Neither of them needed to ask if the old man was still into bats—if he wasn't then the hallway wouldn't have bat decor on it. The coo coo clock, that was at the far end of the hallway, was as black as can be; the weights were acorn-like in structure while the creepy, abandoned house, with its equally creepy trees, decor looked to still be in very good order. Both he and his brother remembered that, at every hour, when the time was tolled, a hologram image of flying bats would appear around the clock and a flying bat would shoot out from the little slot that was in one of the creepy trees.
Other than the bat decor, the hallway also had quite a lot of photographs of him and his family and of him, his brothers, and Eshal on it.
"I remember this one well," Lhaklar said. He was standing in front of a painting; he, as a three hundred and twenty year old, Bile, as a four hundred and twenty year old, Eshal, as a seven hundred and twenty-two year old, and their mother and father were all in it. "Pop had a hard time in keeping you still."
"Yeah, remember that as well." Bile said. He was looking at the photograph of him and his brother; they were standing next to their father. He had been four hundred and five years of age at the time of the photograph's taking. "Ma didn't much like the painted portraits, she liked having the photographs taken but the painted portraits—"
"She said that, even when a fast artist was at work, they took too long to make." Lhaklar nodded his head. "What'd it take... thirty minutes to an hour for a painted portrait to be completed?"
"About an hour, if I recall correctly." Bile said. "No moving, no bathroom visits... just sit or stand. Very boring."
"Dad was happy on this day," Lhaklar said. He was standing before a photograph of his father, who was holding a day-old Hazaar; their mother had still been in the nursery at the time and, in fact, she was present in the photograph's background. It looked like she was napping. "Remember how Hazaar was said to be a girl both before and when he was born?"
Bile chuckled; his parents, after Lhaklar was born, had been trying for four hundred years to not get pregnant—after the curse that his biological father put on his mother was removed his mother had taken a trip to Gamma Vile's most secure building for a couple of vials of his adoptive father's sperm. She had impregnated herself with the sperm then, two weeks later, she had been declared as being pregnant with baby number two—uh, number two for his adoptive father through her while baby number three for her in having a healthy baby in her.
His real father, who he either called Dark Dad or who he just didn't place a term to, had been furious after Hazaar's conception was made known; from what he and his brothers had been told, the man had grown infuriated, and then jealous, after Lhaklar was born and then, instead of getting over his expressed feelings and then feeling happy for their mother and father over the healthy delivery of a new baby, he had placed a curse on her that'd prevent her from having babies. Ma had seduced the man into removing the curse from her four hundred years after it was put on her—from what he had been told, the man had never forgiven her for doing that.
The man who had taken him on as an adopted son had, at first, been unsure about the new pregnancy—at the time that ma got pregnant with Hazaar he hadn't been at home; he, and Eshal, had been visiting his great-grandfather, Duru, and his wife, Cyla, at the time of Hazaar's conception. After a session in the house's medical chamber, where the pregnancy was noted, and then after dad questioned ma about how she had managed to get pregnant with him not being home to impregnate her, ma had disclosed how she had gotten pregnant with Hazaar. Several weeks later, after the pregnancy was noted, dad had gotten excited and had accidentally "knocked" the stick that he had been using to check on the vitals and physical growth of the unborn baby; the thought-to-be genitals had been exposed right after he did so. He had overheard his father apologizing for the slip up, and he had overheard him explaining what had happened to cause him to accidentally show what was in his mother's stomach; ma had said that she understood and then she had said that, since he had gone and exposed the gender of the baby, he might as well go on and confirm it. After ten minutes, the baby had been said to be a girl... Hazaar hadn't only been said to be a girl while in the womb but he had also been given the name of PhloowaVile Epa Surfeit.
Well... their gender assuming and naming of Hazaar had been done way incorrectly—Hazaar hadn't only been a full-on boy but dad's little "slip-up" had really only exposed the stomach area of his unborn brother. After being born, then placed on ma's stomach, one of the midwives had asked dad if he wanted to cut the cord; the man had said that he did then, after being handed the scissors, he had been told to do a re-checking on the baby's gender—Grampy Shaam, if he recalled correctly, had come over to ma's side and then noticed something that hadn't looked very girlie on Hazaar. Dad, after giving the scissors back, had checked and then done a wild cackle before declaring that the new baby wasn't a girl after all.
Eshal had wanted a sister pretty badly, Bile remembered that. She had spoken to the unborn baby, and had used all sorts of feminine or female-related terms with "her", and she had also said that she couldn't wait until "she" got to walking and talking good so "she" could join her in doing girlie things—Eshal had looked more than a little cheated over hearing that her new sister was a boy instead. His adoptive father, while actually wanting the baby to be a girl, had been thrilled in having another boy in his family; after he, and ma, got on Eshal for her question of whether Hazaar could be exchanged for a baby of the female gender the question of what the newborn would be named had been asked.
Ma had been the one to name Hazaar... after hearing Granpappy, as he and his mother called the man, say Hoozah, thank the Gods! I have a new grandson! she had switched the O's for A's and then the H at the end with an R. She had said Hazaar right after doing so; his adoptive father had been the one to come up with the middle name of Tlair after the given name was in place. Hazaar, who had started out in life as being a PloowaVile Epa Surfeit, had ended up as being named HazaarVile Tlair Surfeit after his gender was noted.
"Yes, I remember. What say that, after Hazaar wakes up, we tease him a bit this morning? Say Good Morning Phloowa or something?" Bile suggested.
"Sure, I'm game," Lhaklar nodded his head.
After looking at the photographs, that were to either side of the door to the room that they had spent all of six mornings in, they went down the hallway; Bile was suddenly struck with the realization that the hallway that they were on was also where the old man's office, the Birthing and Nursery chamber, and the employee lounge were located. Though he couldn't remember their names he did remember stalk-following two Goblins down the hallway, and then into the employee lounge, a few times in his youth; he wondered if them two men were still working for his father and if they were still as nice as they had been when he had been younger. One of the men that he had stalked had been rather burly while the other had been right tall and lean; Lhaklar, he remembered, had taken a liking to one of the Most Trusted employees in their father's service—who that man was, and where he was, he didn't know. He was sure that the three's names would come to him in time.
It took them a minute or two to find the room that was the employee lounge; the door, they discovered, was half-ajar so they were able to look in and hear what was going on in the room. Keeping just as quiet as could be, they listened to what was being spoken about in the room right after approaching it.
"Master Tazir says that one of his sons grew ill last night," Eclaire Gozakaal, a brown-skinned Goblinette, who had short, gray hair and brown eyes, and who was wearing a gray dress that had an apron tied around the front, said. "Young Master Lhaklar, he said."
"From his not having anything to smoke for the past couple of days—his body is craving nicotine and is reacting to not getting any." Olok Gzujus, a blue-skinned Goblin who had warts on his cheeks, large brown eyes, and a crooked nose, said. "Feel for him, truly do."
"Master Tazir says that Young Masters Bile and Hazaar also smoked," Eclaire said. "They've not showed any symptoms of withdrawal yet but he says that he expects for them to any day now."
"Poor kids, I picked up drinking at a young age as well. When you're young its hard to both kick the habits that you've picked up and to deal with the symptoms of withdrawal too." Ulok Gzujus, Olok's twin brother, who looked exactly like his brother except for his nose, which was straight instead of crooked, said.
Like with the apartments that were located under the house the room that they were in was theirs... their employer had really looked out for them and they did try their best in keeping both their living spaces and the employee lounge in good order. Most people who worked for one who was loaded with cash wouldn't have an employee lounge, or nice things in that lounge to keep them happy by—they couldn't thank Master Tazir enough for this room or for the apartments that he had given them to live in.
The couch that he was sitting on was made of a dark green velor material while the ones that were placed to either side of the one that he was sitting on were made of a near-leather material that was a beet red color; the dark brown walnut coffee table, that sat between the three couches, housed the items appropriate for it. A small cabinet sat before the coffee table; a 30" tv was sitting on it and, on top of the tv, was a cable box. The remote to the tv was on the table; at the moment, the news was on but it was on mute—as of the last couple of days, they had either taken in the news via this room while the tv was on mute or while the volume was set to low.
There were several lounge chairs in the room; all were a dark green color, and had light green floral designs on them. The carpet in the room was a soft, dark green color while the walls were a lime green color; the ceiling above matched the walls. A bar, that a solid slab of stone acted as its counter-top space, was behind him; the counters that were behind the bar had a microwave, a coffee pot, and a blender on them. There was a small refrigerator on one of the counter-tops too. To the far right side of the bar, near the wall, sat a silver chrome water dispenser—nothing more than spring water was in it; a cup holder, that contained a thing of small plastic cups in it, was on the dispenser's side.
When it came to their lunch hour, they either took up space in the lounge or they went down to the smaller of the house's two kitchens—as long as they cleaned any messes that they made, and made sure to leave the room as it was when they came upon it, they were allowed to use it. If neither of them things were desired then they were also allowed to go home for lunch—Master Tazir had never said no on their doing so.
Other than him, there were a few others in the room; his twin brother, Olok, was busy in stashing his lunch in the room's refrigerator, Kohl Zolwin was reading the newspaper, Eclaire was just taking up space on one of the lounge chairs, and Zshon Zultoa was just standing around. Everyone else was working—in silence, of course; as they had been ordered to do a couple of days ago.
Due to Miss. Eshal placing trust on Mekaia Zultoa, and telling her all of what happened between Young Master Hazaar and his father yesterday, they all knew what went on in the room between father and son—Ulok wasn't much surprised about the given assault; with the kids all being so nervous, and with two of them going through one of them mid-teenage phases, he was expecting for two to three other events like that of what happened yesterday to happen more than once in the impeding months. Even though Miss. Zultoa had spilled the beans on what happened between father and son to her co-workers she hadn't said a thing to anyone outside of the house and, really, neither had anyone who she had spilled her trusted information out to—nothing on the news was being spoken about on this so he made this assumption on that alone.
"Mr. Rovnitov has his hands full with the Derby this upcoming year." Ulok said. "Normally, it's only four hundred entrees with twenty-two picked after gaining enough points in the races that're held in the six months before the Derby is done. There's two extra horses this year that have the same points as the last two that raced."
"Yeah, I heard about that. Alosod and Asromortor, they won their last race nose-to-nose." Eclaire replied. "I like Klobrik, though. Fast three year old."
"I disagree with you—Anzaika is the best of the lot this year." Olok said. "If I was Mr. Rovnitov, I'd not give any consideration towards Alosod and Asromortor—they lost two races before winning the Tuckett together."
"True, came in dead last in both of them races." Eclaire said.
"Reporters are still milling about behind the front fence and gate," Kohl said. "They just don't want to let up."
"Neither does our Master's family." Eclaire said, then sighed. "That Duru called twice—he left two very impolite messages, and so did Kuruk. Vile's number was blocked the other day."
"All wanting to know what's going on—Master Tazir is doing right by keeping them in the dark." Kohl said. "They didn't help any in looking for the Young Masters or Mistress Angel—Master Tazir stuck with his searching and look where it got him? He has his whole family in his home now."
"The Ubalki's—Ashaklar and Cheshire—also called. They called once, then left a nice, pleasant message, and they haven't called back since." Eclaire said. "I think they'll be the first ones to be called over in a few weeks."
"Sounds about right. They stuck with Master Tazir when it came to looking for—"
He and his brother decided to not continue eavesdropping on the hired help; he stepped away from the door, Lhaklar followed behind him.
While he was slightly upset over hearing that his biological father had been calling the house he was also glad to hear that the man's number was now blocked—he remembered all too well the man yelling for him to shut up after he was captured and then brought into the camp that was situated near Expedition Island... he had simply been yelling for help, and voicing his displeasure over being dragged around, and he had come back by yelling at him to shut up. His grandfather—his father's father—had done the same thing in yelling at him to shut up after seeing that he was caught.
After hearing the news on what was going on in the house, he decided to see if his old baby room was still up—at the time that his mother had taken him and his brothers from the planet it had been intact. Bile went down the hall silently; he walked past four doors before stopping before the one that belonged to his old baby chamber. Lhaklar walked past him; he went down the hall two further doors before stopping before the room that he had inhabited when he had been a baby. The two of them were reaching for the door knobs of both rooms when two of the employee lounge's occupants left the employee lounge; Ulok and Olok Gzujus watched as they went into the two rooms then they turned and went down the hall towards the staircase.
"Shit! It's exactly the same!" he thought after entering his old baby chamber.
He had to pinch himself—even though he had been told that his old rooms were still intact he had still expected to come into either an empty room or a room that had been given a drastic change in decor.
The dark mahogany crib, that had a soft mattress in it, and a hanger from which a few plush toy goats, sheep, and wolves were hanging on; the rocker, with its pillow seat and back; and the baby swing were all still in the room. The dark blue carpet, that was more than a little soft, and the multi-blue painted walls were the same; the ceiling looked more like a purple color now but he deduced that its coloration was just age showing. The light blue curtains, that were over the one window in the room; the circular rug, that was blue and white in color, and that had a series of tassels going along its outer edges; and the shelf that contained all of the toys that he had either played or slept with during his baby years were also still in the room.
The toy chest, which was blue, red, and purple in color, had some dust on it but it was also still in the room— when he went to open this item, he had to cringe; the hinges that were on the back squeaked rather noisily when the lid was pulled up. The dresser, which was a dark brown color, and quite abnormally shiny, was still across from the crib; the changing table, with its adjacent trash can, was still beside the dresser. All of the items that had been on the dresser—the baby monitor, the radio, the small, dark green clock that had a bear's head on it, and the lamp—were still where they had been when he had been moved from the room after reaching the age of two hundred and ten.
He looked at the contents that were in this room quickly—the memories just piled up, one on top of the other, without let up, which caused him to make his visit be a short one. After taking the room in, he left it then went down the hall. After reaching the room that Lhaklar had inhabited when he had been a baby he hesitated for all of a second before going in.
"This is sort of heart-warming," Lhaklar said after seeing his brother's shadow loom up beside his own. "Everything's the same."
"It's like you've never left the room," Bile said. "Mine still looks the same—everything's still in there... nothing's missing."
His adoptive father had treated him much like his own son—equally, and with the same amount of love that he had shown to Lhaklar, and, later on, Hazaar and Lazeer. Not once had he been given something less in value than what Lhaklar received, and not once had he been disregarded when Lhaklar was around. Though, at first, he had been referred as a simple stepson to the man he had, at four hundred years and six months of age, been adopted and then called a simple son by him—in regards to his own father, who, if he recalled correctly, had been on his back for nearly everything that he had done while being awake, TazirVile Lajoshu Surfeit had treated him much like a real father would treat his actual blooded son.
The crib that was in the room was a dark brown color; it had an attached changing table, that had three drawers on it, on it. The baby swing was attached to the ceiling; the rocker was like the one that was in his old baby room. The carpet, walls, and ceiling were the same as the room that he had inhabited when he had been a baby; really, except for the crib, the only difference that was in the room was the decor. Lhaklar had been one for ducks back in his baby days—there were plush duck toys on the shelf that ran around the room, and the lamp that was on the dresser had a shade on it that had ducks on it. The dresser, which was right across from the crib, also had a clock on it that had nothing but ducks on it; the baby monitor, that was also on the dresser, was the same make and model as that of what was on the dresser in the other room.
The toy chest, that had all of Lhaklar's old baby toys in it, was still in the room and so was the light blue playmat, which still had a slew of stuffed and plastic toys on it.
Lhaklar, Bile noticed, had the plush, blue-colored duck, that he'd find himself sleeping with at night, in his hand. Lhaklar ran his finger over the face of the duck toy once before returning it to the crib's one pillow; after doing this, he turned around then looked at him.
"Let's get out of here before I start to cry." Lhaklar said. He left the room with Bile very nearly clipping his heels; this was sort of the reason to why he hadn't stayed around for long in his old baby room—the memories were good, yes, but they could be overbearing too.
After seeing that they were out of the room, and were leaving the one chamber that use to be the baby chamber to one of them, he was instantly reminded of the events that occurred on the day that most of his employer's family disappeared.
Mistress Angel had been a normal acting woman for most of that day; she had gotten up at the same time that her husband had, and she had done her usual routine like she normally would, then she had gone on to tend the children—something that she'd always do after getting out of the shower and then getting dressed for the day. Young Master Hazaar, who had only been a hundred years old at the time, had been allowed to sleep a little longer than his older brothers and sister; Young Master Lazeer, due to being so weak, and due to his mother's ever-increasing concerns for him, had been aroused from a sound sleep right after his mother got up from bed—he was checked, then fed, and then put back to bed. Breakfast had been made after all of that was squared away—the whole family, minus the two infants, of course, had attended the meal.
There had been a lot of paperwork on Master Tazir's desk, and he had been required to return a bunch of phone calls that had come in during the night hours; he had been busy for all of that morning and then most of that afternoon. Mistress Angel had used a needle and some thread on some of the clothes that she had found to be ripped of her family's after breakfast was consumed; she had just gotten through working on the needlepoint that she had started doing before Lazeer's conception was made known to her and her husband when the call from her father came in. A fierce fight had happened between the two right after the phone was lifted from its docking station—Kohl remembered hearing bits and pieces of it... the fact of his Mistress being so angry at the man, and of her slamming the phone down, was what he remembered the most. She had spent some time in the house's gym after getting that call then, after getting over her hysteria, she had gone upstairs to check on her two infants. Miss. Eshal had wanted to take a dip in the pool at around ten o'clock; Mistress Angel had dressed her for the occasion and then supervised as she did as she had wanted to do. Young Master Bile had wanted to go out to play in the mud and dirt about an hour before lunch was made and then eaten; Mistress Angel had watched him for all of twenty minutes before calling him in. Young Master Lhaklar had wanted a story read to him right after lunch was consumed; after taking a book down from the house's library, then placing her son on her lap, she had read him it. The two infants had been aroused and then brought downstairs at around 9:30; they had either interacted with their siblings or they had simply stared at their surroundings before going back to sleep.
The family had looked very normal and happy; no further calls from Vile had come in until one-thirty.
Mistress Angel had just gotten the dishes that she and her family had eaten their lunch off of squared away when the phone rang again; she had very barely beat one of his co-workers in answering the phone—if his co-worker had beat his Mistress to the phone the second fight of the day between her and her father might not of happened and she might not of run off with the boys. Mistress Angel had been on the phone for all of ten minutes before suddenly appearing in the living room; she had been all upset but no one had ever gone up to ask her what was wrong. Master Tazir had wandered into the living room ten to fifteen minutes later—her mood had all but been diminished at that time so he hadn't been able to note that she was upset. He had spent all of an hour to two hours with her, and their sons and daughter, before finding himself having to return to his office—thirty minutes had been spent in his office before he decided to spend the rest of the day with his family, who had all been voicing their displeasure in not seeing him for most of that day.
"She went into one of them silent modes after the third fight between her and her father occurred." Kohl thought as he watched the two boys go down the hall.
To that day, no one knew exactly what had happened. Two other phone calls had come through that afternoon; one had been from Kuruk, his employer's half-brother, while the other had been from his employer's stepfather, Cheshire Ubalki. Just before everyone sat down to supper, the phone had rang again; this time, instead of it being Kuruk or Mr. Ubalki, or someone else who gave a care to his Mistress's feelings, it had been his Mistress's father again.
During the interview that had taken place after it had been noted that his Mistress and her sons were all missing it had been discovered that Kuruk had been very kind and pleasant during his time in talking to Angel; Cheshire had also been kind and pleasant towards her. Both men had said that she had sounded fine; no hint of distress had been noted in her during the two mens' conversations with her and no word on the two fights that occurred between her and her father had been disclosed with them.
Mistress Angel had let one of the chefs cook supper that night; her family had all been in the dining room when the phone rang while she had been in one of the house's hallways.
The woman must of known that it was her father calling because she had back-tracked to a hallway that was a distance from her family; she had answered the phone and then, soon after, another fierce fight between her and her father happened. She had been noted as being upset after reaching the table but she had refused to disclose what it had been that had gotten her so upset—she had just eaten supper and then gone off to another part of the house. She and her sons, at some time during the night hours, after all of the house's lights were off, had disappeared sometime after everyone was asleep.
His employer had been happy for every bit of that six hundred years that his wife and sons had been with him; when it had been discovered that they were all gone that happiness had left him—a shell of what the man had formerly been had been in its place. He, along with everyone else, had said that it was bound to happen—that, due to his Mistress's history of becoming a bit unsettled from time to time, she'd up and run off again. He, and everyone else who had said, or thought of, the same thing, had changed his tune after the interviews were done; everyone had just gasped after learning the real reason to why she had up and left with the kids.
"Master Tazir was most freaked out after waking to find not only his wife missing but also his sons..." he thought as he turned around to go down the hallway.
The man had thrown a robe—mesh and silver, he remembered; it was his employer's favorite robe and the only one that he dared to wear and it was also the only one that he owned—around himself and then gone tearing around his mansion, yelling their names like crazy. About thirty minutes after this occurred he had arrived to the employee garage; he had no more punched his work card in before being approached by a man named Hozuun Nese—this man had taken him by the arm and then led him straight into the mansion and then into the dining room, where more than half of his co-workers had been at the time.
His first thought had been that Young Master Lazeer had passed away—he had been so weak, and frail, at the time so this had been a relatively easy assumption to make, along with the fact that everyone was being moved to the house's dining room to give the family some time to grieve in private. After discovering that Mistress Angel had disappeared with her sons he had done nothing more than hang his head; his inner laughing box had vibrated and he had more than wished to reach in to destroy it.
He was one who liked Mistress Angel a lot; she treated his employer, and his daughter, exceptionally well, and she had loved them... he had noticed this very quickly after the "final" retrieval from Earth was done. Along with treating the two well she had also treated everyone who worked for her husband well too—them two things alone had cemented his favoring her as a very valuable friend.
Mr. Surfeit had come into the dining room right after the last of his employees—a chef named Ulision Volvio—had been brought into the room; the interviews had started being done right after he entered the room.
"Only four of us knew that something was amiss with her."
And, of them four, only one had caught the conversation that had happened after Master Vile's final call was made.
After his name was called, and his turn to be interviewed was made present to him, he had wasted no time in spilling what he had overheard on the one call that had come in; Mistress Angel had said you're not taking me from them, I won't let you, and over my dead, lifeless corpse twice before hanging the phone up and then going off to the gym—while he had expressed his concern over her saying them things he, at the time that they had been said, hadn't thought about talking to her about what she had been talking to her father about. Master Tazir had taken all of what he had said down and then sent him on his way—the rest of his co-workers had been interviewed afterwards. Most had said that they had seen, or heard, nothing while one had come very clean on what he had overheard. The man's name was Flicakak Knuub; he had been a new recruit for his employer and he had also done a big no-no on taking the phone up to hear what their Mistress was so worked up about.
Flicakak Knuub, at the time that the final call from Master Vile came in, had been washing the exterior glass of one of the glass tanks that were in the hallway that had the fish tanks on it; after hearing someone yelling, and then the sound of someone slapping their hand against the wall, he had gone to where a vacant phone was. That action of Mr. Knuub's had been a big no-no for a good reason—unless it was ordered to be done no one was allowed, or was even suppose to think about eavesdropping on a telephone conversation; it was a privacy thing that they had both been taught to not do while at Staffer's Academy and that had been emphasized by their employer after the contract to work for him was signed.
Flicakak, after picking the phone up, had heard Master Tazir's nephew telling Mistress Angel that he would be teleporting to the house before she and his uncle, who he had called a wimp and an underling, woke up; that rank Vile had said that he'd be appearing in the center of the two's bedroom chamber sometime after they were asleep... he had also said that he'd grab Mistress Angel, then take her to his place, then force her into taking a potion that'd make her forget all about the six hundred years that she had spent with her Universal Husband. He had also said that, if any of her other children were in the room when he appeared in it he'd be sure to send them to see their makers as a way to ensure that her bond to them was fully severed. All of what the man had said had set off something within their Mistress; she was an excellent mother... she was a mother who wanted to be with her children and, with Young Master Lazeer being premature and so weak, she had also a stressed out mother. What her father had said about taking her away from her children had sparked a fear in her; instead of voicing this fear, or coming to the idea that he'd not be allowed to do any of what he had said he was going to do, she had grabbed her children, Lazeer included in the mix, and then gone away.
"Flicakak, after telling all of what he had overheard on the phone, spent all of two or three days as being an employee of Master Tazir's before sending a formal apology for not telling him what he had heard sooner and a resignation from his service. None of us have seen or heard a thing of him since."
He knew all too well what his employer had gone through and felt after they disappeared; in a few ways, he had experienced a similar event to what he went through when he had been a youngster.
His mother, Quosla Rapfod, had married a man by the name of Zaatuk Zolwin rather early on in her life; the man that she had married had been one of the original Generals in Mr. Surfeit's army and, in fact, he had experienced a few battles before being sent home—from what he had gathered from his mother, the man had sustained some sort of injury from the fighting that occurred on Caicla. His father had been bitter right from the start of the relationship but his mother, being the young thing that she was, had thought that she'd be able to turn that bitterness into untold happiness. Her attempts to turn a bitter man into a happy one had never been met with success; after marrying, his father had turned to alcoholism, and then to abusing the ones that he claimed to love. In total, he had three siblings—two sisters and a brother—and all of them had encountered issues with the old man almost from the moment that they had started walking real good.
His father, despite holding a grudge against the one who nixed him from his army, had had a desire for both he and his younger brother, Dultog, to go to Militant's Academy; while his attempts in getting him to go to the school had, initially, not been good he had had a better go in getting Dultog to go to the school—Dultog had been scared half to death of the man so, along with getting the near-constant threats from him of his going to the school, he had let his fear make the decision for him on what education he was to take after graduating from Pronghorn Academy of Sorcery and Magic. His mother, at the time that Dultog's threats were being received, and at the time that he had started to refuse the man's attempts in getting him to go to Militant's Academy, had come in to put a stop to the old man's attempts in making both he and Dultog become students at Militant's Academy; instead of listening to her, like any good husband did when his spouse was trying to make a point on what their offspring should and shouldn't do in or with their lives, his father had beat her to within an inch of her life. Zaatuk Zolwin, after beating his wife, had grabbed him and his siblings and than ran; he, and they, had been all over the news after this happened.
His father had taken him and his younger sisters to the third moon that orbited Moas—Woglof. Soon after getting there, then getting a place all set up for them, he had upped the anti on his abuse. Despite being four foot, four inches at the time, he had been forced into becoming a student at Militant's Academy; during his time in the school, his sisters had received punishment after unnecessary punishment from the man.
Zeekli's jaw had, at one time, been fused shut after a beating occurred; her jaw had just been wired shut when another beating was given, which caused her to be hospitalized for two weeks for brain damage. Kabie's treatment had been far worse that Zeekli's—at one time, her left arm and leg had been broken and, on another, her back had come close to being broken. The man that was half-responsible for their being in the Universe had also raped her—she had caught for him twice but she had lost both pregnancies due to both stress and from the near-constant abuse that she had been given. Kabie had finally had enough after one of the discs in her back was slipped out of line; after being beaten, then raped, she had slipped from the window of the motel that they had been staying in then she had gone straight to the police.
Their mother, during the ten years that this had been going on, had been putting every penny that she came upon into finding where they were; all sorts of private investigators had been looking for them but none of them had thought about turning their attention to Woglof. In the end, it had been Kabie, and her police report for paternal abuse and assault, that had gained their mother's, and the investigators', attentions.
Dultog had gone on to graduate from Militant's Academy while he had made the decision to drop out—the nightmare, as far as he was concerned, was over so there hadn't been any need in his going to a school that he didn't want to go to. His mother had been so happy after seeing him and his sisters; not only had there been a lot of crying going on but they had also been scooped clean off their feet. It had taken fifty years before everyone felt okay to both be normal and to leave the house again; after finally getting over the ordeal he had asked to be enrolled in Staffer's Academy—he had been on the first two slots of the top-earning students who had received better than fine grades on their rank cards. Along with taking several language courses he had also been on the school's Boxing and Wrestling teams.
While he liked to think that it was his grades that had attracted the man that he worked for it could well of also been the fact that he was the son of one of Mr. Surfeit's former Generals—Mr. Surfeit had shown up at around year ten of his post graduation from Staffer's Academy to see if he'd work for him.
"Mumsie was most unhappy when he showed up."
Instead of letting the man get out of his car, then come up to the door, his mother had taken a metal spatula, and a carton of eggs, to him. The man hadn't had a chance to leave his car; all of the eggs in the carton had been thrown at his car and the spatula had been used to put more than enough dents to the vehicle too. The man, and his nice and shiny, and relatively expensive, Model A had left the driveway hastily right after the spatula was used; TazirVile Surfeit had driven away, he had gotten his car washed and then waxed and then he had gotten all of the dents in it squared away before trying again in seeing him. On the second attempt to see him, he had managed to get out of his car and then up the sidewalk before his mother came at him—a gallon of milk had been thrown on him, then his mother had said for him to get his blue ass off of her property and to never come back; she had also said that she had seen one too many men go sour after being dismissed from his service and that she had no desire in seeing anymore of hers go down the path of her former husband's.
His mother had been doing exactly what Mistress Angel had done when she had disappeared with her sons—she had been going out to face TazirVile Surfeit only to protect her children. It had taken two more tries before the man was able to get into the house and then see him. His mother had been outside, doing laundry, while Kabie and Zeekli had been inside; it had been Kabie who had answered the door and then let him in.
Mr. Surfeit had apologized for what had happened, and for the mess that he had caused by dismissing his mother's husband, and for the trouble that it had caused them, then he had cut to the chase on why he was there. His mother had come under the suspicion that he was there to see Dultog—nope, he had come to talk to him.
The interview had taken place after the visit's interest was made known then the man had left; after getting the man's approval slip in the mail, he had taken around a week to a week and a half before saying yes to working for him. Due to his working for the man who had, unintentionally, destroyed his father, his mother had kicked him out of the house and then disowned him. He had been homeless for all of two days before his new employer approached him; the apartments that were located underneath the man's house had been spoken of, then one had been shown to him, then he had been given one to live in. He lived in apartment 106, which was just as spacious, and as nice, as could be. At the moment, the apartment housed him, his wife, and their one daughter—this was soon to change as Edanie was pregnant with number two now.
Soon after moving into the apartment, and then getting started in working for Master Tazir, he had met Ms. Edanie Thuim, who had been working for Mr. Surfeit for less than a year. He had fallen in love with her instantly; after their first date, the question had been popped and then they had gone down the aisle. He couldn't be happier with his life—in his eyes, his life felt just as complete as could be.
Kohl, after noting that two of his employer's sons were up and about on the second level, went down the hallway slowly and carefully; he was fast in sending a text to his co-workers, telling them that the boys were now exploring their new home, after he finished his descent of the staircase that ran around the foyer's right side.
"Holy shit!" Lhaklar exclaimed after entering the chamber that he had inhabited during his early kid years. "I feel like I'm—"
"—walking into the past." Bile finished for his brother.
After hearing that his old rooms were still around, and were still intact, he had told himself to doubt it—sixteen hundred years was a long time and, surely, the old man had had a need for the rooms that he and his siblings had used when they had previously lived here. Instead of having a confirmation on the rooms being gone he was finding himself having to pick his jaw up from the floor—they were still here and they were in the exact same order that they had been left in when either he and Bile were given another room to inhabit or when they left the mansion for Earth.
The floor of the room that he had just gotten through entering had dark blue carpet on it; the walls and ceiling were a light blue color, the light beam that was in the room's ceiling was a little dusty but that was understandable. The shelf that ran around the room had all of the models that his father had built for him—he remembered picking the models out and then standing by his father's shoulder, or elbow, while he did them. The bed, which had a frame that was reminiscent of the Mercury X2 to it, still had his old kiddie bed set on it; after going forward to see if the control on the bed's foot still worked, then seeing the headlights turn on, and then hearing a car horn be blasted, he came close to laughing. The toy that he'd always sleep with—Mr. Green Duck, as he had called it, who was lacking half of its beak, and who had had all of its stuffing replaced four times—was still sitting on the bed's one pillow; due to the memories that were coming up from their very dusty file cabinets, he came very close to picking the toy up and then cradling it.
The dark green dresser, that had antique handles on it, was still in the room; the 25" tv, that was on the dresser's surface, while looking rather old had not a speck of dust on it. The toy chest that was beside the dresser was still the same, as were the kites that "littered" the walls.
His father, he remembered, had started giving him an allowance of $5 a week right after he reached three hundred years of age; his lessons on the value of a dollar had started right then and there. About once every two weeks, he'd be taken to one of the towns that were close-by then he'd be told that he could spend only $5 of what he had on him—most of the time, it had been a model, or a toy, that he had purchased while, on other trips, he had just gotten candy. Dad had done the same allowance-giving, and town visitations once every two weeks, with Bile.
The kites that were pinned to the walls were really the only things that looked to have some age on them; he had started to collect these about fifty years before he and his brothers were relocated to Earth. He had had an interest in the kites that were weirdly shaped or designed—the octopus, the Warhol-looking kite, and the shark-looking kite were the ones that looked to have the most age on them. He had grown out of collecting, and liking, kites after reaching six hundred and twenty years of age—his already high interest in old-model cars had taken that interest's place.
"Race you to your old room?" Lhaklar said after he and his brother left the chamber that he use to use when he was a child.
"Isn't there a rule here that says no running in the house?" Bile asked.
"It's only a short ru... hey! Cheater!" Lhaklar shouted after Bile ran off down the hallway. He said no more to him; he ran after him.
It was a short run but, still, Bile had him bested—due to his body not yet being figured out, he wasn't allowed to get so much as a foot near his much faster brother, who had long since figured how to get his legs from being untangled.
As far as he knew, there was a rule of no running being allowed in the mansion—when he had been a kid, the act of running in the house had only been allowed when it was absolutely called for. The rule was present more for the house's many hall-placed items than for the kids that lived in it; in order for nothing to be broken, there was no running allowed to happen in the house. Bile, he remembered, had done a small bit of damage to a statue, that had been on the fourth level, once when he had been running down that level's hallway; even though the damage had been minor dad had still been mad over the act of his running in the halls. There had been no further running incidents in the house after the breaking of the statue occurred; even though he had stopped running in the house Bile had still gotten into plenty of trouble—dad had been one to let him and Bile be their age and, on certain occasions, Bile had taken that given privilege too far.
Bile, right after he caught to him, twisted the door knob of his old kiddie room; he pushed the door in then went in afterwards. He was half a step behind him.
"Deja Vu, man!" Bile exclaimed after flicking the light switch to the ON position.
"Even your old bears are still here!" Lhaklar said after walking around his brother, and then taking in the room's appearance.
The type of teddy bears that were pre-propped in certain fashions, and that were dressed in cool attire, had been what he had favored as a child—the two shelves that ran around his old kiddie room had nothing but his old bear collection on them.
He took in only a small handful of the bears that were in his old kiddie collection; there was the "gangsta" bear, who was wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt, and who had a pair of sunglasses over his eyes. The bear that had the heart-shaped tattoo on his left arm, which said MaMa in the center, was right beside the "gangsta" bear. The biker bear, that was wearing a black leather jacket, a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and black boots, was beside the bear that had a chain-like tattoo on its left breast—this bear was wearing a red and blue bandana around its head; the earring that was in its left ear, and the studded wrist bands that were on its wrists, were still in good shape. The silver-colored bear, that was standing up, and that had its arms crossed, had a skull and cross-bone bandanna around its head—this bear was beside the one that had the earring and wrist bands on it. He still found himself liking the bears that's faces were hideously disfigured or "bloody"—even as a child, he had been "cool".
There was his dresser; the lamp, that had a mostly skeletal teddy bear as its base, and a skull-designed shade on it, was still on its surface. The small, 25" tv was still mounted on the wall that the dresser was pushed up against; the alarm clock that he had used as a child was right below it.
The carpet was the same—dark blue, and shag in appearance. The walls and ceiling were the same—medium blue, with a single strip of dark brown wood placed at every six to eight inch intervals. The ceiling, which was the same color as the walls, still had a popcorn texture to it.
His toy chest, that had his trucks, action figures, and other toys in it, sat to the left of the bed. The bed that he had slept in when he had been living under the roof of the mansion as a child was what nearly made him start crying—yes, as odd as it seemed now, he, as a child, had slept on this monstrosity of a bed that was shaped like a bear. He remembered that he had loved the bed as a child—it had brown sheets, and a dark brown comforter, on it; a brown bear fur was all folded up on the bed's foot. There was a snarling bear on the headboard while the bed posts were all capped with bear paws, that had real-like claws on them.
He had dropped his interest in bears right after turning nine hundred years of age; knives, swords, and chrome-based items had taken that interest's place.
Bile, after looking at the still intact room that he had once owned and slept in as a child, turned then left the room; his brother followed him a few seconds later. Lhaklar was the one that flicked the switch on the wall to the OFF position; he was also the one that closed the room's door.
"What time is it?" Bile asked after regaining his composure.
"Uhhhh..." Lhaklar looked at the coo coo clock that was on the hallway's end. "Shit! It's close to being nine in the morning!"
"Ma, Hazaar, and Lazeer are probably already up." Bile said. He started to run down the hallway after saying this. "They're probably worried sick about us!"
The first thing that he had seen, after entering the room that his wife and sons had spent all of six mornings in, was that Hazaar and Lazeer looked nervous. His wife, who had been seated in the room's ottoman, hadn't looked but so concerned over the fact that two of their four sons were missing; after seeing that Bile and Lhaklar weren't in the room, then noting how calm Angel was, he had calmed down.
His morning had been pleasant; other than doing his usual after getting up he had made breakfast for his wife and sons and then taken it up to them. Lazeer, he had been told a few days ago, was allergic to nuts—nothing of what he had prepared for his family had contained nuts in it these past five days; he was more than glad for this... he neither wanted a scare on his hands over his son consuming something that he's allergic to or to be going to the hospital with one of his just-returned family who had eaten something that he had "laced" with an ingredient that they were allergic to. All of what he had made for the boys, and for his wife, had been placed on the room's bench; he had gone towards his wife after placing the tray on the bench—she had given him a look before smiling and then relinquishing the chair to him.
He, after taking the chair that she had relinquished to him, had touched her arm after seeing that she had remained at his side. She, in response, had sat on his lap—after getting over his shock, he had wrapped her up in a hug; his chin had been caressed before the kiss was given. The second given shock of the morning had made his already pleasant morning become even brighter.
He was very sure now that the old connection that had been present between them was still there; regardless of the years spent away from one another it was still there.
Lazeer had gotten himself something to eat first, then Hazaar had followed in his example in making himself a plate. TazirVile, without giving a second thought to what he was doing, tilted Angel's head up then kissed her. She returned the kiss; a small giggle escaped her before another was given.
Bile and Lhaklar, after entering the room, stopped in their tracks after seeing what their parents were doing.
"Maaaaaybe we should go back out for a few more minutes." Bile said. Angel, after hearing his voice, turned to look at him.
"Where have you two been?" Angel asked her two sons. "Woke up to seeing neither of you in the room."
"Did a little exploring," Lhaklar said. "Y'know... just looking around."
"How're you feeling, Lhaklar?" Angel asked her secondborn son. "Feel better?"
"Feel like a million bucks." Lhaklar reiterated what he had said earlier.
"Been checking out your old chambers, boys?" TazirVile asked as he leaned back in the chair. "Everything is as it was on the day that you five left. Not a thing is missing."
"Yes... looks like you two've been making up." Bile said.
"Mmmmm, y—"
"Making me sick is more like it!" Hazaar was fast in interrupting his father.
