Hello people! Sorry for not updating in so long, I am extremely lazy and I have also been traveling a lot. Hopefully now that school is starting I will be able to become a bit more organized with updates. Also, somebody reviewed that I make excuses about being tired a lot. They are not excuses, I am usually very tired, especially after I write a 5000 word chapter. I also have some issues like restless leg syndrome which makes it sort of hard for me to sleep well, or fall asleep at all. Lately it has gotten worse, but I am determined to write. This is not an excuse, it is an explanation. So yeah...
READ THIS, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT! Another reason I have not updated in a while is because I have been attempting to sort out the plot of this story. I have a lot planned, it just a bit difficult to put it all in order. I know I have had a lot of chapters which are very similar in content, and mainly Luxa, but soon the story will progress onto much more complicated and dramatic things. I have ALSO been researching emotional and mental disorders, mainly PTSD and Psychosis/ Psychopaths. Maybe you can guess why I have been doing so.
Last thing. This chapter contains more Alexander, but not exactly in the same way he has been in previous chapters...If that made sense. We will learn more about him. Could this possibly be the reason why I have been studying mental disorders? Maybe.
WARNING: This chapter may contain some themes that some readers would view as disturbing. Themes like CHILD HARASSMENT, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, MAJOR VIOLENCE, PROFANITY, MURDER, AND ABUSE! THIS CHAPTER IS M RATED ! DO NOT READ IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE OR ARE TOO YOUNG! Sorry but this chapter and its content is essential.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE UNDERLAND CHRONICLES.
Chapter Ten: Anger
"The cutters wish to outsmart us...we must be the first to take action!" The man with grey cropped hair demanded strictly. He as the one Gregor had accidentally eavesdropped on with Mareth. The man had a tight face with sharp features, and a lanky body with slight build. Gregor could detect that the man was about middle aged, maybe a little older. Gregor`s face twisted slightly in confusion as he attempted to remember the man`s name..
Mareth straitened his posture and cleared his throat. "Nemo, we must not be to rash...Let us plan. I suggest we view our opponents from a distance, give them some space...The cutters have never been a strong race, but their power has increased immensely within the past five years. How?... They have allied themselves with Regalia`s enemies. Enemies from the War of time. Gnawers, spinners, diggers, even some fliers that never quite agreed or mixed well with Regalia. We simply determine ways to divide them based on their weaknesses in their alliances. It is the wisest and safest action."
Gregor listened intently to the council member and previous General of the Regalian Army, along with five other elite Regalians. They were all seated around a topographic map, which displayed the entire Underland, and it`s territories. Lately there had been many strategy meetings where the situation with the cutters was discussed but this was Gregor`s first.
This room was familiar to Gregor, it was the same strategy room that he had sat in numerous times five years ago.
As for the people around him, not all were familiar. Ripred, Alexander, Mareth, and Luxa attended the meeting, along with Nemo, and a stranger known as Evander. He was maybe a little older than Gregor, and apparently a superb soldier. He came across very disciplined and quite reserved.
Alexander leaned forward in his chair, slightly amused and smirking. "And how do you suggest we do this, Mareth? It is not wise to give up authority. We must take the upper hand in this war. Create chaos within the cutters army. Let us not beat around the bush, I have always disapproved of subtly. I say that we infiltrate their ranks, head on and strong. Like Nemo suggested, be the first to take action."
Gregor agreed more with Mareth, but he was a bit afraid to speak up. Did he even have any authority or a say in this matter anyway? Surely Nemo or Alexander would undermine any suggestion he made, and he would appear foolish...He was not even sure why he was asked to attend this meeting.
Ripred gazed at Gregor expectantly. He greatly wished for Gregor to say something. The boy was smart, tactically speaking at least. Ripred had always believed that he would make a great leader. After all, the rat had not spent more than a year training the boy for nothing...
"Gregor, what do think of this matter?" Ripred questioned. He sort of put the boy out there by asking that...Eh, he would get over it.
Suddenly all eyes were on Gregor. Even Luxa`s, who had previously been nonchalantly gazing at her hands.
Gregor made a mental reminder to get Ripred back later.
He fiddled nervously with his slender fingers before somewhat awkwardly clearing his throat. "W-Well, I agree with Mareth. We don`t want to take chances this early on in the game. It wouldn`t be very smart to send a whole squadron of soldiers to attempt to take down the cutter army...From what everyone had told me, we really don`t even know how they are assembled. Are they united as one, or have they split up and stationed themselves in different territories? We need to find out more about their tactics before we take immediate action. I say we send small units, not necessarily soldiers, but more like...advocates to converse with possible allies of the cutters. Maybe we can persuade, even bribe them to join us, after all we are much more powerful than the cutters, or any other race. If they don`t agree, we will easily be able to take down the less powerful of the allies, overall weakening the cutters force." He finished with a huff, he had not taken a single breath while giving his thoughts.
Ripred smirked to himself. He had done well training the boy...
There was a moment of awkward silence where everyone envisioned Gregor`s ideas.
Alexander seemed a bit disgruntled over the Overlander`s strategy. He was surprised...surprised that scum like the Overlander could even form a thought that complex...
"I disagree..Why delay the rising threat? We can defeat the cutter army without destroying their allies, I am sure of it. Regalia is the greatest army, and is in it`s greatest height, I have trained my soldiers-"
Gregor interrupted the General quickly, taking everyone aback by his sudden confidence, even himself." That`s just it, you say you know that we can destroy them, but you don`t. We don`t know anything! You cannot just fall into a dark unknown pit and expect to be able to come out alive... We do not know what they are planning, so why take the risk?" The question was rhetorical.
Ripred`s smirk turned into a leer, and it was aimed towards the General of the Regalian Army.
A crazed anger was now visible in Alexander`s eyes. He gripped the table with his great hands and leant over it menacingly.
"Tell me Overlander, where did you find the right to undermine what I say? I am the General of an army. You are no more than a mere boy. One who`s head has seemed to have inflated to a dangerous size. You have nothing here to claim as your own Overlander. This is my home, and I will defend it, not just sit around and wait for the enemy to devour us. You would not understand, because you do no belong here, this is not your home...As a matter of fact, why are you even attending this meeting?" Alexander all but growled.
"Your fiance invited me actua-"
"ALL RIGHT! That is enough from both of you!" Mareth intervened, abruptly ending the heated feud.
Ripred`s leer had transformed into a uncontrollable chuckle, and smirks were displayed on the faces of everyone except the Overlander and the General.
Both of the infuriated men sat back in their chairs with death glares aimed at each other.
Mareth seemed to be the only mature one there. "Alright. Because of the small dispute that interrupted our meeting, we will continue this another time. Perhaps when my growing headache I have now obtained dissipates..." The ex General said with a huff.
Luxa`s POV
"That little shit! He dare question my authority?" Alexander roared, while pacing the stone floor of the royal chambers.
I turned my chair away from my fiance. Somewhat amused by how distraught he was, but also displeased by his vulgar language and rage.
"Please Alexander, cease the vulgarity...You are going to be heard." I indifferently asked.
I could not help but scratch at the scabbing wound beneath my black long sleeve shirt. The shirt was stained where I had itched too roughly and my scabbing skin had been ruptured. I longed to remove the irritating shirt, or at least dress in attire that allowed my wound to breathe, but not only would I let no one see the degrading words Alexander had carved into me, but I also was quite embarrassed by it.
Suddenly two large hands were gripping my shoulders and turning the chair. My fiance knelt beside me.
"You heard him, did you not? You heard him?" Alexander asked in a frenzy.
He surprised me with his obvious anxiousness. He was not usually one to become so unraveled this simply. The Overlander`s opposing statements at the strategy meeting had obviously gotten to him.
If he was not so cruel, I may have felt a bit sorry for him.
But he was cruel.
I sighed and pried his fingers off of my bony shoulders. "Alexander...please. Yes, I heard him, as did everyone else in that room. But do not speak to me as if we are on good terms." I hissed the last sentence with venom.
He recoiled from me and took a step back from the chair, his face expressionless.
He looked down at his hands.
"Fine...Im going...going to..." He sighed and walked into the bed chambers without finishing his sentence.
My eyes widened at his unexpected response. That was extremely...odd of him...
I continued to pick at my arm.
I had never seen his back fully naked...He rarely allowed me to look at him whenever he violated me. And I was aware that he had scars. Few, but he did have some. She assumed they were from the numerous battles he had been involved in. They were few etched in his hands and shallowly on his chest. There were four on his lower abdomen. I could detect that they were from shallow incisions given by a sword...I had been given the unwanted opportunity to observe and study them many times...But never had I seen his back fully naked.
And that his why my stomach dropped in utter horror and shock when I walked into the bed chamber to find him sitting on the large bed with his back facing the archway, him being completely undressed.
To call the marks that blanketed Alexander`s muscular back scars would be incorrect. They were mutilations. His back was rough and uneven, permanently swollen in some places, dark markings covering the mounds of excess tissue and stretched skin that had been disfigured and maimed. These were not battle scars. It made me want to vomit.
He heard my unintentional intake of breath and turned to me. His face was grim and distant.
He chuckled coldly at nothing. "Yes my dear. You are not the only one with scars." He stated heartlessly.
I knew not what to say, nor to think. I just stood frozen in the stone archway of the bed chamber.
His eyes trapped mine, they were enticing and unavoidable. I saw practically nothing, in his desolate eyes. Only the psychotic tint I had seen many times before.
He stood to his full height and wrapped a black bathing towel around his waist. It was no matter, his nakedness would not have been the cause of my feeling of intimidation. I felt threatened and horrified because the empty but painfully demented gaze he was capturing me with.
His figure was intimidating, he suddenly seemed sickly, which I must have been imagining because he was in perfect health.
Suddenly he was before me, looming over my unmoving figure.
"You seem bothered dear, is it my appearance?" He asked in the same cold manner he had previously used.
I once again did not respond. All of a sudden my insides went painfully frozen.
He chuckled at my nervousness.
"You seem bothered dear, is it my appearance? Perhaps my scars?"
No response...
His right hand was suddenly on my still sore face, gripping my chin.
"Would you like to know how I obtained them?"
Curiosity crawled within me, but I was utterly petrified.
He chuckled darkly.
"Alright because you seem to be paralyzed at the moment, I will forgive your rudeness, and enlighten you..."
He roughly released my face and I stumbled backwards. He turned away from me. His disturbing back was once again visible.
"I was born into a somewhat wealthy family. My father was a soldier of prominent ranking, he had endured many years of training, but not many of war. I suppose the time of peace ended when you came to power and fucked everything up..."
I flinched at his sudden harshness.
He turned to me once again with a forgiving smile on his face.
"But that is beside the point... Like I said, there was a time of peace. So my father spent most of his time at home, even though he was a very skilled soldier. He was very skilled in every way a soldier should be, but also similar to others, he had a specialty...and that specialty was with knives..."
Realization hit me and I could practically feel the blood drain from my face.
"No, before you start thinking wrongly of my father, let me tell you. He was a good man, and I have forgiven him for what he has done to me, because he is not to blame for my disfigured appearance. My whore of a mother is...She was unemployed...but she did have a certain hobby, and that hobby was driving my poor father insane. She was beautiful, like you...And also similar to you, she had many admirers...Whenever my father would go off to train or other army business, she would betray him. She was a slut, constantly fucking disgusting men of a much lower standards than my father...I hated her. And so did my father, he knew what she was doing, and he would punish her, as he should have done. But my mother drove him over the edge one night, it was a horrible night. It happened when he came home unexpectedly from training...I was eight year old. My father walked into his bedroom, and there was my mother...with my uncle."
He turned again from me, with his hands folded behind his back.
"Now my mother`s promiscuous acts would drive my father to drink excessively. He had always been slightly abusive, but nothing terribly violent, until then. I remember his rage...I was horrified, for I was unaware of what was going on, I was eight. I was crying in my bedroom, terrified by my father`s sober rage...He left our household after hours of arguing and abusing my mother...Then he returned...Still infuriated, but intoxicated as well...I watched as he practically butchered my mother, she was still alive though, although she deserved far worse than what my father inflicted upon her. He made sure that she would have no more admirers, that no man of any standard would ever want to fraternize with her...she was appalling by the time he finished her..."
He paused and his eyes became more intense, they bored into mine. I braced myself for what he was about to tell me.
He continued. "And then he turned to me...He still had the knife...I remember, he hit me so hard. He was mumbling drunkly things about him only being able to rely on me...and not being able to trust beautiful women...He carved my back as he violated me while intoxicated..."
Alexander turned from me once more. I was numb from shock.
"These activities became routine. My father became an alcoholic. He would carve and abuse my mother and myself almost every night. He was insane...and so depressed...My mother had done this to him,she deserved his punishment, he did not the pain she had brought to him..."
He turned abruptly to me and the psychotic tint in his eyes had transformed in a blaze, he fumbled his fingers together and he almost looked nervous.
"I just wanted him to be happy, to be proud, I did it to make him proud..."
He was suddenly in front of me, once again grasping painfully at my jaw.
"I have always been good looking, and by the time I was thirteen I already had many admirers. But there was one...She was a year older than me...She was beautiful, like my mother and you...It was not difficult to persuade her to go on a walk alone with me, she was infatuated with me...I led her to the woods...She did not even notice the iron mallet I had stolen from the blacksmith earlier that day..."
His facial expression altered slowly...The angry look his features previously held changed into excited, and his eyes were suddenly filled with lust.
"Many attractive women have a specific feature that draws in men, this young girl`s feature was her smile, It had already gained her an abundant amount admirers, and it would surely bring many men, like my father, to their downfall..."
He suddenly laughed and pressed himself flush against me. It was irregular. Crazed. Demonic. Demented.
" I obliterated those pretty, full lips right off here face...You should have seen her expression when I first pulled out the mallet-it was priceless. Their was so much fear in her eyes. I remember how astoundingly good it felt, how much it aroused me when I bashed her head in repeatedly. Oh, and the blood..."
The monster before me closed his eyes and practically purred in pleasure, I could feel arousal against my body. I would have attempted to escape from his vice like grip if I had not been petrified in fear.
He finally pulled himself from his fantasy, and opened his eyes.
"I told my father of my good deed, I expected him to praise me..."
Alexander released me and stepped back from my now quivering form.
"...But he did not. He was obviously drunk and apathetic towards me. In fact, the only time he ever truly acknowledged me again was when he was carving me up and physically abused me in the heat of his drunken rages...I left the hell I lived in at sixteen, that was around the time you started fucking up Regalia`s well being...Men were constantly being recruited into your army, so I joined. I exceeded all expectations of a young man, and I became a very powerful and strong soldier...I very rarely visited my family. My father would always be drunk and my mother would be being abused by him...And then the War ended. I reluctantly returned home, only to find a miracle, and a tragedy. My father had finally ended my whore of a mother`s life, but he had also ended himself...I will never forgive her for what she did to my father and me..."
He looked up into my eyes and all I saw was raw pain.
"I then became General of the Regalian Army...And met you."
He stopped and turned from me. His story was over.
I was utterly numb. I had no inkling about how I was supposed to be reacting to this or even feeling about this...He had hurt me so much...But he had been hurt, some would even say he was hurt far worse than me...I did not know. I could never forgive him. I would never be able to look into his eyes without feeling fear and remembrance. He disabled me from feeling empathy and sympathy. He made me cruel and bitter and selfish. He is a monster...And I hate him...
His fists were clenched tightly, and he was hunched over, as if attempting to suppress the urge to harm me.
"You may leave now." He growled.
I did not like writing that...But it was essential. PLEASE REVIEW, FAVORITE, AND FOLLOW! Please I really do not have that many followers!