P.S. Thanks to Nevermore for the great job Beta Reading this.
Chapter 3
In the months that followed Lucas couldn't help it as he allowed himself to grow attached to these people. He'd sworn never to trust, and never to love, but it had proven difficult not to grow fond of some people, in fact it was nearly impossible when it came to a scarce few members of the senior staff. Lucas could now easily relax and share a laugh with even Commander Ford and Chief Crocker. The only thing he never did was cry. No one knew that he had never shed a tear since he was 4 years old. His father wouldn't allow it. Tears were for women. No proud son of his would cry. It was one of the few times his father acknowledged him as his son, in any other way than being a worthless one.
The crew got nothing out of the boy as far as what he was hiding. However, their persistence in befriending him paid off. He was friendlier than when he first came aboard, perhaps even carefree at times, but there were still days where it as if the weight of the world troubled him, and no one wanted to go near him.
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May 5th, 2018. 10 years ago on that day, 4 year old Lucas' world turned upside down. His parents had never paid him much mind, but they had never hurt him either. However, the day his little sister Sarah died, in their very own house, due to a fire caused by a fallen candle, everything changed.
His father began drinking as his mother sat alone in her room and cried. Lucas and his older brother, Matthew, were looked after by the hired help. Matthew was coddled by their mother when she was around, and Lucas was shunned. It was his fault, after all. Four year old Lucas had been told to watch the baby for 5 minutes while their mother went out to visit a friend. The butler would be back soon.
The baby had cried and cried in her crib. Lucas knew she needed changing, and to be fed, but the little boy was too small to get her from her crib. The clever one decided to call their neighbour and ran downstairs to the phone. The baby stood up, banging against the crib, knocking it against a dresser. A burning candle flickered as its base moved closer and closer to the edge.
Lucas hadn't even dialed the phone when he smelt the smoke. He left it off the hook and ran as fast as his tiny legs could carry him up to his sister's room. The silk curtains raged with fire, black smoke billowed about the room.
Little Lucas frantically made his way to his sister's crib. She wailed on, terrified. Lucas climbed up onto the windowsill and reached for his sister. The trusting baby reached for her favourite brother, the one that sang to her, and had pretty blue eyes to look at. He snagged her, but as she flung her arms around him, she threw him off balance and they tumbled to the floor.
Lucas gripped his baby sister in his arms and slowly crawled toward the door. The room was consumed in flames, it licked at their tender skin. The baby wailed on, but Lucas never shed a tear. He was almost to the door when the lamp fell on him, causing him to drop his sister, and knock him to the floor. His sister cried, but he couldn't get up. The lamp was too heavy.
Suddenly no more cries were heard from his sister. He learned later she had quickly died from smoke inhalation. Lucas would have died to, if it hadn't been for Max, the neighbour's dog who knew a way in from the basement. Lucas passed out just as the large Shepherd clamped down on the boy's arm, and dragged him out from under the lamp and out of the burning house, as the fire quickly spread through the richly decorated house.
His mother to this day, blamed her only daughter's death on him, verbally abusing him, telling him how useless, how awful he was. His father said nothing, only drank the incident away, and becoming more violent with each grieving day.
Matthew, his older brother, never blamed Lucas, but he watched in sad resignation as his father beat his little brother. What could the 8-year-old do? Nothing. Nothing but soothe his brother, who still never cried.
As the months passed, the abuse did not. It became routine, as regular and steady as the plummet of Lucas' trust in adults, in love, in anything that was meant to bring him the security that had vanished from his life in that one fateful day...and it was his fault.
Chapter 4 coming...eventually...
Jaimi Copyright@2001