Review Response/s:
Wow! So many great reviews. Thank you all, you beautiful people are the reason I keep writing. hugs the big cluster of awesome people close
SPOILER: I've planned out a murder scene, which I have discussed with Tani, who is not to spill secrets of any variety under pain of torture. This, Tani, means no names, circumstances or motives. No being naughty. tuts
To all: I'm awfully sorry for the wait, my dears. Life has been a little hectic as of late. I completely forgot about this until I found all Tani's scary "update or I'll kill you!" reviews in my email inbox. Eep. ' Sorry.
Sooo... this is kinda just an emo-esque rant I threw together in about twenty seconds. It sucks, but don't kill me just because Silas isn't in it.
As Aringarosa stepped over the threshold of the American Opus Dei centre, he sighed again. Fairly soon, the media would be tracking him down and asking him about his connection with Silas and the murders that had taken place the previous week.
He'd been hoping to give a funeral for Silas, but Bezu Fache had taken the albino's body back to France with him to be examined. Fache had explained that he personally hadn't intended to do this, but after a few standard police procedures had been performed he had promised to give Aringarosa the body and help with the funeral. The officer and the priest had maintained contact after what the police called, "the Louvre incident", because of the situation's apparent connection to Louvre paintings, and the fourth murder of the night.
But the feeling was still there – he missed Silas more than he'd thought he would. The meetings seemed somehow empty without Silas sitting there, hanging onto his every word. But the Bishop wondered… who had Silas been, before? He'd never wanted to talk about his past, shrugging off all attempts to ask.
He gave himself a mental slap.
Manuel, you are going over the same thing over and over, he thought. He's gone, he isn't coming back. Missing him is normal. Come now, you've been through this before.
Remembering, he sighed, remembering a life before Opus Dei, a life before he wanted to think about the very word. He remembered his younger years… when he'd lost his little brother...
No, come on… you don't want to think about that, he tried to reason, closing his eyes and sitting down on his bed. It was years since he'd even thought about this. In fact, it had been Silas who had kept him from thinking about it – Silas, who had nearly, for many years, taken the place of Tobias, the little brother who had been taken from Aringarosa too quickly.
Tobias had been born autistic – so in a way, he was still a child in some sense at the age of thirteen, when Manuel himself had been eighteen. The family had been forced to make a lot of painful changes to accommodate his needs – even now, Manuel remembered being brutally jealous as his parents moved to Tobias's attention, and not his. He remembered glancing over at him during the family's church visits, sitting next to their mother, swinging his legs back and forth underneath the pew. His deep brown eyes seemed to stare blankly into space, not making contact with anything. Like many autistic children, he didn't talk much.
When Manuel was thirteen, he won a scholarship to a Catholic boarding school for boys in Madrid, leaving his family and Tobias behind. He cared surprisingly little – almost glad to be away from the family where he received no attention. Friends from earlier schools were also plagued with younger siblings, but normally the unshared attention only lasted for a couple of years, and Tobias was different in that he required a lot more attention. But even with the apparent mentality of a three year old, there was a deeper quality to him, as if he knew more, but didn't have the means to convey it. And Tobias had liked his brother – but unconsciously, he'd put him in too uncomfortable a position for such a feeling to be returned.
The Bishop sighed, casting his gaze downwards.
It's my fault that he died, too… he thought sadly, closing his eyes and burying himself in painful memories from two different time periods.
I mostly only wrote this because we never got to hear about the Bishop's past in the book. Tobias is named after my lazy cat who sits around and does nothing all day.
...Not that Tobias Aringarosa (man that name has a good sound to it)is as lethargic. No.
Flames will result in me throwing myself offa cliff - so don't.
