(possibly the last chapter of this week, maybe tomorrow but otherwise next Saturday)
He turned around, pulling the blanket just beneath his chin. Mark was still sleeping deeply, dreaming about the return of his brothers and father. In his dream, he saw them through the window, walking towards the front door. He had wait that long for this day to come.
The sound of knocking on the wood, Mark walked towards the door. But while walking, he was slowly getting aware that the knocking wasn't in his dream but in the real world. Mark frowned, hoping he would fall asleep again, he wanted to continue his dream.
But the knocking became louder and impatient. ''Wake up! It's Sunday!'' Mark grumbled and pulled his pillow over his head. ''Go away'' he mumbled.
The door of his room opened, seconds before someone was roughly shaking his shoulder. ''Get up, it's Sunday'' the voice said again, while pulling the pillow away.
Bright light made it impossible for Mark to see anything, blinking against it. ''No…'' he said irritated, trying to grab it back. ''I'm not going to church'' Antonio sighed deeply, trying to maintain his calmness.
''If you don't go to church, you will not be getting any breakfast'' The other two persons in the room were already woken up because of the knocking, getting up from their beds.
Mark grumbled something back, the content not really nice, but he did get up from his bed. Antonio walked towards the door.
''Hurry, thirty minutes we will leave for church and you also got to eat before we go'' the door closed, there were some Spanish talking to Rodriguez before it was quiet again.
Mark got dressed and trudged through the hallway, the expression on his face clearly showing what he was thinking about going to a catholic church at this hour. Romano was already having dinner, immediately scowling at Mark when he entered the room.
Instead of Mark glancing back, he started grinning. Romano was wearing a dress, a red one with a white dress over it. ''Goodmorning, /miss/'' he said to him, teasingly with a smile on his face.
The emphasis was clearly on the last word. Romanos face got red, like a cherry. '' Damn it!'' he shouted furious, hitting his fists on the table. ''Shut up, patata bastard!''
But even cursing at Mark didn't stop him from laughing. Antonio entered the room with a troubled look. ''Don't curse on the day of the Lord, Romano'' he admonished him, before turning to Mark.
''It isn't a dress, it's a alb. Romano is one of the altar servers. It's a great honor'' Mark sat down at the table, doing a short prayer before grabbing some bread.
''I don't know if wearing a /dress/ is that kind of a honor to me'' he grinned. Romano again opened his mouth to insult him but a meaningful look of Antonio stopped him.
''Marcos, we are going to a church. Not to a homeless convention.'' Antonio commented on Mark looks. ''Comb your hair before we're going'' the smile disappeared of Marks face and he stared at the food.
Romano grinned and continued his breakfast. After a few minutes, Bell and Sebastiaan entered the room to get something before they would leave. There wasn't much time left for them to eat.
The church was beautiful, even Mark had to admit that. It was richly decorated with gold and silver, the smell of frankincense in the air.
The preacher was reading from the bible and talked about honesty and trust. It seemed something like the protestant church, most differences were in appearance. But Mark wasn't going to join the catholic church, he wasn't going to abandon his faith that easily.
Mark crossed his arms and waited for the end of church. Finally, the end prayer started. He saw that Romano wasn't happy with staying here either, putting his weight on one feet to the other one.
The boy was standing in front of the church, many meters away from Mark, next to the preacher. The last prayer ended and everyone got up from their benches.
When Mark headed to the big doors to leave the church, Antonio grabbed his arm. ''Not so quick, first this'' he said while looking at the confessional.
''In those years in which you haven't been going to the catholic church, you have probably done lots of things you should ask forgiveness for'' he said. Mark frowned, jerking his arm out of Antonio's grip.
''I regret /nothing/'' he snarled softly to him. ''You can't just confess your sins, pray a bit and then be freed of your sins, that's nonsense'' Antonio opened his mouth to react on this, but closed it again when he saw that it would be useless.
Mark wasn't going to be convinced, at least not today. Antonio sighed and let go of Mark, before walking to the doors. Mark smiled, this battle he had won.
Just a few more and the war would be won too. Then Antonio would let them go home.
When they arrived at the country seat, Mark first went to his room to change clothing. These clothes weren't very comfortable.
He rummaged through the drawer until he found some suitable clothing. Some noise was just outside of the room. He quickly put on the new shirt before opening the door, to find Sebastiaan, lying on his stomach, playing with some toy soldiers.
''Where did you get those?'' Mark asked frowning, they didn't had the time yesterday to get anything from their old house. ''Antonio gave me them'' Sebastiaan replied, not even looking up from his play.
Mark frowned and walked towards the library where Antonio was yesterday. He was there again, reading the same book. ''What are you trying to do?'' Mark asked irritated.
Antonio finished the page in his book, taking his time, before looking up. ''What do you mean, Marcos?'' he replied, smiling lightly.
''Don't try to fool me!'' Mark snarled back, while walking into the library. ''You're trying to bribe Sebastiaan!''
Antonio put down his book. ''/Sebastièn/ asked for something to play with and I gave those toy soldiers to him. Is there a problem?''
Mark frowned, Antonio was clearly not getting the point. ''Don't think that I don't know what you're trying to do'' he warned Antonio before again walking out, even more irritated than before.
It wasn't just giving some toys to Sebastiaan, it was trying to convince in him in becoming a catholic instead of a protestant. In the hallway, Sebastiaan was still playing with his new toys, it seemed like he didn't even notice what just happened.
He smiled at Mark and asked if he wanted to play with him. Mark ignored the boy and walked straight towards the garden, on the brink of becoming furious.
He had to prevent that, he had to stay calm so that he could think before doing anything.
Mark paced up and down in the garden, angry. It was Sunday so Miguel wasn't here. The last past days, Mark had been working with the old man.
And he had been the only one who kept him from bursting out in anger and doing stupid things. Mark was thinking in rage, they had to get out of here.
Sebastiaan was already starting to become a catholic, he was the only one who actually paid attention in the church and believed what the preacher was saying.
The kid didn't understand that Antonio was a bad guy and the catholic church was stealing from the poor people. Mark looked through the garden, there had to be a possible escape! Then he saw the shack in the back of the garden.
When the barrel with weeds from the garden was full, it got emptied. And for that you had to stand on the roof of the shack and throw it over the wall that surrounded the country seat.
On the other side, there was a pile of all kinds of garden garbage. It would mean that Bell and Sebastiaan didn't have to jump from that height and that they could easily cross the wall.
Mark looked around him, making sure no one was looking. He walked towards the shack, climbing up the crates and pulling himself on top of the roof.
Because it was Sunday, the guards would probably have a day off. Mark would first check if it was safe and where they could hide before he would get his siblings.
With carefull steps, he walked over the roof, towards the wall. He just had to make sure that he would be back for dinner, so Antonio wouldn't notice.
For the last time, he looked behind him, making sure that it would be save. After that, he jumped of the wall, into the pile. It smelled awful but it was a lot safer than just jumping of the wall without anything down there.
Mark was finally out, he looked around and quickly paced towards the forest close by. There, he could surely found a place to hide for a few days.
After a few hours, Mark walked back towards the country seat, in time for dinner. He was sure he went unnoticed.
His feet sank deeply in the green rubbish, grabbing the edge of the wall and pulling himself up to the shack. Mark had found a place to hide, a old hunters cottage in the middle of the forest.
No one would be looking for them over there. There even was a small brook that could provide them with water. He easily jumped of the shack, letting his knees bent so he wouldn't break his legs and looked up when he saw shadows on the ground.
His blood ran icecold when he saw who they were. Antonio and a few guards, all looking furious. ''You didn't seriously thought that you could escape that easily, did you?'' Antonio yelled at him, while kicking him in the stomach, so Mark fell on the ground on his back, gasping for air.
He glared at Antonio, in his eyes a mix of surprise, pain, fear and anger. ''I told you /not/ to run away. And what do you do?'' Antonio shouted in fury.
Mark didn't answer, still thinking how Antonio found out about his escape that quickly. ''Take him away. And make sure that he will never again try to escape this house'' Antonio said, while turning around and walking back to the house.
Two guards grabbed Marks arms and pulled him inside of the shack. Before the door shut, he saw Antonio looking back over his shoulder, a pityful look on his face.
His world was black, totally black. Softly moaning, Mark opened his eyes, only to see the soft light from a sunset through the window in the shack, blinking a few times.
He didn't move, it hurt too much. After Antonio found out about his escape, the guards hadn't been really nice to Mark, angry because they had been called by Antonio on their only free day in the week. First, they had to find him, for hours they had searched the town.
When they came back, to tell Antonio that they hadn't found Mark, the teen just came back. Antonio wouldn't be happy about that. They would have their revenge on Mark.
With sticks and bars they had beaten him until Mark couldn't get off the ground anymore. Then they had left the shack, leaving Mark alone.
Mark tried to move as less as possible but did move his arm, slowly ofcourse. Although there wasn't much light, he could see the purple bruises on his arm.
His whole body felt like he had just ran a marathon, pain everywhere. Mark felt something sticky at the back of his head. One of the last blows hit him there, just before he blacked out.
He put his hand against it, before looking at his fingers. A dark red liquid could be seen, blood. Mark needed a few more seconds to figure that out for himself, before putting his hand down at the floor again.
He hadn't thought that Antonio would go that far to keep them here. The sun disappeared behind some dark clouds, making it dark again. Mark couldn't get up to get to the house, so he just stayed where he was.
Mark didn't have much energy left and was slowly falling asleep. He had to find a other way too escape, because this one wasn't going to work the next time, Antonio now knew of this escape route.
Mark was glad that he didn't immediately brought Sebastiaan and Bell with him, now they were safe. His eyes closed and quickly he fell asleep, too tired to do anything else.
The birds in the garden didn't wake him up in the morning, neither did the footsteps on the gravel. ''Meu deus!'' Miguel said in shock when he opened the door of the shack, seeing Mark on the floor, making a cross.
''What happened?'' he asked, while crouching down next to him. He woke up, looking at Miguel. ''An…tonio'' he managed to say. Miguel got up and left the shack, shortly after returning with a bucket of water and a piece of cloth.
He soaked the cloth in the water and gently cleaned the wounds of Mark. Every time the cloth touched his wounds, Mark flinched lightly. ''Did they break anything?'' Miguel asked worried.
Mark moved his limbs, feeling muscle ache everywhere, but able to move everything. ''No, nothing is broken'' he answered, before starting to cough. Mark pushed himself with his arm a bit of the ground to get some more air, coughing up a bit of blood.
He gasped in pain, every breath hurt like hell. ''Filho d'um corno…''Miguel mumbled, cursing at Antonio before again getting up and walking out of the shack.
Mark tried to sit up, wiping the blood away from his mouth. He leaned against the wall, moaning softly. Suddenly, outside was a loudly brawl.
''Have you gone mad?'' he could hear Miguel yelling. Someone was shouting back, but too soft to be understandable. ''I don't care if your father would have done the same thing! /You/ almost killed him!'' Miguel replied furious.
Antonio yelled back, but clearly disencouraged. ''No, he didn't! What would you have done if the same thing happened to you?'' The voice of Antonio was becoming softer.
''They are your responsibility. What are you going to tell the church if you have killed them?'' Miguel shouted before he paced back to the shack, clearly angry at Antonio.
Mark looked up at him. ''Why did you try to escape?'' Miguel snapped at Mark. The teen didn't expect that Miguel would be angry at him. ''Bec..cause I couldn't s…stay here any longer'' Mark stuttered confused.
''You should have known that Antonio would find you, it was obvious!'' Miguel snarled, while ripping a old shirt in the shack to long pieces and putting them on the wounds.
Mark kept quiet, although Miguel was a bit too rough with binding the pieces of cloth around his wounds. ''You should have known better'' he admonished Mark.
It took a few days before Mark could move around without feeling pain, only when he bumped into something or was uncareful, he could still feel the bruises. If he got up from bed too quickly, he would become dizzy.
Antonio had tried to avoid Mark as much as possible, in which he succeeded. Mark returned to the room, to change clothing. Miguel had been mad with Mark only the first day.
After that, he tried to convince Mark that it was too dangerous to try again to escape. Mark had to promise him that he wouldn't try it again, because Miguel wouldn't be always there to help him.
When he opened the door, Mark frowned. He saw Sebastiaan with a strange sort of necklace with white beads in his hands, mumbling softly. ''What are you doing?'' he asked suspicious.
Sebastiaan looked up surprised, he hadn't hear his older brother coming. ''Praying a rosary, I knocked over a vase. Antonio said if I prayed a rosary, I wouldn't have to pay for it in hell'' he said, before again concentrating on the necklace and mumbling prayers.
Mark stood there for a few seconds, in shock. It was true! Sebastiaan was turning into a catholic. Then Mark turned around, heading for the library. The door was closed but Mark didn't mind knocking before entering.
He opened the door roughly. Antonio was sitting in a chair, in another chair he saw Bell. Mark didn't pay any attention to Bell, walked past her towards Antonio. ''Never heard of knocking?'' Antonio grumbled irritated.
''Sebastièn… Sebastiaan isn't a catholic!'' he shouted, correcting himself when he used the new name for his brother. ''He isn't praying /any/ rosaries anymore!''
Antonio glared a moment at him before standing up and doing a few paces towards Mark. ''He is a catholic now, and so are you and your sister. I registered you in the catholic church last Sunday.''
Mark glared at him, angry because Antonio had done that without even bothering to tell them. ''Well, get us out again! I will never go back to the catholic church after what they have done. People died of hunger because the church wanted to build a new statue. The donations didn't went to the poor people but to wine for the friars! We will not become one of the followers of a mob of thieves and profiteers!''
Antonio looked at Mark, startled that Mark would say that. Then the consciousness came back, together with rage.
''I already warned you not to speak of the catholic church in that way, perro!'' Antonio frowned, glancing at Mark. ''I speak the truth'' Mark snarled back, not moving an inch away.
Bell kept looking at the two in the chair. Antonio raised his hand, to warn Mark not to say anything else. ''What? Are you going to hit me?'' Mark said furious. ''That's the only thing you can do, you're just like your church. Cowardly and egoistic!''
Antonio grabbed the collar of his shirt, holding it tight. ''Callate…'' Antonio warned Mark for the last time. ''You're going to shut up and walk out of here, or I will call the guards''
Mark jerked Antonio hand away from his throat, wanting to say something. He surely remembered the guards. He hesitated for a moment, was it worth the risk of getting beaten up again?
Just a few angry words to Antonio? Mark hissed furious but turned around and walked out. Bell sighed relieved. Mark stormed back through the hallway towards their room, opening the door. Sebastiaan was still praying.
''Stop it, right now…'' Mark said, the anger still clearly hearable in his voice. The kid dropped the necklace, a bit scared of Marks voice.
The teen sighed, lifting his brother of the ground. ''It isn't you who I'm mad with'' he said, trying to calm his little brother.