Chapter 7
"You better shut that brat up!" the man snapped at Alistar's mother, his tone threatening. "I was nice enough to let you carry out your touching little scene, but I'm not much in the mood for hearing the annoying cries of such trash."
The man knelt down close to them as Alistar's mother scooped him up, so close that he thought his uncle might strike him. He smiled at his family, a smile that somehow told Alistar that he wanted his uncle to hit him. It certainly made Alistar want to. Why would somebody willingly desire to be struck? He didn't understand the incentive, nor did he care to. What mattered right then was his father. If his father were awake, then he would have somehow got the mean man to leave, just like he'd always managed. If his father were awake...
After a few moments of stillness—a tense silence that tickled at every ear in the vicinity—the man turned his gaze to Alistar's father. "I say, it's about bloody time." He then turned to Alistar, who still had silent tears streaming down his face. "Boy." He pointed at his father. "Every time you think of your old man, remember these words that I'm about to speak. This isn't anyone's fault but your own. You did this, boy. It's your fault your precious Papa's dead."
Alistar's mother hurried to cover his ears, turning his head away and staring at the man with loathing. He noticed that three guards now stood behind the red-haired man. There was a short exchange of words that he could almost make out and then suddenly his hearing was returned to him. His mother's arm was being forcefully held back by the man, her wrist trapped in a hardened vice-grip. The man had laid his hands on his mother.
"You're the reason your father died!" he laughed raucously, forcing Alistar to face him with his other hand as the man grabbed his cheeks in a rough grip. "He died because you're just as useless as he was!"
Me...? I'm the reason? He couldn't understand the man's meaning.
After his laughter subsided, the man punctuated his words by hawking and letting a sloppy glob of spit stretch down to cover his father's face. Immediately after, he waved a hand and two guards made to haul the body off of their bed of rags. It was at that moment that Alistar snapped, breaking free of his mother's grasp and launching himself onto his father's unmoving body. Though he was immediately shoved away, he recovered quickly and lunged for one of the guards, kicking and screaming and resisting with all his might. Not a moment after this futile reluctance took hold of him, he felt a peculiar pain on his neck and his vision left him. It was his uncle's shaking hand that had subdued him.
When he awoke some hours later, his mother and uncle were coiled up beside him, sleeping off their pent-up exhaustion. Someone had prodded him awake, pulling him from his stillborn dreams and back into the silent cavern. Back into his cruel reality. It seemed that there was still some time left before the trio of large, brass gongs would go off, signalling the beginning of another work day.
He shivered, hugging himself as he looked around. It was colder than usual during this sleep period. Still bogged down by fatigued confusion, it took Alistar a moment to notice the grim little shadow that hovered by his side.