The sound of screaming could be heard throughout the entire estate. A man at a desk let out a sigh and placed his glasses on the table so that he could rub his eyes, he was quite annoyed since this was the fifth day in a row that his work had been interrupted by the sound of screaming. After a few minutes the door opened and in entered a distinguished figure, Claud the head butler had been working for the family for longer than the man at the dest had been alive,and was subsequently his closest confidant.
The man was named George and he was the lord of the manner, he waited patiently for Claud to give his report.
"I am sorry to report that the situation has gotten worse than ever, he is now refusing meals and other than his daily activities all he does is read and stare blankly at the wall. Some of the other servants are growing uneasy, and young master Noah is not helping, this is the fourth day in a row that he has plalyed a prank on the child, if this keeps up I dont know what might happen."
Claud's report was longer than usual today , but George who had not personally seen the child in six days assumed that the child was just over reacting. In George's opinion he truly was a worthless child, and so strange to he found it to be rather annoying.
"How is it that he is a child of this house if he can't handle something so trivial, he is just over reacting increase his work load that should take his mind off of this nonsense.
And about Noah, dont worry he is just being a child, it's normal for children to play pranks on their siblings, the other one should learn to take a joke."
George handed him a scrap of paper which was quickly received, Claud bowed slightly and left the room, his lips forming a scowl. He had known George all of the brats life and considered him to be like a son to him, but when it came to dealing with Loran he was as clueless as an infant.
Loran was the one that took the brunt of all of George's anger, and everyone in the manner was fully aware of that. So people even took advantage of this to get out their frustration on someone of the dukes line.
Personally Claud felt sorry for the child as he had never personally done anything to incur the dukes rage, he just so happened to have been born in the wrong place and time.
While he was aware of the fact that Loran's mother and the former duchess had died in childbirth.
Claud stopped his train of thought as he arrived in front of a rather scrappy looking door, without knocking he entered the room. The door creaked loudly in protest, Claud looked into the dimly lit room for any signs of life. After some effort to adjust to the darkness he saw a small figure slumped over a pile of books quickly writing something down on a sheet of paper.
Loran was tired, very tired, since that night five days ago he was unable to get a good night's sleep, he could feel the slimy creatures crawling all over him though none were really there. Well other than the four nights in a row when his younger brother Noah had snuck into his room and poured a bucket of the things on him while he slept.
He woke up every morning screaming pulling the creatures off of himself, and now he had a headache. He was now reading all about the creatures that had caused his torment, his father had assigned him it as homework. Pausing from his work he scratched at on of the bite wounds which he had already pulled all of the skin off of, but he could still feel the creatures on his skin so he scratched until he tore open the scabs and then went back to studying.
As he was pouring over his work he heard the door slowly open.
'Claude'
He knew that sound well, of all of the people in the manner Claud was the only one to treat him like a person, well that was if it didn't go against the dukes orders. Loran continued to pored over his work and simply asked.
"What does he want from me now? He wouldn't have sent you if he didn't have more work for me too do."
For a ten year old noble Loran had a rather full list of things that he had to do every single day, unlike his younger brother who led a rather carefree life for a nine year old.
Claud cleared his throat as he pulled out the small paper that George had handed him with things for Loran to do. Claud was in fact quite aware that the lost merely consisted of things around the manner that the servants had requested he deal with.
"Clean young master Noah's stables, room, fort, and library, then your father has added taking care of the leech pit to your daily routine, he says he is thinking about making it into a leech farm."
Loran stopped writing and dropped his pen in shock, he slowly turned his head to stare at Claud. Claud flinched which surprised him, the child's eyes looked dead, and his expression was blank, it reminded Claude of a monster that he had one encountered in his younger days. He didn't agree with George's treatment of the boy on the best of days, and looking at the child now he realized just how much it must have effected the child over the years.
All of the unfair and unjust treatment and neglect had been disgusting to see from an outsiders perspective, but to go through it since birth was enough to make Claud want to forget the promise that he had made to George's father and leave the house.
Loran had always just done as he was told, and no matter how bad the situation he never complained, all of the things that he had gone through he had been able to brush it off but now his heart began to burn with something that he did not understand, but he didn't say a word.
After he turned eleven his father was walking in the garden one day and came upon the pit of leeches, being slightly drunk he sat down and peered into the darkness. The surface was completely calm and unmoving, as he leaned down suddenly the surface of the water broke and a child popped up quickly jumping onto the bank covered in mud. The child quickly cleaned off the mud and started to walk away.
"You there"
Loran turned his head around sharply at a voice that he remembered quite well. The man motioned for him to sit next to him, so he silently complied.
"Are you the one in charge of this pit?"
Loran nodded without hesitation, and pulled his knees under his chin wondering if there was a point to this conversation. He could smell alcohol on the mans breath so he assumed that he was being talked to because of a drunken stupor.
"Let me give you a bit of advice, in order for me to succeed, people like you must fail. But don't be to discouraged about it, at least your existence is better than that worthless son of mine, what was his name again? Oh well dosent matter"
George threw back his head and laughed , Loran just sat there silently.
"Any way that no good waste of space is useless, I have no idea what to do with him, who knows maybe I should just have him killed off or something, then My son would have his rightful place as the eldest."
Loren just stared blankly at the man in front of him. The sky began to darken and his vision went black, he could hear voices, some that he recognized, and some that he didn't, but he didnt know who they belonged to.
His head felt all foggy and he couldn't understand what was going on so he tried to focus on the voices that he heard instead.
"... Kill him now we won't... if he wakes up..."
"but... why are you like this, stop it right now, put the knife away"
Gordans eyes flashed open and he looked around to see what was going on. and then he saw a man holding a knife over his head and in the background he heard Leech screaming for the man to stop.
"Thank goodness it was just a dream."