Alexander Whitman was a mess. Having been forced to take a leave from work, he paced in the small room in which he was confined.
"Let me out!" He cried as he pounded on the door. "I'm better I promise…"
"Is that so… little brother?" A hollow voice rang in his ears, "Are you really… better?"
Alexander's eyes widened comically, as he stared at the teenager that stood before him.
'A curse…' the words, said with finality echoed wirh a tinge a truth. Alexander Whitman dared to say his family was cursed… what other explanation could there be? The inherited madness, the senseless tragic deaths…
'I remember when brother died…' Alexander looked at his elder who now smiling with the left part of his head bloodied and dented in. 'I remember when you died…'
His neck was twisted at a grotesque angle…
"Why…"
"Why what brother?"
"Why is it always the left side…"
The brothers head tilted, making the angle look as if his head were fixing to fall off completely.
'I remember the photos… the report..'
"Whitman Heir fatally wounded in unfortunate accident…" - it had said… 'They couldn't even say… that a thirteen year old boy was killed…'
(2024)
A three year old Alexander Whitman watched his father came home in a stupor. The elder man stared at his son with wide, unseeing eyes. "Your name boy… is now Alexander Whitman…"
The three year old boy was later told of his elder siblings… the first was also Alexander Whitman, after their father. The eldest son always took the fathers name. No suffix, just the name. 'To continue the legacy.' The elder Whitman would always say, with no further explanation. The very first Alexander Whitman that he recalled was born in 2011. He bore witness to his fathers legacy when it was at its prime. Completely hidden from the government… at the tender age of thirteen, the lad met a gruesome fate- he was in the center of a ghastly accident on the way home from school on a random day. The boy landed with his head bashed in. The boys neck was twisted at a grotesquely inhuman angle. When the elder Whitman saw his sons body, he was drawn to the bottle. Eying his three year old who was doted on by his mother, the elder one saw his first son: grotesquely battered and twisted…
"Your name, boy… is Alexander Whitman." The elder slurred his declaration as he ripped the toddler from his mothers warmth, and tossed him into the carnal world of science.
***
Alexander curled into himself.
'Why…'
"You continue to ask why, dear brother…" the elder brother murmured, "but what about you?"
"Me?"
"Yes, you. Why did you betray your wife? Why did you betray your daughter?" Alexander whimpered as he felt his brothers rotting breath in his face, "Why did you abandon our sister?"
"I did no such thing!"
"Didn't you…"
***
(2041)
A twenty two year old Alexander was sharing a drink with the family elders, with a twenty year old Samantha at his side. Her family matching his own in wealth and status, they were Highschool sweet hearts, who loved and shared letters through college and were now engaged. Alexander glanced at his father who sat in the corner nursing a drink.
"Father-"
"Father!" Alexandria cried as she burst through the double doors, frantic.
"Why are my husband and children detained?! Release them at once!" "I'm afraid I cannot do that…"
Alexander gathered Samantha and led her to their room, assuring her that everything was fine. After ushering out the guests he came between his father and sister who were in a full blown screaming match.
"I demand you release them and sever ties with me at once!"
"Sister.."
"There is nothing magical about any of them, you release them or so help me, I will go to the police with all of your crimes!"
Alexandra gasped as her fathers hand lashed out and struck her across the face with enough force to jerk her head to the left. Alexander who was in front of his sister caught the force of his fathers arm striking his cheek to shove the boy of the way. Alexandria was quick to gather her semi conscious brother into her form and shield him from their fathers blows.
"You will not disgrace our house!" He cried, "Sharing a bed with a nillie, you are no daughter of mine!"
Alexandria bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out.
"You disgust me! Fighting for those nillie monsters!" Alexander woke up and came between his father and sister again. "Stop this father! The elders are watching-"
The elder shoved his youngest son away, knocking him into the shelf behind him. "Let them see! Our family started this cause, thousands of years ago… they started this war…"
Exhausted from exertion, the elder Whitman fell back and gathered his drink into his hands, "Learn this and learn it well: there will be none of those nillie vermin in our blood line." He pointed a shaky finger at his bloodied daughter, "You have no husband or children…" with a screech, Alexandria lunged at her father. "This is why this wretched family is cursed! Spilling innocent blood needlessly for nothing!"
She shoved at and hit her drunken father, "This is why Alexander was killed! Because of you, you wretched, evil man! You killed your own son!"
Alexander senior hit his daughter with a closed fist. Sending her to the ground. "You dare speak of him! You dare speak to me that way!"
He fell on top of his daughter and continued to hit her. "That's right.. kill me like you killed our mother… our brother… with your destitute madness…" Alexandra whispered.
"A curse… on your blood… just like that woman said to your fathers wretched father… as far back as it goes…" Alexandria gasped as Alexander's hands came around his daughters throat and held fast. "I hope…" Alexandra whispered, "you die a miserable death…" Alexander tightened his grip, "just … like… your monster father…" her eyes fluttered closed as the younger Alexander tried to get his father off of his sister.
"You will kill her, stop this father!" Samantha rushed into the room as the elder Whitman shoved his wounded son off of him.
"Then let her die… no nillie lover is a daughter of mine."
"Stop this…" Samantha whispered. As she slowly advanced on the elder Whitman, "stop this at once…" she tried again, but her words fell of deaf ears. "I said to stop!" Samantha tried to pull the elder Whitman from his unconscious daughter.
"Get away from me you Nillie loving wretch!" Samantha slid back to her future father in law and with a jab to a tender spot on his neck, the elder fell unconscious.
Samantha shoved the man off of his daughter and assessed her wounds.
"Come on, Alexnadria…" Samantha pleaded. "Don't you die on me…" Axelandria attempted to smile, "Let me be… with my family…"
***
"You just watched…" Alexander whispered. His elder brother nodded, "that's right. You watched our father almost kill our sister…" the elder started to circle his younger brother, "you watched him kill her husband and children one by one…"
Alexander shook his head, "N-no, I-"
"You what?" The elder sneered, "You sided with father… a maddened, drunken monster… lost to the illusions of his own greatness…"
Alexander continued to shake his head, "Then… you followed in his steps…"
Alexander's body shook with sobs.
"I didn't… I'm nothing like him!"
"Aren't you… what about your eldest… before Myriah Whitman?"
"She's a monster… she hurt Samantha, and … and…"
"She saved your wife, allowed both your son and daughter to be born…" the elder brother leaned close to his younger counterpart.
"And your lovely innocnent wife… she demanded you don't take little Myriah back… but you did, didn't you…"
Alexander shook his head as sobs continued to shake his body.
"You allowed your wife's precious daughter to be violated… tortured…"
"No…no, I-"
"You watched them." The elder brother snarled, "You watched." Alexander.. "You watched as they tortured and mutilated her… your first daughter."
"No! She is a Nillie! She is a monster!"
Alexander cried out as he continued to shake his head. "You, dear little brother…" Axelander froze at the finality of his brothers words, "You are the same monster as our father…"
Alexander Whitman lunged at the boy before him to fall flat on his stomach with a grunt.
"A curse on your blood…" the words echoed around Alexander as he gripped his hair and wailed for all he was worth.
"Are you satisfied?" The golden eyed man asked the hazel eyed woman from outside the room.
Alexnadria inhaled a deep breath as she wrapped her arms around her slender form.
"Can you save my sister in law and her children?" The golden eyed man bowed his head. With a sigh he took Alexandria's hand in his own. "Your sister and her children are trapped within the world of dreams. I do not have the power to command they wake." Alexnadria bowed her head.
"However… I believe I know of one who does…"
Alexnadria latched onto the tall man before for. "Please-"
"Go to the hospital. Look for a man with silver eyes." The golden eyed man murmured, "This is your gambit: he may help, or he may send you to join your late husband and children."
Alexnadria faltered in her will as the stranger looked into Alexander's room once more, "He will one day find his way back to reality. The best time to find that man is now."