Chapter 3: Aftermath
Alejandro’s mind went back to his visit to the Cemetery, earlier this day. He didn’t want to remember what had happened after the Incident, not yet. Strangely enough, it was the part which horrified him the most. He didn’t really understood why. A hospital, his parents, doctor Smith, all in all, it had been a pretty safe environment. Still, it had also been the first place he had seen after being « reborn » as he sometimes referred to what Joseph had done to him.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” asked Alaric, with trepidation in his voice.
“Oww, my little bro is all afraid for me, it’s so cuutte!” answered Alejandro in the most irritating way he could.
“Very funny. Hilarious.”
“Yeah, I know. But what can I say, I inherited the humor and good look, you got the muscles!”
“Ha !”
The sarcasm in his older brother’s words had finally managed to put a smile on Alaric’s face. It had been worth the effort then. Alejandro knew how protective his twin could be at time. Al' spent more time worrying about his Minor brother than doing hus body-building routine… and man, was he bodybuilding. He was basically this picture of the perfect teenager in movies, with chiseled abs, strong arms and legs and a general impression of strength, his only blemish the scar left by Mac Ferlan, a white line on his forehead. Overall, he had the look Alejandro usually hated the most among MAJORS. Plus, he was clever, sensible and very intelligent. Life is unfair that way, when one is a Minor.
But, more importantly, he was the only MAJOR he truly trusted, the only one who had never even tried to tell him that bonding would help him after what had happened with Mac Ferlan. He had supported Alejandro’s wished to remain trim and physically fit, when Ofelia and Jules wanted him to become the typical Minor: slightly overweight and cute like a piglet. His brother had helped him found the materials to build his bench-press, exercises, be a person, and not a jewel. Not that his parents didn’t want the best for him, but they simply felt that, had they been more classic in his education, he wouldn’t have suffered the way he did. For Alejandro, had they done that, Alaric would have died under Mac Ferlan’s rage, so he was pretty okay with his early education.
“I’ll be right there”, said Alaric, pointing at an old oak tree, some 20 meters away, far enough to not hear Alejandro’s words, but close enough to intervene, should anything happen.
“Got it. Don’t worry, I won’t be long.”
Alejandro looked at his brother walking toward the tree, and finally managed the will to cover the few meters between him and the tomb. The twins had had difficulties finding it. It was unkept, and the cemetary’s guard had tried to dissuade them to go there. He had only relented when the Minor had told him that he needed closure. The urgency in his word had convinced the man to let them pass.
Joseph’s resting place was covered in weeds, the stone grey and dull. There was only his name, Joseph Mac Ferlan in gold letters. Despite the horror, despite the atrocity he had done, the misery he had made his life, Alejandro did not begrudge those letters. The monster was also a son, and his parents at least had this right. Still, he hated this tomb. He hated it with a passion which made anything else in his life pale. And that was the problem.
“You said that I was yours. And I’ve spent ten fucking years trying to run from it. I did my best, I tried to become the contrary of what you wanted me to be, a submissive pet, a passive belonging. Everything I’ve done… everything…”
His voice cracked and he felt tears welling up in his eyes. Alejandro wiped them angrily. It was so hard ! Harder than he believed it would be, but he had to do that. He had to, to be free, to be able to become whoever he wanted to be.
“I… everything was done to spite you. If I had a choice to make, I would think about what you would have wanted me to do, and I would do the opposite. In a sense, well, you were right. I’m yours. But not anymore. After today, after a fucking decade of suffering, I’ll be free. I’ll do whatever the hell I want, not because it would make you furious, were you alive, but because I want to. I’ll laze around some days and let my family give me food and whatnot, because I sometimes want to, even if it would be the attitude you would have expected of me.”
Alejandro made a pause. He could feel his anger burning up, but it was different from before. It was high, but also going away, in a certain way. He doubted it would ever leave him completely, but at least it wouldn’t consume him like it usually did. He wouldn’t have to pretend that he was okay, when all he wanted to do was scream and kick and hurt MAJORS. That part of him was already going away, resting on the tomb of his tormentor. Still, the hardest part was yet to come.
“So… It’s terribly difficult to say, you know, but… But, I wanted to say, thank you. No, really. Had you not be the insane freak you were, I would be like almost all other Minors I know off. Passive, submissive, unable to live by myself, unable to even cook for myself instead of eating whatever junk food you guys gorge upon. Which is disgusting, by the way. But, yeah. Thank you. You reduced my left arm to pulp, but gave me the opportunity to be a person, with a strong mind, a strong will, to be what Minors should be: proud of themselves, the equals in all but size to you guys. Plus, I just have to agitate my stump and MAJORS gets overly cautious and kind around me, it helps a lot to avoid troubles So, thank you, asshole. Still, whatever lies beyond the grave, I hope you’re suffering, and I hope then when I’ll die, hopefully very aged and with a family of my own, I’ll get the chance to break your cursed arm…”
---------------------------
Alejandro allowed himself the right to smile while listening to his music. The bastard’s ghost had come back so brutally this night, because he had felt that his plaything had finally found the strength to be himself and not his belonging. It could rage all it wanted, because there was one thing he couldn’t change, now. After ten years, the Minor had finally closed this chapter of his life, the long, so long, aftermath of the Incident. And what ended before a tomb had begun in a bed.
---------------------------
The first thing he heard when waking up was the noise of the machinery next to him. Alejandro felt incredibly groggy. Everything was foggy, and even his thoughts slow, as if they were in a strange mist, or perhaps ice, or as it sometimes hapenned in dreams, when he was deeply asleep. Before he could think about it, a massive face passed before his eyes, and he recoiled in terror. The MAJOR nurse, a blond, with piercing blue eyes, looked at him and gasped, retreating as quickly as she had appeared.
“Doctor ! Doctor, he’s awake”, she called in an phone, rather forcefully to the Minor’s ears. Don’t worry sweety, she said to him, while keeping her distance. Doctor Smith will be there soon…
After perhaps three or four minutes, Alejandro heard a door open and an old-looking black man approached from his right. He whispered with the nurse for a short while, and then, the lady left the room. The MAJOR, probably doctor Smith, had to be very old, at least one hundred. He was almost bald, with a perfect white beard, which contrasted with his dark-brown skin. He flashed a smile at Alejandro, but the Minor boy was still too terrified and too groggy to react. He noticed, however, that this smile was a little forced.
“Hello, Alejandro”, said the doctor with a deep, warm, and reassuring voice. “I know that you must feel strange. Frightened and in the same time somewhat comatose, perhaps, yes?”
Smith then went silent and after a time Alejandro finally understood that he was waiting for his answer. But the kid did not feel well enough to talk, so he simply nodded. Doctor Smith smiled again, more genuinely this time.
“Good. You’re a tough nut, you know that? I don’t think that most MAJOR would be as resilient and calm as you are now, after what you went through. And what you did! My, that was heroic indeed. It came with a grim cost, to be sure but… you deserve respect, Alejandro, at the very least.”
The young Minor felt a little overwhelmed by all this. He wanted to answer, to tell the sympathetic doctor that he did not understand what he meant, that he still felt bad, that he still felt as if Joseph’s mind was invading his body, that… Uncontrollably, tears flowed and he begun to sob, and gurgle strangely. It was only then that he noticed the pipe going into his mouth and throat, the oxygen mask on his face, He couldn’t look further, because his head was maintained in place by something, but it was enough to freak him down.
“Calm down, Alejandro…” said Smith, with a hint of urgency in his calming voice. “You aren’t in danger, I swear. You’ve been badly hurt, and you need those things for the time being. Now, I’m terribly sorry to ask this, especially right now, but… do you remember what happened? It’s very important for me to know, because otherwise I won’t be able to help you accordingly to your needs, Alejandro. Do you understand?”
The eight years old nodded, tears still flowing from his eyes. He remembered. He remembered everything. His arm, his left arm… An extremely high-pitched wail came out of his mouth as he tried to move his left arm, to make his finger into a fist and felt nothing. Worse than nothing. He felt something dull from his shoulder to some part, a very short one at that, of his arm and then a ghostly itchy feeling, as if ants were crawling under the skin of his left arm. He desperately tried to look at it, but couldn’t, which elicited another wail.
“I’m sorry… I’m terribly sorry”, said the doctor with such deep sadness that it managed to capture the Minor’s attention. “You’re just a eight year old kid, a Minor… but… your left arm… it was beyond saving. It was a miracle you did not bleed to death when brought here. You can thank your brother for that. Alaric suffered grievous blows to the head and had several broken bones, but he still managed to call for help after… after Mac Ferlan had been dealt with. But I really need to ask you one question, Alejandro. Just one, and then, I swear you’ll be allowed to rest and your parents and sister will be able to visit you. Are you okay with that?”
Alejandro did not feel as if he had any choice in that anyway. He nodded once more.
“Did… did the MAJOR who did this to you", said Anton Smith, waving his head over the kid’s body… "Did he tried to bond to you? Did he tried to… to enter your mind?”
Alejandro nodded and despair painted itself on the good old doctor’s face.
“Did he succeed?”
“…. esch… “
The doctor covered his face with his hands and begun to sob. It was terrible, to see such a wise-looking, kind, MAJOR cry like that. Then, after a while, he presented his face to Alejandro.
“I don’t expect you to trust MAJORS for a long time, perhaps ever again. But if you ever think that we’re all the same as the one who inflicted such pain upon you, remember your brother, who’s also here in the hospital, getting healed, how your parents love you and only want the best for you. Can you promise me you’ll try, at least?”
Alejandro nodded, feeling too tired to talk again. He receded in the bed, and listened calmly to the discussion the doctor had with his parents who entered his room as soon as the doctor had stopped their little talk. The broken voice of her mother, the hollow tone of his father, how they barely dared touch his head, ruffle his hairs, their tears, falling on him… It left a lasting impression. He wouldn’t be able to love them as before, for a long time, perhaps ever, he knew that with the strange wisdom of children, but he also knew he would always care about them very much. Life was strange…
---------------------------
5.43 a.m. Alejandro felt good enough to go to his computer. This thing had costed his parents a fortune. Most Minors hadn’t a computer to call their own. Then again, most Minors did not even know how to read or write, so a computer would have been useless. This always infuriated the teenager. Sure, you couldn’t prevent a MAJOR to pick you up whenever he wanted to, he knew it by experience, so much more than most! But you could always learn! You could always become better, use your brain. There was no need to try to outperform a MAJOR physically when you could simply use your imagination to craft new things, write new stories, innovate! After all, most MAJORS weren’t as imaginative as they pretended to be, really. They spent far too much time competing with each other for the most trivial things.
Humming to the music, Un Poco Loco, he went to his favorite site, « MINOR things in a major world ». Just the name of it always made him smile. It was a website designed by Minors, for Minors, everywhere in the world, with sections in more than twelve languages. A lot of work for perhaps a thousand readers worldwide, but one Alejandro relished. He even participated when he heard some pretty big news from his parents. A geneticist and an astronomer often had interesting discoveries to share, and more often than not, they didn’t care about Minors all over the world learning some discoveries before the MAJORS. Another advantage of being mostly seen as witless pets by the giants around us, I guess, thought Alejandro. Even his parents were far less lenient about what they said of their work around him than around Alaric or Lindsey.
But today, he was here to read, not to write, and the headline caught his attention, quite easily at that.
«BREAKING NEWS ! Winton High allows 17y.o. unbonded Minor to go to school!»
Now, that was something unheard off. The Minor teenager perused the article. As often on the site, it was mostly comprised of hearsays and rumors –not that a Minor would have access to official channels of information, most of the time anyway-, but it was also confirmed by an extract from Winton’s website, stating proudly that a certain miss Ivory was the first ever Minor student to attend unbonded, and that the school was certain that she would succeed brilliantly there. Having read that, Alejandro did not know who this miss Ivory truly was, but he was certain that talking with her would be incredibly interesting. Who knew, perhaps one day he would meet her?