Silence Tells the Cruelest of Lies

This man was fraying my last nerve. How dare he step foot in this castle and try to tell me what to do? I tried thrice to move around him, but he blocked me every time. I frowned at him. Please move, I requested. 

"No, Calyx," the man named Jimmy said. "I'm not leaving until you remember who I am. Please, try and remember."

I don't remember you!, I shouted at him. I don't know who you are. I've never seen you before in my life. So just leave me alone. I'm happy here.

The man's face fell. "H-How can you be happy here?" he asked. "That man is a fucking monster!"

I gritted my teeth. Now he was calling Matt names? He had no right to do that! Matt is not a monster, I growled. I love him.

"You love him, Calyx?" Jimmy asked brokenheartedly. I nodded my head sharply, and as I looked on a single tear slid down the man's pallored cheek. The little boy stared up at his father and told him not to cry. The sight of this caused me to tear up a little as well. "How could you say you love that bastard?" the man added suddenly, his voice sounding slightly strangled. "What did he give you to make you think you love him?"

Matt did nothing, I spat. 

All three heads in the hallway turned in the direction of my bedroom when the sound of footsteps clattered down the hall. I knew it was Matt who was approaching, and suddenly I was scared for the man and his son. I posed no threat to them, but Matt would not hesitate to kill them both. I rushed over to the man, pushing him in the opposite direction, urging him to take his leave now, but he refused to take my advice.

"I told you I'm not leaving until you remember me!" the man shouted, digging his heels into the ground as I attempted to push him away.

You have to leave!, I mouthed urgently. Matt is coming, and he will kill you if he catches you here. Please, take your son and leave!

"I'm not leaving!" the man shouted.

"Oh, yes you are," a new voice replied. Matt stepped out of the shadows to our left, and Jimmy pushed his son behind his legs, shielding him. Unfortunately, Matt's eyes were focused only on the tall intruder. Disregarding the man's young son, Matt seized the man's collar and flung him violently against the brick wall of the castle. The boy tumbled to the floor as his father was yanked away from him, and I scooped him into my arms as he began to whimper. "What the hell do you think you're doing here, Sullivan? After three years you think you'd have forgotten about her."

"I could never forget about Calyx," the man choked out. "I love her."

"Do you now?" Matt asked sarcastically. He pressed harder against this man named Jimmy's windpipe, and the man's lips turned a slight shade of blue. "Well then, at least you get to see her again before I kill you. Do you have anything you'd like to say, you stupid fucker? Any last words?"

"Yea," Jimmy replied, his voice barely a whisper. "Fuck…you."

"That's it," Matt growled. He forced Jimmy's head back, exposing his neck, at the same time bearing his fangs, and leaned in to bite the man. I knew he would kill him, and the man would die in excruciating pain, and I just couldn't let that happen.

Stop!, I urged Matt, stopped him when his sharp fangs were just centimeters from the intruder's neck. Matt turned to face me, confusion and hatred on his face. 

"Why, Calyx?" Matt asked. His voice was low and unhuman-sounding; I knew this only happened when extremely strong hatred painted Matt's soul. He hated this man that much? "Why should I let him live?"

This man has done nothing to you, I said. Let him live.

Following a few minutes of silence, Matt finally removed his arm from the man's neck, and he fell to the ground, holding his neck and gasping for air. The little boy in my arms squirmed to get free, so I sat him on his feet on the floor, and he ran to his father. 

Matt stared down at the man with a look of utter contempt painted upon his face, his lips drawn up in a snarl. "Fine, the bastard lives," he growled. His voice sounded more human now; his anger must be ebbing. "But he and the boy go to the dungeon."

Matt would send such a small child to exile in the dungeon? No, I could not let that happen. I moved over to Matt, laying my hand on his shoulder, and he turned to face me. No, Matt, I said. Don't send the child to the dungeon. Let me take him. I'll place him in the nursery with Aileen.

"If that's what you want, Calyx," Matt replied. "Tell the servants to bring in another crib for the boy and put him in the nursery with Aileen. And after you've finished with that, go and wait for me in our bedroom. I need you." With that, Matt kissed me deeply, and I returned it, not caring that we had the strange man as an audience. I heard a choking sound escape the strange man's mouth, but I ignored it.

Several minutes later, Matt and I parted ways, he escorting the strange man to the dungeon and myself taking his son to the nursery. When I pulled the boy away from his father, he screamed shrilly and begged to stay, but I could not let him. Being trapped in the dungeon would mean certain death for such a small child, if not for his adult father as well.

"Mommy, where da mean man taking Daddy?" the boy asked as I carried him down the hall.

Oh, why did this child keep calling me Mommy? I was not his mother! Matt is taking your Daddy to the dungeon because he's not supposed to be in the castle, I told the little boy, realizing too late that the child probably couldn't read lips.

When I arrived in the nursery, a new crib was already in place for the boy. I placed him on the soft padded mattress, and he immediately began crying out for his father. Fat, blubbery tears ran down his cheeks and fell onto his pants, leaving dark spots of anguish. Aileen had been sleeping in her own crib when I first brought the boy into the nursery, but his crying stirred her from her sleep. She began to whimper, tiny baby sounds that pricked at my heart, and I instantly ran to her, scooping her into my arms and against my chest. 

Whilst I tended to Aileen, the boy was oddly silent. I was aware of his eyes on my form as I paces the small, pastel-colored room, feeding Aileen and bouncing her in my arms. My daughter was an unusually easy child, and she was sleeping soundly again within fifteen minutes. I placed her gently in her crib and turned to leave, but stopped when I heard the little boy say, "Mommy, why don't you wuv me as much as you wuv da wittle girl?"

Oh, Lord. How was I supposed to answer this question? This child was not mine! And Aileen was. How could I love the boy more than my own daughter? Child, I said to the boy. Please stop calling me Mommy. I'm not your Mommy. And with that I left, leaving the boy and his unanswered question in the nursery. 

Matt had never been one for gentle love-making, and tonight, with anger at the intruder still coursing through his veins, was no exception. I knew he didn't mean to, he would never mean to, but Matt was a little too rough with me that night, and the marks I left on his back and shoulders were out of pain rather than ecstasy.

Afterwards, we lay curled in one another arms, the top of my head fitted snugly beneath Matt's chin. He was sleeping soundly, I could tell easily from the smooth rise and fall of his tattooed chest, but I could not. For some strange reason, I could not erase the strange man from my mind. There was something about him that left the image of his angelic face imprinted in my mind. What was so special about this man who had arrived in the middle of the night? I decided I would visit him tomorrow in the dungeon, and put an end to my thoughts of him.