Name: shadowsong26
Story: Come Crashing Down
'Verse: Feredar
Colors: Eisenhower Green #11. look, it's trying to think, Royal Purple #14. From near and afar., White Opal #18. There's nothing more boring than hearing someone else's dream
Supplies and Materials: tapestry (Royal Purple and eraser), eraser (Incest AU), acrylic, oils, stain (“Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love.” - The Dhammapada), feathers, modeling clay, charcoal, pastels (my current gen + romance card G2 "eccentric"), chalk, novelty beads (Barenaked Ladies, "Angry People"), glitter
Word Count: 620
Rating: R
Characters: Tana, Keta, Sorell Younger
Warnings: Wishing death on an infant, implied abuse
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always. This takes place in an alternate FY 1002. Last Eisenhower Green!



I wake up to hear Mamma yelling. The moon is filtering in through my window--why is she even up?

Then I hear Aunt Keta's quiet, measured response--not the words, but I know her voice better than anyone else's except Mamma's. I guess she's finally gotten back from the City. With bad news.

I pull the blanket over my head and try not to listen. Mamma isn't angry with me--she would have woken me up on purpose if she was--but half the time she blames me anyways, for us being stuck out here, for not being my father or even my grandfather...whenever anything goes wrong.

"Then we'll just go there and smother the brat," Mamma is shouting, and I can't shut it out.

That doesn't sound good.

I weigh my options, and slide out of bed, inching towards the door to listen clearer. What kid could Mamma possibly want to--

Oh.

My uncle-Usurper-King-Andrell and his not-a-person wife must have finally had a kid.

I freeze, and it takes a minute for me to start breathing right again. Mamma loves me, I know she loves me even though I could never be the son she really wants, but she's unpredictable and kind of scary even at the best of times and at the worst...

And this will be the worst.

Everything Mamma's been planning since she had to leave the City will grind to a halt now. If the not-a-person-aunt-usurper-Queen had, like Mamma's gleefully celebrated every time Aunt Keta came by until now, remained childless, then all we'd have to do is wait, wait until Mamma and Aunt Keta can drum up enough support from my father's friends and former ministers (though after twelve years that seems kind of impossible to me, I know better than to say anything), then they can push my aunt-and-uncle-usurpers out of the City and put me in my rightful place on my father's throne.

But now that they have an heir--a legal-legitimate-not-his-sister's-child heir...

I don't think Aunt Keta can talk Mamma down. Not from this kind of disaster. Mamma will be up here in minutes, full of rage and with all of her weapons and with Aunt Keta following helplessly behind. She'll grab me and stuff me in the cart Aunt Keta uses and we'll go to the city and she'll kill my aunt-and-uncle-usurpers' baby and...

And then all of us will die.

I don't want to die.

I don't want Mamma or Aunt Keta to die either, but mostly I don't want to die.

I back up towards the window as fast as I can. It takes seconds--seconds I don't think I have--to force it open. At least she took the bars off it after I turned ten and she decided I was old enough not to fall through it or something.

I freeze again when it creaks and the paint on the sides makes loud crumbly noises as it falls off, certain she must have heard--but no, she just keeps yelling at Aunt Keta, who seems to be just trying to ride it out until the storm passes. Sometimes that works, with Mamma--it's as good a response as any.

Finally, I have it open enough to squeeze through. It isn't too far to the ground, but I still feel the shock of the landing in every part of me. It'll probably really hurt once I calm down--like when I was six and the thing with the mirror and at first it didn't hurt because I was too scared and shocked to feel it--but for now...

I'm sorry, Mamma. Please don't hurt Aunt Keta.

I stumble off into the woods and can't look back.