Perineum, a city of White Walls

              Xavier woke up the next morning stiff backed and sweaty. If it hadn’t been for the chirping of birds outside, he would never have known it were morning. He looked across the tattered mattress that served him as a bed, and though the room was quite dark, he was still able to make out Eric’s silhouetted figure, cradled within his arms deep in sleep.          

            Xavier propped himself into a sitting position and proceeded to prod Eric in the back. “Hey, come on wake up, we’ll be late to school,” He said softly.

             Eric moaned as he disentangled himself of his limbs and stared reproachfully at Xavier. “Can’t we skip today? Mom and Marc always leave early and come home late, they’ll never know,” He said drearily covering his face with his arms.

            “We could, though when mom decided to put ‘us’ into school and not Marc, I’m quite sure it was so we could put her sacrifice to good use and ‘not’ slack off.” Xavier said somewhat pointedly.

            “Alright, alright, I’m coming,” Eric said as he sighed.

            “Thank you for your consideration,” Xavier said smiling, as he stood, stretched, and exited their room.

            The living room was deserted, as it always was early in the morning. Mom would be off to Perineum with the other caretakers, while Marc was probably doing some odd job for a store owner somewhere in Abscond.

            Xavier found yesterday night’s leftover poultry and began to chow it down along with some stale bread and water. He was soon joined by a bedraggled Eric, his hair as matted as a rat’s nest. The two brothers ate in silence before proceeding to accomplish their morning chores.

            They scraped clean all the pans and minor cutlery they had used the night before and that present morning, then made a trip to the backyard where they hung the laundry and swept the courtyard. Finally, they finished off their chores by cleaning out the living room.

            After having taken a quick shower, and collected all their scattered school supplies, they found themselves locking their house gate and setting off for school.

            Today, as it was Monday, the streets of Abscond were crowded; children of all ages and sizes headed in a flurry of chatter to their own respective schools. There was laughter and excitement in the air, and Xavier could almost forget the fact that cadaverra’s glided sentry like here and there along the avenues. He kept a fair distance between he and them at all times, and contended himself with observing his surroundings so as to draw less attention to himself.

            They happened to be going through a street called Bakers Rift due to the beautiful sun backed sandy brown houses that lined the street, adorned with beautiful white trunked trees with light yellow leaves.

            The colors of Abscond always amazed Xavier, even though the design of the buildings themselves lacked aesthetic appeal, it seemed as though whoever had constructed the many avenues of the city, had had a knack for complimentary colors.

            Abscond might have paled in comparison to Perineum, but it had such a strong ‘home’ feeling to it, that Xavier couldn’t have cared less.

            As they entered the town square, they were assaulted by an array of smells and sounds, of which varied from as familiar as the bark of dogs and smell of baking bread, to as peculiar as that of roasted squirrel and the cacophony of store owners calling out to potential customers.

            The square had been desolate a few hours ago, but was now a medley of shuffling figures, each as distinct as the other. Vendors and stands of various assortments adorned the square, each advertising for the products it sold, whether meat, vegetables, parchment, or quills. Children here and there would crowd around stands gawking at the oddities and rarities that they offered. It was rather entertaining hearing the “ooooohs” and “aaaahs” of the entranced kids.

            “Come and see children, come and see! A most rare article I have today! Found deep within the forest, it is beautiful to the eye, and most affordable of course,” bellowed a man in dark blue musty robes as he brandished a beautiful red stone the size of his pinky to a group of passing girls.

               Eric and Xavier left the town square through a back alley, and navigated through the maze like cluster of small shops that made up this part of the city. After what seemed like an eternity, they found themselves back on the main avenue, and could now perceive the large set of rusted iron gates of their school. The words ‘St. Peter’s All Boy’s Educational Institute’ were inscribed on them in white cursive letters. As they passed the worn gates of their school and entered its courtyard, Xavier examined his school building distastefully.

            It looked somewhat like an old church, having two large grey towers annexed to a dome liked main building. The windows were grimy with ancient cobwebs and the roof tiles green with mold, it shocked Xavier that so many students now stood by the front doors of the building waiting for the head master to let them in.

            “There’s ole Finnegan.”    Eric said smiling.

            Xavier followed Eric’s gaze where it loomed over a boy crouched next to a tree drawing on the ground, seemingly talking to himself. Xavier knew Finnegan, he had bright curly red hair, brown eyes, a scatter of freckles, and a personality only a mother could endure. He was, as most called him, the class clown, though Xavier had never found any of his past antics relevantly ‘funny’. 

            “Hey Fin!” Eric called out, and Xavier took his cue to leave, he’d never been close to Fin nor had he ever really liked him, and if it hadn’t been for Eric, they probably wouldn’t be acquaintances either.

            Xavier looked around at the various groups of kids in the yard. He probably only knew about a handful of their names, and cared for probably none of which. He marched up to the first stone step that lead to the front doors of the school and stopped abruptly. It was almost automatic now, he had somewhat trained himself subconsciously to stop before going up those stairs.

            He slowly looked up and stared at the reason for his abrupt stop. Perched right above the domed building, its grey peeling skin squirming with maggots was Black the cadaverra. He wasn’t like the rest of the cadaverra; ink black scaly tentacles protruded from his head and twirled their way around the towers of the school and florescent white eye balls peeked out of his bloody eye sockets, following the slightest movements of the students below.  Xavier had named it “Black”, because he had thought ‘he’ would have been the cause for Xavier’s capture. Thus he deemed it appropriate to give it his name.

            Black’s gaze shifted to Xavier, as it did to every child that approached the stairs. Xavier knew he was one step away from being close enough to detect.  He slowly raised his gaze to stare into the solid white unflinching eyes of the creature before him, his face remaining indifferent. He knew that Black was harder to trick than his brethren, but he also knew that he wasn’t impassable; it would just take more than simply diminishing his presence.

            Xavier maintained eye contact with Black as he always did, and in turn Black remained unwavering, it’s pupils dilated to its fullest and its head inclined forwards. It was as though the creature attempted to see within the depths of his being, it sent shivers down his spine as he imagined the possibility of higher intellect being found in such a creature. He felt his skin prickle with apprehension, for he knew, one wrong move could set off the alarm, could have him devoured in an instant. However, as always, Xavier did his best to get the creature’s full attention, to convince it to look at him and nothing but him.

            After what seemed like a life time, Xavier deemed that he had the complete and utter attention of the creature. He knew what he had to do now; he took a deep breath, knowing that if Black didn’t take the bait, he’d be devoured in an instant; he could see its tentacles fidgeting with anticipation, and yet, he remained calm. He knew what he had to do, he’d done it before, he braced himself, and spontaneously, Xavier shifted his gaze towards a blonde haired boy far to his right. Almost just as fast, Black’s gaze followed his, though he didn’t dare stay to admire his use of misdirection, as soon as he saw the creature’s eyes follow his, he darted up the stairs, simultaneously diminishing his presence. “You’re an orphan, you’re an orphan, you’re an orphan!” He repeated to himself urgently as he made his way across the concrete platform to the end of the line of students.

            As he caught up to the student in front of him, he froze and listened intently. Silence. He heard no noise whatsoever from above him, and there was no sign of movement that indicated Black going for him, thus after a few more minutes of stressful silence he relaxed.

            Although he’d done this several times before, Xavier couldn’t help but fear discovery. He’d noticed it, he’d noticed Blacks hesitation to follow his gaze, although it had been ever so slight of a hesitation, it seemed as though with each day, Black’s reluctance to follow the trick grew.

             A loud rasping noise awoke Xavier from his reverie as the front doors to the school opened. A bony balding man in ragged black and white robes emerged from the gloomy interior. He pushed the doors to the building open, and motioned for the students to proceed to enter the room.

            Slowly, as the students trickled into the building, the line in front of Xavier thinned. He soon found himself standing before the tall robed man. “And how are you doing this morning Mr. Black?” The man said none too kindly.

            Xavier knew it was but a routine question that he asked all the students, so he responded with the words that were expected of him. “Good, father Martin, and may the peace of the lord be with you this day.” Xavier said systematically.

            ‘May the peace of the lord be with you’ was a phrase that you would commonly hear within Abscond. Religion had once played quite the big role within the city, if not the whole country. It had been during the siege of Valore, their country, fifty years prior to today that the people of Abscond had dedicated their lives to prayer.

            They had prayed for victory, for mercy, for peace against the perfects that had first arrived in their country along with the Black river. A powerful deep and un crossable river that had emerged from the depths of the earth and encircled as well as isolated Valore from the rest of the world. The knights of the country had fought the enchanters of the prefects, but even after years and years of prayer and sacrifice, it had been nothing short of a massacre. The perfects had won by a land slide. Due to this, religion had become somewhat of a hollow edifice within society.

            “May the peace of the lord be with you,” Father Martin repeated in a jaded manner. “How is your mother this day?” He continued nonchalantly, “What with the loss of her husband and the burden of having taken you in along with her own children, you’d think that by now, you’d all have starved to death at the least.” He said almost matter of factly, “But no, you seem to be doing fine, how much, I wonder, must the perfect family she works for pay her, and why so much? What services could she be giving her masters?” He said dejectedly.

            Xavier felt anger boil within him. He knew what Father Martin was speculating. It was true, it should have been impossible for his mother to provide for three children by working as a caretaker, and Xavier had noticed that she made more money than most caretakers did, but he believed that she earned what she earned from hard work and nothing else. However, other people throughout the city, found it more suiting to spread the rumor that their mother supplied for her masters’ lewd desires with her body in exchange for profit, and this angered him greatly.

            “She’s fine father. We’ve been living on, all thanks to the lord’s good faith.” Xavier said his teeth clenched.

            When father Martin nodded, Xavier started through the door way, but was stopped by a hand that grabbed his right shoulder. “Father Martin, Xavier and I actually can’t attend school today.” Xavier heard his brother’s voice say.

            Xavier looked behind him and found Eric holding onto his shoulder. “And why is that Eric Black?” Father Martin said as his usually indifferent face contorted into a glower. “Our brother Marc is actually sick at the moment, and since our mother has duties as a caretaker, she couldn’t stay with him, so she asked us to watch him incase his fever goes up again. We just came to drop our home work.” Eric said matter of factly.

            Xavier stared at his brother questioningly, but Eric’s gaze remained on Father Martin who seemed to be weighing his excuse. “Go, you shall bring your homework to me tomorrow, and do not believe you will miss out on today’s lessons, I shall send them with your neighbor Ms. Brimmings.” He said grumpily.

            Eric nodded and pulled Xavier with him down the stairs towards the gates, periodically checking behind him to see if father Martin was still there. When he heard the hinges of the doors click shut, Eric swiftly changed directions and pulled Xavier with him around to the back of the school building. They emerged in the school courtyard where it bordered the forest. “Where are you taking me? Marc isn’t sick! Why are we skipping class?” Xavier asked distraught.

            “We’re going to meet up with Fin.” Eric said contentedly, as if this were something Xavier had been waiting to hear all his life.

            “Fin? What’s he doing out of class? And why do I have to come?” Xavier asked annoyed.

            “You’ll see, it’ll be fun,” Eric responded hastily as they reached the far side of the backyard where forest met gravel. Eric paused briefly before dragging Xavier into the forest along with him.

             Sometime after they had gotten deep enough into the forest that turning around would have been pointless, Eric let Xavier go, and proceeded to lead the way through the large intimidating trees and thick dark green underbrush. He zigzagged from tree to tree, crashing through bushes motioning for Xavier to follow him.

            It wasn’t for another hour of silent trekking through the forest that Xavier cracked. He was sweaty, filthy, and had been eaten raw by mosquitoes. “Do you even know where we’re going?” Xavier asked.

            “Of course I do, I’ve come through here multiple times.” Eric said as he paused to get his bearings.

            “Why does Fin want to meet up with me anyways? He knows I don’t like him, and why in the forest of all places?” Xavier asked petulantly.

            Eric looked back at him apprehensively, “Probably because I told him you could use magic;” He said almost nonchalantly.

            There was a long pause as Xavier stared at his brother in horror. For years he had feared that someone would learn of his abilities and report him to the perfects, for years he’d feared to share the knowledge of these abilities with members of his own family but Eric whom he had trusted most, and yet here was that same Eric, his most trusted ally, admitting to having told Finnegan, a mere acquaintance of Xavier’s about his abilities.

            “What in the world is wrong with you? What if he goes tell? Do you know what could happen to me? To you?” Xavier said, his voice shaking with fear.

            He’d pictured the way he’d be caught many times, possibly by Black or maybe Sir Lutherias, but what stayed the same in all of his speculations was the fact that his discovery had been of his own fault, not that of the person he trusted most.

            He felt his face flush and his gut twist as he imagined the rotting faces of cadaverra’s encircling him, growling and salivating with delight at their next meal. He saw their stitched mouths tear open and expose their jagged tar like teeth, and he felt the cold stinging burn of those teeth tear at every inch of his body, bone, skin, muscle, all gone, all ingested.

            “Don’t worry, he swore not to tell. Now come on, we’re nearly there.” Eric said nervously as he resumed holding Xavier by the hand, as if to stop him from running.

            As Eric pulled him deeper into the forest, Xavier felt the urge to rip his hand out of his grip, to yell and curse him, to call him a traitor. But he didn’t, he simply followed his brother deeper and deeper into the forest. He could feel panic building within him, a strong urge to run, to get out of there while he still could, to run far far away, to leave Abscond, to leave Valore all together, but he knew, magic or not, no human could do that, so he did nothing.

            For some reason, Xavier found himself thinking back to six years ago when he had been nine. He remembered having been lying in his room in the middle of the night unable to sleep due to the frightening sounds he could hear outside. He remembered having gone to the living room in tears, and having found Marc wide awake, brandishing his spear. “What are you doing?” He remembered having asked him. “Sharpening my spear……are you crying?” Marc had said. “It’s the noises outside. They scare me I can’t sleep.” He’d said. He remembered Marc having settled him on the couch and having cradled him. “Don’t worry, that’s why I’m sharpening my spear. If anything ever tries to hurt us, I’ll kill it. Gouge out its eyes and pull out its guts. I’ll protect you, I promise, dad would have wanted it.”

             It probably hadn’t been something most ten year olds should have been saying at that age, but Xavier remembered that that had been one of the only nights he’d slept soundly. He found himself wishing for Marc’s presence, his steadfast and calming personality, a candle in the darkness of the night.

            “We’re here!” Eric said excitedly, waking Xavier from his thoughts.

            Upon having looked up at where they were, Xavier couldn’t help but gawk. He hadn’t noticed where they had been going and now he was dumbfounded. Directly in front of him, only a few meters away stood the great wall of Perineum. It’s white lustrous color glowing with incandescence.

            It was the tallest thing he’d ever seen; its top seemed to touch the sky. “Why are we here?” He found himself asking out loud. 

            “That’s a good question Xavier Black,” Xavier heard a voice in front of him say.

            Standing right next to the wall, a mischievous smile placarded to his face was Finnegan, and next to him a boy Xavier had never seen before.

            Finnegan’s smile grew and he pointed up at the wall “Let me answer your question, we’re going to scale these white walls, yes all of us, and once we make it to the top, we’re going to break into Perineum.”   

             

Author's Note

Here is the second chapter.