Malfunction

One

"Gil, we're out of milk." I woke up to the sound of my sister's voice as she barged into my room without warning. "I told you this yesterday and you still haven't done anything about it." Once I opened my eyes, I noticed her looming over me. This wasn't abnormal for her, she often did things like this without warning.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes in annoyance, forcing myself to get up. "No greeting or nothing? Just 'Hey, get milk'." I chuckled slightly, then stood up.

Lilith's (another stupid name, I call her Lily) bluntness often came off as rude to most people, but I really didn't mind it. She felt like a general "good morning" or "hello" was a waste of time, and she preferred to get right to the point. It did sound kind of awkward, but I guess I can respect why she did it.

She gave me a look of confusion. "Good morning. Get milk, please." She said once again, before simply leaving the room to finish making her breakfast.

Lily was my older sister and best friend for as long as I can remember. We've always done practically everything together and that still hasn't changed. This included running away from home.

Lily has always quietly recognized my father's morally fucked nature, but rarely said anything about it. When he'd ask something of her, she would answer with a polite "Yes, father", most likely out of fear. This blind obedience inevitably made her the favorite over time. I, on the other hand, was way more vocal about my hated for him than I should have been. Matt (I love calling him that, he can't stand it) didn't tend to ask much of me, since the answer would most often be "no" or "fuck off". It was definitely hard convincing her to run away, but I really had no other choice. She began to view his obsession with and dehumanization of her as normal.

Lily and I were Matt's only two children, and for a long time, all of his attention was devoted to her. He enrolled her in several language, music, and math classes at the age of four, and simply used her for his own image. He figured that starting her off young would make academics as routine as brushing your teeth.

The Impuritian public just absolutely ate this up. Lily was yet another great achievement of his. They believed she would shape the future of the world alongside her father, but all Matt wanted was obedience. He raised her to follow his every command, and that she did.

I was adopted three years later, which caused an even bigger fuss. I was "another Ingenium child". I was enrolled in the same amount of classes and had the same amount of pressure put on me, but unlike Lily, I couldn't take it. The stress at such a young age was too much to handle. The math was too hard, the music made no sense. Hell, I had trouble learning my first language, let alone two others.

He kept trying with me until I was about nine years old. I couldn't get the hang of anything he taught me. He pushed harder and harder until finally realizing it was no use.

This is where a normal person would have simply eased off the pressure, but we've pretty much established that Matt is anything but. He had me stay home for as long as possible, filed a missing person's report (which in Impuritia is conducting a quick search of the neighborhood before pronouncing the person dead), and publicly announced my death.

Fucked up thing to do, but for some reason, I was okay with it. Aside from brief daily lessons he'd give me, I was pretty much ignored. The only person I had was Lily, and I was pretty much all she had too. She had trouble making friends, and I simply wasn't allowed to. We were inseparable, which is why running away with me was a no-brainer.

I exited my room and followed my sister into the kitchen. Lily's strides were a lot quicker than mine were, her steps barely making a sound as her feet touched the wooden floor. She sat back down at the breakfast table, slowly lifting a spoonful of dry cereal to her mouth. She glared at me as she ate, which I interpreted as her way of guilting me for not going grocery shopping sooner. I laughed at her expression as I popped a piece of bread into the toaster.

Once we finished eating, she picked up each of our dishes to clean them. In turn, I threw on a shirt and ran outside to ride my bike to the grocery store.