Alan heard the squeaking of door from his sister's room and the boy sat up in his bed hugging his teddy bear. The thudding footfalls on the wooden steps from the basement in the silence of the house stirred the fear in his heart. The boy slipped out of his bed and took his teddy bear with him. He opened the door of his room and went to check on her sister whom he thought to be sleeping in her room. But the boy found her bed empty and padded towards the source of noises in basement room. He heard the muffled cries of his sister as he drew closer to the door and clutched his plush bear to his chest. Alan pressed down the lever of door handle but the door had been locked from inside. The boy heard another painful cry of his sister and immediately climbed back the steps to look through the ventilator and his eyes widened in horror at the disturbing sight of her sister struggling against 'him' on the table. He was on top of her, half-dressed, his hand was over her mouth holding the crying girl down whose night gown had been ripped from the front and blood was flowing down her naked legs. He forced himself on the girl, making a throaty sound that sent tremors down the boy's body. Alan clenched at the face of his plush toy, digging his fingers in almost painful manner that tore the eye of his bear. The black bead rolled down the steps and hit the wall.
-
The doorbell of his apartment interrupted his paperwork and Darren put down the papers on the table beside his coffee mug and went to answer the door. He unlocked the bolt, opening the door and found himself quite surprised at the sight of his favourite student.
"Miss. Melaine?" He smirked in amusement at the blonde girl who looked straight in his eyes.
"I hope this is the correct address to meet you, Professor Darren." She spoke confidently holding her ground that he found interesting.
"It's a thought provoking what my student might be doing at this late hour." Darren's mouth lifted at its corner in a taunting appreciation of her standing alone at his door.
"Can I come inside, sir?" Melaine lifted her chin and uncrossed her arms but her tensed posture didn't escape his eyes.
"I won't take your much time for my assignment." Darren narrowed his eyes at the girl and stepped aside letting Melaine to enter inside his small apartment. Melaine heard the door clicked lock behind her and she turned to face the man.
"You hold a good act of being an obedient student, Alan." Darren clasped his hands and circled around Melaine.
"I learned it from you ages ago." Melaine spoke through her gritted teeth and balled her left hand in a fist. Darren stroke Melaine's cheek with his thumb pad that made her flinch at his touch.
"I'm finally pleased to see, Alan." Darren leaned in to place a kiss on Melaine's cheek. Melaine grimaced and pushed him back grabbing his lapels.
"What do you want from Rohan?"
Melaine scowled tugging at his collars.
"Where are your manners, Alan? Did I teach you this as your father?" Darren laughed removing Melaine's hands off him and placed his hands on Melaine's shoulders.
"You had never been our father!" Alan shouted at Darren.
-
Alan left from there horrified of the sight he had witnessed in the basement room and locked himself in his bedroom. The boy couldn't contemplate the situation entirely, but he knew what their foster father did to his screaming sister hadn't been normal touching and it's more than domestic abuse behind the locked door. The boy sat on his mattress, almost traumatized for his age at the disturbing thoughts that troubled his raw mind.
"Teddy, Father isn't a good person." The boy whispered to his bear holding onto his arms.
"He's a monster."
-
"You're a monster, Darren." Alan snapped snarling at the man who ruined their childhood for them. Darren grinned sauntering towards Alan and grabbed his chin roughly making the boy to look up at him.
"I still can't forget what you did to my face, Alan." He growled at the boy who snickered back at the irony of Darren's words. Alan had only scarred his face and he had had to undergo surgery partially to conceal his true identity but the invisible cuts that Darren had given the siblings scarred Alan's life and his childhood's memories.
"It's mercy compared to what you did to us." Alan clutched Darren's hand in bone breaking manner that made the elder man chuckle at him.
"I see that you have grown some nerve to go against me." Darren suddenly squeezed Alan's throat choking his windpipe till the boy saw spots in his vision. Alan, even after years, was still nothing but a miserable child in his eye who would never be able to escape him.
"But you must know that a pet always has had his place at his master's feet." He forced Alan on his knees releasing his grip on his throat and the boy coughed glaring up at him.
"You didn't sign our custody for our bodies." Alan bared his teeth at the man like a wounded wolf who had been removed from his pack. But a wounded wolf is more ferocious and malicious in his hunt of hunter than he is with his pack.
"I didn't?"Darren spoke nonchalantly and shrugged his shoulders. "Must have escaped my mind, Alan."
"What do you want from Rohan?" Alan repeated his question that was the only purpose of his visit at Darren's place.
"We both are man of needs, Alan." Darren stalked inside the kitchenette and filled pot from tap placing it on the stove.
"It's your Rohan who asked me of a beautiful favor." Darren pulled out a clean knife from its set holder and started dicing tomato to make Alan his favourite dish, Goulash, for dinner.
"It's been long since I cooked for you." Darren spoke working on his beef.
"What game are you playing?" Alan asked him from behind.
-
The boy heard the whimpers of his sister in next room and he bolted out of his bed running towards her room. The boy knocked at her door but met with no answer from her. He picked up the lock with a safety pin, a trick he had learned at the orphan house, and opened the door to her room. Alan's eyes fell on his sister who had comforter wrapped around her shivering body.
"Alan, go to your room and sleep." The girl managed to speak with trembling lips. The boy touched her burning forehead and went inside the bathroom to grab a steel bowl and washrag. He put the water filled bowl on the table and soaked the washrag draping it on her forehead.
"Alan, I miss mama", the girl rolled onto her side as tears streamed down her face clinging on her brother's shirt.
"Laine...Darren is monster?"
-
"What game you are playing?"Darren questioned back grinning that threw the boy off balance.
"Leave Rohan out of this. It's between you and me."
"I'm sorry but Rohan has had his part to play." Darren told him cutting onion on the wooden board.
"What do you mean?" Alan narrowed his eyes at the man. Darren picked up the boy and placed him on the dining table near cutlery holder.
"Tell me Alan, you haven't forgotten so easily that braces boy with Laine?"
Alan's eyes widened at the remembrance of the black haired boy in their neighborhood who used to play with the siblings at the community park.
"Doesn't Rohan's resemblance strike oddly with Mr. Michael?" Darren parted Alan's legs and stood between them smirking.
"It cannot be..."
"Yes, my dear Alan it's Rohan himself." Darren gripped Alan's knees as the boy clenched his fists grimacing.
"Rohan loves his Laine and you aren't his Melaine, Alan. Are you?"
Alan pulled knife from its holder in his fist and slammed Darren's entire body on the table, climbing on the top of him and pressed blade against his throat.
"What are you up to?" Alan hissed like a preened viper and Darren laughed patting Alan's head.
"What are you going to tell Rohan what happened to Melaine?" Alan straddled and pointed tip of his knife at Darren's eye.
"Melaine died because of you ?"
"Shut up"
"And who are you?"
"Shut up!" Alan raised his closed fist and brought knife down aiming to stab Darren's eye. Darren closed his hand around the knife whose blade cut in his palm and red drops of blood oozed out of his palm falling on his shirt.
"You don't have a strength to kill me, Alan." He placed his hand on Alan's back and brought him near to his chest.
"You've grown weak, don't you?" Darren rested Alan's head on his chest and rubbed his back as tears ran down his face.
"You still can't run from me, Alan." He smiled as Alan's tears soaked into his shirt.
-
"Alan" Darren stopped stirring the vegetables in the frying pan when he caught the boy passing the kitchen.
"Come here." The boy remained glue in his feet and Darren himself walked towards Alan kneeling before him.
"Is it yours?" He pulled out his plush toy's
beaded eye from his pants' pocket and showed it to Alan. The boy's eyes widened at the sight of torn bead of his teddy bear's eye.
"I found it outside the basement."
Alan's breath hitched in the fear of being punished in the same way his sister had suffered.
"It's a bad habit to wander around the house past your bed time."
"I-I won't again." The boy tried to pull back but Darren held him in his place by shoulders and smiled genuinely signaled his ill intents.
"But you did and you ought to be punished."