His Possession

1st October 2003

“Good job Alexander. Keep it up.” His karate instructor said as he was handed the belt. At the young age of 10, he was the champion of Karate. He began going to a different institution for karate since his foster father decided that he need to be strong both mentally and physically. He had a tutor for each subject, Xander King wanted his foster son to be the best. Carlos, who was known as Alexander by then, only got few hours off from his busy schedule.

He was sitting in the car, with his foster father beside him. Arabelle had to run some errands so she could not join them.

“Well done, son.” Xander congratulated him. He did not reply, only looked at him and nodded his head. He was never a talkative person, neither was he a fan of Xander. He was way too hard on Alexander.

When Arabelle found the two kids near the orphanage gate, she had a tint of emotion in her heart. She and Xander have been trying for ten years to have a child, but because of her medical conditions, they could not. She had always loved children and wanted to have her own, it was a hard decision she made, she finally gave adoption a thought. She took the kids home and it had been five years since they were with Arabelle and Xander. She intended to have children, she knew that Xander would love them too but his main motive was to have an heir of his own, someone who was like him, someone who could be like him. He wanted Alexander to be just like him.

However, after reaching their home Xander told Alexander to not be late for lunch. He took a shower and wore the clothes that Xander wanted him to wear. It was indeed bizarre. Xander was in control of everything, even the fashion of clothes Alexander would wear was chosen by Xander. He hated it but never protested.

“Alexander! Alexander!” His six-year-old brother ran inside the room and hugged his waist. Alexander smiled at his younger brother and ruffled his hair.

“How are you, Li?” He questioned. He had been so busy with his studies and karate practice, he had no time for his brother.

The six-year-old pulled on the white little stick, tugged out the candy from his mouth to respond to his brother. “I am good Alexander, but I missed you so much.” His tiny hands were wrapped around Alexander’s torso as he hugged his older brother.

“I promise to be with you more, Li. Don’t be sad about it.” He softly said to his brother. However, the two of them went downstairs for lunch, he was only five minutes late to the lunch table. He helped his younger brother sit on his and pulled on the chair for himself.

“Aren’t you a little late for lunch, son?” Alexander’s body froze on the spot, he suspected something like that would happen. He nodded his head and said yes.

“Don’t you know I don’t like people who are late?” He once again nodded his hand at his foster father’s words. He said nothing. Meanwhile, Arabelle entered the dining room with their food. She insisted that she would prepare the meal for the kids. They both loved her cooking. She placed their meal on the table and was serving them both.

She prepared her special steak, mashed potatoes, and steamed mushrooms, Li liked it with extra gravy, so she always prepared tons of gravy for him and steamed carrots for Alexander, this was not his choice rather the choice of his foster father.

“Don’t need to serve the steak to him.” Xander stopped his wife when she was putting the steak on Alexander’s plate. His throat began to feel dry and the same fear rushed into his body.

He was going to do that again. Starve him.

“What do you mean, honey? Kid’s hungry, he had a long day today.” Arabelle protested.

“Don’t question me, Arabelle. Do what I said.” His cold hard tone sent shivers down their spine. No one had the nerve to argue with Xander King.

Arabelle put down the dish plate back on the table and picked up the plate of the vegetables and salad that her husband used to eat every day. She served her foster son the same food she had to serve to her husband for years. After she was done she quietly sat on her chair with hundreds of rocks in her heart. She was holding back a lot. There were lots of times she wanted to go against her husband, but something in her stopped her always.

Alexander on the other hand was holding a knife and fork in his hands and pricked his carrots before putting them in his mouth, chewing on them. The sound of his chewing was like poison in his ears. He was just a young kid after all. Alexander’s grasp on the fork was getting tighter, he felt many emotions he could not comprehend. But, he knew the emotion was he felt more was anger, which was the starting of the main disaster.

“Who’s there?” An unforeseen loud voice made Emma flinch and hurriedly keep the book inside the drawer. She stepped back from the table, so that whoever was there would not suspect her going near to Alexander’s belongings. It was dark and she turned off the flashlight from her phone, all the windows were closed, she was standing in the tenebrosity around her. She was wearing her navy blue half-sleeved top with black leggings, she did not bring any jacket with her and it was a cold night. The icy cold wind coming from where the door was opened sent shivers down her spine. She, unknowingly muffled herself with her small cold hands, hoping it would help her body warming up.

The footsteps of the person were coming closer and nearer to where she was standing. She gulped, she was too afraid to answer, she feared that she would be punished for being in the library at that hour. For that she thought she could tell she wanted to read a book, but why would anybody listen to her excuse? She was a mere maid. She would be chastised either way.

Out of the blue, Emma were squinted and she covered her eyes with the back of her hand as the strong light from the torch hit her face.

“Oh my god! Emma! Never do that again.” She put her hands down to see Ethan standing a foot away from her. What made her more scared was the gun that he was holding in his hand. She took few more steps back and stared at the gun. She was terrified and confused.

Why does he have a gun?

Most importantly, why did he bring the gun to the library? She heard rich people carrying guns from the gossips of the other maids in the house, but he had no reason to carry them there. Her questions came to an end when Ethan spoke up.

“Oh no, don’t be scared. I brought the gun because I thought there was a thief or robber in the house…” He explained to her. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“What are you doing here at this hour?” He questioned. The words got stuck in her throat when she felt uneasiness all over her body. What could she say? That she was secretly reading a diary-like book of her master? That was the last thing she ever planned to tell anyone.

“I-uh.” She was struggling to answer his question. “Were you reading?” He suddenly asked. His eyebrows were arched and it was as if that was what he thought she was doing and was sure of. She gently nodded her head and looked down. She hated lying. But she had no other choice. She could not be punished, especially by the devil himself.

He laughed at her embarrassed face. “There is no need to be shy, Emma. You can come here anytime you want. But, why did you come at this hour?”

“Be-because we are n-not allowed to be here at the day t-time while working and I don’t have any free time to read b-books.” To her the response did not make sense at all but looking at Ethan’s face, she knew he believed it. He shook his head up and down slightly and hummed in response.

“W-why are you here? I-I mean aren’t you sleepy?” She questioned politely.

He took a seat on one of the chairs that were situated around the library. He offered her to do the same and she obeyed. “I cannot sleep at night usually, that’s why I was downstairs getting myself something to eat.”

“Oh.” She replied. “D-do you want me to make you something to eat?” She offered. It was her job anyway, even if it was 2 a. m. He gladly accepted her offer and escorted her to the kitchen. Emma looked at the fridge to see if there was any grocery left and thankfully she found some chicken slices and vegetables. She asked Ethan if he would like salad and he said yes.

She was cutting the fresh vegetables while Ethan talked to her, he was sitting on the chair behind her and watched her cook for him. She was so beautiful, even in her normal clothes she looked stunning. Her face would slightly light up every time she would smile at his jokes or comments, and the tint of blush that touches her cheekbones made her look even more beautiful.

Ethan decided to help her prepare the salad, the book was done cutting the vegetables and were cooking the chicken pieces. He made her smile and laugh, something she had forgotten to do. It was rare for her to smile like this, but she agreed Ethan was a funny man. After the salad was prepared, she took out a nice white plate with a floral pattern around it and placed it on the table with a fork and knife. She served him the salad along with the chicken pieces and a glass of orange juice on the side. That pretty much shocked her, because she had only seen her master drinking either wine or just plain water primarily. However, she made it enough so Ethan offered her to eat with him.

“N-no si- I mean Ethan. I am not hungry.”

“I insist Emma, look we made enough salad, come on please.” She gave in to his request. He had the talent of persuading somebody with his adorable puppy blue eyes. She smiled gently and sat on the chair in front of him. They both talked and ate together. Like old friends.

Friends.Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

Emma was getting the wisdom of having friends.