Untold Knowledge (Book 1)

__Then__

“Stop it Pierce!” Loren said in a rather angry voice, as Pierce yet again hit his brother in the back of the head when he turned around. Loren’s violet-colored eyes got darker as he looked at his light-haired sibling. You could almost feel his annoyance at his brother like he infected the air around him.

“Do it again and I’ll hurt you.” Pierce came at him with a mocking smile. Loren punched him hard in the stomach. Pierce gripped his stomach in pain, that had been a really hard hit for someone so young. Though they were close in age.

“Ouch!” Pierce said feeling a little winded. “I was just playing around.” He found it a bit hard to breathe.

“I warned you,” Loren said with a smug smile and moved over to Tristan who was currently absorbed in watching the world go by. Tristan was only three at the moment, but he was a rather content child and very calm. Even at this age there just seemed to be more behind his eyes. An old soul trapped in youth. He already had a large vocabulary even at three years old. There was no doubt that Tristan was a quick learner.

Pierce just gave Loren’s back a nasty look and moved over to two other boys, both with brown-black colored hair. They clearly looked like they were planning something. Troublemakers like Pierce. Loren sat next to Tristan in the grass. To the boys the day was unremarkable. None of them were aware in the slightest that darkness was looming.

“Want to play a game?” Loren asked and Tristan gave a nod. They got up and Loren pointed to a tree not far away.

“Race you,” They were in what looked almost like a small field ringed with trees, and back behind them was a large two-story house. Elegant in appearance and clearly a well-to-do family live in it. Currently their family.

Pierce looked at his two younger brothers and then moved over to the two boys in front of him, his older twin brothers were talking about taking a stroll into the wooded area not far away. That was if their eldest brother Valarius didn’t catch them first.

Valarius was in charge of them most of the time and he had his hands full trying to keep his seven younger brothers in line. Their father wasn’t exactly a loving man, and definitely had rules. Really strange rules sometimes. Valarius tried to remind them to abide by those rules or face punishment. The twins just couldn’t ever seem to help themselves. Pierce wasn't going to miss a chance to instigate either.

“He’ll catch you,” Pierce said to their glances over toward their eldest brother, who was also with their second oldest Raven. Half the time it felt like Valrius could read their minds. Then again taking care of seven younger brothers you learned things. Pierce moved sitting down and spoke with confidence in his tone.

“He always knows what the two of you are thinking,” Pierce warned.

“Probably, but that is the fun part,” Zoren said the younger twin by only a few minutes.

“Done making Loren angry?” Xavier asked his ice blue eyes looking at Pierce, clearly annoyed at Pierce having picked on Loren.

“Yeah,” he said rubbing his stomach. “He hits harder every time.” Even though he didn’t like getting punched, he had a kind of pride in his younger brother not letting others push him around and sticking up for himself.

Pierce felt like it was his duty to be sure that they could protect themselves, that the ones younger than him learned to not be pushed around. He took that page from Valarius as he always stood up for them. Pierce definitely looked up to his eldest. He’d never admit that though.

“Why do you pick at him so much?” Zoren asked looking at the two now running toward the large tree not far from them. Their sound of laughter came to them, Loren having beaten Tristan by a few steps.

“I don’t know it’s just fun, he doesn’t get as angry as you two do when I hit you. You two have tempers like dad,” Pierce said.

“That’s because you’re annoying,” Xavier said looking over at the distant woods. There was a kind of longing there, and a sneaky look as well.

“I know,” Pierce said and then smacked them both in the back of the head before running for it. Pierce gave a triumphant call as he took off with a fast pace. The twins shouted at him and then ran after him, if they caught him they’d pulverize him. He made it to the tree not far away and scampered up it. He was fast and efficient going up the tree, a practiced hand, clearly good at such things

“Get back down here you turd!” Xavier shouted, out of all his brothers Xavier’s temper was the shortest, his face was even a little red.

“I’ll get him and throw him down, try not to break his fall,” Zoren said to his twin. They both smiled at each other before Zoren started up the tree. He only got a few steps up when a voice sounded behind him.

“Just leave him there. Hopefully, a raptor will come and eat him.” It was Valarius who spoke. Their oldest brother had black hair, their second oldest stood next to him with the same black hair, but where Valarius had green eyes Raven had such dark brown eyes they almost appeared black too. Clearly, the two eldest had taken note of their younger brothers and what they were doing.

“I’m too big for a raptor to eat me,” Pierce said with a roll of his eyes from the branches above them.

“Pierce, could you try and be normal for one day? Could you try to not do something that gets us in trouble?” Raven asked from below looking up at his lightest haired brother.

“I can’t help it, I was born this way,” he said looking down at his older brothers. “Besides they’re such easy targets.” Xavier started up the tree this time and stopped when crying came to them, all of them looked over where a woman sat with their youngest brother. It stopped them because one of them might have to do something to help. This day and age it was you and your family, no electricity, no help if you didn't do it yourself.

“Is she going to see to him?” Raven asked looking at their mother sitting next to Orin who lay crying softly on a blanket. His cries started to get louder but their mother didn’t even look at him. The sound of his cries started to pull at them to move toward him.

None of them were sure what to do about their mother, about the fact she ignored them. Most of the time she seemed to be in a far-off place. The boys had learned to not rely on their parents, to follow the rules their father set, and to stay together.

“Mother,” Valarius said in a loud voice, still she didn’t move. It wasn’t uncommon for her to ignore the cries of their youngest sibling. Like he wasn’t there, and she was clearly gone again. Where was it she went in that head of hers?

“Mother!” He shouted again, “Mother!” He said even louder, Pierce landed next to them in a crouch. She looked over at them and then down at the child next to her like she was seeing him for the first time. She didn’t move to take him and he started to cry even harder. She seemed completely out of touch with the world, like reality was far to much effort for her. She clasped her hands ontop of her skirt and looked out into the fields again.

Valarius looked down at the ground, a bit defeated, and started to walk back over to his mother. Xavier crossed his arms looking a bit angry, Zoren had the same look but his hands in his pockets. It was extremely hard to tell them apart they looked so much alike.

“Did she do that to us?” Xavier asked Raven as Valarius walked over to her.

“Not as bad as she does it to Orin,” Raven said. “But I was barely two so I can’t remember all that well.” Raven looked over to where Loren was coming to walk over to their crying brother. Tristan simply sat not far away watching.

“Mom, Orin is hungry,” Valarius said to their mother, she looked up at him with a kind of blank stare that she always seemed to have. It’s what she gave most her children most times, all but Loren, for some reason he could calm her down.

“Mom, Orin needs you,” Loren said picking up their youngest to help the one-year-old move closer. She took him and looked at Loren who touched her arm. She looked close to tears while she looked at Loren, but after a moment she pulled a blanket to her and shifted Orin to feed him. The brothers looked away moving slightly feeling like their mother should really take him inside, but all of them also felt a kind of abandoned for a moment looking at their mother.

“We have talked about this negligence to the boys have we not?” The sudden deep voice startled them. The two next to their mother looked up at the man standing there now.

Their father always seemed to come from nowhere, and several of them were pretty sure he did. There one minute and gone the next, he always knew where they were too, and could find them easily. Yet he never really did anything with them, barely spoke to them, other than to reprimand if they got out of line and he was there. They knew something was different about their father, he wasn’t normal, wasn’t normal how most people were. He could do things, things that normal people shouldn’t be able to do. Though they tended to ignore it out of fear.

“Of course Nathanial,” She said in a quiet voice. Nathanial had dark hair and black eyes, he looked at his oldest son and then to Loren. He always looked at them with a kind of indifference, he never showed them much kindness just saw that their needs were met.

They had yet to see their father really express any true emotion it was like he was a void inside. Not even when others shouted at him, or even attacked him out of anger. He seemed to feel nothing and dealt with those in the town with the same indifference he seemed to treat his family. Almost like he could not feel. Their father ran this town it seemed.

“Good, I wouldn’t want something to happen to one of them because you were careless in your duty as a mother.” He looked at the other boys near the tree. Raven had moved over to get Tristan and walked with him back to his other brothers. Valarius was watching his father and thought that perhaps for one second he looked defeated. But it had to be a trick of the light because he looked intimidating and powerful the next.

“Remember how you said you’d give anything to have a perfect life? Perfect health, never have to worry about dying?” Nathanial said looking down at the top of Abigail’s blonde head. She winced a little and both Loren and Valarius looked up at him confused but he didn’t even acknowledge their presence. He almost sounded disgusted with her wants and desires, but his eyes gave nothing away.

“I didn’t mean the way they plan to do it,” she said. “You’re an evil man and god will send you to hell.”

“I gave up on God the day I was stripped of the one thing no one should be able to take. God abandoned us all a long time ago,” He said. Valarius looked at his father this was rather upsetting to hear. Why did his father say such things that would make a priest cross himself if he heard? His father didn’t believe in god?

“Boys, it’s time to get inside. You are to get ready, we will have visitors shortly.” Nathanial turned and left them walking away toward the large house. It was a beautiful colonial-style home, mostly white with a great number of windows and there were a few servants moving about the outside cleaning and working the grounds.

“Come on,” Valarius called to them and they started to follow him and Loren who moved toward the house. Orin had part of his thumb in his mouth and laid his head against Valarius’s shoulder. He looked ready for a nap, Valarius had picked him up after their father started to walk away. Their mother was done with him and had set him back down looking away, lost in her mind again.

The boys walked and Valarius glanced back at their mother who seemed to be taking her time to follow. She was staring off toward the trees. Loren was looking at the ground and spoke in a low voice.

“I don’t like this Val,” he said still looking at the ground. Loren had said that a few times in the past week. Gave nervous gestures and comments. Loren had always seemed to be rather sensitive, instinctually knowing things. Valarius always chalked it up to him being an observant child.

“What don’t you like?” Valarius asked.

“I feel bad inside, real bad. You know like right before you’re sick everywhere.” His young voice sounded sad and upset. “I just have a bad feeling. I don’t want to die.” Valarius looked at him with a puzzled frown. Loren was five and he was twelve, neither of them should be thinking of death. Valarius didn’t think he was ever going to get Loren’s imagination, because it sure wasn’t like any normal child sometimes.

“Why would you think that? You aren’t going to die.” He glanced at him, his violet eyes looking more than sad now.

“I saw the lady, I saw her and she gives us to the dark man. Dad was there too,” Loren said. Valarius didn’t like what he was saying. The others were still a distance back and seemed to be badgering Raven at the moment as to why they had to come in now, in the middle of the day. Why did dad care if others saw them, wasn’t he just going to make them stay in their rooms?

“Dark man?”

“Yeah, he has this horrible smile. Like he enjoys the pain he causes others, he scares me more than dad.” Their father was pretty much the law in this town, he ran it. He was judge, jury, and executioner, and everyone knew that he wasn’t fair, but everyone was so terrified of him and his supporters in the town that none of them did anything to stop him. So if there was something worse than him, then it had to be bad.

“Where did you see him?” Valarius asked humoring him and thinking of the best way to get Loren to not look so pale.

“While I was sleeping,” Loren said in a quieter tone. His gaze was at the ground and a tinge to his cheeks as he told his older brother. Valarius took a breath and reminded himself that Loren liked talk about his dreams a lot. Some of them dark and some of them nice, problem was he didn’t seem able to get that dreams were dreams. He tried to not get too irritated with him.

“You can’t think that dreams are real Loren.” His brother’s shoulders slumped.

“I know,” he said sounding dejected that his brother didn’t believe him. “But it was so real, she had the brightest gold hair and red lips, and the man had black hair and black eyes, solid black eyes Val. It scared me so bad, I didn’t go back to sleep last night.” He didn’t know what to tell him other than it was a dream. Sadly if Valarius had known then what he knew now, he'd have listened.

They entered the house and the others came up right behind them, they moved inside and looked at how dark the interior was, not that the house wasn’t always dark but this time it just seemed darker and the way that it was set up as they moved into the large gathering room said that people were coming.

“I don’t like this,” Loren said quietly, Val just put a hand on his younger brother. Yes it was odd that the house was so dark, why were the shades drawn? It was a beautiful day outside.

“Yeah, it smells bad,” Xavier commented and Zoren gave a nod of agreement. Valarius had to agree, all the chairs in the room were either pushed to the walls or gone. It had been like that one time for a dance party but this didn’t look like that. The windows had heavy drapes on them, it hadn’t been like that this morning. A few servants moved around cleaning and moving things, they gave them a nod and kept their gaze lower than theirs.

“Boys!” Came their father’s voice and they moved toward it, into the large entrance way, their father stood on the grand staircase that faced the doors. Their mother was behind him and he held her by the arm to stop her from running off. Wait hadn't she just been outside? Valarius was unnerved.

“Yes Father?” Several of them said together.

“Get to your rooms and get dressed, formally. You’re to stay there until you are called.” He looked at Valarius. “Make sure they stay there.” With that, he turned and took their mother up the stairs with a forceful jerk of her arm. She just let him pull her along.

Valarius gave a head gesture and the others filed up in front of him, the twins rather grumpily, little Tristan just looked to the door and then down the hall again.

“Pa,” Tristan said with a sigh, then looked at the hall. “People.”

“Yes, people are coming.” Tristan shook his little head.

“No normal. No normal.” He looked at him his young eyes trying to get something across to him. To Valarius it felt like all their minds were sliding into a darker place, and he didn’t like it at all. Valarius just looked up at Loren who was walking with a rather sullen appearance. Pierce was next to him and asking him what was wrong, slinging an arm around him.

That made Valarius smile, Pierce was annoying and constantly caused trouble but he was always right there if one of them was having a bad day. Wanting to make sure that they were okay and didn’t need anything. The moment Pierce was sure that they didn’t need anything he was back to being annoying to them.

They moved up the stairs and to the left, where their parents had gone right. This part of the house had nine different doors. The boys moved to do as they were told. None of them knew this was the last time they would ever enjoy a day outside. That dangerous beings had a hold on their family. Their childhood was about to end in a horrible way.