Strange Noises, Bad Awakening

Chapter 1 – Strange Noises, Bad Awakening

The early morning in the town where Duran lived started bright and early at 4 a.m. Usually, it would've, unfortunately, for Duran and his siblings in a shared room. They weren't given that luxury, what with all the awful noises, and worse, it was right above their heads.

BANG! THUD! CREAAAAAK! CREEEAKKKK! BANG! THUMP! THUMP! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! BANG! CREAEEEAAKK! THUD!

The nearest boy to Duran elbowed him in annoyance. "Argggh, what's that all about!" There was no response as Duran turned over and ignored the prodder.

"Be quiet, Lowell. I didn't get more than an hour of sleep before now." Duran's low voice startled everyone.

Lowell didn't care. An angry curse followed a few seconds later. "Duran! Get the hell up and go look!" He shoved Duran half off the bed. "I'm telling you, you need to get up!"

Duran barely managed to stay on the bed. "I should do what and why, again?" He kept a sheet over his lower body from instinct rather than consciousness. "You're not my boss, boy. Don't even think about pulling rank on me. You're only ten years old!"

There were grumbles at that order. Then laughter at Duran's surly retort. Finally, one of the younger boys demanded. "Why should Duran be the one to do it, Lowell?" Duran identified the first one as Sylvester.

Then a second one, Karl, popped up with the further observation of the situation. "Yeah, it isn't as if this is his fault."

Lowell snapped with another complaint. "Brother Andre and sister, Maribel, came home." He slashed a fisted had dangerously close to Duran's face. "That has to be from one of the allotted rooms."

Duran dodged the near blow. That was deliberate. Evidently, Lowell lost his position as a favored son with the older brother's arrival. Therefore, he was taking it out on Duran, who was the official whipping boy of the parents. He rolled his eyes. "Now you figured out they'd arrived?"

Low mutters of the complaint filed the cramped room. "Why'd they have to return now?"

"We almost managed to get back to normal, and this happens."

"Sheesh, are we even going to have a place to sleep in tonight?"

That last question made Duran shake his head. Well, they did have a point.

*

More banging and thudding happened again.

CRAAAACK! Now a dark area appeared in the ceiling.

Sylvester sat with his head in his hands. His ears rang with all the shouting and noise. Fortunately, by keeping his mouth shut, he only had to endure a bit longer before the cowardly Lowell took off.

BANG! More cracks appeared in the ceiling. Plaster fell onto everyone's head that time.

Bingo, Sylvester knew that was the last straw, thankfully.

"Criminy, I'm getting outta here." Lowell yelped. He grabbed his clothing and ran without a glance backward.

The others sat quietly, contemplating the problem. At last, one of the others who'd spoken earlier tentatively said. "Duran, what are you doing...whoa, put some clothes on!" Sylvester winced as he saw what a stray beam of light highlighted. "The last thing we need is a ghost hanging around in here. That'll scare the girls!"

His comment provoked stifled snickers.

"Oh, for the love of deities on high." Not even Duran could sleep through that racket. "What the hell is that noise all about?" He grumbled as he slowly sat up.

"Duran! This isn't the time for being an exhibitionist!" Sylvester complained.

"Looks like he added on more muscle again," Karl murmured. "What do they have you doing out there?" He stared with envy at Duran's shoulders and arms, the muscles of which flexed with each movement Duran made.

He grunted as he attempted to stabilize his position now that Lowell wasn't shoving him around. "Better close your eyes. This may get graphic."

There were snorts. "As if we've not seen anything you've got before," Leonard commented sourly.

Duran paused at the remark. "True, but as Sylvester pointed out, I am the most grotesque one of us all." His matter-of-fact statement made Sylvester wince when Leonard and Karl glowered at him in remonstrance.

Duran sighed. "Just close your eyes so the ****** irises won't get tainted." The thin sheet covering his upper body fell to his waist. Duran pulled it back to his neck at his younger brother's exclamation. "Sorry guys, Sylvester, Karl, I'm not quite awake yet." He was somewhat embarrassed.

Sylvester stared at the appearance of his brother. He knew some people liked the feral, almost exotic appearance of Duran. Sylvester just found it weird. He grunted when Karl growled. "Quit staring at him like that. It's creepy."

"Oh, shut up, Karl, you're no better than I am." Sylvester snapped.

There were more scars than the norm. Duran's disheveled silvery-white hair was now hanging into his eyes below his chin.

A third brother intervened at that point. Duran glanced over when Leonard shook his head. "You're going to need to cut your hair again." He started abruptly. "You also lost the glamor." As Leonard spoke, he pushed darker hair out of his face.

Sylvester snorted. "He's not the only one." He frowned. "I heard that we might have more visitors than usual tonight."

"That's not surprising," Karl remembered. "Mom and dad were having a business meeting out in the barn yesterday."

Leonard, Karl, and Sylvester frowned at one another. Lowell was the only one who hadn't gone in there the previous night. No wonder he was so angry with Duran. Then again, Duran hadn't been allowed inside either. Now, none of them knew what to think about the situation.

*

When were they going to leave him alone? All three would've hightailed it outta there as soon as Duran sat up. Instead, they stared at him as if he was a particularly entertaining freakshow. This was not how Duran enjoyed starting his day. Not only that, but that one bright stray light was beginning to irritate the hell out of him.

"Get outta here. Unless you want to fix that?" Duran pointed upward at the ceiling.

He frowned in aggravation when they didn't budge. This was annoying because none of them were taking his hints to leave.

"When are you planning to leave this place?" Leonard inquired. "I know you are expecting more letters."

Duran shrugged. "No idea. I can only leave if I've received an official acceptance letter confirming my entry or inviting me to finish form assessments."

Sylvester, Karl, and Leonard glanced at one another. "We'll go distract mom and dad." Sylvester and Karl jumped to their feet.

Leonard still sat where he could watch Duran with lifted eyebrows. "You really think you'll only receive rejections?" He tilted his head. "That doesn't seem right."

"What's it to you?" Considering that Leonard was merely a slightly darker version of him with blond hair, dark grey eyes, and somewhat tanned skin. "I already know that you're probably going to replace me soon, so don't be too proud of your clean-cut appearance." Duran wasn't impressed with their excuses about his appearance.

Leonard shrugged. "Just don't forget the glamor. You're not a gargoyle despite what you believe about your appearance." He sighed. "I don't want you getting into more trouble than you already have."

Bullshit, he didn't believe a word that Leonard was saying. now thoroughly annoyed and awake, Duran grunted. "Screw the damn glamor. I'm not wearing it overnight. Besides, soon I'll get out of here." He glowered at them. "Go ahead now and leave." He stared irately at Sylvester and Karl. "Otherwise, you'll see worse than just the scars on my front."

The three boys shuddered. They ran away quickly, even as they pulled clothing on their bodies. Leonard glared over his shoulder and flipped him off. Duran returned the gesture because he was just aggravated enough not to care.

"Finally, some peace," Duran muttered. A sigh escaped him as he stared at the ceiling. "Dammit, they will make me repair that later too." No doubt with magic since it was sturdier than actual materials. Well, that would have to wait until later. There was no way he could do anything about it right now.

A sigh escaped Duran. He dressed and assumed a basic glamor. Since it was merely his siblings and parents, he saw no need to go into an unnecessary waste of power. "That is a waste I don't want to indulge in."

Once Duran washed up in the water closet, he felt better. He also applied ointment to the latest cuts and bruises sustained when the business turned sour.

A sigh escaped him.

"Now onto the usual schedule." Duran was pleased to note that he hadn't wasted much time arguing with his brothers. At least they had the brains to realize he wasn't in the mood for their crap. "Those knuckleheads better stay out of my way for the rest of the day." He completed all his assigned chores, made notes of the times, and started breakfast preparations.

*

Sequestered in a plain whitewashed room with barred windows and no curtains, Andre and Maribel sat huddled in one corner. After all the racket they'd made earlier, the five boys in the room below had left? Andre sighed as he rummaged in the box that he'd broken a chest of drawers to get into.

"That had better be worth this hassle," Maribel growled. "I haven't even looked in on the girls yet."

The two siblings were back at the house for various reasons. Their parents demanded that they show their faces. They also received orders specific to dealing with their parents. Of all that was inside that building, Andre didn't feel anything was worth salvaging, except maybe one or two boys, besides Duran.

He glanced at Maribel. "Found it. They were determined that it wouldn't make it to Duran." A sigh escaped Andre. "Now, we'll have to figure out what to do with the boys and girls here."

Maribel shrugged. "The girls still seem somewhat normal." She frowned. "Though only three of them expressed regret that Duran might leave." She shuddered. "I couldn't believe what Matilda and Dougal did to Duran last night."

Andre felt nauseated. "Yeah, that was downright inhumane." They exchanged glances.

Their parents didn't know how close to death they were. Several empires and countries had huge bounties placed on their heads. Not only that, Andre and Maribel exchanged frowns. Now all of the children were under threat of death because of their relationship with the selfish couple.

"Why couldn't they have just remained under the radar when they were actually honest influential business people?" Maribel grumbled.

Andre shrugged. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say they were possessed by a very nasty demon." He'd looked around the stronghold and the town the previous day.

Maribel's head snapped up, and she looked at him. "Now that you mention that, I was also given some interesting additional information." She showed him the diary that Duran handed over earlier yesterday.

Andre looked at it carefully. "Yes, I remember seeing this one." He cautiously paged through it, and his nose wrinkled occasionally. "Written in blood?" He shook his head. "I suppose at some point it was necessary to record whatever he'd seen, and that was the only medium available."

That type of thing could quickly turn into a curse, though. Troubled with what the diary contents held in hands, Andre sighed, that read of such a horrible thing settled into that small nameless town. "So, there is some power source through which they became this crazily insane, eh?" It also explained why all the bad weather shunted elsewhere for the past twenty to thirty years. "Damn them for this flagrant flaunting of power wastage." His hands clenched at his sides. "Does this tell where the power source is?"

Maribel nodded. "It does. it also details where he managed to crack it." She shuddered. "He almost died doing that. he was only three years old."

Andre winced. "I take it he hasn't done it since."

Maribel shook her head. "It evidently affected some of his mental functions and eyesight. There's no telling what else it did to him on deeper levels."

Andre grunted. "He actually became much physically stronger," He tapped his jaw. "I saw that he maintains a better control over the innate elemental magic he was born with." That wasn't too bad, all things considered.

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