Backbone - Chapter 1 Long bony fingers were tapping on the tabletop in the darkened room. A slow, steady phase that had any racing heart almost choke on themselves at the difficulty of fitting rhythm. Despite the low, steady beat there was nothing to be heard. The room was otherwise silent, even of breathing, because anyone would be afraid to breathe in this person's company. And there were all reason to be afraid. The tapping continued, only to halt to a stop as the sound of someone at the door. The owner of the fingers never turned to look at who it might be. He simply answered. "Yes?" His voice was cold and dark. It told of all the things he could do and never wince even for a second. That he would sleep perfectly sound t night no matter what horrors he had decided to unleash. And he was but a teenager. A grown one so to say, but none the less a teenager. Whoever was at the door cleared their throat before speaking. "You're needed in the dining hall." A deep man's voice choked out in a breath, the man's uncomfortability clear in his shaking voice. The teenaber, still with his back to the door, rolled his eyes and pushed himself around with a hand to the table edge. "And is there any reason why I'm needed? It's Sunday and as much as I recall, weekends was time where I could ignore those ungrateful imbeciles. And that despite the date and occasion." He said in a rapidfire of dissatisfaction and authority. He knew more than anyone that he had the last word over every single person in the manor. So why his parents wanted to see him was a bit of an annoyance and a pest because he knew he had to go, or they might cut a privilege. Not that it would matter, but giving them the idea that they had power was often better than arguing. After all both were very important people. So he rose from his seat and stalked past the guard in the door. He could almost feel the shiver from the large man as he passed him by. A sense of deep rooted satisfaction rushed through him. "Get back to work! I'm not in a good mood right now!" He yelled back at the guard when he was a few steps down the corridor. He could almost see the man jumping in fear and rush off to his assigned duties. Oh the thrill of power. He loved it. And it was not that he was actually in a bad mood as of yet, but he might as well warm the dear creatures. Too high a rate of change of staff might be a bit suspicious even if his parents were these very important people. He walked down the large corridor, down a spiral staircase and down another corridor, entering a door on his right. His expression of boredom and slight annoyance never left his features as his mind roamed after an explanation for this ridiculous summoning. If it could be called so with respective manner. More of a request. The room he stepped into was large and the long table in the middle of the room only had it seem even larger. The tall windows in the opposite side of the room, towered over the table and cast a light, too bright for his personal taste. The floor was clothed in a very expensive carpet from somewhere down south. He was not entirely sure and really did not care all that much. The walls were decorated with paintings by a variety of artists and seemed to compliment the hideous yellow wallpaper. At the end of the table furthest from him were three people situated. The one at the end of the table his dear father; the one behind him, off to the left his dear mother; and the one seated on the side to the right someone he could not care less about. Only his mother had seemed to register his arrival as she waved him closer. As a man of power himself he walked down the right side of the table to stop a few seats away. He was personally rarely in this end of the room as his seat was the opposite end seat of the table, where his father did not have to speak to him and he not speak to his old man. His father looked up as he got close enough to be impossible to ignore. "Alexander." he acknowledged his son. Alexander only gave the man a raised brow before he jumped into the matters. "You needed me because..?" He asked, his voice sharp as a razor and poisonous like snake venom. His father offered him nothing but a glare at his tone of voice. His mother cleared a throat however. "Dear if I may?" She said to her husband in the chair. He gave her a small nod for approval. "Alexander.. Your father and I have decided that you are not well." She began in her sympathy voice. Alexander raised a brow and looked at the woman who was his mother. "And we think you might be of danger to those around you." She still only received a raised brow from her son. "So we have decided, your father and I, that you may need some help." And then Alexander's bored expression dropped and was replaced by a mask of anger and disbelief. "So, what? You're calling me insane is that it? Or are you just pretending so because you wanna get rid of me? It's not my bloody fault those idiot staff, you two hire, are bags of loose screws waiting to burst!" His words were not his, perhaps, usual calm and collected authoritative collection. But he did not feel like he needed to display any authority towards those two people. They knew where he stood and they refused to accept his talents. He glared from his mother to his father, to the man at the table and back. "If there's something you want of me maybe wait until tomorrow and I might have time for your sorry asses." At those words hi father finally gave his son his full attention. "Language son, we have company." He said in a calm voice, eyes doing all the threatening. But it did not touch Alexander the slightest and his father knew that. "Company? Yeah, because you situate company in the dining hall and not your office.. and of course none of your guests are offered tea of whatever else you could possibly think to feed them with and show off through." His eyes were as stern as his father as he looked at the man in front of him. "And don't deny it." Alexander continued with a sugar-sweet, poisonous tone of voice and a sarcastic smile. His father went back to ignoring his son, and Alexander went back to glaring at his mother. He loved the was she cowered in his wake. His father spoke up and had Alexander turn his eyes to the two men at the table. "I suggest you remove him immediately. I do not think it would be safe to keep him around any longer than necessary." He said in a low voice as if to hide his conversation from Alexander. He should know better. Hiding from Alexander was like hiding from air. Impossible. The two proceeded to talk and Alexander continued to stand back, listening in and feeling rage awaken in him more by every syllable. Suddenly his father spoke to him and he gave the man a full fledged death glare. "If you would be so kind as to behave and make less of a mess of this than necessary." Alexander gave his father a last seconds of glare and let his eyes run over the stranger's fearsome face. The man stumbled and stuttered over his own words. "I.. I'm s-sure you'll be back in n-no t-time you friend." He choked out under Alexander's glare. He still had the upper hand, no matter what his father would possibly say. And maybe that was why he did not see the two strong men emerge from a door off to the side and grab his upper arms. "Ow! Watch it you fucking idiot!" Alexander aid loudly at the pain shooting through his arm and down his spinal chord. "Now follow nicely." His father said a hint of a smile in his words. Alexander gave the man a glare and did a small tug in his human restraints. It only gave him another shot of pain down his spinal chord. As his father bent down to sign a few papers, Alexander spoke with the voice that was not just an empty threat and had the room temperature drop drastically, sending a shiver through everyone, especially his father. "You be careful now Richard. I'll come back for you. I'll come back for you and your little wife and I'll make sure you never make another decision again." His eyes never left his fathers, and slowly a small, wicked smile found it's way onto his lips. "Or not on your own at least:" Then he felt the yank from the two large men and felt himself partially stumbling and partially carried out of the room, out of the manor. And he swore that he would be back. "Now you just lay down here and don't restrain yourself too much. The drug will most likely have you a bit disoriented, but it will wear off eventually. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call a nurse and your doctor will be with you shortly." A voice that Alexander did not know said. He felt what could possibly be a bed under him, but it was not his own and this guy talked like he was from a hospital. Alexander was not sure and he was disoriented like hell, but he was not about to rule anything out. This was not the way he had wanted to spend his Sunday. Bloody parents. When Alexander came to he at up and had to close his eyes hard from the harsh light. He let out a small groan and took a moment to adjust his heavy head and his eyes to the light. Slowly he looked up again and found the reason for the bright light. Not only was it not his room but it was white. A factor that would have the light project off the wall much brighter than it probably was. He ran a hand through his light brown hair as his thoughts began to pull themselves together. So his parents had indeed gone through with their little idiocy and now Alexander was stuck.. wherever and his chances of revenge counted on him acting like nothing was wrong. BUt everything was wrong. His parents had lost their minds and had him admitted. Why? Because they were weak and needed someone else to take away their fears. Like children in need of parents in the dark of the night. Alexander looked up as the sound of the door unlocking hit his ears. He glanced at the woman who entered. She offered his a small smile, and he gave her a calculating look in return. He could be friendly, and a pretty young woman was not one to glare at, but he was not about to act friendly already. First his parents needed a little bit of advice on how not to handle their son. "Hi, I'm Stella - your nurse. Anything you need just ask for me." the young woman said in a calm, collected and friendly voice. Alexander gave her a small nod in understanding. "I know you probably have a lot of questions, but you have to save them for the doctor." She offered him another small smile, only to be shot down by Alexander ignoring her completely. "Where am I?" He asked. If he was lucky he could get his ass out of here a lot faster than his dear parents wanted him to. "I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to tell you." She said with a hint of regret in her voice. Alexander only exhaled deeply. So that was the game they were playing. Fine. He could deal with that. "Why'd you come?" He asked and looked at Stella. She faltered a moment and looked like she had completely forgotten why for a second, before she recovered and gave him another smile. "I just came to bring you your dinner. I figured you're not the suicidal type and more the private type so I was allowed to bring you dinner in your cell." She sat the small tray of food onto a small table Alexander had not taken notice of before now. "Thanks." He mumbled. Stella gave him another smile. Was she trying to compensate for something? It seemed that way and Alexander began to like her less and less. She did not seem scared of him either, but that was something to be changed later. Stella turned back to the door and just before she closed it she turned and looked at Alexander. "Don't worry too much about this place. It's quite the home during December." She said in her, now slightly annoying, friendly voice. Then the door closed behind her and the sound of a key turning bounced off the bare white walls. Alexander looked around the room. It was still bright, but now he knew why. Lights were on and it would probably be even brighter in the morning. He grabbed the tray from the table and sat it down in front of him on the bed, legs crossed over each other. He grabbed the fork and began pushing a few peas around on the plate."My parents don't care if it's December." he mumbled as a response to Stella's words. She would never hear them, but she did not need to. Alexander liked the silence better than an answer.