Superfluous Happy Life Chapter 1 'I, Elamar' (unfinished)
I, Elamar
To whomever it may concern; I; Elamar Mortrinaet, Prince of A’nderi’k, hereby detail the events of the fall of Tri-Earth, and the Kingdom of A’nderi’k, through my own experiences.
It all happened so fast. We were all surprised. The people, the noblemen, the knights, everyone. I mean .. we all saw it coming. It just surprised us all by how fast things deteriorated, and then escalated from there on.
It all began with a shadow and a politician. A charming one, he was. He said all the right things to all the right people. He knew exactly which buttons to press, where to press them, and when to press them for maximum effect. He was a genius disguised as a talk-happy buffoon. A well-dressed, oddly shaped, square-headed politician, and in his shadow; as always; the man who funded the insanity. Equally eccentric, if not more. The wealthiest man in the land, and sporting an even more disturbing appearance. They lied, cheated and bribed their way to the top of the social hierarchy, for all to see. And, somehow; their tactics worked. Somehow, though many still question how, they appealed to the masses. Horrified, all the people of the land watched as our people voted these two oddly shaped manipulators to take hold of the strongest, and once the most honourable, Kingdom in the land of Tri-Earth; A’nderi’k.
I remember it still, the time before. How peaceful it was. The forests and fields were all lush and green, with vibrant colors everywhere. Hills adorned with flowers on all sides of the castle town of A’nderi’k. I was found at the gates of the town when I was a mere three years old. It is where I was adopted by the rulers of the town, the Mortrinaets, who would then create the Laws of Abundance within days of my adoption. A law, with quite the peculiar origin story. A law which made sure not one person would have more, or less, than the next. Not even the King or Queen. At first the people were disagreeable. The noblemen more so than any other, as they felt they had to give up the most. First and foremost, their titles and wealth. Some of them tried to enact an uprising by offering wealth to the poor, others fled the town looking to gather their riches elsewhere. In the end, it all did work out, and all did their part. The impressive consequence of the Law, however, was the motivation it gave the people once all was truly and well explained to them, and understood by them. The poor, who never had a dime, could suddenly have the wealth of what once was a nobleman, and the noblemen could in theory keep their wealth, or become even richer still; so long as all worked equally hard and as one, and so long as profits and productivity rose even more so that all could receive an even bigger share. A’nderi’k grew from a small mountain village into a large and open Kingdom of peace. Not even walls were set up to ward off enemies, for A’nderi’k only saw allies. I watched it grow with my very own eyes. People came from far and wide, and before my teenage years had even finished; we already were the largest and most thriving Kingdom in all of Tri-Earth. Impressed by the prosperity of A’nderi’k; but most of all that they had accomplished this all without any bloodshed; all of Tri-Earth soon proclaimed A’nderi’k as the new Capital of Tri-Earth and all adopted the Laws of Abundance for themselves, and the land prospered as it never had before .. until the shadows came. Though, none but a handful of my most trusted friends would ever believe you if you repeated what I said next.
Past midnight, on the night of my sixteenth birthday, I laid restless in bed. After tossing and turning for several hours, I decided to take a stroll through the castle. If only I had stayed in bed that night.. As I walked out of the hallway, I heard a strange sound. I assumed it was father or mother, because I could see a dim light coming from around the corner, where father liked to read his books by the open fireplace. I crossed the hall, went around the corner and as I wanted to walk inside of the room my foot froze, in mid-air. It was .. upsetting. I tried to push it down, but nothing happened. I wanted to yell out, but no sound came from my mouth. I tried to grasp at my throat, but my arms wouldn’t move. It was .. very upsetting. Then I heard that strange sound again. I still can’t quite explain it, even after all of this time. But whatever it was, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. I tried to look up, peer into the room. But I could barely make out a chair and a table in the dimming light. The fire in the fireplace was dying out. Then I saw my father grab a book from the chair, and take a seat, while my mother quickly followed and sat on his lap. They were giggling, I felt uncomfortable watching it, so I looked away. Maybe for the best.. Because moments later I heard my mother scream and immediately looked up, but it had already happened. My mother laid on the floor, in front of the fireplace, her throat slit deeply, down to the neckbone; while a shadowy figure had impaled my father through his chair and was staring right at me, with glowing red eyes. A shadowy figure in the shape of a man .. He looked so familiar.. But before I could take in this haunting figure, someone had snuck up on me from behind and knocked me out cold. When I came to, the next day, at midday, my parents were strutting around, as if nothing had happened the day before. I feared that I was going mad, had I dreamed it all? But it felt so real, and if it isn’t, then where did this bump on my head come from? I needed answers, but I couldn’t find any. The castle felt deserted. Later that day I learned that my parents had decided to abolish the Kingdom, and instead make it a democracy, and created a new profession they would call ‘politician’ and simply gave these “politicians’ power over everything, even the law. The word ‘politician’ still gives me the heebie-jeebies. My parents withdrew from public view, and my own. They renounced the tasks mandated by thrones and crowns and from then on only appeared on holidays, or other events. Standing at the highest window of the tallest tower of the castle, waving at their subjects. Barely even distinguishable from the ground if it truly was them. Which they couldn’t be, right? They were murdered! By a shadow! .. Oh God, I sound insane, don’t I? Just questions and more questions, never any answers, and before I could even find any answers, I was sent away from the castle and sent to an orphanage instead, though the politicians called it a ‘home for lost children’, and then things just kept escalating and deteriorating from there on. The politicians created a law they called ‘The Re-establishing Order Act’. Which outlawed all former poor people, all those who were referred to as ‘peasants’ or ‘commoners’ before the Laws of Abundance. Their wealth, belongings and houses were taken from them. The first ones they used as slaves to build massive walls around the city. Once the walls were finished, they gave the poor a choice. Twenty years in prison and then slavery, or to live freely, but in the harsh wilderness outside of the walls. Where the lush greens had traded places with a gray and dead wasteland. Most chose to live outside of the town walls, of course, and were thrown broken pieces of wood and tree bark from the top of the walls so that they might build their own shelter, and that they did. They build their own little town from the rubble and waste the city discarded over the walls. “See it as our final act of kindness”, they had told them all.
The ‘Home for Lost Children’ was located in this newly constructed town. The politicians called it ‘Superfluous’. No one really knew what the word meant, except for the politicians who always giggled when they said it. Insult upon injury. By the time I was old enough to leave the ‘home for lost children’, most other nations had followed A’nderi’k’s example. When their power grew, so did their shadows, and out of the shadows came two figures who would take control of A’nderi’k, and once they had taken hold of the capital, all of Tri-Earth followed next. Soon all forms of shelter, philanthropy, help, socialism and the like were outlawed, punishable with a lifelong sentence in the darkest, wettest, prisons they had. The adults fled Superfluous. Sadly the same was true for the orphanage. Our caretakers, if you could call them that, had all left before I even turned eighteen, leaving me as the eldest to take care of everyone else there, and the burden of their survival and safety.
‘The Superfluous Quintet’, we called ourselves. Though, we didn’t start out as a quintet. We were many, once upon a time. When the adults were still with us, there were seventy children, fifty five of us were orphans, and ten adults, a group of eighty in total. We also had three elderly couples and a widowed woman who lived down the street, who often came by to help look after all of the children. We would cook and eat together. Most of the Backstreets in Superfluous was made up of just the orphans, our caretakers and their own children. We had a whole neighbourhood all to ourselves, and even though I used to be the Prince, I think that may have been the most free I have ever felt in my whole life. One day, Charles, who had been sent to the store as the eldest at the time, came running home, sweating profusely. His black hair sticking to his face. I remember the panic in Marjorie’s eyes, at first; our head caretaker. But Charles quickly raised his hand and assured her that it wasn’t "anything profoundly terrible”. Which made Marjorie relax instantly, which made everyone else relax, and then he grabbed her hand, took her outside. Curious as I always am, I followed them, from a distance of course. I was born with a natural sense of stealthyness, a gift I was putting to good use. Charles took Marjorie all the way to the other side of the street, I followed them up to the big old oak tree that stood at the side of the street, and climbed it as fast and quiet as I could. I looked for one of the bigger, and thicker branches that almost reached to the other side of the tree, and crossed paths with a thick branch from the tree on the other side; this was not my first time doing this, of course. When I reached the other side, and climbed down the tree, I quickly moved behind a wagon and snuck up close enough to just barely make out the words they were whispering to each other.
“Are you sure?”, I heard Marjorie ask Charles, she sounded terrified, and then asked him again. “Are you absolutely sure?”. My heart was racing, and I had no idea why. I wanted to know what they were talking about, but at the same time I had this gnawing feeling that something terrible was about to happen.
“Yeah, I’m definitely, positively, absolutely sure about this. There was no one, not a soul”, Charles answered before I could plug my ears, now I was even more intrigued, Who wasn’t there, and where is ‘there’? What was he talking about? I wanted to know. “Oh, except for that old man”, I heard Charles mumble.
“What old man?”, Marjorie asked the right question.
“Well, he said he was from County One, said that all the trees started dying, so everyone started moving to County Two, but then he said it happened there as well; and when they wanted to go to 3rd County it was already happening there as well. So, he says, the old man says that the leaders all came together and they all just left Superfluous. He said that he decided to stay because he was too old, but said he was regretting it now, was looking for people to go with, and then asked me, and that’s when the bandits came”.
I remember what Charles said word for word, because everything changed for me the day I discovered the truth. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it saved us.
“Bandits?”, I heard Marjorie ask. “And they’re coming this way”, I remember it still, the moment he said those words. My heart stopped for a whole second. They used to tell us stories about bandits to make sure we’d be home before dark, but we all knew that they were just stories. Until now.
“They shot the old man, right in front of me, five arrows, right in his face!”, Charles said quite loudly.
“SHHHH!”, Marjorie shushed him. “And so you thought to lead them here?”, she asked him.
“Well, what else was I supposed to do?”, he asked her.
“You could’ve thought of the kids”, Marjorie replied angrily. If only she knew one of the kids was listening, and it just happened to be the one with the biggest mouth on him..
“What should we do?”, Charles asked Marjorie. “They know where we live”, he said panicked, and I panicked. Almost loud enough that they heard me, but luckily a rat just happened to swivel by to take the blame of the strange noise they’d just heard.
“Yes, and how do they know where we live, Charles!?”, Marjorie asked Charles, I took a peak and she was shaking Charles, “Because you … you led them here!”, she yelled at him.
“I .. I .. I had to come home .. I .. I”.
I suddenly lost all respect I had for Charles, whom I had seen as the bravest of us all. Leading us through many dangerous situations, all made up of course. But now that real danger comes knocking, he just opens the door and puts everyone at risk? I was shaking with rage, and it would only get worse.
“You have to lead them away from here”, Marjorie said. “You’re the oldest, and you led them here, now you’re gonna make sure they stay away long enough, so we can escape from here”, she sounded angry.
“You want me to sacrifice myself?”, Charles asked, who had grown angry as well.
“It’s the least you can do after putting all of our lives in danger because you’re a coward”. I was baffled. I’d never heard Marjorie talk like that, not even in that tone. She no longer sounded angry. She sounded .. evil. My anger had traded places with fear. I felt the moment had come to retreat, and I carefully made my move back towards the tree, but not before I heard her say the words; “You won’t be the only sacrifice today”, it chilled me to the bone. But before I could even process the words, Marjorie wanted to cross the road. In a panic I crawled under the wagon, rather than behind it.
“Aren’t you leaving?”, Marjorie had stopped in the middle of the road.
“I need a minute to think, then I’ll go, don’t worry”, Charles said softly, even I could barely hear him and I sat closest to him.
“Good”, Marjorie said. She turned around and I noticed her glance rested upon the wagon I was crouched under, but only for a second.
“Yeah, good”, Charles mumbled to himself as Marjorie stepped back into the house. A whole minute went by, or at least, that’s how long it felt, when suddenly a hand reached down the wagon and pulled me from under it.
“How much did you hear!?”, Charles had pressed me against a tree. “How much did you hear, Elamar?”. I was afraid. Even if I’d lost respect for him, he was still the oldest, the biggest, the strongest. Of course he would be afraid of bandits with bows and arrows, but I’m not a bandit, nor do I have a bow and arrow. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry”, was all I managed to say. Fear stopped me from thinking straight. Tears started flowing from my eyes.
“Oh, no .. Elamar.. Come on, man. You’re already seventeen.. This shouldn’t scare you like this ..”, Charles said, utterly disappointed. It broke me in tiny little pieces. “Come on, it’s okay”, he grabbed me by my shoulders and spoke to me as if I was a child, and who could blame him as I stood there, sobbing like one. Charles sighed and then just left me there, “Just .. just don’t tell anyone what you heard, okay?”, were the last words he told me, and all I could do was watch him walk until he turned the corner, he didn’t look behind him once. I felt abandoned, again. I wiped my face clean and got ready to go back inside, when the front door swung open and Phil left the house, he was Marjorie’s husband, quickly followed by every other adult who lived in the house, as well their own children. Marjorie was the last to leave the house, hushing everyone. Phil, with Max and Jack, two of the other caretakers, had taken the horses from the stables and were moving towards the wagon. I contemplated my options quickly. I could confront them, ask them why they hadn’t brought along any of the orphans with them, but then I remembered Marjorie’s words. “You won’t be the only sacrifice tonight”, and I decided my safest bet was to climb back under the parked wagon. I watched how they put the kids and the elderly in their own wagon, along with their luggage, and then they left, headed in the opposite way of Charles. I didn’t wait until I saw them pass the corner. But before I could climb down, I heard footsteps and I froze. They sounded louder and closer by the second, I was too afraid to look up, too afraid to see who it was, too afraid that they might be the very bandits that were coming. Too afraid that they might see me. The running stopped just under the tree, and then they walked towards the house, I gathered my courage and looked, but I was too late, he’d already entered the house, all I could see was a foot. Not even ten minutes later the door opened again, it was Charles, I was filled with joy, he came to save us all. Only .. he didn’t. Followed right after Charles were all of the oldest kids. Charles was urging them to move quickly, they all passed under the tree.
“I don’t think I’m comfortable with leaving the little ones like that”, Molly said.
“Me either”, Isabella agreed.
“You didn’t even tell us anything”, Soraia said, I was madly in love with Soraia. Until this day, until this moment. “It’s not that I mind leaving these losers behind, but where are we going and who are we running from? Where are the adults?”, with each word she said, she grew more grotesque in my eyes.
“You can’t be serious, can you, Soraia?”, Jackson asked, he was my best friend. “I’m staying”, he stood his ground firmly.
“Then why did you leave the house?”, Soraia asked him.
“I didn’t want to make a scene inside and wake the littles”, Jackson replied to the new witch in town.
“We’re staying too”, Molly and Isabella said, they were the oldest after Charles.
“Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck is going on here, but I’m going back to bed”, Ishal said, he was the joker of the group.
“Fine, you can all die with the rest of the useless ones”, Charles growled, “We’re leaving”, he growled at the others, who all sheepishly afraid followed their wolf in sheep's clothing. They followed the direction the adults had left in, only to turn at a different corner. Following behind him were thirty-four teens.
“There’s only twenty of us left now”, I heard Jackson say, which hurt, because he forgot to count me. Why do they always forget to count me? I decided I could no longer stay hidden, “Dude, aren’t you forgetting someone?”, I asked my best friend from under the wagon
