Welcome to Monday Redux
Chapter Three
© 2009.07.27 ChaoticWorks.com

It was one of those cold, miserable rainy days where it's so cold, and the rain is coming down so hard, that unless it's a matter of life or death, you don't want to go out in it. It was the sort of day that was perfect to just stay in bed and sleep, watch TV or read a book. Unless you were an 8 year old boy. Being stuck inside for a whole day was just about the worse thing that could happen to you. Five days a week there was school, which was a nicer place to be than home considering the new lodger that had come to stay months ago. Trago had managed to avoid most of the focus of Phaeton's rage and temper when it came out, and that was frequently, but being stuck in the house now for the entire Saturday with the potential madman, was not going to be fun. Before, on a day like this, his mother would have taken him to the library, or a book store, or a museum, but not now. If she wasn't at work, or cooking dinner, or cleaning around the apartment, she was taking care of Him. He, Phaeton would yell at her to come and feed him, or take him for a walk outside, or the worse thing yet, he would take her into the bed room for what he called the "Mommy and Daddy Game." Trago would run and hid under his bed and cover his ears when they played this game. To him, it didn't sound like a fun game at all, but more like a fight.

When he sighed as he looked out of the window, his breath fogged up the glass in front of him. Trago looked at the fog, and wrote, "Help!" on the glass, then as it cooled, he watched the word vanish, along with the hope that someone one come and help. He doubted anyone could. He knew Phaeton could not see very well, but he always knew were everyone was in the room. Trago could never figure out how he did that, unless he was lying about being blind. He didn't trust that man at all, so he figured that's what it was. He wished he would go away one day and never come back, or he wished he would die somehow. Trago had the feeling he wouldn't die however, he was too mean. When he grew tired of looking out the window at the rain, and the puddles and the cars going by in the rain, he turned and decided to go to the kitchen for a banana, then go into his room to play. Mom was sleeping, and he hadn't seen Phaeton since very early in the morning, so he supposed they were in her room together. It was quiet in the house except for the radio in the kitchen, so he hoped that meant that everything was OK.

Trago went into the kitchen and took a banana from the basket in the middle of the table and cracked the peel open. He took a large bite of it, then decided a cookie might be good too. He went to the counter and reached up and felt around until he found the plate there. He pulled off one of the chocolate chip cookies he had helped his mother bake the night before and put it into his pocket for later. After finishing the banana, he threw away the peel and went down the hall toward his room. As he passed the bathroom, he glanced in there, and let out a scream of fright as Phaeton lunged out of the room, grabbed him around the ribs and lifted him high up into the air.

"Ahahahahahahaha!" he laughed like a crazy man, and Trago was too scared to scream. His heart was pounding in his chest and he felt dizzy. "What... are... you... up to boy?" he asked him in that rough, raspy voice of his as he stared at Trago from behind tangled strands of his long dark hair.

"N-nothing! Nothing!" he stammered quickly to the man holding him aloft. "I was just going to my room, I was going into my room. Please... I won't make any noise. I won't." he said as he started a stream of pleas and apologies that he hoped would appease the monster and keep him from getting hit.

"Going into your room to do WHAT?" he inquired and the smile on his face was wide, but it wasn't a friendly smile. Trago shivered. Die! Die! Why wouldn't he just die and go away? "I... I ... don't know, I was .... was going to draw I think...." he said, desperately trying to think of a quiet activity that couldn't possibly disturb Phaeton.

"Draw eh.. Just don't draw on the fucking walls!" he growled, then pulled the boy closer to him, closer than he ever had before. His face was now so close to Phaeton's, their noses almost were touching. "Let me get a good look at you boy." he hissed. "I've never seen you up close. Do you look like your mother or your father?" he growled and locked eyes with the child. Up this close, Phaeton was able to see details of the boy's features that normally were too blurry for his eyes to see. He had a roundish, cherub like face, and a delicate nose and mouth. He recognized that from his mother, he'd seen her up close enough to recall those characteristics. Then he looked deep into the boy's eyes and something tensed in his gut so hard, he thought he was having a heart attack. His eyes. The boy's eyes. The boy had the same oddly colored eyes as he did, as his own father had. Never before had he seen that shade outside of the males in his own family. Phaeton's mouth fell slack as he stared at the teal green eyes looking back into his own. "No.... it can't be...." he gasped, and without warning, he let go of the boy and let him fall back to the ground.

Trago hit the ground with a soft 'thud', but unhurt. He was still trembling and stifled the urge to start to cry. He watched in fear as Phaeton stood there for a moment, he seemed to be confused again, that sometimes happened. He was just standing there, then with a growl, he turned and made his way down the narrow hallway toward his mother's bedroom. "Wake up you!!!" he called out as he approached where she was still sleeping as far as Trago knew. He was afraid for her now, not just himself. When Phaeton was out of sight, Trago scrambled to his feet and headed into his room quickly. He shut the door, which no longer shut quite right since it had been kicked in by Phaeton so many times, then went to his bed and sat there, listening. He could hear voices down the hall, Phaeton's deep, agitated one, and the softer sounding one of his mother. Then Phaeton's got louder, and Trago grabbed his bucket of crayons, his paper and went into his closet to hide. He pulled the door shut and turned on the little lamp he'd brought in there for light.

Before he started to draw, he listened. He couldn't hear anything in there, just the sounds of water running through the pipes in the walls. It was his safe place, and after a minute of nothing happening, he shivered, then looked down at his paper, and began to draw.

"WAKE UP YOU!" Phaeton called again after he'd entered the bedroom he shared with Livina and shut the door closed behind him. He walked to the bed, shimmied out of the robe he was wearing and crawled across the bed to find her just stirring awake. "Wake up!" he bellowed and gripped her by the shoulder and rolled her over onto her back. Livina blinked, still groggy and confused except for the fact that Phaeton was back and wanted sex. "Hello, Phaeton..." she said sleepily and reached her arms up to drape around his neck.

"Not now!" he said knocking her hands aside as he crawled up and laid down atop of her and then glared down at her. His nose was a bare two inches from hers, and she went cross-eyed looking up at him. "WHO is his father?!" he growled at her, his voice more raspy than normal. "WHERE is his father?!" he demanded of her.

"W-who's father?" she asked, still dazed from the sudden wake up and questioning when she was expecting something else entirely from him other than conversation.

"THE BOY! THE FUCKING BOY!" he hissed in her face, his eyes electric with rage. "WHERE is his FATHER?" he roared at her.

Livina swallowed and shook her head. "He's dead. I told you that, I told him..."

"LIAR!" he shouted and as quick as a flash, his hand was on her throat, wrapped around her windpipe and squeezing. "TELL ME...."

"I am! I am!" she replied as tears ran down out of her eyes. "He's dead. He's dead. He's..."

"ME!" he countered and moved his face even closer to her. "I will choke the life out of you and then him if you don't tell me the truth. His eyes! I saw his fuckin' eyes.... He's got my color. My bastard father's color! He's mine! Isn't he?!" he shouted at her and squeezed so hard she cried out.

"Yes! Yes! He's yours. He's my son. He's your son. He's yours." she stammered, and as she was ready to black out, he let go of her throat and pulled back.

"No...." he said and shook his head. "No.... It can't be... He can't be..." he said in a rough voice and slid down off of her, and stood up at the foot of the bed, still shaking his head. "WHY? Why would you do that?!" he demanded. "WHY would you keep it? Why didn't you have it killed?! Why didn't you drown it when it was born? Why didn't you give it away?!" he shot at her in a rapid set of questions. He was stunned, shocked, afraid. "You wouldn't.... You wouldn't keep it if it was mine. WHY would you do that?!"

Livina pushed her self up to a curled up sitting position and shook her head at him. "I couldn't do that. I could never do that. I"m not you... I don't kill." she said quietly as tears continued to run down her cheeks.

"What is WRONG with you?!" he demanded. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" he said over and over and over until he was hoarse, and then wrapped his arms around himself. He was trembling. His mind was spun off of it's gears. He'd never, ever considered this as an event in his life, never. He'd never thought of having children, he'd never tried, he'd never wanted them, he'd never... thought about preventing them.

"Oh God..." he said quietly and continued to walk around in a tiny circle as he muttered to himself in such a soft tone, Livina couldn't make out what he was saying. She moved to the foot of the bed, and sat there, her legs hanging over the edge, just watching him try to process this.

"We don't have to tell him. I won't tell him if that's what you want. I'd never planned on telling him, or you..." she said quietly and that seemed to snap him out of his mental fugue. He lunged at her, and struck her with a body tackle that took them both down horizontal onto the bed once again. Both of his hands were on her throat now.

"NO! Don't speak it and it won't be true! I won't let it be true. It dies with you! The secret dies with you!" he shouted as he started to choke the life out of her. He wanted to erase the facts, erase the truth, erase her, erase the boy, erase it all. It didn't make sense, it shouldn't be. He shouldn't be. The boy shouldn't be. He couldn't be. He didn't want it to continue. He didn't want the madness to continue.

"Phaeton!" she gasped. "He's good. So good. He could be the one...." she fought to keep enough breath to continue to talk, but it was hard. "He could be the one.... good thing you do..." she said, then coughed and felt blackness closing in around her. "He's a good thing... you did..." she forced out and closed her eyes. Her hands were on his shoulders, nails digging into his skin, but he was beyond noticing such minor pain. He wanted it over, to be done, to not have happened to not be true, to not ....

Suddenly, the pressure lifted, and Livina coughed and sat up. She was dazed and looked around the room until she spotted Phaeton laying on his back on the bed beside her. She rubbed at her bruising throat and gasped for air as she watched him. He was on his back, not moving and his arm draped over his eyes. His body was shuddering, and if Livina didn't know better, she would think he was crying. She was shaking herself from the fear and violent reaction he'd had to the revelation about Trago. Deciding it was best she leave, she carefully reached for the robe Phaeton had worn previously and wrapped it around herself before slipping out of the bedroom. She went down the hall and knocked softly on Trago's door. "Baby.... It's mommy... Are you in there?" she called out to the door.

When there was no answer, she opened the door and stepped into the room. Looking around she saw no sign of her son and her gut tensed. What had Phaeton done? Had he hurt the boy? "TRAGO!" she called out urgently, and a moment later, his closet door opened and he peered out cautiously. Livina smiled in relief and went over to crouch down beside him. "What are you doing in there?" she asked and forced herself to sound casual about the question, as if the resident maniac wasn't in the next room having a complete mental meltdown.

"Drawing." he said quietly, and showed her the picture he'd been working on.

"That's great... Can I come in there and draw with you?" she asked with a hopeful smile. Trago looked at her, and looked for signs that Phaeton had hurt her, but he could see none. His smile widened and he shoved a pile of toys and clothes and other boy debris aside to make room for her. Once there was room enough for two, she climbed into the closet, pulled the door shut and picked up a piece of paper and a crayon.

"I have a cookie..." he said and pulled the slightly crumbled cookie out of his pocket and offered it to her. Livina smiled and broke off half. "Share and share alike." she smiled. Trago smiled back and they both nibbled on their halves of the cookie.

In the bedroom, Phaeton was sitting up on the bed now, his legs over the side, his head in his hands. He continued to shake his head from side to side, and mutter to himself. He couldn't handle this. He couldn't deal with it. He couldn't process it, he couldn't accept it. Poison. He was poison. A killer. Worthless. Useless. Nothing. All the words and insults and taunts his father had beaten in to him mentally and physically for years were replaying over and over in his head at full volume. The litany of hate, and pain was making him ill and pain started to spread from his head down throughout his body.

Father meant pain. Father mean failure. Father meant blood. Father meant breaking bones. Father meant despair. Father meant death. Father meant screaming. Father meant hurting. Father meant...

He lunged for the hallway, but only made a step before he dropped to the floor and vomited violently. Everything came up. Even after he'd emptied his stomach, he continued to heave until nothing but bile came up. When that was emptied, he dry heaved until he coughed up blood. His head was spinning so bad, he couldn't stand if he'd wanted to. He looked around the room, dazed, paralyzed, alone with his pain, again. "Why? Why?" he asked the empty room until his brain finally overloaded, his nervous system failed, and he passed out on the floor.

Two hours later, Trago was sound asleep in the closet next to his mother. The warmth and comfort of the room and her presence had relaxed him so much that he'd drifted off to sleep. Carefully she scooped him up into her arms and carried him to his bed. She pulled off his shoes, and left him dressed as she tucked him in, and quietly left the room. He would be down for a nap for a little bit, and that would give her time to return to see what Phaeton was up to, even though the thought of doing that was not welcoming at all.

Livina paused outside of her bedroom door, and listened. No sounds. No talking, yelling, or even snoring. This could be good, or bad. Slowly she opened the door, and looked around. No one on the bed, she looked toward the window, still closed, and then she spotted him sprawled out on his stomach on the floor, his head near what looked like a pool of vomit. "Phaeton..." she sighed and went into the room and quietly closed the door behind her before going to kneel down by his side. Gently she placed her hand on his back and felt his skin. He was warm enough to be alive, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that right then. He was still breathing, and appeared to be asleep as well. She couldn't understand the vomit. Phaeton didn't drink, and everything he'd eaten, they all had and she felt fine and apparently so did Trago.

"Phaeton. Phaeton." she said softly as she gave his shoulder a gentle shake to try to rouse him. "Wake up. Phaeton, get up. You're on the floor." she said and continued to rock him gently until with a grown, a raspy cough and a slight growl, he stirred and turned his head toward the side she was crouched on. "What do you want?" he growled, and blinked as he looked up at her.

"I was wondering if you want to get up off of the floor, or you were enjoying sleeping on the floor in your own puke." she said dryly and stood up and took a step back from him, out of immediate grabbing range.

"What?" he rasped and looked around until he spotted the puddle, and with a disgusted sound, pushed himself up from the floor, then sat back and leaned against the foot of the bed as he brushed his hair back from his face. It was already in need of another trim. "What happened? What happened to me?" he asked and watched her closely as if he was convinced whatever had happened to him was of course her fault.

Livina shrugged and reached for a blanket laid on a chair nearby and tossed it to him in case he wanted to cover up and not sit around naked. Phaeton caught the blanket and after glancing at himself to see if he'd gotten anything on himself, and seeing not, he threw the blanket back to her with a sneer. "What, you don't want to look at me?" he smirked.

"No, it's not that. I thought you might be cold. Don't put it on, I don't care." she said and after tying the belt to the robe around her waist tighter, she went into the bathroom to get a wet rag. When she returned to the bedroom. Phaeton was now sitting on the edge of the bed and watched her mop up the mess with dull interest. There was a strange, tense silence as neither said anything while she cleaned up the mess. After rinsing and discarding of the rag, she returned to the room to start to hunt for clothes to put on. Livina could feel Phaeton's gaze on her back as she dug through the dresser, and finally when she'd collected what she was looking for, she looked over her shoulder at him.

Phaeton was watching her, his eyes narrowed down to where they were almost entirely closed, and his expression was tense. He was either thinking on something very hard, or preparing an attack of some sort. "I want. To know. Why." he said in a quiet and slowly punctuated sort of speech and crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for her reply.

Livina blinked and looked at him for a beat before she turned away again, and slipped on clothing while leaving the robe on for now. She was startled and let out a yell as suddenly the back of the robe was grabbed and pulled off of her. "What are you hiding now?" Phaeton growled and was now standing right next to her.

"Nothing! What would I be hiding from you? I have nothing to hide." she replied, her voice sounding stressed.

"I don't know." he said with a tilt of his head and he moved to stand behind her and slid his hands over her hips and down across her belly as he pressed his body against her from behind. "I think now, you are hiding a lot. No woman, no one would want my fucking spawn, but you kept him..." he whispered as he moved his mouth close to her ear. "Tell. Me. WHY...." he hissed, and tightened the grip of his hands around her waist, pulling her tighter yet against him. Livina trembled and her eyes were shut tight. Her mind was spinning, trying to come up with an answer that would be accepted by him as a truth he would accept, or one that would placate him, after all, it always came down to keeping his rages at bay.