Sitting back in her chair lazily, Mable stared up at the ceiling, biting her fountain pen ever so gently. Since her meeting with her supposed brother, she'd not been able to keep her mind off of it. Mable inhaled lightly and muttered to herself, "Focus, focus, focus. Pondering about meaningless stuff like this won't get me anywhere."
Putting the pen back on the paper, a single drop of black ink slid off and made a little black stain. It's not like he's my actual brother; we've had no photos of him, mother and Charles never speak of him, and all my life there have been no traces of him ever existing. That man was a dumb scumbag that thought he could live the easy life by posing as one of the Crowe family's children.
Mable pressed her hand to her forehead, I still don't get why Charles of all people did all of that. He's a smart man and should know who to trust and not, so why did he say that this Lucian fellow shares our blood? The whole reason I chatted with the man for so long like I was his sister was because I'm not the type of person to be rude and that Charles or mother might scold me at home.
It wasn't like Mable to be distracted like this, her grades were still amazing, but she found herself taking more time to get work done. She knew that if this continued, her productivity would decline exponentially. She needed a definite answer either confirming that this Lucian was her brother or declining that he indeed was not.
Mable put her pen down and held her hand to her temple, "He definitely has a sparking resemblance of features to me. That's just a coincidence though....right?".
Mable wanted to ask her mother or Charles to give an explanation but currently, both were out right now. Charles said he was getting groceries while mother said she had council business to attend to.
Getting up from her wooden chair, Mable decided to grab a book from her shelf to read and clear her head. The shelf had a wide assortment of various different books from fictional novels to ancient history books going back thousands of years.
Picking out a large book on the top right, Mable's eyes lit up with excitement. This book in particular had been only recently discovered and translated into multiple fresh copies, plus it was her favorite book to read. No matter how many times she read it, she just couldn't get enough of it. It felt as though she was solving a mystery that had never been solved, like she was a top tier detective always searching for clues.
The title read "The truth behind a lying world". No one knew about whether the book was fictional or not due to its quite unbelievable tales. It was actually one of the very same books that Lucian read through a bit. Its contents ranged from regular humans being gifted divine abilities from the gods and goddesses to horror stories involving High-grade spirits.
Mable always found every page to be amazing; every story grasped her attention more than anything else. Turning her bed lamp on, she propped herself up against a couple of pillows and began reading comfortably through the many pages.
"Roy Stanester, age 23, black of hair was a young peasant residing within the walls of one of the five great kingdoms, Northfall. Having grown tired of his boring life he decided to go on a wonderful journey. Roy embarked hoping to find the meaning of life and what his purpose was refusing to live his life the way everyone else did. He refused to fall in love, he refused to work for the rich, he refused to take orders, he refused to be controlled within the cycle of mindlessness. "
"While lying under the endless celestials in the sky, Roy had a realization. Humans only had this cycle because they craved comfort, they craved life, and they craved the top of the food chain. It was something one might call disgusting while another might call admirable.
"Through his journey through the endless biomes and elevations, Roy would eventually come across the remains of war. Dead soldiers lay about, blood still flowing from some of their corpses as flames danced carefree spreading like disease. Through this sight, Roy found yet another conclusion as to what humans are. They were a force not of good nor evil, but of endless chaos that would eventually grow to infect this world to the farthest reaches."
"As his endless steps on this world continued, Roy came across the shallow sea spanning infinity. The water was calm and the pebbled shore was inviting so he lay on the welcoming world once again. But what lay above wasn't the bright blue sky, all that showed was an expanse of dark grey clouds spanning as infinitely as the water in front. A bit bored, Roy let his curiosity take control and chose to walk to the end of the shallow sea. He let currents of the water flow gently against his chest and let the flow of the windy air push and pull him.
"Oddly enough, Roy never experienced hunger throughout his journey. It was like he was being maintained by something beyond his being. Ignoring this, he kept walking, and walking, and walking. After half a year of walking, Roy lost his curiosity. It was evident that he may not find anything so for the first time within that sea, he stopped walking and looked back up at the sky once more seeing it once again still cloudy. Usually, one would feel despair when looking up at these dull clouds of the heavens, but Roy wasn't a usual. He didn't feel joy nor sadness, just a loss of interest. He wasn't a god, angel, spirit, demon, or human. He had successfully become neither good nor evil, not even chaos. He'd become an unknown force. He had escaped yin and yang and for this, he was bestowed something from nothing."
"Abilities beyond his wildest comprehension flooded his very being, but the curiosity he lost was gone so he never used a bit of his power. Laying back down, he let the endless water bring him wherever it might take him. For two more years he floated in the waters of the shallow sea until he was washed back ashore onto the welcoming pebbles, although that shore had changed. Houses, docks, barns, farms, and worst of all. Humans bustled about creating chaos once again."
"Roy stared at this, he stared at it for a while. The memories of the first steps on his journey came flooding back into his mind. Hatred, fear, sadness, care, happiness, and wrath. Emotions that used to have no meaning to him manifested themselves, not out of evil or good but out of chaos. Roy raised his index finger simultaneously sweeping the town away returning the shore to its former beauty.
"The power Roy had been bestowed was not of mere chance. He was given this power out of his manifestation of-"
"GONEDESTROYEDDEADEVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!"
"REDVOIDISSALVATION!!!!!!!!"
This short story was the most interesting and also the most terrifying to Mable. The number of pages contained within the book was 876 pages long and the end of this short story was centered right in the middle so the page number should have been 438, but that was not the case. On the bottom left corner of its page was the number 834, the exact opposite. While flipping to that page, Mable would be met will nothing, just a blank page.
The book never showed any clues as to why only this page out of hundreds was blank. "Ugh, dammit how am I not able to figure this damn thing out no matter how hard I try!". Mable slammed the vessel of pages shut and got up from her bed. After placing the book back in its former place on the shelf, she decided to exit her room.
Just as she made her way to the stairs, the sound of the front door shutting rather hard caught her attention. While making her way down the spiral stairs in her slippers, Mable saw her mother with a rather gloomy expression attached to her face, in fact, she looked as though she'd been crying.
Concerned for her mother, Mable spoke, "Is everything alright mother?"
The voice startled her; Sylvia hadn't expected her daughter to greet her so suddenly. Pulling her silver hairpin out, she replied "Yes, I'm quite alright. Just some stressful council work is all.". Not bothering to fix her messy hair, she walked to the kitchen.
Mable was a smart girl, so she knew that what her mother just said was a flat out lie. If she pushed her mother to tell the truth it may make the situation worse, thus she chose to act normally. "Would you like anything? I do believe we still have a small number of teabags left."
Seeing her daughter so polite and caring put a warm smile on Sylvia's tired face, "How about you surprise me?"
It was refreshing to have her mother still be so gentle like this. Even though Mable had grown up, she still had heartfelt moments like this with her mother from time to time.
Mother hasn't been this down in a long while, what could have affected her so badly? Thinking back, her mother's change in mood started happening right around the day after the man named Lucian stopped by claiming to be her son.
Mable never thought to pay any mind to it because maybe it could have been an annoyance to her, but now, she seemed to have fallen even deeper into some sort of depression. But why? If that man really was my brother, then why was he not here my whole life? Why wouldn't my mother have told me about his existence? To protect my feelings?
Setting down the dark red tea in front of her mother Mable hesitantly asked, "You don't have to answer this question, but...do I...have a brother?"
Sylvia's eyes widened in surprise, "What made you ask such a question?"
"I was the one that answered the man at the door claiming to be related to us.", It was actually kind of cringe the way he said it.
Sylvia bit her lip lightly, then replied, "No, you do not have a brother. I've only ever had one kid and that's you."
Mable was slightly disappointed in her mother's hollow reply. "I see.". Thinking back, Mable had wanted a sibling when she was a child but over time, she gradually outgrew that want. In this very moment, a spark of that want had ignited.
***
Back in her room Mable lay on her bed hugging a teddy bear tightly. If mother said that this Lucian fellow isn't my brother then I should believe that he isn't, but if that's true then why did Charles seem so serious about it?
Mable tossed over to her side, Charles is the only reliable source of reliable information as of right now to confirm this predicament. I'll ask him about it tomorrow; he's been bound by an oath of truth to our family for many years so he should be able to provide ample explanations.
With that last train of thought Mable closed her eyes and fell asleep.