"Accidents Were Meant To Happen" 1x1 Dark & Fable

[Wintermute]

James Elliot Broadwall was on the road, driving his brand new matte black Mustang GT Convertible. He had the music on, some rock song to be precise. He thought about how nicely his wonderful, money-making job was going. James was a playboy. Maybe not a millionaire, yet, but he was plenty of a playboy. He reckoned that in the last two months, he had at least slept with ten different women. He smiled to himself, tapping the rhythm of the music on the steering wheel. His life was pretty much perfect, at least for him.


He was heading back to his fancy apartment from attending to a meeting.


He parked his car in the garage and climbed the three flights of stairs that would take him to his door. He was, however, surprised to find a kid with a backpack standing in front of it. James took off his aviator sunglasses and tucked them into his suits pocket. He looked the kid over. Sincerely, he didn't recognize him from anything. He didn't know him at all.


"Hey, kid, whatcha doing here? You lost?" He said, bending down to the kids level.


@A Guileless Fable

 

[A Guileless Fable]

It was cold. The wind blew violently in the darkness of the night, Julian sat scrunched up tightly together in a ball hoping to retain any heat he possibly could in this situation, not much though. He was dressed poorly, his mother putting him in some light blue overalls and a pink shirt that read," Quack" with the picture of a small duckling swimming in a puddle. How long had he been there? He didn't remember, but he did know that when his mother brought him here the sun was up and cars were driving by in droves. Now it was nothing but silence. The moon was out, resembling that of a half-eaten cookie to the little blonde hair boy. The child so desperately wanted to find something to warm here, as he was attacked by another gust of wind. However, he had made a promised to his mother that he had full intentions of keeping. He remembered her exact words before she had left him here alone.


The sun was blazing at that time, his mother dressed in a short skirt that barely managed to pass her upper thigh, her torso decorated with a short tank top that revealed the piercing on her belly button. Mother had always received criticism for the way she dressed, although Julian found no fault with that. Well, he did tend to wonder how she wasn't cold most of the time even when she put a jacket on leaving her pale bruised legs exposed to the wind. His mother was somewhat excited on the way towards his father’s house mumbling words he couldn't understand, but she smiled so that must have meant she was happy right? She didn't smile much around Julian, but when she brought other men around the house she did smile, a lot really. Although, when she smiled, she was often accompanied by a foul stench that Julian could only describe as sour. Plus the men that she brought with her were never nice to him, and often times he was forced to leave the house on some long errand his mother gave him. So you could see why this made him happy to see, his mother with something sparkly in her eyes just like she used to when he was younger.


When mother was like this, she tended to be really chatty with him, and would even take the time to listen about his day at school. She didn't like listening to him, but today was special because today they were going to meet Julian's father. Mother had always talked about him using words that the teacher told him were very mean things to say. How could it be mean if mommy smiled while doing it? He often asked himself, never saying the question out loud. With one erratic turn, Julian train of thought was broken, his mother quickly unbuckling his and her seatbelt simultaneously slamming open her door.


"Let's go Julian!" she commanded the 7 year boy, in a relieved tone.


"Okay mommy!" he called out to her, struggling to open the door of the large truck. He almost fell from his seat onto the concrete floor, but somehow managed to keep his balance by holding onto the door handle. After strategically placing himself on solid ground, he could hear his mother calling for him again annoyed by having to wait for him. Gently closing the door, he chased after her who, upon seeing him, began making her way up the flights of stairs. It didn't take long before he caught up to her halfway up the first set of stairs, his short legs trying desperately not top trip over the thin stones before him. After a few more minutes of excruciating torture on his legs, he and his mother finally reached their destination . . . a door? Mother ran up to the wooden frame, and began wailing on the door that Julian had no doubt contained his father.


"What the hell are you making so much racket for!" a tall, muscular man from the next room yelled, mother glaring at the man like a lion getting interrupted during a hunt.


"Where's James." she asked, practically screaming at the guy. Julian retracted, scared to see his mother look as angry as she did. Only other time she yelled like this was when she drank to much of that fancy bottle stuff, and when she was super-duper upset. She was obviously the latter, because she hadn't had anything to drink before they left their apartment.


"Calm down lady! Is that any way to ask for help!" he cried, a women faint coo could be heard coming from his room. Turning his head, his short brown hair danced in the sunlight, before retreating back into the dark room giving his full attention towards his mother.


“I don't know where he's at. Probably gonna be out for a while. Doesn't usually get back until around midnight. If you waiting for that guy you might as well forget it. He goes through women like a bag of lollipops. Sucking on them until they ain't got no more flavor and then throwing them out searching for that next lollipop." he paused looking up and down at mother before continuing," You must be someone he tossed out huh lady. Ya know if ya need someone you can always come here." he said slyly, his eyes crawling up and down her body.


"Your tongue is too soft to handle this flavor hun. I suggest you go back to that little cat you got in there before ya get burned." she stated causing the stranger to laugh. Julian didn't know what was going on, but after she had said what she did, the man slithered back into his room locking the door, and closing it shut. Soon loud thumps and moans could be heard from the guys room, reminded Julian of when his mother locks her doors with another man and hears the exact same noise except louder and clearer.


"Julian, I have to go right now, so could you wait here for daddy for me?" she asked him. The blonde nodded her request, as she then gave him a crumpled up envelope with the letter "J-A-M-E-S" written sloppily across the back of it. "Good boy Julian. Now, give this to daddy when he gets here. Remember, no moving from this spot okay. Promise?" she inquired, Julian sticking out his pinkie finger in response.


"Pinkie Promise." he responded, a smile blessed her lips as she gently entwined her finger with her own and bounced them up and down together. "Now be a good boy while I'm gone. Mommy loves you." and with that she left, just before he could say "I love you too." That was the last time he saw her that day, and now here he was. Sitting against the door of his father's apartment on the verge of freezing to death.


Clack, Clack, Clack. . .


Turning his head towards the sound, he saw a man approach the door he was resting on. Upon arrival, the man looked rather bewildered to see the boy at his door, a smile tugging at his lips. Julian knew who this man was, or rather knew where he saw him from. He was Julian's dad, that mom always talked about, he knew because she had a photo of him that was always faced down along with the entire frame. She told him multiple time not to look at it, but she always looked so happy when they were holding together smiling with one another. The boy was awestruck, almost forgetting to speak when father asked him a question.


"N-no I'm no lost. Mommy left me here, so we could be together." he manage to say between breaths. That's right the letter! He thought to himself as he pulled out the wrinkled piece of paper in his overall pocket.


"Here! Mommy wanted me to give this to you . . . Papa." he mumbled, feeling overjoyed with seeing his father for the first time. He hoped he was nice and like books, because Julian really loved books, but mother never read them to him. Oh, he couldn't wait to hang out with his father, but when was his mother coming back. Weren't they going to hang out together when Papa came back? He wondered.

 

[Wintermute]

James's smile turned into a frown as he heard the boy's voice.


"What?" He said to the kid. He got up, seeing the poor soul looked freezing, and opened the door, letting the kid in. "Sit down there while I get things sorted out." He said, pointing at a chair near the entrance "And don't move."


'He's got to be some poor kid from the streets that wants some warmth. Whats this, anyway? Why does it have my name?' He wondered to himself, looking at the envelope. He frantically ripped it open with his finger and pulled out the contents. It was a wrinkled note, with the ink of one side trespassing the thickness of the paper from one side to the other.


He unfolded it as best he could and read it in his head.


It said as follows:


"Dear Asshole,


Yeah, you're condom broke and now you have son. Knowing you, you probably think this was some plot to stick you with some unknown kid or get child support money. Well, you can keep all that shit. He's your son and I don't have the money to take care of him anymore, so get your head out of your ass and raise him like a man should (well at least try to be, if its not to hard to grow a pair). If you don't believe me than you can go get his blood tested if you want. That should be enough proof for scum like you, right?


Love yours truly,


Maria."


James was dumbfounded, his mouth wide open. Suddenly, a look of rage came upon his face. "That BITCH!" He yelled, bashing his fist against the wall. After exhaling furiously, he turned to look at the boy. "You" he started, then stopped, considering that the kid seemed rather tired. He'd take him to get his blood tested tomorrow. He grabbed his hand tightly and pretty much pulled him to the guest room. "You'll be spending the night here. Get to sleep." He said, and slammed the door shut.


He slowly climbed up to his master bedroom, with slow and heavy steps. When he got there, he just threw himself onto the mattress and lay there, hands on his face, thinking.


'What if he is my son?' he said to himself. 'Calm down James, calm down. It cant be. You'll see tomorrow. You'll show that bitch.'

 

[A Guileless Fable]

Julian jumped when he heard his father screams of anger. What's wrong? He thought to himself, as the grimly dressed man punched his wall with such ferocity that the boy thought the whole building would fall to that one hit. Surprisingly it didn't, much to the boy's relief, but with one worry gone another arose when his father approached him with flaring nostrils and demanded that he got to sleep. The apartment was plenty big and had three rooms available, his father not specifying which room to go in. He then ran into one of the room, slamming the door shut leaving him alone in the enormous living space


"Papa?" he mumbled, rubbing his frozen limbs, managing to heat them if only a little. It was apparent that his dad was not to pleased to see him like mother said he'd be. He remember her telling him that his father would be absolutely delighted to see his baby boy, but by the looks of things he was the exact opposite, he seemed to hate his guts for showing up. Was he a bad kid? So many thoughts began piling up in his mind, so many reasons as to why his father was acting this way, but none quite fitting the bill. Out of the blue, he could feel tears forcing there way up to his eyes, threatening to come out, but he refused to let them have their way and forced them back in. Mother always told him that men don't cry, so he sucked up his tears and marched into one of the empty room.


The first one was a complete mess, with sheets sprawled across the floor, clothes thrown in every kind of way around the room. Nothing much could be said for the other room either as both were absolutely dirty, filled with an awful smell that made him want to gag, but he persevered pushing himself through the mess. Unable to sleep in any of the rooms, Julian decided to clean them both up to make them seem at least livable, because at the moment the only life within these rooms were the filthy ghost that plagued it. It took all but two hours, an hour for each room, before they looked good as new. He didn't know where the cleaning supplies were and felt it'd be rude to go rummaging around his father stuff, so he did the best he could with what he had, himself. Julian was use to cleaning his house up since his mother was not the best at house work and was seldom at home, so he needed to learn the basics in order to please her. He'd normally get praised for cleaning, but there was no one here but him and his father who by this time was undoubtedly sleeping.


With all the junk thrown away and the clothes folded, Julian could finally sleep peacefully choosing the room with the window preferring the light of the moon rather than the light of a lamp. It kept him company and was a cost effective way to please him and his father, killing two birds with one stone as they say. The bed was extremely large making Julian feel like an ant in comparison, but that didn't stop him from climbing into the bed and making himself comfortable. To be honest, the bed wasn't very cozy as it had lumps in the weirdest of places, and there was a strange smell that accompanied the sheets. It was really bad, but he blocked out all the negatives with thoughts of spending time together with his father imagining all the adventures they would have together. Soon he nodded off to sleep, his dreams taking him too unknown and far away lands his father and mother accompanying him together. This was by far the best dream he has ever had in all his life, and the greatest part was that finally they all were happy . . . together.

 

[Wintermute]

James was on his bed. He hadn't bothered to undress or clean up before sleeping. Nothing at all. He just lay there, thinking. He remembered Maria. She was a wonderful woman, or had been. Of course, like with everyone else, James got bored with her, so he moved on to the next one. He never remembered Maria saying anything about being pregnant. That must have been some kind of bullshit, to make him feel guilty or something, he supposed. He wondered where she had gotten the poor sod, if it wasn't his, and it clearly wasn't. Maybe some kid from the streets that she payed, although he never remembered Maria for having too much money.


James decided he couldn't sleep. He got up from the bed and headed to the bathroom to wash his face. He looked at himself. He still seemed handsome, at least to himself. He twisted the faucet top, letting through a steady stream of crystal clear water. He splashed his face a few times and dried off with a towel that was next to him.


He felt a tad drowsy now. He walked back to the bed and undressed, leaving his shirt, pants and tie in a bundle on top of his desk chair. He crawled into bed and wondered if the kid was asleep already.


As he thought, his eyelids slowly started to close, and eventually he fell into a deep slumber.

 

[A Guileless Fable]

As the moon gently moved westwards to bless the other patrons of the Earth with it glorious night, the sun took its place rising up from the East. It crept up quietly without a sound, but along with its light came with it the sounds of the waking life that laid dormant until now. Birds began chirping a melody that, to be frank, wasn't the sweetest of tunes, but it still got the little boy up from his uncomfortable bed. Julian rubbed his eyes, the window that had once shown half of the moon was not filled with a beautiful yellow light that blinded him upon opening his eyes. It took a minute to adjust to the new found shine, and eventually led to him shading his eyes from the brilliant rays. Slowly climbing off the bed, he made his way towards the window and pulled the velvet curtains. The rays dulled, but were not deterred by the thin layer of fabric still pushing through, giving Julian enough light to see through the room.


"Ah, what time is it." he yawned, looking at the bright red numbers coming from the clock that rested on the dresser. "7:00 A.M" it had read, quite early for him to be waking up since today was Saturday and there was no school on the weekends. Searching for the door his blue irises searching in all direction in order to find is way out, he stumbled forward almost falling on his face. Luckily, he caught himself on the bed prior to his fall, so he just landed on one of his knees. Quietly, he pushed up off against the floor and towards the enormous wooden door that made him feel smaller than the bed had done earlier that night. Julian took a deep breath, wanting to silently open the door without making too much noise in fear that he might wake up his father with it. Grasping the brass knob, he tried his best to slowly turn it in his direction and somehow manage to make as little noise as possible. There was a little creaking at the beginning, but not loud enough to pose any real problem for his father.


Once out of the room, he tiptoed to the bathroom that was placed in the middle of all three of the bedrooms, going through the same process with opening door as before. As he entered, he was thoroughly amazed at the size of the bath tub, the while tiles of the floor sparkled like diamonds, and the sink was made of a beautiful crystal, quartz perhaps.


"Whoa. Why is the bathroom so pretty, but the room so dirty?" he whispered, receiving an answer of silence. What did he expect? Father was still probably sleep at this bed, or if he was anything like his mother, than he would most definitely still be asleep at this time. Returning his focus back onto the magnificent bathroom, he made his way to the toilet and plopped himself onto the seat, his pants hanging at his feet. He felt embarrassed having to sit down instead of stand, but normally there was stairs for him to use when using the restroom. There was none, and he refused to stand on the seat, so sitting would have to do.


Plup Plup Plup . . .


With that he launched himself quickly off the seat, no one will ever know of this humiliation. . . No. They will never know! Holding back his tears of defeat, he attempted to wash his hands, but the sink was incredibly tall and was totally unreachable. He was just going to have to accept another defeat, and left the restroom, closing the door behind him. Now it was onto the kitchen, which wasn't as pretty as the bathroom, but still a sight to behold in all honesty. The counters were clearly made out of marble, the glass table held so many tiny multi-colored pebbles within it, and the floor was made up of some unknown type of brown wood. It seemed that everything except the rooms were truly magnificent, making cooking in the kitchen even more enjoyable.


Yes, he was cooking. It was his normal every day task to make breakfast for his mother, and who ever she had brought home the previous night. Everything was so tall and foreign to him, but he knew he would manage, pushing one of the wooden padded chairs towards the sink to wash his hand. Unlike the door, this made a much noise as one could make with it scraping its heel across the floor. Julian didn't have much hope of stopping the noise, so he tried to muffle it as much as he could by placing his foot under one of the leg. The weight of the chair was enough to make him scream, but he kept it inside making it to sink without letting out a single peep. When placed near his destination, he climbed up and washed his hand with the soap available to him.


Now it was time to get cooking, so he rummaged through his father's fridge and found a carton of milk and eggs. Taking both ingredients out, he found a bowl lying in the dishwasher and cracked 4 eggs into it, pouring some milk at the very end. He didn't find any black pepper, so plain scrambled eggs would have to do. Going into the cupboard, he pulled out some flour and baking soda with the idea of making pancakes. He hoped his dad would be happy with his cooking and putting every ounce of love into making the batter for the pancakes. Next he cut the stove on, which was fairly confusing since it had so many knobs and handles, but he somehow managed to cut the fire on. All that was left was to find two skillets and a spatula that weren't too difficult to find. They were piled up in the sink, so he spent nearly 5 minutes washing them both out until the gleamed in the sunlight. Drying them off, he placed them both on the stove and poured to pancake batter in first making four circles, with two large circles to the right and 2 little circles on the left. Soon he put the eggs in the other pot and began scrambling them. It smells yummy! He thought to himself hoping to please his father when awoke. Oh he couldn't wait to see the look on his face!


(Don't you hurt my feelings you perverted bastard ;A

 

[Wintermute]

James had started to dream. His dreams usually were of him driving around in a fancy car surrounded by girls. However, this time it was not the case.


He dreamed about Maria. She was fair looking, funny. Had a personality to kill for, at least when he had met her. They first saw each other in a bar, about eight years ago. It would be a understatement to say that it was love at first sight. James remembered him calling her attention with some witty comments he always used. They never got old. Afterwards, he invited her to another beer, and they got talking.


In no time, it was 2 am and they were at his place, drunk. The next morning, he asked her out, and she accepted the offer with a smile. However, James was a playboy and, even though he did love her for some time, he got bored of her company in a year, so he ended their relationship.


In the dream, he was with her and the boy she had said to be their son. She was yelling at him for sleeping with other women, and he wasn't caring. Then, she took out a knife and murdered him.


James woke with a start, gasping for air. He looked around. A nightmare. It had been a long time since he had gotten one of those. He swung his legs off the bed and stood up, walking over to his desk chair and grabbing his pants and a freshly washed and ironed white dress shirt from the closet. It was his morning routine.


When he was dressed, he opened the door and abandoned his room, ready to go into his kitchen, brew his pot of coffee and wake up the kid to go to the hospital.


What he had not expected to find as he opened the kitchen door was the blond haired child standing on a chair, that seemed to have been dragged over near the kitchen counter, cooking.


Yes, cooking. The child, who seemed to be no older than seven, was cooking what looked like scrambled eggs, and there was a dish with a tower of pancakes already on the table.


"What the hell..." He said to himself as he observed the strange phenomenon occur in front of his eyes. He had never seen a seven year old cook. Especially not pancakes.


He walked over to the pancakes, thinking he would try a bite, slowly, so as the kid would not be alerted by his presence. He ripped off a chunk from one of the flat, disk shaped masses of batter. He brought it to his mouth and the first thing he noticed was the smell. The excellent, sweet, buttery smell of pancakes he hadn't smelled in a long time. Smiling, he put it in his mouth and chewed, letting his tongue gather up the flavor.


To his surprise, the thing was rather delicious. "Damn" he said out loud "Where'd you learn how to cook?" James was walking towards the kid on the chair now, his hands in his trouser pockets.


He was still angry inside, but he decided he'd at least enjoy breakfast before going to get both their blood tested. He smelled the scrambled eggs in the making and huffed in surprise at the good smell they let off. Pancakes were not as good without something to go with them, so he decided to head over to the fridge to see what he had.


He found some maple syrup and a jar of strawberry jelly in there, that seemed okay. He brought them out and lay them on the table. He then turned to the kid, sitting on the chair, moving the scrambled eggs around. He frowned and picked him up off of the chair, putting him on the ground. "You're gonna dirty my chair." He said with a little anger in his voice as he moved the thing back to its place. "Go siddown and be still. I'll finish the eggs."


@A Guileless Fable