"What just happened?" No one could believe what they had just witnessed. Moments ago, more than twenty guards had rushed forward to apprehend Elias. Then, without warning, they collapsed.
Their eyes blazed crimson as blood streamed from eyes unhinged. Within seconds, they lay dead. While the assembled guests scrambled to comprehend this horrifying anomaly, Elias observed them with morbid fascination. His pulse quickened with dark satisfaction. That's a useful skill, he thought, suppressing a smile. This ability will establish my dominance in this new world. It's him! Julian's voice shattered the stunned silence as he thrust an accusing finger toward Elias. "He killed them all!"
Elias simply watched, his lip curling slightly as he savored the turmoil and terror flooding the man's eyes. Fear had a particular taste, he was discovering, sharp and intoxicating. Arthur and Catherine whipped their heads toward Elias, their expressions demanding answers, seeking truth in his face. Elias shrugged with deliberate nonchalance. Don't tell me you're going to believe him, he mumbled, as you've always done. He scanned the gathering. Fear rippled through the crowd like a living thing. He could practically smell it emanating from their trembling forms. Their wide eyes darted between the corpses and him, uncertainty paralyzing them. I hope this works, he thought, raising his hand in a sweeping gesture toward the group. An invisible wave of power surged outward. When it settled over each individual, the transformation was immediate, as if an unbearable weight had been lifted from their shoulders. The tension drained from their faces. Sighs of relief and comfort echoed through the yard as people slowly rose to their feet. Their expressions smoothed into blank contentment. They no longer seemed troubled by the massacre they'd witnessed.
After bowing respectfully toward Mr. and Missus Blackwood, they began filing out in orderly fashion. Arthur watched this exodus in stunned disbelief, his jaw slack. He couldn't process what was happening before his eyes.
After most of the crowd had departed, Elias turned slowly toward his family, savoring their confusion.
The system's voice chimed in his mind. "New skill activated. Oneiric Overwrite. The host is able to absorb fear from victims. 'One malice credit gained. One malice credit gained."
He listened as the announcements continued, each one a small victory. Eight malice credits gained. "Total malice credit count, eight out of one hundred."
Elias nodded thoughtfully.
"This is."
He paused, considering.
"Something. The skill isn't as powerful as I'd imagined, but it's a promising start."
Once the final guests had withdrawn from the backyard, only Arthur, Julian, Catherine, a handful of pale-faced maids, and the trembling steward remained, rooted in place like statues. Catherine recovered first, her maternal instincts, or the performance of them, kicking in. She stepped forward and positioned herself directly before Elias.
"Son," she called softly, her voice laden with concern. Elias refused to acknowledge her, his gaze fixed on some distant point beyond her shoulder. Look at your mother when she's speaking to you, brat! Arthur roared, his face flushing crimson.
Catherine flinched at Arthur's outburst but kept her eyes on Elias, her hand reaching toward him in a gesture that might have looked maternal to an outsider. But Elias knew better.
"Elias, please," she said, her voice trembling with practiced vulnerability. "Look at me, sweetheart. I'm your mother."
Elias's jaw tightened, but he didn't turn. His red eyes remained fixed on some distant point beyond the garden walls.
Catherine's lower lip quivered as she took another step closer. "I know... I know we've made mistakes. I know you must be hurting." She pressed a hand to her chest, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "But I'm here now. I'm listening."
"Listening," Elias repeated, his voice flat and cold. The word hung in the air like a death knell.
"Yes!" Catherine seized on it, hope flickering across her face. "Yes, I'm listening. Tell me what's wrong. Tell me how to make this right."
Finally, Elias turned his head. The movement was slow, deliberate, and when his glowing red eyes met hers, Catherine actually stumbled backward.
"What should I forgive you for, Mother?" His voice was eerily calm, almost curious. "Please. Enlighten me."
Catherine's mouth opened and closed. She glanced at Arthur, then back at Elias, her fingers twisting together. "Well... I... we should have celebrated your achievement. Like we did for Julian."
She gestured weakly toward the decorated tables, the banner still hanging limply in the unnatural stillness.
"You deserved a party too. It was wrong of us not to—"
"A party." Elias's lips curved into something that wasn't quite a smile.
"Yes! And... and we shouldn't have forbidden you from taking the exam in the first place." Catherine's voice grew stronger, as if she'd found her footing. "That was unfair. You had every right to take it, and we should have supported you. Encouraged you, even."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Elias stared at her, his expression unreadable. Then, slowly, he began to laugh. It started as a low chuckle, building into something darker, more unhinged. The sound made the remaining servants shrink back against the walls.
"A party," he repeated, his laughter dying as quickly as it had come. "You think I should forgive you for not throwing me a party?"
Catherine's face paled. "I... that's not what I."
"And for not letting me take an exam?" Elias took a step toward her, and she instinctively retreated. "Those are the crimes you're confessing to? Those are the sins that weigh on your conscience?"
"Elias, please, I'm trying to."
"THOSE ARE NOTHING!" His voice exploded through the garden, and the windows of the mansion rattled in their frames. Catherine stumbled, nearly falling as she backed away from him.
Elias's chest heaved, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. When He spoke again, his voice was low and venomous. "You stand there, playing the repentant mother, and you think a missed party and a forbidden exam are what destroyed me?"
"I didn't mean."
"You watched him beat me." Elias's words cut through her stammering like a blade. "You heard the belt crack against my skin. You saw the blood. You heard me scream." His voice cracked on the last word, a flash of the broken boy he'd been showing through the supernatural entity he'd become. "And you did nothing."
Catherine's tears were flowing freely now, but Elias showed no mercy.
"You let me starve in that storage room you called my quarters. You let them mock me, humiliate me, break me piece by piece." He took another step forward, and she had nowhere left to retreat. "And you want me to forgive you for a party?"
"I'm sorry," Catherine whispered, her voice barely audible. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was that bad, I didn't."
"You didn't want to know!" Elias roared. "You didn't want to see! it has always been about him!" He pointed at Julian, who stood frozen in terror. "You chose him every single day, and you let me die a thousand deaths before Julian finally buried me!"
Catherine collapsed to her knees, sobbing, but there was something performative about "It even now, a desperate attempt to elicit sympathy, to make herself the victim of this confrontation.
Elias looked down at her with pure contempt. Even now, you don't understand what you've done. Even now, you think this is about celebrations and exams. He shook his head slowly, his jaw clenched so tightly that a muscle twitched in his cheek. You're not sorry for what you did to me, Mother. You're sorry you got caught. You're sorry your perfect image cracked in front of everyone. His voice dropped to a whisper, more devastating than any shout. All this time, all these years, do you even know what you destroyed? Do you have any idea what it feels like to be invisible in your own home? To watch your brother receive every ounce of love you were denied? His hands trembled at his sides. I stood in the shadows while you poured everything into him. I became a ghost in my own life, and you never even noticed I was fading.
Catherine reached toward him, her face streaked with tears, but he stepped back as if her touch would burn him. "I wish you were never my mother," he said, each word falling like a stone into still water.