Of Blood and Bone Teaser

“Can you start at the beginning?” I ask.  He nods.

And so he tells me of life at Chessarae.  Of being a child here, with a mother who was distant and detached and a father who was never home.  Luca knows why now, because Nicolas was increasingly confined to the cave in the maze, more and more as his life progressed.  But since the Minaldis do not speak of their curse, not even to each other, he didn’t understand as a boy.  He felt abandoned and alone.

Luca Minaldi may be confident and powerful on the outside, but on the inside he is a broken little boy.  And with each word that comes from his mouth, from his perfectly formed lips, I feel my heart constrict just a little more until it is difficult for me to speak, to ask him questions.

“When did you understand what was happening to you?” I ask.   It’s hard to formulate sound around the lump that has swelled in my throat. 

“I always knew,” he answers, quiet in this large room.  He gets up and pours us each a glass of Scotch, moving fluidly. He takes a gulp of his and I grip my cold glass tightly.

“I always knew.  My mother told me at a very young age that there was something wrong with me, that I was a monster like my father.   My brothers and I had a nurse who stayed with us in our wing.  If we showed signs of sleepwalking or something similar, she was instructed to tie our hands to our bed and not allow us to leave until it had passed. As time went on, it was clear that it only afflicted me.  My brothers were normal.”

A tear slips from the corner of my eye now as I picture Luca as a boy, terrified and alone in the darkness of his room, tied to his enormous bed.

“Luca… I…”

I can’t speak any more.  The words won’t come.  And another tear slips down my cheek.  My eyes are hot and burning, so I close them.