Eli and Era - Never apart

The unusual surprise

The skinny boy tightened his grip on the brown paper bags and rushed towards the castle.

Eli passed through the tall iron gates of Roy Hill Castle.

As soon as he crossed the thick walls of Roy Hill Castle, the usual sense of aloofness took over him. He took a deep breath and observed the ruins of the magnificent castle he called his home.

The thick boundary walls of the castle were overrun by nature.

Years of neglect had turned the greystone of the castle to forest green. The huge windows were almost covered with vines. Huge tress had erupted all of a sudden all over the castle grounds. Moreover, plenty of small animals of the hill had taken shelter in the castle. Eerily, the castle now looked like a part of the hill.

But none of this bothered Eli. One could even say that he didn't even see any of it.

For Eli, this was his home. The only place where he belonged. It never bothered him that he was all alone in this huge castle.

This was not always the case. He faintly remembered that two figures took care of him as a child. However, this memory was further fading from Eli's memory.

Eli always found it amusing. That even though he was a healthy young adult (almost), his memory was worse than Mr. Kronzington who was definitely touching 80 this year.

Mr. Kronzington's name in his mind suddenly started a chain of thoughts in his mind. This was very rare for the boy. He was accustomed to remaining free of thoughts. The system always promoted that it's pupil stay thoughtless. "Thoughtlessness is bliss" is the moto of the present System. It changes every five years with the System. The last one was..Eli could not remember.

He had entered the castle and was standing in the great hall when the thought of Mr Kronzington had stuck him. He must have stood there for many minutes in his catatonic state. It was surely after a while when he shook his head and slipped in to the usual state of bliss.

Exactly at the back of the great hall was the Kitchen. That was where Eli was headed. He placed on brown bags on the solid black marble top island table in the center of the kitchen.

On one side of this huge table was an equally bulky table seating for four. Only one of the chairs was able to hold any human weight. The rest has there legs bent or the seats eaten by various roaches in the castle.

Eli tried to keep the castle clean. But it was humanly impossible to keep a castles this huge clean in the midst of wilderness all alone.

After some time Eli has limited himself to just one room with an attached bath and the kitchen. The bedroom closest to the kitchen was a natural choice. As it was with everything else, the rest of the rooms and hallways of the Roy Hill Castle quickly faded from Eli's memory.

Eli started unpacking the brown bags. There was the usual grocery. There was a smalll decript refrigerator in the Kitchen but it was rarely ever used. The weather in Chekerbee was so pleasant, food did not go bad easily. As was the case with everyone in this town, Eli had bland tastebuds and the purpose of food was only to satiate oneself.

Today was different. At the bottom of one of the bags was a small red muffin. Eli delicately took it out of the bag. Such sweet delicacies were rarely available in Chekerbee. Maybe the Systems had at their Kitchens in the Headquarters but not in the quite old Chekerbee. Never in Chekerbee.