Althea

02

Khaos

One Year Later

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to, Eamon. Happy Birthday to you." The chorus of people sang surrounding Eamon as he giggled like a little girl.

He couldn't wipe the stupid smile off his face as he cut his cake, feeding it to everyone that came in his sight.

Eeww.

Putting my hands in the pocket of my pants, I walk away from the table to make some friends.

By friends, I mean boys of my age that would be attending the academy with me next year. I'll befriend them now, so by the time we're schooling together, I'll know their weaknesses and can easily defeat them in tasks.

"Hi!" A boy jumps in front of me.

Eeww.

"I'm Dave." He smiles, forwarding his hand.

"Khaos." I smile, shaking his sweaty hand.

"Weird name." he chuckles.

"Weird face." I stare at him in all seriousness.

"Is the birthday guy your brother?" he questions.

Ugh!

"No, he is the son of our toilet cleaner. Kinda charity work." I shrug as he watches me in disbelief.

What? Eamon's face looks no better than a toilet seat.

"Nice to meet you. Actually, I'm from Penn-" he starts.

"Actually, I don't care. Are you attending the academy next year?" I ask.

"Yeah, you?" he smiles.

"Yeah, now I'm interested. Where were you from?" I smile back at him.

"I'm from Penn-" he starts again.

"The f**k!" I gasp.

"Huh?" he looks up at me, completely offended.

I leave him hanging, running into the garden watching a tiny figure sprinting into the thick trees.

"Althea, stop!"scream, but I don't think she heard me. She was busy running as fast as her little legs could carry her.

I'm out of breath by the time after sometime and totally lost track of her. What is she doing here‌? I sigh loudly, running around, feeling an unknown emotion surge into my heart.

She better not be trying to plot another problem for herself. Emma beats her enough for now. Last time she disappeared, she was found in dad's office, chewing papers.

I feel my lungs functioning again when I find her sitting under a weeping willow tree, eating a pack full of strawberries. Oh, my little cutie!

That is what she stole from the party and was running with. I watch her, hastily shoving the berries in her mouth with a huge grin on her face.

She's so adorable, I-Wait. . . Isn't she allergic to st-

"Althea! Drop it!" I scream like a madman running to her, as she looks up at me startled.

She immediately hugs the plastic packet to her chest as soon as she sees me.

"Mine!" she screams in her baby voice.

"Althea, leave it." I growl, trying to snatch the packet from her.

"Mine, Khaos!" She glares at me.

"Althea!" I grunt.

"Khaos." she screams.

"Okay. . .okay." she huffs.

I stop snatching it from her when she stops struggling, she looks into the packet and pulls out the tiniest strawberry, holding it out for me.

"Only one." she pouts.

I stare at the berry in her tiny hand before glaring at her.

"Give that to me!" I scream, snatching the pack from her, throwing it away from us.

Althea watches me toss her precious strawberries away in great agony before she begins wailing her lungs out.

"Bad Khaos!" She screams, slamming her fists on my arms as if they're supposed to hurt.

"You're allergic to them. Didn't Violetta tell you this very nicely last time?" I scream back at her as her face grows red in anger.

"Mine." she growls.

She gags while wailing before it turns into loud coughs. Her eyes rolls back as she weakly falls against me, coughing.

"You can die, Althea. Don't ever eat that again." I scream.

Upon no reply from her, I look down to see her barely conscious.

"Oh! You are dying!" Picking her up in my arms like I've seen Violetta do, I rush back into the backyard to find Violetta.

"Khaos." Father calls out to me, making me freeze in my steps.

"What happened?" he walks up to me, looking at Althea in my arms.

"She ate strawberries." I mumble.

"And?" he mutters, still confused.

"She's deathly allergic to strawberries!" Violette gasps, scooping her out of my hold.

"Take her in, don't create a scene. I'll call a doctor." Father whispers to her, as Violetta rushes inside.

I take a few steps, trying to follow her when he places his hand on my shoulder, keeping me in place.

"If that girl dies, you can't imagine the things I'll do to you." he glares at me.

"I didn't do an-"

"Shush! I know your tactics well. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." he growls.

Althea survived that day, she didn't die because I took her back in the right amount of time. But I got fifty lashes, twenty for trying to murder her by making her eat strawberries and thirty for lying, according to my dearest father.

That day as I lay on the cold basement floor, bleeding and shedding tears- I realised how much I already hated her.

Stupid Althea.