William would soon turn 6 years old. The thought of being so young and yet having been set on such a desperate, fucked up path in life, made William angry.

When nobody was looking, for example when the other’s went for mass in the temple, William would find any fist sized stone or pebble and throw them on Grettel’s house. For the puny reason of venting some of his frustrations…

He had no one to talk to… So actions were his only solution.

The mundane daily life of a servant, quickly passed by. William was looking forward to literally hitting the hay. At least in his dreams he was allowed to phantom up any wild adventure or impossible situation he wished and own this place.

Sometimes he even thought of secretly assassinating Grettel… Yet he couldn’t make himself become a murderer. There was even a time in the beginning where he tried to hypnotize himself into a fake sense of security, by chanting he was in a book and this wasn’t real. Only to make him emotionless enough to endure the abuse and to get the courage to kill his tormentor.

Before his eyelids sealed completely, he noticed a shadow disturb the dying lights surrounding him. He immediately sat up to see a familiar face. But instead of getting all giddy and happy, he was overcome by rage. He whispered harshly, “How dare you show your facesh before me!? Do you think you can just twurn on and off our friendship!? That you can go around pretending that I’m dead one dway, without any explanation!?.. Phiss off!”.

Joss was astonished at the crudeness of those words, “Piss off? Do you want me to piss while I walk back home?..”. William huffed and tried not to laugh. Inside he was split in two.

On one hand he really missed Joss… Including Harvick. But that loser hadn’t shown his face around since Vanessa’s funeral... On the other hand, he wanted to vent all his frustrations on someone. And that someone had now become Joss, because he suddenly turned cold like a reptile one day.

Silence fell as William tried to untangle his dilemma. Thus Joss took the initiative to ask, “Have Grettel tried to drown you recently?.. Like what she did last time she caught us?”. To this William shook his head. Inside it, something seemed to flash. Like a beacon of light, pulsing into a thought.

Joss continued, “So she hasn’t?.. Good… It’s been really hard… During my hunt, I kept having vivid nightmares of your pale face… Next to the water basin… You never breathed in those dreams… It was horrible!.. And yet here I am!? I’m so stupid…”.

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William began to understand bit by bit, as Joss proclaimed, “I promise you, Mirabelle! If she kills you, I’ll hunt her down and have my dinosaur eat off her face! Even if she is a mother to four children!”.

William’s jaw slacked open. His anger and clouded mind slowly dissipated, “You mean… That your distwant act and her almost drowning me is connected!?”. His older brother was surprised at how uninformed William was. “Wha-... You didn’t know?.. She didn’t tell you, that if she caught us playing together again, she would tease you to death with water?.. I mean-... Come on! Did you think I rudely ignored you, just cause I felt like it!?.. Mirabelle… What the heck!?.. You’d really think I’d do that!?”.

Not a single peep came from William. For he was drowning in his own stupidity. Joss however, didn’t find this awkward silence to be uncomfortable. Instead he saw it as the perfect opportunity to give away his gift.

From behind his back came flying a finely carved dinosaur. William barely managed to catch it, as he was still wallowing in embarrassment… He really did think that Joss ignored him out of the blue. He never even thought to connect the two together!.. William mumbled, “I’m the idiot… Huh?.. haha-Hahaha!”. A disobedient tear managed to slip through William’s floodgates.

Joss laughed too. Kind of a laughing-cry. Because he was worried for his sister’s intelligence…

Sadly, even with this misconception out of the way, he still wasn’t willing to break Grettel’s curse. Joss was determined, that this would be the last time he would visit his sister. At least until Grettel died (Of ‘natural’ causes, of course)…

Thinking that maybe then, their circumstances might have changed.

William studied the sculpture. Awed at how skillful Joss had become at his hobby. The creator added, “Like it?.. I tried to make it look like Vash… Eh, it’s my bonded dinosaur… She’s really amazing”. William blinked for a few seconds, “Vash?.. You named a femahle dinosaur, Vash?”. Joss didn’t seem to catch his drift and explained, “Well, I wanted to make a tribute to our mother. But really… Vanessa? That’s just not a cool name to give to a dinosaur. So I changed it up to Vash!”.

William had no further comment on that…

Joss kneeled down into eye-height as he commented, “This is the last dinosaur I’ll carve for you… I hate to admit it… But I’m really scared of what that witch might do to you… Please understand! That I don’t want to be the cause behind your death…”. Then Joss went in for a hug, which he rarely did. He said, “This is not a goodbye… I’m sure, that we’ll get to play together again in the future… So, forget the ugly words said by the adults… They can’t change that I’ll always be your big brother. No matter what!”.

William didn’t hug him back. Instead he muttered, “So… You won’t sneak out to pway with me anymore?..”. Joss ended the connection. As he moved away he replied, “I won’t…”.

Then as quietly as he had come, he left...

Joss might have left with good intentions, thinking that his sister would be fine if he left her alone. But If there is one cocktail that is deadly, it’s isolation, sprinkled with a few flakes of abuse…