Brue’s legs shook as he sat within a limo. His son was being stolen from his family, and there was nothing he could do about it.
“You’ll still be allowed to see him, of course, and it’s possible that he’ll even be allowed to stay over the summers.” The man on the phone said. Brue muted his end of the phone just long enough for his wife to let out a heaving sob, before quickly trying to convince the man once more.
“Please, Governor, just-“ Brue began, but Hurrman cut him off ruthlessly.
“No. We’ve given you plenty of concessions already. Your family will be granted seven billion credits, your son will be provided with the greatest care that the Ander Empire is capable of, and on holidays and during the summer, you will be flown over to Ander II in order to see him.”
A few seconds of silence passed as Hurrman waited for them to process what he had said, before stating “Good day,” and hanging up.
Brue dropped the phone, allowing it to hit the ground as he leaned back. Tears trailed down his face, but he tried to keep a calmer face than Christina, for Adina. After all, she was sitting only a few feet away, separated by a sound-proof pane of darkened glass. She probably knew what was happening based only on their reactions, but it was still best to stay calm.
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Adina watched the expressions of her parents intensely as the call proceeded. She could hear none of it, but the reactions of her parents were enough to understand.
‘Leo isn’t coming back.’ Adina knew.
Tears didn’t come. She didn’t fully understand what that meant.
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Christina contemplated a dozen different things in the minutes after the call with Hurrman ended; murder, suicide, alcohol, drugs. After a while of crying, the realization that Adina was watching forced her to pull herself together.
She took deep, calming breaths and gradually became calm enough to give Adina a small smile before turning away. She still needed to talk with her husband.
“…What now?” Christina asked, although it wasn’t like he would know anything more than her.
“I guess we just continue living. There’s nothing we can do to keep Leo, but it’s not like we’ll never see him again.” Brue said after a while.
Christina’s heart ached at his words, but she knew that it was the only real choice that they had.
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Leo had fallen into an unusually deep introspection for someone his age, but was pulled from his thoughts when the door swung open. Seeing his family behind the door, his face lit up, but he also picked up on their forlorn expressions.
Only a second later, Adina was wrapping him in a big hug. She looked sad, too.
“What’s wrong?” Leo asked hesitantly.
“…Nothing, honey,” His mother told him, and Leo nodded slowly. His parents’ faces had only seemed unhappy for a brief moment as the door opened, so he was sure it was fine.
Minutes bled into hours as the family spoke, but they were eventually made to leave by the hospital staff.
“When am I getting out? I want to go home,” Leo whined, causing everyone in the room to wince.
“…You’re already mostly healed. You’ll have to go through physical therapy for a few standard days, but after that, you’ll be just fine.” The doctor- who had stepped in to have his family removed- said.
“That’s so long,” Leo groaned.
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“I know it is. Everyone feels bad for you in that regard.” The doctor responded, his expression odd.
The moment that his family filed out of the room, he left. Leo was all alone in the room now, and he wasn’t tired at all.
The good news was that, while he was confined to his bed, his family had come with a few gifts to make the stay easier. And the nurse had laid the remote to the television on the end table.
Leo grabbed his watch off the end table and put it on before changing the table to an animated kids show. In it, enormous mechs shot enormous laser beams at one another for reasons that he couldn’t quite decipher, but it kept him from being bored.
After a few episodes, Leo’s eyes moved to the window. From his angle, he couldn’t see much, but it was enough to tell that it was getting late. A glance at his watch told him that it was way past his bedtime, but there wasn’t a bit of tiredness in his body.
The nurse had told him that awakened needed far less sleep than normal people, meaning that he’d probably only feel tired after a few days- and even then, he’d only sleep for a few hours.
Feeling bored, Leo shut the television off and grabbed a book off the end table. It was one that his mother had bought for him a month ago, but that he’d never gotten around to reading. It seemed interesting, though, and so he was glad that she had brought it.
He lost interest after only a couple of chapters. It was a sci-fi novel, but it went into far too much detail on how the technology worked. Leo didn’t care how it worked, nor was he really capable of understanding.
It was a novel authored by someone from one of the more technologically advanced areas of the Ander Empire, so it made sense.
After a couple minutes of staring at the wall, debating on whether or not to resume reading it or not, he eventually concluded that it wasn’t worth it- not yet, at least- and reached for the remote on the end table.
Just then, however, a knock came from the door, and only an instant later, Maxwell stepped into the room.
“Uh… hello?” Leo said.
“Hello, Leo. We hoped to let your parents tell you, but they didn’t, and so the responsibility falls to me.” Maxwell said as he moved to the end of the bed.
Fear grabbed his heart. Leo prayed that this wasn’t what he thought it was. He’d been avoiding it, but the adult’s ‘subtle’ implications of what was going to happen hadn’t been lost on him.
“…The Ander Empire is very interested in you, you know? We want to see you become the best version of yourself possible… and so, the difficult decision has been made to move you to a planet with more resources. Ander II, specifically.” Maxwell told him.
“…I knew it,” Leo said, anger and fear and sadness all lancing through him. “You’re taking me away.”
“It’s not like that. You’re still going to be able to visit your family frequently.” Maxwell told him, but Leo hardly heard him as tears began to stream down his face.
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A few days had passed, and Leo’s physical therapy had finished. In that time, Maxwell had frequently helped him to understand his current situation, all while his family had no idea. They still tiptoed around the fact that they would be leaving soon, not wanting to hurt him.
His body was fine now, and he’d been removed from the hospital and placed in a luxury hotel nearby. It wasn’t even where his parents had been staying, but after being moved here, they came to the same hotel. Now, they were only on the other end of the hallway from him.
‘It doesn’t matter, though. I’ve been cursed, and now…’ Leo’s thoughts trailed off. He wanted to say that he would never see his family again, but he would.
‘It’ll just be too rare.’ Leo thought.
His friends and distant family, though? Leo was never going to see them again. He hadn’t seen Quint or Olivia even once since his birthday five days ago, and wouldn’t be able to say goodbye.
Leo looked at himself in the mirror. He had longish blonde hair and pale grey eyes, which were very common in the Ander Empire. He was a bit short for his age, but his parents had reassured him that it was only temporary; that he’d have a huge growth spurt sometime in the future.
He found it hard to believe them, now that he knew how frequently they told him lies in order to try to protect him from the world.
‘They still haven’t told me. Are they ever even going to do it? I think it’d hurt worse to only be made aware of it a few hours before being taken.’
Leo only had until tomorrow morning with them- less than a full standard day.
Maxwell stepped into the room, and Leo choked when he saw what he was wearing; a black turtleneck and tan dress pants, as well as an expensive-looking necklace and worn steel-toed work boots, which entirely ruined the look he was going for.
“Why can’t you just wear normal clothes?” Leo asked. Maxwell flip-flopped between the dress of a modern wealthy Andern citizen, and the dress of medieval lords... and also the dress of golfers.
“By normal, do you mean the dress of the lowly peons?” Maxwell said, and Leo laughed.
‘Maxwell said that he was a government agent, so why’s he act like a child- a very weird child, at that?’ Leo wondered.
“Shouldn’t you have some...” Leo searched for the word, “…Fanciness?”
“Decorum would’ve been a better word,” Maxwell commented, ignoring his question. Leo scoffed and turned back to the mirror.
He still needed to figure out what to wear. Leo felt that, since this was the last time he’d see his family in a long while, he should be dressed better than usual. He had no clue how to go about it, though, and so he eventually gave up and decided to wear a comfortable t-shirt and shorts.
“Are you ready for your day?” Maxwell asked. Leo didn’t respond, because the answer was no, but the day wasn’t going to wait for him, and so he stepped past the man, who had been standing in the doorway, and started walking towards his family. Since this was the last time he was going to see them for a while… he was going to make sure to spend as much time with them as possible.