Heir of Aurelian

Frank awoke from his slumber in a state of shock. He had rolled off the sofa he was sleeping on and smacked his head on the floor. Such a jolt immediately woke him up in ways coffee could not. On the reclining seat nearby, his older sister Maria sat with a mocking smile on her face as she feigned her worry.

“You okay there, little bro?”

Frank wiped the drool from his mouth as he climbed into a standing position. A simple phrase escaped his lips as he gave his elder sister the bird.

“Fuck off!”

Frank was not in the mood for Maria’s snide remarks. Though she may be his elder sister, she only ever used the term “little bro” in a pejorative manner. Maria did not care in the slightest about her brother’s crass remark, and continued to watch the television. She was well accustomed to Frank’s foul mouth. However, her next words shocked the adolescent youth as he gazed at her with a hint of caution in his dark brown eyes.

“So you were out again last night, huh? Is there something I should be telling mom and dad?”

Frank did not immediately react to this statement, in fear that he might say something that exposed his nightly activities. Recently, he had begun to sneak out after curfew, and though he thought he had been doing a good job keeping this a secret, his crafty elder sister seemed to have learned what he had been up to. In his young mind, Frank thought the best option would be to deny any accusations made against him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Maria merely smiled as she flipped through the channels. Silence existed between the two until eventually she stopped a stereotypical day time talk show where a teenage girl about Frank’s age was visibly pregnant and crying. Frank felt as if the universe was targeting him when he saw this, considering the activities he had engaged in with his girlfriend the night prior. Maria did not instantly take notice of this and instead announced her opinion about the little tramp on the screen._.

“See, that’s why you should always use protection. This dumb little bitch didn’t figure that out and now her life is ruined. Promise me, little brother, that you won’t be this foolish when you finally find a girl stupid enough to sleep with you.”

Frank felt as if someone had electrocuted his spine when he heard his sister’s words. He instantly became paranoid. Just what did this bitch of a sister know? In his panicked state, he genuinely believed the girl knew that he had been visiting his girlfriend at night while her parents were away on vacation. He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck while trying to deflect from the issue.

“I’m not stupid. I know to use protection! Besides, where am I going to find a girl who is into me?”

Maria merely laughed when she heard this. While it was true, she thought her clueless little brother lacked the charm necessary to get into a girl’s pants; she decided to tease him. After all, that was what she did best.

“No? Then how do you explain that hickey on your neck? Fucking dumbass, if you’re going to lie to me, you should at least cover up the evidence!”

Rather than calmly think things through and realize that there was no way for there to be a hickey on his neck, since he and his girlfriend didn’t do things like that. Frank panicked and looked in the mirror, where he discovered his sister was just testing him. Her mouth widened in disbelief as she threw a throw pillow at him before scolding him for his scandalous actions.

“You little shit! When mom and dad find out what you’re up to, they’re going to freak out! Oh, I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when they realized that their beloved honor student of a son is actually a little womanizer!”

Frank merely scoffed before throwing the pillow back at his sister. If she was going to threaten to reveal his little secret, then he was not going to play nice. He immediately responded to his sister by revealing her own scandalous secret.

“Oh please, sister, do not sit there and act like you’re a fucking saint. I know about your little hobby with the webcam. I’m sure our parents would be far more concerned about your transgressions than mine. If you say one word about the fact that I’m sleeping with my girlfriend, I will show them your videos!”

Maria glared daggers at her little brother. If looks could kill, he would be a deadman. The fact that he had discovered her dirty secret made the girl livid, and she immediately went off the rails.

“You little creep! Do you get off on my videos? You are so disgusting! You better not say a word to mom and dad, or I will cut your nuts off while you sleep!”

Before Frank could make a proper remark, the door opened, revealing his father, who was dressed in camouflage and had a dead buck in his hands. He did not even observe the situation before calling out to his son.

“Well, look who decided to wake up today! If you weren’t so comatose this morning, I would have dragged you out hunting with me. Now be useful for once in your life and help me butcher this damn thing!”

Frank immediately groaned while Maria teased him.

“Off you go and remember what we talked about!”

Frank merely raised his middle finger again, before following his father into the basement where the two of them butchered the buck over a couple of beers. The man noticed the tension between his young son and his older sister, and inquired about it.

“You two fighting again?”

Frank merely scoffed as he took a sip from his beer before making a lighthearted remark.

“When are we not?”

Marco was busy skinning the buck while pressing further into the issue. It was not good for his two children to continue fighting like this.

“You want to talk about it?”

In response to this, Frank merely shook his head, and picked up his skinning knife, working on the other end of the freshly hunted deer.

“Not really…”

Marco could only sigh before expressing his thoughts on the matter.

“One day, your mother and I will pass away from this world, and it will only be you and your sister. Granted, you both will probably end up having families of your own, but it would be a sad thing for you and your sister to not even be on speaking terms. You should try to get along with her…”

Frank laughed at this remark before expressing his views on the matter.

“Oh, don’t worry, old man, I’m sure I will die before the rest of you. Lord knows this world has it out for me…”

Marco looked at his son with a pitiful expression before shaking his head. He immediately scolded the boy for his comments.

“Your sense of humor is fucked up, you know that?”

In response to this, Frank could only chuckle before shoving the blame onto his father.

“Oh yeah? Where do you think I learned it from?”

The two men broke out into laughter as the father admitted defeat.

“Alright, I’ll give you that one…”

—

Marcellus awoke from his sleep and stared around the room. It was strange. Normally, his visions included some kind of information that was valuable to him. However, all he had were confused thoughts. Some of the words mentioned in this dream were alien to him, but he still understood the meaning behind them.

He did not know how to rationalize this. What he witnessed was so beyond his understanding, and yet at the same time, he comprehended it very clearly. What was this world that he kept dreaming of? Was it truly visions from the gods? Or something else entirely?

As time went on, these dreams became a more frequent occurrence. If this vision did not include the same characters from his previous ones, Marcellus would have believed it to be just an average dream. He was in a state of existential crisis as he sat on the edge of his bed, in the darkness. Sigefrida lie asleep next to him, entirely unaware of the turmoil that was going through the man’s mind.

Whatever was happening to him, it was slowly warping his perspective on life. He could tell that something was changing deep within his mind, but he did not know what it was. In the end, Marcellus realized he could do nothing about this and sighed heavily before taking a drink of the wine that sat on his nightstand. After consuming the beverage in its entirety, he lied back down and struggled to fall back to sleep.

The meaning of these visions, and the impact they had on his life, would have to be indulged a later date. There were important matters of state to attend to, and he could not sit idly by and decipher the meanings of his dreams all day. Thus, after some deep breaths, Marcellus found himself ensnared by the warm hands of unconsciousness. His mind fading into the darkness, before revealing another dream. Luckily for him, this time it was not a memory of his past life, but a normal occurrence.