I alone am the honoured

our terms and conditions consist of hate

•••

Animea is a strange phenomenon that haunts every generation for every individual. It tore my parents apart. That's a lie - it tore my Mother apart. From the bottomless pit of her empty soul she refused to make room for one more. 

My Father dedicated himself to being the one to tell me how it works. He sat me down in our home library and found articles, fairy tales, fictitious novels on the scientific and spiritual culture of the fantastical event. He read for hours. To me and only me. I saw stars shimmer in his eyes with passion and ferocity. 

It started with a royal gathering at the Klawe Kingdom, my home, where the two met. My father snuck in with his brothers, dressed in the servants attire, and stole small trinkets worth selling the risk. My Father trembled but wanted to be known as the one who could brag that he stole the most expensive item. So he went into the many rooms, one being my Mother's, and swept up a heavy, expensive-looking, necklace. Once he acquired it, he turned to leave but a body crashed into him by the waist and met the floor. Then he saw a girl's face - my Mother's face.

Knowing one's Animea is not love-at-first-sight. It is a process. So I asked my Father how he knew then that they were destined in the threads of life, woven by the Gods I once believed in, to be together. He laughed. Hard. His whole body shook with benevolent ardour. He recalled that my Mother had him sent to the Underground - a prison built beneath the spotless, patterned floors of the Castle. 

She visited him everyday. There is always an initial, cautious, interest between fated Animea. So she returned to his cell every night to only sit for an hour, in silence, before starting her interrogations. His parents, his brothers, his social status, his school life. He answered every inquiry truthfully. Why would he lie? He fell in love the moment he saw her. He was just that kind of guy. 

Was. Now he lies in a graveyard with generations of the Klawe family behind him. 

Warmth encapsulates my shoulder and Dr. Karr floods my sight, her breath hot on my cheek. I jerk away and readjust myself on the bed, gaining distance. 

"Where did you go?" She asked indifferently. 

I kissed my teeth. Doctor Karr let the silence seep into the air, and said, "You wish not to tell me." 

"No shit," I say. She doesn't smile. It doesn't even look like she's breathing. A pure formation of stone chipped into a sentient being. She turns and sits on an office chair and taps away at a keyboard, examining the words she's typing onto the monitor. A lion's tail pokes beneath her long, white coat, swaying idly whilst she works. Swaying and swaying. 

She turns back to divulge the state of me, and once she found my condition sufficient enough she turned back.