Flash Fiction Month, July 09, 3: "Legend of M. DeLis," snippet 4


"Please, Father! Please!"

William Gregory did not heed. He had his son by a handful of scarlet hair, was dragging him up and up and up the stone staircase.

"Father, I beg you."

They came to the top of the north tower, where the walls were crumbling inward. Where rats scuttled bright-eyed in the corners and the floor was thick with old straw and pigeon droppings. William turned, grasped his son by the throat and thrust him through the window.

Alexander's body shook. He was looking down at the ground below, dizzy with the height. His small pale hands wrapped around his father's larger ones at his neck. He stared pleadingly into the older man's eyes. "Father..."

William's face was a gruesome mask. "Say the prayer."

Tears ran without summon down Alexander's cheeks. "I-I can't..."

"Say it!" He pushed the boy further out over the courtyard below, so that he was almost parallel to the ground. His knees rested precariously on the open stone sill.

"D-dearest L-Lord, thine w-will be law. Look up-up-on me, born a sinner. I, who h-have k-killed mine own m-mother---" Alexander gasped, choked. He held desperately to his father's wrists. "I wh-who have p-poisoned mine own father with g-grief... C-c-cast me to the pit and may th-thine forgiveness b-be reserved f-for one more f-fitting than I. Hear m-my prayer, oh Lord wh---"

William yanked his son back into the room, he flung him to the floor muttering curses to himself. "You will learn to say the prayer without fear. You will know it so well that, when you die, you will say it to the Lord himself without stutter or hesitation." He leveled a hard, critical glare at the boy. "Today will not be your day of reckoning. Consider yourself fortunate for it."

Alexander could only lie there, his hand holding his throbbing throat. He looked up to his father in misery.

"Now, I can no longer tolerate the sight of you." William swung on his heels and disappeared back down the stairwell. The hollow sounds of his boots faded with distance.

Alexander hung his head and wept. "Oh dearest Lord, thine w-will be law. H-hear me, look upon me, born a sinner..."


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