Chapter 4: 27th July 1991, Saturday: Part 4

11 months 13 days 19 hours and 37 minutes. Like a prison sentence, George had counted every second he had lived at the Linwood household as their new family member. For that specific amount of time, he had gone through the gruelling and downright miserable process of adapting to the 'normal' life of an 11-year-old boy.

"Would Sir George be ever so kind as to pour me another cup of tea? I'm afraid my cup has run dry."

"Certainly my Lady. Would three sugar lumps be sufficient?"

George had spent the first 10 years of his life suffering through physical and mental trauma that could have driven the most grizzled veteran to madness. He had felt such monumental pain and loss that most would shudder to imagine let alone experience it first-hand. His soul had been battered and bruised to form a callus that nothing short of a Dark Lord could penetrate. At least, this is what he had believed until a few months ago.

"You know me too well, Sir George."

"Not at all, my Lady. No loyal subject would ever dare to make assumptions of your esteemed self."

George had excruciatingly learnt that there were more ways to break an individual's mind than just the Cruciatus Curse. Methods so cruel yet abstract that not even his patron's insidious mind could've devised. Such foul and immoral torment that George wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy.

"Is that what you consider yourself, a loyal subject?"

"Until my last dying breath, my Lady."

And now here George was, barely managing to maintain his composure whilst 'enjoying' imaginary tea with Her Majesty Ellie, the self-appointed queen of Yorkshire. This nauseating farce had been slowly chipping away at his sanity for the past 2 hours and showed no signs of concluding. If anything, Ellie had found her stride and could maintain her purely-egocentric character indefinitely.

Putting up with his step-sister was equivalent to going for an x-ray at the hospital, nobody wanted to do it but every now and then you needed to. Doing so would be perfectly safe in low doses but it would start cooking the victim's brain inside out if the exposure was long enough. But playing make-believe with her was on another level.

Forget x-rays, this tea party was like standing in the middle of the Chornobyl reactor. Any longer and his brain matter might start dribbling out of his ears. A still-sane man in his position would have run for the hills but George didn't have a choice. Ellie knew too much and he couldn't afford to risk her blabbering to Dominic and Amanda. Who knew how two devoted Christians would interpret their adopted son having red eyes? Therefore, the doting brother act had to continue for the foreseeable future.

In the end, George's only option was to wait for his foster parents to rescue him from Ellie's fairy tale nightmare. Knowing his luck, Dominic and Amanda would have decided to have a lie-in. If it meant sacrificing a few more brain cells, George could last another hour or two. That being said, he couldn't afford to completely mentally exhaust himself. There was a good chance that a familiar face carrying a very special letter would be arriving at this house any day now. When that day eventually came, he needed to be ready for anything. Just as George was pouring Ellie her 97th cup of imaginary tea, he saw two sorely welcomed figures appearing in his periphery.

He subtly craned his head back and watched out of the corner of his eye as Dominic and Amanda ambled into the living room with warm smiles adorning their faces. They stopped just at the threshold and, to George's dismay, appeared happy to observe their foster children's performance from afar. It must have been quite endearing for them to see a 5-foot-tall boy hunched over on a tiny plastic stool playing make-believe with his little sister who was taking method acting way too far.

"Sir George, you'll make a ghastly mess if you keep pouring any longer."

George quickly whipped his head back around to a rather unimpressed Ellie. He had been distracted by his potential saviours in the midst of pouring nonexistent liquid into his cup. In Ellie's mind, he must have allowed the tea to overflow.

"Pardon me, my Lady. I fear my mind had wandered. It won't happen again."

Under the critical gazes of his foster parents, George returned the teapot to its designated location on the coffee table and went back to stirring his fictitious tea, all whilst maintaining the decorum of a well-mannered aristocrat. The last dregs of his dignity were at significant risk of being snuffed out if one of those two spectators didn't intervene in the next few minutes.

After George expressed his plea through an intense bout of eye language, Dominic finally relented and moved to interrupt the tea party whilst Amanda took this opportunity to head off into the kitchen to prepare the family's breakfast. The weathered 50-year-old man cleared his gravelly throat and attempted to imitate George and Ellie's mannerisms.

"Food will be ready in 5 minutes. If Lady Ellie and Sir George could accompany me to the dining quarters, breakfast will begin shortly."

Dominic's poor excuse for a family butler impersonation didn't even make Ellie flinch. Her concentration remained exclusively on lining the fake silverware perpendicular to the coffee table and her expression implied that she hadn't heard a word. George had inadvertently let Ellie become too greedy, 2 hours of his precious time was no longer enough for her. Perhaps she thought the delusional 'if I ignore him, he will go away' technique would work in this situation.

Dominic was never going to give up quite so easily, he wasn't the sort to take no for an answer. Fortunately for George, his foster parents had found Ellie's kryptonite many years ago when she was still a toddler. Dominic squatted down to Ellie's level and whispered into her ear.

"It's a shame her ladyship doesn't want to join us. You know, your mother is making your favourites. It would be a waste to throw them in the bin, so I guess me and George will have to eat all your pancakes instead."

Like a bolt of electricity, Ellie sprang out from her stool and disappeared out of the living room before the p in pancakes had even left Dominic's mouth. The silver spoons she had been so carefully adjusting were flung across the table, changing the fine dining atmosphere into utter chaos.

Even though George was now covered in cheap plastic cutlery and saucers, he felt a massive bout of relief. His first impulse was to close his eyes and rest on the coffee table until his brain had fully recovered but he knew full well that was never an option. Plus, all that torture had worked up an appetite. George stood up, placed all of Ellie's scattered tea party toys back on the table and made his way toward the kitchen with Dominic in tow.

"Quite a mess you've got in your room back there."

George looked over his shoulder and noticed that Dominic was matching his pace. His foster father was normally a quiet man who rarely bothered him and often indulged his extensive reading habits. This certainly made Dominic, George's most tolerable family member. But this small talk was quite out of character.

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"Oh yeah, that. I'll tidy it up after breakfast."

"It's not... Nevermind."

An awkward silence formed between the two of them and George could sense that Dominic had something to say. To clear the air, he stopped walking and decided to ask what was on his foster father's mind.

"Did I do something wrong?"

Dominic seemed to become a little flustered, which was quite rare for him, and he was obviously struggling to find the right words.

"No. It's... erm. Your moth... Amanda was wondering if you wanted us to have a word with Ellie."

George wasn't like his step-sister, he wasn't so quick to refer to his foster parents as his real mother and father. It felt somewhat disrespectful to use such a personal address when they would only become his pawns in the future. He had initially referred to them as Mr and Mrs Linwood but they insisted that was too formal. Ultimately, they came to a compromise. Now he called them by their first names until he felt 'comfortable' calling them mum and dad.

"Is this about Ellie waking me up every now and then?"

Dominic nodded and George knew where this conversation was going. Ellie's routine of checking his eyes had finally garnered his foster parent's attention. This was the sort of problem George ran into with them on a daily bases. In the process of trying to make his life better, Dominic and Amanda caused nothing except disruption after disruption. They insisted he took regular breaks from his work to do meaningless activities like playing football or watching television.

Little did they know, George had spent 10 years underground in a bunker with literally no concept of the outside world outside of his patron's teachings. He didn't even know there were seven continents until he acquired an atlas. He had a decade of catching up to do via the local library and his foster parents had made it absurdly difficult along the way. Thankfully, George had prepared for this particular chat 2 months ago.

"I think you've got the wrong idea. See, the thing is... I've been asking Ellie to wake me up."

Dominic's bushy brows scrunched up and rightly so, George didn't blame him for feeling confused. What kind of 11-year-old boy would want their younger sister waking them up at 7 am on a Saturday during the summer holidays?

"Did Ellie put you up to this? Amanda and I aren't stupid you know. We know what she's like."

George firmly shook his head back and forth.

"It's got nothing to do with Ellie. I don't want her getting blamed for only trying to help me."

Dominic scratched his bald head.

"What do you mean, helping you?"

George looked down at the ground meaningfully and took a deep sigh before unloading his prepared speech.

"Back when I lived at the orphanage, I used to live with over 2 dozen other children. You couldn't go 5 minutes without hearing girls screaming at each other or a bunch of boys shouting over football.

Every day I woke up and fell asleep to that neverending noise. After a few years, I got used to it. That's probably why I can sleep through anything, I've got the orphanage to thank for that.

But that skill backfired when you and Amanda adopted me. This was such a big house and there were only 4 of us living in it, the contrast from my prior accommodation was huge.

Don't get me wrong, I love living here and I'm thankful from the bottom of my heart but... the silence got to me. To hear absolutely nothing felt... wrong.

But Ellie changed all that. Waking me up by screaming in my ear or jumping on my chest wasn't a pain I was putting up with, it was a blessing. It's weirdly nostalgic and more importantly, makes this feel like home.

So please don't have a word with Ellie. I'm more than happy with how things are."

George wasn't good at pouring his heart out, he was more of an introverted type. Both because he was a natural recluse and being honest about his past was a one-way road to an agonising death. So he lied, he always lied. To strangers and family alike, no one was exempt. His silver tongue was his shield and manipulation was his sharpest dagger. Everything from the slight wobble in the back of his throat to the twinkle in his eye, George could fake it. He felt confident that he could fool the majority of the world's population and his foster parents were no exception.

After listening to the end of his 'impassioned' speech, Dominic merely smiled and nodded before continuing to walk into the kitchen. Sensing that his deception had worked and he was now alone, George ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath. Playtime with Ellie coupled with his chin wag with Dominic had taken it out of him. A gurgling sound reverberating through his stomach reminded George what his next priority should be. First Ellie, then Dominic, now his gluttony needed to be satiated.

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