Melodies of Blood
Book two
By
Maialen Alonso
Translated by Annie J. Garza
Disclaimer
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents, either they are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. All characters depicted in this work of fiction are eighteen years old or older.
Melodies of Blood
Written By Maialen Alonso
http://maialenalonso.es/
Copyright © 2017 Maialen Alonso
Cover Design © 2017 Maialen Alonso
Translated by Annie J. Garza
Illustrated by: Luifer Black
All rights reserved
Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.
www.babelcube.com
“Babelcube Books” and “Babelcube”
are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.
Contenido
Melodies of Blood
Disclaimer
Melody N⁰ 0 Lost Childhood
Melody N° 1 Kindness and Cruelty
Melody Nº 2 Dark Lament
Melody N⁰ 5 Omega
Melody N⁰ 7 Goodbye
Melody N 8 Dark Pain
Melody N⁰ 9 Renewal
Melody N⁰ 10 The Dark Death
Melody Nº 11 The Change
Melody N°12 Visions and Sentiments
Melody N° 13 Spawns
Melody N⁰ 14 War
Melody N⁰ 15 One Last Drop of Blood
Epilogue a new morning
Melody N⁰ 0
Lost Childhood
That morning in the year 1842 it was raining. The torrents of water poured down the street cleaning the accumulated dirt of the day. People already resting at home were surrounded by their family and dining happily around a fire. However, not every home was peaceful. At the top of the street and in the poorest area, inside a shabby rundown house, a chair crashed violently against a window breaking the glass to pieces.
“Damn bastard!” The woman threw a vase that broke against the wall. “After what happened, you dare tell me what I have to do!”
“No mother, I just want you to stop drinking.” The boy’s voice was silenced when he saw the woman who should have been a loving mother wielding a large knife that glowed in the firelight. “M- mother?”
“If you disappear everything will be as it should be.”
He could see the trembling hand, holding the sharp weapon. He knew it was not because of fear or confusion. It was caused by the accumulated rage inside her. The woman was no longer able to control her hatred and anger with beatings toward the son she hated. Her mind was convinced that if he disappeared, she would be happy again.
In a moment of clarity, the boy calculated the path to the door that would let him avoid a confrontation with his mother. He didn’t want to hurt her. He understood that her anger was because of him. He also realized that he needed to leave or he would die.
He waited to move until the very last moment. The moment his mother leaned towards him while holding the knife high in her hand, she moved to plunge it down into his body. He managed to dodge the knife. He might be weak due to starvation, but he was agile like a rat. While he ran down the street, he could hear his mother’s screams. The mother whose love he had yearned to acquire. Luckily, the sound of the pounding rain distorted her words leaving them indiscernible. Tears slid down his cheeks, mixing with the rain, and bloody wounds.
The night was long. He sat near an old wooden door trying to seek refuge from the rain without success. He kept thinking about what happened. He tried to think about his mother’s hatred for him but he wasn’t responsible for what happened thirteen years ago, the night he arrived in a dark and sinister world.
“Boy,” someone called out jarring him from his thoughts. “I don’t know if you are aware but it’s dangerous out in the streets at this late hour of the night. People could think that you are up to no good.”
When the boy looked up he saw a tall weather-beaten man. The man had deep scars all over his face and a fierce stare. However, he was too tired and hungry to flee.
“Do you want to work?” the man asked him suddenly. “I need workers.” The man extended a wet hand to him. “Get up boy. I’ll give you something to eat if you work and a warm place far from the water. My name is Tom.”
“Caleb,” the boy responded as he stood up without taking the man’s hand. This caused the man to laugh.
Tom began to walk down the street followed by Caleb.
After half an hour of walking through the dark and dismal alleys of London, they arrived at a remote door and entered an old building. Inside Caleb saw other men. They were all adults. Or at least that’s what it seemed like to Caleb. Their faces showed their exhaustion and made them look older than they appeared. Tom pushed Caleb so he would finish entering the building. Thus, getting everyone’s attention. The people were having a drink after having eaten dinner.
“What have you brought us, Tom?” One of the men walked towards them while he brushed back his filthy white matted hair with a hand. “A little rat? At least that’s what my eyes see.”
“This is Caleb. He will be working with us starting today.” Tom smiled and slapped Caleb on the back. It made Caleb stagger.
They didn’t take long to go to sleep. The men laughed and drank while looking at the sickly boy. He quietly observed them from a corner standing as still as a statue. Caleb didn’t like people laughing at him, but he was aware that he would have to put up with them mocking him. He couldn’t defend himself against them. He could see that they were tired, but he could also see that some of them had thick muscular arms capable of breaking his bones if one of them should hit him.
The room was modest. Caleb sat next to a nearly extinguished candle tending to his wounds. Tom had given him some bandages to dress his wounds and told Caleb that he would have to do that himself. Tom told him it was the only way for him to learn to become a man capable of taking care of himself. Caleb didn’t respond to this and would have liked to laugh at Tom’s words because he had always taken care of himself since he was extremely young. He couldn’t remember the first time he had to clean up the blood from wounds that his mother had given him.
Caleb lay down on the blanket covering the floor. It seemed stupid but the sound of his companions snores made him relax. He almost felt like they lulled him to sleep. It was the first night that he would go to sleep without bodily fear. Without having to open his eyes frequently in fear that his mother would appear to kill him. It was the most tranquil night of his short life.
♫♫♫
After a week of hard work, Caleb felt weak. Now that he was getting frequent meals his young body was filling out. The hard work of carrying boxes that weighed more than him was making him stronger. However, he never uttered a word of complaint and never took a break when he shouldn’t. He won the respect of the men that worked for Tom. But there was always a bully and Jacob enjoyed bothering Caleb. It was a problem. Everyone feared Jacob due to a lot of bad rumors surrounding the man with the huge muscular body. Every time he walked by young Caleb he would push him and then would laugh hysterically with his three murderous friends. Caleb never said anything. Caleb would just get up like nothing happened and continue working. This irritated Jacob and he would scowl in anger as he returned to carry the heavy boxes that arrived on the boats and seemed to weigh nothing to him.
♫♫♫
With the passing of the weeks, the situation worsened until the day came that a fatal event provoked a new emotion in Caleb. O
ne Sunday morning two of the men found Tom dead under mysterious circumstances. From what the men told them it was terrible. Apparently, the body was found covered in blood. They calculated that Tom must have been stabbed repeatedly in anger. Nobody was sure about the reason, Tom was a surly man but he had a good heart. He gave everyone a job without asking about their past and everyone there had a terrible past to keep secret, a past that prevented them from getting a job elsewhere.
“What are we going to do now?” asked someone with a hoarse voice.
“I don’t have any idea.” Caleb heard. “Tom had several jobs lined up. Perhaps, a few of us…”
“What a nice surprise, co-workers.” The door opened with a bang that silenced everyone. “I’m glad that everyone is here so you all can hear the news.”
All the people looked at Jacob with a frown on their faces, but no one said what they were thinking. Jacob seemed very animated and everyone suspected that he was the cause of what had happened to Tom, no one doubted he was a murderer.
“I’ve spoken with the captain’s and from now on I’ll be in charge of everything,” Jacob told them with a macabre smile on his face. “It’s a shame that we lost Tom,” he said while waving his hand, but his expression of joy didn’t change. “So I hope none of you let me down.”
It was clear to everyone that Jacob wasn’t asking. His tone was menacing. If someone had the courage to leave Jacob, he would make sure they paid for walking away, with their life. Caleb was sitting on the floor facing the fire. He didn’t know if the crackling he heard was from the fire or if it was from the fury he felt and it was surely reflected in his eyes. Caleb didn’t say anything because he knew that Jacob hated him for some unknown reason, but knowing that Tom was dead made his heart hurt. He had never felt such a strong feeling. He thought that it was perhaps because Tom was special to him. Tom had become the closest thing to a father that Caleb had ever known.
“From now on Caleb will take care of the food and the chores.” Jacob looked at Caleb as he sat still. Caleb didn’t dare move a millimeter. “It’s obvious that he can do woman’s work.” Jacob laughed.
Caleb didn’t blame anyone for keeping quiet. In the weeks that he had spent living there, Caleb had noticed that everyone was afraid of Jacob and he now knew that it wasn’t unfounded. Jacob was a murderer and Caleb knew that he had to be careful if he wanted to stay alive. It was best that he kept his mouth shut and did as Jacob ordered. Or it would go badly for everyone. It didn’t take long to find out just how bad it could get.
The next morning everyone went back to their same old routine. The work didn’t stop just because everyone wanted to mourn Tom and Jacob made it clear that anyone who slept in late would wake up to a nasty surprise. Everyone was up and working before dawn.
“Has he gone crazy?” old Colin asked while he looked on in astonishment. “It’s impossible that we’ll finish all this.”
“It’s double the work that we have always done,” added James.
“Shut up,” Morgan warned them before Jacob could hear. “If you want to live. It’s best that you guys talk less and work more. Boy,” he called Caleb. “Prepare yourself, it’s going to be worse for you than for anyone else.”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Caleb said between gritted teeth, attracting their stares. It wasn’t common to hear Caleb speak. “Less talk, more work.”
Caleb was the first to start working and bit by bit everyone copied him until they were exhausted. It was obvious that Jacob had acquired more contracts than they could finish, but there were no excuses. They either worked or they would end up paying for not working. Before reaching their lunch break they calculated that they had almost done the same amount of work as they would have for a normal workday. More than one person suspected that they wouldn’t be able to keep up with that pace of work for long. Old Colin was already having trouble halfway during the workday.
Caleb felt the enormous drops of sweat slide down his temples wash away some of the dirt. Before unloading the last boat Caleb moved closer to help Colin who was walking unsteadily. Caleb could see that Colin was close to falling as he carried a box.
“Thank you, boy,” Colin said with difficulty. “If I were younger this wouldn’t be so difficult.”
“I’ll finish the rest of your work,” Caleb said surprising Colin. “Go eat and rest. Jacob’s not here. He won’t find out.”
Colin sighed and sat down to rest and observed Caleb. The boy with the strange-looking hair reminded Colin of himself when he was young. He was mature, strong-willed and a hard worker. While Colin silently ate he wished for Caleb to have a better life far away.
After twelve hours of hard labor, everyone entered the building to fill their mugs and sit down to rest. Jacob’s presence left them with no desire to talk.
“Wash this brat.” Jacob threw down a large bundle of dirty clothes that weighed several kilos.
One day he’ll pay for this, Caleb promised. He gave Jacob a furious glare and left to wash the clothes.
On that first day of work. With Jacob as the new boss, Caleb vowed to work harder. With time he would become just as strong as Jacob. The hardship he was living through would be worth it as long as he could avenge Tom’s death and his suffering.
When Caleb wasn’t around the other men helped him with his work and twenty-year-old Jerry taught him to read and write. Feeling so protected by them made Caleb have new feelings that he couldn’t understand. Caleb wasn’t used to other people worrying about him. The first few years passed by in this manner. During this time three of the men got sick and died. Among those men was the elderly Colin. The three were among the oldest people there. After that Morgan disappeared, he was a robust man that had decided to leave the job and had escaped on a stormy night. His body was discovered laying on one of the streets that led out of the city. They didn’t have to think too much about what had happened. Jacob had found out and had taken his revenge. Just as he’d said he would.
Jacob’s tyranny continued until Caleb was sixteen years old. Caleb was becoming a well-built and attractive young man that was already well-known among all the women in the city. The women talked about him in the marketplace and when Caleb walked among them the younger women giggled in excitement.
“Goodness!” Jerry exclaimed near Caleb. “Who would have guessed that our young man would steal so many hearts?” He let out a sonorous and irritating laugh that garnered a sharp look from Caleb, who walked by his side.
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Come on, come on. Anyone of us would love it if any of these young women,” Jerry motioned toward a group of three young women who were watching them and who blushed when they noticed that Caleb was watching them, “sighed when we walk by. You can make them faint just by looking at them.”
“I’m not interested in that nonsense,” Caleb’s sharp response provoked laughter among the small group of men. They knew him enough that they expected his response.
“We’ll have to change that someday.”
“Forget about it.”
Many nights before falling asleep in one of the dark corners of the building Caleb thought about Tom. Remembering him was like a tribute to the man that had saved his life and though many years had passed Caleb’s hatred for Jacob continued to grow. Caleb wanted to be strong. That was one of the reasons that he continued to work hard without complaining. Caleb knew that all of the hard physical labor would gain him the reward he desired, but it was hard to stay out of Jacob’s sight for the amount of time it took to get the results he wanted. Caleb tried not to irritate him, talk back, or even look at Jacob. It was difficult. So much hatred darkened Caleb’s mind.
“Hey Caleb,” Jerry called out one morning when Jacob wasn’t at the Port. “A few of the guys and I were talking…”
“And?” Caleb asked without stopping his work.
“We’ve thought ab
out escaping.”
“You know what happened the last time,” Caleb interrupted.
“What do you want me to say… most of them have given up and want to try to escape, even if it results in death.”
Caleb lowered his gaze. He thought they were right but it was risky, very risky. What to do? He wanted to leave this life but he also wanted revenge. Caleb wanted to kill Jacob, in the same manner, he killed all of the people who opposed him.
“Since you’re talking about this,” Caleb said, “I’m thinking you already have a plan.”
“Yes, we’ve thought about it. Are you in?”
“Tell me the details later,” Caleb said when he saw one of Jacob’s lackeys coming toward them. Looking to see what they were doing. “It’s dangerous right now.”
That night they took great pains to make sure that Jacob and his subordinates got drunk and the excuse they used wasn’t difficult. That night they finished a job that would produce a lot of profits, but of course, only one of them would benefit.
When they heard the snoring of the three men and the crackling of the bonfire a small group of men gathered in the farthest hidden corner of the room. Meanwhile, the rest of the men kept an eye on the man who was the cause of their nightmares. Caleb sat near Jerry, Phil, and Martin who were the creators of the plan and the small revolution that could save all of their lives.
“This Friday night we are going to burn this building down to its foundation,” the whispered words were so low that Caleb had to lean closer to Phil to understand what he was saying. “With the fire surrounding them, they will be worried about saving their filthy asses and not concentrate on us.”
“We’ll run in all directions into the city. Once we are far away from here we’ll be alone and everyone will have to look out for themselves. Once the fire engulfs everything we will have to make sure that everyone can get out of the building,” Jerry added.
Fire? Caleb wondered how no one had ever thought about that before. It wasn’t a bad plan. The rotting building would burn well and Jacob and his men would worry about saving their own skins. They wouldn’t verify that the workers had escaped. Surely, once they saw them running their first thought would be that they would be going for water, but that would be the farthest thing from the truth.
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