I Know You're Still Just A Dream - Chapter 8 (Early Access) (Patreon)

Elijah POV

30 Weeks

The penultimate meeting of Elijah’s day finally came to an end, clearing his office for only three quarters of an hour until the next. He loosened his tie and pulled out his phone to check in with Lucia.

A knock to the door halted him mid-text.

“Come in,” he called. He could smell the powdery plastic of surgical gloves and the tang of sterilised metal.

Dr Farris entered and shut the door behind him. “Mr Bonnet, may I have a quiet word?”

Elijah sat up a little straighter in his chair. “Of course, is something wrong?”

“Yes, actually,” the old man replied stiffly. “And I’m hoping there is a simple explanation.”

“Is Lucia unwell? Is something wrong with the baby?” Lucia always said he was too prone to panicking, but Elijah felt he had good reason. His wife had almost been murdered. Three times. It made a man jumpy.

“No and no, Mr Bonnet.” Dr Farris leant his weight against the back of the armchair opposite his desk.  “The problem is that my files have been rifled through.”

Elijah froze momentarily as he processed the good doctor’s words. “I beg your pardon?”

“I am a rather traditional man. I like to keep physical notes and files in my office, hard copies, you know?”

Elijah nodded apprehensively, he had seen the almighty paper hoard for himself the last time he stepped foot into Dr Farris’ office, but he could not fault the man on his organisation. Despite his piles and piles of paperwork, he did manage to keep everything straight and accountable as far as Elijah was aware. What any of this had to do with him was still a mystery.

“Someone has been digging through my paperwork, through one cabinet in particular - your family’s.”

“I haven’t had a check-up in a few decades,” Elijah said, speaking his thoughts into the room as they passed through his mind. “And it’ll have been a century for my father easily, why would anyone be interested in our ancient medical files?”

Dr Farris’ expression grew particularly grim. “There is one person who has been having regular appointments lately.”

“Lucia?” Elijah murmured.

“Her scans had all been swapped into the wrong order and her pregnancy file had been thoroughly ruffled.” Dr Farris himself looked thoroughly ruffled at the notion. “I am very meticulous in my file-keeping.” He added with a stern look that told Elijah not to question him or his paperwork integrity.

“Why would someone…” He shook his head. He looked to Dr Farris for help to understand, but the man simply frowned back regretfully. “I don’t understand.”

“I would take it as a bad sign, son.”

“Thank you for the warning, Dr Farris, I really appreciate it.”

The good doctor nodded farewell and left without fanfare. Elijah cancelled his next meeting immediately and flew to his father’s quarters to discuss his concerns.

Both of his parents were sat inside their suite, reading in silence, side-by-side on an antique loveseat. Elijah interrupted them without an ounce of guilt. He launched immediately into a rambling request for increased security for Lucia. Emphasising what a threat Alyssa could pose to her, especially in her heavily pregnant state. His father listened, but said nothing in response, allowing Elijah to talk more and more until he finally ran out of stressed steam.

His mother leapt into the pause with her lemon-sharp tongue. “If anything, you need to reduce the expenditure on security for your wife, Elijah,” she snapped. “It will be quite shameful when our financial report is released.” The disdain in her voice sent a prickling sensation up Elijah’s neck.

“Shameful that we value security?” he clarified through gritted teeth.

His mother allowed her book to fall limp in her hand, revealing her full expression of condescension from behind it. “It reeks of self-importance that you would spend so much money for endless security,” she said curtly. “What will the lower clan members think of such frivolous expenses?”

“That I am worried for my wife’s safety.”

“No.” She sighed as though her son were a lost cause. An imbecile she had birthed. “They are always looking for a way to frame us as egotistical and sententious.”

Elijah groaned quietly. If he never had to listen to his mother talk of the hidden revolution looking to behead them at any moment, it would be too soon. “And I assume by ‘they’, you mean-”

“You may not see the opposition amongst the clan, but they are there, Elijah,” she said, anger flaring. She tossed her tome aside and leant forward, all pointed bones and harsh angles. There was nothing soft about his mother. There ever had been. “They are waiting for any slip or stumble. Poised like a wild animal, anticipating the perfect moment to strike. Any one of them would take your father’s position without pause for thought. You must always think of your actions and the repercussions carefully. They will use anything to smear us.”

He knew the line that would come next. He said it with her.

“Perfection is all we can afford.”

They should have painted the motto across his nursery walls. He must have heard it more times than his ABCs as a child.

“I would like my wife as well as perfection, mother,” he said restraining his frustration with all of his might.

“Yet you have no proof she is even being targeted.”

“Dr Farris-”

“Still keeps paper filing in the twenty-first century, dear, that is all we need to hear on that.”

Elijah looked to his father for help, but there was no sympathy to be found in his features. The clan’s patriarch that was too easily lead by his wife. Elijah’s mother could have his father believing the moon was made of cheese. The woman was built to head up a cult. Perhaps it was for the good of humanity that she was trapped to his father’s side as a decorative figurehead.

Elijah huffed, loudly and rudely. Exactly as his wife liked to do.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “But if anything happens, on your heads be it.” And he meant it, he would exact his revenge upon them without hesitation.

“Nothing will happen, Elijah,” his mother said wearily. As though his very presence were exhausting her. “Your wife has ample security fluttering about her at all times. She is fine.”

He took his leave with his father’s baffled expression boring into his back.