Prompt #303 - A Decade Late -Untitled - Tekia - Original

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Untitled
Fandom: Original
Prompt: A Decade Late and a Penny Short
Warnings:
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Thomas finds out things he never wanted to know about the world in which he lives.
Thomas hated the parties. He always had. He often hid away as much as he could, but, as he got older, he was pressed into the light, still in the shadow of his brother. Never to outdo his brother.
He didn’t mind hiding behind his brother’s shadow, but his every action was seen as an attempt to get the attention on him. Christopher hated that. He riled up Thomas, and Thomas never took anything laying down.
Every party either ended with Thomas hidden away from sight, or the brothers fighting.
When a young starlet stood next to Thomas all night instead of next to her husband, chatting away about movies and plots, Christopher took it upon himself to remind Thomas that he was second rate.
“Nothing more than a natural born defect,” Christopher sneered as Thomas and he stood in the entryway, the last stragglers of the party softly milling in the ballroom still.
“Are you jealous that she talked with me, or that we actually had something to talk about?”
Christopher made a noise in the back of his throat and shoved Thomas’s shoulders. “Surely you didn’t talk about anything important. You don’t know anything worth import.”
Thomas rolled his eyes. “You mean genetics? Of course you do. You do realize that genetics aren’t the only things in the world that matter? Some people even don’t care about the science.”
“Sure they don’t. But they do care about the results.” A cruel smirk turned up Christopher’s lips. “That’s why she’ll never want you. Defect.”
Thomas hadn’t thought it thought before he spun on his heel and slammed his fist into Christopher’s nose. Christopher screamed and pressed his hands to his nose. People came running and soon the room was filled with people.
Their father gripped Thomas about the neck, his fingers hard against his skin.
“What do you think you’re doing? This is a mess. You’ve embarrassed me for the last time, boy.” He jerked Thomas away from the people cooing over Christopher and out the door. “I’m sending you back to Jonathan in the morning. There will be no more jaunts into the city for you.”
“What, is that supposed to be a threat?” Thomas pulled out of his father’s grasp. “That’s a lark.” He turned around and glared. “I don’t want to be here.” He skipped down the stairs and his father watched him go.
He kept walking aimlessly, the night cool and dark.
He didn’t know the city very well. Growing up in his family’s house meant that he spent more time in the classroom than playing. He didn’t like the city much; too many people and too much of a mess. There were cars everywhere and the noise was nearly too much for him. It wasn’t so bad at night, he thought as he ducked into a dark alley.
A cat was picking at a mess until Thomas interrupted it; scaring it into running off. Thomas followed it absently out of the alley and into the factory district of the city.
Most of the buildings were dark and empty this time of night, but one was bright with activity. Curious, Thomas leaned against the gate, peering in. The lights inside were on, and the front doors were open, but there were only shadows on the windows, nobody outside.
With a quick glance up and down the street, Thomas squeezed through the bars of the gates and snuck up to the open doors.
There was a man and woman standing in the lobby, a clipboard between them. After they chatted, the woman went off and the man waved toward the back where another man in a jumpsuit entered, pushing a trolley.
There was a baby lying in a bundle of blankets, crying in broken sobs. The trolley was exchanged for the clipboard and the second man moved away.
Once he was gone, Thomas stepped into the lobby. “I’ve never seen a baby before.”
The man jumped, startled and spun to face Thomas. “Where did you come from?”
“The street.” Thomas carefully stepped up to the trolley. “Why is there a baby here?”
The man rolled his eyes. “This is the refuse factory.”
Thomas arched a brow. “Refuse factory?”
“Where unwanted babies go.” The man pushed the trolley toward another door and left it there as he turned to usher Thomas out the door.
Something cold settled in Thomas’s stomach. “Unwanted?”
“Yes, unwanted. You know, it’s against the law to have more than two children. So those that have accidental births give their unwanted children to us.”
His vision was tunneling as he started thinking that that child on the trolley could very well have been him. His parents had often told him that they had only wanted one son, that he was the accident. Because they wanted no more, they kept him.
That was the only thing that kept him out of one of these factories.
“What happens to the unwanted children?”
The man frowned. “What do you think? We’re very overpopulated. We can’t just let them clog up the city.”
“You kill them?”
He shoved Thomas out the door. “Of course we do. That’s what the refuse factories are for. Weren’t you taught this in school?”
Thomas shook his head. “This isn’t right.”
“Yeah, well, you’re a decade late and a penny short. This is the only way we can keep control of the population. Take it up with your senator.”
Once again, Thomas moved before he really thought about what he was doing. He turned quickly, his foot striking out and knocking the man off balance. With a shout, the man collapsed, and Thomas leaped over him, rushing for the baby.
He gathered the baby close, wrapping his arms securely around the warm bundle. He rushed off into the night, half aware that he really didn’t know where he was.
Or what he was doing.