Virgil hummed a little made up tune as he scrubbed at the hearth. Sure, his situation wasn't perfect (far from it, in fact) but he could still make the most of it. Soon, he'd be old enough to move out and leave his step-siblings and their torture behind.

"Hey, Virgil." Someone said as they squatted down beside him. Virgil felt himself freeze slightly at their tone of voice but kept his eyes focused on his task. No point giving his step-brother a premature reaction to something he hadn't done yet.

"Virgil." Edin snapped. He was getting louder. "Virgil, hey! Little Devil!" He pushed and Virgil fell onto his side, narrowly missing hitting his head on the hearth. Virgil scrambled backwards and Edin laughed.

"Scared little Devil." He sneered before lunging forwards at Virgil and gripping his face tightly. He dug his fingernails into Virgil's cheeks and Virgil bit his tongue to stop crying out in pain. "We decided that your black hair wasn't enough of a correlation to your soul, little Devil." Edin hissed, his free hand scrabbling around in the soot Virgil had yet to clean. "So we thought we'd give you a bit of help."

Edin smeared the soot under Virgil's eyes, digging his nails further into Virgil's flesh to stop him from trying to escape. "There, little Devil." He threw Virgil back and he landed against the wall, the skirting board digging into his back.

Virgil jumped up and tried to wipe the soot away from under his eyes, dragging long streaks of the black dust along his cheeks. He cried and clapped his hand over his eye as some of the soot fell into it. Edin stepped back to where his sister was and laughed.

"Crybaby." Thalia taunted. Virgil's head snapped up and Thalia's cruel smile faltered. Virgil's eye was red but he wasn't crying and he was glaring at both her and Edin with a fierce venom they'd never seen before.

"Do I look like I'm crying to you, Thalia?" He growled before stumbling over to the kitchen sink to try wash the soot out of his eye. Thalia and Edin looked at each other, unsure. Virgil had always been a safe bet to bully but now it was like he was a wild animal... had he finally snapped?

"If he tries to hit us," Edin hissed, "we can take him. Together. Besides, we can just go running to mother and he'll be tossed out on his ear."

"Yeah, yeah." Thalia agreed. Virgil sighed and straightened his back. He turned to Edin and Thalia. He leaned his arms against the sink and his scruffy cuffs reared up, displaying his thin wrists. He really was very thin... Thalia guessed she and her brother could beat him if it came to that, despite Virgil being twice Edin's height.

"Can I get back to our chores now?" Virgil asked, putting emphasis on 'our' to show that he was doing more than his fair share of work. "Or do you have more torture to lay upon me in my own house?"

Edin laughed but there was nervousness behind his bravado. He was also scared of Virgil. "I wouldn't exactly call this a house. Hovel might even be too kind for it."

Virgil stared at him. He didn't glare, he didn't move, he just stared. Unblinkingly stared at Edin.

"It's still my birth right." He said quietly. "Now, you never answered my question." Virgil wiped his hand along the remaining soot under his eye. "Huh." He muttered to himself. Thalia pulled on her brother's sleeve.

"Let's just go, Edin." She said and she hated the pleading tone in her voice. Edin nodded slowly.

"Yeah, yeah, let's." Edin turned his back on Virgil and pulled Thalia out of the room. "We'll get the little Devil back tomorrow."

How does it feel to have your own make-up style turned against you, I wonder?
Bye,
Blaize