Cain Rose Up     Cain Rose Up

 by DebC

 This is for the Stephen King Title Challenge at
http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=slodwick&itemid=33206#cuti
d1 The opening quote is from the Holy Bible, and if the dialogue in the
opening scene looks familiar, it's form the episode, as transcribed on
http://ljconstantine.com/smallville/ 
Thanks to LaCasta for the beta, and to Medie and Julie for cheering me up
after I wrote it. 

 

  

 Cain Rose Up
 Author: DebC
 E-mail: debchilson@yahoo.com
 Rating: PG-13
 Keywords: Challenge, darkfic
 Pairing: none
 Series: none
 Spoilers: Stray
 Disclaimers: All traditional Smallville characters belong to... well, not
me, that's for sure. 
 Summary: Lex has a disturbing dream about his brother 

 Author's Notes: This is for the Stephen King Title Challenge at
http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=slodwick&itemid=33206#
cutid1 The opening quote is from the Holy Bible, and if the dialogue in
the opening scene looks familiar, it's form the episode, as transcribed on
http://ljconstantine.com/smallville/ 

 Lex's dream set apart inside :: 

 Thanks to LaCasta for the beta, and to Medie and Julie for cheering me up
after I wrote it. 

 "Cain Rose Up" 

 ~ Cain said to Abel his brother, "Let us go out to the field." And when
they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed
him. (Genesis 4:8) ~ 

 "Don't you ever wish you had a sibling?" Clark asked. They'd been talking
about the stray boy Mrs. Kent had taken after hitting him with her car. He
and Clark seemed to have formed some sort of fraternal bond. 

 It made Lex wish things had been different for him. "I have one, Clark,"
he told his young friend. 

 "Really? I didn't know." 

 "When I was eleven, my mother got pregnant again. It was a total
surprise. I'd never seen my father happier. The day Julian was born was
the only time I felt like I was part of a real family." Clark asked what
had happened, sounding genuinely interested. "The morning of his baptism,
my mother went to his nursery, found him in his crib. He had stopped
breathing. My mother was never the same after that and my father got even
more distant. I think he saw Julian as his second chance. A chance for him
to have a son he could truly love." 

 "I'm sorry," Clark told him awkwardly. 

 "It's in the past, Clark."  :: The young boy rolled out of bed, having
been awakened for the third time that night by the wailing sounds coming
from the nursery. He slipped his feet into the slippers by his bedside and
padded silently down the hall. Pushing the door open tentatively, he
peeked inside and saw his mother, disheveled, holding the child in her
arms. A bottle of breast milk--which she had expressed earlier in the
evening--was in one hand as she sang to the child in an attempt to hush
him. 

 He watched silently for a while, listening to the song and remember when
it was his and she used it to sooth him into sleep. The new baby didn't
seem aware of how generous he was being to give it--and her--up to him. He
just kept crying. 

 The boy did not like the crying, nor did he like how exhausted his mother
seemed. Didn't the new baby know how important it was for her to sleep?
Did he know their mother was special--the most special thing in the world?
Did he realize what he was doing to her? 

 There were others--servants or nannies--who could have been doing this,
as the boy's father was constantly pointing out. Mom had rejected this
option, though. She wanted to do it herself--claiming it was one of the
truest forms of joy a mother could experience. The boy had to agree with
his father. These late nights were not good for her at all. But Mom
insisted, and the nanny they'd hired was only there during the day. 

 Covering a scowl, the boy slipped into the nursery. "Mom?" he whispered.
"Why don't you go back to sleep?" 

 "Oh, honey... I need to feed your brother so he can sleep," his mother
said in hushed tones. 

 "I can do it," he offered, giving her a shy, tentative smile. "Please,
Mom... you look so sleepy." 

 She conceded and stood, letting the boy slip into the rocker and then
handed the crying bundle to him. She left after watching to see if he
could get the baby to take the bottle. 

 After what seemed like hours of feeding and rocking, the baby finally
fell asleep. The boy set the empty bottle on the floor and carefully lay
his brother down in the crib. 

 He stood there a while longer, quietly watching the still form. Then he
turned, reaching for the pillow on back of the rocker. Placing it over the
tiny body, he gently held it in place, silently humming the stolen
lullaby. 

 After another eternity, he placed the pillow back on the rocker and went
back to his room. :: 

 Lex awoke with a start, shooting straight upright in his huge bed, a cry
of anguish on his lips. No! His mind was screaming as his heart thudded in
his ears. He was drenched in sweat and tears flowed down his face.
Tears... he'd been crying in his sleep. But it wasn't real... it
*couldn't* be real. It had to be a dream, he told himself, trying to still
his wildly beating heart. 

 "I didn't kill Julian," he told the darkness that filled the room around
him. "I did not kill my brother." The darkness, however, did not seem
convinced.   
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