PodCastle 817: Creatures in the Walls

* Author : Damini Kane

* Narrator : Peter Adrian Behravesh

* Host : Matt Dovey

* Audio Producer : Devin Martin

*

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PodCastle 817: Creatures in the Walls is a PodCastle original.

Content warning for child abuse

Rated PG-13

Creatures in the Walls

by Damini Kane

One morning before breakfast, Roe’s mother is shrieking. She is bejewelled, always moderating her tone and smiling in placid, dull-eyed ways. She is a duchess; it’s part of her job. She only ever shouts at the servants. Today she shouts at Father.

“I refuse — what kind of creature — how DARE you —”

Roe stares at his parents, fascinated. Both are dressed in silks. The housekeeper behind them holds rolls of grey fabric in her arms. This seems to be the bone of contention. Perhaps Mother is furious because it is not as nice as the gold-embroidered dress she wears; perhaps it is a gift that didn’t meet the standard.

Roe approaches it, tugging on the housekeeper’s skirt. “Can I see?”

Madeline rushes up after him and takes his hand. “Come,” she urges. “Today you can take breakfast in the garden.”

“But —”

He is dragged out of the dining room, yet cranes his neck to see his mother ranting at Father’s stiff, silent form. The fabric in the housekeeper’s arms moves. A single pudgy hand sticks out, reaching for a shaft of sunlight.

They lower the baby into Roe’s old bassinet and keep it in a spare bedroom. Roe has to stand on tiptoe to get a good look. He used to be the same, five years ago: a wormy little infant who could not raise his head. This baby shares his brown complexion, Father’s complexion. They have the same inky      hair, though Roe’s is more copper than black.

“So cute,” Roe whispers, staring at its little nose and lips. His voice disturbs the baby. It opens its eyes. Roe gasps. He has never in his life seen eyes like this. They are dark, like his own, but there’s something in them. It’s like he’s staring through black water at submerged diamonds. The eyes are bright, too bright.

The baby blinks. Roe reaches out. He wants to touch its cheek. Pat its head. He wants to hold it. Just before his fingers brush against it, though, Roe stops. The baby is staring at him. Is it scared? It must be. Where is its mother? Roe has had nightmares; he hates being touched when he’s scared.

So he retracts his palm. “Hey,” he says, “you’ll be okay, I promise.”

His mother’s heels clop into the room. “Roe!” she cries, yanking him away from the bassinet. “Don’t get too close!”

“Am I a big brother now?”

Her nostrils flare. “That thing is not a baby. And it’s certainly not your brother.”

“So he’s a boy?” Roe twists free of her grip and darts back to the bassinet. “What’s his name?”

“We don’t name dirty things that come in from the street. And keep your distance.” She pulls him back a second time. “You’ll get hurt.”

Roe giggles. “He’s a baby! What’s he going to do?”

She glowers at him. “Your Father is a man of poor self-control. That thing is a monster.”

She puts her hands on his shoulders and marches him out of the room.

They call the baby Caprien. Mother refuses a naming ceremony, but Father just starts to call him Caprien and it takes everyone a few days to figure out who he’s talking about. Father tells Roe that he is a big brother now, and Madeline tells him that big brothers have to set an example.