"Big Sis, don't leave me. How do I live without you?"
The young boy deliberately tried to keep a brave face for his older sister in her final moments but he couldn't hide the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes.
Ayana Foxx saw the distress on her younger brother's face.
Deliberately ignoring the pain she felt Ayana moved to wipe the tears gently from his face.
Her breathing was labored as she made several attempts before her feeble soft fingers caressed him lightly.
Recently the siblings lost their mother and maternal grandparents, the only relatives that claimed them curiously passed away from natural causes one after the other.
Leaving the pair devastated and heartbroken by the loss.
Before they could even mourn properly they were sent to live with a father who was cold and indifferent to them, always busy and barely acknowledged their presence.
His sister was the most precious existence in his short miserable life and now Ayana was only seconds away from dying.
Sly absolutely hated that he could do nothing to postpone or stop her death and it grieved him.
Tears fell uncontrollably.
A series of loud pain racking coughs from Ayana eclipsed the sobs that escaped Sly's swollen lips.
"Sly…I swear to you that before I take my last breath …I made sure to have our father promise that he would send you far away to a boarding school."
"Don't talk like that Ayana, this is just temporary. You'll recover and be good as new after you get some rest."
By now Sly was curled up beside Ayana on the bed and for the last time Ayana gently stroked his soft dark curls feeling remorseful.
For Ayana was reluctant to go, wishing that she could have done more for Sly before her time was up.
"Ayana!"
Sly wailed when her warm palm stopped moving then fell limply on the bed.
Minutes passed as Sly hugged Ayana's lifeless body until morning turned to noon.
Finally the doctor came to do his routine visitation and shouted loudly for assistance disturbing the entire household.
Multiple hands tried to separate the affectionate siblings but Sly resisted and held Ayana's lifeless body even tighter; he had no intention of letting go.
In fact Sly planned a silent rebellion to starve himself and join her on the journey to the afterlife.
When Lord Duncan heard his eldest and only illegitimate daughter passed away he felt nothing.
Just a mild annoyance that her death was causing a disturbance in the normally quiet and peaceful household as the servants bustled in and out of the attic.
Storming out of the study Lord Duncan climbed the stairs leading to the attic where the pair shared the tiny space and flung the door wide open.
Everyone respectfully moved out of the way as the decorated commander used his large rough military hands to aggressively yank the small child off his sister.
Lord Duncan wanted to shout and swear obscenely at the boy but with the doctor present he had to maintain some level of decorum.
Instead Lord Duncan closed his mouth and swallowed his foul words.
In a bid to tamp down his anger at Sly, his words were swallowed bitterly as now was not the time for them to be said.
Overshadowed by his fathers stern oppressive countenance, Sly was distressed.
He no longer had his sister to use as a buffer between them and Sly instinctively started cowering in fear.
Turning to the servants Lord Duncan ordered, "Take her body away!"
"No," cried Sly.
The little boy's eyes were red and tearful as Sly rebelliously challenged his father with all his strength.
Not an ounce of sympathy.
No loving embrace or words of comfort were exchanged between father and son.
Lord Duncan just tightened his grip on Sly's wrists; his father was exerting so much pressure that Sly winced from the pain, feeling his bones could snap at any moment.
Seven days later according to tradition, his sister was buried and Sly's body racked with grief was the only wet face present.
Shocking everyone, Sly swiftly jumped onto the mahogany coffin when it was being lowered into the grave.
The servants struggled to pull him away from the coffin several times before they finally succeeded.
Embarrassed, the father ordered Sly to be taken to the old hunters lodge on the outside of the cemetery so that the funeral could come to a conclusion.
Facing sleep deprivation, starvation from a self imposed hunger strike and feeling momentarily overwhelmed little Sly suddenly fainted after being overcome with emotions.
The instant Sly opened his eyes he saw the family doctor's face but instead of relief he felt nothing but pain.
Why couldn't he sit up?
The last thing Sly remembered was him jumping onto his sister's casket at the end of the funeral service while her casket was being lowered into the earth.
Forcefully pulled off the casket by the servants, saw the dirt hitting the casket and then Sly fainted.
Sly shuddered, it hurt just to move his neck slightly but he barely managed to look down; only to see that his body was naked.
All around him the white bedsheet was soaked with his blood.
The source of the blood was the 8 inch incision down the middle of Sly's chest.
Currently the family doctor's hands were buried deeply and tearing apart his ribcage.
His nose wrinkled as the lingering smell from the combination of bleach and disinfectant irritated Sly's nasal cavity.
Sly felt a sense of desolation, the fear of death still lingered in his heart.
Soon he would be reunited with his loved ones as death felt so near.
Before he could come to his senses he heard Lord Duncan's terse voice in the background speaking, "Knock him out."
The rigid and ominous atmosphere of the hunting lodge was shattered by the commander.
Sly felt his body tense as his father looked down on him with a hateful expression that he no longer bothered to hide behind cold eyes.
There was no more pretense of a loving father.
Just a selfish and exploitative commander doing his duty to keep the family bloodline pure and free from taint.
Hurt by his father's antagonism towards him, Sly was stunned for a few seconds.
Sly couldn't help but wonder what was going on as he tried to calm his emotions when the doctor responded brusquely.
"Lord Duncan, it is better for him to remain conscious while I perform the transplant surgery. Do you not care about the well being of your son?"