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| Verity checks on her captive Twin |
The evening felt heavy, like any summer night. Thick air over Goode Island mixed with the salty smell of the sea as Verity Spencer slowly made her way to her ancestorial cottage amid the noise of chirping frogs in the ponds that guided Verity back as if they were judging her return. She had come to finally check on her prisoner, her twin Mary, she trapped in a pit in the basement after Jacqueline's report of her grave illness.
Verity entered the house. Jacqueline was not home. It was quiet, too quiet. Verity quickly made her way into the basement where she feared the worst. Had she done it? Had the illness overtaken Mary and all that would be left in the crudely dug pit would be the body of her twin sister?
Verity rushed down the stairs. Turned quickly to the left and made a b-line to the open mouth of the hole. It's oblong shape felt like a gateway to hell, something cold and sickening fell over Verity's heart.
It was guilt.
Verity fell to her knees and looked in and saw Mary on the old dirty mattress.
"Mary?" Verity said, her voice soft.
Mary stirred, she was not dead.
Verity exhaled in relief.
"Verity?" Mary asked, her face pale, her eyes sunken in. Her heart fluttering with the lack of nutrition, clean air, and mild dehydration.
Verity poured a fresh pail of water from the sink that was installed two years earlier in the basement while Filipe was locked there while under his lycanthropic curse. Verity walked the water back to Mary and carefully lowered it by rope. "Drink." Verity said.
Mary grabbed the pail and began drinking from it, she didn't even grab a cup. She used the rest of the water to wash her face and hands.
"Jacqueline said you were ill." Verity noted.
"I am." Mary answered coldly. "I have chills. I can’t concentrate. It’s from lack of proper nutrition and who knows what else. You have to end this, you have to get me back up to the surface so that I can get well, Verity, I won't survive if I continue to be here. This isn't right, not for any human."
"No. I -- I can't do that.” The twin answered. “I'll bring you fresh clothes! And more food and -- and I'll bring you medicine." Verity stammered.
"NO!" Mary shouted up, a shocking fresh bound of energy shooting from her lungs. "This cannot continue! I have to be back with my family and you have to make that happen." Mary added, quickly tiring and returning her body to the dirty mattress on the floor of the pit.
Verity did not like Mary's tone. It was as if Mary was parenting her and forcing her to do something Verity recoiled from. The magically created twin had felt the touch of love, had seen the new world of life that she had taken from Mary and there was nothing going to stop her from continuing this life. Mary's life.
"I've already said I cannot do that. Don't you understand? I've seen and felt so much, I have been able to jump into life already lived and -- and I love it. I want more. I can't go back and start from scratch. This was my destiny and Mary, I can't just give it up so easily." Verity explained.
"Filipe will know you aren't me. I know he will." Mary replied.
Verity smiled and shook her head. "He hasn't yet. Not even in bed."
Then silence. Mary felt like she was hearing things. Like her mind was playing tricks on her. Her twin sister didn't say what she thought she said. It couldn't be. She wouldn't. He wouldn't. But then again, how could he not. She loved Filipe, and Filipe loved Mary. If he truly believed Verity was Mary of course, he would make love to her.
"You and Filipe....." Mary began, as she slowly got up from the mattress and tried to look her sister dead in the eye. Her heart felt heavy almost like a rock breaking the surface of the sea sinking lower and lower and lower into darkness until the depth has devoured it into oblivion.
Verity said nothing back, only shrugged. "You're sick." Mary added.
"No," Verity smirked wickedly. "You're sick."
Mary continued "You have no idea how this will blow up in your face, Verity. I can tell you it won't end well and the only person who'll suffer in the end is you. Your wretched life will only become more and more wretched." Her eyes filled with tears, but not only of sadness but frustration that she could not get her sister to understand the damage she was doing.
Then, in a quick moment of reversal, Verity's guilt reverted back to pure ambitious and cunning mind games. Seeing Mary was feisty albeit weaker, made her decide she had nothing to lose now. She could help Mary get better and still keep in the trap.
As Verity's head vanished from the mouth of the pit, Mary screamed for her sister to return. But she did not. She could only hear the footsteps go up the staircase to the main level of the house. She heard Verity walk across the house and into the kitchen. It sounded like she was removing pots and pans to cook.
"She's going to kill me." Mary said softy to herself. "She's going to kill me."
Mary knew now no one was going to save her. Not Jacqueline, not Filipe, and certainly not Verity. She had to figure a way out of the pit quickly, even without having her magic powers. Mary was resolute: this would not be where she died. She was going to get out and take her life back from the twin that was forcing her to suffer.
Upstairs, Verity made a small dinner for her twin. She smiled, feeling a strange sense of happiness that Mary was alive and seemingly not as ill as Jacqueline made her out to be. All of this part of her delusion, a way to block the feeling of guilt from slowly seeping back in.
She turned and started to take the food she had quickly made to her sister and as she went she passed an old photo of Eliza sitting on a chair dressed beautifully with little Mary on her lap. A blond cherub child with big eyes and a small tuft of angelic hair on her head. It was a photo Mary's late father Caleb had taken with the newly invented photographic camera.
Verity stared at it, this child could have been her. That childhood could have been hers. It was yet another taunting reminder how her life had never come and proof of why she was doing the right thing.
While Verity made the food and stared at the photo and thought about her life, or the life that could have been Mary had mustered immense strength and had dug holes in the side of the dirt walls in the pit. She put her feet in them. Then climbed up. Dug more holes in the side of the walls. She put her hands in them. She continued this way forming a ladder all the way up to the top of the pit. Her face and body covered in dirt. Her hair drenched with sweat. Her head throbbing in pain as she pulled her self up to the surface. She was weak. Her arms like jelly.
Mary almost fell backwards into the hole but again her strength held her tight. She pulled herself up and hid in the shadows.
Verity reentered the basement and walked down the stairs with the food. She came to the opening of the pit and placed the food in the pail. Just before she was going to lower it into the pit she looked in and saw it was empty.
Mary jumped out from the shadows and attacked Verity. They rolled around frighting on the basement floor. Tearing at each other's face with slaps, pulling each other's hair. The rolled around screaming and punching and slapping. Mary over Verity. Verity of Mary. A tangle of twins that eventually wore on until they rolled into the pit and fell in together.
Verity broke her leg in the fall. Mary knocked out cold.
The twins trapped.
Together.
****
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| Julian meets with Johnathon |
At Dr. Julian Pascal's office at Churchill Green Asylum, Johnathon entered and found a warm fire burning in the hearth that was to the side of the psychiatrist’s chair and the sofa Johnathon was to sit on. Julian was sitting with his notebook open, Celeste was watching on the other side of the two-way mirror that had a large golden frame locking it to the wall, while Jacqueline sank into a false wall where the corridor broke out into two sides near the office door to listen to the session.
"Please sit down." Julian said, getting up to greet his patient. "I know that we've been focusing more on allowing you to rest while at the hospital and not work on a more rigorous therapeutic regiment. But I come from a class that finds benefits in this part of your recovery." Dr. Julian explained as Johnathon sat.
"I've never had therapy, not here or anywhere." Johnathon replied. “It’s a bit odd.”
"Yes, I can understand how strange it may be at first. Not many have had a true sit down introspective discussion in the manner we will today."
"What do you need me to do?" the patient asked, as he took in a deep breath.
"First and foremost, I’d like you to just relax and get comfortable. Throughout this session, we'll just talk. I'll ask questions and you'll respond honestly. That's all." Julian explained.
Johnathon's hands were sweaty. He wasn't sure how to deal with this new idea, this new form of healing the mind through therapy, through a psychological dissection. But Julian had it in him to find the root of Johnathon's mental breakdown, and he was determined.
Julian walked over and sat next to Johnathon and removed a small locket from inside his dark wool jacket. It was oval shaped and had small grooves carved into the front that looked like intertwined ivy. Julian released the chain from inside his hand and the locked dropped, long and sparkling in the fire, in front of Johnathon's eyes.
Julian began to move the locket back and fourth. The light from the stained glass window caught the ridged frame of the small lockets cause little bits of light to catch Johnathon’s eye. He started at the light fractals as they dance in the light.
"Just look directly at the lights the locket is expressing. Watch as it flickers. Let your mind drift, Johnathon, drift into this light. Let yourself fall deeper into a place where this light is warm, where it holds you in your most quiet space in your mind so that you hear nothing but my voice. Close your eyes now, Johnathon, close them and lay back." Julian said, as Johnathon obeyed.
When Julian returned to his chair, Johnathon was now in a sleep yet, awake and able to answer. This hypnosis was a doorway into the tortured man's subconcious.
In the room behind the mirror, Celeste scooted her chair closer to watch. Her hands were in two tightly wound fists.
"Johnathon tell me about your childhood." Julian asked.
"It was a happy one for the most part. I have an older sister. She's always watched out for me. She's kind and warm. Very much like my mother. My father was a hard worker. Both my parents were. My sister was the one who watched over me while my parents worked. They died young and my sister helped me through school."
"That's very nice, I'm sorry to hear your parents are no longer here." Julian consoled. "What else would you say about your childhood would make it unique?"
"I learned a secret. Something that changed the way I thought about who I was. It was kept from me, and when it was revealed I was supposed to continue to keep it a secret so that I wouldn't get hurt." Johnathon explained.
"A secret?"
Celeste was on the edge of her seat. She wasn't sure she wanted her brother to be this open.
Outside listening in, Jacqueline too kept her ears open, wondering where this would go.
"It was about my father. He wasn't really my father. My mother had had an affair that I was not aware of. My birth father is really Albert Lord."
"I see." Julian replied writing down this notable bit of family history. "And I know that would have been painful for to hear and not only that it must of been painful to be asked to continue to lie about it."
"Yes." Johnathon said.
"Eventually it was revealed, yes?"
Johnathon confirmed.
"And as that came out how did you feel?" Julian prodded.
"Lost." Johnathon answered.
"How so?"
"I was in the middle, half this DeViana, half Lord, and yet neither side seemed to know what to do with me. Then there was all the rest." Johnathon answered.
"The rest? Can you tell me more?"
"The rest of the Lords. What they are. Who they are. What they want. What the push for. And what they've done. Even how they reacted to my marriage."
Celeste and Jacqueline began to worry the hypnosis was about to go to a place there were unsure was safe for anyone, much less Johnathon.
"What do you my by that? How is it that those attributes about the Lord family, your paternal side, affect you?"
Johnathon's answer began with a pregnant pause that Julian felt lasted hours, when in reality it was only seconds. The hypnotized man searched his memories to figure out a way to explain what his family, the Lords, were truly about. The secrets the hid behind the stone walls of Tirymor House were like time bombs waiting to be heard from coast to coast.
Bombs filled with dark secrets of lies, murder, vampirism, madness. Ghosts no one in the Lord family wanted out in life for all the world to see.
"They have people who live but are not living. People not like us who can see the day— who are not people who are cold and calculated and need to kill to keep their own world alive." Johnathon said.
Julian sat up, his brow furrowed at first concerned but then a glimmer of a smirk shot across his face. Julian seemed to suddenly become delighted with these words that didn’t deem like fantasy, and madness. They seemed liver memories. They were strange experiences that were coming from a man that had a mental breakdown but because of his altered state of mind, they came out so truthful and real. It was as if the madness had receded to the back of his mind and truth was now front and center.
"Blood lust? Alive but are not alive? Johnathon can you be clearer? Can you elaborate More?" Julian asked writing it all down and underlining blood lust in a quickly flick of writing, as if he was writing down direction to a hidden treasure.
"They seek a life force. I had to help. I had to help hide it, some have powers, powers from a dark unnamed source. Given to them at birth." Johnathon began.
Julian’s jaw tightened he whispered “life force”
Celeste got up from her chair and stared into the mirror. The family secret about Sebastian could not be spoken about she could not let it, as she was one of the people who asked Johnathon not only to keep it hidden but to bury Sebastian herself in mausoleum hoping to lock him away for good.
Jacqueline moved from the hidden wall and rushed to the door and put her ear to it when she heard the words that sent her into a slight panic: magic from an unknown source.
"A life force?" Julian asked writing those exact words in his book. "Go on. What else?"
"Blood." Johnaton reiterated. "The nephew wants and needs blood." Johnathon added clearly.
"The nephew?" Julian asked after writing it down and circling it. “Tell me about him.”
Celeste rushed out of the adjoining room and into the hall way there she found Jacqueline in her true form just as shocked at what she was hearing.
 |
| Celeste catches Jaqueline |
Celeste gasped at who she saw.
"YOU!" She hissed.
Jacqueline turned, she felt caught but at the same time she knew that despite Celeste's distrust of her they both needed to stop Johnathon from saying anything more.
Inside, Julian continued, "What else? What else about this nephew, does anyone know his whereabouts?"
"My wife. She was similar to him. Darkness in her was similar. Otherworldly. But I loved her. Truly. I...I feared what they could do but I listened to my sister, I listened to everyone. I became confused and I didn't know who was real and what I could trust with my own eyes and heart." Johnathon explained, finally piercing the source of his breakdown.
"We have to stop him, he can't say anymore." Jacqueline said. "He can't."
“Are you behind this? Johnny’s — decline?” Celeste asked, suspicion all over her face.
“No! No!” Jacqueline replied truthfully. “He and I have worked out our differences I’ve been working here…” she paused not ready to tell Celeste everything. “We’ve slog come back to each other, and he’s in there right now exposing every secret your family has ever hidden. Think of the mobs that stormed Tirymor searching for Sebastian—the so called monster. It can happen again.”
“The mob you egged on.” Celeste recalled.
“Celeste — we’re wasting time.”
Celeste's face showed no love-loss for the woman standing in front of her. The woman she did not know was a witch, only as Jacqueline the supposed gold-digging opportunist that married her brother who's mind was already broken. This was woman the woman who betrayed the family and sent the mob after them to the coves the night the late Mayor Churchill put a target on the Lord's backs.
"What do we do?" Celeste asked.
Jacqueline arched a brow and grabbed the door knob and squeezed.
"Who is this nephew Johnathon?" Julian asked.
Another pregnant pause.
"Johnathon? Call you tell me who this nephew is?
"He's dead."
The door burst open. "That's enough." Celeste replied. Julian, startled by her entrance quickly got up from his chair and pushed Celeste out of the room and closed the door.
The fire in the firepalce began to burn hotter than ever. A spark fell out of the fire and hit the carpet, yet instead of burning it grew into the shape of a woman, it was Jacqueline who shape-shifted from the flames into herself. She knelt down next to the hypnotised Johanthon and whispered into his hear.
"You shouldn't have done that. You should have stayed in the room watching." Julian replied to Celeste
"I want you to stop. I need you to. He needs to rest. My brother isn't making any sense." she said.
"I was getting close, Celeste. He was saying some interesting things, if I had just a few more minutes I know that I could get much more deeper and know much more,." Julian noted.
"No! They were words and fantasies of a man whose mind is -- is -- damaged. I demand you have him taken back to his room and figure out a different way to help him. I don't like what I saw." She said.
“But there is something I need to know.” Julian said
Celeste shook her head “This ends now.”
Julian did no reply. He took a deep breath and walked Celeste back into the room with the two-way mirror. "I'll take care of it." He said.
When Julian reentered his office, Jacqueline was gone, and Johnathon was sitting up awake, which surprised Julian.
"Are you alright?" Julian asked.
"What happened? Were did you go?" Johnathon asked.
"How do you feel?" Julian wondered.
"I -- I feel tired. My head feels heavy. I don't know what happened. Did you get any information?"
Julian said he did but that they'd have to work together another day. The doctor walked over to his note pad, and everything he had written on the pages was gone.
"My pad. Did you take my pages?" Julian asked.
Johnathon didn't know what he was talking about, and Julian could tell the man had just woken up as he walked in. But the papers were gone.
In the other room Celeste watched with baited breath. Jacqueline entered through the door.
"It's going to be fine." The witch said.
"Where did you go? When I opened the door you were gone!" Celeste said.
Jacqueline didn't answer truthfully. "A secret door. But we won't have to worry now." She added showing the notes.
Celeste snatched them from Jacqueline's hands and read them over. She looked back at Jacqueline in her nurse's outfit and realized she'd been working there. For how long, she did not know but then an idea came to her mind.
"You need to protect him. Whatever you're doing, however you're doing it, protect Johnathon." Celeste said.
Jacqueline arched a brow. A new page, blank and ready to be written for her life. "What's in it for me?" she asked.
Celeste narrowed her eyes. "Really? I thought you loved my brother?"
Jacqueline sighed, she did love Johnathon. It had taken her a very long time to deal with the loss of Sebastian and the child she was carrying. But the events of the witch trial and the council and Verity's entire situation had changed Jacqueline in a way. Gone was the woman who wanted to hurt people for her own love-sick reasons, she was now a person who was determined to finally be seen and heard in her own way. She'd learned her lesson, it was now time to find a way back to her own true place in this world, the way she was before she ever met Sebastian Lord.
"I do." Jacqueline replied. "He's still my husband, and I'm trying to be here for him. That's why I sneak around as a nurse here. Its the cloesest I can be without being seen." She further explained.
"Fine, good." Celeste replied. "You protect him here and perhaps we can find a way to bring you back into Lord family fold -- as a member of the family."
Jacqueline thought about it for a minute. The idea of having a family had always been so tempting to her. But the Lord family? Could she? After everything she had done to Sebastian, and Evie and Johnathon and turning the town against them? Jacqueline saw Celeste for what she was, a woman desperate to her brother Johnathon. It clicked -- she would do it and answered surprisingly "Its a deal."
The sisters-in-law had a new pact of protection to save their mutual love of Johnathon who had been taken back to his room.
For his part, Julian may have lost his notes and he may have lost the confidence in Celeste but he knew exactly what he heard. There was indeed more to what Johnathon had said that he was not only intrigued by but knew that he was on the right road to find what he needed. Celeste's reaction was proof enough.
Now alone, Julian looked into the glass of the two-way mirror and looked at his own reflection. His eyes suddenly glowed like two little green lights that vanished when he blinked. His face twisted into a grin, pleased with his stroke of luck with Johnathon’s revealing hypnosis.
This doctor was here to find something that was just as important as treasure, and Celeste DeViana-Lord was clearly the key to its finding.
****
 |
| Aurora & Eden arrive at the police station |
Meanwhile, in a frantic rush, Aurora Jordan and Eden Sydney arrived at the Constable's station. They had just been ambushed by a mad Caspian. His mind split, his body wanting to kill as is alter-ego Viktor Holten took control of his mind and body.
Aurora entered first. She quickly scanned the room as two deputies stared at her. Her face white as a ghost, her throat still stained with the marks of Caspian's hands and his attempt to strangle her to death.
"Are you alright ma'am?" One of the deputies finally asked, just as Eden entered, seconds later.
"Where's Constable Ryan?" Eden asked.
Seeing the county Barrister in such a panicked state sent shivers up the deputies spines.
"I'll get him." The deputy answered.
"Do you need to sit down?" Another deputy asked Aurora.
"All I need is for Constable Ryan to track down Caspian Casador!" She said. "NOW!"
Justin Ryan, the new young constable exited his office looking over papers. He saw the panic on Aurora's face, the complete and utter horror on Eden's as the two looked disheveled and exhausted after the fight with the mad Viktor.
"What's happened here?" Justin asked.
"It's Caspian. He's... he's out of control." Eden answered. "He attacked Aurora, he attacked me."
"He's the one who attacked Baxter Murphy. He's out of his mind and he's tried to kill us." Aurora said. "I -- I don't know how he's gotten this way. He's been having headaches and they've made him more on edge, but he's just snapped. He's dangerous, Justin. We have to stop him or someone is going to die."
Justin could tell they were not exaggerating. He saw the look of panic and fear they displayed and quickly went back into his office and grabbed his gun.
"Alright, where do you think he's gone?" Justin asked, returning to the front desk armed.
"Danielle." Aurora replied. "He's probably gone to find his daughter Danielle."
"Let's find her first."
With that, Justin, Aurora, Eden and another deputy quickly left to find Danielle Holten.
****
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| Celeste & Filipe reunite |
As the evening wore on, Celeste DeViana-Lord, her 5 year old son Fabian, and Tirymor's head maid Jane Donnelly, were in the village collecting groceries and items needed for the household. It wasn't customary for a member of the family to accompany Jane on these duties, it was usually Jane and another maid or butler, but Celeste needed the outing after the day she had at Churchill Green.
As they walked down the street towards the awaiting car near the end of the block, several attendants of the grocery store went ahead of them with the bulk of their items. The three-some walked slower admiring the new pretty strung lights along the avenue that had switched on as the sun was going down.
As they admired them, Filipe Braga and his young son Caleb walked up the block.
Celeste's stomach instantly dropped. She hadn't seen her former partner in a very long time, much less talked to him. But there was no way around this eventual crossing of paths, not in town as small as Welshport.
She admired him, making a new life for himself with Mary and their adopted boy. He looked good, happy, healthy. A flash of their last interaction with him on one of Tirymor's garden terraces drunk and angry, bitter at Celeste's betrayal and affair with Jacob that was their ultimate undoing was still a sting that had never left Filipe’s heart.
"Well, hello there!" Filipe said, his friendly voice floating through the air like the calming buzz of a hummingbird’s wings.
She smiled and greeted him too, a polite double kiss, one on each cheek.
"How are you Filipe?" She asked, admiring his strong handsome face. His warm eyes, a lighter shade of brown than she recalled, still so focused, so calming, so real. She couldn't take her eyes off his strong shoulders, the same ones she had often cried on, held on to, loved.
"I'm well thank you. Jane, how goes it?" He asked politely recognizing the accompanying maid. She curtsied back.
"And this must be little Caleb? Such a sweet little face." Celeste said of the boy in Filipe's arms.
"Yes, he's perfect." Filipe replied. "And you!” Filipe said to the growing Fabian, “Boy, look how tall you're getting!" Fabian shyly hid behind his mother with a large smile across his adorable face. “He has his father’s smile.” Filipe added, like salt to the wound.
Celeste held her breath.
"Like one of the beech trees in Tirymor Forest, he just grows and grows." Jane replied, breaking the silence. "Why don't I take young Fabian across the street to the part for a second. I have a shiny new penny that I bet he could throw into the fountain and make a wish, would that be alright ma'am?"
Celeste smiled and nodded.
They watched Jane and Fabian quickly cross the cobble stone street over to Village Park, a cold chill ran up Filipe's spine as a memory of the Full Moon ceremony where he, in wolf form, killed and maimed many of the village. He moved his body so that his back was now facing the park, he couldn't look at it any longer.
"I read about Rebecca." He finally said. "I'm sorry about all of that. I must be terribly difficult for you and Jacob to watch her go to prison. You know, in all the years I worked at Tirymor House when I was a teenager she never ever gave me the hints of being capable of hurting anyone like that. To imagine her killing Asha in such a way -- accidently or not -- my god."
"Rebecca has had a very difficult time dealing with a lot of things in her life in the last few years. I guess we should have all seen something like this coming." Celeste admitted.
"Murder?"
Celeste sighed "Well, her demise. However it manifested, it was bound to happen."
"Demise. I see. And how is Jacob handling it?" He asked.
Celeste shrugged "He turned her in. So, you can guess how he's doing."
"He turned in his own mother? That's --- that's...." Filipe began before Celeste cut him off.
"That's Jacob."
Her face suddenly fell. Filipe could see there was something more on her mind, in her heart. Something she wouldn't tell him, not now. Filipe was too far outside of her world to allow back in. It would hurt too much to admit to the man she betrayed with affair that her whole world felt as if it were crumbling around her. Her marriage to Jacob was, for better or worse, a marriage of convenience. She had taken Jacob's proposition to make love then marry all to protect her brother Johnathon from Jacob's jealousy when it was discovered Johnathon was also Jacob's half-brother. Another heir to the Lord fortune, Jacob's desired treasure, was always a target to the master manipulator and sociopath.
Filipe reached out and squeezed Celeste's shoulder. His big hand cupping the puff of her sleeve and squeezing. The firmness of his grip, even in that small time frame made her body tense. She wanted to jump in his arms, the same arms little Caleb was in, the very symbol of Filipe's new life.
She patted his hand, a sign for him to remove it. "I hope you're alright over there. That house can probably get quite lonely." He said.
"It can be, yes. But you know I've really gotten used to it Filipe. Things for me are the way they are because that's where they're supposed to be." She revealed.
"Do you really believe that? That all of this was how it was supposed to be?" He asked.
"I do. Don't you? Had I not done what I did to you with Jacob you would have never found Mary and the two of you would never have formed such a lovely family together. Charlotte can't speak more highly of how wonderful it is to be around the two of you. It really boils Jacob's blood." Celeste giggled recalling her stepdaughter's delight of living with Mary and Filipe.
"Well Jacob will always be Charlotte’s father, I can’t change that. Mary has really loved having her around more." Filipe replied.
"How is she?"
Filipe then paused, now it was his turn, his face too suddenly falling into thought of how Mary has been slightly different in the last few weeks. There were little nuances of behavior he did not recognize. But the trauma of the trials, it all still burned in their memory felt as if it could be the culprit to Mary's strange behavior.
"She's pulling through." Filipe said. "The trial a few months back were very difficult. I think she's just adjusting to the whole idea of what could have happened." Filipe replied.
"I'm sure you're both happy just to be able to hold each other at night again." Celeste replied, suddenly thinking of being held by Filipe at night too. A welcomed image from her memory suddenly flashing in her mind of his big arms holding her tightly in bed after they’d made love.
Filipe smiled, the moment sudden hitting his memory too but not in a good way, recalling his long 15 year relationship with Celeste that ended because of her affair did not hit him the same way it did Celeste. For him there was no yearning for that to return, he had moved on and was happy.
"We should let you go, it's getting late." Filipe replied, snuggling Caleb to his chest.
Celeste shoot the memory from her mind and agreed but before she went off to find Fabian and Jane she turned back "Filipe..."
He only walked two steps before turning to her, he said nothing, only waited to see what she would say to him as the parted.
"I'm sorry." She said.
A small smile hit his face. He didn't know what to say. He couldn't say it was ok, because what she did was not ok. He couldn't say he was sorry too because he had done nothing to apologize for. He only nodded, held on to Caleb's little body, and began his walk back to his mother's house in the village whispering to the baby "Let's go see mummy."
Celeste took that for what it was worth, a small barely visible acknowledgement that she apologized. She took a deep breath and dashed across the street to find her son and maid.
“Let’s say nothing of seeing Mr. Braga, shall we?” She said to them.
Jane arched an eye brow and nodded. “Yes ma’am.”
As the threesome went back to their awaiting car with their groceries, a familiar curious face watched them closely from outside of a restaurant.
It was the very peculiar Dr. Julian Pascal who was smoking in the fresh evening air awaiting his friend, the new Mayor Nathan Cramer for dinner. Julian was even more curious about the Lords and Johnathon’s revelations in the hypnosis session. His eyes flashed a quick green light again as he threw down his cigarette and let it smolder on the cobble stones.
There was clearly more to him than met the naked eye.
***
 |
| Julian meets with Nathan |
Nathan Cramer had filled his new role as the 46th mayor of the small town and island of Welshport nicely. He'd cleverly taken the shocking death of Timothy Churchill, a murder, and covered it up to save the town even more trauma hot off the heels of the calamitous witch trials.
The decision to not allow justice play out and conceal the true manner of the ex-mayor's death was not only strategic but the best thing Nathan felt he could do to save the town he loved from falling deeper into the decay of suspicion and anger.
It was an ironic reward when he became the next mayor and the very young age of 36.
Nathan's new friend Julian recognized the hard-working person Nathan was in just their few private meetings at the mayor’s office when Julian came to town as the new head of psychiatry at Welshport Hope’s Churchill Green asylum, it was this feeling and resolute nature Nathan held that made Julian call for the meeting at the restaurant.
Most importantly he hoped Nathan could shed some light on the Lord family — thanks to Celeste's odd reaction to Johnathon’s bizarre revelations in at his hypnosis session.
At the table inside the restaurant that was about half filled, Nathan poured them a glass of Douro Wine. The surface of the crimson liquid glowed with the low lighting of the restaurant. There was a tint to it that looked dark, almost black towards the bottom of the curved glass, like blood pooling.
"Everything alright?" Nathan asked, breaking a small sliver of bread that had been placed on the table. "You said you needed me to give you some insight about something. Not a patient, I hope."
Julian smiled, "No, no. Nothing like that. Well, maybe."
Nathan raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I had a strange session today with someone. I know, I shouldn't speak about this, but I'll leave it anonymous. The patient had what normally I would consider delusions during a hypnotic state. That's not uncommon. As our mind slips into the place where we actually don't recognize while awake, things come to light that we can't really understand lucidly. In the hypnotic state those things are clearer even if they're part of a delusion or a fantasy." Julian explained.
"Hmmm..." Nathann thought, considering what the psychiatrist was saying. "You're not convinced whatever this patient said was a delusion, do you?"
"I normally would Nathan, but it’s what happened after that made me think twice. I know I'm new here, but what was said has fascinated me. I hope you can help me understand it more." Julian answered.
"Dr. Pascal I am always here to help our citizens through difficult times but I’m not sure how I can help your patient, not like this anyway."
"I think you can. You know everyone in town, their ups and downs -- every single one of their dark shadows.” Pascal said as Nathan looked at him with bewilderment. "And of course their good ones too."
Nathan looked at him strange again, for his odd choice of words “Well perhaps, but I don't pry.”
“You see mayor, I had the family member witness the sessions behind a two-way mirror. Witnessing the sessions helps the family understand the struggle of the afflicted person more -- and when this patient began to explain things from their subconscious the family member barged in and stopped the sessions cold. They said a lot of strange things while under hypnosis— very strange things. Which makes me believe there’s more to it.”
Nathan then understood. "I see, basically Confirming it, then."
"Yes!"
"What exactly did they talk about?”
Julian took a breath. Then sipped from his wine, the red liquid stained this mouth, giving him a vampire grin. He wiped his mouth on a white cloth. Seeing the red stain smeared on the white cotton linen napkin made his heart pound faster recalling Johnathon's words of blood lust and magic. This almost thrilled him remembering.
"I -- I can't really make sense of it to even say it out loud." Julian said, yet his mind held a secret.
"I wonder then, if even you can't make sense of it if its even really --- " Nathan paused.
"Blood." Julian replied. "Powers, mysterious powers. A lust for blood."
Nathan froze in his seat. He did not reply but his face was clear enough for Julian to come to a clear understanding that -- yes, there was something to Johnathon's words.
"What aren't you telling me mayor? I can see it, I can see it in your eyes."
Pascal noticed Nathan suddenly go somewhere in his mind. It was obvious the mayor was searching his memory something he did not want to stay out loud. Julian then slowly reached into his pocket. He gripped the locket he used to put Johnathon under. He wondered if he could someone do it to Nathan and get the answer he so desperately needed out of the mayor.
The psychiatrist slowly brought out the locked and just before he set his hypnotic trap but Nathan shook his head and broke his concentration and thwarting Pascal’s plot of hypnosis for answers.
Nathan shook his head again as if to shake out the memories of accusations of witchcraft and the woman who was burned at the stake. The horrors he saw, the frightening images of powers and what happened at the coves and the search for Sebastian's supposed living corpse.
"I think you should chock it up to someone who's ill and perhaps searching for answers about his own delusions." Nathan said, hoping to cover for his facial expression.
"Really?" Julian wondered.
Nathan nodded confirming.
The waiter came, his face nervous severing the mayor. His pencil tapped his tiny order note pad. His appearance took the pressure off Nathan, thankfully, and they began to move on to their dinner order.
Julian was disappointed — his true mission to Welshport was on a time table. He needed to find what he came to town for, and find it soon.
Nathan’s quick brush off didn’t help matters either. It only convinced Julian Pascal that Welshport was a place that hid more than anyone was about to admit to. Even Nathan Cramer.
