B1/Ch10: THE UNRAVELING

 

Sabrina on the beach

Night fall. Waves crashed on upon the cliff-side of the edge of  Welshport Island like constant explosions bashing into the rocky shore. Above the rocky coastline were the Westridge Woods that had a deep and thick canopy of Oak, Birch and Beech trees that floated on the little island that resembled a shard of green emerald stone in Frenchman Bay.

In the gloom of the moon just beyond the Westridge Woods was Saint Thomas' cemetery. A large plot of land covered in ancient tombstones and graves. Etched on them the names of the island's ancestors; the first settlers from Wales, the native people who also once lived there and of course the modern day citizens who lived and died ok their beloved island village world. 

Standing on a dying green patch of grass of the cemetery, the hem of her dress soaked in the wetness from the soupy ocean air and fresh drops of dew stood Mary Goode; shovel in hand. A wheelbarrow at her side staring down at the freshly covered grave of Sebastian Lord.

Through the dark brown dirt and mud, buried under heavy loads of soil in a beautiful casket lined with the finest and softest velvet, Sebastian's body lay in death and darkness.

His face, a perfect pale white. His eyes closed and slumbering. His hands clasped perfectly together over his stomach and his fingers tangled in the string of a golden rosary beads. 

Then a finger, his right forefinger, twitched, paused, then twitched again. 

****

Sabrina appears to Sebastian 

The clouds seemed to float all around. There was no horizon in this place. There was no up . There as no down. There was so structure formed to make a building or any kind of distance to tell where one stood. It was a void filled with brightness and smoke, or clouds, and a bright breeze that chilled the skin but yet the sun that came though quickly made it warm again, yet the sun was beyond, invisible, unseen--yet seen.

Sebastian was in this place. He was breathing but he couldn't feel anything. Not sadness. Not Anger. Not happiness. Not any feeling. 

Then, in what seemed like the distance in this two-dimensional world, a shadow of a woman became clear. Her body was walking towards him, her hair flowing in the meandering breeze from no where. Closer and closer she got and Sebastian, still dressed in the suit he was buried in, nervously backed away from the on coming woman.

"Sebastian." Her voice said, he recognized it, and replied in his mind, not out loud: "Mother?"

"Sebastian." the voice said again finally revealing as indeed coming from the beautiful ethereal spirit of Sabrina Lord, Sebastian's dead mother.

"Where am I?" He asked out loud.

"You've come to the end of where life sends you, but the beginning of a world eternal. My Darling this is eternal life. Death. Heaven." She replied as she touched his face. He could feel her touch.

"I died. I was shot and I died,” he recalled “...Ive missed you so much. I can't believe I'm seeing you again. This...this cannot be real. I'm dreaming. I must be back at Tirymôr. I must be there and dreaming or hallucinating. Please tell me that its all a dream." Sebastian begged as he reached to grab his mother's hands, but her hands became transparent and he could not touch her.

"I wish I could tell you that but its not what you think my love. You did die, Mary Goode ...she did kill you on the day of your wedding. I am so very sorry for that to have happened to you. I wish I could have stopped it. I wish a lot of things were different. But I made sure that you'd come back, you'll be back home soon. I promise!" Sabrina said.

"I don't understand. If I did died, how am I going back?" He asked.

"Its the reason you have yet to feel the truth grasp of what it is to be a spirit. Its the reason you cannot feel anything around you, you see you are not of this world and have yet to fully leave the last world. Through Mary, I've asked ..." Sabrina paused before she finished her sentence, carfuly choosing her words..."A friend... to help you. They're doing it now as I speak. Very shortly Sebastian, you'll be back in the world of the living, so I have to explain everything. I don't have a lot of time." She said.

"Explain what?" Sebastian asked. 

Sabrina stepped forward and smiled. She knew what she was about to do would change Sebastian forever, and when he returned to the living he would know more than anyone could ever have hoped for when solving the mystery of her own death. As she looked up at her handsome son she touched his face again. He closed his eyes and felt a wave of light come over him. 

When he opened his eyes, he and Sabrina were on a blustery beach, he was still dressed in the suit he was buried in and she in a white flowery gown, a similar dress to what he remembered her buried in. The waves were wild and crashing alt their feet. The wind pulled at their clothes and hair like an invisible child teasing. 

"What are we doing here?" Sebastian asked, speaking loudly over the waves. Sabrina did not speak, she only pointed. 

Sebastian turned and saw two people coming their way. A woman running and a man right after her. It was Jacob Lord chasing his mother Sabrina on the day she was killed.

"SABRINA!!!!!!" Jacob screamed from behind and Sabrina ran as fast as she could to the shore from the sandy dunes just beyond the path that lead up to the Westernridge Woods. As she ran, Jacob trailed, but not by far. The sand flung into the air from both of their feed. Their hearts pounding, her hair waving black and brown strands thick and curly. He could almost smell the perfume that was coming off her hair that stuck to the wind. 

Her speed soon slowed as she came closer to the water. She had lost her shoes in the sand for what felt like miles behind her. Her white dress flailed in the wind of her speed like a flag flying in a storm. Then, try as she might, her own escape from Jacob failed her as soon stepped and fell into the sand face first. She got up quickly but realized soon that she trapped herself between him and the wild Atlantic. 

Her fall gave Jacob a split second to gain on her. He made a lunge and grabbed at her arm,  but she tangled him in her skirt and was able to stay him off.

"You don't understand, you don't understand. I only wanted to love you! What you overheard was a mistake, damn it, STOP right now!” Jacob yelled. 

Sabrina kept running on sand. She was disgusted over the confession she had accidentally heard Jacob tell his co-conspirator Gaspar: he was desperately in love with his sister-in-law Sabrina & wanted his brother David & nephew Sebastian dead. In that room, where she overheard this, Sabrina could only vomit then run for her life when she was discovered. 

Jacob had always flirted with her. Innocently she thought until the flirtations became more and more frequent and inappropriate. He had become a “pig”, in her words, when he was alone with her. Vial innuendos, unwanted pats on the behind, but the sick plot of murder and then take her like she was some sort of consolation prize was beyond vulgar to Sabrina.

“Sabrina! Stop!” He yelled again. “What you heard back there, you don’t understand!!" Jacob said of the reason for her running from Tirymôr House.

"You're disgusting!! I want nothing to do with you or your lies!!" She shouted over the crashing waves. "

"You're making a mistake, what you heard at the house, you're making a big mistake! I didnt mean what I said about David and Sebastian!" Jacob repeated, lying. 

"I heard every word well and clear, you bastard! You will never ever get away with this. I promise you, as soon as you turn your back I will tell your mother you've been plotting to have David and Sebastian killed and marry me to become the sole heir to your mother and father's fortune. As if I would EVER marry you! You repulse me!” She screamed. “David and my son are my whole life; my husband! MY CHILD!!!” 

“I can give you so much more. We don’t have to kill them. We can send them away.” Jacob then said admitting to his plot. “I can have them sent to the asylum, or sent to… anywhere! But let me the man for you! Be mine, Sabrina! Be mine!” He shouted over the waves crashing.

“You're a disgusting monster! You and that liar, that Gaspar, YOU'R MURDERERS! You’re lias! I could never love you!” She screamed back at him as she made a jump to run back towards Tirymôr House to tell Rebecca and David everything.

"No! NO!!!" Jacob said as he lunged for Sabrina and tackled her there on the shore. She gasped for air as his heavy body pushed her deep into the wet sand. She slapped him across the face, scratching him under the eye. He's shouted at her and she shook her by the shoulders and begged her to take back everything she was saying. 

"You have no idea what you're talking about!" 

"My god! STOP THIS STOP THIS!!!" Sebastian shouted as he witnessed a terrible fight between Jacob and Sabrina, but of course, no one heard his screams. He were only there in spirit seeing the truth once and for all. 

"It will happen quickly." Sabrina said in spirit of her own death.

"Make him stop!" Sebastian said crying to his mother's ghost.

"Shhh... its over." She said, as a tear came from her eye. Sebastian turned and saw Jacob standing over Sabrina's drowned body. He had suffocated her right there in the sand because she knew too much. The one person he truly loved was gone in a split second. She discovered his plot to have his way with her and then have her family killed all or money and lust. 

Her death was a crime of passion and a silencing of what Jacob dealt was… the truth died there on the beach.

“Jacob … he killed you. He was in love with you and he killed you.” Sebastian said, stunned. 

“And he wanted to do the same to you and your father.” His mother Sabrina replied patting his shoulder. “You were just a child of 12. How could I let anyone hurt you.”

But that wasn't all. Sabrina then closed her eyes and touched Sebastian where the light once again enveloped them completely then darkening. When Sebastian opened his eyes, he was in the large drawing room of Tirymor House. There David had fallen asleep drunk and smelling of cigar smoke and booze. His clothes were crumpled, his hair a mess after a 3 day drinking spree that lead his whole life to this point. This is where Jacob's plot got even more deranged. 

"I tried to convince you to let her go but you didnt. You just kept fighting me and telling me that she needed to die." Jacob told David who was somewhat still in a daze in the gloomy room from his hangover.

"What? That's not true. It didn't happen. No, I can't believe that. Where is she? WHERE IS SABRINA?? David begged his younger brother.

"David she's out on the beach. They'll find her soon and they'll see the you killed your own wife. I was there David, I saw it, I tried to stop it and you just kept going. In a drunkan rage you kept saying she was having an affair with me and then you drowned her. Your own son;'s mother." Jacob said, lying. 

"My god, Jacob what do I do? What do I do? Please tell me? I ... I can't remember. The alcohol. Ive been upset, Ive been so unwell and I just drink to stop the pain but Ive never ever been violent or jealous. I cannot understand this. Please it must of been an accident." David said through sobs. 

"It was no accident." Jacob said in a sinister voice, pretending to be disgusted by David. In truth he was disgusted with himself. 

"What do I do? We have to tell everyone I didn't do it!" David begged.

"But You did do it. And now you have to go. Leave this please and never return David, never come back to this place ever again. Id even say ....you should leave this earth." Jacob said. 

"Jacob, they'll find me. They'll go looking for me and they'll find me. How can I look Sebastian, my son, my child in the eyes ever again when they find me knowing that I took his mother's life? There has to be something else." David said. 

"Well....there is one thing." Jacob replied as he took a sip from a freshly poured brandy and the winced in pain from the cut under his eye. "The lighthouse. Go to the lighthouse and ..." Jacob paused to wipe his mouth but David understood. 

"Jump." David whispered in response. 

"Oh my god." Sebastian said of what he was witnessing. 

"One more." Sabrina said as she once again took Sebastian to another place, the last place before she sent him back to the living. 

They were now on the cliffside on the southern tip of Welshport Island. On the small stretch of land where the lighthouse was, David stared out into the sea. He let the light of the Lighthouse guide his way down as he jumped from the top of the lighthouse and into Frenchman Bay below. 

Sebastian screamed at watching his father take his life. He tried to go and help but his mother grabbed his arm and sent him back with her into the place filled with light.

"So he's gone too. Washed away like a lost ship into the sea. Where is he now mother? Why didnt he come with you?" Sebastian asked, looking around hoping to see his father's spirit too. 

"Sebastian your father isn't here. He survived that fall. But where he is, I do not know. Perhaps when he can face the truth and the world again he will return but that is not my mission now. I brought you here and found a way for you to go back and force Jacob into the truth --- he must be brought to Justice for what he's done. To you. To me. To your father. His time is up, and you'll be the one to do it." Sabrina said.

"But how? How will I?" Sebastian asked.

Sabrina smiled and walked up to Sebastian and gave him a huge hug just as Mary Goode struck her first thrust of the shovel into the ground of Sebastian's grave. 

In their embrace, Sabrina whispered what Sebastian had to do next: "Just hold your breath son." 

 **** 

Jacob & Gaspar meet at the SIREN’S CALL PUB

That night, a slick black automobile with chrome bumpers was parked on the curb outside of a small pub called the SIREN’S CALL near the center of the village. Inside local sailors drank their sun burned faces and exhausted bodies into fights and fire of laughter over random stories wild storms over the dark blue waters of the Atlantic.

Cowering in the corner in a smoke filled booth was Gaspar and Jacob, both standing out in their well tailored suits and perfectly combed hair. Gaspar’a facial hair perfectly carved over the bones of his face as he looked down at a small envelope that Jacob pushed over to him on the table.

“I swear I didn’t do that. How could I? How could I jump 3 feet over my chair and 7 feet over to the wall? I’m telling you Jacob, I had nothing to do with what happened at the séance. It.. it wasn’t me.” Gaspar said in his true English accent. 

“You’re not fooling me.” Jacob said.

“Damn it! Jacob I swear on all that I know, it wasn’t me.” 

“Am I to believe in ghosts and sorcerers now like my mother? In ghouls and goblins that haunt us in our sleep? You can’t fake with me. I pay you too much.” Jacob smirked as he puffed on his cigar. 

“Another drink sir?” A busty waitress asked as she smiled at the rich Lord family member, his face well known in town. 

“Pay? I’m still waiting.” Gaspar replied. 

“Yes. Two please.” Jacob replied pointing to Gaspar’s empty glass. “Now let’s talk about my new niece shall we?” Jacob added speaking of Evie. 

“No! Not until you tell me what the hell happened at that séance! I don’t know how much longer I can do all this. It’s been months of tricks of smoke and mirrors but last night, oh that was something else.” Gaspar said. 

“Alright alright, I admit it. It was me. When you’re eyes were closed I yanked on you and tosses you across the room.” Jacob said lying.

“You?” 

“That’s right! Me! Now you can calm your little brain and we can move on to Evie.” Jacob said. 

Jacob’s clear lie did the job of a two sided coin: on one side it Gaspar’s fears of the shock of the séance were quenched as he chose to believe Jacob rather that believe the horror of a spirit grabbing at him and throwing him across a room, and on the other side Jacob too could ignore what he saw and pretend it didn’t happen. It was all too real. Too powerful. Too much for even his mind to wrap around. For Jacob it add better to lie and move on than to dwell on truth—he had bigger fish to fry.

“What about Evie?” Gaspar asked noticing Jacob remove something  from him jacket pocket. 

“Open the envelope.” Jacob said as the waitress stopped two mugs of beer down on the sticky table.

Gaspar waited for the waitress to leave again and opened the envelope that had been tired with a red string securing it closed. He pulled out the three quartered folded paper and unfolded it, it was Rebecca’s Will.

“Don’t stain it. I have put it where I found it but move your eyes down to the 5th paragraph. That’s where our next move really begins.” Jacob instructed.

Gaspar moved his eyes down the long winded last will and testament of Rebecca that had been updated 6 days before Evie’s arrival to Welshport just in time for the wedding and without Jacob knowing. 

“This can’t be right. We were sure that after David was declared dead and Sebastian’s death was in the clear you’d get everything and we could finally take the steps to …” Gaspar paused and looked around the pub before saying his next few words, as they might incriminate him. “making sure your mother never saw another dawn.” He finished feeling comfortable in the lack of eavesdroppers. 

“Well my mother is ever the organizer. She made sure that it was all set this way if something should happen to Sebastian after his wedding. She of course was thinking of his possible children but, since we didn’t let this marriage get that far that means it all goes to Evie. And thanks to Mary and her shit shooting we still have that bird in the bush. We can’t let this happen, Evie cannot remain the heiress of half my fortune.” Jacob said coldly.

Gaspar took a deep breath then a gulp of his drink. He knew where Jacob’s polluted mind was going.  

“No, I can’t do it. No. I can’t have someone else killed Jacob. Please for God’s sake there’s been to much death already. After that insane séance Ive even thought about leaving your mother out of this too and wait her natural death out. I can’t take it!” Gaspar said, the strain in his voice showing signs of an emotional break.

“No, you’re right. It would look to strange anyway to suddenly lose another family member so close to Sebastian’s untimely demise. But, the will doesn’t talk about Evie’s death for her to be removed from the will. Look, it says death or incapacitation.” Jacob showed.

“What does that mean?” Gaspar wondered. “Paralize her?” 

Jacob smiled grimly. His mind was a diabolical machine that was always thinking of himself first and secondly how to ruin the lives of the people he was supposed to love, all for to grab at any kind of money and power he could. 

Jacob took another sip of his drink and carefully dabbed his mouth with a linen napkin that had the pub’s name, SIREN’S CALL, embroidered on it along with a golden mermaid entangled in a fishing net. 

“Gaspar what would you say Evie would want most after happened to Sebastian?” Jacob asked somewhat rhetorically. 

“For it to all go away and for Sebastian to be with her again. Alive.” Gaspar replied, his voice signaling the obvious choice.

“Very good! And would that be possible?” Jacob asked again somewhat rhetorically.

“Obviously not. He’s  dead.”

“But what if Evie insisted Sebastian was alive. What if she said she actually saw him running around Tirymôr?” Jacob asked again.

“She’s sound mad, insane, like a lunatic.” 

“She’d sound incapacitated.” Jacob replied grinning. 

Suddenly Gaspar began to see what Jacob was spelling out for him. Together, inside the smoky, loud, ruckus filled Siren’s Call pub the two money hungry co-conspirators devised a plan to fake Sebastian sightings that only Evie would see, driving her mind into a dark and horrible place. Driving her mind to spin out of control where every where she turned she’d see relics and souvenirs and even shadowy visions of Sebastian himself all in a ploy to drive the girl mad and send her off and out of Rebecca’s will. 

“What if she doesn’t take to it?” Gaspar wondered.

“Oh she will, you’ll see to it. Won’t you…. Sebastian.” Jacob said with a chuckle naming Gaspar as the person to playing the fake ghostly Sebastian to drive Evie out of her mind

****

In her bedroom, Charlotte brushed her long blond hair in the mirror just as her grandmother stepped in to check on her. It was the day after the séance and Rebecca was still feeling shaky after the event. 

“Darling, it’s time for bed.” Rebecca said. 

Charlotte smiled and dropped her brush and ran over to the bed and jumped in. Rebecca walked over and pulled the thick white blankets over Charlotte’s little legs and tucked her in. 

“Now, close your eyes and get to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.” Rebecca said sweetly as she blew out a candle next to the girl’s bed. When Rebecca looked up from the cable back at Charlotte the shadow of the night reflected a woman’s face that was now the young girl’s. 

It was Sabrina’s face in the bed. 

Rebecca recognized it and screamed “Sabrina!!!” Scaring little Charlotte who screamed back at her grandmother but the face in the bed screaming was still Sabrina’s. 

Rebecca quickly reached into the pouch of her long maroon dress and pulled out a match and lit it. Rebecca’s eyes were glaring, her heart pounding and she slowly moved the small lit match closer to Charlotte’s face to see it better and when the glow met it’s place Sabrina’s face was gone Charlotte’s returned. 

“What is it grandma?? Why did you scream?” Charlotte asked even though she knew. 

“I… I saw something. I don’t know what I saw.” Rebecca said blowing out the match and re-tucking in her possessed granddaughter. “I’m sorry if I frightened you my love. Go on. Get to sleep.” 

Rebecca made sure Charlotte was cozy in bed and then turned to make her way out of the room. She turned again and looked one last time and in the moonlight saw blonde hair in the bed. She took a sigh of relief but whispered to the someone she thought she saw…“it was you at the séance wasn’t it, Sabrina?… what do you want?” 

There was no answer and Rebecca felt silly and thought perhaps she was just tired and did not see Sabrina’s spirit in the bed. As she closed the door to Charlotte’s room Sabrina reappeared in the bed with her dark hair and smiled. 

****

As night slithered into dawn, Mary Good dug and dug and dug into the grave of Sebastian Lord not knowing what she would find. The deeper she went the darker the mud was, the deeper she went the more wet the smell of soil lifted from the bowels of Saint Thomas Cemetery and into her nostrils. The strange sensation of breathing in air coming from the ground filled with the dead nauseated Mary. But she kept digging.

Her hair was heavy with sweat. Her arms sore and cramping from the work. She felt like she could no longer go on, she was now deep inside the grave. She looked up into the sky, her blond hair wet and stuck to her forehead. It was now a purple sky, signaling the coming dawn. She could not carry Sebastian in the wheelbarrow in the daylight, it was too risky. She had to continue, she had to get him back to Goode Island before anyone noticed.

Inside the coffin. Sebastian's finger twitched again. Then another finger. This his thumb. Then his whole right hand. It twitched so much the rosary tangled in his fingers fell to the side of his body. His chest then started to lift with breath. His heart once again beating, slow and steady. Eliza's spell of ever lasting life had worked, as was Sabrina's hope when she ordered Mary to go home and tell Eliza what she had done through her possession of Charlotte. 

With his breathing now slow but stead Sebastian woke up. His eyes flicked open he gasped for air but what he recieved was a small dose of what was left in the coffin. 

"Oh my god. OH MY GOD!!!" he screamed as he realized where he was. "HELP ME! HELP ME!" he screamed as he pounded on the lid of his coffin.

Already close to the lid, Mary heard his muffled screams. 

"He's alive!" she said out loud to herself. 

The pounding from inside the coffin became more and more urgent as Sebastian began to panic. He used his arms and fists. He used his legs and feet. He rocked back and forth inside his little locked box but nothing could free him. He was becoming hysterical as the panic began to set in deeper into his brain and his screams began to take up all the oxygen left in the coffin chamber.

He was getting dizzy now. Sleepy even. He slapped himself and screamed again for help hoping somebody would hear him, not knowing Mary was on her way from the top digging him out. As she continued to dig as best and as fast she could Sebastian's time and air were running out. He began to see stars and black spots in the dark coffin, he began to hallucinate and see light coming from an open lid, but it was his mind trying to manifest an escape. He reached up with the last bits of energy he has as the oxygen was running out and pulled down on the velvet lining over his face. 

A fatal mistake. The lining began to suffocate him as it collapsed all around his body trapping him even more. He was tangled now, writhing and wiggling doing all he could to escape his trap. Then everything went black. 

Now deep in the ground Mary's shovel hit the lid. She quickly began to dig around the edge giving her enough space to place her fingers in the groove and pull on the lid of the coffin. She pulled and pulled. The pressure of the soil that had been on top of the lid had caused a suction effect that left the lid clasped on tight. But Mary did not give up, she pulled and pulled, even breaking off three nails from her fingers in a bloody slice and finally the lid gave way.

A large puff popping sound occurred and Mary fell back. She quickly got up, her dress stained with the dark mud from top to bottom. Her face marked with tears stains that made small trails from her eyes down her cheeks through the dirt that had caked on her face. She reached into the coffin and pulled the velvet lining off of Sebastian's face. She stared at him. Beautiful as he was; looking asleep and in peace but his chest, there was breath.

She reached up and slapped his face. His eyes twitched and moved under the skin of his eye lids. 

"Wake up damn you, wake up!" She said shaking him from  his shoulders. 

There was no time to waste. The sun was coming and she needed to get Sebastian back to her mother under the cover of whatever darkness there was left. 

With all her might and adrenalin she some  how managed to drag his body up from the grave and into an awaiting wheelbarrow and covered his whole body with a cloak. 

From there, she left the open cemetery plot and rushed down the hill of Saint Thomas Cemetery towards the docks 2 miles down where her small boat was and where she'd load the unconscious body of Sebastian Lord and hope that he'd survive the small and yet treacherous ride to Goode Island. 

B1/Ch9: THE GHOST OF SABRINA LORD

Eliza Goode in her cabin

A morning fog chocked the sound of the waves washing on the small beach of the small satellite island on the southern edge of Welshport Island. 

On Goode Island, as the locals called it; named after its one inhabitant: Mary Goode’s mysterious hermit mother Eliza was pacing back and forth in her small cottage causing a creaking back and forth sound on the old wooden panels that covered her floor. The warmth of a fire beamed a blanket of air that circulated within the damp cool of the morning light inside the house. 

Eliza was boiling a tea of chamomile and jasmine to calm anxious body her but had yet to sip any. She only stared down at the steaming mug; her mind in so many places at once. 

She was worried about what had happened at the wedding. She was worried about what her own book of spells and hexes was telling her. She was worried about the future, and most of all how her daughter Mary was the cause of so much of the tension the universe was sending, tangled up in the web of Jacob Lord's creation.

Then suddenly a frantic knock on her door. Eliza jumped in her skin and turned violently towards the noise spilling her tea in the process. The scolding hot tea burned her hand, the skin began to form a welt but then Eliza covered it with her free hand and when she removed it… the welt was gone. 

Eliza’s breathing shallowed as her hand magically healed and warn and hallow face tensed as the knocking turned to pounding. 

“Mother!!!!” Mary’s voice screamed from the other side. 

Eliza broke from her frozen stance and dashed to the wooden door lifting the long beam lock that dropped across it and pulled open the door where her daughter was standing completely a mess from a long night hiding in the Western Woods of Welshport Island from authorities who were chasing her with dogs all through the night once she vanished from Tirymôr house. 

“I’ve done something horrible, and—and, dear god mother, what I saw!! What I saw, you will never believe me!” Mary screamed hysterically. “Charlotte! I saw Charlotte, I think it was Charlotte that I saw! I don’t know what I saw!” Mary said bursting into her mother’s home not making any sense.

“Mary! Mary! Calm down, just calm down, I was sensing something awful had happened. The energy in the air warmed me. I could feel it, just calm yourself and tell me what’s happened? Are you hurt? Is Charlotte ok?” Eliza asked sitting her frantic daughter down. 

“It was a mistake. I don’t know why I believed him. He always does this, he draws me in with promises of our daughter and makes me do stupid things mother. Stupid things that I end up regretting and  what I have done now is unforgivable.” Mary half explained. 

“What? What did you do? And who drew you in? What happened!?!” The hermit woman of Goode island said demanding more information. 

“Jacob. He told me he’d finally give me more access to our daughter if I….” Mary paused, it was as if her lips and tongues could not form the words of the horror she unleashed on Tirymôr house at the wedding. 

But Eliza was no fool. She could sense something awful and she could tell, in Mary’s disheveled appearance that she had been in hiding all night from something, something horrible. 

“Please tell me no one got hurt because of something Jacob made you do Mary, please tell me!” Eliza begged hoping the page of her book she saw open to everlasting life was only a coincidence.

“I killed him. I’m so sorry! I .. I must of been out of my mind and he was dangling Charlotte in front of me like a carrot on a stick. I was out of my mind!!!” Mary screamed.

“Oh my god, you killed Jacob??” Eliza asked misunderstanding.

“No… no … he lives. Jacob had me...” Mary paused unable to say what she did.

“Mary, you need to tell me what you did. Speak girl!” Eliza said shaking her distraught daughter.

Mary’s eyes filled with tears as she slowly pulled out Jacob’s revolver from inside a hidden pocket of her dirt and mud  stained dress. 

Eliza gasped and quickly grabbed the gun rushing it to a drawer in a side table in the kitchen and slammed it shut, her heart racing with panic.

“Jacob had me kill Sebastian Lord at the wedding. Mother. I was supposed to do the same to Evie, his new wife, but I missed. I... I am a murderer!!!” Mary explained breaking down completely and burying her face in her mother’s chest sobbing into the delicate lace.

As the two Goode women discussed the murder, Constable Christian Evans and his friend Filipe Braga who would often act as Deputy, rowed their small boat up to Goode Island’s shore and tied off the rope around a wooden stake carefully making sure it was snug in its slip.

Filipe turned to see the thick wilderness of the tiny island and noticed the Smokey trail in the air from Eliza’s chimney swirling up into the sky.

“How does she live here all alone?” Filipe wondered.

“It’s quiet. It’s just her. No one from mainland Maine or Welshport come out  to bother her. It’s almost perfect. I can see the appeal.” Christian said as he tied the knot on the boat’s rope. 

“Perfect for hiding people.” Filipe noticed. 

“Exactly.” Christian agreed.

The fog began to settle lower on the small island causing the green of the trees to turn gray and cold. Filipe turned to the sea and saw the larger island of Welshport in the distance also dressed in a its foggy cloak only breaking his concentration as a murder of crows began flight from inside forest like a gaggle of banshee screaming into the sky.

“Look.” Filipe said, noticing a small boat tied to a dock just on shore. Christian nodded, they both knew it had to be Mary's boat.

As the two got on to shore they lifted their eyes to the sky and saw a billowing pile of white fluff rising up from a thicket of trees in the distance. “Follow the smoke.” Christian said as he pointed to Eliza’s house. “Mary has got to be there.” 

Back in the cottage Eliza tried as best she could to console her daughter Mary, but the young manipulated woman was too far gone. Then, as the tea cooled in their mugs on a small table in the front room, Christian and Filipe knocked on the cabin door. Mary and Eliza jumped. 

“Shh.” Eliza said hushing her trembling daughter. 

“Eliza Goode! Open the door this is Constable Evans of Welshport. We need to speak with you.” Christian said at the door as Filipe tried to look through the windows that were too obscured by trees and brush. 

“Quickly!” Eliza said in a hushed voice as she pulled her daughter over to a large rug in the floor that she pulled up revealed a small secret passage under the cottage. She quietly lifted the passage lid and pulled Mary’s hand leading her down into the hidden bunker. Eliza put her finger to her lips telling Mary to keep quiet, closed the lid replaced the rug and composed herself as Christian’s knocking got louder. 

“Constable. What is it?” Eliza asked when she opened the door, fluffing her long grey hair. 

“Can we come in?” Christian asked. 

Eliza looked over and saw Filipe too. 

“I’m a very private person sir. Whatever you need I think we could handle this at the door, please.” Eliza requested crossing her arms. 

“We need to come in. We have reason to believe that your daughter Mary is here and we need to talk to her.” Christian asserted. 

“Mary? Mary lives on the big island she doesn’t stay here. I haven’t seen in her a very long time. Who’d want to live here now at days?” Eliza lied. 

“Can I check to be sure? I’d like to report back to the Lord family that indeed she’s not here.” Christian said.

“The Lord family? What would they have to do with Mary? What is this?” 

Christian wasn’t sure if he should tell Eliza what Mary was suspected of doing but it came out anyway. “We think she killed someone, Sebastian Lord.”  

“Think?” Eliza asked. 

“Well as the law goes madam, innocent until proven guilty, but I saw her with my own eyes.” Christian replied. 

Eliza had to play dumb, she gasped and held her chest. She shook her head and even managed to cry one solid tear. Her performance was perfect. 

“I’ll need to check.” Christian said again.

“Fine but just you.” She said. 

Christian turned to Filipe who nodded back agreeing to wait outside. Christian entered the small home and looked towards the back room. He walked back into the front room where the fire was raging warming both their bodies. He scanned for any sign of Mary all the while she waited under the house as the thuds of Christian’s footsteps pounded in unison with the beating of her terrified heart. 

As Christian was about to leave he noticed two mugs of tea on the table. He turned around to look at Eliza who suddenly opened the palm of her hand and blew a dusty substance in his face. She grabbed the mug and hid it, when Christian shook off the dust that was blown into his face, he had this strange feeling coming over him. Like warm water flowing over his whole body. 

“Uhhh…” Christian said, unsure what he was about to say.

“Yes?” Eliza prodded hoping the dust she blew worked.

“Uhh……I, I wanted to…. Ms. Goode, If you see Mary please tell her to come back to the big island. It’s for her own good.” Christian said, never noticing he had forgotten about the second mug and the dust that had bewitched him.

Christian took one more look at the front room and then left leaving Eliza breathing heavily, and relieved. 

Filipe was surprised when Christian came out of the cottage without Mary in a headlock, he believed Mary was there hiding. 

Now free from her secret passage, Mary hugged her mother tightly. 

“What do I do? What can I do??” She asked. 

“This was a death that was brought on by pure evil and manipulated words, you were coerced my child, and my book warned me of what was to come.” Eliza said reaching for the open book on a back table.

“What do you mean?.” Mary asked.  

“Look there…When you threw the book of spells the other day when you were angry at me it fell open on this page. ‘Life Everlasting’. It was a sign, Mary. Something that I was being warned of.” Eliza explained. 

“Then…” Mary paused letting it all sink in slowly, “mother are telling me what I think you’re telling me? You can bring back Sebastian with this? Reverse the horror I’ve caused?” Mary asked. 

Eliza paused before answering. She knew that the spell in the book was powerful and that there eventually would be consequences for it, for this spell was not meant to bring back human life. But it might work in the right hands. 

“I’ll try.” Eliza said. 

The older woman went over to a small coop just beyond the kitchen door with two chickens she had roosting. She opened the hutch and removed one of the chickens that wiggled and scratched in her hands. 

Mary watched. 

Eliza then went to an open area in front of the fire place in the front room and fell to her knees. She reached into the fire with one hand and the chicken tucked under her arm and pulled out charcoal where she proceeded to draw a circle on her wooden floors. She placed Mary’s empty mug of tea that she had hidden from Christian in the center of the draw circle and closed her eyes.

Mary watched as her mother, kneeling in the glowing red and yellow light of the fire began to hum in Latin. The humming grew louder and louder, Eliza then removed the squirming chicken from under her arm and lifted it with both hands over the mug. Then suddenly, with quick motion Eliza turned the chicken on its side and bit it’s head off allowing the blood to flow into the mug like a running stream of red. 

Mary gasped in horror, never seeing her mother do such a thing. 

A cold wind blew into the cabin as Eliza lifted the chicken’s body and head up into the emptiness of the air and began to chant in Latin again over and over until a wild wind burst through the kitchen window ripping through the shutters and blowing into Eliza’s white hair. 

She chanted:

“Vitam eternam.  sanguinis et carnis.  Redde nunc nobis cum fluxu sanguinis ad vitam.”  

Mary began crying, her heart sinking into her stomach with fright.

Eliza, wind in her hair, chanted her Latin spell as chicken blood oozed down her arm. Finally she opened eyes and the wind miraculously stopped.

“It’s done.” She said.

“Mother, what was …” Mary began to ask through a choked voice before being interrupted by her sorceress mother. 

“Go. Go to Sebastian’s grave. Quickly. Bring his body back here.” She ordered. 

“His body????” Mary asked shocked at the request. 

“GO MARY! He will need us now.” Eliza replied in a ferver. But Mary was frozen in her stance. Eliza got up, chicken blood dribbling from her lips and screamed at her daughter “GO!!!!”

Mary turned and ran for the door frantically with her instructions ready to bring back Sebastian’s body to Goode Island as what had just happened quickly filtered into her brain. She knew not what she would find once his grave was open, but now she hoped her mother’s spell worked and prayed all the way to Saint Thomas’ cemetery that Sebastian was alive.  

****

The Séance & Sabrina’s ghost 

That evening as the boats in Frenchman's Bay all came home to dock after roaming the seas searching for large bounties of tuna through foggy New England seascapes, Rebecca sat in her room with the drapes drawn and her maid Georgina at her side pouring a glass of red wine. The wine swirled in the glass goblet with a golden rim as Rebecca lifted it to smell and savor the fruitiness of the grape that made it. 

"They should be here soon ma'am." Georgina said. 

Just as the maid lowered the jar of wine, the bedroom door opened and in walked Evie, Jacob and Gaspar.

Evie looked around, her eyes readjusting to the darkness of the room. Gaspar smiled as he stepped aside allowing Jacob and Evie to enter in further. Evie curtsied and Jacob lowed his head to his mother Rebecca who stood up.

"You wanted to see us?" Jacob asked. 

"Please come in, all of you." Rebecca said as she moved from her soft chair to one of 4 other chairs that were placed around a circle table with a black velvet cloth covering it. "Please sit." She added.

Evie looked over at Jacob and he shrugged his shoulders. The pair went and sat across from each other, and Rebecca sat across the empty chair that Gaspar would occupy. Then Gaspar lit two candles in the center of the table allowing the dim light to sparkle in their eyes.

"What is this?" Evie asked.

"Since our dear Sebastian's death, I have not been able so sleep. I have not been able to keep food in my stomach and I have not been able to get the image of his body being lowered into that coffin out of my mind. I have trusted so much of my spirituality into understanding that things, awful and good, happen. But not this. Sebastian was stolen from us, and my advisor Gaspar has told me he can contact him." Rebecca explained.

"Contact him?" Evie asked confused. "You don't mean Sebastian?" She added.

"I do." Rebecca said as Jacob looked over at Gaspar surprised she was still taking his phony psychic abilities seriously. The two men continued to conspire against Rebecca who's superstitious ways took over any suspicions and doubts she had of him.

"Mrs. Lord,” Evie began, “I have to unfortunately object to this. My husband's spirit should not be disturbed this way. Even if this were to actually work, I cannot allow it." Evie said standing up.

"Mother really. I have to agree with Evie here. This has gone too far, after all that our family has suffered over the years and especially since Sebastian’s death I think we should finally lay to rest all of this hocus pocus you are so drawn to." Jacob replied annoying his mother.

"All of this 'hocus pocus' has gotten me through some of the darkest moments in my life. It is where I turn when I need guidance and peace and closure. Gaspar understands. He is the one who helps me reach the places I need when I need." Rebecca sternly explained to Jacob who knew Gaspar's psychic abilities were all a farce devised by Jacob to keep his mother's mind occupied while he attempted his many betrayals. 

Gaspar turned and looked at Jacob who turned and looked at Gaspar.

"Maybe that is our problem. Maybe we have allowed our matriarch to wade in the waters of the dead instead of staying in the world of living. Perhaps that is why our family has suffered so much grief. When we play with fire mother we get burned, when we play with the dead....we die." Jacob said cryptically. 

Rebecca scoffed and rolled her eyes at her son who was attempting to blame Rebecca's superstitious lifestyle on all the horrible things that had happened to the Lord family, but she was as steadfast as anyone could be in her beliefs. 

"Honestly Mrs. Lord, I cannot participate in any of this." Evie said changing the subject. 

"Evangeline, I am not asking your permission to do this, I might have not been clear. This séance is for our family to find peace within the death of or believed Sebastian. I need this. …You need this. Please stay. " Rebecca said.

Evie took a breath. She could see in Rebecca the need for this, the need to try and see whatever could come from her attempt at reaching their beloved Sebastian no matter how odd or dark it was. 

Georgina, nervous from all of the ghostly talk, shook in her shoes as she made eye contact with Gaspar who had only recently almost made her jump from a window to her death as he demonstrated a dangerous session of hypnotherapy on her. 

Gaspar remembering this smiled at her grimly and Georgian turned away. 

"Mrs. Lord, please... you are an educated woman of great stature here... you cannot really believe that we will some how contact my husband. And if we do, what do we need from the poor soul. I would assume you would want him to Rest In Peace. I just can't do this." Evie said.

"If nothing comes of it, nothing comes of it, Evangeline and if nothing happy we will not speak of this again. However, Gaspar assures me Sebastian will come." Rebecca insisted then turned to Gaspar and coldly said “He owes me for the debacle of the cards on the wedding day.” Rebecca added showing now she did not forget he did not see Sebastian’s death exactly as it happened in his tarot reading. 

"It's not like you have to get back to your art books, do you?" Jacob replied sarcastically, showing his acquiescence to his mother's desire. 

"Please miss." Gaspar said. 

Outnumbered now, Evie looked around the table and could not believe what she was being asked to do. She was a woman who had education and understood the world around her more than people gave her credit for. She came to the island a bride, a woman who's job it was to marry a man because it would help her family back in England but she didn't want to feel as if she were a fool without a brain. The bizarre request to take part in a séance to reach her dead husband just felt ridiculous especially just 3 days since his funeral. But, Rebecca was insistent. She was the matriarch of the family. She wanted this séance. 

Evie nodded her head in agreement and sat back down at the table. 

"Please, Georgina will you step outside it’s important they only those closest to Sebastian are here in this room." Gaspar asked of Rebecca's maid who looked to her mistress for permission. Rebecca nodded for her to leave and she did so happily.

As they prepared the table on a quick aside Jacob asked Gaspar in a whisper: “How’d you manage her not questioning why you didn’t see Sebastian’s death—specifically?”

“You’re as dense as they say. She believes in me Jacob. All my readings have been vague for a reason. I said something was coming, something awful and low. I had no idea my guess would work so well. Prophecy complete.” Gaspar whispered back smugly before reading into a large black leather bag to pull out a stunning crystal ball to put into the center of the table in between the glowing candles. Gaspar then turned back to the others. “Thank you all! Now let us all join hands and close our eyes."

As all eight of their eyes closed. Rebecca pulled out the lock of hair tied with a ribbon that she had cut from Sebastian's head when he lay in his coffin and clasped it between her hand and Evie. Evie could feel the tickle of the tiny hairs. She cracked eye open and looked at her hand, Rebecca smiled and twisted her hand out from Evie's and showed her the lock. 

Evie smiled uncomfortably. 

The door to Rebecca's room was left a crack open by Georgina as she left, then it opened slowly. A little face appeared in the shadow of the open door; a little face that had blue eyes and bright blond hair. The face of Charlotte who peeked in as the séance began.

The candles’ flame began to flicker as a light coldness blew into the room. The minuscule gust of ice air lifted the tiny hairs in Evie’s neck. It new against Rebecca’s eyelashes and cooled Jacob’s lips.  Gaspar’s crystal ball began to reflect the light of the cables and he spoke: "To the world under us and the world below us. To the spirits among us who speak to me only in my mind's eyes and where the future is known and the past forgotten, I ask you to bring fourth the spirit of Sebastian Lord." 

As Gaspar spoke in his fake French accent, Charlotte slowly made her way around the bedroom and hid by the bed.

The flame of the candle in the center of the table began to sway in a nonexistent breeze. Rebecca opened her eyes. "CLOSE your eyes Madame!!" Gaspar barked. 

Evie felt uncomfortable. Her heart was beating faster and faster as suddenly a cold wind of air brushed against the back of her neck that reached around and blew out the candle.

"Sebastian Lord, are you there? Please...please let us see or hear you or know you are with us." Gaspar asked.

"I feel him, I feel something!" Rebecca said, feeling the same wind Evie did. 

But the ghost in the room was not Sebastian. It was the ghost of Sabrina Lord, the drowned mother of Sebastian that was dwelling in the body of little Charlotte. She was in the room, she was the cold air, she was the unseen spirit that they were all feeling. She was there to show herself in a way that they had never expected. 

The sprit of Sabrina, now out of Charlotte, floated like a blue light with Sabrina's face over the floor. Everyone's eyes were closed but the cold air was in the room, so cold, they could see their own breaths. 

"Cold." Jacob said, feeling a bit unsettled. 

"I want to stop! I WANT TO STOP!" Evie yelled unable to release her hands from Rebecca and Gaspar's equal grasp. 

Circling the group, Sabrina's glowing body created a vortex of cold air. her aura was cooling their bodies like an ice cold wind of the Atlantic that was meant to freeze all it touched. A sound of a ghosty wind began to be audible, they could her it in their ears, feel the cool air on their skin. It was like they were outside preforming the séance. 

Gaspar was frightened, he had no idea it was going to happen, at most he thought he'd bump the table with his knee but to his surprise something ghostly did appear, but on its own not with his fake powers.

"Sebastian, tell us, tell us if you're well, tell us if you need us to do something and how we should avenge your death. Tell us, please, show us in our minds...." Gaspar said as he began to speak to the ghost.

But the ghost, Sabrina, was not amused. She was furious with the man who murdered her, furious with the woman who turned a blind eye to him and furious with the man mocking the dead. With a giant gust of power Sabrina swirled one more time around the group, cowering in the corner Charlotte watched and then when she knew it would happen she put her head in her lap and Sabrina's ghost drove itself into Gaspar knocking him out of his chair and clear across the room and entered Charlotte again.

The table flipped the candle hit the floor and went out, allowing the melting wax pool and quickly harden in the cold air. 

Rebecca screamed, Evie gasped in dear and quickly stood up, Jacob too, jumped out of his chair and rushed over to the disoriented Gaspar. 

Charlotte, now possessed again by Sabrina quickly left the room before being noticed. 

"He was here. He was here!!!" Rebecca said, lighting the room with two lames in the corner. 

"It can't be. Its impossible." Evie said, standing back from the group as if they had some kind of disease that she wanted to know part of.

"You witnessed it yourself my dear, Sebastian was here." Rebecca replied.

"But what was his message? What the devil did he want us to know with that??" Jacob wondered, as he helped Gaspar up from the ground. 

"He is angry. He is wanting to cause any kind of chaos because of his own death. That is the way of the spirit world. He will lash out until he can finally come to terms with his murder." Gaspar said.

"I want nothing to do with this. I'm going back to my room." Evie said before being pulled by the hand by Rebecca.

"My darling you must come to terms with this death just as we have. This will not be the last time we try to contact him, and we need you to be here when we try again. You must." Rebecca said.

"Why can't you see that this is all just... it's not right. Whatever happened here whatever we felt was not Sebastian. It couldn't be. He...he wouldn't do this, hurt one of us. I just can't believe that." Evie said. The logical side of her brain trying to make sense of what she felt. The sensation of coldness and the sensation that indeed there was something there with them, something from a different world that her own brain and her own senses seemed to try ad betray her beliefs in logic and common sense. 

Rebecca could see how disturbed by the whole event Evie was. It was understandable after all, it was her first séance. She grabbed her hand, and changed from holding it tight to keep her in the room to bundling it in between her two hands to comfort her. 

"Clearly he is trying to tell us we've done something wrong. We need to atone. We need to make it right for our dear boy." Rebecca said.

"I don't understand, I don't know what I felt. I just...I want to go back to my room now." Evie demanded.

"Ill walk you back to your room." Rebecca said, realizing perhaps it was too much too soon. 

Now alone, Gaspar straightened his coat and looked at Jacob dead in the eyes. His face was pale and his skin clammy and slick with sweat.

"How did that happen?" Gaspar asked, again switching to his natural British accent from his fake French one.

"What do you mean?" Jacob wondered.

"Do you think I could shoot myself out of my chair and across the bloody room? Jacob, what was that? That wasn't me!" Gaspar shouted. 

Jacob stood there in silence but said not a single word while realizing there was something truly dark that came into that room for that split second. "Help me straighten up." Jacob said leaving Gaspar shaking in his shoes and looking around wondering just what in the world had they opened. 

Gaspar’s Crystal ball  

****

A deep white fog roamed the streets of the village like a lonely sailor searching for his lost love. The gas lamps of the town glowed in with halos around their glass lampshades while sleepless seagulls swirled above a full shipyard and marina. 

Through the cobblestone streets passed the various late night pubs and bars was a small cottage filled with quaint furniture where Celeste and Filipe lived. It was late and Celeste sat back in a chair after a day of baking. She sipped from a glass of brandy just as Filipe stepped into the room after a warm bath. His golden skin still glistening in the light of the room. 

He walked over to her, and knelt down, kissing her lips as she smiled. She kissed him back. 

"What was that for?" Celeste asked.

"It's been a long day." Filipe said as he put on a fresh pair of clothes.

"You're getting dressed?" Celeste then asked confused that he wasn't putting on his regular night clothes but day clothes.

"I went with Christian to Goode Island today to search for Mary. Her mother kind of gave us the run-around, she seemed off to me but Christian believes Mary isn't really there." Filipe explained buttoning up his white shirt and attaching his suspenders to his trousers.

"So? Where do you think she is?" Celeste asked after another sip.

"Goode Island." he replied.

"I'm confused, you just said that Eliza told you she wasn't there. Has anyone checked her apartment above the flower shop here in town?" Celeste wondered.

"We did. But Eliza wasn't telling the truth. There's no way in hell Mary Goode is here on the big island. We've searched everywhere and we haven't found one bit of evidence that she's here. Her mother is hiding her." Filipe said.

"I still don't understand why you're getting dressed." Celeste stated. 

"Sebastian used to be one of my best friends. We were so close. I can't just let his murderer go free like this. I'm going back to Goode Island and I'm going to find Mary and bring her to Christian." Filipe said as he tied his last shoe.

"Filipe! Are you going mad? You can't go there alone. We all have heard of the strange things that have happened out there. Eliza is....there is something strange about that woman. You saw her, you saw where she lives. Tell me you didn't feel a bit off when setting foot on her little haven?! It's too dangerous." Celeste shouted.

"I'm going, and Ill be fine. Trust me, please." Filipe said holding his partner by the shoulders as he leaned down and kissed her again.

Celeste warmed instantly to his touch but quickly cooled once his lips lifted hers.

"I can't just sit here and let you put yourself in danger like this. I'm going with you." She said as she reached for her coat that was hanging on a coat hanger near the door.

"Absolutely not. Stay here. I need you to be here and let Christian know where Ive gone if something does happen to me, do you understand?" He asked.

Celeste replaced her coat. She knew he was right but she still didn't feel good about it. 

He kissed her again,  grabbed his hat, gloves and coat and left. 

Filipe rowed his small boat to shore on Goode island through calm ocean waters that kissed the bow and stern softly. There was a slow current now that all the other larger ships had docked near the mainland. His was the only boat now at sea guided by the large light house over at Lighthouse Point.

With each flash of light from the southern tip of land off the big island of Welshport, Filipe made his way to Goode Island, just as if his journey was second nature to him. Upon his arrival, Filipe tied the boat to the same stump he and Christian had earlier that day and slowly made his way from the beach to the woods that would direct him to The Goode family cottage.

The woods that surrounded the small and only house on the island were thick and wild. Filipe could barley see where he was going but the light of the lighthouse from Welshport could still flash his way about a half way into the forest. He carefully took steps through the thick brush and tried to remember directions to the small house from earlier that day when they used the smoke of the chimney for directions but on this night, there was no smoke.

There were sounds that frightened Filipe. Strange rustles in the leaves and shadows in the branches of the trees. A wolf howled off in the distance as he growled without showing itself. He turned to see only smoke-like fog wafting up from the cool ground of the forest.

Soon, the light of the lighthouse was gone and he could only depends on the dim light of the moon to light his way. And finally, he came to the cottage as he could see the little house lit up in the distance with a small glow of candle light shining through a tiny front window.

Filipe made his way to the cottage quiet as it was, he could sense a strangeness all around him. The wolf again, back in the distance howled. A chill ran up Filipe's back and she crept around the small cottage hoping to gain access and catch Mary and Eliza in their lie. 

As he did so, he came across a strange large cage in the back of the cottage just off the back porch feet from the kitchen. The cage was laid with bars from the top of the ceiling to the floor. Was it a chicken coop? He looked inside and saw just straw on strewn across the floor, a large empty pail and a silver metal fashioned dish tossed in the corner. 
 
Filipe carefully inspected the oddly large cage when suddenly, he turned to find Eliza standing before him, all in white, with drips of blood going down the font of her nightgown. Her face frozen with anger and her eyes piercing Filipe with a death stare that startled him so much he yelped like a child. 

She lifted her hands that were covered in chicken blood and clasped around the handle of an iron skillet that she then brought down on Filipe's head knocking him unconscious. 

Hours passed and Filipe awoke to a bubbling sound from Eliza's stove. He rubbed a small bump on his head and tried to open his eyes, when he did he saw himself locked up in the same cage at the back of the cottage. Filipe leapt to his feet, dizzying himself in the process, and shook bars that were as tall as he was. 

The small area he was trapped in filled with  straw on the floor was about the size of a normal sized closet, the bars were made of iron formed in a lattice style cage. He shook the bars to free himself but he was trapped. 

Then entered Eliza, her eyes smoky and dark. 

"You come to scavenge like a pig for truffles you'll be treated like a pig." Eliza said from behind her kitchen window that faced the pen. "What do you want?" She growled as she came out of the side door with a bowl of warm blood she has been stirring in the open stove. 

Filipe looked deep into her eyes and felt his heart skip a beat. There was truly much more evil on this little island than he ever had imagined. 

Than anyone had ever imagined. 

B1/Ch8: THE WIDOW'S CHOICE

Mourning Sebastian 

Tirymôr house was a glowing ember of pain. It was evening now and the guests had all left; oddly they were the same guests from the wedding just days before that ended in gunfire, blood and murder. 

In the days that followed Sebastian’s death at his own funeral, Rebecca ordered the house staff to cover all the mirrors with large black sheets. She wanted no spirit to reenter the world of the living while Sebastian’s spirit escapes his body and left this world for the next. 

The transition, she believed, was an energy exchange filled with emotions and loss and Rebecca feared the trauma would linger in spirit form and haunt them for all the rest of their days. 

Her only grandson was gone and all she could do was pray and hope for his spirit to go in peace after leaving in such a horrid way.

In the great hall inside Tirymôr House that was turned into a makeshift funeral home, the flowers from the wedding quickly and easily turned into the flowers of Sebastian Lord's funeral. His body, clean and washed lay in repose in a beautify carved oak coffin that was lined with a deep blue velvet lining. In his strong hands that had once held Evie so tightly in an embrace at the alter, were solid gold rosary beads.

Charlotte, who’s body was continuously haunted by the spirit of her deceased aunt Sabrina, stood on a small pillowed stool just looking over Sebastian's body. She stared down at him: lifeless but stunning in his frozen sleep.

The young girl dressed in a thick black dress with her lovely blond hair tied up in a braid, reached down and patted her cousin's hands carefully and soft. She could feel the bones and even the veins. She stroked his hair. And carefully stroked his cheek with the back of her hand. She stared down at his face noticing his lips were slightly parted as if he was about to open his eyes and mouth and wake as if nothing happened. Inside her body, the broken hearted soul of his mother Sabrina. 

"This was not meant for you, this was not how it was supposed to be. Perhaps it was my fault. I should have left and took you away from here when everything started to change but I couldn't. I thought...I don't know what I thought." Charlotte's voice said, but the words were Sabrina's.

The great hall that had seen so many family events was getting ready to receive the guests of the wedding from just the night before, before tragedy struck. Before all hell broke loose on a family of good means and who had seen so much darkness in their lives before. Even now, Sabrina secretly dwelling inside of young Charlotte, was evidence of the torturous nature the Lord family had always suffered from.

 Sabrina, wondered if this was going to be the way for her host body. What more horror would this little girl see as she grew and how would she, Sabrina, be able to live through all of it, only to die again in a different body.

"I'll find a way back tp you, my son, I will. If Mary knows what's good for her she'll tell her mother what's she done and Eliza will know what to do next and right this wrong. Eliza is the only one who can to do this, as she has done for me. She's given me a second life, I pray she can find a way to do the same for you." Sabrina said through Charlotte as the flicking candles lit up her cherub like face.

Charlotte's face started to feel hot. Her eyes began to water and the emotion that was building up in her young body burst like a damn that had crested it's walls. She broke down and slumped over the rim of the coffin, crying into Sebastian's blue suit. She could not control herself as she was mourning for two--herself and Sebastian's mother Sabrina. Both crying from one source. The devastation was overwhelming to the point where little Charlotte could almost not handle it all. 

"I'm so sorry for all of this! All of this!" Sabrina sobbed though Charlotte's eyes.

"Charlotte!!" A voice said from behind coffin. "What are you saying there?" It was Rebecca, Charlotte's stoic and overly superstitious grandmother slowly making her way into the great hall dressed in the dark black mourning dress covering every open layer of skin except for her face. 

"Grandmother." Charlotte said, now in her own state of mind curtsying to her grandmother.

"What were you telling Sebastian? You know better than to disturb the dead." Rebecca said her whitening red hair perfectly falling in wavy curls to the back of her head. 

"Only prayers, Grandmother. I feel so awful this has happened." Charlotte said covering for Sabrina. "I just hope Evie can find peace in it all. Do you think she will?" Charlotte asked.

"Well, right now there's nothing you can do for either of then. The one responsible for this atrocity will be held accountable. They’ll find Mary Goode and make sure she never breathes air into her lungs again." Rebecca replied coldly.

"You mean they haven't found her yet?" Charlotte wondered, hoping Mary had made it to Eliza on Goode Island as she instructed.

"Never you mind, go on now to your room. Celeste will help you freshen up for the funeral later." Rebecca ordered. 

Charlotte, curious to know what was really happening with Mary could only imagine now that Rebecca refused to give the child news. She politely curtsied again and rushed off to her room where hopefully she could figure out a way to get more information out of Celeste. 

Now alone in the hall, Rebecca looked down at her dead grandson. She wasn't sure how to feel. Her pain was potent. Her sadness real. But she was also angry and ready to take someone's head off. She was so sure Gaspar's tarot reading was wrong—so sure. But it accurate. 

Each card revealed something about the day before but in such a way no one would have deciphered them. But she found it odd that Gaspar, a man who had told her, promised her, reassured her over and over again that his abilities to tell the future through his powers and psychic agility totally left out the Mary Goode with a gun factor. 

How could he have been so off? How could he have not known? 

Rebecca took a deep breath knowing full well she'd get to the bottom of all of it. She patted Sebastian's hands and reached into the pocket of her long black dress and pulled out small scissors. She reached down into the coffin and snipped a lock of Sebastian's hair from his head and then tied a small red ribbon around it allowing the hair to twist into the shape of a golden-brown curl. And just as she placed the lock of his hair in her pocket she finally let a tear fall from her ice cold face.

 She turned away from her only grandson and left him in repose. 

****

Evie sat stoically in the parlor that was quiet as if there were no others in the room with her, but everyone was there. Her dark hair seemed to morph or become one with the thick black vail over her face that matched the dark dress. She sat on a yellow sofa clutching Celeste’s hand who was also dressed in a large black dress that covered every inch of her body while a little white and gray bichon-frise sat at Evie’s feet wagging his tail unaware of the tragedy in his own home. 

“BeeBee!” Celeste yapped at the little dog. “Sai!” She ordered in her native Portuguese. BeeBee the bichon understood her command and quickly rushed out of the room. 

Over in a palm shadowed corner, Jacob and Gaspar sat in silence. Rebecca and Charlotte in another corner, Charlotte’s eyes staring over at Evie, Rebecca mouthing the words to The Our Father over and over again. 

The priest was with Sebastian’s body blessing it before the funeral as the  family waited.  

“Everything happened so fast.” Evie whispered. 

“I know my love.” Celeste whispered back. 

“What’s to become of me? I’ve only been here two weeks and I already have nothing to give this family. I fell in love, got married and became a widow in the blink of an eye.” Evie sobbed through her words. 

“Shh… don’t think of that now. It’ll all fall into place. They’re not just going to throw you out, besides you were married. The priest married you. You’re legitimately a Lord now.” Celeste explained in a hushed voice. 

“I don’t know I just don’t know. Poor Sebastian. How could this have happened? Why would that woman do this?” Evie cried. 

“I don’t know my love, I don’t know. Mary has…” Celeste began before being interrupted by Evie.

“It was the woman I met on the docks the day I arrived, wasn’t it? I recognized her, even though it happened so fast. The woman you warmed me about. You told me to stay away from her. Why did you warm me about her? What did you know about her then that could shed some light about why she’d kill Sebastian?” Evie recalled to a stunned Celeste. 

“What’s this? You met the murderess?” Jacob suddenly asked curiously upon over-hearing their conversation.

Gaspar’s ears perked up.

“Briefly Mr. Lord.” Celeste confirmed. 

“They should hang her. Her and her mother.” Gaspar said sipping a drink of dark brandy. 

“That’s all we need more death at the gallows in the village. We’ve certainly seen enough of that in this family. What did you speak of, Evie? You and Mary?” Rebecca suddenly asked breaking from her deep prayer.

“Nothing. She just introduced herself. That was all. Do you think she wanted to hurt him because of me? Did she want to marry Sebastian? I don’t understand anything of this.” The young widow cried. 

Rebecca got up from the sofa on her side of the room and came over to Evie and knelt down next to her. The small electrical fixtures shined a dim light in the room. There was some glimmers of the fading sun from outside. Rebecca grabbed Evie’s hand that was clasped tightly in Celeste’s and squeezed them both. 

“Evangeline” the matriarch said using Evie’s full first name, “there was nothing you did or knew that could have controlled the events the wedding. Mary has a deep mental problem. She always has. She’s a sick girl, long ago she hounded Jacob and we had to put a stop to her vicious obsession with him. We know all too well how ill she is, although I never expected her to go to this extreme to hurt our family. We certainly never saw murder coming.” Rebecca said repeating a lie Jacob created of Mary’s mental state as she looked over at Gaspar who was supposed to be her psychic guide. 

Gaspar nervously looked down at the drink in his glass. 

On the other side of the sofa sat Charlotte who became annoyed at the distasteful remarks on Mary, after all Charlotte was Mary’s daughter even if the rest of the family didn't let them see each other, she knew all too well the truths of her parent's relationship, thanks to the knowledge provided to her by the inhabitance of Sabrina's spirit inside of her. 

Replaying to the group, Jacob snarled. “Yes we don’t need to go back into that Pandora’s box.” 

“And I want no talk about you worrying about your future here. As a woman who married into this family myself I know how treacherous it can be. My husband Albert too died young and left me with two boys. I understand how scared you are but, I assure you my dear, Tirymôr and Welshport is your home now, and this is your family.” Rebecca added.

Jacob's plan was supposed to have had both newly weds murdered so that he would have been placed first in line for the entire Lord family fortune, instead Mary missed her second target allowing Evie, now the widow of Jacob's rival heir to be alive and well fully entitled to Sebastian's half of the fortune. 

“Thank you Mrs. Lord. I will do my best to keep my end of the bargain … for my family’s sake.” Evie replied acknowledging the marriage albeit a good match was indeed a business transaction between the Lords and the financially crushed Jordan's, back in England. 

“Mother we shouldn't talk of such things...Evie has had a traumatic experience. She knows she will be safe here. Her new home.” Jacob added with an annoyed tone.

 Rebecca ignored him.

“Sir...” A quite voice said from a small servant's entrance. It was the Rebecca, s lady-in-waiting Georgina Reid. She had an envelope in her hand that she handed to Jacob.

“Ah! yes....The telegram.” Jacob said from the side of the fireplace in the blue wallpapered parlor seemingly annoyed at his mother’s sudden kindness to Evie.

“Yes, the telegram. Evie we were able to send your family in London a wire about the tragedy; your brother Nikolas replied. He sends their love and affections.” Rebecca added to Evie’s sudden burst of tears. 

“Thank you, thank you for everything.” Evie replied with watery eyes.

“Now let’s go see Sebastian.” Rebecca said as the three woman held hands and walked together out of the parlor. With her free hand Rebecca reached for Charlotte and added one more to the group.

“You know this could be more trouble than we knew.” Gaspar whispered to his conspirator Jacob. 

“Are you are questioning my choice of weapon?” Jacob wondered as Gaspar handed Jacob his own glass of brandy.

“Mary? A weapon? More like a liability Jacob. I know you said you had a plan B but…”

“Gaspar not another word, just trust in what I have planned. Do you understand me?”

“Jacob I’m sorry but I feel like this can get out of our control. Using Mary brings an added level of danger to it all. I don’t know if it’s worth it. Mentally how can we trust a woman who agreed to shoot someone in cold blood like she did? With even a second thought!” Gaspar said. 

“I offered her something she could never—would never—refuse.” Jacob said back. 

Gaspar sighed. “Charlotte.” 

Jacob lifted a brow and grinned. 

“Don’t you worry your fraudulent psychic head…this isn’t all about Mary.  The next phase will secure my place and to lock out any other heirs to this family’s fortune, mother dear will just have to keep the mirrors covered for a while. The funeral procession isn’t going to be over anytime soon.” Jacob replied cruelly. 

****

Evie, Celeste & Rebecca in the parlor 

As Evie, Rebecca, Celeste and Charlotte, all in their long black dresses walked together through the house not a sound could be heard but their shoes clacking on the hard marble floors echoing in the rafters of the high ceilings like a four nuns in black gowns draped in black veils covering their faces heading to the alter of a cathedral. 

As they walked, Charlotte glanced at all the mirrors that had been covered. There were four large golden framed mirrors in various hallways on the way to where Sebastian's body was laying in repose. She could see how her grandmother's superstitions were growing more and more paranoid, and she knew that inside of her Sabrina could tell too. 

Closer and closer to the great hall where Sebastian was thousands of candles were laid out on tables and vestibules lighting their way. Servants that were caught in the women's march to the room suddenly stopped and stepped aside letting them through and crossing themselves as the women passed.

At the door, read to see her beloved husband of just minutes, Evie grabbed a candle that was brightly lit on the side table just before the entrance to the hall. 

"There are candles inside Evie." Rebecca said.

"No. This one is just for him. When night comes I want him to have this next to him. A light from me for him, and only him so he doesn't lie in darkness." Evie said. 

Rebecca smiled and allowed Evie to grab the candle then Celeste opened the hall door. 

Rebecca latched on to her granddaughter Charlotte's hand and stepped inside to the back of the hall while Celeste stepped in and stayed in the back but on the opposite side of Rebecca and Charlotte flanking Evie as she stood in the center of the hall with the candle in her hand.

Completely covered by her thick veil Evie held the candle in the center of her body and walked down the isle as if she were headed to the alter to be married again just this time she was in black instead of white and caring a lit candle instead of a  bouquet of flowers. 

There was silence in the great hall. No one spoke. Three men entered a side entrance, they were there to carry the body to the cemetery after Evie's final visit. No one wanted her to head to the grave sight and watch as they lowered the coffin into the ground. This would be her final goodbye to the young man she traveled a world away to meet and marry just a few days ago. They only had a short time to know each other and fall in love but the end came at the shot of a gun at Mary's hand, sent by Jacob.

As she got closer to his body, Evie began to cry. She thought about all the could have been and what should have been. She thought about everything that was taken away from her and how she could have made him so happy. She wondered why Mary would do this to Sebastian, to her, to the family. 

His face was so pale, but still so perfect. Evie lifted her vail to get a better look and smiled. He was so beautiful even in death. She felt his cheek with the back of her gloved hand and leaned down and kissed his lips for the final time. She placed the candle on a small open area of a table near him and ran her fingers through his hair. 

"This is for you my love. Let it light your way to heaven." Evie said of the candle as Celeste and Rebecca sobbed in the back of the great hall. 

Evie turned and quickly made her way back to the women who rushed over to her and hugged her. 

"I think I would like to be alone for a while." Evie said. 

Rebecca nodded understanding the stress of the moment and took Charlotte out of the room "We'll send dinner to your room." she said as they left.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Celeste asked.

"Yes, please go on. Go home. I'll see you in the morning." Evie said as Celeste left her to make her way to her room alone.

She hadn't been at Tirymôr long but she knew her way around well. She slowly made her way back to her room through the various echoing halls. She came to an area that had a back staircase and started to go up when suddenly she heard footsteps. She quickly turned back and moved her long veil that was obstructing her view around her shoulders. 

But there was no one there.

She furrowed her brow and continued up the dimly lit stairway that lead to her apartment in the house. Once in a long hallway that was carpeted she continued to walk and noticed all the mirrors and glass frames were covered per Rebecca's orders. But the strange thing was she heard the muffled footsteps coming from behind her tapping in step with hers on the red carpet. 

Evie turned again--- no one there.

The strange feeling that someone in the house was following her began to make her feel unsettled and she quickly made her way to the new room of hers that would have been her shared bedroom with Sebastian. She quickly pushed the door open and closed it behind her. When she turned she saw that all of the joyous things that had been left there for the two newlyweds had been forgotten, and were still in place. 

Rose petals on the bed. Champaign now warm with the day. Fresh fruit that was no longer fresh. All victims of the death of Sebastian. 

Evie sat down on  a large white chair and removed her shoes rubbing her sore feet. She then slowly began to remove her veil and petticoats. She slowly began to remove the pearl comb in her hair and the dazzling jewelry around her neck, and suddenly without even knowing someone pulled the necklace off of her neck from behind starling her so much she screamed only to find it was Jacob, her late husband's murderous uncle who's plot of murderer failed to snare her as well. 

"I'm so sorry my dear, I didn't mean to frighten you." he said menacingly. 

"Jacob what are you doing in here?" Evie asked as she quickly jumped up from the chair covering herself.

"I should have announced myself but I wanted us to meet in private."

"Oh? Is everything ok?" 

"Yes yes… well mostly. You see its about mother." Jacob said placing the necklace he took from Evie on a side oak table.

"What about her?"

"Its about what she was saying in the parlor earlier. How you are now a part of the family and that you're welcome here. I want to be sure that you understand that my mother sometimes cannot be trusted but I for one will make sure that you are safe. At all times." Jacob said.

"Trusted?” Evie asked confused.

“It’s hard to explain.” Her uncle-in-law replied. 

“I’m getting the sense you don't believe her." Evie said as she crossed her arms.

"I believe her intensions, but with her age you know how things can slip the mind. I will of course keep track of her and …..of you." Jacob said stepping closer to her. 

Evie stepped back.

"Keep….track." Evie said going over to one of the electric lamps near the bed and flickering it on.

"I’ll be frank Evangeline, my mother at times forgets what she's done in the past and puts us all in a bit of hot water when her memory lapses. She was very fond of Sebastian just as she was very fond of his father, my brother David. And you know what happened there don't you?" Jacob asked.

"Influenza." Evie said quietly remembering what Celeste said about Sebastian's mother's death.

"You've learned well." Jacob laughed. "No. Not influenza, Sabrina didn't die that way. She was murdered just as the rumors say she was. But David wasn't the culprit. It was my mother. My mother killed Sabrina in a viscous drowning. It was horrible. Something evil, something sinister came over her and she was like a woman possessed. She lured Sabrina to the beach and attacked her and drowned her. She believed Sabrina was replacing her in David's life and that's how her mind was able to fix the situation. All I can say is now that Sebastian is gone, and I hope I'm wrong, perhaps she'll blame you for all this." Jacob said, spinning a web of deceit.

"What? None of this makes sense. Why would ....how could? No, I don't believe she’d harm me and I don’t believe she harmed Sabrina." Evie said sitting well away from Jacob on her bed.

Jacob lifted a brow. The bright light shined from below and gave him an ominous look to his face. A look that showed true evil lurking in his eyes and all over his facial expression. A man who had a mission to dispose of all his blood relatives to finally pull in all of the family fortune just for himself. He wanted to eliminate anyone obstacle of that, Sabrina, David, Sebastian and now Evie was on his list, the unfortunate newest member of the Lord family that had literally dodged a bullet sent from  his own gun.

He walked over and sat next to her on the bed, close, so close their thighs touched. 

"I just want you to know that if you need help ...any kind of help, I will be there to help. Maybe ...a trip home. Back to London where you'll be safe and away from any kind of harm Rebecca might impose. Think about it, think about your dream. Those kinds of things like what you dreamt about are not far off from the things my mother is capable of." Jacob said, accidently revealing he was watching her sleep. 

"My dream? How do you know about that?" Evie wondered as she moved away from him on the bed as her mind was quickly flooded with visions of the nightmare she had of being buried alive by Rebecca on her first night in Welshport.

"The walls talk." he replied and got up. "Think about what I have told you. Your safety and life is what is important to me. I just want you to be safe Evie. Safe forever, and perhaps this is not the place for you. There is a ship leaving mainland Maine from Bangor in two days time back to England. I think you should be on that ship Evie. Far away from this island that has so benighted us all." Jacob said as he slowly crept out of Evie's room leaving her to soak up all his words hoping the seed he planted would sprout. 

She was worried. Confused. Devastated. She felt as if everything she had hoped for when she arrived was slowly slipping out of her grasp and she felt truly alone. She looked at her suitcase sitting near a large closet and went over to it. She opened it with her left hand an saw her wedding band sparkled on her finger in the glow of the orange electrical lights.

A cold reminder of what he has thought she gained, and then suddenly lost. Like the flicker of the lights, everything was gone. 

She was trapped between a rock and  hard place and knew she had a choice to make: stay and fulfil her life as a the latest Lord family member as her marriage arrangement dictated, or believe Jacob's tale of his mother's cruelty and dangerous side and leave Welshport and all its deadly ghosts behind forever.