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| The storm over Welshport |
A rumbling storm had reached Welshport Island. It crashed in the atmosphere above like to oceans colliding; a flash of lighting and rain pouring down on the small village and island with the same name while Goode Island floated next to it amid the blur of the storm, a down pour that had not been seen in over a year.
At Tirymôr House, Evie stared out of her window that was fogged up with condensation. She could see glimpses of the ocean far off over the large forest that surrounding the house and village and saw the ships bobbing up and down in the sea. The thunder clapped and a shiver ran up her back. She turned to her side and grabbed a dark blanket and put it over her shoulders.
Then there was a knock on her bedroom door.
She paused, she wasn't sure if she wanted to see anyone. With all the strange occurrences, all the strange sightings of things that were Sebastian's she had no interest in being in contact with ghosts of any kind. Real or imagined, but she related, it could be Celeste with new of Filipe.
"Come." She shouted with her soft voice as she took to her large sitting chair near the fire place and watched as her heavy bedroom door opened and the town Constable Christian Evans, a man who had tried to protect Evie and Sebastian at their wedding in his duties and in the process had started to see the charm of the new woman in town and had grown very fond of her.
Evie, too, felt a strange connection to him one of safety knowing that he was there for her when things had stunningly gone wrong.
"What are you doing here so late?" She asked as she stood to receive him.
"Celeste asked me to come back, she wanted to rush home and make sure she was there if Filipe happened to return. I don't have the best news about his vanishing. We can't find him anywhere." Christian noted, his mind still blocked by the magic powder blown in his face by Eliza Goode.
"She mentioned he went of to find Mary on Goode Island. Have you checked there?" Evie asked.
Christian, his mind bewitched by anything concerning the island where the Eliza was hiding Mary and holding Filipe hostage, did not answer directly thanks to his mind being blocked. He squinted, furrowed his brown. He tried to focus on what she asked but his mind just would not let him connect to the answer, which was "no". He hadn't checked again on Goode Island.
But thanks to Eliza’s sorcery, he wasn't even sure why that was.
"Well?" Evie said unsure why he had paused so long to reply.
"We're still looking but knowing him as I do, he'll be back." He answered, to a confused Evie. Even he was confused.
"I hope, if not for his own safety, but for Celeste's sake too. She’s so worried. The poor thing was so distraught especially with this wild storm front over us. He could be anywhere, and Mary, we all know how dangerous she is. Who knows what she’d do to him." Evie said, sitting back down.
"She wasn't always this way. She's had a rough childhood. She didn't really know her father and her mother kept her pretty isolated when she grew up. Its been a battle for her to incorporate herself over the years with the rest of the people on the big island and in the village." Christian said.
Evie lifted a brow, "Are you excusing what she did to Sebastian because of her horrible childhood?"
The sudden clap of thunder startled Evie and Christian alike. He took a breath and went over and sat across from Evie as the rain continued drop large amounts of water over the glass of the window like a waterfall cascading down a crystal mountain.
"Let me explain, you see we've all known each other for years. We grew up together in one way or another. Even Mary. Despite living where she did, Eliza sent her to school with us, so we know her. We know her well. Something must of have gotten to her, she's been strange for some time now and... well, I know that if I figure out what that something is, we can get her back on the straight and narrow." Christian said.
"Christian she killed my husband, I don't know if I care to see her get back on the straight and narrow. She deserves to be in prison until she pays for that." Evie said assertively.
"I completely understand, I didn't mean to imply that she would get off the hook for what she has done." Christian added seeing how annoyed Evie suddenly seemed. "I would never just allow some to avoid justice that way." He added.
Evie saw that he truly meant no harm, she could also feel her blood pressure rise. Her mind was in so many different places and the power electricity of the storm didn't help much. She got up and re-arranged the blanket over her bare shoulders. She went to her window and watched more rain pour down onto the grounds surrounding Tirymôr.
"I don't mean to snap. I just..." she paused. "if I tell you something do you think you could keep it to yourself?" She asked as the thundered rolled again in the dark sky.
"What is it?" He asked getting up to look at her in the eye as the light from the small electric lanterns and fire place kept them in a somber glow of orange.
"Something is going on, I don't know what. In the last few days, Ive seen items that belonged to Sebastian in places they shouldn't be. There was blood too. And when I came back to show Rebecca it was all gone. Then on another occasion I felt like I saw him, downstairs in the foyer. It was confusing because the person was wearing a cloak of Sebastian's but then he vanished and later the cloak was in my room. I just feel like I'm slowly losing my mind. Each passing day without him, without him warmness and kindness and everything that I had hoped he would be when I moved here seems to have been destroyed and I feel like without him I'll just waste away. And then there was the conversation I had with Celeste about Jacob. He... he is unsetting Christian. Something about him since the day I got here has always made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up." Evie said.
"Do you think that maybe you're just dealing with a lot of stress from Sebastian's death?"
"Of course but... that still doesn't explain why Celeste feels the same way. She's know this family for years. She fears Jacob. And I can see why." Evie said.
"And the things you are seeing, the things you think are Sebastian's do you think its Jacob too?"
"I don't know! I just don't know anymore. How would those things appear out of thin air and who was running around downstairs in Sebastian's cloak but....if it was someone pretending to be him to frighten me, then I don't think I could stay here anymore." Evie explained to a stunned Christian.
He looked in her eyes and could tell she did not go mad. She was coherent, clear, detailed. Someone was truly bothering her and trying to flip things on her where she would be stretched to the edges of her sanity but of course Christian could not prove any of it no matter how much he believed her.
He stepped up close to her and grabbed her hand to squeeze. She felt safe with him. She felt like no one else in the house could do this for her, keep her safe and out of the cross-hairs of Jacob or any Lord family phantom. After all he had known them all his life. He knew their ins-and-outs ever since his own father would bring him around as a small boy to see the estate and play with Sebastian. They grew up rather close until Sebastian began to be tutored at home to prepare for the one day taking control of the family company.
"I will do whatever it takes to make sure you're safe. I've told you that promise and it's all true. Anything. He repeated.
She stepped closer to him now, looking deep into his blue eyes, a blue she missed now that the weather had taken away the similarly colored sky. She smirked at his boyish good looks and wondered where she'd be without her new friends Celeste and Christian. But Christian was something special to her. She could feel a warmth in her heart, something that her new found vulnerability needed and held on to. Tightly. In her grief over Sebastian, Evie found solitude and support in Christian.
He smiled back too, seeing this kindness in her eyes that he could feel in every fiber of his body.
"Thank you. And again I feel awful for how I behaved when we talked about Mary." She said breaking their quick moment of silence as they gazed in each other's eyes.
"It's fine, really. And to be honest I can understand completely. Sebastian's death is still wearing on you and I've never been so concerned about a friend as I am Filipe. He's helped me with so much. I just really need to find him." Christian said.
"Celeste is worried too. She cant imagine why he'd be gone for so long. It's been an awful few weeks for everyone actually. But for me, you've been so helpful." She said.
"I'd really do anything for you to help you, Its really unfair the cards you've been dealt. You deserve to be happy and living here...well we don't really know what could happen within these walls. That's the most important thing. For you to be safe where you live."
Evie's eyes sparkled and with his words, with his actions, with everything he has done for her the sadness of the last few weeks was suddenly melting away like the spring sun thawing the winter frost. and Evie's broken heart started to come back together again.
Christian looked at her. Not only was there a fire in burning in the hearth of the room, there was one burning in his heart. He wasn't sure if it was even possible but he was indeed feeling so something for the young widow, a woman that quickly became all he could think about in the wake of his friend's death. Then, he said what had never expected to say.
"I...I want to kiss you." Christian said, feeling shocked that that came out of his mouth.
"Christian..." Evie said, unsure how to reply.
"I'm sorry I don't even know why I said that because.." he replied but before he could finish Evie lunged at him and kissed him on the lips.
The two fell into each other's embrace and moved closer to the warm fire. As they stood in between the two large chairs in the fire place kissing, they slowly slinked down on to the floor where they lay the puffy petals of Evie's chiffon dress. They continued to kiss, deeply and passionately and Christian carefully lowered Evie on her back as he continued to kiss her.
The fire felt so warm. Their bodies absorbing the heat in the moment of passion. Before they knew it, the two new friends, both mourning a terrible loss filled the void of Sebastian's death and Filipe's disappearance were making love right on the floor of her bedroom in front f the hot fire and to the sound of the rain falling in a powerful storm.
As the two made love on the carpet of Evie's bedroom, Rebecca watched from behind the painting that looked into Evie's room. Her shock, her horror. Her disgust. She was slowly growing fond of her new family member and hoped that she could mold her into the perfect Lord woman but now, now she could see that perhaps Jacob was right. What person in their right mind could so quickly after her husband's death fall for another and even make love to him?
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| Christian and Evie make love |
"You're seeing for yourself just how she's slowly going into a horrible state. To be outwitted by that Evans man. What a disaster." Jacob said to a furious Rebecca.
"Well, what can I do? what am I supposed to do Jacob?" The old woman replied, her heart and mind rushing into all options.
"There's only one thing you can do. Get her taken to Windcliff. We can have it done quickly. No one would ever judge us for it, not after this." Jacob said, happily excepting the good fortune he was having with Evie making love to someone that wasn't her husband and so soon after Sebastian died.
Rebecca pulled the eyes of the painting open again, she saw the passion still unfolding in the other room. The thunder clapped and the rain crashed down on the window and flashed in Rebecca's eyes through the painting. She was furious. She could not blink. She could not turn away from what horrible thing she was witnessing in the room next to hers. Adultery. Scandal.
Another scandal. The Lord family could not take another one.
"There must be conditions." Rebecca said closing the paintings eyes.
"Name them." Jacob said.
"No one can know she was taken to the mainland to be at Windcliff. No one. It must never leave this house. We will tell people she in unwell or that she cannot have visitors but under no circumstances are we to tell people she went insane and that she’s been institutionalized.” Rebecca ordered.
“And Celeste? She will wonder.” Jacob asked.
Rebecca lifter a brow, “She will have plenty to keep her occupied here at Tirymôr. Evie will be the last thing on her mind.” Rebecca added.
“Very well.” Jacob agreed.
With a deep disappointment Rebecca sighed “Doing this, having this affair, this betrayal of my trust like this, MY home....no. The girl is out of her mind. I should have known better when she came to me with her visions but I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt but its clear now. Clear as day."
"Not a word. From anyone. I'll take care of it." Jacob said leaving the room quickly as Rebecca, grabbed hold of her rosary and fell to her knees praying to a statue of the Virgin Mary in her room that glowed with a strange glare from the flashing of the lightening.
Just outside Rebecca’s room peeking from behind a large potted palm in the hall, Charlotte and the spirit of Sabrina, still dwelling inside the little girl ,were listening to the conversation. Charlotte watched her father leave the bedroom headed for the downstairs foyer where he’d use the large boxed telephone to call up Windcliff Sanitarium.
The sound of Rebecca whispering her prayers as the rain poured down covered Charlotte’s footsteps as she bounded down the red carpeted hallway with the information she eavesdropped of Evie’s impending doom.
She needed to warn Evie, she needed to tell her what they had planed for her. Sabrina's spirit began to make the little girl seem to turn into a flash of speed as she ran as fast as she could to Evie’s room just down the hallway.
As the young lady bolted down the hall she hit her arm on the side of a long dark mahogany table knocking over a porcelain vase that crashed to the floor . When she stopped to ease the painful bruise on her arm and survey the mess she made a big hand came down and clapped down on to her wrist.
It was Gaspar. He had also been hiding the the shadows and he caught Charlotte.
"Tsk tsk tsk... you shouldn't be listening to other people's conversations young lady. What would your father say to this?"
"Let go of me." Charlotte's little voice said.
"Come along. We wouldn’t want you fooling with your father’s plan, now would we?" Gaspar replied gripping his hand tightly around Charlotte's bruised arm.
"I SAID LET GO!! Let go or I’ll scream!" She yelped as the flash of another lightening strike illuminated the tall ceiling to floor windows of the hallway.
“Miss Charlotte you should know better than to speak to your elders this way. You’ve done a bad thing, and once your father discovers this what will do? You’ll be punished.” Gaspar replied cryptically.
Charlotte struggled in Gaspar's grasp, and not even Sabrina's power could loosen his grip. He took her all the way back to Rebecca’s room, pulling and ripping at his fingers all the way there.
Charlotte felt her little 10 year old heart sink deep in her chest. Evie was done for.
****
On Goode Island, as the storm continued to roll over the Frenchman Bay of Maine, Sebastian continued to lay in bed with his body still feeling the powerful pull from death back to life.
Sitting at his bedside, like a nurse-maid to a soldier at war, was Eliza Goode. She had watched over him for the last 2 nights hoping he'd come back to full life as her spell had said it would do. But he'd run a fever in a cold pale body. He was constantly sleeping and tossing and turning which terrified Mary.
"He's not right. Something is not right." Mary said through tears as the realization continued to soak into her mind of what she had done thanks to Sabrina's ghost requesting Eliza's help.
"His mind in between two worlds, the living and the dead. Filipe's blood will help." Eliza said, as the rain poured down.
"Is he.... some kind of... Vam..." Mary began before Eliza hushed her.
"Never ever speak what he's become. Never. It cannot be spoken. If it is, something terrible will happen and the good in Sebastian will subside and the darkness of death will take over his whole heart. Mary, it is imperative you never say the word you were about to say. Never." Eliza warned.
Mary nodded she would not just as Sebastian's suddenly came to.
"Where....where am I?" He moaned.
Eliza and Mary quickly rushed over to his bed as Eliza again gave to Sebastian the blood of Filipe.
The blood one more dribbled down Sebastian's mouth but then, his eyes snapped open. The first round of blood had slowly seeped into his tissues, but as that taste did it's job, this new taste was now filtering in much faster. The fever had broken and Sebastian was quickly returning to some sort of new normal.
"Why am I here?" He questioned.
"THEY TOOK YOU! THEY TOOK YOU FROM YOUR GRAVE!!!" Filipe screamed from his cage in the other room, woozy from blood loss.
Sebastian looked confused.
"I died." he said unsure if he was alive or dead.
"Something like that." Mary replied.
"Sebastian, I need you to first understand that what we did was by request. Request from your mother. She wanted us to intervene and we," Eliza paused and looked over at Mary who was staring down at Sebastian still in shock. "took you from where you were and saved you. That's all you need to know we saved you." Eliza answered.
"I was shot. You...you shot me. Why? Why did you do that?" Sebastian asked as he tried to get out of bed, but Eliza rushed over and kept him laying down.
"You can't be up yet." She said
"WHY? Let me go! THE BOTH OF you! Let me go!!" Sebastian said, as he forcefully pushed Eliza off of him with such velocity that she flew upwards, a foot off the floor and back into her own chair.
Mary screamed and rushed over to her mother who got up and said she was fine. She knew like this would happen. She knew that Sebastian's revived body filled with the energy of the supernatural and the blood life-force of a healthy living person like Filipe would give him the strength of 50 men or more. She knew his animalistic side would come out and that eventually they'd have to make him leave. She knew it, and expected it and had a hidden revolver with a single silver bullet hidden in the drawer of the bedside table just in case it all got out of control.
"I don't know how I did that. I only wanted to get you off of me." Sebastian said getting out of bed and suddenly seeing his pale face in the mirror. "My god, what's happened to me? Why do I look like this???" He screeched.
Eliza got up with Mary's help and spoke.
"Sebastian please listen. You are not like you once were. We've revived you and we've given you a way to have a second life, a life that will be changed forever. This is your second chance to do what you need to do and take control of all that your mother wished for you." Eliza said as Sebastian looked down at his naked body seeing the scars of the bullet hold in his chest.
He reached over and grabbed his trousers. He put them on and looked into the mirror again.
It was his face but different. It was his eyes but different. It was his skin but different.
It was him.
But different.
"This isn't right. I feel ... I feel hungry." He said turning to the two Goode women.
"We've given you blood. Blood is what you need for all time now." Eliza said rubbing her sore wrist.
"What do you mean blood is all I need?" He asked.
"SEBASTIAN!!!" Filipe screamed from the other room.
Sebastian, recognizing the voice, leaped into the next room and saw his friend slumped down on the ground inside of a cage. He rushed over and tried to pull open the cage doors but they were locked.
"What have you done to him? What's happening? Remove my friend from this cage at one!! I DEMAND IT!" Sebastian scolded.
"They took it from me. Its in you now." Filipe said weakly.
"Took? Took what? What have you taken from him? What is he talking about?" Sebastian asked.
"We had to use fresh blood from a male, and Filipe," Mary began to explain but could not believe what she was about to say next. "We had to use his blood to save your life. To give you new life." She finished.
"You monsters! What have you done??? Why would you do this? This is not what my mother wanted!!" Sebastian screamed as the storm cracked another thunder bolt down to the ground outside the cottage.
"Sebastian we had to!" Mary said.
"You're vipers! Monsters! Witches! You should have just left me dead then do this to this poor man. He is my best friend and you've used him as an experiment to bring me back to life! This is an abomination. My mother would have never wanted this!" Sebastian replied.
"ENOUGH!" Eliza yelled silencing the room. "My sister wanted this, she wanted exactly this because she told Mary so. You know it too. It is shocking, I understand, but Sebastian we are not the enemy. Jacob Lord is the enemy. He's responsible for all the pain we've all felt for years and you know it, even Mary’s. He took Charlotte and lied to both of them. I know you know it, my sister knows you now you know it."
"Your sister?" Sebastian said as he continued to try to calm Filipe in the cage.
"Sabrina was my younger sister Sebastian. She is why I agreed to do this for Mary when she said Charlotte held Sabrina's spirit within her. We're family boy, and this is why we've helped you. Do not squander this opportunity now that you have it." Eliza said to the sound of rolling thunder in the sky.
"Opportunity??? You’re insane! You’ve made me into this… this thing! This blood drinking creature. And Filipe! You’ve locked him up. I need him to of this cage. If everything you say is true then Ill confront my uncle myself. With my friend Filipe by my side." Sebastian replied.
"He's too weak, he wouldn't make the trip back to the big island." Mary added.
"Release him." Sebastian ordered, sounding like his old self again.
"She's right he is weak, but I can give him something to help." Eliza added.
"I won't let you go back there Sebastian, I won't. These women need to be held accountable for what they've done and they want you to hurt your uncle." Filipe said.
Mary turned back to Filipe in a swish of hair and scowled. Filipe, if anyone, knew the coldness of Jacob’s ways, yet seemed to want to protect him in some way.
"What about what Jacob did to you Filipe? Have you already forgotten? Look down at your hand and remind yourself Filipe. He never paid for the pain and suffering that you endured. What about the daughter he took from me? What about all the lies and the things he's done to others? You can help us." Mary suddenly said with a clear mind.
"My mother." Sebastian added remembering his moment with Sabrina. "he killed her."
"You see. And he took my daughter from me and all of this was to make sure he's controlling the entire estate that belongs to all your family. Everyone in that house has been manipulated and lied to by Jacob and that includes Rebecca and Celeste and now probably even Evie." Mary added.
"Celeste." Filipe said, now understanding that even the woman he loved who worked in the house as Evie's lady in waiting was also in trouble being there with Jacob.
"Please come with me. We have to confront Jacob, everything he's done needs to be brought to light and told to my grandmother. We have to stop him. For Evie. For Celeste. For my mother. For my father who was innocent all these years of killing my mother." Sebastian said then turned to Mary and saw her face pained and tear-stained. "And For Mary and for Charlotte."
Filipe, still in the cage, rolled over and stood up. He looked at the women who had cut him and had taken his blood and then to his best friend. There was truth in all of it. There was sorcery in it too but Filipe had to accept it. For Celeste.
"Let's go home." Filipe said, as Eliza quickly unlocked the cage door and released him.
Mary held tight to her mother as they both watched Sebastian and Filipe rush off to the edge of Goode Island’s rocky shore. Mary squeezed her mother close thankful she was able to reverse the death of Sebastian but wondered about the manner they did it.
“What has he become?” Mary asked in a soft voice as they watched from the cabin door in shadowy night.
Eliza did not answer.
“Mother?” Mary asked again. “What have we made him? And Filipe?”
Eliza inhaled a deep waft of cold salty air and squeezed her daughter’s trembling hands and said “Let the Lords deal with what Sebastian is now. Let them reap what they’ve sewn; products of their own cruelty over decades and deal with their new family curse a curse that will stain their bloodline for all generations. Sebastian is now a man of another world. Let them all suffer now.”
Mary wasn’t sure how to take her mother’s words but took them in worried that she had made a horrible mistake asking Eliza to revive the dead. Now, the Goode women could only wait and see what Sebastian’s new form would do to save his precious Evangeline.
****
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| Happier times: Filipe Braga & Celeste DeVianna |
Celeste boiled tea on a kettle that was burning on a small wood burning stove towards the back of her kitchen. She felt the wind blow in from her kitchen window, it felt like a winter wind that stiffened the bones of her hands almost instantly.
She shivered and turned towards the front room to tend to the fireplace just as her front door swung open with Filipe standing in it soaking from the pouring rain.
"MY GOD!" She screamed as his body slowly began to collapse from exhaustion.
Celeste rushed over and caught him mid fall and she helped her tired partner over to a small sofa near the fire place.
"Where have you been? Ive been worried sick!" She asked.
"I don't even know where to begin. The last two and a half days have been incredibly ....." He paused unsure of what to say as she grabbed and removed his boots.
"We have to change your clothes, you’re soaking wet." She said.
She began to remove his clothes to help him change when she saw the deep cuts Eliza had given him to harvest blood for Sebastian.
"Filipe, what is this?" Celeste asked, running her hands over the fresh wounds that were sewn up with doctor like precision.
"It was Eliza. She needed to take some from me for--- someone else." Filipe said, warming his body in his dry clothes.
"Eliza! So you were on Goode Island! I knew Christian should have gone back for you. I told him you went because of how you felt about his interaction with Eliza but he kept telling me there was no one there. I just knew you were! You wouldn't lie to me." Celeste said, then she looked back at the cuts. "Wait--what do you mean she needed to give some for someone. Some what? To Who?" she asked frantically.
"I’m frightened for us…for all of us. Something has happened and I’ve seen terrible things; from now on, from this night forward nothing on this island will ever be the same again." Filipe replied.
"Filipe you're scaring me. Whats happened?" Celeste said noting the terror coming from every expression on Filipe's face.
"I need to rest. I can't talk. Please help me to bed." Filipe said as Celeste complied.
She took him to their bed and he collapsed into it. Cuddling himself with the warmth of the blankets as she lit a fire in the second fireplace near the bed. She rushed back over into the kitchen and came in again with a hot cup for him to sip.
"It'll help with energy." She said.
But Filipe was asleep. He was exhausted. Frightened. And somewhat a new person after the blood from him went into Sebastian. In a way they were one, the two friends. His blood ran though Sebastian's body and they felt as if they were family but now were truly connected.
Celeste watched as the man she loved slept, her mind kept repeating what he had said to her about the changes their world would see after this night. He heart could not take another tragedy and she hoped, and prayed that when the storm lifted, everyone she cared for would make it to see the sun.
****
Later that evening Evie and Christian lay in bed holding each other for warmth and through passion. Their eyes locked on each other like they had never seen any other's eyes before. She pulled herself up, her naked back caressed by his strong hands. Her hand fell down over her shoulders and on to his chest. They kissed again after the love they made.
She had never felt this way before. Evie thought that perhaps she had made a mistake allowing herself to fall so quickly for Sebastian, in fact she felt that she had only felt that way for him because she was in the marriage as way to connect her family with the Lord family, thus saving hers from complete financial ruin. But when she kissed Christian for the first time, when their eyes locked for the first time, she realized that her tragedy of the short relationship with Sebastian was perhaps meant to be so that she could be with Christian.
Every road, Evie believed, was meant to come to him. She could feel it in her soul.
"Do you think we've done the right thing?" He asked in a whisper.
"Why do you say it like that? I feel like we're doing what comes to our hearts. How can we be wrong if that is what we're following?" Evie said.
"I don't regret anything but I don't want you to either. You have more at stake than I have. You have all this, I don't have much. Most people won't understand." Christian said of their relationship that was rooted in the tragedy of Sebastian's murder.
But before Evie could answer, her bedroom door flung open by Jacob. She screamed and rolled over and covered herself. Christian leaped from the bed, nude, and grabbed his trousers that were next to him on the floor. He quickly dressed and asked what the meaning of it all was.
"Well Constable, you see there seems to be a problem here with our dear sweet Widow." Jacob said snidely.
"Jacob!” Evie shouted covering herself,
“What is this?!?” Christian exclaimed also covering himself.
“Get out!" Evie shouted.
"Out? Well that's actually what's about to happen to you dear Evangeline. You're about to get out." Jacob replied.
"What?" Evie asked, as Jacob seemed to be speaking in code.
Just as Christian and Evie were hoping to hear his reply a man in a dark suite and dark rimmed glasses stepped in. His strong haw and broad shoulders cast a long shadow from the door on to the bed. He then introduced himself in a deep voice that felt like a timpani drum rolling it's beat into the air.
"Mrs. Lord, hello. I’m Doctor Andrew Kim of Windcliff Sanitarium. Mr. Lord and his mother have informed me of the things you've been seeing and we want to take you in to make sure you're all well. So please, put this on," the doctor said throwing a day dress on to the bed. "and let us get moving."
"Sanitarium? What the devil are you talking about? Evie isn't insane!" Christian said, now fully dressed albeit wrinkled and unkept.
"Stay out of it." Jacob said as he turned around to walk out so that Evie could dress.
Christian reached over and pulled Jacob's shoulder back so that he could face him again and Jacob came in with a left hand punch to Christian's face knocking him to the floor. Evie screamed and leaped from her bed in a sheer white nightgown with a the back sexily cut out. Her long dark hair swooped over her shoulder and covered the cut out as she helped lift Christian up from the floor.
"I said stay out of it.” Jacob snarled at Christian who was running his cut lip. “Evangeline, get dressed." Jacob added coldly.
"What is this about? You can't do this!!" Evie asked as Jacob began to lose his patience.
"I won't wait another second now come with us!" Jacob then reached down and grabbed Evie by the arm and yanked her over. She screamed and slapped Jacob across the face, he then swatted at her and slapped her back. She scared and grabbed the side of her face as it stung in pain. Her fury built up and Evie turned back and slapped Jacob once again across his face this time the diamond of her wedding ring slashed his cheek that although superficial drew blood.
Jacob’s fury began to match Evie’a and he grabbed her hair and twisted it around his fist and began to drag her out of the room. Christian pounced and pulled back Jacob. They began to push back and forth as Dr. Kim watched from the hallway into the room in disbelief and shock.
"Leave me alone! Rebecca!! REBECCA!!!" Evie screamed hoping for a female ally.
Jacob released Evie's hair and she fell on all fours.
Jacob then pulled Christian off of him, turned him around and punched him in the face hard enough to knock him out.
In the down stairs foyer of Tirymôr with its vaulted ceilings and walls covered in glistening gold and portraits of faces long dead Lord family members, a shadowy blur of a person slowly crept in. Their boots began to leave prints of mud and water.
The person who entered knew where they were going. They had been there before. This was their home. They had seen the walls covered in new state of the art electric light bulbs that buzzed like wasps in their hive. The person was familiar with all the portraits that hung on the walls, he knew their names.
It was Sebastian, he had returned to Tirymôr for his wife Evie.
He walked through making almost no noise, as his clothes dripped small tear-like drops onto the marble floors of the foyer, then the main hall then with its spearhead shaped windows that cast crucifix like shadows down on the floor when the lightening flashed from the storm.
He was angry. He wanted revenge. He wanted his wife. But what he found was Gaspar still hiding in the shadows of the hallways in Sebastian's old clothes waiting for Evie to come down there stairs so that he could fool her once again but this time in front of everyone to help proof Jacob's point.
Gaspar heard the single pair of foot steps and confused expected it to be Jacob cancelling the plan and as Gaspar stepped out of the shadows to speak to Jacob he was shocked to see the dead man standing inches from his face.
"Remember me?" Sebastian said in a cold voice.
Gaspar froze in place.
Then, as a flash of lightening lit Sebastian’s cold pale face he revealed to Gaspar what the spell Eliza had cast on had created: long teeth sharp like daggers. Sebastian felt his body temperature drop and he felt a hunger so ravaging he could not contain himself . Gaspar’s eyes widened and he tried to speak but only a weak murmur came out of his throat.
“This is what I have become. This… is where all this madness has taken me.” Sebastian said to Gaspar who began to shake in his shoes once he began to recognize the man in the shadows with the animal like teeth.
"No. No. Please — no!” Gaspar said as he began to back away but the dark shadowy area he was in obscured the fact he was trapped. There was no way out, no other exit.
Gaspar panicked and reached for a one of two small glass lanterns that flanked each end of a large oak bureau with feet like a lion’s feet. Gaspar scrambled to find the almost empty box of matches he had in his jacket pocket that he used to light his favorite cigarettes.
 |
| Gaspar holds a lantern to see Sebastian |
One match failed. Then another. Then another. Sebastian stepped forward slowly, his eyes seemingly yellow and cold. Then a match lit and the light in the lantern illuminated a glowing orange light on half of Sebastian’s cold face.
Sebastian, now in half silhouette, smiled evilly at his grandmothers supposed soothsayer Gaspar. Then with a flash of lightening Gaspar felt his life ticking away as Sebastian got even closer, so close now he could see the faded blue of Sebastian’s eyes.
"How are you here? How are you alive?" Gaspar asked, suddenly slipping on the wet floor as he stepped backwards away from Sebastian.
The lantern burst into shards and the room room was once again dark only illuminating with the storm.
"Don't you know? Aren't you so keen on knowing what the dead want and wish?" Sebastian said teasing Gaspar over his supposed psychic ability. "Aren't you me? By the clothes I'd say that's what you want people to believe. So tell me, Psychic....what am I doing here?"
"You’re dead! DEAD!” Gaspar screamed as Sebastian picked him up by the collar of his shirt.
"Yes…I am, and I'm thirsty!" Sebastian said as his mouth went down on Gaspar's throat piercings the skin and drawing and gushing the red crimson liquid he so desired.
Gaspar released a scream so inhuman that everyone upstairs who heard believed a wolf had entered the grounds outside Tirymôr.
Letting Gaspar bleed to death on the marble floor of the great hall of the Tirymôr House, Sebastian looked down at his grandmother’s fake psychic companion and wipes his mouth.
“Now you’re dead.” He said coldly then quickly made his way up to his bride's bedroom.
 |
| Sebastian the vampire |
*
Coming back down the front steps, Christian was bruised and limping. He passed the shadowy area and saw a small river of blood seeping out from corner area. He slowly walked into the shadows to see what it was, licking his own bloody lip in the process, and saw a terrible sight.
A blood soaked body with a gaping would in the neck of Gaspar Dubois gasping for air.
Christian slipped and fell backwards into the spilled blood. His eyes were large, unblinking. He quickly made his way to his feet, getting his balance in the thick blood. He slowly made his way to Gaspar who was chocking on his blood, pale and fading from consciousness.
“Who did this?” Constable Christian Evans asked.
Gaspar opened his mouth to whisper the name of the person who attacked him but only hissed the word “monster” then passed out.
Christian’s stomach was tied in knots. He was horrified, scared for his own life as Gaspar’s eyes rolled to the back of his head.
Christian turned away from the dying man and ran down the main hall of Tirymôr House making bloody footprints on the marble floors on the way out.
Whomever….or Whatever… did that to Gaspar, what ever it could have been, Christian wanted nothing to do with it or how it was connected to the Lord family.
****
On Goode Island, Eliza and Mary sat together on the floor of their cabin holding hands with a circle of salt in between their legs and three drops of blood that began to boil right there on the ground. They swayed back as Eliza spoke in a strange language. Their hair whipped around, back and forth back and forth and soon both screamed to the high heavens like banshees in the night.
Then they fell backwards in a sort of ecstasy.
Eliza got up and looked down at her daughter who's blonde hair was covering her face.
"How do you feel?" Eliza asked.
Mary got up, her face fresh, her skin dewey and perfect.
"Powerful." Mary said.
Eliza had initiated Mary into her coven. Now they were witches--together.
*
Christian arrived at Celeste and Filipe's house. Beaten. Bloody. And terrified.
Celeste gasped at the site of their friend and let him in. She told him Filipe was asleep and before she could even think or say another word, Filipe appeared in the doorway of the front room. He locked eyes with Christian who's eyes were as big as saucers and said "You've seen it too."
All Christian could do was nod yes.
 |
| Windcliff Sanitarium paddy wagon |
Evie called out to Rebecca who in Evie's view from the atop the man's shoulder was upside down and begged in slurred speech "please help me."
Rebecca did not move a muscle but winched at the sight of poor Evie. She squeezed Charlotte's hand who held inside the spirit of Sabrina Lord, both girl and spirit aching to do something for Evie, but helpless.
Sabrina wanted to rise out of Charlotte and take Evie away and save her but she knew she couldn't, little Charlotte could not withstand such a reversal of possession and could die. All they could do, Charlotte and Sabrina was watch poor Evie get taken away due to Jacob's murderous plots and twists of truths.
"Sign ......here............mad....a...me. Release...paaaaperrs...." Dr. Kim's voice said in slow motion to Evie's drowsy ear.
"Ta...ke ....her.......aw..waaaay." Rebecca's voice said also in slow motion voice Evie's medicated ear.
Rebecca was heartsick. But what she saw in the bedroom of Christian and Evie's private time together, making love, was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was too much for even Rebecca to handle. She couldn't believe Evie would move on so quickly from Sebastian. To Rebecca, it was a betrayal, a clear sign that perhaps Jacob was right and Evie really was losing her mind.
Evie, crying and unable to speak now turned her head and saw Jacob standing and smiling. His full plan almost complete, she being one of the very last hurtles he had to cross before his ultimate and total take over of the Lord family.
As they carried Evie out to the awaiting automobile after the papers were signed the storm that had rained down over Welshport began to pass. The dark sky once filled with black clouds of rain now showed some signs of clearing and blackness of night. It was cold, however. Ice cold. Evie was now falling unconscious in the fog of her own breath in the cold air.
"Make sure she doesn't get out." Jacob said to the smirking Dr. Kim.
"I have great plans for her indeed. I'll keep you posted." Dr. Kim replied.
*
As Rebecca, Charlotte, and Jacob stood together on the steps of the front of Tirymôr House from the window of his old bedroom Sebastian watched. Back to life and seeing his wife being taken away to an insane asylum on mainland Maine.
Sebastian’s anger boiled over. He screamed in a voice that had never come out of his throat before. It was inhuman. It echoed of pain and fury like the storm that had just passed over the island.
As Sebastian’s blue eyes slowly turned to gray, a sign that the everlasting life spell was complete Charlotte looked up from the front steps almost as if she could hear her cousin’s scream.
Back in his room, the undead Sebastian punched a hole in the wall of his former bedroom and he vowed he would not let another day pass with his uncle Jacob getting away with his many deadly deceptions.
Sebastian promised himself hat getting revenge meant there would be blood shed.
Possibly His own family's blood.
