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| Welshport Village |
The Village of Welshport had an 8 block radius of shops and saloons and businesses that helped the town's people run their day without having to load a small ferry over to the mainland, the closest bigger town being Bangor, Maine. On the outskirts of the village were the homes of all their residents. Some were clustered together in small little neighborhoods with single family cottages and other's were more spread out.
Inside the 8 block downtown area there were a few buildings that were designated as livings spaces. Most had small businesses on the ground level, and occupants lived in tight apartments in the upper levels.
In one such 3 story Victorian apartment with several bay windows that faced the sloping street that lead to the docks was Matthew Winterborn's home that he was now sharing with this sister Alice who had mysteriously appeared to him from the depths of the ocean just a few days before.
Matthew came home with two men he had run into while he was on shore-leave from his job as a fisherman in town. The two men, Filipe Braga and Nikolas Jordan, had been discussing Nik's sister Evie's escape from the Sanitarium on the mainland. The story Matthew eavesdropped on matched a very peculiar tale his sister Alice had told him about her friend from the hospital.
It wasn't hard to connect the dots, and Matthew promised Filipe and Nik that Alice could find Evie.
In the apartment, Alice kept herself busy watering Matthew's plants, plants he didn't have until Alice showed up. She was a special woman, a woman who had a connection to nature and all the things that made earth so special. But her eccentric persona was offsetting to most people. They all found her strange which made life for the Winterborn siblings difficult; while she was at Windcliff, Matthew was able to make a life for himself without having to worry about his sister.
As the small apartment opened and Matthew entered with Nik and Filipe, Alice seemed to have known they were coming. She had set a small card table up in the little living room with three places for tea.
"You're late." Alice said, not turning from the window of the apartment as she watered one of her many plant friends.
"Alice, this is Nikolas and Filipe. They need your help." Matthew's voice said, his serious tone reaching Alice's ears as sincere and worrisome.
"Hmm," She said, placing the watering can on a side table. "what kind of help do they need exactly?" Alice replied somewhat cautiously.
"The woman you met at Windcliff, was her name Evie?" Matthew asked as Filipe and Nik flanked him on each side.
"Yes." Alice replied. "Why?"
"This is her brother and her friend. They're worried about where she might be and I know that you can help. They fear she's in danger." Matthew said.
"I'd sincerely appreciate your help, Miss. Winterborn, Evie is my best friend and I think that where ever she is, she isn't safe. If you can, please help us." Nik added.
"Why do you think I can help?" Alice asked sitting in an open chair near a window that was framed with two large ivy plants that had grown so large in the 3 days since it was purchased that they looked much older than they were.
"Alice, it's ok. You can be who you are." Matthew said encouraging his sister who was hiding her abilities from the new comers.
"But Matthew you told me...you told me I couldn't." She said.
"I did. I know I did. But, perhaps I was wrong, perhaps this was the reason you were gifted with everything you can do. To help people like Evie. It was different before, I was too scared for you and what people would do to you if they knew. But Evie really needs your help now and she's your friend." Matthew explained.
"She is my friend and I've been doing everything I can to block out what has happened to her because I was afraid, but if you trust these two men, I will help, I would be glad to." Alice replied. "Give me your hand." She added standing up and coming over to Nik.
Nikolas looked at Filipe who's worry about Evie's safety with Sebastian, whom he suspected as having kidnapped her from Windcliff, was growing more and more dire by the hour. Nik didn't know what to do with his hand but Filipe nudged his chin up encouraging him to play along with Alice.
Nik stepped forward slightly and swallowed hard. He extended his hands out to Alice who grabbed hold. His hands were rough, a sign of all the hard work he had been doing back in England since the Jordan family had fallen out of the high society and he was forced to work in a factory. Alice could also feel his energy through his hands. He was kind. Loving. He was worried. Frantic. And scared for his sister. She smiled at him, seeing her own brother in Nik's protective gaze.
"I want you Nikolas to close your eyes and breath in deep. Take in all the sounds that you hear and focus on an image in your mind that is your sister or reminds you most of her. Do you understand?" Alice asked, Nik nodded he did.
The two closed their eyes. Right away Alice could feel their connection even deeper than before as Nikolas began to focus on Evie.
Alice opened here eyes and they were completely white, the iris' had rolled to the back of her head, her skin would flash scales and back to human skin, then flash scales again. Her neck would flash the gashes of her gills then back to normal again...she was now in a trans-like state, in her mind, a vision began to play out: She felt a breeze, a strong breeze and saw trees and flowers. But it was not just a random bunch of tree that she was seeing. The earth was showing her a forest, thick and lush. Filled with Beech trees and pines. The greens were so vivid and every shade of green that a person could imagine. She was now inside the forest herself, her body transporting itself telepathically as if she were really walking the grassy path inside where the canopy of trees blocked out the Welshport sky.
"Its cool here. I can smell the sea but I do not see it." Alice said aloud.
"Do you see Evie?" Filipe asked. "Is she with anyone?" He added expecting her to describe Sebastian.
"Silence!" Alice ordered. "I see thick trunks of trees and grass. So much grass. The cool air tells me that I am in a place that is safe. A place that is almost remote but accessible. Yes, it feels as if it is somewhere far but we can be where this place is. There's a little cottage in the distance, I can see it, I can see the cottage." Alice added.
"Alice can you tell us where the cottage is?" Matthew asked.
"It's here, on the island. It's here I believe it's here." She said.
"Is Evie there?" Matthew asked again.
"I ..." Alice began to speak but suddenly stopped. In her mind she began to walk closer to the cottage to get a better look. It was painted white but the paint had been aged several decades old. It was showing the gray of the rocks under it now. The shutters on all the windows were a pale color, Alice guessed they used to be bright blue but had since become gray. "It's so quiet." Alice said.
"Please, Alice, if you can see Evie there please tell us. There aren't too many cottages like this on Welshport, we could easily narrow them down." Filipe said.
Alice stepped forward in her mind, she could feel the air again, cool and salty. She stepped closer to a first floor window of the cottage to try and look inside.
"I can see it!!!" Nik said. "I CAN SEE IT TOO!!!"
Their connection was now flowing like an electrical current between Nik and Alice, back and forth and he could see what she was seeing; vividly, clearly and almost as if he were there too.
"What else do you see?" Matthew asked.
"Shadows." Alice and Nik both said at the same time.
A shiver ran up Filipe's spine.
"There is someone there. I can see someone standing there." Alice said.
"Yes, I see them too." Nik confirmed.
Alice stepped closer to the window. She squinted to allow her eyes to adjust to the light from the outside to the darkness of the room in the cottage. She could smell something putrid and rotting. It was death!
As she moved her faced closer to the window, out of the shadows came a single large tarantula crawling upside down over the top of the window sill. Then another. Then two more. Then four and five and six at a time. Soon, Alice was swatting hundreds if not thousands of large hairy black tarantula's from her face. She screamed and continued to swat at them as the kept flowing out of the window like they would never stop.
And then, without a second to think Alice stood firm on the ground and clinched her firsts and screamed into the open window like a banshee cracking the sky above with a hellish yelp to prove her powers.
"I am not deterred." she growled into the black shadows of the inside of the cottage.
And then tarantulas vanished..... there was a brief moment quiet before the smell of death re-appeared and it was quiet.
"Alice...." Nik whispered from his unconscious state of mind still latched on to her telepathically. He could feel himself become nervous with this silence. His stomach in knots, his blood racing. His mind clouded with deadly thoughts.
Then, Alice, stoic and brave peeked back into the dark window of the small house, but slowly out of the shadows, like a figure emerging from a vat of molasses, a dark figure appeared with a taste for blood on his lips.
It was Sebastian in monstrous vampire form.
He lunged at Alice deep from the shadows of the room with his mouth open ready for her blood.
He rushed the window like a phantom of darkness with his mouth gaping, his fangs aching for a neck to pierce and his eyes black like the night, her skin cold and transparent. This wasn't earth bound Sebastian but the soul that was in him now, the soul of Sebastian that was the vampire, He was different in this form. Pure coldness and malice. Purely targeted on creating death and pain wherever he was. It was this soul, this spirit that lurked inside each-bound Sebastian. And it was this that sparked the fears in all who knew what Sebastian was now.
Alice screamed and fell backwards onto the grass in her vision and in her body in the apartment. And at the same time, both she and Nik screamed and unlatched their hands which quickly released them from the terrifying vision of cabin. Of the woods. And of the beast that was Sebastian.
"WHAT!? WHAT HAPPENED!?" Matthew exclaimed as Alice's eyes came back to normal. "What did you see?"
Filipe knew what they saw, his old friend that his own blood helped create.
"It was him, wasn't it." Filipe said of his old friend who had become one with the darkness.
"What was that? WHAT WAS THAT!!!!???" Nik shouted unable to figure out if that was human or animal.
"That creature has Evie, doesn't he?" Alice said, connecting the dots.
"Creature???" Matthew asked unsure of what his sister was saying. "What creature?"
"That was Sebastian?" Nik asked, turning to Filipe for an explanation. "Does that monster have my sister Filipe? Why didn't you tell me he was....what is he? WHAT IS HE??? We have to get to her. We have to save her from him before it's too late!" Evie's brother added.
"Where is this cabin?" Matthew asked.
"The only cabin I can think Sebastian would go to is the one in the Tirymôr Forest just before the edge of the Western Ridge of the island. His grandmother's family used to own a small house there that he loved when he was a kid. That has to be the one." Filipe said.
"We have to go! There's no time to lose." Nik said turning from Filipe to Alice. "Thank you for your help. I don't know how to repay you."
"Take me. You'll need me when you face that monster." Alice said.
Nik didn't want to in danger her, he looked over at her brother Matthew who shrugged. "She can really help point the way." Matthew said.
The clock was ticking and the group did have a very short window of time before Sebastian woke from his daytime slumber. They all agreed, and the group of 4 quickly rushed out of Matthew's small village apartment and headed their way to the edge of the Tirymôr Forest to find and Save Evie Jordan from her monstrous husband Sebastian.
****
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| Celeste & Rebecca confront Jacob |
The over-cast sky with blobs of late winter clouds held on throughout the day over Welshport. The main drawing room inside of Tirymôr House would flash light and dark as those clouds passed over the sun in bursts of peek-a-boo like games.
Jacob Lord, freshly shaven and dashing in his dark gray suit walked in to see his mother Rebecca with a stern look on her face sitting on a large golden sofa with her maid Georgina standing at her side,. Both were facing the drawing room doorway. Across from Rebecca, with her back to Jacob was Celeste DeViana who stood up quickly to face Jacob.
"What's this?" Jacob wondered as the energy in the room was tense and ominous.
Celeste squeezed her own hands that were in a tight ball at her waist but said nothing. She clinched her jaw and expected Jacob to see right through what was happening and possibly reveal her family secret to Rebecca.
"Thank you Miss DeViana, you may go." Rebecca said, excusing Celeste.
"I think I should stay ma'am." Celeste replied bravely.
"Are you going to tell me what this is all about or do I need to call one of your psychics to have then read my tarots?" Jacob said snidely.
"Miss DeViana has told me that last night you punished your daughter and locked her in the turret room, which is intolerably cruel Jacob, even for you. It's no wonder she didn't come to dinner. When I asked you why she didn't come down to dinner you lied. You said she wasn't feeling well. Get her out of that room." Rebecca ordered.
"What else did Celeste tell you?" Jacob said looking dead in Celeste's fearful eyes thinking that perhaps she had mentioned Sabrina or the night they shared together when he blackmailed her into bed.
Rebecca turned to her wicked son and narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "What else is there to say?”
Jacob shrugged childishly.
“Go get your child and bring her down here. Celeste can wash her up and hopefully the poor thing isn't too damaged to function. I know you have a basic understanding of human life, Jacob, but this is very dark. Do you even know what this would do to her? Locking her away like this?" Rebecca asked.
"She's being punished. She knows what she did, this punishment fits what she has done." Jacob replied coldly.
"What on earth could a 10 year old child do to deserve this type of punishment from her father?? Give Georgina the key, right now, and she will get Charlotte." Rebecca ordered.
"A 10 year old girl..." Jacob said with a grin looking at Celeste knowing full well a grown woman's spirit was dwelling inside that 10 year old girl.
Jacob was sure now that Celeste didn't give up her full knowledge of Sabrina living inside Charlotte or anything else he had done, Rebecca was clearly in the dark about everything but he wondered should he drop the bomb or use it to his advantage. It could be a very good insurance policy going forward along with what he had on Celeste's family. He removed the key from his jacket pocket and handed it to Georgina but never unlocked his gaze with Celeste who he found utterly stunning in the cool light coming from the windows of the drawing room.
Georgina grabbed the key and quickly made her way to the turret room.
"Honestly Jacob, the things you plan the things you do without even consulting me. I could have easily said that this punishment, for whatever she did, was out of line." Rebecca offered.
"Yes well I doubt that mother." Jacob answered sitting himself across from her. Celeste still standing there like a marble statue.
"Are you going to tell me?" Rebecca asked in frustration.
"Why don't I let Celeste explain. She was there, weren't you Miss DeViana?" He said putting her on the spot.
Celeste lifted a brown and nervously flattened the front of her long dress that had periwinkles in green and hydrangeas in blue all cascading down the front in an ornate design that caught the eye of any onlooker.
"Sir, it's not for me to say what she did, only that I feared for her and wanted her to finish out whatever punishment you saw fit in her own room." Celeste said, which was what she had told Rebecca.
"How very diplomatic of you." Jacob sniffed.
*
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| Charlotte locked in the turret |
Over at the turret door, Georgina frantically unlocked it. She opened it and saw only darkness at first but then inside she could see a small lamp lit with a smidge of sun peaking from the three rectangular stained glass windows of the turret.
Georgina, who was in reality Charlotte's birth mother Mary in a new body, struggled to find the little girl who was hiding in a small closet to the side of the circular room.
"Charlotte, Charlotte, honey its me. Its Georgina." The maid said.
Charlotte came out of the closet, her long blond hair tied in messy braids that had fallen out of link as the hours passed along in the room.
She was frightened at first, unsure of why Georgina had come and not Celeste or Jacob, but then, in a powerful feeling in her mind from Sabrina, Charlotte could see through the magic that was over Georgina's body and could see that Georgina was truly Mary, her mother.
"Georgina?" Charlotte said, not believing what she was being shown by the spirt of Sabrina inside of her.
"Come on dear, your grandmother has freed you. Celeste is downstairs waiting for you." Georgina said extending her hand for Charlotte to grab.
"You're not Georgina. I can see you. I CAN SEE YOU!!!" The little girl said in glee and ran up to Georgina and hugged her tightly. "Mother is it really you??" She asked with so much happiness in her voice that Georgina shed a small tear in their embrace.
"How can you see me? How did you know?" Georgina asked.
"Aunt Sabrina. She helps me. She helps me see everything for what it really is. She helps me." Charlotte replied with her face buries in her mother's puffy sleeved shoulder.
"You must keep it a secret from everyone Charlotte, especially your father. Its the only way I can be near to you and keep you safe. If your father was to discover me hidden behind Georgina's face I don't know what he would to do me. Do you understand?" Georgina asked.
"Yes, I understand." Charlotte's little voice replied.
"That's a good girl.” Georgina said.
“I have done something bad. That’s why I’m here.” Charlotte added.
“No, no my love. You haven’t. Your father is, well, he sometimes does things that go beyond understanding.” Georgina oddly replied protecting the man who destroyed her life when she lived as Mary. Even now he had a power over her heart.
“No mother. Sabrina and I made a plan. With Celeste to...” the young Lord heiress paused and looked at the floor.
“Do what Charlotte?”
Charlotte looked up from her dirty bare feet and said nothing she only moved her finger across her neck signifying death.
Georgina’s eyes widened “Oh against your farther?”
Charlotte nodded her head confirming.
“I see. Let’s just forget all about this and stay close to me ok?No more of this kind of talk. Sabrina too.” Georgina ordered feeling odd about the whole plot.
“I understand. Do you hate me?” Charlotte asked frowning.
“I could never hate you my love. Never. I changed my whole entire body, my life, my face, my world just to be near you. I’m here now in this body to be with you. Forever. Now come, they're waiting for us in the drawing room." Georgina added completely chilled by her own child’s murderous plan.
*
"Why didn't you come to me as Celeste did with the matter of Charlotte?" Rebecca asked still trying to connect the dots.
"Because she's my child, not yours. I decide whether or not she should be punished for something, not you. Don't you think you enough on your plate? The business, this household?" Jacob said.
"The business has it's proper mechanisms to take care of itself, you know that. And this household is at the upmost importance including all who dwell here including my granddaughter. You will not punish her this way ever again without consulting me. Is that clear?" Rebecca askes sternly.
"How dare you mother!! How dare you intervene on how I deal with my child and when she does things that need to a punishment such as this. Celeste may have told you what the punishment was but she didn't tell you the whole situation, and I am sure she wouldn't mind if I explain so that you have some sort of context. What do you say Celeste? Wouldn't that make more sense for mother to know before she lays down the law like this?" Jacob said, hinting at revealing that Celeste and Charlotte with Sabrina's help plotted to kill Jacob.
Celeste was frightened. She didn't want to be known as an attempted murderer especially of Jacob who despite his unpopularity within Tirymôr was still Rebecca's son. Rebecca would surly denounce Celeste and most likely have her arrested for trying to stab Jacob. After all it was Celeste who was found with the scissors not Charlotte. It was now or never, Celeste had to deal with whatever was to come.
"You should tell her whatever you feel is necessary Mr. Lord." Celeste said awaiting her fait.
Jacob smirked seeing her call his bluff. He stood up from the sofa across his mother who was now getting impatient with the whole game of cat and mouse she was seeing between Celeste and Jacob. She took a deep sign and was about to order one of them to tell her what on earth they were talking about when suddenly Charlotte and Georgina came into the drawing room.
"Oh my darling, I am so sorry I didn't go looking for you. I am so so sorry. Are you ok? Did you eat? Oh! Look at your hair, we'll have Celeste fix this up for you." Rebecca said in a more mothering way to Charlotte than she ever was to her sons David and Jacob.
"I am. I am." Charlotte said putting her two little hands on Rebecca's cheek.
"Well now. Have we learned our lesson?" Jacob asked of his daughter.
She turned from her grandmother and gave her father a scowling look that could cut through a wall.
"Come, Charlotte, lets freshen up." Celeste said as Charlotte latched on to her governess' hand.
"I going to keep everything between the 3 of us for now because I don't quite know how to deal with Sabrina back under this room in one shape or form, but when I do figure it out," he sad now looking from Celeste to Charlotte who's eyes turned from blue to Sabrina's green, "I will make it so that ghost, or spirit, or whatever she wants to be known as wishes she never left the underworld. Mark my words."
Celeste was shaking, seeing the monster in front of her that she now knew could be the father of the only days old pregnancy and the young girl to her side with a spirit dwelling inside of her was terrifying and confusing. She was trapped in this hell and with her family's secret and good name in Jacob's evil hands she had no choice but to stay.
"Everything alright?" Georgina said, coming out of the drawing room with the approved menus from Rebecca for the house cook.
"All's well as well can be. Be good Charlotte." Jacob said as Charlotte's eyes returned to their normal color.
The name of the baby's father. Who was it, Charlotte wanted to know. Sabrina too.
"I have to find out too. But I don't know how. I pray it isn't Jacob's." Celeste said. "What would I tell Filipe? He ... would never forgive me." She added
"Jacob took advantage of you, Celeste, he would understand. But you have to tell him and you have to be honest about what happened with your family. Open the door to that secret so that it takes away the power Jacob has over you." Sabrina said through the mirror in side of Charlotte's room.
"But telling the truth is what helps all of us." the little girl said innocently.
"There is only one person who can help you then." Sabrina said from the mirror as she floated in the blue mist of the glass.
"Who?" Celeste wondered turning to the mirror.
Charlotte nodded in agreement with her spirit aunt Sabrina.
Celeste feared Goode Island. She feared Eliza. But Sabrina was right. The witch would know who the father was and could possibly help her figure out her next steps should Jacob be him.
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| A file from Dr. Kim’s office |
Windcliff Sanitarium had a brief history in upper New England. It was one of 3 mental institutions in the region and the most recently open. There had only been 2 chiefs of staff since opening in 1908, and in t hose three years the very best had been Dr. Andrew Kim.
He was trusted, and he was brilliant. His passion for helping those in need of mental help was sincere and compassionate. In Maine where he lived he was recognized as a pillar of his community, but there was also something about him that in the Victorian age people would not understand or accept.
His personal secret, being a man who loved men could be career ending. It was an awful truth that Andrew and his late husband completely understood needed to be kept secret for not only their own professional viability but also their physical safety.
But their secret and incredibly loving relationship before the death of Andrew's partner was not met without it's own scandal. A scandal that had yet to be born, thanks to Jacob who dangled it's expose in front of Andrew forcing him to keep Evie locked up there against her will and against all medical reason.
Now that Evie had escaped and Jacob seemed to be on a war path, Dr. Kim was working on a way to keep his life and job safe, and the only way he saw he could do it was to eliminate Jacob all together.
Dr. Kim's newest patient was the former Constable of Welshport: Christian Evans. Christian's mind had slowly become a wasteland of darkness as he struggled to come to terms with everything he had seen the night Evie was taken. He was traumatized, terrorized and slowly but surly his mind began to wither away like dying tree in a forest full of lush pines.
Andrew saw Christian as the perfect specimen to take on this new counter attack on Jacob.
An orderly brought in Christian from his solitary confinement room into one of the many examination rooms at Windcliff. Christian was woozy and couldn't see through his blurry eyes. The room was cold and felt like it was being pumped with cold air from some frozen source.
As the orderly helped Christian up from his wheelchair, he moaned in resistance but was too weak to fight back.
"Go ahead and lay him on the table." Dr. Kim asked the orderly who asked a second orderly standing at the door to help.
"Doctor, the syringes are ready." Nurse Hoffman said, a young curly haired woman with eyes that sparkled with green and yellow flakes of light,.
"Thank you Nurse." Kim replied.
The two orderly tied Christian's legs and arms in the cold room while Dr. Kim and Nurse Hoffman examine him. He was still in good physical health, no weakness in his muscles as Kim thought would happen with the infusion of the cells that he had injected into Christian. Noting all the possibilities in his notes that did not happen, Dr. Kim was pleased to continue the cell therapy.
Dr. Kim pulled a silver tray over that sparkled under the large light that hung over Christian from the ceiling. Each vial was labeled PATIENT X, the name of the anonymous patient that died a few years before that the cells were harvested from. The man, Patient X, was a psychotic killer from a rural farm in the mountains of Vermont who had eaten his victims. Patient X had been convicted of his crimes and sentenced to life inside of Windcliff before his death when the idea to study his brain and cell modification came to Dr. Kim's mind.
Now, with Jacob using such a personal secret against him, Kim felt was time to test out the theory.
Kim pulled up Christian's sleeve and cleaned a portion of skin off before injecting him with the third and fourth round of Patient X cells. Christian moaned again as the cells of the insane cannibal swam through his body through his blood-stream and into his brain. These cells were infused with a toxin that would fill all the tissues of Christian's body and if Dr. Kim's experiments and therapy worked would alter Christian's state of mind so that he too became just as rabid and flesh hungry as Patient X was.
"The file please." Kim asked Nurse Hoffman, who carefully handed it to Kim as she was too afraid to get into Christian's gaze. "Let's sit him up." Kim added.
The nurse went over to a large panel on the wall with several switches that controlled the lighting of the room, the hydraulics of the table and some of the shades of the widow. She selected the center switch and slowly turned the nob so that the table Christian was laying on turned into a chair and lifted his torso up and his legs in a seated position.
She then turned up the temperature of the room to a warmer feeling so that Christian's body could relax instead of stay in the tightened.
"Christian, Christian can you hear me?" Dr. Kim asked as the light above Christian focused on his face.
Christian moaned.
"This is Dr. Andrew Kim, Christian, I need you to open your eyes and look at me if you can hear me."
Christian did nothing for a second but then opened his eyes surprising Kim.
"Very good! Do you understand what I am saying to you now? Can you see me?" The doctor asked as the nurse kept her distance, afraid of the entire procedure all together.
Christian slowly nodded his head that he understood and could see Andrew.
"Very good, very very good. I want you to listen to me Christian, listen very closely. In this picture here, is a man that has done some terrible things. Do you recognize him?" Kim asked opening the file he was handed and showing him a black and white image taken from a news paper clipping of Jacob Lord.
Christian nodded that he did recognize the man in the photo.
"Good. He has done some terrible things. To you, to Evie, even to me. I want you to do something for me Christian, I want you to do something for Evie. In just a week's time, I want you to go where this man lives in the dead of night and I want you to make sure that he does not live to see the sunrise. Does that make sense to you Christian?" Dr. Kim asked.
Christian made a noise that he rejected the idea to Dr. Kim's disappointment.
"He's still a bit resistant." Kim said to the nurse. "It makes sense, we've only injected some of the Patient X cells. The week we're giving him to acclimate to the treatment should change that." Kim added.
"Yes doctor." Nurse Hoffman taking notes of the entire session.
"Christian," Kim said, now standing up from the seat in front of the table Christian was on, "I'm going to inject you now with some more of this medicine. Ok? This is just to further you along on your new journey.:" Kim said.
Nurse Hoffman perked up. There was no plan on increasing the cell injection of Patient X so soon. It was only to be done daily, no more than that. It seemed too much for more cells in one day.
"Doctor, are we sure we want to do this today? He just had his daily allotment of the cell treatment." She asked.
"We need to make sure that when the time comes Mr. Evans is prepared and secure in his mind to do what I ask him to do. We have to increase the treatment daily. This should be noted so that we can further the experiment along when and if we have to try again." Dr. Kim instructed noting that Christian may fail in the experiment.
"Do you not expect him to succeed, doctor?" She wondered.
"I expect you to take notes of what I am doing not question me Nurse Hoffman. Can you do that?" Dr. Kim said surprising Hoffman of his rudeness.
"Yes, I can doctor." Hoffman said taking a deep breath as she watched Dr. Kim clean Christian's arm once more and inject him with the cells of the mad man who killed and ate his victims.
These cells once again swirled into Christian's blood stream. The pupils of his eyes dilated. He began to feel cold again despite the warming of the room by Nurse Hoffman. But then in a strange and quick manner he began to sweat. He was cold yet hot. He was awake yet asleep. He could see yet his eyes were blurry.
Then Kim pulled Christian's face over to his so that their eyes met. Kim used a small tool that attached to his eye glasses that helped him examine the eyes in a magnified way.
"I think we can start again." Kim said to nurse Hoffman who readied herself to take notes. "Christian, can you hear me?"
Christian nodded his head that he could.
"Good. Now, look at this photo Christian, Look at it as closely as you can. Do you recognize the man in this photo?" Kim asked.
Christian's eyes were open. He saw blurry figures. He saw a blur of black and white, the photo. His eyes slowly adjusted and finally the face of Jacob Lord appeared from the news clipping Kim was holding in front of him. "Jaccoobbss" Christian said in a slurred voice.
"He has recognized the photo." Hoffman noted.
"Very good, Christian. Now, what do I need you to do to him. Do you remember what I asked?" Kim questioned his patient.
"Kill." Christian said in a cold voice as both his hands suddenly balled up in a fist.
"Very good Christian. Very good. Let's let you rest now." Dr. Kim said as he signaled to Hoffman to brighten the lights and send in the orderlies to take Christian back to his room.
As Christian was packed up, he suddenly grabbed the arm of an orderly and bit so deeply that a chunk of the arm went into his mouth. Christian chewed it, the nurse screamed along with the orderly who was bitten. Blood was everywhere, The other orderly grabbed Christian and held him down as the terrified Nurse Hoffman ran over and placed a muzzle that was on a side table over Christian's face so that he didn't bite anyone else.
"My god, are you ok?" She asked the orderly.
"Take him to triage." Kim ordered as the room was quickly cleared of the rabid Christian and the injured orderly.
Kim looked down at the blood on the floor from the orderly and smiled. It seemed the cannibal traits of patient X were quickly working. Now, it was time to make sure Christian's hunger was set on Jacob and no one else.
****
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| Lockwood Thicket |
In the small cabin in the Tirymôr forest just on the edge of the Wester Ridge of the island, Sebastian and Evie lay in bed in the glow of their rekindled love. As she rested her head on his bare chest he smiled as his eyes met hers. They had been there in the glow of the candle light even when the sun rose as they kept all the windows blocked from the sun. It was the only way he could live, in the night, in the shadows, away from the brightness of the sun.
She couldn't help but feel incredibly in love, even despite that fact she worried about what he thought of her and Christian's connection. But in truth it didn't matter. They were together now and together is how they wanted to be.
"Its amazing, isn't it? Just how we've come back together in such a strange way. I'm just glad that you're here with me." He said to her as he stroked her hair.
She smiled and kissed him in the flickering candle light but then noticed a slight sadness in her eyes.
"What is it?" He asked as she sat up, tangled in the white soft sheets of the bed.
"Is this forever? Here? In this little house? Sebastian I love you so much and I am truly so grateful we can try again. But we need to return home. To Tirymôr. To your family." She said, realizing their little fantasy life inside the small hidden cabin couldn't last.
"No! We can't go back! That's were everything awful happened. We can live here forever. We can be together alone with none of them ever finding or hurting us. We don't even have to be here. We can go somewhere else, anywhere. Just not back to Tirymôr. Not back there." He said, his voice sounding strained.
"And what will we do when we get where we go? Eventually we have to face reality, Sebastian. We can't live in some rose colored fantasy world because it's not feasible for me. You have a different existence now, but not me. How can you expect me to live with just you only half the time. Just keep myself locked away in a room? I can't do that. We have to go back home where we can be with the family---together!" Evie said, knowing the life of the wife of a vampire was perhaps not exactly ideal.
"But they wont understand." He said.
"It doesn't matter what they understand, it's the right thing to do. Jacob is to blame for all of this. Our time apart, your death, my time at that horrible hospital. We cannot let him get away with it. Tirymôr is your home. It's where you belong and its where I belong now too." She said.
"I can't do it. I can't do it!!!" Sebastian said, his voice raised as he leapt from the bed.
"Sebastian..." Evie began before he turned to her with an angry face. His eyes seemed cold now, the warmth was quickly gone. She took a deep breath and sat up, her hands shaking in fear.
"YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM!!!" He shouted at her, lunging out of the bed.
He was breathing hard, his bare stomach pumping in and out with giant gulps of air that he was taking. His anxiety about returning to his family home now as this creature of the night was a terrible idea for him. It was the place he was killed. It was the place his father was tortured. Where his mother had died. It was a place of evil. Darkness. Trauma.
The flashbacks of everything horrible terrorized him even in his waking moments. His eyes began to turn black, his fangs began to peak through with the anger inside of him that was building up. His hands began to ball up into fists as he turned to Evie and stared at her with a blood thirsty hunger in the darkness of his eyes. He wanted nothing to do with his family now, he was different. He was new. What he had suffered he blamed them for, and if he was to return it was to kill them.
But Evie, undeterred by what she was seeing in the face of her love, knew it wasn't about the past but about the future. She stoically stood up and faced him-- the darkness in Sebastian bravely.
"Sebastian think of what it means to run away from what Jacob did. " She said calmly with the white sheets covering her cool naked skin.
She knew that if Jacob got away with all the evil he had done to so many people the future of the Lord family that was now also hers, would be placed in a mad man's hands. Rebecca wasn't going to live forever and when she did finally move on in death, Jacob would control the fortune, the homes, the business and so much more. But not if Sebastian was around. He was the heir. The true future of the Lord family, and Evie had to make that clear to him.
"Just think about your family's legacy," She said as Sebastian's eyes continued to show signs of darkness and thirst. "where would that legacy go if we just vanished and Jacob was the one controlling everything. Think of Charlotte, and... well, what if we have children Sebastian. We have to think of their future's too. Jacob cannot continue on this tirade. It has to end. They have to know you are back even if it is in this capacity." She explained.
Sebastian then suddenly calmed down with the mention of their potential children. He sat back on the bed, his eyes calm and warm again. She reached out to him and grabbed his hands. They were strangely warm despite his cold heart beating the icy blood in his veins. She found a glimpse of the old Sebastian in this new version of him in bits and pieces like when they made love, when they had quiet moments. But the dark side of him still remined and exploded in times of stress, anger and frustration. Evie had to find a way to balance her way around him like a tight rope act.
But the thing about Evie was that she was willing to try -- she had to. She made a vow to be with him, this vow bound her not only to Sebastian but to the name Lord, to the family and all that it was connected to.
He tightened his grip on his wife's hand and smiled softly. She was right. He knew it. He understood it and leaned over and kissed her as she adjusted her tussled hair from their long night together.
"Ok. Just give me one day along with you and then we'll go back to Tirymôr House." He asked.
"One more day?" She said smirking.
"One more." Said again, and reached over and kissed her again. He then lay her down and once more time they two love-birds began to make love as if they were on a honeymoon, in a way they were. Sebastian was shot on their wedding day and they never had a chance to experience the love, the love making and the passion of a young couple in love.
Everything they experienced was euphoric and powerful. She felt so alive being with him. She feared his anger, but she also feared what could happen should it all be taken away from her again. This version of Sebastian, as flawed as he was with his awful blood thirst, was their second chance.
As they made love, as they became two bodies into one, they both realized that they were a team. And together they'd return to Tirymôr as a unit and take down Jacob Lord once and for all.
****
In her own home, behind a screen of smoke and ash from the fire in her hearth, Eliza good pulled out the hot embers and placed them on the ground in front of her. She hummed a song that only she knew the words to. She closed her eyes and swayed in front of the hot embers she removed from the fire place.
The embers were red hot, burning right before her as she kneeled in front of them. She continued to hum the mysterious song as the smoke filled the air. Then Eliza extended her hands and in a quick jolt placed her open hands, palm side down, into the hot burning embers. Her flesh burned, even sizzled like a steak of beef grilling on an iron pan. She did not feel pain. She only waited for the right moment to lift her hands out of the burning embers.
Then, the moment came and she felt a powerful energy all around her. She looked at the palms of her hands and saw the blistering burns on her skin curls and flake off showing the red bloody flesh of her hands exposed to the air. And then, like a miracle began to heal right in front of her very eyes.
The cars that we left made a peculiar pattern. This is what she was looking for. She read her palms and saw the answer to the question she was humming in the song: WHAT IS TO COME?
The answer in her scars, frightened the witch Eliza Goode like she had never been frightened before.
"The beast." She whispered to herself. "The beast is coming."
