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| Nik searches Tirymôr’s library |
On a late afternoon weekday, Tirymôr House was quiet and sedated. The family was out, Sebastian was off in his own world keeping himself at Lockwood Thicket safe from the disappointing eyes of his family.
Nikolas Jordan was alone, in a giant mansions and he was on a mission.
As the several maids in their black uniform dresses with white aprons and matching white lace hats busily worked, Nik made his way back to the offices where he and Evie had discussed the strangeness of the whole island.
He had it in him that there were secrets to be uncovered and he felt the nexus of all the shadows and darkness lied inside the papers, files and books inside the late Albert Lord’s office and library. He thought of Alice and their own conversation about the same topic. He was falling in love with her and thought if he found something that proved her right, perhaps he’d get even more close to her.
As Nik covertly skirted around the halls of the mansion making his way to Albert’s library he couldn’t help but wonder what he would find. Secrets uncovered. Lies revealed. Hidden scandals broken wide open. And hopefully relief from the darkness that seemed to swallow up the whole island.
The red carpets of the halls, crimson like the lips of women in a painting in the house’s main hall, finally led Nik back to the office and library door. It’s cool golden knob was decorated with a wreath of Ivy and garland. He turned it and entered allowing the smell of stale papers and old leather just like all the libraries of the world smelled.
Nik closed the door behind him and carefully walked around the various shelves of old books. Stories centuries old, some stood on their old oak shelves like tiny tombstones bound in leather.
Shakespeare.
Voltaire.
Austen.
Poe.
As Nik slowly made his way through the several shelves of books on history and art and world events he passed the painting that had the vanishing eyes. They remained still. No one was watching.
Then he came to the desk. Thick of Oak and cherry wood. Carved in it’s sides were stories from the Bible like Noah and the arc, Moses parting the Red Sea. Lazarus awakening from death.
After looking over the unique’s carvings, Nik went behind the desk allowing the sun from the windows behind him shine down a patterned over him from behind. He opened the top drawer.
Empty.
Top middle drawer, empty too.
Everything seemed to have been removed, perhaps after Albert died. There was nothing to find. No secrets and scandals. There were no files.
Frustrated, Nik thought that perhaps he was wrong, perhaps he let Alice lead him into this fantastic world of suspicion and conspiracy and none of it was real. Everything in the office was typical and normal of any office Nik had ever seen. Was Alice just as disturbed as Evie said she might be?
Then it dawned on Nik, he had forgotten to look at the bottoms drawers of Albert’s old desk.
He leaped over and pulled the first one open.
Empty.
Then, expecting to find the very last drawer as empty as all the rest he opened it and found a small hand sized globe on a gold stand mounted in a heavy golden vase, standing in the otherwise empty finally drawer.
It was peculiar, strange that it was just standing there on its own.
Nik reached for globe and when it lifted the bottom panel of the drawer popped up revealing a hidden compartment that the globe was holding down to conceal its existence.
Nik reached into the secret compartment and removed a small journal, a book, handwritten by Albert Lord himself. Nik stared at the journal with Albert’s initials personally carved into leather by Albert’s own hand.
The leather strap was tied tightly in a neat knot. He thought about removing the tie, but not for long. Nik unwrapped the journal and began to read from it every single sorted detail.
In a surprising revelation, the pages of the journal had entries not just by one person as Nik suspected but several. They were written by Albert Lord, by Albert’s father Johan, by Johan’s father Francis, by Francis’ father Calgary.
The entries by each of the Lord men were confessions, confessions and receipts of lands taken by the the five first families who settled on the island from England.
Calgary Lord and his family came over from London in 1704 and with his alliance with Sirian Lockwood planned to rule the island as their own. This alliance was in direct contrast with the alliance with the other Welsh families, The Churchills, Morgans, and the Garlynds, who settled on Welshport island in October of that year. The Lords however soon betrayed even the Lockwoods and over powered the other families by pushing the out over the years with shady business deals and schemes.
The last remaining descendant of those family on Welshport was Rebecca, who was the great-great-granddaughter of Sirian Lockwood.
The island were taken by these British and Welsh settlers that included the Lords and the others were from the Dænian people, the tribe that first lived on the island of Welshport, or by the island’s native name:
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| An Island Past & An Island Present |
The Lord men wrote about their plots to take over the island from the other families--- detail after detail. But what was most disturbing to Nik, were the details of the initial take over of every patch of stolen land from the Dænian tribe complete with the names of the people that were killed in order to take this land and inhabitant it.
Name after name.
Acre after tiny acre.
Death after death.
The final entry was by Albert Lord himself, the last patch of land the Lords had helped take over from the Dænian people was complete in 1882, the last family of the Dænian people had been burned alive.
“Their home, as rustic as it was, has a view of the small island off the coast of our beautiful Welshport.” Albert said in his final entry. “Tirymôr House is almost done and I’ll be happy to see them gone. The 5 adults went quickly, but the small boy and the even smaller girl somehow vanished in the smoke and ash as we burned it down. They may have perished. May they rest in whatever peace they find. Theirs is ours now.”
Nik could almost hear the screams of the native people coming from the past. He could almost feel the flames of the burning villages. The heat on his face. The fire in his eyes. The powerful images in his mind of all the terror the indigenousness people had suffered felt real to him as he read through the various entries in the journal. He could smell the death of the tribes and he felt a sadness inside of his heart for the loss of all they had; acre after acre, person after person, tiny village after tiny village.
The sick cruelty of Albert’s words made Nik feel his stomach tighten with disgust. The other entries by Albert and the other men were no better. To think these men and the other first settlers had killed and entire people for this small island.
“Wait…” Nik said licking his fingers and going back to Albert’s last entry. “Young boy and girl? Last ones?”
He was putting two and two together. Matthew Winterborn had told him of his family. That he and Alice were the last of their people but Nik took that as meaning they had no family, not in the literal sense that were truly the last of their culture.
“Could …could it be? Could Matthew & Alice be these little children Albert thought he killed when he burned and the other's burned down the home of that family?”
The idea was shocking, sickening. But it seemed plausible. There were parallels all through the book and the stories Matthew and Alice had told Nik in brief moments of honestly on the siblings' part.
Nik closed the journal. It’s pages slapped together like the locking of a pair of lying lips and he sat there gobsmacked at it's revelations.
“They’re god damn monsters.” Nik said to himself. “Every last one of them, living off of the blood of … of … other humans!!”
As the truth of the settlement of Welshport on the backs and murders of it's native people sank in, it made Nik even more furious. He had to tell Matthew and Alice. He quickly replaced the Globe in the drawer and made his way out of the library.
The truth was in his hands and in the pages of the evil journal kept by Albert Lord and his murderous ancestors was all too damning not to expose.
****
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| Evie, Rebecca & Georgina in The Village |
The busy center of town became even more busy when the locals got a special visit from the Lords who were making their way through the shops in town gathering items for Jacob's inevitable return to the mansion. New bedding for him, fresh towels, and even new drapes for his room. Rebecca, who was still very weary of her own son, was still the type of blue-blooded New Englander who knew the best and freshest of linens and clothing was always a helper in the healing of a sick person. At least in the mental capacity.
While Rebecca her personal maid Georgina and Evie shopped in town, the Winterborn siblings Matthew and Alice walked along the village sidewalks discussing her continued fears of what was to come.
"You have to try and suppress all of these fears of yours." Matthew said in his dark suit as he walked with Alice's arm safely locked under his. "Its the only way you'll ever find some kind of peace of mind." He added.
"How can I do that when I know what I know and I've seen what I've seen? There is an imminent danger lurking in the shadows of this town and if we don't rid Welshport of this evil, it will only fester and get worse. It's been a long time coming and now the innocent people who live here have to be kept safe. They didn't ask to be born and raised her and now they have to be kept safe." Alice warned.
Matthew stopped their walk in the middle of the walk way in front of a linen store and turned his sister so that they were now facing each other. "What does that mean? Long time coming?" He asked, his face shadowed by the bowler hat on his head and covered in worry. "Have you been planning something for a long time? Alice... this is the type of behavior that got you locked up in Windcliff...this! This type of paranoia. I need you to stop. The people of Welshport ARE safe!"
Alice's smiled politely and squeezed his hands. She could see that he was only trying to protect her, as any big brother would, but over the years he had let go of the past of their people. He had forgotten how much was taken from them by cruel means, by violence and by betrayal. He had forgotten that they were the last of their kind and that they were the only two who held the keys to the truth of how the island was inhabited and how the spirits of their people haunted every corner of this wooded place. Those ghosts were real, they held in them the terror or death and sadness and were the source of a curse so powerful that it remained even now---in them, in the people of Welshport, and in the Lords and all their descendants.
"I know you want to believe that, but you haven't seen and felt and experienced all that I have in my dreams and visions. You know, a long time ago you used to be able to channel those experiences too. I wish you remembered more." She said to him.
"I remembered fine, and that was a lifetime ago." he argued back.
"If that were true, then you'd understand why I'm so persistent about righting the great wrong our people suffered centuries ago. It's this original sin that has brought us to this point, that curse has now metastasized in the form of a creature so vicious that it may eventually kill us all if we don't kill it first." Alice warned.
"You really believe that? Do yo really believe that Sebastian is this … this thing you saw and that you keep seeing in visions?" Matthew asked.
"I do. There is no doubt in my mind. If we want peace on the island our people called home once more, he must be destroyed....first." Alice replied darkly.
"First?" Matthew asked confused.
But before Alice could explain further, Evie Jordan-Lord exited the store Matthew and Alice were standing in front of as she, Rebecca, and Georgina were inside shopping.
"Alice!! My goodness, how are you? I'm so happy to see you again after all these months." Evie said glowing in happiness to see her old friend from Windcliff, even though in the back of her mind she somewhat wanted to keep a distance from her.
"Evie!!" Alice said reaching over to her and hugging her tightly. Their two dresses mashing together in a contrast of Evie's plumb colored and Alice's dark blue. "This is my brother Matthew." Alice added.
Matthew's eyes sparkled. He had not seen Evie up close before, only from a far and not for very long. It was in passing that he had seen her a week before as she and Nikolas had been in town together. She was a vision to him, almost glowing. Her eyes sparkled and her smile was like a ray of sun beaming from the heavens. He suddenly felt his heart skip a beat---this beautiful woman that had been the source of so much struggle within the periphery of his life had suddenly become real, touchable. Her voice entered his mind and stayed there like a song he loved playing over and over so perfectly.
"Afternoon." Matthew said, removing and tipping his hat to her almost shyly and somewhat smitten with just this first introduction.
Evie smirked and curtsied in return equally as shy---she had not noticed how handsome Alice's brother was in their brief interaction either.
"Good to see you." Evie said to Matthew. "How have things been, Alice, now that you've been home for a good long time. I hope you've finally gotten back into regular life--whatever that means." Evie giggled.
"Regular life." Alice smiled. "I don't really know how exactly I would do that knowing what I know."
"Knowing what you know?" Evie repeated.
"Alice..." Matthew began before his sister continued.
"I've been worried about you Evie. Ever since we both connected at Windcliff, I've had such a deep concern for you and your return here to this island. I've felt so strongly inside of me that you've been in terrible danger but then again, I feel as if you know this too." Alice said to her old friend.
"Danger? Whatever do you mean!?" Evie asked feeling a bit ambushed because she too knew what Alice was referring to.
Through the glass of the window shop, Rebecca and Georgina watched the conversation but stayed far away.
"I do not wish to say his name out loud on the street, but I think you know who---and what--I am talking about. He can't be trusted. He is no longer the man you believed him to be the day you married him. If you let me I can help you rid your life of----" Again, Alice was interrupted.
"Alice, you're speaking of my husband, the man who was taken from me the day we were married and has miraculously come back to me. We're trying to make things work under terrible terrible circumstances and luck. I will hope you can respect that. I will not tolerate and talk of 'ridding' myself of him." Evie replied her tone now cold and angry.
"You should reconsider." Alice replied now just as cold to her friend.
"Alice, please don't get into this here." Matthew interjected. "Evie, I apologize but my sister has these feelings sometimes and visions too. She's only tryin to help."
Evie turned to Matthew. His face was kind, his skin tan and beautiful. She could see how deep his eyes were in their brown chestnut color and he meant well trying to keep the calm between her and Alice but the truth was Evie was in denial. She didn't want to hear any of it. She believed Sebastian was who she was meant to be with, why else, Evie thought, would he have come back to her. Even if he was the stranger creature that he was.
The point Evie wanted to make to the Winterborns was that he was back, for her. And only her.
To Evie, Sebastian was a sort of dark angel.
"Perhaps you should tell your sister that I don't need help." Evie said to Matthew.
"Evie..." Alice began before Evie interrupted her.
"Stop, just stop." The heiress said. "I came out here happy to see you. Happy to see you both. My brother is so very smitten with you Alice, I was excited for him to meet someone so interesting and now I just have concerns about your relationship with him." Evie said to Alice's surprise.
"This has nothing to do with Nik and my fondness of him." Alice said.
"Alice, please..." Matthew interjected again seeing Alice's anger returning.
"He's mentioned your concerns to me. And I'm not so diluted by love that I don't see the things you see. But I know Sebastian. I know him with all my heart and I know the dangers that lurk around the corner and I've seen them up-close and personal. The one we should all be worried about is NOT Sebastian but a man who is recuperating in the hospital from a gunshot wound. He's the true dark figure that we should all watch out for, and for now it seems we're safe. He has no memory of his cruelty and for that I am grateful. It's not Sebastian, do you understand me? It's not Sebastian."
Matthew nodded his head showing confirmation that Evie had made her case clear as a bell. He wanted no more talk about Evie's relationship or what Alice was seeing in her sleep, in her nightmare, in her visions. It was done.
"We completely understand, don't we Alice." He said.
Alice did not respond. She only stared at Evie with sadness. She was completely blinded by love and the shadow that was cast over the island all those centuries ago by her people had covered her too. To Alice, Evie was a lost cause. If anyone was going to help her, it would be Nik. He had yet to be tricked by the curse they all suffered from.
Evie lifted a brow at Alice who just stared at her intently. "Well, it was nice seeing." She said clearly upset at Alice's entire conversation.
"Please, Evie, don't be angry with Alice. She really does care about you." Matthew replied.
Alice still remained silent.
"I did too. But I think those days are behind us. Take care Alice." Evie just before she stormed off and rejoined Rebecca and Georgina inside the shop but in her mind, she knew, deep down she knew, that Alice wasn't all wrong.
Evie was educated. Smart. Very smart. She knew what the warning signs were, she saw them herself not long ago with a strange and violent outburst of Sebastian's. She knew his dark side very well. So well that she feared for her life at times just as Alice suspected.
But as smart as Evie was, she was equally as determined to prove them all wrong and make Sebastian just as kind and loving as he was once before. She believed she could show him the way and perhaps, by the amount of her love, she could save him.
For her part, Alice saw that Evie and for that matter Matthew would not help her. It was now incredibly clear to her that she would have to take matters into her own hands for the sake of all who lived on the island.
Back the shop, Rebecca, Georgina and a shop-girl carefully folded some of the new linens for Jacob's room into a large basket. The fresh scented sheets and towels could be smelled from the door, it calmed Evie just as she walked in from her very contentious argument outside.
"And what was that all about?" Rebecca asked not lifting her eyes from her task as the other 2 pairs of eyes looked at Evie with a sort of gossipy curiosity.
"Nothing." Evie said lying as she helped fold.
"My darling, we may have had a wall and window in between us but body language through glass does not lie. What did the Winterborns have to say?" Rebecca asked again.
"Alice and I know each other from Windcliff, she was just asking about the family now that she's involved with my brother." Evie said glazing over the truth.
"Involved with?" Rebecca questioned.
"They've gotten close."
Rebecca finally lifted her eyes to stare into Evie's. The young heiress could see Rebecca's clear annoyance with Evie's brother already experiencing issues with some of the townies, not to mention a townie like Alice fresh out of an insane asylum.
"This is concerning. I don't like anyone attempting to know anyone around my family that gives off the kind of energy I saw through those windows. In fact I've made sure I've insulated anyone who has a negative energy like hers for years. It's toxic Evangeline. It will creep up into your own soul and eat it a live. Ask any soothsayer. They'll tell you. Get rid of her." Rebecca said.
"Get rid of her? Alice is not some sort of article of clothing I no longer have use for Rebecca, she's someone I thought was my friend and now my brother seems to be fond of her. Besides I don't just discard people like that." Evie said as she handed over the edges of a sheet she was helping Georgina fold.
"Perhaps that is your issue, my dear. Sometimes, cutting someone loose is not only the best thing for them but you as well. It'll only get worse." Rebecca advised.
"I think I can handle Alice Winterborn." Evie replied.
"Very well, handle her. But heed my words here and now, you've only just reinstated yourself at Tirymôr; all eyes are on you. I have enough to worry about when I think of the condition Jacob will be in when her returns from the hospital, not to mention..." Rebecca paused.
"Not to mention what?" Evie asked.
"Sebastian." Rebecca said as if a lightbulb had lit above her head. "Was all that just now about Sebastian? Alice, was she upset about Sebastian for some reason? Does she know about him??" Rebecca asked in a hushed voice clarifying.
Evie didn't know what to say, but she surly couldn't tell her the truth, that Alice and Matthew did know the truth about Sebastian and that they had some sort of dire warning out to Evie about how dangerous he was. Evie knew Rebecca wanted his return to continue to be played out as if he had never died, and that a strange secretive kidnapping and ransom had occurred and that the pretend Sebastian was killed and the real one returned unharmed.
The local media, owned an operated by the Lord's powerful publishing company had already set that lie out to all their papers, but Alice's bizarre out burst out front that Rebecca only saw as a silent pantomime through glass made it seem that perhaps she knew more than she should.
Which was a problem.
"No. I assure you Alice doesn't know a thing." Evie said, lying again.
Georgina seemed to absorb the whole sorted argument like a sponge hoping no one would see through her own disguise. She too continued to feel like she was on the edge of her seat -- or volcano.
Rebecca lifted a brow but said nothing. Her light colored eyes reflected the whites of the now perfectly folded laundry they had just purchased for Jacob's return. She tilted her head and reached into her purse for the payment to the shop-girl who kept quiet the entire time while standing there and other customers orbited around them.
"Evangeline you're a Lord now." Rebecca said. "Make sure you remember that. Whatever happens. We always stick together." Rebecca warned leaving Evie feeling as if she now had made the right decision defending Sebastian to Alice even though the tightening vice her stomach was twisting into was telling her Alice was the one who was right about Sebastian.
****
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| Jacob comes home from the hospital |
The light shined through five large windows built in a half circle in a room at Tirymôr House that the family named The Yellow Room after the creamy yellow painted walls. The pattern of various squares from the window's grill fell over the room like a giant ticktacktoe table as Hamstead wheeled in the recuperating Jacob Lord in a silver and gold wheel chair fresh out of the hospital.
"Where would you like to sit sir?" Hamstead asked as Jacob pointed to the windows.
Hamstead situated Jacob and the rest of the family entered the room through a side entrance ready to welcome him home, albeit reluctantly.
"Welcome back." Celeste said as she held Charlotte's hand who repeated what her governess said.
Jacob smiled at the lovely Celeste.
"You'll find that we have fresh linens and all the best comforts in your room. I hope that your recovery is speedy and easy." Rebecca said as she sat on a sofa in front of her son.
"Thank you mother." Jacob replied.
"Ma'am, cook needs for to go over the menu for tonight's dinner." Georgina said at the door as Rebecca excused herself leaving Celeste and Charlotte alone with Jacob.
"I'm very happy to see you." Jacob said to Celeste. "You've been so good to Charlotte and I don't think we could have asked for a better governess." He added.
"Well she makes it easy. Such a good pupil." Celeste smiled at Charlotte.
In her little mind, Charlotte and Sabrina went back and fourth about Jacob's sudden change in demeanor.
"I don't trust him. His eyes are the same. Cold. Calculating." Sabrina's voice said in an echo in Charlotte's mind.
"He's so happy. So happy." Charlotte's voice replied.
"Keep an eye on him, do no let him out of your sight." Sabrina replied skeptically.
"Charlotte go on and wash up for dinner." Celeste ordered.
Charlotte stood up unsure what to do as the tug-of-war of voices giving her orders conflicted. Sabrina wanted her to stay near her conyving father, Celeste wanted her to prepare for their dinner.
After a few seconds of strange stares the young girl relented and listened to her earthly governess and rushed out of the room and down into the main hall of the mansion. She shook her head as if to shake out Sabrina from her mind "Stop please! Stop! I wish for you to stop!"
She looked out of a side French door that reflected her face -- that suddenly changed to Sabrina.
"I need you to help me!!" Sabrina's ghost inside of Charlotte said through the reflection.
"I'm too tired Aunt Sabrina. You're making me tired. Tonight I quite you." Charlotte said out loud to the ghostly reflection of her dead aunt that dwelled in her mind.
By quieting Sabrina, Charlotte was literally closing her connection to the spirit so that she would no longer have her voice in her mind.
For now. Sabrina reached through the glass to grab on to Charlotte in hopes she wouldn't quiet her voice but it was too late, Charlotte squeezed her little eyes closed and Sabrina's ghost went silent.
Charlotte smiled, happily with her own childlike thoughts and rushed up to the washroom to prepare for dinner with her family.
Back in the Yellow Room, Celeste was making Jacob a drink -- a dark brandy.
"You're not having any? He asked.
"No." She replied quickly.
"I can tell you know, I don't want to beat around the bush. I can tell." Jacob whispered.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Lord, tell what?" Celeste asked, feigning ignorance. but deep down she knew as she put her hands over her growing tummy.
"You're with child, Celeste, it's a wonderful occasion. I'm thrilled!" Jacob said reaching for the drink being handed to him and grabbing hold of Celeste's hand.
"Yes--- Filipe and I are very happy." Celeste said lying.
"Filipe? Oh come now, we both know the truth. We both know when and where this child was conceived. You don't have to lie to me." Jacob said still squeezing her hand.
"I don't know what you mean, Filipe and I are this child's very proud parents. I don't understand why would think otherwise." Celeste said pulling her hand back.
"Celeste, I have holes in my body and parts of my memory of the night that I was shot, but I remember the night I made love to you. I remember how afraid you were and how I...shamefully...coherenced you into doing my bed. I do feel horrible about that, I sincerely do." Jacob said, lying to her, he did not feel shame but he needed to keep up the appearance.
"Shame? You feel ashamed?" Celeste replied in disbelief.
"Of course! I've had a very strange thing happen to me my dear, life as I know it has become just a moment in time where I finally realized that I am not immortal and that all the things I wanted for myself are just that, they are THINGS. They are unimportant. But this child is a fresh new start and I intend on making sure he or she is treated well. I promise you that." Jacob said wheeling his silver and gold wheelchair over to her as she backed away.
"You are not going to be apart of this child's life Jacob, you and I both know that is impossible." Celeste replied as she continued to step away from that man who at one point was steps away of opening up a world of scandal about her mother and his father's love child that would ruin all their lives.
"How can you say that?" Jacob said, pretending to be hurt by her words.
"Because of my relationship with Filipe! I love him! This child will be raised as his, not yours. No one can ever know that this baby is your child, no one." Celeste said whispering so no one could hear.
"That disappoints me, but … in a way, I understand. It seems as though your attempt to protect your mother's secret has now created a new secret, hasn't it Celeste. Now you have two secrets and in a strange twist, they're parallel. Aren't they? How very ironic." Jacob said pointing out the mistake her mother Christina had made with Albert Lord all those years ago was similar to hers with Jacob.
"Are you promising me you won't say a word? Just as your father said nothing about my brother; his son?" Celeste wondered.
"I don't keep secrets Celeste. But... I also don't expose them, it wouldn't look good for me either if the mother of my child were to say I blackmailed her into my bed. For now, the secret is safe. But I want to see the child whenever I want." Jacob ordered showing is cruelty once more.
Celeste paused and nodded her head in agreement then, feeling like she was locked in a hell she could not escape rushed out of the yellow room in tears and ran into Evie who was walking down the hall to see Jacob.
"Celeste? What is it? What is it??" Evie asked as Celeste pulled Evie out of the main hallway's French doors and on to a large terrace that faced a garden maze that had yellowed in with the dawn of the Autumn season.
"Jacob, he remembers something, something about me!" Celeste said through tears.
"What do you mean, something about you?" Evie said holding Celeste's trembling hands.
"Evie I have to tell you something but you must promise me you will never ever tell a single soul. This is the most important thing I will ever tell you and I hate to put you in this position but I need you to know the truth." Celeste said in a shaking voice to match her shaking body.
"Oh my god, Celeste, you're trembling! Here take this!" Evie said removing her shawl and placing it over Celeste's shoulders. "What is it? What did Jacob remember?"
"A few months ago, he summoned me here to Tirymôr and showed me some papers that proved something about my mother that if revealed would not only tarnish her reputation but also put my position here in this house and in this family in danger. I'd lose everything and I can't afford it. He wanted something from me for my silence, and I gave it to him." Celeste confessed.
"What did he ask for?" Evie wondered.
"Me. He wanted me. In his bed. And I agreed, and now, I'm with child. His child. And he knows." Celeste added.
"Oh my!" Evie said as she pulled Celeste in for a giant hug.
The two friends knew the dangers of having something Jacob wanted. He wanted things from Evie, like the inheritance she was entitled to due to being Sebastian's wife, and now Celeste was carrying his child, something so much more important than just money--- the baby for Jacob represented immortal life. His life would go on through his children and that is what Jacob wanted more than anyone else, power and ever-lasting life through the passing of his genes through children.
"Listen to me, Celeste, listen to me," Evie said lifting Celeste's face up by the chin so that their eyes met. "I will do everything in my power to protect you and this baby. He will not get his hands on this baby, I don't care how much he's supposed changed for the good. I don't believe any of that." Evie said as Celeste smiled.
"You don't believe he's changed?" Celeste wondered.
"He'll have to prove it to me." Evie said affirming she wasn't buying this new and improved act of Jacob's.
As the two hugged in solidarity, Evie suddenly felt ill. She began to sweat and sat down on a stone seat in the garden just off the terrace.
"How long have you been feeling like this?" Celeste said surprised that the illness came on to Evie so quickly and out of no where.
"It happens off and on, and it started just yesterday morning." Evie replied.
"Evie.... sick in the morning?" Celeste asked, suspicious of the familiar illness.
"Yes, and sometimes, I get ill from just the smell of things, types of foods, or ... even just getting dizzy for no reason." Evie said standing up again after this quick wave of sickness seemed to suddenly pass just as it mysteriously appeared.
"Well, well, well..." Celeste sad smiling realizing what this mysterious illness was.
"What? Why are you smiling?' Evie asked, dabbing the sweat at her temple with a pink handkerchief.
"These symptoms of yours are identical to what I felt when I realized I was having a baby, Evie. It looks like, but I could be wrong, that you too are going to be expecting something very soon. Say... nine glorious months." Celeste said grinning from ear to ear.
The thought of Evie being pregnant too was in a strange way the most terrible and beautiful news she had ever received. She had always wanted to be mother. She had always wanted to teach her child all she knew about culture and art and music all the things she loved.
But then, the sickness returned when she realized who the father was: Sebastian.
Her husband, the man who lived in the dark shadows of all the world.
Evie turned an vomited over the stone banister into the bushes below as Celeste held her hair back.
How could she bring a child into the world with a father like Sebastian? How could she keep this child safe, if she truly was pregnant, from the creature that was Sebastian. She loved him, she truly did, but the love she had for the man she married was tainted by the creature he had become. She had never ever thought in her wildest dreams that they would become parents under these circumstances.
How would she raise this baby knowing it's father was ---a monster? And would she tell Sebastian?
Now the two women, Celeste and Evie, stared at each other realizing they were in a very delicate and dangerous position.
Life and death an everything in between was in the balance with the possibilities of the two new children on the horizon.
****
The moon was high in the newly night sky. Clouds floated over the Westernridge Woods of Tirymôr Forest like small ships at sea. Below the glow of the moon, Lockwood Thicket, the small cottage where Sebastian Lord, the vampire felt safe.
This was his sanctuary away from all at the mansion and all the in the village.
In the distance of the forest, in the rustling leaves of the trees, a wolf bayed at the moon. It's howl echoing through the forest and bouncing off the trees reaching Cottage where Sebastian was buttoning up his thick coat and placing a top hat on his head as he was heading for Tirymôr to see the family for dinner.
He could feel something there. He could sense it's pulse. The heart beating slowing, and patiently as if the creature in the shadows was waiting for Sebastian to pounce first.
Sebastian kept still and stared into the dark.
He waited.
He watched. His own heart beat even slower than the one he felt.
Then, the wolf howled again into the night at the moon distracting Sebastian who turned towards where the wolf's howl was coming. It confused the vampire who was expecting the wolf jump out at him from the shadows where he was sensing something watching him.
And when Sebastian turned back towards the thumping heart stranding in front of him now revealing themselves was not a wolf ready to maul the vampire it was Alice Winterborn dressed in a long black dress with red leather gloves in the forest to take matters into her own hands about Sebastian just as she promised herself, her hair flowing in a wind that came off the fresh ocean.
"Witch." Sebastian said of her.
"I have nothing of witchcraft in me, you demon. I am of the earth and of this sky. I am of the sea and of all the places the sun touches and where you can no longer touch, I'm here to rid the darkness and night of you too. I'm here to save us all of your terror." Alice said stepping slowing closer and closer to the vampire Sebastian Lord.
Sebastian smirked. He thought it was adorable how this young woman, who believed herself to be something from another place could take him on.
He walked slowly towards Alice, removed his top hat and tipped it to her.
"Well then I guess we should have a meeting of the minds to discuss just what you're about to do to me." Sebastian said patronizing her.
"I think you should be careful with your words, demon. I have no patience for it." Alice answered.
"I wish you all the happiness in the world Alice Winterborn and our short meetings in your dreams are particularly humorous for me. I have to find entertainment where I can. So, tell me, what is it that you want to do with me?" Sebastian said replacing his hat on his head.
"You will die. I will see to it." Alice warned.
"Will I? With garlic? A silver bullet? Holy water perhaps? Those are the things of fantasies and stories my dear. Not reality. Your passion for my undoing seems as strong as my passion to survive all things to be close to my Evie. The one difference is," Sebastian began now standing directly in front of Alice "I am much strong!"
Once the words left his lips he attacked Alice. His mouth open with this teeth baring down on her heck. She screamed and fell backwards now with his body on top of her. She slapped him across the face but it was no use. He was too strong. He opened his mouth wider and wider. It almost was as if he's jaw had come unhinged.
He went to her neck, so perfect in color like a caramel candy and went down to bite. But then, like the magic she had inherited from her ancestors -- the Dænian people -- she summoned a cold gush of air with her hands the lifted Sebastian off of her and suspending him in the air.
"DEMON!!!" She screamed at him from below.
Sebastian only laughed at her with his teeth still pointed for her skin. He forced himself down back to the ground as a wolf once again howled in the dark of the night.
It was howling for Sebastian and of the coldness of the night that seemed to get colder and colder almost like winter despite the autumn leaves not yet falling to the ground in full.
"Very impressive." Sebastian joked. "Why do you hate me so? Why? What would I ever do to you? We could be friends! After all, you're in love with the brother of the woman who I am in love with. Why, that's it!" Sebastian said, his mind spinning into devilish whirl "we're family Alice. We are family. Why would you want to hurt family?"
"You are nothing of mine. Nothing. Evie would do much better without you. You will only bring her pain, suffering, and perhaps death, THAT is what I want to avoid. She deserves to be safe and happy, not lost in the shadows you will provide for her." Alice explained.
"And how does young Nikolas feel?" Sebastian said, again grinning his vampire smile.
"Do not speak of him!" Alice warned as she lifted her arm and extended all 5 fingers of her red gloved hand to hold back Sebastian where he stood.
But it was no use, Sebastian wanted to end her life. He was done speaking to her.
He lunged again. Ripped at her dress tearing it's shoulder open. She slapped him again. And he bit her arm, cutting it open. He licked the blood from her wound and she slapped his face once more, so hard it actually stung this time.
He only laughed at her fighting back. She was able to push him off in the scuffle and as she got u from the ground he put his foot on the back of her dress locking her in place. The pressure of his foot on the dress made her trip and fall on her chest. Her arm bleeding. The smell of blood in his nose, on his lips, on his tongue only made him want it more from her.
He jumped on her back, pulled her hair off her neck and went to bite her.
But then, she lifted her hand again, shut her eyes and screamed a sound so loud it woke all the wolves in the forest that howled an incredible terror filled howl that shook Welshport.
An electrical blue light spun out of her hands and around Sebastian's body lifting back into the air.
Then he was gone.
She looked down at her dress now that she was alone, breathing hard and saw that she was soaking wet with sea water as if she had been in the ocean herself.
But she hadn't been. What she had done was transported Sebastian into the sea.
He was now below the waves, drowning, pulling himself from the deep deep blue ocean. It was so dark in the sea all he saw was blackness. Just like the bog in their nightmare where Alice and Sebastian had fought before.
The blackness was cutting off his air. He could not breath. He could not move. He could only fight for his own life that was slowly fading.
And then, in the blackness a strange creature with a glittering tale and sparkling green fins circled him. Around and around the creature went watching him drown. Watching him gasp for breath where he could not find air.
Sebastian was going unconscious and as he slowly drifted into the darkness of death and sank deeper into the dark depths of the sea he was placed in. The creature in the water with him then came up to his face that glistened in the sparkling fractals of moonlight from the surface. The greens of her scales sparkled like sequence, the gray of her eyes seemed to glow and pierce through the gloomy water.
The creature was Alice in her sea-creature form. She smiled at him sinisterly and kissed him on the lips and then her voice, through a telepathic wave of power from her mind to his said the final words he would hear just before swimming off:
"You're dead, demon. You're dead."
