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| The wolves hunt Sebastian |
Sebastian floated lifelessly in the deep ocean.
His face was pale and had tiny little bubbles around his nostrils and lips. His hair sway with the undercurrent of the sea as tiny little silver fish swirled around his body as if he were a fresh new coral they wanted to explore.
The greens and blues of the ocean water turned deeper into a darkness the further Sebastian's body sank. His body turned colder and colder.
On the surface, Alice stepped on to shore. Her boy now back to it's human form. Her clothes heavy with the sea in each stitch of her dress. She felt heavy, so heavy, as she dragged her self slowly up the sandy beach dragging her long dress train behind.
She smiled as the moon sang it's glorious cool color over her mocha skin.
He was gone. She had done it, and perhaps saved all who lived on the island from a disastrous end by the vampire the monster, the creature of the night Sebastian Lord.
Back in the sea, as Alice's powers slowly became weaker over Sebastian, his eyes snapped open
He was ALIVE!
He saw how far he had sank. The cold ocean water was truly beginning to turn his blood to ice. He moved, but felt no movement. He couldn't breath, he felt the string of death coming into his body--tighter and tighter the vice of the reaper latched on to Sebastian's throat.
He lowered his arms, began to move his legs back and fourth in the water and in seconds began to move up towards the surface, closer and close and closer he got, the light starting to peak towards his cold pale face.
And then he broke through.
The relief of air to his lungs was instant. He bobbed up and down in the ocean. He could see the lights of the shore sparkling in the near distance. He floated there breathing. In and out. In and out. In and out.
He swam to shore towards the tinkle of village lights and followed the sound of the fog horns of the boats docking on shore. Then he got to shore, his strength waning. he made it to the edge of the Westernridge Woods of Tirymôr Forest. He was soaking wet. Cold. And Angry.
As he walked through the dark forest, guided by the light of the full moon, Sebastian began to feel as if he were watched. He stopped in the center of an open area that was encircled by large pine trees. He felt safe in open areas even in the dark. The fog, the very thick Welshport fog, rolled over the ground at his knee. He looked to his left as a sound came from the trees.
Then to his right, more sound.
Was it two people watching?
Then another.
Three people?
But then, in the darkness in all three directions, he saw the glowing of three pairs of red eyes and low growls of hungry wolf bellies.
The wolves, howled in the night and revealed themselves to Sebastian. They snarled at him, desperate for his flesh. The began to circle him like shark in the water. He watched them each timing their attack in their mind, each ready to pounce on his young body to eat from.
Growls, more snarls, each wolf more and more foaming at the mouth than the next.
But this was no ordinary prey that they had found, this was a man, a creature even just like then. Hungry and angry. Anger that seeped from all their pours, and fangs; the wolves and Sebastian alike. He was not what they anticipated and when one of the three wolves finally lunged at Sebastian to rip the flesh from his arms, he grabbed it by the neck, fell to his knees with the wolves biting and snapping at him and in the fog Sebastian opened his mouth revealing his own fangs and hissed and bit down on the wolf piercing its warm skin allowing it's blood to seep into Sebastian's thirsty mouth.
The wolf yelped in pain and fear---mostly fear--and died in Sebastian's clutches.
The other two wolves stopped in their tracks watching the merciless death of their pack leader, then they walked up to Sebastian, their tails between their legs and licked the blood off his face.
And in those moments, as the sun began to rise, all Sebastian wanted to do was to be back in his safe place of Lockwood Thicket. More wolves began coming out of the shade of the surrounding trees. They all seemed to kowtow to Sebastian, knowing he was the dominant force in the forest now, and the entire pack of wolves accompanied Sebastian back to Lockwood Thicket their new leader, the human the village would soon fear more than the bite of a wolf.
****
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| Constable Reigns interrupts the Lord family dinner |
The light from the cool afternoon sun entered the main parlor of Tirymôr House through a slightly pulled drape that hung on either side of a large window that looked out on to a garden that was personally designed by Rebecca Lord herself.
In the parlor Rebecca eager awaited a personal guest she had summoned to the mansion, to the point she had even sent Hamstead down to the village to drive the person up to the house himself.
Rebecca was done playing games, and she was about to set off a string of events that would ultimately lead to what she hoped would be the end of Eliza Goode's meddling in her family once and for all.
As the family, Rebecca, her maid Georgina, Jacob in his chair, Evie reading a book, Celeste and Charlotte all sat in various states of pre-dinner entertainment in the parlor--some reading by gas-lamp, or like Rebecca fiddling with her knitting, the sound of footsteps could be heard coming down the marble hallway towards the parlor.
Rebecca stood up from her plush sofa and dropped the knitting on the cushion beside her.
Jacob looked up from his book and furrowed his brow unsure of what was happening.
Then, Hamstead entered with Constable Gregory Reigns and his deputy Filipe Braga.
"The Constable Madam." Hamstead announced after doing his duty in bringing in the head of the island's law enforcement.
"Mrs. Lord," Gregory said greeting Rebecca with a head bow. "Mr. Lord," He greeted Jacob. "what was so important that you needed to have me chauffeured all the way up here in such a forceful way? It was as if Mr. Hamstead himself were the constable."
"Mother? What's going on?" Jacob asked dropping the newspaper in his lap.
"I apologize if there was any inconvenience Constable, but I wanted you to give us a personal update on Christian Evans murder and my son's attempted murder. We haven't heard anything yet." Rebecca said.
"As you know Mrs. Lord, with Mr. Lord's memory being so fragmented of that night and no witnesses, I've had a difficult time pinning the crime on one person. But I am definitely getting there." Gregory said without mentioning Celeste's name, the person who he was most sure did it.
"That's what I suspected." Rebecca replied.
"Mother why would you call the constable over here for this? He should be able to do his job and I will gladly do what I can to help as soon as I begin remembering what happened. This seems a bit out of the ordinary and, perhaps a bit strange to interfere this way." Jacob said still faking his amnesia.
Evie, Celeste, Georgina and Charlotte all look at each other feeling out of place.
Filipe looked over at Celeste and smiled, she smiled back and covered her growing baby stomach to shield it from other people's eyes.
"The constable may not need your memory because I know who did this you and to Christian." Rebecca said shocking the room/
"What do you mean you know Ma'am?" Reigns questioned as he and Rebecca both took a seat on the luxurious furniture in the Lord family parlor opposite each other.
"I have it on good authority that the person you're searching for, the person who has done this to my son and to that poor boy Christian Evans is a woman who's had it out for this family for a very long time. This crime was aimed at my son but was meant to hurt me. Christian was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The shooter is Eliza Goode. She's the one who did this. She and her daughter Mary, who if you recall, shot Sebastian, have wanted this family in their graves for decades. Its her that you need to arrest. It's her that needs to rot in a jail cell for the rest of her life. Her daughter may have escaped justice by choosing death, but her mother should not get away so easily. You should arrest her. Today!" Rebecca announced once again shocking the room into a fervor of talk.
Questions came at Rebecca from left and right, confusion, and shock whirled in noise into the air. Charlotte began to tear up, knowing Eliza was her grandmother.
"My god! Those women!" Celeste said to Reigns surprise as he had been waiting to trap Celeste as the culprit.
"Mrs. Lord are you sure?" Evie asked in disbelief.
"How? ... How???" Jacob wondered in sincere confusion on how his mother could know.
"What evidence do you have?" Reigns asked attempting to make a solid case, still believing his hunch that Celeste had done the shooting was the true criminal and had been waiting for Filipe to help trap her.
"It's obvious! Mary shot Sebastian, Eliza shot Jacob and Christian. This is a chain of crimes that I believe was to have began and ended at Sebastian and Evie's wedding. I believe this was the ultimate plot to have us all killed one by one." Rebecca said, her lie burning the tip of her tongue, yet the irony was she was actually unknowingly correct.
"We would need something substantial to make an arrest." Filipe added happy that it Rebecca accused someone that wasn't Celeste as Reigns had suspected.
Rebecca had no idea who really shot Jacob, her accusation was purely on attempting to use her power to jail Eliza for what she did all those years ago when Rebecca's child died. This was an attempt to pervert the justice system to have an innocent person arrested and accused of a horrible crime.
Yet--- it was actually accurate, but no one knew that, not even Rebecca.
Georgina's stomach became as tight as a sailors knot. Her mother Eliza was now in danger and all she could do was sit there and pretend to be just as shocked and angry as the others. Rebecca was determined to have the woman captured off her island and brought to justice; even Jacob who had truly no idea what was happening felt confused by his mother's sudden wade into the waters of criminal justice where she had no place being.
"Mrs. Lord, I assure you, if you had proof I would head over to Goode Island and make sure she was taken in and taken care of but there is no proof of this. We have to have proof." Reigns said.
"Go, go to her house, Go there and I'm sure you'll find something that will convince you that my hunch is correct. Couldn't you at least go there and arrest her for aiding and abetting her daughter Mary's escape? That woman got away with Sebastian's murder!" Rebecca exclaimed.
"But Sebastian wasn't murdered." Reigns replied confused.
"That's correct." Filipe added motioning over to Evie with his eyes.
"What?" Rebecca said losing her own place in the story.
"That right, he wasn't." Evie replied shooting Rebecca a look to remind her of their story about Sebastian's disappearance and return.
"Your own publication said that someone kidnapped Sebastian and replaced him with some look-alike person in an effort to steal the family fortune, the paper said the look-alike was the one killed not Sebastian." Reigns added.
Jacob, Evie and Rebecca looked at each other and paused. Jacob DID remember Sebastian and his return and the story Rebecca had concocted about his miraculous revival. He knew the truth about his nephew's "affliction", what was most important was that he also knew he was the one behind Sebastian's shooting and attempted murder: HE WAS.
"That's what she means, surly, isn't that right Mrs. Lord. Go on.. explain." Evie said feeling uneasy with the entire situation.
"This is all just going out of control." Jacob said attempting to cool the room. "Mother, you don't know what you're talking about."
"No! She doesn't!" Georgina said surprising the room with her outburst. "It wasn't Eliza Goode who did this to Mr. Lord and Mr. Evans. I know who did, I know who did this and I have to finally tell the truth." She added to everyone's shock and gasps.
"Georgina what are you doing?" Rebecca asked of her personal maid unaware of her knowing anything about the crime.
But Georgina felt trapped, she was actually Mary living in another woman's body. And Mary didn't want her mother Eliza to go to prison. She didn't know what Rebecca thought she knew, she had no clue of that, but what she did know was that Rebecca didn't have the proof Constable Reigns needed and if he did go to Goode island he was sure to find the gun.
Mary, in Georgina's body, had to think fast to protect her mother and thus herself.
"It was...." Georgina said pausing unable to think for a split second. Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw Celeste. "IT WAS HER!"
"WHAT?" Celeste shouted standing straight up from her chair. "What are you talking about?"
Filipe panicked.
"Georgina, No!" Evie shouted.
"That's impossible." Filipe added to Reigns annoyance.
Georgina, her mind racing to protect Eliza finger-pointed the first person she could think of, and although the had no real proof either, she had something else on her side: a better lie that Rebecca's.
"I saw her leaving the mansion the night of the shooting. She was angry. She was upset and she had a reason to shoot Mr. Lord. Ask her! Ask her!" Georgina said, her words swirling together and coming out in fast motions.
"THAT IS A LIE!" Celeste shouted back.
"Daddy???" Charlotte said running to her father's side.
"Miss Kent, do you have proof of this yourself?" Reigns asked hoping she did as this helped his case about Celeste.
"She had a gun." Georgina said lying.
"I have never had a gun in my whole life! This is outrageous. This never happened." Celeste said.
"Detective Reigns this is all preposterous. Georgina's proof is just as lacking as Mrs. Lord's proof. We're basically at the exact same place as we were at the beginning of all this. No one knows who did it. No one." Evie said, attempting to set everyone straight.
"You were leaving the mansion that night, late, there was something in your hand. You were angry." Georgina began again, ignoring Evie and just before Reigns slowly pulled out his cuffs.
"I leave the mansion every night. I go home. I always go home." Celeste said to Reigns' suspicion.
Constable Reigns had suspected Celeste the whole time. He knew there was something about her and had suspected that her worry that the secrets of her own family would cause trouble for her was the motive. She wanted to keep her half-sibling's paternity a secret and Jacob was blackmailing her with that information. Reigns knew this, he had know this for a long time and was just days away from connecting the dots, but now Georgina's supposed eye-witness to her leaving with a gun that night was perfect for his case.
"Where's the gun now Ms DeViana?" Reigns asked stoically.
"I have no gun! This woman is lying!" Celeste shouted back.
"Celeste would not hurt daddy." Charlotte said.
"But I saw it." Georgina said.
"Are you sure? You're absolutely sure Celeste is who you saw?" Filipe asked.
Rebecca's eyes were spinning. She had set off a strange set of accusations that she did not anticipate. She felt sick to her stomach watching Celeste suddenly become the one in Reigns cross-hairs. This wasn't what she had planned, she wanted her words to be used against Eliza, Eliza was was the one she wanted to suffer. Not Celeste.
It had gone off the rails and all Rebecca could do was sit back on her sofa and watch it crumble all around her.
"Perhaps we should discuss this in the village, shall we?" Reigns said feeding into Georgina's lie who was hoping she didn't have to resort to using her own set of magic to convince the Constable of her tale.
Jacob knew that Celeste was more than capable of doing it, and God knows he had plenty of motive but it didn't matter to Jacob, he didn't want her to go to jail regardless.
Then, as Constable Reigns lifted the handcuffs up that he was about to lock Celeste's hands in Jacob began to panic. He didn't know who shot him, but he also didn't want the mother of his unborn child to go to jail for something she perhaps didn't do.
"I... I...............I'm unwell." Jacob said in his chair.
Jacob's eyes rolled to the back of his head. He began to shake. His whole body, shook into tremors from head to feet. He began to sweat and spit from his mouth. His slumped over and fell onto the floor as Rebecca and Georgina screamed and went to down to the floor to help him up.
"Jacob? Jacob!!!" Rebecca screamed slapping is face.
Reigns quickly turned back to Jacob on the floor and helped roll him over. They poured cold water from a pitcher on a side table on his face and the tremors stopped.
"Mr. Lord??" Reigns said attempting to gain Jacob's attention away from the seizure.
"Turn him over, turn him over." Filipe said helping.
Jacob opened his eyes. His hands were cold and sweaty. The helped him back up to the chair he was in and he looked around the room. Once side his mother and her maid Georgina (who he didn't know was actually his ex Mary in a new body), on the other his daughter Charlotte clinging to her Governess Celeste, DeViana, a woman he was so madly in love with and who was carrying his child. Reigns was in the center of the room staring at him.
"Mr Lord?" Reigns asked again as the light of the gas-lamps flickered on all their faces.
"Should I call Dr. Ward?" Hamstead asked stepping back into the room after hearing all the commotion.
"I remember!!!" Jacob said suddenly to a hushed room. "I know who shot Christian and I. I know!" Jacob said.
"WHO! WHO DID IT!" Reigns asked eager to finally get to the truth. "Was it Celeste?"
"Was it Eliza?" Rebecca asking, hoping her lie would come true.
Then Jacob, fresh off his seizer that he faked just like he had faked his amnesia looked at his mother and snarled at her.
Rebecca tilted her head to the side, her body became tight feeling strange receiving that look from Jacob.
"What is it Jacob?" Reigns asked noting the strange look in Jacob's eye to his mother.
"It was her. IT WAS MY MOTHER REBECCA!!"
The room again gasped.
"JACOB!" Evie gasped. “You’re mistaken!”
"Are you sure?" Reigns asked, just as shocked as everyone else.
"Jacob, what are you doing? What are you saying???" Rebecca asked in panic.
"I remember it like it was yesterday and I have no doubt in my mind that it was her. I saw her face in the shadows and I know it was her." Jacob said lying, lying to protect Celeste who he was beginning to believe was the culprit.
"LIAR!" Rebecca shouted just before she leaned over, whipped her arm back across her chest and whipping her arm back slapping Jacob across the face with the back of her hand. Her wedding ring scratching the side of his face in the process.
"Gamma! GAMMA!!" Charlotte screamed as Celeste held her back.
"Come with me Mrs. Lord." Reigns said grabbing Rebecca by the arm.
"Let go! LET ME GO! This is all a lie. He's lying!" Rebecca said finally telling the truth, her own plan of blaming someone else for the crime blowing up in her face.
Filipe pulled Rebecca out of the room and out of sight leaving the others in shock.
"You can all say nothing. Nothing at all. Let us investigate and interrogate her and make sure everything lines up. No word will come from my office until then. Agreed?" Reigns ordered as everyone nodded in agreement before he left to follow Filipe out of the room with their suspect.
"I don't know what to say." Celeste said as they all took a breath.
"You're innocent. That's all that matters." Jacob replied. "Now justice will be settled."
"Will it?" Evie asked. "Jacob, you are SURE your mother did this?" She asked.
"Why would I lie, she's my mother." Jacob replied.
Evie squinted not believing him. She looked over at Celeste who felt strangely thankfully for Jacob's sudden return of memory, thankful that she was no longer implicated, but thankful for Jacob for saving her. She almost felt grateful to him.
"Georgina, come. We'll have to get things for Mrs. Lord while she's in the village. We cannot allow her to be treated like some common criminals." Evie said, brushing off Jacob's assertion that he did the right thing.
"But she is Evie, she shot me in cold blood and killed your lover Christian. Thank god my memory came back. I remember everything now. Even that bit of Christian being your dirty lover." Jacob snarled.
Evie lunged at Jacob and she too slapped him across the face, this time opened handed and wide on the opposite cheek Rebecca had landed on.
"Who ever did this to you, and I don't believe for one second it was your mother, should have finished the job and left you in a grave yourself. Come Georgina!" Evie said angrily as she and the maid quickly left to gather belongings for Rebecca.
Jacob then, slowly got up from his chair, aching from his healing gunshot wound, aching from his two laps to the face, and waddled over to the other sofa where Celeste and Charlotte were huddled together.
"You're safe." He said to Celeste. "You'll both always be safe." He added placing his hand on her baby bump.
****
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| Sebastian visits Evie |
The following evening, the fire place in Evie's private room flickered in the darkness of the room. The curtains were pulled making the room darker than it actually was outside where the moon was hidden by the thick overcast of the sky that looked like giant mounds of gray cotton floating over the island.
Evie, in a dark dress with gold trim with large dark purple birds in the fabric, picked up a brass candle stick holder and looped one of her lace gloved fingers into the circular grip and lit the thick white candle so that it brightened her way to the window where she peeped out onto the yard 3 floors below.
Then, the wall on the other side of her room that was painted like a forest of trees slid open. She turned, allowing the light of her candle to flow over to where the wall had separated and there, in the shadows of the open passage was Sebastian Lord freshly alive from his two near death experiences: One by Alice Winterborn, a second by the wolves of the forest.
"Hello my love." Sebastian said slowly walking over to his bride and kissed her deeply and passionately on the lips. She blushed and kissed him again. His amber colored eyes so heavenly to her to own gaze. She had missed him in the day when the sun was up. A half lived relationship was such a struggle for her. But she was trying to make their relationship work. God knows she was trying, especially now that she suspected she was, like Celeste, pregnant with Sebastian's child, a new heir to the Lord family fortune.
Evie, although happy Sebastian was with her again, had terrible news for him.
"What is it?" He asked her noticing her quick change in mood.
"I'm afraid dinner has to be cancelled tonight. Something has happened." She replied mentioning their dinner date at Tirymôr before sitting herself down on a sofa near the window and the fire place.
Sebastian followed her to the sofa thinking she perhaps knew about his violet confrontation with her friend Alice Winterborn the night before.
"What is it? What's happened?" He asked, pretending still not to know.
"It's Jacob." She replied to his surprise. "He's remembered the night he was shot, at least that's what he says. He's named the person that shot him Sebastian, he's named your grandmother." Evie explained.
"My grandmother? She would never! Where is she??" Sebastian replied leaping to his feet furious with the news.
"Sebastian calm down, please. She's not here. Reigns took her to the village earlier and I suppose he's been questioning her." Evie replied.
"There is no way Rebecca did what Jacob says she did. No Way! How can we believe him after all he's done? How?" Sebastian replied, his tone of voice becoming stained and angry.
"Well he did, and now we have to wait until Reigns is done questioning her to clear her. I don't believe him either, but the authorities have to go with what the only witness who's living has to say. If he says she did it, they have to believe him." Evie said now standing with Sebastian who's fists were balled up and shaking.
"If all I do for the rest of my god forsaken life is destroy that man then it will be a life well lived. I will crush his body in my bare hands and beat him to a pulp for his lies, for his deceit for all he's done. FOR ALL HE's DONE!!!" Sebastian said throwing one of his fists into a large framed painting and blasting through the wall of Evie's room.
"SEBASTIAN!" She shouted. "You can't behave this way." She added.
He turned to her, his face had changed again, it was no longer the loving face that stepped through the secret passage just moments ago. It was cold, sullen and frightening in the shadows that were cast by the candle light.
"I want his blood, I want his blood!!!" Sebastian growled.
"No! Stop this! Listen to me, stop this right now! We have to have cooler heads. Jacob is a liar and I don't believe him for one second but you cannot go around showing this side of you, this..." She paused before saying something that would anger him.
"This what Evie? What were you going to say? This 'monster'? This is what I am now, this is what I am forever. You said you understood and would stand by me and now I can sense your doubts...its so clear. Your heart rate is up. Your hands shake when you see me, they do not hold me the way they used to. Even when we make love, I can tell you hold back." Sebastian said, his mouth sharp with teeth searching got flesh to pierce.
"I love you Sebastian, I do, but the way things change you so quickly, the way you flip from the kind man I feel in love with to the cold person you are now, it is an adjustment." She said stepping back, and when she did she stepped on the back hem of her long dark dress. She fell backwards and Sebastian, with lightening speed caught her in he fall.
She was now laying backwards in his arms, his face still cold, his eyes had gone from warm amber to pale gray. She could feel the coldness of his arms locked around her warm body. She winced and pushed at his shoulders signaling she wanted him to leg go.
"You cannot even bare for touch." he said lifting her up from the falling position.
"Sebastian we need to focus on your grandmother and making sure this crime is not pinned on her. Jacob cannot be allowed to continue to do the things he's done in the past. We now know his tricks and what he's capable of, we can make sure---" Evie said before Sebastian loudly roared over her voice.
"ENOUUUUUGH!!!"
She froze in fear.
"I don't want to talk about him any more. I don't want anything anymore but YOU! To hell with this family and their treachery. I only want you!!" Sebastian said, throwing his arm across the fireplace mantle ejecting all of the knickknacks, photos, un unlit candle and a vase with fresh red roses all to the floor of the room.
Evie watched as the water from the flower vase soaked into the carpet. She took a deep breath and carefully walked over to the mess Sebastian had made.
Her back was to him. He was breathing hard, the light of the fireplace in front of him warmed his cold body. His mouth still showing his fangs.
"Where are you going? DO NOT turn your back on me Evangeline?" he snarled, the darkness that Alice had so warned her about showing up in spades.
Evie turned back and she was crying. She was shaking. His anger, his dark nature was becoming more and more overpowering. She could see there was something out of control about Sebastian, something she could not heal, something she could not fix, something she could not love away. It was everything Alice, he friend had told her would happen.
Alice, so deep in her powers was right, and Evie was seeing Sebastian's shadowy vampire side coming out more and more.
Her tears fell over her peach toned cheeks. She only shook her head and opened the door to her private room and made her way out running down the red carpeted hallway passed Georgina who was coming to see her.
"Evie!" Georgina shouted trying to stop her in the hall with no success. Georgina then entered the room and found Sebastian leaning over the fire place surrounded by the mess his anger had made.
"What have you done?" She asked her cousin Sebastian.
"Leave me alone Mary." He said using her real name.
"Did you hurt Evie?" She asked stepping over the roses in her pink dress who's fabric was ironically covered in pink roses.
"Perhaps her feelings." Sebastian said under his breath. "What's this of my grandmother shooting Jacob? You... you're powers aren't as strong as your mother's but you can still see the truth of what happened can't you? Is it true, did she try to kill him and kill Christian?" He added.
"I don't see those types of things. But... it could be true that she did it." Georgina said lying, as she knew her own mother had sent her spirit to kill Jacob.
"Are you sure?" Sebastian said squinting at her suspiciously, his own truth detector working over time.
"We don't have time to discuss this, you need to leave Tirymôr, and I would suggest not returning until this matter is sorted out." She warned.
"Why?"
"It's Jacob. I fear with his memory returned we have a lot more to fear than just accusations of murder. You could be on the chopping block next. He's tried before, he could try again." She said.
"As everyone keeps reminding me Mary, but I am not the same person I was when Jacob convinced you to shoot me." He said as she lifted a brow somewhat embarrassed of that memory. "Jacob cannot hurt me." He added.
"Never the less, your own temper will clearly be your down fall. Look at this room! Look at the mess you've made! You'll only create more of a problem and lose Evangeline forever. Is that what you want Sebastian? Is that what my mother gave up so much for so that you could come back to life? Is this the type of man your mother would be proud of?" Georgina said, her words hitting Sebastian over and over again one after the other and one more painful than the next.
No other word hurt him more than when she mentioned his dead mother Sabrina. It stabbed him, this use, it went into his heart like a flaming hot knife and he felt Georgina's disappointment in his twist that so called knife deeper and deeper into him with her words.
This again infuriated him. He turned, mouth open, fangs out. He lunged at her screaming at her to never speak of his mother.
She gasped and lifted her arm in the hair with her had open, fingers spread far apart and there in Evie's dark room she used her powers for the first time freezing Sebastian in mid air with his mouth open showing her the monster her mother made.
Georgina, who at first had her face turned so she would not see what was to come then realized she was unharmed. She opened her eyes and turned back to where Sebastian was standing. He was like a statue floating in the center of the room with only his eyes given the ability to move. She circled him looking at his body in wonder and surprise that she had accomplished it.
"Cousin, you need to reign this anger in." She said sincerely concerned for him. "If you don't, you'll only find the darkness will take over you completely. I pray that it'll happen, because you need it to happen. You and I are still a team, I will not let that up, but you have to help me too. Keep your calm. Stay away from Tirymôr and Jacob. It's the only way we can keep you safe for now." She said.
His body, while frozen in this state began to calm. His teeth vanished. His eyes turned back to amber and his skin warmed to the touch. Georgina saw all of this happen with her own eyes and then, she snapped her fingers releasing him from her magical grip.
"I don't know how." He said softly, almost childlike.
"You must try, my sweet boy, you must try." She said caressing her cousin's cheek.
He took a breath, feeling exhausted from this mot recent emotional up-and-down.
"Leave me. Please. Just leave me with my thoughts, I have to piece together what I will do about Evie, I've hurt her, I've frightened her. Please, just go, let me figure this all out." He said, slumping down to the floor and attempting to clean up the mess he had made.
She nodded that she would leave and just before she did, she turned back around the door and watched him cry while he put the tossed down flowers back into their waterless vase. She felt pity on him. He was a man trapped between his lost life of a normal person and this creature her mother created to bring him back from beyond the grave. She could see the torment he was under as the constant battle between the good of his heart and the evil of his mind were at war deep inside of him. Evie was seeing it too, it was so powerful and seeping out into his relationships. All Georgina could do was allow him to literally and figuratively pick up the pieces of his damaged world.
Georgina walked away from the room Sebastian was left in and quietly made her way back down the hall towards her own apartments and as she did so Nikolas Jordan, Evie's brother, was sneaking around the shadows passed the open door where Sebastian was. He saw his brother-in-law there, on his knees cleaning up the mess and then Nik made his way towards the mouth of the top of the stairs that lead down three floors to the marble foyer below.
Nik too had things to do that night. He was sneaking out with Albert's journal and headed to see the Winterborn siblings with news of what he had found.
****
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| Alice & Matthew in their apartment |
At his small apartment in the village Matthew Winterborn struggled to keep his nerves in check. He was thinking about Evie Jordan-Lord. He couldn't get his mind off of the beautiful woman and how much his instincts wanted to protect her, and not just from Sebastian but also from his own sister's strange obsession in ridding the world of Sebastian.
One thing was sure for Matthew, Evie was the victim in all of the swelling darkness on the island, and he would do anything to keep her innocent life safe--even if it meant helping his sister do the unthinkable and take someone's life: Sebastian's.
Matthew exited his bedroom and found Alice quietly sitting in the front room on a chair reading from her favorite book. She looked like a painting in that chair, cloaked in the reflections of the dim candles all around her, 8 of them in all. The various plants potted around the apartment created an ambiance of freshness that added to Alice's painting-like atmosphere.
"Can we talk?" he asked his sister.
"What is it?" She asked sensing the concern in his voice.
"I wanted to know your plan. I want to help, I think with my help, you'll be successful and I can also make sure that you're safe. I wouldn't want you to get hurt in the aftermath of all this." Matthew said sitting across from her.
"Help me?" She asked confused forgetting she had told Matthew what she wanted to do about Sebastian.
"Yes! About Evie and Sebastian. If I can help, I will! I don't want anyone else to get hurt, not by him and...it's important that I we need to work on this together." He said.
"Oh, sweet Matthew. I know how pure your heart is. But you don't need to worry about Sebastian any more, Evie either. She's free, we're all free, and now that Sebastian is out of the way all of the evil that has surrounded this island and it's people will slowly lighten." She answered patting his knee.
Matthew looked at Alice confused. He had no idea what she mean, how could Sebastian now not be threat to them, but before he could get her clarification, the night air brought a long an unexpected visitor who was knocking on their apartment door.
Matthew and Alice looked at each other unsure of who it could be. Matthew's first thought was Filipe, perhaps he had some news on the Jacob/Christian case that Matthew had been helping with.
Matthew got up from his chair and went to the door and it was not Filipe, it was Nikolas fresh from his quick rush out of Tirymôr House. He was out of breath. He had run from the taxi that brought him to the apartment. He pushed his way in, frightened he was followed. His nervous energy frightened Alice and Matthew to the point they also felt as if someone was following him.
"Jesus man!" Matthew shouted as Nik rushed to the center of the room. "What is it?"
"This!!! Look at this!! I found what this island has been hiding. I finally found it an it's horrible. I had to show you. This could be the beginning of ending all of the horrible evil here."
"What is it?" Matthew said as Nik handed him the journal.
"Albert Lord's journal. Actually, it's a journal Albert and several of his ancestors have been keeping for generations. It documents the horrible things he and the other key families did when they first settled here from England and Wales." Nik explained before turning to Alice "It details what happened to your people." he added sadly.
Matthew flipped through the pages reading sporadically. It burned his soft heart to see the terrible notes from the Lord men about the murders of the Winterborn's people, the tribe of natives that lived on Welshport first. Deaths. Stolen land. Murders. All of it. Right there in their own handwriting.
"This is disgusting." Matthew said. "It's as if they were happy with what they did."
"It's the first and possible key piece to this puzzle." Nik said.
"We already knew." Alice said shocking Nik, as he turned to Matthew who nodded his head.
"You both knew these people were responsible for such atrocities to your people even before you both were born?" Nik asked confused.
"Of course!! These are our stories, these are our people. We know every last horrible detail of how these settlers came, killed and took from us." Alice noted. "Their evil is the source of the curse. The curse placed on all who dwelled here.--- especially the remaining Lords." She added.
"Here," Matthew said, showing Nik the last entry by Albert about the family he burned alive. "this is our family. The two children Albert writes about that he could not find after the fire went out, that is Alice and myself. We escaped. I was very little and Alice was just a baby. I took her. I escaped with her and watched from a hillside as our home and family burned in the darkest red flames I had ever seen and ever seen since." Matthew explained.
"I'm so sorry." Nik said grabbing Alice's hand and squeezing it. He pulled her in and hugged her tight. His love for her only grew stronger in that moment.
While in their tight embrace Alice dropped a bomb "But we don't have to worry so much anymore. The apex of this curse has been destroyed. It's dead."
Matthew and Nik looked at each other confused. "What are you saying?" Matthew asked.
"Dead?" Nik asked too. "Who's dead?"
"It's gone. Neutralized. I did it. I killed Sebastian last night and we'll all be safe. As soon as the universe sense that monster, the creature of the night is no more than our ancestors will begin the healing process for all of us. He is the final male heir of the Lord and now that he's dead and Jacob has no male children, we'll finally see justice for all us. Jacob will not live forever and we can finally be free of these Lord men." Alice explained.
"Alice!! How could you do this on your own? You could have been killed!!" Matthew shouted taking his place as her concerned older brother.
She shrugged, proud that she had done it.
"What are you talking about? Sebastian isn't dead." Nik replied.
Matthew turned, his brow furrowed.
"He's dead. I drowned him I watched him drown in the sea." Alice said assuredly. "He's gone." Alice repeated.
"No, no he's not. I just saw him when I left Tirymôr. He came to see Evie for dinner. He's alive Alice. He's Alive!" Nik confirmed shocking her.
"It didn't work? How, how did he escape? I did everything to make sure he stayed below the sea and I watched him drown!!" Alice shouted, her heart dropping into her stomach with the truth of her failure.
"I don't know," Nik said, "but we still have time, if you really want to do this, if you really want to take back the world your ancestors were killed over, I will help. I will do anything to help right this wrong." He added.
"Sebastian must die." Matthew said.
Alice nodded her head, once little tear fell from her brown eyes upset that she had not saved everyone like she had thought she did. "He has to be destroyed to finally set the universe on course for the right, if not we could all be killed. His darkness and evil will only get stronger overshadowing who he once was. We have to kill him once and for all." Alice added.
"Then we're agreed, the three of us will do it. We will end him." Matthew said out loud. The other two nodded their heads in agreement. "then lets plan this right."
As the three began to plot their murder of the monster, Nik began to feel a pain in his heart. He was feeling guilt, guilt for doing this against his own sister. He loved Evie so much and plotting to kill her husband felt like a betrayal that he may not be able to come back from.
But he had to. He had to do it with Alice and with Matthew
To save them all.
****
 |
| Eliza reads her tea leaves |
On Goode island, the sun began to rise peaking a bit of much welcomed warmth into the closed shutters of Eliza Goode's small cabin. She sat on a rocking chair alone in the front room as the fireplace smoldered in the hearth into a heap of smoke.
She had not slept. Not a wink.
She only sat in the rocking chair with thoughts of what was to come. She could feel danger on the horizon. She could feel the grips of something truly terrifying coming.
Was it coming towards her? Was it towards her daughter?
Would she finally have to saddle herself into the truth of what she was and finally use her powers unapologetically. She had yet to truly use her gifts to their full capacity. She feared doing so.
She feared the outcome and the reproductions of using her powers.
"What you give in power comes back in pain." She told herself in her mind.
"What you give in power comes back in pain."
This is what she feared. Should she unleash her full powers, she'd receive in pain right back to her. Magic, in her case, was a give and take.
Eliza, drowsy yet restless, walked into her kitchen at the sound of the tea-kettle steaming its whistled siren. She grabbed the hot kettle round it's round base and not by the safer handle option, the burning sensation on the palms of her hands sizzling while she then tipped the kettle over into a small cup and saucer.
Her burns then blistering and pealing, suddenly healed.
She looked into the swirling hot water and removed a pouch from inside the pocket of her white dress. The pouch was brown, made of burlap, and had a tight red thread that when synched closed the pouch up tightly.
She unleased the red thread and poured the small flakes of red leaves that fell into her boiling water.
The leaves soon began to evaporate into a red thick liquid.
Blood.
The Blood from the leaves swirled around and became darker and darker red as the water became absorbed into the herbs.
Eliza placed a spoon in the tea and stirred, the tea, thick and dark red, then turned into a golden color, gold like tea should be.
The steam swam up into the air around the rim of the cup and saucer. With her hands, Eliza began to lift the steam higher and higher into the air. She swirled in the steam with her hands; shapes began to form, shapes that soon she would see as the future she sought.
The steam showed faces. Many many faces. Angry. Hostile. Bloodthirsty.
They were in a large group. They were filled with fire in their eyes. They wanted to end someone's life.
They wanted to capture someone. She saw a noose. And pyre ready to burn.
Their faces were fraught with the pain of generations of suffering from an unknown source of what they assumed was bad luck, but was truly a curse.
A curse so rooted in darkness that it clouded all their minds from common sense.
The faces in the steam were ready to end this curse and then the steam changed from many faces to just one.
Her face.
Eliza gasped and swatted into the steam vanquishing the terrible image of her face.
Then she realized --- her days may be numbered.
