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| Asha & Gregory blindside Andrew |
Several oil lanterns burned a bright yellow light inside of Asha Hoffman's small house in the Village of Welshport. The hour had long passed one in the morning and Dr. Kim, who was staying with Asha continuing his progress into changing Christian Evans into a diabolical killer with the blood and cells of a former patient of Kim's at Windcliff, had fallen asleep on one of the living room chairs in a pile of his paper work and files about his experiments on Christian.
He suddenly stirred awake when he heard Asha twisting her house keys into the door lock as she slithered in from a night at Celeste and Jacob's wedding, crashing the event to find Constable Gregory Reigns.
"You're back." Andrew Kim yawned he looked up at the door to see Asha in silhouette. "I wasn't sure you'd be back so late from the hospital. I fell asleep." He added still thinking Asha had been working at the Hospital all night.
The shadow at the door said nothing, it just stood there backlit by the various gas lanterns of the Welshport Village street.
"Nurse Hoffman?" Andrew said squinting to see the shadow as it moved closer into the room's light.
It wasn't Asha, it was Gregory Reigns.
"Where is he?" Gregory asked in a deep voice frightening Kim.
"What the devil?!?! What are you doing here? What do you want?" Kim asked jumping from the chair in a flurry of papers that fell from his lap. He turned suddenly towards the door again as Asha walked in. "What is this?" Andrew asked her.
"I asked you a question, doctor, where is Christian Evans?" Reigns repeated.
"I don't know what you're talking about and I demand to know what the meaning of this is, Nurse Hoffman, please explain!" Kim demanded of his one time Windcliff subornment.
"Explain? You want an explanation Doctor? I'll give you an explanation. Do you know who I am?" She asked as she stepped in from the street.
"Of course! What … you're Asha Hoffman, my nurse." He answered.
"And do you know who my father was?" She asked walking over to a side table that had a large oak box and putting her hand over it before opening it.
"NO! Asha, what’s going on?"
"Nurse Hoffman has informed me you've been illegal performing medical procedures on Christian Evans and are directly responsible for the shooting of him and Jacob Lord. She has provided me papers, notes and other such materials that give me probably cause, doctor, to arrest you on attempted murder and many more charges that I am sure the Maine State Attorney will take care of." Reigns said stepping closer to Andrew and reaching for his restraining cuffs.
"WHAT??" Andrew yelled at Reigns. "YOU WHAT?" He then yelled at Asha.
"Come with me, doctor." Reigns said.
"I absolutely will not! Did she tell you of her involvement? She's the one who's been helping me she's the one who faked Christian's death and then brought him here. This is all her doing!" Kim yelled.
"The evidence, sir, points to this all being your work and she's been an informant. She's been keep notes on you to catch you in your server malpractice and mistreatment of patients for what seems like over a decade." Reigns informed the doctor.
"What? No! I've never mistreated a patient of mine. Never!!!" He shouted.
"Really?" Asha asked opening the box on the side table and removing a two folded papers. She unfolded them and revealed what they were to the doctor by extending her arm. It was a photograph of her father Julian Anand and his death certificate. "What about him? What about My father!!!" She said crying.
Andrew Kim paused before answering, he stepped closer to Asha to see the papers and then looked at her. Looked at the photo again and then looked at Asha. Julian, the cannibal who's cells, blood and tissues were being use to merge into Christian Evans' body in a bizarre and extremely dangerous mental and physical manipulation of medical experiment by means no one had ever attempted, was Asha's father.
"The cannibal …he was your... father?" Andrew asked in a quite voice as the clock in Asha's hallway chimed 1:30 in the morning.
"His name was Julian Anand. And you destroyed him. He was a killer, he was a criminal but you didn't see any human side of him when he came to you at Windcliff. That was YOUR JOB! To humanize him and get him help. That's what he wanted!! He wanted to be seen as a human and find his way back to some kind of sanity. I don't approve of what he did, he should have been stopped before he hurt his first victim. There is no excuse for his horrible crimes, but he didn't deserve all of the electro shock-therapies and mind control games and horrible experimental medication you put him through. Not to mention the monstrous tissue sample removals and perpetual blood samples, the psychological torture you put him through as if he were some sort of test rat. I read all your files on him Andrew. I know exactly what you did. He may have been a monster but you're no better for torturing him for so long at Windlcliff." Asha explained.
"I cannot believe you've betrayed me!" Kim shouted.
"Then, all of this," Asha added, motioning around the messy room Kim made his make-shift laboratory in her home. "the horrors you put Christian through to make him a copy of my sick father---no one deserves that. I made it my mission to find you, to trick you, to STOP you! And here we are. I finally did it. For My father. For Christian. For all the other patients at Windcliff that you didn't take care of. You're going to prison, Doctor Kim. And may you be treated in your incarceration better than my father was treated by you." Asha recounted.
"You BITCH!!!!" Kim screamed as he lunged at Asha who jumped out of the way.
Reigns grabbed the back of Kim's shirt and pulled him back.
"Let's go!" Reigns said tying Kim's arms behind his back. "You're under arrest Dr. Kim." Reigns added happy to finally have the shooting solved, at least for now.
Asha's breathing finally slowed. Her heart began to tick back to it's regular beat now that Kim was taken away and the truth was out. She turned towards the room where Christian. She peeked into his room and Christian was in a bed, still with very good vitals, and connected to a large glass IV that hung from a thin metal rod above his head. He was moaning Evie's name, the name of a woman he once loved. The very last woman he would ever love.
The damage to his body and brain were uncertain. Asha grabbed a sedative and injected it into Christian's arm allowing him to drift deeper into a sleep he needed to correct so much that was ripped from his mind and body.
"I'm sorry." Asha whispered. "You'll be back in Philadelphia soon. For real this time." She added.
Asha then, fell to her knees at Christian's bed side and began to sob into the mattress. It was all over. Her father's memory, as tarnished and horrid as it was, could now finally rest in whatever peace it could find and he would be remembered for the crimes he committed not for what Kim was hoping to do with his spare tissues and blood growing and morphing inside of Christian Evans.
Christian, as groggy and drugged as he was, still managed to put his hand on Asha's head and patted her dark luxurious hair, hoping to comfort her even though she was also at fault for his pain and suffering.
As he comforted her and fell into a deep sleep, she sobbed into the mattress and continued to beg his forgiveness.
In the morning, he'd be off to Philadelphia to finally be with his family, the wealthy and very politically connected Evans family where they'd place him in the 24 hour care of a good hospital where he'd life out rest of his days in a daze of strange memories of murders he did not commit thanks to Kim's evil plan to make him a carbon copy of Asha's serial killer father: Julian Anand.
****
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| The Welshport Globe |
The day after the big wedding, a brilliant morning shined through the tall ceiling to floor window's of a second floor parlor where Jacob and his growing family were sitting an having after breakfast coffee. Jacob and Rebecca sat at a small table while cigarette smoke encircled the their heads like halos of white fog.
Jacob frustratingly folded the morning newspaper on the table and huffed into his cigarette.
"What is it?" Rebecca asked.
Jacob passed his mother front page of The Welshport Globe. The headline read:
CONSTABLE CATCHES DR. DEATH
Dr. Andrew Kim has been arrested and charged with the attempted murders of Jacob Lord, and former Constable of Welshport Christian Evans in a shooting that occurred in the dead of night in Village Park. Both victims survived, not after a strange moment of miscommunication where Mr. Evans was presumed dead but lived thanks to the savvy help of a local nurse. Dr. Kim has also been charged with a flurry of malpractice charges from his time on the mainland at the Windcliff Sanitarium. Continued on Page H5.
"That's preposterous!" Rebecca said of the article. "Did Kim shoot you??"
"I don't remember." Jacob replied honestly.
"But...Reigns arrested someone, it wasn't Kim." She replied.
"It was you." Jacob joked remembering his false accusation of his own mother being the shooter.
"If there's proof, perhaps then Dr. Kim did do this. Why would Gregory arrest someone who had nothing to do with it?" Celeste asked as she rocked baby Fabien over in the a soft chair.
“No. It can’t be!” Rebecca replied knowing full well she had put in Gregory Reigns mind that Eliza was the shooter.
"Mother, you seem very sure Kim didn’t do this.” Jacob said lifting a brow suspiciously. “Just who did you think is this person of interest they isn’t Andrew Kim?" Jacob wondered.
"I, I, just heard that it was someone else.” Rebecca said trying to cover what she did to Eliza. “Some of the servants were saying something about it. I don't really know." Rebecca added.
“Is that so.” Jacob replied unconvinced of his mother being innocent of anything.
"I'll call Reigns and discuss this further." Rebecca said.
"Mother, no. That’s enough!” Jacob shouted. “Just leave it. It's time we just let it go, if Reigns believes this is the man who wanted me dead then I guess he's right. He and I didn't exactly see eye to eye on many issues, so it makes sense that he'd want me dead." Jacob said.
"Issues?" Celeste said with a lifted brow.
"I admit, my tactic to have him keep Evangeline at Windcliff may have been, uncouth or a bit underhanded, but it was best for her at the time.”
“That’s putting it mildly.” Celeste replied, repulsed of Jacob’s cruelty towards Evie.
“Dr. Kim has a history of keeping patients in line." Jacob added, like his mother unconvincingly.
"Patients Like your father." Rebecca said softly remembering her late Husband Albert's time at Windcliff.
Jacob said nothing, remembering his other motive for blackmailing not only Andrew Kim, but Kim's late husband Dr. Michael Daphne over the treatment of Albert Lord during his time at Windcliff decades ago.
For Jacob, the decay of his father Albert's mental state so long ago, was the catalyst of so many twisted things in Jacob's life. In truth, Albert died at Windcliff not only suffering from his sickness of mind but he was killed by fellow patient: Julian Anand, Asha's serial killer father.
Jacob never forgave either Michael Daphne or Andrew Kim for his father's death.
Celeste looked at the large grandfather clock in the center of the room. She had an appointment in only 5 minutes and needed to clear the room. Her meeting had to be kept under wraps and no one in the room could be there once the appointment started.
"I'd hate to interrupt this whole, lovely conversation, but I need to nurse." Celeste said suddenly signaling she wanted some privacy in the small parlor.
Rebecca smiled sweetly and walked over to the baby with her newspaper tucked under arm. She kissed the baby on his head and made her way our of the room to figure out what had happened with Eliza and Reigns.
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| Celeste, Jacob & baby Fabían |
Jacob followed his mother and collected his things, he put his cigarette in his mouth and patted Celeste on the head.
"Alright my love." he said lovingly. Celeste faked a smile to her new husband. His voice made her shiver.
As soon as the coast was clear, the clock struck and the secret door in the parlor slid open. On the other side, in the shadows was Celeste's younger brother Johnathon DeViana.
"Come in, come in!" Celeste said.
He came over, weary of why she had showed him the secret passage earlier that lead a guest room to several layers of secret corridors in the mansion to the parlor he was now in. He was unsure why their meeting needed to be so clandestine when everyone knew he was in town.
"What's this all about??" He said worried.
Celeste got up from her rocking chair, baby tucked sleeping into her chest, and put him down in a bassinette and covered him with a lily white blanket.
She grabbed her brother's hands and sat him down next to her. Her long white dress shuffled in her movement and clumped in a big white heap as she sat back down. Her face was so serious. Her mind was racing but she knew she had to this.
"I couldn't leave the house to tell you this so soon after Fabien was born and I've been mulling over telling you this at all. But it's eating me up. You deserve to know everything no matter how much it'll hurt everyone involved." Celeste said.
"Celeste, you're scaring me. What's the matter?" Johnathon asked.
"It's about Mama, she wasn't always faithful to Papa. She loved him desperately, she truly did, but something happened along the way when I was very young before you were born. Mama had an affair, Johnathon. With Albert Lord." She explained.
"Oh my god! With Albert?" Johnathon asked, his eyes reflecting the large windows in front of him beaming the bright morning light. "Did she love him?" He asked.
"For a time, she did. But it didn't last." Celeste added.
"When did she tell you this?"
"Before she died, she confessed it all to me." Celeste said.
"And papa didn't know?" Johnathon asked his older sister.
She shook her head no. "There's more Johnny." Celeste added. "Albert Lord and Mama had a child. That child is you."
Johnathon's heart felt like it stopped. "No."
"It's true, Johnny. Albert Lord is your father."
Johnathon could not believe the shocking turn his visit with his sister had had. He wasn't sure what to do. He got up and walked over to the windows and tears fell from his face not exactly of sadness but of confusion and frustration of never knowing the truth. He wondered if Albert knew the truth, but Celeste wasn't sure. All she knew was that their mother Cristina never told her husband the true paternity of Johnathon, and it stood to reason Albert didn't know either.
"There's one more thing." Celeste said, alarming Johnathon.
He turned back towards his sister who was now standing in the center of the room with the baby back in her arms. She was rocking him trying to keep him asleep.
"Jacob knows. He's always known. He had paperwork on you, he's used it at a time to keep me in my place and I've only told you because you deserve to know. But you can't let on that you know Johnny. He has to always believe you do not know this truth. Not just for him, but for you too. If he feels that you're some kind of threat to his inheritance then I don't know what he'll do. He's done terrible things to other threats before. I can't imagine what he'd do to you if he knew you might claim something in the name of your father Albert." She explained.
"What kind of things? What has he done?" Johnathon asked.
She shook her head not willing to divulge her new husband's crimes of murder and attempted murder.
"Just promise me you won't tell him, or Rebecca. She knows nothing of the affair. Please!" Celeste said, the fear and worry all over her face.
Johnathon thought for a second. He wanted to make sure his big sister was safe so he agreed but in the end he knew he wouldn't keep the secret to himself forever. Only for now.
The DeViana siblings hugged and let the morning light warm the bodies from the light of the Welshport sky.
****
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| Nik & Evie’s mother Aurora Jordan arrives in Welshport |
As the brilliant morning sun turned into an equally brilliant afternoon, the Jordan Siblings Evie and Nikolas, stood with a large group of Welshportonians at the docks awaiting the arrival of an ocean liner from England.
Finally, after such a long wait, Evie and Nik would reunite with their mother Aurora who had recently become a widow back in England. It was a sad reunion now that their father had died. Richard Jordan was part of a very well connected and wealthy family in England until the family went bankrupt and he and Nik had to begin working in the factories in London.
Richard was a hard worker. He gave and have, all he had, to his family and hoped that Evie's marriage into the Lord family would restore the Jordan back into the ranks of English high society, but alas, he would never see the day. His death plunged Aurora deeper into destitution forcing her to follow Nikolas to America to live with Evie and the Lords.
The Jordan siblings held hands, nervous to see their mother after so many months. For Evie, it had been even long, almost 2 years. Her writing back home had gotten less frequent and Nikolas was sent to America to watch out for her months ago.
Aurora, for her part, had been at sea for almost 2 months. The ticket she purchased to America was cheap, and the various stops along the way to help make the trip cheaper made her voyage that much longer.
As the siblings waited there were whispers in the crowd of people about Dr. Kim's arrest that didn't go unnoticed by Evie who had only known peripheral information as she left Tirymor that morning.
"Do you think we'll recognize her?" Nik asked boyishly thinking his mother would look different after so many months apart.
"What?" Evie replied distracted by thoughts of her time under Dr. Kim's care at Windcliff.
"You're distracted. What's going on?" Nik asked oblivious to the news.
"Oh, its something Jane told me." Evie said of the maid at Tirymor. "Dr. Kim was arrested for shooting Christian and Jacob. He was also charged with other crimes from his time at the mental hospital I was in. But... I don't know something in my gut tells me this feels wrong." Evie explained.
"Why do you think that?" Nik asked as several seagulls landing next to him hoping for a crumb of anything to eat.
"Just from a conversation I had with him. I know he hated Jacob and that Jacob was a thorn in his side, but murder? By gunshot? Seems strange." Evie added.
"Listen, the best thing for us to do is let the law take it's case where it's supposed to go and that Christian is alive and well, not dead like we all thought, that's not a luxury many other's can say they have." Nik said, thinking of his lost Alice who's funeral was planned for the next day.
Evie nodded her head. Nik was right. She had to think of the positive side of it. She had to think of poor Christian and all the suffering he went through at the hands of Kim, that she could not deny. That part was all true. She was happy for Christian, her one time only friend and only hero after the death of Sebastian. She grabbed on to Nik's arm, looping her arm through his and held on tight to his brotherly love.
"Now! As I was saying," he joked. "Do you think mum will recognize us?" he said flashing his adorable bright smile at his sister.
Evie giggled back "Of course we will! She's our mother."
"What about, you know, everything that's happened. How much do we tell her? She might be a bit fragile about death after pop's passing." Nik asked.
"We can't sugar coat Sebastian's death. She deserves to know the truth." Evie answered.
"The truth? Do you really think that's a good idea?" Nik asked in shock as the seagulls swirled around the entire group of villagers waiting at the docks for the giant ocean liner to drop anchor.
"Well, maybe a little sugar coating." Evie said softly, the green and blue of the ocean water below her matching her sparkling eyes.
After a half hour of the ship connecting at dock, the long ramp finally touched down from the ship to the dock and passengers slowly started to make their way down the long path over the small bit of sea water below them.
Evie remembered when she too came off the ship when she arrived. It was a strange surreal feeling. Seeing it in reverse, this time she was there awaiting someone. She thought about all the hope in her heart when she arrived. She thought about all the ways she wanted her life to go, but everyone knows never to count their chickens before they're hatched.
Evie counted hers and she was never the same again.
"THERE SHE IS!!!" Nik shouted sighting his mother coming off the ship.
Aurora Ashby-Jordan was a tall beautiful woman with long light brown hair. Her eyes were like Evie and Nik, green and blue like the sea. Her skin was soft and peachy and her body was slender and fit. She carefully lifted her long black skirt from dragging on ground with her left hand as she held on to the straw hat on her head that was tied with a baby blue bow that matched the sash around her waste.
Aurora's eyes went up and down the dock searching for her children, but she didn't see then.
The seagulls continued to fly above the ship and the crown screeching loudly as if they too were welcoming the new comers.
Evie observed this group was much larger than hers. In fact when she disembarked at Welshport, she came off her ship alone.
Aurora was 1 of 38 people who arrived to the village either returning home from some long trip or visiting.
Then, at the mouth of the ramp Aurora spotted two young people, a woman and a man, waving furiously at her with both their arms in the air swaying to get her attention.
Aurora's heart warmed. It was her babies, all grown up. She quickly rushed down the rest of the ramp and fell into a three-way hug with her children holding her tightly and she holding them right back.
"I thought I'd never see you both again." Aurora said with tears streaming down her face.
"Me too." Evie said softly. "I can't believe you're really here. I prayed every night that I'd find some way to get you and pop here and you're here, you're really here!"
"Without pop." Aurora replied with sadness.
Evie frowned.
"He'd be happy we're together though, real happy." Nikolas added.
Aurora smiled at her son who was always had a silver lining on mind and reached over and grabbed him into a tight hug again.
"You're right." Aurora said kissing his rosy cheek.
"Come! I've asked for your bags to be brought over to the car. They're there already." Evie said.
"Someone touched my bags?" Aurora said, her demeanor suddenly changing from gleeful to serious.
"Well, they had to." Evie replied with confusion.
Aurora gulped.
"I just would prefer, going forward, that no one touch my things that's all." Aurora replied.
"Oh, well, it's not like they were going to go through them, I just paid them to bring them over instead of us going into the Boat house and sorting them out ourselves. Trust me, it's a mess in there. Lots of confusion the way they just throw out the bags and suitcases like that." Evie explained.
"Evie, I don't want anyone else handing my things, ok? No one else." Aurora demand.
"Of course mum, of course. No one else will." Nik answered for Evie to cut the tension.
As the Jordans walked over to the car Evie and Nik had borrowed from the fleet the Lord's owned, Aurora herself packed her four suitcases into the car with no help from her children who looked on in with strange looks on their faces as to why Aurora felt so adamant that her bags be handled only by her.
It was a strange request, but being that she had just arrived and was exhausted the siblings decided to let it go and got in the car and headed back from the busy docks through the village.
"You know I am very glad you're here." Evie said grabbing her mother's hand as the two sat together on the shiny leathers back seats as Nik sat in the front driving.
"Daring me too. After your pop died I wasn't sure what I was going to do with myself. I worked as a seamstress for a while but I missed you all both do much. I couldn't imagine my life there in London like that... alone. Working. No family. Barley any friends. After we lost our money in that awful business, everyone sort of disposed of us. At least when pop was alive, we had each other." Aurora explained.
“And then I left you.” Evie replied sadly recounting the original reason she left London for Welshport, to marry rich and put her family’s money problems to rest.
“Stop it.” Aurora said comforting her. “In hindsight it was such an archaic thing to do to you Evie. I’m sorry for that.” Aurora admitted.
“You’re going to love it at Tirymôr.” Nik said changing the subject.
“Oh I can’t wait! I hope the Lords like me.” Aurora replied, her bright smile lighting up the back seat.
“They’ll love hearing your accent and remembering you’re an American from London and not the reverse like me. It’ll be refreshing.” Evie joked.
“Did they forget I was from New York and married the first handsome Englishman I saw?” Aurora wondered with another smile.
Then there was silence in the car. The conversation turning to their late father Richard Jordan, the handsome Englishman Aurora met and fell in love with, brought them back to earth.
"I wish I was able to say goodbye." Evie replied with tears in her eyes.
"Me too." Nik whispered to himself. His heart still aching for the loss of not only his father but his love Alice Winterborn.
"We've all experienced so much loss in the last year. Sebastian too. Darling how are you holding up?" Aurora asked.
Evie wasn’t sure what to say about Sebastian. His life. His supposed death — or many deaths. She took a breath and glossed over it with a surprise.
"I'm better because Nik is here, and now you're here, and well, someone else is coming too." Evie explained.
"Someone else? Who?" Aurora wondered.
Evie smiled at her, Nik grinned too and looked at them in the review mirror as the car clumsily rocked back and fourth over the cobble stone streets of the Village. Evie then grabbed her mother's hand and placed it over her belly where the tiny baby was growing inside of her.
"NO!" Aurora said with joy. "REALLY?? A baby??"
"A baby!!!" Evie confirmed as Aurora yanked her daughter into her arms and held her so tight with happiness at the news she was going to be a grandmother.
"This is bitter sweet knowing Sebastian is no longer with us, but still the sweet is so sweet!!" Aurora said, unable to hide her happiness.
Nik and Evie shot each other looks in the mirror knowing that Sebastian wasn't really dead, but banished in a way into the shadows where they hoped he'd never see them again after what he did to Alice. It was a dangerous hope they had, but it was a reality that they prayed would last.
"He's with us in spirit. Like pop." Evie said softly.
"Yes. Just like pop." Aurora replied squeezing Evie's hand.
The Jordans were a close family. They told each other everything and held no secrets when they were all in England. This, however, wasn't England, and the siblings knew that what Aurora Jordan didn't know wouldn't hurt her. She could never know of Sebastian's torment and living in the shadows. She could never know how evil he was or that he wanted so much to kill Nik and eventually killed Alice.
Evie and Nik wanted Aurora to start her new life in Welshport with a clean slate, leaving all her dark past in England.
That's what Aurora wanted too.
But what was inside her suitcases would put the attempt at a happier life in America to a challenge. They may have once been very open with each other and never held secrets back in London, but in Welshport, Secrets was a way of life.
Nik and Evie had theirs, and Aurora certainly had hers buried deep inside her suitcase that she wanted NO ONE but her to touch.
****
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| A meeting with Constable Reigns |
The following day, an equally beautiful winter sun burned off the morning fog around the shorelines of the island of Welshport before the noon hour.
Sitting in his office signing paperwork, Constable Gregory Reigns was awaiting a guest. In those moments alone before the person arrived Gregory thought about the arrest of Andrew Kim the night before and how something seemed off by it. Especially the fact that after searching Asha's house and Kim's old apartment on the Windcliff Sanitarium campus he and his deputies could not find the gun that did the shooting of Jacob and Christian, the fact was it was hidden in the kitchen drawer of the true shooter, Eliza Goode.
It was going to be impossible for Gregory Reigns to sort this all out, especially because of his memory being erased by the witch when he had her locked up. He knew, by his own intuitions, that there was a missing piece to the puzzle and only one person could answer that question.
"Constable?" Asha Hoffman said entering his office.
"Nurse Hoffman! Thank you for coming." Reigns said standing up and shaking his witness' hand.
"I apologize for being in such a rush, but I'm due at the hospital for rounds in just a half an hour. What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" She asked dressed in her nurse's outfit and holding the telegram sent to her by Reigns over night.
"A few things actually. Please sit down, I wont take long." He answered. "We've searched Dr. Kim's belongings in your home and also what he left behind on the mainland at Windcliff. There's no sign of the gun he used. I want to be sure that you are correct in accusing him of this crime. I know what I read in all the paperwork and files you've provided us which gives ample motive, but there's no gun."
Asha gulped.
"Have you seen a gun?" He further pressed.
"I saw no gun, but Dr. Kim left town for a while shortly after the incident in the park. He could have done anything with the gun. Thrown it in the ocean for all we know. But I assure you, Constable, he did this. He used Christian as a weapon and when Christian didn't fulfill what Kim planned which is what you read in his notes to Kill Jacob Lord, he shot them both himself. That's what happened." Asha said, filling in the story where it suited her.
"I can see that in his notes. He certainly did have a grudge against the man." Reigns relented. "But when there is no weapon, I'll have a hard time getting a conviction." He added.
"I can assure you that he did this just like he did all his other crimes against my father and his other patients at Windcliff. He is not a good person no matter how he wants to portray himself. The missing weapon is just a circumstantial issue that the district attorney will mostly likely be able to work around using all the evidence in the papers I've provided. You'll be successful in this." Asha said confidently.
Gregory took a deep breath and thought about what she was saying, and partly she had a good point. There was truly amble amount of evidence against Kim for multiple crimes and since his memory of everything that happened with Eliza was gone he needed to put this to bed.
"As you know, my reputation is at stake here. The Evans family in Philadelphia has already written to me and added something for you." Reigns said handing Asha a note from Christian's family that came by telegram. "I need this case closed not just for them, but for me as well." He said.
Asha opened her letter. The Evans, the powerful political dynasty back in Pennsylvania, thanked her profusely for returning their son, even as sick as he was. He was alive and they were grateful to have him home in any capacity. She saved him, in their eyes, even if she was partly to blame for the way he had turned out.
"Did they really send this?" Asha asked feeling emotional about the letter that was so kind to her from Christian's family.
"They did. You should be proud of what you've done." Reigns added.
Asha smiled, hoping that for her own crimes, she would be forgiven but knowing the family was at least grateful to her helped. She got up and thanked Reigns for getting her their letter and turned to head to the hospital for work, as she exited the Constable's office, an angry Rebecca Lord entered in a sweeping dark green green dress and a smart hat with a veil that covered to just above her nose.
"Mrs. Lord!" Reigns said surprised to her.
Asha looked over at Rebecca, the wife of her father Julian's final victim, she quickly looked away.
"What is this???" She asked throwing the newspaper from the day before face up Reigns' desk, her green eyes staring intently on her once time captor.
“I should go.” Asha said, seeing the red in Rebecca’s face and not wanting to be introduced.
Rebecca turned from Reigns to Asha and her eyes narrowed.
“Thank you for this Constable.” Asha said as she quickly scurried off win hopes Rebecca didn’t recognize her from all those years ago at her father Julian’s trial for his crimes and the violent death of Albert Lord at Windcliff.
At that trial Asha was a younger, but she Rebecca locked eyes.
“I’ll see you soon Asha.” Reigns said.
Rebecca tilted her head, recognizing the name bur returned to her task.
“Well? Explain yourself.” The Lord matriarch growled pointing to the article published in the village’s newspaper her own company published on his desk.
"We've made an arrest in your son's case I thought you'd be pleased." He answered.
"Dr. Andrew Kim? The shooter is Eliza Goode, you know that!!" She answered. "What happened to Eliza?"
Reigns stood in front of Rebecca and couldn't understand why things kept coming back to Eliza. His mind was locked, try as he might, but nothing was connecting the crime to Eliza with what he was now provided, the proof that Asha gave him.
"All I can say without going into great detail is that we received ample proof that Dr. Kim was solely responsible for the crimes against your son Jacob, and Christian Evans. I know that you wanted this resolved and however the outcome, I thought you’d will be pleased." Reigns explained.
"This makes absolutely no sense. We had an understanding. We spoke we discussed and you made it clear you intended to arrest her, not this Windcliff Doctor! Unless....” Rebecca paused “oh god, what did Eliza do to you?" She asked, seeing that there was clearly something different about him. His calm demeanor. His inability to remember just two weeks before when Eliza was in his jail.
"Ma'am?" He asked confused. "There's nothing been done to me. By anyone.” Reigns confirmed. “Are you ok?" He added seeing Rebecca seemingly losing her grip on reality with the news of Eliza’s release.
Then Rebecca began to shake with anger. Eliza had escaped again from getting her just deserts, this infuriated Rebecca who felt like she did not get her own justice for what Eliza did to her decades ago. This moment, the arrest for the shooting was supposed to be the beginning. But Rebecca felt she was once again robbed of that vindication.
"She did something to you just as she's done to so many. If I had it in me, I'd take matters into my own hands and let the law decide otherwise." Rebecca said.
"Mrs. Lord I have to encourage you to take some time to rest and rethink whatever it is you believe happened here. I can see that you are stressed and upset. Perhaps you should take some time off from all your duties with the company you run and enjoy your new grandson. A woman of your age should be more in tune with family rather than dealing with things like crimes like this." Reigns said patronizingly.
Rebecca saw red and slapped him across the face. All the events of her life had suddenly bubbled up and came out like a thunderbolt through her arm and out of her hand across his face.
He betrayed her and now he was making her feel like feeble, paranoid and obsessive old woman.
"'A woman of my age'?" Rebecca gasped. "I'll have you know I've been running my family's company for years since my husband's death at the hands of that monster he was locked away with at Windcliff. I’ve raised my children and I had to keep his murder a secret fearing they’d crumble at the thought of their father being eaten by that man. I did it all on my own, yes a woman of my age! Id rather they think he took his own life.” She explained as Reigns sighed. “But a woman of My age, Constable Reigns, has nothing to do with running things or getting things done keeping life together and making it all work. I've done more at my age that you've done in your whole pathetic life, and if you think that talking down to me like this because I am a woman, or even an older woman, you've made the wrong choice. Every single person who has underestimated me has rued the day they did. Now, I don't know what Eliza did to you, and I may never know, but she'll pay. Somehow. Some day. She will pay. God knows it. GOD! Know what she's done." Rebecca said as she quickly turned from Reigns frustrated and furious that Eliza has seemingly got away with her crimes again and bid him a good day and stormed out of his office leaving him shell shocked.
****
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| Genevieve’s odd encounters in the village |
After recovering from a 24 hour bug in her hotel room that made her miss the big wedding, Johnathon DeViana’s fiancée Genevieve Thorne walked along the busy streets of Welshport Village awaiting her fiancée Johnathon DeViana. She carried along with her a box hat with a new big feathered hat she purchased that would match the baby blue dress with small dark daisies sewn into the sleeves. She couldn't wait to show Johnathon her new hat when they met up at Gramercy Café in a few hours.
As Genevieve crossed one Center Street, which was in the main center of town, and on to Ocean Street, she passed several people who gasped at the sight of her.
A woman in a bookshop window dropped the book she was reading.
A man and his friend outside a market looking at the tomatoes slapped his friend on the shoulder and pointed at the passing beauty that was Genevieve.
"Oy! He told his friend. Would you look at 'er!"
Genevieve soon realized men and women from every corner of the village who could see her were staring at her. They where whispering to each other and some even pointed. She started to feel uneasy and somewhat embarrassed. The odd behavior of the villagers forced her to flee. She ran and ran down the street passed several more onlookers who couldn't believe their eyes to see the beautiful Genevieve Thorne and who she resembled.
The very dead Sabrina Lord.
Genevieve, who didn't understand the staring, decided she did not like the feeling of being gawked at by strangers in the village. She grabbed tightly to her hat box and headed back to her hotel room down the street passing a woman feverishly getting into awaiting car.
It was Rebecca who had just left Constable Reigns office angry with how the events of Eliza's arrest turned out.
Genevieve passed Rebecca not knowing who she was. Her beautiful dark hair and bright blue eyes glowed in the brilliant sun and in the reflection of the back window of Rebecca's car.
Rebecca was adjusting her coat when Genevieve passed the car window.
The shock of Genevieve's face almost stopped Rebecca's heart, even more than the news of Eliza’s escape from prison.
Genevieve was indeed the spitting image of Rebecca's late daughter in law Sabrina.
Rebecca gasped thinking she had seen a ghost in the middle of the day. Rebecca could feel her breathing shallowing in the shock, then jumped into action and pushed open the door surprising Hamstead who was getting ready to pull off of the side of the street and head home.
"Madame! What is it???" He shouted at his mistress who was now on the sidewalk staring at the beautiful Genevieve who was now passed her up the walkway.
Rebecca replaced the gloves on her hands shielding them from the cool breeze coming fresh off the ocean and into the village. Her green eyes, still blocked by random dots of the veil hanging from her hat.
"That woman, did you see her? Did you see her face?" Rebecca asked.
"No Madame, I didn't who was it?" Hamstead asked.
"It was Sabrina. Hamstead! IT WAS SABRINA!" Rebecca said of Genevieve.
"Madame, that cannot be. Miss Sabrina died so long ago, you know this. We saw her body and she was buried in the family mausoleum. Perhaps it was someone who looked like her." Hamstead said.
Rebecca lifted a brow and turned to look at her driver. She knew better than that, she had seen others come back from the dead in recent months. She wouldn't put it passed it if Eliza Goode was behind this new resurrections of Sabrina.
"Go on, take me home." Rebecca ordered. But before Rebecca could get back into the car, a hand from the other side of her grabbed her by the shoulder.
The large leather gloved hand was heavy on her Rebecca's body and she turned to see it was her new spiritual Guru Caspian Casador smiling at her like the cat that ate the canary.
"Mr. Casador!" Rebecca said.
Caspian said nothing and only smiled. The sun sparkled on his long golden necklace that he had around his neck and over his white collard shirt. Tucked into the inside pocket of his jacket was the necklace's medallion, a golden pentagram held closed to his heart warming his body.
**
 |
| Genevieve & the ghostly apparition of Sabrina in a mirror |
The stressed Genevieve burst into her hotel room like a wild gust of wind in a flurry of upset. She threw her new hot box onto the sofa of the tiny blue toned living room and noticed the French doors that opened to the bedroom had been opened.
She walked into the room and saw Johnathon packing their bags.
"Oh, Good!” Genevieve exclaimed at Johnathon packing. “I'm so glad we're leaving." She added.
Johnathon turned to her to say something but she kept speaking "I was in the village today and, I don't know this whole place is starting to give me such an uneasy feeling Johnny. I thought it was a cute little town at first but everyone started staring at me just now. And pointing! And I’m not exaggerating. It was literally every one I passed on the street. Whispering and pointing. Something is off in this town.” Genevieve said.
Johnathon turned to his beautiful fiancée and gave her a small smile. He came over to her and put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a kiss.
"We're not leaving darling." He said to her shock.
"What? But why? If its because I haven't met your sister and the baby, we can go there now and then leave this afternoon. Johnny, this village is odd. I’m telling you Something about it doesn't feel right." She said.
"They were probably looking at you because you resemble someone." Johnathon said. "It was nothing sinister."
"All of them were staring at me, Johnathon. Not just one or two people, almost everyone I walked passed. That isn't normal. They couldn't all know someone that I resembled."
Johnathon remembered the portrait of Sabrina Lord at Tirymor House that he saw and how much Genevieve did look like Sabrina. He knew that that had to be why everyone was staring. The Lord were local celebrities and were all well known by face by everyone in the small village.
"Not to make things even more stranger than they already are for you but yesterday I saw a portrait in the halls of the mansion where the Lords live and there is a woman you look like. Sabrina Lord is Celeste's late sister-in-law and when I saw that portrait it was in deed quite surprising how much the likeness is. That's probably it, my love. Nothing dark. Nothing evil." Johnathon explained to Genevieve's discontent.
"But they stared at me like I was some kind of monster. It wasn't a warm or kind look on someone they once regarded. Besides, if we're staying why are you packing?" She wondered.
"We've been invited to stay at Tirymor House with the family now that we're in the family." Johnathon explained now that he was related to the Lords by marriage and secretly by blood.
"ABSOLUTLEY NOT!" Genevieve exclaimed. "I will not go to that.. that... house of shadows! I don't have a good feeling about any of this now that I've seen Welshport's true colors. We should leave and leave today." Genevieve ordered.
“We can’t go. We can never go. We've made it, darling. We've made it like you have no idea how big." He said cryptically.
"What are you talking about? Made what?”She asked as his face began to glow with pride.
“We’ll never have to work another day in our lives or go back to that tiny apartment.” He explained. “I’m going to tell you something my sister confided in me that you cannot repeat…do you understand?” He asked with a hunger in his eyes.
“Johnny you’re scaring me, what’s going on?” She asked holding her breath.
“Celeste told me a family secret. One she was sworn to never tell but she finally has. I am the son of Albert Lord!! It's true! Celeste confessed to me that there was an affair between my mother and Albert. Part of that estate is mine! OURS! Now we can go there and be apart of that family and finally be comfortable and happy. It's the wish we always wanted. Its come true!" He said dollar signs practically spinning in his eyes.
Johnathon wasn't a greedy person by nature. He was actually a very hard-working good man but had been dropped on hard times over the years. He struggled and often times felt like a failure in life. Being with Genevieve he felt even worse when he couldn't provide for her everything that he felt the love of his life deserved. A beautiful home, a life filled with no monetary worries. All of that now had quickly vanished from his brain with Celeste's confession.
And even though he was sworn to secrecy he still planned on getting what he believed was his part of his father's fortune.
Genevieve had no idea what to make of the news. She stood there, almost frozen in shock. She was now engaged to a man connected to one of the most wealthy families in the United States. Everything felt like it was happening so quickly. He smiled at her and couldn't believe she wasn't more happy. She insisted she was but there was still that apprehension of the truth of everything.
"This is where we finally come up. It's the answer to my prayer!" He said. "Why don't you finish packing for us, the car is coming to the hotel in an hour to take us back to the mansion. I'll go down and settle the bill with the hotel."
Genevieve, frozen in shock of all the news of Johnathon’s good fortune could not react. To her his new windfall only meant she was now going to have to allow herself to get drawn into the world of the Lord family of Welshport.
She dizzily nodded her head to his request as he rushed out of the room to pay their hotel bill.
She couldn't believe it. All of it was so strange. So rapid. So different all in a two days time.
She went over to the open suitcase on the bed, her mind still buzzing with the news of Johnathon's paternity and heard something whisper to her.
She turned to the French doors of the bedroom thinking it was Johnathon.
No one was there.
She began to fold the clothes again.
More whispers.
She turned to the bathroom door.
No one there.
A chill ran up Genevieve's spine and then she heard something behind her and she turned to look behind her and saw her own reflection in the mirror. The face was hers but the expression was not.
Then, her own face in the mirror changed and winked at her and whispered her own name "GENEVIEVE" in a ghostly voice that came out of the mirror like cold breath on a icy winter day.
It was Sabrina.
Genevieve screamed and fell backwards on to the floor. When she got up to look, her reflection as gone, and so was Sabrina Lord.
Genevieve was shaking. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.
****
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| Evie, Aurora & Nik join Matthew morning Alice |
That night, as the moon settled over the fog covered sea as if to keep watch on the sailors heading back into port for the night, a cold wind blew over Welshport. The Autumn had withered away and winter had finally come. The first days of the cold were bitter, especially on this first night.
The sea, as wild as it normally was in the Frenchman Bay and on a night like this, settled at the bottom of the deep rocky cliffsides that made up the shoreline of Welshport Island.
On the rocks of the Western Ridge where in the large cave-like structure that made up the catacombs of the Dænian people. Matthew, Evie, Nik and Aurora came to say farewell to Alice Winterborn in a small and intimate funeral.
A man from the village, a catholic priest offered to come to say some words of window and spirituality for Alice's soul and even though Matthew was only Catholic by force when his people were forced to convert, he allowed it.
Matthew’s mind was swirling with memories and thoughts of the past. He bore no resentment towards anyone and welcomed anyone who wanted to send his sister off in good graces at her funeral. Even the priest from a religion he did not partake in.
Matthew thought while the priest prayed about how he lived all his life assimilating into society to work and make a living and denied the powers and gifts his people passed down to him so that he and his sister could live a better life. He even entrusting Alice to Windcliff where he felt she would be safe in a medical institution where her supernatural abilities would be construed as part of a fantasy from a woman lost in her mind,
It was even Alice’s idea at the time, such was the fear that they’d be discovered as the last of their kind.
But all that was over now. Alice was gone and now Matthew was the true last of the Dænians. How could he continue to push away his abilities?
"Is there anything specific you'd like me to say Matthew?" The priest said, breaking Matthew’s concentration on the past.
"Whatever you'd like sir." Matthew replied as he held Evie close to keep her warm.
The priest, who bathed Alice's coffin in holy water and incense from his golden thurible, blessed her remains and said a small prayer to himself then out loud in Latin for the small group of mourners to hear.
They all repeated Amen.
"I'm so sorry for your loss Matthew. Niky has told me about Alice she was incredibly special." Aurora said as she hugged Matthew. "I wish I had come sooner. I don't know what else to say."
"Thank you Mrs. Jordan." Matthew said.
"Mrs. Jordan, why don't you accompany me, I can take you back to Tirymor." The priest said of the chilled Aurora.
"I think that would be best. I am still rather tired from my journey." She said.
"Of course." Matthew said hugging her again.
"I should go back with her." Evie told Matthew. "Listen," She began "you have been so good to me and through so much I can't imagine where I'd be without you. And without Alice. She was there for me when I was at Windcliff. She helped me. And she's helped me here too. I won't leave you Matthew. I will do all I can for you and be by your side. I promise you." She said.
Matthew looked down at Evie who was quite a bit shorter than he was. He stared deep into her eyes and realized that he was falling in love with her. She was right, they had been through an enormous amount of trials and tribulations over the fall and they'd grown closer. Even Nik, he'd become like Matthew's own little brother. He pulled Evie close, she could feel his warmth, the warmth of someone so kind and gentle and loving. He tilted and bowed his head and kissed Evie on the lips. A fire in a pit that had been burning just next to them burned and warmed all their bodies felt even hotter now that they'd kissed.
Evie, for the first time in so long, felt safe in a man's arms. She grabbed on to him and held him close.
"I have to go." She whispered.
He nodded his head then with Aurora went along with the priest back into the village.
"I never got to say goodbye, Matthew. Not to my father. Not to Alice." Nik said his eyes streaming with tears and reflecting the small fire in the pit in front of him.
"You should go too Nik. It's getting cold." Matthew said softy.
"But we haven't taken her coffin into the catacombs yet. You'll need my help!" Nik replied.
"I have to do this alone, kid. She's my sister and even though you've already been inside, a burial like this should really only be reserved for someone of my people. I can't ask you to come with me. I have to do this alone." Matthew explained.
"But you're the only Dænian left." Nik said. "You can't do everything alone!"
Matthew nodded realizing he was the very last of his kind now that Alice was gone, but he knew the tradition of burial. He could not break it. Alice was so much more connected to her people's culture and the special gifts that came along with it, and now Matthew had to do the same. He had to now take on the mantle of his people and represent them and reconnect with the earth and nature to keep his culture alive. Alice could no longer do it, and he could no longer have the fear of being exposed as some kind of creature or monster or sorcerer.
He was none of those things. The Dænians were none of those things. He had to push on and live for the all, starting with burying his sister the way his people did, no one else could enter the sacred ground.
"Please. Just go, and let me do this." Matthew asked.
Nik looked at his new close friend and saw the determination in his eyes. He could see how much he needed to do this on his own. Nik agreed and waved down the car with his mother, sister and the priest and went along with them.
As Matthew grabbed on to a rope that was tied around the coffin, he carefully dragged the coffin into the catacombs and disappeared into the shadow of the cave's mouth to bury Alice with the respect of a Dænian princess.
Matthew lay Alice’s coffin on a lower level stone shelf next to the remains of his parents and another sibling that had died in the fire set by Albert Lord and his family.
Next to this burial site under a carved out box of stone was a leather bound book of names. All the names of every person who was buried there. Matthew added Alice’s name on the line and then, in a moment of magic and great power the ink on the paper next to Alice’s name appeared in smudges that swirled around in front of Matthew’s vary eyes.
The ink, that he had not written, then clears up and clearly changed into four numbers right next to Alice’s name.
The numbers: 2 0 2 4
Above on the cliffside of the Westridge Woods, a pack of wolves watched as the fire in the pit went out symbolizing Alice's light and life being extinguished. These were Matthew's wolves. They howled in sadness for her. They bayed at the moon that was like a silver disk in the sky over the sea in mourning for their master's sister.
In the shadows of the Rocks, watching all of this, in between crashing waves of the ocean cold and wet and hungry for human blood was Sebastian Lord.
His heart breaking over the kiss he saw between Matthew and his ex-wife Evie.
He was standing on the sand of a small beach just off the shoulder of a large rocky cliff in tears over what he saw was Evie moving on from him. He was hurt. Devastated. Angry even.
He vowed right then and there, as the wolves above him on the cliff continued to howl that he would not stop until Evie was his once more.
Nothing would stop him. Not the winter. The not cold. Not the lack of human blood.
He would get her back. He would!
Out of the mist of a great crash of waves, a figure came at Sebastian. The mist revealed it to be a large man cloaked in black. He was coming towards Sebastian at a stead pace, unafraid. Sebastian, wet and cold and hungry, released his fangs. He hissed at the coming person who suddenly appeared to him face to face.
It was Caspian Casador. Rebecca's spiritual guide.
From Caspian, Sebastian felt a strange power. A dark force. Something he had never felt from any human being ever. It was almost intoxicating how powerful this man from the mists of the ocean was. He hissed again and Caspian smiled at the vampire with his own crooked grin.
"You are determined, I will say that." Caspian said of Sebastian.
"Who are you?" Sebastian growled.
"My son, look at me and tell me who I am." Caspian replied.
The waves crashed on the rocks near them, the thick black rocks that were prehistoric and so sharp they could cut flesh with the slightest graze of the hand. The frigid air suddenly turned warm and Sebastian could literally feel the different in the temperature.
Caspian tilted his head "Well? Cat got your tongue?"
"I don't know you." Sebastian said standing back. "What do you want?" He asked as the waves crossed over his shows and cooled him down again returning the cold air back to his body.
"Perhaps you're not seeing clearly. But that's alright, everything will soon make sense once I begin to connect with you. I can give you all you want, and more. I've done it for so many before you. I can do it again. Have no doubt in me." Caspian explained.
"Why? What do you want?" Sebastian asked as the waves kept coming in.
"Want? Why is everyone so sure I want something from them?" Caspian asked with a giggle. "No, you are correct, I shouldn't be facetious with you. You are good to know that by asking of something you must give in return." Caspian growled.
"I want nothing from you stranger! LEAVE ME!" Sebastian shouted.
The wolves above growled as the waves crashed again and again in the dark shadowy beach side of the Western Ridge.
Caspian did not like Sebastian's hesitance. He could feel how strong Sebastian was---something he did not expect.
"You wish me gone from you, and Ill grant that wish...I'll go, but I will leave you with this..." Caspian said pulling out his necklace with the golden pentagram. "Call on me, anytime of day or night, call on me and I will be here to give you what deserve and only ask for a pledge from you. A pledge of obedience and servitude. We together can rule so much of this earth. Together. As one. But you must call on me Sebastian, call on me … say my name and I will come to you, I will come to you. I will come to you." Caspian said, repeating his words over and over as if to hypnotize Sebastian as he slowly approached him each footprint left deep into the sand.
Sebastian hissed and showed his fangs and the stranger in the cloak and saw the pentagram sparkling in the moonlight.
It was too much for the vampire to handle. With this stranger hunting him, and the feeling of unease in his mind, Sebastian quickly made his way back up the trail on the rocky hillside and vanished into the night air that was cold and brooding leaving Caspian on the shore.
But when Sebastian reached the top of the cliff, he looked back and saw that only one set of footprints was on the sand and they were his. There were none made by the stranger called Caspian.
****
 |
| Mary & Filipe are surprised to see Sebastian at their door |
Mary Goode's heart was broken. Her eyes would not stop shedding tear after tear after teat for her mother Eliza who had sacrificed so much of her life to protect Mary, Sabrina, Charlotte, and in the end losing her own life to make sure Mary could live hers.
As the newly revived witch Mary sat in front of the burning fireplace with the dirt still under her fingernails from burring her mother in a lovely garden just down a pebble path to the beach of Goode Island, she wondered what she would do next now that she was alone.
All alone. Or was she?
"Are you alright?" Filipe askes coming in from the kitchen with warm cups of tea.
"I don't know." Mary said. "I don't think Ill ever be alright again."
Mary got up from her place at the mouth of the fire place leaving Filipe alone in the living room wishing he could do more for Mary. He watched her walk into her bedroom and close the door.
She stood there, feeling unsure of what to do with her life and picked up the spell book her mother had left her and flipped through the pages. The hundreds of years old book felt heavy in her hands. The leather bound cover was withered with time. She caressed the sensing every single line and wrinkle that her mother must of also felt.
It was as if she were touching her mother once again.
She thought to herself that there would be no way she could conjure the powers of white magic like her mother without her mother being the powerful one. Mary was essentially the only one left of her coven. She opened the book once more and flipped through the pages hoping for some kind of sign to make her feel better, something to tell her she'd be ok--- then there it was, somewhere in the center of the book.
It read:
DRAW THIS SIGN
LET THY POWER COME FROM WITHIN
LAY DOWN FLAT OVER THE STAR
THINE INNER POWER WILL COME FROM A FAR
The spell, was simple it seemed. A conjuring spell. Mary read it over and over again. She wondered why the page was marked with an ex over it in red link. It had to be the sign Mary was looking for.
Mary quickly rushed over to her desk drawer and grabbed the reddest lipstick tube in the drawer. She rushed over to the center of the room and rolled up the rug and pushed a small chair and table off to a corner of the room then she drew a large circle and star onto the hardwood floors just like the book said.
She then, turned and lay down over the star and read the spell again out loud.
Her hands started to prickle. The hair on the back of her beck stood up. The bottom of her feet started to burn and she could feel something hot in the center of her chest. It got hotter and hotter the longer she said the spell.
"Mary?" Filipe said opening the door to see Mary on the floor over the pentagram.
She turned towards the door, her eyes opened and were completely red.
"CASPIAN!!" She screamed at him. the word flowing out of her mouth like a banshee. Her eyes red like fire her hair flowing in a wind that didn't exist and a bright cold air freezing everything it touched for a split second almost as if time itself had stopped in place.
Her voice carried such power that it threw Filipe out of the room and into the hallways behind him knocking him to the floor.
Mary then leaped up to the ground, now returning back to normal.
Her heart was racing. Her mind feeling like it was all over the place unsure of what had just happened.
"What just happened?? My God Filipe, area you ok?" Mary said rushing over to Filipe.
He nodded yes. "What was that?" He asked.
"It... it wasn't right. I was trying to connect with my mother, or trying to rejoin the coven or refresh my lease into the world of white magic but that wasn't right. I don't think it, my god, that was black magic. That was darkness and I want no part of that!!" She said rushing back to the star in the circle and began to smear the red lipstick off the hardwood floors.
"That's it! We can't stay here Mary. This place is no longer for us, do you understand me, we have to leave Welshport and never come back here. We can make our lives somewhere else. We can do better, be better, happier, SAFER, somewhere else." Filipe said, still feeling the soreness of being thrown across the room.
Mary shook her head no. "We can't do that, I can't leave my mother."
"Mary, your mother has died. She gave her life for you to live and what life will you have here trapped in the same house she trapped herself in. If we leave, together, we can make our lives so much better." Filipe said.
"But Charlotte. I can't just leave Charlotte alone with Jacob. I need to be here to watch over her." Mary reminded him.
"Charlotte has Celeste. She won't let anything happen to Charlotte. She loves her."
Mary frowned and pulled away from Filipe with a violet yank.
"She's NOT her mother. I am her mother, and I will not leave her. Never." Mary said.
"I'm sorry. I know how much it means to you to be part of your daughter's life." Filipe relented. "But what can we do now? I don't feel safe here anymore. Jacob will be looking for me, and now that you're back in your own body, Reigns will be after you for what happened with Sebastian." He reminded her.
"There's something else, though. Something else is coming. That feeling I felt just now on the floor. The energy, that dark energy. I feel it, Filipe. If we leave now I don't know what will happen to our loved ones now that that dark energy has come to Welshport." Mary explained.
"Hasn't it always been here?" He asked.
"This is different. This is very very different." Mary said.
"Then---we'll take Charlotte. We'll take her and the three of us will leave for parts unknown and no one will ever find us. Not Jacob or Rebecca, or Celeste, or anyone. We'll start a new life and we'll leave this world behind and never look back. I think I can really be with you Mary, we can make it work. Together, the two of us and Charlotte. We can do this!" Filipe said practically begging her to leave with him.
In truth, his proposition was enticing. She did feel that the shadow that was looking over her and the entire island was giving her pause about how safe it was there. Mary didn't want Charlotte to be in any danger and perhaps taking her and fleeing would be better for all of them. Starting fresh, it felt right, it felt plausible.
Mary had to admit to herself too that she did feel a strong connection to Filipe too. They'd survived so much together and had connected when they both thought their lives were over. It was something no one else she had ever known would ever understand.
"Alright! Let's do it. Let's figure out a way to take Charlotte and get out of town for good." She smiled.
Filipe grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her closed and kissed on the lips so passionately that it was as if she felt her whole body melting into his arms. They felt perfect together. They felt right for each other despite Filipe's lingering feelings for Celeste that he knew would eventually fade now that she had moved on. He knew he had to move on too. And he found that in Mary.
Then, as they began to slowly remove their clothes, they were interrupted by the front door slamming open up against the wall startling the two new lovers.
They looked at each other and slowly made their way back into the front room from the bedroom, Mary's hands still stained with the red lipstick.
The slowly made their way into the dark hall and down it into the room to see Sebastian Lord standing in the center of the room in the glowing yellow burning light of the fireplace.
Filipe put his arm out to keep Mary behind him. She gasped at the site of her undead cousin and saw the painful expression on his face.
"What do you want?" Filipe asked in a deep voice.
Filipe said nothing with words, only showed his pain and suffering in his face.
"I need your help. Please!" Sebastian said.
"No. No more. I've given you too much already." Filipe answered.
"You don't understand, someone... something...there's something out there. I met him. I need your help he's not like us. He's not what we are!" The desperate vampire added.
"Sebastian what are you talking about? You're not making sense." Mary said from behind the protection of Filipe.
"I was at the Western Ridge and I saw Evie and Matthew and they kissed and I became so angry and hurt and then someone found me. No one could see me but this man found me. He was frightened and he said if I promised something to him, he would help me with all my dreams. He knew what I was, he said so." Sebastian said, almost sounding like a lost child.
"Sebastian you have to let Evie go. You have to, she cannot be yours any longer, do you understand me? The more you push on her the more you stalk her the more you follow and frighten her the more she will want to be far from you. Your time with her is gone. Just like mine with Celeste." Filipe explained.
"THIS IS MORE THAN JUST EVIE!!!" Sebastian yelled. "I love her and I will always love her and I will for the rest of my days try to get her back but this man was..." Sebastian paused.
"Was what, tell me?" Mary said.
"Where's Eliza? Where's Aunt Eliza????" He asked.
Mary and Filipe looked at each other sadly.
"What happened??" Sebastian asked frantically.
"Mother died, Sebastian. She died to save me." Mary explained with a short answer.
"No... NO!!! SHE CANNOT BE GONE!! I need her. I need her to protect us all from this man, I'm, telling you. He wanted me to swear to him on his necklace, a star in a circle, I know that symbol. I know it's power. YOU KNOW IT TOO!!" Sebastian yelled.
Mary's heart practically stopped in her chest.
"The star in the circle. The star in the circle. The Star in the circle." She kept repeating in her mind.
"Did he say his name?" Mary asked in a cold tone of voice realizing who Sebastian had just met.
"Yes. It was ...." Sebastian paused trying to remember.
"Sebastian, you need to tell me if you he told you his name and what it was." Mary said pushing through Filipe's protective arms and grabbing her cousin Sebastian by the shoulders forcing him to look her in the eyes.
Sebastian thought for a second then it came to him, the terrifying name of the man he met on the beach.
"Caspian. He said his name was Caspian."
Mary's blood ran cold. It was the same name the book of spells told her. It was the same name the pentagram she drew on the floor gave her. The signal of dark magic. The power of something much worse than any of them had ever known had arrived in Welshport and she did not know what to do.
His hooks, whatever he was -- warlock or demon, creature of evil or the devil himself, had made himself known.
"Sebastian we're leaving. We're leaving for good." Filipe said trying to turn the conversation around.
"NO!" Mary replied.
"What?" Filipe asked seeing Mary had suddenly changed her mind.
"We cannot leave now. My cousin is right. Something dark is upon on here, something so evil that it awoke in me when I tried to conjure magic with my mother's book. If we leave now we leave everyone in Welshport to die. We have to stay Filipe. We have to find Caspian and make sure he doesn't take a single soul from this island." Mary explained.
"Taking souls?" Filipe asked. "You can't mean---" he continued before being interrupted by Sebastian's.
"He's …..the devil."
Mary turned to Sebastian and realized her mother's death had empowered the devil or a proxy for the devil to the island for reasons they did not yet know.
"What do we do now?" Filipe asked.
Mary and Sebastian looked at each other with blank expressions on their faces.
If the Devil was in Welshport, no one was safe. Not any mortal, not a witch and not a vampire.
And certainly not the world.
 |
| Caspian on the balcony of Tirymôr House |
On the balcony of one of the many bedrooms of Tirymor House that overlooked the entire Island, the twinkling lights of the village sparkled like tiny little stars.
Caspian Casador had been welcomed into the mansion by Rebecca to be her new spiritual guide.
His eyes glowed red like blood and he laughed to himself a laugh so malevolent that it echoed into the wind and frightened the murder of crows from their perches in the forest trees so that they all took flight screeching angrily into the air.
His sinister laugh then carried over the village and island over the water to Goode Island chilling Mary, Filipe and Sebastian to their core.
The lives of everyone on the island were at stake if Caspian Casador, the devil incarnate, was not stopped.
