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| Rebecca & Aurora discuss the plot over tea |
A new evening ticked away on the large oak grandfather clock in the green parlor where Rebecca Lord was being served tea by Jane, the maid. The silver tea set sparkled in the light almost as if it were made of diamonds. Jane curtsied once the tea tray was on the small table in front of Rebecca who was reading and made her way out of the sitting room just as Aurora was entering.
Jane stopped and curtsied to Aurora who smiled and bowed her head.
"Aurora! Just in time for tea. Please." Rebecca said, putting down her book extending her arm to the the silver tea-set.
"Thank you." Aurora said sitting down. But Aurora was not in the mood for tea. She had been searching the mansion for half an hour looking for Rebecca and hoped to find her alone, without Caspian there to influence their conversation. Aurora sipped her tea and under the clouds of steam that floated up over the rim of the cup, she said she needed to speak to Rebecca.
"It's important."
"What is it?" Rebecca wondered with concern.
"It's all this talk about," Aurora's voice lowered so that no one walking by could hear "what Caspian has asked us to do. Rebecca, I don’t know what came over me to agree to take part in this but… it's insane. We just can't do it. We can’t give Evie’s baby away. It doesn’t matter who the baby’s father was or is, deserves to raise the baby herself."
Rebecca carefully put down her teacup. "I see."
"That's it? That's all you have to say? You don't think it's extraordinary for him to ask that of us? It’s such a strange request and… Rebecca, it’s probably a crime." Aurora added.
"No! Of course I do! Of course. You’re right!" Rebecca said as Aurora exhaled in relief. "I don't know why I even entertained the idea. I really don't. You know, Caspian is a very kind man at heart, he really is. But sometimes, perhaps, he goes too far in his dogma. And maybe I fall into it too easily as well. You’re absolutely right. I'll talk to him."
“So you don’t mind Evie raising the child alone? Or maybe even with Matthew?” Aurora asked remembering Rebecca’s objection to fisherman Matthew being a potential stepfather. A man in a profession a step down from Rebecca’s blue-blooded breeding.
Rebecca bit her lip and exhaled. “I don’t see it as a good idea, but Evie will have to make the right decision herself.”
"Thank you Rebecca, thank you." Aurora replied somewhat satisfied. "I don't want to be pushy... but could you do it now? Talk to him I mean."
"Now?" Rebecca asked in surprise of the urgency.
"I just think that if her nip this in the bud, he'll stop all of this non-sense right away. Especially if it comes from you. He listens to you, after all you pay his wages." Aurora added as her hands shook holding tea cup, Rebecca noticed this.
"You're really worried about this aren't you?" Rebecca said.
Aurora nodded her head without saying a word.
"Alright, alright. I'll go over to his room now and see if he's in and discuss it all with him. Just stay here and finish the tea before it gets cold." Rebecca instructed.
**
In his room Caspian stared out the window as the sun was setting over the green hills just beyond the forest of Tirymor. He wondered where Sebastian was, the creature that he met on the beach at Alice's funeral. The creature of the night. He wondered what it would be like to hold that creature's child in his hands once it was born and what it would be like to raise it as his own, in his own word, and in his own power.
The two, He and the child, would grow more and more powerful together, especially being that the child's father was a creature of the night. A creature of darkness that thrived on the blood of humans. It was almost too perfect. It was almost kismet for Caspian to have been summoned to earth by Eliza who had created Sebastian. To Caspian, it was all meant to be.
"Caspian." A whispery voiced Rebecca called from his door.
"Mrs. Lord, please come in." Caspian said turning quickly from his window. "What can I do for you?" He added falling back into his loyal spiritual guide act.
"We should discuss what we talked about...everything." She said unsure how to broach the topic of taking Evie's baby for Caspian.
"Everything?"
"Yes, you know, Aurora and I have concerns about your wanting of Evie's baby and it just seems so strange and in truth, quite cruel. We think that the plan should be aborted. Totally. Completely. Full stop." Rebecca said, reaching into her skirt pocket where she believed she'd find her trusty rosary. But it was not there.
"I see." Caspian said walking over to Rebecca. "Are you both certain this is what you want?"
"Yes."
Caspian lifted a brow and stared deep into Rebecca's ice blue eyes. He had come so far and come so close to getting what he wanted to rule, to create a new world order where he and the child would reign supreme. He was not going to give up this easy when total power was so close. It was so close he could taste it.
He gently reached over and grabbed Rebecca's hand. It was cold, showing her nerves. He massaged her hand, rolling his two hands around hers warming it.
"I think you should rethink what that means for you. You know that should I get hold of the baby once it's born there is salvation for all of us. Everyone single one." He said as a hypnotic glow began flow from his eyes into Rebecca's.
Instantly she fell pray to his control.
"Salvation." She whispered.
"That' right Rebecca. For all of us. If you continue this task for me, I can give you anything you've ever wanted. Think Rebecca, think deep into your most passionate desires. What is it that you want and I will grant it for you once the baby is mine. What is it Rebecca, what is it I can give you?" Caspian said transfixing Rebecca deeper and deeper into his control.
Her mind did not wander or think too long. She knew what she wanted, she had wished for it ever since it was taken away from her two decades ago. In her hypnotic state, Rebecca opened her mouth. The same glowing light came out of her mouth that was in her eyes and that was in Caspian's eyes.
He knew now, she was his. She was locked in his control and this time would not be so easily released.
"What do you want Rebecca, tell me." He said in a dark whisper that echoed in her mind.
"Vivian Victoria." She replied, the name of Rebecca and Albert's daughter that died in infancy that Eliza Goode could not resurrect.
"Vivian Victoria." Caspian replied as the imagine of a baby floated into his mind from Rebecca's.
"Vivi." Rebecca said using Victoria's nickname.
"What do you want from her?" He asked.
"I want her back, Vivi was taken from me when she was a baby and I want her back." Rebecca said.
Caspian smiled evilly. He now trapped her. From his mind to hers, he showed her the face of a 23 year old woman with hazel eyes and flowing dark hair. The woman's skin was the color of a fresh spring peach. Her smile was Albert's smile. Her left cheek had a single dimple on it just as Rebecca had.
"This is what Vivi would look like today, had she lived to adulthood, Rebecca. You continue the task of getting me Evie's child when it is born and I promise you, this beautiful woman, Victoria Vivian, will return to you as she should have been in age and in time." Caspian said.
Then he snapped his fingers and Rebecca came back to normal.
She did not say a word. Only smiled and turned to leave the room with a haze in her mind that did not move her to do what Aurora asked. Standing outside of the room, Jacob listened---stunned at what heard his mother and Caspian discussing.
Rebecca passed Jacob in the hall but he was undetected. He followed his hypnotized mother quietly to see what she would do next all the while the horrible plot he overheard kept swirling in his mind.
Jacob was no saint. He was never a person to look back at the things he himself and done and ask for forgiveness but what Rebecca was planning was Caspian was to take a Lord baby and give it to someone to raise who was not in the family. A child that was innocent and even though Jacob had his reservations about welcoming in another baby to rival his children's right to the family fortune, he still didn't want some strange like Caspian to take the baby.
To Jacob Caspian's latest bizarre move was against his whole sensibility. Jacob needed to look out for himself and Caspian seemed to be usurping his control of Rebecca. At least Jacob believed he too had control over his mother, Caspian's powers were unmatched by Jacob's mortal manipulations.
Rebecca entered the sitting room where an anxious Aurora was waiting still drinking warm tea.
"You're back so soon!" Aurora said to Rebecca who did not answer.
Jacob continued to listen from the door, hidden from view.
"What did he say? He understood that it was strange right? He had to have." Aurora added as she nervously twisted a white linen napkin in her hand.
Rebecca sat back down on the green and white chair that clashed with her embroidered eggplant colored dress. She picked up the teacup and sipped and shook her head now.
"The plan should be carried out Aurora. I had second thoughts about it and we just can't allow Evie to raise the child with Matthew Winterborn as it's step-father. No, Caspian's plan will go forward." The hypnotized Rebecca replied.
"What? No! There is nothing wrong with Matthew. Rebecca, please we need to stop this. It's inappropriate and I can't stand for anymore of this talk. It will stop today!" Aurora said forcefully.
"Aurora, I would advise you to stay clear of the plan if you are sure you want nothing to do with it. We can manage without you." Rebecca replied. "But I can also advise you that if you try and interfere, there is no telling what will come of you. Caspian is not and will not stand for any foul play, from you or anyone."
"What? What does that mean? Are you threatening me?" Aurora asked.
Rebecca shrugged.
"I think perhaps I should get Gregory Reigns involved if that's how things are going to paly out." Aurora said standing up but still gripping her cup of tea tightly in her hand as if it were some sort of life preserver in the increasingly more volatile conversation.
Rebecca stood up too at the mention of Gregory's name.
"Don't you dare bring the constable to this house. The matters of my household have nothing to do with the officials of the village, especially Constable Gregory Reigns." Rebecca answered as Jacob stood outside the parlor confused at why his mother was behaving this way.
"Rebecca what you and Caspian are planning is nothing short of kidnapping and being that we share family connection to the baby we should protect it, not hand it off to some strange man. We don't even know what he wants with the baby, or what it even means for him to raise a child as his own. Its unnatural is bizarre! I won't do it." Aurora raved.
Rebecca, still under Caspian's control stared at Aurora with eyes that began to glow once more. And with the powers that flowed into her by Caspian's mind the energy went into the air and flowed around Aurora who gasped at the sight of the strange substance coming out of Rebecca.
With her breathing now quickening, the yellow glow entered Aurora too and then she too was locked in Caspian's control, a stronger trap than he had done on her before.
"No one interferes." Rebecca said, her eyes glowing in Caspian's yellow light of hypnosis.
Aurora dropped the cup of tea that spilled over the tip of her blue shoe and elaborately woven Persian rung.
Aurora's eyes were now glowing yellow too. She had been sucked deeper into Caspian's mind trip. Both women would not find it harder to releases the grip he had over them. The control he desired was now firmly holding their mind's and body so that he could maneuver them like dolls in his own little game of house as his two unholy wives.
"No one interferes." Aurora replied with no sense of herself in her own voice.
Jacob, still eavesdropped stood behind a large potted plant in the hall that obscured him from being seen by anyone, even Jane the maid who returned to bring small sandwiches to the two matriarchs in the room.
Jacob's stomach cramped with fear of what any of this means. He decided that the one thing he could finally do was protect his family from someone trying to harm it even if it felt strange for him to do it considering all of the pain he had caused the family himself.
He wondered what could he do, how could he stop Caspian. Then he remembered how adamite Rebecca was about not involving the constable, the law: Gregory Reigns. Jacob decided, he would do it. He would go to Gregory in the village and ask for help ridding Caspian and his strange plan to kidnap Evie's baby.
In Jacob's warped mind, if anyone was going to manipulate and control the people at Tirymor, it was going to Jacob, NOT the strange new spiritual guide from no where Caspian. The threat of the new face in the halls Caspian was too much for Jacob to handle.
He gathered himself and in the coming dusk, went off into the Village to find Gregory.
****
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| Evie & Matthew in the Tirymor hedge maze |
The night sky was coming and clouds floated over the island settling into the dusk air. In the maze gardens outside the Tirymor mansion there were gas lanterns illuminating the pathways that had been lit up an hour earlier by one of the Tirymor grounds-men as the approaching night came.
On a sweet stroll through the gardens, Evie Jordan-Lord and Matthew Winterborn walked arm-in-arm enjoying the warming night. He had returned from 3 days out at sea with a local fishing fleet. She was happy to hear his voice again, it soothed her. She hung on his every word of what he saw. He spoke of the bright blue water far out into the Atlantic, the following school of dolphin that leaped up and out of the water joyfully almost as if they were trying to say hello to the Welshport fishermen. He described the beautiful family of blue whales the swirled around his ship singing their song like sirens deep under the surf and of the Portuguese islands he encountered and of the cool endless days of Iceland where his fishing boat sent him.
Evie listened to Matthew's stories intently, letting his voice soak into her heart and mind letting it take her away from the strange feeling she suffered in her belly the day Matthew went out to sea. He had her undivided attention and let his stories of the far off sea save her from her reality.
He noticed that she was listening but the look in her eyes didn't hide her concern for the baby.
"Evie? Are you ok?" He said to her as he asked her a question, but she did not answer.
She suddenly realized that although she was listening, he sensed her concern.
"Of course! Yes...it's just. I'm sorry, nothing, there's nothing. Tll me more. Tell me about the whales again." Evie said.
He smiled and pulled her close and kissed her. "Ill tell you about all the whales I've ever seen, but. I can see that you're sort of glazing over from time to time. I know I didn't see any pirates or mermaids, maybe my sea shanties aren't exactly the thing of great story telling." Matthew giggled shyly.
"No! No, no! I love hearing about your time out at sea. I really do. Its just that, well, something happened the day you left and I've been thinking about it ever since." Evie confessed.
"What was it?"
Evie signed worried she was overreacting but decided to tell Matthew about the pain in her belly. He instantly became worried. The baby was his most utmost concern because he knew this was Evie's first child and that she was under so much stress still living in his in-laws home. It could have been much worse, he assured her, but still there was much to be worried about.
"Have you felt that pain again?" Matthew asked sitting her down on a bench within the lush green maze of the mansion's gardens.
"No, no, it was just the once. I promise." She said trying to make him feel better.
"Still, I think maybe we should go see Dr. Ward. He would for sure be able to tell you if something serious was happening with the baby." Matthew said.
"I shouldn't have said anything. I know that things could always get worse, but I think that maybe it was just one of those pregnancy feelings that I'm not used to." Evie said, brushing off her bodily insticts.
"You're saying you're fine but you can't get it out off your mind, that makes me worried." Matthew said, trying to tell her to see more clearly.
Evie knew he was right. Anything that happened with her pregnancy needed to be taken care of and seen by a doctor. And soon.
"You're right, you're right, of course you're right. I'll make another appointment with Dr, Ward as soon as I can. I just feel like maybe I shouldn't be such a worry wart." Evie said as a small statured gardener made his way into the maze where they were sitting to clip some topiaries.
"I think you're under more stress than you realize living here." Matthew added. "It can't feel normal living here with out, you know, without Sebastian."
"It hasn't been all that bad really. I guess since my mother's come, and Nik has been out now working at the hospital, maybe I have felt a little more pressure being here under Rebecca's eye. I can feel like a butterfly under a jar sometimes." Evie replied.
"Do they bother you?" Matthew asked as the grander moved closer to them chopping away at the topiaries. He was clearly listening to the couple chatting but they didn't notice.
"Not always. But truthfully, it's how Rebecca has been doting on me so much. Actually my mother too. I know that they see me as this fragile thing being pregnant, but I'm really not. And also, it's not always. They don't always come off so overbearing."
"What do you mean?" Matthew wondered.
"Well, sometimes they're fine--they treat me like a normal person who just happens to have a baby growing inside of them, and then when Caspian is around they come off like nursemaids." Evie said.
"Caspian? Rebecca's priest?" Matthew asked confusing Caspian for Father Donavon.
"No, no, her spiritual guide. He's the man that reads her tarot cards and looks into a crystal ball for her every now and then. Its a strange relationship but she's always had someone like that live in the house with her. When I moved in 2 years ago, it was a man named Gaspar. Now its Caspian." She explained.
"I think I would feel better if you moved in with me. No ifs ands or buts. You should feel comfortable wherever you are and if that's not a Tirymor than it should be with me at my home." Matthew offered.
Evie lit up. She'd love to live with the man she found herself so protected and loved by. She'd love to see him every morning and every night and when he'd come home from being out to sea she'd be there waiting for him with the happiest of kisses and the warmest of hugs. It was fantasy she wanted to be real once they were married, but if now was option than she'd love to take him up on the offer.
The one problem? Rebecca.
The gardener listening turned his face towards the leaves of the wall in the maze. His eyes turned yellow with Caspian's powers. Caspian had absorbed himself into the man and was listening to the couple and they had no idea. The gardener was like an empty vessel only acting as host for Caspian's powerful supernatural force to get into, possess, and listen to Evie. It was act he needed to do to be sure the woman carrying the baby he desired stayed close. And the news of Evie hoping to leave Tirymor did not sit well with the evil Caspian.
"Rebecca." Evie said as the gardener with the glowing yes clipping the leaves smiled knowing of the blocking by Rebecca that was sure to come.
"What about her?"
"She's welcomed me, then my brother and now my mother into her house. If I leave I don't know if she'd allow them to stay. That is if she even allowed me to leave. I'm carrying her great-grandchild after all." Evie said.
"Evie you're a grown woman, you can do what you want. And the child may be her great-grandbaby but its YOUR baby. Don't be afraid of what she'll say. If you want to leave, I will come for you and we'll be together. Safe. In my home. I can also help your mother and brother find a new place. Tirymor is not a good home for any of you." Matthew said.
Evie thought about it for a second. The gardener, under Caspian's powers, listening closely as he clipped away with glowing yellow eyes. She didn't know what to do. So much was riding on her decision. She could live with Matthew and feel safer and away from the prying overbearing eyes of Rebecca and her mother or she could stay at the mansion and fight it out without Rebecca doing something drastic to keep her there---something drastic is what she would expect from Rebecca who at one time kept Evie locked in an insane asylum.
"I'll think about it. I really will." Evie said to Matthew's eye brow lift.
He didn't believe her.
"Evie...." he began before she interrupted.
"I promise you I will think about it. But before I make a decision I have to be sure we can find a place for my family. I don't want them out on the streets. Especially my mother. She's been through so much. Having her thrown out of Tirymor would bring back too many bad memories of what happened to us back in London when my father lost our house. First we find a place for them, then we work on me moving in with you." Evie said putting her foot down.
Matthew gave her a small smirk. Pleased with her partly conceding to him.
The Gardner, Caspian's latest mind-controlled pawn was furious. He needed to stop this whole idea of Evie leaving with his beloved unborn prize before it actually happened.
The Gardner watched the couple with his eyes a blaze in Caspian's yellow shine. He saw her motherly belly, swelling with the life of the child he wanted inside. It was like a beacon to Caspian who watched telepathically from inside the mind of Caspian. He needed the child to live, for his own survival.
The Gardner closed his eyes, he could feel the heartbeat of the baby inside of Evie.
"Are you ok?" Matthew asked seeing Evie seem to struggle to walk.
"I feel a little off all of a sudden." She said.
"Here!" Matthew added, rushing her over to a stone bench in the middle of the topiary garden. "What are you feeling? Is it similar to what you felt at the docks the other day?"
"I just suddenly feel like all my energy is gone, drained." Evie said, as the gardener smirked in the corner knowing he was the culprit.
"We really need to see Dr. Ward, I don't want anything to get worse." Matthew added.
Caspian's powerful eyes, the energy in his devilish control over all the things he touched, and wanted was the overwhelming feeling Evie felt. She could sense it inside of her, something was indee off, but she couldn't understand just how dangerous it truly was--- the baby itself was safe. Caspian would never harm the treasure he so wanted for himself.
And as Evie suspected something was amiss all around her, the true key to Caspian's successful campaign for a child of his very own would be Rebecca Lord herself.
Rebecca, the great-granddaughter of Evie's baby was Caspian's most adoring pawn and co-conspirator.
****
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| Celeste, Genevieve & Jane |
In her bedroom with Jane the maid, newest house guest Genevieve Thorne fussed over the amount of clothes her fiancé Johnathon DeViana had left her to put away in the vast closet of their room. He had been away all day on business on the mainland transferring their accounts to banks and businesses to Maine as they were now new residents and needed access to their money where they now lived.
Genevieve, still uncomfortable with living at Tirymor, was making life complicated for all who encountered her. She wanted to leave, desperately and it began to show.
"Ma'am, I can do this for you if you'd like. There's no need for you to bother with it if it's too much for you. I do it for the Lord family all the time." Jane offered as she helped sort out clothes to hang and clothes to fold.
"No, no. Its fine, it sort of takes my mind off of things." Genevieve replied hanging up shirt after shirt.
"It's really no trouble, its my job." Jane said.
"I CAN DO IT!" Genevieve shouted, her nerves on edge.
"Everything alright?" Celeste asked as she entered the bedroom. "I came up to tell you dinner would be in an hour. What's the matter?"
"I don't know. I'm sorry Jane. I'm just having a very bad day I guess." Genevieve replied.
"Jane would you please check on dinner with cook?" Celeste asked the maid hoping to get some alone time with her soon to be new sister-in-law Genevieve.
Jane took the hint and hurried out of the tense room.
"You're not adjusting well to life at Tirymor, are you?" Celeste asked seeing the strain on Genevieve's face.
Genevieve took a deep breath and sat herself on a chair near the bed. She fiddled nervously with the buttons of one of Johnathon's crisp white shirts and shook her head no. Then she reached over and opened the drawer of a side table and took out a small card with her name written on it and handed it to Celeste.
"What is it?" Celest asked.
"A welcome card from Jacob." Genevieve replied.
Celeste lifted a brow. She opened the card and saw that the envelope was addressed to Genevieve but inside he had written to both Genevieve and Johnathon. It was odd, the whole thing, but it felt like just the beginning of something more, something she felt Jacob would do now that Sabrina's face and body had come back to life in the form for her look-alike Genevieve.
It was an innocent card. Clearly nothing to worry about but Celeste had her doubts. She also had her paranoid thoughts too. She remembered how Jacob's treatment of Mary after Charlotte was born and how Mary had battled to not only get back into her daughter Charlotte's life again but also to gain back her reputation after Jacob tarnished it. She didn't want that to happen to her now that Genevieve was around with such a tempting face as Sabrina's.
Jacob's true love, which was more of an unattained conquest, was Sabrina and Celeste felt that perhaps Genevieve was too tempting for him.
"I don't want any problems Celeste. I really don't." Genevieve said feeling awkward about Jacob's card.
"No, I understand. Jacob is harmless though." Celeste said lying. "But if you're really this uncomfortable here, why don't you talk to my brother when he gets back and get yourselves a small place in town. Somewhere both of you can be happy." She offered knowing as long as Genevieve was in the house, her own place in the hierachy was in danger.
"I've already told Johnathon I wanted to leave. He insists we stay at least until my son arrives." Geneieve replied.
Celeste thought for a second. She wanted her gone, she wanted this threat to her position gone, Genevieve's face was too much of a reminder to the family of Sabrina's memory. Not only of Sabrina's tragic and shocking death but to Jacob and how much he loved her.
"I can offer you something that might help." Celeste said.
"What do you mean?"
Celeste walked over and sat net to Genevieve and looked her in the eyes and said "Money."
"You want to pay me to leave?" Genevieve said, somewhat outraged.
"If that's what it takes for you to go, yes. My brother never has to know. Think of it as an incentive for you to have your own place here in the village and away from here." Celeste added.
Genevieve wanted to leave, she truly did, but she got the feeling that there was something more going on now that Celeste was willing to secretly pay her to do it. But she gave her word to Johnathon, she could not go. She had to stay.
"Thank you for the offer, but we don't need your money and Johnathon wants to stay here. You know that. He's been away from you for so long that he wants to be close. I won't pressure him to leave earlier than when my son comes. That was the deal that was made." Genevieve replied.
"But you don't have to tell him you made a deal with me." Celeste offered again.
Genevieve furrowed her brow surprised at Celeste's persistence. She went over to the closer and hung up the shirt she held in her hands and turned back to Celeste and once again declined the offer. "My deal is with Johnathon. If you want to offer him what you offered me than maybe we can decide, but I will not do this behind his back with money or for money."
Celeste then stood up seeing that Genevieve was unmoved even when she could afford to give her any amount of money to leave. She looked at the woman who would marry her brother and did not see anything but Sabrina's face staring back at her and the threat the Jacob would once again fall in love with her and force Celeste out of his life.
Celeste could not allow that to happen. She had blown up her own life with Filipe to live and be married to Jacob and even have his child, no one, not her brother Johnathan and now Genevieve would now put her position in jeopardy after all she had been through. She'd have to think of something else.
"Alright." Celeste said with a sly grin. "You win."
Genevieve smiled back too.... just as slyly.
"Dinner in an hour." Celeste then said as she left the room with her the wheels in her head spinning to find a different and more permanent solution to getting Genevieve, and her face, out of the house and away from Jacob's lusting eyes.
As Geneveive continued to frustratingly fix up the closet to her content she was yet again subject to a visit from someone in the mansion
This time, it was someone who was a passed reseident.
Genevieve felt the presence of someone in the room. She thought it was Jane back to help her.
"It's fine Jane, I can handle the rest, you can tell Celeste I'll be down to dinner shortly. It hasn't even been an....hou...." Genevieve said as she turned to speak to Jane further but as she did, the shock forced her to stop herself midsentence.
The person that entered the room was not Jane the maid. It was the glowing spirit of Sabrina Spencer-Lord.
There they were, Genevieve and the ghostly Sabrina standing face to ghostly face. Identical in form, from eyelashes to the perfect jaw-line. They were practically twins, born 14 years apart.
Genevieve's jaw dropped. She could not speak. She could not move. The clothes dropped from her hand to the floor and the hem of her dress.
"I've waited a long time for this." Sabrina's spirit said in a whispery and echoing voice.
"You...you're the woman from the painting." Genevieve replied; her own voice cracking in fear. "How can you be here? How am I seeing this? You? How am I seeing YOU?" she added.
"Truth in all its purist form, I am real. The spirit of someone who was taken too soon. And I need your help." Sabrina replied.
"No, this is a fantasy. A dream. I fell asleep and I am dreaming this. You're not real. Ghosts are not real." Genevieve said turning quickly away from the glow blue of the ghost of Sabrina.
"There are things this universe cannot explain Genevieve and then there are things that are so simple in their reality that we try and pretend there is a more complex explanation. For example, it is simple: I am real. I am the spirit of a woman who was once alive, what is harder to explain is how you and I look so much a like yet have no connection in family whatsoever." Sabrina said rather sternly.
Genevieve turned back to the ghost after just a few seconds turned away in hope that when she turned back there would no just the other side of her empty orange and maroon toned room.
But there she was, still. The ghost.
"I'm hallucinating." Genevieve replied again, still in disbelief.
"NO! This is real, Miss Thorne, this is real. And if you won't come to terms with it and help me, I'll have to take matters into my own hands." Sabrina replied as she began to float closer and closer to Genevieve who's heartbeat was beating harder and harder as she backed away.
"What do you want? What do you want from me????" Genevieve begged.
Sabrina only smiled and said "You. I want you."
Then, in a split second of blue glowing light, Sabrina's ghostly body flashed in a an ever brighter blue light and leaped into Genevieve's body causing a powerful jolt of energy to surge into the air of the room knocking Genevieve unconscious.
They were now two souls in the same body.
Sabrina lived again, inside the body her own mirror image.
In her room down the hall, Charlotte was painting.
She dropped her paintbrush and stared at the canvas she was working on. Her eyes widened. Her jaw dropped and she backed away from the painting. The hem of her long dress brushed up against the small tins of extra paint she had open on the floor tinting the hem several shades of blue, red and green.
She stumbled to the floor in shock at what she had painted without even realizing it.
She had painting the very moment Sabrina entered Genevieve's body. It was a mass of blues and grays but it was obvious what she saw when she looked back at it. Charlotte quickly got up from the floor and grabbed a small tin of black paint that was on harmed by the edge of her hem and she through the black paint over the painting of her dead aunt Sabrina entering the body of her new aunt-to-be Genevieve.
The young girl then ran quickly down the hall and pushed open the door of Genevieve's room and found the woman getting up from the floor rubbing her neck.
"Genevieve?" The 12 year old Charlotte said, gripping tightly to the golden doorknob from the hall.
Genevieve, from the floor, turned towards the door and smiled. "Good to see you again my darling niece. It's me, Aunt Sabrina."
Charlotte covered the tiny gasp that came from her mouth when she realized the prediction in her painting was real and true: Sabrina was now possessing the body of Genevieve Thorne just as she had once possessed Charlotte.
****
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| Caspian thwarts Mary’s search at Highgrove |
A boiling cauldron burned over a raging fire in the hearth in the small cottage on Goode island. Sitting crossed-legged with hands cupping her knees. She had her eyes closed and breathed in the smoke that came from cauldron.
Sebastian and Filipe flanked her and sat back on the comfortable old furniture as Mary requested. She needed quiet. She needed patience. And she needed for the next step in their attempt to contact the coven for help to work.
The coven, called The Sisters of Highgrove, were the powerful group of witches Eliza once belonged to when she lived in Boston. When the witches were all destroyed and ran out of the town by the commonwealth officials that included Gregory Reigns in his younger years, they were practically irradiated with a few exceptions.
Eliza had always beloved she was the last of her coven. But Mary, in her heart-of-hearts now believed otherwise and she knew that the only way to rid them all of Caspian's evil was to get the coven's help.
Mary's face was warm from the fire. The cauldron bubbled hot like lava. The hummed something under her breath that neither Filipe nor Sebastian knew. The song, was foreign to them.
It was in a language they did not know, and they did not know Mary knew either.
The humming got louder and louder and deeper and deeper until it didn't even sound as if it were coming from Mary's body. Filipe sat up to check on the woman he loved but Sebastian held him back and whispered "She needs to do this her way. Do not interrupt."
Filipe shot Sebastian a look of distrust but sat back down.
Inside Mary's mind she was seeing the Eastern seaboard from the sky. It was as if she were flying in the night across mountain ranges and sea shores and farm land and townships and cities. She was out of her body, flying fast and faster through the frosty clouds, her spirit, was so power. Her body was so strong especially in her new state of pregnancy.
She flew over Boston now, mentally. She saw the small village just outside of Boston where the coven was born, the village of Highgrove.
Mary's spirit spun in the sky as if it were a small little storm brewing. She summoned the powers of nature to help her send a powerful burst of energy that only witches would see, recognize and reply to in kind. Like a homing signal to her sisters of the coven, an SOS message.
But just as the power inside of began to light the sky, another more powerful burst knocked her spirit down.
She began to fall down further and further to the surface. Mary's body in the cottage began to convulse. She began fell over to her side and began to have a seizure.
"MARY!!!" Filipe yelled as he fell to the floor from the chair next to Mary.
She was foaming at the mouth.
"What happened? Mary? MARY!" Sebastian said also following to his cousin's Mary's side.
"Wake up, wake up. PLEASE Mary Wake up!!"
As Mary's attempt to contact the sisters failed, her spirit floated just above the surface of the ground in a forest outside of Highgrove.
In front of her, was the powerful orange light of Caspian Casador. He too knew how to send his spirit in the sky. He followed Mary's. He followed her, attacked her before she could contact the coven and knocked her out of the sky like a giant lightening bolt electrocuting a powerline.
In those few seconds of the two lights faced each other then... extinguished like two candles in a wild wind.
"What happened?" Mary said coming to on her floor in front of the fire.
"You passed out. Are you ok? Were you able to make contact?" Sebastian asked.
"Mary please slow down, don't get up so fast." Filipe warned.
"I don't... I didn't find them. Something happened, I was stopped from contacting the coven. Something stopped me from trying." Mary informed the men.
"What could have done that? You sent yourself transcendentally no one can see that." Filipe replied.
"No one mortal." Sebastian added. "I can see those things. Those spirits. And anyone can see them if the spirit itself allows you to. But creatures like me, like Mary. We can see them without any permissions."
"What does that mean? Did the Highgrove coven do it? Were the mistaken and thought you were some kind of attack?" Filipe wondered.
Sebastian lifted a brow and shot Mary a look. They both knew who knocked Mary's spirit out of the sky and thwarted her ability to seek help from the coven survivors, but instead of speaking for her, she let Mary break the bad news.
"It had to be Caspian." She said, in a voice that was strengthening. "He knew I was up there, he doesn't want me to make contact. He fears it." She said standing up.
Sebastian too stood up, as did Filipe. Sebastian was frustrated. Angry. And tired of waiting. He wanted nothing more than to distroy the monster Caspian and save Evie and his child from whatever dark plot the devilish man wanted to do.
The vampire quickly left Filipe and Mary in the room alone to speak about what happened. Filipe was worried about all the stress on Mary's body because of the baby she was carrying. She assured him she was fine. She knew her limits and she knew that the baby would be fine no matter what. She would never put the child in danger. She touched her belly and then reached for Filipe's hand and put his hand on it too.
"I will protect the baby. I promise." Mary said.
"I trust you. But if Caspian can do what he did you in spiritual form god only knows what he can do to you and our child in the physical."
"I wasn't able to protect Charlotte from Jacob's clutches, but I've grown a lot since the 12 years of her birth and I know better now. I will never let Caspian hurt any child on this island, not Evie's and not mine." Mary said.
Filipe's eyes watered. He felt the same. He wanted nothing more than to be sure that his own child was protected but the idea the creature of the depths of evil was now on the surface of earth and so close to them and had his demolike eyes set on taking Evie and Sebastian's unborn child do to unknown evil to it's soul was too much for the kind-hearted, gentle Filipe to muster.
As Filipe and Mary fell into each other's arms and held each other in the flickering firelight Sebastian re-entered wearing his coat and a small satchel around his body.
"What are you doing?" Filipe asked but Sebastian did not reply as the vampire went towards the front door of the cottage. "SEBASTIAN STOP!!" Filipe yelled like father to a son. "Tell me what you are doing?"
"Im going to Highgrove myself. And don't try and stop me." Sebastian said as he reached for the door to leave in the middle of the night.
"Wait!" Mary shouted as Filipe scoffed in the temperamental and bad idea Sebastian had to leave on his own.
"You can't stop me!" Sebastian said to his cousin Mary.
"Of course she can, she knows better than to let you just leave here not knowing what to expect." Filipe replied.
Mary walked over to her cousin Sebastian and hugged him. "You'll need to protect before you leave." She said as Filipe's eyes got wide in disbelief.
"Mary! You can't be serious! We can't let him go out there alone." Filipe said.
"He has to Filipe. I can't go, and I wouldn't let you go. There is too much at stake for us to leave Goode island right now. Jacob will be searching for you, and the rest of the world thinks Im dead. Until I figure out how to return to regular life in the world I cannot go anywhere. And neither can you. Sebastian is the only who can. I can protect him. I can give him a cloak of power that will get him to Highgrove and keep him safe. It's our last shot. Caspian watches me, senses me. We can't risk me trying again."
"She's right Filipe. I have to do this. I will get to Highgrove and find which ever members of the Coven remain and I'll return with them. Together we can all defeat Caspian's power grab at Tirymor and save my wife and save my baby. Time is ticking. I don't have much more of it before the baby comes." Sebastian said, his voice sounding more like his human side.
"I don't know if this is a risk we should take. What if you are discovered? The world think you're dead too!" Filipe reminded them.
"With my powers no one will recognize him. I'm sure of it." Mary said.
Filipe stood back as Mary lifted her arms. She closed her eyes breathed in deep. Then, with the lung power of a storm, the room chill changed to freezing in a split second and her breath that flowed over on to Sebastian's face was visible like a veil of smoke.
And when her breath vanished into the warming room air Sebastian's face had been changed to a man's no one recognize. He was Sebastian in every which way except for his face.
"Do not show your face in the light. You will be discovered." She warned.
"I never do." Sebastian said reminding her he fears death by sunlight.
Sebastian grabbed his cousin Mary and hugged her then kissed her cheek as he said goodbye.
He was on a mission to find The Sisters of Highgrove and to save the lives of the woman and unborn child he loved with all his heart, no matter how much darkness surrounded it.
**
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| Mysterious ghostly eyes watch Sebastian |
Sebastian quickly made his way through the dark forest of Goode Island. Owls called in the distance over dripping pine branches Their big yellow eyes glowed in the murky fog. The owls watched Sebastian quickly make his way from the cottage to the dockside. The yellow glowing eyes never once leaving his body. These owls were native to this part of Maine. Strong dark feathered creatures who's long deep calls echoed over the two islands of Welshport And Goode.
Sebastian could see their eyes glowing. It was strange he thought. He had never noticed that before.
And as he finally arrived at the small dock where a boat was tied and waiting for him, he turned back at a thicket of large pine tress that stood off in the distance from the dockside blanketed in night fog.
He saw 10 glowing yellow yes watching him from the branches. Never blinking. He took a breath, feeling uneasy with the strangeness of the owls watching his every move and jumped into his small boat headed for Welshport Island where he'd stowaway on a larger cargo ship headed for Boston from the small inland. His mission was to find coven known as The Sisters of Highgrove to save his family from the darkness of Caspian Casador.
