 |
| Evie & Mourners on the beach |
On the far east corner of Welshport Island, a golden sandy beach was filled with a group of mourners for Matthew Winterborn.
Evie stood center of the group holding her precious new baby Gabriel as a soft wind blew across the wet sand and over to the sand bluffs just below the road.
Quiet sniffles came from behind Evie as she passed Gabriel over to her brother Nikolas and picked up a circular wreath of white lilies and slowly walked into the coming waves.
Evie, dressed in a dark purple dress that had black embroidered lilies on the hem that matched those on the wreath walked into the water. She lifted the thin veil over her face as the waves washed over her shoes, then up to the edge of the hem of her dress, then higher and higher until she was knee deep in the water.
Her mother Aurora, who was holding tight to Gregory Reigns, gasped as she watched Evie go that far into the sea to lay the wreath for Matthew.
Jacob and Celeste held each other close as the cool ocean air blew through Celeste's hair. Charlotte too held her little brother close as he played with her golden necklace.
"I'll never forget you." Evie whispered as the wreath slowly washed out to sea.
Evie walked back, her skirt heavy with water. Dr. Ward, who was there to pay his respects as well with his wife and 6 year old granddaughter Samantha, followed the Lord family valet Aaron Hamstead to the edge of the water.
Aaron grabbed Evie's hand and helped her back to dry sand, while Dr. Ward lay his own bouquet of roses into the cold ocean for Matthew.
"Would you like to say a few words?" Father Ryan said to Evie who shook her head no.
"Miss, should I walk you back up to the road?" Aaron asked politely.
Evie shook her head no again. Nik handed her baby Gabriel back to her.
Aurora came over to Evie and lowed the black vail over Evie's face.
Seeing her daughter in all black and mourning the man she was to marry broke her heart. Matthew was supposed to be the one for Evie. Matthew was supposed to be her fresh new start after the tragedy of her relationship with Sebastian.
But it was not to be.
Aurora and Evie walked, then, back to the group. Evie lifted her veiled face from her baby as she passed Jacob and whispered 'thank you' to him
"For what?" He asked.
She then turned her eyes back to the baby "For saving Gabriel. If it wasn't for you, I would have lost Matthew and maybe even my child." She replied.
Celeste shot Jacob a look. He had somewhat filled her in on the truth of that night. Jacob told Celeste that he did save the baby, but only as a secondary actor. He didn't mention to Celeste that Sebastian was alive and didn't die in the fire as the family was told, or even of influenza as the story was told to the regular villagers. All he said was someone had gotten there before him and that that person handed him the child.
Celeste wasn't sure why Jacob continued to tell Evie that it was him, but she could tell that there was so much more to that night at the lighthouse.
"He's family, Evie. I've learned in the last few months that family is everything. Now that I have Celeste, and Charlotte and Fabian. The Lords stick together. Gabriel ...and you...included." Jacob said.
"I hope Rebecca can live with what she's done." Evie said coldly, still harboring the sting of Rebecca's treachery.
"Dr. Ward said she's in a better place now that Welshport has its own wing at the Hospital dedicated to people who need help like she does." Celeste said.
"A Mental Ward." Jacob interjected without a beat. "It was about time." He added.
Behind the black vail, Evie smiled politely disguising her discomfort with discussing mental wards with Jacob given their history. "I see." She replied.
"Let us pray." Father Ryan the called from the under the sound of thrashing waves.
As the group prayed for Matthew, Asha arrived and slowly made her way to the group. She felt awful about keeping the secret from Nik of what the Winterborns were hiding in the strange book of names of the family and ancestors.
Nik saw her coming over in the sand. He quickly left the group and went to help her.
"Thank you." She said softly. "Are you still angry?"
Nik took a deep breath and hesitated to answer.
"Nik, wait." She said stopping them from going back to the group. "Just give me a minute. Please." She asked.
"How can I trust you? You knew something so important and kept it from me, regardless of it's possibility or not, I should have been told." Nik said.
"I wasn't sure you would even believe me." Asha replied in a half-truth.
"Asha, listen to me," Nik replied grabbing both her hands. "In the two years that I've lived on this island a lot of things that I thought were impossible have become possible. Don't ask me how, don't ask me why, but I've seen strange and miraculous thing happen with my own eyes. Some of it is terrifying to see happen but those things were real. I would have believed you, and I would have still been with you. Alice, wherever she is, is my past. But I still want to know if she's ok. Her death was incredibly traumatizing for me. If she's really somewhere out there, or maybe going to be somewhere out there in the future, I'd want to know. I cared about her. I really did, but that doesn't mean I would care about you less."
"I'm sorry." Asha replied.
“I know.” He said, his voice mixing with the deep splashes of the waves.
“Are we ok?” She wondered.
Nik didn’t answer. In truth he wasn’t sure. He cared for Asha, very much but there was now a sting of distrust over their connection. She kept something from him selfishly … what did that mean about who she was?
Regardless, it wasn’t time to figure that out. For now, Nik smiled and hugged her. She tightened her arms around him feeling secure; for now.
Then the two walked back to the group.
The group bowed their heads in front of Father Ryan who's back was towards the sea.
Evie and Gabriel, Aurora and Gregory, Nik and Asha, Jacob, Celeste, Charlotte Fabien, Peter Ward, his wife and granddaughter and Aaron who stood near Evie as her own personal driver now that Rebecca was gone.
The waves suddenly began to calm; the temperature dropped. Wind blew over the bluffs and sand began to rain over the group.
Aurora, who's harms were interlinked with Gregory's suddenly began to feel a cold chill up her spine. Her head however, felt hot and her stomach cramped.
The stabbing pain came from her side, and she doubled over with a yelp of pain.
Dr. Ward and Nik rushed over to her as she fell to her knees in the sand.
"Aurora, can you look at me? Can you lift your eyes for me?" Ward asked.
"Her heart rate is good." Nik noted.
"I, can't get up. I can't get up." Aurora said in pain, then she suddenly fainted in Gregory's arms to everyone's shock.
"Mother, mother, can you hear me??" Nik asked panicking.
Evie began to rush over but Celeste stopped her "Let them help honey."
"We'll need to take her to the hospital as soon as possible." Ward said to a worried Evie.
"Of course, of Course, Aaron would you help them?" Evie asked.
"Of course miss." Hamstead said.
Gregory and Aaron quickly helped Aurora up who was now cripped with pain in her midsection. They slowly made their way to the path up the bluffs and to the main road where Dr. Ward met them to go off to the hospital.
"Here we go again." Charlotte whispered to Celeste.
Celeste lifted a brow to her step-daughter a put her finger to her lips to hush her. What Celeste didn't know was Charlotte could already see what was to come.
And no one would believe it was possible if she had said it out loud, not even Nik who had thought he had seen it all.
The mourners continued to pray for Matthew and the other men who died at sea, but Charlotte's eyes were locked on the people up on the road driving off to the hospital.
Her worry now, was with what was coming. Not what had gone.
****
 |
| The arrival of Morgan Thorne to Tirymôr house |
Later that afternoon, Celeste sat with Charlotte and Fabien on one of the front verandas of Tirymor House enjoying the afternoon sun and fresh air.
The baby and his big sister played happily on a blanket getting to know each other better. Fabian was getting bigger each day, his cheeks full and plump, dimpled when he giggled at his sister's silly faces. Charlotte too was absolutely in love with her baby brother. She doted on him at every opportunity.
As the three enjoyed themselves, Geneveive Thorne entered the veranda from one of the side doors that lead from the Blue Parlor room.
Celeste hadn't spoken to Genevieve in detail since the night of the storm when she locked her in the underground tunnels with Johnaton.
The smiled at each other politely as Geneveive sat down on one of the two deck chairs. In her hands, a tray with two cups of a tea and a silver kettle that caught the brightness of the day's sunlight.
"I figured you could use a little tea." Genevieve said politely.
Celeste sighed, "I don't want a cup any of your passive aggressive tea."
Genevieve's eyes darted and she checked on the children playing. They were too far off on the veranda to overhear. "Celeste, listen to me, whatever reason you had for doing what you did to Johnathon and I, means nothing to me. I can't go back and fix it or change it and frankly I don't have the patience to try and make things even with you. This is just tea for a nice day outside. That's all." Geneveive replied, knowing she only had days left at Tirymor.
"I wasn't being vindictive." Celeste said lying.
Geneveive smirked, "You locked us away in what I can easy say is the closest thing to the Paris Catacombs, Celeste. I wouldn't say you were looking out for us."
"Geneveive, look.." Celeste replied but was interrupted by Geneveive.
"No, you look. It doesn't matter. It doesn't! We're not going to be around each other much longer and I don't have the energy to fight on anything. If you have a war going on in your mind Celeste its with your brother. Not me. I'm focusing on finding a place here in the village for me and my son. That's all." Genevieve replied.
Before Celeste could reply, Charlotte called out. "Look!"
The contemptuous conversation came to an abrupt half when the two women turned to see a car, small at first as it puttered up the drive, then large as it pulled around the 'round. It was dark black with golden embellishments. It was a car none of them had ever seen before.
The women and the children all walked over to the front steps to greet the new guests and suddenly, Genevieve saw a face in the glass of the back seat of the car that almost made her heart stop.
It was her son Morgan.
"Morgan. MORGAN!!!" She shouted.
Her heart raced as she ran down the many long front steps of Tirymor House. She carefully clung to part of her skirt that lifted the hem of her skirt so that she could easily run to her son.
The little boy of 12 years stood there next to the black and gold car with her three suitcases and looked up at the massive house. He was in awe of his surroundings.
"MORGAN! MORGAN!!!" Geneveive shouted.
Morgan's eyes lit up the very second, he saw his mother's beautiful face.
They ran to each other. The pebbles flew in the air from the speed of their run.
He to her. Her to him.
Then, in a moment just under the bright sun, they came together mother and son.
And in that moment, the spirt of Sabrina Lord that lived inside of Geneveive felt the touch of motherhood once again. It was real and alive in her arms just as it was when she was alive and held Sebastian at the same age. The feeling of a mother's love sped through Genevieve's body and into her mind where Sabrina locked herself and it euphoric. Heavenly. A gift from god to Sabrina.
It was clear now, that she and Genevieve not only looked identical, but that they shared the same amount of love and passion for their respective sons. Sabrina knew she could live in Geneieve's body, cohabitating, together as one with no interruptions. Geneveve too decided to stop fighting her from the inside. Together they could be one person and live a good life as Geneveive but for Morgan.
Sabrina would have a second chance to help raise a child, with her experiences. With her hopes and dreams for Sebastian but focus them on innocent Morgan.
And Genevieve would now be free of all the things that bound her to San Francisco and to Philadelphia and be the mother for Morgan she had always wanted to be.
They were now team.
Morgan's warm brown hair looked lighter in the Welshport sun than Geneiveve had remembered. His face, jawline, were more formed. His eyes tender and brown.
Sabrina found him handsome. Geneveive knew it already.
"I have missed you so much, Morgan. So, SO much!?" Geneveive said, as Sabrina felt the same thing, for her son Sebastian.
"Me too mama." he said, tightening his hug.
"He's early." a voice said from behind the screen door of the blue parlor at the veranda.
Celeste turned; it was her brother Johnathon.
"She looks so happy." Celeste replied.
Johnathon exited the parlor and came out to the white painted wooden floors of the veranda. "She's one of the best mothers. I'm happy for her." He said.
"And you? Are you happy for you now that she's decided to break off your engagement and move on?" Celeste replied.
"She has to do what she has to do." Johnathon shrugged.
"Seeing your child after all this time, I can understand her happiness. When I see Fabian after a long day out somewhere where he couldn't come, it's like the first time I've ever seen him." Celeste said.
Johnathon pursed his lips feeling ready to drop a little bomb on his sister whom he was still a bit irritated with for what she did during the storm and blackout.
"Speaking of mothers, Jacob tells me Rebecca won't be coming home for a very long time. Something about being locked up in Welshport's very first asylum for the mentally challenged or whatever."
"Yes. That's true." Celeste replied, feeling his pregnant pause.
"I saw this as the perfect opportunity to change my name and finally take my place here. I'll be going by Johnathon Lord from now. Jacob and I talked about it. He agreed." Johnathon replied.
Celeste's mouth dropped "He agreed. Just like that?"
"He seemed fine with it."
"Jacob felt fine with you deciding to just become a Lord?" Celeste replied in disbelief.
Johnathon rolled his eyes, "I didn't just become a Lord, Celeste. I was born one but thanks to everyone in my whole life lying, I never knew it. I'm taking my place here now. It's the right thing to do." Johnathon added.
Celeste took a breath feeling uncertain about the situation. But had no time to dig deeper as Geneveive and Morgan made their way up the steps to meet them.
"Well! Mr. Morgan Thorne! I have heard so very much about you, young Sir! Welcome to Welshport!" Johnathon said.
"Yes Welcome!" Celeste added. "This is my stepdaughter Charlotte, and my son Fabian."
Charlotte got up from the small blanket where she was playing with her brother and turned to see the new guest.
Morgan and Charlotte's eyes met. Connected and the two children of the same again smiled at each other.
"Hi." He said to her.
Charlotte felt butterflies, nerves that she had never felt before.
She grabbed her little brother and walked over to Morgan. She didn't say a word, but only curtsied.
In her mind, she knew they'd be friends forever.
As Johnathon, Geneveive, Charlotte and Morgan left the veranda to get more acquainted inside Celeste stayed with baby Fabian on the veranda. The happiness of young Morgan's arrival began to drift off like morning fog in the mid-day sun and dread started to wash over her.
She looked at the baby, a Lord in his own right, and wondered what would happen now that her own brother was interjecting himself in the world of this family that was often unruly, unpredictable and cutthroat when one felt another was taking their places.
She worried, as Celeste often did as a mother, what how Johnathon really felt about now being that much closer to the billions in fortune the Lords were worth. She thought about how Jacob saw to eliminate his rival heirs.
Then thought of Johnaton and Fabian and realized, her own son now stood in the way of Johnathon, and if Johnathon was showing any signs, it was signs that he was more like Jacob than she realized.
Dangerous, treacherous, and untrustworthy.
She kissed her baby and held him tight. "I won't let anyone hurt you, not even Johnthon. Not ever." Celeste told Fabian. Her mind still in the weeds of what would happen in the future if Johnathan and Fabian ever felt the threat of each other.
****
 |
| Sebastian & Charlotte with baby Gabriel |
As baby Gabriel slept soundly in his nautical themed nursery that evening, cool ocean air seeped in through an open corner window. The sheer teal curtails lifted slightly with the breeze. A single small lamp in the corner with small stars and a moon cut out of its shade, shined those shapes on the wall behind it.
Gabriel, snugged up in his blanket with the chill of the air; watching from a shadowy corner of the room an equally shadowy figure. The person reached over and closed the window blocking the frigid breeze from continuing to chill the baby’s room.
In the glow of the lamp, the person’s face was revealed to be Sebastian's: young Gabriel’s vampire father. Sebastian snuck on to Welshport Island from Goode Island and entered his former home via the various ivy covered secret passages to see his beautiful son.
Sebastian was so proud of Evie for delivering their baby so safely during such a dramatic wave of chaos. He was also very proud to be the father of this perfect new being. So small, so touched with love and light.
Sebastian had done all he could to protect his new son and his former wife from Caspian's evil and was successful; now the future was free and bright, and Sebastian hoped the baby would soon see all of the fruits of his father's sacrifices as time went on.
"Sebastian?" A small voice said from the baby's nursey door. "I thought I felt you here."
Sebastian, startled at being caught snapped his body around to see his 12-year-old cousin Charlotte standing in her small little robe with her hair tied back in curls.
"What are you doing here?" She asked.
Sebastian gasped and did not sander when he turned to his young cousin.
“I can always sense you. It’s like as if I’m smelling your cologne. But… not.” Charlotte added still attempting to understand her growing psychic abilities.
The vampire tilted his head "You mean you're not surprised I'm alive?" He asked her, knowing that two stories of his demise had been floating around the island.
Charlotte shrugged "I know enough that when I hear something grownups say that I should think twice because nothing is ever really what it seems. I guess I’ve always just known you weren’t dead Sebastian. I’m glad you’re more.” She smirked.
“But how?” He wondered.
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is you’re here. And Gabriel too…I realized daddy didn't save Gabriel from Grandmother alone. It could have only been a miracle. You’re a miracle."
“No Charlotte, I am not. Listen to me,” he said going over to Charlotte and kneeling to meet her eye to eye “what I’ve become, what your grandmother Eliza made me, is unchecked and dangerous. I don’t always see clearly — I get angry. Hungry. The hunger Charlotte—it’s deadly. I need you to help me, help me protect my son. Please. Protect him from me. From all things like me.”
“Sebastian you’re good and kind. Not… dangerous.” She said innocently.
He shook his head. “Promise me.”
“All of us who love you will help protect Gabriel.” She confirmed.
"No! Please don't tell anyone you've seen me. No one can know that I’m truly alive. It may be a rumor, maybe a story here and there but never ever confirm if. I came here because… I just wanted to get a look at him again." Sebatian replied sweetly.
"He's so cute, isn't he?" Charlotte said walking over to the crib next to Sebastian.
"He's the miracle." the new dad replied.
"Sebastian, I want you to know that I'm going to take care of him. Gabriel and Fabian. The three of us will always be together. I won't let anything happen to them ever." Charlotte replied.
Sebastian smiled. "You're a good cousin Charly. They're lucky to have you. I want you to be sure you keep yourself out of trouble too. They're only as safe as you are." Sebastian added.
"Well, I know when things are coming." Charlotte said.
"'When things are coming'?" Sebastian repeated confused. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know how it happens, or why it happens, but sometimes I see things. It's been going on for a while now and it helps me know what to do in the moment when its not a vision and it's real. It's like I can see ..." She paused.
"the future?" Sebastian said finishing her statement. Charlotte nodded.
"I think so." She added.
"Charly are you telling me you can see the future? You're getting visions of things that actually happen later on?"
Charlotte nodded again. "Visions, and sometimes feelings. I can feel things too and they happen. It's almost like I have an idea of something happening and then it happens. That's how I know that I'll be here to protect Gabriel. I promise you I will." the young lady replied.
Sebatian knew that Charlotte came from a family of witches: her grandmother Eliza was a founding member of the Sisters of Highgrove and now Mary, Charlotte's mother was in the infamous coven. He didn't see it a strange coincidence that now Charlotte was now experiencing her own supernatural abilities; in fact, Sebatian almost felt happy for Charlotte to be inheriting something so natural, something so connected to her family even if it could sometimes be a double-edged sword. He wondered though, could she tell him what, if anything, did she see in his own future.
He pulled her by the hand away from the baby's crib and over to the white stuffy chairs by the lamp on the other side of the room. The cut-out star and moon shapes flashed on their faces like a kaleidoscope of celestial light. He sat her down and kneeled in front of her.
"Charly, can you tell me about me? Can you see anything about me in the future? Will I get better?" He asked.
"Better?" She asked.
"You know. My life. I can't leave this world of shadows and secrets, and that makes it hard to be a father to Gabriel." Sebastian asked.
"I— I don't know. I haven't seen anything like that."
"Can you try?" Sebatian begged. "Am I going to be apart of Gabriel's life in a REAL way? In the way that he deserves? I want to change, Charly, I want to be like I was before I became...this! I want to be good, and not feel the breath of darkness that creeps over me every time I need to feed. You don't know what its like and I never ever would EVER want you to know. But until I free myself of this, I can never truly be Gabriel's father. I can only see him in his sleep. He doesn't deserve to know I am alive, not like this." Sebatian said, his heart aching with the pain of his vampirism.
"I haven't seen that, I wish I could tell you more, but I can't lie to you." Charlotte replied. "I will be there for Gabriel to tell him about you and to show him in my own way what a wonderful father you would have been had you....lived. That's all I can really do, Sebatian. I wish I had more. Only my grandmother's spell book can truly say how to reverse your affliction." She replied.
"We've looked." Sebatian said. "We've found nothing."
"I'm sorry." She replied softly, holding his hand tightly.
"No, no, no. Don't be sorry. You're wonderful. You really are. You don't know how loved you are. I should have always told you before all of this happened to me. I want you to know now that you're the best of this family, Charly. You really are. Gabriel and Fabian are the luckiest babies in the world to have you as their cousin and big sister." Sebastian added. "I should go."
Sebastian got up from his genuflect in front of Charlotte. he turned to look back one more time at his sleeping son; his pride and joy. He thought of all the things he wanted to tell him and all the things he wanted to do with him and how none of it would every really happen. Their relationship would always have to be this way, in sleep. Almost like a dream for the baby, who'd forever think he saw a ghost, or some kind of guardian angel, never truly knowing it was his father alive in a form that could only live by the rules of night and shadows.
Sebastian, leaned over the baby's crip and kissed his little warm head, a single tear rolled down his frosty cheek and fell on the baby's forehead. Sebastian carefully wiped it off and smiled.
"Wait, I have something for you." Charlotte said remembering she had a small trinket in her robe for Sebastian, signet ring with the baby's initials carved on the inside with his that she grabbed when she left her room when she felt Sebatian's presence.
When she looked up from the pulling the ring out of her robe's pocket the baby's window was open, the teal curtains pulling out with the breeze and Sebastian was gone.
Charlotte looked down at the ring in her hand and looked at the open window sighed. She replaced the ring back in her pocket and patted it as if it were a small little hug to Sebastian hoping that she'd be able to give to him face to face soon.
****
 |
| Welshport Hope Hospital |
Aurora's eyes opened to a bright mid-morning light. She was laying comfortably in a bed at Welshport Hope Hospital after fainting the day before at the beach during Matthew's memorial service. She moaned a bit and rolled over in her bed to see a blurry yellow hospital wall with several strange health charts and anatomy diagrams.
Her mind felt slow, her memory foggy. She turned to her other side to see a small side table with a clear pitcher of water and a glass cup. She reached for it to drink, and two hands came down from next to her to pour the water for her. When she turned her head up towards the person, they were backlit by the bright light coming from the window, only a silhouette of a man bathed in a halo of light could be seen.
"You'll start to feel more like yourself in a little while. We had to give you some medication to sleep so that Dr. Ward could examine you." A familiar voice said.
Aurora squinted and a very welcome face became clear, it was her son Nikolas Jordan in his own white doctor's coat.
"Nikky." Aurora whispered, exhausted from her long medicated sleep.
"You're alright, don't worry." Nik replied handing the water.
Three big gulps in, Aurora's voice returned to normal. "What happened?" She asked.
"You don't remember?" He asked.
"Just being at the memorial and feeling sick, then everything went black."
"It's the medication." Dr. Ward said entering the room. "How are you feeling then?" He asked.
"Confused." Aurora chuckled as she sat up in bed.
"You fainted at the beach, but when we got you up to the car on the bluffs you awoke, sort of in and out of consciousness really. Then when we got you here we decided to give you some medication to help any pain and that also made you sleep." Nik explained.
"During that time we were able to examine you to be sure that you were ok and that there was nothing serious going on with your health." Dr. Ward added.
"I think I'm just tired. Everything going on and then the shock of Matthew's death. I think I'm fine." Aurora replied.
Nik smiled, feeling the same. The entire family had been stressed over the terrible storm, Caspian's shocking turn of events, Rebecca's kidnapping of Gabriel and then Matthew's death. He was sure that was the reason for his mother's sudden illness. But before agreeing with her, he turned to Dr. Ward for the official, medical, agreement.
"Over-all, Mrs. Jordan, you are the epidemy of health. Good bones, blood pressure not out of the ordinary for a person your age expecting a child." Dr. Ward said.
Nik's face dropped.
"Expecting?" Aurora said.
"Expecting what?" Nik added.
Dr. Ward seemed caught off guard by their surprise, he figured Aurora had some kind of idea that she was expecting a child, he had no idea he was going to be breaking the news to the new mother.
"A... child of course." He said slowly.
"Dr. Ward, this is not funny. My mother isn't old by any means, but for goodness sake, she can't be having a child, can she?" Nik asked Dr. Ward in complete disbelief. Then he turned to Aurora. "Can you?"
Aurora lay there in shock. Her body felt cold. Her mind going backwards in time thinking and thinking and thinking and suddenly stopping on just a few nights ago when she and Caspian shared a bed, when he bewitched her into believing she was making love to Gregory Reigns. The monster Caspian had plotted to have his own child, but they had only been together one time. How could it have happened that fast, how could they know that fast that she was with child.
"Mother?" Nik said. "Can it be true?"
Aurora was still frozen in shock. It was true, it had to be true. But, she didn't want it to be true. It couldn't be Caspian's child, but she had not been with any other man. It was her worst nightmare come true, Caspian's child was inside of her, they had now created new life and she was going to be forced to live with the darkness he brought on all of them in the form of a baby, HIS baby.
"I think I should leave you two alone." Dr. Ward said, seeing the clear discomfort in the room.
"Wait." Aurora finally said.
Dr. Ward turned back to his patient, "how far along am I?" She asked.
Dr. Ward turned his eyes to the sheets of paper, he only had a rough estimate of time, based on the examination he did while Aurora was in her medicated sleep.
"Six weeks." He answered shocking her even more.
"Six...but... how...." Aurora muttered.
"Mother, if you're having a child, and you're six weeks along, who is the father?" Nik replied.
Aurora was sweating. Her heart pounding, how could she already be 6 weeks pregnant when she had only been with Caspian 4 nights before. The growing child inside of her, fathered by the creture Caspian was growing at a rapid rate. Faster than she could even imagine and faster than her mind could even comprehend.
Aurora's hands gripped the crisp white sheets of her bed, twisting them in her fists tightly causing them to crinkle and coil up in her tight grip. Her jaw, locked tight with shock, grinded with anxiety. She had no idea what to say next.
"Talk to me, Mother, what is going on?" Nik asked swatting down to her eye line.
"It's Caspian's. It's Caspians baby, Nikolas." Aurora said her voice shaking at every word.
Nik stood up, his blood turned cold.
Aurora finally looked at her son who had the cold expression of someone who had seen a ghost and she said, "I'm having Caspian Casador's child." to Nikolas' horror.
****
 |
| Mary’s shocking morning vision |
That morning, on Goode Island, Mary watched as the leaves in her tea swirled around in a whirlpool of hot water steaming up to her staring blue eyes. She sat at a table with a small porcelain tea kettle with blue painted geese that flew in gaggle across a painted sky of equally blue clouds.
She watched her partner Filipe sleeping in their bed. His nude body seemed to glisten in the light sun like he was made of bronze and gold. She had fallen in love with him so deeply, a love that she had not expected to in such a wild new world that she was a part of.
His chest thick and sturdy rose and dropped with each and every deep breath. His pink lips pouted in a state of dreaming.
She thought again as she sipped her tea how much she loved him, and what she wouldn't do for love. Which lead her to flash to her conversation with her cousin Sebatian and how he had practically begged her to intervene with magic to keep his son Gabriel safe from all that would wish to harm him--- perhaps even himself. He was, after all, part of a world of shadows, where the undead were not spoken of and had to find their way to their own happiness no matter how they hurt. And dispite Sebatian's many attempts to keep himself on the good side, in the light, he often slipped back into the darkness and created more chaos where he wished to create calmness.
Sebatian's hope was that Mary would use the powers she had learned and inherited to save Gabriel from any of the terrors that their family suffered. The world of the supernatural was not for the faint of heart and this new precious child deserved to be protected from it any way possible.
Mary licked her lips and went from the chair to the floor and sat lotus style lifting her white skirt above her knees freeing them so that they could bend with ease. She held her growing belly bump and lifted her linen top and rubbed her belly. She hummed a quick song to relax the baby growing inside of her that she and Filipe created and when she felt it was safe, she closed her eyes.
Mary took a deep breath. Her heart felt like it was pumping at a rapid page. She clasped her fingers together on each hand tightly and allowed her mind to float away from the physical world it belonged to and into the world of mystery and magic it was created in.
As Filipe slept sounding, cuddles in cool white sheets of their shared bed, Mary's mind took her out of the room, out of their home on Goode Island and into the air flying over the small straight of sea that separated Welshport Island and Goode Island.
High, high in the clouds, Mary floating spirit took her into the area just above the Tirymor Forest and over the mansion of the same name where the Lord family dwelled. She wanted to help Sebatian; she would do anything for him -- her family. He had risked his life and brought back Jacqueline to help save them all, it was only right that she returns the favor and protect his only son, the baby too being part of Mary's extended family being her aunt Sebrina's only grandchild.
She flew over the green trees that touched the high clouds.
And when she saw the mansion, she dipped below and invisibly through herself into the wall that absorbed her spirt. Her unseen spirt floated along the halls of Tirymor House. A home she hated for what it represented in her past. A home of secrets and home of lies, a home she lived in while disguised at Georgina.
Mary's spirt was like a cold breeze entering and exiting rooms. Plants swayed as she passed them unseen by the people around but felt. Jane, the maid, even shuttered feeling the cold air that Mary brought with her.
Finally, Mary made it up the long winding staircase, down the longest main hallway and through a smaller hallway that lead to some of the family quarters where Gabriel's nursery was.
The door was cracked open. Mary's disembodied spirt slipped through and there, standing over the child's crib was the disembodied spirt the other witch on Goode Island, Jaqueline Gray.
Mary's heart dropped when she saw this, but it felt even more gut wrenching when she heard Jacqueline's voice coming from the glowing light of her own transcendental spirt.
The Latin spell Mary heard Jacqueline saying shocked her to her core. Jacqueline was cursing the baby.
"Hunc pureum video. Novi hunc puerum. Eum ad me mitte....Non audit...."
Mary quicky snapped out of her daze and came to back in her room.
She leapt from the ground and knocked over the table with the tea waking up Filipe in a startling way.
"MARY!! What is it?" he said quickly covering his body with the white sheets thinking someone else was in the room.
But Mary was too fast. She had already left the room to confront Jacqueline who was cursing the baby Gabriel to God only knows what.
Filipe sat up in the wake of Mary's quick exit and there was only spilled tea seeping into the hard wood floors of the ancient cabin.
Mary burst into Jacqueline's room. She found the witch from Boston sitting the same way Mary was with her eyes wide open but glowing white.
Mary, furious with Jacqueline's betrayal of Sebatian, fell to her knees, grabbed Jacqueline by one shoulder and with her free hand slapped Jacqueline across the face quickly waking her from the her locked state.
Jacqueline came to. Her eyes flashed white then came back to their normal dark brown state.
"What, what have you done?!?!?!" Jacqueline said rubbing her sore cheek.
"ME? What have YOU done?! What did you do to Gabriel? WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!?" Mary screamed shaking Jacqueline as she yelled at her.
"Mary! Calm down! CALM DOWN!" Filipe said, entering the room, now dressed and pulling Mary off of Jacquleine.
"She cursed the baby. She's cursed the baby!" Mary shouted with tears streaming down her face.
"Our baby?" Filipe asked, confused.
"Gabriel. Sebatian and Evie's baby. I saw her just now. I took myself there, to Tirymor to give the baby a spell or protection, something to keep him safe form thigs just like her! I can't believe we trusted her. I can't believe she would do this to him! To Sebatian! To Gabriel!" Mary said, her mind spinning out of control with the awful situation she came upon.
"Jacqueline, what is going on here?" Filipe asked, pushing Mary behind him.
"She heard wrong, I wasn't cursing him. I swear!" Jacqueline exclaimed.
"I HEARD YOU!" Mary shouted from behind Filipe as she held her big baby bump.
"No, No I swear Mary, I wouldn't do that. I would never hurt a child with any kind of witchcraft. I overheard Sebastian ask you for help. I thought maybe I could help him, since I've been in use of the powers of the Sisters much longer than you. I wanted to help; I swear. I've grown fond of Sebastian and I hear in his voice when he asked you for the protection spell how sincere and fearful he was for Gabriel's safety. So, I went there today, this morning, just before you, and began a spell of protection for the baby." Jacqueline explained. "I swear on the name of our good Coven this is the truth."
"Mary? Could that what be what you heard?" Filipe asked.
"She didn't let me finish." Jacqueline said as she began to cry. "The spell was spoken and unfinished. It's unfinished."
"What? Unfinished how? What does that mean??" Filipe asked frantically.
"Mary interrupted me while I spoke the words, while I chanted the spell to protect the baby, she only allowed me to say part of the spell and when she knocked me out of my connection the spell took another form because it was not worded completely and correctly." Jacqueline explained further.
Mary took a breath and composed herself "Then what does that mean? What words did you say?"
"I planned on giving the baby a protective spell on hearing no evil deeds. Hear no evil words, so that no evil would touch him when spoken by any mouth, Mary.... you stopped me before I could do that, you only allowed me to say ...." Jacqueline paused, her heart almost stopping before she revealed what the spell would actually do.
"SPEAK WOMAN!" Filipe yelled out frustrated with both women acting out. "Tell us NOW!"
"I was only able to say half of the spell. In Latin I was only allowed to recite par of our coven's spell. All I was allowed to say was “Let him hear nothing'--- it was meant to be 'Let him hear nothing evil, no darkness no curses...' But — Mary interrupted. And stopped me." Jacqueline said.
"Well then finish it." Filipe replied. "Finish it now!"
"It's too late." Mary replied realizing what he had done, Jacqueline nodded her head in agreement.
“What? What do you mean too late?” Filipe questioned.
Mary’s face turned white as a ghost as it slowly sunk in to what she and Jacqueline had done, even if by accident. “Filipe, I interrupted— the baby. The spell! It stop at ‘let him hear nothing’— do you know what that might mean?”
"I fear you’re right. It’s what has happened. This will destroy Sebastian." Jacqueline added it started to dawn on Mary what she had one by interrupting mid spell the words Hear Nothing.
"One of you, NOW explain to me... what will the spell do to Gabriel?" Filipe demand.
"I've made him deaf." Mary replied in shock. "My god, he will hear nothing. It’s all Jacqueline said while she cast it. I made him deaf. Instead of hear no evil, he will hear nothing. Nothing. My god, what have I done?!"
Mary turned and buried her head in Filipe's chest. He held her, squeezed her tight as Jacqueline confirmed that was true.
The spell of protection backfired when interrupted and may have done the unthinkable, taken the hearing from the baby as he slept.
Mary, Jacquleine and Filipe all stood in Jacqueline's room terrified for moment they'd have to tell Sebatian what they had done to his precious baby boy.
"How can we explain this to Sebastian? He wants to start over, he wants a new lease on his own cursed life. Once he finds out what we've done, what I HAVE done, I don't know if we'll able to keep him from falling deeper into the darkness than he sometimes already does. We can lose him forever, Filipe." Mary said as she blamed herself.
"I just wanted to help." Jacqueline said, as she continued to repeat over and over again.
"We won't tell him." Filipe said stunning the women.
"Lie?" Jacqueline asked.
"We won't tell him yet. No, we wait, we wait to see if the spell actually took hold and if the baby is truly deaf now. Perhaps he's fine, perhaps nothing occurred since the spell wasn't fully realized. We wait. We all wait, and when we find out the truth we decide what to say to Sebatian." Filipe said.
"In the mean time?" Mary asked.
"We keep it between the three of us." He said.
"And it happens to be true? If I interrupted Jacqueline during the spell and the spell reverted to taking away the baby's hearing? What then?" Mary pushed..
There was a quiet pause in the room, no one knew how to answer her at first, but Filipe knew how dark Sebastian could be, he several scars on his wrist to prove it. Filipe gulped and answered:
"We keep it secret. If the baby turns out to have lost his hearing the way Jacqueline predicts, we will not tell Sebatian the truth. None of us. Is that understood? The truth could push him over the edge into a mind space that will be too dark to pull him back from. Sebastian is unsteady, he’s unpredictable and frankly — deadly, if provoked. We’ve gotten him back from the shadows for now but if the truth is revealed …we may even lose our own lives." Filipe warned.
The women shot each other looks. Then turned to Filipe and agreed.
They'd wait to see if Gabriel was truly deaf, and if he was ---the secret of how the baby lost his hearting, the full throated truth that risked life and death, would remain between the three forever.
Jaqueline wondered to herself, however, if perhaps she’d been too hasty coming into the fray of this new bound coven.
Soon, the sun would set and Sebatian Lord, the vampire who's attempts at turning a new page and leaving behind the darkness he so often brought upon those he loved, would awaken from his daytime slumber.
Not knowing his hope of a spell to protect his new son had gone terribly array.
****
 |
| Jacqueline meets Evie in the village |
Later that afternoon the warmth of the air swirled above the village. Jacqueline had left Goode Island for supplies and things needed at the cabin.
Her mind was distracted. Her heart heavy with grief over what had happened with the spell of protection and baby Gabriel. How could she look Sebastian in the eyes again knowing what she had done, knowing what Mary and Filipe wanted her to do: lie about it all.
As Jacqueline walked along the cobble stone streets of the village. The seagulls spun around in flight calling to those on the ground. The secret witch looked towards the loud birds and snickered at them. She lifted her finger slightly and with a twitch her hand a light breeze carried the pesky white gulls off towards the sea.
When Jacqueline’s eyes returned to the street, a shocking sight. Evie. Aaron, and Baby Gabriel were packing things into a small automobile.
Jacqueline stared at Evie in awe of how quickly she had recovered after giving birth. She was tempted too to meet her; to meet the woman who once held Sebastian’s heart, and even more, she wanted to see if the baby was truly deaf or not— to know if her worst fears were true: had she rendered the baby deaf when Mary interrupted the spell just the night before.
Jacqueline couldn’t resist. She walked over assuming it would be too soon for even Evie to tell if baby Gabriel had any hearing issues. But Jacqueline would know.
“Such a handsome baby! I just had to come over and say hello.” Jacqueline said as Evie turned to see who was talking to her.
“Oh! Thank you!” The new mother said glowing.
Jacqueline was impressed with Evie’s beauty. Her eyes were like two sapphires sparking in the late afternoon sun. Her hair a honey brown looked to be made of thin rays of setting sunlight.
“I’m new at all this.” Evie said, “so you’ll excuse me if I seem a bit flustered with a baby and shopping and... ugh its more than I thought it would be.”
“Not at all. It must be a lot of work to build up an arsenal of baby toys and nappies and towels and, well who knows what.” Jacqueline replied. “Your son is so handsome.” She added turning to Aaron and pretending she thought he was Gabriel’s father.
Aaron’s eyes darted to Evie embarrassed at the notion.
“Oh no, no. This is Aaron, he’s our family’s driver. And good friend.” Evie replied. “The baby’s father unfortunately met a sad demise.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Jacqueline said still feigning ignorance.
Then Jacqueline noticed Evie’s brooch. It was small oval brooch with golden leaves surrounding a tiny painting of what Jacqueline knew to be a copy of Leonardo Da Vinci painting.
“I love his work. I’ve always wanted to go to Paris and see all that they have of his. I’ve read so many books on him.” Jacqueline said.
Evie’s eyes lit up. “You're an admirer of art too! I’ve studied it all my life. It’s just my favorite thing in the world. Oh besides this little bundle here. I’m so happy you noticed it. I’m Evie.”
Jacqueline smiled coyly seeing she had been able to gain Evie’s trust so quickly. “Jacqueline.”
“Miss Evie, we should be going.” Aaron announced. “Jane will be needing the fabric to make Gabriel’s new curtains before nightfall.”
“New curtains?” Jacqueline asked.
Evie shook her head “It’s silly really but we keep finding the window open in his room and the old ones somehow gold pulled out outside with the wind and they’re soiled so— now he gets new ones.” Evie explained.
Evie’s sensed a kindness from this new face in the village. Jacqueline was beautiful, bright eyed and she hadn’t encountered anyone interested in art like she was the whole time she lived in Welshport. Jacqueline felt like some kind of message, a gift, a kind of breath of fresh air to Evie’s very dark last few years.
Little did Evie know, Jacqueline was well aware of evie and her past.
“I know this might be odd but I’d love it if you’d come up to my house to discuss art. I’ve needed the distraction. Oh! Wait!” Evie said as she looked to the two books she had just purchased in town. Evie then noticed her hands were full holding the baby.
“Will you hold him for a second.?”
Jacqueline gulped and nodded her head — this is how she’d know if Gabriel had been victim of deafness.
Evie reached over for the art book and began to ramble about it. Jacqueline looked down at the baby, their eyes meeting. He stared at her. His expression confused. Lost. Unsure. But happy.
Jacqueline was sure now it has happened.
“So you’ll come?” Evie said switching the book with the baby in Jacquline’s arms.
“What?” Jacqueline said her mind snapping back to reality after staring into the baby’s eyes.
“You’ll read the book then come to Tirymôr and we can chat about it? I’d really love it if you did.” Evie asked. “I would —no, NEED, some kind of distractions. Speaking on art and music and whatever else will definitely help me regroup after all that’s happened.”
“Oh! Uh. Yes yes! Of course! Of course!” Jaqueline said stammering.
“I can’t wait!” Evie replied.
“Miss. Please we should go.” Aaron pressed.
Evie finally complied and piled herself and the baby with the rest of her things to continue decorating the baby’s room. Jacqueline too grabbed her bags back up from the pavement as she watched the car drive off to Tirymor.
She instantly saw why Sebastian loved Evie so much. Her kindness. Her easy nature. Her zest for all things normal, something that perhaps Sebastian never had growing up at Tirymor.
Jacqueline’s bit her lip with disdain and a slight bit of jealousy. She’d just become new friends with a woman who once loved and gave birth the child of the man Jacqueline was currently in love with.
“Maybe they’re right.” Jacqueline thought to herself before she repeated the old adage “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
But which was Jacqueline to Evie? Friend? Or enemy
****
 |
| Rebecca hears a familiar voice at Churchill Green |
A refurbished walls of a wing of Welshport Hope Hospital were perfectly painted an eggshell white. This new ward, of 10 bedrooms, a nurse's station, and three offices, had been cleaned and furnished with the endowment given to the Hospital that also included funds for the apprenticeship for rural doctors to learn on the job, the program Asha and Nik were apart of to become full-fledged doctors.
This wing was built as a psychiatric ward, Welshport's first and very own. It was made this way so that the patients who needed to be here to rest, recover and hopefully find themselves out of the deep dark hole their lives had taken them emotionally and mentally instead of having to travel to the mainland and stay at Windcliff Sanitarium.
This wing, a detached part of the hospital but still on the campus that had been closed down for lack of use was named CHURCHILL GREEN for one of the first families of Welshport who paid and built it decades ago. And here at Churchill Green, is where Rebecca Lord found herself after the debacle after the storm where she almost threw her grandson's newborn son off the edge of a lighthouse.
She sat in the front parlor, one of 8 patients known as The Green, the name as it was shortened for quick speech. her hair was let down in long white and red curls. her eyes and lips bare of makeup.
This refreshed, yet strangely haunted Rebecca stared off into nothing. She was slightly medicated. Her mind drifted part into memories, part into fantasies.
She didn't know what was real. She didn't know what was fake.
Did she really do what she thought she did to Gabriel?
Did she really feel like Caspian would have really brought Vivi back to life if she had killed her tiny little great-grandson?
Her mind blurred the truth for her. She was confused. Her heart ached because deep in her subconscious she knew the truth, but it was so hard for her to grasp and hard for her to really believe it even though the truth was as bright as the sun outside.
"How are we feeling today, Ma'am?" A nurse asked handing Rebecca more medication.
"What? Oh... I'm fine." Rebecca answered.
"You'll be speaking with Dr. Jordan today. He's a new intern, still learning on the job and should be here any moment. Is there anything I should let him know before you meet?" The nurse asked.
"Jordan? Dr. Jordan?" Rebecca asked, recognizing the name.
"Yes. Dr. Nikolas Jordan."
Rebecca sat there; her facial expression suddenly switched from a grimace to a full-throated hysterical laugh. So much laughter from Rebecca at the idea that Nikolas Jordan would be the psychiatrist heling her see through the dark period in her life was not only insane, but hilariously insane. She had almost killed Gabriel, Nik's own nephew and how he'd be her doctor.
Rebecca held her side, it felt like her ribs were coming apart from her body with so much laughter. It was the irony of it all and the weirdness of living in such a small town that even the doctors were people whose lives you effected not by just being their patient but also by almost killing someone in their own family.
"Life is funny, isn't it?" The nurse said rolling her eyes and moving off to a different patient who was rocking back and forth on her chair.
Rebecca couldn't stand it; it was just too silly. To stupid. Too much for her to handle. She got up from her small chair in the parlor of the room inside Churchill Green and began to make her way down through the hall down to her small white room with padded walls, but a nice comfortable bed, a small table for her to read, write and eat.
She had plants there too, that helped her through the strangeness of her new reality inside a mental ward, but other than that she felt like a ghost. Roaming the whitewashed hallways of the vinegar washed hospital ward.
Then, as she passed another patient's room on her way to hers. The room's door was open. She could smell the scent of rosewater and candles. The scent made her stomach clench.
She recognized the smell. It had often wafted the halls of Tirymor in the last few months.
Then.... a voice called from within the room.
Rebecca stopped dead center in the hall and stared forward. Her hands shook
She recognized the voice from the hospital room she passed.
And it terrified her.
Rebecca's hands began to shake even more severely as the voice kept calling to her. She was too afraid to look back and see who it was; to see the face that matched the voice she believed she heard.
"No." She whispered. "It can't be."
"Rebecca." the voice called again now from the doorway of the room.
"No. No." She said again to herself refusing to turn back to face the body the voice belonged to.
"Rebecca." the voice said again, a deep cold tone.
"I will not turn I will not turn I will not turn I will not turn I will not turn I will not turn." She said again to herself reaching into the pockets of her hospital robe for her rosary beads panicking for some kind of protection from what she heard.
Then, the voice spoke again. "Rebecca, its me."
Rebecca, feeling the protection of her beads turned back and walked the few steps to the open door of the other hospital room and saw the scared and burned face of Caspian Casador looking at her from what she thought was beyond the grave.
He had survived the exorcism, he was alive, he was there, and he looked like he had come from hell itself with scars on his face and his eyes bloodshot and beaten.
His body weakened by the powers that subdue him. His face was different, aside from his wounds and scars and burns. It was his eyes, there was something more human about them, more alive than ever---strangely.
Rebecca screamed, she fell backwards, and nurses rushed to her.
"DON'T LET HIM NEAR ME! KEEP THAT DEMON AWAY!!!" she screamed.
"Demon?" A nurse asked.
"Mrs. Lord. please!"
"HE'S GOING TO KILL ME!!!" Rebecca screamed as she dug her nails into the first nurse's arm.
"She's spiraling!" the nurse said to the second other.
"Mrs. Lord please calm down! CALM DOWN!!" The second nurse shouted.
"Hold her down!" The first nurse ordered as she got up and quickly retrieved a hypodermic needle.
"NO! NOO!!! HE'S DEAD! HE'S DEAD!!!!" Rebecca screamed.
"Hold her steady, this will calm her." The first nurse said returning to inject a sedative into Rebecca.
Rebecca's eyes rolled to the back of her head as she fell into a calming sleep from the medicine. The nurses lay her sleeping body on to the cold hospital floor and Rebecca's hand fell to the side opening showing her clenched rosary beads.
With her heart slowing to a normal pace, her mind still swelled with terror knowing that the Demon Caspian was there, with her, as patient at Churchill Green too.
Free.
Free to terrorize Rebecca again and again and again............for eternity.
