Filipe, Jacqueline & Mary at the cabin |
A warm fire burned in the hearth inside of Mary Goode's cottage bedroom. She sat a small dressing table near a shuttered window that blocked out the cold air from the winter night outside. She knew Sebatian was out this night, searching for his next meal in the woods.
She needed time to herself now. Time to take action against a potential threat: Sebastian and Jacqueline's growing attraction.
At the table she, dressed in a thick black dress with sleeves long to her wrist and hooked the middle finger of each and with a silk ribbon, Mary carefully wrapped a tiny doll she had created with twine.
The dolly small enough to fit in the palm of her hand, had strands of black thread as its hair and the cloth that made up its body was the color of warm caramel.
This was a doll to represent Mary's coven sister Jacqueline Gray.
Mary carefully wound the twine around each of the doll's hands. Around and around it's wrists she went with the tan colored twine as she whispered a spell to hold off any of Jacqueline's suspected evil intentions:
"I take this twine and hold you still; Sister Mine, of evil will; May your good intentions, bring forth your light; a spell I bind you with; in good faith and right."
Standing at the door, Jacqueline giggled as she watched this.
"Mary." Jacqueline said startling Mary in her chair. "This is very sad."
The Caught Mary didn't say anything she just stared at her coven sister with eyes large and reflecting the flames in the hearth and slowly put down the doll.
"I know your mother died before she could tell you how things work in this world, but a spell of binding can't be done like this." Jacqueline said.
"Why?" Mary asked, her voice meek and calm.
Jacqueline smiled "Because Mary. We're sisters. We're family in the form a coven; powers that were given to us by our ancestors and the forces of nature. Our bond is ours to hold not anyone else. We did it. Our Coven sisters... those gone," Jacqueline said, "and those that remain." She added gesturing to herself and Mary. "To silence and stop me, is to silence and stop you."
"I can sense that something is different about you. I don't know what to make of it. I can't sleep. I can barley eat. The child inside of me keeps me up at night and it's only gotten more and more uneasy in my belly since you got here. I don't know what you've caused, but something is different in the atmosphere. In the world. I fear your words. I fear your powers." Mary admitted.
"You're overacting Mary." Jacqueline replied.
"Am I? And what of my cousin Sebastian? You've gotten very close to him. Does he know how powerful you really are?" Mary asked.
"Sebastian and I are ..." Jacqueline paused. "We're going to last forever. For all time."
"Jacqueline, no." Mary said, her voice filled with worry of what that meant for them all. "You have to be careful with how you deal with Sebastian. Do you understand me? He's not as stable as you think he is. There are things about who he is that he cannot control and when those issues come to light and resurface no one is safe. Sebastian, I adore him, but we must be cautious with how we interact with him, that's why your relationship with him worries me. The closer you get to him the more I fear the truth will come out about Gabriel. The truth will set him on a tirade, Jacqueline. People's lives are in danger."
"Listen to her." Filipe said entering the bedroom. "She knows what she's talking about."
"I think you both find him threatening because if he does tap into his own powers, those that come with who he is now, that puts your control over him to an end. Having him bend to your whims and act as some kind of houseguest makes you more powerful. Having Sebastian here, in your life, what does it matter to you? Let him be. Let him do what he can do when he wants to do it. You put too many limits on him." Jacqueline replied, surprising Mary and Filipe.
"You're not serious." Filipe asked. "Of course, we have to keep him under control. He's a killer Jacqueline, he's a killer! And the child Mary is carrying is mine, I want that child to be born safe."
"No one is safe. Not in this world. I should know. I've seen it's darkest shadows creep and clammer for power and blood. I've met the most monstrous of humans and the most human of monsters who only want one thing: power." Jacqueline said.
"Is that what you think Sebastian wants? Power?" Filipe asked her condescendingly, as if Jacqueline was talking nonsense, as if her words were those of fantasy and denial. Filipe and Sebastian's friendship had a massive strain on it since Mary's mother Eliza used Filipe's own blood to revive the dead Sebastian and turned him into a vampire. The two men were connected in a very twisted way, blood-brothers who unwillingly sensed each other's life-force every second of the day.
It was Filipe's desire to end that part of himself, the part that made every inch of his skin crawl when he saw his old friend now the pale faced creature of the night. Filipe often said to anyone who'd listen, the man in the dark room of that cottage sleeping away the day, was not his old friend Sebastian Lord.
He was someone else, a creature obsessed with pain, revenge and blood.
This was Jacqueline's kind of person, a man she adored and would do anything to keep in her life.
The witch from Highgrove turned to Filipe and shrugged with a simple answer "He wants his child to live a happy life."
Mary snickered "Jacqueline you know that can't happen now, not after the error we made on the spell."
"We made?" Jacqueline interjected. "You are the one that made the error. You are the one who interrupted the spell and caused the child to lose his hearing. It was you Mary, not me. Not us."
Mary's eyes narrowed. Her heart felt as if it skipped a beat.
"Careful." Mary said to her.
"Of what?" Jaqueline grinned, "Your binding spell? I already told you it will never work."
"Of Sebastian." Mary replied. "He may find you fascinating and alluring but I am his family. He trusts me." Mary added with a snide warning to which Jacqueline laughed again.
"Mary, I am the one in his bed, I am the one he trusts. In fact, when I told him the truth, he believed me. You'll see." Jacqueline replied.
"Told him? What are you talking about, witch? What have you done?" Filipe shouted.
Mary gasped. "No. Jacqueline, you didn't. We agreed. We all agreed not to. You're lying!"
"We agreed? No, you wanted me to take blame for something I didn't do. You did it and you wanted to keep that from Sebastian. I'm not going to do that anymore, and I will never keep anything from him. He's the man I love and I told him everything." Jacqueline replied.
Mary's eyes blurred. She saw everything in double, her heart felt weak. She felt cold. "I ... Filipe, help me."
The pregnant Mary stammered over to her partner Filipe, she began to fall, and he caught her in his arms. She had fainted mid step at the shocking news the Sebastian now knew the truth about his child Gabriel's sudden loss of hearing and what caused it.
A spell gone wrong.
"You bitch." Filipe said, holding Mary in his arms as she quickly began to regain consciousness.
Jacqueline lifted a brow and took a breath. "I could not be the one blamed. I had to look out for myself."
"Jacqueline..." Mary said her mind foggy.
"Shhh... just breath, love, just breath." Filipe told Mary as he walked her over to the bed to lay her down.
Jacqueline poured Mary a glass of water from a porcelain pitched on a small side table near the large dressing table where Mary was binding the small voodoo doll of Jacqueline. She walked it over and handed it to Filipe.
"She'll be alright." Jacqueline said as Filipe snatched the glass of water from her hand.
"Leave. Now." he growled, his voice like a wild animal snarling and timing his treacherous pounce on his prey.
"It had to be done, Filipe. The truth had to come out and I had to make sure that it was done correctly." Jacqueline said.
"At what cost? Our lives? Sebastian will kill us!" Filipe said, standing up with the now empty glass of water. Mary sitting up in bed now, holding her baby belly.
"You don't know what you've done." Mary said in a tiny voice.
Jacqueline looked at Filipe, then looked at Mary. She reached for the bedroom doorknob and said one final thing to Mary's last words "I've done what was right."
Filipe snarled again. "What was right for you?"
Without replying Jacqueline left the room knowing full well Filipe was right. Her actions, dangerous and one sided were steppingstones to what Jacqueline really wanted: A life of love with Sebastian where he doted on only her, trusted only her, cared for only her, and everyone else was in his crosshairs.
Mary reached for Filipe's hand and pulled him close to her. "What do we do?" She asked.
Filipe did not know how to reply. He squeezed her hand and did not say anything, only kissed her on the head hoping all was not lost.
The Vampire would surely come this night and all hell would break loose.
****
Sebastian finds wolves in the woods |
In the forest that made up Goode Island, Sebastian Lord watched as a calm doe searched the frozen ground for any type of nourishment. The doe nibbled at small blades of grass that had survived and pushed up through the frost of the early winter storm that came over the northeast. A very sensitive animal, the doe did not sense Sebastian whose powers of supernatural origin made it hard for her to feel him. She was as good as dead, and his hunger was wild.
A fog flooded over the ground like water from a broken dam.
Cold air, colder than it was just seconds before fell over the doe. The muscles in her back clenched.
She lifted her head from the ground now sensing something but seeing nothing.
Feeling safe, she lowered her head again to feed and out of the shadows Sebastian lunged and attached the doe. His mouth ripping at her throat. She did not live long after that. The white snow on the ground quickly soaked with the doe's fresh warm blood from the doe's throat.
Sebastian's anger and fury was on a different level tonight. It fueled his hunger, hunger that he never felt before. He could attack 100 deer and never feel satisfied.
He was angry at what Jacqueline had told him, he was hurt and broken from the reality that the son he saved from Rebecca was now rendered deaf by some a spell gone wrong — by two witches he trusted and loved.
As he fed from the throat of the doe, howling in the distance came closer and closer to the blood-soaked snow of Sebastian's killing zone.
Wolves.
They were hungry too. The few packs of wolves that remained on Goode Island join together to make one large pack in hopes together they could get meals. Sebastian often left the remains of his rabbits, deer, and fowl for them to fight over but Sebatian was a meatier score.
They snarled at him from the shadows of the thickets.
The howled. And growled unseen to his eye.
His anger was so brutal and potent that he'd take on any pack of wolves. Sebastian stood up; his face stained with blood and clots. His eyes black as night and his fangs long, sharp and ready to bite any wolf that tried him.
But the wolves did not attack. They only howled. Over and over, they howled, louder and louder. Then, a strange thing. All the eyes of the wolves began to come together rather than remain in the shadows surrounding him. They were now all lines up in front of him. Seven sets of yellow glowing eyes, fourteen glowing balls blinking in unison and howling all together deep deadly howls.
The howls soon turned to a sound, then finally into a sonic form of the world "HOME"
The HOME continued, the bewitched wolves were telling Sebastian to leave his meal and head back to the cabin he was attempting to avoid all night after the reveal of what Mary and Jacqueline had done.
The wolves kept howling, the word HOME kept getting louder and louder, and finally Sebastian's face softened, his eyes returned to normal and his fangs retracked. He buttoned up his coat and left the doe's body in the snow and rushed back to face his demons at the Goode family cottage.
As he made his way through the brush in the glow of the moon light, Sebastian turned back and saw that the wolves had pounced on the dead doe to finish Sebatian's meal.
Sebastian stood at the front door to the Goode family cabin. Small puffs of breath came from his nose in the cold air. Slow and measured. He was there with stains of blood on his mouth that he wiped away with the sleeve of his wool coat.
He did not knock. His powerful energy was enough for Mary to feel and open the door to him without even speaking his name. There they stood, cousin facing cousin, both hurt and heartbroken over years and years of betrayal, mostly on the same side, but this time there was a sense on both of their parts that they were now enemies.
Mary stepped aside with the doorknob still in her hand "Come in."
He passed her, his powerful energy crossing Mary as if she had been standing next to roaring freight-train.
"There should be no talking, I should just rip your throat open right here right now." Sebastian growled.
"You'll have to get through me first." Filipe said entering the room.
"Both of you make me sick. You," Sebastian staring at Mary "Betrayed me. You lied to me. I begged for your help to keep my son safe and instead you do something horrible to him."
"Sebastian, you don't understand..." Mary began before the vampire interrupted.
"And you!" Sebastian said turning to Filipe. "One of my best friends since we were children, and you never ever thought that I should know the truth? This is my son we're talking about!"
"I was friends with Sebastian Lord, I don't know who you are. You've never shown me that you are the same man I knew when we were boys. The day you were shot at your wedding was the day the Sebastian I knew died. This, this shell of a man, this thing that consumes animals in the forest in the dead of night, this creature that foams at the mouth at the sight of blood and threatens a woman who is baring a child--- MY child. That's not Sebastian Lord, that's a monster." Filipe replied.
"And so, if this had happened to the child Mary is carrying, how would you feel Filipe? I should have been told. MONTHS AGO!" Sebastian shot back.
"You're right." Mary replied surprising both men. "I should have been honest with you and with the mistake I made, but we needed time to figure out if we could reverse it and maybe save Gabriel from further hearing loss."
"Jacqueline says there is no reversal." Sebastian said.
"We don't truly know that." Mary replied.
"And she was involved too." Filipe added. "She was eavesdropping on your conversation with Mary and decided on her own to involve herself. Jaqueline is the one confusing the situation, Mary truly interrupted Jacqueline while she was casting the spell because she thought she was protecting Gabriel from Jaqueline. We barely know her! Mary caught her doing the spell and didn't know what was going on. It was an honest and horrible mistake." Filipe said.
"The lying wasn't Jacqueline. The lying was Mary. Mary kept it from me. Mary is the one who wanted me out of the equation to keep it all from me. Secrets are what caused all of this to happen in the first place. It's what caused me to live the life of this shadow person, its what is keeping me from Evie and my son, it's what's making me see that none of you have my best interest at heart. You were my friends, my family, I came here to Goode Island to seek shelter from my exile and what do I get? BETRAYL!!!" Sebastian roared.
"Sebastian, listen to me, I did not do this to harm your son. I swear to you, on the child I carry in my womb, I would never hurt you or Gabriel on purpose. Malice is not what I am, not anymore." Mary said, hinting at her past.
Sebastian laughed.
Filipe's eyes narrowed "What's so funny, monster?" He asked defensively.
"You don't see the irony? The woman standing here in front of us all who stands accused of causing my child to lose his hearing because she as inept a sorceress as she is a trusted family member is trying to tell me that her 'bad girl' days are over? MARY! Mary, the woman who shot and killed me at my own wedding 2 years ago!"
Mary's eyes watered. She hated her past. She hated what her ex-Jacob had done to her, his blackmailing, his manipulation of her. So many of her former misdeeds were because of Jacob and she had sworn those days were over, and now, to Sebastian at least, it seemed they were only just part of her past, and now she'd moved on to ruin him some more.
"You know exactly why that happened!! She was being blackmailed by Jacob! He was dangling access to Charlotte, her daughter, over her." Filipe reminded Sebastian.
"So she committed murder. And now that I'm THIS," Sebastian said, lifting hands to his pale vampire face, "she does something worse, so goes after my child. Why? WHY!"
"STOP!" Mary shouted. "I didn't go after Gabriel, Sebatian! How many times do I have to tell you, how many times do I have to say to you that it was all a mistake. Jacqueline had gone to the baby and tried to do the spell of protection that you asked me for without telling us. I didn't know! She didn't tell us! We've told her time and time again to keep her distance from Tirymor and your family — for their own safety. After what happened with Caspian none of us need to put ourselves near that house, but she won't! She does what she wants." Mary explained.
"DO NOT blame Jacqueline! She was trying to help." Sebastian defended.
"By going to see your child and put a protection spell on him--- in Secret??? She told no one Sebastian. We asked her to stay away from your family and she went ahead and did it on her own. Doesn’t that seem strange to you? Doesn’t that make you feel like … like she’s trying too hard? Being secretive with her actions? Mary was trying to protect your baby boy and made a horrible mistake!” Filipe said, attempting to cast doubt.
Hearing her name several times in the argument, Jaqueline came out of the back room she shared with Sebastian. They all turned to her. She felt her stomach tighten with nerves. She'd caused the fight by telling Sebatian the truth and somewhat blaming everything on Mary to absolve herself from the error on Gabriel's hearing loss.
"Tell him! Tell him you did this all without telling us, and of course Mary misunderstood -- not knowing your true intent. Tell him that we wanted to see if we could find a reversal and you've told us there isn't one without really trying to help find one. Tell him! TELL HIM JACQUELINE!" Filipe shouted.
"I... I .... Sebastian, I don't know what to say." Jacqueline replied in a soft voice.
Filipe scoffed and thew up his hands. Mary shook her head unsure of why Jacqueline was being so cagy with the truth. They had talked about it so many times, they had agreed to not tell Sebastian until they could figure it all out. But nothing. Jacqueline did none of that. She went ahead and revealed the truth, like a pandora's box of secrets that spilled out into the air, and no one could put them back.
Sebastian lifted a brow and blew passed Jacqueline who slinked into a corner of the room. Mary and Filipe came together, he held her tightly as she felt her whole world crumble in her hands. She wanted to keep her family safe from harm and evil. She felt that Jacqueline was somehow doing the opposite to that, Jacqueline seemed to be bringing more of that into the house, more of that unstable energy into the lives and for what? She didn't need to do it, she didn't have any real reason to tell Sebastian unless it was to gain more points with him, to keep him close, to keep him in her own clutches and away from Mary and Filipe's influence.
Jacqueline wanted Sebastian all to herself and exposing the truth about Gabriel and pinning everything on Mary trying to keep Sebastian out of the loop made it seem they were conspiring against Sebatian... and Sebastian bought it hook line and sinker.
Sebastian came back from the back room with a hastily packed bag.
"I'll never return here. You can feel free of me." Sebastian said.
"What? Where are you going? It's almost dawn." Mary replied.
"I'll be where I want to be. I'll be where no one needs to use me for their own gains." He said.
"NO ONE IS USING YOU!" Filipe shouted back in frustration with Sebastian's inability to see what was really going on.
"Having me here protects you all, I see it. But at the same time I'm a curse to this house and everything I do drives a deeper debt for all of us and for the universe that at some point will come calling for payment, and there is no way in hell I will be what you use to pay those debts." Sebastian said.
"You're paranoid." Filipe shot back.
"Don't go. It's dangerous."
"Do not look for me." Sebastian said as he stormed out of the cabin.
Jacqueline, her heart in her throat saw the man she loved leave her in the cabin with two people who just became her enemies. She quickly ran over to the door and grabbed her coat that was hanging on a the wall and went after Sebastian. Mary and Filipe followed her to the front door and watched her run down the snowy path after him begging him to stop.
Jacqueline's voice echoed in the canopy of the forest trees. Minutes later she finally caught up to him and walked the rest of the way to the small boat at the shore that would take them back to Welshport Island.
Back at the Cabin, Filipe pulled Mary close to him warming her arms with his big hands.
"Let them go." He said.
"What do we do now?" Mary wondered.
"Like I said," Filipe said as she slammed the door on the outside cold. "We have our child to watch for. Leave Jacqueline and Sebastian to their own misery. He'll see her treachery soon enough."
Mary buried her face in Filipe's chest and cried. She felt terrible about it all went down. She felt terrible that her own cousin would think so badly of her no matter what their past was. She had turned a new leaf, she had changed her life to help other, and yet the lies told about her were cloaked that he could not tell truth from fable.
Jacqueline, on the other hand, had gotten so far what she wanted: Sebastian.
****
Celeste & Evie visit St. Catherine’s for mass |
The next morning, at a sparsely attended mid-week mass at St. Catherine's Church, Evie and Celeste sat up front with their two little boys. Evie dressed in a pale blue dress and matching coat with silver buttons going down from her elbow to her wrist and Celeste almost matching in her own sky blue gown that went up to her neck with a hint of lace peeking out.
They were there just as they always were on these mid-week masses representing the Lord family that donating money every week to keep the church afloat. The Catholic diocese had often attempted to close down the church for lack of funding in the area but the locals had always pitched in to keep it open, mainly from grants from the Lords --- this always gave anyone of them front row seats.
After, Evie, Celeste and two members of their staff (Jane and Aaron) greeted several of the few people of the village who remained. The villagers were all a glow at the two tiny little Lord heirs Fabian and Gabriel.
The next glowing spectator was Father Donavon Ryan himself who came back out into the Nave of the church to meet the Lords.
"It's always good to see the next generation of Lords here in God's house. Good morning." He said to the two mothers as the villages excused themselves.
"Good morning father, very lovely serman today." Celeste said, as she held down an energetic Fabian toddler by the shoulders.
"It really was." Evie added.
"Thank you, it would be wonderful if we could get you all to come down on a Sunday morning when there are more people here, but I guess beggars can't be choosers. I should be grateful you all come at all." He said, slightly passive aggressively.
Evie and Celeste looked at each other nervously as Father Ryan bowed his head to excuse himself to see other parishioners but not before Evie stopped him.
"Father, could I have a moment?" She asked surprising Celeste.
"Of course."
"I don't really know how to ask this, or even if I should be this concerned, but I've been having dreams lately and I wonder if you would sort of council me on them." Evie asked.
Celeste furrowed her brow, not knowing this.
"Dreams? What kind of dreams?" Donavon asked in return.
Evie wasn't comfortable speaking about her dreams in such a public way, in fact it felt strange and rather like she was overracting but the dreams she was having, the ones of Matthew, the ones Jacqueline was producing and controlling in her mind were so powerful and so real she was unsure of what to make of them, or even if she should pat attention at all.
Evie handed Gabriel to Jane and asked her to take him outside.
"Well, they're very realistic. Almost as if I'm in a room with the person that is in my dream. Sometimes I'm panicked and searching searching searching. They feel chaotic. But most of all they’re frightening and I can’t figure them out." Evie said.
Celeste continued to listen intently and also handed Fabian to Aaron and motioned for him to take the boy out with Jane and Gabriel.
"You mentioned someone was in the dream with you. Who?" Father Ryan asked.
Evie gulped and looked at Celeste who was standing practically taking notes in her mind.
"Matthew."
"Matthew, he's coming to you in your dreams?" Father Ryan asked in confirmation.
Evie nodded.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Celeste asked.
"I don't know. I’m sorry—This feels silly, I don't even know why I'm making a big fuss over this.” Evie said.
“You’re obviously very disturbed by them Evie. It’s natural to want to figure them out especially dreams so potent in messaging like yours are.” Father Ryan said. “What does Matthew say in these dreams?”
Evie paused feeling stupid and crazy for saying what she was about to say “He asks me to find him. Practically begs me.”
"Oh Evie." Celeste said reaching or Evie's hand.
The two had been friends since the day Evie landed in Welshport, in fact Celeste was the first person she met from Tirymor House. They were linked together for so long, first as friends but now family Evie was still considered to be a full-fledged Lord for her connection to Sebastian. Celeste, of course, moved up the family tree and into a roll that was steps away from being the matriarch now that she was Jacob's wife, Fabian's mother and Rebecca's likely replacement in the household hierarchy.
But over months and months, Evie and Celeste's friendship remained, albeit strained because of the different paths they had taken in life, but their friendship was still there. Celeste's worry was only over-shadowed by the fact that this bit of information could be useful to her and most of all Jacob.
"Evangeline, there are many reasons why we dream. Sometimes we dream because our minds are unable to unpack the reality of what is going on around us. Every day we are overwhelmed by the realities of life and their challenges. You have gone through very troubling times in your life and perhaps this dream, with Matthew pointing you in a direction, is a sign of something. I wish I could tell you what that direction is but I only you can do that." Father Ryan explained.
"But why would Matthew tell her to come find him?" Celeste asked.
Father Ryan shrugged "That's all apart of the mystery. You see Matthew represents something to Evie; and what that something is will have to be deciphered by her so that the message Matthew is sending becomes clearer."
"But why are they so frightening? Matthew isn't the same in my dream as he was in life. What I mean is that he seems ... there is something darker about him. In life Matthew was full of light and kindness. I turned to him and he made me feel safe, it’s the complete opposite in my dreams. It’s so very odd that it would be Matthew, of all people, to bring me fear.” Evie said.
"He's a part of your memory, for whatever reason your memory is bringing him back into your mind through a dream and he's represented in a frightening way. There might be some unresolved issue between you and Matthew, but Evie aside from helping you continue in a healthy and spiritual way there isn't much more I can do." Father Ryan explained.
Evie smiled and took a breath. "Of course." She said, "We should be going soon. It'll be time for the boys to have their lunch and nap but before that, I'd like to visit the blessed mother." Evie said and excused herself to a large stature of the Virgin Mary that stood in the far corner of the church under the bright light of the sun that seeped through several square shaped windows above the six large stained-glass windows along the side of the church she was on.
Evie knelt down and bowed her head in prayer while Celeste conferenced with Father Ryan.
"I'm worried about her." Celeste said.
"Well, dreams are nothing to really be concerned about." Father Ryan said. "Scientifically at least."
"Meaning?" Celeste asked, feeling the priests reply was only half spoken.
"When you have a dream or a nightmare you awaken and feel relieved that it wasn't real or that its over and you can go on with your day, right? It happens to everyone, but Evie seems to be allowing this dream of Matthew wash over her. I don't see her everyday, but I would assume she's rather distracted by it all day long." Father Ryan said. "And knowing her history as I do that cannot be good." He added.
"Her history?" Celeste asked.
"Her time at the hospital on the main-land. Windcliff. The sanitarium." Father Ryan replied in a hushed tone as two older women entered the church to pray after mass and passed them as they spoke.
"Oh, but she... well, we all know she was at the hospital not because there was something that was happening to her mentally, Father. She was there because of..." Celeste paused realizing she was about to put her husband in a bad light. "Well, lets just say she wasn't there under any real circumstances."
Father Ryan smiled. "Mrs. Lord, I know full well what your husband did and how he managed to coerce the hospital in keeping Evie there without any evidence she needed to be there. But that doesn't change the fact she was in a mental hospital for a very long time."
Celeste tiled her head in thought. She turned to check on Evie who was still bowed in prayer at the foot of the stature, her blue dress bunched at the bottom of her feet like ocean waves made of fabric folding perfectly in bunched covering the tops of her shows and cascading down the sides of the velvet padded kneeler.
"I know that she's been under a large amount of stress. Her baby's birth in fact was even worse than when my son was born, the poor thing almost lost him. But she's never cracked, Father. She's always remained from what I can see totally coherent." Celeste said.
"That may be, and I don't doubt what you've seen and experienced of her. I should at least clarify -- thing happen to us Mrs. Lord that affect us every day. Sometimes positively sometimes negatively. Many times we are able to confront the bad things because have a balance of good things in our lives and that balance helps us live our lives. Evie has had an avalanche of awful things happen to her. Her mind may be fragile. It may be that these dreams are signs of that fragility.
"What would you advise if something like should happen? If Evie does in fact start to have some, real, mental collapse?" Celeste wondered.
"That's a discussion that perhaps would best be made with your husband. Gabriel should be the one that everyone should protect first and foremost. The boy has lost too much already and could have lost more if he hadn't been saved the night of his birth. He'll need a solid foundation to grow up on if something awful should happen to his mother. I'm not saying that something will happen, but again these are important conversations." Father Ryan said as Evie made her way back.
"Shall we go?" Evie asked.
Celeste turned to her, smiled and nodded her head. "Thank you Father, I will definitely keep what you said in mind."
Evie's brow furrowed unsure of what they discussed but let the moment pass.
Celeste was wondering what to do. There were issues with the line of familial succession when it came to the Lord family fortune, billions of dollars were intertwined within each family member and Jacob had already one hideous thing to eliminate those in front of him. Now hearing such news that Father Ryan was somewhat worried about Evie's mental state and all that she had been dealing with now made Celeste think about what it meant to them all if for some reason little Gabriel fell into her hands.
Celeste and Evie reunited with their respective sons outside as Jane and Aaron showed the boys the cold snow that laid fresh on the ground from a morning snowfall. Evie looked at her boy with such glowing eyes, there was no way Celeste could ever replace her in his life--- but then again if she needed to step in, she would. For her friend. For her family. For all of them.
But -- for the money too?
Gabriel's rearing came with a hefty paycheck. With Evie out of the way because of something terrible happening, those funds in the boy's trust fund would then change into her hands as a foster mother.
These thoughts, these tentative, strange, and truthfully grotesque thoughts of an unfortunate incident that could happen to Evie in Celeste's favor swirled in Celeste's mind like a whirlpool of words and ideas and consequences.
Celeste and Evie looked at each other and smiled as they watched their boys play in the snow with Aaron and Jane just outside the Church. Celeste turned back to the white doors of Saint Catherine's and saw Father Ryan standing there. He smiled at her strangely and stepped back into the church and closed the door behind him leaving Celeste in deep thought about what she could do now knowing that perhaps she could control Gabriel's future monetary power within the Lord family.
Inside the Church, behind the closed doors in shadows, the body of Father Ryan in his priests Robes suddenly morphed into a dark red and brown dress revealing Jacqueline Gray who still had the strange smile on her face, the same one that "Father Ryan" gave Celeste.
The witch's next step on making sure Evie was out of her way with Sebastian had now laid stepping stones for Celeste and Jacob to move on taking control of the family empire. The couple's eyes were very set on making sure that Gabriel didn't get anywhere near their son Fabian's heirship.
With Jacqueline's plotting, perhaps they'd finally find their way in --- as Gabriel's possible God Parents who would control Gabriel's money if something awful would happen to Evie.
Father Ryan, the real one, then came out of the back of the Church and met with the two older women who came in earlier. The two women felt confused as they thought Father Ryan was in the church the whole time. They looked back and saw Jacqueline at the front doors and not the Priest.
"I think I'm losing my mind, sir!" The first older woman said in an Irish Accent.
"Me Lord! I thought the same!" The other woman said, also Irish.
Father Ryan smirked; he was confused but nevertheless happy to meet with the ladies unaware that Jacqueline had impersonated him in a way to convince Celeste of Evie's slowly shattering mind.
****
Rebecca & Caspian at Churchill Green |
At Churchill Green, the new mental ward at Welshport Hope Hospital, Rebecca sifted through the various books in the small library room for something to read. Reading had often calmed her mind as a child, when she and her older brother had to deal with the turbulence and noise of their parents' marriage.
Henry Lockwood, who was Rebecca's elder brother by 6 years, read to her to take away their parents' loud voices in the lower floors of their home. Those arguments however seemed to always overshadow Henry's attempts at protecting Rebecca and ever since, she (unlike the rest of the world) could not read a book all the way through without there being loud noises all around her.
In this respect, the noisy mental ward was a perfect place to read.
But, as per usual, she was not alone.
Caspian was in her presence once more inside the small hospital library.
"I've asked you to leave me alone. Don't you understand me? I want nothing to do with you." She told him not turning around only sensing his energy heavy and pounding on her heart like a maniac pounding on door.
"We're friends. I thought we were friends." He replied rolling himself in this wheelchair closer to her. She turned and locked eyes with the man she would have followed to the end of the world at one point.
"Friends?" Rebecca replied with a twinge or sarcastic. "No, my dear, we were coconspirators and very bad ones at that."
Dr. Asha Hoffman almost walked in on them, but remained at the door listening.
"I think we should be friends. I think we should end this war between us for good Rebecca. There's nothing I can do to hurt you or anyone in your family now. Father Ryan has made sure of that. I need you to know that." Caspian replied.
"And how am I supposed to believe you? Everything you've ever told me was some sort of twisted lie to conceal your true intentions and those intentions did not exclude killing members of my own family. Innocent, child members." Rebecca replied.
"You're right! I know! I've said it to myself over and over again. Trust me, I know. I know what I did but I wasn't really there. My body was, yes! But it wasn't my mind. Those ideas, those plots, those horrid things were not under my control. I give you my word, Rebecca, I am ME again. Me, the real Caspian." The former possessed man explained.
Rebecca looked at him as Dr. Hoffman listened in from the hall. She slowly slid her hand into her white lab coat and held on to the syringe in her hand the would medicate Rebecca should she get out of hand. Caspian, strangely enough, was mending quite nicely despite the destinating effects his possession had on his body but Rebecca had seen challenges in her mental recovery mostly from the awareness of what she had almost done to baby Gabriel at the Lighthouse and seeing the evil man's face, scarred as it was, there in front of her at the hospital with her.
Rebecca couldn't let go of her guilt. She couldn't let go of the pain she had caused and Caspian existence was a constant reminder of that. But his eyes, those warm big brown eyes looked so sincere and real and hopeful she'd finally let him in.
Rebecca thought of her brother Henry and how he too wanted to keep her from the noise of their parents' fight, and now was Caspian hoping to do the same? Take her away from the noise of her own mind? The crushing blows of her guilt, of her pain, of her own mistakes that she beat herself up over every day she woke up in that mental ward.
Could his new lease on life -- back to his real self -- help her heal if she just let him in?
"My heart tells me to trust you, after all, my whole life has lead me here and I never trust a single person. Perhaps it's time to turn a new leaf. There's really nothing else for me to do in here." Rebecca said.
"We could truly finally turn a new leaf," Caspian chuckled. "that would make me the happiest person in the world. You know for many years, before all of this, I watched your family from a far like anyone else who lived on this island. We thought you were all empty vessels, snobs, cold hearted. But I try and remember my time with you under the control of that monster, I see something different. You are all a family that cares for each other even if at times it leads to battles. But battles that you all so passionately believe in." Caspian confided.
"We are often at odds, yes, but as you stated it's for the good of our family. We all have wishes and hopes for the way our future as a whole goes but not everyone can be on the same page." She said, sitting next to him in an empty chair, their eyes now on the same level.
"Passion." Caspian said to her as he reached for her hand so elegantly placed on the chair's arm rest. "That's what I see in you. Firey passion."
Listening from the hall, Asha was surprised by the sudden thaw in their very cold relationship since the dark moments of the Lighthouse.
"Psssssst." A voice suddenly called rom an adjacent hallway in the ward to Asha.
She snapped her head around, as if she were caught red-handed listening to Rebecca and Caspian. The voice wanting her attention was Gregory Reigns, head constable of the island. Asha quickly waked over.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Did you think about what we talked about the other day? About Aurora's child with Caspian?" He whispered.
She rolled her eyes and pulled Gregory into an empty room down the hallway from the library. She walked over and pulled back the long olive-green drapes allowing the bright winter sunlight to filter in. She took a breath and placed her hands inside her lab coat, her left hand feeling the cool glass of the syringe filled with the sedative meant for Rebecca.
"I did. I did think about it and you've really given me no choice. Yes, I'll help." Asha told her old friend.
Gregory's smiled ear to ear.
"Asha thank you. Thank you. Taking this child from Aurora will not only save her, but it'll save the child from a lifetime of God knows what. The child deserves a happy home with a family that doesn't know it's history and where and how it came to be born." Gregory reminded Asha.
Asha nodded her head "When she goes into labor, we can take care of what we have to. I can make sure that she is safely placed unconscious while she gives birth -- towards the end of the labor -- and when the child is born, we'll conceal it, and when Aurora awakens, we will tell her that the baby did not make it to breath."
"Fine, fine." Gregory said. "Then you'll take the child with you and find it a home?"
Asha again, slowly nodded her head. Then she had an idea. "Come with me."
The two left the bright small room near the library and together made their way down the long white corridors of Churchill Green. The walls were freshly painted white and with the sunlight entering in from the open rooms that ran along the halls it was as if you were walking into the gates of heaven. The bright light would enter and reflect all over the whitewashed walls and back in your eyes almost as if you were looking directly into the sun. The fresh clean smell was apparent in the same way. The brand-new ward was a perfect place for those mentally afflicted to come, recuperate, and hopefully go back to their homes refreshed and redefined.
It was Dr. Peter Ward's hopes for this refurbished place to be a healing place of the mind, like it's main hospital was for the entire body. And so, Dr. Asha Hoffman and Dr. Nik Jordan were stationed, and they knew exactly where to find things. Asha led Gregory into the medicine secure room. It was also whitewashed and gleaming with light, but this light was sparking off the long slender metal shelves that held what seemed to Gregory as thousands and thousands of vials of medicine.
Two nurses huddled in the corner survey paperwork to make sure all ways aligned.
"Inventory." Asha whispered to Gregory who was confused.
"Can we help you Dr. Hoffman?" One nurse asked.
"I'm looking for ...oh here it is. I'm going to take this to a patient." Asha said grabbing a clear glass vial.
"Oh, but we'll need to take it off inventory. Can we please see the label?" The other nurse insisted.
"I'll take care of it later, don't worry." Asha said.
The nurses, uneasy with the idea of something leaving the storeroom without their marking it out, complied and only shot each other looks.
Asha took Gregory again into a private room just off the storeroom, this one, with no windows. It was gloomy and smelled of fresh paint and dust.
"Give this to her, it's a medication that doctors have recently found will induce her labor. It's in an early stage but so far there has been trial proof that in difficult pregnancies has helped the mother begin labor artificially rather than wait for her body to begin the process." Asha said.
"Why would we want her to be induced?" Gregory asked looking at the label marked OXYTOCIN.
"Because we want her to feel like it's too soon. It'll give us cover and allow for a more convincing story as to why the child didn't make it." Asha explained.
"How do I administer it?" Gregory asked.
Asha gulped. "You'll have to inject it." She said.
Gregory nervously nodded.
"Ill give you a hypodermic needle, and you'll inject it into her. She won't feel a thing. Do it while she sleeps." Asha explained.
"And it wont hurt her?" He asked.
"No." Dr. Hoffman said, her heart pounding in her chest nervously.
Gregory was ready. He'd do it in the next few days. Asha agreed to be ready and together they walked to her office where she'd give him to empty needles to take and use if needed.
The plan was set into motion and hopefully it would all work out, without leading to disaster.
****
Jacob catches Sebastian in Gabriel’s nursery |
Later that night, a soft flurry of white snowflakes fell on the island of Welshport from the grey sky above. No moon light could be seen as the grey fluffs of clouds covered its creamy light and set the sky into a deep purple haze as the snow sprinkled the land below.
Deep in the Tirymor Forest, the windows of the mansion of the same name owned by the Lord family were a glow in the light of fireplaces and gas lamps. In a cozy bedroom on the third floor of the mansion, lit with the dying red embers was the sleeping baby of Sebastian and Evie.
Little Gabriel slept peacefully in his crib. He had been left there by Jane O'Donnell, the housekeeper, while the family had dinner and after retired to a sitting room where they'd all discuss their days.
Gabriel's sturdy little body breathed heavily in his bed under his pale blue blankets that matched the blue of the walls and the slightly off color of blue of the elephants that were painted within thick stripes of an even lighter shade of blue.
Everything in the room was some sort of blue.
Watching quite carefully in the shadows of the room attempting not to be noticed by any staff from the house or members of the family was Sebastian Lord who's heart was broken into a thousand pieces when he heard the news of the baby's loss of hearing.
He watched his son, so beautiful and perfect was he. So pink his cheeks. So red and plump his lips. His little hands were lifted above his head with his tiny round fingers rolled over his palms making tiny little firsts. Gabriel's adorable little button nose that had the tiniest little drip of mucus dangling from the tiniest perfect nostril.
A perfectly round mole dotted the right corner of the boy's lip. Sebastian wondered if it'd grow, how would the shape be of that mole when he was older. Could he sense his father there watching protectively? Sebatian had so many questions and all he wanted to do was to pick his on up and hold and him beg for forgiveness.
Sebatian walked over from the shadowy corner in which he stood. He looked down at his baby boy and began to reach for him to hold him in his sleep.
"Stop right there."
Sebatian looked up, caught, and saw his Uncle Jacob standing with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of brandy in the other. He was dressed for after dinner drinks with the family, Sebatian recognized the style of jacket and of course knew the time this would happen which is why he chose it to visit Gabriel.
"I just want to hold him." Sebastian said.
"No." Jacob replied. "You cannot be seen here." Jacob said.
"I want to be with my son. Do you know he cannot hear? Do you know what my son, my one good deed on this earth cannot hear? He cannot hear!!" Sebastian replied emtionaly.
"Keep your voice down, you're lucky its me who came up to check on the children while the family is downstairs and not someone else. You cannot be seen here, you said it yourself that everyone must think you dead, and yet here you stand." Jacob reminded his undead nephew.
"Did you know?" Sebastian asked again of Gabriel's hearing.
"I heard from some of the family members, yes." Jacob replied, his voice sad and soft.
"Then what does it matter if anyone sees me? Nothing matters! He's been ... he's been... its all my fault! I'm the reason that this boy has to now live forever in a world of silence. It's all me! IM A CURSE!!!" Sebastian shouted, his heart breaking right in front of Jacob.
"Get a hold of yourself Sebastian! Get a hold of yourself. Evie is doing all she can to make sure she can figure out what can be done medically, It's not your fault. This is just something that happened to the poor boy. You understand, don't you? This isn't the same thing that happened to you-- meaning what Eliza did do you." Jacob explained.
Sebastian didn't go further into what had really happened with spell he requested and Mary's error.
"I'll never forgive myself." Sebastian whispered.
"Listen to me Sebastian, you need to get out of here. Am I clear? You need to leave now. It cannot be known that you're alive. Go. Go now, I'll keep you posted on what happens with Gabriel's progress." Jacob said.
"I want to take my son." Sebastian said, his voice now cold and clear, almost like the sound of bell in a silent room.
"What?" Jacob asked in shock. "You can't take the boy? Are you mad?"
"He's mine, and I want to take him. He'll be better off with me, with Evie, she'll just subject him to medications and treatments that will never work." Sebastian said as he began to reach for the baby.
Stunned, Jacob quickly tossed his cigarette into the brand and plopped the glass on a side table and lunged at Sebastian whose face snapped at Jacob to reveal the vampire's cold stare. His teeth were out, sharp and ready to bite.
"Do not touch the boy." Jacob said, his hands tightly gripping Sebastian's arms.
Sebastian, his fury bubbling up from all the pain he had caused over the years and now the awful pain of his part of Gabriel's hearing issues, hissed at his uncle and ripped Jacob's glamped hands from his wrists.
"I'll do what I want." Sebatian growled.
Jacob yanked at Sebastian's hands again. The vampire's full body spun around, and Jacob pushed at Sebastian's chest to move him away from the crib and closer to the window. Then, Jacob put himself between the crip and Sebastian.
"Uncle step away and let me do this." Sebastian said, his eyes black as night and reflecting the dying fire in the hearth.
"You do not know what you're talking about and you're being reckless, man! Stop with this! GO ON with your life like you said you would and leave this poor boy and his mother alone. They do not deserve to deal with what you've become. My god, look at you, look at what you're willing to do. Kidnap your own child and take him out into the middle of the night, in the cold night! And for what son? For What? Go! GO!" Jacob said.
"Son? I'm not your son. I've never been your son. You destroyed the man that had the permission to call me son while you lusted after his wife and took her from him, took her from me. You are responsible for all of this. If it wasn't for all your greed and constate conspiracies against us all none of this would have happened! I would have been alive, a human, living happily with my wife and son. No, you do not get to call me son and you do not get to tell me what I can and cannot do with my own child." Sebastian said as he then rushed the Jacob to reach for the baby.
Jacob put out his left hand that pushed up against Sebastian's chest and in a split second with his right hand balled into a fist landed a punch across Sebastian's left side.
Sebastian's rage boiled over and his mouth hissed and came down to bite Jacob. Jacob ducked and pulled to his one right side, daring out of Sebastian's hungry mouth. Sebastian lunged for his uncle and came down Jacob pulling him down to the ground knocking over a table near the hearth in the process.
The men were struggling punching and rolling over each other. One hit the other, then a punch in response, a bloody lip, a bloody nose. Two men of the same family were brawling in the middle of a cold night in the baby's room.
Eventually, the two men rolling around on the floor violently bumped into the baby's crip shaking him awake in such a startling way that he began crying. Down the hall, Jacob's half-brother Johnathon heard the commotion in the room. Confused of what the noise could be coming from the baby's room Johnathon went to check.
As he came into the room, he saw Jacob's face puffy and bleeding from the nose. Sebastian had his back to Johnathon.
"What the devil is this?" Johnathon said.
In a flash, like something out of Outerspace, Sebastian turned and lunged at Johnathon in a blur. They both feel to the ground and Jacob quickly went and grabbed Sebatian's coat and pulled him off of Johnathon who was fighting back strongly.
"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!" Jacob shouted at Sebatian who had made the mistake of revealing himself to Johnathon.
This realization stunned Sebastian and brought him out of this vampire state. He was shaking. Panicking. He looked to the crib and the baby was blaring in tears. Johnaton was moaning and rolling over on the floor, seconds away from seeing Sebatian clearly.
"GET OUT!" Jacob yelled again.
Without a second thought, Sebastian disappeared into the night by opening the window and vanishing.
"Are you alright? Johnathon. Are you ok?" Jacob asked helping him up.
"What's happened? What's going on?" Evie asked entering the room after waiting so long for Jacob to return.
"There... was... a man..." Johnathon said. His mind a blur from the bludgeoning by firsts from Sebastian.
"There was an intruder." Jacob said lying.
"What? Oh my god, Gabriel, Gabriel!" Evie exclaimed reaching for her crying baby who was trying to stand up in his crib.
"I saw his face, I think. I think I saw him. He looked familiar." Johnathon remembered as Celeste entered in a panic and rushed to her brother and husband's side.
"My god!" Celeste screeched.
"No, you didn't. You didn't recognize him. He was just some man wanting money ... a ransom for the child I assume. He's gone. He won't be coming back." Jacob said.
"How do you know that?" Evie asked rocking her crying son.
"And how do you know I didn't recognize the man? I think I did. It happened very fast, but I think I knew him or maybe saw him before." Johnathon added as Celeste cleaned Jacon's nose.
"No, you didn't." Jacob said again, his voice stern and powerful. A scolding of sorts.
Johnathon was about to say he did but then, in a split second, he realized that Jacob also knew who the man was in the room but for some reason wanted to keep it a secret. Perhaps it was someone who was there to take money from Jacob, perhaps a debt needed to be paid. Johnathon so close to getting in good with his powerful half-brother stepped back.
"Maybe I didn't. It was quite the blur."
Jacob reassured Evie they were safe.
But was inconsolable. Her heart pounding in her chest. She insisted they call Gregory Reigns. She insisted on taking the boy into her own room. She insisted on making sure the house was secure.
Jacob knew it was but did as she asked.
Sebastian was gone, but now there was a crack in the secret of him being alive. If Johnathon put two-and-two together, there would be a kink in the armor that made up the of the Lord family's iron front.
Sebastian being alive had to be to be kept quiet or else the entire plan of taking over the Lord family's entire empire would crumble under Jacob's rule; something Jacob could not and would not accept.
The power struggle was now intensifying.
Sebastian needed to stay dead.
For good.