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| Tragedy at Welshport Hope Hospital |
Winter's bitter wind can sometimes be like sandpaper scratching at your skin. Cold and rough. In the small islands scattered in Maine's Frenchman's Bay, this sensation is intensified especially as the winter extends into the early part of spring.
On a terrible day in Welshport Island, the main entrance of Hope Hospital opened and a frantic and devastated Aurora and Nikolas Jordan rushed through with Asha and Gregory in-toe close behind.
Nik, of course, knew his way around the hospital now that he was an practicing doctor even though his residency was at Churchill Green asylum across the campus.
The group of 4, were rushing over to the room where Evie's body was being held. The news of her shocking and out of no where death had hit them all extremely hard.
As they reached the door, Aurora was inconsolable. Her eyes were like two blue marbles floating the a pink bath.
Nik grabbed the door knob as a nurse meandered in the background pretending to read over files and watched.
"Before we go in, just prepare yourself." Nik told his mother.
Aurora pulled a handkerchief from the inside of her sleeve and dabbed her nose. "Just let me see her Nikky." She told her son.
"Aurora, let me go with you." Asha said, her medical expertise too worried for Aurora's own heath seeing her in more pain so soon after Asha and Gregory made Aurora believe she lost her baby brith recently; and now this.
Aurora reiterated with a quick eye roll "I want to see my daughter — I'll go in alone, or with Asha, or with an entire army of people, but I want to see my Evie."
The nurse in the back continued to listen, she passed a door with a small window. The glass reflected Jacqueline was once again hiding in the body of a nurse -- watching closely the aftermath of her wretched spell of deathlike sleep.
Gregory stepped up and held on to Aurora's arm to help her into the room.
Nik turned the knob, the door opened into cream toned room with soft lighting. A bed with Evie on it, was laid out in the center of the room that had no furniture aside from two small chairs in the corners. The windows were facing the chairs and were stain glass. Candles were lit adding the orange glow, Aurora looked around and realized they had walked into a small hospital chapel.
Evie was dressed in fresh white dress by one of the nurses. Her hair was combed and she looked like she was sleeping. Her face perfect and clean of any strain or look of death, her hands clasped on her stomach. It was odd, to them all, that she looked so serene, like sleeping beauty awaiting the kiss that would wake her.
"She looks like she's peaceful, like she just dozed off. She's gone. She really gone. Oh, my darling girl what did we do to you? Why did we just leave you here in this place?" Aurora asked herself, begging for answers that would not come.
"We should only stay for a moment." Nik said, holding back tears as best he could.
"I want to stay with her all night." Aurora replied.
Asha sniffled "It's better for you to only be here to say goodbye Aurora. You just gave birth and your emptions are already taking a toll on you psychically. We need you to rest."
"I want to be alone with my child." The grieving other ordered.
"Mum, please give Evie a kiss....and let her rest. We can't bring her back and seeing her this way for a long time won't be good for you. Please, please let's just go." Nik said. "I can't be here anymore." he added.
"YOU leave! If I want to be here with my child, let me! YOU leave if you don't or cant!!" the mother shouted back in anguish.
Nik’s heart shattered.
Inside of her mind, Evie was hearing all of this as she was fully alive and only under a witch's spell of sleep. She wanted to move, she tried everything she could to even lift her pinky finger, an eye, a toe. Nothing! She was frozen, her body like a rock, like ice.
"Touch me! TOUCH ME!" Evie begged in her mind. "You'll feel my body is warm. Mother, you'll see that I'm alive! JUST TOUCH ME!!"
Aurora's outburst shocked the room and turned the grieving to discomfort. Aurora quickly noticed that she had been out of line with Nik who was only trying to look out for his mother's wellbeing.
"Oh, Nikky, I'm sorry." She said quickly recovering herself and hugger her the only child she had left.
"Excuse me." Dr. Peter Ward said entering with the nurse from outside.
"Hello Dr. Ward." Gregory said shaking the elder man's hand.
"Mrs. Jordan, Dr. Jordan, I am very sorry for your loss. I deeply, deeply, wish this were all just a mistake. I know this words may sound hollow after all that this young woman has gone through — but it’s the truth."
"Dr. Ward! THERE IS A MISTAKE! Touch my hand, feel that I'm warm that I am alive! PLEASE, Oh PLEASE Dr. Ward!! Examine me, something, anything, just see that I'm alive!!!!!" Evie said to in her mind.
"There's no use, Evangeline." The witch Jacqueline said from inside the mind of the witch. She had total control of Evie's body and mind. Telepathically, they could talk as if they were in the same room chatting face to face.
But in the prison of her mind, Evie could only scream at Jacqueline for trapping her in such a devilish way.
"YOU VISCIOUS MONSTER!!! Stop this!! Look at what you're doing to my family?!?! Have you absolutely no heart? We were friends, I trusted you!" Evie said to Jacqueline telepathically.
"It's the only way and in time, your death will be for real. That's all that matters. They'll eventually come to terms Evie, you'll see." Jacqueline replied telepathically.
"Oh my god, Jacqueline No! PLEASE DO LET THIS HAPPEN!!!!" Evie screamed in her mind, but Jacqueline flicked her wrist and silenced the sound of Evie's voice in her mind, leaving Evie to scream in her own head with no one listening.
"How did she die?" Aurora asked.
"There was a mistake with a nurse who gave her too much of a medication Dr. Jordan prescribed to help Evie sleep." Ward Explained. We're not sure if she read the numbers wrong or if she did it on purpose but it was almost 4 times the dosage. The woman must of felt horrible about it because, she...she ended her own life shortly after."
"My god." Gregory whispered.
Aurora pulled away from Gregory and went back to Evie and held her hand.
"YES! YES!! Feel my warm hand!" Evie said to herself.
But she was unaware that Jacqueline, concealing herself as another nurse in the room, had made it so her body under the spell literally felt and appeared dead.
Evie was not warm as she believed to be.
"We're cursed. All of us. We came here from England destitute and searching for something more, something perhaps we never deserved and now we're all cursed. Evie, her husband Sebastian, Nik's friend Alice, me... all of us." Aurora said.
"I'm so sorry for all your losses in such a short time, Mrs. Jordan." Dr. Ward said again. "We should just give her some time." He added.
Asha and Nik agreed and left the room but Gregory refused and stayed with Aurora and sat in one of the chapel chairs in the back of the room while Aurora silently prayed by Evie's body.
In her trapped mine Evie tried again to wake up. She couldn't. She tried to twitch her feet again. She couldn't. She tried to lift her hand, the same hand Aurora was holding. She tried to squeezed Aurora's hand too, but nothing. She was incapable of sign of life.
"They're going to take my body and put it in a coffin. They're going to bury me. They're going to bury me and I wont be able to move. They're going to bury me! THEY'RE GOING TO BURY ME!!!!"
The clock ticked away, and Gregory noticed that they'd been in the chapel for almost an hour.
"Aurora, we should get you home to rest and get something to eat. Please, let's go." Gregory said.
Aurora kissed Evie's hand and got up. "Please don't go mother! PLEASE DON'T BURY ME!!" She said silently in her mind.
Gregory took Aurora out of the chapel, leaving Evie alone in her bed. The nurse, Jacqueline was pretending to be, slipped in from a side door and huddled down by Evie's bed and this time spoke to her out loud.
"Well, this is it." The nurse's voice said with Jacueline's words.
"Jacqueline, please I will give you anything, just please stop this. Stop this insanity! I will do whatever you want!" Evie said in her mind.
Jacqueline replied out loud with a sincere sad tone of voice "I wish I could Evie, I do. But my life would become...well, it would unravel. I like where I am now, I like being with Sebastian. He loves me, but with you alive and in the picture, he would love you more. I can't risk it anymore. I really can't. I would lose him if you were still here and now that you won't be, well, that's just something I'll have to take to my own grave."
"This is about Sebastian??? You and Sebastian???? Together???" Evie screeched in her frozen mind.
Jacquline replied telepathically just before slipping back through the other door "I won't let them embalm you, don't worry."
"JACQULINE!! DON'T GO!! DON'T DO THIS!!" Evie screamed in her mind in vain.
Outside, under a small group of large potted palms, the exhausted Aurora pulled Gregory close.
"Greg, I have to tell you something." Aurora said through sniffles and nose wipes.
"What is it?"
"I feel like all of this tragedy is all my fault. Everything that's happened to me, maybe its because of...." Aurora paused.
"What? What is it?" Gregory asked.
From the other end of the hallway, Asha was walking over to bring Gregory and Aurora to a separate family room where Dr. Ward would give them their official forms for Evie's funeral, but she noticed the two were in a deep conversation and stopped short of approaching, only allowing herself to be in earshot of what they were saying.
Aurora Continued:
"When I lived at Tirymor, Rebecca would tell me the things we've done in our past would come back to haunt us in our futures. That's what happened to me. I did this to my children. I brought on all of this to all of us."
"Aurora, please, we all know Rebecca is some kind of fanatic when it comes to things like that. She's believed in the strange and the supernatural her whole life, she's corrupted by her own superstitions. That has nothing to do with the Evie's passing or anything else that's happened to you. You haven't caused this." Gregory assured her.
"No, I have." Aurora said sternly.
Asha leaned in closer to listen in.
Gregory narrowed his eyes, even more confused on Aurora's assuredness "What? Why do you keep saying that?"
"My husband Richard. Its ... My husband Richard." Aurora began saying as the tears again fell from her eyes like waterfalls of devastation.
"What about Richard?"
Aurora paused and looked around the hospital hallway the pair were standing in. Asha hid herself better and Aurora turned back to Gregory and began to speak in a whispered voice. She struggled to let out the words, but soon came an earth shattering confession.
"Back in London Richard and I were doing our best to make ends meet after we lost everything in a horrible investment gone wrong. We tried everything to get our fortune back even tried to reach out to my wealthy relatives back here in America. But it was no use. Then we remembered Evie’s betrothal to Sebastian and at least then she could get her life started well off so we sent Evie to America, to Welshport, to marry Sebastian and Richard, Nikky and I got work where we could. After about a year Evie stopped answer letters of ours. I got worried and we sent Nikky here and then that’s when things got worse in London. We lost the small apartment we were in, we started to lose more work and... I had to do something that would change our lives forever. It was our only chance to get out of destitution." Aurora explained.
Ashe leaned in to hear.
"What did you do?" Gregory asked as he too leaned in close to hear Aurora better.
She took a breath then reveled her secret in a moment of guilt-ridden grief and mourning.
"Richard had a lifetime policy of funds that would go to his family if something terrible would happen to him. It was in the event of his death and that money could only be given out once he was gone. And so, I ...." Aurora said, her breath faint, her eyes seeing double.
She began to fall and Gregory caught her, with her last bit of strength Aurora stood up again, holding tightly to Gregory's strong forearms. "Aurora, you're very frail. We have to get you back to my apartment." The constable said.
"No," She whispered, pushing her self up on her own two feet. "I have to tell you why this is happening, because of what I did to Richard." She whispered.
Gregory, who was sure he already knew with just the few bits of information she had already told him told her not to say another word, not to him a man of the law but better to Father Ryan at the Church, a true confessor.
"I won't.' Aurora said still holding tightly to Gregory.
"You can't tell me Aurora, do not tell me what you keep trying to." He warmed.
"I have to tell someone I love." Aurora said. "It doesn't matter what happens to me now, Gregory, I have to tell you."
Gregory took pity on the woman he loved just as much in return and because of the betrayl he did to her, removing her new born child from her at birth and secretly adopting it out with Ahsa's help he decided to look the other way legally again and allow Aurora to tell him exactly what she wanted.
"Tell me, then we leave." He said.
She took a breath and said it "I poisoned my husband Richard for his life insurance. I had to, Gregory, I had to! We were losing everything we had. EVERYTHING! Richard, he looked at me, he stared at me as he died and I swear it was as if he knew what I had done and even though he was dying it was like he approved; like he knew what I was doing and why. I don’t know if it was my sick mind thinking that to justify what I had done for my own sanity or if he really understood. That’s why Evie is dead now, and that's why I lost the baby, and that's why all of this is happening. Because of my disgusting decision to save myself and get money from poor Richard's life. It's all my fault, it's all my fault!!" Aurora said falling into Gregory's arms.
He held here there, tightly in his burly arms and let the exhausted woman cry into his chest after her confession. He was shocked, but he could understand why someone would do something cruel to get something out of it for themselves. He'd done it too. The two of them had used their own secretive ways to take away something from someone for their own gain.
He couldn't judge her. He wouldn't judge her. He loved her more than anything.
He grabbed hold of Aurora and helped her to Dr. Ward's office passing the hiding Asha who stood in the hidden area in the hallways in complete shock of Aurora Ashby-Jordan's confession of murder.
Asha stood there in the shadows of the potted palm in the hospital hallway in complete shock after eavesdropping on Gregory and Aurora.
Asha quickly realized she now had a secret weapon that she could use if someday she needed it to heal her already rickety romance with Nik.
After lying about Dr. Kim attempting to kill Jacob Lord and Christian Evans as revenge for what Kim did to Asha’s birth father & the debacle of hiding the unfounded information about the possibility of Nik’s late girlfriend Alice being alive somewhere, Asha needed this new bit of news as a secret insurance policy should her pact with Gregory fall apart.
Asha reminded herself that she’d promised Nik no more secrets…and she’d now helped do something much worse the her precious lies: aiding Gregory in kidnapping and adopting out Aurora’s baby and Nik’s half sibling — for now she was safe but she planned to stay safe with Aurora’s murder confession securely in her own little back pocket.
****
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| Sebastian tells Jacqueline the awful news |
Late that night, in the three hours that followed midnight, a newspaper vendor carries several bundles of The Welshport Globe over to his stand where he began prepping for the early morning rush. The paper had been printed only hours before. The ink on the cover was still wet and smeared in the corners where he touched staining the vendor's fingertips.
Each thick bundle was tied together 20 editions tight with a burlap rope knotted in a perfect bow at the top.
The street was quiet, the village was still asleep. He continued to prep for his early morning up. He warmed his hands that were covered with wool fingerless gloves with puffs of breath that came out like smoke into the cold winter air.
As the vendor stood at his stand, he heard in the distance the crunching sound of feet in the snow coming towards him. He peeked around his hut to meet eyes with the potential customer but when she looked no one was there. But there were footprints that suddenly vanished only feet from his hut.
The vendor tilted his head confused at the footprints that he expected to see in the snow closer to his hut.
He thought to himself how odd it was that he could clearly see someone was there walking in the snow coming towards him but then, nothing.
"How'd they do that?" he asked himself out loud.
When he turned his head back into his hut standing in front of him was the open mouth vampire Sebastian Lord hissing a terrible sound.
The man took a breath, his gasp a preamble to a scream but Sebastian covered the man's mouth with his hand blocking his voice.
The years of consuming blood of rabbits, deer, squirrels and of New England fowl was no longer enough for Sebastian. He needed human blood, craved it with wild abandon. He was starving, he was hungry for the nutrients and power that came with drinking from the neck of a fresh victim like the poor news vendor so late in the night.
The man felt powerless in Sebastian's clutches. It was as if he fell limp and paralyzed by the creature's touch, he couldn't lift a fist to punch back. He couldn't squirm his way out. He was like a fly trapped in the web of a triple fanged vampire spider ready to sink its teeth into warm blood-filled flesh.
Sebastian carefully tilted the man's head to the side by his chin exposing his neck. The vein bulged under his warm tanned skin and Sebastian lowered his open mouth ready to pierce the man's throat with his fangs when out of the corner of his eye he saw the headline of the tightly bound bundles of The Welshport Globe: "ANOTHER SHOCKING LORD TRAGEDY: Widow of Heir Sebastian, Evie Jordan-Lord, Dies at Churchill Asylum."
Sebastian, stunned by what he read, dopped the man to the floor who remained in a frozen state of fear, and Sebastian's control. The vendor shivered in the cold as Sebatian's slow heart-beat began to race as he picked up the news bundle and ripped off one of the front pages.
"It can't be." He whispered to himself.
Then, Sebastian snapped his fingers and the man was released from his frozen state and Sebastian vanished into the night back to Lockwood Thicket. The man stood up, surviving his close encounter with the vampire with his mind wiped clean of the entire frightening incident.
Standing in the show now, a lucky survivor, the News vendor came to his senses confused and stinging of a type of headache he had never felt before. He looked down at this news papers and saw the mess left by the vampire. Papers strewn in the show and all over the Welshport Village pavement.
"What the devil?" The vendor said, his mind completely void of the terror he just survived.
Sebastian raced through the village along the icy streets in a flash of speed. He rushed through until he reached the edge of town as he swiftly entered the Tirymor Forest and ducked through the enormously tall Beech trees and pines that shaded and darkened the ice-cold snow below. In no time he arrived home to the rebuilt Lockwood Thicket.
He burst inside and there was Jacquleine Gray, dressed in a dark purple dress lighting a fire in the fireplace.
"Did you feed?" She asked as she carefully walked over to him and kissed his lips. "Hmm... I don't taste it." She said.
Sebastian was visibly angry. He did not answer her.
"Sebatian? What is it?"
He pulled out the balled-up newspaper cover in his hand and opened it up to Jacqueline. "How can this be true? HOW?" He said. "It must be what I the other night when Caleb touched me. He showed me something, he showed me danger or loss... I don't know but when I left that night from Mary's to Tirymor I decided not to go, I came home and that was a mistake. Look, look at what's happened? Evie cannot be dead!"
Jacqueline took the paper and gulped. "I--I'm so sorry Sebastian, I know your son's mother meant a lot to you."
"How could she have died?" Sebastian repeated.
"Was she ill?"
Sebastian shook his head.
Stammering to keep Sebastian calm so that he wouldn't suspect her of anything Jacqueline poured him a glass water. He put her hands over the opening of the glass and closed her eyes and mouthed a quick spell that she knew by heart. When she lifted her hands off the open cup the water was gone and blood took it's place.
"Take this." She said. "It's not fresh from a body, but it'll help you for now. Drink it to keep calm." She added.
"I never wanted this to happen to her. She's been tormented since the day she arrived here and now, now she's dead? It just doesn't make sense Jacqueline. I can't fathom any of this. It just can't be true."
"If she was in this asylum, Sebastian, maybe she was truly unwell. That happens in those places, perhaps finally she couldn't take it anymore and she had to let go." Jacqueline said as Sebastian furrowed his brow after drinking the blood.
"What? No, she didn't belong there. She wasn't insane. That was Jacob's doing, he'd done this before."
"Maybe this time it was real."
Sebastian's eyes narrowed "Jacqueline, I'm telling you right now she was not mad. Her death there was some sort of freak accident with medication, its right here in the article. And now my son is without both his parents. He's alone and under the same roof as the man who tried to kill me and now responsible for Evie's death."
"Jacob? Jacob is responsible for this." Jacqueline said.
"I can only assume, yes. If it wasn't for him, she wouldn't have been at Churchill Green in the first place. I don't know what to do. Should I go to her? Should I find her and be with her in the last moments here on this planet before they take her away?? Should I bring Gabriel to her?" Sebastian asked as tears welled up in her eyes.
"Stay here." Jacqueline replied as she grabbed Sebastian by the arms and sat him down on a soft chair in the center room of Lockwood Thicket. "Just be here with me and care for yourself. The day is about to break and you should just stay. Stay here."
"But Evie, I can't allow her to be taken to some grave without saying goodbye to her. I owe her ... I owe her so much." He said.
"It's too late for all that Sebastian. She's gone, and now you'll have to look to your future. I'm here with you and the two of us can begin to start fresh. We could even leave this place forever. It only has terrible memories for you anyway and now that Evie is gone those memories are only further tainted." Jacqueline added.
Sebastian felt as if his mind was being twisted in a vice. His heart could only think of Evie, and Jacqueline wanted him to pull away and make things new. Even the idea of that made Sebatian sick to his stomach.
"Leave? I can't leave my son. I can't leave this place ever. Never. I will follow my son where ever he goes in his life and he'll be in Welshport for a long time. I can't let Jacob control his life and allow him to take Gabriel's memories of me and Evie away. Jacqueline, you understand that don't you?"
Jacqueline rolled her eyes "I think it's time you do let go, Sebastian. You have all the world to see, and I can make that happen for you. Evie is gone. She's never, ever coming back. Why torture yourself here in this village on this island a place that holds so many bad memories. Your sadness will only turn to vengeance against your uncle Jacob and then what? He'll finally have you eliminated and then Gabriel will truly have no parents."
"Jacob has already done that, by whatever means he's done it. If I leave here he win. You must understand that. Evie hasn't even buried yet." Sebatian said.
"You have to let her go." Jacqueline replied one more time.
Sebatian stood up from the chair Jacqueline had placed him in and looked her dead in the eye. She was standing like a statue, frozen and strong almost angry in her facial expression. He could see something different about her, her coldness, her pushing and attempts at conniving him to leave. It was off-putting and strange and left a bad taste in his mouth.
"Tell me, are you happy she's gone?" He asked point blank.
"What?" she replied nervously.
"Does it please you, Jacqueline? To know that Evie has left this earth. You’re free to have me to yourself, I assume that's a good thing for you."
"I resent that!"
He smiled sensing her obvious guilt, "You resent that I've asked you that or you resent that I was able to figure it out?"
"Sebastian I have given you everything in the last year of our relationship. We have come so far together and I wouldn't hurt you or do anything to make you hate me. If you are sad that Evie has died, I am sad that Evie has died. She was a good friend of mine, you know that I had befriended her recently just to get to know her and get close to her before she was taken to that asylum. I cared for her too." Jacquline said in a flurry of half truths. "But I care for you and everything you represent more. That's all. I put my efforts into you because I love you."
Sebastian shook his head. He began to feel a twinge of guilt, as Jacqueline was quite convincing in her speech. "I'm sorry." he said. "I just fear the worst is yet to come."
After a quick sigh of relief Jacqueline reached over and hugged Sebastian from behind. "What can I do to make it better?" she asked.
The two now faced the fire burning in the fireplace the hot flames flashed yellow and orange light in their eyes and it reminded Sebastian of what baby Caleb had shown him in his vision, the vision that was still confusing to understand.
"There's nothing anyone can do." Sebastian replied. "I now have to fight to keep my son safe. Safe from Jacob's cruelty. There's no telling what he will do to my son now that he's under his care. I can't be there for him in person, but I will be damned if I'm not there watching in secret."
Jacqueline did not like his answer, she wanted him all to herself. Even sharing Sebastian with Gabriel felt a bit too much for her. She couldn't stand the idea of anyone else having him too. She had been alone and lost for decades of her life in Boston that having Sebastian in her life had become such a fresh breath of air that she felt almost human again. She felt loved. She felt alive and real and she felt like there was something worth living for.
"We can only do so much." Jacqueline said softly.
"I'll do whatever it takes." He replied sternly before turning to her, kissing her cheek and leaving to his bedroom where he'd retreat as dawn soon approached.
The conversation echoed in Jacqueline's mind over and over again. She knew now that her decision to put Evie in her death-sleep curse locked in her mind was the right decision. Evie was indeed a threat to Jacqueline. Now she'd be buried and lost forever. The choice, Jacqueline thought, as she stared deep into the fire in the heart, was the right one.
Sebastian did still love Evie, but the curse of a sleep like death marked the end this chapter to Jacqueline's benefit.
Sebastian was now Jacqueline's for the taking.
Now in his room, Sebastian lit a candle and walked over to the window that had been boarded up to block out the light. The candlelight glowed only on his face keeping the rest of the room in pitch black darkness as dawn fast approached outside.
Soon the light of day would touch and illuminate the white snow-covered ground below the Tirymor Forest outside to give the air of a winter wonderland of peace and beauty but inside where the vampire would be sleeping would be rage and terror.
In the flickering light of the candle Sebastian could not think of the beauty of the day only the danger of the dark. He had a strange feeling about Jacqueline from the conversation in the other room. He wondered about her motives, about her alliances and about her truthful ness and if by chance it was all tied up in the vision the baby Caleb showed him at Mary's cottage on Goode Island.
A sheet of dark sky was turning black to purple, and Sebastian had to cover himself for the night in the all black room where no sun could enter.
When he would awake again, is when he'd handle the treachery around him and the loss of his beloved Evie. One and for all.
****
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| Charlotte & Morgan arrives on Goode Island |
That afternoon, a somber sun hung in the sky behind shining white winter clouds. Along the path through a glittering forest on Goode Island, two 14-year-olds, Charlotte Lord and Morgan Thorne, walked through slushy snow with their suitcases to the front door of Mary and Filipe's cottage.
They'd escaped Jacob's clutches and hoped to find sanctuary with Charlotte's mother Mary.
Approaching the door Charlotte stopped in the snow and reached into a back that was around her shoulder and pulled out the newspaper she took from the village with the announcement of Evie's death.
Her heart sunk realizing that her reunion with her mother, so many years in the making, would be marred with the terrible news.
"You ok?" Morgan asked, his words swirling in puffs of white breath in the cold air.
She nodded yes and they carried on up the front steps of the cottage's porch.
Charlotte stood there she smiled, happy to finally be with her mother.
"Should I knock?" Morgan asked.
Charlotte shook her head no. "She'll know."
Charlotte was right. Inside, Mary felt something inside of her as she made tea on the stove in the small cottage kitchen. She turned towards the front door that she could see through the open area kitchen and knew instantly that someone where there. It was almost as if their two hearts so long ago detached from each other because of Jacob's lies and conniving and cruelty when he took Charlotte from Mary all those years ago and made the young mother suffer without her child by destroying her reputation in town.
All of it, all that history was now full circle because her daughter had come back, Mary could feel it through the wooden door of the cottage.
Mary put down the tea kettle and walked slowly through the kitchen and into the main room. Filipe entered with baby Caleb in his arms after a feeding and noticed Mary's strange expression, one of nervousness excitement and a slight bit of fear as she approached the door that had not been knocked on.
"Mary?" he asked. "What is it?"
Mary responded by pulling the door open revealing her daughter standing square in the center of the door frame flanked by her suitcase and Morgan on either side.
Mary pulled Charlotte into the tightest hug by the shoulders and squeezed for dear life. Their hearts beating in unison as they came into contact. Their love, a mother and a daughter, finally reconnected after over a decade of separation with only the occasional run ins in town and at Tirymor.
This reunion was different. It felt permanent. If felt organic, not a chance meeting in the street. Not a secret rendezvous in the shadows of the night or hidden in the halls of the mansion like the time Charlotte helped Filipe and Mary escape the Turret room.
This was Charlotte taking control of her young life and choosing for herself to be with Mary, her mother. There was a sense of rebellion in the act of them touching this way without fear of being caught by someone and fear of consequence from Jacob. Charlotte did this for herself. No one could force her away from Mary now, no one.
"You're here! You're really here!" Mary said to Charlotte who had never seen her maternal side's home. "Come in, hurry it's so cold."
"I hope you don't mind, but Morgan came too." Charlotte said removing her hat and curtsying to Filipe still holding the baby.
"Charlotte, what are you doing here?" Filipe asked.
"Morgan and I made the decision that we could not longer live at Tirymor with my father. What he's done is too much for me. I'm scared of what would be next. For me." Charlotte said.
"Morgan?" Mary asked confused.
"I'm related to Genevieve Thorne, she's my mother. We came to be with Johnathon DiViana." Morgan replied hoping that might ring a bell.
Mary still looked confused.
"Celeste's brother and his fiancée." Filipe said filling in Mary as he knew who they were.
"Former fiancée." Morgan corrected. "My mother decided she needed something else in her life. She's gone to England to find David Lord."
"David Lord!?" Mary shouted in shock, a name she hadn't hear in years, and a face she hadn't seen in even more years.
"Uncle David is alive." Charlotte answered.
"But, how? He was last seen jumping from the light house into the sea over 10 years ago. How do you know he's a live?" Filipe questioned.
Mary looked at her daughter, a beautiful girl of 14, her hair golden like her own, her eyes just as blue as her own. She could see she was now coming into her own as well: her powers were becoming more nd more powerful.
"I just know." Charlotte said unable to finds the words to explain.
" This is all so much/" Mary replied. "Charlotte did your father get angry with you? Did he force you to leave?"
Charlotte shook her head no.
"After he sent Evie away we ..." Morgan said pausing midsentence.
There was silence in the room. Then Charlotte handed Mary the newspaper from the village.
Mary, confused at first with the two somber fourteen-year-olds took the paper and gasped at the headline. She turned to Filipe "Evie's dead."
Filipe's mouth dropped and he grabbed the paper from Mary.
"Even before this terrible news we knew something awful was going to happen. This was worse than we expected. We couldn't leave ourselves in a place that was so unsafe. That's why we left daddy and Tirymor House. We escaped." Charlotte confirmed.
"Is he going to come after you?" Charlotte asked.
"I don't think so. He's got what he wants. He's taken full control of Grandmother's portion of the company; he's taken control of Evie and Gabriel's shares too now that Evie is gone, and he and Celeste have officially taken guardianship of the baby. They're on a power high. All they care about is position and money. That's all. They're not worried about me." Charlotte explained.
"That's so unlike Celeste." Filipe said of his former love. "She never cared about any of that. Money. Power. She's not the Celeste I knew." He added as said rocked baby Caleb in his arms.
"The baby? You've had a baby!" Charlotte suddenly noticed. She walked up to Filipe and the baby and pulled back the yellow blanket that covered the baby. She saw his little round, asleep in a perfect ball like a cherub in a cloud of yellow.
"This is Caleb." Mary said as Charlotte quickly noticed her mother was no longer pregnant. "This is your baby brother."
Charlotte looked at the baby, then looked at her mother. Something felt off, something felt different about the little one. But she took his chubby little hand and kissed it. "Hello to you." She whispered.
Mary and Filipe shot each other looks; Mary knew that at some point she had to tell Charlotte of the adoption but in time. At the moment, she wanted to keep the reunion about Charlotte.
"Well, whatever happens next, my girl, know that you are welcome here --- forever. Never doubt that. And Morgan, you are more than welcome to stay as long as you feel like it. Both of you. This is your Goode Island is your family home too Charlotte. Your grandmother Eliza would be so happy to have you here and see where your other family started. This house was built by her and her husband Caleb, and she would want you to feel perfectly at home. Always." Mary said.
"Caleb, like the baby." Charlotte noted with a smile, Mary smiled back. "Thank you mama." Charlotte a added as she fell into her mother Mary's arms, a feeling she had longed for almost all her life. "I wish I hadn't taken so long to come."
"The point is you came." Filipe said.
"Go on, there are two empty bedrooms at the end of the hall and to the left. They're very small, nothing like the large rooms you're both probably use to living at Tirymor, but I think you'll both comfortable." Mary said.
"As long as we're out of that place, any room will do." Morgan said picking up his suitcase and Charlotte's as the two went down the hall to unpack and rest.
"Filipe waited for the kids to disappear into the back of the house then turned to Mary "What do you think?"
Mary shook her head. "I'm more than happy to have my daughter here. Extatic even, but whatever Jacob did to make her fear so much to leave Tirymor enrages me."
Filipe agreed after putting the baby down and flipping through the newspaper. "And Evie? How awful for her. Jacob has truly turned a new corner on his cruelty. Locking her away to a place where she'd die.. alone? It's heinous."
"I think there's more to that than just Jacob's greed and conniving ways." Mary warned.
"What do you mean?"
Mary lifted a brow. She could see that everything happening like this, all at once was had more than just the trappings of Jacob's touch of pure evil. She could smell it in the air. She could taste it in her mouth. The magic, the secret world of Jacqueline Gray's witchcraft.
"Jacqueline." Mary said.
"You think she has something to do with this?" Filipe wondered.
"She might just have everything to do with this. Evie wasn't mad. She wouldn't go mad overnight. She was a smart capable person that had everything to live for." Mary explained.
"But the paper said a nurse accident gave her too much medication. That's what killed her." Filipe added.
Mary shook her head "Conveniently gave her too much. I don't buy it."
"Mary that is a very serious accusation. Jacqueline is a lot of things, but do you think she'd kill Evie? Just like that? Weren't they friendly with each other?" Filipe wondered.
"Evie stood between Jacqueline and Sebastian, and now that the two were new parents to Gabriel, they'd be in each other's lives forever. Gabriel will connect them forever just like Charlotte connects me to Jacob forever. The only way out of that was to remove one, and Jacqueline chose which one to eliminate. Mark my works." Mary explained.
Filipe gulped. He wasn't sure if Mary was right, but if she was, they were in deeper trouble with Jacqueline the witch roaming the islands un-checked and out of control.
As Filipe left the room to lay baby Caleb down for a nap, Mary poured herself a cup of tea. The water in the cup bubbled like a cauldron over hot fire. The steam lifted from and swirled in the air like puffs of smoke from a chimney intoxicating Mary. She could feel herself build up angry energy towards who she believed was behind the entire awful situation surrounding Evie.
Mary quickly put the mug of tea down. Went to the front door and grabbed her thick over coat and a large hat and leather gloves.
She needed to see the witch, the witch she thought was her coven sister. The witch called Jacqueline.
Mary set herself on a route to confront Jacqueline face to face at Lockwood Thicket.
Filipe came back into the now empty front room. He searched for Mary but couldn't find her. He worried, reminding himself of what she had thought.
"She'll find her." Charlotte said entering the room too.
"What?"
"My mother. She'll find this woman she's looking for. She'll find her and she'll get the truth out of her. It's what she wants."
Filipe narrowed his eyes at the young lady of just 13 who seemed so sure of the words that came out of her mouth. "Why do you say that?" He asked.
"Because I see it. In my mind. I see everything even when I'm not there. This Jacqueline person should be the one worried." Charlotte added before turning back to the rooms in the back of the cottage. "My mother is a Spencer. We'll never let thing die, not without a fight."
Filipe stood in the room again, alone now, and feared the worst was yet to come.
****
 |
| Johnathon catches Sebastian |
The night came in with a warmer tone of winter wind than Welshport Island had seen all season. The bitterness that had covered the little island with snow and sleet since the beginnings of November and all through December had slightly thawed and Tirymor House, which stood in the forest of the same name, dripped cool water from the icicles that hung from it's ledges and balconies.
Inside the mansion, the halls were all lit with the latest electrical units that buzzed a glow of a dim light allowing for views of the fine art and tapestries that hung on the hallway's walls.
In the shadows, a secret door that only someone who knew the house like the back of their hand, slid open. The secret door was hidden behind false wall that could only be opened from the inside. The door quietly popped open and a shadowy figure stepped out into the hallway from the secret tunnel and into the glow of the dim orange lights of the hallway revealing the face of Sebastian Lord.
He had come home to find his son. To protect his son. To watch over his son.
His whole world, now that Evie had suffered terrible consequences at Churchill Green, revolved around his little boy Gabriel.
As Sebastian quietly walked the floors of his former home he made sure to make not a single noise. He was as quiet as a ghost haunting the halls. Memories of his childhood with his father and mother flooded his mind. Memories of his Grandmother and Grandfather Albert came too. Happy Christmases filled with color and love and warmth. Everything that made joy real and tangible to him felt like a warm blanket covering his body.
Thoughts of Gabriel gave Sebastian that same feeling. A feeling of home and love comfort and joy.
But Sebastian's heart was not free of anguish thinking of Evie's demise. There would always be a hole in his heart for her and what they could have been if Jacob had never stepped in and destroyed their lives on the day of their wedding. He loved Evie without a single doubt, and would mourn her forever, for all time, until he was taken by the light of day.
Sebastian, who could only roam the earth in the shadows of night, knew that one day the light of the sun would get it's revenge on him and he'd be returned to the land of the dead where he hoped to find Evie.
As that thought crossed his overwhelmed mind, he found himself standing at the foot of a large painting of Evie herself that had been commissioned for her by Rebecca as a gift almost 2 years ago.
Suddenly, a noise could be heard of a someone stirring from beyond the hall. Sebastian quickly dashed behind yet another hidden wall and watched the Manion's foreman and head of staff Aarron Hamstead walk out of his own bedroom and headed down to check the gates of the estate and of the horses in their stables as he usually did at this time of night with one of the stablemasters.
Aaron passed Sebastian without incident and Sebastian was able to head to Gabriel's bedroom.
In the sweet nursery of the baby boy, Sebastian saw his son sleeping peacefully in his own little bed. There was a scent of peaches in the room. Soft and special, a scent that Sebastian remembered from the last time he had come to see his baby. In the corner of the pale painted room was a long steamed lamp that glowed an orange light like the ones in the hallway. Sebastian was awash in this light and tears came to his eye as he carefully stat down on the rocking chair adjacent the Gabriel's crib and simply watched the boy sleep for several minutes.
There was a peace in Sebastian's heart now thanks to the little boy sleeping there. It was as if a calm energy came from him and lifted into the air and surrounded Sebastian and took all his worries away. He thought about how Evie would have wanted them to be together as much as possible, not in Jacob's clutches. He thought about how proud he was of his boy and of Evie and how they made up such a beautiful family -- or would have, had the tragedies had not occurred. He thought about all the things he would miss out now that he could not be in Gabriel's life like a real father, like a father who could walk in the day, who could eat and drink with him, play games with him, be joyful with him and make those memories like Sebatian had just a second ago in the hall of Christmases and other happy memories.
Basking in the glow of the lamp and the sweet calmness of the baby's room, Sebastian closed his eyes and began to sleep, a sleep he had no had in the night in almost 3 years.
"Look what the rat dragged in." A voice said softly in the room.
Sebastian opened his eyes startled to have been caught only to see Johnathon DeViana standing before him.
Sebastian quickly got up from the rocking chair and in a split second lunged at Johnathon who put his hands up against Sebastian's chest and shusshed him quiet, pointing to the baby.
"We don't want to wake your son." Johnathon reminded him.
"What do you want?" Sebastian growled. "Get out of here."
"Now, now, now, that's no way to talk to your uncle Johnathon."
Sebatian narrowed his eyes "Uncle?"
"We haven't exactly had the most formal of meetings have we Sebastian? Yes, I do know who you are. I know you're alive. I know it all. Have no fear, there's no need for me to go out and tell anyone about it. It wouldn't serve me anything to do it."
"What are you talking about, why are you calling yourself my uncle? Being my related to Jacob by marriage doesn't make you, my uncle." Sebastian asked in a whisper.
Johnathon too replied just as quietly, both using Gabriel's presence in the room to protect themselves from any attach in front of an innocent sleeping Child. "I know it's a shock to you, but Grandpa Albert had a few secrets of his own. Turns out I'm not Celeste brother but her half-brother. We share a mother. And my father? Well, that title goes to Albert Lord. I'm Jacob and Celeste's half-brother. What a world!" Johnathon said with a grin to a stunned Sebastian.
Sebastian sat back down on the rocking chair and looked over at his son through the bars of his little crip, he slept still as the baby's deafness saved him from any outside noise.
"You don't seem surprised." Johnaton noted sitting on a sofa across from his nephew.
"It doesn't matter to me how you are related. You can have the Lord name, take it! Do whatever you want with it, Its Jacob you have to worry about when it comes to that, not me." Sebastian reminded.
Johnathon agreed by nodding his head. "He is a treacherous one, I can tell you that. The things I've come to witness in my short time here, well, sick is a word that comes to mind but seems tame when compared to what Jacob has done. He's indirectly responsible for Evie's death, you know?"
Sebastian wondered what he meant but did not reply.
"Doesn't that surprise you?" Johnathon added.
"Jacob killed my mother and framed my father for her death. He tried to kill me. He had Evie twice taken to an asylum and all of that has lead us to here. Nothing surprises me."
"See? Sick is a term that doesn't quite describe Jacob and his dealings." Johnathon chuckled.
Sebastian whispered back "So how does he not have you under his thumb? You wouldn't be here if you didn't have something for me to chew on. You'd be down the hall in Jacob's room alerting him of me, and yet I sit here safe."
"You're too suspicious, perhaps its something you've been conditioned to do, suspect everyone. Trust no one. It's understandable. But I do think I have something for you, something that could make you more at ease with the future of your boy's life." Johnathon said.
"Leave Gabriel alone, do not even think of dealing with him."
"Now, now, let's not jump ahead." Johnathon replied. "Jacob plans to disinherit the baby at any moment. He's already stacked the cards against the boy once everything is done with Evie's funeral which I'm sure is any day now. Officials have to finalize the paperwork of her unfortunate and premature death and once that is settled baby Gabriel will eventually lose his claim on the family fortune that he would have inherited from Evie, via you. You see? Jacob is consolidating power within just a few people in his grasp setting up his own son to rule the family dynasty. But I can help Gabriel, if you help me." Johnathon said, using a very convincing half-truth about Gabriel's future to lure Sebastian in.
Sebatian was confused. There was no way Jacob could disinherit Gabriel who had a right to all of Sebastian's inheritance now that Sebatian was legally dead to all who mattered. There was a trust of millions of dollars that was Sebastian's that no one could steal, touch or remove from Sebastian's heirs, not even Jacob.
"What do you think you can do?" Sebastian asked.
"Help me become Gabriel's guardian and remove Jacob. Give me evidence of Jacob's lies, especially that fact he framed your father for Sabrina's murder. With that information I can swoop in and take Gabriel's guardianship and protect him."
Sebastian smelled a rat. Johnathon was attempting to trick him, he could tell, he could sense deception in the man's voice. He was witnessing Johnathon attempting to double cross Jacob by tricking Sebastian into helping him. Johnathon was just as dastardly as Jacob, perhaps not as dangerous and homicidal, but the sheer greed and lust for power was just as potent.
Sebastian stood up from his chair and slowly walked over to Johnathon who fearlessly remained seated. Sebastian stood in front of Johnathon, a towering figure of 6 foot 3, and stared down his new uncle in a cold glare that was colder than the wind outside hitting the glass of Gabriel's nursery.
Sebastian reached down and grabbed Johnaton by the lapel and lifted him up off the ground. Johnathon did not move, he even smirked at Sebastian's attempts to frighten him, but Johnathon had lived enough time at Tirymor to know never to fear what was in front of you only to fear what you did not see.
"I see you." Johnathon said in a chocked voice to Sebastian.
"And I you." Sebastian growled, his teeth spiking from his gums. "I could rip your throat open right here, right now and take your life freeing you from anything you have planned. I am so tempted, so hungry for real human blood that I wouldn't care what happened to your miserable scheming corpse after I'm done draining every drop of blood from it. Leave my son out of whatever plots and traps you have going on in your squirrely little mind because I won't fall for any of it."
"Squirrelly?--- well now," Johnathon said still chocked by Sebastian's strong hands. "I think you're misunderstanding what I was attempting to do...for you. For you son."
"I know what you were trying to do!" Sebastian said.
"You DO NOT!" Johnathon shouted.
"I'm warning, Johnathon DiViana, leave Gabriel out of any plot you have in store, or I swear to you and in the face of God that I will fucking kill you." The vampire said cold and harsh.
"You are vulgar creature, nephew, I thought you'd be smarter than that." Johnathon replied fearing nothing in the face of the creature before him.
Sebastian turned him around, still with his hand around his neck. Johnathon's feet now 5 inches off the floor. Sebastian hissed and opened his mouth wide seeing that Johnathon was nothing more than yet another schemer, another twisting knot in the rope that was the Lord family. He was ready to devour the man who called himself his uncle freeing Gabriel of the threat of more schemes. Johnathon seeing himself in a tight spot finally dropped the pretense of his ego and started to feel real fear boiling up in his body.
Perhaps, Johnathon thought, he had bit off more than he could chew attempting to lure Sebastian into a double cross of Jacob.
But then, from behind, thick heavy vase came down on Sebastian's head knocking him out cold and dropping Johnathon to the floor. Johnathon struggled getting up from the ground and loosening his throat that was still wrapped in Sebastian's strong hands. He freed himself, chocking and gasping for air to see his sister Celeste standing there pushing the shards of porcelain and glass from the vase to one side that shattered over Sebastian’s head.
“What are you doing?” She growled clearly having heard the entire conversation.
“I— I ..”
"Now you know what’s at stake getting mixed up with him… he’s not to be toyed with or schemed with. You know better than to take things into your own hands like that without consolation from me." Celeste told her younger brother.
"Thank you for stopping him." Johnathon said, still catching his breath.
"You said you were going to take care of Sebastian for us." She added. "How about you do it now as you promised before he wakes up."
Johnathon nodded his head as Celeste, in her thick dress gown and robe, went to the nursery door to leave.
"What did you hear? How much did you hear …I mean." Johnathon wondered hoping she didn't hear him attempt get Sebastian to help throw Jacob under the bus.
"I heard enough to know that perhaps I need to watch my younger brother more than I realized. Do what you said you were going to do, Johnny, take care of Sebastian -- I've helped you here---do the rest."
Celeste, who'd heard everything, was furious and Johnathon feeling caught in his own web decided to heed her order and do what he promised he'd do: take care of Sebastian.
“Johnny?” She said turning back one more time.
Johnathon gulped.
“Don’t you ever think about turning your back on me again, not after all I’ve done for you..” She added.
Johnathon slowly bowed his head as his sister left the room. He felt like a child again being caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He then peeked into the crib and saw little Gabriel hadn't stirred at all in the commotion. Then he reached down and grabbed Sebatian's by both arms and began to drag him out of the room to finish him off somewhere else away from the eyes of the baby.
****
 |
| Mary confronts Jacqueline |
At Lockwood Thicket, sitting alone in the cottage, Jacqueline Gray sat crossed legged in front of the raging fire inside the hearth. This night felt different to her. She had not seen Sebastian all evening and wondered where he had gone. She worried, of course, that he had sought out Evie and that he'd discover that Evie was indeed alive and only under a spell of black magic concealing the truth.
Jacqueline's paranoia and fear were overcoming her. She was getting desperate and doing things that made her normally logical sense of self turn to do things like the sleep spell on Evie. But she felt as if things in her life were fragile. That she could lose Sebastian at any moment. She couldn't go back to her old life of solitude and loneliness. She couldn't go back to a world where no one cared about her, where nothing mattered because she was on her own and living a live that was detached from friends and loved ones.
Her life, since the day she met Sebatian, became full of meaning. It had changed.
And removing Evie from the equation was all she could to do to preserve what she now had with the love of her life: The vampire Sebastian.
As the fire burned in the fireplace, Jacqueline reached in and placed her hands over it. She closed her eyes and began to chant hoping the spirits she summoned would tell her what to do next or would tell her where Sebastian was.
In a Latin chant Jacqueline sang: "Hung reperi, o spiritus mundi. Inveni eum et reduc eum. Ostende mihi locum suum, ostende mihi eum nunc."
Jacqueline could feel the heat of the fire under the palms of her hands. She closed her eyes as the fire began to rise higher and higher where it almost touched her skin. Then as she sang again the chant to locate the missing Sebastian the fire flickered and burned her skin. The burn crusted and melted away her skin. Jacqueline felt the pain of the burn, she quickly removed her hand from the fire in pain realizing the spirit world had not answered her question from the chant.
"Abandoned." She said to herself worrying that her powers were leaving her to figure out her own mistakes.
She looked down at her scorched hand and it healed before her eyes as if nothing had happened.
Jacqueline, frustrated that the spirit world she sought help from had seemingly left her, quickly got up from her seated position and rushed over to her bed where her coat had been slung over the brass footboard.
She was going to find Sebastian with or without the help of the powers of the spirit word. She put on her coat and quickly rushed to the door, when she pulled the front door open a rush of winter air pushed in and standing on the door step was Mary Goode.
"Off to parts unknown are you?" Mary said.
"What are you doing here?" Jacqueline asked with a seething voice.
"What have you done Jacqueline? What have you done to Evie?"
Jacqueline rolled her eyes "I don't know what you're talking about? What's happened to Evie?" The witch asked.
Mary shivered in the cold at the doorstep "You can't pretend with me, do you understand me, you can't pretend with me about anything. I can see through you Jacqueline, we've come together as a coven, a sanctuary of sisterhood and we have everything to protect that connection. Including the ability hide things from each other." Mary explained.
"Are you accusing me of something?" Jacqueline said through gritted teeth.
"Did you kill Evie? Did you kill someone you called your friend?" Mary asked point blank.
"There it is! Accusations of murder! NO, Mary, I didn't kill her. I did NOT kill Evie, in fact, I didn't even know people thought she was dead. That... that's horrible. The poor thing!" Jacqueline replied in a half truth.
"I don't believe you."
Jacqueline clutched her coat hard to her body which was tense with worry for Sebastian's whereabouts and anxiety over Mary's mounting suspicions. All she wanted to do was push past her coven sister and find Sebastian, find the man she loved more than anything before he could get to Evie and discover she was indeed alive but under a spell.
"I don't have time for you to sit here on my doorstep and accuse me of killing someone without proof Mary. I have other problems to deal with than your unfounded suspicions."
"Yes, about that, what are your problems? Where are you rushing off to?" Mary asked.
Jacqueline's eyes narrowed. She sensed sarcasm in Mary's voice, she felt as if Mary herself was hiding something. Suspicions then flooded Jacqueline's mind about Mary. Had Mary, her own coven sister double-crossed her and done something to Sebastian?
"What have you done?" Jacqueline asked with a sinister tone.
"What? What I have I done?"
Jacqueline hissed "Like you said, sister, we can't hide anything from each other. Our coven code dictates that just as you said, so yes, what have YOU done. Sebastian is missing. You must have something to do with that."
"Sebastian's missing? I had nothing to do with that. He came by the cottage the other night and left. He said he had to be at Tirymor to see Gabriel. He came back to Welshport and that's the last I saw of him." Mary replied worried for her cousin.
"He hasn't been home."
Mary took a breath, her heart sank not knowing what had happened to Sebastian in the last two days.
"The last thing I would do is hurt Sebastian or do something to him that would make things worse for everyone. I love Sebastian, he's my family, I don't use him for my own gain like you do." Mary replied.
"I don't have time for any lectures from you, Mary. Sebastian is missing. If you'd like to help me find him, you are more than welcome but if all ---" Jacqueline said as she tried to pass Mary through the doorway.
Mary grabbed her coven sister's arm and pulled her back one step.
"Did you even think that Sebastian is where he's supposed to be? By Evie's death bed? He loved her. He will always love her. It doesn't matter what any of us can do or will do or how we wish for different outcomes in our lives. Love is always love and theirs was destroyed before it could really blossom and it won't matter what you want for yourself, they'll always find their way back to each other." Mary said.
Jacqueline yanked her arm out of Mary's strong hold and put on her coat. The snow began to fall again, and Jacqueline tied the thick wool sash around her waist.
"You said Evie is dead. She's gone, and as horrible as her death is, Sebastian will get over it and move on as we all will. Life and death are cyclical Mary and in our own worlds and in our own ways we have to leave the old behind and move on with the new. Sebastian knows that. I am the new, I am the one who will carry him over to the future. May Evie rest in peace."
As Mary stood there stunned at Jacqueline's cold and callous words that seemed to make the winter night even more frosty, she wondered just how far Jacqueline had gone to keep Sebastian for herself. She watched as Jacqueline rushed off into the snow and worried for what was to come.
Mary shivered but it wasn't because she was standing in the newest flurry of frosty winter snow. It was because her coven sister, a woman she thought she could trust, a woman she connected with and joined forces to destroy the demon inside Caspian Casador was now showing signs of being just as dark and twisted herself.
She now saw this woman in a new light, and it was screaming like an alarm bell that Jacqueline Gray had killed Evie Jordan-Lord for her own personal and twisted gain of Sebastian's love and attention.
"What have you done, Jacqueline Gary, what have you done?" Mary whispered.
