 |
| Aurora divulges shocking recent events |
"I know that things here are never dull," Evie said, but somehow I feel there's more than our normal share of Villge woes to discuss, I mean Eden is living here? Where's Caspian?"
"Go on..." Matthew said, encouraging Aurora.
Evie took a deep breath as her nephew Roman poured them all tea. The cousins shot each other looks while Aurora searched her mind on how to begin. Matthew continued to comfort Evie. Aurora looked at the folded newspaper on the coffee table with the headline on Timothy Churchill's death and decided to start there.
 |
| Welshport Village, 11 months before Evie’s return |
On the posher side of the village, near the park, several well-to-do citizens gossiped on street corners while their fluffy well-groomed dogs barked and played with each other wrapping their leash around their owner's legs.
At Village Hall, Nathan Cramer, Mayor Tomothy Churchill's closest aid, skimmed through The Welshport Globe trying to keep his mind occupied while he waited for his boss. No one had heard a single word from the mayor that morning. He was typical first one in, first one out.
It was odd for him to not show up, call or even send a messenger to say he would be late or absent all together.
Nathan had been at the office waiting for hours. Fresh coffee that had been brought out for the mayor turned cold. His prepared breakfast toast had become stale save the soft part in the center where butter had melted away. Something was definity off.
"I'll be back, Claire, I think our fearless leader may have overslept." Nathan said to a secretary.
"That'd be a first, wouldn'tint?" She replied, her fiery red hair glowing in the morning sun.
Nathan nodded "And if we get any calls, please take detailed notes, yesterday's read like an Irish limerick — but in hieroglyphics." He said to the secretary, joking.
She narrowed her bright Dublin eyes and pursed her lips "Ohh you--- Just get on wit-it!" She shouted, knowing Nathan was only kidding with her.
After taking a short cab ride to Churchill's home, Nathan stepped up to the front door and knocked. A few seconds passed, he knocked again this time harder hoping the rapping on the door in a louder cadence would stir the mayor awake. But the force of the second round of knocks push opened the door.
It was unlocked.
He stood there frozen in place with worry even as his body warmed with the sun beaming down on his dark suit. Before stepping in, Nathan decided to call out for Timothy. But there was no response.
Nathan glanced down at his watch, almost 10:45 in the morning. There was no way he was still asleep.
He stepped into the house on Covington Street to meet the silence that had returned the of the mayor's name. The eeriness of the clean house chilled him. Nothing had been moved. No coffee in the pot. No dishes in the sink. Timothy, who lived alone, seemed to not even be home.
Nathan called out again and again no answer.
He continued into the hallway passed a bathroom, empty. Passed a guest room. Empty.
The door of the main bedroom was slightly open. He could see the bed from the small gap of the ajar door. The sheets and blanket looked as if they were in a spiral, curled and twisted tighty around something.
Nathan pushed the door fully open to find Timothy's dead body. He gasped and turned away from the sight of his old boss in bed dead, blue lips, pale hands, a face void of any kind of peace. Slowly, Nathan turned back and stepped closer. It was clear by the bruises on Timothy's neck that he had been choked to death.
Nathan covered Timothy's face with the white sheet of the bed and hurried down back down into the hallway where he found a telephone. He picked up the receiver but before he asked for the police, he asked for the operator to connect him with someone else.
An ally.
"Baxter....it's Nate. I need you to come to Tim's house right now."
****
 |
| Lear learns the truth from Lucas |
In a small 4th story apartment with a beautiful view of Village Park and the sea off in the distance, Lear Lockwood and Lucas Mural lay in a white-sheeted bed. Their skin hot like the rays of sun beating down on their naked bodies glowing in the white light. As they found themselves tangled together in a back-and-forth lover's knot they could feel the late morning hour creep up and interrupt their passionate moment.
It didn’t matter. The two had fallen in love and were in the throes of exploring each other's bodies like navigators from centuries ago discovering the mysterious wilds of the seven seas.
Each wrinkle, each muscle and tummy fold, each tiny patch of hair and naked skin exposed and adored. Lear traced the tan-line around Lucas's waist with his finger and up to where a golden necklace formed a border. Lucas' hands and lips searched Lear's warm flesh as of two men so locked in love that they could care less the ticking of the clock on the wall.
All good things come to an end, and reality came back when Lucas got up, nude and slick with sweat to shower. Lear watched as the beautiful man just made love with wiggle over to a bath and smirked at his perfect peach shaped behind then he walked over and sat his breakfast table dressed only in long white robe, the hem tickling the tops of his bare feet as he sipped from cold coffee and looked through his briefcase.
Suddenly, he realized, files he was sure he packed were missing. Passing in the hallway, Lucas, his body wrapped in a town from the waist down and still glistening from his shower, could see Lear's bewildered expression.
"Everything ok?" He asked, his Portuguese accent filtering through the air like a butterfly.
Lear shook his head as if to shake out the words "Something's missing."
Lucas cocked his head to one side "Missing?"
"Files. I had files in my briefcase that I was going to take to Cora and they're missing."
"Oh." Lucas said, knowing exactly what he was talking about. "About that...Cora already has them."
“What?”
Lucas stood up, his bare chest tight with worry about what was going to come out of Lucas's mouth next.
"You won't be angry with me, will you?" Lucas asked.
"Depends on what you're about to tell me." Lear replied taking his coffee mug to the sink.
"Cora and I, well, when we went to your office, and we took those files. I just wanted her to find some sort of peace and have it done quickly." Lucas said.
"Why would you not tell me you took them when you told me about going into my office a while back? Lucas those are legal documents, you stole documents with private information, and you didn't tell me! I thought you saw what you needed and left the papers there, but you took them? That's an even bigger crime than just breaking into my office.”
"But It's Cora's information."
"It's Maggie's information."
"She is Maggie!" Lucas shot back.
"Not legally, Lucas! Legally the Murphy's changed her name to Coraline Tyler Murphy. At this point she has no legal rights to those papers. You both not only broke into a solicitor's office but you stole someone else’s legal property." Lear roared.
"Ok, Ok. I understand you're upset, but nothing about her case was moving because you were so busy. I just wanted her to finally know exactly who she was with no more secrets and having those papers in her possession would do that." Lucas replied.
"We have to get them back from her before my firm finds out they’re missing."
Lucas gulped "Lear I don’t know what to say. I honestly didn’t think it would cause this much of a problem giving her what is hers.”
Lear rolled his eyes “You thought wrong.”
Lear shook head and pushed passed Lucas who was still a dripping from his shower. His anger could be felt as hot as the sun that shined in from the glorious late morning outside.
"Lear...I'm sorry I didn't tell you." Lucas replied, loudly, as Lear slammed his bedroom door shut.
Lucas' heart deflated. He had clearly crossed a line and retreated back into the bathroom. In time, Lucas hoped, Lear would forgive his sneakiness and realize it was for the best: For Cora. For Maggie.
****
 |
| Rebecca runs into Peter & Laurel Ward |
A busy afternoon at Welshport Hope Hospital came with the blazing sun above. The media still fluttered about the entrance as Jacob Lord continued his convalescence after his heart-attack in one of the 4th floor rooms. Rebecca Lockwood-Lord-Casador, entered the lobby amid a rush of reporter's questions about David's supposed return, Jacob's sudden illness and of course the end of the witch trial.
Rebecca, ever the stoic and savvy media empress herself, pretended they didn't even exist and entered the lobby with her head tilted upwards and her eyes straight ahead.
Her mind, however, was on the impending doom of the media catching on to her own marital separation. It could not happen, she thought, she could not allow personal life to be splashed across her own newspaper like Baxter Murphy had done to so many of her family.
Once inside the echoing lobby, she spotted Dr. Peter Ward and his wife Laurel who had come to bring her husband a smartly packed lunch carefully packed in tin canisters like soldier's carried in their nap sack. Peter motioned for Rebecca.
"Afternoon." Rebecca said with a quiet smile to her former friends.
"Rebecca, it's very good to see you." Laurel replied, hoping their truce still stood.
“Laurel.” Rebecca replied in a curt tone. Rebecca realized she'd come off cold and quickly flashed a bigger smile and reached in for a hug with Laurel. "How's my goddaughter Samantha?" She added referencing Peter and Laurel's grandchild.
"Samantha is well, with her nanny for the afternoon. Caspian, how is he doing?" Laurel questioned.
Rebecca paused. "Uh, he's better." She said, not actually knowing for certain. "Better, yes."
Peter knew she had no idea Caspian's headaches were actually worse. "I assume, you're here to see Jacob, then?"
Rebecca nodded to him confirming.
"Room 410. Take the elevator, it'll open, take a left and he'll be four doors down." Peter said.
"Thank you." Rebecca smirked. "Both."
As Rebecca and her dark dress vanished behind the sliding golden doors of the elevator with it's engraved and metal fashioned images, Laurel noted on Rebecca's solemn attitude.
Peter's eyebrows furrowed with worry too "With everything that's happened to her and her family, I would be zombie too."
Upstairs, as the elevator opened on the fourth floor and Rebecca exited, she did as she was told and turned left towards Jacob's room but instead of seeing what she'd thought she'd see -- a busy hospital recovery wing -- she saw something much more interesting that sparked her mind.
Off in the corner of a central nurse's station was Dr. Nikolas Jordan and Nurse Danielle Holten.
The two were standing close together as they believed they were not being watched. His lips were whispering something that made her giggle, her hands clasped tightly around his white doctor's coat lapel. He moved some of her dark hair over her ear as the two gazed into each other's eyes.
They were in love.
Rebecca felt as if her corset was tightening. She could sense a bit of heat in her chest as the sickness of seeing Nik and Danielle together.
Danielle represented the end of what she saw as a stable life with Caspian. A world that she wanted to continue to live in, his past — Danielle — was like a dark cloud flowing over what Rebecca saw as her sunny marriage.
Suddenly ideas flooded her mind and Rebecca quickly darted back into the elevator in a swoosh of her dark skirts fluttered in still unseen by the two new lovers, and hit a golden button that said 2.
The doors of the glittering elevator opened on the second floor, she quickly made her way down the hallway where her devious idea led her. The hallway turned into another one and then another and once she realized she was in the right place she slowed her pace and passed the open hospital room door of Dr. Asha Hoffman who was still recovering from her coma at Hope in bed reading a book.
"Dr. Hoffman!" Rebecca said as if she hadn't found her on purpose.
"Mrs. Lord, what are you doing here?" Asha questioned, as she sat up in her bed and folded the book in her lap saving her place.
"I'm here to see Jacob, but I guess I got turned around a little bit and found myself here. Silly me. How are you?"
Asha gulped feeling a bit strange in her bed in front of such a powerful iconic town figure like Rebecca Lockwood-Lord.
"I, uh, well, I'm doing fine. Better, thank you." Asha said, again fiddling with her bedgown as if to look more presentable.
"Well, that's good to hear. I am pleased to see you doing so well. I'm sure Dr. Jordan is too, but then again, he doesn't seem to be on your floor anymore." Rebecca said.
"He works all over." Asha replied.
"I bet he does." Rebecca answered. "Especially after....oh never mind."
"After?"
Rebecca feigned concern for Asha and Nik's relationship, Asha could see it in her face. The sad eyes, the biting of her pink lip as if she were trying to hold back a secret that was itching to come out, the fidgeting hands unable to stop.
"What is it?" Asha pushed.
"I don't want alarm you, or make you feel as if I am intruding on your life in any way, Dr. Hoffman, but when I was roaming around lost searching for Jacob, I saw something and, well, to be honest that's how I think I got myself so disoriented and ironically found myself here."
"Why ironically?" Asha asked. "What's going on?"
"Dr. Jordan and Nurse Holten, they've become quite close, haven't they." Rebecca said, and to Asha's quick expression of hurt, Rebecca quickly knew Asha had indeed noticed.
"I don't know." Asha lied.
"Well, dear," Rebecca said stepping closer to the bedridden Asha and petted her shoulder. "I do know, and what I saw was something very disrespectful not only to this hospital but to you. They're definitely," Rebecca paused to search for the perfect word that would set Asha up "in touch."
Asha looked away and towards the window, allowing the warm afternoon sun to try it's best at comforting her. It didn't work. The word Rebecca emphasized -- touch -- made it clear as a bell to Asha what Rebecca saw.
"Now, darling, I know that it hurts. I've been there myself. In fact, my Albert had a wondering eye too, where do you think my stepson Johnathon came from. But I wouldn't dwell on it too much, he's still coming to you here, isn't he?"
Asha shrugged "Not as often."
"I see." Rebecca replied. The door was open now. Seeing Nik and Danielle together was perfect timing. The quick thought of using what she had seen to cleverly guide Asha into some sort of web that Rebecca would use soon to rid her of Danielle's influence over Caspian was only just beginning to form.
"There's a lot he and I need to discuss and I think he knows something, something that I've done before the fire before Gregory kidnapped me, before all of that, and I'm afraid that what he's learned of me has pushed him away.”
Hearing Gregory’s name quickly sent Rebecca’s mind into a whirlwind. What had Asha done with Gregory that would connect to Nik? The Lord family matriarch decide to probe.
“Asha, I know that we don’t know each other well but, if there’s something you need to unburden yourself with, you can count confide in me. Sometimes it’s better to seek advice from someone outside the circle for a bit of unbiased advice.” Asha gulped. She didn’t know what to do. Rebecca moved closer and held Asha’s hand.
Rebecca smiled kindly at the doctor whose world seemed to be crumbling all around her. Asha looked into the older woman's eyes graying eyes and felt a twinge of material caring coming from her. Seconds passed right before she decided to free herself.
“It’s about Nik’s mother.” Asha whispered.
Rebecca lifted a brow “Aurora Jordan.”
Asha nodded.
“What about her? What did you and Gregory do?”
“I don't even know how to say it, much less out loud." Asha replied.
"It's ok." Rebecca comforted. "Try."
"Gregory he…he was blackmailing me. He knew too much of something I had done and he’d been holding it over me for so long, Mrs. Casador, I had to do it. I had to help him.” Asha began confessing.
“What happened?” Rebecca said, her whole body seemed to be quivering with delight over this information.
“When Mrs. Jordan gave birth to the child she had conceived with..." she paused "your husband...Gregory and I took the child and… and I … I….”
“What? What did you do?” Rebecca asked.
“We told Aurora the child died but it didn’t, we gave the child to someone else. Mary and Filipe’s son Caleb. That is Aurora and Caspian’s son.” Asha said sobbing.
Rebecca sat back and took a breath, swallowed hard and released her hand from Asha's. The news shocking her yet pleasing her.
“Alright, that’s alright. It’s ok.” Rebecca said to Asha as she calmed. “Don’t say another word about anything of this to anyone, do you understand? I’ll help you through this. But you cannot tell a soul the truth.”
Rebecca had fought so hard to finally find love with Caspian. A man who came into her life when she least expected it, but needed the most. She was lonely, she was a ship set a drift at sea with no where to anchor herself. Especially at her age. Caspian had become that anchor, and Rebecca was not going to allow herself to lose him to Danielle or to Aurora.
Danielle was pushing for Caspian to return to his life as Viktor and Aurora was on the cusp of finding the love child she and Caspian shared, Rebecca saw her marriage as good as gone to both. She had now two reasonable threats against her this marriage she so passionately felt she deserved.
Asha continued to cry.
"There, there. I know what it's like to be in your shoes. It's never easy to be the woman on the outside looking in. All you’ve done is try to keep the man you loved. I want the same. So I’m going to help you.” Rebecca said.
“He’s fallen already for Danielle, hasn't he.” Asha answered thinking of Nik.
“I wouldn’t worry about her for too long. We’ll figure something out. Imagine, a man who is supposed to be this pillar of our community and this hospital running around with that nurse as if they're school children in love, well it's more than just deceitful. Its disgusting. And Aurora! Well that’s just another version of Danielle, but for me." Rebecca consoled.
"You’ll help me?” Asha asked again, sniffing her tears away.
“Absolutely. Just give me some time to think about what to do.” Rebecca replied.
“Thank you Mrs. Casador. Nikolas means so much to me and ... knowing someone is willing to help me keep at least some sort of happiness in my life means so much." Asha replied, somewhat relieved.
"I, of all people, understand very much how much having someone special in one's life means. After my dear Albert left this world I thought I'd never love again, but then there was Caspian. Of course, our love came at a very strange interval in our lives but he means as much to me as Nikolas means to you." Rebecca explained.
"How will you help me?"
Rebecca's eyes suddenly flickered with the glee of her creative mind. "They'll be a time, Dr. Hoffman, when you'll be out of this bed and back on your feet ready to face what's happened, and when that time comes, because I foresee it coming soon, let's talk. Shall we? Together I know we can right this wrong of The Jordans and that nurse. With me on your side, no one, not a single person, will be able to take Nik from you, and Caspian from me, after all we’ve been through, we deserve happiness." Rebecca added.
"Thank you, again." Asha replied with a smile.
Rebecca patted her on the head and winked. Her dark dress swooshed through the open hospital door and just as she exited, Nik Jordan was about to enter, their two bodies almost colliding.
"OH! Excuse me, Mrs. Casador, I didn't expect you here." Nik said his hands reached out to Rebecca's shoulders avoiding the collision.
Rebecca gulped "Well, Nikolas, hello. I got turned around and found myself here at Dr. Hoffman's suite. She's doing very well, I might add." Rebecca said, turning back to Asha and winking. The seed planted in her mind of Nik's betrayal. The Lord family matriarch's slowly setting up her plan to keep Caspian for herself. Danielle being her first mark.
Nik smiled back at Rebecca who gave him a quick nod and took her leave.
Asha lie in bed, a fly in the web, and knew now she had an ally in a very high position to save herself from her own betrayals.
****
 |
| Nathan & Baxter in The Globe’s newsroom |
"Do you think it'll work?" Nathan asked to Baxter in a whisper as they sat together in newsroom of The Welshport Globe looking at the front page of that afternoon's edition.
Baxter sighed "It has to."
"Thank you for doing this, you could have just run with --- well, something different." Nathan replied, his eyes never leaving the headline they two of them concocted after what Nathan found at Churchill's house.
"Let's say you'll owe me --BIG." Baxter replied with a brow arched in an almost perfect comma shape.
Nathan's eyes narrowed, "I owe you? After everything you've done you don't think this this will somehow set things back to normal? Even as fucked up as it is, I think you're helping yourself."
"Nate, you and I go way back," Baxter recalled placing his hand on Nathan's reminding him of their past relationship, "have I ever done something for someone else where I didn't expect something in return? I love-ya kid, but this wasn't a freebee."
Nathan pulled his hand out from under his ex's and stared back at the headline:
"MAYOR CHURCHILL FOUND DEAD IN HOME BY NATURAL CAUSES"
In his mind, Nathan realized the damage Timothy Churchill had inflicted on the town with these wild accusations of witchcraft. The chaos and lies he spread were so outlandish it not only cost a woman her life by fire but could have cost many more. Nathan knew that this mysterious woman called Verity admitted to what she had done, but -- the entire situation was overblown and pushed by Churchill's vendetta, his own personal quest to destroy the lives of the Lords. If his murder was revealed it would never end. The bribe money Nathan was given back from Judge Banning was split into two payments: one to the coroner and the other to a funeral director.
The secret was safe. No one would come looking for Churchill's killer. It was over.
Nathan grabbed the paper and made his way out of the newsroom.
Baxter smirked, knowing someday, his ex would get a call from him. Pay back would be due.
Baxter and Nathan decide to cover up the death of Timothy Churchill to save the town more drama. They read from the crafted and fake news story saying Churchill died in his sleep in the afternoon edition.
 |
| Jacob meets with Aaron in the hospital |
At Welshport Hope Hospital, Jacob Lord lifted his body up from his comfortable hospital bed and heaved it on to a side wooded walker that a nurse had left him as he recuperated from his heart-attack. The nurse had left him with strict instructions to continue to get out of bed as must as he could to keep his boy moving.
His body was fine despite the horrible medical emergency he had suffered. Jacob thought it was his whole life that was teetering on the verge of disaster because of his brother's supposed return from the dead that caused his heart-attack to begin with.
Jacob slowly moved the wooden walker over to the fourth story window and looked out onto the grounds of the hospital and passed the large square building that was the neighboring Asylum that looked out onto the Atlantic sea.
So blue. So freeing. So vast. He could see a small ship off in the distance floating off the horizon and vanishing. He thought of himself as the ship, larger than life, made of steel but vanishing into nothing all because David, or Christopher as he was now known, had returned to reveal the truth about Sabrina's death, a murder Jacob committed but had framed David for two decades ago.
"Sir." A voice came from hospital room. Jacob turned to see his trusted spy and valet Aaron Hamstead.
"Come in, come in." Jacob replied as he painfully sat himself on a large side chair filled to the brim with stuffing so soft it made Jacob feel as if he was back in bed.
"How are you getting on?" Aaron asked in his deep Scottish voice.
"Better thank you. Did you get what I needed?"
Aaron sighed "There was really nothing I could find on Christopher Wesley. That name didn't ring any alarms with my contact in London. They said they'd continue to search for anything and cable me with any news if they found it, but I have to admit, if he was in hiding he wouldn't have done anything to cause a stir." Aaron admitted hoping Jacob would drop the search for dirt on Chris, Aaron's best friend.
"There has to be reason David would come back so confidently. He must feel as if he can just... I don't know...take back the life he let go of." Jacob said replied, clearly rattled by his brother's return.
Aaron took a beat to reply feeling caught between his best friend David, and his boss Jacob. Two brothers torn apart by jealously, murder and decades of lies. The man in front of Aaron, a mixture of paranoia and fear was once stoic and sinister now clearly broken by his lies his treachery and all the death that he'd caused.
"May I speak freely sir?" Aaron asked, Jacob lifted a brow but nodded. "What if he just wants his family back? He's been alone, from what I've been told, all these years. He must of been so afraid to connect with anyone considering what he thought happened ..." Aaron paused realizing he was openly admitting David did not kill Sabrina ..."Uhh... considering what had happened to Sabrina. Suddenly he sees Sabrina's face in London, but it's really Ms. Thorne. Imagine all the memories of life back in Welshport came flooding back. He probably just wants to go back to where he was before anything ever happened to his wife, to his life."
Jacob thought for a second, perhaps Aaron was right, but the fact still remained that Jacob killed Sabrina in a jealous rage out on Bellmore Beach and he cruelly convinced a drunk David he had done it, forcing David to leap to his supposed death off of the Welshport Lighthouse.
Only -- David's end was just as false as Jacob's story of who killed Sabrina.
"I can't expect to think David has returned to just reunite with us." Jacob replied. "I have to keep my brother in close proximity at all times. I need to know his every move. I hope you and Coraline can do that while I'm trapped here."
Aaron nodded that he understood and would do anything for his boss, even survey his best returned best friend.
"Plotting so early in the day, son. Why am I not surprised." Rebecca said, finally making her way into Jacob's room.
"Mother." Jacob answered slowly standing up from the chair and moving back to the bed.
"Mrs. Casador." Aaron greeted.
Jacob groaned "I'll never get used to anyone calling you that." He said of his mother's married name.
"Find a way." She hissed.
Aaron took his leave and slowly made his way out of Jacob's room. Rebecca sat on the chair and folded her hands on her lap. Her back straight never touching the back of the chair. Her eyes scanning the room as if it were a hotel that had not been kept up, even though Jacob had been given a very luxurious private suite in the hospital, one of the four on that floor.
"What were you and Aaron discussing?" She asked.
"Business." He replied shortly.
"Business? With Aaron? Very well, fill me in, I'm one of the publishers of our business."
"Not our business." He corrected. "My business."
Rebecca knew exactly what he meant the first time, she of course was only being facetious. The matriarch pursed her lips and rocked in her chair, her tight corset holding her body upright. Perfectly facing her son as if she was waiting for him to confess, although she knew he would not open up to her about the private conversation she walked in on.
"I want you to leave David alone, do you understand me?" She suddenly shared.
Jacob smirked. "David huh? You know he goes by Christopher don't you?"
"David, Chrisopher, whatever he chooses to go by, I want you to leave him and Geneveive alone. We have to let the wounds of the past heal Jacob, wounds I might add come from you. Which is more than I can say for you, that's what I hoped I'd walk in on, you healing not scheming." She said, ironically concealing what she'd just done with Asha Hoffman.
"You won't have to worry about your sweet David, mother, I won't harm a hair on his head. Not this time. But I will tell you that I won't allow myself to be ambushed either. Not by anyone. If he's back for anything other than to reunite with his family I'll find out and I'll be sure to squash it like a bug."
"Ambushed? You sound paranoid, Jacob. You know David is back, you saw him yourself, how can you fear an ambush? He's not hiding in the shadows keeping him secret. Its all out in the open. And what exactly would he be back for if not to reunite with us?" Rebecca replied.
Jacob's eyes narrowed. "Revenge."
Rebecca chuckled "That's more your style, dear, not his. It never was. You sound terrified."
There was some truth to what she was saying but Jacob's mind was always on the horizon like the ship he'd just watch vanish into the vast blue sea. There was always something out there, something more, something watching, something coming.
"I don't fear ANYTHING." he growled, Rebecca finally sat back in the chair as the strength of his words pushed her body back like a powerful wind.
Then a nurse walked in to check on Jacob. The conversation quickly ended between the two most senior members of the Lord family. Strangers were never privy to family conversations no matter how professional the setting was supposed to be.
Jacob made himself clear. He was going to be prepared. Always prepared. For whatever came to him from his brother. Or anyone. Jacob Lord would never be ambushed. He would be the one to do the ambushing.
****
 |
| The witch council convenes |
The waves crashed along the small rocky coast line of Goode Island in a timed cadence with the coming moon's pull that swelled into the air like a sonic-boom. Each ice cold wash of water tore into the black rocks of the small satellite island that had one single house dead in it's center surrounded by a wood of ancient Burch and pine trees.
A figure began to lift it's body out of the ocean and started to grapple with the stones of the shore and climb slowly up to the sandy surface.
As the light of the sun dipped below the trees, the gloom of the evening shone on the sea soaked body of Verity Spencer, Mary's created twin sister who survived a burning at the stake just days ago. Her heart felt strong, her mind clear and strangely she felt as if she knew the island as if she'd grown up there all her life, just like Mary had. But those memories were only ghosts, fragments of something given to her by the witch council. She felt as if she had arrived, finally, home. To the place she'd had always belong.
As she stood up from climbing over the rocks, a sudden morphing of matter, air, vision right before her eyes began to bend light and form into three shrouded and vailed figured appearing to her in a black smoke filled haze.
The witch council had arrived.
"Your day of birth is one of gloom and high tide, Verity. Good omens for life." The witch on the left said, her face invisible to the eye and hidden behind shadows in her cloak like her two other sisters.
"Good omens, yes." The witch on the right said agreeing.
Verity, curtsied in front of the powerful figures, her blond hair slick with from the sea, her skin dewy and fresh like a peach from the spring.
"We have seen you survive such tremendous rage in the face of fire and smoke. You are a true Pheonix before us, dear Verity. Do not squander this gift of rebirth. We've bestowed you with this gift in hopes that you unite the sisters of Highgrove and you shall live for as long as their coven lives, by the last two members that are now alive and their decedents and their decedents and theirs."
"Will they accept me?" Verity asked.
The witch council looked at each other as the sound of the crashing waves cut through the conversation. A blank dark void in their floating hoods where their faces should but. Verity noted this silence and felt the chill of air swirling around her.
"Prophecy is not for us to serve, only chances at attaining our hope. Free will is yours to bloom in this life given to you but we implore you to keep to our guide at setting the Highgrove sisters together using you as their common thread. Their sister." The center witch said.
"Reunion." Verity repeated, as the witches, all three, nodded.
"A word of your linage and conception." The left witch spoke.
"Learn it. Recall it." The right witch said.
A wave, giant in its size sudden hit the rocks splashing foam and spray all around just as the center witch lifted her arms and announced: "You are born a Spencer, not the daughter of the mortal family Goode, keep this in mind. Your mother Eliza, your father the star furthest in the universe away from us, but -- a sister of two: to Mary by blood; to Jacqueline by coven. Do not fail us in their reunion, Verity. This would be a failure of self." The center witch instructed.
“Now this world is yours for the taking; we shall not return to you — go about your life now with these be our final worlds: do not squander this.” A third witch warned.
Verity took a deep breath as the witches of the council began to evaporate in front of her. Their hands clasped creating a strong link of the powerful coven that ruled over all, and then in a blink of an eye they were gone.
Verity had her marching orders. Reunite the coven known as The Sisters of Highgrove.
But, with all things given by the witch council, there was one thing that reverberated in her mind over and over again: Free will. Her life was indeed created by the council, but it was not given with restrictions to what they wanted, but something more. Verity was given the ability to live life the way she wanted, as a person in her own right.
It would be her choice to follow the wish of the council, but they would not hold her to this, they could only hope her newfound conscious would follow the links of her coven and adhere to the reunion hope of the three shadowy witches of the high council.
Nightfall came swiftly after this. Verity looked out to the darkened sea.
The world was hers to take. The world was hers to live -- with her own free will.
