 |
| Mary & Fatima at Filipe’s bedside |
The slow regeneration of Filipe's body into human form had begun as the sun crept over Welshport’s green hills signaling dawn. There was a calmness deep down in Fatima Braga's basement where Filipe was being held. The bullet shot into his shoulder was made of pure silver, common in the formation of the bullets in Welshport's police force instead of the cheaper iron.
Police in Welshport rarely used their firearms.
Mary sat at the morphing creature's bedside, its legs were tied to the bed. Its face horribly disfigured as it began to switch back into human form. She slowly dug into the wound with tweezers as blood pooled and soaked in the disappearing wolf fur.
"Pega Maria." Fatima said coming into the room speaking in Portuguese.
Mary turned and saw her handing her a needle and thread.
"To sew him up." Fatima added.
"He has a fever, he's boiling hot." Mary said.
Fatima nodded. "His body is going through something no human can survive, its a miracle he's even here now breathing. My sweet Filipe."
"Do you think anyone saw us leave with him?" Father Ryan asked as he stood at the base of the basements stairs.
"I can't say for certain. There was so much happening." Mary said as Filipe's breathing got shallower.
"Meu querido Filipe," Fatima said kneeling next to the transforming creature. "Stay strong. Stay strong, fight this, you will come back to us and we can find a way to keep you whole."
"But how?" Father Ryan asked.
Fatima didn't know how to save her son, but she knew she had to.
Mary sewed up the wound and placed Gregory's deformed silver bullet in a dish next to Filipe's bed. By now, his face was again the face she recognized. He was feverish and his mind was drifting into nightmares and torture of what he had done. He was writhing in the bed, sweating profusely. He was on the verge of death, yet the life in him battled on.
Mary leaned down and kissed Filipe on his fiery hot lips. His fever was strong. She touched her lips after and felt the heat, it was as if she kissed two plump embers of flesh.
"There is a way to save Filipe, but I would need help to do so." Mary said to Fatima and Donavon's eager surprise.
“You’ve been keeping this from us?” Fatima asked, her words pregnant with suspicion.
“No, no… as soon as I discovered the way to get Filipe back I came here from Goode island but the chaos at the park derailed everything.” Mary reminded Fatima.
“Of course.” Father Ryan said.
Fatima raised a brow "What can we do? I’ll do Anything." Fatima asked.
"No, you don’t understand it’s Evie's help I need." Mary replied, surprising the others again.
"Evangeline? What does she have to do with this?" Father Ryan asked.
"It has to do with an event in the past...telling you both this will change the way you see things; me, Filipe, Evie... and Sebastian."
"Sebastião?" Fatima asked using Sebastian's name in Portuguese. "Tell us Maria."
Father Donavan sat down on the last step of the basement staircase as Filipe, tied to his bed, tossed and turned to Mary's voice telling the story; the long horrible story of how she was manipulated by Jacob Lord to shoot Sebastian at his Wedding to Evie 3 years earlier. How Jacob dangled access to their daughter Charlotte in front of her as incentive. Mary explained her desperation to see Charlotte after a decade of not being in her life and how she could only think of her child and how much she loved her. The idea of shooting Sebastian, her own cousin, felt sickening -- but she did it.
Sebastian's first death came as a cold reminder of Jacob's power, but Mary's guilt was even more powerful.
Then Mary explained her mother's powers; a woman of supernatural means that could control life and death if she wanted to. Eliza, Mary explained, refused at first to reverse the death of Sebastian but eventually agreed to help in the only way possible. Sebastian had to be returned to the world of the living as one of the undead, a vampire that needed the blood of a close friend to be revied.
Filipe was the friend.
Mary explained the rest of the shocking details of how she unearthed Sebastian from his coffin finding him alive and needing the life force of his first taste of human blood. She explained how Filipe came to search for Sebatian and ended up trapped on Goode Island by a spell and that his blood was harvested to keep Sebatian alive -- and it worked.
The truth: Sebastian Lord was alive and missing and Evie's story that leaked in the newspaper of how he came to save her from her own grave was TRUE!
"They're connected, Filipe and my cousin. Their blood is binding and if we find Sebastian and use his powerful life force that was created using Filipe's then perhaps this horrible wolf curse that was laid on him could reverse. It's what my mother's spell book says, and I have to believe it. It's truly the only way."
"All of this is an abomination of epic proportions! I don't know if I can be any part of this!" Father Ryann objected. "Have you any idea what you are even talking about? You are asking me to commit treason against the will of God. This is ....this is diabolical and heresy!"
"It's the only way, Father Ryan, the only absolute way we can save Filipe." Mary said standing up from the Filipe's bedside and facing the priest.
"You have no idea what you are talking about Mary." The priest began his dissent as Mary furrowed her brow. "You're pushing the boundaries of...of something unheard of. Unholy. I've seen the face of the devil, I've heard it's voice. I've touched it's skin. You do not want to delve into that world, Sister Inez understands this." Father Ryan added, using Fatima's former nun’s name.
Mary looked at Fatima who stood silent caught between two worlds, the world of the righteous and the world of the supernatural: both realms not foreign to her.
Mary narrowed her eyes again seeing she was going to have to do everything on her own if the priest wouldn't help and Fatima seemed paralyzed in place.
"This has nothing to do with the devil. I've seen more than you will ever know, Donavon, and if you can't support this then perhaps it's best you leave us now. Things are about to get very, very heretical, as you say, around here." Mary replied.
"Mary, listen to me..." The priest began before Mary quickly interrupted.
"I won't have you thwart any attempt at saving him. Either you two will help me when I finally find Sebastian, or..." Mary began but before she could finish Filipe stirred in his bed waking and finally back in his true form. "FILIPE! It's me, don't move too much, you've been shot."
Filipe opened his eyes and smiled and reached for Mary's face, but his wrist tied to the bed, wouldn't reach. Mary moved closer allowing him to touch her.
"I can't go on like this." He said in a whisper. "I can't go on."
"Listen to me, I have an idea that will save you. It will work, but it's going to take finding someone to help." She said.
"Not Jacqueline." Filipe said with a wink and wince in pain.
Mary giggled happy to see he was joking and grabbed his hand "No, not her this time."
"Filho," Fatima said coming over to the bed "We will do all we can to find a way to stop all of this. I promised you I would help and Maria has an idea.” She paused “I will support her."
"Fatima!" Father Ryan shouted in shock.
"If Maria feels this is how we can help, then we will find Sebastião and save Filipe." Fatima replied.
"Sebastian?" Filipe asked in low voice.
"It's a very long story, one you don't have to worry about right now. You need to rest.” Mary explained.
"The children. Where are the children?" Filipe asked.
Mary smiled and squeezed his hand "They're safe, they're home."
Filipe could see the emotion on Mary's face and the worry. He knew what he had done the night before and the night before that. He could still taste the blood in his mouth. He could still feel himself roaming the streets and feeling the insatiable desire to destroy without understanding why. Those urges came to him without any explanation, they were just there falling on him as the moon filled in the sky.
The curse of the bite he received by the wolf carried over into him and forced him to do these things in his monstrous form.
But Mary loved him anyway.
He could feel that she did, she wanted to save him knowing all of the carnage he had just done.
He looked at her, a tear fell down his cheek and he mouthed "I love you", and began to feel her heart break and she mouthed it back. "I love you too".
"There is nothing I won't do to fix this so that we can go back to what normal we have left. This began with me and it will finish with me." Mary said, again referencing her part in Sebastian and Filipe's blood connection.
"Where is he?" Filipe wondered.
"We don't know exactly. Evie's hidden him we think." Mary replied.
"Evie." Filipe repeated in a soft voice.
"She's key to this now too." Mary said.
"Well then how do get her to understand this?" Fatima wondered.
"She'll understand. She's seen things in her life to know better than to think its all some kind of fantasy we've cooked up. If I know Evie, she'll know exactly what we are going through and help us get what we need from Sebastian." Mary explained.
"This is all if Sebatian has the capacity to help at all." Father Ryan interjected.
They hadn't thought of that. It was clear that Evie could help find Sebastian, but what if Sebastian refused to get involved?
"He'll do it." Filipe answered from his bed in a pained voice. "He knows more than any of us what its like to have something thrust upon you without knowing why. We were friends. Brothers. He'll help."
Mary smiled softly and leaned down to kiss Filipe. She cupped his hands in hers and they sat there hoping he was right. There was no time to waste, the sun was coming up and Sebastian had to be found and found quickly. The night would come, and the moon would once again hit it's quarter which would still affect Filipe.
"She's at a home on Bellmore Beach." Father Ryan said.
They all turned to look at him, he was withholding information that no one had known, something he himself overheard from parishioners gossiping after mass.
"Thank you." Mary replied. "That's where I'll go then, but I need to see Jacob first."
Fatima's head snapped in Mary's direction in shock at hearing Jacob's name, "Why? What on earth do you need to see him for?" She asked, knowing Mary and Jacob's sorted history.
Mary looked at Filipe and felt a tender emotion creep into her heart. She knew someone else needed to know of Filipe's condition.
"For Celeste." Mary said. "I need to let Celeste know about Filipe. She deserves to know he's in trouble and maybe she can find it in her heart to one day be on our side when we need her, because trust me that day will come and we'll need someone in the Lord family on our side."
Fatima lifted a brow unsure if Mary's thought was true. The older woman only saw this tactic as inventing in danger into an already dangerous situation, but Father Donavon Ryan agreed. With the priests backing, Mary rushed off to see Celeste at Tirymor.
****
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| The Lords discuss the wolf attack |
At Tirmor House the morning felt like it would never come.
The trauma of the events in Village Park rattled even the most unruffled of Lord family members who, by and large, had seen there fair share of monstrous attacks.
But this felt different.
As various maids quickly entered the large golden sitting room with silver trays of breakfast tea and cookies, the 2 large glittering chandeliers that sparkled in the morning light dotting little lights of pattern all over the room.
Rebecca sipped her tea as her foot nervously tapped on the wooden floor.
"It'll be alright." Her younger husband Caspian assured her.
"I can't understand what it was. Why God would create such a giant beast to roam his woods. That thing was... devilish." Rebecca replied as Jacob dropped is teacup loudly on the table as he almost spit out his tea with a laugh.
"The irony." Jacob crudely joked referencing Caspian's time possessed by a demon himself.
Rebecca narrowed her eyes and Celeste rolled hers.
"She's right though. I've never seen anything like that in all my life." Celeste added.
Her brother Johnathon, sitting close by on a love seat with his new bride Jacqueline agreed "In all the years I lived on this island, I haven't seen anything like that either. That thing was as big as man--two men!"
Lear and Lucas then entered the room. They had been invited to stay at Tirymor House for their safety in light of the events in the park the night before. Everyone greeted them good morning. Luckas noticed Lear's nervous energy being in the house of his estranged Aunt Rebecca.
"We're all safe that's all that matters." Caspian added.
"Especially Jacqueline." Rebecca said. "A new child on the way its even more reason for us to be thankful that no one was seriously hurt."
"Are you alright?" Lukas asked Lear in a whisper as they plopped breakfast cakes on their perfect Lord family imported China.
"It just feels strange being here like this, you know? She doesn't really want me here." Lear whispered back.
"She?"
"My Aunt."
Lucas turned and looked at Rebecca who was staring at them but showing no emotion whatsoever. It sent a shiver up Lucas' spine. He grabbed Lear's hand, hidden away from everyone's view and squeezed. "Don't worry." Lucas winked.
"I wouldn't say everyone got off scot-free." Jacob announced as he read the morning paper Aaron Hamstead brought in.
"What is it?" Celeste asked.
Jacob read from the article "...despite various attempts from various officers several people were attacked by the creature that lurked out of the dark forest and caroused the streets of our village unseen until it arrived at Village Park where it caused the calamity. Two women were killed in the village, 8 others injured in the park with a single death -- that of...." Jacob paused.
"Go on." Rebecca said.
"... that of Constable Gregory Reigns," Jacob read as gasps came from the women in the room. "who was rushing off towards an unrelated fire at the Police station. Constable Reigns shot at the creature and the creature attacked killing him."
"Poor Aurora." Caspian said to Rebecca's surprise.
"Yes, Poor Aurora." She said, somewhat annoyed.
"I can't believe it. I can't believe he's gone." Celeste said.
"My god." Johnathon added.
Jacqueline began to feel strange, in a way guilty. Something supernatural in the world came to light and destroyed people’s lives. She knew that all the creatures and entities of the shadowy and mysterious world of the supernatural were in a way kin, they'd all lived on the margins of the world where they had to sometimes live double lives, secret lives, lives that if exposed they'd be killed, hurt, destroyed. None of the creatures of the shadows like her had ever asked to exist -- but they existed none-the-less and Jacqueline felt in a way worried that she too would be next should she be exposed as a witch. This is why her plan to stay with Johnathon as his wife and mother to his unborn child was the only war for her to secure her survival.
But Evie was still a threat which made her feel ill.
"I think I'd like to go upstairs and rest." Jacqueline said.
"We just woke up." Johnathon replied.
"Johnny, she's a mother to be. She needs all the rest she could get." Celeste added, her eyebrow firmly up signaling she still felt the relationship had been forced dubiously.
"I agree, go on Jacqueline dear, rest." Rebecca said as Jacqueline smiled and politely excused herself, quickly going up to her room.
Rebecca then walked over to the large table where the silver tea sets were placed for her refill where she found her nephew Lear.
"And you, nephew," She said to him, "tell me, how did you feel about last night. If I recall you were very close to this Baxter Murphy, our senior writer at the Globe. What do you think he'll make of this?"
"I-I... I don't know aunt Rebecca. He has his own ideas of things." Lear replied nervously.
"He lives in a world of falsehoods and fabrications. I know that storytelling is a form of journalism but he pushes it to the extreme, god only knows how he’ll find a way to blame this family for that creature." Rebecca added.
“He’ll do what he always does, figure out a way to steer the story to something he’s already built. His narratives always benefit one person— him.” Lear reminded her.
Rebecca scoffed “Absolute nonsense! He writes absolute nonsense I don’t know why we don’t sack him.”
"It's cruel." Lucas interjected. “What he writes.”
Rebecca smirked at the sweet Lucas who smiled back. "We haven't met, formally, that is." Rebecca told him.
"Lucas Mural."
"The accent?" Rebecca asked. "Its quite beautiful, and familiar."
"Portuguese." Lucas said. "Lear is helping me legally to stay here. Forever." He said happily.
"I see."
"Lucas was the gentleman who found Matthew Winterborn washed up at sea and along with his mother, nursed him back to health. In-turn Mr. Winterborn sponsored him to immigrate to America." Lear explained.
"Matthew, yes, Evangeline’s latest beau. Well Mr. Mural, welcome. Welcome to Tirymor, welcome to Welshport, Welcome to America. Welcome to your new life. I'm sorry your first few weeks here had this awful event in it."
"Obrigado." Lucas said thanking her in Portuguese just before Rebecca turned back to sit with Caspian.
"Aunt Rebecca," Lear began hoping to get one more second of her time.
"Lear," Rebecca said softly, her voice a sigh "I think that from now on, we just forget the past, I think you understand what I mean."
Lear's eyes widened. How could he? How could he completely forget the way Rebecca treated his father: her brother. The loss of time, the loss of everything they owned, the disinheritance, and worse, what really happened to Lear's little sister. The true reason for Lear's anguish and hatred of his aunt.
"That’s not what I was going to talk about, I just wanted to say thank you for having us, but we'll be leaving soon." Lear said.
"This is your home too, you don't have to leave, we have plenty of space." She said.
"I would not want to stay." He replied coldly.
She tilted her head finally noting his frosty behavior that she had missed in the initial conversation.
"What is this?" She asked. "Why do you continue to feel this way towards me? I know that your father did was horrible but I---" he interrupted him.
"My father?" Lear asked in shock. "What on earth did my father do that wasn't a result of what you did first."
Rebecca furrowed her brow "I don't know what you're talking about.” She said.
Lear took a breath unprepared for the conversation he was about to have in front of everyone.
“You destroy him and took everything he had.”
“Lear, your father lost almost all of what he was given when our father died. I did nothing to add to his destitution. I would have never done that. And as for your sister I tried to find her, but it was too late. I truly did, little Maggie just … she vanished.” Rebecca suddenly revealed.
"What is happening?" Lucas asked confused.
"Let's go." Lear said suddenly.
The rest of the room started to notice the contention over by the tea table.
"I looked for her Lear. I swear I did." Rebecca said of Lear's sister.
"Lear, what is going on?" Lucas asked again.
Lear took a breath and put his tea down then took Lucas' tea and placed it down too. "Please, let's go."
The two men left leaving Rebecca to explain the situation to the confused room.
"He's never known the truth mother." Jacob replied of his cousin.
"What is the truth?" Celeste asked.
"My Uncle practically gambled every cent of his inheritance away until my mother smartly intervened and saved the rest of it for Lear and his younger sister Margaret. There wasn’t much left but a conservatorship protected the remainder after all the debt was paid. Nevertheless my uncle, the wreck, decided he'd find other way of getting money for his gambling and did something sick, unthinkable." Jacob explained.
Johnathon came over and sat closer to listen.
"Jacob." Rebecca sighed uncomfortable with the story Jacob was telling. “Please don’t.”
"Does Lear know any of this?" Johnathon wondered.
Rebecca shook her head. “Not everything, obviously.”
“The gambling wasn’t the worst part.” Jacob continued.
“Jacob I said stop.”
"My sweet little baby cousin, Lear's little sister, was only about 4 months younger than my baby sister Vivi. My uncle Henry was desperate. He took that little girl out of her mother’s arms sold her off.” Jacob explained as Celeste gasped in horror. “Sold here just like that on the black market to a family no one knew for something like $50,000. We never saw her again."
"That’s horrible!" Caspian exclaimed.
"My god." Johnathon hissed as he sipped his tea.
"Uncle Henry, of course, consumed by guilt died a broken man. His wife Aunt Lorna too, not before leaving him and taking Lear away though. Henry was shunned by everyone. Lear of course had to live in this shadow of his father’s sin. Henry poisoned Lear about my mother, calling her greedy and a thief…none of it true. She only helped protect what was left of the fortune for Lear. That’s where we stand now. He knows his father’s side of it all but would rather believe that than understand my mother actually saved him.”
“Why didn’t Henry go to jail for selling his child?” Celeste wondered.
Jacob looked at Rebecca to answer.
“I did what I could to save my brother but none of it helped.” Rebecca added staring out into the golden room with a vacant look on her face.
Caspian grabbed her hand and squeezed.
“She had a lawyer forge papers saying the adoption was a legal closed and private one. She again saved my uncle.” Jacob said to Rebecca’s embarrassment.
Celeste gasped.
What the family in glittering sitting room didn't know was the Lucas and Lear were still in the hall listening as the staff brought down some of their things form the room they stayed in. Lucas saw Lear's heart crumble in front of him hearing the truth about his family spoken in such clear terms. The truth, so open, so raw cut Lear like a scolding hot knife.
A tear fell down Lear's cheek. Lucas' heart broke, he leaned into Lear and kissed him on the lips, Lear's tear stinging Lucas's lip in a salty pool.
"It's going to be alright." Lucas said.
Lear smiled sweetly. He had been told that things would be alright so many times in his life but this time, when it came out of Lucas' mouth -- he blieved it.
"Sir." One of the butlers said from behind.
Lucas and Lear turned, the butler and another, had their things ready to go.
Back in the glittering sitting room, Jacob turned the page of the paper to Baxter's column and suddenly in a fit of anger through the paper across the room.
"JACOB!!!" Celeste shouted.
Rebecca screeched too shocked by her son's outburst.
Johnathon went over and picked up the paper to see the headline from the column, it read:
"FINALLY TRUTH: Lord Heir Sebastian Hell Sent Monster; Kills Constable and Several Others"
"He's blaming Sebastian." Johnathon said. "He thinks Sebastian is some kind of mythical werewolf come to life."
"He's out of control. He's turning all of this into a circus, even more than it is, and God only knows what it this'll do to our business." Jacob said.
"But it's a lie, I mean, no one would believe that." Celeste answered.
"Won't they?" Jacob replied. "You saw how everyone treated us and Evie out there, they stared at us like we were some kind of freak-show. The Bearded Lady, The Siamese Twins, The weird Family of Tirymor House."
Rebecca was furious. She pulled the paper out of Johnathon's hands. "I'll kill him." She said. "I'll kill him myself."
 |
| Evie & Matthew on the veranda of Bellmore House |
The fresh morning air that swirled in from the sea at Bellmore House, Evie's new home on the beach, came in on Matthew's skin like the tiniest mist. He could feel the cool tender touch of the sea that he loved so much and smell the salt that gave him so many memories at his time on the sea.
Bellmore felt like the perfect escape from the wild world of Welshport Village. A retreat where he and Evie could reconnect safe and sound from the horror show of just a few hours before at the Park.
"He's finally asleep." Evie said coming out onto the veranda into the dawn light with Matthew.
"Poor little tyke." Matthew said.
"Thank you for everything, Matthew, I don't know what would have happened if you didn't help us out of there when that-- that thing came." Evie said.
"I still can't believe how big it was and how violent it was. I've never seen anything like that before in my life." He added
Evie lifted a brow, Matthew's memories were slowly coming back, but he clearly still hadn't recalled the horrible incident between his sister Alice and Sebastian at Lockwood Thicket that took Alice's life during one of Sebastian's darkest days.
"I'm just glad Celeste came to her senses and let me take my boy home during all of that. In times like these a mother should be with her child." Evie said attempting to move the conversation away from monster of the supernatural sort.
Matthew took a step closer to Evie who was shivering in the morning dew. He held her close. She looked up at him, his big deep brown eyes felt like the sun's rays warming her form the inside out. She did truly love him; he was kind, protective, present. She felt safe with him in a world that she could not understand and in a world that felt ever more dangerous filled with creatures that would come in the dark of night and in a split-second take someone's life just like the wolf in the park.
She had her share of these frightening things -- and in truth she had had enough.
She sighed and still wrapped in Matthew's arms looked out onto the crashing sea from her beach-house veranda. "Its so calming here."
He agreed. He turned her around their eyes locked again; he kissed her passionately. He tasted like she remembered the first time they kissed.
And for a moment, they saw each other again in the light of the new day and there was love there. True love. No frightening nightmares of wolves or vampires or witches. Just the two of them. Together feeling each other's heartbeats and warm skin, and love.
She ran her hair through his thick dark hair as their kiss ended. She took him by the hand and lead him inside to the bedroom where her bed had been opened for whatever sleep they could muster. She began to remove her clothes and stood there in her most beautiful natural form. She began to remove his clothes. He kissed her neck. Her shoulder. Her lips.
They slowly fell onto the bed and in a tangle of hot flesh and white perfect sheets made love again for the first time in ages.
Her skin soft and the color of the most perfect spring peach, his tan and caramel colored skin like the color of summer. They kissed, his lips hot on hers, her heart open to his, his mouth tasting her tongue. His body over hers pressing down so heavy so strong as she grabbed hold of his hips.
This was love and passion. And everything that came after it would be hard-pressed to break it apart.
What lay on the coffee table in the front room could be the one that that did, however, damage Evie and Matthew's rekindling: the latest edition of The Welshport Globe that featured Baxter's article on the creature being that of Evie's supposed late husband Sebastian.
Evie had yet to see it, and once she did, ghosts of the past could once again haunt and do it's best to destroy love in its most innocent and pure form.
****
Back at Fatima's home in the Village, Mary went down into the basement to check on the healing Filipe one more time before she headed off to Tirymor House to see Celeste.
He was with Father Ryan who had been at his bedside praying all morning long.
"You're still here." Filipe said in a weak voice, his nude body shielded by sheets and cloths that were wrapped around his gunshot wound to the shoulder.
"I just came down for a second before I left. I wanted to check on you." Mary whispered.
"He's alright." Father Ryan said with a smile. "You should go quickly."
Mary nodded and turned to go back up the basement stairs.
"WAIT!" Filipe said through a grimace.
She turned back.
"Don't sit up!" Father Ryan said pushing the injured werewolf back down onto his bed.
"I need you to do one more thing before you go." Filipe told Mary.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Marry me."
Mary's eyes widened. Father Ryan shot Mary a look of mixed reaction, happy but confused. "Filipe, this doesn't seem like the best or most romantic time to seek her hand." the priest joked.
"Its the best time, Father. Marry us here if she'll take me. I don't know what is to come but I know I want her to be my wife."
Mary walked back slowly and knelt down next to Filipe at his bed side. She looked him in the eye and grabbed his face.
"Are you sure? Are you really sure?" She asked.
He nodded.
She had waited her whole life to find love like this, Filipe was the man she had dreamed of. After all the darkness with Jacob and the loss of that love she felt she would never know the feeling she was felt for Filipe and their growing little family. She had been tossed aside by Jacob, lied about, manipulated and treated cruelly, and Filipe had shown her there was another side to what she had experienced. One that could bring true meaning to life and happiness.
He wanted her for exactly who she was, how could she deny him the same?
She kissed him and said she would marry him.
"Well, what a difference a day makes." Father Ryan said. "I can't say no to love now, can I?"
Fatima came down the stairs and saw the happy faces and felt a twinge of hope when she learned of what they were doing. She gladly stood as a witness to her son and Mary's wedding; a strange bedside morning wedding that was meant to be a symbol of hope for the future as no one in the room knew what was to come.
This could be Filipe's last wish, Mary thought, who were they do deny him this.
As Father Ryan gave them the best wedding sermon and vows he could muster in the short moments that Mary had before she had to leave, they finally sealed their nuptials there at Filipe's bedside with a tender kiss on the lips. Mary wiped away his tears of joy and got back up to leave.
"I'll be back soon," she said with a bright smile "husband."
"Wait, take this." Fatima said to Mary as she removed a ring from her hand. "Let it be yours for now, until Filipe can get you one for himself."
"Thank you." Mary said with tears in her eyes then showing it to Filipe who approved of the beautiful ring.
"Now go." Ryan pushed again.
Moments later Mary disappeared up the basement's stairs leaving her new husband to hope for a happy future--free of the werewolf curse on his body.
****
 |
| Coraline visits her brother at the Welshport Globe |
The offices of The Welshport Globe were buzzing with action. Several deaths and a giant fire in the center of town made for good news day but there was also a bit of trepidation with the way one of the senior staff writers was handling the entire situation.
Baxter Murphy seemed to be turning tragedy into fame. He was traversing an uncomfortable razor's edge walk of respect and distaste with every new column, and everyone in the newsroom felt it.
As he sat at his desk near a window that framed the beautiful day that covered up a somber and truthfully horrible night, his sister Coraline burst into the newsroom with a copy of the morning paper in her hand.
She marched over to his desk and slammed the paper on the surface and watch it burst spilling the pages all over the floor.
"What the hell?!" Baxter shouted.
"You should be ashamed of yourself. What you wrote is a complete fantasy. Why would you do that? Why would you try and make it seem like someone who is DEAD turned into -- whatever that was -- and killed people? Do you know what you are doing? You're creating hysteria Baxter. The people in town are terrified, they're starting to think that maybe you've been right all along. You have to stop this, you have to stop the continued lies about Sebastian Lord." Cora orded.
"You're making a scene." Baxter simply replied in a hushed voice.
"Somebody has to because you're not listening."
"Oh, I'm listening." He said standing up from his desk and grabbing his sister by the arm and leading her into a conference room where he quickly shut the door behind them and sat her down.
"What's your end game?" She asked.
"Cora, listen to me, you know as well as I do that nothing you've heard or have seen while working with the Lord kid makes any sense in a world that is level headed and real. There's obviously something else happening up there at Tirymor. That family knows exactly what that something is and they're not saying. They'll never say it. So we have to, we have to expose them for what they are." Baxter expalined.
"We don't even know if any of it is true! What I've heard and reported back to you could be some kind of simple mistake by Evie. Maybe she didn't know what she saw. Maybe she wanted to see Sebastian save her. We just don't know Baxter, but you're putting this in the paper, in your column, and people believe it." She sad.
"There is always some truth in a lie, Cora. And I think I'm on to something."
"Sebastian was not that monster last night. Put that in this afternoon's edition." She ordered.
He shook his head "We don't know that for sure."
She rolled her eyes and slammed her hand on the table "I SAID DO IT!"
"All I am doing is giving some kind of explanation for what's happening, sis, and like I said, this is starting to sound more and more plausible. Sebastian's entire life has been shrouded in mystery and odd stories that the Lords keep peddling. Think about it: He's shot at his wedding, he ‘dies’, he suddenly comes back. They say he was kidnapped for ransom and some kind of doppelgänger had replaced him at the wedding and THAT is who died. He isn't seen in public at all after that and what’s more people around Tirymor say they only really only saw him at night and that maybe he's some sort of recluse. Then there's all the death that surrounds him. Then he dies in some crazy explosion in the middle of the night at the family cabin, but did he? Did he really die? I don’t think so.”
Cora saw her brother spiraling “You’re sick.” She said under her breath.
He continued “You heard Evie —very sure of herself —say Sebastian saved her from suffocating in a coffin. What the hell is going on up there Cora??? We need the truth and if I can smoke it out of the Lords by pushing them with every single one of my columns I will!"
"No, no, this is all wrong. People have died and you're sitting here acting like some kind of journo-savior. It's not right, Baxter and I want no part in this anymore." She said as she quickly got up and went from the concerence room door.
"Cora listen to me, the Lord have covered up too much for this town to continue to let slide. You know it and I know it.”
“You sound paranoid Baxter!” She shot back.
“Really? Do I? What if I was to say you're just as involved in one of their cover ups but in a different way?" He said as he slowly turned around to look at her.
"What?"
"There's more to it all than you realize Sis. I have papers to prove how you’re connected.” Baxter confirmed.
"How can I be connected to them? You're not making any sense." She said.
"Lear and I have been keeping something from you. He discovered it years ago when he and I were first together and when he finally told me and showed me the proof, well, that's when we devised this plan and waited for the right moment to act."
Cora slowly walked back into the room, her face frozen with fear "What? What is it that you discovered?"
"You're not my sister Coraline. Mother and Father wanted another baby after me and couldnt have one. They tried and tried and went to doctor after doctor, but then a woman well connected to the hospital who knew their medical plight for children came to them with help. Her idea was something she had done for several families. She proposed something to them that they couldn't resists. It was you... a baby she brokered in a purchase. They adopted you. Your name isnt Coraline Tyler Murphy."
Cora turned white as a sheet. Her stomach felt as if it had turned into a ball inside her body and was about to explode. She felt words bubble up in her mouth but nothing came out and she just stared at Baxter waiting for the other shoe to drop in his confession.
"We knew that when time came for us to tell you what we, what Lear, had found, we'd use it to our advantage but things turned and instead we just had you become a moll inside the Lord mansion to feed us info to use to destroy their image in the public and hopfully bankrupt them. Things are slowly progressing, but I admit this monster in the park thing might have slowed the process." Baxter confessed.
"Damn it Baxter, what the hell are you talking about? My name is Coraline! This is just another one of your games!"
"No it really isn't sis." He said. "Your not my sister, not biologically. But Lear's sis. Your name is Margaret or as Lear says the family liked to call you Maggie. You're Maggie Lockwood. Lear's little sister, a baby their father sold to my parents. You're just as connected to the Lords as Lear is. And they abandoned you. They left you. Rebecca knew where you went, she always knew and instead of helping your birth-mother get you back, she turned the other cheek and left you with us. One less heir to fortunes she controlled I assume. I'd say she made the best choice, don't you? No monsters in our house."
Coraline's heart felt as if it was about to explode. She wasn't sure if he was telling the truth. She wasn't sure of anything now --- except one thing.
"No, that's where you're wrong. There was a monster in our house growing up Baxter. It grew up to be you."
Coraline, turned and left Baxter alone in the conference room. She rushed through the busy newsroom sobbing into her sleeve unsure now what anything meant.
Her brother, adopted or not, had just turned her world upside down and all the pieces were scattered like a jigsaw puzzle that she could not understand.
She had to find Lear for the truth, and nothing but the truth.
