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| Rebecca walks in on Aurora & Caspian |
Passion without love, is lust without desire. An emptiness that constantly digs a deeper hold inside our own psyche. Aurora Jordan, guilty of poisoning her husband for an inheritance of insurance money to save her from further destitution became an easy target of such passion and lust. She was a vulnerable soul ... perfect for prey for any kind of ravenous predator like Caspian Casador.
Her sin was a honing device drawing him closer and closer to his ultimate goal of bringing a new life, a child of his own, into the world now that Evie's baby was obsolete to him.
They made love, her under his powerful mind control and believing she was making love to the true man she had feelings for, Gregory Reigns, and he feeling her own passions for Gregory even though under his control opened the door for him to begin his ultimate plan B of becoming a father.
It was a perfect connection in his warped mind. But to her, she was making love to the man she wanted, not the man who wanted her.
In her bed, she slept satisfied and peaceful albeit connived by Caspian; he smiled like the cat that ate the canary because he knew what he had done. He knew that life had been created inside the woman he desired.
Then, as he got up from bed to dress himself, a knock came to the bedroom door.
"Aurora. Aurora, are you up? You didn't come down for breakfast." Rebecca's voice said from the other side.
Caspian stood up from the bed, nude, and quickly dressed. As he buttoned his pants, the door opened slowly to revealing to Rebecca something she did not want to see.
Her guide, a man she trusted almost like a holy man, half naked and a sleeping Aurora in bed, her bare shoulders a signal of her nakedness in the bed.
"What the devil?" Rebecca said as she gasped.
Aurora stirred in bed. She rolled over and rubbed her eyes, her hair tussled from sleep.
"Rebecca?" Aurora asked, confused about everything that happened.
"What is the meaning of all this? What has happened here?" Rebecca demanded to know.
"Don't overreact, Rebecca. Aurora and I...well, you can obviously see for yourself what happened here I don't have to be vulgar." Caspian replied.
"VULGAR!?" Rebecca screeched with the sound of sarcasm. "I can tell you what is vulgar."
"Caspian?" Aurora asked, quickly covering herself. "Did we? We? It was you? I... but I thought Greg... It was you?"
"Two people who have made love is not vulgar, Rebecca. It's an act of life, something god given to us all as humans. We show each other how much we care about each other this way. Two passion filled adults." He replied as he buttoned his white shirt.
"How dare you try and pretend any of this is god's will. You are supposed to be my guiding light in the spiritual world and here you are galivanting with her? A widow who we know nothing about? I am disgusted. Horrifyed. You should be ashamed of yourselves." Rebecca angrily replied.
Caspian walked over to Rebecca, she stepped back one step but he grabbed her hands and tightened his grip on her. He looked in her the face and could tell she was more jealous than angry. Aurora still groggy from the powerful spell Caspian placed her under but still was able to reach for her nightgown and robe that was just hanging off the edge of the bed.
"I see you, Rebecca, and I know you're angry but this is all apart of my plan, the plan to bring a new life into this world. I've decided that I want a child of my own blood. Someone I can raise that has part of me inside. Aurora and I have done this, we've created this new life." Caspian replied.
"What are you talking about?" Rebecca said snatching her hands back from him. "We all agreed that Evie's baby would do this for you, and if I helped you you'd bring me by Vivi back. This was our deal! How can you have done this without my permission?"
"I don't feel so well. Why-- why don't I feel so well?" Aurora asked, her head spinning. Then, she felt it. Her body betraid her. Her mind swirling with the memories of the night before with Caspian, who she thought was Gregory. He had Gregory's face. She could have sworn it was Gregory. The man she truly had feelings for, at least was beginning to. How could she had confused the two? How could she had agreed to let Caspian in her bed.
Then, it dawned her, Caspian did it. He made her believe it he was Gregory and she, somehow, believed it.
Aurora got up from the bed, her body still weak and fragile. Her head began to spin, her mind a mess, she bent over, and vomited on the hardwood floor.
Caspian quickly turned back and helped her sit back down on the bed.
"You piece of shit." Aurora said wiping her mouth. "I know what you did, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID!"
"What I did was make a new life with you. Can't you feel it? Can't you see?" Caspian said putting his hands on Aurora's churning stomach. She slapped his hands away.
"You MONSTER!!!!" She shouted.
"We made love, you remember that don't you? We made a child." Caspian said.
Both Rebecca and Aurora felt as if they were going insane. Caspian had used his powers over them both several times and they both had made terrible decisions. Rebecca was feeling sick too. Seeing Caspian so concerned with Aurora's health and speaking of a child they conceived when it couldn't have happened that quickly enraged her. She was jealous and she was furious that their plan, to take Evie's baby and give it to Caspian as payment to bring back Vivi, Rebecca's dead daughter was gone.
He had double-crossed Rebecca, and even Aurora seemed disgusted but the thought of being in bed with him.
"There is no way you could have conceived a child in one night, especially not with her." Rebecca replied.
"I know it's hard for you to understand, I know. But it's time you realize Rebecca that we can no longer count on Evie's child. We will await my own child to build our futures. This child will come from Aurora's womb. I promise you this." She said standing up. "I promise you both this."
"No. NO! This is INSANE! This will NOT happen!!" Aurora shouted.
"It's happened." Caspian replied.
"You lied to me. you promised me Vivi. You promised me my child in return for Evie's." Rebecca replied. "You've betrayed me, Caspian. I brought you into this house and gave you so much and you've done this? Whatever THIS is!? You took advantage of Aurora, you took advantage of me, you... you betrayed ME!"
As Caspian got up to face Rebecca, he smiled seeing her pain. It was a sick game he entangled the two women in and he was winning. He was watching them both suffer, they were crying, they were confused, they were in crisis, and he loved watching it.
This was the work of a cruel demon watching two women suffering from their own inner demons suffer even more. He loved watching it. He loved knowing he caused it.
"It was all worth it, Rebecca," he said now standing face to face with the woman who trusted him. "and in time you'll see that it was all worth it once Aurora gives birth to the child we created together. My child. My own flesh and blood, that once born will save us all. It's what we truly prayed for." He added in a deranged tone.
Aurora got up, she took two steps and was behind Caspian. Staring at the back of his head she pulled his shoulder around, his body twisted to face her and she reached her right hand to her left side and backhanded slapped him across the face. When he turned, she slapped again this time opened handed.
"You disgusting piece of shit." She said, her eyes now swollen with tears. "I will never, NEVER, have your child. You're lying, you're lying about all of this. I was not with you last night. I was with Gregory. I WAS WITH GERGORY!!" She shouted.
Caspian held his sore face. He looked at Aurora who was increasingly dismayed by it all. Then, cruelly he smiled at her.
"You'll see."
With those two words he walked out of the room leaving her in her robe shaking with anger.
Rebecca watched him leave too, she turned to Aurora who sat back down. Her eyes flooding with tears, Rebecca went over to her and hugged her. Although she was jealous of what had happened between then she could see Aurora was just as much a victim of Caspian as she was.
But Rebecca, her mind spinning with anger still wanted what she was promised. She wanted her child back, Vivian-Victoria. The love her life, sweet Vivi. And it didn't matter to Rebecca who was having a child in the long run. She still wanted HERS back.
That meant, she would still do what she had said she would do, use Evie's child as payment for her own dead child to come back. But Rebecca knew she could no longer count on Caspian's help. She would have to do it all herself. Secretly. Alone. No one would aide her.
"I'll right this. I will. I'll fix all of this as soon as the baby is born." Rebecca whispered to Aurora.
"Rebecca, stop this. STOP THIS! I'm not having Caspian's child. Do you hear me? I am not! I just cannot, its impossible." Aurora replied in deep denial of the situation.
"I'm talking about Evie and Sebastian's child. That baby is what will save us." Rebecca replied.
Aurora's eyes widened. She could see Rebecca was still under the mind control of Caspian, she was still in a state of mind that was putting Evie's unborn child was still in danger and now it was a worse situation because Rebecca seemed to be angry and more determined than ever to sacrifice the baby once born according to the original plan with Caspian.
"You need help, Rebecca. You need Caspian to leave this place before someone gets hurt. Do you understand me? Whatever we stupidly agreed to do with Evie's baby, my grandchild and your greatgrandchild, we need to stop it. We agreed to that, don't you remember? We agreed it was a shameless terrible idea." Aurora reminded Rebecca.
But Caspian's mind control of the elder Rebecca had taken over her more than ever.
Rebecca wanted nothing to do with Aurora's supposed new child, she wanted Evie's.
Rebecca got up from her seat on the bed next to the devastated Aurora. She looked back at her, in her nightgown as the morning sun peeked through the slit in the window drapes. Rebecca looked down at the vomit on the hardwood floor and looked down at Aurora.
"Get dressed Aurora. Breakfast is in an hour. I'll send Jane to clean this mess you made. And I'll deal with Caspian appropriately. Don't you worry." Rebecca replied.
Caspian had created a very dangerous monster in Rebecca. Aurora sat on her bed in her room alone. She fell to her side and burred her face into her pillow and sobbed at what she and Caspian had done.
The day was now brightening but the darkness inside of Tirymor was getting darker by the day thanks to the constant evil Caspian was putting over everyone in the mansion.
****
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| Asha confronts Matthew about the book |
The blue sky above the village was obscured by an overcast of clouds that looked ominous for anyone planning outdoor activities. The odd chill in the usually warm spring day cooled the skin of Asha Hoffman who wrapped a scarf around her neck as she watched a large fish trawler being prepped for a long trip at sea.
She waited for it's main seafaring captain whom she desperately needed to talk to. She was waiting for Matthew Winterborn.
As the buoys dinged their bells in the distance and floating on a dark blue sea, Asha thought about the book she found at dinner with Evie, Nik and Matthew. She thought about the idea that if it was even possible for Alice to be alive, hidden somewhere far away biding her time to come back to Nik.
Asha's paranoia that she'd lose Nik forever to this giant shocking return, overtook her usually logical scientific sensibilities, but Asha had seen things in her life. Strange things that in other worlds would most likely be pushed off as silly stories of fantasy and lies.
But Asha knew better than to scoff at the unexplained. Her birth family, who was originally from India, believed in things like the return of the dead in the form of reincarnation. It wasn't something strange for her to believe in or think could happen someway somehow.
There, standing on the docks watching the water roll in and out over silver rocks and golden crabs crawling over them, the two sides of her were in battle: The medical scientist that thought the idea was preposterous, and the Indian woman whose familial religion taught her--- anything was possible. And Alice's possible return put her newfound relationship with Nikolas in danger.
"Asha? What are you doing here?" Matthew said from behind her on the dock. His brown sea-satchel flung over one shoulder and his small at tilted to one side of his face.
Asha turned to the voice and smiled when she saw him. She felt embarrassed for even being there as he was about to set sail, but it was important.
"This feels..." she paused. "Stupid." She said bluntly. "I just really needed to speak to about something that happened at dinner the other night."
Matthew looked at her confused.
"Oy! YOU COMIN' MATE?" A fellow fisherman yelled from the boat in his cockney accent.
"Just a second!!" Matthew shouted back. "Did something happen at dinner? I thought we all had a great time together."
Asha again felt embarrassed she didn't know how to say it out loud and Matthew began to feel the pressure of his team waiting him.
"I need to talk to you. It has to be now." Asha said desperately.
"Are you ok???" Matthew asked seeing the distress on Asha's face.
"Its about the dinner party." Asha repeated again, not making any sense.
"The dinner party? Listen, Asha, I don't know what's going on, but maybe we can chat when I get back. I've really go to go." Matthew said, as the wind blew over a large gust of watery mist from the sea.
The salty air felt like a burst of energy to Matthew. He loved the sea. He loved his work, and he was excited to get going for trip. He smiled at Asha continued to stammer about what she needed to talk about, and when he turned to make his way down to the boat, she blurted it out.
"The book of the dead." Asha blurted out.
Matthew's head spun back to Asha as she explained.
"I saw it, I read it. I know what it is." She said just as a large wave crashed on the docks. Matthew slowly walked back to her. His face serious. His blood racing in his body. He swallowed sea air and walked the few steps back to where Asha was.
"You went through my books." Matthew said, a stating her offensive behavior of going through his things.
"I didn't mean any harm, I promise. I was just on my way to the restroom and passed the shelf and the book jumped out at me. It was so beautiful, and I was curious. I read through it." She confessed.
"OY!!! CAPTAIN! LET'S GO!" One of the fellow sailors shouted from the fish trawler.
Matthew looked over his shoulder and gestured to the crew he needed a minute. "What is it you think you saw Asha?" he asked.
"The truth. At least I think it's the truth." She replied. "I'm worried what I saw could happen or could come true -- no matter how I try and make sense of it or tell myself that it sounds completely insane to even think it would happen, I saw those names and I saw those years and the coordinates and it just ... I don't know I just knew what they were.
"You don't know. You don't what they are. Ok!?" Matthew replied.
"The coordinates." Asha said surprising Matthew. I saw them by Alice's name and all the other names. Alice...is there? Where ever that place is?" She paused again. "is she alive Matthew? Does Nik know?"
"Asha, listen to me, I understand that the idea that my sister or any of those people have come back to this side of life in any shape or form is outrageous, strange in fact. It's hard for me to wrap my head around too but...the book is a tradition of my people to place the names of our loved ones in that book and wish them well to the other side. Whatever happens after that I don't know. That's all I'm going to say." Matthew answered..
"So, you don't know where those coordinates lead? You're a sea captain. How can you not?" Asha asked.
"Maybe I know. I don't know." Matthew replied in a short answer.
"I think you do." Asha replied. "Tell me. Tell me where they lead! If you know something please tell me, I have to know!" Asha asked impatiently.
"Asha, even if Alice were to somehow be alive out there somewhere she wouldn't know me. She wouldn't know Nik. And truthfully, she'd be better off not knowing anything. You have nothing to worry about." Matthew explained while fisherman continued to yell at him from the boat to hurry.
“She’d have no memory??” Asha continued.
“She may not even be Alice. Just Alice’s essence or her spirit. It’s bizarre, I know but reincarnation is something my people believe in. Alice wouldn’t be Alice as we knew her.” Matthew explained further.
"You still haven't told me if you know where those coordinates lead. I can see it in your eyes and in the tone of your voice. You're hiding where that place is and maybe Alice is there and you don't want us to find her." Asha said.
"Asha you don't want to find out anymore than what I've told you." Matthew added.
"I DO want to know!!” Asha shouted. “I want to know because if she is alive that means Nik would go back to her. He loves her Matthew, and I love him.”
“You don’t want to lose him, do you?” Matthew asked as Asha tearfully shook her head no. “Then stop asking about Alice. And that book!”
“I need to know Matthew! Where is she??”
"So what difference does it make?” He shouted back. “You and Nik are happy now, in the present. Alice, the sister that died in this world is gone to the next. I’ve accepted that. Nik has too. So please don’t say anything! DO NOT tell Nik! You don't want this to get bigger than you're already making it." Mattew added.
"WHERE IS SHE!" Asha shouted, her mind spinning out of control. The other fisherman turned at the sound of her shout, they wondered what was going on. Matthew too wanted her to keep her voice down and uncomfortably moved Asha a few feet away from the ship so that they could talk in more private.
"It's in the middle of the sea, ok? It’s some sort of portal of some kind. So my people’s legend says… and YES! I know where the coordinates are located, but I've never seen what happens there. Never. I have never ever seen any of my ancestors there. I don't want to. I gave up all of that mystical shit of my people because ... because of this! Look at you, look at me! We don't want them to come back. They are were ever they are; alive again or not, I don’t know. The sea brings my people back to live a new life— a rebirth from that portal. Sometimes right away sometimes it takes years and sometimes it doesn’t happen. No one knows for sure. But one thing Asha, one thing is for sure my people don’t ask question and let it be. It's done. So should you.” Matthew explained.
Asha stood there, wind in her hair, her eyes watering.
Asha’s stomach suddenly settled. She felt he was telling her the truth and she felt calm unlike the sea just off to her sides on the docks was still wild and roaring with the push of the wild winds.
"Whatever you do," he said putting his free hand on her shoulder "do not tell Nik or Evie about the book. I don't think they would be able to handle it or make sense of it and in truth its better Nik continues to pick his life up and moves on. With you." Matthew said with a smirk.
Asha nodded in agreement. "I understand." She replied.
Matthew smiled and quickly said goodbye and rushed down the dock to the groans of the silly sailors still awaiting him.
Asha remained on the docks, as the wind continued to whip around her and in the distant trees that lined the street off the to the side of the docks.
She watched as the ship hoisted anchor and began to pull out into the wild dark waters of the north Atlantic. Asha stood there, thinking of the book. Thinking of Alice. Thinking of the blossoming relationship that could be so quickly snuffed out if Alice were to return.
"She won't." Asha said to herself. Then her friend Gregory's voice slipped into her mind in a memory warning her to never keep secrets from Nik and to give herself a new lease on life without lies and secrets clouding her happiness.
"Just one more." She again whispered. "Just one more secret."
One more secret came in hard like tidal wave to a shore and Asha was the sand it clung to pulling it back into the vast ocean that somewhere held the secret of whether or not Alice had come back as the legend of her people told. If she did return and roamed the streets somewhere Asha knew one thing for sure — she could never ever slow Nik to find her.
Ever.
**
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| Matthew’s ship at sea |
On the boat the sailors with Matthew teased him about talking to the pretty mystery woman. Matthew explained she was no mystery, not to him anyway. She was his fiancée Evie's friend, who happened to be dating Evie's brother.
"Keepin the fam'lee." A red bearded sailor from Ireland chuckled.
"Leave him lone, boys. Leave him lone." A friendly fisherman with a Portuguese accent said patting Matthew on the back. "He gots lots to do, eh? Vamos-la o mar Capitao?" The man added in Portuguese encouraging captain Winterborn to push the ship further out to sea.
Matthew, who spoke fluent Portuguese, smiled and nodded his head and called the order for the boat to push out further to begin their work out on the far-out ocean where there would be no land near for miles and miles and miles.
Matthew, thought of the book, thought of Alice and Asha and realized that they'd soon pass over the area that his people designated as the sacred point where the ancestors would return. A whirl pool of sea that marked their return to earth.
Matthew turned away from the sacred spot to his people in the sea and looked out on to the sky ahead and saw the clustering dark clouds out in front and over them.
He grimaced but called the boat to push out further despite the ominous face of the sky.
The darkening sky was a sign, a sign of what was to come for all.
****
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| Sabrina & Genevieve come to an agreement |
She stared at herself in the glass of a large golden framed mirror inside the Lord's drawing room they called The Lemon room, named for the color of it's bright yellow and white walls. She touched her soft face still in awe of the resemblance of Genevieve to her own face. Sabrina, feeling the most intense happiness she had ever felt in so many years really could see herself in this body forever.
"We can do this, Genevieve. I promise, that if you allow me to live with you, in this way, I will watch over your son and it'll be a cohabitation. Something good, for you and for me." Sabrina said in her mind to Geneveive.
Geneveive who was only now locked inside her own body without a way to escape could only speak to Sabrina cerebrally.
"You've hijacked my life! YOU TOOK ME AWAY from everything!" Genevieve said.
"I promise you, it'll work out. Your life will be my life and it can be something for the best, for us both. I'll take you away from here. That's what you truly wanted, wasn't it? I know it was. I can see into your memories, Geneveive. That's what you wanted. I'll do that for you. I'll help you raise Morgan; he will never see a difference. I promise." Sabrina replied genuinely.
Genevieve did want to leave Tirymor. She hated it there. She feared it. She could sense the negative energy all around since the day she stepped foot on the island, of course not knowing it was because of her face and how close it was to the face of the local dead celebrity of town lore Sabrina.
But in truth, Genevieve thought, what choice did she have? She couldn't overpower Sabrina who had full control over her body, and she couldn't speak to anyone else outside of her body. Sabrina, who's ghostly strength was something Genevieve could never begin to comprehend on how to overpower and gain control of herself again thought about the alternative. What was the alternative?
"You won't hurt Morgan?" Genevieve asked in thought.
"Never. I'll help you raise him. Together." Sabrina replied also in thought.
Then, the feeling of calm swirled all around Geneveive's body, it was a sign to Sabrina that she had relented and give all control of her body to the ghost. Without a fight.
"Looking beautiful." Johnathon said to Genevieve as he and his sister Celeste entered the room.
"What?" Sabrina as Genevieve replied slightly embarrassed that she was caught glaring at herself in the mirror.
"You're beautiful." Johnathon replied kissing her on the cheek.
Sabrina flashed Genevieve's smile. She could sense how much the woman she possessed cared for him but she also could sense how much she wanted to end things. She couldn't stay there one more second and Johnathon was determined to stay. No matter what.
Deep inside the locked psyche of the woman Sabrina was now in control of, the sensation came to end it.
"Can I speak to you, alone?" Sabrina said in Genevieve's voice.
"I'll leave you too." Celeste said getting up from the matching yellow love seat.
"No! No... stay. Gen, you can speak freely around my sister. We don't hide anything from each other." Johnathon replied strangely.
"I think this is something you and I should discuss alone." Geneveive replied.
"Celeste, don't go. Gen, go on. We can discuss whatever it is in front of Celeste. She's family." Johnathon said.
Genevieve scrunched her nose. She wasn't sure why he was acting so open around Celeste all of a sudden. It was as if living in the Lord's mansion, knowing he was the son of the man who's painting was hanging just above them on the lemon-colored wall, had made him feel invincible. Johnathon was going on about his life at Tirymor knowing he was a new heir to the money and power and business of the richest family in the northeast and he was starting to become arrogant. Money, the one thing he in his life constantly struggled to accrue, was now at his fingertips and he was letting it control his whole life and personality.
"I'm just going to come out and say it then." Genevieve replied. "You know how I've felt about living here and being in the presence of all of this... well, I don't know how to explain it, discomfort. The place as I've told you makes me feel very uncomfortable. Morgan is coming soon. I can't in good conscience let him come into a home, into a place like this, when even I feel uncomfortable."
Celeste perked up in her chair. She could sense what was coming.
"We agreed that we'd give it a shot." Johnathon replied, his tone now more in tune with his normal personality.
"We did, but I've changed my mind, and for the good of my son, I think I'm going to take Morgan from here as soon as he arrives and we'll start off on our own. I'm sorry." Geneveive replied.
"On your own? Without me?" Johnathon said.
Geneveive nodded.
This was perfect for Celeste who had been worrying that Johnathon was about to break his silence to Jacob about knowing he too was a Lord. She had been waiting for them go. The mistake she made was being honest with Johnathon, but he was now proving he couldn't be trusted and Celeste's position at Tirymor, her safety her very life, was in danger if Jacob knew she had revealed the truth.
"I think this is actually a good thing, the both of you will enjoy a new lease on life as soon as you leave the mansion. I can see it now! Out somewhere, maybe in New York, Maybe back in Philidelphia or somewhere else even. I'd be happy to give you a good monetary gift that will set the three of you off to a good start." Celeste said, ready to pay off her liabilities quickly.
Johnathon turned to his sister with an angry face.
"Are you behind this?" He asked his sister.
"Me? What?" Celeste replied in shock.
"You've been wanting us to go since the moment you told me I was Albert's son. Well, sister, you've opened that pandora's box and now you're trying to find a way to close it. I can tell you now you won't be able to close it. Not now, not ever. Not even sending me off with any amount of money. Because the money I deserve, the money I've been deprived of is more than anything you can write your name to." Johnathon said.
"Johnathon, I don't know what you are talking about. I asked you to come here months ago for my wedding and I was happy you came, I love you." Celeste said.
"Johnny, it has nothing to do with Celeste." Genevieve replied.
"Bull." Johnathon replied coldly. "Genevieve, I respect you and I love you, but if you want to leave as soon as your son comes, I won't stop you. You have every right to raise your child as you wish and I'm just happy that he'll finally be here in your arms to do so. But I'm not leaving Tirymor."
Genevieve shot Celeste a look, one that showed concern for Johnathon's change in personality.
"Are you sure you want to stay here? It doesn't matter who Albert Lord was, Paulo DeViana is the man that raised you, Johnathon, he is your father." Genevieve reminded him.
Johnathon's face turned soft again. He did love the man he always knew as his father, but at the same time he was angry that so many people had kept the truth from him. He wasn't going to allow that to happen any longer. He knew his right, and that right was to be at Tirymor as the son of Albert Lord, just like David. Just like Jacob.
"I'm not going anywhere Genevieve. I'm staying." He replied.
Geneveive, still speaking via Sabrina's possesion could see he was not waivering, and in truth it didnt matter to her. She wanted out and by the end of the month, when her son Morgan's train arrived from San Franciso, she and the ghost that lived inside of her, would be out.
Free.
"I'm going to get my things together." Genevieve said.
"So soon?" Johnathon asked.
Geneveive didn't reply. She only went over to him as he stood in the center of the room and gave him one more look deep in his beautiful dark eyes. Geneveive loved Johnathon but the house the history the world they were in was too much for her, and Sabrina, to live through in this lifetime.
Or even two lifetimes.
She kissed him softly on the cheek and left the room leaving Johnathon and Celeste alone.
"You're making a mistake letting her go on without you." Celeste replied.
"I don't need you to tell me about mistakes. You've made plenty in your life." Johnathon said to his sister.
"Where is this coming from? Why are you treating me like this Johnny? I told you the truth when I saw that it was time for you to know and you promised me you'd keep that secret. I don't think you realize what you're dealing with. Or WHO you are dealing with Jacob is not to be played with and jockeying power like this with something you can hold over him is a mistake. A very big mistake." Celeste warned.
"Then maybe you shouldn't have ever said anything at all. You've put me in this position and now you're trying to dig yourself out because if I tell Jacob, then you'll be exposed for telling me. This is about you! This is about what will happen to you, not to me." Johnathon answered.
He was right. Celeste worried more about what Jacob would do to her than what would happen to him once everything was out in the open. It was imperative the secret stay a secret!
"Fine, fine! YES! I am worried about what will happen to me if Jacob finds out I told you you were brothers. But you're also my brother. Would you really put me in that position?" She asked.
Jacob looked at his sister, a woman he had adored all his life and looked up to. She had been so protetive of him growing up. She had been the best big sister anyone could have ever wanted but now she was trying to take something that was apart of him back from him. Something he needed, something he desired: TRUTH.
It was too late. There was no way to put the milk back in the glass once it was spilled. Celeste had to live with the consequences of her telling the truth and whatever that meant, she'd have to come to terms with it. They all would.
"Im going to come clean to Jacob and to Rebecca." Johnathon said.
"NO! Johnny you can't do that! You'll destroy me. They'll destroy me!"
"This is what I have to do. As soon as Genevieve leaves with Morgan and they're safe wherever they and after leaving I'm going to tell them all and I can't let you stop me. You'll have to prepare." Johnathon warned.
Celeste gasped at his brazen admission of willingly exposing his sister to whatever dangers and punishments the Lords would impose on her once they discovered she was the one who knew and kept this secret from them, what was worse, they'd feel betrayed she told Johnathon first.
"Johnny...Johnny please rethink this!" Celeste begged.
But her baby brother was stone faced and determined. He'd tell it all.
"No more secrets." He said just before leaving his big sister shell shocked and fuming in the Lemon room.
Her panic began to set in as she sat back down on the loveseat. Her nervous fingers held on to the golden tassels of a throw pillow and she began to unravel it's thick threads while her mind wandered into the frightening waters of what would happen to her once Jacob knew he betrayed her.
He warned her NEVER to tell anyone. She thought of what he did to Evie, placing her in asylum. He thought of what he did to Rebecca, falsely accusing her of shooting him, she thought of his strangulation of Sabrina on the beach, and how he framed his brother David for it, and worst of all how he cruelly separated Mary from their child Charlotte for 10 years while he tarnished Mary's reputation in town.
She saw herself now squarely in his crosshairs and she feared her fate with her son Fabian would be that of Mary and Charlotte's.
The clock in the room ticked away the time as if it were taunting Celeste. She knew now, she had to make sure her brother Johnathon kept the secret. Whatever it took, she would do it.
Even the darkest of endings for him had to happen, if she were to remain where she was, as the lady of Tirymor. As the mother of Fabian, and as the wife of the man she feared the most.
No one would take that away from her. Not even her own beloved brother.
****
 |
| Mary & Filipe are discovered in The Village |
The soupy purple night clouds formed a perfect ring around the glowing moon as it guided the intensifying waves of the Atlantic on to the rocky coast line of Welshport.
In the village, as business closed for the evening, and the gas lamps on the street flickered and flashed their orange light onto the slick stones that made up the streets, Filipe and Mary quietly made their way in.
They had crossed the small channel of water between Welshport Island and Goode Island or one thing and one thing only. Caspian Casador.
Mary was beginning to fear the worst, that Sebastian was not coming back. He had not contacted them since he left over a week ago to Boston to find the last witch in the coven that Mary belonged to. Her worry was putting more and more strain on her, she began to think it was now or never.
The weather, ominous and dark, was a fitting sign of this. Mary could see it all over the sky.
Darkness was coming in more ways than one and she and Filipe had to step in if Sebastian had failed. And with his silence and disappearance, it seemed he indeed had failed.
As Filipe and Mary made their way through the small village dressed in black coats and scarves, they were careful to stay within the shadows of buildings and trees, after all they were as good as escaped convicts from the Lord family mansion. Both Mary and Filipe had been locked in Tirymor's turret room and only helped by Charlotte did they escape.
Jacob wanted them both gone for different reasons, Mary herself feared the worst as she was believed dead in Scottland as it occurred when she and Georgina switched back into their own respective bodies.
The tentacles of the late Eliza's good dark magic were still at play even after her death. Mary was in danger of being seen alive, Filipe was in Jacob's evil eye -- a threat to his marriage to Celeste, and worst of all Caspian cloaked the entire village with evil.
Mary, albeit fearful of what was to come without the help of her sister-witch, kept her composure and tightened her grip on Filipe's arm. She would do what she could to end Caspian. No matter what.
The village, to Mary's eyes, felt strange to her. Not because of what she feared in the wake of Caspian's arrival, but because of the memories she had there. It had been close to 3 years since she had walked the along the streets of Welshport Village in her own body and face after her time in Georgina's body.
Then, as the pair continued to walk towards Tirymor, Mary stopped them in their tracks in front of a place where she had spent many many months of work. The Siren's Call Pub.
There were still people in the pub at the hour of the night. Music could be heard blaring out of the door with a mixture of laughter and chatter. Mary had worked there for so many years. It was the only place that would hire her after the lies Jacob had spread around the village of her after their terrible break up and when he took Charlotte away from her.
"What is it?" Filipe asked, seeing Mary's face staring at the pub's exterior so seriously.
"Ten years." Mary whispered.
"Ten years?" he questioned.
"I worked so many nights passing out god only knows how many mugs of Aile and beer and wine to the most disgusting men. Fishermen. Sailors. The lot." She said.
"It was work. You did what you had to do." Filipe reminded her. "Just like you are now, doing what you have to do for survival, but this time it's about financial, its more important."
Filipe, tall framed, warm caramel skin, eyes a bright brown that seemed to see right through even the most jaded person, turned Mary away from the building that haunted her past so that she was facing him. He placed his heavy hands on her shoulders locking her in his gaze. She felt safe and protected by him, their eyes meeting in the glow of the gas lamps of the street.
"You're not what Jacob made you out to be. You're not the woman that he painted you to be to all of us in this village. You never were. Come, we have to get going. The longer we stay here letting our past ghosts haunt us, the longer Caspian has to ruin us all." He added.
Mary nodded her head, she knew he was right but just as they turned to continue their silent walk to Tirymor where they had no idea what kind of monster they would meet once they got there, Gregory Reigns exited the Pub.
"Well now! What do we have here??" The constable said loudly as Filipe and Mary stopped in their tracks.
"Constable, we don't want any trouble." Filipe replied, slowly turning to his former boss.
"Filipe you've missed a lot of work, I was beginning to think you'd gone for good. Where've you been?" Reigns wondered, the fizz of the 4 beers he drank swirling in his speech.
"It's a long story." Filipe replied.
"I would say so. And If my eyes deceive me we have the very dead Mary Goode back in town. I was told you came to die in Scottland. Or ..." He paused, again feeling the effects of the beer. "something like that. How is it that you're here and not in a grave across the Atlantic?"
"That's a long story too." She replied uncomfortably.
"You're both wanted. You know that right? Jacob told me Filipe broke into Tirymor and Mary, well you know what you did, shooting someone at their wedding is quite the crime."
Mary unlatched her arm from Filipe's. She took a step forward asserting herself, finally and took a breath to speak.
"Gregory, listen, this isn't the time to go over things that have happened in the past. I know it's your job and you're doing all you can to protect the people of this island, but you have to believe when you hear what I have to say. This isn't easy for me to even began to explain and you're going to think I've lost my mind but... there is something very sinister at play here on this island. Much more than what we all know in regular human nature. There's something, some kind of dark force at Tirymor. I need to get there to see if I can..." Mary said pausing before revealing anything else.
Gregory quickly interjected "Before you can what?"
Mary turned back to Filipe, unsure of what to say. Use her magical powers? She already sounded strange, she already sounded crazy. She couldn't keep adding on to it now by adding that she had these unique and powerful abilities.
"I just need to be there to protect my child. That's why am I back on Welshport Island. That's why I am here and why I need to get to Tirymor without anyone stopping me or Filipe. I don't know if you have a child Gregory, but if you did I imagine you'd do anything you could to protect them." Mary explained.
Gregory took Mary's words to heart. Although he hadn't seen his own family in many years, he understood where she was coming from. It wasn't all law and no love. He had a tender side too, and he could see that Mary was being honest about her fears.
It wasn't like he didn't know what Mary was talking about. He knew of the evil walking the halls of Tirymor, he saw it for himself, in the way Caspian made his skin crawl, in the way Caspian controlled so much around him, even the woman that Gregory was quickly falling in love with Aurora. He knew. He knew it well.
"You wont have to worry about that thing up there much longer." Reigns said to Filipe and Mary's surprise.
"That thing?" Filipe replied confused to see Gregory knew something too.
"Caspian." The constable replied.
"What do you know of Caspian Casador?" Mary asked, her heart beating so hard she could hear it in her ears.
"I've seen what you're talking about. I've seen the strange way Caspian lurks around people and how he controls them somehow with ... I don't know, his mind? The way he controls them with the way he speaks and twists his words in ways that makes people do what he wants. I've seen it, I know." Gregory explained.
"Then why haven't you done anything to stop him going further! He has terrible plans, Gregory! There is real and imminent danger for all of us on this island and you've known about him this whole time?" Filipe exclaimed.
"That's not true. Of course I'm doing something, but I am only limited to certain things by this world's law." Gregory replied.
"This world's law?" Mary repeated. "What have you planned? Whom have you contacted?" She added clearly seeing though Gregory's veiled reference to something in the works with Gregory of the supernatural variety.
"You'd be very surprised to realize that even Jacob Lord is on this. He's seen the same thing you have and I have. He knows that this Caspian Casador isn't who he says he and has some kind of ulterior motive that may be more evil than he's lead on to any one over at that mansion. He's gotten some help from someone thanks to Charlotte." Reigns explained.
"Charlotte??? WHAT HAPPENED TO CHARLOTTE!?!?!" Mary screeched hearing her daughter's name just as two yellow eyed owls landed on a large tree next to where the pub was.
"She was witness to an incident at the mansion with her grandmother and Father Ryan. I promise you when we're done with him, with Ryan's help, we'll all be safe. All of us. I have faith in that." Gregory said.
"How can you be sure? What is Father Ryan going to do?" Filipe wondered.
Gregory took a breath through his nose and shrugged. He was afraid to even mouth the word EXORCISM. All Gregory could do was look back at Mary and she knew, she knew what was the plan. She could see it in his eyes in his body language in the nervousness he suddenly exhibited with the idea in his mind of a catholic priest exorcising a demon from the house of Tirymor, but there it was written all over his face in a way only Mary could read. She felt it in her own body too and it terrified her to her core.
"You both need to go back to where you came from." Gregory then said.
"Goode Island." Mary confessed.
Filipe gasped in shock that she'd reveal they were hiding there.
"MARY!"
She turned back to him, she felt safe in knowing Gregory knew where they were.
"Then go, go back there." Gregory replied.
"You're not going to arrest us?" Filipe asked.
Mary stood strong, Filipe then moved two steps forward to hold her hand. He'd be there strong with her if Gregory was going to finally arrest them both.
"No." Gregory quickly replied. "There are more evil things I need to worry about than the two of you. Truthfully."
Filipe and Mary shot each other a look, it was half relief and half terror. They didn't know what was coming, not even the ominous sky above them in the night would reveal what was in the future or how bad it would really get for everyone on the island, and everyone tied to the demon that was Caspian.
Mary and Filipe, still arm in arm made their way back to the docks to their small boat allowing Gregory and the powers he was promising with Father Ryan's coming exorcism do their work in the best way they could: without any witchcraft involved.
Gregroy watched them walk back the other way, Mary turned as they walked and looked back at Gregory. The two owls on the tree as dark as the sky above, leapt from the tree into flight and followed Mary and Filipe to the docks.
And in the distance, over a crashing sea, a roll of thunder growled and swirled hinting at the storm to come.
"Let's go to the Inn." Mary whispered to Filipe as she kept her eye on the village behind her and her ears on the hooting owls watching them.
"The Inn? Why?" He asked unsure why she didn't want to go back to their cottage on Goode Island.
"The storm is bringing something with it." She replied. "We can't leave Welshport. Not yet."
Filipe knew better than to question Mary. He grabbed her arm and together walked back into the village towards The Village Inn just as the rain slowly began to fall over them.
****
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTES
Highgrove Neighborhood
 |
| Sebastian gets a surprise in his way home |
The small rectangular coffin in the center of the room began to shake. Slowly at first, then more and more violently. Sebastian's strength had grown as the day turned into night and he was now feeling better after the attack on the street and Caspian's attack the next day.
This was now day three of his captivity.
He took a deep breath and pounded on the wooden lid beating his hands up against the wood over and over again. Splinters and fragments fell down onto his face, but he continued to pound his way through for his freedom.
Then he kicked. The wood of the lid began to crack and then, as he launched his food as best he could into the cracking wood, a snap came.
The lid split open and like a deadly butterfly from a cocoon Sebastian slowly made his way out and into the dark room.
Jacqueline burst into the room too late do anything.
She stood at in the doorway like a deer in headlights and in another split second move she turned to lock him in the room but Sebastian was too fast. He leaped out of the coffin, his fangs out ready to pierce her perfect neck. He grabbed Jacqueline's arm back and pulled her into the room.
She screamed and he wrapped his arms around her holding him close to his body.
His mouth hungry for blood. She tried to squeeze out of his hold. But it was too tight.
"Let me go." She said softly feeling his breath on her neck.
"You have to come back with me." he said, his eyes black with hunger.
"Let me go Sebastian." She repeated. "I don't want to hurt you, and you need me more alive than dead."
"You don't know how badly we need your strength. You saw Caspian, you saw him didn't you. You saw how powerful he is and what he can do. Please." Sebastian begged. "Please come back to Welshport with me and fight this creature." He added slowly letting her go out of his tight hold.
She sensed his calming. She turned to him now free and saw his face was calmer. His eyes were back to normal. His vangs: gone.
She shook her head. "I don't know what to do."
"I can tell you what to do, you can come with me and save us. This isn't just my family and the people of that little island this is also about the world. We don't know what Caspian has planned but we do know he's starting in my hometown. And we have to stop him. Mary says the two of you can reverse the spell her mother used to bring him into this world. But only the two of you." Sebastian explained again.
Jacqueline started to feel guilty. She could tell he was telling the truth and that his sincerity was not for selfish motives but to free the world of whatever Caspian had planned" Death. Destruction. Evil.
Hours passed. The night wore on. Sebastian walked the streets free. Jacqueline set him free.
She had to. She knew she had to. Lives were at stake if he remained in Boston with her. The vision and energy she sensed the night before proved that Caspian was a monster and wanted nothing more to do than kill ad destroy.
He walked along the docks of Boston Harbor in the darkness of night alone ready to get back to Maine, feeling defeated. He could do nothing but go back with his tail between his legs, Jacqueline was unwavering in her distance for leaving Boston with him.
The sea felt more wild than normal. The moon too shined a darker blue in the sky with far off clouds to the north looking harsh and angry. It made Sebastian's stomach churn. He knew, in his bones, there was a warning. A very dark warning.
"A storm coming, lad. Be sure you've got your wits about you on board, eh?" A man said as he slowly embarked on the ship that would carry them back to Maine.
Sebastian smiled at the man, who flung his seabag over his shoulder and tipped his hat to Sebastian.
The vampire, hungry still and wondering where he'd get his next bite.
Then, the sound of running down the long stone street that lead up to the docks.
"WAIT! WAIT!!!" The woman's voice screamed in the night.
Two more passengers passed Sebastian to board the ship, he moved to one side to let them pass and looked back on to the street and saw Jacqueline, with her own bag, rushing down to the boat.
"She came." he said to himself.
She caught up to him and smiled. "There's no way I could let you go on your own. You can barley break open a coffin the right way much less fight a demon." She joked.
"You're really coming? You're really coming to help us?" He asked, like a little boy excited to see his best friend.
She nodded yes, her face smiling with all the beauty of a Grecian goddess quickly turned serious.
"I don't know what's a head for me or for us, but I can't let the creature take over and hurt innocent people. That's now why I was gifted these powers, to just stand by and watch evil take over. I'll help you. I'll help Mary." The witch said. "As best I can."
He smiled, touched by her acceptance. Then Jacqueline reached into her bag and pulled pout a small thermos and handed it to Sebastian.
"I have two more. They're for you." she said.
"What are they?" He asked.
She looked at him with a weary expression and opened the thermos and let him smell.
It was blood.
"You won't be hurting anyone on this ship, is that understood? There's enough here and in the other two that'll get you to Maine." She replied.
It was the first sign of kindness Sebastian had felt since Evie had accepted him as a vampire over a year ago. His heart suddenly warmed just a bit. He saw Jacqueline suddenly in a new light. And she him.
"OY!! YOU TWO!! ON OR OFF?" The ticket man hollered from the edge of the entrance to the boat.
Sebastian grabbed Jacqueline's hand and they both quickly boarded the ship which minutes later set said for Maine and into the coming storm.
The ship floated then out into sea, the wild open sea and rocked over the large waves heading North into the ominous moon light over the dark horizon.
