One week later...
“Come now, Elizabeth,” James said gently as he ushered his wife towards the bed. She had one shaking hand pressed to her head, the other desperately clutching James’.
He eased her down onto the mattress, and then helped her put her legs under the covers. She watched him as he tucked her in. “James...” she started.
“Yes, love?”
“Will the boys come to say goodnight?”
He suddenly looked up at her face. Big brown eyes were shaking back and forth as they waited for his answer. He sighed and stroked her hair. “Junior already said goodnight to you.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, confusion knitting her eyebrows together. “He did? Oh.” she stilled and James waited patiently as thoughts seemed to go through her head. “John won’t be saying goodnight to me,” she finally said.
“No, Elizabeth. John said goodnight a long time ago.” He tried to answer so that it wouldn’t upset her without having to actually lie to her.
She nodded vapidly. Suddenly she smiled and rubbed his chest. “James, my sweet love. I missed you today.”
He sat down on the edge of the mattress, his hand still resting in her hair. “I was very busy today,” he admitted. “But I was here earlier; you were napping.”
“And what kept my husband so busy that his two boys couldn’t handle it?”
James shook her words off. No matter how many times she made the mistake it never stopped hurting. “I had to fire Tom and his boy a few days ago. I’ve been looking for a new groundskeeper.”
She began hyperventilating and scooting back until she had her body pressed against the headboard. “Thom...Thomas scares me, James.”
He reached back out and stroked her cheek, shushing her. “Is alright, love, you’re alright. I know he does. But I promised I’d take care of you, remember? You don’t have to be afraid. He’s gone.”
She shook her head, her neatly brushed hair flying everywhere. Her breathing became more and more erratic and James pulled her back to him. “Thomas...Thomas and John...” She stuttered.
“Hush, Elizabeth,” he cooed as he kissed her forehead. “Tom has nothing to do with John.” He kissed her again and rubbed her back through her satin nightgown. “Please, love, don’t make yourself upset.”
She quieted but began convulsing in his arms. He shushed her again and pulled her into his lap. A common occurrence between the two, he immediately began rocking her back and forth, whispering anything he could think of in her ear. Slowly she began calming down to the point where her head lulled back against his shoulder. He eased her hair away to look at her face. She was sleeping.
With a final kiss he lifted her and placed her back into the bed. Before covering her up he walked around the other side and got into bed himself.
************
“James....” Elizabeth rolled around in her empty bed. She sat up to find him at the window tugging on his robe.
“James, where are you going?”
“Go back to sleep, love,” he said and came over and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “There’s some commotion outside I’m just going to go check on.”
He gave her another kiss. “I’ll be right back.” he assured her before he left the room.
When he was gone she got up herself and reached for her robe at the edge of the bed. She pulled it on as she timidly went to the window and pulled the curtain back a fraction of an inch with a thin, shaking finger. Her eyes darted around, searching the darkness. She didn’t see anything but her other hand came up, trembling, clutching her robe at her chest.
“Lizzie.”
She whipped around to the voice. A man in tattered brown pants and a stained shirt hanging loose on him stood at the doorway. She shook her head and started hyperventilating again, her skin already deathly pale.
“No...No...you’re not here...” she mumbled, looking down at the floor.
He stepped forward, reaching hand out. “It’s me, Lizzie. That bastard husband has been hiding you from me, but he doesn’t matter now.”
“James!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. “James!”
Thomas rushed forward and clamped his hand over her mouth but it did little to mute her screams. “Be quiet,” he hissed. She didn’t move or fight him, just began twitching in his arms.
“Get your god damn hands off my wife,” James snarled when he appeared in the doorway.
Thomas whipped around to face him, turning Elizabeth with him and placing her in front of him. “No!” He screamed, his hand constricting more on her mouth. “She should have been my wife! You stole her! I’m just returning the favor.”
“Your drunk, Tom,” James snapped as he took a carefully step forward.
“ ‘Your drunk, Tom’,” Thomas mocked. “You’re always sayin’ that to me. She was going to marry me, you fucking bastard, until you came in with all your money and presents and expensive shit and stole her away!!”
“Fine,” James relented with another step. “You want to challenge me? Fine. But let Elizabeth go. Don’t you see you’re upsetting her?”
“I don’t care!!” He yelled at the top of his lungs, clutching her tighter against him.
Suddenly Dog barreled into the room, out of breathe and his chest heavy. “Dad, we have to---”
He stopped when he saw James senior standing there. Fear began boiling up in the boy’s throat and he retreated back away from him into the corner of the room.
“Vincent,” James started calmly. “Tell your father he’s making a mistake. Tell him to let Mrs. Howlett go and I will see to it you aren’t punished for this.”
“I can’t do that, Mr. Howlett. See, we’re takin’ her with us. An’ Rose too.”
James shook his head, his fist clenched tightly at his side. “I will not warn you again, Tom. Get your fucking hands off my wife or so help me God---”
“What?” Thomas barked. Then he threw Elizabeth down to the ground. “You never did realize you aren’t as tough as you seem to think you are, Howlett.”
James lunged forward but he wasn’t fast enough. He barely got half the distance before Thomas pulled out a pistol from his back and fired one shot.
“James!!!” Elizabeth shrieked in a sob, covering her ears, then her mouth, then simply folding in half and covering her whole head.
James tumbled back once then clenched his eyes shut. His body fell heavily to the ground, making a resounding thud when it hit the wooden floor.
Thomas looked up from the body to see James junior standing in the doorway. His icy blue eyes were wide, staring down at his fallen father. “You...” the boy stuttered than starting panting. “You...” Suddenly he roared and gripped the sides of his head, doubling over.
Thomas raised his gun again but still in shock at the second vicious scream tearing out of the boy’s throat.
James jr.’s body lurched the other way mid scream, folding backwards. He didn’t straighten back up so much as snap forward, sharp; blood tainted canine teeth ripping from his gums into his mouth. Panting, his glance landed on Thomas, all the blue gone from his eyes to nothing but black. His whole body did one giant lurch before he yelled out again, this time two sets of three dull bone claws erupting from his hands, only a single drop of blood running down each of them.
“Holy shit!” Dog gasped, stumbling back further into the room. “Shoot him! Fucking shoot him!!”
Thomas snapped back into reality just as James charged and raised the gun, firing a shot. The small bullet did very little to stall the charging mass and with the first swipe most of Thomas’ thigh was removed from his body. He screamed out and fell to the floor but didn’t get another breathe in before three claws were stabbed into his gut, then twisted.
“Dad!” Dog screamed, running towards them.
The other side of claws came around, ramming into the side of Thomas’ neck, effectively taking the head from the body. Dog stilled, frozen in horror. But any thought for running and saving himself was ended with James whipping around to him. He was, however, too far away and the tips of his newly acquired claws merely cut into the side of the other boy’s face.
James walked forward, salvia dripping from the corner of his mouth, towards the fallen boy. A cry of “James! JAMES!” stopped him and he turned back around. His bloodied claws slowly started to slid back in as he watched his mother bent over his father’s body, kissing him, shaking him, pulling his hair, screaming at him.
He narrowed his eyes at the scene, his breathing slowing slightly, and some of the blue clouding back into his eyes. He took two quick steps towards them when she looked up and screamed at him. She grasped his father’s body and pulled him closer to her, so he was practically in her lap.
“Stay away!” She screamed, rocking back and forth, holding James senior to her. “Stay away, demon!!”
He had barely processed her words before she scrambled her hand along the floor until it grasped the forgotten gun. Instinctively he backed up, his hands raised. His fears were misplaced because when she raised the gun she aimed it at herself, firing a single shot.
His body jerked simultaneously with her own. But she fell beside her husband and he was left standing in the middle of the bloodied room, his mouth hung open, and all the color again gone from his eyes.
He didn’t hear Rose come in or her scream his name. He didn’t even feel it when she grabbed his arm and started pulling him out of the room.
*******
She ran down the hallways as fast as she could, dragging the seemingly empty body of her friend along behind her. Bells were ringing and yelling was going on all around the house and she ran from it all. Her mind wanted to bring back the images of what she saw in that horrible, horrible room but she pushed it all back and concentrated on her feet. Trying to get away from the noise.
For only a brief second she looked back behind her, to see if anyone was following them. The action cost her because she and someone else collided together hard. She screamed, without looking who it was and gripped James’ arm tighter.
“Rose!” Marie grabbed the other girl. “Rose, what’s going on?!”
“Oh, Marie!” Rose sobbed and took one of the girl’s hands in her free one. “I...Oh, I don’t know! Marie, please. Please, you have to help me! I have to get James out of here!!”
Marie looked behind her to the swaying mass. He didn’t look at her or past her either, but she shivered from the cold black eyes. Swallowing, she nodded at Rose. “Of course, this way.”
She took James’ other arm and led them back down the hall the way she came. When they got to a panel on the wall with a landscape hanging above it Marie put her shoulder to it and pushed it open. She ushered the other two inside, where a staircase was winding down. They stumbled down the stairs, nearly falling several times from handling the uncooperative James and the miss steps of their own frantic feet.
The stairway opened up to the kitchen, which they ran through quickly and out the back door.
“Come on!” Marie whispered as she ran across the lawns. Rose and James were right behind her. With Rose’s help, Marie and she were able to push open the large barn door. As soon as it was opened Rose ran back to James, who was still standing motionless, and Marie ran into the barn.
She grabbed the first horse she saw and barely had the stale open before she was yanking it out. Thankfully the horse allowed itself to be maneuvered into place in front of a cart, although it danced skittishly from Marie’s hectic movements. In her haste to get the clasp shut it slipped from her hand, cutting a jagged line down her palm. She screamed out, pulling her hand away and dropping the cart end of the clasp.
“What is it?” Rose’s voice floated from outside. “Do...Do you need help?”
“No,” Marie snapped back, clutching her hand to her skirt. “I’m fine.” She shook her head to try and rid herself of the pain before taking the clasp up again. After slamming the two ends together a time or two she finally got it to lock.
Rose ran up to her as she led the horse out. “Help me get him in,” she commanded and they both reached for James. Together they managed to get him up into the cart. Rose gasped at the spot of blood left on the side of the cart, immediately fearing it was James’. But when Marie brought a blanket out of the barn she noticed the wound and the stain it left when she threw them on top of James.
“You’re bleeding,” Rose pointed out.
“It doesn’t matter,” Marie quipped. “Just go. I’ll keep them distracted as long as I can.”
“Oh!” Rose sighed and hugged her. “Thank you so much.”
“Just go and get him out of here!” She yelled pushing her up into the cart as well.
Rose drove the horse as fast as she could through the estate lands. Several times voices screamed at her to stop or to halt but she only pressed the horse harder and silently began praying to herself. Once she left the Howlett grounds she rode in the opposite direction of the town. The terrain changed several times during the escape and the horse complained several times but she didn’t dare let it slow down or stop.
Not till the sun began to peek over the horizon and the familiar Alberta trees gave way to thick, stalker trunks did she pull the horse back. She dropped the reigns from her chapped hands as she looked up at the horizon. After hours a straight riding she finally allowed herself to wipe the tears from her cheeks. They were dried now, crusted from the cold night air, so she had to rub with her sleeve and still her face didn’t feel clean.
With one last deep breath she got up from the front seat and stepped over into the back of the cart. James was leaned back against the side of it, the horse blanket wrapped tightly around him. Slowly she kneeled down beside him and placed her hand on his chest.
“James,” she called. “James, wake up.” He didn’t move so she shook him gently. “Oh, James, please wake up.”
His eyes blinked opened several times before they settled on her.
“James...” she repeated, searching his face nervously. He didn’t answer her, just stared blankly at her. “Say something. You’re scaring me.”
“Who...” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Who are you?”
Her eyes went wide. “I’m–I’m Rose. Oh, don’t say something so cruel like that!”
“I--” He looked down at her hand on his chest then his surroundings. “I don’t--” He stilled and looked back to her. “You...you said James. Am I James?”
“What?”
“I--” He looked down to her hand again. “I don’t know who I am–I--” Suddenly he hissed and clenched his eyes shut as he gripped his head.
“Oh!” Rose sighed and took his hands in her own. “It’s okay. Don’t strain yourself. It’s going to be okay.”
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