+1+
I reread the correspondence over and over again. It was marked with an official seal and no doubt real.
Why had Victor waited so long to contact me again ?
Shut away in my room I took out a needle and thread and began hemming the oversized sleeves of another one of Mrs. Fierro’s dresses.
I almost poked myself as the door to my room opened.
“Illia? Can you help me—“
I turned, embarrassed to see Mr. Fierro standing by the entrance.
“Was there something at the door ?”, he inquired.
“Oh, yes ... it was something I ordered”, I lied
He came closer removing the thread from my hand, letting the sleeve fall unceremoniously down my shoulder. I kept my back to him.
“I was under the impression that you are saving your money to live on your own”, his voice was harsh, “is that not true ? Are the clothes of my late wife suddenly not good enough for you?”
“No”, I said.
“Careful Ms. DeLune. I will not hesitate to replace you with a record player.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as he left and turned my attention
back to the letter. 
I gave up on the sleeve and threw on a sweater and marched up the stairs ,past Emile who was clicking away on his laptop. He was writing one of his Period-Drama novels. So engrossed he didn’t see me tip toe out
Unlocking my new (used) bike from it’s place on the fence. I
didn’t even look at the empty lot where my house once stood as I took off from
Part of me wanted to confront Victor about my house but fear had somehow held me back. I followed his directions to a part of Litany Village I had never been to. It was filled with unique shops and the Litany Plaza hotel.
I found the coffee shop he mentioned. A set of plain clothed royal guards were outside and let me in, No one would have even suspected the King was in town.
Victor was the only one inside the shop. He was sitting at the counter looking into an empty cup.
“Hello, Clara”, he said innocently
“How could you”, I said, “I lost everything when my house burned down”
I was tempted to let all my anger out on him, but I knew I had to hear him out first.
“I know, I am truly sorry about that. It was a mistake.” he looked down, “What happened to your ring ?”
“It’s at ---wait, what do you want with me ?”
“Clara”, he became serious, “My mistake was choosing an indirect method of dealing with Fierro. I have decided to declare treason on him and anyone protecting him. If his neighbors are as loyal as I suspect. .. you don’t want to get in the middle of it."
“Why ?”, I asked, “What’s wrong with a little controversy.
You’re a king you should be able to handle it.”
“Clara, are you listening ? It’s rest in peace. Peace. Not political unrest.
Fierro didn’t understand. She wanted to do it, she wanted it I was just helping
a friend.”
“You were there ? When his wife—“
“She asked me to do it. She was unhappy here.”, he lost his bravado, “You know, I helped Fierro get where he is today, I let him work his way up in the Palace. He was intelligent and if it weren’t for his fear of the outside world I’m sure he could have overtaken me years ago. We were friends but he has ruined that now, Threatening to ruin the peace of the Bordeaux dynasty. It’s deplorable.”
“You’re lazy”
“Excuse me”
“If everything remains at peace you won’t have to do
anything to earn your title. You don’t want to fail but you don’t want to try.
Why don’t you let
“Clara do you know what it is like to wake up one morning, dead, And find that you are King of a place you’ve never heard of and the only alternative is becoming a ghost. ”
“I thought it was a family tradition to become a Specter?”
“Yes, but. . .I’m not ready for that kind of existence. If I give reign to my sister I won’t have a choice. . . that’s is also tradition. “
“Victor--”
“Clara just pack your things and come with me, please. I don’t want you to get hurt.. . like last time.”
“Why are you warning me?”
“Because I love you. Now please keep this between you and I.”
“No.”
“Clara, you don’t want to get in the middle of what is going to happen. If you’re not with me than you are against me and right now that will not end well. I swear nothing but my utmost respect to you”
I looked away trying to find the source of his new found infatuation. Of course so far Victor had never lied to me.
“What about Emile ?”, I asked, “I don’t want anything to happen to him”
“I’ll pardon him, just promise to find your way here at
Midnight, get as far away from
“Victor—“
“Clara, please I’m trying to help you when has anyone in this godforsaken place ever done that. Let me save you and no one will get hurt.”,He let go of my hand and kissed me quickly. “Promise me and everything will be fine. Right now you are everything to me.”
,I didn’t want things to change but I trusted Victor.
“I promise.”
I ran out of the coffee shop as quickly as I could
+2+
I didn’t own many clothes in the little room I had taken residence in. I packed a few things that I felt I needed. Removing a bouquet or roses from a coffee tin I counted the money at the bottom of it and put that in my bag as well.
Once everything was packed I went upstairs to get some music compositions I had been working on. Emile was finally looking up from his typewriter.
“That song you played yesterday was very inspirational. . . I think I’ve got 3 chapters”
“I heard Mr. Fierro playing it” I told him “you found my
music helpful”
“Yes, of course. Not just your music though”
“Emile, If I left or something should happen you know your friendship has meant the world to me. More than that.”
“Why, thank you Clara. . .Is something happening ?”
“I don’t know, I just want you to know.”
He smiled nervously and returned to the typewriter at full speed. I went to get a few books, when I noticed a pink rose sitting between the pages. I picked it up and laid it by the piano.
I knocked on the door to Mr. Fierro’s study. After a few seconds I opened the door.
“Yes, Ms. Delune”, he looked at a calendar, “I will not need you today
“I know, I’m going to Old City. I found out I might have some relatives there”, I thought of the town Millie had been from.
“Old City is over 800 miles away, how long will you be gone?"
His fountain pin never stopped scratching across the paper, I wonder if he
really cared at all if I stayed or not. Or, if like I suspected of Victor, he
just thought I was something pretty to look at.
“I don’t know”, I still wondered, “If I like it there I
might stay, so you’ll need a new pianist.”
“Ms.Delune, as I told when we first met. I have no need for a pianist”, he finally looked up at me. “When you decide . . . let me know”
“Yes, Mr. Fierro”
I relayed my relative story to Emile and Ms. Ginger who asked a lot of details but I kept it brief. I watched as each of their faces fell and quickly picked back up, congratulating me on finding apart of my family, something that was not easy to do.
It was obvious my words and theirs were all lies.
+++
I sat in the middle of the street, there was no sounds, no cars came and went or music in the distance.
I had been to beaches and excursions all around the world and
never had I found a place more peaceful as
“Clara ?”,
Emile walked out of the house, steadying a tray with a tea set on it. I went to take it form him. He went back inside and came back with a record player and set it down where I was sitting in the street.
“One last tea ?”, I asked
“Last ?”
“I mean for now”
The tea was cold and over-brewed but I enjoyed it that much more. We chatted for a while and he turned the record player on.
“Can I have this dance ?”
“Are you sure ?”
He smirked and we started dancing on the empty street, he stepped on my toes a few times but we both laughed it off. Emile stopped mid-step and nearly knocked me over.
“Emile, what are you—“
“May I cut in ?”
“Mr. Fierro, I—“, I sighed, “If it’s all right with Emile.”
+++
I took his hand when he offered it to me.
His skin still held the same white-washed hue and his face never portrayed any useful emotion, but I knew there was something underneath it.
The crumbling wall was falling down and even thought I felt that he was against me and everything I knew, for maybe a moment that I had made him feel something.
No, I made him remember something. I made him remember his wife. The irreplaceable ghost who seemed to haunt the red and green house on Litany lane. But why did she have to haunt this man ?
I would miss his hand in mine, haunting blue eyes and the memory of his mouth on my skin, I shivered at the thought.
“Tell me the truth”, he said
I hadn’t even notice his lips move
“What”
I stopped abruptly on my heels, my hair fell softly over my eyes
“Tell me the truth, Lucie”
There was a loud hum in the distance and the sound of motors coming closer, I turned to see A fleet black car followed by a row came rolling down the street, bathing our picnic in headlight. I pulled Mr. Fierro back towards his house, I could hear the grandfather clock ringing.
“CITIZENS OF
It was midnight.
‘ THE ROYAL GUARD IS HERE TO AQURIE MR. FIERRO OF
“You knew about this”, he yelled taking me to the backyard, Emile followed.
I heard the crack of the fine china and record player as the cars went over them
“Hide. I won’t let them in”, said Emile heading back to the house.
Mr. Fierro began to take me with him through the backyard and to the Oliver’s house. He knocked on the Oliver’s back door.
“You can’t”, said Mrs. Oliver as her husband opened the door, “We could be punished”
Mr. Oliver brushed off his wife off and let us in. Without hesitation Mr. Fierro and Mr. Oliver and moved back a section of the carpet.
“What is this”, I asked
“The houses connect by a passage”, Mrs. Oliver explained.
“Emile will move back the clock that should give us some time”, Mr. Fierro said to no one in particular.
“Why are you taking me”
He didn’t answer but pulled me down towards the trap-door in the floor. The passage led to a dark wooden stair case. Mr. Oliver handed me a flashlight and we continued down and in a dark tunnel, Mr. Fierro kept a tight grip on my wrist.
We walked in silence, until we reached a ladder that extended to the ceiling, after pushing at it, the ceiling gave. I climbed through and was back in my bedroom.
“You knew about this”, he threw me against a wall a table with charms on it shook slightly.
“You’re selfish”, I yelled, “She is gone and there is nothing you can do about it. Grieve. And quickly get over it.”
“Do not throw my words at me, Ms. DeLune”
“Why can’t you just leave well enough alone. . .maybe Victor
isn’t completely honorable but at least he wants me around.””
“I was kind to you”, he pressed me against the shaking wall, “Too kind to you”
“You can’t even kiss me”, I struggled against him
“What is it Victor offered you?”
“Kiss me”
“You and your damn things you and your damn pretty things.”
“Why won’t you kiss me.”
“Why is that not good enough”, he took my shoulder and violently began to shake me, “Why is that not good enough, Lucie. Why am I not good enough, Lucie.”
“Stop calling me that”,
He let go of me, suddenly realizing what he had said.
“You called me Lucie”, I yelled, “Why did you call me Lucie”
He held his hand to his mouth and stepped back, his pocket watch fell to the floor and as the glass shattered I saw something behind the numbers.
A picture peeked out from the glass.
“Stop”, he stopped me from picking it up.
He turned away from me and listened at the door, Victor was no doubt searching Ms. Ginger’s house first.
“I told you I wasn’t born like this.”, he picked up the time piece, “I was born February 6th 1930 . . . I died March 15 1955.”
My eyes began to brim with tears when an odd realization hit me.
" . .. You died 9 months before my father was born”
“That sounds right”
“You sick bastard”, I picked something up and threw it at
him, “You’re my Grandfather. . . "
I sunk to my knees and cried into my hands, all the while listening
to Victor’s tiny army coming down
“. . . Chautauqua NY”, he said disjointed
“My grandmother’s hometown. . ..”
“Listen, Clara, Just listen”
+3+
“I was born on a passage to Aemricaat the beginning of the The Depression. At a young age I wasI was given up for adoption no doubt for my unusual complexion. A loving farm couple in Western New York, brother and sister, took me in. They were my Aunt and Uncle and raised me to work on their farm.
They sent me to school when I was seven, until then I did not realize I was any different. The teachers and students … were afraid of me. They thought I was a devil because of my unfortunate skin and dim eyes.
Auntie homeschooled me from then on and I never wandered far from the farm, unless I was going to the library. The librarians were kind and allowed me to come in after hours so no one would see me.
One of these nights, 1942, I came across a girl in the stacks. She had beautiful dark hair and bright eyes. We reached for the same book in the science fiction section, I let her have it and we began to talk. For the first time I met someone who did not seem to notice my condition. Not once did she bring it up.
I soon began to spend days at the library with her when she got out of school, it wasn’t till our fourth meeting that I asked her name.
Lucille Mills-Pepperidge
She lived in town, her father had died in the war and her mother worked two jobs
to make ends meet. Like me she didn’t have much but we had our books. We became
friends and during those hours in the library we were inseparable.
She would visit the farm and help me with chores, she was my first and closest friend.
When the war ended Lucie began high school, I remained secluded to the farm working during one of the worst droughts in the town’s history.
While she went to drive-ins and parties I started to read more. I read the dictionary, philosophy, classic literature anything that would make the 16-year old Addison Fierro into more of man.
We remained good friends but as time went on I realized that I loved her. She enchanted me, taught me to smile when I thought I could not. Every time she left, a part of me went with her.
During Lucie’s last year of high school, when all the boys in town had disappointed her I asked her to find a place in her heart for me. We had one summer together before she went off to college. We loved each other with a fierce passion I can not begin to describe. Because of her I could look in the mirror, she stood by me when no one else would and I stood by her.
At the end of the summer, I proposed to her. I didn’t have a ring and barley a leaky roof over my head and an aging Auntie and Uncle to take care of.
Lucie looked at me and said.
‘We need more time, Sweetheart. I love you and I want you to be the man you are proud of when I become your wife.’
I agreed and set out to do just that but every time I reached the edge of our farmland without Lucie I shrunk back into my books. Whatever the books could teach me I learned; botany, politics, history and so much more.
A farm hand wasn’t good enough for her, I wanted to be like the great men I read about. Gatsby, Napoleon, Locke. Lucie understood this and waited while all her friends were married off.
She waited for me.
Twice a year for 4 years I attempted to apply to Princeton, Yale and Oxford. I Wrote countless letters for apprenticeships and yet nothing.
When Lucie graduated from college I braved the outside world to see her. She yelled and kissed me at the same time, it was the farthest I’d been from home in 21 years. My skin suffered terribly from the sun that day.
1951 was a cold year, Lucie still stood by me as she became a teacher in town and I still worked on the farm. We spent late nights and early mornings planning our future life together. I told her how I would propose to her and the family we would have.
I prayed to God every night to give me the strength to leave that farm.
1952 grew colder and I knew My Lucie to be keeping company with other men, I ignored it because it was my fault, for my words were still just words. That year they also closed down the library.
The town was shrinking and I had hardly enough money for the wedding my best friend of 10 years deserved.
In the fall of 1952 the DeLune family from Rochester came to town. They wanted to build
a instrument factory in town-- It would
later close in the late 80’s—I took a job there working in the dark putting
together violins.
Students from The DeLune Academy often played a few concerts in the park for employees.
I can still remember laying with Lucie on my Auntie’s old red quilt, our legs and arms entwined with each other listening to the music, reciting passages to some of our favorite books to each other. She fell asleep in the middle and I kissed a hundred times and told her I loved her.
Then. . .then. .. Lucie met Roger DeLune, heir to the DeLune fortune, He came around town and began to met with Lucie very often. I began to receive more hours at the factory and began to see less and less of Lucie. I ignored it, because Roger was seen with every other girl in town
Then Lucie comes to me in the middle of the night in tears, she can’t stop crying and all she wants me to do is hold her and I do all night. I didn’t get a bit of sleep because I knew something was wrong.
In the morning she tells me that she is pregnant and we both know it is not mine..
Anyway, I look at her and say.
‘Lucie, I don’t care. This is the sign that we need, I’ll marry you and everything will be alright. Roger will never make an honest woman out of you’
We spent the entire day together, she sat in the shade and watched me work and made lunch for me. I knew that day would set the tone for the rest of our lives.
That night I took her to a double showing at the Lunar Theater. It was a double feature of Neptune’s Daughter and Cinderella.
When the show is over we walk hand in hand back toward town. She began giggling and she tells me we should name the baby Cinderella if it’s a girl.
I laughed because I would have Lucie and a child.
The next day Roger shows up at my farm and I tell him what he has done to Lucie and he gets irritated and starts cursing, I figured he would pack his bags and run back to Rochester.
But, no. He proposes to Lucie with this huge diamond ring. It looks beautiful on her and she is wearing the ring and telling everyone she is engaged to Roger.
I begged her to stay with me. I waited since I was 16 years old to marry her. He was no good for her.
‘You’re never going to change, Addison”, she told me, ‘I love you but I can’t spend the rest of my life as a farmer’s wife. I love you but something about Roger. . . just be happy for me’
Lucie always told me she would wait till I was the kind of man I was proud of but I already was, the truth was I wasn’t enough for her.
Roger threw a party for her that very day and I showed up uninvited. Lucie is on the stage by herself watching all the guest wearing a pretty rich-girl dress and smiling, beaming. I see her and the lights start to dim.
I make my way over to her just as Eddy Arnold’s You Don’t Know Me begins to play.
Here, let me play it for you. Give me your hands Ms. DeLune.
We danced together and I whispered into her ear “I love you” I cried it to her. I begged her not to marry a man like Roger but she was sure she wanted him. She couldn’t explain it, so I did what a good friend does and I let her go.
The music stopped and I drifted away.
Later that night I found Roger in my barn, he was looking for me. He had some bottles but wasn’t drunk yet.
“Leave her”, I demanded him, “leave a note, just leave us alone.”
“Fuck You”, he said
“Leave her”, I said again, “you don’t want a family Roger, I’ll take care of her.”
He was angry because Lucie was beautiful and he that I was stepping up to him. We began to fight. I was strong I wasn’t some musician. I’d killed animals with my bare hands.
But he played dirty and pulled out a knife and stabbed me right between my lungs. I fell back into a broken cart and watched the blood blossom on my shirt. Roger is still standing over me, in shock.
“Roger”, I said, “find help. It will be okay”
He stared in disbelief
‘Dammit, Roger get a doctor’
He goes as far as the door and grabs the door chain and wraps it around my neck
“You’ll thank me later”, he says, "You'll than me later"
I start screaming because I’m bleeding and scared and I can still hear Eddie Arnold signing in my head as the rough metal cuts the through the skin on my neck. I felt the blood pulsing out of my wound, the sharp rusted metal digging in and tearing my skin. . . I was there till the very end, Ms. DeLune.
“Lucie”, I called to her but she never came.
I later found out that Roger told her what happened and good sweet Lucie helps him cover it up, she sheds tears for days but Roger is going to be her husband so she obeys.
. . .They stripped me and threw my body in the Quarry, My body was found in another county a few days later, The police thought they’d found a monster, Auntie and Uncle didn’t know I was dead until I was identified 2 years later. Bless their hearts.
Cheated out of life I found myself on a lone road with nothing to my name and I see two signs, one pointing to Bordeaux. I quickly realized that this place, Nightfall, was my second chance. With all the knowledge and books I had read I quickly put it to use.
The 40’s were such a trifle time, I allowed myself to be vague about my past. I was able to get a servant job in the palace, when I got close to Victor I convinced him I came from a wealthy political Irish family who helped support the Union Army.
For years I worked my way up and lived in the palace, in the very suite you saw, living in the palace I was able to use the private Sanctuary to see Lucie and Roger. I did so almost religiously . I wanted revenge on Roger. He gave Lucie everything I couldn’t . . . she was so happy,
Nothing brings people together like murder.
I did this for years and when Roger began drinking, I
realized he was a man already condemned. I vowed to get revenge on his son, Martin. It grew like a monster
in the back of my mind for years.
Martin DeLune turned 26 and married a beautiful Italian actress who was with child. Martin had everything and I wanted to take it from him. Of course he had two daughters and when his wife became pregnant with a third daughter I realized something.
It meant the legitimate DeLune name would come to it’s own end.
After that I stopped watching, for 20 years I didn’t see the face of my best friend and lover for two decades . . . except in my dreams.
One day I was in the city, vying for the highest position in the court. I was ambitious, extremely wealthy and no longer confined by farmland. I feared nothing but my scorned past made me bitter.
Then time slowed down.
Standing by the pier I lost all footing and was drawn to a woman standing there. The years had no doubt changed her but she began to smile ecstatically and so did I.
After 50 years. . . I
was only 8 steps away from Lucie
I found a place for her in the city that was close to me, she spent days crying begging for my forgiveness for my murder but it was already done.
When the tears faded, I discreetly began showing Lucie that I was the man I’d sworn to be almost 50 years before. Anything she wanted was hers, we would never be separated again.
To show my commitment I built her a house, a lovely gray and yellow house in the
country on
I still lived in the city of course and when Lucie began to run out of room in the house I told her I’d build another one, this very house right here, if she would marry me.
She declined, afraid of what people would think. I told her if she wouldn’t do that then she could be my maid in return for letting her live in the house.. . she was a terrible maid and I was to meticulous to need one.
I sent her thoughtful love letters that she kept in a secret safe in her room, they were lost in the fire. I tried to save them. . .
Lucie held off for three months and finally married me. Only Ms. Ginger attended
and a few of Lucie’s friends. 
People didn’t understand even though we were
theoretically 50 years apart our
relationship was build on more than time.
It was the happiest time of my life here, waking up each morning to her smile, her voice and laugh. I would work in my office and she would lounge just outside my window reading. We thought nothing and no one could tear us apart.
Then something I cannot explain happened.
She bought theses pearls here and those diamonds over there and all of these little pretty expensive things that meant nothing to me. I knew with the DeLune fortune she must have gotten used to a certain lifestyle.
One day I walked down to this room and realized we had two houses and a city apartment full of things, I began to worry about her and saw her speaking with Victor’s uncle the then King, mind you..
I decided we should move permanently to the country to relax a bit, as a final farewell she wanted to see you again, Ms. DeLune, and I decided to go with her. I hated the idea of even acknowledge her and Roger’s grandchildren but I was curious.
It was a dinner, I saw two young ladies chatting with their parents and this girl . . . barely a woman , 21, playing a piano in the background. The look on your face of absolute contentment from something as intangible as music, was lovely.
Perhaps I made my thoughts to well known for we left immediately but that was not just it, you were alive, warm. I scolded myself for such thoughts and turned my attention to my loving wife.
She taught me to play the piano, I’d leave a vase of flowers while she played or poems I thought It was like all of those books I had read. Once again the house became filled with more objects and it sickened and indebt me. I feared that if I didn’t give her what she wanted she was going to leave me . . . for the King.
I took all my frustrations to the piano and I began to play the song I heard you playing, It was terrible but those beautiful sounds were amazing. Lucie came down the stairs in tears.
“Why ?”, she asked
“It is nothing, Lucie”, I assured her, “just a song”
But she didn’t believe me, she thought I loved you. I protested but soon our fight lead to all of the material things, I asked her if she would love me if I was poor and she said yes.
That night I dreamed, tastefully, of you. Lucie was outraged. She was afraid she would lose everything to you.
It was absurd.
I had waited 50 years for her I hadn’t looked at or touched any woman in 50 years and I was not going to throw it away from some child.
She became so angry, she accused me of impossible adultery. She loved you, Ms. DeLune but the thought of your untimely death haunted her.
I know it was all the “pretty things” talking.
She began asking Victor to turn her a Specter and asked me to join her to prove my love. I begged her not to do it, that it would break my old heart I could not wait another 50 years. The last night we were together she told me no one would get between us.
I awoke to a note telling me this was her final day in Nightfall and if I loved her I would join her. . . so we could truly spend eternity together.
I arrived to the appointed hour just as the fire caught on to her body. I begged her and God not to do
this to me again. I loved her. Ms. DeLune do you understand , but I couldn't go with her.
My humanity got to me, my need to be human, like you, betrayed me and I was alone again and Lucie. . .
Months later after a dark storm on Nightfall , I stepped onto my front porch just as the sun has set and I thought my eyes deceived me, and that Lucie 50 years her junior had somehow come back to me
but no.
It is Ms. Clara DeLune.
The talented, spoiled pious daughter held to the strictest code of DeLune women.
You feared me though, very unlike Lucie, and ran into your house.
I wanted my revenge Ms. Delune and I was going to use you to get it. I am a terrible man Ms. DeLune had Ms. Ginger not made friends I was planning on kidnapping and torturing you in this very room and damn Roger DeLune’s favorite granddaughter to my type of hell.
Keeping you from your piano bought joy to me. . . the sadness in your eyes was the sadness in Roger DeLune’s eyes. I enjoyed it greatly
Yet, you kept going on about your family and music. You had a mansion filled with everything a woman could want and all you wanted was the piano. I saw the man I hated and the woman, Lucie of course, I loved all in one person.
The way you touched everything she’d touched, baked the way
she did you were a living ghost.
Even still, I couldn’t bring myself to the toss the little DeLune girl into the fire and listen to her screams. I would have rejoiced in knowing the pain you would suffer
I could not do it, I was so close but I realized something about you, something you constantly proved. Emile’s friendship and your music meant—mean so much to you than anything tangible. When your house burned down I could not fathom the calm you felt, free from all those objects.
Now I see you are just as Lucie was, Victor’s charm and wealth have no doubt taken you in and soon as I let you go, which I will, you will go running to him.
50 years and you are truly the granddaughter of Lucille DeLune Fierro.
Do you like the sound of that , Ms. DeLune? Fortunately my heart has grown cold to love anyone but Lucie but I must tell you one last thing.
When my loving wife left this world in her rage, she did one thing
Do you see now.
There is no white light at the end. Death is dark and void,
that white light you saw was her. . . all of us condemned to
Yes, your grandmother was there when you died. . . she murdered you.
All of us on Litany Lane were murdered
+++
My head was pounding, pools of tears had fallen down my face.
Mr. Fierro picked up the broken watch that held the picture of my late grandmother standing arm in arm with him as they cut the ribbon on the yellow house
“You bastard”, I said again, “You married a 77 year old woman. My grandmother and didn’t tell me”
“Ms. DeLu—“
“My grandmother killed me, that’s why you want to write that
book. Because a Specter murdered me. You care. . . you must care about me.”
“Tell me Victor and his castle, wealth and promises do not intrigue you. Tell me you do not want that.”
I couldn’t
“You didn’t make her kill me”, I didn’t know what I was saying, “It’s not your fault. Tell Victor you will stop the book and he will spare your life.”
The house began to shake and there were footsteps above, I heard the clock tumble and fall over.
“Ms. DeLune,I am turning myself in. .. I’ve had enough of this life. Perhaps it’s time for me to join my Lucie, before I go—“
“No, you can’t let him do that to you. You haven’t done anything wrong”
“I am guilty of causing your death Ms. DeLune. I was selfish and ambitious . . . just promise me you will not love him. Just get far away from here”
“Come with me-”
“Victor will take it out on everyone here until he finds me. Listen Ms. DeLune ,Victor just wants to use you, you are innocent. ”
“I can’t let you do this”
“Listen, somewhere along the way My mind and body have already decided to love you but listen”, he was angry, “My heart will never be yours”
“You’re insane”, I yelled, “She left you. … twice. You waited 50 years and she left. Do you even listen to yourself ? You can’t give her anything now. . .she’ll never love you.”
“Those are lies, Ms. DeLune. Do not come after me, do you understand ? Just let me do this”
“No, Mr. Fierro--
I tired to stop him as he moved the barricade out of the way and went up the stairs, the front door was thrown open and Emile was in the hall lying on the floor. I ran out and towards him.
“Emile !”, I shook him
“I’m alright. . .they are searching upstairs”
I carefully sat down Emile and ran outside to see Mr. Fierro approaching Victor and his soldiers. Emile came to the door, as I ran across the lawn and towards Mr. Fierro.
The street was bright and alive as Victor’s men torched the
houses on
“Victor, please don’t. Let him go, the book is over.”
“No it is not”, Mr. Fierro said putting his arms around me.
“What’s this Clara ?”, mocked Victor, “The beauty has fallen in love with the beast ?”
“Ms. DeLune what did I tell you”, he said holding me tighter., "Run, Clara"
“Clara”, said Victor he seemed relived I hadn't run away, “I’ll spare his life if you come with
me”
“Fine-“
“Stop, Ms. DeLune", he turned me away, ". . . do what you want with me Victor.”
Mr. Fierro's eyes shifted towards the Oliver’s house and I sensed I
was supposed to escape but could not bring myself to move.
Victor nodded and two of his men finally pulled me away. I watched helplessly as Mr. Fierro was tied to the railing of the fence. I could see the beauty of rose garden already going up in flames.
Two men held Emile back as well, everyone peeked out through windows. I watched as the fire jumped from Mr. Fierro’s house to the Widow Mason’s
“Oh, God. Victor look”, I pointed to the spreading uncontrollable fire; the wind carried the burning ashes and leaves to all the homes on the block.
Victor wasn’t paying attention. Litany Lane was slowly being devoured into the night, neighbors were trapped in the culd de sac by the Royal Guards. Victor began to approach Mr. Fierro, The heavy torch in his hands light and shadowed his face.
“Time to join your wife in eternal hell, Addison”
I pretended to faint as Victor’s men went down to catch me, I slipped from their grasp. I couldn’t stop my feet the closer I came to the Victor and Mr. Fierro.I heard my name being called from every direction.
The heat of the fire extinguished my back as the torch flame intended for Mr. Fierro leapt on to me, The skin beneath my shirt hissed and popped while the flame spread.
Mr. Fierro reached for me but I was to far away, on my hands I was able to drag myself closer to him, as the fire spread up my arms in excruciating pain, my eyes watered trying to stop the pain.
“Help me, Mr. Fier--”, I begged
Why had I gotten in the middle of this.
He kneeled helpless, in that instant he was reliving the
night he had lost Lucie, my skin continued to burn, my skin melted. I had not
felt pain in so long. .
“Addison help me. . please. . .God it hurts . . . Addison. . . ”
I felt it crawl up my legs, I was melting. The disgusting smell of flesh I didn’t know I had. My muscles burned and twisted when would it end.
I could see Victor on his knees in shock over what he had
done, whispering a stream of silent “no’s” into his hand. The rest of Litany Lane was devoured in the flames, no one would escape or be spared
I had done this for the pretty little things in this neighborhood. The pretty people in the pretty houses. I hadn’t missed my family in ages because they were right here with me.
I could no longer speak as Addison freed himself from his binds and moved closer wrapping his arms around me, the greedy flames jumped to him. He didn’t scream or cry.
I was no longer human, I was living remains. My skin gone and vision blurred and melted how he could hold on to something so disgusting. What was left of me slipped from his hands.
Slowly I, and the rest of
“Every action of theirs, that seems to them an act of their own freewill, is in the historical sense not free at all but is bound up with the whole course of history and preordained from all eternity."
- War and Peace