Disclaimer: Crimson Peak belongs to Guillermo del Toro and The Lodgers belongs to Brian O'Malley.
Summary: Sean Nally was supposed to die that fateful night when he tried to help Rachel escape her fate. He was supposed to be the price of her freedom. So why and how did he find himself in Allerdale Hall, far from home, serving the Sharpes?
Author's note: Please note that my first language is not English, it's French. If you find any mistakes or weird sentence, let me know, so I can better myself. While I know I am almost fluent and while I do read after myself and use Grammarly to help, sometimes, a mistake can pass by.
Entwined Souls
Chapter 1
This was the end and Sean knew it. There was no way he could escape the watery trap he had willingly fallen into. And while he knew he was going to die right here, he had never imagined he'd meet his end in such a way. He had survived war, amputation, Dessie and his crew, to die under the huge house in the forest everyone avoided. And while he certainly didn't want to die, he knew that it was going to happen. There was no way he could escape this. To think that only three days before, he was finally returning home, embracing his mother and his sister. Three days before, he met, or met again actually, the mysterious and attractive Rachel, the recluse from the dilapidated house in the forest near the village. Never in his life had he felt so drawn to someone, so connected to someone! Thanks to that, he had been able to overlook the fact that she wasn't particularly nice to him when they first talked. And he had seen in her eyes something he had seen too often on the battlefield, in his comrades' eyes or in the eyes of the soldiers from the opposite side:
Rachel was scared.
Rachel was scared and desperate.
They had talked the following days. He had thought he understood her, at least a bit, and she had seemed to understand him. Hence why, despite everything, even her stories of ghosts he hadn't believed in, that night, he went to the manor and, facing her twin brother, he announced his intention to take Rachel away from this place, at her own request.
Midnight was drawing close and the frail brother had opposed more resistance than he was actually capable of. Something was possessing him. Sean had done his best to neutralize him without killing him. Despite everything, he was still Rachel's only family and life was sacred. He knew it sounded hypocritical, he had killed under the excuse of being at war. And the soldiers he had killed or helped to kill, the ones he had wounded to the point they had died later in agony, none of them wanted to die. But the key difference between Edward and them was that they were soldiers. When they had joined the army, they had agreed on killing or getting killed. It was part of the job. The poor boy had ended up accidentally stabbing himself as the knife fell on him, but he had managed to pin him down on the floor, putting a dagger through his left hand. Rachel had managed to escape the room she was locked in and rescue him. Midnight had rung its twelve bells. Weird shadows and noises were filling the hall. That was when Sean had realized Rachel hadn't lied to him. The house she was living in was definitely haunted, causing her isolation, her brother's madness. He didn't know the full extent. He didn't need to. He knew enough to understand they needed to get out. The main door closed before their eyes and wouldn't budge despite his efforts to pry it open. But before he could think of trying to kick it open with his wooden leg, he heard Rachel, resigned, almost beaten, saying they wouldn't be able to escape, the ghosts had won. He didn't pay any attention, he believed she was just scared, and deep down, he was too. But suddenly, the sound of something falling in the water startled him.
Rachel was nowhere to be seen and a trap leading to a watery area was open.
Those bastards had certainly dragged her down there. He didn't think twice and dived in, ready to take her out of there. His eyes had widened when he saw that, under the manor, in that cellar, was another manor, the copy of it, just upside down, as if it had been its identical but symmetrical twin. He had found Rachel surrounded by naked people, clearly dead, the ghosts he had assumed, as they moved and their eyes were wide and black, with no pupils. He had tried to grab her but other creatures grabbed him, yanking him away from her, and her from him as she tried to rescue him. They unfastened his wooden leg, crippling him more, rendering him almost unable to swim. He could still, thank God his leg had been cut off a bit under his knee! But they were several, grabbing him by the waist, weighing him down, making sure he sunk to the point that not only he wouldn't be able to save Rachel, but he'd also run out of air and drown. Everything around him was dark, he could feel his lung reaching their limits and starting to fill with water, his strength leaving him. They were still holding him. Battling them was useless.
"Rachel..." He thought
He hoped she had managed to reach the surface, that she had survived. Was he the price for her freedom? The one she had to pay to be free of that place? Was that their deal? She could be free but not with him? He thought of his mother, of his sister. They'd be so worried about his disappearance! Would they even have his body back after a while so they could mourn him?
"Rachel is saved." A ghastly voiced echoed
If he had been able to, Sean would have sighed in relief. They were still making him sink. He was the price to pay. He was starting to drift away when he heard another voice, a male, then the first voice. He couldn't understand them anymore, they were arguing but he couldn't understand any word they exchanged. He felt lighter as the beings that kept him imprisoned let go of him and stared at him without a word. The male voice echoed again. Suddenly, they vanished. The water around him started to form a vortex, everything was blurry and he felt pushed back up. His lungs started to burn as he was reaching the surface, and for some reason, all he could see was something as red as blood. He broke the surface, his body covered by some kind of clay. He inhaled painfully, his whole body aching, and he started to cough like a madman, as he instinctively grabbed the bricks near him, trying to get out.
XXXXX
"And now, we are completely done with Margaret, dear brother." Lucille sweetly told Thomas as she locked the chest into a wardrobe.
Thomas looked away. Yes, they needed money to save Allerdale Hall. But this felt so wrong! That poor woman had done nothing wrong, her only crimes, if they could be called that, were to be rich and without any family that would look for her if she went missing. Lucille had taken care of everything. She was the only person he had left in this world. She wanted to help him. Still, what they had done, it was murder. He hadn't participated in the last act, but he knew about the scheme, the poison, he had doomed the girl on the day he had put a wedding ring on her finger. Lucille seemed to notice his uneasiness because she gently caressed his cheek.
"It's for the best, brother. The first one is always the scariest." She said, too sweetly for his taste. "Besides, she had a lovely end. No one would have loved her and her money would have gone to waste. You gave her the illusion of being a hero from the romance novels she fed her soul with. She left believing she was ill. Really, it's all for the best."
A huge splash from the red clay cisterns made them jump. Not thinking twice, Thomas grabbed a knife and Lucille a shovel, ready to investigate. They were aware that their own house had its particularities. Lucille briefly wondered if Margaret was still alive and trying to escape, while deep in her heart, she knew it wasn't possible.
"Dear God!" Thomas shouted
Before their eyes, a weird form, moaning in pain, covered entirely by the clay, was trying to make its way out of the tanks! Lucille approached it, not showing any sign of fear and smacked it down with one hit. The thing cried out in pain and was trying to crawl to them. Lucille gave it another blow, and if its voice was weaker, the being still cried out, between his coughs for air.
"Pl... Please! Help me..." It managed to say with, weirdly enough, an Irish accent.
Thomas got closer.
"Thomas! Back away!" His sister cried out, worried
The man ignored her and knelt, wiping some of the clay with his jacket's sleeve, revealing, to their shock, a human face.
"Who are you?" Thomas asked him
"Sean... Sean Nally..." The young man managed to whisper before passing out
Lucille quickly checked his pulse. It was weak, but it was there. That Sean was still breathing too. Yes, Allerdale Hall was filled with mysteries and particularities that rendered it so intriguing, even for its owners.
But since when did it send them crippled, half-drowned, dying young men through their red clay tubs?!
To Be Continued
