A/ To be not to confuse it would be good if you read my other story I will love you anyway first because I use the same back story for Tom in this one. Hope you like and enjoy.
Lavinia pulled Sybil after her, and in a blink of the eye, they disappeared from their spot at the nursery door, to appear again in a very dark room. It was like they had stepped thru an invisible door. The walls were smelling cold and wet, and Sybil couldn't see a thing in the uncomfortable darkness. The sobbing of a soft voice rung like innocent children cries to her ears.
"Come closer!", a man's booming voice reached to them.
"I'm afraid I can nothing more do for her!", He continued as the two woman walked in the man's direction. Finally, Sybil could see what was in front of her eyes like someone had lifted a veil. A very young woman, almost still a girl, was sitting on the stone floor, leaning with her back against the wall. Her face looked like that from a china doll, where had fallen on the floor. Big cracks decorating her face and let the girl appear like she was made out of stone.
"What happened?", Lavinia asked the middle aged man.
"I'm afraid she lost her faith in herself! Her soul is dying!", The man answered her. The girl's eyes starred disoriented in front of her. She wasn't even blinking.
"Who is she?", Sybil asked.
"She was supposed to be your guardian angel!", The man just answered not wondering why Sybil was with Lavinia here in the first place. The man turned his attention from the girl to Lavinia.
"I'm sorry, but I can't help your friend!", He said while staring at Sybil. She didn't know why, but somehow the older man reminded her of her father.
"That's why you're here, isn't it?!", he continued to Lavinia.
"She shouldn't have died! She can't go over, if we don't help her she turns into a restless one!", Lavinia answered worried.
"Your friend is not ready for it! I didn't say she has not the qualifications for it, on the contrary. Her soul seems perfect for it! But I'm afraid she is not ready to let her earlier life behind.", he explained.
"What are we talking about here? I don't understand a thing!", Sybil replied almost in tears. The man sighed.
"My dear girl, it seems like you got tricked from an angry ghost! The same ghost who had driven poor Jane over here into this state.", the man answered Sybil.
"But why? What does he want from me?", she asked confused.
"Revenge, I suppose! Restless ghosts a not really reasonable!", he told her.
"But I not even know the man! What does he want?", Sybil asked desperately.
"You and Tom brought him somehow with you as you came back from Ireland, I'm afraid!", Lavinia answered her.
"I don't think it had so much to do with you. It appears the spirit is more after your husband! Why, I cannot tell you!", she continued.
"I may tell you if you like! But it is a bit of a long story!", the man answered.
"I'm Adam, by the way. Leader of the 25th guard.", he explained and introduced himself to Sybil.
"The 25th guard?", Sybil asked.
"How many guards are there?", she continued questioning.
"534! I think!", Adam answered smiling at her. 'This whole thing was just crazy. Maybe this all is just a bad dream, and I wake up every second,' Sybil thought.
"I'm afraid it isn't a dream, my dear.", he told her like he had read her mind.
"Well, then tell me who this man is! It seems like I have time enough right now! I want to know why he ruined my families life!", She said angrily with tears in her eyes. She not even knew dead people could cry. Sybil didn't care right now. That man had destroyed everything. Her thoughts returned back to Tom. She worried so much about him.
"Very well! But let's go to a more comfortable place for it!", Adam told them. He walked back to the girl on the floor and waved his hand in motion at her. Her form crumbled under the motion until her remains disappeared into dust in the thin air.
"What happened to her?", Sybil asked shocked. Lavinia started crying next to her.
"Her soul died! It's so sad if guardian angels die. Their souls will be lost in the abyss for all eternity.", he explained.
"But isn't she dead already? How can she die, again?", Sybil asked with equally tears to Lavinia in her eyes.
"Guardian angels aren't ghosted, my dear. You are a ghost right now! Look at the difference between you and Lavinia. Can't you see it?", He asked her. Sybil looked down on her. It didn't look much different to her as before she died. Her eyes fell on Lavinia, who was still sobbing for her dead friend. First now she recognized the glow coming from Sybil's form. She was like a flicker of a light flame, while Lavinia looked like she did as she was still at life.
"Maybe my skin appears a little different!", Sybil concluded.
"Your skin? You have no skin, not anymore! Your body lies still cold in your room! What you feel is just a memory of it. Soon this feeling will disappear.", Adam told her. Sybil started to sobbing again. All her strength was gone in a second. She always forgot she was dead, it felt still so unreal. She was just a restless ghost! No, she would not cry in front of them. She just had to find a solution. This was not the end of her, the proof that she was standing here was enough to convince her faith to come back. Never give up Sybil, she told herself. Adam smiled at her again. Could he actually hear what she was thinking? He made no effort in hiding it.
"Well let's go then, shall we?", Adam told them.
Sybil not even blinked and in the next moment, they were gone. The dim light of Downton library filled her eyes. "Let's sit down! Just because some of us are dead doesn't mean we must be uncomfortable!", Adam joked and pointed to the sitting area. A dim light was glowing from the fireplace still from hours ago before it got abandoned for the night. It was in the middle of the evening ,but Sybil doubts that anyone was asleep right now. In fact, she knew they weren't! She could hear their voices in her head. Their cries and their despairs. Was this part of being dead? Hearing the heartbreaking thoughts of her loved ones and everyone was blaming themselves for her death.
"Ignore it for the moment, my dear. You have time later to comfort the living ones if you are able to do so!", Adam answered Sybil`s thoughts.
"The ghosts name is Sir Charles Coote! This story I tell you about is just an example of the fact that history repeats itself and that the human being didn't learn a thing about it. I was there at the time it happened so I will tell you what I saw.
It was 1642, time of the Irish Upspring and Sir Charles Coote was ordered to secure land and to anti-Catholicism the native Irish population. He fought with violence and cruelty. As he advanced south, he met the last resistance of the two biggest clan chiefs of southern Ireland, the O'Tooles and the O'Byrne. They defended the area since four centuries from British domination. The O'Tooles was actually descended from the King of Leinster and hadn't lost his influence of the area since then. To win the area over, Sir Charles promised the one who defeats the resistance, County Wicklow, which was the main seat from both chieftain ships.
A young man named James Brabazon, Baron Ardee was ordered to support Sir Charles Coote, in the name of King Charles I, with his force.
At this time, I was made the guardian angel for his twin sister, Anne. James and Anne were inseparable and so did it come that the young woman moved with him into the battle. It was very unusual, but Anne was very headstrong and so was nobody able to forbid her. But while their time in Wicklow, Anne fall in love with a young Irishman named Rory. She first didn't know that this man, was actually the brother of the leader from the O'Tooles chieftainship. You can imagine that both sides were against it."
"This sounds very familiar!", Sybil throws in.
"But still, what has that to do with Tom? It was centuries ago!", she argued.
"Impatience is no way to get an answer, my dear! I will come to that point, but if I bore you we may let it better be, then!", Adam replied and lifted one Eyebrow in question at her.
"No, no, please continue. I want to hear it!", Sybil said sweetly, the same way she would convince her Papa with.
...Well, where was I? Oh yes, both sides were against it. Her brother James couldn't see his beloved twin sister in tears, and so he decided to make a deal with the O'Toole's to switch sides. Rory and Anne got married and got soon after happy with a little son, but their luck was not holding for long. Sir Charles Coote was boiling in rage, and so he took his revenge on the town people in Bray, not far away from the O'Tooles and O'Byrne seat in Kilruddery House. Sir Charles killed in his rage innocent civilians and called for the massacre of all Catholics. He ordered the burning of farms and villages in the whole area. The betray from James made its rounds, and so Sir Charles was given a new army force from the King. The O'Tooles and O'Byrne werecompelled to hide in the mountains, while James and Rory planned their own revenge. In the last effort, the both Brother in laws were building their own army to strike back and saving the town people from the evil hands of Sir Charles. But in the battle, Sir Charles stabbed Rory into the left side of his chest where the apex of the heart sits and fall to the ground. In anticipation, Sir Charles leaned over his victim to mock the dying man. But while every other normal human being had died in seconds, Rory just stood suddenly up and stabbed the man in his stomach. Sir Charles couldn't have known that the man he thought he just had killed, had a rare sporadic condition called dextrocardia."
"Dextrocardia?", Lavinia asked confused. Adam smiled at the two woman as he saw Sybil mirrored expression.
"His heart was not like other people`s on the left side of his chest. Instead, it was much further right placed as normally, what had made Sir Charles miss his heart in the first place. Even in this times today is it very hard to discover this rare conditions and would be in most cases put off like a heart murmur!", Adam explained.
"Heart murmur? That's what they said Tom has!", Sybil told him. The man smiled widely at the young woman.
"I see you almost having it!", Adam chuckled.
"They had defeated Sir Charles army, and the cruel man died on the Battle field, but at the same time King Charles I had let send a new army were was holding James and Rory capture after their own defeat and brought them to London for their process. They imprisoned James in the Tower of London and should have been executed for treason, but his brother in law made a deal with the King to save his wife's twin brother. He would give his life to let James return to Bray so that he could fulfill what he was sent for in the first place. The king agreed, and so they executed Rory instead. As James returned to Bray, his old alliance the O'Tooles and O'Byrne never talked to him again for being in their eyes, a traitor, and coward."
"How terrible! Then all their effort was for nothing, and everyone ended up unhappy! Why did Rory do that?", Sybil asked sadly.
"It was the only way to save his wife's life too! James and Anne were not just siblings, they were twins. Their bond was much stronger as every other relationship they had ever made, and they had killed Rory anyway. He was a Rebel! If James had died too, Anne could have never have overcome it. James wasn't a traitor because he stayed true to his friend and brother in law until his end. He never married and had children. Instead, Anne's and Rory son became his heir.", Adam told Sybil.
"I still don't understand why Sir Charles is after Tom?", she replied to the man.
"Somehow, he thinks he got tricked by Rory as he stabbed him and wants his revenge on all his descendants.", the man explained.
"And one of them is Tom? Well, he had his revenge then. I'm dead! Does he leaves him and my family now alone?", Sybil asked desperately.
"I don't think so, my dear. Like I said. Restless ghosts are not really reasonable. Sir Charles will not so quickly stop." Sybil sighed at this. What now? She looks out for Sir Charles in case he tries more? But nothing could be worse! He separates Sybil from her family, from her child, from her husband! Tears were falling down her cheeks, and she tried to wipe them off with her hand, but as she reached it, all was dry. This was actually the first time she touches herself since she died. It felt numb like there was nothing there and all of a sudden she started to feel very cold.
"Don't!", Adam called to her, but Sybil didn't hear. There was nothing, just endless emptiness inside her and everything in front of her turned dark.
A/ Sir Charles Coote was a real living person and historical like I had described. Also, the O'Tooles and O'Byrne and Brabazon's were real life people just my OC's James, Anne and Rory are made up of me. So I mixed some facts with my story because Bray has really a great history.
