Chapter 5 The Hunt (Is Afoot Watson!)
Julchen swung off her horse in front of the house and ran inside. "Julchen!" Joan shrieked and wrapped the girl in a hug. "Where have you been? Are you okay?"
"Away and yes I'm fine. Where's Francis?"
"In his room. He's really sick."
"Thanks." Julchen ran into Francis' room. She knelt down next to him and placed a hand on his forehead. He moaned at her touch. "Francis it's okay it's me Jules."
He cracked his blue eyes open. "J-Jules? Is that really you? He let you go?"
"Yes, yes he did, and his name is Matthew."
"I-I had a friend named Matthew when I was younger. He disappeared though." Julchen laughed at his rambling to try and hide her concern.
Turning to Joan she asked, "How long has he been sick?"
"Since he returned babbling about some monster that had taken you… that didn't really happen did it?"
Julchen looked back at Francis, unsure of how to word her tale. Sure Matthew wasn't a monster per say, but he did have a frightening appearance. "I was a prisoner of a man who I thought to be a monster, but he isn't all that bad." Joan just nodded, knowing of brutes who believed her to be just another girl to flirt with. They sat there for a while in the silence- well what was silence with Francis's occasional rattling cough. Suddenly, there was a loud pounding on the door.
"Joan open up! It's Luciano!" Joan sighed, and walked over to the door, not opening it.
"What do you want?" Her voice was exasperated.
"I brought a doctor for the inventor." Julchen and Joan exchanged a glance. Since when did Luciano think of others? Joan opened the door, letting the man in. "Ah, Julchen, I was under the assumption that you were a prisoner of a monster, I did not expect to see you home." Luciano smirked.
"Where's the doctor, Luciano?" Julchen asked.
Luciano's smirk turned into a sneer and he stepped to the side, letting another man pass through the door. Dark brown hair fell past a pale face, stiff from the cold and years of scowling. A dark coat fell to his feet and a blood red scarf covered his neck. Maroon eyes eyed Francis lying on the bed with a cold displeased stare. "This is my next patient? He doesn't look like a normal case." No emotion escaped his flat tone.
"Yes, Mr. Braginsky. He was going on about monsters that abducted his charge, who is sitting next to him. He is clearly insane." Julchen's confused gaze turned sharp with fury.
"You said he was a doctor!" Joan's anger was made known in her voice.
"He is. This is Viktor Braginsky, the doctor at one of the best asylums for the insane. Clearly if Francis is going on about monsters taking his charge when she is unharmed and present he isn't in his best state of sanity." Luciano explained.
"He wasn't lying! He's not crazy! He might be a little absent minded but you can't send him there!" Julchen fumed.
"Oh so there really is a monster then? Then why are you here?"
"He's not that mean of a monster," Julchen's voice came out as a weak whisper. Even that sounded rather stupid for her to say. "He let me go to take care of Francis."
"That sounds like an excuse. Where is your proof?" Luciano asked, picking at his nails.
Julchen racked her brain for anything she could use, before her thoughts went to the mirror. She pulled it out and said "Show me Matthew." The mirror rippled and showed Matthew his face sad as he sat on a bench in the courtyard of the castle. She showed it to Luciano. "There here's your proof. This mirror can show you anything you would like to see in real time. That's the monster that kidnapped me. But he's not really a monster. He's very sweet and kind and tries very hard to be gentle even though it is hard for him."
Luciano looked at her and she saw a spark of an idea form in his eyes. He leaned over and whispered to her "I'll make you a deal Julchen. Marry me and Francis will be as free as a bird."
"No. I won't do that. I don't want to, you're just a bully that can't take no for an answer." She hissed back at him.
"Fine but you brought this upon yourself." He turned to Viktor with a smirk. "Clearly the inventor's charge is just as crazy as her caretaker. Perhaps we should lock them inside this house, with the lady who was taking care of them as she may be crazy as well, and leave them with me until you can come and take them into your custody. I myself will dispatch the monster and perhaps rid the girl of her insanity."
"What!?" Joan and Julchen shrieked together.
Luciano covered one of his ears blocking the sound of the two girls. "Well that was loud."
"Yes it was." Victor said shaking his head. "Well I'll leave them in your hands sir." He jogged out of the house and closed the door behind him.
"You twisted little psychopath." Julchen said jumping at the man. Joan grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"Stop. You'll just end up seeming crazy. Not just to a few people, to everyone. Just calm down." Joan warned.
"Wait a few people think I'm crazy?"
Joan rubbed the back of her head. "Well you are an outsider and you do live with Francis. It doesn't help your case to be living with a supposed madman. Not that I believe that. It's just silly. He's not crazy, a little eccentric maybe, but not crazy."
"Well I'm glad Joan that you explained somethings to miss oblivious here and I would love to stay and chat but I have a monster to kill." Luciano said as he slammed the door to the room shut and locked it.
"Luciano let me out!" Julchen screamed banging on the door.
"Step away from the door Julchen." Joan pulled the struggling girl away from the door.
"No you don't understand. I need to get through that door. If I don't someone whom I care very deeply about will die."
"Who? Julchen I can't help you if I don't know what's going on."
"The man I just realized I love more than anyone else in the world."
Luciano had gathered every able bodied townsperson willing to go with him to stop the monster. It was easy to convince people once he showed them the monster in the mirror. Matthew could see their torches from where he was on the balcony in the north tower.
"Sir the staff is ready to defend this castle." Toris said with a bow.
Matthew let his head sink down to his chest. "What's the point?" He whispered.
"What's the point in what?"
"Fighting them. They won't ever understand and even if we move the people there will find us and kill us. It's just doesn't make any sense."
Emil spoke up. "But not fighting would mean losing Julchen forever and all hope of any of us seeing our families again."
Matthew stared off into space. "I wonder how mum is doing and if she's found Amelia yet. If she hasn't she'll have driven herself mad by now. I sure hope she has found Amelia."
"And you will find that all out if you fight back." Emil stated matter of factly. "See there is a purpose."
Matthew looked at Toris. "Tell the servants to attack but not to kill. If they get hurt they need to retreat immediately. Their safety is more important than anything right now."
"Yes sir. I'll go tell everyone." He hopped out of the room.
"Try the window again." Julchen said trying to pick the lock, something she had learned from Arthur when they were eleven.
"I told you it's locked and I can't break it."
She jiggled Joan's hairpin in the lock. She heard a click. "Yes." She pushed open the door. "Tada!"
"Great now go." Joan said pushing out Julchen out the door.
She raced through the rest of the house and hopped onto the horse out front and headed for the castle.
The castle waited in near silence as flashes of light glared through the windows, torches held in enemy hands dancing outside the door. Loud shouting that could only be described as twisted cheering echoed in the courtyard. The door was shaken down with a large boom, men from the village pouring in slowly. At the front was who Julchen had described as a predator in human clothing, Luciano, followed by a more timid version of himself, Flavio. Monica shifted a bit as she waited for Feliciano's signal to start fighting. One of the men made a comment about useless furniture, and grabbed Feli's handle. He winked at Monica before burning the man's hand. He yelped, throwing Feli across the room and the furniture came to life. Dresser's punched the men with their drawers, the wardrobe's pulled the men in and refused to let them out, and even the dog-like footrest was tripping the enemies. Monica tried her best to fight on her own, flinging dust around, but soon one of the men grabbed her and started to pull out her feathers. She screamed from the jolts of pain until the person holding her dropped her in favor of covering his flaming butt, Feliciano having a look of rage standing where the person had been.
"T-Thanks." Monica said.
"No~a problem."
The furniture was so busy fighting that they didn't see Luciano slip past the throngs of people in favor of creeping up the stairs. Holding a knife out in front of him, he entered every room slowly, looking for the monster that would bring him fame and glory. A shadow slipped into a hallway leading out to a balcony, and he followed silently. Gargoyles became shadowed nightmares as he walked the roof, following the sounds of heavy breathing that surely came from the beast. As he passed one gargoyle, he noticed the smell of wet dog and turned to look, there was nothing there, the gargoyle was gone. Wary, he spun around looking for any sign of a beast. A cloak moved near him and he stabbed at it. Pinned the roof was a monster with violet eyes on the edge of fear and anger.
"So you are the beast? The monster that took my Julchen away from me? You're not a match for me." He boasted, grabbing another knife from his boot to deliver the final blow.
At the mention of Julchen's name, it growled, "She isn't yours!" The violet eyes turned a shade darker as the thing swung at him, barely clearing his head with its massive paw. Luciano smirked and lashed out, causing the cape to tear and for them to both tumble down the roof side, fighting the whole way down.
"She is mine!" Luciano cried out as he stood above the beast who seemed to have given up fighting, "She loves me like she never would love you! Once I come home we will be married!"
"MATTHEW!" A small voice from below screamed. Both monster and man (A.N. I wonder which one is which) turned to see Julchen, white hair billowing in the storm below. This lit the spark in the monster's eyes and he fought back again, pushing Luciano off of himself, throwing out a paw that sent the hunter flying. The beast moved quickly, using his unnatural speed and strength to his advantage in the fight. It was all Luciano could do to stay alive, dodging and hiding when he could. As he hid behind a gargoyle he let a breath out in relief. It had been a few minutes since the beast had lost him, he was safe now. A paw that appeared on his leg and the ground suddenly being taken from him proved he was wrong. The monster held him over the edge of the castle, the dark and wet courtyard below filled with running men as the furniture chased them away with cries of victor.
"Matthew…" Julchen's voice was soft and behind them now and the monster turned to look at her with surprise and, what Luciano nearly threw up at seeing, love. "You aren't a killer. Put the coward down, he can't hurt us anymore." The monster hesitated, its eyes flickering between the lighter and darker violet, before settling on the lighter color and dropping Luciano gently on the roof. It made its way up to Julchen and it made Luciano burn with fury. How dare this thing take the perfect woman away! With a final swing, he stabbed the knife into the monster's back, sliding through what he knew to be ribs. It roared and threw him back in pain. Luciano could only scream as he fell to his death
"Matthew!" Julchen yelled and hurried over to him. Matthew was lying on his side, having slid onto a different balcony, the one that led to the room with the rose, his breathe slow and shaky. She was at his side in an instant, trying to see what damage had been done. Moving his hand, she saw blood dripping out of a wound that had gone through his back to his front. She covered her mouth in horror.
"You… came back… to me?" Matthew asked between huffs of breathe that had to hurt. She took his hand to her face and nodded, her red eyes pooling over with tears.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"I'm… I'm a monster…"
"You aren't a monster. You're the most caring person I know. You apologize when you do something wrong, you care about your servants, and even your temper is rather adorable." She smiled waterly. "Which is why you have to be okay. You can't die on me you understand? We'll have Feli and Toris help you. You just have to stay with us."
"Y-You think I'm good…?"
"You're wonderful." Matthew smiled shyly at her, a true smile that made the tears come faster. "Now we need to get you inside."
He tried to stand up but stopped at the pain. "Ow! N-Nope can't get up...It h-hurts too much."
"Then don't. If it hurts that much it won't help to move. Please just stay put. I don't want you dying on me. If you do I'm going to find you in the afterlife and kill you in there."
He laughed softly. "W-Well then I hope that if I do… d-die there will be enough souls where I'm going to have a th-thousand years… before you get to me."
"I hate you." She sobbed into his chest.
"That m-may be the… biggest lie you've ever told."
She looked up and dried her eyes. "Well it may be the biggest but at least it won't almost start a war."
"W-Well I'm sure that'll be an interesting story for when I get b-better."
"And just incase you don't live I don't really want my last words to you to be 'but at least it won't almost start a war.' Even though that would be a hilarious thing for you to remember me by in the afterlife I don't want it. What I want my last words to be to you are I love you Matthew." She kissed him on the head just as the last petal fell off the rose. He stopped breathing and she panicked. "Matthew! You can't just die! You promised- well actually you didn't promise but I don't want you to die!" She placed her head on his furry chest and sobbed some more.
She didn't see the servants come to the door, watching with unshed tears as their master seemed to pass on. She didn't see the glimmer that Emil gave off. And she didn't really see the plethora of lights and sparks of magic dance in the air until the wind started to pick up and take Matthew away from her. She watched as they wove around him in a cocoon of warm light, until he was slowly heading toward the ground again, or at least someone wearing his clothes was. This new person who was lying in Matthews clothes had light blond hair, a tinge lighter than Francis', a single curl sticking out from it. The person stirred, and slowly, familiar violet eyes met Julchen's own.
"Julchen? Ugh, my head hurts..." The person groaned, putting a hand to his forehead. He went still with shock before removing his hand and looking at it. "I have hands! I have hands that don't have hair! Yes! The curse is broken!" Realizing Julchen was there he stopped and looked at her, a pale blush flitting across his face.
That blush is so adorable, she thought, I have to make him blush more!
"Matthew?" She whispered.
"Yes?"
"You're not wearing a shirt."
He looked down and blushed even more. "And you are right. I'm going to go get one."
She grabbed his wrist. "Oh I don't care about if you have one on or not." She pulled him into a kiss.
A cheer came up from the servants who had changed back into humans. Matthew pulled away from her. "Now that I'm thoroughly embarrassed I'm going to go put on a shirt." He kissed her on the forehead and ran into the castle.
Feliciano was admiring his human body in one of the mirrors. His hand curled around the one stray curing the right side of his head as he tried to flatten it. Monica came up behind him and lay her head on his shoulder.
"Stop messing with your hair. You look fine." She whispered in his ear.
He stopped messing with his hair and turned towards her. "You~a don't look~a so bad yourself~a." His smile widened as she blushed softly. He kissed her quickly lips. "Now~a nobody can~a call me a coward about~a that." He pushed a strand of short blond hair out of her face.
"No no they can't." Monica said pulling him into another kiss.
Heracles looked up from cleaning the front desk of the bookshop. At the door was a small man with black hair and brown eyes. Heracles yawned. "Already time to move on is it?"
"Sorry I know you like it here." The man had an Asian accent.
"No it's fine. I knew that I would have to leave sooner or later. But I don't feel like I did much this time to help, I didn't even get a chance to speak with Oliver."
"Well, you did enough. Tao says we need to move on to the next story."
End of Story 2
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