Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise, I just use their creations to have my wicked way with them. No copyright infringement is intended.
LadySharkey1 rocks my world by being the most amazing, kick-ass beta I could ever imagine.
Belmont Island, Maine
Friday, March 16, 1961
3 PM
It was exactly ten years later that a familiar group gathered on the dock at Rosslyn Harbor.
This time, however, the air between the four adults was much lighter and, in stark contrast to the pile of high-end suitcases that had littered the dock the last time, neither guest had brought any luggage, a fact the boatman could definitely appreciate.
Though eager to pay their final respects to the man and woman who had brought about so many changes in their lives, none of them wanted to remain on the island for a minute longer than absolutely necessary.
As Belmont Island loomed up in the distance, the four survivors of that weekend of horrors stared at it while a little further down the very welcome sound of two children playing noisily with a ball offered a welcome distraction from their feelings of unease.
"Even after all these years, this place still gives me the creeps!" Rose muttered, stubbing out a cigarette as she slowly exhaled the smoke.
She'd changed over the past ten years. In fact, one could definitely say that she'd come into a second bloom after having been freed from the shackles of her unhappy marriage. Her figure was back to its former hourglass shape but the biggest change was in the way she carried herself. Her face no longer bore that hard, unhappy look and, though her posture was still confident, it no longer held that aggressive stance it carried ten years ago.
"What? The famous Hollywood scream queen is scared of ghosts?" Jasper chuckled, pushing his hat a little further back on his head as he shrugged. "I'd rather not be here myself, either, but well…what can you do about it?"
"Here they come," Rose announced, her attention distracted from the faint image of the castle looming up in the distance as a luxury car rolled to a stop close to them.
They both smiled, inching forward as the two missing members of their party made their appearance. They might not have all become close friends after surviving their ordeal, but the years that lay between then and present day had been nothing like the ten that passed before them. There had been cards, occasional letters and the odd visit whenever one of them was in the neighborhood.
Their shared history had linked their lives together in a way no amount of time and healing could break. Though each and every one of them had found his or her own way to cope with the gruesome scenes they'd witnessed, it was only in those whose eyes had seen it too that they found true understanding of the scars that weekend had left behind.
There was always a strange atmosphere hanging over those gatherings, though. Like the ghosts of the many deaths they'd seen together still hung over them. None of them ever spoke about it, but still, it might have been one of the reasons why they had never sought a closer bond than that of mere acquaintances.
Well, except for Bella and Edward, of course.
Out of all the parts he had played in his life, the role of husband and father was the one that suited Edward best. After he had been skillfully nursed back to health by Bella's loving hands, aided by the somewhat clumsy but always heartfelt efforts of her son, he'd returned to Hollywood to serve out the remainder of his studio contract and sever all ties with the world he had come to loathe.
Funny enough, the person he sold his house to was someone he had come to know quite well. After their ordeal at Belmont, Rosalie Hale had wasted no time to turn her life around. Like Edward, she'd refused to stay in a place that had been linked to so many unhappy memories. And so as soon as she'd given Emmett a decent funeral and shed the extra pounds her unhappiness had put on her, she'd moved to the place she'd always dreamed of ending up.
Hollywood.
Edward, happily on his way out of the life she was embarking on, had helped her find her footing around town. He'd pointed out the hotspots and introduced her to all of the acquaintances and studio connections that could help her get her foot in the door.
It didn't take long for her career to take off, like it should have done all those years before. After all, Rose was still a stunning woman and one hell of an actress. She soon made a name for herself as Hollywood's perfect damsel in distress; a name that landed her the main role in almost every big horror production that was made.
Fate, it seemed, was not completely without irony.
Hollywood life suited her to a T and it showed in every movie and picture Edward and Bella caught seen.
At long last, Edward and Bella were married on the 16th of March 1952; exactly one year after they met at the dock in Rosslyn Harbor, and a week after Edward had been freed from his Hollywood ties. It was a small affair with only a few trusted friends and family members and one very happy boy in attendance.
Life away from the limelight suited Edward. A chance attendance at a board meeting for Black Industries revealed that he had a real knack for business and an understanding of the market. A permanent seat on the board had soon followed as Bella—who had only ever forced an interest in the business of Black Enterprises because she needed to look after her son's inheritance—started to phase out of her late husband's affairs.
Her free time was devoted to charity—and to the two new additions to their family.
Michael Carlisle Masen had been born two years after their escape from Belmont, and his little sister, Angela Esme, following two years after him. As they grew, Edward and Bella did their best to instill into them all the good traits they had encountered in their namesakes and warn them away from any flaws that might have clung to those names. They were left now, along with their big brother, in their mansion outside of Seattle, Washington.
Safe and none the wiser about their parents' frightening past.
Edward and Bella had both known the day would come when they would have to return to Belmont. As hard as they'd worked to put it behind them, it was a book that still had its final chapter missing. That day, as their car slowly but steadily drove towards the two waiting figures on the dock, they knew they were going to write the epilogue to what had been the most haunting chapters of their lives.
And even though there was preciously little to draw them back, the unwritten ending wasn't the only thing that brought them to Rosslyn Harbor that day.
They had a task to complete.
"I wonder if their souls will be at rest now," Bella muttered, staring out the window into the dreary, foggy morning.
Edward shrugged, his eyes briefly traveling to the black marble urn resting at his feet before following his wife's gaze. He'd never really believed in ghost stories or anything else pertaining to an afterlife. "It's what they both would have wanted."
As soon as they exited the car, they were reunited with the only two people who knew exactly how they were feeling.
"Edward!" Jasper was all broad smiles as he patted the other man on the shoulder. "It's good to see you again!"
Edward smiled back as he returned the gesture. "Jasper. Still haunting the Broadway stages?"
"You know what they say," Jasper countered. "You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Though nowadays I'm more for the shadows than the light." He chuckled at the confused faces around him. "I decided to follow into Carlisle's footsteps; I'm a director now." Chuckling again, Jasper nervously scratched the back of his head. "It was my wife's idea, actually."
"You're married?" Bella's and Rosalie's eyes couldn't have grown bigger if they tried.
"Congrats!" Edward was the first to recover from the shock of seeing the once so ascetic actor give up his solitary existence. "Finally found one mad enough to put up with you, huh?"
Jasper snickered. "I merely took your advice."
"And how is life in Hollywood for you, Rose?" Bella asked as the men engaged in an abundance of 'old married man' talk.
"It suits me much better than my previous life," Rose replied, "though I have to admit, it can be lonely at times. Edward sure was right about that."
"You could always follow Jasper's suit," Bella offered.
Rose shook her head. "No, married life is not for me. You know what they say: one bitten, twice shy." She sighed, her face hardening as the boatman stalked past them on his way to the boat. "Let's get this show on the road. The sooner we get there, the faster we can get the hell away from this place."
"My sentiments exactly." Bella pursed her lips, never letting go of Edward's hand as he helped her aboard.
Their journey towards the island was quiet; each and every one of them battling the ghosts of their pasts as slowly but surely the familiar shape of Belmont castle came into view. When the boat finally docked at the jetty on which Edward had nearly lost his life, his hands were shaking and his palms sweaty as he tried to pull himself together.
Reminding himself that he had a job to do was the only thing that made him move, offering his sweet wife assistance as she disembarked.
"This is it, then," she muttered, her hand squeezing his as they slowly progressed towards the castle in a solemn procession. Keeping her eyes firmly trained on the front door and not on the spot where they'd found her husband more alive than dead, barely, she too tried to focus on why they had returned that day.
Esme had never really recovered from the poison that had been meant to kill her. In time, she'd recovered enough to take the steps necessary to officially divorce her husband and claim the inheritance Carlisle had left her.
She never returned to it, though.
Neither would she ever leave its sight, even though all four of her fellow-survivors had offered her their homes at one point.
Using some of the money he'd left her with, Esme bought a nice little house in the harbor. On clear days, the view out onto the bay allowed her to see the place where she'd been both so very happy and intensely sad at the same time. Would she have been content knowing that she'd given it new purpose or would she have mourned the loss of her former life?
They would never know.
What they did know, though, was that since the last time they'd stood on its soil, Belmont Island had been completely transformed. On the outside, the house was still the same, imposing castle it had been back in the day and on the inside it still held all the ornate fixtures and fittings of old. But its current use as an artist's retreat had made the place come alive.
It was quite shock to its four guests, who had known it only as a bleak, desolate and haunting place.
The head of staff knew of their arrival and, whether or not she had told the other people inhabiting the island, the four of them were left alone as they rounded the castle and came upon the terrace; that same place that had played such a role in their lives.
"Do you have it... them?" Jasper fumbled. His lips pressed into a thin, anxious line as he looked at Edward.
No matter how much it had been transformed, none of them wanted to linger on the island for longer than absolutely necessary.
After all, it had taken them many years to even get that far.
Edward nodded, producing the huge urn that held the remains of the two people who had brought the four of them together again and had shaped their futures.
It had been Esme's dying wish. In her lifetime, she had never dared to go back to the island but in death, she wanted to be reunited with the love of her life.
Reunited and scattered together on the cliffs of Belmont.
"Does anyone feel the need to speak?" Rose asked as Edward unscrewed the lid of the urn holding the two reunited ashes.
It was Jasper who was the only one able to speak as his friend scatted the ashes onto the cliffs. "I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part. And mine a sad one."
With that very fitting quote from the play that had cemented all their individual life stories together, Edward scattered the ashes; the wind picking up the dust that once was their beloved director and his cherished wife and fanning it out like a curtain closing on a final performance.
It was the end of two lives as well as the end of their own tales of woe.
The procession leading back to the jetty was every bit as solemn as the one in which they'd came, but if one had taken a good look at the four people walking together, one would have noticed that each one walked a little lighter…like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders.
And to those who knew them, it made perfect sense.
Lifted were the ties that bound them to the past. Ahead of them lay a boat that would take them back to dry land…
To their futures.
THE END
As we reach the end of this story I would like to thank my fabulous beta, LadySharkey1, from the bottom of my heart for being there for me throughout this one and, of course, all of you for giving this one a shot and sticking with me throughout my killing spree. I'm very excited to announce that I will start posting my new story, 'The Reaper', next week. It's another period mystery piece but with less murders.
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.