Disclaimer: Crimson Peak is Guillermo Del Toro's property, Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke, The Lodgers to Brian O'Malley. Emma, Constance and I are self-inserts. The old lady from Camden Market belongs to Chibimelodee.
Summary: Ghosts are real and everything happens for a reason. Is this why Marina and her friends find themselves trapped in Allerdale Hall a few days away from Christmas?
Author's note: This story was written for me by « Emma » and « Constance » from Chibimelodee as an Advent Calendar two years ago. Please note that all three of us are french and while we do know our way around English, we might still make some mistakes. Feel free to let us know! As the three girls are french and start to speak from this chapter, I'll put the translations of their sentences right next to them so you know what they say.
At the Candlelight
Chapter 14 : Please, do stop the music !
Practically running in the stairs, Emma went fastly to the second floor, her friend, the angel and the two hunters on her heels. She truly needed to see that her sister was safe… Possibly as far away as possible from the « petit baron » ! She could feel in her gits something was off about him but her stubborn sibling didn't seem to want to stay away from him… A serious discussion with Constance was becoming to be urgent !
She urged to the door and froze completely when the door opened on a very strange scene. Dean went crashing into her, then Sam, Marina and Sean. They almost fall on each other, the petite brunette having stopped too abruptly.
In front of them stood Constance, her eyes fixed on a small music-play and a very bewildered Baronet, his mouth wide open. But what was truly striking was the fact that he was currently wearing Constance's unicorn earpods ! Sir Thomas Sharpe, Baronet, owner of this wrecked house was a damn unicorn ! And it didn't seem to bother him the least… What seemed to bother him was what was currently playing in his ears.
« How can you possibly think this is music ? » he asked Constance, looking dazed.
« What ? What's wrong with Bohemian Rhapsody ? Let me tell you Queen is far better than the Beatles ! » Constance laughed.
I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come easy go will you let me go
Bismillah, no we will not let you go, let him go
Bismillah, we will not let you go, let him go
Oh oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me for me for me
The sound of electric guitar – a sound he wished he would never hear again – made him jump and he quickly put the earpods out. « I may understand why you like the first part but the second ?... Constance, are you sure you are alright ?... What is the Queen doing with some beetles ?... You're talking nonsense… »
Constance laughed a little and asked : « Oh parce que tu préfères peut-être :
(Oh because you might prefer...)
You say yes, I say no
You say stop and I say go, go, go
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello, hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello, hello, hello…
et je ne parle pas de leur magnifique Yellow Submarine where they all live in ! »
(And I'm not talking of their beautiful Yellow Submarine where they all live in !)
The chorus of « yellow submarine, yellow submarine ! » singing by a very amused Emma resounded behind the couple, making them aware of the new arrivals. « Clearly, it's better than « I want to ride my bicycle…» ». The two sisters laughed in front of the completely lost Baronet.
« Put back your unicorn ears, Petit Baron ! » Emma urged and, too dazed to speak, the Baronet obeyed. The tiny woman took the music player off her sister's hands and began to search frantically. A huge grin graced her lips and she push the button.
If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe
I'd been married long time ago
Where did you come from, where did you go?
Where did you come from, Cotton-Eye Joe?
Thomas frowned at the singer's voice, clearly not used to such a voice. Then, the awful electrical sound began again, pulsing awful rhythm. The adding sounds of banjos and fiddles make the whole song a little less unbearable but, in a nutshell, Thomas really didn't like it at all ! Nonetheless, Emma seemed to really like this song, moving her hips even if she couldn't even hear the blasted music.
« Qu'est-ce que tu lui fais écouter ? » her sister asked, a little worried. « Il n'a pas l'air d'apprécier du tout ! »
(What are you making him listen to? He does not seem to appreciate it at all!)
« Cotton-Eye Joe » Emma replied, shrugging, continuing to dance while Dean get closer to her slowly. « I thought he might like some country song… Oh, Petit Baron, did you ever hear a donkey sing ? »
Merciful to the ghost's ear, she ended the country song and turned to pick Dean's cellphone from his trousers' pocket. Thomas frowned, disconcerted. Was it proper for a lady to search in a gentleman's pants pocket ? Well, Dean wasn't truly a gentleman, but…
Seconds later, Thomas almost believed his ears were bleeding with the weird sound coming out from the small box Emma was holding. How could someone sing like this ? And the instruments ? What were they ?... What about the lyrics ? In what language were they ?
rak-ca-caj
a rabidabi dynnga
labrec tandyn landen-lando
aba rikkata parik pariba
ribi-ribi-ribi-ris tanden lango
jaba rel lasdel landej jalo
a raba-rebe-raba-rubu-dyvdyv javu
baryz darlyl lazdej lando
badyga daga-daga-daga du du
dej jalo
The ghost felt relieved when he saw Sam's bewildered face. Apparently, he wasn't the only one who dislike such ignominy. Even Dean was shocked, his hands frozen at mere inches from Emma's waist. Constance was trying not to laugh but failed miserably, bringing Marina, Emma and herself to the edge of laughing tears.
« Enfin, Emma… » Marina chastised gently and took the phone out of her hands. Beetlejuice, who had been previously in the safety of her arms, was currently walking toward Thomas. « Tu ne vois pas que tu le perturbes avec Holly Dolly… Attends, je vais chercher quelque chose de plus classique… ».
(Come on Emma, don't you see you are disturbing him with Holly Dolly... Wait, I'll search for something more classical...)
The little dog sat on the ghost's feet. Thomas tried his best to ignore the small animal. A new song began to float in the room. A song Thomas found to his taste… At last ! Humanity hadn't lost all concept of music after all !
Dori me interimo, adapare, dori me
Ameno Ameno
Latire, latiremo
Dori me
Ameno
Omenare imperavi ameno
Dimere Dimere matiro
Matiremo
Ameno
A weird rhythm pulsated behind the chorus but, all in all, it was quite pleasant. Even Emma, who has the more odd taste in music, closed her eyes, her head swinging with the song. Dean's hands snaked at her waist and soon, he was hugging her close. Out of nowhere, Sean went near Marina, taking gently her hand, stroking comforting circles on the back of her hand. Constance looked closely at Thomas and felt a strike of jealousy, the terrible distance between them hurting her. It was quite strange he only touched her in presence of her sister and her friend, never near the American hunters…
« Ladies » Dean sighed in the crook of Emma's neck, making her shiver. « Sir the Ghost needs to discover real music ! Give me back my phone… » Disentangled Emma from his loving embrace, he took his phone back and quickly put on his favorite song, speakers at maximum volume.
Loud electronic guitar resounded, making Thomas cringed. Not again with the instrument from Hell ! Emma laughed when she saw Dean made some air-guitar with his leg as the lead singer began to sing :
Living easy, living free
Season ticket on a one-way ride
Asking nothing, leave me be
Taking everything in my stride
Don't need reason, don't need rhyme
Ain't nothing I would rather do
Going down, party time
My friends are gonna be there too
I'm on the highway to hell
On the highway to hell
Highway to hell
I'm on the highway to hell
« You cannot possibly call this insufferable sound music, can you ? » the ghost shivered disgustingly, looking with horror at Constance. Marina was now trying to teach Sean how to dance such music while Emma and Dean were glued together, singing off-key at the top of their lungs. Sam went awkwardly near the bed, shifting his weight to one foot to another.
« Wanna dance ? » the tall Winchester asked, offering his hand at Constance.
She looked at him with wide eyes and mumbled :
« Je ne danse pas ! » He took some steps back, his head low.
(I don't dance!)
Thomas resisted the urge to laugh at such a rejection. Of course, she didn't dance with such music, considering it was actually music ! If only it was a waltz…
« What happened to him ? » the Baronet asked to change the subject, showing Sean still covered with red clay. Dean quickly shut the phone down and mentioned at Marina to explain.
« Sean fell in a clay vat after a dark ghost of a woman hit him with a shovel… » she sighed, holding firmly at the Angel's hand.
« Lucille… » Thomas grumbled between his teeth. As if the mere sound of her name could bring her out, soft notes of a piano resounded from downstairs. The ghost paled and vanished quickly, leaving very confused guests.
Bobby grumbled something incomprehensible in his beard when he finally heard footsteps heading to him. What could they possibly have done all this time ? He had been a hunter long enough to know inspecting a house this big shouldn't take more than one hour, especially with three groups of two people… But then again, he also knew Sam and Dean and their passion to snog at the worst moment possible. The old hunter rolled his eyes and waited patiently for them to come.
Not after a minute later, they all came into the living room, out of breath. The brothers had their guns in their hands, ready to fire at anything.
« Bobby, was there a ghost in here ? » Sam asked, looking at every corner of the room.
« Apart from the bloody piano which started to play all by itself, everything was normal ! » he grumbled, sitting on the couch with no grace whatsoever. « What took you so long ? »
« Our dear host had kidnapped miss I-love-ghosts over there… » Dean replied, waving at Constance.
« By the way » her sister interjected quickly « why did the Petit Baron kidnap you for ? Don't tell me it was to listen to music… »
Constance sighed before answering in a whisper :
« Il voulait me rappeler que mon choix vestimentaire n'est pas des plus convenables pour une lady… en d'autres mots, il n'aime pas qu'une femme porte des pantalons… Qu'est-ce qu'il peut être vieux jeu, parfois… Oh, et il est jaloux… de Sam ! Il n'était pas contant que je passe du temps seule avec lui… et surtout dans une telle tenue !... et il a aussi ajouté que Sam était complètement inconscient de me faire aller au grenier… parce que c'est dangereux et que Pamela est encore en colère… »
(He wanted to remind me that my taste in clothes wasn't very proper for a lady... In other words, he doesn't like a woman wearing trousers... He can be so old school sometimes... And he's jealous of Sam ! He wasn't happy that he spent time with me alone and in such an outfit ! He also added Sam was completely mad to tale me to the attic because it's dangerous and Pamela's still angry...)
« Et tu peux m'expliquer comment il s'est retrouvé déguisé en licorne ? » Emma asked.
(And can you tell me how he got disguised as a unicorn?)
« Ah ça… c'est de ta faute ! Il t'a vu écouter de la musique ce matin dans la cuisine et il se demandait… »
(Ah, that ! That's your fault, he saw you listening to music this morning in the kitchen and was wondering...)
Bobby shrugged, not interested by the sisters' discussion, and asked : « Why the hell is our feathered deadweight covered with blood ? »
« It's clay… » Sam sighed. « Marina and he have been attacked by the ghost of some Lucille woman, according to our dear host. »
« Lucille est la sœur de Thomas » Constance clarified, looking at her sister and her friend with desesperation. « C'est elle qui l'a tué… »
« Lucille, you say ? » Bobby asked, his interest strung. He scratched his head, thoughtfully. « Lucille and Thomas… Reminds me of that ol' tale of Crimson Peak… »
« Crimson Peak ? » Constance asked, dazed. « Thomas m'a dit que cet endroit s'appelait Crimson Peak… A cause de l'argile qui teinte la neige en rouge… »
(Thomas told me this place was called Crimson Peak because the clay stains the snow red...)
Bobby watched Constance with wide eyes, clearly not understanding a single work she had said. Sighing, Marina went to sit near the old hunter and declared :
« I'll be your translator... For both of you ! » She winked at Constance and continued : « Constance said Thomas told her this place is called Crimson Peak because the clay… »
« … stains the snow bright red. » Bobby finished before Marina could. She nodded slowly. « Bloody hell ! » the hunter yelled. « And I thought ol' great-grandma was insane… This… This is all real ! I'm a bloody idijt ! »
« What are you talking about, Bobby ? Do you know something ? » Sam asked urgently.
His father's figure nodded sadly and dived his tired eyes deep in the fireplace as he continued to mumble. « Can't believe this place's still standing… Poor Nana Edith who had to live here… »
« Wait, Edith ? » Marina interrupted. « Thomas mentioned an Edith… I think she didn't like him very much… »
« Didn't like him ? » Bobby shrieked. « She bloody LOVED the git ! But he was only thinking with his dick ! Say that he's my fucking great-grandpa… »
« WHAT ? » the Winchesters brothers, Marina and Emma exclaimed at the same time. Constance tugged at the hem of her sister's shirt in a desperate attempt for her to translate what the old man had said but Emma was too caught up in Bobby's explication to answer her…
« It's a long story… Nana Edith used to tell it to me at bedtime… » the old hunter said, slowly taking off his beloved cap. « I always found it strange to tell ghost's stories to a child before he gets to sleep… »
« Spare us the details, Bobby » Dean urged. « Go straight to the point ! »
Bobby glared hard at Dean and resumed :
« Once upon a time, young nana Edith fell in love with a very charismatic English Baronet. But, great-great-grandpa didn't approve him… But luckily for the English git, great-great-grandpa was discovered dead after he proposed to nana Edith… So he married Edith before the funeral and, while the ground was still fresh on great-great grandpa's grave, they took the boat to his house… The poor gal found herself in a wrecked mansion but she didn't care 'cause she loved him so much… The fact was, he had a sister and his sister was really jealous of him. She didn't even want nana Edith to have the keys to her new house… One night, nana Edith woke up to strange noises. Her new husband wasn't in their bed so she went out and saw a ghost… Did I tell you ol' nana Edith could see ghost ?... When her mum died – she was ten at that time – she saw her ghost who warned her against a place called Crimson Peak. But she didn't pay any attention to that… Anyway, she saw other ghosts in the damn house and went to her hubby to know if there had been some mysterious death in the damn place. He didn't answer, too occupied to work on his new clay extractor… So nana Edith stole the keys to her sister-in-law and went into the basement. There, she found a clay vat and three huge trunks. It wasn't too hard to put one and one together – because, you see, nana Edith was a real genius – and she quickly discovered that her new spouse was a kind of black widow… His sister found targets so he could seduce the poor girls for their fortune. He would marry and then poison them to hit the jackpot… He had already killed three wives and she was to be the fourth. You see, since she had come to Crimson Peak, she wasn't feeling well. She was coughing blood… Audiotapes of his dead wives told her it was in the tea… »
Bobby paled and put his hand on his mouth.
« TEA ! Bollocks !... It must be why the cup flew out of Marina's hand… Shit ! I drank some… Dear old pops mustn't care about me very much… Anyways, all nana Edith wanted to do was to flee out of this haunted place. But one of the ghost wanted her to see one last thing before she could leave… It led her in his sister's bedroom where he was… He was fucking his own sister ! »
Emma gasped. « Je savais qu'il était pas net… »
(I knew he was weird.)
« Quoi ? » Constance asked urgently. « Dis-moi que c'est juste une façon de parler et qu'il n'a pas dit ce que j'ai cru qu'il avait dit ! »
(What ? Tell me it's just a way of talking and that he didn't say what I believe he said !)
Emma waved at her sister to shut up so Bubby could tell the rest of the story.
« Poor nana Edith was shocked… Her hubby's sister – slash lover – pushed her off the stairs when she fell. But she didn't die… Her childhood friend, Alan McMichael, came before her sister-in-law could finish her. But the sister urged her brother to kill him before he could take nana Edith out of the house… Nana Edith put out the gory stuffs so, in a nutshell, all I know is her psychopath of hubby was killed by his sister and nana Edith succeeded to kill her with the help of his ghost… Nana Edith ended up marrying Poppy Alan, even if she was pregnant with her first husband's child, my grandfather… »
Everyone was in awe with this revelation, the whole room silent after the old man's speech. Marina's little voice stopped the awkwardness of the silence, just to bring another :
« So, if I get this right, Thomas and his sister lured women here for their money… »
« Don't forget the best part, love… » Dean winked and looked in Constance's eyes. « He was fucking his own sister ! »
Constance looked at her sister with pleading eyes, tears threatening to fall.
« Emma… Qu'est-ce que… Dis-moi que j'ai mal compris… Dis-moi… »
(Emma, what the... Tell me I got it wrong, tell me...)
Emma put a reassuring hand on her sibling's shoulder before hugging her close.
« Je suis désolée Constance… »
(I'm sorry, Constance...)
The young woman began to sob hard, clinging at her sister for comfort. And, even if Emma had never like Thomas, she consoled her the best she could, whispering soothing words in Constance's ears. Marina went slowly near the two sisters, trying to bring some peace to Constance by drawing comforting circles on her back. Everything just clicked together in the eldest woman's mind. The question he didn't want to answer… The things he eluded…
But I know
I know your love is just a lie
It's nothing but a lie
So don't try to say you're sorry
Or try to make it right
And don't waste your breath
Because it's too late, it's too late
« We're sorry, Constance… » Sam whispered awkwardly, putting a nervous hand in his long hair. « But, it's best you know… Would be kinda odd if you dated the great-grandfather of Bobby… I just… I just wished you had learned otherwise… Maybe I should have just let Sean told you earlier… »
« You knew ? » Constance asked, believed.
Her tears had stopped and she was looking at Sam dazed before she punched violently his nose and began to slap his chest over and over and over. Sam's nose was now bleeding profusely. Nevertheless, she kept slapping, hitting, scratching him the best she could.
« Easy there, birdie… » Dean grumbled, taking her away, dragging her by her waist.
Her face shew nothing but anger and sadness.
« Let me go ! » she shrieked like a madwoman and, when he finally released her, she rushed upstairs. Marina and Emma looked at each other with wide eyes, not completely sure what they had witnessed.
« Je vais aller lui parler » Marina offered gently. « Reste ici et essaie d'en savoir plus sur la maison… »
(I'll talk to her. Stay here and try to learn more about the house...)
« I come with you ! » Sean interjected, following her in the stairs. « I should apologize to her… and explain certain things… »
« Time to have a discussion with the dear ghost of pops… » Bobby grumbled between his teeth, getting his flask off and getting ready to drink a gulp so he could gather the courage to face his ancestor. But, unfortunately, it was empty… What a fucking great hunt !
« Okay but first, you have to let me have a word with him… » Emma mumbled, rolling up her sleeves. «No one, except me, hurts my sister ! »