Return To Hill House
Disclaimers: I don't own the story or the characters, the plot line belongs to me, everything else belongs to Shirley Jackson and Jan De Bont.
Warnings: With this chapter I'm going to bring back the argument that Eleanor had with her sister in the movie, only this time it's been reversed, as everything that happened the movie, had things gone differently and she and Luke had survived, as her sister realized they would be screwed with her friends and learning the truth from her mother while she does it. While doing it as the couple learn the side effects of what the fine print in the will meant.
Chapter 2: Telling The Websters
"Dad I thought you were gone!" Jane said in shock and a third message wrote itself out as a fourth put itself under it and she smiled as she read out the message to them. "Wait, you better let me do his and you cover hers." I said and she nodded smiling. "To answer your remark young lady, about my being gone you thought wrong Jane, I've always been here, but you should remember what your mother and I used to teach you, because your sister certainly saw what we were really saying."
"That key lesson in church when we were discussing theology was 'That the people you love will always be with you as long as you remember the things they taught you, and you'll see them in another form if you look closely enough, you'll see them inside yourself if you look hard enough.', We're Catholic, but the afterlife is stronger than you think, especially if you believe in God and heaven."
"Your sister remembered this and it took fifteen months, but she learned she could talk to us like this, your great grandmother, your grandmother and your grandparents on my side of the family, and she's able to see us, the only ones who knew this were the ones who understand the paranormal and see it as more than just a hoax, but another piece to life after death."
"You see for someone who's got this gift of second sight, they're able to see what others can't, you sister took electives in everything that had to do with the supernatural and theology, and encorporated it into her majors. The truth is your mother took it more seriously with your sister, because she was training her to take up the mantle of her job, before she took her on her first raid." I read out and and she took the rest of it.
"Your father's right young lady we were never truly gone, we've always been here, I may have been gone for two months, but your sister wished she could talk to me face to face and after twelve months in learning information about what I used to do when I was alive. She realized she could talk to us like this, and with my added gene in her blood, she could see us and your grandparents."
"The only ones who knew about this and had the chance to converse with us were my friends in Concord and the quintet. They got used to it and don't care that she's got this ability, David especially. My job, before I died was I'm a parapsychologist, and I acted on three different characters with my team, the ghostbuster duo and Tangina in Poltergeist, that's who I was and am."
"But everything you didn't see before is being shown to you now and the truth of that first will is being given, because you two have crossed the point of no return where your father and I are concerned Jane. Honey go ahead, show them the boxes and and tell them the truth of what they screwed themselves out of, because every asset liquidated, is a piece of your part of the inheritance deducted, so go ahead baby." she read out and looked at them, smiling dangerously.
"Dad, Mr. Dudley said you were also from Concord?" she asked and a third message wrote itself down, it's tone had a gentle smile in it as I hid a mine as I read it out to her. "Yeah baby, that's right, he, Jack, David and Adam were my quintet back in school, we've been friends for years, so they knew the most about my added gifts, because they saw me use it a few times. Between your mother and me, we gave you several gifts that most skeptics see as just science fiction, but had this been the book, we'd have raised you in the same way."
"You'd be going to a school with others like yourself and we could talk about it, without it getting awkward. Your friends and David don't care, because once something happens, like what happened at the manor, it changes your perspectives for life and while I'm on the subject of the will if you check mine, there's added information covering this, the issues of witches, wiccans and the supernatural are all true baby, Concord itself shared a history that was like Salem, like Tom told you son and with that fact in mind."
"Massachusetts is one of the oldest colonies in America and they date back to 1700's, so they take anything with the supernatural seriously, because both towns had a history of magic and witch trials in them. My family dates back twenty generations in the supernatural, but like Caroline, my bloodline was completely pure of evil, and we used our gifts to protect people."
"Early stages have it getting a bit out of hand though when you're younger then twelve, which explains why you saw things go flying on occasion growing up, that wasn't a ghost, your added ability kicked in when you were a cub and when you lost your temper it threw something across the room. You'll learn some more later, but you better break it to them now." I read out and chuckled and I looked at her with a smile on my face.
"Well that explains why the pillow got thrown at me, you psychically threw the pillow when you were going at it." I said and she chuckled at that. "So long as I keep that under control we're fine, but at this rate I got to get it under control now." she said and I nodded as we looked at each other. "Truth be told Jane, the reason mom favored me is because I have every single one of her gifts and some of dad's by blood."
"You ever wonder why I took her stories so seriously, why I understand the supernatural and why of all the men mom could have chosen, she chose David?" she asked and Jane shook her head as I watch her start shaking as watched her firmly as we refocused on this as she looked at them sternly as she said it. "Here's the truth now of why I wound up with both boxes, because evidently dad was from a family background similar to mom's, and they combined both wills together into one when before they passed at the time."
"And why I gained the one after eighteen months recovery as I learned to use my ability. But when each generation of the Craines created the wills, they created two Jane, one a fake and the other a real one, the fake was given to the lawyer and the chosen testing began to see who the good egg was and who the bad egg was. If they acted the way I do, they gained the entire fortune, but they act like you and they only get a tenth of it."
"You just proved you're the bad egg and marital heir last year by your attitudes, in fact, this was no coincidence I met David at all, it was planned, she wanted me to marry him, because she chose him automatically, as you heard her say, she handpicked him herself for me, because he's everything I remember in dad and grandpa and with that in mind."
"You don't approve of him or the quartet, but she does and with that, you have no leg to stand on any more and as to why. You just flunked her tests of compassion, integrity and family, by doing what you do did, everything I did was exactly what she hoped for, and I got the real one now. You see I went to the bank today to talk to mother's accountant and he told me information that made it clear you crossed the line as to why."
"The will you got was a minor one to you, Mother written it to get you to see if you would take her at her word and take away her apartment and a dozen other things Jane, but I just checked her savings bond box and found a second one, written out to me. It says the executor does have the right to dispose of any and all personal property as he shall see fit, but family owned property and businesses, either here or anywhere."
"Everything that is worth money that the executor liquidates removes his claim to what's in the will that was created long before this will was created and lack of kindness, compassion and charity removes all rights to the true Inheritence of the bearer of this will if the heiress chooses selflessness she's entitled everything that the executor has lost his claims to by greed, disregarding his marital relative and chivalry."
"And these are her words to, 'As the writer of the first will this will is to state that the first was a test to see how my daughters would respond to it. This will was a Craine family test of integrity to see if once the writer had passed away they'd act civil and be kind to the family living with the writer or start harvesting the entire living quarters for anything that was worth a lot of money."
"Had the heirs passed the test they split the amount down the middle, but had one of the heirs passed it and the other flunked it, the entire family fortune goes to the heir that passed the test, while only a tenth of the amount went to the heir who flunked the test. So if my youngest has found this letter and my necklace and knows her true family history it is time to activate this will."
"As to that I hereby leave our family manor and all of my jewelry, my account, and the box of gold and silver in the savings bond box that this will was found in to my rightful heir Eleanor Caroline Vance, my daughter is the owner of Hill House and all properties that are owned by my great, great grandfather Hugh Craine. My darling Eleanor, our family history I never told you about till now, because it explains the necklace you always saw me with."
"But there is more to your name than you think baby, back when the house was created Hugh had been collecting children from the mills and though he loved children he and his wife couldn't have them and it turned him into a possessive maniac till it kills his first wife Renee and your great, grandmother died as she was fighting him, we were waiting for you to find that necklace."
"Because you were meant to finish what she started and if you've done that, you're the true heir of the house and every property he owned, you showed what you remember since you discovered your true lineage and fix our family home to make it a nice place to have children. There's more money from these properties than you'll ever know, because Hugh Craine has the savings bonds and textile modules in his study, buried in a trunk in the house."
"My daughter, there's trillions in gold and silver buried with this money and everything you learned about yourself, if you learned the true history of the house, it's time to return it to its beauty and magestic states again. I hereby leave the house to you, every property owned by Hugh Craine and the money that I was setting aside, in case I didn't survive to tell you this myself."
"If you find your future it's going to be connected to the house and everything I never told you my darling, you're my daughter, my heir and it's time to return you to what rightfully belongs to you. I'm sorry my baby, I was hard on you, because you weren't ready, till now for the burden you face. Our family is one of the powerful and rich families when he created the house, everything that is worth billions is at the family manor, and I'll give you the map to it soon."
"What you showed is the heart of your station that night you met him face to face, it's time to finish the job, if he's still hanging out in the manor it's time to get rid of him forever. The message on the doors was all 'ye who stands before these doors shall be judged.', and you and your friends had been judged innocent and spiritually strong, you showed everything you needed to."
"That's the act of true member of the Craine family, we were philanthropists once Hugh died, we showed compassion and helped people. You showed all that and more and you did exactly what you were supposed to do when you found Grandma's necklace. To destroy the evil you had to get him in front of the doors and let the demons judge him, that door was like the waying of the souls ritual of the Ancient Egyptians, that's what it was meant for."
"When you arrived and were standing in front of the door with your new friends, you were judged and passed the tests and you passed every test that the situation gave you. And this will is the deciding factor and you've inherited the entire family fortune now with what you've gone through Eleanor."
"As for you Jane Emily, with the act of marrying Lou out of wedlock and having a child with him, before marrying and you probably removed everything that is worth taking in my apartment all I leave to you is a tenth of what is in the family fortune and the money that you stole from my daughter by selling our apartment and everything that was worth thousands in my property."
"The first will was a test Jane Emily, the will had several key points written into it. 'The executor shall have the right to dispose of any and all person property as he shall see fit.' But whether you did was up to you young lady. It was you leave her the apartment and everything in it, or you liquidate the assets and and you lose everything this will concluded to you, and you flunked the test."
"Your sister showed the compassion of doing what a true member of the Craine clan would and she is exactly what an heir to a true dynasty should be and she, though is quiet, has more strength than you ever will. Her husband, if he was involved in her path has his own rights to the truth and he is my legal executor of the properties I'm leaving to your sister. Whoever she married was meant to be involved as is their friends if they all got chosen to cleanse our family home."
"To my son-in-law, if you met my daughter in her self discovering mission and used the knowledge of your expertise it's time to put it to use if she chose to be involved in what job you have, and you can further your studies by this too. The house has a horror story and haunted house look to it, that you discovered, but the true history lays buried in the walls of it. Every spot that you couldn't see is really a hidden passage if you wound up down stairs for some reason."
"I'm pleased that she found you and you and your family are hereby the legal owners of every property of the Concord mining industries and Hill House. With this will is buried the map to the layout of the house, my grandmother gave me a way to map it out and now I give it to you and my daughter if you plan to run your studies further in what module you created at the time."
"I was hoping for an exact match in my daughter's case and she found it when she found you, you, if I met you, before I passed, I would have approved automatically, she deserves a chance at happiness and you're it. You're the true marital heir to the properties that I'm leaving to my daughter and with that son, you're the legal executor of the family fortune and house now."
" You and Eleanor are the executors of every family property that is owned by the Craine family my dear, and if Hill House is safe now, work at taking care of it, I leave that property to you along with our entire family fortune. Which comes to forty five billion dollars in textile models and seven hundred million in gold and jewelry, while everything in the stocks and bonds comes to three hundred trillion, my darling Eleanor, it's time to finish what you started."
"You became me and my great grandmother by taking on the mantle my dear and with that, if he escapes whatever purgatory or hell you put him in, it's time to finish the job and destroy his soul forever. Whatever clues you gathered when visiting the house, you're correct, it happened in exactly the way you described it to your friends and husband. As to how I know that, my mother, your grandmother, told me the entire story my baby, when I was a few years younger than you are now and I tried to do what you did and it did damage to me, that's why I was on the nitroglycerin all these years."
"Our family is descended from the Craine family and your great grandmother was the initial on the necklace you found, everything she is was duplicated into you, I was really preparing you to face off against him. He's haunted the house for years, if you finished what I started, it's time to return home again and you'll find the family fortune in the lower levels of the house and in the study he had with anything else you found in there."
"If you go to my lawyer you'll learn certain details here, but everything that you found out that week was supposed to play out the way it should and you and your husband connected during that trip as well, I approve of your mate if he's who I was really hoping you'd choose my darling, if your mate is David James, than you found who I was hoping you'd choose baby. I was really preparing you for what you found in your life and if you found it than, I know you're happy."
"David take care of my daughter and make her happy, you can start over and your friends can live close to each other, because this was also meant to help her find true happiness since her father passed. If you and the duo or quartet, or even sextet, have finished what I set out to do for her than you've fulfilled my wishes for her, what amount is with Wilson they too get a piece of it." she read and Lou yanked it out of her hand and read through it himself before looking at us in shock as I looked up at that at her use of my full name.
"She knew I'd choose you David, everything played out like it was supposed to here, honey, this wasn't any test, it was a test to not only me and Jane, by getting involved in it, it brought me to you, that was supposed to happen. You and the quartet, and Malcolm, just fulfilled her wishes for me. She chose you in advance, but this means we really have her approval to do what we want now, she just insured we fullfilled our deepest desires and that was each other." she said smiling and I smiled in relief at the news as that translated to finding each other and maternal approval, she knew exactly who I was and knew I loved her with everything in me and chose me at the time.
"David James, she knows who I am, and even without seeing me approved automatically of your chosen choices in soulmates, I was who she was hoping you'd pick, alright let me look at the rest of that, because if I'm right this is going to confirm the theory that our entire experiment was rigged from the get go." I said and yanked it from his grip and read through it and then chuckled. "Yeah I was right, she rigged it to ensure we met and and you were involved in the experiment honey and here's the added news too."
" I'm not the only one she approves of here, the list of names chosen were rigged in advanced honey, it names off not only me, but the quartet too, and if this is going where I think it is, than she rigged the entire thing here." I told her and she looked at it. "Luke Sanderson, Theodora Willis, Todd Watts and Mary Lambretta, if you found them in the middle of this than you know you're with your true friends, because our families were college friends when we were your age dear."
"Everything played out in your life exactly as it was supposed to with me out of the picture, our family were supposed to remain friends and if you found each other than you've fullfilled the prophecy that was set when you were born baby, it's time for a fresh start now. Use the money I set aside from you and finish what you set out to do baby. Everything you choose to do I approve of and you and your husband deserve a chance to return to our place of origin now, it is time to return to Concord and the Corcord Craines are returning to Concord once again to retake control of our home and future." she read out smiling.
"So we were destined to meet, well we get a chance to really start over." I said and she smiled. "Yes and that's the catch now you two, that's her will and testament to your behaviors of the last twenty months and believe me she's beyond disgusted and chose in advance to leave the real family assets too. You've been cut out of her will Jane, I'm the legal executor now and you're only getting a tenth of that amount for this." she said and he looked at her in shock at that as he repeated that, his eyes narrowing at the news.
"There's more written down here over this and it regards everything you suggested to Judge Hawthorne honey." she said and I nodded as I hid a smirk on my face as I asked it for their benefit. "What's it say exactly baby?" I asked and she read it out. "Before you say anything you two, this was the admission in the will that you should have read the fine print on, because it's now a total role reversal now." she said and they swallowed at that she as read out the latest message in the second will as I hid a smile at this, knowing it had to do with my form of therapy for her sister.
"If one of my heirs passed the test, they were to continue the family traditions of helping people and continue making the family names as they were, a revered and renowned family name and they gained everything the names gave them: that includes everything in my insurance plans for said heir who passed the test, the amounts in both savings bond boxes and and everything together that my husband and I have together in finances."
"But if one heir had passed the test and the other flunked it and had one of my heirs only saw the previous will as a way to further their greed, and started helping their mate destroy the lives of everyone of the lower bracket, and liquidated everything I left to the heir who passed it, than this will initiates a new test to that heir and it's that it switches the roles that the heirs had."
"While the heir that passed the test that the first will gave, she gets everything and has the rights to reverse the situation completely that put the said heir in the condition and had the life, before she met her mate and whatever friends she made, as she's now allowed and is activating a new integrity test and this admission is turned on the heir that took everything that the first will iniated."
"Regarding that admission and as of now the legal and marital heirs to the family names have the right to liquidate any and all personal property of the heir as he shall see fit till their testing time is completed. My legal and marital heirs in the letter and will are Eleanor Caroline Vance and David James Marrow. As they passed the tests the first will set they are now my new legal executors of the family fortune and properties and have the right to make decisions."
"My son-in-law, David James as the family executor you have the right to make decisions to the entire family fortune, and had you also decided on this decision than I hereby give you permission to do so my dear. You are the exact match to my daughter, and this decision was a new form of therapy and learning experience for my disappointment in my oldest heir and her husband."
"As to that, if you've chosen the same as I have here where the next integrity test is concerned now than activate it, you remember the key words of the first will, use that as your case study and do what should be done. Jane Emily and Louis are to have the exact same treatment they've treated my daughter with, so with that activate this portion of the will now along with the added piece."
"Because had they focused on what the first will said in what was admissible to them, they wouldn't be facing my wrath now, though I'm gone now. This was the secret nobody but my friends and loved ones knew. But here's the catch, that first will was really a test as David and Jack told you, but what it leads to is for the heir who flunked, if they took advantage of the fact that the bearer was dead and everything the fake said in it, is that it leads to a new form of restriction and probation from beyond the grave."
"My disappointment in the heir who flunked my test is that my decision is they're now suffering a new form of punishment for their treatment of the heir who passed it. As you're the executor you get to exact the punishment on them and it's that it's now a total role reversal, think of this as that Dan Akroyd movie in which they switched places for a few months."
"Well this is going to be just like that, but you're going to have it directed from Concord, and everyone who was in league with us is getting involved in it. Sweetheart as the executor treat this in the same way here that they did, no matter the argument the decision stays the same. It's time for them to take a dose of their own medicine, if they took everything away from my baby."
"Sweethearts if you've gotten and spoken to Judge Hawthorne than he's already agreed to activate this will and it's to be probated a month to six weeks before you choose to return to Concord' the keys and everything belongs to the March/Craine/Vance family is in the boxes that we left for you baby." she read out and I nodded to that with a smile. "Nice I didn't have to think that one up, she decided to push the testing further, before she gave this to Jack." I said and she nodded.
"I didn't know about this, why didn't she tell me about this?" Jane asked in shock and she smiled. "Think it over Jane, 'the executor shall have the right to dispose of any and all personal property as he shall see fit', not an admission, a question you took advantage of the admission in a fake will and started chewing up, piece by piece, your half of the Inheritence, so at this rate you get only a tenth of what you deserve for your behaviors."
"You just proved you're the bad egg, I'm the good egg and I get everything that this will concludes to. There's no cheating or sabotage in this contest, by breaking the rules of the contest, you just forfeited everything to me, it's over with and you've been cut out of the will, everything that's in the Craine family name, it belongs to me now." Eleanor said and he looked at her in shock at that as he answered her as I moved closer to her.
"Rebecca gave you every piece of property that she hadn't told me about, the house, the insurance, a tenth of what amount, an incalcuble amount and that box is a piece of it." he said and his eyes narrowed in anger at that. "What's this mean, she gives you everything and we're left with nothing, but a cheap amount of a couple million. A tenth of what amount exactly, before you leave here exactly Nell? Because this is too much right now and I want a double check for the last probate, because this can't be the real one."
"So a couple million out a two hundred and seventy five billion dollars in cash, gold and jewelry, is that it? What's a tenth of this fortune exactly, million, billions, trillions, what exactly?!" he growled and I stood up as I answered that statement then, my tone that of the man she loved as I said it with a growl as she smiled with a smirk her face. "No when she says incalcuble, the amount is ten percent of over quintillions in gold, silver and jewelry and that's not counting Rebecca's insurance and her savings bond box. But you just shot yourself in the foot, the amounts just quadrupled." I told him firmly.
"How much is this together, if that's a tenth of what money from this contest, we didn't know this was a game?" he asked and I smiled dangerously as I answered him. "$900,000,000,000,000 and that's just the very tip of the iceberg, there's more buried in the house and Robert probably put his in with the Craine finances, before he died. And with that, by doing what you did, you just got a tenth of that amount, while we get everything else." I said coldly and she smiled as she added on to that.
"Why didn't you tell us this exactly, if this was a game to see who passed it!" Jane snapped and she smiled. "Because you were gloating about the fact that you can get away with anything. I didn't have to see the words to know this was a fake Jane, but surely you as person who works at a firm and executive office can read the clause in it when it has words that have not been used in over fifty years. So I decided to let you make your grave till the test came to an end and you fell right into the trap mom wanted you to make."
"A true Craine can read the fine print and act like they're supposed to, but you've grown too cocky and greedy to the point that you've lost sight of what's important, namely our family. But by your own hand you just condemned yourselves to your fates now, so with that fact in mind, I won the contest and I get everything and you only get a tenth of what you deserve for your attitudes and as for the inflation of what these are worth."
"Actually after 97 years of circulation on the open market the gold, silver and jewelry are worth trillions in revenues now, this will she gave you was made to pick out the good eggs from the bad eggs, you got the testing one and I wound up with the real one and the necklace, that will she gave her lawyer and you as the executor was designed to flush out the bad eggs marrying men or women like yourself Lou and with that in mind."
"This happens to be the correct will now, every male or female member of the Craine family did this, to flush out the extended family who wanted the Inheritence and act like you do. I'm the legal heir to the family fortune and you've been disowned for your greed, you see mother thought I'd benefit better than you would, 'but clearly mother thought that David would be much better equipped to deal with these unpleasant details than you'." Eleanor said to him and I finished her sentence as I threw the words in her face.
As she finished saying that, the pause button on the tv unpaused itself as I heard the words come out of the move. "Read the will, it states in plain language, the executor shall have the rights to dispose of any and all personal propert as he shall see fit." her look alike said and she paled at that as I answered that remark firmly as I watched her and Lou carefully as I said it then.
"Do the words ring a bell though Jane, you remember your fight over the will probate, well it's turnabout is fair play now. I'm the executor, she's my wife and I'm clearly what Rebecca was hoping for in her case of chosen suitors." I said and she snapped at her. "At this rate you got two months to find yourself a better apartment, because with the fact you just got put back under investigation Lou, your finances are seized right now."
"It's going to take less then three weeks to probate this will, and when we do you have to look for better arrangements, because you lost every dime mom left to you, everything you once had you just threw it away by getting greedy." Eleanor said and their eyes widened at that Jane shouted at her, before she could though a message was written down then and she read it out.
"With your behavior young lady I decided to run a probationary integrity test for the following five years in your case, everything that Peter ordered has been activated and as of now you're hereby restrained from your house and your accounts are seized. Starting next month you're living the way your sister, before she met the quintet, did for the next five years. It's time you got taken down several notches. Louis you've seen the men and defendants who's lives you destroyed, so you're taking their place at the table for this as you see what it's like to be taken for everything you have and have to start from scratch.
"Which is where this integrity test comes into place, when I say a tenth of the amount your father and I mean 10% percent of a beyond incalcuble amount, for now you're getting a living allowance and then when the testing is done you get the rest of it, but your accounts are being seized by my accountant, everything you have is going to be controlled by my daughter's friends in town now that you lost your credibility in the law firm, yet again, and some of the town government."
"Ebenezer Scrooge's learned a lesson in humanity and humility, it's time you do so as well, and with that everything you once had is being stripped from you, in the same way you did it to your sister, well now it's your turn young lady, baby go ahead." she read out and looked at them. "What, what's she talking about exactly, if that's been put into her messages and this will to us?" Lou asked trying to keep from paling and I crossed my arms as she said for me firmly as I looked at the duo.
"What that means is that in a month, you're going to have to move out of your house, a house that is worth a few hundred million and live like I did for the next five years. That's what the trial is really about now, you tried a lawsuit where David was concerned and it didn't work then. As mom said it wasn't David who called that investigation on you, it was her, and this is the trial sentence when we have the trial over this, you're under investigation of a murder/suicide rap because they all thought I risked killing myself to save my quartet.
"But the investigation dragged in areas that threw you out of the firepan and into the fire. So from the trial and forward you're living the lives of the people who's lives you destroyed, a matter of redemption. And these are the decisions being given by the town courts in Concord directly to the Boston county government and they are, from the day after the trial you're getting a life style change and you, Jane, are walking thirty miles in my shoes as you see things from my perspective now, and that is living my life."
"Before I met the quintet, so with that you're going to be working in a hospital nursing home taking care of someone, a woman that had mom's condition. Be her constant companion, but no money out of it, you're out of a job working in an office and are living off of a minor living allowance, as you live in an apartment that is the same size as the one you took away from me at the time and everything from here and forward is now reversed as you see things from my perspective till you understand how I feel."
"Everything that you once had, cars, finances and anything else is being stripped away from you for the next five years. Don't bother debating this either Jane, the judges and the Supreme Court are getting dragged into this. This is your test of integrity as you learn and see things from my point of view now, everything that is worth millions that you had is being replaced by what you took away from me and gave me." she said and she snapped at her at that, her eyes filled with a look of scared arrogance at the news.
"It's mine and you're not taking it away!" she snapped and Eleanor smirked. "Read the will Jane it states in plain language, 'The executor shall have the right to dispose of any and all personal property as he shall see fit.', if you'd bothered to read the fine print, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now, David arranged this with Judge Hawthorne, Judge Hammners and both departments and the town mayors, it's binding once we get it to the Supreme Court." she said and Jane snapped at her.
"He's not even real family." she said and Eleanor answered with a cold smile as the tv rewound the scene to that argument. "It's mine and you're taking it away." "Read the will, it says in plain language 'the executor shall have the right to dispose of any and all personal property as he shall see fit." "He's not even real family!" "Yeah will maybe not, but clearly Mother thought." The tv repeated and I watched my wife shake her head. "Man talk about Deja vu, but there you have it, we just traded places with each other Jane, it's my turn and with that fact in mind here."
" Yeah well maybe not, but clearly, mother thought David would be much better equipped to deal with these unpleasant details than you now. You said those words during the fight. You took my home, and left me with a twenty year old car, you left me with no where to go and the ones who took me in are the people who became my life line, I found a nice apartment three blocks over from the old one and I'm happy now."
"Well it's my turn now and Lou isn't family, David is, mother chose David herself for me, she didn't choose Lou and with that, Luke was in range of the building at the time, he heard everything. I'm not taking your home away from you and leaving you with a car, but your finances are cut in half, and you're dealing with life the way I did now, but your new car models are being replaced by a twenty year old car, your exquisite $750,000,000,000. house is getting replaced with a three bedroom apartment and everything you had that is worth millions is getting put into storage."
"You needed help with the cleaning and the cooking, while looking after Richie, well you'd have to find a good housekeeper for that, because you're on a living allowance starting the day after the trial. You've been living high off the dog all these years it's time to come down off that mountain, so starting next month you're living the way I did, when I had to deal with mom's condition for eleven years, before she died and you see what it's like to live as an at home nurse in a nursing home."
"As you get to see what it's like to walk twenty miles in the shoes of the person who's life you destroyed. To everyone in psychology and my friends now as well as David, they'd all consider this as turn about is fair play, as would the others and in their eyes it's turnabout is fair play and payback is a real bitch now, because I'm now the one with access to some high ups, one of mother's friends is the town judge and he's coming here and while I'm at it you're eating every barb you threw at me now."
"Well let me see here, what were those remarks you threw at me when mom had that surgery and ever since now, oh yes I remember, 'it's really hard out there, you have no idea how hard it is out there, you don't have a real job, you can't afford pay the bills.', Well let me tell you here, things change, life changes, people change, I've got a job and I'm putting it to use now, I'm finally putting my PH.D's to use at last."
"Friends, yes I've found my friends and they are my quintet and and several others within the cops and the hospital I work at, finding a mate, done, I'm married to a man who's an exact copy to what dad was like and I'm happy now, all that came from mom and her determination to ensure I had a future now. You know what the best part of this was about, it's that mom decided she was rigging the entire scenario to ensure I found the others and David and while doing that I finish what she started, and I get to start my life anew." she said and I smiled coldly as she finished her sentence then.
"Rebecca did you choose me yourself, to insure she was happy you chose me yourself, handpicked and parental approved by both you and Robert, to you I'm family, you're true family, correct?" I asked and her handwriting wrote something out then. "Yes that's how we see it alright, to us, you and your friends are family and you were parental approved. So with that, clearly, 'mother' thought that you, David, would be much better equipped to deal with these unpleasant details than you Jane." Eleanor read out and I smiled with a smirk at that as she finished her sentence.
"You may say that life is hard out there, but you didn't have to spend eleven years taking care of parent: making sure she took her medication every day, cleaned up and did the cooking for her, when she got diagnosed with diabetes, you didn't have to clean up the mess, because she lost control of her bladder. You have no idea how hard it was, watching the woman you idolize slowly deteriorating into an invalid and believe me it hurts, and secondly you're holding in what you really want to say to the sister who's decided she's taking everything from you, when you gave up your entire life for that parent and you're an orphan after losing both parents in the side of twelve years."
"She knows that, and decided that before she goes, to get you set up in counseling with the man who becomes your future husband, you meet your friends during that escapade, but in doing so you gain certain details and then during the probate of the will your arrogant bitch of a sister decides to take advantage of the fact this will is saying you can just remove everything that belonged to her."
"While you meet the friends of your parents, learn a truth that nearly kills you and then decide you're taking up your legacy by stepping up to the plate, your friends decide they're sticking around, they don't care you can talk to the ghosts of your parents and loved ones. They see in you a strength they don't see in their old friends and together you share something together that no person can ever understand."
"They get to talk to, through written down conversations, to your parents and grandparents and they learn and get used to it, and when the testing is complete, they see you changed into the person you've become and you're ready to take on the mantle of being in a family ran business, while you use all three of your PH.D's and get a chance to run a family ran business as you get the money to really live your dreams finally."
"Well this is now a switch up up for you, and you're living my life from the day after the will, once the five years are over you get everything back, but until the trial sentence is completed, you're walking thirty miles in my shoes as you get to see what it's like. Mom would you and dad, grandma, and mama see this as more than fair, if we were back in your age group time lines?" she asked and another message wrote itself down then.
"Yes baby we would, fact of the matter if we were still in our own age group times, had the judge decided on this once the psychiatrist suggested it to him, they'd agree it's completely fair that the person who treated the victim like this deserves a shot at redemption by seeing everything from the perspective of the victims they hurt. As you and David guessed your entire future, after I died, was rigged, I wanted you to find the quintet so you could be happy finally."
"That was my way of saying that just because you a very hard life it doesn't mean you should just give up. You deserved happiness and you found it when you found them, and with that Jane Emily, while you've spent the last twelve years living the high life with your jerk of a husband your sister never got the chance to live her life and enjoy it. Well you're getting a switch up now."
"You recall the movie, Trading Places, here's the point of the experiment starting the day after the trial, you and your sister, and your husbands, are changing your positions, everything that had you so revered, Louis, is being stripped away and you're living your life the way David does, see it from his perspective, by working in a psychiatric hospital."
"While you young lady are walking thirty miles in her shoes, you're working as the constant companion to a woman who had my medical condition, the cops, Malcolm and the doctors at both the nursing home and the psychiatric hospital are going to be monitoring things and you're under a prohibition from that day and forward for the following five years. Till such time as your probation is done with everything that you had, money, cars, an expensive house and commodities is being held by my lawyer and the town government."
"Judge Hawthorne is coming from Concord to help with this, as are my friends, they're going to be here for two days, before they return to Concord and she takes up her legacy as the town's leading parapsychologist. To them it's time they saw you both for who you are. But this is non negotiable either, this is your sentence for treating others like this, along with your sister."
"Louis I'm making it very clear here now, if there's any multiple felonies here, before the trial, your side of this experiment is terminated and you're winding up in the hospital yourself for rehab and serving your probation under the supervision of Malcolm and your own orderly bodyguards, for your behavior and I'm not kidding either with you young man."
"Young lady, this is non negotiable at all, it's time you see what it's like when your lives are being suppressed, because someone is sick and needs constant medical care. Your sister learned everything she needed to and she's completely recovered and she's returning home to our family origins starting next month." she read out and I hid a smile as she said the words, smiling dangerously.
"That's the counter clause, she can't do that!" Lou said in shock and I smiled. "Actually she can, that was in the will, read the fine print Lou, go on read it." I said and he grabbed the original will and read it out loud. "To my legal heirs and executors, starting from the day you read this there's going to be several changes, before you get this probate finished, because under this will is a clause that is being set for you, should you follow through with the words, your fate is sealed in stone."
'The executor shall have the right to dispose of any and all personal property as he shall see fit, if you're a true member of the Craine family think over wording and you'll pass this test, but should you cross the line and try to harm each other you're disqualified and the assets go directly to the heir who carries everything in them in personality of that of your grandfather and you are getting a severe counter clause when this will runs its course later."
"Think carefully and make your choice, for any choice you make you got to live with the consequences of your actions. Reconvene from the day you get this probated and you will see said results in it as the truth bears it's fruit and you will have to live with the consequences of your actions, so make your choice and choose wisely." he read out and swallowed as he looked at me then.
"Games up Lou, you've made your bed and now you got to sleep in it, the executor right are now mine, and I'm doing to the legal stuff now, but your sabotage is done with and Eleanor and I getting everything you took from her back, but first you're spending five years in your own trading places program." I said and she snapped at me at that.
"She can't do that, she's dead!" Jane said and she smiled. "You've learned nothing, have you Jane, she'll never be gone as long as we believe and for the record, her soul decided to stick around to keep me company. You can't handle this, because you didn't grow up with the kid of second sight, I did. I'm like Osments character, I can see the souls of the dead and communicate with them, that's what being a parapsychologist really is."
"I don't have to work in the private sector, because they want real results, and mom never got into a university to do this either, she worked at the psychiatric hospital, one of their thesis happens to be studying parapsychology. And my reports are going to Malcolm, he knows what I'm doing and he's thrilled I'm leading the team as a family ran business now, while I'm covering dream and sleep deprivation in case we got a real live dream stalker running loose in someone's nightmares."
"But that brings it to where you come into it, you're a skeptic, you've never been out of Boston and you've never seen or touched the other world whatsoever if you'd grown up with this gift and we were playing the sisters in the Harry Potter series, I'm Lilly, before she was killed and her parents would be just as disgusted if you treated her son like this and speaking of which. Had the situation been in reverse I'd get Richie's behavior under control and my husband and I'd be working as one to raise him on our ideals."
"You know what your roles in this are if this was really that book series?" she asked and they shook their heads. "You're the Dursley family, and while I had a shot at getting living life in boarding school, learning how to use my gift, our parents took the act of seeing my gift as a real accomplishment and they see it with real pride. Dad didn't care mom had that gift, in fact he was gifted himself, though he used his as a fireman. I'm everything that makes the Vance, or Evans, family what they are and you married into a family that I'd rather cross the street to get away from than marry into."
"You don't like the final test results, well too bad, I've inherited the entirely family fortune and you're getting taken down several pegs off that ladder, but clearly Mother thought I should be the one to cover things in government and law, and that David would be much better equipped to deal with these unpleasant details than you Jane, I didn't have to read the will to see the fine print on it."
"In fact I read mom like a book, she and I discussed things and she though was suffering from the after effects of that surgery it didn't change the fact, she was who I wanted to be, because she was who I idolized, she was my mentor and I loved her, and while you were out partying with your bastard of a husband. I'm left to deal with her condition and I can guarantee you that dad would be pissed that you've been throwing your resentment on me these last thirteen years, because mom played favorites with us."
"Fact of the matter is you shirked your responsibilities, treated me like crap and allowed your bastard of a husband to physically abuse me, well in their eyes it's you've been disowned, you have no family links in the Vance family. I'm an only child, I get everything and you only get a tenth of the amount you deserve for your behavior." she said with a growl and I wrapped my arms around her shoulders gently.
As I stared at him I said it firmly then, "While we figured it out within minutes of her telling us this, you never looked at the fine print Lou, she told me exact information on it. Hey Rebecca why not write out what she figured it out within minutes of her translating it for me." I said and she wrote out the next remark, before she could though a young voice was written out above it firmly, its tone filled with love for my wife as he said it.
"My generation knew about this for years Jane, this will was a fake, it was always a fake. Those words went out of date by the time Rebecca was your age and Eleanor figured that out within minutes of being in the house. To a Craine they read this and they understand what's real and what isn't. My brother created the test with specific rules in it and only a true Craine once they hear the words can see it as a test and do what is supposed to be done and they don't sabotage each other during the testing time."
"Before you ask who I am, I happen to be the younger brother of the male heirarchy of the family, Fred's my big brother and if I was still alive I'd have created the test the way mother wanted it to be created just as he did and our sides, and Alicia's side of the family would not get greedy. In fact, our descendants would act the way Eleanor did and show her heritage and station simply by seeing what the bad eggs can't see, because they're getting too greedy to think straight, and sabotaging the other heir is a violation of the rules in the testing period." he said and I looked at it, as the voice sounded familiar to me as I read it out as I looked at Eleanor then.
"So it was a contest and may the best heir win, is that it, you show everything that makes up the newly created family name and show you can be everything is opposite of the seven deadly sins, than once the testing is complete, the victor gets the entire fortune and the bad egg only gets a tenth of it. It's a game, games have rules, you follow the rules and you win, you cheat and break them and you lose everything, right?" Eleanor asked and the next message wrote itself out, with a proud smile in his tone.
"Yes precisely Eleanor, Fred turned it into a game and contest, to see who the bad egg was in each generation, there were certain rules that had to be followed and you, without needing to see the will, saw what the rules were meant to say and played by them so well, the last eighteen months that we and mother, as well as your mother and grandmother, chose you as the rightful heir of the family name. The house and everything under the family name is yours."
"Your mother's inner circle knew, because they were descended from the original town locals and after digging into the records and house, they found the will and realized what it was meant to say and each generation of the family inner circle passed it from one to the next, they knew because, if the heir was a woman, the genetics result in in looking like mother at your age and they know the female heir on sight, because of the necklace mother had."
In fact the descendants of the locals in town knew what the will really was, because the legends of the house circulated around town for years. For a member of the town the will happened to be well known and secondly. Every indicator that it's a fake is plain to see if you're not so greedy that you can't see past the obvious, said obvious is the words were outdated and underlined three times."
"But a true Craine can see a lie if it's put into reverse psychology, why else would Madam March have her take the exact same classes she took, it's part of the job as a parapsychologist. The words were reverse psychology if you'd been a member of the Craine family you'd see that it was really a test and follow testing rules." I read out and she looked at me at that, because to us the voice sounded familiar.