11.
~ Ariadne reached the darkened landing to the fifth floor and heard the scream again.
"Dom!" A man was shouting. "What's happening!"
"She's just having a bad night!" Dom shouted back.
"I could hear her screaming all the way from my room." The first man said. Ariadne stopped breathing as she realized the first voice belonged to Arthur.
"Dom!" The woman screamed again. A desperate frightened cry.
"Mal, sweetheart, it's alright." Dom was saying soothingly.
"Maybe we should take her into the city." Another voice that sounded like James said.
Ariadne approached the voices carefully on silent feet. A door was left ajar and a light was on. It was the only light in the dark hallway and it beckoned to her.
"No, we just need to give her her medications." Dom was saying as Ariadne finally caught a glimpse of the inside of the room.
James and Phillipa were crowded in one corner. Phillipa was crying. James had a protective arm around her. Arthur was wearing his normal scowl.
"Dom, she needs to be in a nursing home. The Altimeters, she's a danger to herself." Arthur was saying.
"No." Cobb was shouting at him as an unseen woman was crying.
Ariadne cracked the door open a little and saw a frightening scene.
Crouched on the floor was an old woman. Her age was close to Grace as she held a bleeding arm. Tears running over her cheeks.
"Sweetheart?" Dom was saying gently to her. "It's okay. No one is mad."
"Dad?" Phillipa was saying. "Maybe Arthur is right. Mom needs to be in a home. You can't take care of her here anymore."
"I said no, Phillipa." Dom growled.
"Don't yell at her, Dom." The strange old lady cried. She seemed so feeble and lost as Dom held her close.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart." he was saying.
"Dad?" Phillipa was saying.
"It's going to be alright." Dom said to the old woman as he held her in a loving embrace. The old lady resting her head on his shoulder. The two of them looking more like lovers then an old woman and a much younger man.
"Dad?" Phillipa said again more urgent.
Dom turned and suddenly all eyes were on Ariadne. She hadn't realized she had come into the room.
"She can't be here." The strange old lady in Dom's arms said as Arthur pulled the intruder out of the room.
"Get out!" The old woman screamed at her. "Get away from here! Their wrong! Their all wrong! These men are cursed! Cursed!" She shrieked as Arthur held fast to her hand and forced her quickly down the stairs.
"Who was that?" Ariadne cried. Her body trembling. She felt she had seen an extremely privet and horrible family moment. One that didn't make sense.
"James and Phillipa's mother." Arthur said briskly.
"What?" Ariadne breathed. "She was hurt!"
"She fell out of bed. She had Altimeters. She'll be fine."
"Arthur!" Ariadne shouted and jerked her hand free.
"This is a family matter." Arthur said turning back to her. His anger boiling up to the surface. "I've indulged you long enough. In the morning, I want you gone." He said pulling open her bedroom door and scowling at her as she stood glaring at him.
"Phillipa called Dom 'Dad'." Ariadne said feeling insulted by Arthur.
"You misheard." Arthur said quickly.
"No I didn't." Ariadne said. "I can believe that woman is their mother, but Dom wasn't acting like any son I've ever seen."
"This is not your concern." Arthur said warningly. His voice like ice.
~ Ariadne didn't sleep much and was dressed in the clothes she had arrived in when the sun broke over the stained glass windows of her room.
The only person she wanted to say goodbye to was Grace and she wasn't sure which room was her's. She wandered down the grand staircase of the silent castle and finally ended up in the dinning room. She hated to leave without a word to the kind old lady. Who she honestly believed cared for her, but she didn't want to see anyone. Especially not Arthur.
She was shocked to see Eames sitting in the dinning room.
"I was hoping to say goodbye to your grandmother." Ariadne said feeling nervous around this man she barely saw any of. He smiled at her and raised up a bottle of wine he had been drinking with no glass.
"I'm sure Gracie would have loved that." Eames said relaxing in the dinning chair. "She really liked you."
Ariadne felt her heart turn over as she realized Eames was talking about Grace in the past tense.
"Eames?" She said softly. "Where's Grace?"
"My Gracie passed away last night." Eames said looking at Ariadne with red eyes.
Ariadne felt her eyes sting with tears.
"I'm so sorry, Eames." She said honestly. "I... I really liked her."
"I know you did." He said. "She talked about you a lot. She was happy you were here. I know she would want you to stay for the funeral."
"Oh, um." Ariadne said feeling ashamed as the tears fell out of her eyes. "Arthur, he wants me to leave."
"Arthur." Eames grumbled. "Arthur isn't Lord of this castle. Not anymore."
"Eames, I should go." Ariadne said. "I'm so sorry about your grandmother."
Eames laughed.
"Gracie, wasn't my grandmother anymore then James and Phillipa are Dom's older siblings. Don't you get it?" Eames barked, suddenly in a rage. He stood up and looked menacingly at her.
Ariadne took a small step back. Feeling very afraid of this strange man all the sudden.
"We are cursed." Eames told her. "Were cursed to watch those we love wither away and die. Were cursed, never to follow after them."
She almost screamed as she saw Eames pull a pistol from behind his back. Eames looked at it longingly.
"I wish this was the answer. That I never have to bury another child." He said.
It happened in slow motion. Eames putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger.
~ She couldn't stop screaming as Arthur was suddenly there. Pulling her away from the ghastly scene of Eames bleeding out on the dinning room floor. Arthur was holding her as she screamed and cried till she was too tired to stay awake.
~ She woke up in the blue and white guest room again. Feeling, once more, that she had slept too long. Her body felt too heavy and sedated. Like she might have been drugged.
"I'm sorry, Ariadne." Arthur was saying as she looked around her darkened bedroom. "I never meant for you to be drawn into this... madness."
"Eames is dead." She said to the shadows. Sensing Arthur was in the room with her, but unable to see him.
A floor lamp snapped on and she could see Arthur sitting comfortably in a chair across from her bed.
"Eames, is fine." He said. His speech slurred slightly. The young man had obviously been drinking.
"I saw him." Ariadne argued. "I saw him shoot himself in the head."
"He's fine." Arthur said simply. "You must have dreamed it."
"I didn't dream it!" Ariadne snapped. "I also didn't dream that someone tried to come into my room either. It was that woman wasn't it? The one you keep locked on the fifth floor."
She was too exhausted to get out of the bed. Her reserves of energy keeping her sitting up. She lay back down in the comfortable bedding.
"Grace... she's dead." Ariadne said petulantly. Hoping maybe she had only dreamed that.
"Yes." Arthur said numbly. "She passed away in her sleep last night. We always knew Eames would take his... grandmother's death hard."
"He said she wasn't his grandmother." Ariadne said.
Arthur's face was immobile. Like the stones of the castle, it was dark and cold.
"Grace was Eames' grandmother." He said numbly.
He stood suddenly. His feet unsteady.
"This... this is why I had to send you away. To keep you protected from all of this." He said in a whisper.
"Arthur?" She called after him as he left her alone in the darkness.