Thanks so much, MikariStar! You've been such a great encouragement. :)
I've written quite a bit in just two days… I imagine it's been a bit spammy. Sorry, not sorry? I just really want to write!
The Fool and the Folly
Gill furiously adjusted his eyes to the night. "Julius? B-But…?"
"Why, it's Mr. Gill Gray! Such a pleasant… surprise," Lord Wotton decided, a typical smirk rising on his lips.
The young man shook his head again, still shaken from the impact of the fall. "What… What are you doing out?"
Lord Julius leaned heavily on his cane, inspecting Gill with an amused light in his eyes. "It should be no surprise that I am up and about in the witching hours. But you? Hm, hm, hm. I wonder. What could you be up to this time, Mr. Gray?"
As he was caught unawares, Gill was only propped up by his elbows. He quickly pulled himself into a sitting position, palms in the rough dirt. "You startled me…"
"Looks like you were running from the Devil himself," Julius smiled, not bothering to lend his friend any help. His eyebrows shot up at the dried blood on his hands. "Perhaps you are…"
Gill stuffed his hands into his sleeves, pulling the cuffs as far down as they would go. "It's nothing… Just a-an accident…"
"Like Selena Vane's?"
Gill looked up, but Lord Wotton couldn't be seen with the moon and ocean to his back. Just his silhouette staring down at him. And those same bright eyes as…
"Why do you torment me?" Gill grumbled, attempting to rise. It took the wind right out of him when a cane came crashing down on his stomach. He writhed on the path, holding his abdomen and wheezing for air.
"Eyes so wide with surprise! You probably look much the same as when poor Toby Hallward died," Julius leered.
"How did—?! Wh-What do you mean?" Gill gasped between heavy breaths.
Julius tutted and shook his head. He held his top hat as he started to pace. "Don't play coy with me, Mr. Gray. The pieces have been set, and you have played well! But the game is quite over…"
Gill could only inhale the dust on the ground as he attempted to collect himself and listen in confused horror. How had Julius known? Had he been following him? Spying on him? "You're speaking in… riddles…"
"No, I'm speaking quite plain. And it's taken a good long while to get to this point. But here we are!" The cane came down directly in front of Gill's nose. His eyes roved up it to meet Julius staring down at him. His maroon colored eyes appeared redder with the victorious smile he wore. "You've reached the breaking point, my boy. It's only a short matter of time now."
Glaring hard, Gill fought to stand and look the insane man in the eye. Holding his stomach with one arm, he propped himself on his knees, staring flat at the ground. He couldn't rise quite yet. "I don't know… what you're insinuating, but I didn't kill… anyone…"
Julius found the opportunity in Gill's wobbling knees to bring his cane down once again. It cracked Gill right in the bend of his spine, forcing out a cry and making him crumple to the ground once again. "No, you killed Toby. And Selena. The former right before you ran into me, I see. And do you know why?"
Gill's chin was forced up, and he looked once again into the eyes of Julius Wotton who was now squatting before him. "Because I fed him to you. You've become such a lovely monster of mine. I'm so glad to have you in my set!"
Gill wasn't about to give up after all he had been through. Though they were riddles, Julius was giving the closest thing to an answer Gill Gray had heard in the past decade. He roughly released himself from Julius' grip and fell back away from him. "I don't know what you're talking about! Who are you to question – to control me?! How dare you make these accusations?"
"Because I own you!" The shout was livid, lined with a threat. Gill stared down at the gloved fist that was inches from his nose, clenched as if Julius could show his possession over Gill Gray in the palm of his hand. Julius' face had contorted in his rage, but it quickly relaxed into something Gill could recognize.
"Gill Gray," Julius shook his head, using a calm voice again. It was as if he was speaking to a child, and it infuriated Gill. He stood and started to languidly pace around the young man in a circle. "The perfect character to build a tragedy! Charisma, youth, and – of course – dashing good looks! Such a romantic past, too. Your young mother! Business woman through and through. Worked in the city. Castanet was too small for her, wasn't it? But when she tried to return, it showed her just how big it could be. Drowned! On a lovely spring day such as this. Poor Hamilton. Stuck in the days before everything went wrong. Some say he lost his mind! I bet he relives that day of her return again and again and again—"
"Stop!" Gill covered his ears, tears building in his eyes against his will. "How do you know these things…?! How long have you been spying on me?"
Julius completely ignored him, prattling on. "Remember young Selena Vane? How you betrayed her? And what of that fatherless child? And poor Mr. Hallward! What has become of him?"
In the darkness with the bluish glow of the moon as his only aid, Gill stared up at Julius Wotton – mouth agape. Julius seemed to enjoy the effect he was having on him. A sudden wind rushed by, still caught with the cold of winter. Or perhaps the bite of something else… Gill shivered and hugged his shoulders. Staring down at Julius' distorted shadow, he realized that it didn't match the man it belonged to…
Lord Julius' voice changed. It didn't dip and rise flamboyantly. It was flat and hard. Seething and penetrating. Icy, yet dark like smoke. "You were much like the man Julius. Lord Julius Wotton! Obsessed with titles. With pleasure. So easy to set along the right path with a push. So agonizingly simple to pull apart his mind until I had his body."
The way it was stated so openly – so frank – took Gill off guard. The idea that the portrait held a dark magic was enough to crack his reality, but this conversation was completely too much. The world Gill knew shattered as a whisper that sounded far away in his own throat asked: "Who are you…?"
"Certainly not the man little Candace Wotton married!" He laughed like it could possibly have been a joke. "This body serves me well for the present. When its time runs out, I will find a new host. Another who is just as easily corrupted."
"You…" Gill attempted to put the pieces together, no matter how surreal they were. "You said you owned me… And your eyes! You're the same as the portrait!"
Julius smiled, revealing perfectly white teeth. The makings of a forked tail appeared in the shadow cast from the moon by the man who couldn't have been human. "You're not going to thank me? I granted your wish after all."
Gill held his head, ready to break. His fingers tore through his light hair, the blood and dirt on his hands getting caught in the tangles. "You've wanted my soul…! So… So I could be another host for you…?"
It wasn't meant to come out as a doubtful question, but Gill's voice was cracking. By the look on Julius' face, it wasn't the right one either.
"Now, why on Earth would I want to be Gill Gray?" Julius teased with another grin. "The man who's hated everywhere? Well, not at first of course… First, it was the simple task of planting hedonistic fantasies into your mind. Then it was Selena. Such a lovely dancer! But a weak mind. When she drank that acid, did you know how many you ruined? Do you know the family you destroyed?"
"No! She shouldn't have done it! I-It had nothing to do with me!" Gill shouted. It was the excuse he had taught himself over the years to go numb, but the truth was being thrown back in his face by one he thought he could trust.
"Then Luna, the Duchess of Monmouth. Disinherited now because of you… You thought you could forget Selena with her. But it wasn't just her, was it, Gill?"
"Stop it!"
"And now Toby. You just couldn't take it anymore, could you?" There was a look in his eyes that could have resembled pity had the rest of his face not looked so wickedly amused. "You are destined to destroy everyone who has ever loved you… or ever will. That's just who you are."
"I don't have to be…" Gill shook his head stubbornly. "I will be rid of you. I can change!"
"Do you expect the portrait to change back? Reclaim your soul?" Julius practically laughed at him. "Your soul! It belongs elsewhere now – your deal has been made. Suffer the consequences of your capriciousness and narcissism! There is nothing you can do to change or even escape the mistakes you have made."
"You're wrong," Gill insisted. He wasn't nearly as convincing as Julius' surefire certainty.
"It's far too late for that sort of rebellion. There's no where left to hide, and as I already told you – the game is quite over. In fact, with the end of this conversation, I am quite done with you now," Julius said this like he was bored with the very thought of Gill Gray.
"You made me this way! With your lies and false idols! I refuse to be led by you anymore!" Gill finally brought himself to his feet. His heels backed him in the direction of town.
"How can you possibly blame me? You're the one who drove Selena away to her death. You're the one who gambled your beauty with your dignity. You're the one who plunged the knife into Toby Hallward—"
"No!" Gill screamed in vain. He brought himself back into a run, unsure if the lights of the city or the appearance of others would make the deranged monster inside Julius go away.
The cobblestones beat against the thin soles of his shoes. The evening lanterns soon appeared with the beginnings of a red dawn on the horizon. But even as Gill ran from the evils of the night, the wind carried a mocking laugh to his ears that would haunt him forever - no matter where his feet could carry him.