It was late when Emy and Amy returned to Allerdale Hall, weighed down by numerous bags, but giggling all the same. The noise gained Kady's attention, and she looked up from the game of Chicken Foot she was losing. It was already dark outside despite it only being around five o'clock and they had a fire going in the massive fireplace across the room. Unlike the family days in the past, August had actually seemed interested in letting Kady and Milo pick the activities, and they had spent nearly three hours playing Candyland.
Kady would admit that it had been nice spending time with her father without hefting boxes around or rearranging furniture, and she had decided that they could all watch a movie after Milo won at Chicken Foot. He was the best at this game and she would've accused him of cheating, but Milo was famous for throwing the dominoes when his honor was challenged. "You're turn, sweetheart," August says, tapping her hand with one of his fingers. With a sigh, she looks from the dominoes spread out on the coffee table to the three she had left to use.
After a moment's debate, she picks up the double-sided four and sets it under the four of another domino, sending the boys a smug grin. "Chicken foot," she declares, giggling when August drops his head into his hands. Milo still looks confident, setting the four side of one of his dominoes under the one she'd just put down.
"Pass, I have no fours left." Kady had to pass as well and that only had Milo's ego swelling as he set another four down, and another until there was a shape of a chicken's foot. August takes a moment to study the dominoes, tapping one against his chin as he thinks about the moves he could make. "Alright, I guess this'll have to do." He sets down a domino, the five side of it pressed against another five side. "And I'm out."
It was only Milo and Kady left in the game and the siblings glared playfully at each other. They each had two dominoes left to use, and Kady was itching to get rid of the blank domino since it was worth the most when points were tallied up. "What's wrong, Kady," Milo taunts," no usable dominoes?"
"My dominoes are more useful than that beanie on your head," she shoots back, Milo playing at offense as he rests a hand on his beanie.
"That's below the belt."
"No, below the belt would be saying how surprised I am that it fits over your ginormous ego." Milo makes a face and August has tears in his eyes as he laughs at the jibe. Sending her brother a playful wink, she sets down the blank domino under another one.
"Don't you dare."
"Chicken foot." Milo's eyes narrow and he sets down another blank sided domino against her own. "And I'm out." She had no more dominoes she could use, so she pushed the domino she had left over to allow Milo to see the face of it. August quickly tallied up the scores, proclaiming Milo to be the winner with Kady surprisingly coming in second place. "Oh yeah," she shouts, jumping up with her arms raised triumphantly above her head," second place!"
"Tone it down a little," August instructs with a laugh, tugging on the edge of the pale blue dress Kady was wearing. She didn't care how cold it was in the house, she shaved her legs this morning and everyone had better appreciate her for it. "Hey, guys." Kady turns, finding Amy and Emy standing in the doorway of the parlor. Emy holding a silver tray weighed down by tea cups. "Did you have a good day?"
"Yes we did," Amy confirms, seating herself on the floor between August and Kady. "I got a new baby doll and Maman got a pretty dress for Christmas." Christmas was less than two weeks away and Kady hoped this year's wouldn't be as depressing as last year's had been. "Can we give them their presents early, Maman?"
"I don't see why not," Emy grins, setting the tray down on top of the scattered dominoes before leaving the room. Kady took one of the tea cups, sipping at the dark brown liquid inside and wincing at the taste. The look August sent her way told her not to say anything about the pour taste to Emy, so Kady took another reluctant sip before setting it down on the table. "Here we are."
Emy sits between Milo and August, digging out a small box wrapped in pale pink paper, handing it over to Kady before handing Milo a smaller box wrapped in blue paper, and August one wrapped in dark green. August's was the same size as Milo's and Kady watched as a ring on Emy's finger gleamed in the flickering firelight. It was a simple ring, made of silver with a modest diamond, but it was on her ring finger and that had Kady's stomach clenching.
"You first, Milo," August encourages. Milo, ever the unobservant, tears the paper away to reveal a black velvet box that creaked slightly when he opened it and pulled out a black ring. It was beautiful and looked the perfect size for one of his long thin fingers, the black of it only disturbed by the white lines cut through it to look like a Celtic design of a dragon.
"It's great," Milo says with a smile in Emy's direction, sliding the ring over his thumb and showing it for everyone to see. "Your turn, Kady-bug." Kady removes the paper and tosses it on the table before opening her slightly larger velvet box, finding a delicately made silver necklace inside of it, the chain long as she pulls it out and there were small diamonds set into the snowflake that dangled from the chain.
"Beautiful," she whispers, nodding her thanks as she slips the chain over her head, the snowflake resting just below the white collar of her dress. August went next and Kady watched in trepidation as he revealed a ring that was a masculine version of the ring Emy was wearing. No. The unspoken news hit her hard as August slid the ring onto his ring finger, the wedding band Estelle had bought him no longer there. "You married her."
It came out as an accusation, like she was condemning him as a criminal instead of a new husband. Emy looked from August to Kady and then to Milo, her dark eyes holding concern and confusion. Clearly she had expected August to have told the kids about their elopement, but he had kept them distracted with games and singing competitions.
"Is this some kind of joke," Milo asks, voice cracking at the end. August opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying and failing to come up with something to tell them while Emy just turned a dark shade of red from embarrassment. Mom's barely been dead a year and he's already married again. Kady could feel her throat tightening as she held back tears, standing up calmly and walking out of the room. She kept her back straight and her chin raised, she bit her lip to keep the tears back, and she didn't let any of them see just how much the news had hurt.
It was like there was something constricting her chest and she was finding it hard to breathe even as she began to go up the stairs, her pace measured. Estelle was supposed to be the love of his life, the only woman that ever mattered to him, so how could he get married to someone so different? Kady knew it was selfish that she didn't want her father to be with anyone else, but how was she supposed to feel when he was marrying a woman so much younger than himself? It felt like he traded in Estelle for a younger model. What was that quote she used to think of whenever she remembered her mother and father together?
'I thought an hour ago that I loved you more than any woman has ever loved a man, but a half hour after that I knew that what I felt before was nothing compared to what I felt then. But ten minutes after that, I understood that my previous love was a puddle compared to the high seas before a storm.'
It was from the one book she took real pleasure in reading because her mother and father had read it to her and Milo on their anniversary every year, and they had done all of the voices. Whenever she pictured Buttercup and Westley, it was her parents that came to mind no matter how different they were to the descriptions in the book. Kady had always known her parents loved each other more than anything else in the world, so the news of her father's secret marriage had set her girlish dreams to crumbling.
Once she had her bedroom door firmly closed behind her, she crumpled to the ground, ignoring scraped knees and the blood staining the flesh of her hands as she beat them against the floor. In that moment, she was a little girl again, she wanted her mother to tell her everything would be fine and her father to scoop her up in his strong arms to make her giggle. But she knew it would never happen like that again, Estelle was dead and Kady was a big girl that was expected to console herself.
That's why it came as a surprise when her bedroom door opened and she felt warm arms surrounding her, pulling her back against a hard chest as she continued to cry. None of them had ever grieved Estelle's death properly and now it seemed all the emotions she had held back were rushing to the surface and she couldn't dam them up any longer. The tears left tracks on her flushed cheeks and her eyes were raw and red, her entire body was shaking from pure sadness, and she felt like she would never be that same completely happy person she had been before.
It seemed she cried for hours, gaining only a little comfort from the person holding her so tightly, like they could protect from all the horrors and angst that fueled the world. Finally, her throat sore and her tears drying on her face, she allowed her other senses to come back and she realized she wasn't being held by someone she knew. The chest was narrower than Milo's or August's, the arms too strong to belong to Milo yet not strong enough for her father, and she smelled the cloying, copper scent of blood.
"Who are you," she manages to whisper, voice hoarse after her crying.
"Thomas Sharpe," the man answers, the accent familiar to her. The man that brought me back inside and tucked me in last week. "You are my granddaughter, little one, and I shall do you no harm. I will keep you safe as I should have done Edith all those years ago." His voice was soft and low, reminding Kady of lullabies as she relaxed against him completely. "Close your eyes, Kadence, and allow yourself to dream. I will watch over you and ensure the safety of you and your brother."
And, despite the distant fear she held in her mind, she allowed herself to fall into a deep slumber and she dreamed of her mother.
Emy was the first to wake the next morning, donning her robe and slippers before making her way into the kitchen with a plan to cook breakfast for once. After the disaster of last night, she wanted to find a way, no matter how small, to try and get the children to like her. If they continued to refuse as they had last night, then August would leave and take his impressive fortune with him, leaving Emy and Amy with nothing again. She couldn't live like that again, not now that she has a house like this and a husband to dote on her.
"They'll just have to get used to me," she whispers to herself, going through the familiar motions of making tea.
"What if I had a better idea." It was a woman that spoke, her voice high and strong with such a seductive note that Emy found herself shivering. "What if you didn't need their approval, Emilia?" Emy lets out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, her eyes half-closed as she feels hands on her hips. Emy knew who it was immediately, she's known the woman since stumbling here half-dead three years ago after an abusive client had stabbed her and thrown her out of his car. Lucille Sharpe was sin, pure and simple, and Emy would gladly kill a thousand people if it meant being able to kiss her shoes—or better yet, the full, soft lips that were often drawn down into a pout.
"I'll do anything you wish."
"Such a dedicated lover." Emy let out a low moan when she felt Lucille's hands moving up to massage her breasts through her thin nightgown. "Don't you even want to know what it is?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Put arsenic in their tea, just a small amount so the children die slowly and painfully. It would delight me to watch her descendants die as she was meant to." Edith Cushing, Emy knew, the woman that escaped death and started a family in Buffalo. She left Allerdale Hall pregnant with the child of Thomas Sharpe, a healthy baby boy that had children of his own. Lucille wanted revenge against Edith and Thomas and that doctor that had fancied himself a hero, and what better way than by killing August's children and then possessing August to ensure the house doesn't start to decay again?
"Yes, my darling," Emy breathes, arching her back in pleasure and gripping the counter tightly. "Oh God, yes, whatever you wish."
"There's one more thing you must do, Emy, to avoid suspicion of poisoning." Lucille's velvet lips pressed against Emy's neck, biting lightly at the tender spot that nearly finished Emy right then and there. "You must kill your precious Amy as well."
"Consider it already done."
Milo was shuffling past his father's room when he heard something, a soft speaking too quiet for him to make out through the thick wooden door. Instead of continuing down the hall like a smart teen would have, he instead pressed his ear against the door and strained to make out what August was saying. Is he talking to Emy? Milo shakes his head, remembering that he'd just seen Emy making her way upstairs to wake Kady up.
Amy was playing in the parlor and Milo knew August wasn't talking to him, so who the hell was on the other side of the door? Feeling brave, Milo cracks the door open just enough to peek inside, easily spotting August sitting in an armchair in front of the small fireplace, seemingly talking to thin air. It was like August saw someone Milo didn't, an invisible person that was talking right back and even over August if his random pauses were any indication.
It set Milo on edge since there was no one in there for August to be talking to unless it was one of the house's ghosts. Milo pushes the door open just enough to squeeze through, moving quietly towards his father and catching a flash of crimson that moved from his father's side to the deepest shadows in the room.
"Uh, did you say something, sir," Milo asks uncertainly, eyes flickering between August and the place the woman had disappeared in. When he got no response, Milo moves to stand in front of the chair.
August was just sitting there, back straight and his hands gripping the ends of the wooden arm rests tightly as he stared blankly ahead of him. It was like he was in some kind of trance, the type you see on TV where the person would get up and do whatever ridiculous things the magician told him to do. It was disconcerting, to say the least, to see a man as strong as August reduced to this. How do I wake him up? Do I have to say abracadabra or some shit? His jaw set, Milo moves over to the shadows and reaches out, trying to grasp the silk fabric he could hear rustling faintly.
"Come out," he growls when he catches sight of the crimson dress again. "Get out here and fix my father before I go all Winchester on your ass, you skanky bitch!" He heard a low laugh, feminine and colder than Milo had ever heard a laugh be. "Grow a pair and show yourself!"
"You can't hurt me, Milo," the woman said simply. He couldn't pinpoint where she was in the room, the flickering light cast by the fire offering little assistance and her voice seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "I'm too strong now and I'll have your soul in my collection soon enough. You should go catch your father." The words were whispered in his ear, soft lips barely brushing against sensitive flesh. He lets out a shaky breath, running back over to August and barely catching him as he fell forward.
"What happened," August mutters, staring around in a daze. "How did I get over here? I was still in bed…."
"Well," Milo says as he helps August back into the chair," now we know where Kady gets the sleepwalking."
"I've never slept walked before, though."
"You were talking in your sleep, too. Maybe we should go stay in the village for a few days, you know, to get you a doctor's appointment and a much needed break for the rest of us." August furrows his brows and shakes his head, relaxing in the chair and speaking in a soft tone Milo rarely heard anymore.
"Nah, Emy said the roads were caked over in ice. We'll have to stay here until it melts…." And August was sound asleep again, snoring loudly with his chin resting against his chest. By then Mrs. Lovett will probably be gnawing on whatever's left of our mutilated bodies. Knowing August would just fall in the floor again if left in the chair, Milo hauls him up and half drags him over to the king-sized bed, grunting from the effort to get his father on the bed.
"Man, you're getting fat in your old age." Shaking his head, Milo leaves the room and shuts the door behind him before heading to the kitchen where he hoped to find breakfast ready. "Hey, Emy," he greets, leaning against the counter and watching her bustle around. She looked flustered, her blue and black hair frizzy and small bruises littering the pale column of her throat. I don't even want to think about how she got those. The unexpected news last night had been hard to bear, but Milo swallowed down the hurt and gave a happy smile while Kady left as quickly as she could. "What's for breakfast this morning?"
"Whatever you can find, Milo," she answers breathlessly, pouring tea in the cups set on the table. "Amy's got a stomach bug, so I have to nurse her back to health."
"Hope she feels better soon."
"I'm sure she'll get over it quickly enough. Could you do me a favor and take some tea up to Kady? I tried to earlier, but she had her music up so loud and her door was locked, so…." Emy trails off with a helpless shrug, pausing long enough to send Milo a stressed smile.
"She was like that when she got dumped by her first boyfriend, she should snap out of it and re-join society in a few days." He picks up two of the cups, walking out of the kitchen and over to the stairs, taking them two at a time before turning to the right and heading straight for Kady's bedroom. Like Emy had said, the door was locked and he could hear music blasting even out in the hallway. Knowing he needed to be a hard ass in order to get inside, he kicks the bottom of her door until the music volume is lowered.
"I don't want any damn breakfast, Emy," Kady shouts from inside.
"Easy, Kady-bug, I come bearing gifts!" There was a moment of silence before he heard light footsteps and then the door opened. "You look awful."
"Fuck you, too." Instead of her usual girly touch on grunge, Kady was dressed in a pair of jeans that were slightly too big, a gray and black ombre sweater that hung down to her knees, a pair of Jack Skellington Ugg boots, and she had her hair in a braided knot at the base of her head. "Did August send you up here to berate me?"
"No, Emy sent me with tea, but I do have some bad news concerning Dad." Kady slouches in her desk chair, watching him as he scoots the papers on her desk over enough to sit on it. "I think the woman ghost is messing with his head. I mean, he was talking to her this morning, but looked like he was in a trance when I first walked in. He didn't wake up until the bitch disappeared." Kady takes her cup of tea from him, but doesn't drink it yet.
"I may have some good news on the ghost front."
"The Boo Brothers are coming to exterminate them?"
"No," she says with a laugh," the guy ghostie is actually on our side. Remember back before Grandma Edith passed, we thought she was going senile since she kept claiming that her husband was some guy named Thomas?"
"Yeah, she was nuts, but what does that have to do with the cannibals inhabiting our house?"
"Well…." She draws the word out, voicing raising slightly in pitch as her eyes land on something over on Milo's right. "He's kind of the guy we're related to and we have no real ties to the McMichael family like we originally thought we did."
"The ghost of our great-great-grandpa is still floating around somewhere in our house, isn't he?"
"Not just somewhere, he's kind of right beside you." Milo goes still, eyes narrowing as Kady gulps down the scalding hot tea in an effort to avoid eye contact with him. With a tic working in his jaw, Milo slowly turns his head to look in the direction Kady had, finding the creepiest man he's ever seen just a few feet away.
"This ain't right."
"Pleased to meet you, too," the ghost, Thomas, replies with a gentle smile. Milo stands, gripping the back of his sister's chair all the while keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the pale spector in front of him. He and the bitch shared a remarkable resemblance with the same dark hair and eyes, and their killer bone structure. "Are you feeling well, Milo?"
"I'm fine."
And then Milo was falling to the ground in a dead faint.
Kady was dreaming again, everything around her muted except for the faint sound of music coming from the next room. She knew who it was now, knew that she didn't have to fear him anymore, and so she got out of bed and went to his room. Moonlight sucked the colors out of the empty room and made everything seem blue, including Thomas as he smiled at her.
"Come dance with me," he inquires, holding out one pale hand.
"I can't dance," she whispers back, taking a few tentative steps further into the room. She still couldn't see the source of the music, but she wasn't going to question the strange qualities of dreams.
"In dreams, you can do anything you wish." Lips pressed together in nervousness, she places her hand in his, her right hand moving to his shoulder while his barely brushed against her hip. "It's a simple thing, this dance, just a combination of four steps." And then they were moving, dancing around the room as the music grew slightly louder, the notes high and sweet to Kady's ears. She liked this, liked the easy way they moved and how graceful Thomas made her feel.
"Was this your room when you were alive?"
"It was indeed." He gives her another smile and she could see straight through him when they passed the window, the faint light of the moon shining right through him despite how solid he felt. "Edith and I shared this room after I brought her here. She was a writer, you know."
"I remember her always talking about a lost manuscript that she brought back to England." Thomas nods, taking a moment to stop and make Kady spin before catching her up again and continuing the dance he'd learned as a child.
"It's almost Christmas." Kady nods, wondering where he was going with it. "I would very much like you and your brother to join me in here once everyone else has retired for the evening. I will tell you about what Edith was like before she grew old in exchange for a song from the two of you."
"I'd like that." Thomas continues to lead the dance, bringing them out of the room and back into Kady's, ending it by scooping her up in his arms and dropping her down onto her bed again. "Is tonight's adventure finished?"
"I'm afraid I'm not quite as strong as Lucille, I need time to rest and so do you, my sweet girl." He brushes some dark blonde hair behind her ear, letting his hand linger for a moment. She knew what he was thinking about, he was wondering what it'd be like if he'd been alive to see his son and grandchildren. "I would have spoiled you rotten had I lived, but now I'll have that chance."
"You would've made a really good dad."
"I don't know about that, but I suppose I could make a decent grandfather to you and Milo." His expression goes solemn as he stands and pulls the heavy comforter over her as the cold started to seep in again. "Kady, get everyone to stop drinking Emilia's tea, she's not who you think."
For those who don't know, Chicken Foot is a game that uses dominoes where you start with the domino marked 1 and branch off from there with the dominoes shaped like a chicken's foot at the end. The person with the fewest points at the end is the winner. The book I quote is The Princess Bride and Buttercup says it to Westley before he leaves.
