Thank you everyone for the reviews! The chapter is finally here (sara188 :) ) I'm hoping I have time to finish the next one today as I've been looking forward to these two chapters since I started. I hope you enjoy the big reveal
CLC
Chapter Sixteen
After seeing the mark on Eleanor's skin, Gregory sobered up pretty quickly. Rowena kept Eleanor's door locked to everyone and informed the rest of the house about the situation.
"I'm afraid Eleanor's condition has worsened," Rowena announced from the middle of the staircase. "I have called the council together to assess the situation. They will be here tomorrow."
From the second floor balcony, Gregory watched over the crowded foyer. Mutters and whispers broke out. Some quietly left the house, not wanting to be there when the council arrives. Only his son and his friends were unsure of what was going on. They were too young to really understand the implications. A meeting like this hasn't happened in over 50 years and only to be called on dire situations.
The hours that followed the announcement were hushed. The only people who remained were the closest relatives. The elder Mrs. Garwin left. Not really up too much these days. Her daughter in law, Rose, stayed. She helped Daphne with Evelyn.
As for Gregory himself, he sat next to Eleanor's closed door trying to wrap his head around the mark. His hair was messed for the long day and constant hand running. Pressing the call button on his iphone, he tried for the hundredth time to get hold of Georgina. But it went straight to voice mail. Whether her phone was off or she had call divert on, he knew she didn't want to speak to him. Their last conversation didn't go too well.
When he rang her he was just around the corner of the corridor. He just got out of Evelyn's room. Though he didn't think she would answer, as she hadn't done for the past week, he knew he had to try.
"Hello," a sleepy voice dully answered.
"Georgina?" he asked. It was the first time he had spoken to her over the phone and couldn't be sure it was her.
"Gregory?" she said surprised. "Why are you calling me at 2am?"
"Listen, I've been trying to contact you-"
"I know. I kept missing your calls. I leave my phone in the car when I go out and-"
"I'm not calling about that," he quickly interrupted. He peeked around the corner, but the corridor was empty. "There's something wrong with Eleanor."
"What do you mean 'wrong' with her," she asked.
"We found her unconscious last Saturday. She hasn't woken up since then," he said.
There was a tense silence on the phone.
"You mean to tell me that when I specifically asked you if she was okay, you just lied to my face?" she said dangerously.
"I didn't lie. I said she wasn't feeling well-"
"Well you certainty didn't mention a bloody coma," she exclaimed.
"I didn't tell you because I thought it was because of the fight we had. I thought that until about 30 minutes ago when I saw you family's mark cut out onto her skin," he replied hotly.
"That's impossible," she whispered.
"That's generally the main consensus here at the moment. Except we've all seen it. It looks like someone had taken a knife to her," he explained.
"No, you don't understand. They only mark what they consider property. Either objects or people, it doesn't matter to them. But they can't mark another witch from a different family line. It's physically impossible. I can't even think…"
Gregory listened intently at the silence on the other end.
"Georgina?" he asked. "You still there."
A few moments of silence before her voice replied simply, "I'm on my way back."
"Georg-" he started, but heard the dial tone before he could finish. It was after that he bumped into Rowena. He tried to call Georgina back after their conversation and all he got was her answer service message.
"Mr. Simms?"
Gregory came back to the present and looked up from the black screen on his phone. Caleb was stood infront of him looking concerned.
"Caleb," Gregory said, putting his phone in his pocket. "How's your mother?"
Caleb looked back at Evelyn's closed door and pressed his fingers into his eyes.
"Not good,' he replied, looking back at Gregory. "She was like this when Dad left the first time. I don't know if she can survive another loss."
"She will be fine," Gregory insisted firmly. "Just like Eleanor will be. It may seem like everything is messed up at the moment. You just have to have faith."
Caleb's lost eyes looked a little skeptical at first but then nodded more for his own benefit that anything else. He smiled sadly than turned to walk away. Though he didn't get far. He paused a few feet away and seemed to struggle with something.
"You okay, Caleb?"
He turned around to face Gregory, looking uncomfortable.
"Do you know someone called Georgina?" he asked, keeping eye contact with Gregory.
Gregory felt like he had been winded, but he tried with effort to keep his face neutral.
"Georgina?"
"Yeah. It was this girl we meet briefly last week. She was seen coming out of Eleanor's boathouse. The same time we saw you there."
"Georgina," Gregory said it a fake comprehending way. "Yeah. Eleanor asked me to check on her while I was there."
"Eleanor?" frowned Caleb.
"Yes," Gregory said. "Georgina's her goddaughter."
"That's her Goddaughter?" Caleb replied surprised.
"Yes. But it isn't common knowledge. I would appreciate it if you didn't announce it. Not at the moment anyway with things the way they are."
Gregory watched the astounded Caleb nod and walk off. When he was alone, he let out the breath he was holding and rubbed his face. He hated this. Not knowing what to say and lying all the time. Sitting back in his chair, he took at his phone. Looking at the recent history, he saw the long list of red calls made. Clicking on any of them, he watched as the phone tried to unsuccessfully call Georgina's number again.
Reid woke up mid afternoon the following day. As he sat up on the sofa he had been sleeping on, the blanket slid off his bare chest. Pushing his messed up hair out of his eyes, he looked around Caleb's old room. Tyler was camped out on the floor, his arm over his face shielding it from the sunlight while Pogue was in the armchair. His legs dangled off the arm.
Massage his neck, Reid winced from the pain. They used to sleep like this when they were growing up. He remembered the sofa being a lot bigger but not much comfier. The only person who only ever slept well was Caleb. He had his bed. Which Reid saw was empty. Caleb was stood in front of the window. He held open the thick curtains and was staring intently at something outside. The bright sunlight shone through the gap onto Caleb's chest and bed trousers.
"What's happening?" Reid yawned.
He stood up and walked over, making sure he softly kicked Tyler as he past. Tyler moaned and turned on his side. Away from the light.
"It seems as we have a lot of guests," Caleb said cryptically.
Instead of sharing the gap in the curtains Caleb was looking through. Reid held the two curtains and pushed them aside. Flooding the room with sunlight. Caleb shook his head to himself and stood closer to get a better look. Grumbles came from behind them from Pogue and Tyler.
"You're not kidding," Reid said.
Not only was the long driveway full of different cars, even the road on the other side of the manor's pond were lined of cars.
"Close the curtains," Pogue moaned from the chair. He shifted uncomfortably to try and shield his face.
Ignoring the two moaning sleepers, Reid looked at Caleb and said, "You want to see what's going on?"
Gregory was stood in the sitting room behind the sofa that held Daphne, Rose and a bereaved Evelyn. She stared off into the roaring fire and held onto her friend's hands tightly. He could see Rowena in the hallway, greeting different people. Most were older, with graying or white hair. The stood tall and held themselves strong. Rowena led them into the dinning hall on the other side of the foyer to the sitting room. She explained to the four that it was a formality. Business would be concluded before introductions were made. Whatever was going to be decided in that room in the next couple of hours would change the fate of every witch.
She was exhausted. Driving all night with the only stops being for the bathroom and more coffee, she was tired but highly strung. Having read all the books on witchcraft in Boston, she decided to head further afield. She went to the New York City, but even that was a bust. Thinking that her last real hope was the library of Congress in Washington. There were plenty of the books about the first British settlement in America.
Unfortunately their high security meant she couldn't stay there. But that didn't mean she couldn't 'borrow' a few books without their knowledge. She felt bad about putting the spell on the guard who checked her bag and saw a bunch of old books. But she reassured herself in promising to bring them back.
That was before she got a phone call that night. She had been so livid she nearly blew a hole in the empty show house she had been crashing in. Packing her bags, she put everything in the car and headed to the one places she promised herself she wouldn't go back too.
Georgina turned off the warm air conditioning that was making her sleepy and tried to focus on the road. She was listening to a caller rant over the talk radio show, when a shiver slowly made it's way up her spine.
"No, no, no, no," she frantically whispered and pulled over to the hard shoulder.
The shiver raised her hair on the back of her neck. Georgina clenched her fists and eyes. She started shivering.
"Not now. Not yet," she said through gritted teeth.
The shiver carried on over her shoulders. Opening her eyes, she moved the rearview mirror. Seeing her self in the reflection she could see the small black lines sliver it's way from under her oversized jumper that hung off her shoulders.
Banging her head back on the headrest, she felt her eyes black over.
"Not yet," she pleaded.
She used her power to push back the wave. Georgina was surprised when her shivering slowly subsided. It had never worked before. Looking at the black veins, she saw that they had stopped growing for now. But they wouldn't stay controlled for long. Soon her excess power will grow to much and she will have to release.
Eyes returning to normal and quickly putting her car back in gear, she drove off. Faster than she had ever drove before she flew down the highway. Briefly glancing at the blue of green that told her she was entering Ipswich.
The council had been in the room for about an hour when the Sons came down and into the sitting room. Pogue and Tyler looked tired but alert. Caleb approached the sofa. Daphne got up and told him to sit with his mother. Evelyn only registered his presence by taking his hand tightly.
"What's going on?" Tyler asked his parents. Daphne sat down in a chair as Gregory paced lost in thought as he held his phone.
"The council came earlier. They've been talking for about an hour-" Daphne explained to the attentive Sons.
The sound of the door opening from the dinning hall bought their attention quickly to the foyer. Gregory stopped pacing and looked up. A harassed looking couple around sixtyish hurried out of the room. The man had a face like thunder while the woman looked scared. He slammed the front door behind them as they left.
"That was the third family to have left since the meeting started. Whatever they are talking about, I don't think it is going very well," Rose said, stroking Evelyn's back.
Gregory went back to pacing the carpet as the other people in the room made themselves comfortable. Tyler sat on the chair arm where his mother was sitting. He watched as his preoccupied father tried to wear out the carpet. They hadn't yet had a chance to talk. Whenever he tried to strike up a conversation, he would always be either trying to call someone or talking to Rowena. Caleb had explained their conversation to them all when they were in his room. Although Tyler believed the story, he wouldn't be happy until he talked to his father.
A phone ring cut through the silence. Gregory stopped moving and answered the call on the first ring. As there was nothing else going on, most of the room watched.
"I've been trying to call you-" Gregory impatiently answered.
"I'm here," Georgina answered in a weird voice. "I don't have much time."
Gregory could sense everyone watching as he walked to the window. He could just made out her walking quickly down the driveway. His heart pounded quickly. He needed to tell her to leave. Go anywhere else but here.
"You can't come in here," he exclaimed down the phone, rushing out of the sitting room to the front door.
Everyone in the room listened to Gregory talking to whoever was on the line. They watch his agitation skyrocket as he rushed out of the room. Tyler frowned and quickly went to the window. Trying to see whatever he saw. His mouth dropped when he saw the girl from the bar. The one he thought his father was having an affair with. The others joined him and watched the girl approach the manor as she talked on the phone.
"Who is that, Tyler?" Daphne frowned then looked at her son.
Reid, Pogue and Caleb shared a confused look.
"I think I know what's going on," Gregory heard Georgina say.
He pulled open the front door and was about to run out, when a strong hand grabbed his arm. Rowena was holding him back and her face was horrifying as she looked at the girl outside. Gregory saw the remaining council members stood around her. There faces mirrored hers.
"They can't mark any other witch but they can possess them," Georgina explained. The shivers had started again when she reached the manor. She ran the rest of the way house, not seeing the faces watching her in the window, or the council members stood in the foyer. All she saw was Gregory stood in the open doorway.
Georgina closed her phone. She was close enough now to speak to him normally.
"Where is she?" Georgina asked running up the steps to the front door.
It wasn't until she was at the door did she look up and saw the people watching her. She skidded to a stop. They all looked at her with hatred in their eyes. See looked at Gregory. His face was white and apologetic.
"Your kind will not step foot in this house," a white haired woman stated viciously to her.
Georgina felt her skin chill and the black vein began moving again. Whoever this woman was they obviously knew who she was. Georgina through a hate filled look at Gregory, who lowered his eyes.
She didn't have time for this.
"Try and stop me," snapped Georgina, her eyes blacking over.