Scene 2: Cursed blood

"Dear Claire, I wish just..." His cousin's tone though stops him from continuing. She was not some little child anymore and there was a concern in her eyes that was disconcerting. He looked back to his cousin, waiting to see what the pride and joy of the family would say.

He stops though and quickly looks back at his cousin, his eyebrow raising as he studies her for a moment. Something was wrong, terribly wrong, and he only noticed it when Nathaniel came in beside her. His little cousin's reflection was gone, entirely nonexistent. Everything else in the room reflected beautiful, a polished mirror for grand dances. Claire simply was gone from there.

His eyes looked over and he could see the look in his grandfather's eyes. The man had noticed as well, maybe even a moment or two before he had, but he had not said anything yet. There was a subtle shake of his head; too much strangeness had occurred and to make his little cousin panic would only exacerbate the situation. From that glassy, addicted eye, he would pick up the cue.

"We must talk."

Alexander looks once again at the floor. What is happening? He feels dizzy as his mind races, jumping from place to place. All those memories of something not quite right. Did anyone else ever notice it? He remembers the rumors in the City. Whispers of a Rookwood curse. He thought they meant it figuratively. A reference to the family's slow decay. But could it be... real? And, why doesn't Roderick look more disturbed? What sort of soulless, stone-hearted man can just see his grand-daughter like that and be as if nothing is happening?

Suddenly the wall candles explode into a fiery brightness, burning deep into his soul. He takes his hand to protect his eyes from the blinding light, only to notice his own skin darkening, a strange inky ooze leaking out from under his skin. Is that blood? He feels the darkness within him, that same darkness he tried not to get lost in all this time. It grows unbounded, it rises to challenge the purifying light that strikes him, consuming it in a desperate hunger, until only a faint twilight makes it through the windows from the outside.

He notices everyone around him, his family, slowly becoming nothing more than twisted shadows, corrupted by his own demons. Ever-changing nightmares, dancing imps, mocking him, torturing him. Then his own shadow languidly stands up from the floor and stares at him. Alexander can't avoid the stare; something in it pulls him. He looks into his own shadows, into his own eyes, deep into the endless pit of empty void of his soul.

His shadow smiles. A wicked, evil, smile that sends shivers down Alexander's spine. Then, it pushes him back and he trips, losing balance and falling into the bottomless abyss that opens in the center of the room. Falling, again. Now, before, forever.

He gasps for air as he opens his eyes to see Nathaniel holding him. He wasn't sure what happened; maybe the withdrawal was worse than he expected... but this was worse than any of his previous "trips"...

Nathaniel pauses for just a fraction of a second, the embarrassing ordeal with the door gives him a moment of doubt, then rushes oto his cousins side. "Are you well cousin? Seeing the family all together again appears to have made you light headed."

Alexander's anger was slowly growing as he stared at his grandfather's impassive face. Something was wrong with Claire, wrong with this whole damn family. He meant to take a step forward but the lights in the room began to grow in brightness. They seared into his eyes, burning brighter than the sun. His family turned into shadows, shadows eclipsed by an all-consuming light. His hand lifted up to try and blot out blinding blaze before he could focus on the growing darkness that slide out from under his sleeve. An oily blackness oozed over his flesh like spilled ink, grasping and covering his skin.

"Wha-what? No...get off!" Alexander tried to wipe his hands clean, to pull the offending material away, but it spread faster and faster. It felt like a lump moved in his chest, a strangeness that was familiar and yet foreign all at once. It brings the young man to his knees and he stares down at the shadowed face and starlit eyes that were now his own. From his hands, the darkness spread. It coiled and covered everything around him, seeking tendrils wrapping around his family and turning them into mockeries of themselves. The shadows clung to the walls, the windows, and smothered that purifying light that was smothered until they twinkled like dying stars. He existed in a darkened hell; monstrous forms dancing around him while caricatures of his family danced about before him, taunting his failures and weaknesses.

"It isn't true! I...I am not a failure! I've lived free of this damn family! Damn you! Damn you all!" His anger was stopped as his shadow began to rise before him and looks into Alexander's eyes. Within it was all of his faults, his hatred, his fears, and his weaknesses. It smiled a devil's grin as it reveals the awful truth; he was as wicked as any one of them. With a push, Alexander fell back to the floor and into the darkness. He sunk away from the world, struggling for the light, as the vile ink poured through his tear ducts, his ears, his mouth, his nose, and his torn eye to choke out the very last bit of light within him.

Alexander comes to a moment after Nathaniel speaks, the young man grasping onto him like a life reserve. He jolts, looking around with an honest look of fear upon his face. He swallows hard, looking between them all and expecting them all to still be in their hideous forms.

"Did...did no one see..." Alexander's words die on his lips as he realizes that they're the ramblings of the mad. Withdrawal was known to be hellish and he had suffered from its chills and aches before but nothing was like that shadowy hell. Rising up, he brushes himself off. "I...I am going to get my luggage." His head pounds feverishly as he walks, his hand rising to his missing eye to press against the eyepatch.

A moment later, his shadow follows.

"Alexander!" Claire yelps. "Are you alright?"

Claire stood confused on the ballroom floor. Looking at Elias at her one side and Alexander at her other.

"Stay please! No one said you are a failure... I..."

She takes a deep breath. What she is going to say could make a lot of sense, or it could throw everyone's opinion of her straight back to that of a scared little girl.

"I don't know why, but I think the house is haunted. I have seen strange things... Elias is acting weird... so is Alexander..." she starts talking faster and faster, taking no time to breathe. "And grandfather doesn't know who send the invitations. And there are weird women in the backyard. And grandmother is dead, and I can't even properly remember her. I think we should all go sit down in the living room right now and talk about this! And haunted or not, I am staying. I don't want to go back to Riverlight just yet!"

Quite surprised by what she just all said and her quite directive tone as well, she repositions herself a bit, as if making herself a bit smaller.

"If that is okay with you all." she adds timidly.

Alexander did not stop as Claire called to him, the strange sight and the feeling of wrongness still lingering in him. It was like something had come awake inside of him and was filling him out, travelling down his limbs to his very digits. He could feel it exploring the hidden crevices of his mind and of his body.

The young man stopped at his luggage, taking a moment to breathe as he grabbed what he had brought for this strange occasion. Yet his eyes lingered on Nathaniel's bag. It was a proper doctor's bag. Perhaps he had some...medicine...within it? Something that could clear his mind for the moment?

With shaking hands, he would look over his shoulder once more towards the room. He'd have precious time but he could feel the need for the needle's loving oblivion growing. Crouching down with his back against the door so no one could easily see him, he pried open the good doctor's bag and looking for sweet relief.

Despite Claire's plea, Alexander storms out of the room, ignoring Nathaniel's worries about his state. He needs to be left alone, and no place is better than his own room. However, as he grabs his luggage, it is almost as if something else is calling him. He feels his veins pulsating as he looks at the Doctor's bag. Alexander knows what is wrong with him and he is going to fix it. Nathaniel must have brought some opium with him. He always does!

Shaking, he opens one of the sides of the medical bag. He finds all sorts of strange medical tools. Ignoring them, he opens the other side, where the strange powders and tinctures are kept in badly labeled vials. There! He just knew what he was looking for once he saw it. Barely had to figure out what the hand-written label said. It is then, with his mind at ease, knowing he would be able to tend to his needs, that he notices a letter. A letter from the local Physician's Guild. He grabs it almost as a reflex; no real reason to do it. It was just there...



"Oh hello master Alexander. You boys found your rooms already? Master Roderick asked me to prepare them. Yes yes. They are ready. Would you like me to show you to your room?" Gunther appears from the main door, having returned from the Town at the worse possible time.

Roderick comments on Alexander's behaviour. "I can see that today's man has just as despicable impulse control as yesterday's boy. What a disheartening sight. Clare, if you should ever think to look to him as an example, make sure that you read his acts as what a Rookwood should not be," he adds, for the edification of the young girl.
"The man is a disgrace. His debauchery and acquaintance with the wrong drugs are no doubt sufficient explanation for his strange symptoms."

At hearing Clare's plea for a moment of common discussion to figure out what is happening, he says "yes, not all is what it appears to be. There is a grander design a work, that deems our presence necessary under our ancestral roof, so to speak. Time to piece together what we know."

He points at a door through which he knows a comfortable sitting room awaits. "Hopefully those useless servants will have stoked the fireplace for our comfort."
He steps to the doors, guiding the others to the adjacent, more comfortable room.

Alexander's favorite sin is quickly taken, a small smile spreading across his face as he imagines the release it could give. There was something else though; a letter within the bag that quickly earned his attention. He read the writing upon it, his sweaty brow furrowing slightly as he read it. Something was off there, more so than he imagined. He was about to quietly close the bag when Gunther's voice catches him off-guard. The man jumps, his shadow jumping the other way, as he turns towards the servant.

"By God, you scared me Gunther..." Alexander mumbles, rubbing his chest and slipping the needle underneath his jacket. "Our rooms? Yes, yes, please show me to my room." He was ready to indulge and be free of earthly concern for a time when his mind went back to that strange sight; poor Claire's missing reflection. As much as he wanted to savor the dragon's sweet bliss, he would wait. "Gunther? The family library? Could you prepare the candles there? I think...there is some reading I wish to indulge in..."

@KingHotTrash



Gunther nods and guides Alexander upstairs to the large library room. The sun seems to be slowly setting in the horizon as the dark clouds continue to engulf the Town, foreboding another stormy night.

Gunther immediately moves to prepare some candles so Alexander can read quietly, but, while he waits, the man can help but browse the books casually looking for anything that looks interesting.

The dark library welcomed him in with its tall, dark oak shelving and royal red carpeting. It exuded wealth, prestige, and knowledge but when one looked closely, they could see the wear and tear of time upon it. Cracked paint, old cobwebs, dust here and there. In truth, it looked remarkably nicer than what Alexander had imagined it would look. Someone had been through recently, the candles melted with burnt wicks here and there.

Alexander remembered the place in its prime; daylight shining through and illuminating the many walkways within. There were countless places to hide as a child within the library and when his parents disappeared, it became a place of solace. Now it was a place of hope the quell the awful wrongness that stirred inside of him. As Gunther lit the candles, their brightness was like a memory coming back to him. The many months hiding away in here came back to him and his mind could almost remember it like a map. If there was anything to be found, it would be here in The Grand Rookwood Library.

"Thank you, Gunther." Alexander said, showing the old servant a small bit of kindness as he moved towards the darker parts of the library. His shadows, dozens of them cast by candlelight, gleefully watched him walk into the darkness before him. In there, he knew that there were answers waiting.Alexander's eyes scanned the dark titles, quickly abolishing the more common titles away. What he was looking for would not be some prim and proper Imperial text. They were old, lovingly made and crafted by hand rather than mechanically upon the printing press. They were old things of art and beauty and Alexander knew how to identify them as he moved.

@Dr_B,@Cettish,@Squadfather44,@crazybirdman

As Claire shares her suspicions that the Rookwood Manor may be haunted, she invites the others to just take a break and discuss all the strange events that have happened. Roderick seems to partially confirm that he believes there may be some grand design at work, and that they were summoned to be a part of, or at least, witness it. He guides Nathaniel, Elias and Claire, out of the great hall and upstairs, to the family's library, where he recently spent some of his quiet nights. Elias stops just before leaving the room and looks back, as if trying to listen to someone, before silently catching up with the others.

On the way up, they notice Gunther in the corridor, the servant confirming that he is already setting up the library for Alexander; and he can see wood is brought up for the fire place.

@KingHotTrash

As soon as Gunther leaves, Alexander slowly moves along the shelves of old books, quickly checking for anything that could be interesting. He knew that, whatever was going on, be it a haunt or a curse, it would have to be something ancient, maybe even heretic. For a moment he thought it was hopeless as it is clear such knowledge would not be something a proper family would be displaying... Definitely not something old Roderick would be likely to allow, since a word of it could spell the family's downfall in the current times. However, as he is about to give up his crazy quest, he notices one small, old book, its pages yellowed by the time. It was almost imperceptibly hidden among the shadows of more modern prints. He takes it carefully, almost expecting it to crumble in his fingers. That not happening, he takes a better look at the perfect calligraphy of the hand-crafted book, exactly as he imagined it would be. Alexander struggles to read the title, written in an archaic form of the language but he finally settles on "The sleeping legion". He manages to browse a few pages as he walks to a nearby armchair. But, as he sits down, he hears the door open, seeing the others come in...

The sight of Alexander sitting in an armchair reading as if he owned the place annoys him no end.
He keeps his stern gaze on the man, even as he sits at the head of an ancient oak table.

"Are you choosing rare books to sell, to pay for the latest debts caused by your usual debaucherie? Show some respect to this honourable collection of tomes," he calls out to the man.

"You may sit," he tells the others, as if granting permission. "This is a sacred place of knowledge, that has seen generations of Rookwoods perfect their education."
He glances at Claire, as he says, "I am sure you all have memories of this place... Good memories, I hope..."

"Despite how you may feel about me, grandfather..." The word drips with annoyance as he closes the book, standing up from where he was and moving towards the ancient oak table. "...I am, by right of blood, allowed within this library to do as I please. And what pleases me is to try and help this family." He places the ancient book upon the table, sitting at Roderick's left side. His blue eye, though still glassy from his vice of choice, remains keenly focused on the man before him.

"Something strange is happening here. I-I had a vision in the ballroom. A darkness overwhelming everything and everyone before it swallowed me whole. An abyss of endless black. Since then...I...I have felt wrong. I know that you know this, grandfather. I saw what you saw in the ballroom, even if you won't admit it." Alexander flips open the book now, turning to the page the detailed an ancient cult.

"Claire, you said grandfather was speaking to women in the backyard, yes? It wouldn't have happened to have been three women, would it?" Alexander points for his grandfather's benefit to the passage that detailed the local cult of some trinity that worshipped an ancient and dark force that fed upon the dead. As he did, the candles flickered and his shadow paced behind the seated man."Who were those women, grandfather? Why were you so confused in the graveyard when Nathaniel and I found you?"

"A 'Haunted manor'? Alexander doing research? . . . I think I will take a seat Mr. Rookwood." Nathaniel never did feel right calling him 'grandfather'

"Yes there were three women out there. Trespassers. Surely beggars, or whores." he says sharply. "I was not confused. I was annoyed at our sloppy servants, our grounds seem to be at the mercy of anyone who wants to take a stroll... They will be met by the bite of our mastiffs, next time."

He runs his rheumy eyes over the book, then points at the passage on the page. "That text means nothing. Ever at a glance I can tell that is a bastardized vernacular derived from Old Highlandic. The word you read as trinity means 'Many scores' and what you read as worship is talking about wheat crops. We are reading a peasant's ledger book, a record of a bountiful crop. "

A look of exhaustion spreads across his face as the usual array begins; disbelief from his cousin and a talking down from his grandfather. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he sits back in his seat and sighs.

"If you say so, grandfather, if you say so." The events of the day weigh on him; too much has happened today and the Alex could feel that his patience was at an all-time low.

Roderick’s rebuke forces Alexander to back down as, by now, he knows better than to oppose the old man. However, unsettled by the strangeness of her experiences, and feeling Alexander may not be wrong, the young girl takes a peek at the book as she instinctively exclaims "But grandfather! You kissed!" immediately blushing at the idea.