The wind
started howling as Lawrence neared the Holgrove Castle. He was already late and was worried that
Scarlett would start to worry. He had
some errands to do for his father and had just managed to escape. His horse, Blackfoot, put his head down
against the wind, keeping up their fast pace.
His breath was coming out in fast puffs, mirroring Lawrence’s own
breath. The light of the full moon shown
down, lighting the path as if it was high noon.
Lawrence could see the lights of the castle in the distance and knew it
would be only minutes until he arrived.
He couldn’t wait to see the excitement on her face when he told her the
news.
* * *
I stood
in the room for a moment trying to sort out what had just happened. I had grown up hearing stories from my
governess about Madam LaGrange. The
story I remembered the most went like this;
Madam LaGrange was
once herself a governess. She took care
of two children in a small home just North of the village, William and
Mary. William was out playing in the
yard one day while Mary was inside with Madam LaGrange. William was playing Knights and swinging his
wooden sword at a dummy Madam LaGrange had made for him to play with. He hit the dummy with his sword making a
thwack sound each time. William began
hitting it faster and faster, enjoying the sounds he was making and pretending
to defeat his imaginary foe. One he had
exhausted himself and decided to return inside, he heard screams coming from
inside the house. He ran inside to find
his little sister Mary on the floor, screaming in pain. Madam LaGrange was nowhere to be found. The story goes that Madam LaGrange had
bewitched the dummy that William was fighting to transfer all the blows it took
to poor little Mary. She had several
broken bones and bruises all over her body and later died from her injuries as
her family did not have access to decent medical care. The entire village was in an uproar but Madam
LaGrange was never seen there again.
Wanting
a change of scenery, I decided to go back to the party. Maybe Madam LaGrange wouldn’t come back and I
wouldn’t have to worry about that strange vial.
As I
stepped back into the main dance hall, the clock struck twelve. The orchestra abruptly stopped playing and
the guests stopped dancing. Peeking up
over the people in front of me, I noticed that everyone was frozen. It was as if time had just stopped. Francine was off to the side, frozen in mid
dance with a young man. Feeling very
nervous, I scanned the room for my parents.
Mother and Father were also frozen, apparently chatting with an older
gentleman, probably trying to marry Francine off.
The wind
howled outside against the windows.
Madam LaGrange was suddenly standing in the middle of the dance
floor. All the candles blew out and it
room was bathed in moonlight, casting eerie shadows along the walls. Madam LaGrange emitted a strange glow. She raised her long finger, beckoning me to
come to her. I felt my muscles respond
and without being able to resist, I made my way through the crowd to her.
“Scarlett,
your time has come. You can no longer
escape your fate. “
Unable
to speak, all I could do was stare at her and listen.
“My gift
to you is the ability to see people for who they really are. They all wear masks and it is up to you to
find out what is underneath. Opening the
vial is the key. Its effects will only
last until midnight tomorrow night. If
you do not open the vial, you will risk the lives of everyone you love. The choice is yours.”
With
that, she disappeared again into the shadows and I was then able to regain
control of myself. The music started up again
and the dancing commenced. I quickly
pushed my way through the dancing couples over to Francine.
“You
need to come with me, now!”
Seeing
the desperation in my eyes, Francine excused herself from her dancing partner
and took me by the hand. I led her
upstairs to my room and closed the door.
