Life for a Price-closed

[Perplexia]

Jane LeFay sat in disbelief on her ruffled bedspread. The phone dangled from the table banging against the it with rhythmic clanks. Her mother had been killed by a drunk driver. She was the only person she had left in the world, and now she too was gone. The shock alone was overwhelming.

At a time like this most people would have friends they could turn to for comfort. But not Jane. For as long as she could remember she had been an outcast. The girl with the perfect grades that advanced through school like a knife through cake. She was nineteen and working on her Masters degree in graphic art. As if that wasn't enough to make her alienated, they also had moved around a lot pursuing her mothers acting career. Angel LeFay had been semi famous at one point. But like everything in Janes life, that to faded away.

Reaching down she picked up the black receiver and placed it back upon the phones cradle. Going over to her desk she opened her laptop and looked up airline tickets. She was flying home to Ireland. There she would bury her mother in the family plot and decide what it was she was to do with her life.

If it was one thing she could be grateful for, it was that she came from money. There were many stories on how it came to be, but the truth was uncertain. Perhaps that is what she would do, research her history and learn about who she was. Maybe then she could get a life, instead of being a waste of one.

Janes father had been in the military and killed in battle before she was born. She had asked her mother why she didn't have his last name. There always seemed to be a different answer, perhaps that was something else she could find out while she searched. The only thing her mother advised her regular was that she had his brains and earlobes.

The flight was long and tedious from the states to Ireland. Still she had yet to cry for the loss she had endured. It was if she was some how broken from the inside out. From an early age she had imagined living alone in their large isolated castle. Being alone only semi bothered her. There was a peacefulness that came with not having to consider another persons emotions. Empathy was a quality she had lacked from an early age.

Henry, the families chauffeur waited for her at the gate. He was a typical Irishman. He had the pug nose, and strong jawline. He was a stout funny man that had been around many years before she was born. For the first time in a long time a smile came across her lips as she walked into his arms and hugged him tightly. "Miss Jane I be so sorry for your loss" he advised with his voice cracking and tears welling. "Now don't start all that Henry" she advised scolding him playfully faking another smile for him.

The ride to the castle was long. The countryside had stayed the same for the most part. There more buildings then she remembered, but it had been a while since she'd been home.

The car rumbled over the cobblestone drive. There was always something magical about the way the tires sounded. When she could she would ride her horse over it. The sound that the hooves made was simply wonderful. It always made her feel if she closed her eyes and listened long enough, when she opened them she would be transported back to the 1800's. This brought a small smile to her unpainted lips.

With the car door opened for her she was broken from her midday dream and found her footing. The castle was much the way she had remembered from her last visit a couple years ago. The staff waited at the entrance to greet her. The faces all seemed the same but a little older. Here and there a new one appeared but it didn't surprise her. Working for her mother was never a picnic, much less living with her.

It seemed unreal that this was now all hers. She had only met her grandmother once when she lived. She wasn't the type of woman that would bake cookies or tell stories. She seemed more perturbed with Jane being there than anything else. Her grandfather though, she felt drawn to him. He told her on their only meeting that there were secrets behind the walls, one day all this would be here. He'd promised to be sure that there was no option for her mother to sell it. Then they too were gone, and her mother settled there with her in tow.

Her fingers ran along the wood polished rail as she lifted her feet one after the other to go upstairs. Her room was how it had been left. The first order of business was a nice hot shower. The second was to return the messages.

 

[thepoeticmaster2121]

Tick Tock

Tick Tock

That damn clock

Every night it tortured him, its excessive beating ringing though the large castle like home he was cursed to haunt as if he was a mere specter. He supposed he should have been glad that it was a mansion he found he had to pay his penance in but even the rich opulent setting wasn’t enough to take him away from his torment. What was the point in having riches if you couldn’t touch them? What was the point in being surrounded by furnishing fit for a king if he was nothing but a hollow form?

And then their was that clock….. That damn clock it rang every hour reminding him every single time that his immortal existence was ticking by ever so slowly. How many times had he stared at it? Screamed at it over and over again in an attempt to stop it with sheer will power? More times than he could remember, more times than he could have imagined and yet it hadn’t changed hadn’t done a lick of good.

He watched the staff go about their business watched them grow old and then pass on, blissfully unaware of both his presence and the secret hiding in the master bedroom. He had tried to get them to find it but they knew about him or at least the matron of the house had spooked them enough to not pry into things they shouldn’t.

Then some thing changed

He turned watching from his position on the chair as the men and women that made up the houses staff scurried about. How long had he been there? Days? Weeks? Or months? Long enough it seemed for some thing to change.
For a visitor to be coming

He hung around some of the servants and found out that the last heir to the house was coming tonight a fact that made him almost giddy with happiness. A Lefay hadn’t been around in years not since the kind old man who had known of his existence, but a blood Lefay meant that maybe he would soon find his release and gain a moral form he would have to play it safe and bide his time but if he played his cards right and she found the box.

Then perhaps he could find a way out of this hell

He watched her following her up the railing and down the hall way, she was a pretty girl more pretty than he could have imagined with the kind of old fashion beauty that the Lefay’s were so well known for. He reached out to touch her ignoring when his hand past through her shoulder as if he was made of smoke.

Soon he would have his escape

 

[Perplexia]

A slight chill spread goose bumps along her arms. Walking over to the radiator she tapped on it rhythmically. "Ghosts retire" she said with a smile remembering it as something her grandfather use to do. He had all sorts of quirks and sayings that made her giggle once as a child.

Entering her bathroom she disrobed and let her red locks fall down upon her shoulders. Her green eyes looked back at her in the mirror, almost not recognizing the face before her.

Turning on the water the steam quickly filled up the room clouding the mirror. She stepped inside the shower and let the hot liquid cascade over her like a waterfall. It soothed the aches from the long flight. The jet lag taking ahold of her. Fully washed and her hair washed she staggered from the shower grasping the big cotton robe and placed it upon her. To the bed she moved falling upon the heaven soft mattress that was cascaded in canopy. Her grandfather called this the princess room. Stating she was destined to be a queen or a goddess. Just a short nap she thought.. her eyes falling closed. Whisking her off to dream world. Her dream provided her with a strength and sense of self. Upon a Frisian she sat with a long flowing gown. The trees parted and bowed blessing her with there fall leaves as snowflakes began to fall.

The cobblestone forming a path in front of her, leading her to where she was meant to be. A voice echoed in her mind "Find me." The connection to this voice was buried deep with in her. A yearning she'd never known or even dreamt of. But it was a part of her, a part that had been missing. Words floated through the air in a fancy script. "The walls have secrets meant for only you to know."

Her dream seemed to replay itself, over and over starting and ending the same. As if she had something to find before it would continue. The walls she awoke saying out loud to the dark room.