Crimson Shadows - 5. Chapter 5

 *~*~*~*~*~*

What the fuck were they doing out there amongst the boxes and pieces of furniture?

The sounds of talking, shuffling of papers, the opening of drawers and the thunks of furniture being moved around had suddenly stopped and a new sound was starting to come through to it. It was soft and deep, occasionally breaking off into something akin to a grunt. The bastard spawns name would occasionally come through the wooden panels of its prison coffin.

Jerking at a particularly loud sound, it finally pressed its ear against the side of the box, lips pulling down into a confused frown. Finally it could place the sounds that were coming from outside of its prison.

They were moans and growls! Of pleasure no less!

Jerking away from the side of the trunk within a trunk with a harsh movement, it looked horrified at the wood before it. It was amazed and quite a bit on the disgusted side that the bastards spawn was pleasuring the creature that he called lover so close to what it had called its home for so very long. Its face pulled into a look of disgust, porcelain features going from pretty to terrifyingly nasty looking. Silently screeching in anger and disgust, it slammed its hands against the side of the trunk, the hard thunks against wood lost to the music and loud sounds outside of its coffin.

It would punish the two fools in so many different ways. It would hurt them, destroy their very hearts and minds for the stupidity they dared to show oh so easily so close to it. Walking back and forth quickly as the sounds came to a rather loud ending. it shook its head quickly, sending its curls flying down around its face.

Snarling softly in its disgust, it stopped moving as it listened carefully to the sounds of talking so close to its prison. They were so close, he could taste their sex, their sweat, their very emotions. It swayed on its feet, humming at the drunken feeling that came from the rush of emotions that were creatures, and that was the bastards spawn. Licking its lips, it smirked quietly and tapped its fingers on its arm.

It looked as if they would get to it sooner then later, if the words that it could understand were what it thought they were.

Oh, he would soon taste the freedom long denied it.

And it would taste the revenge eve longer denied.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Smiling smugly at his lover, Markus laughed lowly as the other man groaned, laid out on the floor, sprawled in a sexed out relaxation. Trailing his eyes over the lean body, enjoying the way Liens shirt was shoved up, his pants undone and pulled down along with his boxers, leaving the other exposed to his gaze, he licked his lips as he remembered the fun that they had just had. The small male grabbed a bottle of water and rinsed his mouth out, knowing that soon the after taste wouldn’t be so pleasant.

Wrinkling his nose, he hummed and lent against the wall, eyes trailing over the stuff still left to go through as Lien put himself back together, brushing off dust and dirt from where he had laid out on the floor. Standing straight again, Markus walked over to one of the trunks and tapped the top of it, amazed at how many crosses covered the damn thing. Tilting his head to the side, he hummed and bit his biting his bottom lip before looking at his lover and pointing to it.

“Do you want to crack it open when you can think more then ugh?” he asked the Native teasingly as the man grabbed his own bottle. Sending a low powered glare at him, Lien huffed and drank down a swig of water as he eyed the rather interesting chest like trunk. There were quiet a few crosses that looked to b etched right into the wood and looked semi new. The latches were held close by strong pad locks that looked to be the kind you would expect on a shed or barn door out on a farm.

“Yeah, did your dad do that?” he asked, pointing to the chest with the water bottle, getting a shake from Markus.

“No, I think my mom did, about the time Leon was born. Something about there being chests within the chests or something like that. They never really talked about it. The key should be on that huge ring of keys that daddy kept,” Markus said, waving a hand at the bucket that held everything. Lien dug around in it, eventually pulling out the key ring and handing it over to his lover.

Taking the key ring, Markus fiddled with the keys, trying to figure out which one would open the pad locks, cursing that they never did mark which key was which.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Stopping its pacing, it looked to the top of its chest, eyes wide at the sound of talking so close. They had found its prison! They were finally going to open it, it just knew it. Licking its lips, it moved to a corner and sat down, shifting into the proper position of leaning against the side, body stiff and hair perfect once more.

There would be no reason to leave it in the box. There just wasn’t, just couldn’t be.

*~*~*~*~*~*

There it is,” Markus sighed has he finally got the pad locks off with the three keys. Putting the locks aside, he opened the chest like trunk top and looked inside, finding another chest in it. Pulling it out, he smiled happily at the fact that it was held close with nothing more then a bit of wire. Looking to his lover, he frowned at the look that Lien was giving the chest. “What’s up?” he asked, curious as to what would put the man on edge so quickly.

“Nothing, I think,” Lien replied, shaking his head and moving over to kneel down next to Markus. Reaching out, he unwound the wire from around itself and removed it from the latch, putting it aside. Opening the chest, they peeked into it, blinking as all they found inside was a porcelain doll that was dressed in a pure white wedding dress that made Markus think of the ancient dresses that he had once seen pictures of. Reaching out, he gently picked it up with careful hands.

The fabric that made the dress was rather soft to the touch, delicate lace and bead work decorating it. The dress itself was a full length one, covering the doll from her chest, curling over the top of the swells that acted as her breast and over her shoulders to all the way down to what looked like black boots that covered her feet. The beads that were scattered all over the fabric were many and sparkled lightly in the light that surrounded them. The curls that sat high on the dolls head had long lost their luster, leaving them a dull dark blond color, but still rather pretty in the pile on top of her head. The tiara shined rather nicely though, holding the curls in their proper place.

The skin was the soft white color that you would expect from high quality porcelain doll with the slightest painted on blush on her cheeks and blood red for her lips.

The hands were held before her, almost as if she was holding a wedding flower bouquet but was missing it for the moment. The nails were painted the same bloody red as her lips were, the color dulled by time and age.

Looking it over, Markus hummed quietly to himself and turned to his lover with a raised eyebrow at finding a date. “It’s almost as old as the snow globe is said to be,” he told the other man, pointing to the small date that had been found on the bottom of the shoe. “It’s remarkably well preserved for something so very old and locked up in a couple of chest-trunks.”

“Yeah. Though I have to wonder who put it into said chest-trunks? You’d think with something of this good of quality for an ancient, it would be in a display case or something like that,” Lien mused, taking the doll between his hands Markus and looking it over with a critical eye of an ancient restorer in training. Raising an eyebrow at the eyes, he shivered lightly at the dullness in them, almost as if they were dulled by hatred and anger instead of its age instead. “Though, the eyes are rather dull looking aren’t they?” he asked, showing the other man what he meant.

Markus reached out and gently stroked over one eye, wiping a thin film of dust off of it. Rubbing his fingers together, he turned his head to his lover with a frown tugging at his lips.

“Yeah, and the lips almost look as if they were scrapped at with a nail. I would almost say it was done with teeth, but that would be kind of awkward to do,” Markus mused, shaking his head and nibbled at his bottom lip as he thought over the possibilities of just where the doll had come from. “In my mothers journal, she had an entry that my ancestor, the one who got the snow globe, also got a specially made porcelain doll when she turned 16 years of age, about 6 months before she became engaged. It was supposed to be scandalously dressed for the time period. She loved it and kept it on display before it supposedly disappeared the same year one of her male personal slaves disappeared. The family always thought that the guy stole the doll to make a few bucks when he ran.”

“Apparently not,” Lien hummed, shaking his head and taking the doll again to put it in the plastic bin to take down stairs. “Come on, let’s take the bin down since it’s getting a bit on the full side here,” he said, nodding his head towards the stairs with a smirk, watching his lover roll his eyes and lead the way down.

“That and it’s almost time to order dinner,” Markus teased, getting an innocent look from Lien as he lifted the bin and started after him. Pausing at the top of the stairs, he looked to the trunk-chests and frowned again, unsure about why they made him so twitchy. Shaking his head, he bounded down the stairs after his lover, his stomach making the decision to growl at that moment.

*~*~*~*~*~*

It was free! Finally, finally free. The bastards spawn just saw its shell, a pretty doll that was old and fading, but the creature didn’t particularly care about that, not caring about its looks. But that wasn’t very surprising.

Fighting hard not to move as it was moved, it settled in, watching the creature carry it down the stairs in the bin, knowing that soon it would truly enjoy the screams of the bastards spawn and those who were close to the cursed family. They would be hurt the same way it had been hurt oh so many years ago.

It wondered how long it had been trapped in those accursed boxes this time.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Putting the bin down, Lien groaned and sat down on a tarp, pulling off his gloves finally as Markus grabbed his phone and called in their pizza order, going for a couple of the biggest pizzas that the place had. Once he was done with that, he started playing with the cell phone, wrinkling his nose at the fact that his family had decided to call him and call him...and then call him some more.

“One day and they’re already asking me about shit that they have no right to ask,” Markus snorted, listening to the messages that seem to come from all of his siblings but Edward. The speaker phone was used to allow his lover, and Maria who had come in with tall glasses of lemonade and a box of gloves that they would use to shift through the papers, to hear what was being said. “I swear, they’re vultures. No, that’s insulting to vultures. At least those distasteful birds wait until the damn body is decomposed and a bit ripe,” he snorted, shaking his head.

“They want to get away from here. Those three never did enjoy the house as much as you did. Edward at least knows better then to bug you,” Maria huffed as she stood up, shaking her head with a frown before smiling softly at Markus. “You always did enjoy the older things, the ancient stuff. Why you went for a business degree, your father could never understand.”

“Because I’m already qualified as an ancient finder. And I need a business degree to run an antiquity store with Lien here,” Markus hummed, smiling at his lover.

“Yeah, yeah, you just want me as your restorer there, tilty,” Lien laughed, getting a happy nod.

“Yep,” Markus giggled, making Maria laugh brightly and shake her head. “But you are one of the best restorers I know and I wouldn’t let just anyone near the stuff that I would need worked on. I’d be psycho to do that,” he continued, sipping his tea as Lien smirked and raised his own glass in a salute to his lover.

“I’ll leave you two to your reading,” Maria hummed, shaking her head. Stopping at the door, she paused to stare at the doll that was innocently laying there, staring at her, doing nothing more then just laying on the papers as Markus and Lien pulled on gloves and started to remove papers and journals from the bin, along with the doll. “Where did that come from?” she asked, getting curious looks from the two men.

“In a couple of trunk-chests,” Lien replied, moving the doll so that it sat on the edge of the tarp, smoothing the dress skirt down.

“We think it’s from my mix ancestor, that one woman who had all those rumors surrounding them, from the slave era,” Markus said, holding up the snow globe in one hand. “We also found her snow globe in one of the roll top desk compartments. It’s kinda like finding treasure, but we found treasure that shows my family history. We also discovered some of her records, some slave books and a couple of journals from that time to. And that’s only from searching a few of the furniture pieces upstairs.”

“Don’t forget about your mothers journal,” Lien said, pulling out said journal and handing it over to the smiling Markus.

“Oh yea, and her missing journal,” Markus sighed as he stroked over the cover and put it on the desks corner, not wanting to lose it amongst the papers. “This was my biggest find so far, this very journal. I’ve read all the other journals and being able to find this one just rocks all sorts of cool.”

Smiling, Maria shook her head and left the room, easily putting the doll out of her mind. there was something odd about it but she just couldn’t put her finger down what it was.

Maybe she had seen it before somewhere?

The boys continued to pull out the papers before settling in to separate them out, amazed at how well preserved the ancient items were. Several piles were created according to the date of the papers, both of the men using ‘pads to take pictures of each item along with notes on what they were and dates.

As soon as they were done and combining the files, the door bell rang, surprising them both. Grabbing his card, he stood up and headed for the front door, finding the pizza guy looking a bit nervous to be so close to the house in the near dark.

“Stop doing the potty dance on my porch and hand me the card ‘pad,” Markus snapped after watching the man dance on his door step for a few moments. Taking the ‘pad, he swiped his card and signed, handing it back over before taking the rather large boxes of pizza. Closing the door, he rolled his eyes and headed back into the study, knowing that Maria was more then likely coming from the kitchen. Walking into the study, he found his lover staring at the doll with an odd look on his face, fingers playing with a stylus. “What’s up?” he asked, putting the boxes down onto the couch nearby them as Maria walked in with plates and drinks on a tray, putting them down onto the desk.

“I thought I saw the doll move,” Lien said slowly before shaking his head with a frown tugging on his lips, taking off his gloves and tossing them to the side as he stood up. Maria and Markus turned to the doll and gave it a long look, only Markus being able to notice the subtle differences in the way it was laying out, making him suddenly very wary about the thing. Shaking his head and following Liens lead about just ignoring it for the moment, Markus worked his lower lip with his teeth as he grabbed his own plate and opened one of the pizza boxes. “Probably just seeing things anyway,” the native continued, his own plate in hand.

Dishing out the food, the three settled in to talk and find out what they had found, the guys having pulled on one glove to handle the documents to show Maria the family history that they were finding out. Markus had felt surprise, and had admitted to it, after finding out that his family had owned slaves at one time, but he was glad that they had been treated so well. Maria and Lien reminded him that was in the past and it did look as if they had freed the slaves when they could and gave them jobs after the war had ended.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Cursing to itself in its mind, it forced the body it resided in to continue to hold still, knowing it would draw the bastard spawns attention again much to soon. It wouldn’t be allowed to do what it needed to do if that happened. Making a few tweaks to its plan to include destroying the journals and finding the mix bitches secret journal, it settled into its current position it had chosen and watched the three fools go over the papers.

Soon, it would indeed have its revenge, oh so very soon.

And possibly, hopefully, it would finally remember its full past instead of the fragments that came to it.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Later that evening found Markus curled up on his bed, reading his mothers journal as Lien worked through the journal of his lovers mix ancestor, occasionally taking notes on what it said, shaking his head at the ramblings of a child in a pre- and post-Civil war era. Looking up as Markus made a soft noise in surprise, he put the journal aside, not wanting to deal with the rambling again.

“What?” Lien asked, raising an eyebrow, Markus moving closer to his lover.

“I found an entry about my mix ancestor and the doll we found. I think it might also answer the question as to why it was stuck in those trunk-chests,” he said, tapping the journal. “Listen to this. March 4, 2982. Today is the start of a new dawn of life. I find that I am pregnant once more with my fourth child. I am about 3 months along and at turns elated and worried due to the rather odd attacks happening around us. My little Alexandria was attacked just two hours ago, pushed down the stairs. She is now resting at the hospital in a private room with a cracked leg bone and a small cast as she is watched over for the night.

“I worry about what pushed her over and what she saw on those stairs. She said she saw a flash of white as she went down, but just before that she had felt small cold hands push at her legs. Though I can’t help but wonder if the push wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t raided my shoes and worn my heels after I told her not to. I sigh and berate myself for such ungracious thoughts. The fall would have happened anyways.

“I just know it.

“I found something out about the doll that was supposedly my husbands mix ancestors doll, the dear child that she was. I found her journal to and see the way it goes from child to adult in only a few entries, and I know just why they were that way. I found her other journal, which I have hidden, one that she hid jealously away from the world. After all, the servants of that time were always looking for ways to hurt a family if they weren’t careful, especially since it was a time of civil unrest.”

“So, there’s another journal then this one?” Lien asked, holding up said journal. Markus nodded, lips thinning as he thought of just what could be hidden in that journal. “Does she talk about where she hid the thing?” Looking at the journal, he wrinkled his nose at the slanted handwriting. “I see you get your writing ability from your mother,” he teased, getting a jab from his lovers elbow.

“Be nice,” Markus huffed, blushing about the tease to his hand writing. “Anyways, I don’t know if she wrote down where the journal is. Let me continue reading this to you. Take notes down also would you?” he asked, pointing to the ‘pad. Once Lien had his stylus in hand and a new file open, Markus settled in and started reading again.

“While reading this second journal, I found that the child portrayed in the first journal wasn’t entirely true. Yes, she was rather young and an heiress to a massive fortune and estate, but she was still a mixed child, no matter what the color of her skin was. White as she appeared to be, her eyes were just a few shades darker then her fathers own eyes and the gossip was that her father had a mistress that was a black slave, and oh, how close they were.

“He did have a mistress, that much is true, and she was also a slave, but she to was a mix. Her owner had been her father, but since she had the skin the color of a slave, she was sold off when she was old enough and then forgotten about. So the dear ancestor of my husband was only a fourth black. Still, her life was spent lying about her heritage and about who her mother was, despite the fact that she did consider her fathers wife her mother.

“But her biggest secret almost ruined the family. She had a brother; a twin brother who was only a few minutes older then her but had the skin color of chocolate, a carry over from their grandmother on their mothers side. It made it impossible for the man who was their father to be able to claim him as his own. Instead, he made it so that his son, his slave child, worked in the main house, first helping with the cleaning and later, watching over his sister and her things outside of her personal female slaves.

“The journal is filled with stories of the boy sneering at her, mad that she was accepted just because of her skin color while he couldn’t even look at her without someone smacking him for being disrespectful. He was a very angry man and fell into a dark practice of calling upon the dark Gods, offering his soul for revenge. She talked about how he would often leave his room at night and go into the woods to do his rituals.

“How she found out about such things made me feel sorry for a child of those times. It was easy for her to leave her home, to follow after her brother.”

“Wow,” Lien breathed, eyes wide as Markus nodded next to him, having reached the end of the journal entry.

“Yeah, seriously. I can’t help but wonder what else there is about the twins and what else we don’t know about my family,” Markus said, shaking his head with a frown tugging at his lips as he got a nod from his lover, the man writing down a few more notes. “There’s just so much about my family that I really don’t know. I suppose we’ll learn more once we get to the rest of the chests that are filled with papers and journals.”

“Your family is a bunch of pack rats,” Lien drawled, getting a smile and a nod from his lover before the other man turned back to his mothers journal. Picking up Markus’ ancestors public journal as he was coming to think of it, the Native settled in to continue reading it, finding where the transition happened. He was surprised at how much it changed in only three short entries. “I found the area that your mom mentioned in her journal. It only took three entries, about 3 days apart each to change. So a little over a week. I think we’re gonna need to find that other journal of hers.”

“Yeah. I found out where mom hid that other journal,” Markus said, showing the line that told them. “She hid it one of the nooks that were built into the house for various purposes. There’s a giant ass list of them that we have and only family have the codes to access them since some of the hide journals and jewelry. It’s down in the study, next to the fire place.”

“So, let’s go down and get it,” Lien said, smirking at his lover and sliding out of the bed. Grabbing a pair of pants, he tugged them up and over his boxers as Markus bounced out of the bed and followed his example. Once the two were dressed and had slippers on, they headed down the stairs, eager to find the lost journal and continue learning about the younger males families history.

Stepping into the study, Markus flipped on the light and both of them blinked at the papers that were scattered around the room; luckily nothing looking damaged. “Weren’t they all piled up on the tarp to keep them safe?” Markus asked very slowly, looking around nervously.

“Yeah. Everything was left on the tarp,” Lien replied, finding the doll on the desk where Maria had settled her earlier. Frowning, he walked over to the desk and tilted his head at the way the ‘pads and papers there were disturbed. “Your papers are messed up to and I know your alarm didn’t go off. Did you change the codes so your siblings couldn’t get in while you were gone or not downstairs?” he asked, turning to look at Markus who nodded his head, a frown tugging at his lips as he walked around the papers, making sure not to disturb them.

“Let me call the police so they can come check things out, make sure no one got in without us knowing. I know there’s a few blind spots in the security system,” Markus said, grabbing his cell phone from the desk drawer and called the police, getting someone sent out. Walking back out with Lien, they took pictures of the room with their ‘pads, letting in the officers once they got there, smiling lightly at the two men.

“So what happened?” one officer asked as they took pictures. Lien shrugged and looked a bit nervous.

“We actually have no idea really. We were upstairs since about 8 after having cleaned out most of Markus’ attic and separating out the papers you see scattered around. They’re actually ancient so if you must touch them, use the gloves,” Lien said, pointing to the box, getting a nod from the two men.

“I know there are some blind spots running around in my system but someone is coming in tomorrow to close those up,” Markus continued, shoving a bit of hair out of his face and biting his bottom lip. The two officers collected the evidence and left their cards before heading off, leaving the two men looking at each other with worry in their eyes. Watching the car drive down his drive, Markus nibbled on his thumb nail as he held the curtain back, Lien muttering behind him as he gently picked up the papers on the floor.

Letting the curtains go, the younger of the two turned away from the window and tugged on his own gloves. Kneeling down, he started to shift through a few pieces of the paper, finding that most were still in the original order they had, only a few pieces out of said order, but that could have just been the way he picked up the pieces. Putting everything into the piles once more, Markus and Lien stood up with quiet moans.

“So, what are we gonna do now?” Lien asked, gazing at his lover with worried eyes. “I can’t very well leave you here along tomorrow with those blind spots, especially after this,” he continued, looking around the room as he shoved a hand through his hair, making Markus smile lightly at the other man. Pulling off one glove, the younger of the two smirked and walked over to a clear area of the wall on one side of the fireplace.

“I’ll call Edward and go through things down here while you’re gone. I’ll also call the museum and the appraisal company to find out how to set up an appointment with them,” Markus promised, popping open a compartment before frowning at it. “Medical bills.” Continuing to run his hand over the wall under the first compartment, Lien looking at it with quite a bit of amusement, Markus made a soft sound as another mini door popped open. Looking into it, he smirked and reached in, coming out with a leather bound journal. “I’ve found her private diary,” he cooed, waving it happily.

“Well, let’s head back up to the bedroom then and look over it,” Lien smirked, eyes glowing as he nearly bounced in place, Markus once more laughing. Peering back into the compartment, the Native reached in himself and pulled out a chip case, making his eyebrows shoot up. “Looks like we have a two for one deal,” he mused, getting a nod from the shorter male.

“Let me put the doll into the compartment. If someone is getting into the house, I want it to be somewhere safe since the snow globe is in my bedroom, you history nut,” Markus said, moving to grab the doll. Picking it up, he was soon tucking her into the compartment before closing both of the compartments up.

“Let me guess, you’re also going to go through all the little compartments to find every ones paperwork and any other paperwork your father and mother hid around here, right?” Lien drawled, watching Markus walked towards the door before following after him.

“Precisely,” Markus laughed, wiggling his hips at the other man before heading up the stairs, making Lien laugh and follow after him with a smile.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Tensing as the compartment was closed on it, it scowled, allowing its face to relax from the stiff, blank look from before. It was once more trapped, snarling quietly to itself as it relaxed its body. It didn’t even have room to move around! And while it was trapped, the bastards spawn was reading the bitches journal, keeping its history from itself.

It wanted to know who it once was! It was haunted by so many flashes of a life it couldn’t remember. Flashes of pale skin and dark eyes, of sweet smiles and soft touches haunted its dreams. Soft sounds of pleasure and a room filled with the sounds of sex filled its head. Why, it couldn’t figure out, driving it mad with curiosity and the need to know the unknown past.

It knew that the bitches journal carried within it the secrets of its past and wanted to get its hands on it, to find out who it once was. Biting its bottom lip, it crossed its legs and settled into thinking about how it would get to the journal and possibly destroy it.