Chapter 6: Questions

"Uh, ma'am, I'd appreciate if word didn't get out about uh, this. I'm uh, kinda married."

"Please, call me Sicily. We did just see each other naked," I winked coyly. It was incredibly adorable how shy he was considering what we had just done.

"Oh, ok... Sicily."

"Robert, don't worry. Mum's the word. I have no intentions of breaking up any marriages, or getting married myself. I'm not looking to hook you into an affair."

Robert sighed, most likely a sigh of relief, and smiled at me. I got off the table and walked over to him. We turned our respective keys and heard a click. Robert opened the door and pulled out the box. He put it on the table and gestured for me to open it.

"I will leave you to your box now, Sicily. Have a good day. Use this phone when you are done, I will come back to let you out."

"Thank you, Robert."

Robert smiled and left the vault.

---

The contents of the box were a few pictures, I guess of family members. It was hard to tell since I didn't know most of them. There was also a letter in the box that had my name written on the envelope.

My dearest Sicily,

You are 18 years old today. I am writing you this letter to prepare you for what is to come. I cannot do this anymore. I am unwilling to raise any more children. You know I love your brothers and sisters, and you, very much, but thirty-two children is enough. You are going to be my last child. I'm going to succumb to my fate and live the rest of my days alone..

I'm sorry I have been so distant and I'm sorry that I don't know you better. I'm sorry that I never gave you a father figure to look up to. Please understand that it is something I had to do. I worry about the day you will leave the house and start your own life because I know that it will be a hard one. You will face the same fate I did, bearing child after child with different men. I don't know why this is, but my mother also did this. I was raised the same way you were. My mother simply told me this is the way our family has to be, the way it has been for many generations. I wish I could tell you more, but there is no more to tell.

So it was coincidence that the safety deposit key was numbered 1875. Clearly my mother knew nothing about our family history. I couldn't believe my mother wasn't the least bit curious about everything. Maybe my dreams were actually a blessing.

When the time is right, you will receive this letter and I hope it will open your eyes a little to some of the strange happenings you will face in your life. I hope you do not end up like me, miserable and alone. I hope your ending is different, and that you find your true love someday.

Love,
Mom

My thoughts turned back to Trent. True love. Was that what I had with him? I had jumped his bones in a therapy session, that didn't exactly scream love. Yet I had been so devastated when he died. Was that shock? Or love? I did miss him. You don't miss people you don't love, do you? I was so confused. Did I even want to get married, settle with one guy? Would I have been married to Trent if he hadn't died? Do you consider it settling if it's your true love? Maybe I just didn't know what love was.

The letter did give me a little more insight into my mother and why she was so miserable all the time. I wondered why she never went looking for love. Was she unable to? Although my relationship with Trent was incredibly short lived, it was probably more of a relationship than my mother ever got. The few months I spent with him were the best of my life. Unwilling to raise any more children. Succumb to my fate. I didn't like those words. They sounded like a death sentence. She had just given up. She wasn't willing to fight for her own happiness, and there was no one there to help.

"Mommy, why are you crying?"

I looked down  to see Augustine standing next to me, looking concerned. I hadn't even realized that I had started crying.

"Oh. I just miss your Daddy."

"Where is he?"

I cried a little more, pointing to the picture on the wall above the bookcase.

"He's in the picture frame over there because that's all I have left of him. Augustine, I'm sorry, but he's dead. He's not here anymore."

Augustine looked at the picture, and smiled.

"He's orange, like me."

"Yeah, baby, he was. I'm sorry you never got to meet him."

"It's ok, Mommy. It's not your fault."

Somehow I felt it was my fault. Maybe if I hadn't been cursed, Trent wouldn't have died. Maybe his death was the curse punishing me for finding happiness. I still thought the idea of a curse was a little far fetched, but it appeared to have affected my mother heavily so maybe it really did exist. The terms were lifelong misery and pain, which were pretty accurate so far... ugh, I needed a distraction. I decided to research a little more and possibly find a way to lift the blasted thing.

I do not know if the curse can be lifted. Alexandra never found out either. She lived out the rest of her days as a human after Eleanor completely stripped her of her magical abilities. It is said when any occult life state loses their abilities, it is very painful for them, as it feels like a part of them has been physically ripped away. They never forget it existed though, so they spend the rest of their lives in chronic pain. This was Alexandra's fate. Some occult life states feel as if they are inferior beings when they lose their abilities, wallowing in self pity and shunning other humans, whereas some blend in, choosing to make the most of what they have, grateful that they are still alive.

---

"Grandmother, please! I beg you, don't hurt us!"

"Silence, Alexandra!" Eleanor pulls Alexandra off of Vincent and tosses her aside violently. Alexandra falls to the ground face down.

Eleanor points her wand at Vincent and says two simple words. "Feu eternel!"

Vincent looks at Eleanor with terror in his eyes, unsure of what is going to happen. Suddenly he feels a searing heat coming from his lower back.

Vincent panics, and starts patting himself to put the flames out. He gets even more worried when he notices the flames are getting larger instead of smaller. Eleanor laughs in delight.

Alexandra gets up, and hears the whoosh of fire. She screams and reaches out to Vincent. Vincent starts crying from the pain and the knowledge that he is dying. Alexandra runs towards Vincent, but Eleanor grabs her and pins her arms behind her back. 

"GRANDMOTHER! Make it stop! Don't kill him!"

"No, you have to watch this. This is what happens to people who don't listen to me!"

"I don't want to live if he's not here! Let me go so I can die with him!"

"HA! Your fate will be much worse. Death would be a blessing for you. No, I have a much more effective punishment for you, my sweet."

"VINCENT!!! NOOOO!!!"

Alexandra bawls, tears streaming down her face as she sees Vincent's hand reach up one last time through the flames before he disappears in a cloud of smoke.