1
There's a small book, it's tucked away under a pillow that hasn't been used in a hundred years.
Victor never thought he'd be back here.
He picks up the book.
He reads.
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If you're reading this I'm dead, because I'd never let anyone read my journals if I was alive. I'd just…know. Not even Vickie gets to read them.
This isn't the first part of the story, not where I am now. It's 1940. The world is so much bigger than it used to be. I've made up my mind to explore it. But first I need to leave something behind. I have to show I was here. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's, the same reason we all ran away in the first place.
First.
I filled in the cellar.
It took weeks, digging by hand, but now the lake out back is bigger, and the cellar is dead and gone.
That's for you Vickie.
I should have done it sooner.
But let's start at the beginning.
I learned to write when I was young. Especially for our time. Ma wanted me to know my letters, even if it wasn't likely I'd use them. I was just a girl after all, all I'd be good for is having babies.
On the shelf above Saul's bed is a little alcove he carved out with his claws. Right into the wall. My first journal is there. I can't say the writing is good. I was about 9. The spelling is horrible too. Sorry about that.
But if you're going to be Nosey then you're going to get the full story.
How the Creeds came to be, our curse, our past, our future.
There's only three of us left.
If you're reading this, 2.
Tell me what you think. If you managed to get your hands on this while I'm alive.
Hope I'm not.
//////////
Victor drops the little book on the bedspread and huffs out a laugh.
A tear slides down his face, he sniffles and wipes his face across his forearm, then shakes his head.
He stands and fumbles on the shelf above Saul's out bed until his claw catches on a ragged edge of wood. Another book hits his fingertips and he drags it out. Careful of the sharp wood around it.
This one is cut into short entries.
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Pa's been worse since Vickie disappeared. I know he was involved. He had to be. He was the last one to see him.
—-------
The cellar, I heard something crying. I asked Mama if she heard the cat down there crying and she started to cry.
—-----------
I checked the window.
The window to the cellar.
I wanted to see the cat.
It wasnt a cat.
—----------
Pa told me to mind my business. To stay away from it girl!
But Vickie.
I found him.
I miss him.
He used to carry me. He was so strong. He'd put me up on his shoulders and tell me there you are princess! High up on your throne! He'd toss me into the air and tell me it was flying. Flying like the birds.
Vickie jumped in front of a bull once. Only last week I think.
The bull hit him and he rolled, blood on his face and one of his arms twisted wrong. I just watched. Vickie is so strong.
//////////
Vickie drags a palm down his face.
He remembers.
Picking her up by the ankles and throwing her high as the sky. She laughed like a donkey.
His shoulders shake but eh won't sob. He won't.
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Saul bit me! He bit me hard and he left holes. I wish I could draw. They're going to leave an awesome scar!
—------------
I showed Ma my bite and she screamed. But she covered it up when pa came running. She dragged Saul aside later and told him something. I couldn't hear.
—-------------
Saulie is crying. Ive got to fix it. Just like vickie would fix me. I'm his big sister. I've got to help!
—-----------
I sewed Saulie a new toy. It's a little tiger. I saw a tiger in one of the books Ma lets me look at in the store. It's not very good but I tried. He won't put it down. Pa hates it.
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Laying on Saul's bed, next to where Victor is sitting, is the tiger. It's worn with age and childlike love. Almost see-through in places and the fabric scraps that made up the stuffing are flattened down. Victor strokes a finger down its snout. Then he stands, the floorboards creak under his weight all the way to the first floor.
"Finished?" Arkady said, he sips at the coffee in Victor's thermos while standing at the dining room table. Well, what's left of it. It's still shattered from That Night.
"Not a chance. Claire was clever." Victor flicks the books open again. "I told you she was smart"
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Saul keeps chewing on rocks. He says he's got to. Then he showed me his teeth. They're huge! Sharp and long. Like a cat. I reached out but he snapped his mouth shut. Ma wants him to shave them down. Or break them. Apparently Victor had them too. It's probably part of the reason he's gone.
Pa said he was the devil.
—-----------
The devil doesn't have sharp teeth.
Pa lied. I read it. I asked mama and she said no and she pointed out the parts of the Bible that describe the devil and he doesn't!
—--------------
I'm gonna ask pa about Vickie
/////////////
The book is blank from there on. Victor sets it on the kitchen counter, beside the old wood stove, and glances over his shoulder at Arkady.
"She was worried about me. She asked pa about me. Idiot. Dunno how she even survived that…"
"Do you think you want to call her stupid because you see yourself as unlovable?" Arkady said, he moves closer and curls his free arm around Victor's waist.
"I actually listened to the therapists S.H.E.I.L.D. put me through. Just didn't talk. Don't look at me like that." He said. Victor snorts and closes his eyes, he leaNs back to rest his head on Arkady's shoulder. Arkady scratches blunt fingernails across the sliver of stomach exposed by his shirt. Victor purrs.
He looks at the book again and flips it over, there's a folded piece of paper tucked in the back. It's yellowed and fragile when he pulls it out. He's careful, using the points of his claws with little to no pressure to unfold it.
///////////
Pa was a farmer, his father was a farmer too. Grandpa I never met, but I know he bought the land we've kept all these years. I was always proud to be in a hardworking family like ours.
I was on the washboard with ma, sewing and cleaning house.
But after the sun set Vickie would slide the door open and pull me outside. Deep into the grass. We'd lay there surrounded by fireflies and staring at the stars, you could see so many. I remember it all.
One of those nights was the first time I realized Vickie was strange.
Not that he wasn't always a little odd. He explored the world mouth first, and the first memory I have of my big brother is him crouching in the yard and lunging to catch a bird like a cat. I thought he was amazing.
I still do.
Even with everything he's done, even though right now he hasn't talked to me in years. My big brother is amazing.
One of those late nights there was a bear.
It wandered into the yard and we froze, there was nothing we could do.
Until Vickie stood up and growled, something deep and dark. He looked massive, powerful. The bear ran away, but first it ran right into the wall of the old shed.
The next book is outside. I'll let you figure it out from the story.
//////////
Victor untangles himself from Arkady and wanders outside, out to the old shed where they kept tools. It's fallen to pieces now. Decayed over time, more like a shaky lean-to. But Victor catches a faded whiff of Clara's favorite flower-lilies-and follows it to a hole in the brick foundations.
Inside is a book wrapped in wax cloth, the same kind as the first one. Pieces of paper tied together between two pieces of wood. He's gentle as he opens it. So much of this is impermanent
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MY NAME IS SAUL
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It's written is blocky childlike letters, but Victor remembers it. The day Saul wrote his name and came to show his brother. Saul was 15, they were in an orphanage for the winter.
Soon after that the orphanage would try to send Victor away and they fled in the night. Far away. Nobody separated their pack.
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Saul was murdered, till the day he died he could only write his name. But he could read and that was enough. Kids like us don't read. But we did. We did so many more things than just being strange, but nobody will ever known them.
That's why I'm doing this.
Somebody has to know us. To break this curse that's sitting on our family. Saul is gone, I probably am if someone's reading this.
Vickie? I don't know about him. He's so, emotional. He's so fragile. I don't want to outlive my last brother. I guess you probably don't care though, you're here for our story. So I'll tell you.
I don't know how old we were when Vickie got out. When he broke the door open holding his own severed hand with a pair of pliers he would use to pry our fathers teeth from his skull. All while he was still alive. Because Vickie didn't kill dad. I did. I stabbed him no less than fifty times.
But that day it was storming. It was dark. Vickie eyes were glowing, reflecting the candlight. He was like our avenging angel. Come to save us from Pa's fists. To take us away and show us safety.
And he did.
After we murdered our parents we both grabbed Saul and packed up our things.
We left during the storm so nobody would see us. So everyone would assume we were dead.
And we left with smiles, for the first time in a long time.
My big brother hugged me and told me I did good, I kept Saul safe. We survived our parents. Many people didn't. Many people still don't survive their parents.
But we did.
I wrote a story when I was 13, I finished it on that stormy night by candlelight while the boys staged the house to look like a robbery. It was short and now I look back and it's kind of shit. But I had no other way to understand my emotions. So I wrote. I hid the book on the floor under the stove, I checked. It's still there.
But begore you go looking I want to tell you one last thing.
Domt judge us as monsters begore you hear the whole story. Maybe we are, but not for no reason. The things we did had to happen. I know that now.
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Victor hesitates to put the book back. Eventually it'll get destroyed sitting out here, but in the end he puts it back. Just in case somebody else ever needs it. Just in case he ever gets his sister back and he can show her that he listened. For once in their lives he listened.
Arkady is sitting on the back porch reading when Victor passes by and goes back into the house. Arkady glances at his watch and looks up at Victor but doesn't say a word.
Victor drops to his knees and reaches blindly under the woodstove, he fumbles until his fingertips hit something leather soft and square.
There it is.
Victor pulls it out and sits back on his haunches to read. One hand fisted in his own hair to keep it out of the way.
//////////////
In a kingdom called Home there's a girl named Princess. She's in charge, and her brothers never make fun of her. Her brothers are her knights and she rules the kingdom.
But a monster appears over the mountains and with his red eyes the monster brought his fist down.
Princess screamed and tried to protect her people but the monster wouldn't stop. Princess got tired and soon she couldn't even stand anymore. Then her older brother, who had gone off on an adventure so long ago and never came back, stepped up to fight the monster! He bit and scratched and weakened the beast until princess could stab him with her sword!
The monster fell and her brother hugged her. They cried but they'll never say that they did.
Her brother was back from his adventure and he was different. He was covered in scars and his hair was long and tangled. And she missed him.
But he was Home now.
The end.
/////////////////////
It isn't signed but it has Clara's style of speaking. It doesn't tell much more than victor already knew but it does put an insight to his sisters view of things.
She protected Saul while he was gone and she was scared. Victor can only imagine how she felt but from this he thinks maybe she'd been forced to be stronger than she should have.
Victor hangs his head and hugs the little book to his chest.
"I'm sorry Claire. I'm sorry. I didn't deserve you. Tou had to deal with so much." He whispers, he trembles and curls in on himself. Bent over deep with the book still to his chest. His tears hitting the floor in front of him.
"This place stinks of death."
Arkadys voice is high above him, it seems miles away. But Victor turns to look up at him out of the corner of his eye.
"Its worse than me, the air is thick with it. Are you sure you want to do this?" Arkady crouches down and puts a hand on Victor's upper back. Victor leans into it.
"I have to. She deserves that." Victor said, "especially since she's buried now. I need to know how she felt. Who she was other than just my sister." Victor sits up and leans over to tuck the book under the woodstove. "I have to red."
Arkady doesn't sit on the ground, he'd rather not, but he does wind an arm around Victor's waist and pull him to his side with a sigh of a laugh.
"Emotional baggage." He whispers, he presses his cheek against Victor's shoulder. "She's home now. You need to let go."
"I can't."
"I know."
"Thank you"
"I know that too." Arkady stands with a grunt and walks over towards the front door. One hand on the handle and already pulling it open. "Come get me when you're done. It's almost dark." He said.
Victor sighs and drops his head into his hands with a wheeze.
Eventually he growls and yanks the door to the woodstove open so hard the hinges crack and tear like fabric but he doesn't care.
It's a guess but it pays off, because on the inside of the door-in chalk- a message is scrawled.
Family portrait
He knows where that is. It was a photo taken when Clara was just born. Saul isn't in it but he once said he preferred it that way. So he could pretend he wasn't there. Wasn't such a burden on Claire. Saul always thought too much, in his head all the time.
He was too quiet.
Victor scrambles to his feet and rushes up the stairs, but at the usual place in the hall that the portrait hangs he finds the hazy outline of it from his father's smoking but nothing else.
"No-" this can't be where the trail ends!