McCrady Manor: Blood Curse - Prologue

 PROLOGUE

          The woman pushed her long silver hair behind bent shoulders, then lit the row of small candles lining the overhang of her old roll top desk.  She sat gracefully, gently spreading the white lace nightgown across her knees.  Flickering light and shadows played across the desk as she coaxed open the top and lit the large candle sitting in its left side. 

          She felt for the catch hidden in the desk's intricate hand-carved pattern of Celtic knots and crosses with delicate fingertips.  Finding it, she pressed firmly and released the door hidden in the carvings.  She reached into the opening beneath the desk's writing surface and pulled out a large leather-bound book in which she had painstakingly recorded memories since the age of seventeen.  Seventy-one years later, she was still writing in the same book, at the same desk, in the same room.  The distinct smells of floral and leather, pages as crisp as during her teen years, recalled her innocence and youth.  Now the book was almost full, she herself nearly finished, and it held more secrets than innocence. 

          Slowly she paged through the volume, stopping here and there to read a page, an entry, a memory.  It was nearing completion, only a few pages remaining blank, but there were still things that needed to be recorded.  Most of what she knew had been set down over the years; yet there was more to be told, more she wanted to say.  So much more that needed to be revealed to the one who would someday find it.  She had to finish quickly for she knew her time was coming soon.  She didn't know exactly when, but she knew it was near.  She wasn't worried, for her life had been long and well lived and her nephew was near eighteen and well able to care for himself.

          She indulged in thoughts of him for a moment.  So young, yet he was already so in love with the woman who would become his other half.  His angelic voice and firm determination would bring him success.  He would bring home the three; the ones that they had chosen to give up, the three that they tried to save.  It didn't work, though none knew except for her.  She couldn't bear to tell anyone that the curse was still there, longing for the life that it needed to steal, lingering in the shadows and exploiting the dark.  There were few left to tell, for everyone else was gone while she remained, though only for a while longer.  Her nephew, the three children that had been given up and the one taken away would need to know.  She didn't know if those four children were healthy or even alive, though she felt it true.  A tear slid from her eye, trailing down her aged cheek. She let it fall and soak into her nightshirt. 

          Picking up the pen, she began to write her last thoughts in the final pages of the book.  Evening twilight and the glow of the full moon spilled through the tower window, augmenting the candlelight.  She gazed up at the moon for a moment and thought of her Moon, her lost Moon.   Her Moon would find the book.  She had seen it, in a dream.