The Tragedy of Renya

4.4 Wanting to Hide

The air was cold and dry in the basement, no matter how many candles Hendri Pentel brought down there. And even as he was ascending the stairs to the mansion itself the cold air still chilled him through his clothes. With only the light of a single candle to guide him he pushed away the heavy dark red curtain that hid the rooms he’d come from. He had often heard of the secret basement that his ancestor, Andrey Pentel, had built below the family catacomb. And despite his fear for the corpses of his ancestors, including his parents, resting in this room, he had spent a long time searching for this secret basement. Every time he entered the catacombs he could not shake the feeling that his family was looking at him, judging him, for the things he was doing. They had all resisted the family curse; he was the only one who had given into it. He traced his fingers over the feet of the statue lying on the Andrey Pentel’s stone coffin.

“You would have done the same thing,” he whispered. He noticed another figure standing in the light of another candle. For a second he thought it was a ghost, then he recognised the figure.

“Lea,” he smiled at his wife although she could probably not see it.
“You’re wrong;” she said, “he wouldn’t have done something like this. He cared for this city.”
“Only because it’s a memory of you.”
“I’m not this city’s goddess, no matter what you say.”

He saw Lea put her candle down on his mother’s tomb.
“You’re something much greater than a goddess,” Hendri said as he put his hand to his wife’s chest, touching the gem under her dress. From the little light of the candles he saw she started to blush.
“You cursed my family, Lea,” he continued, slowly heading towards her while she walked backwards, almost as if to avoid him. He felt her movement stopped as she stood against the wall. He slowly kissed her before continuing.

“You cursed my family to love you. And yet you won’t even look at me.”

Lea looked away, towards the tomb of Andrey Pentel.
“You know I can’t love you.” She whispered.
“Why? Because we’re so short-lived? Because you can’t stay for more than a year? Lea, I’ve ended all of that. We can be together for eternity, my dearest Wyndri bride.”

Lea smiled and Hendri looked around to see what she’d been looking at. He could see the curtain to the secret basement move ever so slightly in the darkness.

“What have you done?” he whispered.

This was madness. All of this was madness. As she went down the stairs, as quickly as she could without making a noise and without seeing a thing Alice couldn’t help but think of what this betrayal of her employer would mean for her. Demoted. Fired. He would make it impossible for her to get employed anywhere. And for what? Because his wife was crazy. He was crazy too, Alice realised. Wyndri. The man believed in myths, and Ms Lea wasn’t going to stop him from believing.

As she felt she’d reached the end of the stairs she carefully lit a candle. She couldn’t hear any noises from anywhere; the dark curtain was probably pushing out all noise. In front of her was a dark wooden door, behind her were the stairs she’d come down. Alice realised it was too late to turn back now and pushed against the wooden door. It opened without making a noise.

All over the inside of the room behind the doors were candles. Alice carefully lit them one by one so she could see her surroundings.

Many of the walls were covered by bookshelves. In front of them were some tables on which the candles and assorted other items were collected. Some boxes that she didn’t dare touch amongst them. And in the middle of the room, on the floor, were several circles placed around each other with markings between and all around them. Magic, she instantly realised. The circles seemed to be made out of blood, or something else red, and as she inspected them more she realised it was a maze of some sort. Without even thinking she started walking through the maze. She started feeling dizzy, although she did not walk in circles. Alice realised she should stop moving, turn back, and leave the room before Mr Pentel realised she’d been here, but for some reason she couldn’t stop herself. At the same time her memories of the meeting started to return. People weren’t allowed to enter or leave the city because the gates and the city’s wall were the boundaries of the world Mr Pentel could control. As soon as someone entered or left the spell would be broken.

Suddenly she was smashed against one of the tables. It creaked under her weight but it didn’t break. She looked up at her employer’s face. He was furious. He slammed her head against the table, over and over and over again, until she stopped moving.

He looked down at what he’d done.
“Now you’ve done it,” Lea’s voice taunted him from behind, “can a murderer still lead this city?”

Hendri waited, looking down at the girl’s body. He suddenly recognised her as the girl he’d taken to the city council’s meeting. Alice… something.

“Death is only temporary,” he whispered, as he picked up her body. His wife was waiting outside of the room; she couldn’t enter it. He’d leave the corpse in one of the rooms, probably in the servants’ quarters, and everything would be fine by tomorrow.

At least, that was how it was supposed to work.