The Last of the Twenty: The Setting of the Board

Chapter 36

Alex looked at the photocopy of the yearbook page and scribbled down some notes in his notebook. After he had put the yearbook back on the shelf, he had turned to the binders with all the event pictures and clippings. Comparing his notes from the newspaper clippings to the years marked on the binders, he had searched in vain for more pictures or clues to either Nadia’s ancestors or signs of strange killings or happenings in the town. There was nothing to be found except small town gatherings and events since the early 1900’s. No talk of the Robert’s family, no more pictures of the boy who looked like Ethan. It seemed that they had both kept a low profile.

Alex had left the library feeling a small sense of accomplishment, but also a feeling of dread. Everything he had experienced and found in his research was coming together a little too neatly to be just coincidence. So far his digging had confirmed at least four of Nadia’s direct female ancestors in four consecutive generations had been killed. Even though they all died much younger than Nadia is now, they were all the firstborn daughters and all in the direct family line sharing the same last name. The town records he searched had shown that the first little girl had been killed back in 1895, then another in 1914. There was nothing else he could find about the first two except the record of death scribbled down for both, and the mention of them when the next little girl died in 1940. That was the only death he knew much of anything about, including a description of the little girl. There was still one more death he had to find more information on, one Alex felt would tie the rest together, Nadia’s aunt.

He had found that she had been killed in 1965, but the only record to be found in the library were basic town records and obituaries. Everything else was removed with a small typed note scanned into the computer that said the information had been removed per family’s request. It didn’t matter anyways, he knew where to get the information he needed. Alex just didn’t know how he was going to get it.

It was tucked away in the old family album Nadia’s mother had gotten so upset about all those years back. Somehow he was going to have to convince Nadia’s mother to not only let him see it, but also tell him what she knew of a family history she seemed so intent on wanting to bury. He also didn’t want Nadia to know about it, at least not yet. If his visions were some kind of warning, and if he was right about Ethan, he was going to have to know exactly what he was up against if he had any real hope of stopping anything from happening to her.