The Secrets of Darkling Manor

Twenty-One: Aleksander Morozova

Twenty-one: 

The witch had killed Mal. Dragged him into the pond, to the very bottom. It had been the same way that his parents had died. The same way that Luda had died. He had never been able to tell anyone. If he had, they would have assumed that he was crazy, and had him committed. He would have lost everything. He kept it a secret. Like everything else. Buried it down deep. But now, Alina had seen the witch.

Alina had lost someone to her.

Aleksander dragged her away from the pond as she screamed, pulling her into the house, up to their room. "Let me go!" she demanded trying to get away from him. "Let me go! Aleks, that's my best friend----"

"What are you going to do?!" he shouted, grabbing her by the arms and shaking her. "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO? Do you know what that fucking thing is, Alina?"

Alina took a deep breath. "I don't know. I don't know what I saw. All I know is that my friend was murdered, and you let him be."

"To save you!" he said. "To save you from being murdered too."

She had tears streaming down her face. "Aleksander, what is that thing?"

He took a deep breath. "It's a little hard to explain."

"Try," she snapped, "because nothing has made sense since I came here, and now my friend, and your cousin is dead."

"Darkling Manor is haunted," Aleksander explained.

"I gathered," she said tersely, "what I don't understand is how or why."

He took a deep breath. "What do you know about The Sun Saint? Or The Witch of Kereamzin, depending on who you ask?"

Her brows furrowed together. "It's an old, nonsensical legend. It's not---"

"Alina," he said, "we have moved past the point of real or not real. You've lived in this house. You saw what happened to Mal, you know what you've been feeling."

"Yes!" Alina exclaimed. "And let's talk about that, shall we? I'd been telling you I was seeing things, feeling things, and you didn't believe me! You let me think it was my concussion. Was there even an accident?"

He took a deep breath. "Yes. But it wasn't a deer."

"It wasn't?" she said.

"No," he admitted, "it was you. I.....I forgot that you were coming, and I ran you over with my car. You'd decided to walk into town from the train station."

"Are we really married?" she demanded.

"Yes," he lied.

"Who was our witness?"

"An old friend from my University days. Wylan Van Eck."

"The boy whose father runs that weapons manufacturer company that's rumored to be part of that secret society thing called The Dregs? The ones that wear crows masks at protests?"

He nodded.

She took a deep breath. "Who are you?"

"I'm your husband," he said.

"Mal thought that you were lying," she told him, "he thought that you had made everything up because you were trying to protect Genya."

"I wasn't," he insisted, "look, I'll get our marriage license for you. I'll be right back."

He went to his office and pulled out the marriage license that Wylan had managed to get for him. He showed it to Alina.

Alina looked at it, closed her eyes, and sighed. "There is a witch in our pond."

"Yes," he said.

"Haven't you ever---I don't know----tried to kill it?"

"Once," he said.

"What happened?" she asked.

"My wife died," he answered.

Alina went to go sit on their bed. "Tell me, Aleksander. Tell me everything."

He went to go sit on the bed in the empty space next to her, and he started to tell her the truth. Parts of it. There were some parts he had to leave to the darkness. At least if he wanted to keep her, and he did, terribly, selfishly.