"What happened at Beldmount Boarding School?"
This is the question that lingered on Jen Brighton's mind since young. A question that propelled her to investigate a macabre incident 50 years ago at Lovegood. Her hometown. In between interviews and fi...
Minutes flew by as if hours, yet Jen waited until the old man could be well enough to continue his tale.
"My father was a small-town businessman. Not very rich, but work piled up, bringing some generous income. Unfortunately, my mother was sick most of the time, preventing her from taking care of me. As none had the time or the means, they found a solution in the form of a boarding school. And this is how I ended up attending Beldmount boarding school, living and wasting my life there for seven years." He was pensive and away, his hands touching each other in slow movements.
"We all had this big ceremony on our first nights there. The older students, important and fearsome, woke me and my roommates up in the middle of the night. Barefoot and with a black cloak thrown on me, I followed those older children. We walked through those grandiose stone walls, my feet bruised, yet I didn't care. I belonged." he whispered the last words as if the air had gotten out of his lungs.
"Were you not scared?" asked Jen, herself twitching all over her body.
"In the beginning, yes. Anyone would, I suppose. It went away quickly, though." He gave her a sad expression. "There I was, walking with the older students, dressed like them and with my new colleagues. My new family. I was not alone and abandoned. None of us was."
Jen saw the man's eyes grow watery for a moment before he shook his head in violent motions. When he quieted down, his face was one of longing for times long gone.
"Would it have been better if they had beaten us?... I don't know... Maybe." he became lost, his head nodding as if a buzz followed him.
"Mr Knowles, please. Did they do something to you? Mr Knowles?" she asked, her voice higher in hopes of getting his attention.
And she did. The man stopped moving and his head turned to her, his eyes glassy. They stayed, glancing back and forth, until Jen called again, this time softer. Moving his body closer to the edge of his seat, he gave her a final nod.
"No. Though in retrospective, maybe. They had been there to pick us up for our initiation. The lucky ones... the first ones to go through it that year." an irony was present in this tone, on his face and on his posture. It melted away quickly into terrible fear, his hands shaking and his body moving back to his chair. "I was so happy to belong..."
His hands rested in his face as if to get some support from them, some warmth. "We arrived at the graveyard, a place full of death, decay and freezing breezes. My nightmares all start with that place. For a fearful child like me, it was all too much. I wanted to run when I arrived there, but with the older boys behind us, there was no way to do it with success." out of a sudden, Mr Knowles started to hyperventilate. With his breaths erratic, the man just got up to pace around and calm himself.
As it went on for a while, Jen too got up. Her lanky legs touched the edge of her seat. "We can stop for today... I can come tomorrow..."
"No!" he screamed at her, his face grotesque. In a jump, Jen sat burying herself on the chair, away from him. He smiled at her as he went back for his seat as well. "If I stop then I won't be able to do it again." another long breath and his smile was gone. "We arrived at the crypt and saw another group of students already there, positioned around a black cover book and its resting place. They were six in total, all cloaked in scarlet. They began to chant when they saw us, and so did the older boys behind us. We got pushed into a circle as I tried to understand what they sang about. Redemption." he closed his eyes. "I saw one of the scarlet boys going to the middle, open the book and read. We the young boys were silent, afraid, shivering. The others were sombre and too busy chanting."
He opened his eyes and let out a sarcastic laugh as he watched Jen take some notes. "If you ask me for more details I am afraid I won't be able to help you... It was all so strange, so incredibly horrifying, that it didn't connect with my small brain at the time." for some reason, Jen had a hard time believing him. "One thing strikes, though, my blood falling from my hand to a circle made of red and black candles. It looked beautiful, and the pain a relief of sorts..."
Mr Knowles now began to rock back and forth on his chair. A way to comfort himself as tears appeared in his dark and scared eyes. As he continued, increasing his speed, Jen knew it was not working.
"They told us to ask for what we wanted. What we needed more than anything else in the world. Power, money, beauty... I was just a child, I wanted nothing of those. There was only one thing a frightened child could want... help. And that was what I asked for. I was so scared that I almost throw up, but then he appeared." his eyes grew bleak and his voice reverted to a time before it all began. Her neck hair went straight up and her hands trembled with his change, a mood swing more disturbing than the one before.
"My helper. My friend. And my demon." he sounded entranced, his rusty voice as if pleading and in love. "A mix between a fluffy bunny with a brown teddy bear. It looked harmless just like a plushy toy. Every familiar did, in fact, look like innocent toys. Except for the eyes. Dark, empty and deep. A void of nothing but frightening malevolence."
"And what did they do? What did it do to you, Mr Knowles?" Jen concerned herself with writing notes, missing the courage to look into his eyes that seemed so much like the ones he described.
"What did they do?" he repeated several times. "Depends on what you allowed them to. How much you fed them."
"Fed them?" Jen knew what he meant, yet she could not control herself and neither the chill that ran through her all body.
"I told you before Miss Brighton. They fed on our poor souls, by corrupting us and making us do bad deeds."
Jen wanted to believe his words, which came out in such a raw and pleading way. But at the same time, they sounded demented like rooted in a different reality, recognizable, yet far away. She almost reached for his trembling hand to give him some warm support before she was able to control herself.
"Are you implying, Mr Knowles, that these familiars were the cause for the decline of the school's reputation?" a simple nod was the answer she got, so Jen pushed forward. "Were they responsible for what happened on that fateful day?" The one that finally closed the institution.
"Oh... yes..." he said, twitching afraid. The old man was uncomfortable with where the conversation was going. He gazed outside the window, to the tall trees that watched them, worried about something outside. Something that seemed to approach them.
"Can you elaborate?" Direct and quick, Jen hoped her voice was enough to bring his attention to her. To bring him back to his story.
He jumped at her question, his eyes darting to his hands resting on his legs. "Yes... maybe..." a fright overcame the man, who continued to look down as his hands started a circling motion, soft and slow.
Jen produced a deep breath as she watched him, she feared he was about to shut himself out. She didn't like it, but there were not much more options, Jen needed to go to the core of all, to where all the questions ended up going.
"Did you know Anne Katherine?"
That name woke him and he stopped everything, even breathing. He looked at her, with those dark eyes, pleading for her to stop. But he knew there was no escape from this story and so did she who just waited. His pleading eyes met with her silent face.
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