The King of Crows

The Alton Mansion

"-and that is the history of the Alton family," I zoned back into the small history lesson that Philza was explaining to us all, and it seemed that Tommy was too. He quickly shook his head, making himself look like he was listening to whatever Phil had been talking about just now. In all honesty, I couldn't even remember when I zoned out; he was talking about the history of the Alton family, knowing much about them since he was an immortal king and all. Sometimes that sort of thing has its pros. We were walking around the castle - though it also could be mistaken for a mansion - as well as a bunch of other strangers I didn't bother to care about, George seemed the most interested in this history lesson Phil was teaching. I think Wilbur was paying attention too, but didn't seem that interested. Either that or he was an insanely good actor.

"That's really fascinating," George exclaimed, the most in awe out of us all. Wilbur nodded his head along with the shorter brunet, smiling the entire time as he looked around the Alton's castle. "Thanks for telling us Phil. But how do you know all of that? There were so many specifics I highly doubt you could just find it online."

"I am one for the history of anything of interesting value," Phil began to explain, still with his very formal ways of speaking. Or Victorian. One of the two. Or worse, both. Tommy seemed to think the same way: he was a little hunched, staring at the immortal king like he was still speaking a foreign language. Which, at this point, I too believed sometimes. "And this is one of those interestingly valued times. I am one to scavenge for all information physically and mentally possible, until I have captured all the details needed to form the perfect timeline of history in my mind for that subject at hand."

"How fascinating," Wilbur mumbled out, I could barely hear it over the other strangers talking over one another within the castle's walls. "I'll make sure to remember this. To the best of my own ability."

"He said all of that in one fucking sentence..."

My head whipped around to look at Tommy, my eyes widening in realisation at what he meant by that. Philza did say that last sentence in one go. Good god. The taller blonde seemed to calm down from that, though he appeared to still be a little struck from that all.

We continued to walk around the castle, respecting the rooms and hallways we walked inside of. Anytime George asked a question about something Phil had the answer almost immediately for him, which was insanely kind of him. And easier for us all. I was not looking up every single question George, or even Wilbur, asked about the Alton's. Whether that be the castle or family. Throughout all of that exploring I caught Tommy slowly walking over towards me.

"Hey... could you help me? Again please?" He asked, coming to a stop when he was closer to me. We'd all been so distracted by the castle that Tommy's blood sugar must've dropped a bit. I nodded my head, a sweet smile on my lips as we walked over to Phil again.

"Excuse me Phil?" I watched him turn around, his eyes glancing back and forth between me and Tommy. Realisation quickly hitting him for the situation at hand. Quickly, he passed me the bag that was hung around his shoulder. "Oh- thank you. Here you go Tommy, you can choose again."

The young blonde happily scavenged through the bag again, grabbing two bars of fudge this time. As he thanked us both, Phil zipped up the bag, slinging it over his shoulder yet again {to the best of his ability of course}. As he snacked on the fudge, the five of us continued to explore around. Philza still explained everything he could whenever George or Wilbur asked a question of interest, while Tommy and I noticed how shiny the armour stands were in one of the hallways.

"I think we were secretly magpies in a past life."

"I highly doubt that Tommy," I laughed, both of us looking at the armour stand that shone brightly thanks to the window behind it. It was still sunny out too, which was good news for all of us. We still have plenty of time before darkness settles in. "Maybe we're secretly magpies right now!"

Tommy laughed along with me, making silly caws and trills as we played along with the joke together. By the time we had calmed down, we both realised we were in another room now. It appeared to be quite a large, exquisite dining room. Framed paintings of the Alton's hung around the room; the dining table stretched out, surrounded by fancy chairs that were all perfectly tucked under the table. The both of us were in awe, having to step to the side to let a small family pass by us.

"This is what the Alton's looked like?" I mumbled out, my eyes glancing onto a framed painting of a young girl in a pretty white dress. She seemed to be only a child. Tommy shoved one of the wrappers into his trouser pocket, looking at another painting that appeared to be both the mother and father of the family. "Wow... they actually looked like a normal rich family. You'd never guess they had a curse to deal with."

"Oh, so you were listening to Phil's history lesson?"

"The Alton curse is common knowledge Tommy," I explained, a look of slight disappointment on my face. I glanced at the young blonde, both of us slowly walking over to check out the mother and father painting more closely. "You can find out about it online. Also, I wasn't exactly listening to Philza. Don't tell him that though - I don't wanna go through all of that formal talking in a history lesson. Again."

"Understandable," Tommy looked to the side, a look of slight fear as he thought about it happening. "Oh, yep, no. No no no. I am not going through all of that again!"

I shook my head as we looked at the painting, even the mother and father looked quite rich. Which wasn't all that surprising in all honesty. As I continued to look over the painting, hearing Tommy yelp in shock snapped me out of my daze. He had jumped a little closer to the painting, staring down at a young girl that was right behind him.

"Why did you poke me?" He asked, quickly straightening himself up and crossing his arms. Glaring down at the child as if he didn't just squeal like a little girl himself. The child just stared up at him, wide eyed and everything. I could tell it was slowly making Tommy uncomfortable, so I stood beside him looking down at the young girl to try and deter her away from us both. And now she was staring at me. God fucking dammit. "And why are you staring?"

"Mommy!!"

"I'm about to slap a bitch."

"Y/N no!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry about my daughter," A woman came quickly walking up to us, picking up the young girl into her arms. "I hope she didn't do anything."

"Oh, she didn't," Tommy answered, waving her off with a smile. "Except stare at us for no reason whatsoever."

"I'm so sorry."

"Oh it's okay," I spoke up again, now it was my turn to cross my arms. Tommy's hands were now by his sides, while I continued to glare at the young girl that just stared at us both like a fish. "But I would like to know why she was staring at us."

"Mommy! He's the boy in the frame!"

"Huh? Which painting dear?"

The little girl pointed to one of the framed paintings, the three of us walked over to it. There wasn't much to the painting, it was only a family portrait of the Alton's. With.... Theseus and Philza included.

"That could just be a coincidence Jessie," The mother continued to speak, though I wasn't looking at them anymore. My eyes were locked on the painting; made sense on how he knew the Alton's, but he never said he was in one of their paintings. Maybe he forgot... "A lot of people can look alike from one another."

Tommy watched the mother walk away from us both, turning around to look at the painting as well. I glanced between the painting of Theseus and Tommy, they really did look quite alike. It was quite uncanny actually.

"I do look like him-"

"Theseus."

"-I... okay that actually helps," Tommy paused for a second, smiling as he finished his sentence up. I smiled back at him, though my smile quickly dropped when his did too. "Isn't that Philza?"

"Oh?" I glanced back at the painting, slowly beginning to feel my muscles tense up. I had no idea how to explain this. I didn't really think about when this would happen.

"Why - how - is Phil in the Alton's family portrait?!"