The Vault

11.

This woman was like no other person that had been in his office.

The panic-stricken, almost cataclysmic, boom that rang out after she smashed his office door open would certainly cement the moment of their meeting in his ever-lasting memory.

Looking up from his newspaper with total nonchalance, he had all but a few seconds to analyse the terror, but also beauty, possessed by the young woman in his doorway.

"How may I help you?" He asked calmly.

"You have to come see my father immediately," Alice ordered.

Dr. Caleb Kelston was used to being in a position of paramount, but there was something about the way that young woman spoke, something about the accent that gave her words such a commanding tone, and most of all, it was the expensive dress and her natural beauty that made the young doctor instantly agree.

Dropping the newspaper in his hands, he nodded politely and withdrew his legs that were stretched out onto the polished mahogany desk.

"Very well then," Caleb answered in an earnest, empowering accent. Sitting upright at his desk he folded his hands and placed his chin on them. For a few seconds, there was a slight pause in the room. "Well, go on then. Send him in," Caleb ordered.

"He's in no fit state to walk!" Alice answered in total flabbergast.

"Well then we need to arrange an appointment."

"I don't think you understand," Alice said defiantly. She walked towards his desk and put a finger down onto the exquisite mahogany. "You are going to get up right now, and come to our manor, there you will see my father, and you will treat him."

Caleb laughed before realising she was being serious. He stood up from behind the desk and looked at her with intrigue. "You do know I am a doctor right, I am not exactly for hire."

"I don't care if you are for hire or not, this is a matter of grave urgency, and you are going to do as I say."

The doctor smirked once more in astonishment. Turning away from her beautiful eyes he looked out the window, and pondered for one small moment.

"Very well then," he said casually.

The truth of the matter was Doctor Kelston had found work hard to come by in recent times. Not only was he widely disregarded as a doctor by the village folk for his young age, but he was also the unfortunate barer of another burden.

Doctor Kelston was in fact the son of a very wealthy lord and politician, who was particularly disliked around provincial outback's, such as this, for his mass of riches and disregard for the poor. And although the doctor did not share such a strong selfishness himself, he was of course tarred with the same brush.

But none of this was known or even mattered to Alice, who had stormed into the first doctor's office she could find, and the two of them hastily left the office into a carriage heading for Templeton Manor.

The sun was beginning to set behind the tall and lonely abode as they reared up to the front entrance. Kelston looked at the yellowy, greenish, moss covered walls of the house, and scratched his chin observantly.

"Strange place this..." He finally spoke.

"You haven't heard of it? Everyone else in this town has," Alice replied.

"Please... I am not from around here," he replied, almost insulted.

After helping her down from the carriage, Alice hurried past the doctor and opened the front door to him. She had explained the strange goings-on and habits of her father since they had moved in, as they made their way there, but after consideration, she decided to leave out the fact she was worried the house could really be subject to something strange and sinister.