The Curse - Book 1 (Completed)

Chapter 27: The Decision

It is 9 am. The last day of December. Everyone is talkative at the breakfast table, discussing their plans for the night, besides Chris and Victoria. She takes her cup of tea and stands up. "Excuse me," she says, "I'll take this to the living room."

She comes closer to her brother "I had the nightmare again," she whispers.

He eyes her. "The orphanage nightmare?"

She nods, and that's his cue. He leaves the table and follows her to the living room. When she stops, he simply lifts a shoulder. "So now you believe me?"

She licks her lips. "I don't know."

"Your unconsciousness is telling you to believe it, Vic."

She is silent. "I know, it's just...how would she know? How is it possible that she knows and we didn't? Who is that girl?"

Christopher shakes his head. "Stop torturing yourself with those thoughts. We can't find out the truth by talking about it. Leave it as it is. For now..." he takes out the letter in Cyrillic letters out of his pocket, "let's focus on what we have."

"You want to translate it?"

He nods. "Seems like our best shot to find something more about the past."

"The past," she sniffs ironically, "Right now, I'm more concerned about our future." She takes the letter from him and casts a look at it one more time. "How do you plan to translate this? We need to find someone who speaks Greek...or Russian...what are these letters?"

"It's Cyrillic. I googled different scripts last night, and it's similar to Russian Cyrillic the most. However, it's very difficult to figure out the letters, because it's hand-written. I tried decoding it but to no avail."

"Figures," she takes a sip of tea. "Plus this letter looks as old as the hills, so I bet the script is different from the contemporary one," she shakes her head. "There's a sentence I never thought I'd use."

Chris chuckles ruefully.

"Vic...there's something else I didn't tell you," he mutters.

She stands still, cautious. Her heart starts beating fast. "I'm listening," she says in a deep, commanding voice.

"The letter is not the only thing I found in that house that was of my interest."

She frowns. "What else did you find?" she asks slowly, as if afraid to hear the answer.

He puts his hand down his pocket and pulls out a photo. An old photo. He slowly gives it to his sister.

She takes it, but still doesn't remove her eyes from Chris'. When she does, she swallows hard and looks at the photo in fear, as if something deadly might pop out and kill her. She goes through the picture slowly, taking in its environment. Then her mouth drops open. "Is this..." her voice breaks, "That's her, Chris! She...she's old!"

He nods. "I know."

"I...How can she look my age? How can she look as me?" she is talking as if she's having a panic attack.

​"Vic, calm down. We will find the-"

A knock on the door interrupts them. Victoria frowns. "Are we expecting somebody?"

"I'll go see who it is," Chris says protectively, hoping it is not Leeroy. As he walks to the door, another thought runs through his mind. Maybe it's Ian. He doesn't like that guy. He still hasn't gone over the fact that he is a little snob trying to seduce his sister and who can't win a fight without his immature buddies.

He is unconsciously frowning as he opens the door to see...

"Sophia?"

Sophia bites her lower lip and bores him with her eyes, as if having an inner debate with herself.

"Hello?" he says, but it sounds more like a question.
She finally answers. "Hello, Victoria."

Chris turns to find his sister behind. He hadn't heard her come.

"What do you want?" Victoria asks, her rage curbing her fear. 

"So rude..." she says indifferently, in her usual style.
"I am actually glad you came," Chris says scratching his fresh beard.

Sophia frowns. "You are?"

Chris reaches out his arm to hand her the letter and the picture he had found at their house. "I have a question for you, and this time...you better answer."

Sophia takes it without even a glance. She knows what she is holding. After all, she is the one who put it in the shelf for him to find it. "What's your question?" she asks indifferently.

He is surprised by her compliance, but doesn't want to risk her losing her good mood, so he speaks instantly. "First of all, how is it possible that you are in the picture of 1865?"

Sophia smirks.

"What's funny?" Chris attacks.

She licks her lips before replying. "That's not me in the picture," she looks at Victoria. "It's her."

Chris takes a second to realize whom she is referring to. When he does, his head jerks towards Victoria, and he sees the mirror image of the same shock he is experiencing.

"You're lying," he says.

Sophia rolls her eyes. "What is the second question?"

"Oh, today I get two?" Chris retorts. He notices she doesn't look as fancy as usual. She looks like she hasn't had a shower in the morning.

She gives him a cold smile. "Use them wisely."

He quit on trying to get her to stop playing games, so he listens. "How is it possible that this is Victoria? She wasn't alive back then."

Sophia's eyebrows furrow. "But...Of course she was. Chris...Haven't you realized?" She looks at Victoria. "We're triplets."

Victoria's head is spinning. She knew it. She knew it all along. Every time she would see Sophia she would get this feeling...Feeling of completeness. Feeling of belongingness. But how can that be? She knows she wasn't alive back then. Her first memories go back to when she was six years old. And that was 2002.

"How..." is all she can say.

Sophia nods in understanding. "Later...I will explain everything. But first," she steps her foot inside the house and throws her rucksack on the floor beside the door, "I suppose you want me to translate this letter for you?" she plays with it in her hands never laying an eye on it.

Chris nods in silence, watching her carefully, while Victoria is restless.

​"What are you doing here, anyway?"

Sophia bites her lip again, fighting the anguish away. It's hard to say these words aloud. But she has to come to the terms of her present. She is an adult and she has to act like one. All these years with Luther have had to teach her not to have fears.

She straightens and looks both of them in the eyes, one by one, then speaks. "I'm here to help you kill Leeroy."