The Cellar

The Cellar Door

A/N: Ok so this is my first story to ever be read by anyone but family! Be nice and I really hope you enjoy! Sorry for any grammatical errors....I try to catch them but so manage to slip through!!

Juliana's curiosity always won against her logic. It was only a cellar door. She had always been awestruck by the door with the lush green vegetation surrounding the dark wooden planks that allowed a string of ivy that snaked up the middle. The black iron hinges curling around the rounded door in the three places they secured it tightly. And the thing that always intrigued her the most, the soot black latch that housed a skeleton key hole that gave way to no light. Sure Papa had always told her to stay away from the silky wood and cold iron braces, but what could it hurt to take on little look? Sweat dripped down her back melding her cotton sundress to her torso. Her hand trembled slightly as she pushed the old key into the lock. Her wild honey curls danced around her face charged with the electricity of anticipation in the slight breeze. Just a little pressure on the latch and her thirst would be satisfied. It was ridiculous that she should be denied passage into a part of her own house right? Green eyes batted a fringe of black lashes in nervous hesitation. JUST DO IT JULIANA! She chided herself. What could be so horrid that Papa would hide it behind old wooden boards? Taking a deep breath she pushed down on the latch and the door opened with a groan. Why couldn't she see anything? Surely it wasn't that dark! She walked blindly into the room groping the wall for any sort of torch. "OUCH! That was my hand you know!" Frozen in terror Juliana couldn't even scream. " Oh dear, seems I've scared you. My first visitor since...well my first visitor ever and I am being rude! Heavens forgive me. Allow me to introduce myself...I am William...William Brighton...How do you do?" Juliana stumbled out of the cellar before the hand of a sure to be ghost could stain her with it's icy cold grip! "Well don't be going in such a rush! I didn't ask you to stumble into my prison and try to break my hand now did I?" His eerie English lilt wafted to her on the fragrance of honeysuckle and wild roses.

" Give me a moment! I have just discovered that in my father's forbidden cellar he has not in fact been hiding secret recipes or stolen jewels but a boy! Come out!"

"Now see here. I am not a boy! I am a man! And this is not a cellar but a house. My house for eighteen years! And I can't come out it is forbidden..Wait! Where are you going?"

" To grab a torch you ninny! You won't come out here so I can see you so I am coming in there." Juliana returned with a confiscated candle from the maids quarters to find the cellar door shut and locked as if it had never been opened. Now what game is this? She shoved the key in this time and swung open the heavy oak as it whined and moaned in protest. The room was silent. In the soft pool of light surrounding her, she spied a small desk with pages scattered everywhere. A bookshelf brimming with dusty books and a small cot with thrown back sheets and blankets. What is going on? What has this boy done that Papa would lock him in here!

"It's for my own protection. That's why I'm here. If I were out there I would be dead in a split second or locked in one of those dreadful institutions!" She could hear his voice but he remained conviently out of sight.

" Step forward so I can see you! Or are you frightened of me?"

"Oh frightened indeed my lady." She could hear the grin in his voice and knew that he was mocking her. " I have only dreamed of meeting you! I watched you play in the garden as a little girl. What a feisty one you were! Your poor poor sister always the object of your ridicule. I guess that how sisters are though I wouldn't know not possessing one myself. I used to sit by the little nick in the wall..See it right by your right calf...And watch the two of you run and play."

"Show yourself!"

"Not yet dear Juliana. What have I to gain if I show myself now and you run away again? But if I withhold my reveal you might chat a bit with a lonely man for a moment."

"Eighteen hardly makes you a man and what makes you think that you are so important that I would stick around just to see you? You could be a crazy person for all I know! Papa wouldn't just lock and innocent man down here for no reason at all!" She heard a low chuckle before he spoke. His voice sounded as though he had aged ten years since she had stumbled upon him. A melancholy echo tainted his beautiful accent.

"No I suppose you're right. He wouldn't lock an innocent man down here... but I do believe that I could try to be. You see my birth condemned me to isolation from your world. I have always been content with my exile until I saw a little girl with honey curls hiding tears declaring that the nasty scrape on her knee did not, in fact hurt one bit. That was the first time I saw you. I began watching for you every day. Ever impatient to see what adventure you were planning. I always wished that I could simply call out to you but I knew for your safety that I could not." That mystifying laugh echoed around her again.. " but I guess destiny will have its way." He was insane...that was the answer. Of course Papa would lock him away. He was clearly delusional about her. Oh this was just great.

"Hmm destiny will have its way huh? Well what exactly does my destiny have to do with you?"

"Well I can't exactly tell you that now can I? Then you will go running off and I rather enjoy communication with someone besides my novels. Now that Renaldo isn't here to converse with anyway." Tears filled Juliana's eyes at the mention of her father's name. She missed him but she didn't see how this complete stranger should share in her mourning. Her father had locked him away.

"My father talked to you often?"

"Oh yes. He became as much of a father to me as he was to you."

"That would make you my brother right? And because I now discovered that not only do I have a man living in my cellar, the man was also raised by my dead father and is practically my brother, I do believe that you should tell my how your life affects mine."

"Very well. I could never lie to you." A wistful tone entered his voice. "Always hardheaded. I see that it hasn't changed even now."

"What do you mean you could never lie to me! You said so yourself that we have never met and have never spoken."

"Oh we haven't met formally in this century. But I have met you many a time in the past."

"Oh dear. Now you're going to babble on about reincarnation to me? I hardly believe in that nonsense!"

"It isn't reincarnation by any means...well not really. It is more of a punishment that you are the only human not allowed the pleasure of moving on. I caused you to be reborn over and over. "

" Ha! Good one old mate. Very clever. But if you are trying not to scare me away then you are doing an extremely poor job of showing it!"

"I told you...I cannot lie to you. Never have and if this continues then I never will. You see I am not like you. I may appear eighteen but I am much older."