The Grace Curse

Chapter Twenty

MY EYES REFOCUSED AS I FELT THE COLD AIR AROUND ME. Something isn't right. I looked down and the first thing I noticed was that I looked normal. I felt my face and my skin felt smooth and I reached up to my head and felt my hair. I have hair! I fluttered my eyes open wide and realized where I was. It's a dream...but it's Christmas Eve? This had to be a memory. The walls of the Grace Manor were decorated with festive colors and distorted classical Christmas songs played in the background. The air of the past was ominous; I had been here before. I knew this had to be a dream of some sort, Bethany was beside me before. Now, I was trapped in this illusion of the past. The smell of cooking turkey and nutmeg filled the air. Vivien was talented with her cooking, she always had been, she outmatched any chef in the world, her skill was like nobody else I knew. Thinking of my mother was hurting me, I barely had a few days since her death, and now I reminded of it once more, why? I realized how long I was standing in the Foyer, Vivien must have been upstairs. I slowly descended the staircase I knew all too well, and walked towards the Grand Dining Room. I strolled down the hallway and found the room occupied by three people. Vivien was carrying trays of food out from the kitchen and onto the table. I spied Elise Summers sitting at the table casually while reading a book, Blake, naturally being up his grandmother's ass was sitting in a chair on his iPhone. They didn't seem to take any notice that I was in the room, it was like I was a ghost. I heard footsteps from the kitchen and saw a sixteen-year-old version of myself walk into the Dining Room. My hair was cut short to escape Vivien's wrath...but I realized how recent this was, this was last Christmas Eve...right before Grayson had died. Why had I forgotten this? Vivien took immediate notice at the younger variant of myself, she scolded me for not carrying in a tray.

"Chase! Dammit! I am exhausted!" She slammed a tin tray down loudly. "I'm so tired!"

Elise looked up from her book. "Blake, why don't you and Chase go run along for a bit, Miss Vivien needs a moment with me,"

Blake nodded and followed my younger self out of the room. Elise looked worriedly at Vivien, I had not recalled this event at all. "Vivien, you need more patience with Chase, he is simply maturing—!"

"ENOUGH!" Vivien shouted. "Elise! You wouldn't know a thing about patience! All you ever do is talk in your annoying racist Philadelphian slang and it's really beginning to piss me off," Elise backed down, something was clearly disturbing Vivien that night. My mother turned away, I could see her shaking slightly. She turned back to Elise. "My father is going insane, something has gotten into his thoughts, he isn't the same. I'm afraid he won't last more than a few months...at best,"

Elise looked down. "Marissa's death was hard on me Vivien, I am friggin' telling you this, don't ever give up on your child, he is all you have, he is your legacy, your love, your life. If you lose Chase, you will have nothing left, Blake is what keeps me going every day, I do it for him Vivien, I expect you to do the same. Please, just be patient with your son,"

Vivien turned away. "I try. It's just that Jonathan isn't as worried about Grayson as I am, that is why I am not speaking to him, he believes that Grayson is getting worse because of the Grace Serum! It influenced his brain...and not in a good way,"

"What about Megan?" Elise asked harmlessly while bringing another tray to the table. "How's she been?"

Vivien grew ominously cold and took a tray from the table back towards the kitchen. "Why would you even bring her up?" She shouted across the room. "There's no point in rehashing something that's not going to change,"

She shrugged. "Well I'm sorry I have a right to know," What did she mean by this? What the hell is Elise talking about?

Elise seemed to know what Vivien meant. "Yeah. Well, Poseidon came to see me the other day, he asked how Blake was, I turned him away, do you think that was bad? I was trying to protect him,"