The Curse of Will Blythe

Chapter 3: The Thunderstorm

Everyone except Emily had proceeded to the dining hall located at the left most side of the ground floor, quite far from kitchen at the right most side of the ground floor you might say, which is why servants use food trolleys to deliver the meals to the dining area. Mr. Weston first went out of the manor and called the man on their coach who drove them there, it was his own butler. Emily saw him from the window beside the front entrance before deciding to go to the dining hall.

"You brought a butler with you?" asked Mr. Blythe.

"Yes I did. I only have a few instructions for him." he replied with a smile.

He then whispered orders to his butler's ear, of course no one could hear it, they were far away.

Mr. Blythe sat at the center on one end of the table while Mr. Weston took the other end with his wife on his left side then followed by Jack, then Jimmy, Jennifer, then Mrs. Blythe on Mr. Blythe's right side on the other end. Only Emily sat on the other side of the table on her father's left. Daniel had presented them 'sirloin steak' that the chef had prepared for them paired with a red 'pinot noir' wine. Surely Jennifer is the only one among the children mature enough to drink alcoholic beverages, she is already 18 after all. She took a sip slipping an eye to her brothers trying to make them jealous. Emily has perfect table manners, she handles the silver quite very well.

They had chocolate cake for dessert but then shortly after it was served, Mr. Weston said he has to go somewhere.

"Where is it you want to go?" asked Mr. Blythe.

"I forgot my pen in the parlor."

"Daniel please escort him to the parlor." said Mr. Blythe.

And so they went out of the dining hall then into the parlor, Daniel couldn't help but notice that Mr. Weston was walking eight feet behind him.

"Weston lords, wonder if they have wheels on their beds." he thought in his head bothered by Mr. Weston's slowness.

As Daniel opened the door, he felt a pain in the back of his head then fell to the ground unconscious, he badly hit his head to the floor and it caused a wound. Mr. Weston rushed to the dining hall after seeing Daniel's body hit the floor and told them what happened.

"You're panting, what happened? Where is Daniel?" asked Mr. Blythe.

"He tripped himself and hit his head pretty bad." he replied.

Everyone rushed to the parlor, Daniel's head was bleeding. They ordered Trisha the maid to accompany him to the town's hospital with the coach the Blythes own drove by Jeremy the male servant. After they left the room, the other servants went and cleaned up the blood he left on the floor.

After dinner, the relatives hung out for a while in the living area near the front entrance where the grand staircase could be seen. Jimmy went close to talk with Emily:

"You always wear black and your look doesn't really change."

"Hmm. It suits me I guess, and I quite like it." she replied.

"I can't quite understand you Miss Emily, why is it that you always are so quiet around everybody? Did something happen to you?"

"It's nothing, and please don't call me 'Miss'." she said in a soft tone, slightly annoyed.

It was already 9 in the evening and it was time for the Westons to leave, the families exchanged their farewells, the Blythes went back inside and the Westons left in their coach. It rained hard again an hour later and was shortly followed by a thunderstorm. The Westons would have arrived at their manor by then. Trisha returned from the hospital soaked and informed them that Daniel will be staying in the hospital for a while.

Emily approached Trisha showing a bit of insecurity in her aura.

"Hey Trisha, may I have your assistance?"

"Yes my lady?"

If there was anything basic Emily couldn't do, it was heating up a bath, but Trisha didn't mind, she just gave her a smile and heated it up for her.

After her bath was heated, Emily laid in her bath tub in her private bathroom located in her room, 'every bedroom in the manor is identical having its own loo inside,' only the master's bedroom was different, it was a little bit more spacious and has a terrace that directly above the front entrance at the center of the manor. She was thinking about how she forgot in asking her uncle Charles about the chest.

"What a waste, so much for a 'bonding activity' how pitiful." she said to herself with a sigh as she lay rested her head a little more backwards than usual in the tub.

She closed her eyes then heard whispers that couldn't be made out by the ear, so she opened her eyes to look around her. There was nothing then she heard footsteps getting closer and closer, then the sound of footsteps seemed to turn into something slithering that was coming closer, her heart was trembling. Then the bathroom door broke with force along with a huge part of the wall and emerging from it she saw a head of a giant black snake hissing. Then she woke up, it was only a nightmare, she fell asleep in the bath tub. Everything felt so real, her heart was still trembling and her breathing was hard. She rose up and wrapped herself in a towel and slowly opened the bathroom door and took a peek to look for the huge snake.

"I must be going crazy, it was only a dream."

She wiped herself dry, got dressed and went to her bed.

"What could that dream even mean?" she asked herself as she closed her eyes.

Meanwhile inside the parlor room, the lights were off, the locked chest lay on top of a wooden cupboard table, above it hung the portrait of 'Will Blythe' a family ancestor, Emily's great great grandfather. The rain could be heard crashing into the window panes, then suddenly a mysterious wind blew the curtain open even though everything was closed for it pass through, at the same time a lightning flashed so bright it lit up every dark corner in the room making the portrait completely visible, then it went out in an instant. Emily and was awakened by the loud thunder that came after the lightning. Emily's room was next to the parlor, the room just before the door to the parlor in the right side of the manor in the second floor.

"The rain has a sad beauty indeed, but the thunder... it displays wrath." Emily said seconds after having been awakened by the thunder.

After being woken up, Emily was wide awake. The roman numeral clock in her room says 11;30 pm on it.

"Well it's late, thanks for waking me up thunder." she said sarcastically.

Unable to sleep, she got bored lying on her bed so she decided to rise up and go to the parlor to play the piano. She went there with a small candle lamp and placed it on top of the piano's closed cover and started playing. She played 'Chopin's Nocturne op. 9 No. 2.' If there is one thing Emily does that makes her express her emotions, it's playing the piano. Her fingers danced elegantly on the ivory, her head moves along with the tune, she occasionally closes her eyes when she feels it, she doesn't need the help of that small candle lamp she brought that barely lights up anything, she memorized the keyboard after all. She creates a scenery of a sad lady playing the piano with the sound of the rain supporting in the background. She achieves the feeling of ecstasy as the tune rises up nearing the end, then finally drops down and comes to a close. Then upon finishing, another lightning flash lit up the room from the window startling her causing her to look at the window and trip the candle lamp with her hand.

"Well, I guess it really is time to sleep." she said softly.

She then picked the fallen candle lamp and went back to her room, the clock said 12 midnight this time. then finally, she went to bed and closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

Emily kept thinking about the thunderstorm earlier.

"What was that thunderstorm all about? Did it mean something? Was it connected to the nightmare I had somehow? No, what does a huge snake have to do with lightning? I'm probably just being paranoid." she said in her mind before falling asleep.