The Seer's Secret

Holmes

The bells rung loudly from the tower as it did every morning. Elaine's family home stood right behind the old building and she woke up with a jolt. Glancing over at her clock which now read 7:00 am. She sighed as she blinked  a few times trying to collect her racing thoughts. The bizarre dreams she had been experiencing lately had become so vivid that she always felt sure they were real. That is until she woke up and took in her mundane surroundings in silent relief.

Thankfully, she no longer awoke screaming and crying anymore, but she still felt dazed as she tried to piece together the puzzling dream she had been having for the last few weeks now. It was always the same dream. It usually began with herself and her family at the beach enjoying a quiet getaway. Little Jacob would be stood laughing and drenched in seawater holding a large shell whilst calling out to his older sister to come look at what he had found. Elaine would be sat near the ocean with a book in her lap, soaking up the sun in complete bliss. Then the dream  would take an unexpected turn. Elaine would be suddenly plunged into complete silence and feeling puzzled would look up from her book to find that her entire family had disappeared, completely and utterly from plain sight. In her dream she would stand up in horror and run across the empty beach screaming at the top of her lungs. Elaine would continue to scream until Mother would run into her repeatedly assuring her that she had only been dreaming.

As per her usual routine, at this time every morning she would wake up and her maid would walk in 10 minutes later to assist her. They would then make their way downstairs to eat breakfast with her parents and younger brother. The tedious sequence of her life was beginning to test her patience, Elaine was desperately searching for even the slightest change. Soon enough Katherine tapped lightly on her door and poked her head through the gap. "Miss Elaine? She called. Elaine sighed, "I'll be right out Kat", she responded. She put down the journal she had been writing in and went out to join Katherine.

Ellie's mother was the first one to greet her, as she seated herself beside Jacob. Her 8 year old brother appeared to be drowning his pancakes in syrup and writing his name incorrectly in the mess. He didn't look up as their mother reached across and took the bottle out of his sticky hands. Mother was concerned that he was getting out of touch with reality, after she had found him yelling at a bread knife to transform into a samurai's sword. After constant arguing, she and father had reached no conclusion about where Jacob should attend school next year. Her father wanted him to go to Christian school, so he could 'become a man of God' as he so often liked to tell Jacob. His own father had attended school there and he claimed the institute had shaped him into the man he is today. Secretly Elaine guessed that was the main reason her mother was so fearful about sending her son there, she had never gotten along with grandfather, and the thought of him becoming anything like the old man terrified her.

"Morning Jake". Elaine greeted her younger brother. Jacob looked at her and grinned, his adorable face scrunching up. He was the one lucky enough to inherit his mothers good looks, they shared the exact same fair curls and hazel eyes, even their dimpled smiles were identical. Ellie on the other hand looked more like her father, her brown hair was long and she always kept it tied in a simple braid. Her mother always said that her dark brown eyes were full of secrets and that her forehead would permanently crease some day due to the worry lines. Although Ellie was frequently teased at school for being too 'plain' by the other beautiful girls in her class, Ellie was quite content with her appearance, her mother called her beautiful every day. She knew that wasn't the case with Emily Gill, the prettiest girl in school by far. Ellie had once overheard Emily's mother, who was quite stunning herself calling her daughter a gibface, and that she should straighten her lazy posture. Elaine was certain it had been Emily crying in the girls restroom for the rest of the day and she had tried to be extra nice to Emily after that, the two girls coincidentally became good friends.

Elaine's father walked into the dining room, holding the day's paper. He set it down on the table with a familiar expression on his face. Ellie couldn't understand why he bothered with the news at all, it only ever put him in an awful mood. As if her father could hear her thoughts he turned his gaze on Ellie and his frown deepened. She looked away quickly to avoid a conversation she didn't want to have today - her education. Elaine attending school bothered him greatly and here she sat in her uniform ready to leave in half an hour. Henry Holmes was a traditional man and he believed his daughter should be schooled at home by a governor. Her father had insisted on it but she had begged him to let her go. Elaine was already bored mindless in the few hours she wasn't at school and she could not imagine the thought of being cooped up in the house with no one else to speak to. Eventually Henry agreed with the help of her mother's persuasion.

A child she was but an incredibly perceptive one at that and she noticed her father behaving strangely around his family before anyone else did. He had become stony and brisk with her and Jacob and he left the dining room table as soon as he finished his meals without so much a word to any of them. If Lady Holmes had sensed her husband's unusual behaviour, she did not bring it up nor show any indication that she felt the tension and gloom whenever Henry entered the room. Elaine though as observant as she was, caught her mother's worried expressions every now and then and this made her feel uneasy. The kind of feeling one felt when they knew something bad was about to happen.