The Endowment of the Red-Eyed Demon

Chapter 10

I felt as if I might faint. I dropped to my knees at my mother's bedside and my eyes stung as though I were about to cry. But not one tear dared to fall.

Even as I looked into her blank eyes, I could only return a stare. She was gone, and I wasn't sure I understood why. How could she so easily leave the manor? She knew that was, at least at one time, my desire, but now she was gone, and she had left to rot. It was her final way to get back at me, I was sure. Of course she would do such a thing, only she would be so awful.

But still, she was gone. I'd never see her again, and I left her in such anger! All she would ever remember me as was a pathetic boy. That's all she thought of me, and I'd never be able to show her that I was more. I'd never be able to make her proud of her son. I would never be able to apologize to her.

A tear left my eye, but mother did not care. She stared up at the ceiling; she couldn't even look at me. Of course she couldn't, she never could. But that was hardly the problem. The only problem I'd have to deal with now was the fact that she was dead. Someone, something, had to have done this to her, and as Arthur called to us for breakfast, suspicion began to grow inside of me.

I pressed a kiss to her cold hand and left her, quietly closing the door behind me as if I would wake her if I didn't. I followed the groundkeepers' voice to where he was standing at the top of the stairs.

"Good mornin', sir. I 'ope ye've 'ad a good night." He greeted me.

"Yes, I did." My voice was flat, and I knew there must've been a look of displeasure on my face.

"Will Mrs Thornton be joinin' ye this mornin'?"

I could've strangled him there, I wanted to, "No."

"I 'ope she is not too unwell this mornin'."

"No."

I watched him walk down the stairs, following closely behind and wondering if I should push him down. Something was wrong with him. I began to wonder if the demon had not been in my mother, but in the man instead. He did not move with the grace of the demon, but I would not dismiss him so easily. He had always made me feel uneasy, and I had once thought it was the way he dressed or the way he spoke, but now I wondered if it may not have been such an innocent reason that set off my suspicions.

"You know, Arthur," I said as the man turned around, and I half expected to see the glowing eyes, "I'm not hungry this morning. I don't believe I could stomach a bite. I won't be having breakfast, I think."

"Right, sir. I'll attend to my duties then."

He left me and I watched as he walked away. I was not so sure the demon could be hidden in a man like that, but if it was not in me, then who else could it be?

I returned to my mother, again falling to my knees before her.

"Mother, if I beg, will you return to me? If I sob an apology, will you return? I must know what's happened to you. I must know where this demon resides. I thought he had left me, but now he has shown that he has not. I was told all is well, but it seems it is not. All is not well, uncle! Can you hear me? All is not well! The demon is here! It's here, in Skhizein Hall!"

I sat at her side for hours, until the sun had set, begging for her to respond.

Finally, after so long, I heard something, "Huxley..." My mothers voice barely spoke above a whisper, "You're right. That thing is still here. Just think about it. When was the last time you saw that thing? When you discovered that Arthur had betrayed you? Yes. It was just at that time, wasn't it?"