*
Sure enough, the train’s journey took us three hours. Everyone had fallen asleep, given the exhaustion that we had endured. I couldn’t fall asleep though. Several thoughts paraded my mind, and I wondered if Holstridge Manor really was the best place for us. Regardless, we had reached Marlowe Davis Station, and it was time to board off. I woke the girls, amid grunts and snorts, and eventually we trotted out of the train and onto the wet pavement of Marlowe Davis Town. It was 9:52 p.m. by then, and we waited listlessly for a taxi to drive us to our next destination, but to no avail.
‘Oh this is just terrible! Did our Auntie forget to mention that taxis don’t drive around at this time of night?’ Joe bemoaned, pointing at her watch.
‘OK, you’re possibly right for a change.’ I agreed, looking around the almost deserted town. ‘But it doesn’t make any sense. Taxis should never be, not available. Something’s not right.’
‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop! Before you go on into solving another Rubric Cube that’ll obviously take you more time than want, I suggest we ask around here.’ Joe, who was more irritable than usual, advised.
‘Go on ahead. Let’s see what you find out for us.’ I sarcastically instigated, motioning her with my hand towards the help desk.
Giving me a stare, she walked off to the help desk. The entire station was enveloped under the depressing blanket of a scant few, dinghy tube lights, and the pelting rain, made no progress in lightening the mood either.
After a few minutes, she came back. ‘OK, so the lady said she’d call in a taxi for us. She asked where we had to go and I told her, but she seemed, umm, petrified for a few seconds. Even confirmed, TWICE, if that really was where we had to go.’ Everyone looked at me, but Joe continued, ‘I told her that it really was the place, and she told me to “beware the mirrors”.’
I felt a strange lurch in my stomach.
‘Any ideas why the lady was all spooky and keen on dampening our spirits? Get it?’ Joe added cheekily, and burst out laughing. ‘Hey Annie! Cheer up! That JUST means you can’t look at yourself twenty times a day.’
‘Stop it Joe. This ISN’T funny.’ Annie said, annoyed. ‘I’m sure once she has a look at herself in a mirror, she’d understand their importance.’
Joe started to sniggle again, while I, caught up in my own calculations and the counter lady’s uncanny warning, wasn’t really sure if fixing Annie’s vanity or pride at that time was suitable – given her serious attitude towards it.
‘Quit it you two. Annie, forget mirrors. You don’t need to look at yourself all the time.’ I said absent-mindedly.
‘Yes I do! You of ALL people should know! It’s one of the things that keep me happy! Call it whatever you wish!’ Annie retorted, aghast and even more annoyed.
‘OK, OK! I don’t have time for this right now.’ I held my hand against my head; it had really begun to hammer with pain now.
‘Carr! The taxi’s here.’ Roxanne said, pointing towards the pair of glaring lights that stood out in the dark rain, after a good, few minutes.
‘Thank goodness! My feet have blisters on them!’ Delilah exclaimed, holding up her luggage and giving it to the driver to put in the trunk. All of us got our stuff stuffed in the tiny cab, and seated ourselves, as it drove us to the controversial location.
After what seemed like forever, the driver told us we had reached the point. Feeling a sense of respite mixed with an unappeased sense of apprehension, we dismounted the cab, paid him and looked around, bewildered at the remoteness of the place, and gazing at the huge manor that radiated light from inside its windows.
‘Um, excuse meh’ sayin’ sa Misses, but if I were ya, I’d stay packed n’ be ready ta board teh next train to wherever n’ away from these hellish grounds! Mark meh’ words, you should!’ The driver, who had stayed reserved throughout the journey, finally spoke up.
‘You don’t need to tell ME twice! Get back in the car ladies, we are going back.’ Joe, who had been diluting her fear with humour, finally cracked, and dumped her bag back into the taxicab.
‘And go WHERE? Spend the night at the train station?’ I argued. ‘No trains head back to Alistan Town or anywhere for another week! I checked the schedule. Today was the ONLY day the train had to come to Marlowe Davis. There’s absolutely no other date that brings passengers here.’
‘Well bully for us! I am NOT spending my night in a bloody ghost freak house, which every SINGLE person is warning us against! There’s no way I’m staying here.’ And with that, Joe sat in the car, and folded her arms, immutable, as in protest.
‘Joe? Josephina! Get ou-...’
‘Welcome darlings!’
As if gripped by some spell, we all turned towards the originator of the hauntingly familiar voice, with the same shrilly essence to it, the hairs on my spine tingling. It was Aunt Sora.
She was dressed in a long black robe, with her hair, dead straight, and face clearly visible – but appearing quite pretty...and Gothic. There seemed to be a remarkable difference in the face that we saw at our home earlier that day, and the one beckoning us then. The lights inside the Manor blazed more brightly all of a sudden. Aunt Sora held out her arms, her long black sleeves hanging down her wrists, like the long robes, wizards wore in medieval times, and her sleek black hair falling over her shoulders like a waterfall.
‘I’m so glad you could come so soon!’ And with that, she came and squeezed me, tight. Her velvety locks brushing against my face. ‘Yes?’
Too dumbstruck for words, I only stood there, disconcerted by the sudden appearance of our Aunt - Aunts, as there stood mounted, on the very top steps of the entrance, two more devilishly seductive women…Aunt Cora and Aunt Nora.
‘Wha…? Aunt So…agh!’ Aunt Sora went and gave a suffocating welcome hug to Annie, who obviously through the pressure of the caress, had the completion of her sentence suppressed.
As Aunt Sora, with her beautiful kohl eyes, and dark red lips, approached everybody individually…I couldn’t help notice the change in her style and how on Earth she managed to get here before any of us. Perched on the top, Aunt Cora, the tallest, descended slowly. She had been stroking a piercingly white cat, juxtaposed brightly with her black robes. Stern expression, but hauntingly alluring face, I was seriously perplexed…right behind her was Aunt Nora, the shortest, and the only one with black frizzy hair that protruded out of her head in millions of twisted knots, following closely the movements of her elder sister, down the huge steps. You could hear the clicks of their heels beating against the concrete marble floor.
Aunt Cora approached me, and stared at me with her strong eyes…halting me with their icy seizure, making me shiver with a ghastly recollection of a blurry time when I had seen those pair of eyes somewhere before…but, as usual, coherent memory failed me. She walked over to Roxy and Del, who were mobilized together, and surveyed them from head to toe with her superior eyes. ‘No, these are not the ones.’ She spoke in a foreign accent that had tinges of Spanish in it, while both my sisters looked at each other in confusion. She walked over to Joe and her cat gave out a hiss and puffed up its fur. Joe hissed back at her, and Aunt Cora, now walked over to Annie. Her eyes widened, and both her and her cat’s eyes shone identically in the moonlight.
‘You must be Anneliese.’ She spoke as if recovering some great, long lost artifact, her large grin spreading all over her face and revealing excellent white fangs, outlined perfectly by her scarlet lipstick. ‘Welcome to Holstridge Manor.’
‘Um, thank you…’ Annie faltered, still looking quite disoriented.
‘Oh, and terribly sorry for your loss, yes, terrible...’ Aunt Cora half-heartedly, though surprisingly, spoke out – given the way she channeled her emotions from the start.
‘For YOUR loss?’ Joe whispered to me, upon getting out of the taxi, which the driver had driven away at the speed of light, after gazing upon Aunt Cora. ‘What the bloody hell about your own loss too?’ She held a hand to her mouth to prevent any audib
le leakage.
‘You shall be staying here for a long while, yes?’ She continued to speak with all her royal airs. ‘Nora will show you to your rooms. And in case we haven’t been properly introduced, I’m Cora, that’s Nora and of course that’s Sora’, pointing towards everyone as she spoke. ‘Now don’t look like homeless vagabonds, come in and have a nice snack.’
Not daring to speak out against her, my sisters and I made our way into the Manor and right behind Aunt Nora. There was a lot I wanted to ask Aunt Sora, but all would be answered in due time, I thought…as we motioned ourselves into the massive mansion.
-- CHAPTER 8 –
Coming To Terms With It
Refraction of Beauty Page 8