Clocksworth Academy

by Penny BroJacquie

  “Is there anything else I should know?” She was not sure if she wanted to know the answer to that question. She wasn’t sure if she could handle another revealed secret.

  The Master took a deep breath, moving his head gently left and right. He looked at her with compassion, the edges of his mouth turned slightly upward.

  “You have a brother. Here it is. I’ve waited sixteen years to say that.”

  A chill pierced Floriana’s body and her palms were sweaty. Dazed by the successive revelations, she did not know whether she should be happy or if she should conceptualize what her family’s secret past was and what the future would hold. In a state of shock, she remained silent looking at the ring in her palms.

  “Won’t you ask me who your brother is?” asked the Master, sympathy etched on his face.

  “I did not even think about the possibility that I have met him already.”

  “But you already know him. And he saved your life.”

  A pleading look was drawn in her eyes.

  “It's Vittor. Vittor is your brother.”

  Gurgling laughter erupted from her larynx, warmth filled her heart, and a smile lit up her face.

  “Thank God, it's Vittor.”

  The Master puzzled. “I do not know how to interpret this.”

  “It could have been worse. It could have been Eric.”

  “That would have been dreadful.”

  Both broke into loud laughter, as if they had broken free from the tension of the moment, as if they were freed from their secrets that had kept them captive for years.

  “But I don’t understand. Vittor’s surname is Rose. Our father’s last name was Rogers.”

  “Rose is my last name. Rogers was my wife’s surname. Your father chose to take his mother’s family name. But this is a long story. As for Vittor, part of my agreement with your mother was that he would be a Rose. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about this too.”

  More mysteries, more secrets. But the Master was right; that could wait. She had a lot of truth to digest for one day.

  “In any case, this means I have not only a grandfather, but I have a brother, too.”

  “That means you have a family.”

  For the first time since he entered the room, his voice sounded warm and mellow. A beam of light lit up his eyes with a sparkle of accomplishment and personal happiness. The missing link of his family had finally been found before his eyes closed forever. He took her palms into his, the black ring nestled in the nest their fingers created.

  “While you were sedated, I revealed to Vittor the whole truth. Undoubtedly, he was shocked, but he accepted it pleasantly. He said he liked you from the first moment you set foot in the Academy and he would like to call you his sister. Vittor has known no other family except me since he was just four years old when your mother took you and went away.”

  Gently, he released the grip of their hands, took the black ring from her hands, and placed it protectively in his palm.

  “If you want it, this ring will forever be yours. Floriana, you're officially invited to enroll at the Clocksworth Academy.”

  CHAPTER 13

  *

  CHEERFUL VOICES AND gales of laughter echoed from the Grand Chamber of the Roses. Floriana rested her hands on the wooden railing of the staircase and looked at the people gathered below in the hallway and the living room. Happy faces, free from anxiety and anger for the first moment since she first met them. She straightened the coral silk belt worn over her ivory lace dress and checked her coral shoes. Everything was fine. She brushed her fingers through her red hair and tamed one curl behind her ear. She took a deep breath and started descending the stairs.

  The unexpected applause of those on the ground floor startled her. As her cheeks inflamed, she lowered her eyes.

  Vittor, with his hipster reading glasses and a red-black tie bow, was waiting at the base of the stairs. Her brother greeted her with a kiss on her cheek. Valerie hugged her and Carson patted her amicably on the back. Her grandfather, Ganni Rose, the Master, was looking at them with a smile. Dressed in a black suit, he was standing near one of the glass doors with his weight thrown on his staff.

  “You look amazing,” he said proudly as she approached him.

  “Thanks! I went shopping yesterday morning. In fact, that was the first time I went for a walk in the village. It was the first time I walked through these streets without anyone chasing me and without being sedated.”

  They both laughed heartily. The bad situation they had found themselves in was now in the past, the future seemed bright and hopeful ahead. Disco music from the ’80s filled the air; people circulated among the joyously decorated rooms, laughing and dancing. A light spring breeze was coming in through the open French doors that led to the yard full of roses and geraniums. Rosy sunset colors painted the walls and flowery scents filled their nostrils.

  “All these people have come to officially welcome you to our family,” her grandfather whispered in her ear as many people unknown to Floriana saluted them. “The ceremony for your initiation into the Order of the Black Rose will be a private event.”

  Floriana gulped at the thought of the mysterious process she needed to go through to join the ranks of the Order. Nevertheless, her decision was final and there was no turning back. She could not return to her old life. She had to learn more about her family’s past, get to know her newfound relatives better, and understand who they really were. At the same time, she would not say no to a new adventure. A more self-confident and braver Floriana had been born. And she liked that new her.

  Smiling, she nodded to an old couple from India that was standing in front of her and the Master recounting funny stories from the past. A middle-aged black man in a colorful ethnic costume approached and introduced himself while a group of young Asian women passed by giggling. This place is like a UN Assembly meeting, thought Floriana. And they are all travelers.

  A movement behind the old couple caught her attention. It was Eric and he was coming toward them. The colors of sunset highlighted his reddish-blond hair. A pair of beige linen pants and a loose, white shirt added a laxity that she had not gotten used to seeing in him.

  “May I take Floriana for a dance? They’re playing our song.” He winked to the Master.

  He grabbed her wrist gently and led her to the open courtyard while the Bee Gees’ Staying Alive was playing.

  “Is this our song? Seriously?” Floriana giggled.

  “It should have been!”

  He led her next to a bar that had been set up in the center of the courtyard and asked the bartender for two glasses of champagne.

  “Hope you didn’t really believe we would dance. I only wanted to free you from the siege of acquaintances and relatives.” He offered her a glass of champagne

  Eric made a toast. “To your new old family.”

  The ringing sound of the clinking crystal glasses sailed away on the cool breeze.

  “To Egon,” said Floriana. “We haven’t talked about him since we got back to Weengarts.

  A dark shade covered Eric’s eyes. “It hasn’t been easy for me,” he replied, taking a sip of champagne.

  He turned his gaze to the crowded chamber. Happy faces, colorful clothes, melodious music, and delicious food... But some people were missing. They were gone, never to come back. All that was left of them were memories. Maite’s smile, Egon’s jokes, the adventures the three of them shared...

  “I know exactly how it feels,” Floriana interrupted his thoughts. “But things change, it won’t feel the same always. Take me, for example. I was left alone in the world and suddenly I’ve got a family. You are part of my family, too. We can be best friends.”

  “What? Now you want us to have a pajama party?” he sneered.

  “No, you’re too old for me.”

  “Is that a way to talk to your mentor?”

  “My mentor? If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be able to solve my mother’s riddle.”

  “Yes,
but it was me who saved your chubby ass.”

  “You saved me? If it was not for Ninja Flora you would still be in Germany!”

  In a cosmic coincidence, Big in Japan was the DJ’s next music selection.

  “See? It’s karma.” They both laughed.

  “Do you really want to do this, Floriana? It’s not an easy task and it’s always dangerous.”

  “How much more dangerous could it be? I almost died there, Eric, I know how death feels. I don’t just want to do this; I need to do it.”

  She gripped his arm loosely and looked into his eyes. “When I was a child, I always felt like my mother was preparing me for serving some purpose. Since my mother died, I felt disconnected from whatever my goal was. I had to create my own future and you can’t imagine how much insecurity that brought to me. For the first time in a long time I feel I belong somewhere; I feel strong, I feel I can do something useful with my life. But most of all, I need to find out what it was that my mother was preparing me for.”

  Eric put his champagne glass on the bar then took hers and placed it aside. He took her hands in his and gave her an intense look that lasted a few seconds.

  “Do you think that, just because you are the Master’s granddaughter, I’ll be soft on you?” he eventually said in a severe tone.

  Flustered, she looked at him, unable to respond until she noticed a sparkle in his eyes. She released her hands from his grip and pointed her finger at him.

  “You ... you... I almost swallowed the bait!”

  His lips moved upward slowly before he broke into a roguish smile and burst into loud laughter that made many heads turn towards them.

  “I won’t easily get rid of you, will I?” he said softly, trying to suppress his amusement.

  With her face flushed more with determination than embarrassment, Floriana picked up her champagne glass again.

  “You bet, Mr. Skarsgard, you bet,” she said quietly, her eyes twinkling with cheer.

  Her ivory dress fluttered as she turned to walk away. Her red ringlets jumped up and down as she walked rhythmically to the playing disco tune. Her new life was waiting for her and she was not going to miss the appointment.

  If only she knew ...

  CHAPTER 14

  *

  Romania, three months later

  “E UN VAMPIR. Doamne Dumnezeule, ai milă de noi!”

  Floriana turned her gaze to the small group of villagers standing around her shouting with fright in their voices.

  “What did they say?” she asked Detective Cosmin Dumitrescu who was standing beside her and Dr. Declan Davis.

  “They say that this is a vampire's work."

  “A vampire's work?" Dr. Davis muttered as he returned his gaze to the dead man's body lying in front of him.

  He kneeled to get a closer look at the corpse. "Well, that must have been a one-toothed vampire; there is only one hole in this poor man’s neck. Can you see it?” He pointed to a small wound with his finger.

  It had been only a couple hours since Floriana and Declan had landed in Romania. The strong coffee Floriana had at the Bucharest airport did not help her keep her eyes open during the ride to a small village named Arefu at Mount Cetatea; however, the power nap she took did recharge her batteries.

  A few hours before, she was enjoying a deep sleep at Weengarts dormitory when Valerie woke her up and ordered her to pack her mission backpack; the Master was sending her off on her first mission abroad. The mission would be her first test in the field and the grade would count toward her semester grade. It would also be her first trip outside Weengarts in three months.

  Those three months had passed with a lot of study and self-defense workout. Clocksworth Academy wasn’t a typical Academy. Professors were more mentors and action partners, and there were no classrooms. Classes were held in the form of a hangout where students and mentors would delve into history, science and arts over a cuppa.

  The first semester at Weengarts covered seven core subjects: Ancient History, Chemistry, Biology, Latin and Mandarin Language, Film Noir, and Leonardo Da Vinci. Yes, Leo had a course all dedicated to him. Time travel wasn’t introduced until the third semester.

  As she prepared her mission backpack, Valerie told her that Dr. Declan Davis would be her mission supervisor. She also informed her about his work background as he wasn’t a Clocksworth tutor.

  Dr. Declan Davis was known as Dr. Akio Sato’s assistant. Dr. Sato was a brilliant scientist, world famous for his studies on infectious diseases. Before he turned forty, he could have won the Nobel Prize for his research on human genetic mutation if his assistant, a man he had loved as his own son and mentored for years, hadn’t stolen the research and published it as his own. Utterly heartbroken, Akio Sato withdrew from public life and dedicated his science to organizations that worked off the public radar. It was during a research trip that he spotted Declan Davis in a small rural village in Marshall County, Indiana. Amazed by the young man's curiosity about genetic mechanisms, Akio Sato took the young man under his mentorship and paid his tuition at MIT, hoping that he had found his new adoptive son and the true successor to his brilliant scientific legacy: a legacy that remained invisible to the public but well known to those with the power to pull the invisible strings that ruled the world.

  Dr. Sato knew where the real power laid: behind the scenes, under the spotlight, in the darkness of secret sects and shady organizations. Declan was always by his side. He had become a respectful scientist himself, dedicated to their science and devoted to his mentor. Declan was the one Akio Sato called when the Order of the Black Rose asked for his help investigating the weird incidents spreading across the rural country.

  Dead bodies kept being found scattered around the countryside for months, but it was the state they had been in that had alarmed the Romanian authorities. All bodies had been found drained of their blood, their skin snowy white, their eyes wide open as if the face of death was the last thing they had seen.

  Like the one Floriana was looking at now.

  “They think vampires have taken over. Can you blame them?” Declan told her. “Dracula's castle is only a few miles away. These people grew listening to the tales of the most famous vampire of all time.”

  “Well, maybe besides Edward Cullen,” Floriana said.

  Declan ignored her joke. “This guy looks as if his blood had been drained out of him,” he said while putting on a pair of latex gloves. “How long do we have until your coroner arrives?” Declan asked Detective Dumitrescu.

  “It’ll take him a while. I sent him to examine another dead body a hundred miles away from here. And there is no other coroner from a nearby precinct available. It’s not difficult to figure out that something abnormal is taking place,” Detective Dumitrescu said, stroking the ring with the oval black stone he was wearing.

  “Are you a member of the Order, detective?” Floriana’s question fell on deaf ears.

  Davis leaned closer to the dead man’s neck. “You know, after all these years, I still find it difficult to digest the level of influence the Order has achieved in all governments worldwide.”

  “You know, Dr. Davis, everything happened so quickly that I didn’t think to request to see your ring,” Dumitrescu retorted.

  “Well, you should have asked, Detective,” said Davis, palpating the victim’s dry wound.

  “When I called our headquarters in Weengarts, I was told that a scientist would be sent from Washington, but I wasn’t told whether that scientist was a member of the Order.

  “Very careless of you, Detective,” he said while scrutinizing the wound.

  “I was only told that Dr. Davis was on his way here.”

  “And he was, indeed.”

  “I’m here, too.” Floriana waved her hand but again she felt like she was invisible to them.

  “Anyway, with all this rush, I failed to follow the standard procedure the Order commands. Very irresponsible of me,” said Dumitrescu.

  “Don’t be so harsh on your
self, Detective. Could you please give me a hand with this? I need you to put your fingers in the wound and press it tightly while I examine his eyes.”

  “Sure,” Dumitrescu said and knelt over the corpse. He placed his fingers as Davis told him. “I would appreciate it, though, if you don’t report my flub to headquarters.”

  “You don’t need to worry about that, Detective,” Davis said softly. “You have more serious things to worry about.”

  Detective Dumitrescu’s eyes opened wide, but it wasn’t Davis’s words that caused his surprise. It was a sharp pain that struck his back, causing a fiery burn through his heart and abruptly cutting his lifeline.

  “See you on the other side, Detective,” said Davis as he got back on his feet, a knife with a bloody blade in his palm.

  “You killed him!” Floriana shouted at him.

  Declan pulled off his latex gloves and, after he rubbed the knife in them, put them back in his pocket. “I did indeed.”

  “But, why?” Floriana said as she took carefully a couple of steps back to defend herself from a possible attack.

  “Because I had to. Now, run.”

  “What?”

  Declan glanced at the two bodies lying in front of him one last time, took a deep breath, and ran off the shanty.

  “Run! Run! Go away!” he shouted, moving his hand frantically at the crowd gathered outside. “Vampire! Vampire! Run!”

  Watching the panicked villagers scattering away, Declan slowed his pace and turned back into the shanty where Floriana was still standing dumbfound.

  After he piled up the two dead bodies, he took a lighter out of his pocket and set fire to them.

  “Are you planning to stay here?” he asked Floriana.

  As he put an unruly curl back in its place, Declan turned his back to the growing fire and stepped out of the shanty slowly.

  “What the heck?” Floriana slurred as she dashed out.

  CHAPTER 15

  *

  FLORIANA LOOKED AT her reflection in the bedroom mirror. The blush had faded away, but she was still shaking after what she had experienced in that small village in Romania. The trip back to Weengarts had felt torturously long, as both Floriana and Declan isolated themselves in awkward silence.