Carlton House

by B. Groves

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Michael must have realized his mistake because he flung his hands up in defense. “Wouldn’t you do the same thing?”

  Lily tilted her head in question. “Yeah, but how much research?”

  Michael laughed uncomfortably. “Don’t be angry…”

  Lily’s face flushed with embarrassment.

  When Lily turned fourteen, she and some friends were hanging out in the beach-side resort town called Wildwood. They tried to pay a guy to buy liquor for them, and it turned out he was an off-duty police officer.

  Lily realized she didn’t want to walk the same path as her parents when she was arrested that night.

  She was placed into a group home and that had been a good thing since her first foster mother had abused her for years.

  “How did you find out about that?” Lily asked after a minute. “Those records are sealed because I was a minor.”

  Michael never blinked. “I’m rich.”

  Lily scoffed. She wanted to pick up the pen holder sitting near her on the desk and throw it at him but she held back because he was her boss.

  “Thanks.” Lily pursed her lips trying to keep her anger in check.

  Michael reached over and gently grasped Lily’s hand.

  “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Michael said. “We all make mistakes. If we didn’t, this world would be a boring place. My mistakes were a little more… extreme.”

  Lily’s heart fluttered when she realized Michael’s hand lingered on hers. She looked up and saw his baby blue eyes meet hers and unspoken words passed between them. She’d been in denial about her growing feelings for him. She didn’t want to acknowledge it since… well… did she actually need to explain?

  Michael removed his hand when they both heard Hannah’s usual banging noises.

  Michael looked away in resignation. “I’ve made my share.”

  Lily wanted to place her hand over his again and tell him that one day he would break the curse of Carlton House and finally gain peace, but before she could do that Michael changed the subject back to her past.

  “What was it like living in a group home?” Michael asked.

  “Strict. Bed checks throughout the night, chores, curfews. Most of the time things were quiet but sometimes other girls fought over what to watch on TV,” Lily explained.

  “Did you fight?” Michael asked.

  Lily smiled at one memory. “I learned to fight from one of my roommates. One girl bullied me, and my friend showed me how to defend myself.”

  “Did you stand up to the bully?”

  “No, because she got into a fistfight with another girl and they sent her to detention,” Lily explained. “I never had many friends for long because it was a rotating door.”

  “What happened to your real parents?”

  “My mom is in jail, again,” Lily said with a sigh. “She robbed and assaulted a clerk in a convenience store in Margate. My dad… I don’t know where he is. The last time he called, he said he moved to Philadelphia, but he never called after that and I stopped trying. I have twin brothers. They’re seven years younger than me, but someone adopted them.”

  Michael raised an eyebrow. “No contact with them?”

  Lily shook her head. “I barely knew them when we were taken away. I’m hoping to find them one day.”

  Michael reached over and opened his laptop. “I have contacts. Maybe I can help you.”

  The gesture touched Lily. No one ever offered to help her before. She wanted to find them and reconnect with them. She dreamt about it for years. As Lily thought about her brothers, she tried to blink away the tears welling up in her eyes. Michael gave her a knowing smile and said he’d help her find her brothers.

  It was Hannah who still sent chills down Lily’s spine whenever she walked to and from the cottage or tried to clean up on the other side of the house. She’d hear Hannah stomping around upstairs, or she would stare at her through the window.

  Lily tried to stay away but if Michael left the house, Lily would venture upstairs and listen through the doors. She felt sorry for Hannah, despite the evil inside her. The woman didn’t ask for this curse, she simply wanted to live for her family. Lily had some weak moments where she wanted to free the woman from her prison.

  The night before Lily asked a question that had been on her mind. It was personal and really none of her business but her curiosity always seemed to get the better of her, especially with Carlton House.

  “Do you still love her?” Lily asked.

  Michael and Lily sat in his study that night after Lily’s shift had finished. He invited her to sit down and have a drink with him before he left for his nightly hunting.

  Michael had been swirling around the glass as he sat in his office chair.

  Lily lowered her head thinking she made a mistake and cursed her stupid question.

  “I’m sorry that went too far,” Lily said.

  Michael took a sip of his drink and said, “I’m not offended. I’ll answer your question. Every night when I bring her the food, I curse myself for what we’ve become. She’s mostly feral now, although she has some cognitive abilities left, for example, she can light a candle without starting a fire as you’re aware. She can speak a few words and communicate sometimes.”

  Michael took a deep breath. “You’re asking if I still love her. The truthful answer is no. I don’t love the monster she’s become. I loved the woman I knew from childhood. I loved that she gave me a beautiful son although his time on Earth was short. I’ll always love the woman I married, but not the monster she is now. I don’t resent her. I can’t because it wasn’t her fault. When she suggested the witch come and cast a spell, she meant to heal her not turn into this thing. She never meant dying and coming back from the dead to kill our son and eat raw flesh.”

  “What happens if you don’t feed her?” Lily asked.

  Michael scoffed. “I tried that already with both of us. I hoped starvation would break the curse, and we’d die. Hannah became so desperate that she broke down the door and escaped. I was already suffering from starvation myself. The curse was taking over. I couldn’t catch up to Hannah and when I found her, she had…”

  Michael trailed off and Lily felt sick to her stomach. He didn’t need to explain anymore.

  “That happened eighty years ago,” Michael finished. Lily heard the tension in his voice. “I don’t think I need to explain about the family she came across. When I say Hannah could wreak havoc on the area, I was not lying.”

  “Oh, my.”

  Michael swallowed. “You better go before we feed.”

  Lily nodded knowing she stirred up emotions that Michael didn’t want to relive and only answered her out of politeness. She ended up regretting her questions when Michael left the room to get ready for his hunt.

  Lily left that night wondering she’d upset Michael.

  Lily ventured back to the cottage but stopped to gaze at Hannah watching her from the window.

  ***

  Lily woke up the next morning and dressed for work. She entered the house and was met with silence and pancakes for breakfast. She frowned when she didn’t find the usual cheerful note from Michael.

  She sighed and started her work day.

  She hadn’t seen Michael today and Lily wondered if he was angry at her about her questions the night before.

  Lily headed back to the ballroom. The smell of fresh paint permeated the room. It looked so much better but needed lots more work.

  When Lily walked in, she was surprised to find Michael standing there inspecting the room and nodding.

  “Good work, as always,” he said with a smile.

  “Thank you,” Lily said.

  Michael handed Lily a smaller white envelope. She smiled thinking about depositing the check over the weekend. She had been making purchases with her recent paychecks such as new clothes, shoes, and other personal items. She bought a new laptop and upgraded her cell phone. Now she wo
uld start saving for her future.

  “I wish I didn’t have to do it the old-fashioned way, but direct deposit is out of my league,” Michael said.

  Lily laughed. “It’s not a problem. The opportunity you’ve given me… I can’t thank you enough.”

  Lily opened the envelope and smiled. “I hope you’re not angry with me about last night.”

  Michael grinned and shook his head. “No. Of course not. It’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask. I’m to blame for my curtness. It isn’t your fault.”

  Lily and Michael looked up when they heard the stomping around upstairs.

  Michael sighed and said, “She’s getting restless.”

  He ran his hand over his face and shook his head in frustration.

  Lily placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Michael.”

  Michael turned to Lily. He reached up and grasped her hand gently from his shoulder.

  “Don’t be sorry, Lily,” Michael said with a bitter smile. “The fault is all my own.”

  Lily noticed that Michael hadn’t released her hand.

  Lily’s heart skipped a beat. She raised her eyes and met smoldering blue ones as Michael tightened his grip on her hand. It was firm but not enough to hurt her.

  Lily tried to find words but lost them as her mind reeled from the emotions coursing through her. That question she asked the night before hadn’t been out of simple curiosity. She had hidden her feelings but didn’t deny them any longer.

  Michael’s age was no longer a factor because he didn’t look a day over thirty.

  “I better go before it gets dark out,” Lily said.

  Michael reached up and released Lily’s hair from its bun. She sucked in a shaky breath while Michael’s hand touched her cheek and cupped her chin.

  “Are you sure that’s what you want?”

  Lily couldn’t believe he was warm. Besides the pale skin, he was almost human. She felt his faint moist breaths on her cheek making her shiver with excitement.

  “No,” she answered despite her inner doubts.

  Lily was pulled against a strong chest and before she could react, he covered her mouth in a fervent kiss.

  Lily responded to his warm mouth. His lips were soft, his hands were rough as they slid from her face and down her back to grip her closer to him.

  Lily opened her mouth to let him in. She moaned from the pleasure and enjoyed the lingering taste of scotch.

  Michael stopped and stared at Lily, both of them trying to catch their breaths.

  It disappointed Lily when Michael’s intense expressions turned to regret.

  Michael pulled away from Lily and paced the dining room, leaving her standing there wondering what happened. Why the sudden change?

  “I won’t do this to you,” he said. “I’ve been selfish enough in my life.” He waved his hand around in the air. “Look where it got me. Look where it got my wife. No, Lily. I can’t and won’t do that to you. I won’t bring you down into the darkness with me.”

  Lily silently admitted it hurt her feelings. She thought they had made a good connection. She understood Michael’s point. Her logical mind had told her to run away from this situation because she had a strange feeling something was coming. She didn’t know how or why but in the deepest part of her core that feeling had been swelling inside her gut.

  She always prided herself on using logic and science until she met Michael Carlton and those beliefs were thrown out the window. When she would go to bed at night after she stopped spying on Michael she wondered what other strange and mysterious creatures roamed the Earth.

  Lily’s hurt turned to anger when she spoke next. “Can’t I make that decision too? Can I have a say in what I from this?”

  “You can, but I won’t change my mind,” Michael said.

  He didn’t budge and if he would not budge, then she wouldn’t either.

  “Tomorrow I’m meeting with a local historian. She wrote about you on her blog. What else will I find out?” Lily asked.

  Michael stood up straight and blinked a few times in question. “What does that have to do with us?”

  Lily didn’t know, maybe she was so hurt by his rejection that she wanted her own revenge for his rejection.

  “Well… I mean how can I know you’re telling me the truth? How do I know you won’t come and murder me in the middle of the night because your hunger becomes too much for you?”

  Michael facial expressions contorted in confusion. “You stood there and accepted my kiss and now you think I’m a murderer again? I never lied to you, Lily. I am a murderer. I have murdered humans.” Michael laughed hysterically. “If you want to get technical during the war when I was human, there were bodies floating in the water because of decisions I made. So, yes, I am a murderer.”

  Lily lowered her head thinking about what Michael told her about the war and she regretted her words.

  “Go and see that historian. I know who you’re meeting with. She’s been trying to contact me for years.”

  Lily and Michael glanced at the ceiling when Hannah started banging above them.

  “I guess I will say goodnight,” Michael said.

  Lily turned her mouth down. She didn’t want the night to end like this. She allowed her emotions to get out of hand from Michael’s rejection.

  She gathered what was left of her dignity and walked a few steps but stopped when Michael’s eyes darted around the room.

  “What?”

  Before Lily could even finish the word, she was whisked away from the ballroom and into placed into the kitchen. When Michael set her down Lily had to fight off dizziness from the unnatural movement. The room spun, and Lily reached out to grip something to steady herself.

  “Michael, what’s wrong?” She asked as Michael looked around.

  Lily froze as she watched Michael change right before her eyes. His eyes grew dark, black veins appeared beneath his pale skin, his teeth changed from human-like teeth to fangs.

  Lily whimpered from the sight before her. She wanted to panic, but she was too frightened by Michael’s change to even move.

  Michael’s voice changed from smooth and mellow to a low snarl.

  “Go to the cottage and secure the door behind you. Someone has invaded the property,” he said.

  Lily blinked, and Michael was out of sight. She thought she heard the front door open but was too shocked by what she saw to move from her spot.

  She finally turned and placed her hand on the door handle trying to process Michael’s real face. A face that terrified her and even worse, a face that she kissed only minutes before. She’d gotten used to seeing Hannah, but she never expected Michael to change from an otherwise pale…

  Oh, hell, what did she expect? She should have. Michael was no longer human. He fed on raw animal flesh. He was born in the 1840s, he fought in the Civil War. What did she expect him to look like after a witch placed a curse on this house?

  Lily closed her eyes trying to get the image of the real Michael—Phillip Carlton to leave her mind.

  Lily didn’t know if anybody was actually on the property, but she would take this time to return to the cottage and think about it for a while. She reached into her pocket and took out the check that Michael handed her earlier.

  She stared at the amount and angrily shoved it back into her pocket. It wasn’t about the money. Not anymore.

  Lily turned the doorknob to make her way to the cottage when someone screamed from the foyer.

  Lily stopped to listen and turned her head when she recognized the voice that was yelling.

  “Lily!”

  Lily ran through the kitchen and down the hallway and reached the foyer in time to watch as Jordan was being dragged up the grand staircase by a furious Michael.

  Michael’s face had returned to his normal looks, but his face was a deep crimson instead of the usual pale, milky skin.

  “Jordan—”

  Jordan spotted Lily and tried to wrench himself free of Michael’s gras
p.

  “Lily. Lily, help me, please,” he pleaded.

  Lily placed her hand on the banister to climb a few steps. “Michael, what are you doing?”

  “Stay out of this, Lily. If he wants to invade private property, he needs to be taught a lesson,” Michael growled.

  “What the fuck, dude? I didn’t do anything,” Jordan yelled in pain.

  Michael had a tight grip on Jordan’s arm as he dragged him up the stairs. They would take a few steps, and Jordan would stumble and almost fall, but Michael’s grip prevented Jordan from falling.