Gothicana

The lake. 10 PM. For Troy.

The lake. The dreaded lake she had never been to after the last time, the dark woods she’d not been to in weeks. And she had to go tonight. For Troy.

**

Saying she was going for a walk to Jade was easy enough. Jade was used to her nightly strolls and didn’t think twice about it.

Corvina wrapped her brown woolen shawl around herself, still dressed as she’d been during the day. The moon was full, and for a moment, she hesitated, wondering if she was being stupid. She was. But she knew she needed to do it. In her heart of hearts, she knew something had driven Troy up to the roof, and his brother deserved to know that. She would have told Vad about her suspicions and her meeting but she’d neither had the time to catch him alone, nor the inclination, not after realizing she had no idea about him. She didn’t know if he was involved in anything, she didn’t want him to be, but until she knew for sure, she was on her own.

The wind was a gentle breeze in the dark, the trees dancing softly in it, leaves swaying, branches trembling as Corvina made her way through the woods with the lantern she’d taken from the Main Hall in her hand. She didn’t need it for the light since the moon was doing a good job of lighting her way, but she took it just in case the weather turned and clouds covered it, or in case she needed a heavy iron weapon. She didn’t want to be left with herself in the dark in these woods, not after the mirror incident.

‘Can you hear me?’

Not again.

The same feminine voice with the scent of decay, chilling her to the bone.

For Troy, she muttered to herself. Get to the lake for Troy.

Corvina forcefully pushed the voice out of her mind.

Though it was a beautiful night, it was a shame Corvina’s comfort with the dark had turned to slight dread. The girl who had always walked the dark alone without a thought had become spooked by her own shadow, the devolution a consequence of Verenmore.

She walked down the incline through the low mist that clung to the ground as she made her way to the lake. The opening in the woods appeared a few minutes later, her heart beating rhythmically as she neared the clearing, finally emerging on the bank of the lake.

“Here.”

She shrieked, swinging her lantern up to see Troy’s brother waiting for her against a rock, still in the same coat as he’d been in the morning.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. Thanks for meeting here,” he straightened and began to walk towards the left by the lake’s edge. “There’s a bridge just up ahead”, he pointed straight. “Got some cover there in case the weather goes bad. Let’s walk and talk.”

Corvina followed his lead, keeping a little distance between them, getting a sense of nothing malicious from him, only anger and pain emanating from his pores.

“I’ll take him with me in the morning,” he started the conversation. “But I need to know whatever you were going to say in the office. Do you think there’s something wrong with Troy’s death?”

The outline of a small wooden bridge appeared up ahead over a portion of the lake.

“I think it’s just odd. I’d spoken to him that morning and everything had been fine,” she reminisced. “And then when he was on the roof, it was like he couldn’t hear any of us. The fact that the exact same thing happened last year to a girl just makes it even odder.”

“What do you mean the exact thing happened to a girl?” he asked, his words fogging the air in front of him.

A small wooden gazebo sat at the begi

“I mean the exact same thing,” she touched the cold stone with her palm. “It happened before I came here, so I don’t know the exact details. But Alissa, that was her name, went to the same tower roof and wouldn’t listen to anyone when they called and jumped off.”

“Huh,” he narrowed his eyes. “That’s-”

“Bizarre.”

“The castle has always made people behave... differently than they would,” Ajax looked at the water. “I barely made it out of here half-sane. And I didn’t want Troy to come here at all, but he just wouldn’t listen.”

“Do you...” Corvina hesitated. “Do you think it’s got anything to do with the Slayers legend?”

Ajax chuckled without humor. “Good ol’ Slayers. Who the hell knows? This whole mountain is cursed as far as I’m concerned. I don’t understand anyone who would stay here longer than they need to.”

Vad Deverell, the man who had been here for years, popped into her mind.

“I have a professor who’s been here a long time,” she told him.

“Really?” he asked surprised. “Who?”

“Vad Deverell.”

His eyes flew to her, his eyebrows almost hitting his hairline. “I’ll be damned,” he muttered under his breath. “Fucking bastard found you.”

Corvina straightened at his words. “Excuse me?”

A toneless laugh left him as he turned to look at the black mountains in the distance. “I’m a bit shocked, that’s all.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. What’s going on?”

“Fuck, I need a drink,” he ran a hand over his scalp. “He’s just... I don’t even know what to say.”

Her heart sank. “Can you please explain?” What the hell was this man talking about?

His gaze went distant. “I met him when we were seven in a home for lost boys. We were all an odd bunch pushed there together. And it was a... dark place, let’s just leave it at that.”

Corvina’s fingers tightened on the stone railing as she listened to the story, palpitations making her heart crash against her ribs.

“There was an old lady at the home with us,” his knuckles turned white. “She’d been the caretaker but turned blind with age. But she knew things about us we never told anyone. Odd things. How someone would die, and they did. How something would happen, and it did. Just things, you know? We would eat her words up.”

“Okay,” Corvina urged him to go on, confused as to where this was heading.

“She told Vad to look for purple eyes,” Ajax looked into her gaze. “We were just kids. We made fun of him about that. Nobody had purple eyes, you know? But that’s all she told him.”

Corvina felt a shudder steal through her. “Are you messing with me?”

“I wish.” He blew out a breath, staring out into space again. “I didn’t even remember it until I saw your eyes this morning.”

“What... what happened after?”

“His grandfather came and took him out of the home. We stayed there until it burned down and took most of the boys with it. Those that survived went elsewhere.” He rubbed a large hand over his head. “I saw him again years later here at Verenmore. We were in the same class, but we weren’t really friends.”

“Wait,” she held a hand up, trying to wrap her mind around the onslaught of information. “You say his grandfather? You mean his actual grandfather? Not a foster family?”

“Yeah.”

But he’d told her it had been a foster father. No, he hadn’t. Corvina remembered his words, his carefully chosen words. He’d implied a paternal figure, never actually saying anything about it being real. He’d lied to her by omission, right after she’d told him about her mother. Why?

“Given your eyes and your questions, I take it he’s more than just your professor?” Ajax inferred correctly. “Since you seem like a nice girl, let me tell you something. This is information only the investigators have access to, but I think you should know this.”