Chapter 12
Amanda flips to the next page to read more but the other pages were illegiable, hoping there was more pages further into the journal she manages to find the last two entries towards the back of the journal the writing more clear than the first entry she had seen.
'October 2nd,
I haven't been diligent in writing like I once was, but these thoughts are too heavy on my mind from the events of the past few days. Mother hasn't been here to my room the last several days, I know I heard sounds of a party downstairs just the night I last saw her. The sounds of the musicians playing soft melodies I haven't heard before, sounds of laughter and talking floating up from the floor boards.. the sounds were like a becon calling me to join just after a while of listening I decided to try the door and as usual it was locked but that didn't stop me so I used a hairpin from inside my vanity to try and unlock the door, after a few tries I managed to get it.. with a soft click the door opened. I didn't know what to expect but I figured i should stay quiet so no one will notice i'm there, slowly and quietly creeping down the small hall all the way down the stairs hearing the sounds of music and laughter getting louder. At the bottom of the stairs there was a door...looking through the door lock to peek into the room behind before opening the door, once confirming it was empty I slowly crept into the silent room, someone left a candle lit on the desk. The sounds louder now so assuming it was right outside the room l creaked the door open just a sliver to see everything going on, women dressed beautifully in their finest gowns and jewerly dancing wildly with men dressed handsomly in their finest suits while others were mearly standing about talking among each other. After a few minutes of looking I spotted mother in the crowd of people talking though she stood silently with her arm draped around in a mans arm the man I recognized as my father from the picture mother has shown me before, and spotting my brother standing beside them almost statue like our father his black hair slicked back and his dark brown hazel eyes much like my own just stares off to a woman in the crowd dancing, my eyes drift to the woman he stares at intently. Her gold and red embroided dress flows freely around her slim body then her partner spins her around and I see her face, she looks just like me only her hair is straight and shoulder length where mine is wavy and waist length. Pure amazment kept me watching as the girl runs over to our family laughing the family excused themselves from the party and heads towards the room i'm hiding in with a man following behind them, quickly I run back to the door I originally came from staying right behind that door curious to know what will happen... the door to the room from the party opened and feet ushered inside the quiet room the door closing behind them softly, I drop to look through the lock to watch the scene play out before me in my hidden space.
"Are you sure no one will hear us here?" The man that followed my family into the room said, he had dark brown hair and a thick beard he looked to e around the age of 30 at least. He was tall and lean with a nice frame and blue eyes but hard facial features,
"Of course, we gave the staff the night off to spend with their families and the guests outside is loud enough to mask our conversation." My father said,
"Okay, well let's be quick about this then." The man says glancing around quickly, my mother walks silently to the window to stare out of it.
"Clarice's birthday is tomorrow she will be 18, so she will be ready by the end of the week just give us that at least." Her father says earnestly, the man shakes his head with a low chuckle his blue eyes darkening as he slowly looks up at her father. Her brothers face pales as he moves to stand beside their sister Clarice in a protective stance,
"It's bad enough her sister was taken from us, why do you need to take my other daughter? What did we do to deserve this?" Mother says turning to the man with tears in her eyes and her voice broke with sadness,
"You already know Evalyn this is the fate to the Autry families that have twins, it was promised..and how can I be one hundred percent certain that the girl really died? How do I know you arent hiding her somewhere?" The man says slowly walking around the room looking at the books and paintings,
"You know we can't lie about that, as you said it was promised so we have no choice but please grant us the rest of this week with our daughter." My father pleads moving to my mother to hold her hand,
"I at least would like a few more days with my family before I leave with you." Clarice says with her head held high, the man looks at her with a creepy smirk on his face,
"I will grant you two more days with them but after that you must come with me no negotiations." He slightly nods then walks to the door leading back to the party then stops to turn back toward my family, and says with a grin.
"Please feel free to try and escape this deal, I do enjoy the chase. It will also give me a reason to kill all of you, just because my master made a deal with your family doesn't mean I did." With that he laughs and walks back out to the party, upon his leave my family sighs and relaxes a bit while my mother and sister collapse to the floor together.
"What are we to do my love? Must I really give up my daughter to that beast?" Mother asks crying now in my sisters arms, my sister and brother both look to my father while he simply shakes his head.
"We celebrate her birthday tomorrow and come up with a plan of some sort, maybe gather mother and sister to the boat on the lake and make a move back to france?" My brother suggest frantically,
"We may have to and son you go to your home with your wife and never come back they wont look for you itll be between us." Our father says sadly, nodding and with that they all fixed themselves and left the room. I on the otherhand made my way back to my room and laid down on my bed o process this inormation and after a few minutes to calm down I decided to write this.
The next several days as I stated earlier was quiet I guess my mother and sister really did leave and thus I ws left behind, i'm now 18 so I guess it'll be fine if I were to leave the room now...'
Amanda flips to the next entry which was the last though it was shorter than the last two, the entry reads.
'October 12th,
Today I managed to make myself leave the room going to look around the house going the way I went to watch the party, going out the door that led to that same room and out the door that lead to the party that was once held in that very room. The room was strangely empty and clean, I walked through to each room exploring the house I had never seen before, through the kitchen out the back door since a swing tied to the tree just as mother had once told me. A few feet away from the tree there was a path mother had mentioned the path before and that the path leads to the lake, So I thought maybe I would go down that path to see if they really left. I mean maybe they didn't but I guess that was my wishful thinking but when I reached the lake there was no boat, I had only found mothers necklace which must've come off in her escape. All I could do was cry my mother the only one who visited me the only one I knew actually knew I was here had left me to run away with my sister, I felt betrayed and hurt. I managed to make it back to the house and once I got into the house I heard noises upstairs, so I followed the noise up the stairs to a room the looks almost exactly like mine only this room had a giant mirror on the wall and windows the room filled with jewelry and dresses that were my size and the gold and red embroided dress my sister were to the party which gave me indication this was to be my sisters room, but if my sister left why is so much of her stuff here? almost like nothing was taken..... looking around her room I found a small bag that must've been pushed under the bed accedentally, it had a few small items like bread that has now staled and cheese that now has molded along with a blanket and a simple light wool dress which looked strange... maybe she didn't leave.