World War One
[Biloxi, Mississippi - October 1st, 1916]
A young girl sat in her family's sitting room in front of a nice bay window allowing in the light needed for her to read the letter she had received today. She was incredibly excited as she had been waiting for this letter for weeks, she knew it was coming but was surprised it arrived so serendipitously on today of all days as today was her 15th birthday. This young girl sat in a pretty dark blue dress with a lovely pearly necklace, courtesy of her jeweler father that morning as a gift for her birthday, long dark brown hair with gentle curves and chubby cheeks that were quickly losing their child-fat. This young girl was named Mary Alice Brandon and was the younger sister of Henry Francis Brandon her elder brother of 10 years. Henry, or Hank as Mary Alice always called him, had left nearly two years before to help Canada fight in the war across the sea.
Mary Alice was heartbroken when her brother had told her that he was leaving to fight as she had had a vision, or maybe it was a dream as she still had a difficult time understanding the strange ability she seemed to possess to see the future and sometimes believed her visions to be dreams or vice versa, that it would be a very very long time before they would see each other again. Her brother was her only true friend, everyone else was cruel to her or thought her a witch because she saw things that others couldn't but her brother did not care about such things and was always kind and loving toward her. He defended her when some older boys had tried to throw her in the river and had beaten them so badly that he was taken away for nearly a month. When he had returned from what she would later learn was prison, he had begun to prepare to head to Canada to join their army as the United States had not joined the war but Canada was glad to take any American who wanted to join. Henry had brushed off her concerns saying that it would be a few years but she believed otherwise. She couldn't verbalize how she felt from her dream-vision thing but she felt that it would be much much longer until she saw her brother again. That they would both be very different people.
Alice opened the letter from her brother and began to read:
Dear Mary Alice,
It has been just over two months since we arrived on the banks of the Somme. I apologize for not writing sooner as I know it has been nearly half a year since I last wrote but the fighting has been so vicious recently. I do not want to inform you of the more grisly details of the battles we have been fighting but it is quite bad. Many dead and for every dead, there are nearly 3 injured. German gas attacks are beyond cruel, but this only reinforces my belief that I am doing the right thing.
I know when I left you felt I was abandoning you but there were simply others who needed my protection as well. I hope you will one day forgive me for not staying. Enclosed is a bracelet I was given while leading evacuations for a nearby village. A nice French woman told me that it is meant to bring loved ones back together. It was a set of two for her and her son but he had not come home to her, let us pray that it brings me home to you and mother as I have the other of the set.
I promise you my dear sister that I will see you again. You wrote of your 'dream' to me once again but I swear that it will not come true, we will see one another again even if it takes a lifetime. Pray for both of us dear sister as I certainly need it, the horrors I have witnessed in this conflict are. . . indescribable.
All my love,
Hank
Mary Alice shed a single tear reading her brother's latest letter as although she loved and trusted her brother to never break a promise he made to her she somehow knew that he would not be coming home and that it would be even longer until they saw one another again. She took out the bracelet from the envelope and placed it upon her wrist. A small silver thing with a name engraved on the inside: Henri
~~ Time Skip ~~
[Paris, France - May 3rd 1920]
Second Lieutenant Henry Francis Brandon was lying in a hospital bed still recovering from gas attacks even though the war was long over. He was currently bawling non-stop as the nurses attempted to console the grieving man. For he had just received his latest letter from home:
Son,
I regret to inform you that your sister had fallen ill with consumption. The sickness took her quickly so she did not suffer much. I know this is little consolation but my new wife Anna-Marie is newly pregnant so by the time you get home you may have a new sibling to fawn over. Look forward to seeing you soon back home
Edgar John Brandon
{Henry POV}
She was dead. She was Dead. She was DEAD. DEAD. DEAD. DEAD. The word kept bouncing around inside my thrice-damned skull as my tears continued to pour from my eyes unceasingly. My wonderfully joyful little sister. The little girl of not-yet 13 years I had last seen after I nearly beat those Johnson boys and their gang to death for trying to drown her in the river, calling her "witch" or "changeling" like she was some kind of monster because she saw the world in a way they would never understand. Frankly, I did not understand it either but that did not matter. Nothing mattered anymore because the light that had been her smiling face and joyous laughter as I chased her around the mulberry bushes and old oak trees dotted across our property had been snuffed out far too soon. DEAD. It has been not yet a year since I had gotten word that my mother had died, an accident the police said. But Mary Alice said differently. I remembered the letter she had written me not a month ago:
Hank,
Everyone is saying that Mother's death was an accident but I know it was not. Father had her killed I swear I know this to be true. He knows that I know, I saw it and I told everyone. I am afraid Hank, the way he looks at me now is how he looked at Mother before she was killed. I am afraid that he wants to hurt me. Please come home brother.
Love,
Mary Alice
I hate to believe it but I know this in my heart: my sister is right. And now my sister is dead. DEAD. My father has killed her and I have no doubt that should I return home he will probably kill me too as he knows I won't let this go. I guess Mary Alice was right, I was never coming home from this war. My tears have dried now. I am 29 years old and I have lost everything I have ever had. This war was horrific and I am still not fully healed of my injuries. A bullet to the shoulder, shrapnel to the leg that may leave me with a limp for the rest of my life, and the worst is the gas. But luckily I still live. DEAD. I live but SHE is DEAD. The gas has "scorched" my lungs as the doctor tells it. Even if my leg fully heals I will never run again as my lungs fail me even now as I gasp for breath. I received an invitation from Mr. Yardley regarding a cryptanalytic organization that he started. It seems my future lies in spycraft. I swear that I will find out the truth of this matter. I swear I will protect the innocent, always. I will lay down my life and protect those who cannot protect themselves for the rest of my life as penance for failing to protect my sweet sister. I love you, Mary Alice, I am so so sorry.
~~ Elsewhere ~~
Alice was just now waking up from her transformation into a vampire. She was having a vision. She saw herself in a diner somewhere, and in walked a young man. A very, very handsome young man.
"Jasper," she whispered.
She saw herself loving this young man and he loved her in turn. They married. Found happiness. Found a family to live with. 6 others alongside her and Jasper. Then she saw another man. An older man. Probably in his late 40s maybe early 50s but she could only tell that from the look in his eye, the bearing of his face, and his salt-and-pepper hair and beard. The Man had golden eyes and no wrinkles but she knew that he was older. She saw him in the woods with the others alongside some people she could not see clearly. She loved this man but not in the way she loved Jasper. This was a different feeling she didn't quite understand just yet.
"Francis," she whispered.