Chapter 4

Shawn beckoned to me and ducked through the low door frame and deeper into the house- and the elegant shadow cutting through the groom. I still felt dazed, but as he drew further away, the darkness in the room thickened. I tugged out my cellphone and flashed the light around, although, it was a poor imitation of the warm candle light. I tried to imagine that monsters lurked in the shadow corners and suddenly, Shawn seemed to be a more appealing company. He could be a psychopath but at least he was a real person.

I hurried to catch up to him. The next room was as abandoned as the first. The only contents were a large empty trunk and copious amounts of cobwebs that traced a long the stained peeling walls and the dirty windows. There was no way Shawn could live in that place! No chance at all. Then I wondered for a moment, what could he be doing in there?

Then as I thought, we finally came at least to a padlocked door, Shawn fished a key from his pocket that slid neatly into the lock. The tiny click echoed, magnified by the heavy stillness. "I DON'T OFTEN ENTERTAIN COMPANY" he said, his voice deep and heavy he said his words in lieu of an apology as he swung the door open and headed down through set of wooden stairs. 

I hesitated. I'd seen enough horror movies to know what the basement represented. 

There was probably a torture chamber down there, and I wasn't going to walk glibly into it. I abruptly imagined Layla's eye roll "that is just a movie Anya! This is real real life, not tv" her image came and her thought popped up on me, and as I agreed that she was probably right. 

This Shawn or whoever he was, knew Gregory so well and chances were, he was just squatting in an abandoned house. That was the kind of company Gregory had kept. Not really dangerous, just weird.

I clutched my cellphone, a finger on the emergency button, then I forced myself down the stairs. Shawn had waited for me at the bottom, and when I finally got there he offered another tight smile, no doubt meant to be soothing. My eyes snapped from his face to a nearby wooden crates. The rest of the basement was lost to thick shadows with no discernable furniture. I suddenly went into a thought; if he was staying there where was he sleeping? Where was his bedroll and all the flotsam and jetsam the squatters piled up?

Apparently impervious to my turmoil, he said slowly, "I believe that now is the time to ask how much you knew or think how much you knew about your fiancée and the late husband to be".

Husband? I wished that he would quit using those words and just be quiet, though I suppose it was better than : a fuck mate. As to what I knew about Gregory , I really didn't know much. We had a deal limiting how much we shared ; how involved we were before we could have got into that arranged marriage. It had never sat well with me, but there it was.

"I knew a lot" I answered evasively.

Shawn's expression was serious. "do you know where he spent all his weekends? Especially at night?" he asked. I shrugged. "he said he played hockey. But wait, I just want to know..."

He cut me off mid-sentence. "before we begin, I just think you need to be sure you really want to know about this. The things you are about to find out ..uhm- well, at the very last they'll change the perception of your lover. At the most they'll change the perception of your world. Do you understand? You surely wont believe me at first, not because it is impossible, but because you won't want to believe me. then will come the moment when it all becomes clear for you, when the truth stands out glaringly from the rest of the mess that we call life and reality. Then you may not like it anymore"

His speech was ridiculously overdramatic, like something from a late night tv drama. But the serious expression on his face scared me and had my nerves down just a little. What kind of secret did Gregory have? I was I ready to want to know? Would it change anything, or make anything better? He would still be dead, and the police wouldn't arrest the murder on my word alone- and probably not Shawn's. Either still I surveyed him coolly. There was only a couple of things I could think of what would drastically change my opinion of Shawn, and none of them were pretty. But Gregory had been a monster of some kind, and I surely knew that.

"I think I am in a position to handle it" I finally crossed my arms over my chest and dared him to argue.

"Are you sure?" I am not trying to frighten you or mislead you, but it might be a lot to take in at one time" I met his gaze head on, my face stubborn. "I am certain, go ahead and say it!" Shawn gestured to the dusty stairs "you might want to listen as you sit"

"no, thank you. I think I am okay right now where I am".

"all right". He went on and set the candle on the floor, then leaned casually back against the wood crates, his expression thoughtful. "I wonder if you have ever met Shawn's brothers?"

Shawn had only spoken of his young brothers in handful of occasions, and always with pitty and regret. They technically could go to school together, but he had been two or three years older but I barely could remember having ever interacted with any of the two brothers, since he said his brothers were more of introverts and worked abroad. "No!"

"Michael and another one, I cant get the name well, are the brothers to Patrick. Michael is the younger of the brothers, and not the smarter. He was too inquisitive for his own good and discovered the secret of someone. Someone very powerful indeed" he grimaced and then relented, as though being completely vague would be too hard. "his name was Ethan, their father. Michael confronted his father and, needless to say, it wasn't well received. In order to guarantee that Michael stayed quiet, he was forced into…" he hesitated and swallowed saliva. "servitude, and in a sense Michael dragged his brother into it as well. Every weekend, their father could throw up very exclusive and expensive parties and his sons were more than servants to the parties.

I immediately felt a mixture of relief and disappointment, my whole body became warm. So much for earth shattering revelations, "so? Gregory was a rober or something?" a partial lough escaped Shawn's tight lips. "so he really didn't tell you anything, didn't he? No it wasn't really a robbery gang. I believe the word you want is Vampire- Oven"

"wait, what? A coven? Do you mean something more of witchcraft ? freeky cults and staff?' that was really a surprise to me. Though at that point, it made sense. Gregory had held some kind of weired ideas and had often had paranoid, haunted look in his eyes. I had no idea that there could be any cults around my place.

"not exactly a cult but that defination will work for now!"

He waved me to silence before I could ask what he meant."at one of these parties, Michael started talking about things he shouldn't specifically do, to people he should never have said, he started to mention people he should never have mentioned. Ethan likes to control people through fear, and the fear of harm befalling your loved ones is a very, very good motivator. Michael mentioned to the wrong people that Gregory had found a friend from the Vlov family.

"excuse me, when was that?" why was Gregory's brothers even discuss about me? My family? I remembered how Gregory became my friend before there was a sudden change and idea from my father that the two were to get married. Things happened so fast, and I couldn't get it quit well. However, the two of us were just casuals. We had agreed. Time and again we had promised each other that our closeness meant alot. Commitment , feelings and attachement. That had been the deal- our deal. He had insisted on it, made it clear that he always loved me and our planned-to-be-marriage was just a few days to. And I had agreed: not only agreed but kept my half of the bargain. 

Any time I had felt far from him I had to remind myself that he wasn't the kind of guy I could live without. He had very few pasts and lots of future plans. The only way he was going was up; he just wasn't a "boyfriend" material. He was meant for more than that, but he was, he was uh- 

"My lover"