Afterlife (2 page)

“Mister, miiiist…er.” She struggled to get the words out because she was so out of breath.

“Yes?” Jacques said eyeing her suspiciously. She was an old woman with a funny face and fat hips.

“I am Miss Lamington, keeper and trusted employee of Miss Madison’s, the owner of the Academy, for girls off course.” Miss Lamington put a huge emphasis on the word girls, as if it was a swear word, and then she bowed awkwardly in front of Jacques.

“Please, please don’t bow. Do stand up!”

Miss Lamington pressed her lips together and placed her hands in her apron. Twisting her head from side to side, like a crazed person who had just seen an alien, or in her case a celebrity.

“I take it you can take me to my room?” Jacques said amused.

Miss Lamington jumped out of her trance and grabbed Jacques belongings. He tried to stop her. The last thing he wanted was to allow a woman to carry his suitcases.

“It’s quite alright; really my driver will help me, if you would just be so kind as to show me where my room is.”  He yanked his bag out of her hand and forced a smile.  On the third floor the girls, young, rich, middle class and poor all gathered together trying to get a peak of the handsome magician.

“Look at his skin, it’s like porcelain!” Dora a rich snobby fourth grader said.

“Don’t even think about it Dora, he’s mine, all mine!” Amanda said pushing Dora out of the way.

“I was here first you know!” Dora said irritated.

Fleur couldn’t help but want to join them.

“He really is handsome.” She said dreamily.

“Hands off, servants don’t get choices” Amanda said sneering at Fleur.

 Louisa looked at the girls and sighed, she knew that looking and admiring was one thing, but that the reality was that most of the girls at Miss Madison would never get the opportunity to fall in love.  She just didn’t know how she would explain this to Fleur. She couldn’t take her last bit of fantasizing away from her.

Miss Madison couldn’t wait to meet the magician as soon as he entered the doorway, she ran down the stairs in one of her hideous ensembles. It was a canary yellow with black lace and feathers. Fleur loved to call it
deathers
behind her back, simply because she would rather be dead than get caught wearing anything Miss Madison owned.

“Welcome! Welcome!” she said flaunting herself from the staircase. Jacques tried to contain himself, but laughter was welling up inside of him.

“Thank you, my lady.” He said gentlemanly and kissed her hand. If one didn’t know better, one could swear that Miss Madison was close to fainting. She was entranced by Jacques St Cloud and caught herself staring at him for two whole minutes. He found the situation overly amusing.

“My room please.” he said coughing discreetly to contain his laughter.

“Ooooh yes!Oooh where is my head.” She made a hideous face at Miss Lamington and pushed her to the side.

Jacques, Miss Madison, the driver and Miss Lamington all walked up the stairs. The girls followed and peeped around the corner of the entrance, hoping to get a glimpse of the magician and the magician hoping that by some miracle he could get away from the crazy spectacle.

Miss Madison led Jacques to the best room in the house on the farthest side. She stopped in front of a huge door and shooed Miss Lamington away, who then proceeded to breathe a heavy sigh and then disappeared. The driver acted a bit like a bodyguard and Jacques kept trying to gesture to him to stay put.

An awkward silence followed them after he opened the door to the bedroom. He gasped in shock and started coughing uncontrollably, trying to hide his surprise.

“Oh dear, do you need a doctor?”

“No, I’m quite alright thank you. I just need rest.”

The room was hideous, the worst he had ever seen in his life! Everything was a bright orange and even the bed was painted a weird orange color. It looked like something you would find in an amusement park. This Madison woman clearly had no style or taste.

Jacques bowed abruptly and while Miss Madison was still talking, kissed her hand and gestured for the driver to bring his belongings into the room, while pushing Miss Madison out the door and then abruptly closed the door. Leaning against the door he breathed a sigh of relief. “What a crazy place and what a hideous woman!”

***

That night both Louisa and Fleur admired themselves in the ball room mirror, a place they had never been allowed to go near. Fleur touched her skin and admiring her dress she twirled round and round. Her dress a light pink satin with a small petticoat was a size too small for her, but she loved it. Louisa was wearing a beautiful flounced ball gown, it was second hand, but she had never owned anything as beautiful in all her eighteen years. The dress was an upgrade from her normal cottoned day dress. They looked like two different girls in a far different world than that what they were use to.

When the time came for all to see the performance of the great magician Jacques St Cloud, the girls sat close to each other and watched the magician as he stepped out on stage.

 “Welcome young ladies to my magic show,” he said pulling out a rose from under his sleeve. He walked up and down surveying the girls, everyone of them sitting in anticipation hoping to be the lucky recipient of the rose. His eyes fell on Louisa and he bowed in front of her and gave her the rose. “For a sweet young bud,” he said lingering in front of her for a little longer than usual. He then went on to do a wonderful straw trick and also pulled out a sock from underneath Dora’s foot and then he promptly made a coin disappear.

Louisa thought back to more settling times when her father and mother had taken her to her first circus show. This was before Fleur was born. The man there was an infamous magician by the name of Matthew Buchinger who was born without arms or legs and who was only twenty nine inches tall. Despite all that, he was a master magician, a calligrapher and a musician who played the flute, trumpet, bagpipes and dulcimer.

However, as enchanting as Matthew Buchinger was, he was not nearly as enchanting as Jacques St Cloud. Louisa was mesmerized by Jacques the magician and couldn’t keep her eyes of him. He was a very handsome man and all of twenty four years of age. In her eighteen years she had never seen a young man besides the gardener, Jack, but he wasn’t particularly handsome. The magician had a slender body and striking brown eyes, a good looking man who always dressed in suits. Louisa again, was a beautiful girl with long raven black hair and blue eyes. Her body was thin from years of malnutrition, but not even the difficult years could hide the blossoming curves of a young woman. All throughout the show, the magician kept gazing over at Louisa. There was something about her that he couldn’t place.

Louisa admired the rose that Jacques had given her, touching the soft tender petal and then slowly moving down the stem.  By accident she pricked her finger and a drop of blood fell on the floor. She sucked her finger vigorously trying not to make a scene but the blood kept pumping.

 Jacques stopped in the middle of the show, his throat throbbing as he could hear Louisa’s heart beating in his mind. His taste for blood became increasingly urgent. He wanted to consume flesh!
He knew instinctively that he had to get out of there
.

Jacques bowed to the crowd of girls and left abruptly, leaving the girls behind in total and utter awe. He had learned how to control himself when it came to humans and their blood, but for some reason every inch of that girl led him to feel like a hunter close to the most succulent piece of prey that he had ever encountered. She must be some sort of a witch he thought.
 

***

That night as the magician looked out at the full moon in the darkness in the hideous room he was staying in, he couldn’t get the girl in the ball room out of his head. He could not control himself even here in the darkness. He felt a heat of want come over him. He ripped off his shirt and stood naked and strong, his muscles bulging. The heat in Cornwell had been unusual, but nothing was normal to him anymore. He stretched his arms out bathing in the moonlight his body shimmering, the soothing breath caressing his body. He was tired of hiding, but he knew that this would last for eternity and that there simply wasn’t an answer to immortality besides acceptance.

 A small creak at his door alarmed him and he grabbed his shirt trying to hide his body. He couldn’t allow anyone to see him in his most venerable state. He stared at the girl, the one whose blood seduced him earlier that night. She was standing, still in her ball gown staring at him with innocent, but surprised eyes.

“I apologise, I didn’t mean to intrude…”

“Intrude?”

“Yes, I saw the door was open.”

“It wasn’t, but by all means come inside. He turned away from the light and grabbed his robe. “You must promise to never tell anyone what you saw tonight.”

Louisa nodded not quite sure what he was referring to, his naked shirtless body, or a magical trick.

“Please close the door.”

“I brought you some warm chocolate,” she said timidly.

“I don’t drink warm chocolate, but do come in and sit. Please have the warm chocolate, if you like. Please I insist, otherwise it will just go to waste.” He smiled warmly and gestured for her to sit down.

Louisa felt awkward and out of place, she had never known anyone besides her parents who had made her feel welcome. As she sat and drank the warm chocolate it tasted exotic, thick and creamy and comforting. She tried to contain herself, but the taste was so comforting that she nearly purred.  Jacques looked at Louisa and admired her childish innocence and enjoyment.  How he longed to be like her. He longed to be human again, to taste the pleasures of the world.

“So you have been living here for a while then?” Louisa could feel her legs shake. How she wished she wasn’t one of those idiotic young girls who giggled and did silly things whenever a guy was around. “Uhm, yes I have been here for a while.”  

“Well do you like it at least? That Madison woman doesn’t strike me as likeable. Besides she has hideous taste, in –everything!”

Louisa chuckled.

“No, I don’t like it her, not at all.” She said in a more serious tone.

“Why stay then?”

“Not everyone has a choice; we can’t all do magic tricks and make bad things disappear.”

Louisa stood up and gathered the cup and tray, “I need to leave, I don’t mean to be rude, but Miss Madison will be looking for me.”

“Will I see you again?” Jacques said surprising himself.

She looked at Jacques and smiled sadly and then she left without saying a word. She knew that they could only ever friends in her dreams. It was the greatest impossibility of all, she was a prisoner of fate. She climbed the stairs to her room and climbed into bed with a song in her heart – a melancholy one. Next to her Fleur was sleeping like an angel. How she wished that her life had been different.

Jacques stared out of the window. Everything about the girl he had met tonight was so different.  Maybe she was a witch who had put a spell on him. He knew that no matter what she was, he could never allow himself to be with her, but he wished that somehow things would be different. You see the thing with Jacques St Cloud was he wasn’t just an ordinary magician who pulled bunnies out of hats and caught bullets with his two front teeth. He couldn’t change the future and much less the past. Like Louisa he was bound to protocol and fate. It was all inevitable because he was immortal and a vampire. He would live forever, but he would never be able to tap into the sweetness of the world without consequence.

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”

        The great escape

T
he next day at Miss Madison’s Academy for girls, a tea party with a game of cricket was arranged. Miss Madison was dressed in a hideous orange ensemble with feathers and a pink walking stick. She looked like a scare crow. The wicked old hag tried her best to impress the magician. The only problem was that the magician hated sun and never went outside.

 “Oh please dear Jacques, I insist that you play a game of cricket with us,” she begged pouting her overly rouged lips.  

“I’m not fond of Cricket. Besides my doctor would not be happy if I entered the sun today. I insist that you play if not for your sake but for mine. I will be there in the minds eye observing you Madam, also if you would be so kind as to send me someone to help me?”

“A servant?”

“No, there is a girl I observed yesterday by the name of Louisa. Would you, could you please be as kind as to send her to me?”

Miss Madison pulled her face.

“Are you not quite well sir, to want someone like THAT serving you of all things? I could help you?”

“Help me? No, it’s really not necessary, you must go and play cricket and I would like to see you win. Besides, I couldn’t dream of cutting you in half for my final performance.”

“As you wish.” She said with a tinge of annoyance.

She sent for Louisa and then promptly went to play cricket, making a farce of herself, even though the magician was nowhere near to see her play.

Louisa walked into the sitting room and looked at Jacques. She eyed him curiously; he was dressed in a white shirt and black pants and looked hauntingly beautiful.  He gently touched Louisa’s arm and pulled her down next to him. “Sit here for a little while.” Jacques could hear her heart beating and his hands slightly shivered as his arm brushed against hers.

Louisa pulled her breath in sharply.

“I heard that you needed my help?”

“Yes, something like that.”

She swallowed uncomfortably; she could smell the freshness of cotton all over him. Every time he touched her accidentally, every time he was near her was intoxicating. She could not take her eyes off him. She felt like she couldn’t breathe, like something was keeping her from eating and even from sleeping. It wasn’t a bad feeling but it was hard to explain. She had never felt anything like it and with everything inside of her she was fighting, but in the end she really didn’t know if fighting this feeling would help at all.

‘I am not good at magic tricks, maybe you should ask …”

“Shhhhh….don’t speak.”

Jacques lifted his hand and gently pushed a tendril of curls from her forehead. He sat there staring at her for a moment. He breathed deeply, feeling his lust for blood return. He stood up abruptly, he couldn’t bear to be near her, yet he wanted nothing more than to be with her. Louisa just like Jacques longed to be in his arms. Her mind was playing tricks she thought, as he moved very close to her and she instinctively jumped up away from Jacques. “This is too dangerous,” she thought out aloud walking to a nearby window.

“What do you mean by dangerous?”

“Miss Madison is an extremely jealous woman and if she sees us talking, she will kill all of us! My sister Fleur included, she is a dreadful, evil woman! I can’t explain this to you, but I cannot be your friend.”

“Please, Louisa don’t worry. I love your company and we shall make a plan. To continue this friendship at least, perhaps you could accompany me to the ball room?  It might help if I could teach you.” Jacques said as he drew her closer again, now kissing her softly and soothingly on her forehead. Louisa felt a warm feeling embrace her entire body. The warmth of his presence drew him closer to her. Jacques could not contain himself and any indication that he had to simply life by the rules was now thrown out of the door.

“Meet me tonight in my room. I will request that you send me some chamomile tea.” Louisa nodded and left the room starry eyed, to finish her chores for the day. No matter what she did she could not get Jacques out of her head. The closest thing she ever had to a friend was Fleur, but that was sometimes not enough. Loneliness crept in and she desperately needed someone who she could talk to about her fears and ambitions, the little bit of ambition that she had left. Her thoughts were interrupted by Miss Madison’s house keeper who wanted a word with her.

***

When night time finally dawned Louisa brought the cup of tea to Jacques room as she was instructed to do. They talked for hours and it was like she was forgetting where and who she was.  What Louisa had experienced that night and every other night with Jacques was unlike anything she had ever experienced in her life. Jacques had told her all about his travels to Antartica and his dreams to open up an opera house.

 She never dreamed, because it was never on the agenda, just survival. They laughed for hours talking about the most random of things. Like two old friends reconnecting after years of lost contact.

As the weeks past Louisa and Jacques’ relationship grew. They would take secretive evening strolls and spend more and more time together. But it would soon be time for Jacques to leave and to continue his travels.

One evening Louisa and Jacques walked through the garden of Miss Madison’s Academy, laughing softly and joking about the day’s events, oblivious about their surroundings. Jacques could feel Louisa’s emotions so clearly and he drew her closer to him. He tried everything in his being to stop himself from feeling the way that he did, but it was too late. He was completely smitten and pulled her back softly against a willow tree and kissed her. Louisa giving in completely with shaking legs was only aware of him and the warmth of their embrace. Unaware of the danger that lurked behind them, they were totally engaged in each other.

Miss Agatha Madison had not always been a hideous woman. She had once been the talk of the town and a wonderfully beautiful dame who could have any man whom she pleased, until a tragic accident left her scared for life. Her goal in life was hatred and to ruin love wherever she could find it. That night in the garden she witnessed young, sweet, innocent love that was something she once had and could never have again. She had hoped that she could regain something of what she had lost with Jacques St Cloud, but here he was kissing a girl that she thought of as no more than a simpleton, a maid of sorts. She was furious and she wasn’t going to let one person destroy her again.

That night when Jacques and Louisa returned to the house Miss Madison was waiting for both of them. She had packed all of their bags and had thrown them off the balcony on the south court.

“I want you both gone! You are nothing but a disgrace of a young lady!” she screamed at Louisa, spit flew left and right as she spoke. “And you some magician, you are more like a pedophile and the whole town will hear about this!”

“But … you … don’t understand this is not what it looks like! We are just friends Madam! I promise I will never do such a thing to you” Louisa said pleadingly.

“Take your bags and go, before I send for the police!”

“What about my sister? Fleur! Come here Fleur! Help! Please, Fleur!”

“Shut your trap! Fleur is staying here. I have full custody until she is eighteen and there is no court in this country that will grant you custody of your dearest little sister. Get your dirty self of my property or I will have you removed!”

Fleur stood out of the window screaming for her sister. Miss Longbottom tried to contain her, but nothing could ever contain the pain of being on the verge of losing a sister. She wanted to go with her and fought with all her might trying to escape, until she was silenced with a knock against the head by Miss Lamington.

There was something that Fleur was yet to learn and that was that it doesn’t matter where we are going, or what the future brings and what people might do to us, the past always comes back one way or another.

Fleur

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

Lewis Carol