Chapter Four:377Please respect copyright.PENANAR0gIaAeYGs
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The reading of the wills took place only a few days after. This time, John wasn’t alone; he had Marie with him, someone he could actually rely on to back him up when the time came. Marie couldn’t stand their relatives as much as John, mainly because they all pretended that she didn’t exist. She was just the extra child, the piece of the puzzle that looked like it should fit, but for some reason didn’t. John and Marie; the heir and the spare.
The rest of the family hadn’t moved an inch since entering the room. No one dared to make eye contact. John and Marie sat a little ways apart from them, as if to say “we aren’t related to these people”.
John glanced over at them before leaning closer to Marie. “Marie?” he whispered.
“Yeah?” she turned towards him slightly.
“Once everything is said and done, I have a pretty good feeling that things are gonna get crazy.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’ve all got their eyes on Dad’s money. They’re all gonna protest and scream at each other over who should have what. If it gets like that, and you wanna leave, just let me know.”
She nodded. “Ok.”
As soon as the will-reader walked into the room, all eyes were on him. No one dared to make a sound. He gripped the wills in his hands as he stood at the front of the room. He perched a pair of reading glasses on the end of his nose as he looked over the first will.
He must’ve known the kind of people he was dealing with because he skipped the intro completely.
“From the will of Mark Damarion Lowry: To my children, John and Marie, I give them the mansion and everything inside it.”
The siblings shrank in their seats a little. Guess Dad didn’t count on the house burning down, John thought.
“I also give John the rights to the company and everything associated with it.”
That was something John didn’t really want, but his dad never budged on the issue, so he knew it was inevitable.
“And finally, I give them both 95% of all of the money that has been left behind.”
Everyone’s jaws dropped. Brandon choked on the whiskey he was sipping; Cynthia put a death grip on her necklace. John and Marie stared at the man for minute, unable to believe what they had just heard. They knew the number would be high, but not that high. Marie turned to her brother in disbelief.
“John… That’s…”
“$95 million…” he finished, unable to believe it himself.
“I leave the rest of the 5% to be divvied up among my remaining family; my dear sister, Cynthia Obrien, her husband, Dean Obrien, my mother, Lora, and my father, Philip. I leave them to decide exactly how it should be done.”
The room went back to the tense, hostile environment it was before. The second will wasn’t even read, because almost immediately, the fighting began. All of the names mentioned argued their rights to the money. Tommie, Melody and Brandon all made their move to leave, so John and Marie followed them.
As they walked down the hallway, the will-reader closed the door behind him as he too left.
“Wait!” he called to them. John and Marie turned and waited for him to catch up to them.
“Your parents wanted you two to have a few things.”
The siblings looked at each other, wondering what could possibly be left for their parents to give. After all, everything they had owned (other than the money) had been burned to the ground.
The man led them farther down the hallway to a secured room. Vaults lined the room on three sides, each one containing the most precious items to many different families. They stopped at one vault in particular, the name “Lowry” engraved on it in gold. The man fished a key ring out of his pocket before he precariously began searching for the one he needed. He gripped one of them in his hand as he twisted it into the lock. A small click sound was heard soon after. He pulled the key out before he slowly opened the door. His hand reached inside and came out with a small black box. He reached it out towards Marie, patiently waiting for her to accept it. She looked at the strange box for a moment before finally cradling it in her own hands. She nervously looked up at him; he nodded in response. She cautiously unlatched the lid, gazing at its contents. She stared into the necklace’s shimmering sapphire with her mouth gaped open.
“But… But this is…”
John stared at it too, just as shocked as she was. “This is Mom’s favorite necklace…”
The man nodded. “Yes. She left it to you in her will. Her only condition was that you take especially good care of it.”
Marie continued to stare at it, dumbfounded. “B-But she never took this off… She loved this necklace…”
The man turned back to the vault and came up with another black box, this one a little smaller than the one before. He offered it to John, who wondered what would be waiting inside. He took from the man, feeling it in his hands for a moment. He flipped the top up, staring into the pure gold of a ring with a cursive “L” engraved on it. He took it out of the case as clarification that it was real.
“What is it?” Marie asked the puzzled John.
“It’s Dad’s ring…”
“His wedding ring?”
“No, his ring that Mom had made for him for their 20th anniversary.”
“But… I thought he never took it off…”
“Yeah…. So did I…”
“That was also left in your father’s will,” the man explained, “There was also a message for you, John: ‘Your sister is above all else; nothing matters more than her. Always keep her safe.”
And with that, the man left, leaving the befuddled Lowrys by themselves. The mystery behind the whole situation was seeping into both of them as they stood there, holding their parents’ heirlooms. But they soon started to feel the truth behind the matter grip them as well. They both looked at each other, seeing it in each other’s eyes. They both knew what was going on.
Their parents had known that they were going to die.
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The days that followed were hollow with sadness. The ghosts of the past week seemed to haunt the Lowry siblings inside of that house. Marie found herself restless every night, not once being able to just lay her head on her pillow for sleep. John couldn’t escape the thoughts that arose since the will-reading. The mysterious intentions of his parents had yet to be solved, but Marie seemed unwilling to talk about it. She couldn’t accept the fact that their parents had been unable to escape their grim fate, even when they knew about it. Neither one of them left the house unless it was absolutely necessary. It kept them encased inside of it, all the while sucking the life out of them like a leech. Two pieces of each of their hearts had already been torn from them, unable to ever return. John wondered how anyone ever got past death. Did they ever really get past it, or did they just accept it as being a part of them and learn to deal with it, ignore it? He couldn’t ignore his desire to go numb… His desire to forget everything and just erase the feelings he had… And he knew the one way to do that…
He got up from his laying position in his bed, unable to shut his eyes after an hour. The darkness of night blanketed itself around every corner of the house. John walked into the pitch black hallway and down the stairs, catching the attention of his sister. She was quick to jump from her bed, for even the comforters couldn’t coax her mind into sleep.
“John?” she asked. He ignored her, continuing his path to the front door.
“John? Where are you going?” she asked more urgently.
He continued to ignore her as he unlocked the door.
“You can’t just leave me here!”
He stopped before his hand could turn the knob.
“I can’t deal with this alone. I need you here. I need you to stop me from doing something stupid.”
John went back to turning the knob. How could he stop her from doing something she would regret when he was about to do something that he would regret? Without another word, he opened the door and ventured out into the darkness, embracing the nothingness it held.
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Marie stood by herself in the hallway, unable to believe what just happened. He had abandoned her… He was losing himself in his own demons, unwilling to help her escape hers. She knew she wasn’t strong enough to do it alone. When he was around, at least she could ward them off; but by herself… They could easily swallow her whole. She tried to lose herself in happier days, to remember the reason why she was living… But even that couldn’t fight them off. She suddenly began to wonder what her brother was looking for out there. Was there comfort out there? Was there something that could stop the pain? If there was, she wanted to find it.
She followed his lead out the door. She could see why he wanted to be out there. There was something about the darkness; the way it masked your footsteps, kept you unrecognized. She liked the way it felt, so she too wandered in its hold, wondering what they would find.377Please respect copyright.PENANA00aeWPX2zi