Leaving the hotel, they walked back toward the center of town. Dolores had been busy talking on the phone as they’d made their way through the lobby and had waved goodbye holding a half-eaten macaron.
Lester recognized some of the shops he’d seen earlier. The evening’s journey had taken them in a big circle. As the old cemetery came into view, he felt Mathis stiffen.
“Excuse me!” his brother called to a group of teenage girls sitting on a stone marker. “Can I ask if any of you happen to be left-handed?”
The girls looked at each other and giggled.
“I am,” said one.
“And your friend,” Mathis smiled, pointing to a girl with red hair. “How old you are?”
“Sixteen,” she replied, a bit shyer than her companions.
“What a coincidence,” said Mathis. “The monument you’re sitting on is dedicated to a young woman who was barely sixteen herself when they hung her by the neck for the crime of witchcraft. And how did they know she was a witch, you ask? Perhaps they believed it was because of her left-handedness, her devil’s red hair, or maybe simply because she was female.” Mathis’s smile faded. “So, how about you all get up and show her a bit of respect?”
The girls looked at one another and slowly stood. As they sheepishly walked away, Mathis shouted after them.
“Don’t forget to have a magical visit!”
Sitting back on the bench where they’d eaten dinner, Lester was struck by how like their father his brother had seemed as he’d scolded the teenagers. Having been on the receiving end of several such lectures, he couldn’t help but feel empathetic.
“Weren’t you a little hard on them?” asked Lester.
“They’ll live,” Mathis scoffed. “I was younger than they are when I left home. A quick lesson in respect from a stranger probably won’t even ruin their day.”
Lester and Mathis had never spoken about the events leading up to his brother’s sudden departure. He’d been gone so quickly there hadn’t really been time. Now here they were, sitting side by side in the dark overlooking a sixteenth-century cemetery after a day of digging into their family’s secret past. And for the first time since he’d arrived, Lester felt uneasy.
“Mathis,” he said. “I’m sorry mom and dad sent you away.”
Mathis turned to him with a genuine look of surprise. “Is that what you think?” he asked. “That they kicked me out?”
“Well — yeah.”
“Lester, mom and dad didn’t send me away. I asked to go.”
Of all the revelations Mathis had shared with him that day, Lester found this the most shocking. His parents had forced his older brother into boarding school because he was too rebellious and refused to blindly follow The Rules. Lester had resented them and admired Mathis for sticking to his guns, even if it meant leaving everything he knew. At times, Lester had felt shame for not being courageous enough to do the same. But was his brother now saying that wasn’t true?
“I-I don’t understand,” said Lester. “Why would you do that?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Mathis ran a rough hand through his shaggy hair.
“It was the year I was due to be Drawn-In,” he said, looking out across the gravestones. “When you’re little, all that Council stuff seems normal, you know? It’s what you do. It’s what everyone around you does. But as I got older and started to see how other people lived, it felt more and more like something in our family was off. Even the rumors of our connection to organized crime seemed like a badly choreographed stage play. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was as if everything around me had a low buzz underneath. Like when the sound of your alarm clock slips into your dream. No one else seems to notice but you. As it drones on, you know it’s trying to tell you something, only you can’t remember what. The closer I got to joining The Council, the louder the buzzing became. Eventually, it was all I could hear, and — I kind of lost it. In the end, it got so bad I wasn’t sure what was real anymore. That’s when I asked to go away.”
Mathis faced Lester, and his rugged features softened. For a brief moment, the hardened young man disappeared, leaving only the wide-eyed boy from the photograph hanging in the North’s kitchen. “Crowley’s not just any boarding school,” he said.
It finally dawned on Lester what his brother was trying to say. He thought about the hillside campus, the sparse dorms, the rigid schedule, and the physically demanding tasks.
“I always thought it was because you and Dad didn’t get along,” said Lester.
“That certainly didn’t help,” Mathis chuckled. “Anyway, a few months after I arrived in Salem, they sent us on a witch tour as kind of a treat. When the guide got to the part about Giles Corey, I nearly fainted. So, I started spending what little free time I had poking around, learning this place’s history, and sifting through old records. Then I found The Marine Society. For the first time in over a year, I felt my head begin to clear. Since then, every piece of the puzzle I’ve worked to uncover has been like regaining another bit of myself.”
Lester didn’t know what to say. He certainly didn’t blame his brother for feeling lost. If he hadn’t had Amanda and Mae as friends, the same thing might have happened to him. He was about to say this to Mathis when a man dressed in a long black coat and matching top hat appeared from the darkness to their left. His eyes were ringed in black, and blood dripped from the corners of his mouth.
“Hurry now!” he bellowed, dragging a foot along the sidewalk in an exaggerated limp. “If we’re late to the next stop on our tour, the situation will be — GRAVE!”
The crowd of tourists following in his wake gave a forced laugh, and several snapped photos of the cemetery as they shuffled past.
“That’s everything I can tell you, Lester,” Mathis said once they were gone. “Now you know as much as I do. Remember our deal. What you do from here has to be up to you. I’m not saying that means you have to go back, but it won’t take mom and dad long to figure out where you went. I could maybe buy you a little time, put them off for a day or two.”
“I appreciate the offer,” Lester said, “but I’ve already made up my mind.”
“You have?”
“Yeah. I’m going home.”
Lester hadn’t been completely sure until he’d said it out loud, but it felt right. Whatever was going on between the two sides, and whatever part his parents might be playing, he wouldn’t abandon his friends to face it on their own. If he left now, he was leaving Amanda to her fate with The Council, and who knew what might happen to Mae if anyone learned of her involvement. To protect them, he’d fight both sides if he had to.
“Even when we were little,” Mathis said, “I was never as brave as you, Lester. It’s been really great to see you.”
Lester didn’t trust himself to respond. He gave a tight-lipped smile instead, and his brother understood.
The bright light from the nearly full moon lit the long sandy path up the hill as the two boys made their way back to The Crowley School.
“I respect your decision,” Mathis said as they stood alone on the cliff above the crashing waves. “Unfortunately, from what you’ve told me, it sounds like The Light may have finally discovered where The Dark has been hiding all these years. That could mean it’s getting ready to start up again. I’d hate to see you and your friends get caught in the middle.”
“But neither Amanda nor I have gone through the Drawing-In ceremony,” said Lester. “And Mae has nothing to do with any of it. They’ve got no reason to involve us.”
“If war finds Giles Hollow, none of that will matter,” said Mathis. “Don’t forget, you’re the last of the North line, Lester. Mom and dad didn’t have any daughters. Whatever’s hunting our parents will also be coming for you.”