Chapter Forty-Five: The Bottle

Inside the nursing home, Ash found it to be decorated with care. Nothing was too expensive, or the latest design. Rather, it was homey, comforting, and colorful. White flowers in dark blue vases were on tables in corners, lighting up the plain brown walls and floors.

Rugs, some with rustic designs, had been laid out, and art on the walls depicted scenes from the nursing home, volunteers, and residents.

Each room was small, and the space was used as efficiently as possible. Not every room had a resident.

Ash couldn't help asking a question,

“In some of the books I've read, adventurers live for hundreds of years. I've even read of some that are immortal. Is any of it true?”

Elise stopped by one room, giving the man a one-second look before going inside. A balding elderly man with silver-blue eyes lay in bed. He stared at nothing.

Elise talked to him for a while, her presence instantly warming the room as she placed a hand over his head and kissed his cheek before leaving.

Lilith was watching her, finger on her lips, green eyes considering.

“The aging process doesn't start to slow until high silver, and even then, it doesn't truly start to take effect until gold rank. Many never make it past high bronze, let alone to high silver. Come on, Alder is just down this way.”

He followed her down the hall to another room. She knocked gently, and a scorched voice said,

“Come in.”

Ash, Elise, and Lilith entered. Inside was a room much like the others. Except an axe was hung up on the wall.

The man in this one wasn't as frail as others. He had strong, corded muscles through his arms, and his shoulders were broad. His huge black beard hung over his chest.

But his brown eyes were dead. Dead in the way of a man who had everything that mattered stripped from him.

He looked over at them as they entered, and grunted.

“Thought it t'was you, Elise. Told you. Leave me be.”

She smiled gently at him.

“I know, Alder. But this young man needed to see you. He has some questions about the mansion.”

“Don't want to answer no questions. Go. Leave me be.”

Ash stepped forward.

“Hello, Mr. Alder. I'm Ash Lorcan. That mansion is cursed. I'm trying to lift it, but I need your help.”

Alder’s hand curled into a fist.

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“Don't want to help you, boy. Leave. Now.”

The air became thick with tension, and Ash knew that Alder was a hair's breadth away from violence. Ash paused, thinking about what he could say. It was Lilith who gave him the answer. She flashed the little girl and Alder in his mind.

Ash figured the worst that would happen was that Alder would attack him, and he was sure Elise would handle that if it came down to it.

“You know her, or rather, you knew her, didn’t you? Are you the father?”

Alder looked away, his shoulder relaxing, hand opening as the tension bled away like an open wound.

“Aye, boy. I know her. She was my daughter. What do you want from me? Come to spit your hatred on me? You can’t hate me more than I hate myself.”

Ash frowned, shaking his head,

“No, none of that, sir. I just need to know who abandoned her, and where that person is buried.”

Alder acted as if he had not heard Ash. Maybe he was unburdening himself. Perhaps the old man was tired of keeping hold of the weight. Whatever the reason, the story began to spill out of him as he stared at the axe on the wall.

“I wasn’t a good father. Cared more about adventurin’, tryin’ to advance. If I could just get to silver…But no matter what adaptation technique I used, no matter how many monsters I killed, it wasn’t happenin’. ‘Course all of that adventurin’ had a price, didn’ it? I wasn’t home. Couldn’ be there for my wife. All alone, she cared for sweet Holly.”

“When I did finally come home, I was tired, and all the wife wanted to do was argue. She’d throw things at me, try'n to get me to rage, to hit her. Couldn’ do that, though, could I? S’wrong and I loved her, even then. But I felt hated by my family. Made me weak. I turned to the drink. S’here I was, bein’ a drunkin’ layabout, useless. Holly, she suffered, hear’n all that yellin’. She’d hide in her room, usually. But, oh, how she loved her mom. I couldn’t get the time of day from her, but mom? When she was’n yellin’ Holly wouldn’ part from her.”

“S’okay by me, though, all I wanted was for her to be happy. Her mom, she had enough, wanted to leave me. So…so…” Alder croaked, tears trailing down his eyes.

He closed them, his body shaking uncontrollably.

Ash didn’t know what to do. He, Elise, and Lilith just watched. Finally, he went on.

“I tried to stop her. She slapped me. I grabbed her, but she pulled away, so I…let go. She fell.”

Alder swallowed, the memory fully encapsulating him now.

“There was a sharp rock in the road out front. She…oh Light…she hit her head.”

He opened his eyes, staring directly at Ash.

“I buried her by the large tree out back behind the mansion. Holly…she was never the same. I told her that her Mom had left. That she might come back one day. But me? I handled it worst of all. I should have stood up, been the father she needed. Instead? I went back to the bottle. I wasn’ payin’ attention one day, because I was black-out drunk then, and Holly was playin’ by the stairs, like I told her not to…she slipped. I didn’ even notice till the next day. I buried her by her mom. Couldn’ bring myself to end my own life. I just wasted away until I ended up here.”

Alder went silent after that.

He refused to say anything more.

The group left.

_____________

“Did you know the story?” Ash asked Elise.

“No, but I knew he was connected to the mansion. Alder has bad dreams, you can hear him screaming about it at night sometimes. That’s how I knew he owned the mansion.”

Ash rubbed the back of his neck,

“What do you think?” He asked her.

Elise pursed her lips, thumb pressing against her staff. She sighed,

“I think that I’m not in any place to judge. I think we weren’t there, and that these kinds of stories litter Dominion like leaves in the fall. I think my own people have done a whole lot of bad, and I have no moral horse to take. I think I have made my own mistakes that aren’t so different from Alder’s. And finally, I think it’s a tragic situation. I wish to the Light had never happened.”

“Yeah, I suppose you may be right. Judgement isn’t going to help anyone here. Thanks for helping me, Elise.”

Ash wondered what mistake she made that was so similar, but didn’t press the issue.

She smiled, closing her eyes as she looked his way.

“Remember me if you ever get the mansion in shape and I need to rent a room, yeah?”

Ash gave her a thumbs up,

“You bet!”

He glanced at Lilith,

“You ready? We have a little girl's spirit to lay to rest.”

Lilith’s eyes glittered.