Golden Crown Series 02: The Twin Dragons (2 page)

“You are both demons!” she ran out as dramatically as she could as Ryan remained and looked me over as my thin silhouette was visible through my white dress. He stepped up and then stopped as I looked back at him.

“I thought we were dragons,
” I said, and he looked down and then back up to me.

“I remember how obsessed August was with that.”

I turned back to the window and looked out again.

“He wants a party for their birthday.”

Ryan paused and then stepped closer to me. I turned again and he stopped.

“I said yes.”

“Okay,” he said, and then I looked at the door.

“That is all I had to talk to you about
, Ryan.”

He paused and looked at my lips.

“Beth,” he said, and I shook my head.

“Just leave,
” I said quietly and so he did.

Chapter Two

Flying Monkeys

Patt
erson is the best school in New York City for the rich. It is full of tradition and money…money being the grease that turns the wheel so to speak. I had attended there, so had Ryan…so had every privileged youth. I mean, Ryan had tricked his way in, but in many ways he so belonged there. Ryan may have been born to the wrong parents. I would assume it happens from time to time. He was made to enjoy and be a slave to money and to all the pain it comes with. You see money is not necessarily a good thing. When you grow up never needing, wanting, or having to struggle for anything, it teaches you nothing. You end up never being able to appreciate the things you do have and fucking up everything that may have worth. I guess it is a double edged sword. Am I complaining? Perhaps a little, but then again just as I was sanctioned and so many others…my sons, August and Cas, both attend Patterson and I would have it no other way. The school also provides protection as the richest of the rich attend, and who knows what devilish plan could be hatched elsewhere to abduct a child from such families with money. Patterson had suffered one abduction, which did not end well.

In 1972
Patterson was teaming with rich children. The school had been in service for 100 years with not one account of anything going wrong. Then on a fall day in October of that year, Molly Renew left as she did every single day with her driver, Gerard, and never made it to her classes. No one said a word all day. People assumed she had called in sick and quite honestly the schools population was not known for caring about who showed up and who did not daily. I remember noticing her empty desk, but it never settled in me as anything more than a girl who I never spoke to really, just missing a day of school. I mean the rumors would fly as they always did if it persisted, but a missing student here and there did not cause any uproar until classes let out that day and much to Mr. and Mrs. Renews surprise their daughter did not return home as scheduled.

The police were called, of course,
and a search was on.  The wooded areas teamed with FBI agents and police officers. Mrs. Renew went about her business, but Mr. Renew spent his days drudging through the woods, mud, and everything in between. Swearing he could hear his child’s voice calling out to him for help. I cannot imagine. I would assume no one could, unless they were faced with it. After a month of looking, the only thing their money had bought was one of her black shoes found lying in a clearing five miles from their home.              

A month turned into two
as everyone but Mr. Renew started to accept the inevitable, Molly’s ghost became folklore. It started mid- December 1972 as school became more of a nuisance than a place of learning. We were all ready for Christmas, presents…a break from the nuisance of having to go to school. It was then that the rumors started that Molly had been “seen”. First it was on the road at night, then it was a blurred flash of her running in the woods, then it progressed to her face appearing in windows and so on. We all know children have the most active imaginations so you can only imagine how many stories rose and fell that December.

As Christmas break brought the last day of school for the year
, the bell rang. Children from grades 1st through 12
th
(when Patterson still had all grades there) were so excited to leave. Why schools insist on having short days is beyond me, it seems such a wasted effort because there comes a time when kids no longer hear a thing as the sparkling lights and holiday magic consumes them. Patterson was no different at that time, now, they simply get out earlier so that the families can go on their extended vacations and no one has to hear the incessant whining of mothers who just cannot believe a school they pay so much for would try to
destroy
their Holiday with their children. It is all bullshit, but some people just cannot be happy regardless the situation. If you think this trait can be annoying in people with normal money, just imagine the ones who have the world bend to their liking. Well, let’s just say it is a fucking nightmare.

We all ran out of our
rooms, hugging and saying goodbye for the season and then as we all started to make our way into the large courtyard the first of the children stopped, causing others who were rushing behind us to bump into us and an unhappy mumbling arose. It was then that one girl screamed and the crowd of children parted as none other than Molly Renew stood there in dirty clothing, messy hair and a dark red sticky mass all over her. The color of red was surely enhanced by the fact that the snow had fallen thick that year and everything around us was stark white. She stood still, at first as if she actually could be the ghost we all spoke of, and then she started to walk, limping a bit and favoring her right leg. As she moved forward, the kids moved further back away from her and the gasps arose as she passed us by and her shirt was torn open on the back with a thousand bite marks on her flesh. Some deep, some shallow, but all made by a human no doubt. She made it a few feet before she fell forward into the snow and smeared it with blood as more screaming arose before the teachers finally reached her.

Molly spent a year shut up in her home with doctors all around her. She was tested and talked to and never did she speak a word of anything that had happened to her. In fact, Molly would not let anyone touch her but her brother, Malcolm. He spent hours with her, day after day as she slowly started to play and talk
, but if anyone else entered the room she would stop doing anything and Malcolm refused to tell anyone what she said, even at the heavy hand of his Father who could be very aggressive at times. I heard that Malcolm was beaten, but no one could say for sure. I mean, The Renews started to become ghosts themselves as Molly never returned to Patterson and her brother, a year her senior, was also pulled from school and they were taught at home.

Molly’s mother died five
years after Molly returned, and her father just one year after that. Rumors arose that Molly and Malcolm had killed them both, but nothing ever came of that. For years they attended nothing, spoke to no one, and then suddenly when we took Cas and August to Patterson to be enrolled their first year, there she was, Molly and two small children who looked pale, almost as pale as my sons. When they had been born was a mystery and even more so…who was the father? Of course the rumors once again went wild as all kinds of ugly things swirled around, but to think that Molly and Malcolm had conceived was just crazy. I have read enough to know that incest causes serious problems with offspring…they are often severely handicapped or serial killers. But anyway, the children enrolled and of course who did they start to bond with, but my own Cas and August. Did it bother me? Well, a little bit, but then again…who am I to judge knowing what is buried in my past? Perhaps darkness has a way of finding itself anywhere.

So, as the years dragged
on, the relationship the paternal twins Zane and Zoey forged with my boys became stronger and despite the stigma attached to them, they seemed to thrive at Patterson along with Cas and August. Maybe it is just fate that they all came together as I know the tragedy behind my sons and I can only imagine the one behind Zane and Zoey. Maybe we just gravitate towards our own, I cannot say…

*****

“Her ass is disgusting,” Zoey said as August watched her closely. Zoey has always been petite, her flowing red hair and large deep brown eyes made her very striking. She took after her mother, more so than Zane. I mean, similarities existed between the two of them, but Zane has dark brown hair, a chiseled jaw and seems to favor whoever the father may be. They are both beautiful creatures and their vicious sarcasm is the only thing that comes close to how pretty they both are.

The girl who Zoey was eyeing passed them by and both she and August turned to watch her as her ass did look ridiculous in her skirt. The skirt rode up to high due to the size of it. The girl was not
overweight; her ass was just not proportioned to her body correctly.

“Prostitution is in her
future, perhaps a stripper pole,” August said as Zoey held her book up to cover the smile on her face. The girl looked back as they both stared at her and she said nothing, but a small smile formed on her lips. August licked his lips and the girl turned back quickly and walked quicker to get away from the two of them. Zoey laughed and hit him with the book as he laughed too. He tilted his head as he stared at the girl’s ass and Zoey placed her hand on his chin and turned his face to look at her.

“What?” he said
, as Cas and Zane joined them and they both looked them over as Zane started to smile too.

“What is it now?” he asked
, as Cas grinned and stared at his brother.

August
’s look was sinister and so reminiscent of Ryan it was frightening. “Just watching the monkeys,” he said with little emotion.

“
Stimulating,” Zane said as he leaned against the wall and glanced at his sister.

“You have no idea,
” August added as Zoey started to walk away. He caught up to as Cas and Zane joined them and they walked in one wide line down the large hallway as students were forced to the sides and away from them. No one ran Patterson more effectively than the four of them, led by August of course. He has always been a leader, the most aggressive animal in the pack and he above all others set things in motion daily. It was a game he loved to play and I cannot say whether it is his sick fascination with being able to do it, or the fact that his genes force him to be this way. Cas was softer, not soft enough to say anything against his brother, but his demeanor could be that of someone who could care. I cannot imagine being a twin, but I would have to guess it is to be connected on a level not many get to experience in life.

A body fell past the large windows on the left and kids screamed and ran to see who and what had happened. August stopped and then walked towards the window slowly as kids moved out of his way. He then looked down and saw her, the girl they had been making fun of, her bag strap caught on a large hand of one of the roman statues on the side of the building. She was screaming and no one could really tell if she was
scared or angry that she had not accomplished the “splat” she was looking for at the bottom of the building. August caught her eye, winking at her, and she looked fearful. The memory of him fucking her in the bathroom stall and pulling her hair consumed her mind. He had leaned into her ear and called her trash that day and since then he had done nothing but make fun of her each time she saw him. His pursuit of her and then rejection was too much to bear and she feared he would tell the entire school and ruin her chances at an Ivy League college. This simply would not do, her parents would not have it, and she could not have it. She then slid the strap over her head and slipped out of it, falling towards the ground from a height just damaging enough to break both of her legs, but not high enough to kill. She laid there for a moment with her eyes closed as if she had died but then the blood curdling scream rose up as the pain overwhelmed her and August stepped back and turned to his brother, Zane and Zoey.

“Pity,” h
e said as he passed them by and Cas ran to the window and looked down as he grimaced at her crooked legs folded out to her sides.

Chapter Three

Feed the Flowers

We sat at the table a
nd said nothing for the first fifteen minutes. I listened to the clinking of glass and metal as if I sat with a bunch of strangers. I will not lie and say that I do not miss when the boys were little. I know my heart was heavier then, but for some reason the memory of it seemed sweet and endearing. The older the boys get, the more I find myself focusing on Ryan. That is never healthy and I would do almost anything to fucking stop it. I lifted my glass and took a nice big drink of my wine. The idea of having a child of my own was never far from my mind, but with who? There was no way I would have a demon with Ryan and I know that leaves little room for hope with the boys as I know what lurks deep inside of them. As I have said all along, I can only hope that the bit of love I showed them was enough to give them a beating heart. I am not void of evil myself, this I know, but time has a way of changing you as mortality creeps up. There is no amount of money that can change the number you carry, just the wrinkles you show.

I set my glass down and looked at August who was busy eating his half raw meat on his plate. A bit of blood spotted his lip and it looked normal which is disheartening. I then looked to Cas who was always a bit tidier with his food.

“How was your day? I asked, and it sounded as awkward as it felt.

August stopped
chewing and looked up at me as Cas grinned and set his utensils down.

“What?” August asked me and I cleared my throat and said it l
ouder as the table is too big just like the room. This house is not built for comfort and intimacy; it is built to make you cold and able to survive on your own.

“Your day? How was your day?” I yelled and it echoed a bit as Ryan laughed under his breath and took a bite of food. I glanced at him and he chewed as he leaned back and waved his knife in the air.

“Yes…tell us,” he added and I looked back to August who looked a bit disgusted, but Cas, who has always been more human to me, smiled and stared with enjoyment.

“A g
irl tried to kill herself today,” he said, and I swallowed and leaned forward to be sure I heard him correctly.

“Suicide?” I asked and Cas nodded as he looked to Au
gust. This is how it has always been. Cas would say something and then tag team his brother to continue on. I stared at August who sighed and set his fork and knife down as if he was being bothered to a certain degree. He wiped his lips with the white napkin and left the blood stain behind from his meat.

“It was just terrifying,” h
e said, as he looked disinterested.

“What happened?” I asked and he leaned back and glanced at Ryan who said nothing as he continued to drink and eat.

“She climbed up to the bell tower and jumped,” he said as if he was telling me the sun was shining in the sky.

“And,
” I said and he smiled and shook his head.

“Well, it was ridiculous. She got caught on a statue and then wiggled out of her bag strap and fell the rest of the way, her legs were all crooked.”

“So gross,” Cas added and I glanced at him and then back to August.

“Did you know her?
”

“What?” August asked me and I stared at him and repeated myself even though I know he heard me.

“Did you know her?” I said again.

“Well, I mean I knew of
her as much as anyone else does,” he said and Cas cleared his throat. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

Cas
looked down and I looked back to August.

“Honesty is a character trait you should embrace.”

“What a great way to call someone a liar,” he said to me.

I stared at him and he grinned as he took a drink of his wine. Ryan always insisted the boys should have access to it as to stop them from doing it outside of the home.
I remember laughing the day he said that when the boys turned sixteen and he appeared to be playing a Father to them for a second. Personally, I would rather them not. I have no idea how much of that is true as far as indulging a child in things like that at home. I would think it would make it that much easier for them to do it with their friends.

“I was not calling you a liar. I just know when you are taking the long road on something.”

“There is no long road, Mother,” he said to me and I picked up my glass and took another drink. I know he is lying just as Ryan lies and after so many years of hearing it, I can always tell.

“
Perhaps I should start a club, it would certainly look good on my resume for college, maybe after fall break I will do it,” August said and I stared at him with the edge of the wine glass at my lips. I set it down and then pushed my plate back.

“A club?” Cas asked him and August looked at him and smiled.

“A suicide watch club.”

“Oh,
” Cas said as he nodded and cut into his meat again.

Ryan started to laugh and then it echoed in the room until he finally stood up
and rose his glass into the air as a toast.

“A suicide watch club hosted by a Bittermend. Sounds realistic.” He then drank what was left in his glass and set it down on the table. He did look at me for a moment longer than he had in a while and I allowed it until August stood up, picking up his plate and tossing it across the room. It shattered against the wall and he said nothing as he had done many times in the past. He does not fight Ryan, he simply has small displays of anger such as this and then leaves without saying a word. I
stood up and August left us, as Cas continued to eat as if nothing were happening around him. I wish I could be that way and I have no idea where he got it from. Ryan walked up to me and paused, opening his mouth for a second as I looked away and he left the room too. Ryan and August, so alike in so many ways it pains me.

I stood there and then walked to Cas as he chewed like he was innocent and I so wish
ed that he were. I stopped and touched his hair, and he looked up at me with that softness that is so deceiving.

“You would tell me if there were
more to this story, wouldn’t you Cas?” I asked him. He said nothing as if his ability to be disloyal to his brother was a bond that was unbreakable, even by me.

“Well,
” I said as I smiled and moved his hair around a bit.

“I love you,
” Cas said and I continued to smile as he hugged my waist. It will never matter how old Cas gets, to me he will always be the child who seems to need me the most.

“I love you,
” I whispered as I leaned down and kissed his head.

****

I sat in my room and stared out into the garden. So many times I had walked it and hoped, so many times I had looked up to see Ryan staring at me from his window, but each time nothing came from it. It seemed that if I would be given one sliver of hope it would soon be taken as Ryan would invite another whore to his bed. It was almost as if he did it to avoid me, to avoid dealing with something that may be real. Then again I may be reading too much into it. There is no reason to think that after all of this time he has any feelings left in his black heart. There was once a love we shared, something so powerful I would have given up anything for it and then the deaths came and with it the death of us.

I heard the light tapping on my door an
d turned, calling out to whomever it was to come in. I smiled when I saw Cas enter, he held a small tray in his hands of tea for me. If one thing could be said of him he certainly knew how to appear human in so many ways. I know it may sound horrible to refer to it that way, but when you know what someone was made from, it is hard to fully accept what they may become that is contrary to fate. I know Cas is his brother’s twin, I know Miko is his true mother and that Ryan is his father. These are things I cannot forget although I could never tell him about Miko, even though her body lies under the garden and feeds the flowers they so love. I should have had her dug up years ago and moved, but Ryan insisted we leave it be and plant a huge garden over her to bury her forever. To me it is a constant reminder and I wish she was tossed into the sea.

Cas stopped next to m
y chair and set the tray down. He carefully set two sugar cubes in my tea cup, as strong tea leaves sat at the bottom of it. I am addicted to orange blossom tea, it was a smell that I lived with as I grew up and my Mother drank it and now I carry on that tradition myself. I would guess this house will always have this smell in it as Cas loves it too. This is the boy’s home, it will forever be theirs and more than that, the will my Father wrote is hidden away, says that everything becomes theirs at the age of twenty-one. This is fact and something my father was sure to jab into my heart even from the grave. I was simply placed as a guardian to the boys. Ryan would have never been mentioned in it, but seeing that we are bound in treachery and murder, he had to remain by my side.

The boys know of their “Grandfather” as a man who
was admired by many. The stories of his power and ability to destroy anything in his path were brushed under the carpet for the boy’s sake. I did not find it necessary for them to know what he was, although I knew it would be known to them in time. I know I am not their true mother, but my role as protector was something I took very seriously regardless of who carried them. I still hate Miko, but I do not fault the boys for being born of her. That was not in their control. The fact that Ryan was their Father was a tragedy in itself. Ryan could be just like Cas, I had seen it in him and it was frightening to know that someone so deceiving had that bit of good lurking deep inside. August was by far his father’s son and I knew it would haunt him forever as Ryan haunts himself. It causes me to be fearful and to pity him.

Cas sat down and stared out
the window as I watched him while he took a drink of his tea.

“He doesn’t mean it,” h
e said, and I sighed and set my tea down on the tray.

“August?” I said and Cas looked at me.

“Yes, he is lonely.”

“Lonely,
” I said and he turned to me and looked into my eyes.

“You know August used to cry at night when we were children. I would wake up from his sobbing and crawl into bed with him and he would hug me as if he would die.”

“I can’t believe that,” I said under my breath and Cas smiled and then started to laugh. I looked at him a bit puzzled.

“Kidding,” h
e said and I laughed along with him.

“That was a really good lie, I believed you Cas!” I said and he grinned at me and took another drink of his tea.

“Everyone knows how to lie, it just depends on whether you want to or not.”

I watched him as he looked out the window and studied his
profile. His nose was Ryan’s as well as his lips. Like I said before, his lips have a bit more pout to them than his brother’s, so he looks softer, a bit more feminine.

“So when do we start planning?” he asked me and I shook my head.

“Planning what?” I asked.

“The party,” h
e said as he stood up and looked out over the garden.

“I was thinking that we could do it outside, in the garden. String lights in the trees and everything.”

I stood up and walked up next to him and looked out with him.

“If that is what you want
, then yes,” I said, and he hugged me and started to run from the room.

“I will start planning with the staff, August is ridiculous,
and he has no idea how to plan anything. One day out, I will get it all organized.” He left me there as I smiled and turned back to the garden. The happiness faded from my face as the bones of Miko always haunt me. For a split second I thought I saw her ghostly figure standing in the middle. I blinked and she was gone and then I jumped as I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see the last person I expected…Ryan.

“Are you okay
, Beth?” he asked. I turned back and ignored him. Miko may be a reoccurring apparition to me from guilt but the true ghost was Ryan. I turned and he was not there, and sometimes I wondered if he had died years ago and I was simply mad.