CHAPTER VI: OF BEAUTIES AND ABSENCE

The days were heading close to nightfall a little bit sooner progressively, as if it wasn't enough for England to not have much sunlight. As school had let out, the tallest Eugene boarder had walked into the restroom alone. She had made some friends in her class but as she was in 6thform, no one else from her house was with her—it was a bit lonely as her closest friends were either older or younger than her. Conflicted like none other, she didn't know what to do—all the girls were smitten with their house caretaker besides Ducky and Rahie. And it scared Paige how she had collapsed at the sight of the eyes she'd seen. She couldn't even look at the mirror without fear of seeing the eyes. Basking in the warm water as winter air was already here, Paige washed her hands, her mind mulling over the last few events. What also scared her was the history of the house but as it was history, she felt no reason to fear it now…not until she remembered the strange sightings. Tapping feet, eyes in mirrors, what…what was going on?! Shaking her mind from thought, she looked into the mirror and froze. The eyes were back.

She felt herself feel light..or compact, she couldn't tell. Her knees were giving out but this time, she stood strong, literally. It was a contest, who would be the first to break the glance as their eyes locked. The longer she looked, the less influence on her the eyes were able to have. The young lady had just began to notice what surrounded the eyes…and it was nothing. In her mind, replaying this scene, she could had sworn she definitely saw a face, not just the eyes. The eyebrows could had been transparent but…she felt like she knew the face well.

But clearly her mind had filled in the structure of the face to look like Jerome, though she had half a thought that perhaps the eyes weren't even human…. The eyes were icy…rimmed with darkness, like a world within all snow and frozen water…like time-travelling beyond air, cool and dark…and yet some how pale as well. But no matter how icy the color of the eyes appeared, they were still…sweet. Searching. Looking into her as if knowing how to help. They didn't appear as eyeballs but eyes in invisible yet solid sockets, in which it shaped his eyes. As soon as she noticed nothing but thin air surrounded the eyes—

—The door banged close. Looking around rapidly, she noticed no one was in the bathroom with her nor had anyone walked in. Her head jerked back towards the position of the eyes but they were gone by now. Telling her mind to ease up did nothing—she knew she wasn't imagining it. Something was definitely watching her. Just as she walked out of the rest room, she fell back.

"Ow! Oh, hey Paige." Jerome smirked as his hands held her shoulders at arms-length as to prevent further collision.

She looked up to him—it was most definitely the same eyes. In the smallest fraction of a second, his eyebrows creased when he chuckled. "Something wrong, darling?" Her heart leapt but she couldn't…not now.

"Were you in the girls' bathroom just now?" she watched him determinedly. He reciprocated with a blank look.

"Well, had you asked me that when I was 15, I would had said yes. It's surprising how many answers you can find there. Pretty resourceful," he joked. "But no, broke the habit."

"You sure?"

He laughed, feeling her forehead. Just his touch made her heat up. "My God. Paige, you're burning up. You're most likely hallucinating."

"I'm fine," she stated stubbornly.

"Go back to Eugene,"he smiled caressingly. "Drink some hot soup. I'm sure the house mother's made some by now." In all honesty, somehow now she was feeling sick, but she was sure it was due to Jerome's doing. She was about to walk when she realized what was wrong.

"Wait, what are you dong here at our school then? You go to university…" she said, suspiciously.

"Yes, I gave a lecture," he annunciated sarcastically, "to a class here. What, Paige? Do you believe I'm following you?"

—-~*~—-~*~—

After having waited 20 minutes after her classes were done, Rahie had found herself sneaking into the music room. She was only ever to enter in when someone left the door to the piano laboratory open, for no one could enter without the entrance card. Permission was only given to students in music majors, minors, and classes. Apparently her years of experience wasn't lenient qualifications.

A random student had just left the room, holding the door for her as she entered in so at least one room had to be open, but as she walked down the red-carpeted, Victorian-wallpapered hallway, music came lightly from every sound-proof door.

'He said 13B,' she thought, remembering how she'd asked the leaving student what room he laid empty now. But even that was full. She peered through the window. The piano was hidden from view, and yet the bench was visibly seen. It had no one on it…not from this point of view, either way. But the sound filling the room's air, vibrating against the door was a low ballad…

Pouting, she fell to her feet, sitting against the door. As the music continued, chills covered her from head to toe as her back was connected to the vibrations of the door. It was hauntingly beautiful…a bit morbid but what beautiful tune didn't reach into the pains of the soul? Getting some coursework out, she began to work.

Perhaps it was 10 minutes she realized she hadn't heard nor felt any music. Peering into the window, she saw that the keys were covered…she frowned, opening the door.

It was like no one had been in the room at all. The music, the humming of tunes seemed to have been…a memory. They were on the 6th floor, the floor was only as big as a bathroom—whoever played couldn't had left and yet…her she was, alone. Scared out of her mind, she ran out towards the overseeing hallways, her running pacing out-of-sync with the bellowing music coming from all the other room.

—~*~—-~*~—-~*~-~*~-~*~-~*~-

The boarders had sat together—Jerome at the head of the table as they gathered all their religions, their beliefs to give thanks for the lovely meal tonight. Secretly on her iPhone and laptop since she had returned to their dwelling, Paige had been on a mission since she came home. After hours of searching, she was astounded by her learnings, hoping they weren't true. She wasn't sure who she could trust though. But her best best was to tell—

"Paige," she heard her roommate take a seat beside her at the table. "What do you think about—"

"Paige," Jerome called louder. "Be a dear and pass the salad please?" he smiled. Quietly, she obliged, watching him, thinking if what all she learned could really be true.

The clanks of supper utensils against the plates was as loud as the rest of the girls' chattering. However, it wasn't such a place to discuss what she learned with Rahie—

—Just then the older girl tapped her with a pen as handed Paige a napkin.

"What's this?"

"Read," Rahie breathed out.

Do you trust Jerome? Something fishy's going on

She knew it! Smiling inside, she went back to the news article archive on her phone and passed it to Rahie under the table.

As she ate her soup, her eyes shifted every so often to see Rahie's reaction. She was definitely curious as the girl's eyebrows creased while reading. Within seconds, she handed back the phone, her face blank.

"Are you serious—?"

"Guys," the two girls looked up to see Jerome looking at them. Both glanced at each other, wary. "What are you doing?"

Paige felt her hand be grabbed and pulled into a handshake above the table.
"A thumb war!" chirped Rahie. She grinned widely at him. "I think I'm winning!"

As Paige tried to control herself not to burst out loud at Rahie's "cover up", the other girls chuckled.

A few minutes passed as the girls were about to finish eating. Rahie cleared her throat. "Jerome," she smiled. Few knew this but Paige had an inkling on what Rahie would do. She continued calmly, in a discussion-like 'professional' manner—it was usually the way to get whatever she wanted. "You've read the applications on us and most likely know all about us but…we really don't know much about you aside from what you told us that first day you scared us all. Mind telling us about your past? Where you're from?"

Wiping his mouth, he nodded. "Why, of course, Rahie." He looked up, pondering a bit. "Well, I was born in Westminister. And we lived in a lovely little cottage in Dorset for the majority of my childhood. Then my family moved here to this house when I was still young, gave it its name."

"Oh wow," exclaimed Dianna. "Found any mysteries here?"

The man clicked his tongue. "Not unless you mean unexplained cupboards that won't open and a cellar that creeks and groans a lot, no. My life was like any other, honestly," he chuckled. "Went to school, played Rugby and cricket for fun, got involved with archeology and was fascinated at the ruins here so came here to study."

"And no girlfriend, right, Jerome?" Priscila exclaimed happily. He winked back. "Course not. Still waiting for the perfect girl," he smiled as Ducky made false coughing noises.

"What about," Rahie asked carefully, watching his every move, "your family. Are you an only child or—"

He looked back at her, quiet. It was a stand-off, just as Paige had had with the eyes and herself. His expression was hard, his lip twitched.

'It's true,' thought Paige and Rahie.

He blinked. "Why yes, I had a brother," he started off slowly.

"Had?" Charn wrinkled her nose.

Quietly, he tapped his fingers patiently on the tap, looking down. The air was uncomfortable—people wanted to ask but they knew he would or would not answer.

He let out a deep breath. "'Have,' I suppose. I don't really know. He was…perfect, you see," he chuckled humorlessly. "He may look like me but…somehow whatever differences we had, his were always better. Beating me at everything, always getting the top marks in school…all the girls," he continued on.

"Nonsense!" cheered Dianna.

"Yeah! Look who's with 7 pretty ladies now!" grinned Arabella. He smiled back, his hands a bit fidgety.

"He went missing a while back," his voice changed, a mere whisper. "I was probably a child…age 6 or 7 so I don't remember much. Apparently we never found any evidence of if he was kidnapped or he just ran away. We looked for many years but…" he shook his head, "it was to now avail."

It was like everyone synchronized to all gulp at once. "He never left any note or anything?" Priscila's voice was hush.

He shrugged before standing up. "No. Anyway, I've got places to go, people to see. So you best brush up and get to bed soon. I'll see you in the morn. Ducky, I believe it's your bit to wash up the dishes."

As the girls and Jerome dispersed, cleaning the table, doing the dishes, preparing for the night, Paige and Rahie went into their bedroom, door slightly ajar. They had shared their tales of the day, what with Paige and her eyes and Rahie and the disembodied music, each grew more worried as they planned to discuss what was going on. They knew it'd be suspicious if their door were totally closed and so Rahie decided to sit on the floor, facing the entire hallway as their room was at the very end.

Sitting on her bed, Paige scrolled through her phone to reread the article. "He lied!"
"I know!" exclaimed Rahie. "Did you find anything else?"

"Mmm…" Paige searched. "All it said was that the brother was kidnapped. This was written on June 9, 2006. Here: Police failed to treat the disappearance of a "perfect" boy urgently and should have started looking for him more quickly. A London teenager disappeared from his home when he went missing on 16th June. His disappearance was investigated as a homicide in light of age-old evidence found of the boy's blood found in the closet. The report found investigative and supervisory failings in the first 32 hours after Clarke ("That's they're last name," Paige interrupted) disappeared. The investigation was conducted after complaints from the teenager's parents. The body of the 17-year-old was never found though blood trailings were found near the cavern ruins east of the boy's town. "We have tried gaining entrance to these caves," spoke Officer Hewsworth. "Every time we've tried, natural problems occur, that led to the passing of our men. Only people of small height could maybe get in and that's just something our team can't afford to do…to risk other lives to find the body of another." The boy's service is to be held next week at the 'Burnt Tree' Lodge.

"People told me to let it go," says the boy's mother, "they thought I was crazy, but it has been proven that nine police officers failed my child. I wonder how they sleep at night? None of them are thinking about, or crying over, a dead child. I hope they sleep easy because I can't."The parent 'thinks about their son "every hour of every day" and keeps a candle lit in his memory all the time." Paige stopped reading.

"And they never even mentioned his name!?" Rahie demanded.

"Whose name?" The two girls whipped their heads to find Arabella standing curiously in the doorway. Obviously Rahie hadn't done a good job watching guard.

"Uh…" the girls stammered. Arabella looked hurt. "You mentioned the Clarke family—"

"How long were you here for?" Paige asked. She really didn't want to bring this up with Arabella of all people as she hugely fell in love and in loyalty to Jerome.

"The entire article. I…I thought you were cool with him," the girl's eyes started going teary. "Paige, you—you liked his eyes!"

"Bells," Rahie stood up, seeing where this was going. "We have nothing against him. We're just curious, that's all—"

"No!" Arabella painfully smiled as she wiped a tear. "You've been on his case since you first saw him. You never gave him a chance!"

"Y-you're right! Absolutely right," Rahie panicked, looking at Paige for help. Her roommate was speechless, her eyes averted to her phone. "But I'll start right now."

The younger of the girls shrugged off Rahie's hand from her shoulder. "I'm gonna go tell him," she said fiercely, dashing out the door.

"And what!? Tell him we're interested in his story? Bells, stop, please!" but Bells was already walking down the stairs.

Mouthing out curse words, for she'd never say them aloud, Rahie glared unmeaningly at her friend. "What do we do now?" but Paige still wasn't paying attention. "PAIGE. Bells. What do we do?"

The girl ignored her. "I found his name."

"And?"

Paige looked up, her face aghast. "Eugene. His name was Eugene."

∞ξ§*˜˙˚º•~ † ~•º˚˙˜*§ξ∞
∞...Inӂthe...
ξ˚..House of Eugene..˚ξ
We all follow
˙*.Our King.*˙
ºººººººº
†

~And to our rule, with eyes of blue, We'll do the salute of Vwabloosh shoutingEnegue'~

And So We'll See You Soon At…

THE HOUSE OF EUGENE

~And the plot thickens as they say...~