Chapter 1: A New Lord
The drive was long. It was a nightmare. Samuel hated such long drives, especially when his mom and aunt couldn’t stop talking the whole way. He leaned his head against the car window and tried to close his eyes. The talking hasn’t stopped even when he turned his music in his earphones to full volume, he could still hear their voices in his head. When he opened his eyes again, he could see his mother’s eyes staring at him from the viewing mirror. She pressed her glasses to her eyes and looked back at the road. “You’ll end up deaf, Sam.” She told him. Samuel rolled his eyes a sigh and lowered his headphones to his shoulders. "She's right, we can hear your metal all the way through." Aunt Grace laughed next to her. "It's not metal...it's grunge." Sam corrected her and cringed from her ignorance. "Grunge…what?" His aunt replied with a shrug. "Never mind. It’s so nice that you have such a smart kid, Vanessa. I keep telling you."
“I’m not a kid, I’m almost twenty.” Samuel wanted to say, but kept his mouth shut as his mother nodded. “Don’t you think I know that?” She asked with a smirk. "I'm the luckiest woman in the world." Samuel rested his face on his knees. “Then why are you torturing me like this?” He asked childishly. "Come on..." She rolled her eyes with a sigh. "Mom, I'm not kidding! I feel like we're going nowhere!” Samuel whined. “My legs have already fallen asleep, each separately at least six times!" He gripped her seat. “You always exaggerate too much, so stop with your complains. I won’t buy it this time, Samuel..." she told him with a raised eyebrow. "We'll be there soon." She added. "You told me that half an hour ago!" Samuel leaned back into his seat in frustration. He couldn't understand the pleased, joyful smiles on his mother and aunt's faces. They pretended as if everything was fine. As if they were going with him to some kind of a trip or vacation, but the truth was that they were leaving to a new place, forever. A place far from the town where Samuel grew up in. Far from where his father was buried. Samuel hated the idea of moving, but when his mother explained to him that according to his father's will, his only request was that Samuel and his mother lived in the northern castle, also called: "The Spring Castle." Why is it called lthat? Well, once, it was called "The Flower Castle," also "Waterfall Castle," but when his father inherited it like many generations before him, he decided to name it "The Spring Castle." Maybe because it was his favorite season, maybe because he used to visit there in the spring…Sam could have drawn a thousand more conclusions as to why, but he realized that if his father hadn't bothered explaining it to him even before he passed, it probably wasn't important enough. What was important was reality. And in the modern reality they lived in, ordinary people didn't tend to live in old-world castles. Samuel already had felt himself disconnected from civilization since he dyed his hair and changed his clothes to a more edgy black gothic, punk rock style, in an attempt to look rebellious and try something new with his appearance. Samuel also had a lot of saved links to his favourite porn videos containing mostly men hidden in his phone. Sam only hoped that there would be a functioning internet network in this castle, if his father had tended to visit there in the last years of his life there must be, right? The thing that Sam didn't mind was leaving his old school friends behind. Once they all graduated none of them kept in contact especially when his father passed. “Who needs them anyway? A bunch of two faced assholes….” Samuel would often say whenever he was reminded of his last friend group. They didn’t matter anymore to him. Samuel just hoped that this endless journey would end, and the moment he started to see the fields of flowers and the pastel pink roofs, he realized that the end of the journey was indeed nearby at last. “See, Sam?" His mother stopped the car next to the castle. "All things come to an end." Sam opened the car door and stretched. "How beautiful!" Aunt Grace cheered. The sun's rays met Sam's eyes, and as he covered his forehead, he looked at the castle with his mother. The castle looked like an old royal mansion from the 17th or 18th century. But you could see that it had undergone several changes and additions over the years. It was made of pale fuchsia stone that had darkened over the years. Sam and his mother took their suitcases and bags out of the luggage room. "I'm so jealous!" Aunt Grace said to his mother. "Nonsense, you can stay here as long as you want." She answered her as they walked towards the entrance and through the manicured garden surrounding the castle. Samuel was not one to be enthusiastic about the sight of buildings, but he couldn't help but admire the sight of the low, elegant gables. The windows on the outside looked large and ornate. The pointed roofs were covered with pale pastel blue tiles. Sam looked behind him again at the wide iron front gate with a rough stone wall leading to the entrance where they were currently standing. "What are you waiting for?? Open the door, Vanessa!" Aunt Grace grabbed her shoulders. Samuel looked at his mother's shaky hand, holding the house key. Samuel immediately recognized his father's key ring with a small statuette of a snake hanging from it. At that moment the door opened, slowly, almost too carefully. The first air that came out from inside was cooler than the outside, carrying with it the old smell of ancient wood, fine dust, and the scent of dried lavender. A smell that did not belong to a new home, but to a house that had lived a whole life on its own before they even arrived. Sam was already beginning to imagine himself walking down these hallways with Brahms music on his headphones instead of the style he was listening to now. Samuel, his mother and his aunt walked forward without saying a word. Only the sound of suitcase wheels crunched on the wooden floor. The main entrance opened into a vast hall. So high that it was difficult to see the ceiling. The last rays of afternoon light filtered through long, narrow windows that broke on a shiny cream-gray marble floor, illuminating particles of dust floating in the air. "It's going to be hard to live here without a maid..." Aunt Grace ran a finger along the wooden banister of the stairs. "Stop it, he didn't leave me that much money…” Vanessa told her with an embarrassed smile. In the center of the hall hung a huge crystal chandelier, old but impressive, with dozens of glass arms that looked like frozen branches. Some of the crystals were slightly cracked. Sam touched them with his finger to listen to the sound of them clinking. His mother pulled him to the stairs leading to the second floor. The railing was made of dark wood that looked hand-carved. Slightly worn from hundreds of hands that had already touched it over the years. "Leave the suitcase, I want to show you the second floor, Sam." Samuel looked behind him. "Go. I'll come later." Aunt Gracie told him, waving her hands excitedly. The walls were covered with portraits, large in old gold frames. Paintings of men in dark suits and women in luxurious Victorian dresses. "Oh, it's much more beautiful than I thought..." his mother marveled. "It's like living in a museum, isn't it, Sam?” Sam smiled crookedly. "I hope there's good internet connection….for your work...obviously…” Sam muttered, snapping them back into reality. "Of course there is. I’ll plug the computer in the study and I know how to connect to the internet. It's like a kind of modern castle, very cool, just for young men of your generation, isn’t it?” She touched his shoulder, Sam gave a fake side smile. "Why don't you take your things? I'll show you where your room is." She patted him on the back. Sam nodded and went down to get his things, but suddenly, a rusty mature woman's voice was heard that didn't sound like Aunt Gracie's. "Vanessa...?” Aunt Gracie called to her from the top of the stairs. Vanessa looked at Samuel in confusion and went down with him. Down the stairs Samuel saw a tall woman, with white skin, tight brown oval hair in a low bun, not a single hair out of place. Her eyes were dark and full of makeup, her lips small and red like a rose. She wore tiny gold hoop earrings, and a tight light grey turtleneck shirt with a high collar that covered her neck. Underneath, a dark gray skirt that ended just below her knees. Her look was reminiscent of classic British fashion or an old money style. She looked familiar, but Samuel couldn't remember where he had seen her before in his life. "Oh, Susanna." Vanessa went over to her and gave her a hug which sort of felt like a hug out of obligation which Samuel knew it was unlikely of his mother to do. "I knew you would come. I was waiting for you." The woman said with a blank expression. "I'm sorry I wasn't at the funeral, Vanessa." She lowered her head. "Oh Susanna, it’s alright….really….I know you had your reasons..." She cleared her throat. "Susanna, this is my sister Gracie, and I'm sure you remember Samuel..." The moment she noticed Samuel, her white skin became even paler, she opened her eyes wide. "Oh God forbid, Samuel..." she muttered. "Sam, this is your dad’s sister, Susanna.” Sam nodded but felt very uncomfortable by her terrified stare. "I...I remember you when you were a little boy...what...what happened to you…?" She looked at Samuel as if he was an abomination to God. "Sam, why don't you go up to your room?" Sam nodded, he was ready to do anything to avoid the woman who looked as if she was ready to throw a cross with salt at him for good measure. "I...you're letting him look like that, Vanessa, dear?" Sam heard her horrified voice as he climbed up the stairs. "He's a grown man...Susanna, right? That's how newly 20 year olds express themselves these days, it's not that bad..." Aunt Gracie consoled her. "Why does she have to be here? Will she live with us now?? Why didn't Mom tell me anything about her??" Sam asked in his mind and gritted his teeth nervously from the horrible encounter. She really did look a bit like his father, her black eyes in particular, but he couldn't remember the last time he ever saw her.
After a few hours of settling in, Aunt Grace found her younger sister sitting on her bed in despair. "Has mother Mary left yet?" she asked her sarcastically. "She's my new neighbor now, I have to get Samuel used to having her in our lives...I'm such an idiot for not warning him about her...I'm sure he is going to hate me now..." Vanessa covered her face with her hands. "Enough, Vanessa, he won't hate you. You are being dramatic.” Gracie sat down next to her on the bed. "Tell me, what's really the problem?" she asked Vanessa in a soft voice. “Well…Susana’s reaction earlier to Sam’s…appearance…” she started saying, rubbing her shoulders uncomfortably. “I mean, I would have never acted so horrified like she did, but I can’t help but understand her a bit…” Vanessa sighed heavily. “Oh, Vanessa…” Her sister muttered. “It’s like it was just yesterday when he was this cute good kid, with black wavy hair and his brown honey eyes…now he is like those punk band members you see on tv who end up on the news.” she whispered. “Vanessa, I’m sure it’s just another phase of his, probably an early twenties crisis, it will pass, I’m positive.” Gracie consoled her. “Speaking of a phase…there is something else I discovered….” Gracie raised her eyebrow. “When I announced to Sam that we were moving, he was so frustrated, he threw a fit for days. He doesn't have enough money to get a place on his own, and I didn't mind him staying with me for a while...Anyway, one day I wanted to help him start packing up his room, so when he wasn’t home I went through his stuff and found…" she grunted her teeth nervously. "What is it?" asked Gracie. "What did you find?"
“Where is it?!” Sam searched through his luggage in frustration. “I know I brought it here with me!” he whined. His mother lied. The internet is barely functioning, and if he wanted to relieve some of the stress from the move and all the changes in his life right now, he at least needed the porn magazines he kept with him since 7th grade, but they were nowhere to be found. “Ugh fuck…” Samuel threw his stuff around, and suddenly his dairy got swept under the bed. Sam rolled his eyes with a tired grown and slid his arm under the bed. While trying to reach for his diary, he felt something metal touching his fingertips, he looked under and saw a necklace wrapped around his diary. He grabbed them both. Samuel blew the dust from the silver cross shaped necklace. He then looked down at the notebook. “That’s not my diary…” he whispered to himself. The color of the cover was pitch black. He looked under the bed again, but there was nothing there. He opened the notebook, “Dear Maxwell, may the power of our lord reach you and save you from the depths of hell and forgive you. It is never too late to atone for your sins. Love Susanna.” Samuel almost bursted out laughing. “Who the hell is Maxwell?” he asked himself but shrugged a moment later and wore the cross necklace on his neck. "Alright, aunt Susanna, let’s see if your necklace would help ME atone for my sins against the lord.” He said to himself with a smug smile as he stood up from the floor. But then, all of a sudden, the notebook closed and opened up again. “What the fuck…?” Samuel looked behind him and mumbled. It opened up on itself on the middle page where it was written: “Welcome home, lord Samuel.” Samuel raised an eyebrow with confusion. “Lord?” He asked and picked the notebook up on the bed. “We have been waiting for you.” was written under line. “What the hell?” Samuel hurried and grabbed a pencil from his old highschool case he kept for drawing. He hesitated a bit, but his curiosity took a hold of him. “We?” He wrote, as if he was texting with someone. “Can you tell me who you are?” he added. “No.” was written under his question. Samuel sighed in frustration. “I shall show you.” was suddenly written right after and the pages started turning faster than Samuel could comparhand. A bright light appeared and he covered his eyes as he fell to the floor in shock. When he opened his eyes, a tall man with a refined, elegant appearance and a confident demeanor stood before him. He had fair skin and a slim, well proportioned build. His face was clean shaved with sharp, symmetrical features, including a defined jawline and softly arched eyebrows that gave him a calm but observant expression. His hair was short, thick, silver-white, styled neatly with a slight side part. Samuel couldn’t help but notice his black eyepatch over his right eye, which was secured by a thin black strap wrapped around his head. His visible left eye glowed with a magnificence mix of colors resembling the dark ocean. His clothing was elegant and looked somewhat Victorian-inspired. He wore a crisp white long sleeved dress skirt underneath a double breasted navy blue waistcoat. “My lord?” He asked softly. It took Samuel a few moments to realize that he was referring to him. “I-I’m afraid you are confusing me with someone else…h-how did you…get here…I’m…” Samuel mumbled as the gentleman helped him get off the floor. “I’ve been called here…by you, my lord. Congratulations for finally claiming the castle as your own.” Samuel opened his mouth, but not a single word came out. “I’m…not a lord…” he whispered. a bit ashamed of saying the word “lord” as he believed it had nothing to do with him. “Then I shall explain to you why I’m here.” The tall man held the necklace around Sam’s neck, making him flustered. Sam never thought that he would ever be in the presence of such a handsome man. “My name is Nicolas. I have lived many lives in this castle. I am summoned when a new lord is taking over. Just like I did now.” he twirled Sam’s necklace around his finger. “But why me? why…” Nicolas put his hand on Sam’s mouth. “Instead of asking why, maybe it is time you ask, when?” he said with a confident smirk. “When…what…?” Sam asked with his mouth covered. Nicolas giggled. “When will you start pleasuring me, Nicolas, as your new lord?”
