Here is the last fanfictions challenge Louise and I did about our clan.
The following text is Louise' attempt that I translated (www.caillouvaudou.tumblr.com)
The third challenge was about including a scene in an old mill on Montigny's Property and had to take place just after Mélusine's arrival back in the 1960's. (So there's only Delacroix, Absinthe and Mélusine)
No mandatory words this time !
Enjoy !
Welcome Mélusine !
It's been a couple weeks since
Mélusine came to the Montigny manor. Her arrival turned this little world
upside down. Delacroix saw in her a new friend for his game, and for Absinthe,
she was a girl who she could spend time with, without being bullied. However
the little gargoyle didn't agree with that. After the first encounters
surprise, she avoided the two kids in purpose to spend all her time in
Montigny's legs. She was too intimidated by the two bullies.
We have to precise that the first
game she'd ever play with them was an autopsy's simulation. Delacroix had just
discovered this fascinating profession : forensic scientist in an investigation
novel. And Absinthe was thrilled to be able to play something else than a
corpse whom he searched for the guts in. Mélusine tried to refuse politely, the
hair dressed on her head seeing all the knifes on the spare table. The night
ended with Mélusine running from her two torturers. She only found shelter in
Montigny's office who played the part of the bodyguard.
She quietly played with her doll
in his office, followed him to the library and never went far from him. She
knew that the situation was difficult for the old man but she couldn't move
away from him for long when she was seeing the two monsters scheming in
whispers. She could feel their bad and cruel glances in her back and she had
shivers everytime she heard their whisperings. When she was alone in the
corridors, shadows became winged and she thought she could hear child-ish and
gloomy laughs behind every corner.
The night Montigny announced he
had business to do outside the manor and that she couldn't take Mélusine with
him, the young gargoyle felt like everything was falling apart. She cried,
begged, wheeped but there were nothing she could have done. She'd have to spend
the night with her clan brother and sister for more safety. More safety ?
They'd better lock those two rabbid dogs up and loose the key!
They were still standing in the
office and the man was about to leave. Montigny prepared several documents in
an attaché-case, blew Mélusine's nose whose eyes were filled with tears and
took her by the hand. She knew where he was taking her. To her doom, her hell,
her death, her...
« Come on, don't
worry. They aren't mean. They just want to mess with you for the last time. But
if they hurt you, they'll have to deal with me. »
He was talking softly especially
to calm her but she was still nervous. He smiled at her, took his pocket watch
off and gave it to her.
« Can you read what
time it is ? Look, when the little hand will be here, I'll be home. All right ?
It's not that long, isn't it ? »
Mélusine looked at the watch and
nodded. She knew now how long she'd have to survive until his savior returns.
He wrapped the watch around her
little wrist and took her to the living room.
As soon as she passed the door,
she heard big screams. Delacroix and Absinthe were squabbling over the
armchair. They both had their face covered with markers and each of them was
pulling a colored pencil's left over the hardest they could.
« GIVE IT BACK TO ME !
LET IT GO, IT'S MINE ! »
« YOU NEVER LEND ME ANYTHING, I
WANT IT ! »
« YOU ALWAYS BREAK MY THINGS
! »
« OH YOU LIAR ! »
«STUPID ! »
It seemed to get worse. Absinthe
snatched the desired object from her brother's hands, but threw it away to be
more confortable for fighting. They were rolling on the floor, one pulling the
other's hair, one bitting another. They only stopped when Father took them off
the ground and separated them. They both tried to kick the other with insults
when they realised that Mélusine was standing there. She was watching them,
frozen as a stone, mouth opened in a frightened position, eyes rounded like
balls. They stopped fighting and Montigny put them back on earth.
« I have to go away
for a little while. Mélusine will stay with you so do not bully her. As I'll
return, you'll have to be good. Understood ? »
He agitated a threating finger
but the two monsters already agreed on a truce with a single glance.
« Yes Dad. We'll be
nice with her ! » they answered with a angel voice while they
looked at the little girl with predatory eyes.
Montigny put the children at the
table, picked up the coloring papers scattered all over the place and put the
markers back in their pot. He gave his last orders before leaving under
Mélusine's begging eyes who was still mute.
Outside they could hear the big
door closing, a car starting up and fading away. Mélusine was trapped...
She swallowed and grabbed a
coloring book with a unicorn and butterflies and began to use the markers with
force. She didn't dare to raise her eyes from her drawing because she knew that
her two comrades were staring at her intensively. She heard some whispering
which made her accreasing her coloring speed.
She finally dared to look over
her sheet of paper and was surprised to see the two terrors drawing calmly
without fighting. They even were discussing quietly without insulting each
other. Odd...
« Hey Mélusine, give
me the orange pencil. »
She tensed up. Delacroix had
talked to her and she didn't dare to move.
« Please. »
He added.
An oppressive silence flotted in
the air. She still wasn't moving, neither speaking, and now the two children
were staring at her. Eventually, Absinthe sighed, threw herself on her belly
over the table to reach the pencil next to Mélusine's hand and brought it back
to Delacroix, with a scornful look at her.
« Lost your tongue
? » she asked acidly.
They waited for a reaction.
Mélusine shivered and dared a little « No, no... » before
she looked at her watch. No she just hadn't lived hours of torture but only few
minutes. She felt despair overrun her.
« … OK ? Hello ? Are you
listening to me ? Are you deaf ? »
A marker thrown by Delacroix
pulled her violently out of her thoughts. She looked at him with eyes full of
tears. Why were they bullying her like that ?
« You have to chill
out, I'm not going to eat you. » Absinthe seemed vexed.
Mélusine stood in an awkward
silence.
« OK. She doesn't
answer. It means that you'll never be part of … the Club. And those who are not
from the club, we... torture them. » Absinthe was saying that with
a cold voice, looking at her straight in the eyes. Hearing that, Delacroix
added :
« Yeah ! When the day
comes, we throw them into the toilets so that they wake up all dirty at night
and we make them eat garbages and worms and we put chewing-gum in their hair,
and... »
« And we cut off their wings
and we make them eat their own nose. » Absinthe successfully made
Mélusine squeal. She swallowed and answered with a shaking voice.
« What do we do to be
part of the club ? »
The two monsters looked at each
other and a big carnivorous smile appeared on their faces.
« So you really want
to be in our club ? There are tests to be accepted. It's very difficult. Lots
of people tried to be in. Some of them even DIED. »
Mélusine nodded. She wanted to be
free from this tyranny. What a shame she'd have to be part of a murderous sect
or a satanic group. At least they wouldn't cut her wings and her nose off.
« What... What is your
club's name ? »
Absinthe took her breath to
answer but Delacroix was quicker than her.
« The
Adventurer-Detective-Super Hero-Top Secret Club »
Absinthe threw a furious glance
at her rookery brother before explaining :
« But it's better
known as the Ruthless Death Secret Society. »
Indeed this second name was
scarier. She prefered the first.
« We have to gather
before deciding if you can pass the tests. Stay here, we'll come back. »
Absinthe said.
She grabbed Delacroix's wrist and
glided away, leaving the little girl on her own.
Mélusine waited for a little
while, looking at her watch every thrity seconds. Let's hope that she could
pass successfully the tests... let's hope it would work.
The living-room's door opened and the two
bullies entered solemnly.
« You will pass the
Biiiiiig Teeeeeest ! Wait for the Society Examiners in the courtyard. »
Said Delacroix with a melodramatic voice.
« We have to stay here
and not influencing the juges to your behalf. » Absinthe added
smiling.
They pushed her out of the manor
and closed the curtains and doors from the inside. She was alone once again,
waiting in the garden, all shaking.
Suddenly, two flashes of light
appeared from behind the building. Footsteps creaked on the alley gravel and
two white and ghostly silhouettes came out.
You could have noticed that they
strangely looked like Delacroix and Absinthe under sheets but Mélusine was to
frightened to think about it.
The shaking first silhouette
announced that she'd have to follow them without fainting. The second one,
motionless, added that the Final Test would take place in the Secret Society's
Great Chapel. They bluntly led Mélusine into the forest, to a little clearing where
stood an old water mill with a little stream. The building seemed quite old but
not collapsing. There were tiles missing whereas the great wheel seemed to
still work. Bad grass, ivy and moss covered almost all walls and bats were
flying through wall's holes. Rabbits took off as soon as the three people came
closer.
They stopped and opened the
mill's door ; it opened with an horrible shrieking and with a roten wood scent.
« Come in... Your test
takes place inside. »
« What shall I do
? »
« Stop talking. »
the still silhouette answered with a scathing voice.
« You have to stay
here alone and not say anything. If you scream just once, you're out ! »
Mélusine swallowed and entered
the building. The door closed on her with a bang and a metallic noise indicated
that it had been locked up.
She repressed her tears and
waited for a moment to get used to darkness.
She could smell mould, dust,
earth. Walls were cold and wet. Mill's gears she could catch sight of in the
dark were covered with old mould flour. Even a tree had begun to grow between
the big wheel's teeth. A owl hooted and watched the gargoyle hood up in the
middle of the room. She could see the sky and the stars which slightly
lightened the inside through the open roof,
She sighed, her arms crossed around
her knees. How long would she have to wait here ? It could be a trap. Maybe
they abandonned her here forever and let her starve and die from boredom all
alone. Despair overwhelmed her.
When suddenly, she heard a
strange noise. Like a scratch... and a heavybreath... and a little bit far away, a groaning...
A cold and sticky dripped in her
neck.
Her hair stood on her head.
She slightly touched what was
dripping in her back and took it to her eyes. She repressed a scream.
Despise the dark, she guessed
this liquid color.
It was red.
She raised her nose, shaking,
worried to discover where this blood was coming from, but she could see no
hanged corpse over her head. However she stood up and sticked herself against
the closest wall. It wasn't that steady and all holed, the stones were
crumbling under her elbows, but feeling something hard behind her back made her
feel reassured.
Every crack took another
dimension. Shadows were getting bigger and took ridiculous and frightening
forms ; the old mill's gears became torture apparels where monsters were hiding
; and eyes were watching at her from everywhere, observing her, staring at
her...
Mélusien felt her heart go
wilder. She tried to put herself together, telling to herself that there were
nothing there and it was all from her imagination but it got her fear stronger.
Still sticked against the wall,
she was panting, frightened with the idea that the monsters would notice her.
Suddenly two hands coame from the
wall and grabbed her shoulders ; She was about to scream when something cold
and sticky was thrown to her face and fell on the floor.
Frozen by fear, she wanted to
scream out loud but no sound came from her throat ; she clumsily moaned seeing
a huge toad staring at her.
She tried to get rid of those hands
who were still grabbing her she they didn't want to let her go. The toad
croaked before bouncing out.
Exhausted, overwrought, she
stopped fighting and wanted to collapse. She couldn't fight against demons so
let them eat her now and her hell would end finally...
Whipping, she stared down at the
hands still holding her.
They were electric blue.
A band-aid with planes even
decorated one of the fingers' tip and its wrist was covered with different
colors stripes.
She hold her breath and pricked
up her ears ; She laughed a hushed laugh and whisperings coming from the
outside...
« … a funny face when I
threw the toad to her... »
« … still not screaming.
What do we do ? Perhaps... »
« … No, it's too mean,
shouldn't go too far, or else... »
« … Stop now or we keep
on with... »
« … a heart attack, poor
girl... »
It was too much ! They made fun
of her during all this time ! How could she not notice that ! How could she not
recognise those two stupids under their sheets ?
Her eyes glowed red in the dark
and she pulled herself out from the hands holding her.
Furious and out of her breath,
she started hitting the walls with her fists, howling with all her rage against
those two miserable creatures who abused with her credulity.
« You are mean, cruel and
vicious. I hope you had fun because when I'll go out of here, I will rip you
wings off and make you eat them ! You are two stupid and horrible morons. I
HATE you »
She kept on raving and hitting
everything she could reach when a shrieking door called her to be quiet. She
waited for someone coming in but saw
nobody coming.
She came to the door and put her
nose outside. Everything was quiet. Just a little gooseberry jelly pot on a
little rock.
Oh, the cowards ! They ran away !
Morons !
She yelled so loud that they'd
even pee in their trousers, for sure ! They wouldn't dare to bother her anymore
! They wouldn't....
« Ouch ! »
A pine cone bounced on her head.
Mélusine turned to see two
silhouettes flying away laughing. She got on their track howling insults towards
the manor.
She ran and ran through the
bushes, took branches in the face, scratched her arms with ferns, stumbled in
the roots. She almost fell in the mud more than once but didn't stop ; She
would make them pay for what she'd been through.
Mélusine went out of the forest
and saw two little silhouettes enter the manor in a rush. She was still behind
them. Finally coming into the great stairs she noticed they were waiting for
her at the top with two happy faces. Delacroix threw his last pine cone laughing
and they ran again like a fool.
She finally saw them, sitting as
if nothing happened, eating cookies in the kitchen. They smiled at her.
Totally out of her temper the
young green gargoyle rushed upon Absinthe, hitting her at the chin with a
revengefull fist, threw her on the floor to shake her with all her strength.
Absinthe responded with kicks and hysterical screams while Delacroix threw
himself into the fight, kicking on his left and right, and having fun like a
demon.
« Are you done ?
What's wrong with you ? »
Hearing Montigny's amused voice,
Mélusine rose her head instinctively. He was finally home ! But Delacroix
brought her back into the fight as he jumped on her from a chair, announcing
catch grips.
« Dad, look ! I'm doing the
619 grip ! And the sledgehammer ! Yahaaaaa ! »
« Try avoiding my crocodile
grip, you moron ! » Absinthe defied him, surrounding him with her legs.
As Mélusine saw that her anger
was pointless, she went away from the fight. Did all of this happen for nothing
?
She took the hot chocolate mug
from Montigny's hands and drinked some draft watching the end of the fight.
Tied as it seemed. The referee gave each of them a slice of cake and everybody
ate in silence.
« So, what have you
done while I was away ? No problems I hope... »
Montigny wanted to have news from
his little monsters.
« We played with
Mélusine. » Absinthe splitted between two mouthfuls.
« Ah ? You played with
Mélusine or with Mélusine ? » He looked at the little
gargoyle with an enquiringly look.
She was taking her breath to say
how mistreated she had been but Delacroix was faster.
« That was SO cool. We
made a super cool top secret adventurers super heros club and we frightened her
for fun but now she's part of the club but there were no club in fact and it was
just for annoying her but we had a lot of fun together. »
Delacroix spoke his mouth full
without taking his breath, his eyes were brilliant, as he remembered how
awesome it was. Then he swallowed the rest of the cake up, leaving crumbles all
over the table.
« It sounds very
interesting, indeed. You'll have to tell me everything in details ! »
They all sat in the living room,
on the couch or lying down on the soft carpet as Delacroix and then Absinthe
shared their night with their father.
Mélusine was quite surprised with
their story ; she was expecting mocking remarks but instead of that those two
kept on speaking very highly of her. She didn't scream and she even tried to
hit them. She pursued them through the forest ! And she fought with her bare hands
against a giant and spitting fire toad who attacked her in the old mill ! How
brave was that !
« And what about you
Mélusine ? I feel like you all had fun, didn't you ? Have you been bored
? »
To be honest she couldn't have
seen the time going by. Everything went so fast. As she thought back about it,
it's been a great adventure ; She passed through all possible emotions in less
than an evening whereas she'd been moping during all the week. And they weren't
that bad. They seemed to have prepared all this little game to test her but not
in a mean way...
She nodded but stood silent about
what she'd been through.
Reassured, Montigny smiled at her
and asked them what they wanted to do now. The two louts began to scream at the
same time, raising their fists and fought to impose their idea.
« A movie ! We're
going to see a movie ! The one with the giant monster ! »
« No ! I want a story
! Your movies suck ! »
« No ! YOUR stories
suck, They sound roten ! »
« That's not true !
You're the roten one ! »
« Repeat that ! »
« You're roten and
your movies suck ! »
Montigny separated them and
proposed to listen to Mélusine's idea. She had no idea actually but she
spontaneously opened her mouth, maybe to contest the two others' choices.
« What if we played to
something ? A game all together ? »
Montigny approved on the spot,
followed by the two kids. Delacroix was jumping around as usual and Absinthe
made a complete list of their board games to help Mélusine in her choice.
After lots of debates, a simple
card game appeared ideal, some board games were too complicated for them, some
ended into horrible fights about cheating, some were incomplete, the missing
pieces in somebody's stomach or scatted into all manor.
They sat at a table and got a
card game already used. Montigny delt the cards. Everybody was quiet, observing
the others, spying every move, every revealing tics, each one hidden behind
their cards. Coughing or clearing their throat to make others believe they had
a strategy ; and pulling down their cards with a victorious look before being
overruled by a smart one.
At first Mélusine played
« en défense », dealing with the cards she's been giving to and lost
lots of times. However she never gave up and as soon as the night went by, she
finally could read into others' games, allowing her to attack the game and
change its course, which seemed to delight everyone. As the game went by and as
she was destressing, she got her two comrades' thinking mecanims. But she
couldn't read through Montigny.
Delacroix was using complex
tricks, so unreal that it never worked. But it gave him interesting results. He
was losing with dash, prefering style over result, as Mélusine analysed it.
Absinthe was quick but never
seemed to think about her moves ahead. Her moves were simple but efficient, far
from her rookery brother's complicated techniques. She determined an goal and
did everything she could to get there, even if she had to loose almost whole of
her cards to reach her purpose. Passionate, she even won several games. She
didn't pride herself on her techniques and stood very discrete about her cards,
whereas Delacroix couldn't help it but shout at every new card, warning the
others against his dreadful strategy which would work, at least this time.
The game last long and ended with
laughs and kind jokes. The atmosphere was totally different from the one at the
beginning of the evening when a still shy Mélusine came all shaking. Now she
knew everyone's qualities, strengths and weaknesses.
They gathered the results and it
seemed like Mélusine won the game hands down, Montigny came second, then
Absinthe and finally Delacroix. Good loser, he congratulated the winner and as
it was almost dawn, asked for a revenge on the next night.
Mélusine smiled and claimed that
whatever he'd do, she'd still be the winner. Delacroix was thrilled and
challenged her in a spectacular speech that he would never give up and that she
would eventually win the day that his corpse would rest next to the card game.
Dawn came closer and closer and
they had to cut with the gigglings. Montigny escorted them to the roof where
everyone took their position.
The sun appeared at last and
turned the three children into stone.
On the roof, the three statues
were holding hands, all of them smiling.
THE END
~ Louise
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