Leitner

Pixabay

Benjamin Leitner, son of General Reinold Leitner, grandson of Count Dietrich Leitner, stepped from the stagecoach and lit his pipe. The night was cold, the sky a vast black emptiness. The moon, if it had shown itself at all that night, was gone, and nothing but the light cast by Benjamin’s lantern offered solace from the creeping dark.

He’d reached the graveyard, home of his family tomb and its historic dynasty. It was a forbidden place, the site of his late mother’s suicide, where Leitners were entombed stretching back centuries. He hated this place, more than anywhere else on earth. But he’d come, alone as ordered to. He’d come, as he had no other option but to do so. And he’d brought the gold.

The letter was written in her typical style. Loquacious, expounding on the nature of their relationship, apologizing for her affairs, thanking him for standing by her throughout it, remaining at her side despite all the controversy of the town. Despite even her own parents telling him to abandon her as a lost cause.

She’d not only dragged herself down into the mud. But him as well. Benjamin the financier, of Wolfstone and Kauffman, now the cuckold of all of Austria. But worst of all, she’d tarnished the name of Leitner.

And when the accusation came, of witchcraft and devilry, of black magic and the most bestial of sacrilege, of whoring in the night endowed with opiates unto madness. Well, it was no wonder when Kauffman wanted out.

And still he stood by her.

Should he have been surprised when the letter came, demanding the last of his finances or else she’d accuse him in the papers of having masterminded it all? Of being an original scholar of the black arts?
That would render the Leitner name into devilry.

No. He couldn’t allow that.

Benjamin finished his pipe, the tobacco charred and ashen. He cast the ash into the wind then slipped the cherry wood pipe into his coat pocket, beside the letter crested with her seal.

Melinda. Oh, you wench.

I’ll be in the crypts, waiting.

He suspected she wasn’t alone. Benjamin suspected the whole carnal tribe to be down there, waiting for her.

Well, so much the better. Let them all wait for his arrival. Let them all see the truth, the forbidden history denied to the world. Stretching back into the foundation of the soil. Let them know who it was that the Leitner’s may be.

He stepped across the grass, peering at the graves of his forbears till he reached the central crypt. The iron gate was ajar and the darkness seemingly impenetrable. They were down there, waiting for him.

“Melinda,” Benjamin said to himself. “It could have been different. So different. But you threatened my name. For that, I cannot forgive you.”

He entered the crypts.

“Time to meet the family,” he thought to himself, almost with a laugh...

From her perfectly hidden perch, Melinda watched, and waited. She had given her all for this moment, she had suffered, and sacrificed more than she had initially expected.

But she hadn't much longer to wait now. Benjamin had arrived, and he had brought the gold. That was enough to tell her that he was ready. Finally.

It had been a long thirty-six years since her mother had died. Since she'd decided the Leitner's had to pay. They'd taken her life, almost literally. And she'd let them. But her mother's was more than sacrilege. It had decided her.

It had been difficult at first, having to reintegrate herself into town, finding a suitable family. But when she had settled that the rest was relatively easier two way decisions; sacrifice or give up. And she had chosen sacrifice, over and over again.

But it hadn't been all smooth sailing. At a point she had almost given up. Benjamin had turned out to be much more thick-skinned than she'd envisaged. He had taken every bit of insult with no more than a shrug. The world seemed dead to him, almost the same as it was dead to her.

They were both kindred spirits after all. And soon she had begun to genuinely admire his strength of will. But Melinda knew him, just like she knew herself. So she had played her trump card. She had threatened the Leitner name..

And Benjamin had fallen for it, just as she'd expected.

And now she watched him approach in the darkness, his lamp a disturbing addition to the thick presence of the darkness. And as she watched, she saw him see her, and he stopped, confused.

Then Melinda Leitner, discarded daughter of General Reinold Leitner, granddaughter of Count Dietrich Leitner, stepped away from the darkness, and into the full light of the lamp.

The night was cold, but she exuded a strange and more obvious sort of coldness. One that came from years and years of the practice of that art that was the unique to the hidden history of the Leitners.. the art of black magic and devilry.

Melinda smiled...

"Time to reintroduce myself to the family." She hissed.

Benjamin dropped the lamp. It toppled over, but somehow, the fire in the crypto didn't die out...

THE END...?

#SladenSpeaks

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Written for @bananafish's Finish The Story Contest

This one was a hurried write. Too many ideas came to mind from the opening, and I guess that left me indecisive. Eventually, I settled for one. Hope it had your curiosities raised...

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