Chapter 14

Generations of Evil

Year: 1917

Nineteen-year-old Fannie Jenkins sat in the nursery of her new, secluded home, built for her by her former lover, Edmond Finley. He had made a lot of money in the flourishing lumber industry of Oakwood Island. With wood from his mill and money to pay for the construction he had built her a beautiful home, telling people it was what a good and responsible Catholic man did, help someone in need.

With twins of her own of little more than two years old, Fannie found herself thinking dark thoughts again, like she had done during her youth. She had struggled with a darkness inside her throughout her childhood and never understood why. While pregnant the darkness had seemed to subside and she felt like perhaps she could after all, finally lead a normal life.

The courtship with Edmond Finley had been shortened by the unexpected pregnancy. In one of her episodes of darkness, as she liked to call them, Fannie had seduced the good Catholic Edmond. This had not been a problem for Edmond, until he learned that Fannie was pregnant with his child out of wedlock. His Catholic upbringing had engrained in him the thought that a child born out of wedlock was sinful. His parents and family would shun him if they learned of Fannie’s pregnancy. Edmond ended the courtship before Fannie showed any signs of the pregnancy to protect his reputation and he’d secured Fannie’s agreement to end their relationship by vowing to build Fannie a home for her and her child.

Fannie though, had had twins and it wasn’t long after the children were born that the rumors began to spread as people speculated on whom the father really was. Several people were sure it was Edmond, but other stories spread of how her brother was the father. Those rumors had been fueled by Edmond in order to protect his own reputation. He would recount the scandalous story to anyone who would listen, and added that he’d known all along, which was why he’d built Fannie the house to protect her from her evil brother. Having provided for Fannie and the babies financially, he had been seen as the hero in all this in the end. He knew he was the father, but he would never correct any of the rumors. What he did not know was that rumors were based on a truth he would never fully comprehend.

In 1914, on their parent’s farm and cattle ranch, Fannie and Liam, her sixteen-year-old twin brother, had been growing more independent. Fannie’s parents had kept her and Liam sheltered for a long time, never wanting to let them venture out too much. She knew there was something about her that her parents were afraid of, ever since she had been a young girl. She had always felt – something – deep inside of her, something dark, and Fannie suspected that this was why their parents had been so overprotective.

But eventually, as the twins got older, their parents had become more complacent in their discipline. Wallace, their father, was getting older and needed help on the ranch so when Fannie and Liam had become teenagers Wallace had put them to work on the farm and ranch. The new experiences had been liberating for a time, and Fannie and Liam soon learned that by completing their work that they had gained some independence from their parents.

This all changed one fateful night when Liam and Fannie both experienced something so traumatic that it would mark them forever.

One day one of their father’s business associates had come to the ranch. He was from Anchor’s Point, the small village on the mainland, and he’d brought along his daughter to see the ranch. Liam had been working near the house when they’d arrived, and the girl had laughed when they first met. This caused Liam to feel uneasy and self-conscious, but he was smitten with her beauty and long, blonde curly hair.

The blonde girl came to the ranch several times over the course of that summer. Every time she would giggle and laugh whenever Liam was around. Liam eventually grew tired of the laughs and giggles. He assumed she was laughing at him, which annoyed him, but he wouldn’t show it, as he was attracted to her. Unbeknownst to him, her giggles were simply due to her being nervous around him, a young man, she too found very attractive.

As the laughing and giggling continued, Liam’s growing lust for the girl became fueled with anger.

For some time, Fannie had thought her darkness had been under control. She’d gone several months without having had an episode. But one night that summer, the darkness came to her out of the blue. As always happened when the darkness came, she did not try to change her thoughts, nor did she try to stop them. She felt a sense of longing for the ultimate control she knew she would have over the person in her midst. It was like she had no control over herself during her episodes, but she could control those around her, in the most intense and oftentimes scariest of ways. With this power, Fannie could do whatever she wanted and had done so since she had been very young. She used it to her advantage a few times to scare Liam with the sight of a snake in the tall grass. He would run off, terrified of the slippery serpent. She would laugh, amused at this power to frighten her brother as well as others around her. Although she didn’t know how it happened, or where it came from, she didn’t push against it either as she loved the thrill she felt whenever it happened.

On this particular evening, the only other person nearby happened to have been Liam. They had been tasked with cleaning the barn. As her thoughts turned towards her brother, everything in the barn dissipated around her. She could only see him and nothing else while she could feel something, a presence of sorts, taking over. She felt the desire welling up inside of her, the wanting to control, to use it to her advantage. Her lips curled at the corners, a smile spreading across her face as she stared at her brother.

Liam had stopped sweeping and looked up towards Fannie. There, standing in front of him, was the blonde girl from the mainland. Surprised but happy to see her, he smiled as he propped the broom against the nearest wall. He looked behind her to see where Fannie had gone, but could see no sign of her anywhere. He cleared his throat, wanting to talk to the pretty young woman standing in front of him.

“What a nice surprise to see you here! I thought you were back on the mainland. What are you doing here?”

He saw her smile at him, her bright blue eyes so inviting. He felt himself blushing, his excitement obvious at the sight of her. Just as he was about to ask her if she had seen his sister when she came in, she let out a slew of giggles. Liam’s smile vanished just as quickly as the giggles started. As he watched her, his skin grew warmer as she began laughing hard, pointing at him while doing so. She laughed and jeered at him as she undid the top buttons of her white blouse, exposing the soft skin of her perky breasts. As he watched her undress slowly, still laughing at him, anger filled him alongside a desire that he could no longer hold back. He rushed to her, ripping apart the rest of the buttons of her shirt, grabbing her breasts and kissing her hard on the mouth. Pushing her down on the hay in the corner of the barn, he had his way with her, the blonde girl laughing the whole time, moaning in pleasure in between laughs. Once he was done, he collapsed on her, panting from the excitement and release of his first sexual encounter. As he raised himself off though, he realized the blonde girl was no longer laughing, nor moving. Looking down, he saw his sister, Fannie, eyes wide in fear and shock, pulling down her skirt and closing her ripped blouse with shaky hands. Without a word she ran out the barn and to their home up on the hill.

No one would ever know that Liam thought he was with the girl from Anchor’s Point. Not even Fannie. Though she knew the darkness that overcame her could bring about much trouble and pain to those she inflicted it upon, she understood very little about the evil that poured out of her when she was affected by it. She had no control over what happened when it took hold of her.

She only knew that she often felt this darkness envelop her, creating evil thoughts that scared, yet excited her. This time however, it had cost her a lot more than what she had bargained for. The same dark thoughts would eventually drive her family away.

Once at the house, she had run up to find her father and told him that her brother had attacked her in the barn. After her insistence, Wallace had confronted Liam. The boy claimed he hadn’t been with Fannie, but with the girl from the mainland. He admitted that he had been intimate with the blonde girl, but somehow Fannie had appeared out of nowhere, and the other girl was gone. His father knew better. The girl Liam liked had gone back to her home on the mainland a week before.

When Wallace explained to his daughter that Liam had been confused, that he was convinced she had been the girl from Anchor’s Point, Fannie knew something strange had come over her brother, and it was her own doing. She knew that when the darkness came over her, her thoughts would focus on someone and drive them mad, drive them to see things that weren’t really there. She knew she couldn’t tell her parents this, or anyone else for that matter, as no one would believe her.

Wallace and Hester feared for their children’s sanity, as they both sounded mad, like Henri, their real father, had been before hanging himself years ago. Wallace decided to send Liam away for the rest of the summer, trying his best to keep the twins separated. He hoped that distance would allow them to regain a sanity they both seemed to have lost.

But after Liam was sent away, Fannie had started spending more time in town, trying to escape the dark thoughts. She had met Edmond, and had seduced him, not knowing if it had been the darkness or her own desire to escape the events from the barn.

When it was discovered that Fannie was pregnant, and Edmond had ended his courtship, Wallace feared that Fannie would be driven completely mad. As the rumors spread among the townsfolk, he was sure that Fannie would go crazy, but she’d seemed unusually calm. When Edmond agreed to build Fannie the home, Wallace thought it was a good thing, despite the rumors he knew Edmond had been spreading about Liam. The home seemed to provide Fannie with some stability that had been missing in her life. But throughout her pregnancy, Wallace feared for the safety of her unborn child. Would it be born with this sickness of the mind too? Would it suffer at the hands of their mother, or its uncle?

Now, a few years later, as Fannie sat in the room where her twins slept, she idly wondered if the children had her ability. Would they be able to taint someone’s mind? Would they get a thrill from the darkness when it came?

Was she going even madder by thinking about this? Maybe she wasn’t really going mad at all, but instead being driven into madness by her own children. She wondered; could such evil be passed on?