Cullen - Origins [English Version - FINISHED]

Chapter Thirty-Eight

It was a spacious house, worthy of a family full of wealth and resources. The different rooms of the house were bright and spacious, richly decorated. Expensive paintings and all sorts of silver and gold treasures adorned the furniture and walls. A large white marble staircase stood at the end of the entrance hall, leading to the bedrooms of the household. The living room was next to the entrance, just as ornate and spacious as the rest of the house. This is where Anne Marie was on the evening of her tenth birthday in 1976. As usual during the long winter nights, she stood by the big fireplace watching the fire crackling in the den. Sometimes she would sing when the wind blew too hard and scared her. When the storm began to thunder, she would wrap herself in her blanket and cover her ears until the fury of the night subsided. Sometimes her mother or father would come downstairs to reassure her, and the three of them would sit on the couch, half asleep.

But that night, her parents were wide awake. They were sitting in the dining room, discussing over a cup of tea. It had been a long and difficult day : the family business was going bankrupt, and his father and uncle had no choice but to find a solution before they were completely ruined. The two brothers had French parents, and their origins were unfortunately not in their favor during this crisis. That night, no one in the household had been able to get to sleep, and they ended up settling downstairs. As a ten-year-old, Anne Marie understood the situation well ; she was sad because she knew that sooner or later they would have to leave their big house. What would become of them ?

That evening, they were not expecting any visitors. They were therefore surprised to hear voices close to the front door. When the doorbell rang, surprise ran through the entire household. Her father went to open the door, while her mother approached Anne Marie. The little girl had noticed the look of concern in her mother's eyes. But what was she afraid of ? Anne Marie had taken her hand to reassure her. Her mother looked down at her child and smiled.

- Don't worry, she had said to her, as if to reassure herself of the strange visit, maybe they are just lost travelers.

Anne Marie had believed her that evening. Her mother was always right. She turned her attention back to the flames, pulling her blanket tighter around her. Without really realizing it, the little girl let go of her mother's hand a little and her mother decided to join her husband. Her anxiety had still not left her. She had dropped her small pocket watch, fallen near the girl, so much her fear was big. The girl had taken it in her hand, reassured by its cold and soothing touch. Anne Marie would remember this moment forever ; just before her parents' scream of terror filled the house, she had looked up at the little watch she held in her hand : it was three o'clock in the morning. Then she heard her mother yelling at her to run away. Anne Marie had sat up, alert. When she turned around to face the lobby, she stopped. In front of her, her mother's mouth was wide open and her eyes were wild, but she was already almost dead. A man was cutting her all over and drinking her blood greedily ; blood was running down the immaculate tile floor, and the man's clothes were stained with the red liquid. It was when the girl dropped her blanket to the floor that the man looked up. His eyes stared at her with such intensity that Anne Marie could not make a move. Then the man returned to his primary occupation before the eyes of the ten-year-old girl. There was a second intruder in the house, Anne Marie was convinced. She could still hear her father's moans of pain, but she could not see him. All she could see was her mother, with a blank stare. When the man had finished, he left with his accomplice without glancing at the girl. She remained for a long time without moving, watching the lifeless body of her mother, drained of blood, on the ground. It was only in the early morning, when the neighbors found them, that she was taken to her aunt and uncle who lived a few streets down.

She could never talk about what she had seen. She couldn't sleep, obsessed by the men who had taken her parents' lives. Obsessed by their hungry, thirsty eyes, greedy with an appetite she could not understand. Obsessed by their animal, bestial behavior, devoid of pity towards those they had killed. For a long time, she could not look the others in the face, convinced that all adults were capable of this murderous madness. Then, when she herself became an adult, she understood that she could never love. Immersed in her work and research, she drowned all her feelings, repressed them to the depths of her heart. Love, pain, joy, happiness, sorrow, were now complex patterns, recorded in dozens of scientific notebooks.

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The Holy Mother glanced at her pocket watch. They had no time to waste ; fortunately, they had soon arrived at their destination. Walking along yet another and final hallway, they eventually found themselves in front of a metal door. A room known only to her until now, the Holy Mother had made sure that this small room was not written on any site map. The police were going to have a hard time finding them ; and even if they did eventually find this room, they were going to have a hard time before they could open it. With a victorious smile, the woman stood in front of a small screen next to the door. She put her right hand on it, waited for the device to detect her fingerprint, and then typed in a complex code. The door opened with a creak.

- Send them in, she ordered the soldiers.

She closed the door behind her, making sure no one was watching. Satisfied, she locked the door from the inside with her other handprint, before turning back to her patients with a smile on her face.

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