Rose Garden Sanatorium

Chapter 13 - Taylor

"Who are all these people?" Taylor asked, looking up at a strange painting of a man with a rather long red silk coat with a fur-lined collar. He reminded Taylor of Henry the Eighth.

She rubbed her freshly bandaged wrist and hand absentmindedly, while she ambled down the dark gothic hallway next to Andrew. After Taylor kindly declined Aldus's offer of a drink or something to eat—although she was feeling hungry as she hadn't eaten since lunch time, she didn't trust them enough—she instead asked Andrew about the house to change the conversation away from food. She also didn't quite want to leave, she felt she had lots of questions unanswered. She wondered if she maybe stuck around a bit more, she might find these answers. Andrew decided to take her for a tour, which he apparently seemed a little too enthusiastic about. She wondered if it was a ploy to distract her from asking questions about the creature that attacked her.

"Mostly distant family of Bane and Mia's," Andrew said absentmindedly as he apparently was somewhere else entirely.

"Family?" Taylor asked, frowning curiously at Andrew. "They're related? Bane and Mia?"

He nodded, clearly pulling himself out of where ever he was. "They all are, Bane and Mia are brother and sister, Elisa is their cousin and Aldus is a... I think he said he's a second cousin or something."

"And you?"

He shook his head. "Not related, just... an old friend of the family's. They let me stay here."

Taylor nodded and watched Andrew curiously, he was no longer frowning but instead looking up at the picture of the strange Henry the Eighth look-alike. She wondered why an adult man was living with a whole different family and all under one roof.

"He looks very much like—"

"Henry the Eighth?" Andrew offered, looking down at Taylor and smiled.

She smiled back, feeling a little overwhelmed suddenly by his presence. "Is he?"

Andrew shook his head and smiled politely at her. "No, he's not. I think this is Bane and Mia's... err... distant family member, but I think he was Romanian like the rest of the family."

"Oh, he doesn't look Romanian." Taylor frowned at the picture.

Andrew looked at Taylor curiously.

"It's the clothing." Taylor shrugged. "It's not typically Romanian."

Andrew shook his head. "It wouldn't be. He lived in England."

"Oh!" Taylor said, and gave a small yet still mildly curious nod as she glanced at the next picture. This one was of a thin pale man who looked a little like a typical evil person sneering at the person painting him, it actually made Taylor shiver a little. But before she had chance to ask who he was, there came shouting from downstairs which strangely echoed up into the hallway. Both Andrew and Taylor looked at each other before Andrew rushed away to the stairs. Taylor followed curiously.

***

"Why should we believe you?" someone yelled. Taylor was greeted with a scene of a group of people she'd never seen before, standing around inside the front door of the house looking extremely angry at Bane, Aldus and the others.

Taylor found the scene a little intimidating. It was a group of people for a start, not just the odd one or two new people. The man right at the front who was pointing angrily at Bane, looked like he was about to attack him. Although he looked like he was old enough to be Bane's father, well he certainly must have been in his sixties at least. He had a mat of thinning white hair on his head and he was tall, as tall as Bane was. Although the large muscles that threatened to break free from his navy cardigan made Taylor think that maybe this man really could hold a fight with Bane.