One Way Bridge

The beginning.

The  whole place is silent as Raphael and I walk through the doors . We are at the entrance of the ground floor . The wooden walls encircle the staircase leading to the greater part of the house . There is nothing but portraits of flowers here . The rest of the family pours into the room after us . Arthur ,Ricky,Howard and Reed coming into view from our left. Four other women to our left and Sebastian, Mark,Julia,Seth are on the stairs. Raphael takes my right hand into his and I lace my fingers with his .
"So you made up huh?" Seth rolls his eyes ,"Because I was sure I did a good job back there." He adds.
"Apparently not good enough." Sebastian snorts .
"Shut up!" Is Seth's chagrined reply .
"Don't you ever speak, princess?"He diverts his attention to me . I guess what I did got his attention . Raphael stiffens beside me . I place a hand on his arm . He glances over at me . I can see the storm in his eyes .
" Don't ." I say to him.
"So you can speak?" Seth pushes further.
"Yes I can." I snap at him.
"Look Seth I would appreciate if you stop trying to show your authority over everyone .You are the eldest child here. We get the point .No body is fighting for that oh so great honor with you . You can keep it ." He glares at me angrily . Raphael 's smile is as bright as the sun.
"Someone's been toasted ." Sebastian mocks . Seth storms out of the place or at least he tries to until Arthur stops him when he is almost out of the door . We all turn to him.
"This is a family matter ,Seth .You can't just walk out."
"Then in that case consider me not part of this family ." he replies coldly. Arthur flinches in pain.
"Granted." Someone else speaks up. Its one of the four women. She is taller than the rest and gorgeous with black hair . She looks a lot like the two of them.
"You want to walk out on family ? Then don't come back . Leave !Go on . But forget that I am your mother on your way out. "
"You stopped being that years ago." Seth says and walks out .
Everyone is left stranded for a while .Arthur walks up to his wife and attempts to comfort her but she storms off upstairs . Arthur sighs .
"Lunch anyone ?" Arthur announces lamely worn out. Everyone heads towards a room .I am conscious of Raphael dragging me to that direction but for some reason my eyes remain fixed on the stairs that took Jean up to her room. Her solace . The view of the red carpeted stair case is torn away from me once we are at the dinner table .
I am seated across from Julia whose eyes are trained on me . Raphael is to my right .
"Excuse me. I am not really hungry." I admit . Raphael's eyes snap to me . I give him a small reassuring smile.
"Should I come with you ?" He asks unfooled  .
"No , that won't be necessary ." I say getting up . I head out of the room and up the stairs trying to find my way to Jean's room . I knew how she felt . Everybody always thought you would be fine and that you didn't need them when you pushed them away but in truth you always just needed someone to persist . I finally arrive at the second floor . The hallway has thousands of doors but only one is ajar . I guess that to be the one and walk towards it .The closer I get to it, the louder her muffled cries grow. I pause at the threshold second thinking my next move .
"If it's easier to walk away for him then he never loved or felt part of this from the start." I suggest walking in . The room is dark but I can spot Jean's silhouette seated at the edge of the bed with her back to me and her eyes fixed on the dull deserted road . I gaze out at the road from the glass wall. She sniffles.
"It's easier losing once ,Sam." She sighs,"Twice is a battle." Her reply gives me a little more courage to proceed. I walk up to her and sit beside her.
"You know when I got married to Arthur I was sure nothing could make me regret it .I was young and he was a hunk." She chuckles.
"When we first met he blew my mind. Strong ,tall,handsome and imagine my shock on finding out he was an angel." That gets my attention.
"So you are not ?" She smiles at me.
"No,darling. And you and Jonathan aren't the first couple too. It's in our lineage . We are a cursed lineage. "
"How?" I ask alarmed.
"I am sure you heard of  Isis .  She was said to be the eldest daughter to Saturn . He was the Lord of the Rings. Well, Legend says she fell in love with a mortal ,Ambrose Cage .Jonathan 's Great Great Great Great Great grandfather . She bore him a son Isidore and he turned out to have wings .  This caused great division amongst the gods .Hades ,Prometheus and Dionysus wanted nothing to do with their blood being mixed up with humanity while Zeus had no problem with it. He himself had born Hercules . So the trend went on as Isidore fell in love with Electra who was in the lineage of Eros and their child turned out to bear more power than Isidore . They bore Elspeth who could not help but desire Griffith ,an outsider ,raised in the wilderness by witches and they bore Arthur. Hades,Prometheus and Dionysus tried to complain but they were ignored so they laid a curse on Arthur and I . They swore we would never have children but Isis would not allow it. She could not watch her generation end. She went to Rhea,Goddess of fertility and offered a sacrifice and I was to give birth to  three sons. We thought that would be the end of the curse but it wasn't . Jonathan and Ulysses are twins. They would fight . One to serve and the other to be served. "She pauses tears rolling down her face .
Raphael is a twin?
" I lost Ulysses to Dionysus a long time ago . We tried all we could to save him but he grew bitter with time . Once on their tenth birthday Arthur and I offered a sacrifice to Aphrodite asking her to help him. She caves us a golden apple to give to him to eat.  Little did we know Dionysus had given him a sword and ordered him to stab the apple thrice . The sword was enchanted. Aphrodite was very upset . She  granted him his darkest desire and made him completely evil. His wings and hair turned as black as his heart . Ulysses disappeared one day into thin air and we haven't seen him since ." she pauses and I watch her in awe .
"You're afraid Seth will join him ?" She nods slightly before breaking down .
"I don't know why he hates us all so much . He used to be like Jonathan . Happy .Now he is a replica of Ulysses and Arthur can't do anything about it. " I pull her in for a hug .
"He'll come around . I know he will." I try to soothe the storm that I know is raging inside her .We sit like this for a while . Both lost in thought .