The Love Club

o. prologue

THE LOVE CLUB,
—scene i: lifetime with the kobals
SILENCE IS SO LOUD ONCE YOU'RE
ALONE

JULY 26, 1985
WEST SUSSEX, ENGLAND

               𝐓he heavy sensation of sorrow waltzed through the corridors and danced throughout the bedrooms; accompanied by the dust, the floorboards creaked with agony only the children could feel. The chilled hallways of the Kobal household suddenly felt frozen with sin and fear as the children attempted to mitigate the blast of the winters within the eyes of Alphard Kobal, but the only quiet they found was when he went into his office to do jobs nobody knew of. And even then, the ice of the house only warmed to the slight crispness of an autumn midnight that held no stars or moon in its sky.

   There seemed to be a vacancy of happiness within the home, which would appear strange as there were presently two seven-year-old girls, occupying the family room, wordlessly tugging on the loose strands of the rug. Dorothy and Josephine Kobal were not alone, however, as there were many shadows with untold owners as well as their older sister, who went by the name Winifred. Each soul that retired to the foyer of this miserable dwelling would be cornered by the sighs of children only half their age. Winifred was merely fourteen when it happened.

   They all knew of Alphard's plan and his motive, but they never had intended for this weight of sadness to constantly rest upon the shoulders of all who enter. Being only seven, Dorothy and Josephine did not equal the erudition of Winifred and the information she had on the event, but they knew how their mother had died.

   After all stains had been washed away, her blood remained on the worn boards of the floor; although her screams had been muted, frightened exclamations of a woman — a mother — did not cease; the air of Constance Kobal had been erased by the one she thought loved her, and yet her memory lived on within her children's minds. Her deep eyes and ebony hair had been echoed onto her daughters, making the death of a parent even more difficult when a brother was to look into the eyes of a sibling and only see his mother. None of them had expected for the sleekness of her locks to turn to frizz under the weight of a father. The only one of them that could have a had a taste of warning was Booker, the son who had aided a father in the murdering a mother.

   Dorothy and Josephine were merely naive children, but they were told, with immense detail, about the blood that was to be flown from the body they had come from. Now motherless, the two remained the young twins who rested silently within the family room that will never hold their whole family again. Anxiously being watched by the two dark eyes of Winifred, they stared longingly to the entrance that took one from the room and out into the hallway, wishing that the coldness of their home would soon finish.

   The two had been yielded identical, down to each freckle, and had concluded that they did not want to seem separate to those that looked upon them. They were never seen apart, and now that a dreadful event had welcomed itself into the lives of the Kobal family, they would never be seen alone. For they may appear fresh and simple, but Dorothy and Josephine had been created with minds of well-mannered and vulnerable adults.

   They did still indulge in adolescence games and foolish thoughts, but then again, they were seven. Before Winifred could introduce the twins to the novel she had been holding ( she had been hoping that, perhaps, Dorothy and Josephine would put an end to their dismal actions and instead entertain themselves with the exploits of an influential character. The tale of Alice Liddel was one of many that Winifred thought the twins would enjoy ), Booker came barreling into the room with watery eyes, which he tried to play off as a result of his imaginary allergies, and a handful of thick, crimson roses. The girls in the room all looked to him, not knowing how he managed to clutch five roses with sharp thorns attacking his fingers. Winifred opened her mouth to speak, but she was quickly cut off by a long-drawn inhale from Booker.