Dangerous Illusions

Chapter 7

"Bad things always happen to our family on Valentine's Day. Particularly every seven years, like this one. Adam thought this would be our one chance to get so close to a holy relic of St. Valentine that we could actually pick it up and hold it and maybe undo it, but...I don't think it worked."

"I don't feel so good..."

"Poor lamb. Just rest."

"What's so bad that happens on Valentine's Day?" Audrey said.

"Not much, I guess. Our mother murdered our father on this day, though"

Audrey choked. "Oh. Oh my—"

"God? Yes, God had something to do with it. When Mom realized what she'd done, she killed herself too. But the whole thing wasn't really her fault; she just lost control. It happens to all of us sooner or later."

Briony felt hot all over and her skin itched. Audrey seemed to be trying to move away but Briony wrapped her limbs tighter around the girl.

"Adam killed someone once too: our youngest brother," she said. "He would have been 21 this year. But nobody blames Adam. It wasn't really his fault either. I think he wishes someone would kill him one of these years. Do you think I ought to?"

"I...I think I'd better check on everyone else. Please let me go...".

"You don't want to see what's happening in there," Briony said. "It's awful, really. Kieran and Adam made a real mess of it while we were in here. Boys will be boys. Hey, do you want to know a secret?" She licked Audrey' ear and then whispered into it: "I didn't really mean it when I kissed the saint's bones. The truth is, I like the curse a little. It's fun."

Audrey' heart was beating like a little trapped bird. Briony could smell her sweat. The girl whimpered. "What's going to happen?" she said.

Briony smiled. "Don't worry. You won't feel a thing."

Audrey had less than a second to scream, but it was enough to wake Inus. He sat up, rubbing his temples. "What the hell is that noise?" he said.

Briony turned away from Audrey, wiping her mouth. "Oh good, you're up." She slinked over to him on all fours and, to stop him from getting up, sat on his lap, wrapping her bare legs around him and squeezing. He tried to blink away the grogginess and alcohol haze.

"What happened to you?" he said. "Are you...hurt?"

"I'm fine. I'm f*****g fantastic. Now, do you wanted to hear the rest of the story about our family? It's an old story. When St. Valentine was beheaded? One of our ancestors was there to see it, and he mocked the Christian priest on the chopping block. All good fun in those days, you know, just part of the crowd, but Valentine must not have appreciated it. After they cut his head off, the head spoke, and it put a curse on that man and every one of his descendants. That's why we came to kiss his feet and ask for forgiveness. Do you want to know what the curse was?"

Something was dripping nearby, and there was a sound like a dog growling in its sleep as it dreamed. Inus seemed to be frozen. Briony whispered in his ear:

"That every seven years, we would become wolves."

Inus swallowed.

"Now isn't that a silly story?" Briony stretched and yawned, showing her teeth.

"I'm hungry again. It sounds like Kieran and Adam were pretty greedy in there, but that's all right." She kissed him once with bloody lips. "I just want you all to myself."

***

Briony felt sick. She wasn't alone: Adam had been in the bathroom for half an hour making retching sounds. He'd eaten too much.

Briony knocked on the door. "You need help in there?"

"Let him be," said Kieran, but Briony went in anyway. The smell was staggering. The toilet bowl was filled with a red mess. Adam was wiping his mouth on one of the hotel's monogrammed towels.

Briony put a hand on his arm and he pushed it away. "Don't do that," she said. She slid her arms around him in a hug. He squirmed for a few seconds but she didn't let go and, gradually, he relaxed into it. He sniffled a couple times on her shoulder. "It's not your fault," she said. "Remember what Mom used to say: Everyone loses it sometimes. You have bad years. It's the way it is."

"It's my fault there were so many people around."

"Yeah. But you were trying to help." She wiped a spot off his cheek, then one off of her shoulder where he'd lain. "It's that stupid saint's fault anyway."

"Maybe he didn't realize what he was doing either..." Adam said.

He started to follow her but after a second had to rush back to the toilet bowel. She sighed and shut the door.

Kieran sat by the window, drinking black coffee and working on his laptop. "He's right. We shouldn't have been there in the first place," he said. Briony closed his screen when she passed.

"It was a good idea even if it didn't work."

"It was a terrible idea," Kieran said. "But we all we went along with it so there's nothing else to say."

Briony saw that he was gathering his bags. "Do you really have to go?" Briony said.

"I have an early flight. And I don't want to be here when they find what's in that crypt."

"I don't think we have to worry about that. The people Inus bribed probably don't want to have to answer any questions. I have a feeling the whole mess is just going to disappear under a pile of missing person's reports."

"Even so. Anyway, you're mad at me, so that means my work here is done."

"I'm not that mad..."

For a second he looked as if he didn't know what to say, and then he surprised her by handing her a box wrapped in red paper. "Here: For your birthday. And to say thank you for the card."

Briony turned the box over in her hand, speechless for a moment. "Oh Kieran...did you get me a Valentine's Day present?"

"Let's not call it that."

"Aren't you sweet? Oh, you can't leave now. Look, why don't you put off San Luis and come with me to New Zealand for a few days? Extended vacation."

"I really can't."

"Sure you can. Come on, we're all family, why don't we ever see each other?"

"Briony, stop."

"I don't want to stop, I want to spend time with my brothers like normal people."

"We're not normal people."

"But we can still be a family." She dragged him back toward the couch and tried to grab the suitcase out of his hand. "You can't leave until I've opened my present, right? So I'm just not going to open it until you agree to stay."

"Briony..."

"And then I'll fly out to see Maura and the twins can spend a week with their Aunt Briony and I'll spoil them rotten and everything will be—"

"Maura doesn't want to see you. None of us want to see you, Briony." Adam emerged from the bathroom. Briony saw Kieran flinch, but Adam kept talking.

"Kieran doesn't want to spend time with you when he doesn't have to, and neither do I, and none of us want to spend time with each other either, and if Mom was still alive she wouldn't ever want to see any of us either."

Briony was speechless. She felt like she'd been punched in the stomach.

"And it's not because we don't love you," Adam said. "Of course we do. But we all just want to forget about this, and we can't do that when we see each other, and that's why we don't ever see each other." He sighed. "That's the truth."

First Briony said nothing. Then she slapped hi. When she wound up to do it again Kieran stopped her and, a second later, she fell into Adam's chest and started to cry.

Kieran touched her on the shoulder once, then shook Adam's hand, and then left the two of them alone in the suite, taking his bags. After a while the crying stopped and they sat on the couch, leaning on one another. Sniffling, Briony said, "It's a shame, but I really think this whole thing has ruined Rome for me."

Adam nudged her. "What did Kieran give you?"

"Oh! I almost forgot." She picked up the box. It seemed heavy for its size. She tore the red paper off and fumbled with the lid. When she finally got it open she blinked for a few seconds, and then she laughed.

"Oh my. Look at that. He really is sweet, isn't he? In his way?" She held it out to Adam. "See? Just like the card."

Adam's breath caught in his throat. "Oh!" he said.

"It's a heart."