Wrath

It feels strange being inside someone else’s memories. Annaliese guides me into a great wall of fog surrounding the manor, and we find ourselves at the creek in Sturm’s Thicket. A young girl, no older than 12, in maid’s clothes, runs along the edge of the creek. From the other side, a boy the same age as her comes sprinting in formal attire. He leaps across the creek and tags the girl, and they both stumble and trip together. 

They look at each other for a moment, then break into laughter. 

“I got you, Anna!” The boy says. 

She shakes her head. “Nuh uh!” 

Annaliese stands beside me, watching them. “Erwin and I grew up together,” She explains. 

“You worked for his family,” I reply. She nods, confirming my theory. 

Everything around us turns to fog for a moment, and then we find ourselves in the hall of the manor, watching the young version of Annaliese as she presses her ear to a door, trying to listen in to what’s happening on the other side. She’s a little older now – 16 perhaps? 

“You are not going to continue to embarrass this family!” A man’s voice shouts from the other side of the door. I can hear several loud smacks, then the man says, “Get out of my sight!” 

Young Annaliese steps away from the door in a hurry just as it opens. Erwin steps out, his blond hair a mess and his eye swollen, with bruises all over the left half of his face and a cut on his lip. 

Annaliese reaches for him. “Erwin, are you -” 

He brushes her hand away and takes off running, so she follows him down the hall. The spirit Annaliese and I are bound to Young Annaliese, we drift through the manor following her like tethered ghosts as she follows Erwin outside. 

She finds him sitting on a fallen log by himself, tears in his eyes. 

“Erwin?” Annaliese says as she approaches him. 

He wipes his eyes with the sleeve of his linen shirt and looks at her as she kneels down in front of him and takes his hands. “I didn’t want him to see this,” He whispers. “I didn’t want him to think he really hurt me.”

“I’m sorry, Erwin,” Annaliese replies. “He’s just a mean old drunk.” 

“But he wants me to go to England! I’d have to leave for years and I don’t want to… I don’t want to leave you behind.” 

“It’s going to be okay, even if you go, I’ll always be here for you. I’ll ask Magnolia to teach me to read and write so we can send each other letters,” she replies. 

Annaliese sits beside him on the log and rests her head on his shoulder. 

The memory fades again, and I find myself in a small bedroom, late at night. Annaliese is now 20, and looking very similar to her spirit form, except that she seems off somehow. It takes a while, watching her sit at her desk penning a letter, for me to realize why. 

She’s very thin, and a little pale, and she seems uncomfortable. She keeps shifting in her seat or touching her abdomen, as if in pain. 

She finishes her letter and smiles to herself. 

“What does it say?” I ask the spirit Annaliese. 

“Nothing special. A recap of what I was doing every day, how I was waiting for Erwin, how I missed him, and I was thinking of him, how I wondered if he would recognize me when he finally came home.” 

The world fades away again as we move on to the next memory. 

Annaliese works in the foyer, mopping the floors. She seems even thinner, and fragile, as if she were made of glass. The sound of horses fills the air, and she rushes to the window to see the carriage pull up to the house. 

Ewin steps out in his black suit, his blonde hair combed back, followed by a much older man who reminds me of the skeleton that grabbed my arm before, in the dining hall. 

As Erwin enters the manor, he glances at Annaliese and flashes her a smile when the other man isn’t paying attention. 

Some time later, Annaliese sees Erwin leaving on foot and heading into the forest, so she decides to follow him. 

They meet by the creek, and embrace each other warmly, and share a kiss. 

“Anna,” he says, stroking her sunken cheek. “I thought about you constantly when I was in England. I have missed you so terribly, only the thought of seeing you again could will my heart into beating for yet another day. I saw many things whilst at Cambridge, but nothing compares to the beauty I come home to find in your eyes.”

“Oh Erwin,” She says, blushing. “Such fanciful words. What am I to do with you?” 

“Marry me,” He says proudly. “Be my wife.”

“What about your family?” She asks, looking back into his eyes. 

“Our time in this world is far too short to spend it denying ourselves what we know to be true in our hearts. I realized as I spent all my lonely nights yearning for you, that I am in love with you, Anna. I need you to be my wife, I cannot suffer to take another breath without you.”

She nods. “I love you, I will be yours, forever!” 

As they embrace, the spirit and I are brought to the next memory. Annaliese sits in the corner of a sitting room, crying, next to an older woman with blonde hair and a regal, elaborate gown. Erwin stands in the middle of the room with the man from the carriage. 

“She is a maid!” The older man yells. Erwin’s father, I assume. “I will not allow you to give my name to this servant!” 

“That’s not your decision!” Erwin shouts back. “This is my name to give, and I choose to share it with her. I love her, and you can’t stop this marriage!” 

“Love,” His father scoffs. “You sound like a little boy.” 

“If loving her makes me a little boy, then let my heart forever remain a child’s. I tell you now neither God nor men will stop me from marrying her. I will spend my life with her.” 

“It will be a life of poverty then. You will never again see our family fortune. I’ll burn it before I allow you to take even a single piece of it,” His father spits out. 

Annaliese sits in the corner quietly sobbing, clutching her abdomen in pain. 

The woman sitting with Annaliese says, “Please, Friedrich, don’t say such things. Annaliese has served our home faithfully for over a decade now, she is loyal and Godly… Is it so horrible he should come to love her?” 

Friedrich kicked over a rocking chair by the fire, then snapped one of the legs with a follow-up kick. 

“Have any of you considered the shame this brings to our family? Hm? Have you thought for even a moment, how many opportunities we will lose now? We could have united the Sturms with a powerful family and started a dynasty that would shape this country’s future for centuries to come. But with this scandal, he’ll never achieve anything,” Friedrich said, scowling. 

“I’ve earned the love of a kind, wonderful woman, that is what I’ve achieved,” Erwin retorts, walking over to Annaliese and offering her his hand. 

“I swear on my life, you will regret this,” Friedrich says, storming out and slamming the door when he goes. 

The blonde woman, Erwin’s mother, stands and places her hand on the young couple’s shoulders. “I’ll talk to him. I hope you know Annaliese, I have known you all your life, and I know you will make my son happy. That’s all I care about.” 

“Thank you, my Lady,” Annaliese replies. 

Erwin wipes away Annaliese’s tears, then says, “Yes, thank you, mother.” 

Everything turns to fog once more and we are back in the manor, in Erwin’s bedroom. The room is illuminated by the fireplace, and it is late in the night. Annaliese lies in bed sickly and frail, with Erwin in a chair at her side, clutching her hand. Her breathing is shallow and labored, as if something heavy is sitting on her chest, and every minor movement makes her wince. 

“Why won’t the doctors make you better?” Erwin whispers, as tears start to fall from his eyes. “My father did this to you, didn’t he? What is this, some kind of poison?” 

Annaliese opens her mouth to speak, but she can’t. Her voice is long-gone. 

“I swear to you, he won’t get away with this. None of them will,” Erwin growls. “Every day you suffer, they will suffer tenfold.” 

“You’re dying,” I say to Annaliese’s spirit as she watches the memory unfold with me. 

She nods. “I didn’t know what was happening to me. I couldn’t understand why my body was always in pain, and why I kept getting thinner and thinner.” 

“You were probably sick for a long time. Probably from before Erwin even got home from England.” 

“Yes.” 

“So he thought his family had you killed, but in reality…” 

The Annaliese in the memory grows still. Her breathing slows, and then stops, and the light leaves her eyes. 

“Anna?” Erwin asks, standing up and looking her over. “Anna!” 

I look away, but I can still hear his wailing cries. It reminds me too much of when I lost Yukiko. Each of his sobs feels like a dagger to my heart, an agonizing reminder of my own loss. 

The memory fades out, but that sound continues to haunt my mind and trigger unpleasant memories of my own. 

Annaliese and I find ourselves in the dining room. Friedrich and his wife, and eight more sit around the table, enjoying their meals and drinking wine. 

“You were already in your spirit form when you witnessed this, weren’t you?” I ask. 

Annaliese nods. 

The door of the dining room bursts open, and Erwin stumbles in dishevelled. His face is scruffy, and his hair is unkempt. His clothes are dirty and ill-fitting, and he appears drunk. 

“Erwin?” His mother says, but as she tries to stand she stumbles back in her chair. All around the table, the guests start to seem unfocused, uncoordinated, and weak. 

“I know what you did… What all of you did!” Erwin says, his voice dripping with venom and hatred as he glares around the room.

“Erwin, that’s enough!” Freidrich says, but he chokes on his words and begins to cough. 

“You’re nothing but liars and murderers. You all smile to my face and then you betray me and poison my wife!” 

Friedrich’s coughing turns violent, and others around the table begin to cough too. “What did you do?” 

“You took everything from me!” Erwin screams. “And now I’m taking everything from you.” 

One by one, the people around the table collapse, Friedrich falling last. And once they are all gone, Erwin takes his father’s cup, and swishes the liquid inside around for a moment. 

“Your beloved dynasty ends here, Father.” With one big gulp, he swallows the liquid and slams the cup down. 

Everything fades away, and Annaliese and I are left in a foggy void. 

“So Erwin died then, and he left behind a spirit born of his paranoia and anger,” I say. 

Annaliese nods. “And I remained to try and soothe his spirit… but I could not save him. I was too weak, the power of his hatred warded me away, and I couldn’t get close.” 

“What a mess,” I remark. 

“Yes, it’s a terrible mess, and it isn’t your responsibility. But you are the first person to cross our paths who could really put our spirits to rest. I have no right to ask, but please help us.” 

“Seeing as how I can’t leave as long as he remains, I don’t have much choice in the matter. I can’t promise I can defeat him, but I’ll do my best.” 

Annaliese bows her head to me, and there is a sudden flash of light. 

I stumble backward and fall onto the floor of the library, with Annaliese in her jackalope form in front of me, and Lorelei kneeling beside me. 

“Are you okay?” Lorelei asks, inspecting me for injuries. 

“Yeah. And I think I’ve figured out how to defeat the Ghost of Stormcrest once and for all.”