A Magic Inside

You ring, you ring your bell to show
You're bleeding
I watched, I saw your mind fall
Out of your head.

B a noBody - SOAK
****

Dan was loath to say that his step sisters were anything but delightful. In fact, they were downright rude - but who was Dan to judge them so harshly? Their father had just died, and surely moving all the way to the country into a strange home was a large shock to them. He put their horrid behaviour down to grief, and made it his personal challenge to help them overcome their grief for their father as he had for his mother.

As for his step-mother, he had not much of an opinion for the imposing woman. She had an intimidating kind of beauty to her, a polar opposite to the beauty his mother had. While his mother was soft, Lady Una was sharp; she held herself too stiffly and seemed to communicate in a series of smirks and offhand comments you were never sure we're insults of not.

Dan tried his best to be nice to the Lady, but found it best to just try and avoid his step-mother; something she seemed to have found is best too.

Dan rarely saw her when his father was home, and when he was away, even rarer.

Things changed over the months; lavish parties rife with gambling and waste were held in their parlour a Dan found that hiding away with his father in the office at these times was much more appealing than attempting to bond in a room so filled with smoke that breathing became a chore - and seeing even worse!

But, again, Dan didn't mind so much as long as the house was alive again - and it was, if in a different way to before.

That is, until that fateful journey that would change everything.

"What do you want me to bring back from Paris, darling?" His father asked as Dan was perched on his desk, legs swinging in the space between the wall and the old mahogany.

"Only yourself, father, fit and healthy as you left."

His father chuckled, placing his own down and ceasing the paperwork he has been doing. "Your sisters have asked for lace and parasols - surely there is something you want too?"

Dan thought for a moment and then picked up his father's hand, deftly, he slipped the signet ring off his own finger and placed it in his father's Palm, closing his fingers around the faded metal. "All I want, is for you to bring this back to me - this way, a piece of me will accompany you on your journey, and a piece of your journey will come back with you."

He smiled, tussling Dan's incessant curls with his other hand before dropping the ring into his waistcoat pocket, tapping it for safety. "I'll keep it here, next to my heart always."

***

Months later, Dan is staring out of the window into the overcast night when he sees the lights down the road. He jumps up, leaning forwards to better see the approaching lights through the windowpanes. His breath fogs the view, and he doesn't bother to wipe it away as he shouts for his step-mother.

"Lady Una! Father has returned, the lights are at the gate!"

He heard footsteps descending the stairs, but he was already out of the door before the woman could reply - if she was ever going to.

Dan laughed breathily as he ran towards the approaching carriages, ignoring the cold outside and the stormy clouds above.

"Father!" He shouted, a wide smile on his face as he reached the fountain where the carriage was coming to a stop. There was no reply, and Dan frowned in confusion. "Father?" He said again, stepping forward.

The carriage door opened, and our stepped his father's companion. The door closes behind the grey haired man, his silvery coats shining in the dark. Nobody stepped out behind him. Dan felt his heart begin to sink in his chest.

"My father?" He asked, his breath coming in short pants. The man looked solemn as he stepped towards Dan, taking the boy's hand and placing a small object in his palm.

"I'm sorry, lad."

Dan's fingers automatically closed around the cold object as he stared on in abject horror. "No."

"A sickness befell him on the road, there was naught to be done."

Dan felt himself fall to his knees on the gravel, but he felt nothing as strongly as the anguish in his heart. Somewhere, he heard his step-mother growl in frustration before her presence disappeared back into the house in a for of rage. But he paid no kind to her.

"Thank you." He whispered numbly, and barely noticed when the man drove away once again, the lights of the lanterns disappearing back down the road beyond the gates with the fading clattering of hooves on loose gravel.