The Sorrows of Vivian Gaunt

Her father peered through the fog, trying to navigate his way along the winding road without plunging them into the endless white abyss at the right side of them. Vivie thought he was going a little too fast to be safe, but then, he hadn't really be in the state of mind to care how fast he was driving. Vivie held her breath as they flew around another hairpin turn, still heading up and up into the mountains outside her home town that she hadn't known existed.

At long last he pulled into a driveway, over grown and rustic as it was, and Vivie felt torn with an odd sense of forboding, and a vague inkling of deja vu. The castle-like house appeared between the trees before long, the high, black-roofed turrets lined in wrought-iron with crumbling gargoyles standing their snarling vigil. Vivie shivered and wondered if her father knew that his daughter, who sat in the back seat, was terrified beyond all belief. She'd been woken in the middle of the night, taken from her bed with a gentle shake and a kind, but firm word, and commenced on the nightlong journey by car to his old friend's house. He'd spoken only once to her since waking her, telling her to try to sleep, that they would be there soon.

"We're here." he breathed, with the first smile she'd seen on him in weeks. He looked at her in the rear veiw mirror and she tried to take comfort from the warmth in his familiar blue eyes. He stopped the car in front of the house and stepped out, breathing in the warmer than usual autumn wind. Dead leaves were mashed un-prettily into the gravel of the driveway. What little leaves remained on the trees rustled threateningly as another gust blew around the car. Vivie stepped out, her slippered feet cold on the ground. Her father circled the car to stand by her, shut the door, slipped an arm around her shoulders and led her up the steps on the haunted-looking old house.

"Who lives here?" she asked tentitavely. She'd asked before and recieved no answer.

"A friend. You'll like her. Her name's Sorleigh Gaunt, and she's quite insane." he grinned.

"Why are we here?"

He frowned. "It's not safe at home anymore." And with that, they climbed the rotting wooden steps onto the stone porch and had reached the huge, carved, wooden doors. Vivie knew that the time for talking was done. He knocked three times and waited. Inside, Vivie could here the thundering of feet sprinting down stairs, rushing to the door...they sounded too heavy to be that of a woman.

Abruptly the door swung open. Before them, stood a short, stalky, aggressive looking girl with short, wild hair that shined with a dark rainbow against the black, like a crow's feather in the light. Her eyes were dark and slanted, and looked to have taken the mask of a raccoon around them. She wore heavy boots with an elegant ballroom dress of heavy, rustling black and red satin with torn black lace at the hems. She looked to be only in her late teens, but Vivie knew instantly that she was older; at least as old as her father, if not older.

"Cooper. Been expecting you." she eyed Vivie with intense dislike for the moment that her mad eyes lingered on the girl. "Come." she said shortly, turning heel and marching inside. Vivie's father picked her up and carried her into the house.

Inside, dust gathered menacingly in the corners and seemed to stretch up to the high ceiling, climbing up the walls to do so. The brass chandelier was further decorated with dusty spiderwebs, making it appear jagged rather than elegant. There was no light inside, all the heavy black curtains were drawn. Sorleigh led them through a dark hallway that's walls seemed to slant to the side a little, and every step her father took made an ominous creak as though the floor were about to give way beneath him. Vivie could here things whispering as they passed a locked door with boards nailed across it. The walls seemed to be melting, the old wallpaper peeling and flaking. They passed a rickety looking spiral staircase that went straight up and disappeared into darkness and Vivie stiffled a scream as a loud bang, like a door being slammed, exploded into the silence from above. Her father and Sorleigh took no notice; Vivie tightened her grip on her father's neck.

Then suddenly they were in a dining room, the walls were a warm, red-brown wood, glowing with the light taken from several candles and from the fireplace at the other end of the room. The floor was carpeted with rich red and a grand table lay in the center of the room. On the far wall, above the fireplace and mantel, hung an old tapestry that was the only give-away that they were still in the house that contained the decripit entry room. It was worn, and you could almost not make out what it depicted...almost. It was an eye, wide and red, that reflected in it's pupil, the crest of Gaunt, a sheild with two dragons entwined around it, attacking each other while apparently tied to the shield with what looked like barbed-wire that formed a ghastly 'G'.

Sorleigh Gaunt took a seat in the chair closest to the fire, arching her fingers metitatively. "You told me what you wanted of me, but you did not say she was a child...or that she so resembled your wife." she spat the last word out.

"You didn't ask." her father spoke hoarsely, choosing not to take the seat opposite of Sorleigh. Vivie was secretly grateful. "And you already agreed. I came all the way here, you can't turn her away now."

"I could." Sorleigh snapped, her narrowed eyes ablaze with fury and the flickering light taken from the fire around the room. "Don't think I couldn't. But I won't, Cooper, only because I know your position."

"And for that I am thankful." her father added hastily.

Sorleigh seemed lost in thought. "How on Earth did you remember the phone number after all these years?" she asked thoughtfully, with a hint of a smile at her lips. It was almost a leer rather than a smile, Vivie observed. Vivie waited for her father to answer, but the question was apparently rhitorical, as Sorliegh pressed on before he answered. "Do you know how long you'll be?"

Again, her father didn't answer. He took a breath as though preparing to speak, then let it out in a long exhale.

"You don't expect to come back?" Sorleigh raised a slender eyebrow.

Vivie's heart raced. What was going on? Her father wasn't coming back? What did that mean? He was leaving? Was she going too? She got the feeling that she wasn't.

"What are you talking about?" Vivie demanded. Again her father heaved a sigh, then managed to pry her from his neck and placed her in the dusty chair opposite of Sorleigh. He crouched down and looked into her eyes. She panicked. Her fears were coming true. "You're leaving me?"

"I can't stay Vivie. They're looking for you, and if I'm with you, it'll only be more dangerous for us both."

"Who? You can't leave!" Vivan shouted.

"Insolent child, silence your infantile nonsence! You will wake something up with your screeching!" Sorleigh hissed, standing suddenly, casting a shadow over Vivie and her father. "You know not the cost of your actions, nor your fathers. Silence yourself lest you make yourself a fool."

The house was silent but for a moan from far above that Vivie desperately tried to convince herself was only the wind. Terrified, Vivie clutched at her father, who stood, gazing down upon her with an unfamiliar look in his eyes. It was not warm, and it was not comforting. He removed her hand from his coat roughly. "I have to go."

"You can't." Vivie choked back tears, unsuccessfully. He pulled her into one last hug that held no love or feeling, then turned heel and left. She made no attempt to follow. At the end of the hallway he turned and gave her and Sorleigh one last look, though his narrowed eyes were only for Sorleigh.

"Keep her safe." he said gruffly, his voice resonating as though he were very far away and shouting, when in truth he stood only the distance of a hallway away.

Sorleigh put her hands on her hips. "Only if you promise to try to come back someday. I'm no mother." she snapped irrately. He hesitated, then nodded somberly. Then he was gone and Vivie heard the door close.

Vivie and Sorleigh stood in silence for a moment. Vivie turned her teary-eyed gaze to the taller, older woman. Sorleigh returned the gaze skeptically. With a sigh she sat down again, crossing her arms, seeming to have come to some decision.

"Your name is Vivian?" she spoke it like a fact not a question, but all the same, Vivie nodded. "You are no longer to be Vivian Cooper. No, that name will not do." Sorleigh scowled. "It was your mother's name." she spat. "From now on, you're Vivian Gaunt. This is Gaunt Manor. I am Sorleigh Gaunt. You will call me Sorleigh. Never 'mother' or 'auntie' or any other annoying pet names that your little mind might come up with to make me seem more like a nice person. You'll find out quickly that I am not."

Vivie could only nod, feeling that she was already here, and it sounded as though she would be until she could leave on her own, and that she might as well get used to it.

"Now. I don't care where you sleep. There are too many rooms to count in this place, choose one to your liking, just make sure it's not already occupied. If it is, you're to leave immediately, and it'd be wise never to enter that particular room again. They remember the trespassers." Sorleigh mused, somewhat bitterly.

"Who?" Vivie inquired timidly. Sorleigh shot her a scorn-filled glare.

"The others here, of course." she replied. "Some of them are friendly, but if I may offer a bit of advice: any door that is locked is locked for good reason; do not climb stairs that you cannot see the top of or go down a hallway that you cannot see the end of. The spiral staircase we passed," Sorleigh jerked her head towards the hallway, "is one particularly good example. Even I, the Mistress of Gaunt Manor, do not go up those stairs unless I absolutely have to. Most hallways are safe, but always keep a candle with you, as well as a book of matches. There is only one other staircase, which you saw upon entering, and you can clearly see the top of those stairs." Sorleigh looked to be searching her mind for any other bit of distressing advice that she could bestow upon the terrified child before her. Vivie kept her eyes glued to her hands in her lap, refusing to cry or look as scared as she was.

Sorleigh suddenly seemed to take pity. Her eyes seemed to soften just a little. "Do not distress, girl. The name 'Gaunt' should protect you through less hostile halls. And your father does not mean it when he says he will not return." She stood suddenly. "Come," she said. "I will show you around. This is not a tour, though; Gaunt Manor would be no fun if one knew all of it's secrets right upon entering." Sorleigh smiled. "Some, you shall have to find for yourself, Vivian Gaunt." Sorleigh led Vivie back through the hallway. It was no less terrifying the second passage through. Vivie hurried to keep right up with Sorleigh.

"Mistress?"

"Sorleigh, child." the woman corrected, though not completely unkindly.

"I still don't understand..."

"There's much you don't understand, and much more that you never will." Sorleigh replied. "I do not envy an inquisitive mind in Gaunt Manor; a child at that. You will have to learn to surpress that deadly sense of curiosity to the best of your abilities." They were in the man entry room again and somehow it seemed darker than before; Vivie guessed it was that they'd just left the bright warmth of the dining room. Sorleigh looked around, puzzled. "Where is your luggage?"

"I have none."

Sorleigh blinked. "None?"

"No." Vivie shook her head.

"What are you to wear?"

Vivie looked down at her pajamas and shrugged. Sorleigh cursed and began pacing. 'I am no mother,' she kept muttering to herself. 'No clothes. Povery,' she continued.

At long last Sorleigh sighed and looked down upon Vivie once more. "Well, come on." she sighed, trudging up the stairs, wearily. Vivie followed obediently. Sorleigh stopped at the top of the stairs, watching Vivie climb. "Don't you want to know where, silly child?"

"Where are we going?"

"To my room. And know that if you ever enter it without my permission, I do not care who your father was, I will kill you like I killed your mother."