Eve and Vincent continued to stand in the cellar room, with Timotei in front of them, who right now pleadingly looked at Eve, so that she would continue with their earlier plan of turning him into a vampire in the future.
In some gaps, when Timoteo and Vincent shared stares, it made Eve wonder if perhaps the black cat had mistaken Vincent for someone else. What if it was someone else in the past family? She asked herself.
Eve bent down and touched Timotei's head, before running it on his back. The black cat tilted its head and purred, "What are you doing?"
"She's trying to see if she can find any memories connected to you from your past," Vincent was the one to answer, while Eve had closed her eyes, trying to pick anything. But all she could see were things that took place in his current and existing life.
Eve turned to look at Vincent and shook her head, "There's nothing in here and he's harmless."
"I told you, I was just hiding my majestic self. What has this world come by not trusting an innocent cat like me?" Timotei questioned them.
Eve said to Vincent, "Maybe I need his previous skeleton to connect to his memories. The current body is given in this life. Maybe if we look for his skeleton we might be able to piece in the puzzle faster?" She then turned to look at Timotei and asked him, "Timotei, you need to remember where you died."
"You ask a very odd question, that sends chills down my body, Eve," Timotei shivered.
"I don't think it will be easy to find a dead cat's skeleton after these many years. But," Vincent paused for a brief moment and said, "Timotei was not an ordinary cat, he was a cat that belonged to the royal family. And most of the royal families treasure even their pet's graves."
"Of course, I was a very important person," Timotei commented as if there was no reason for it to be not true. "People never sat on me, or threw me out of the window or into the burning fireplace. I used to sit on a velvet cushion."
"The royal castle is up in the North, and we'll need to travel there for it," Vincent said to Eve. "Let us see if there are any other portraits in here which might be helpful," he said, turning his gaze to the boards of family paintings. "Scratch another portrait, and I will lock you up here as one of the antiques of the mansion," he said to the black cat, who quickly nodded.
Eve ran her fingertips across the objects in the cellar, but there wasn't anything worthy of information here they could use, and some were empty. As if, with time of catching rust and dust, their memories had eventually faded.
Vincent said to her, "Once we get back to Skellington, let us travel up to the North. In the meantime, let us see if my grandfather or grandmother knows anything about it. You will be travelling with us, Timotei."
"Of course! I wasn't going to have it any other way, considering how I am the key to all the answers... wait, what is the question?" Timotei asked with curiosity, but Eve and Vincent had already started to make their way out of the cellar for the black cat to follow them quickly. "Wait for me!" He looked back to see if any rodent followed him.
When they stepped out of the cellar and returned to the open area where there was abundant light, Lady Ravette and Strix were taking a walk, whispering something while they smiled at each other. On noticing the young ones, Strix remarked,
"Oh, look, the children are back from their little exploration. Found anything interesting?" He asked Vincent.
"Nothing that caught my interest, but I did have a question about the great aunt Gretchen," Vincent responded as they walked towards the elderly couple.
"What do you want to know about her?" Strix's eyebrows slightly furrowed in question.
"Did she ever tell why she tried to kill the males of this family?" Vincent asked, while Lady Ravette's eyes fell on Timotei, who walked close between Vincent and Eve.
Timotei might have lost some of his past memories, but he hadn't forgotten this old vampiress throwing him in a pyre of fire! What did he do? He tried remembering before going 'O'. He had thrown one of her valuable items on the ground for it to break... Those were some good times, he nodded his head. He would have broken more of her things if he knew that she was going to evaporate him in the fire.
Vincent's grandfather replied, "It had something to do with breaking the curse. In the Moriarty family, word was passed from generation to generation, and to her, on what she was destined to do."
"Does this curse go back to the time when King Gauntlet had forcefully captured the sea goddess Nerhys?" Vincent asked, and Strix nodded, which had Eve's eyebrows slightly raised.
"Yes, it is a story our people have heard at least once. Don't know where Gretchen or the other women heard it, but they felt the need to stab their male siblings. Which was why it turned into a little horror, when children were born of different sex than their siblings."
Lady Ravette said, "I remember her shouting that the curse would be broken by stabbing the dagger."
"Ah, yes the dagger. How could I forget," Strix said with a nod. He continued to explain, "She told that the male had to die for the curse to be put to an end. Until then, there would be pain passed down with death, illness and what not. That people wouldn't be happy." With a thoughtful look on his face, he said,
"This is also why Kind Gauntlet's predecessors don't sit on the throne anymore or live in the castle. After tragedy struck, people who were still alive decided that they would stay away from the place, and it would keep their children safe."
"But it didn't end the curse, did it?" Vincent asked, and his grandfather's eyes met his.
"No. It didn't. What we know are only little bits and pieces. There is something you might be interested to look at. Let me show you," Grandpa Strix asked them to follow him, and everyone walked to one of the lounging rooms. He pulled out a drawer and showed them a dagger, which was made of a red stone. "Gretchen used this when she tried to attack me."
Vincent took hold of the dagger and turned it in his hand, "Did you test it on someone?"
When Eve's eyes fell on the dagger, she felt her eyes prickle before her vision turned clear.
Strix nodded, "I did. The vampire died like he would have with a regular wooden stake. With Gretchen in the coffin and Holy Oak isolated, I don't think there's anything to worry about."
But it didn't seem as simple as grandpa Strix said, who looked like there was nothing to worry about. Vincent asked. "You don't mind if I keep this dagger in my possession, do you?"
"Go ahead. It is all yours. Good riddance," Strix laughed.
