Chapter 8
Somewhere in Europe

 

The same man who had been outside the cottage when Erin had told Brenda about her brother, was standing looking down on the unmoving form of a man.  “I know you can hear me Charlie.  I have some news for you.  You know how you always thought that your family was always honest with you?  Well I have news for you.”

The man’s eyes opened slowly.  He just laid there and didn’t say anything.  “There I knew you would respond to that,” the man smiled wickedly.  “Did you ever know you had a son?”  The man’s eyes grew wide with disbelief.  “Yes that’s right.  All along you loving daughter let you think that she had been your only child.  Your family loved you so much, that they didn’t tell you when you became a father for the second time.  Now that’s a loving family if I have ever heard of one.”  The man continued to torment Charlie with the story of his young son; he also enjoyed the part when he told him that his son had burned to death in a fire.

Windimear

Kathryn entered the library, she liked to come here to get away from everything, and with the storm starting she could hear the wind and rain quite clearly.  The room was large with books covering all the walls all the way up to the high ceiling and it was fairly dark because of the storm gathering outside.  She spotted Nikolas standing by a window looking out at the water.  “Just the man I was looking for,” She said cheerfully.  “I was surprised to see you and Erin at the breakfast table this morning.  What made you get up so early to come over and have breakfast with us?”

“We didn’t, Erin and I came by last night.”  Nik said not turning around.

“Oh?  Is something wrong?”

“Kind of, Erin seems to have a stalker.  He got into the house last night and left her a disturbing message.”  Nikolas said turning around with a sigh.

“That’s terrible, I hope she’s okay.”  Kathryn bit her lip trying to think of a good way to talk to Nikolas about her fears.

“What is it?  I can tell you didn’t come here to talk about breakfast.  What’s on your mind?”  Nikolas asked softly.

“It’s about you and Erin.  I’m a little worried that’s all.  She’s younger then you and has lived an even sheltered life then you have.  By the way things have been going people are going to start talking and I’m a concerned about what they are going to say.”  Kathryn said trying to find the right words.

“You’ve never been good at sugar coating things Kathryn, what is it that you’re trying to say?”

“Okay, I’ll put it bluntly.  You are 19, she’s 17 and you two are living together.  If even one person gets noisy and calls the police…”

“Kathryn,” Nikolas said cutting her off.  “I understand what you are tying to say.  If you are about us having sex, we’re not.”

“Thank god,” Kathryn said relieved.  “Now that that’s out of the way, what is going on with Erin and this stalker?”

“He broke into the house and left a message in blood on the kitchen table,” Nikolas saw the shock on Kathryn’s face.  “We’re both fine but Erin was pretty shook up.  She called Jason and told him what happened, he should be here any minute to pick us up.  Erin asked me to come with her back to her old penthouse, I don’t think she want’s to be alone right now.”

“Okay, but I think you should talk to Stefan, he didn’t want to admit it but her was thinking the same thing that I was.”

“I’ll do that.”  Kathryn smiled and left the room.  Nikolas walked around the room looking aimlessly at a few of the books.  He finally sat down on a chair and closed his eyes, he opened them a few minutes latter and studied the pattern on the ceiling.  It was nothing extravagant but it had a sense of elegance to the crisscross patterns.

Jason arrived half and hour latter.  He said he would have been there in twenty but the water was extremely rough because of the storm.  Erin sat in silence the whole boat ride back.  She watched the waves crash against each other and listened to the wind howl, the sky had gone from a gray to almost black, and it made everything seem so menacing.  Erin herself was in a fowl mood.  Sonny had called her and said that he was going to be on the next flight back to Port Charles.  Erin had tried to talk him into staying in LA and finishing up his business, but he had told her that she was more important.  It was nice that Sonny loved her so much, but she knew that he was being reckless in leaving some business unattended to in LA.

Nik had noticed Erin’s bad mood the moment she had gotten off the phone and decided that it was a good idea that she not go with him back to the cottage to get their things.  That had only put her in an even worse mood.  She had told him that she “wasn’t a baby and she could pack her own cloths, thank you very much!”  Then she had stormed out of the room and out of the house.  Nik had found her at the stables soaking wet, that had not improved her mood one bit.