#Philomena O’ Bulb | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

icecoldflames · 4 years ago

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Chapter 8 - The Mystery of Sanders Castle

Masterlist

Previous Chapter

***

“What is it?” Roman asked for the thousandth time, trailing after Patton the next morning. Satomi was at his side, just as excited as he was.

Patton grinned, glancing over his shoulder at them. “I’m walking as fast as I can without sprinting through the halls. Here, look.” He gestured to his own dorm door and pushed it open. “I think all of my roommates are at breakfast.”

“You have Logan’s bedroom,” Satomi said in awe, managing to squeeze her way past Roman so she could enter second. “That’s totally cool. I wish my dorm was here. All I have is a lousy guest bedroom.”

“Well, what is it?” Roman asked again, beginning to get even more impatient than he already was. “I don’t think I can take it much longer!” “Alright, alright,” Patton said with a laugh and kicked over a colourful rug to reveal the wooden floor.

Roman watched with bated breath as Patton kneeled down and ran his fingers over the boards carefully. He paused at one specific spot and dug his fingernails between the boards. They creaked and eventually gave way, half of the board flipping up so it looked like a seesaw. Patton pulled up a couple more boards so the three of them could get down into the little room below.

Once the three of them got in, Roman was pleasantly surprised by how roomy it was. There was a small desk and two chairs with plenty of extra space.

“Whoah, even I didn’t know about this place,” Satomi said, stomping her feet on the stone floor and inspecting the chairs.

“I found this place last year,” Patton explained with a smile. “I was studying for exams one night and I think I was a little loopy. I had heard there were secret rooms and passageways in the castle and wondered if my dorm had them. I took what was supposed to be a thirty minute break and happened upon this place. Cool, huh?”

Roman eyed the desk and noticed a dark book. As he reached out to grab it, Satomi smacked his hand away. “Don’t touch that unless you’ve got gloves! We don’t want your fingerprints and finger oils all over it!”

“Uh,” Patton said, scratching his neck awkwardly, “I already touched it plenty of times before.”

Satomi crossed her arms, miffed, and stood on one of the chairs so she could climb out of the secret room. “I’ll be back in a sec. Don’t touch anything else while I’m gone. You hear me? Nothing.”

Five minutes later, Satomi came back in with three pairs of disposable, blue, gloves the hospital would have and a notebook and pencil. “They’re non-latex,” she added in as she passed them out.

Roman wondered how often Satomi used these disposable gloves. He pictured a box of them on her nightstand in her dorm.

“Now you can pick up the book,” Satomi said with a nod, laying her notebook and pencil on the desk.

Roman greedily reached his hands out to pick up the thick book. He flipped to the first page. The handwriting was so loopy and regal it was almost too hard to pick out.

This diary belongs to Philomena Scharf

Satomi grabbed the book out of Roman’s hands. “Sorry,” she muttered apologetically as she began flicking through the pages quickly, her eyes roving over the writing. Was she a really fast reader or was she just looking through the diary to find one specific word? Whatever Satomi was thinking was something important, Roman could tell. The tension in the room was crushing.

“What is it?” Patton asked, looking over her shoulder, eyebrows furrowed.

Satomi hadn’t finished flicking through when Roman could practically see the light bulb go off in her head. “I think Philomena is the founder of this school! Her handwriting is exactly like Ronan’s,” Satomi said, putting down the journal.

“Are you sure?” Patton asked, scratching his head. “We learned about Ronan M.V. Gighe-Lapillio in history class and I did a project on him. Him actually being Philomena doesn’t really make sense. I mean, just the fact that—” Patton’s eyes went as large as saucers.

“What is it?” Satomi demanded impatiently.

Patton picked up the notebook and pencil Satomi had laid down and began scrawling something on it, biting his lip in the process. “Have you ever thought…” he began, then trailed off as he erased something. “Have you ever thought,” Patton tried again, “that the M and V in Ronan’s name doesn’t actually stand for anything in particular?” He threw the notebook down on the desk in victory, a smug smile on his face.

Both Roman and Satomi looked down at the page in curiosity.

Ronan M.V. Gighe-Lapillio

R O N A N M V G I G H E L A P I L L I O

L O G A N V I R G I L P H I L O M E N A

Logan & Virgil & Philomena

Roman slowly turned to Satomi and Satomi slowly turned to look at Roman. They both swiveled to look at Patton.

“H-how?” Satomi asked, shocked. She picked up the notebook and began double-checking it, chewing the top of her pencil as she did.

“I knew all those word-scrambling apps I downloaded on my phone would be useful one day,” Patton said with a grin. “I kinda got obsessed this summer. Remy said I had a problem.”

“This is incredible! This proves that the three of them didn’t die in the resistance attack!” Satomi exclaimed, jumping up and down. “I have to show mom! I have actual proof this time instead of theories without evidence…”

Roman picked up Philomena’s journal idly as Satomi kept rambling on, and flipped to a page that seemed close to where Satomi had left off. His parents always complained about how kids these days couldn’t read handwriting and it hadn't really bothered him except now because it took him a good minute to decode a word like “especially” in Philomena’s writing.

A small piece of ripped paper delicately fell to the floor. Satomi stopped speaking and all three of them looked at it for a good minute before Roman bent down to pick it up.

The page was yellowed with age and one corner seemed to be burnt. Roman recognized the handwriting from the alleged letters between Prince Logan and Prince Virgil. This time, the handwriting was easier to read.

“This is a ruined letter anyway,” Roman read aloud. “I will burn this once I let some of my thoughts out. Yesterday, I told everyone I was going for another walk to pick up Virgil’s letter. I don’t think I can use that excuse anymore as Lillian looked at me rather oddly. I believe she’s becoming suspicious of me and all my walks. Maybe I’ll get Mabel to distract her next time. If there is a next time. It takes too long to write letters then find a good time to walk into the woods and then wonder when Logan will respond and take another walk. It’s worth it, though. I’m glad—” Roman paused, furrowing his eyebrows. “That’s all that’s there.”

Satomi inspected Philomena’s journal. “There’s nothing in here about that letter. I assume when Logan burned the letter he didn’t burn all of it and Philomena found it later on. Although you would think she’d write about it in her diary…” she said, trailing off.

“What about that?” Patton asked, pointing at the diary.

Roman quickly wrapped around Satomi to see what the two of them were goggling at. “Oh,” he breathed. Two full pages were blacked out with what looked like charcoal. None of the words on those pages were readable.

“Why would she do that?” Roman asked.

“Either Virgil and/or Logan did it without Philomena’s permission or Philomena did it herself after Virgil and/or Logan asked her to,” Satomi said.

“You think it’s possible she was in on the secret?” Roman said.

“Of course. After all, the person she was supposed to marry ended up with her brother. I don’t think it would be really easy to hide that kind of thing,” Satomi replied with a roll of her eyes. She straightened her spine in excitement, “c’mon, we gotta show my mom! First, we got to go to my dorm and pick up the biography of Ronan so we can prove the handwriting is the same as Philomena’s.”

Satomi’s dorm was in the basement close to the kitchens. She shared it with five other girls. “Apparently a couple of valets used to live here,” Satomi explained with a shrug as she grabbed the biography. And then they were off again.

The three of them rushed through the hallways and up the stairs to Ms. Yano’s classroom where she was quietly organizing her books.

“Mom! Mom! You gotta take a look at what we found! You’re not going to believe this!” Satomi practically yelled, sprinting to the desk and dropping Philomena’s diary, Ronan’s biography, and the notebook on it with a loud bang.

Ms. Yano turned around and cocked her head to the side. “Yes?” She asked with a closed lip smile, her eyes wide in false-listening. She sat down behind her desk but she looked like she would rather be anywhere but.

“Mom, look,” Satomi opened up Philomena’s diary and then a page in Ronan’s biography. “Patton’s room is Prince Logan’s old room and we found Philomena’s diary in a secret room below.” She began explaining everything, pointing to the notebook where Patton had unscrambled Ronan’s long name into the two princes and Philomena’s names.

Ronan and Patton listened excitedly and watched as Ms. Yano’s face grew more interested in what her daughter had to say.

Patton silently took off his gloves and gave them to Ms. Yano who quickly put them on and instantly picked up Philomena’s diary. “Amazing…although I wonder why it wasn’t found earlier…”

Satomi showed the half-burned piece of paper written by Virgil. “And this is a messed up letter Prince Virgil wrote!” She pulled out her phone and brought up the pictures of the letters they had seen at the library. “The handwriting matches up perfectly to whoever ‘Sweet Violet’ is. Which is Prince Virgil. Which means my theory that he and Prince Logan were in a romantic relationship is fully backed up!” Satomi breathed in deeply and grinned excitedly. “What d’ya think?”

“Am I…interrupting something?” A voice asked.

Roman snapped his head around and saw Headmistress Crespo in the doorway, looking much less regal with her honey-blonde hair piled on top of her head and in a simple t-shirt and jeans.

Satomi deflated and she scowled at the headmistress. “You are, actually.”

Ms. Yano shot a glare her daughter’s way before bringing her attention back to Headmistress Crespo. “I’m sorry, Emilia. My daughter and her friends were just showing me something.” She stood up from her desk.

“I brought the book you were looking for, the librarian had it under her desk which is why it took so long…” the headmistress met Satomi’s cold gaze and trailed off. “Maybe I could come back some other time…?”

“That would be a good—” Satomi began but her mom cut her off.

“No, stay. This is important and you should probably know about it too.” Ms. Yano cocked her head to the side and looked over at Satomi. “Would you mind explaining it to her?”

“I would mind, actually,” Satomi said, stubbornly sitting down at one of the front desks. “You always say you listen when I’m talking so let’s see if you were telling the truth. Tell Emilia what we figured out.”

Ms. Yano’s cheeks flushed a little and her eyebrows drew down in anger. “Young lady, that is no way to treat your elders. You should call your headmistress by her proper title.”

Roman and Patton exchanged a glance. Maybe they should leave? They both inched closer to the exit.

“And by her proper title do you mean step-mother? Is that any way to treat dad?” Satomi yelled, stomping her foot, her voice cracking.

Both Ms. Yano and Headmistress Crespo took in a sharp breath at the same time, glancing nervously between each other.

Satomi crossed her arms as Ms. Yano rushed to her door to quickly close and lock it. Roman and Patton seemed to be invisible at the moment. “I saw you two together when me and mom were supposed to have our nightly hot chocolates in her room. I open my door and what do I see? My mom and another woman locking lips!”

Headmistress Crespo gulped.

“Satomi…” Ms. Yano said gently. “Please, calm down, I can explain.”

“You can explain why you’re cheating on dad? Why, in every aspect, you’re a cruddy mom? You never listen to me and every time I say something you always have to find a way to criticize it. Oh, Prince Logan and Prince Virgil were in a secret relationship? Satomi,” she said, raising the pitch of her voice, “there’s absolutely no facts on that theory, oh, you can be so funny.” Her voice went back to normal, “and that was that. You didn’t even think about them as a possibility. Because everything I say you never take into consideration!”

Ms. Yano looked close to crying, she was as still as a statue. Roman felt very out of his depth and wanted to leave. “Satomi,” she said, “you have every right to be angry—”

Satomi looked up at her mom defiantly, chin raised high, “you’re absolutely right. And dad has every right to know what his wife’s been up to these past couple of years when he’s been having a grand ol’ time in Germany, huh, mom?” She grabbed her phone off the desk.

Pure panic took over both women’s faces but Headmistress Crespo was the first to speak. “Satomi, I know our relationship has been…rough.”

“Understatement of the decade,” Satomi said, searching for her dad’s contact on her phone.

Headmistress Crespo held her breath. “I’m not a descendant of the Sanders,” she said, all in one rush, bursting out crying.

This made Satomi pause for a second. “You want me to feel bad for you?” She continued on scrolling. “I’ve known that from the first time I’ve met you. Ah, here it is.”

“I’m actually related to the old head chef, Emese, not even actual royalty,” Headmistress Crespo continued, her mascara beginning to go spidery.

Ms. Yano stepped up to comfort her but one look from Satomi made her freeze. “You never told me about that,” Ms. Yano said softly. “Weren’t her and the queen good friends?”

Roman could hear the quiet ringing of Satomi’s phone.

“They used to be,” Headmistress Crespo wailed, pulling hair out of her mouth. “But then Emese blackmailed Queen Alice into doing her bidding because she knew that the queen had an illegitimate baby with the king before their marriage!” She broke down into even more sobbing.

“What?” Satomi said sharply. “Queen Alice and King James had another child before Prince Logan?”

Headmistress Crespo nodded. “I’ve heard you tell people that I’m fake royalty and it’s true. I'm incredibly sorry for what I’ve done to your family. I don’t want to be my ancestor and do horrible things to people. I know you won’t forgive me but please let myself and Akemi be the ones to tell your dad.”

“Squirt? That you?” A male’s voice asked, coming from Satomi’s phone.

Satomi didn’t say anything. She stared at Headmistress Crespo, hard.

“Satomi? You okay?” Satomi’s dad tried again, a little more worry in his voice. “Are you there?” He paused. “Akemi?”

“Uh, hi dad!” Satomi finally said, her voice strained. “Sorry, I must’ve butt dialed you.”

“Well, shoot. How have you been doing?”

Satomi glanced around nervously and breathed a sigh of relief when the loud bell rang. “Oh sorry, dad, I’ve got to go. That’s the warning bell. Call you later? Our usual time?”

“Of course. See ya squirt, have fun at school!” The line went dead.

Ms. Yano and the headmistress both visibly sighed out in relief. “Thank you, Satomi.” Headmistress Crespo had stopped crying and was pulling out her bun and beginning to redo it.

“I didn’t do it because of you,” Satomi said sharply, glaring at the headmistress. “Dad should hear that his wife’s been unloyal from his wife, not his daughter. But you better do it sooner rather than later,” she added, pointing a finger at her mom.

“Of course,” Ms. Yano said with a nod and the room was thrusted into awkward silence.

“This, uh, illegitimate royal child…” Roman began, awkwardly clearing his throat. “You don’t suppose that’s who I’m descended from?”

“That would make sense,” Satomi said, seemingly unbothered by the fact that she had just had a very personal conversation in front of two people who were not part of the picture. She turned to Headmistress Crespo glaringly. “What do you know about Queen Alice’s firstborn?”

“Not much, I’m afraid. All I know is that the little guy wasn’t even named—he was sent off to some other kingdom and put up for adoption practically the moment he was born. It would almost be impossible to figure out what happened to him.”

The late bell rang and seemed to break everyone out of their stupor. Headmistress Crespo walked over to Ms. Yano’s desk and ripped out two pages from Satomi’s notebook. “I’ll write you three late passes, then you should probably hurry along to your classes.”

“Satomi?” Ms. Yano asked as they were about to leave the room. “Why don’t you come up to my room for hot chocolate tonight after your call with your dad? You can tell me about anything you want. I’ll listen. I’m sorry I haven’t been paying much attention to you recently. I wanted to give you some space since you’re getting older and I, myself, find it hard to pay attention for long periods of time when others are talking. I’m going to try to get better, I swear. What do you say?”

Satomi looked at her mom for the longest time before finally nodding. “Sounds like a plan.”

***

“I’ve always loved surprises and mysteries but I think I’m all mystery-ed out,” Roman said, following Satomi down to the basement. It was a couple weeks later and everything seemed a bit smoother. Satomi and her mom were having nightly get-togethers whenever they could, Ms. Yano’s husband was arriving at Violet Branch in a couple of weeks, and Patton was officially going to stay home next year for his senior year with his boyfriend.

“This is the last one,” Satomi said. “I thought I should probably share this place with someone else,” she added in with a shrug. She stopped at her dorm door and knocked. “Anyone in there?” She cracked open the door and peeked inside. “Empty. Come on in.”

“Where are we going?” Roman asked hesitantly, glancing around the large room.

“I found this place one evening in the summer a couple of years ago running from Crespo after I put glitter in her shampoo,” Satomi explained, walking to the furthest wall and kicking over a heavy rug which revealed a trapdoor.

At Roman’s apprehension, Satomi said, “it’s not too long, I promise.” She pulled open the trapdoor and jumped down inside. “I’ve found a couple of tunnels underground. A couple of them lead to Betrug, across the woods. But this one. This one isn’t like the others.”

They began walking, using Satomi’s trusty penlight to light the way. Roman’s chest was buzzing with curiosity and he felt like he was about to see something momentous. This felt different from when he and Satomi were going to the library. He couldn’t explain it, but it did.

“So, I hear your two roommates have begun to date,” Satomi said with a small smile.

“I feel happy for them,” Roman said, nodding. “They really work together. Oskar knows what Maxime’s saying without him saying it. It’s like magic. I just hope if they ever get into arguments, they won’t keep me awake,” he added in with a laugh.

They began climbing a rope ladder.

“I put in a new ladder after I found this place, the old one practically disintegrated into my hands,” Satomi said, popping the penlight into her mouth.

This was the first secret tunnel Roman had been in that had a ladder. It wasn’t his favourite thing ever, he decided as he felt his hands burning.

“Here we are,” Satomi finally said, letting go of one hand on the rope ladder to push up the wooden door above her. It creaked violently before giving way, the cool, evening, air rushing down.

After Satomi helped Roman up, he finally got a good look at the place.

“It’s the tallest tower of the castle,” Satomi said quietly, the harsh wind whipping her hair around.

Roman walked over to the edge, leaning over the rail. It was smoothed down from years and years of hard weather.

Satomi pointed upwards and Roman couldn’t help but breath out in wonder. Stars. So many of them. They twinkled and shone, the lights from the town and the castle casting a soft glow around them. Where they were so high up, the night sky looked endless.

“It’s beautiful,” Roman muttered, bringing his sweater closer to him. “Freezing, but beautiful.”

The inexplicable buzzing in his chest quieted down until it disappeared completely. It felt like some kind of resolution inside of him. The end of a story. But that just meant a new one was just beginning. And Roman couldn’t wait.

#the mystery of sanders castle

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