Freiyon Fables: The Rochester Runes

October 5th, 1949, 9:30pm. England.

This was the last night that young Lex Rochester would see his father, Frederick Rochester. The Rochester family had been Lords for almost all their family history, but once Frederick started to research into his ancestor’s history and came across the possibility of magic and curses in his family, Frederick found himself fascinated to the point of obsession with discovering as much information regarding the magic or the curse as possible, and before they knew it, the family were no longer Lords because of this new information. Frederick Rochester was very close, now that he was denounced from his lordship title and was able to study by himself without anyone labelling as insane. There hadn’t been an attack on his family due to the curse for generations, and it concerned him dearly. Where did the magic come from, what made the curse or the magic real? Why did it exist in the first place? The legendary Rochester Runes, seven rune stones created through the means of a male ancestor of Frederick’s, by the name of Sybil Rochester. According to the little amount of history from the local town library that he could find on his ancestry, Frederick found that these seven stones, once all collected, were able to grant the holders wishes. Frederick was the last in the line of the lords after the Second World War and now lived in a small cottage as a care-taker to his own manor, living in the cottage with his wife; Helen, and young son, Lex. Helen Rochester knew about the curse as well, but she hoped and prayed every day that Frederick would stop pursuing ‘such evil and dastardly myths, it’ll be the death of us’ as she often told him. Frederick sat in his study, a room of the cottage that had once been the lounge room but that he had taken over with his obsession, writing down some new facts he was discovering from his research regarding the stones and the curse. He had just found out about a creature that Sybil Rochester once made a deal with, possibly a demon or a god in the disguise of a tiger with immense magical power and anger, when he noticed a light turn on within the manor. Normally this occurrence wouldn’t make him worried or confused, as he had given temporary ownership to a nice couple; Juliette and Francis Amber; as long as the two gave him some money per fortnight for living there. However, he knew that Juliette and Francis had both gone away to visit relatives in France, and they had informed Frederick they wouldn’t be back until the end of the month. So Frederick started to get concerned. He closed his diary and thought, for a moment, about keeping it on the desk in his study. However his obsessed mind started to think about the possibility of people stealing his diary to locate the seven magical stones for themselves and he couldn’t let that happen. So he decided to use a picture of himself with a deceased German Short-Haired Pointer they once owned, which his son had once managed to label as ‘creepy’, to good use. Frederick had made a hidden compartment there, right behind the painting, that even his wife and child didn’t know about. So he placed the diary in the compartment behind the painting, placed the painting back where it belonged, and prepared himself to explore the mysterious light in the manor. Walking silently past Lex’s room, he caught a short glimpse of Lex sleeping in his bed and Frederick smiled gently. Frederick loved his son dearly and wanted the boy to live a long and prosperous life. He informed his wife, Helen, about the light in the manor and that he was going to check it out, but Helen; almost ready for bed; wanted Frederick to leave the manor alone. She told him that perhaps it was just his imagination or, if it was anything, it was perhaps it was a thief and they would be disappointed when they found nothing too valuable to steal. This reminded Frederick too much that his family were now poor due to losing his Lordship title. Frederick told her that, being British and strong minded, he had to solve the mystery, he had to put his mind at rest. And that was the end of the matter, Frederick was in the manor with a candlelight lighting his way and a revolver in his pocket for safety if there were indeed thieves in the manor. Frederick worked his way to the top floor of the manor, and saw the room down a long hallway where the light was coming from. That room was an attic which even the nice couple didn’t go into much. He opened the door silently, but when he did the light in the room went out immediately. Taking a deep breath, Frederick stepped into the room and prepared himself with his revolver.

“Hello? Is there someone in here?” He called, bravely. He walked in slowly, taking in the chests, statues, paintings and old, dusty furniture at a casual glance. The light from his candle showed something in the darkness that Frederick knew wasn’t meant to be there. A large hole in the floorboards, near the back of the room, could be seen from the light and from Frederick’s observance, it was freshly made because he could see a used lever on the floor next to the hole. When Frederick looked down into the hole carefully, he couldn’t see anything at first, but eventually his eyes adjusted to the darkness and inside the hole he could see a rune stone in the hole, embedded in some dust and debris. How long had that been there? Frederick didn’t know, but he could see that, from the design of it, this rune stone was precisely like one of the seven rune stones mentioned in his studies about The Rochester Curse and the Rochester Runes. It was at that precise moment when he heard something that froze him solid. He could hear a hollow, fearsome, angry breathing from somewhere nearby. He readied his revolver, as he whispered a last prayer to God to take care of his family if this was indeed his last moments.

A plank creaked nearby, the noise had come from right behind Frederick. Frederick knew he would need to face whatever was behind him, so he bravely turned around, exclaimed in horror at the monstrosity in front of him, shot his revolver ... and screamed.

Down in the cottage, where young Lex was fast asleep, Helen heard the scream, and ran over to the Manor to see what happened, but she never found Frederick anywhere in the Manor. The curse of the Rochester family had claimed another victim after many years of silence.

When young Lex was informed of this at a time when he was old enough to understand everything his mother, Helen, told to him; Lex made a resolution to himself. One that he kept secret from his mother and from his friends. He would find out more about the magic and about the curse on the family, and he would make sure that future relatives to come that lived in the manor would not be claimed by the curse. And if Lex couldn’t achieve this within his lifetime, he would leave clues and helpful hints for anyone in the family that resolved to do the same thing. And although after that fateful night, Lex would never see his beloved father again, he still held on strongly to the belief that somehow, somewhere, against all belief and evidence to the contrary, his father was still alive and, quite possibly, being held captive because of his father’s obsession and dedication.

And so the obsession passed from Father to son, without even a word said between the two regarding the information, while the mother stayed weary and worried about what might happen to the whole family if the curse was to be bought back in full.

When Lex Rochester was married at the age of 28, his darling wife Diana gave birth to a girl they decided to name Mary, and Lex told Mary everything about the information his father had found out, and how one day he had quite bizarrely found the diary hidden behind the painting whilst playing with friends when he was a teenager. He handed the diary over to Mary, he treasured it for many years but decided eventually herself to return the book to its hidden place behind the portrait of her grandfather, to keep that part of the family tradition going at least. And when Mary was old enough, she too got married and gave birth to three children. Two boys and a girl. These three would eventually find out everything about the curse and the stones themselves.

This is their story.