Throughout the month of November, I will be posting excerpts from Kindred (The Birthrite, #2), along with excerpts from the previous two installments in the series, Descent and Sacred Atonement: A Novelette.
Today I am featuring one of the most complex characters in the series, Maxine Fleming. We first meet Maxine as a child of ten at the very beginning of Descent when she has a rather peculiar and unsettling exchange with James Livingston, indicating that she may or may not be an ordinary child...
Maxine Rosalind Fleming was born in the year 1834. Her
birthplace and birth parents, as are those of her brother Nathaniel, are
unknown as both were adopted as infants by Cedric and Margaret Fleming.
As a child, Maxine lived well as her parents were
among New York’s wealthier class. They were close friends with the Livingston
family and Maxine got on well with her older brother, Nathaniel. The two had a
close relationship until he passed away at the age of twelve after being stricken
with scarlet fever. Nathaniel’s death seemed to leave a rather troubling
imprint on Maxine. She would frequently be seen talking to herself and
referring to an imaginary friend named Nathaniel. Many familiar with the
situation decided to shrug it off as a child simply dealing with the loss of
her dear brother, her father Cedric claimed that it upset her mother Margaret. Therefore,
he very harshly put a stop to it.
When her parents opened the Nathaniel Fleming
Orphanage in the small town of Plains (just outside of the city), the remaining
family moved onto the property, living in a lavish apartment on the fifth floor
of the main building. Maxine’s imaginary friend “Nathaniel” seemed to disappear
and all was well for several years, especially as Maxine started training to be
a classroom assistant to the very handsome (and married) Christian Andrews.
Christian ended up being Maxine’s first (and seemingly
only) love. Their affair carried on for two years before they were caught by
his wife and her parents. Maxine was also carrying Christian’s child at the
time.
She was sent upstate to deliver the baby, which was
taken from her by Christian’s wife after the birth. Christian was not permitted
to be present.
After falling into a depression, Maxine threw herself
into her work as she studied to not only become a classroom instructor, but
also priming herself to take over running the orphanage once Cedric and
Margaret were no longer able to. She seemed to recover well from the incident
with Christian (which was kept private by both families) and even spoke of a
suitor that was a mystery to everyone else.
Everything seemed to be running smoothly at the
orphanage until Cedric and Margaret were discovered dead in their fifth floor
apartment on Halloween of 1867. Maxine took over running the orphanage,
bringing in her cousin Jared to assist her. It was also rumored that the two
were more than just cousins and Maxine’s health and well-being seemed to spiral
downward. A few years later, all hell seemed to break loose on the orphanage
property when Jared was found hanging in the front hall of the main building
apartment and Maxine was rambling about the ground, claiming to have seen her
deceased brother and claiming that he had the Devil’s eyes. It was also said
their her eyes had gone black and her hair stark white.
The orphanage was closed down and Maxine was sent
upstate to an asylum were she spent her remaining years until she died
mysteriously at the age of sixty.
It is questioned whether Maxine was truly insane or it
perhaps she was simply opened to a reality that few humans are able to see. And
the story of Maxine Fleming and her family is far from being over…
EXCERPTS FROM KINDRED (THE BIRTHRITE, #2)
Excerpt 1:
Four years later when Nathaniel was stricken with severe illness, Maxine had a sickening feeling that it had something to do with the dream. As Nathaniel lay dying, he seemed to take on the form of the doppelganger he described. Just before leaving their natural world, he weakly beckoned to her, whispering faintly in her ear that he would return for her. Then he drew his last breath, his body stilling and his eyes fixed and staring at his sister before they were shut by the preacher.
Four years later when Nathaniel was stricken with severe illness, Maxine had a sickening feeling that it had something to do with the dream. As Nathaniel lay dying, he seemed to take on the form of the doppelganger he described. Just before leaving their natural world, he weakly beckoned to her, whispering faintly in her ear that he would return for her. Then he drew his last breath, his body stilling and his eyes fixed and staring at his sister before they were shut by the preacher.
After
his funeral and burial, he materialized only to her, warning her to be careful
when talking to him.
(Heaven forbid someone might see and throw
her into an insane asylum)
Nathaniel’s
warning rang true on the day he had been with her in their old bedroom. As
brother and sister conversed, their father overheard her giggle, saying
Nathaniel’s name after her brother told a joke. She remembered that joke, too…
Two
men are in a graveyard and one walks up to a grave. The second man asks, “who is
in that grave?”
The first man points to the grave and says,
"Brothers and Sisters I have none, But that man's father, is my father's
son."
Who is in the grave?
Who is in the grave?
“It
was he who was in the grave…”
Maxine
had no idea why she, as a small child, found such a joke funny, much less
understood why Nathaniel saw it fit to tell it to her. But she had laughed,
causing Cedric to burst into the room.
Their
father harshly scolded her, raising his voice so loudly before grabbing and
slapping her. That was the first time she had ever been afraid of her father.
In that moment, it was as though another being was inside him, for after
realizing what he had done, he seemed to emerge from a trance, practically in
tears and begging a poor confused, terrified child for forgiveness.
As
she allowed her distressed father’s embrace, Maxine looked over to where
Nathaniel was, seeing a rather cold stare on the boy’s face. After that, her
brother emphasized rather harshly on keeping their playtime a secret.
For
a long while after the incident with their father, Nathaniel came only at night
and the two would whisper their conversations to each other. Then when her
father and mother moved with her to live in the fifth-floor apartment at the
orphanage, Nathaniel’s visits grew less frequent. It was as if having all the
other children around made him feel less relevant in the lives of his parents
and sister. But Maxine missed her brother dearly and even while growing into
womanhood she could feel his presence hovering. On occasion, she would dream of
him, and his words of returning whispered to her just prior to his death
reverberated through her being.
EXCERPT 2:
“We've
also read through Maxine’s diary several times over the last year and a half,”
Tahatan said. “Aside from being a book that would make some publisher a great
fortune, and probably banned in some parts of the world, as we all know,
re-reading these documents always seem to overturn a new detail that was
previously unnoticed.”
Reginald
frowned. “You found something else?”
Tahatan
turned to the last few pages of the diary and a hushed chill spread among the
group. The last entries were written on the night Jared met his gruesome demise
and Maxine was found wandering the grounds before being taken to an upstate
asylum.
The
group leaned in, seeing the crude handwriting (a far cry from the neat, very
lady-like penmanship in the first half of the book).
Cletus
narrowed his eyes, looking at the scrollings that seemed to have no rhyme or
reason. Yet, there is a reason…a reason
for all of it…
I
SEE THEM I SEE THEM ALL
DAMN THEM ALL
NATHANIEL NATHANIEL NATHANIEL HE WANTS ME TO LET HIM IN HE WANTS ME TO LET HIM IN HE IS ANGRY WITH ME FOR LEAVING
DAMN THEM ALL
NATHANIEL NATHANIEL NATHANIEL HE WANTS ME TO LET HIM IN HE WANTS ME TO LET HIM IN HE IS ANGRY WITH ME FOR LEAVING
LILA
SHE’S EVIL OH WHY DID I NOT LISTEN TO MY BROTHER
CHRISTIAN CHRISTIAN CHRISTIAN I LOVE YOU CHRISTIAN SAVE ME PLEASE
I SEE HER IT'S THE WITCH THE WITCH THAT LIVES IN ROOM 410 SHE'LL BE HIS LOVER GOD HELP US ALL DESTROY THEM ALL
CHRISTIAN CHRISTIAN CHRISTIAN I LOVE YOU CHRISTIAN SAVE ME PLEASE
I SEE HER IT'S THE WITCH THE WITCH THAT LIVES IN ROOM 410 SHE'LL BE HIS LOVER GOD HELP US ALL DESTROY THEM ALL
“She
definitely lost it...” Reginald murmured.
“Not
necessarily,” Father Louis replied.
“True.”
No
other words needed said.
After
another long pause, Gail spoke. “About the witch in room 410. James Livingston
mentioned Maxine talking of something like that right before the orphanage
opened. She was just a little girl then, but even all these years later she was
still talking about this so-called witch.”
Father
Louis picked up another journal and started paging through it. As he did,
Dorothy's warning concerning Gail and Reginald pulsed throughout his being. His
thoughts turned to the previous day when they tried contacting the parents of
Gail and Reginald. At first, he felt nothing out of the ordinary. But as of
now, he was starting to feel a sort of change in the air. The Carr and Johnson
residents appeared in his mind’s eye for a brief second and disappeared. Dread
pulsed through his core and he tried to refocus, knowing that the only way of
helping anyone was remaining calm and well-informed.
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