The Fairweathers

Let me tell you the tale of the Fairweathers, a most ordinary family from the outside, but there is always more that meets the eye with the "ordinary" folks. The Fairweathers were the perfect family with grandma Sandra, mother Vivian, father Francisco, and their children Madeline and Carson. Sandra had pure white locks that fell just past her shoulders. Her eyes blazed with an emerald shine, darker but just as stunning as her daughter Vivian's. Vivian's hair was flaming red and fell in loose curls down her back. Vivian's eyes were a jade color and stood is stark contrast to her porcelain skin. Francisco had short cropped light brown hair, blazing sapphire eyes, and cheek bones that could cut glass. Carson had auburn hair, his father's striking facial features, and his mother's pale green eyes. Madeline had her father's light brown hair, and her mother's porcelain skin. Her eyes, however, were her most stunning feature, they were looked like the waters in a tropical paradise and shone just as bright.

The Fairweather's were always the talk of the town, they attended all the school events, charities, and dinners. Madeline was the queen of the school, all the guys wanted to be with her and the girls wanted to be her. Carson was head jock and all around charismatic guy. Everything always went the Fairweather's way, well that was until he came to town with his family and starting asking questions about things the Fairweather's would rather keep hidden away.

His name was Jax McClellan and from the towns prospective he was the new kid and he looked like trouble. He was Madeline's age and he rode into town on his motorcycle wearing ripped jeans, a green tshirt, black boots, and a leather motorcycle jacket. Jax had shoulder length black hair, steel grey eyes, tan skin, and a face a god would covet.

Madeline was the kind of girl who always longed after what she shouldn't have, and was rarely denied anything in life. So as soon as she laid her eyes upon Jax she decided that she needed him to be hers. Little did she know that this would lead to dire consequences for the Fairweather's.

She approached him as soon as he stepped into her first period class, " Hello, my name is Madeline Fairweather," She said giving him her 100 watt smile and batting her eyelashes at him as she extended her hand out to shake his.

"Jax," he said as he ignored her hand and took a seat towards the back of the room. With a huff Madeline watched him breeze right past as the others started to snicker slightly. She gave them death glares as she followed him to the back of the classroom and took a seat in the chair beside his.

She put her elbows on the desk and turned her full attention toward him, "Since your new here, I thought you might like someone to show you around the wonderful Coastal Heights Academy."

"Yeah sure, whatever," Jax said nonchalantly as if he was just trying to get her out of his hair.

"Great," Madeline said with a big grin and a single enthusiastic clap. "I will meet up with you after 3rd period and show you around." She then moved back to her group of friends and began her gossip about Jax as he put his headphones back in and studied her with a suspicious gaze.

It didn't take long for Madeline to sink her claws into Jax and start inviting him to parties with her, as well as other town wide functions. Madeline grew more and more fond of Jax as he grew more and more wary of her suspecting that there was more to this "perfect princess" then what met the eye. Whenever Jax would start asking questions about Madeline's past she would always say "let's not focus on the past when the present is much more interesting." She would then chuckle, look away, and change the subject hoping he would just let it go.

The only problem was that Jax didn't want to let it go, he wanted to know what she was hiding. As he worked his way further into her life, he made it a point to be invited to the Fairweather's biggest charity ball of the year that was held in their Sprawling Victorian Manor. He hoped that he would be able to sneak away from the party, and discover what secrets they had hidden there.

That Saturday it was time for Jax to polish his style and appear at the Fairweather home as Madeline's date for the charity ball. Jax rang door bell on the ornate front door that adorned the Fairweather's not so humble abode.

Madeline skipped door the stairs announcing to the family that she would get it. She opened the door and gave Jax a giddy smile as she took in the sight of him in a suit. "My Jaxy you clean up so nice, I always in joy seeing you in a tux."

"And you look as lovely as ever Maddie," he said with a smile. She really did look lovely in her long silk pale pink dress, gold stilettos, gold necklace and earrings with her hair falling in loose ringlets down her back.

"Come in and meet everyone," she beamed as she looped her arm into Jax's and pulled him into the ballroom where the party was already in full swing. Jax plastered a fake smile on his face as he dragged from group to the next as Maddie introduced him to what felt like the whole damn town. The more people he talked to the more he noticed that the Fairweather's could do no wrong in their eyes which was only added to sour feeling in the pit forming in Jax's stomach.

After what felt like hours and hundreds of new faces Jax excused himself with a polite smile to go use the restroom. When he was sure he was out of view of any lingering party goers Jax made his way through the doors downstairs opening doors and briefly looking inside only to find nothing out of the ordinary. He was about to give up his search and head back to the party in defeat he tripped over a shoe in the hallway and fell into a secluded alcove. In doing so he noticed a door that blended into the wall, but there didn't appear to be anyway to open it. There was no lock or door handle, so he started rubbing his hands along the bricks surrounding the door until at last he heard a click.

The door slowly swung open to reveal a dark staircase that spiraled downwards. Jax took out his cell phone and turned on the flashlight app and started his foreboding decent down. At the bottom of the stairs there was a dimly lite room with only a few small tables with a single candle on each. As Jax examined them closer he noticed that each table had a book with the names of each member of the Fairweather household adorning the covers. Jax, being the curious type decided to flip through Madeline's book first and was shocked by what he saw inside. Inside the book there was were several news clippings from different towns from several time periods seemingly going back hundreds of years. In each there was a story about a family and how they were beloved by all the townsfolk, and then there were several obituaries of Madeline with different names in different years. The only thing that stayed the same was how she died, in a traumatic house fire.

As Jax was silently looking through the book he heard muffled noises coming from the next room. He shut the book and quietly made his way to the open doorway at the back of the room. He peeked his head around the doorway, as he didn't want to get caught by whoever might be in that room, and what he saw next absolutely appalled him.

Along the walls there were several torches shedding an ominous light on the gruesome scene. There on the floor was a pentagram drawn in what appeared to be fresh blood. Against the walls were five sets of shackle's, two of which were already occupied. A battered woman in her sixties knelt on the cold ground with her hands held above her head in the shackles. It looked as if she several cuts on her body and as if she hadn't eaten in days. Next to her there was a pretty young brunette that appeared to be about Carson's age. She didn't seem to have the cuts on her and she was struggling against the shackles. She was looking around the room in panic searching for some sort of escape from this prison. There was some sort of podium or alter perhaps towards the back of the room that held a large old book that seemed to be covered a flesh colored leather. The only other thing in the room was a a pair of large old chest that were set again the wall opposite of the prisoners.

Jax hurried over the pretty girl, he took the gag from her mouth as hope and fear shined in her eyes. "Who are you, what is happening here?" Jax asked the girl.

"I don't know what happened, one minute I was out on a date with Carson freaking Fairweather and the next thing I knew I was down here chained to this wall," She told him as tears began to stream down her face. "Can you please get me out of here?" she begged him.

"I need your help just a little longer first, do you know what they might have down with the keys to your shackles? Or what they are planning down here?"

"I don't know, I need to get home to my family I am so scared. All I wanted was to go out on a date with a gorgeous guy, and somehow I ended up in this nightmare. When I first woke up there was weird chanting over near the book and people whispering about how the time is almost near, and how they were going to get their last of their sacrifices at the charity ball." She spat out before she broke down into an inconsolable fit of tears.

Jax made his way over to the podium where he saw the book opened to some sort of spell in a foreign text. There were a few pictures that seem to indicate a full moon, death, and what appeared to be birth. He wasn't sure what it all meant, but he could tell that it was nothing good. The only good thing was there was a set of keys that were hanging on the wall next to the podium. He took the keys from the wall and began unlocking the shackles. Before he could stop her the young girl took off out of the room, she was terrified and need to get out of there. He tried to call after her, but to no avail. He went to follow after her, but he knew he needed to do something about this room first though, so that this would never happen again.

Jax then went and took one of the torches off the wall and set the book and chests on fire. He then took the older women in his arms and took off up the stairs after the younger girl.

Once made it through the door at the top of the stairs and down the halfway down the hallway he started yelling about a fire. This caused the party goers to panic and begin to make a run towards the door, successfully ruining the party. He managed to get lost in the middle of the party goers storming out the door. In the chaos he was able to get the older woman outside and lean her against the house in the shadows without anyway paying him any mind.

As soon he set the old woman down Jax took out his cell and called 911 to get this woman the help that she needed and to hopefully expose the Fairweather's devious plans.

The other girl was no where to be seen in the chaos and he could only hope that she managed to safely make it out of there and back to her family. The last to leave the house were the Fairweather's as the were trying to get everyone to come back inside saying that it was all just a false alarm, but by that point the ambulance and fire trucks had already arrived on scene.

This successfully put an end to the nights activities as people loaded up and left as the cops pulled up and cleaned up the mess that lay before them.

All Jax could do now was hope that he had done enough to take the Fairweather's so that they could never hurt anyone ever again. He thought as he slowly walked away from the scene with a satisfied smile on his face.