All That Glitters Isn’t Gold

TW: Blood, Death

That morning Cole arrived to tidy the house, the doors were all locked. Miss Olivia shut every bit of the Akshay estate and took the key home with her. She trusted none of the staff but refused to stay at the tattered old house. 

Cole's breath rose in cold clouds through the early morning air as he made his rounds about the garden. No signs of anyone having shown up. He sat down on the steps that led up to the back porch and bundled up as best he could in his very worn, much too small trench coat. 

In light of Mr. Akshay's death, his daughter inherited the mansion. Cole was assigned the task of preparing the house. He cleaned and organized items to be stored in the attic until Miss Olivia arrived. 

Since he was 14 years old, Cole worked for the Akshays' to earn what he could for his family. Coles's mother told him he was worthless and only made things more difficult at home. He loved his mother very much and did the best he could to send her and his two younger siblings money. But no matter what he did, his family stayed disappointed in him.

Cole remained huddled on the porch until another lady walked up the back steps and slipped a key into the lock. She gave Cole a concerned look and nudged him with her foot. "Git in, if you keep coming at the crack of dawn, you'll freeze."

The gardener, Aria, let him in. She was the cousin of Miss Olivia but was still only a Gardner for her uncle. The one bit of special treatment she received was that she was allowed to go through the back door, and in and out of the kitchen to get a hot drink in the mornings and nothing more. 

Cole stood up and walked into the tiled kitchen. The house was still as cold as an icebox, but it was better than anything outside. 

Cole shivered with delight about being out of the cold. "I make a cup of tea every morning for Missus Olivia. She wishes me to use up the rest before the house sells. Would you like for me to bring some out to the garden?" 

Aria smiled as she turned on the faucet to run her hands under warm water before going outside into the winter. "I would appreciate it very much." Aria sighed and began to try off her hands with a plaid handtowel. "I cannot believe she has us work on days like THIS." She gestured out to the window that was slowly gathering more frost, through which you could see a storm forming in the distance. 

"Well, when I'm in here, you're welcome any time." He opened the door for her as she struggled to put on her gloves and make her way out. "Not that it's my house." 

Aria laughed, her breath erupting into a white cloud once she was out the door again. "Understood." 

The door slammed behind Aria and left Cole with a dusty kitchen. He was made to deep clean one room, and clean every room in the house that way, only to be made to repat the cycle, by which time, the first room had become quite dirty again. Nobody inhabited the house, so nobody kept the dust from settling. 

Cole sighed and put on the kettle. He set the water to boil and began rummaging through the cupboards, clearing out food. While he was doing that, he found a box of cookies. It was the manufactured kind you buy from the supermarket that shouldn't be very good, but still are. 

He wondered how risky it was to take treats home to his younger siblings. Nora and Mitchell loved cookies, but mother would never buy them. Not even on birthdays. She said needed the money for when she went to the city. They would be having beans and rice for the fourth time this week while their mother was out of town.

Cole would probably get no wage for that day if he got caught. He snuck a shortbread biscuit into his mouth anyway. The buttery flakes on his tongue felt so good. He snuck a few more into his jacket pocket and zipped it up. 

He finished waxing the kitchen tile floor and moved to the porcelain serving dishes branded with the family crest and elegant blue swirls. Cole polished each one and sprayed it with a setting liquid in a bottle he was sure was just water, yet they made him use it with every dish. 

Cole was doing well with handling the dishes and hadn't so much as breathed too heavily on a plate when someone banged a door shut outside. He flinched and dropped the plate in his hand. It fell to the ground and shattered. The pieces slid at top speed under every surface in reach.

Cole started panicking and searching around for a dustpan. He found one and began sweeping up the shards of stained glass as fast as he could manage. In doing so, he cut his hand. He tried to ignore the bleeding, but when the red started to drip onto the floor he was forced to stand up and loosely bandage the slit in his palm. 

Cole told himself he would come back to finish the kitchen later. He couldn't do much more to clean up the broken plate when he couldn't bend his hand without getting scarlet stains all over the cutlery. 

Instead, he collected the boxes he already had packed with junk and treaded up to the attic. Cole shoved through the door, set the boxes in a corner, and stared around in misery, knowing he would have to sort all this mess as well as his masters' other thousand artifacts. The man was ancient.

Cole knocked over a moldy cardboard box, which slid across the floor, hit the wall, and keeled over. With it, Cole lost his balance. 

He sighed deeply and pulled himself to his feet, dusting off his slacks. He surveyed the contents of the box scattered across the wooden planks that made up the attic floor. 

Cole saw it was mainly family pictures and objects. A half dozen bronze lockets glistened in the shafts of dusty attic light along with solemn black and white portraits of whom had to be the early Akshay family'. A chipped jar that by some miracle hadn't been broken contained a tainted brown dough, and one whiff of the yeasty scent told Cole it was an old bread starter that had long since passed its prime. 

Useless junk, he thought as he crammed the things back into their box. His thoughts were rudely interrupted by a green patch that glowed so brightly it made his eyes water. 

He paused and knelt next to the glow, which was being brought to life by an opaque green crystal hammered into a gold band and strung on a thin golden chain. Cole breathlessly picked up the chain between two fingers and stared at it. It had a long crack down the middle and altered his reflection when he turned it.

The crystal swung from his fingers. The longer he held it, a symphony of eerie singing and giggling filled seemed to fill his head, steadily growing louder and more painful until bloody screeching arrived into the mix. He hurriedly dropped the chain to the ground with a clatter. Suddenly Cole was incapable of breathing right. 

Cole stood up hurriedly and backed out of the attic, quivering behind the door. He spared the necklace one last glance before firmly shutting the door behind him. 

_

A few hours later, Cole was found at the bottom of a reservoir by local police. 

'A thief!' the angry daughter had called him when he had been found with the pendant. After the authorities asked Miss Oliva further questions, she admitted it wasn't that valuable a piece of jewelry. 'But just the same,' she pointed out. It was a crime and should be punishable to the extent of the law. 

An officer jokingly asked her if she would be pressing charges against the dead man, which shut her up. So Cole died with no investigation or further questions asked. 

A rich man's house servant had died, and that was that. 

_

An hour earlier, Cole stumbled down the sidewalk, hands in pockets and neck held down with the added weight of the pendant. The reservoir was inviting that day, even though it was below freezing outside. It was probably even colder in the water. 

A wave of heat washed over him, driving Cole to want to plunge into the churning water. He began stumbling down to the edge of the lake, and when the icy water reached up to his thighs, he still slowly ambled on. 

A slippery rock was all it took, and he plummeted much deeper than expected into the white foamy water. Wetness filled his lungs and his eyesight grew blurry as the water pushed him further down. None of his limbs were responding to commands. 

Cole softly hit the bottom of the reservoir; The crystal pendant rose in front of his eyes, reflecting spots of green into the shimmery lake. The eerie laughing and singing echoed through the water and pierced every bit of him. 

Then pathetic screaming began once more.

So this is how I die.