Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Generation 3



Winter Legacy -4.0-



"Congratulations Q!" Chanel sang, she had watched the ceremony from the door way.

"Thanks Nelly." Cupid gave his cousin a hug. 

"It's official then?" She questioned. Cupid nodded, today began the rest of his life. 

"I'll see you later Nelly, I've gotta go help Unk and them move."


Ice hosted a house warming party on he and his family's first night in their new home and asked his nephew to come over. Cupid was immediately greeted by a woman whose glowing eyes let him know exactly what she was. She grinned showing off her fangs, marveling at this human who knew of their existence. He was nice to look at and she began to feel a pang of jealousy for her sister who was assigned to this particular human, Cupid Winter would certainly be a lot of fun to play with she mused naughtily.


"Cupid Winter," She grinned at him, "My, you are a piece of work."

"And you can't have him Amelia." Ice came up behind the woman after seeing his nephew squirm. Cupid loved women and wasn't intimidated by anyone which is why is his nephew's actions confused him. "Q is going to marry a nice young lady who will bare him lots of children, not your trifling butt." Ice's friend narrowed her eyes at him, he smirked and walked off.


Rudolph's youngest son started to follow in his big brother's footsteps. A teacher scolded him for late homework so he decided to unleash five hundred frogs in the school. His principal was not at all amused by the practical joke and called the police.


"Dude!" Cupid scolded his little brother when he got home from work. "You're supposed to be my go-to guy, you can't be pulling pranks and acting out. Oh, and what the hell is up with your grades? Are you testing me or something Shayne? Because this is not funny, I can't ground you or anything, that's just weird but if you don't improve your grades and pull another stunt like that I'll call Aunt Feliz and let her do it."


Just as he promised he would, Cupid had the entire house redone. The bottom floor held a living room, an office, the dining room, the kitchen and the bathroom. A large deck was also added, the pool and playground were moved to the back of the yard. A garage was added as well. On the second storey, was a nursery, a child and teen bedroom and the master bedroom, a bathroom and another deck. Later a sitting room would be added.



Shayne hated the new house, it wasn't as homey was the one he had grown up in. There was much less space, and he missed his queen sized bed.


Shayne thought the new house looked like a club, his brother's angler obsession with fish was the reason for the two giant aquariums in the house, there was absolutely no privacy in there anymore.


Cupid on the other hand loved the house, it had to reflect his new celebrity status. He would host many parties at the house and it would be crucial for his reputation that his guests enjoyed the parties.


Shayne's favorite part of his brother's new house was the hot tub...and the bar and the giant new pool.


Cupid had an appearance at City Hall, he met his Uncle Navidad and Aunt Latarsha in the park afterward. Latarsha was clearly not herself, Navidad was trying his hardest to comfort his wife. 

"What's up?" He asked, Latarsha wailed even harder.

"We just came from the Community Pool, Jasmin drowned."

Cupid blinked stupidly, he couldn't even find the words to describe what he was feeling. Jasmin's death didn't make any sense, she hated water, what was she doing at the pool anyway? He didn't have time to dwell on the mystery behind Jasmin's death, his agent beckoned to him, there was a party that he was asked to be at...the things he did for his career!


Cupid didn't get wasted but he was more than a little drunk, Jasmin's death was more than he could handle. He stripped out of his clothes and plunged into the icy cold water.

"Having fun Mr. Winter?" A masculine voice said behind him. The man wore an amused look on his face, he waved Cupid out of the pool and tossed his clothes to him.


"My name is Cameron Rudolph, I met your father once." Cameron licked his lips at the thought of how tasty Rudolph's blood was, the tantalizing odor that wafted from Rudolph's son told him that they shared the same tasty blood type. He had messed up with choosing Rudolph Winter, but perhaps he would be able to convince his mate to give him one more chance, one more taste.


The next night was Shayne's birthday, he still hadn't gotten his driver's license so Cupid took him out for some last minute practice, and with both boys being semi famous, they were able to convince the manager of the DMV to give him a late test.


Cupid met his brother's girlfriend Kacey, he couldn't help but wonder where his Mrs. Right was. He was even more thrown when Shayne got to telling him tht they were getting married that weekend. When had he even proposed? Why hadn't Cupid told him about Kacey? He thought that he and his younger brother were pretty close.


"So explain this legacy thing to me?" Kacey asked.

"Well basically it started with Jack Winter, he came from nothing but he wanted his descendants to have everything." Shayne's voice trailed off, their main focus should have been getting rich, but something always happened, every generation a new challenge presented itself, perhaps they were cursed.


"Let me get this straight." Kacey said, "We get married and we don't get to live in this giant house, but your brother does? I don't think that's fair."

"He's the heir and honestly, I'd rather start from scratch than to have what my brother does. I've never told him this, but I don't envy his responsibility. The fate of our entire family rests on his shoulders, one wrong move and he could ruin this."


"But you're so much more mature than your brother, his main focus right now is partying."

"When it comes to this family, my brother has shown a level of maturity that you cannot even imagine. He's a fun-loving person but he has proven that he's the best person for the job and I've accepted that." Shayne put his foot down. "I'm going to support my brother no matter what, there's no jealousy or animosity between us and there isn't going to be any between our children, or our spouses." 

There was a some Rudolph in both of his boys, that was for sure. Despite his history with women, Rudolph had evidently raised his boys right, even though he had to leave them so soon.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Winter Legacy -3.7-


Shayne sat on his grandpa's side of the bed, his grandma was sitting in the living room, she had been crying for hours. His daddy said that Grandpa wouldn't be coming back, but Shayne didn't understand what his daddy meant. Cupid tried to explain that it was like Aunty Snowie, they would never see them, but Shayne still didn't understand. Grandpa Claus had been there for as long as he could remember, his not coming back just didn't make any sense. 


In Shayne's mind, everybody was wrong. His Grandpa would come back, they took him away in the ambulance and he would be gone for a couple days but eventually he would come home, and when he did Shayne would be the only one waiting for him and that would make Shayne Grandpa's favorite for sure.


Rudolph was not feeling good, he had a fever, or what felt like a fever. Maybe he was just sick, after Claus' sudden death. His father was fine, he was in good health, it made no sense for a healthy person to fall asleep on the couch and never wake up. After the autopsy they would learn that a blood clot in Claus' bad leg was the reason for his death. Rudolph rolled over and twisted and turned on the bed, he was restless, his dreams were a mess of bats and other dark things.


Regan had taken Claus' death the hardest, he had retreated into herself. She sat on the couch playing home videos over and over. Rudolph was leaving for work, he got the boys ready for school, he hated to leave his mother alone but none of his siblings were free to keep an eye on her.


Rudolph paused at the painting his father had started. He sighed heavily, on his way out the door the whipped out his cellphone and called up some of their family, a party made Claus feel better after Snowie died, perhaps it would do the same for Regan.


Rudolph hosted a memorial gathering at the Winter house. 


The guests had begun to arrive and Regan was still in her position on the couch. She did chat a little with her children and a few of the guests but she refused to leave the couch, she refused to eat or drink, she just wanted to sit on the couch and watch home movies.


Some time during the gathering, Regan quietly slipped away to join her husband. Rudolph was beyond broken. This had to be the worst birthday ever! They were just about to start celebrating when Shayne started wailing and everyone ran to see what had upset the boy.



The following night, Claus stood staring at the beautifully crafted tombstones. He had lost both parents in a matter of hours. He was officially in charge of this legacy now, now the weight of the this family's world did rest on his shoulders.


No sooner had he gotten home did it happen. He thought he was imagining the red fog and swirling bats, it was over in a matter of second so he was completely confused. Suddenly his senses were heightened, he was aware of everything around him, especially the sound of hammering heartbeats and rushing blood.



Claus had no idea what he had become, but the musterious mark on his neck and the glowing eyes and fangs made it quite obvious. Vampires had been the things of legend, there was no way in hell that he could become one, that he had become one.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Winter Legacy -3.3-


Leia pushed open the room door and sighed. This was yet another night with her husband sleeping away from home. Feliz swore that her brother had been at her house a couple times but Leia wasn't stupid, she always told Rudolph that she wasn't born as big as she was. Despite herself she had begun to nag him, she went from demanding of Rudolph to tell her the truth to begging him to. 


Rudolph was rolled over and hugged his pillow. He refused to go home, his father was constantly arguing with him and his wife was always nagging him. Once or twice he had even come close to telling her the truth. There were no secrets between his parents, however, Regan hadn't bombarded him with questions, in fact she had been pretty civil toward him. What also confused him was why they hadn't told Leia. Rudolph wasn't man enough to ask his parents their reasons for not telling, in fact he thought he knew, they wanted him to take responsibility for his actions and talk to his wife.


Rudolph would tell Leia, but not just yet. For the moment he was enjoying his time with Sylvia, watching as his baby made her rounder. Rudolph was well aware of the things that could go wrong during pregnancy and birth, he wanted to make sure that there actually was a baby before he went and ruined his marriage.


As Rudolph drove home his mind was on a million things at the same time. He was wondering what kind of situation he had gotten himself into, how had things gotten so complicated? He found himself wishing for his childhood, for the days when he and Ice played pranks on everyone, for the days when got in trouble for picking on Navidad. Navidad. Suddenly Rudolph was jealous of his younger brother, Navi had the perfect life, a beautiful wife a daughter he doted on. What did Rudolph have? He had hell!


Rudolph wandered into the house and made himself an early lunch. He ate quickly and went to the bathroom upstairs to take a shower.


Then he climbed into bed beside his sleeping wife. Rudolph could believe it, he had gotten home free, no one had seen him sneaking in, although he wondered why he even bothered to sneak around these days. He was sure that Leia knew something was up.


Later in the morning Rudolph came down for another breakfast. Regan followed her son downstairs, he didn't even know she was behind him. Cupid clutched his grandmother's gown. Wordlessly Regan handed Cupid to his father and went into the kitchen. She was beyond upset, she would have a new grandchild any day now, but the circumstances surrounding that child's birth will haunt it its entire life. Sure she didn't like Leia, but that didn't mean she wanted Rudolph to cheat on her, no woman deserved to be scorned.


Rudolph snuggled his son, he wanted to tell Cupid, in his babyish innocence, Cupid was the only person who Rudolph felt had not ill feelings against him, but Cupid was at that stage in life where he repeated everything.


"Hey Kid, you're up early." Rudolph cooed, Cupid looked up and murmured something then giggled joyfully. Rudolph put his son on the ground when his mother left the kitchen, then he went in to find himself something to eat.


Leia entered the kitchen fully dressed, she smelled like citrus and strawberries. "Morning Honey." Rudolph sang, he didn't hate her, nope, far from it. He thought of her as a friend. 


"Hey babe, what do you want for breakfast?" She asked as she went toward the fridge.

"Eggs and bacon will be fine."

"Do you want it here or in a disposable plate so you can go over to Sylvia's?"


Rudolph later found out that Leia had known for a while, thanks to the gossipers around town. That night as they crowded in the nursery to tuck Cupid in, Regan chatted animatedly with a disconnected Leia and Rudolph got a text that he'd been expecting for a while. Wordlessly he left the nursery, Leia died a little inside as her husband left.


"Why didn't you call me when you went into labor?" He asked Sylvia when he arrived at her house.
"I wasn't sure if I could." She motioned to the house, "I was just about to wake him, it's time for him to be fed."


Rudolph rested his new son on his shoulder, the baby gurgled. Rudolph learnt that his son was named Shayne, at the moment the baby looked like every other baby ever born. Rudolph fell in love all over again, he was as emotional as he was when he met Cupid for the first time.


At his house, his wife was giving her mother-in-law a sour look. "You could have stopped this if you wanted."

Regan sighed, "Leia that's bull shit and you know it. I didn't want you to marry him, was I able to stop that? No."

"You're happy aren't you? Now he's going to leave me and you won't have to worry about me any more."


Regan turned to Leia, "No woman deserves to be cheated on, I'm not happy about this at all. In fact, I'm a wreck! I know I raised him better than that. I did raise him better than that, and then he turned sixteen." She sighed.


Regan waited all day, she had no idea of knowing if Rudolph was at work, at a club or if he would be there, but she felt like she had to do something. 

"I knew you would come." Sylvia said.


She let her boyfriend's mother into her house and handed her the baby. "He's perfect." Regan murmured as she bounced the baby gently. "Sylvia, you know this isn't right, how could you do what you did to another woman. Not only did you have an affair with her husband, but you bore him a child. What you did doesn't only affect you, Leia and Rudolph. What you did affects all of us, myself and Claus, Cupid and this baby."

"I love him." Sylvia said forcefully. "I should have been his wife, not Leia. Cupid should have never happened, it should have been me and Rudy and Shayne from the beginning." Sylvia burst into tears. 

"Do you love him enough to walk away?"


Sylvia sobbed heavily. "Take him."

"He's here?"

Sylvia shook her head. "No, no I meant take Shayne. Rudy is never going to leave Leia, I bet he's home with her right now. No matter how much he loves me, he loves Cupid more. No matter how much we love each other it wouldn't change the fact that I am the other woman, God! My mother would be so proud." Sylvia laughed dryly. "If I walk away, Shayne won't have a father, because I won't ever be able to look at your son again, hell, I won't be able to look at my son. Please, take Shayne and go."

"Sylvia I can't..."

"If you don't leave now with that baby, I'll drop him on your doorstep."




Cupid was sitting up in his crib, he was more than a little interested in what  his grandmother brought in, it squirmed and gurgled and he wanted to see it.

"That's your brother." Regan said and blew her grandson a kiss. Cupid blew her a kiss back and watched as she left the room.


Just like that he was not alone in his room anymore, he turned and stood in the crib so he could see the new person. It was a tiny person, bundled into a blanket. Was it a toy? Grandma said it was his brother, what was a brother?