Chapter 71 Doug
I hang up the phone and go back to my room. Mr. Hart just called to remind me that my hat was left at the cafe.
At this point in my life, I thought it would go exactly as planned, as I have always lived. No matter how much the world outside might change, how disastrous or wonderful it might be, all of it would be irrelevant to me. As long as I set my eyes on the mountain of domestic chores for the Burtons and took meticulous care of them, I thought my life would be contented, or at least, peaceful. They would be my family forever. My entire life would revolve around them, and I would be pleased and grateful to run their mansion for them. But now, I begin to regret my decision to go to the Moonlit Cafe yesterday. If I didn’t go, I wouldn’t know what I do now, at least not this soon. How is it possible? I still can’t believe it, since I’ve always thought that I was a Burton, a true member of the Burton family. But my family managed to keep this gigantic secret from me, all these years.
I climbed down the narrow stairs after Olivia Hart yesterday. A man was waiting for me in the center of the room. He was tall and strong, middle-aged, but handsome and charming. He wasn’t a regular werewolf, like others I’d seen in recent years. He was healthy.
“Glad to finally meet you, Mr. Nelson.” He reached his hand out to mine and shook it firmly. He seemed quite emotional to see me. “My name is Ron Hart. Please sit down.”
The three of us were sitting in the small tea room, and they offered me a pot of marvelous herbal tea and a tray of cookies. I took off my hat, placing it on the sofa. I started to feel awkward, so I spoke up and said, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Hart. To be honest, I was a bit confused about your letter. I’m hoping for a clear explanation, because I found it rather genuine and almost unreasonably full of heart. I was very much flattered to receive a letter like that. But it puzzled me terribly, as I’m sure that I don’t remember how our lives could be intertwined.”
Ron Hart said politely, “You are correct, Mr. Nelson. We haven’t met for a very long time indeed, almost twenty years.” He gave Olivia a look, and she stood up to fetch something. She was, surprisingly, a human. It’s rare to see a human married to a werewolf. It astounded me. “Believe me, Mr. Nelson, I meant every single word of that letter. And I was being conservative about it.”
An old photo was put on the tea table, and I sensed that they were both getting a bit nervous. “We took this photo twenty years ago.” Ron Hart pushed the photo in front of me. In the photo, two men were smiling brightly, like nothing could ruin their joyful mood. It seemed to me that those two men had a great relationship. I recognized one of them as Ron Hart.
“The other person in this photo is you. Do you still remember it?”
What did he just say? “What do you mean?” I thought I misheard him.
“The man beside me is you. We took this photo together. You have no memory of it at all?” He looked at me like a hawk.
I didn’t understand. “This…this man looks nothing like me.” The man in the photo was extravagantly healthy and handsome. He had a pair of confident eyes. He was strong and young, like the whole world was just waiting to be explored by him.
“Don’t push him, Ron.” Olivia gently touched his shoulder. Ron Hart’s throat was too tight to even utter a sound. I looked at them blankly. This photo reminded me of nothing.
“I’m sorry. Ron is just too excited to see you,” Olivia said to me, “I’ll try to explain.
You two had did take this photo twenty years ago, and the man beside Ron is you, there’s nothing to argue with there. At the time the photo was taken, you were still a werewolf.”
I remember thinking, is this woman delusional? I’m not here to hear a made up story.
“Please let me finish,” she cut me off before I even spoke, “This photo was taken before you were captured by the humans, even before the Great War. They did horrendous things to you.” She calmed herself down and breathed. “By the time we found out that you were captured, it was already too late. They had drained your blood and replaced with human blood, casting black magic on it. It was a successful experiment. After that, they wiped your memory and filled your head with muddled stories to make you believe that you were always a human. The medicine you constantly took did nothing but keep you believing those lies. If you chose to not take it, that headache of yours would kill you. Then, the humans transported you to Nicolas Burton, one of their allies. They sent you to him as a gift. After that, they were ready, and started to prepare for the war.”
Every single hair on my body was standing on end. I denied everything that she said, “No! You’re lying! It’s absurd!” I shouted, “I was a poor human, that was kicked out by my previous owner and almost died under the swords of elves and werewolves! I am not a werewolf!”
“We know this is hard for you to accept. But this is nothing but the truth. Have you recently been experiencing some new changes to your body? Like a terrible pain or heightened senses?’
I didn’t reply.
“You should try to stop taking the medicine they gave you. Instead, take this every day. You’ll get better and will believe me.” Olivia handed me some a bottle of sparkling liquid.
“What is it? I don’t want to take any strange medicine from you! What… what’s wrong with you people?”
I tried to stand up and got pushed back down by Ron. “Please! Listen to me!” His eyes were red with tears as he exclaimed, “Your real name is not Doug Nelson. You are Albus Langston. Sir Langston. You were the most promising warrior in the werewolf army in the old Kingdom, and my best friend!”