Le Desespoir: The Cursed Paradise

France

"We're almost there."

Austin turned to his brother and nodded. They were on the way to their estate in France, in a van they had bought hours earlier.

Two days ago, Rachel Jamieson had finally recovered from her operation and was ready for her chemotherapy. Her son had wanted to stay with her during the process, but she refused. She announced that she would be fine on her own and sent her worried son with his half-brother to France for their three-week stay.

They arrived in Paris yesterday, and stayed at a hotel there while Jerome made contact with the agent of the estate. Earlier this morning, they used a chartered plane to go to the countryside, and a car from the agent's office came to the airport to pick them up. Instead of going directly to the estate, though, they went to the agent's office first.

It was Austin’s first time traveling abroad, so he was not familiar with how things were. But he found it really odd that the agent seemed reluctant to entertain them, even though, as he understood, he and his brother were the man's biggest clients.

Since Jerome was the one who spoke French fluently and who was used to business talks anyway, he let them discuss things on their own. His meager knowledge of the French language, though, helped him catch snippets of the conversation now and then and he decided that the man really didn't want to help them.

When he saw Jerome frown at something the man said, he couldn't help himself but ask.

"Why didn't he want to help us?"

Jerome sighed heavily as he turned to him. "He said we're the only ones who could drive into the estate. Nobody else goes there."

Austin looked confused. "Is that part of the will too? I can't remember hearing that clause."

The older brother shook his head. "It seems our house is haunted and the locals are scared to look at the house, much less go there."

"Haunted?" Austin’s lips twitched in amusement.

It was the first time he'd ever encountered people who actually talk about those things. For a realist like him, that piece of information was very amusing.

"What's in there? Ghost? Monsters? Imoogi?" he asked his brother.

"Imoogi?" Jerome laughed at the mention of the snake-like creature of the Korean mythology. Rachel Jamieson’s stepmother was Korean, and so, Austin seemed knowledgeable of his step-grandmother’s culture, at least, until he was seven when the old lady died.

In that instance, his brother seemed like a kid with his sense of humor and it felt good bantering with him. Jerome turned to the agent and asked about the story of the house. "Quelle est l'histoire du manoir ?"

The agent sighed as he walked over his desk and opened a drawer. The brothers watched as he took a large hard-bound book which he handed to Jerome. "S'il vous plaît gardez ce livre. Vous en aurez besoin."

"What did he say?" Austin asked curiously.

The man had looked like he was holding something vile that he couldn't wait to get rid of, which made Austin wonder what was inside the book.

"He said to take the book," his brother answered as he frowned. "He said we will need it…"

For the life of him, Austin couldn't understand why they needed it. But then, he and his brother were too tired to stay there and decided to let it go so they could get to the house as soon as they could. The agent helped them get transportation. They had to buy one because no one would rent them one.

They got a van which they filled with supplies— food, cleaning materials, toiletries and other things they would need during their stay. They were even given sleeping bags which indicated the lack of beds in the estate.

Jerome and Austin didn't expect the house to be too far from town. They had been driving for more than half an hour before they saw the ark which told them that they had finally entered their estate. However, even before they reached the ark, they had already seen the towering house at a distance.

"It's huge…"

Jerome nodded his head as he continued to drive. He was filthy rich but he'd never seen a house that big before. He wondered how many people used to live there. Thinking about it, he frowned.

They had been driving for a while now and they had yet to see a single soul. Looking around him, all he saw were acres and acres of greenery and some animals but not a single human being.

"Don't you think it's weird? This place looks so great but I haven't seen anyone yet," Austin suddenly asked, voicing Jerome’s thoughts. "Aren't there supposed to be lots of people here? I mean considering the size of this place…"

Jerome glanced at his brother and noted the frown on his forehead. He knew the younger boy's probably worried so he decided to make light of the conversation. 

"Maybe they turned into animals," he said lightly and his brother's lips suddenly twitched in amusement again. "They probably got cursed and turned into birds."

"No," Austin snorted. "The people probably turned into idiots believing the curse. I can't believe those people," he murmured remembering the frightened expressions on the people's faces when they found out that the brothers were the new owners of Le Désespoir.

"Right. It’s the previous owner’s fault whoever he is, for naming his property Le Desespoir. It means despair. It sounds like he cursed his own place or something which is stupid," his older brother agreed and they both fell into silence as they neared the huge house.

So far, aside from the lack of human presence, their newly owned chunk of land was beautiful.

"We're not going to park somewhere else?" Austin asked amusedly as they stopped just right in front of the steps towards the mansion.

"Nah," Jerome replied. "It's too troublesome to look for a parking space. Besides," he paused as he grinned at his younger sibling. "Nobody would care to visit us anyway," he said as they both got out of the car.