• SillyLoveSongs

There's something about that diary...

guest starring Kiefer Sutherland as MrFlanagan

Rebecca is awoken early in the morning (for her!) by a loud crashing noise from her kitchen. The bath from the apartment upstairs has come down through the ceiling, making a frightful mess everywhere. Rebecca gets to meet her upstairs neighbour GladysSmith and compare the damage before the landlord GillesLacoste appears. He is very apologetic about the mess - repair work in the building has been running behind, now it's become very necessary. All of his workmen are going to be busy working upstairs, so unfortunately there will be a delay before he can get Rebecca's kitchen sorted.

Rebecca heads to 122 for some company rather than sitting at home. She meets up with Jack, Benny and Lisa who all express sympathy for the mess. After a short while, they head back to the apartment for a look-see. Benny encourages Gilles to do something about the kitchen and another local handyman is found - FillypSidorov turns up shortly.

Fillyp does a great job of cleaning up quickly and starts looking at the damage, whistling in the "it'll cost you" style. Some of the wooden panelling on the wall has been severely drenched and is hanging off. It pulls off in his hand and out drops a book. As he picks the book up from the floor, he has a seizure and drops to the floor, spasming and crying out in what sounds like French.

Rebecca picks up the diary. It belongs to AntoineGiraud, a French immigrant to Unity from 1902. Antoine talks about his girlfriend LydiaBennett a lot - how much he loves her, and how he looks forward to marriage and kids if only her family will accept him. The diary stops abruptly in mid-entry. Fillyp calms down and comes round after a few minutes. He has a weird memory of being another person for a short while. Each time people open the diary, he repeats his fit. Weird!

In Unity library, Lisa and Jack find there are several Bennetts in Unity, but none that could be Lydia. After much more digging around the date of that last diary entry, they find details of a house fire that mentions the Bennetts. Lydia's parents George and Elizabeth were killed one weekend in the fire at their large house in OldUnity while Lydia was away, and she is pictured on the front cover. She apparently was taken to the asylum, so that's the next place that people go for information.

At the asylum, DrJackson looks in the records and tells people that Lydia was in the asylum twice in 1902 - once when her boyfriend went missing, and again after her parents died. She was on suicide watch both times, but after a lengthy recovery the second time she sold the family home and left Unity. Jackson can't find a forwarding address, but apparently the family laywers were LockeAndCaius. Lisa heads to their office and talks to GeoffreyCaius. He finds Lydia's file and offers to pass on a message - he won't share her address with the PCs as that would be a breach of privacy. Lisa asks Lydia to get in touch with 122 ASAP.

Next, the PCs head to the old Bennett place to look for any clues. The new owners (DavidSutherland and MarySutherland) are not home, but their butler offers to take a message. As the group head away, Rebecca and Lisa feel drawn to the rear of the house. The group stop around near the back wall and climb over to take a quick look. The moment that Lisa and Rebecca hit the ground, they sprint away from the others and head around the back of a large pavilion. They're clearly not under control of their own actions - as the rest catch up, they are just in time to see the women digging a large hole with their bare hands! At the bottom of the hole is a large box; inside the box there is a another diary. As Rebecca takes the diary out of the box, she twitches and faints. Benny picks up the diary and the PCs head back to 122 for a closer look.

Rebecca recovers on the way back, but if anybody opens the new diary she's off again. Rebecca and Fillyp stay at 122 overnight where they can be looked after. Both sleep very badly, plagued with bad dreams full of haunting love songs and laments. Next morning they are disturbed very early by a phone call - Lydia got the message at her new home in Unity and wants to meet the PCs imeediately. She arranges to get the train up to Unity, and will be with them later that day.

When the rest of the PCs arrive, they receive a message from DavidSutherland saying that he'd love to show them around his house. They head over while they're waiting for Lydia to turn up. David happily shows them around the restored house; he and his wife did a great job on repairing the fire damage. Rebecca is pulled towards one of the upstairs rooms, apparently Lydia's old bedroom. She sees a big old oak tree outside the window. The group carry on with the tour, heading out into the garden. Rebecca heads over to the tree, where she finds a stereotypical love heart etched into the trunk, annotated "LB 4 AG". As she traces her fingers over the marks, she and Fillyp both have seizures. This causes great consternation in Sutherland, who rushes to call for help. Meanwhile, Rebecca heads purposefully towards the tree and climbs it. She ties a knot in her own scarf, attaches it to a branch and jumps off in an attempt to hang herself! Benny comes to the rescue in time to stop her dying, just as Sutherland comes back out of the house with a shotgun to encourage the weirdos to leave. Only the (suddenly-realised) thought of having to explain to Tony why Lisa has been arrested is enough to cause him to let the PCs leave rather than wait for the police.

At 122, the characters meet Lydia and explain what's been going on. She's very skeptical, but when they produce her diary and talk to her about what has been happening she breaks down. She tells the story of what she thinks happened: Lydia and Antoine were going to get married, but her parents did not approve. Her father George was dead-set against his little darling marrying some foreign dago. Just about at the point where Lydia and Antoine were talking about eloping together, he disappeared. Lydia knew her father had something to do with it, but could never prove anything. She had a nervous breakdown and was dragged away to the asylum for treatment. When she came out, her parents tried to pretend nothing had happened, but the charade didn't work for long. Lydia ran away to a friend in Boston, and while she was away her parents were killed. It seemed to be an accident, but she knew that it could not have been - somebody killed her parents.

Benny has a flash of inspiration at this point - he remembers the story of a small-time Unity mobster who was into "accidental" fires lots of years back: LeoWinsfield. Leo is still infamous within the Family. While his career was flourishing he had a habit of taking jobs and then blackmailing his employers for even more money. But eventually he got too big for his boots and tried to extort the wrong people. He didn't last long then...

As Lydia reads the diaries and she and the PCs work out what happened, she calms down a great deal. Her past is still horrific, but with all the facts she can at least put it behind her properly. The diaries have lost their weird hold over people now that the story is known, and Lydia thanks the PCs for their help.

<g< I just know I'll have forgotten some bits here. Please correct! -- Steve McIntyre >>>