Finish the Story - Week # 46/Leitner - @bananafish

Leitner
by @dirge

Intro:

Benjamin Leitner, son of General Reinold Leitner, grandson of Count Dietrich Leitner, stepped from the stagecoach and lit his pipe. The night was cold, the sky a vast black emptiness. The moon, if it had shown itself at all that night, was gone, and nothing but the light cast by Benjamin’s lantern offered solace from the creeping dark.

He’d reached the graveyard, home of his family tomb and its historic dynasty. It was a forbidden place, the site of his late mother’s suicide, where Leitners were entombed stretching back centuries. He hated this place, more than anywhere else on earth. But he’d come, alone as ordered to. He’d come, as he had no other option but to do so. And he’d brought the gold.

The letter was written in her typical style. Loquacious, expounding on the nature of their relationship, apologizing for her affairs, thanking him for standing by her throughout it, remaining at her side despite all the controversy of the town. Despite even her own parents telling him to abandon her as a lost cause.

She’d not only dragged herself down into the mud. But him as well. Benjamin the financier, of Wolfstone and Kauffman, now the cuckold of all of Austria. But worst of all, she’d tarnished the name of Leitner.

And when the accusation came, of witchcraft and devilry, of black magic and the most bestial of sacrilege, of whoring in the night endowed with opiates unto madness. Well, it was no wonder when Kauffman wanted out.

And still he stood by her.

Should he have been surprised when the letter came, demanding the last of his finances or else she’d accuse him in the papers of having masterminded it all? Of being an original scholar of the black arts?

That would render the Leitner name into devilry.

No. He couldn’t allow that.

Benjamin finished his pipe, the tobacco charred and ashen. He cast the ash into the wind then slipped the cherry wood pipe into his coat pocket, beside the letter crested with her seal.

Melinda. Oh, you wench.

I’ll be in the crypts, waiting.

He suspected she wasn’t alone. Benjamin suspected the whole carnal tribe to be down there, waiting for her.

Well, so much the better. Let them all wait for his arrival. Let them all see the truth, the forbidden history denied to the world. Stretching back into the foundation of the soil. Let them know who it was that the Leitner’s may be.

He stepped across the grass, peering at the graves of his forbears till he reached the central crypt. The iron gate was ajar and the darkness seemingly impenetrable. They were down there, waiting for him.

“Melinda,” Benjamin said to himself. “It could have been different. So different. But you threatened my name. For that, I cannot forgive you.”

He entered the crypts.

“Time to meet the family,” he thought to himself, almost with a laugh.

My Entry:

Benjamin Leitner descended the steps of the ancient Austrian crypt bearing his family name not knowing that in 200 years cryptocurrency would see his family tree bloom again.

Melinda may have done terrifying things during their marriage only it served a purpose by giving him the time he needed to perfect the black arts.

He held the lantern in front of him illuminating the stone spiraling steps into the abyss. He took slow deliberate steps in respect to his ancestors who filled this tomb.

He reached the bottom of the stairs, greeted by the large wooden door with a gold lion’s head knocker that sealed the vault. Turning the gold latch he could feel the connection to the gold he carried with him. The door creaked open.

Benjamin Leitner stopped the door in place. Through the gap he could see lanterns and candles sitting at various points to brighten the crypt chamber. Melinda held court over a merry band of gypsies. Most of them drank wine, while one played a flute, and the other beat a small hand drum.

“When my pathetic excuse for a husband brings us the last of his gold we shall sacrifice him to the demons that have brought us to this glorious moment. Without their guidance we would be nothing.” Melinda’s scratchy voice echoed in the cavernous stone enclave where the Leitner family slept in eternity.

At this moment, Mr. Leitner made the fateful decision that would save his family name. He simply closed the door and locked it.

He then ascended the steps of his family’s mausoleum. Soon he strode out across the grass on the moonless night. He reached again for his cherry wood pipe, filled it with tobacco, and lit it.

He exhaled smoke into the lantern light, and took notice of his horses. There were six finely breed stagecoach runners harnessed to a top of the line carriage. No expense spared, and so the thought occurred . . .

Benjamin Leitner, the financier of Wolfstone and Kauffman, could travel to Venice as he had before on business. Only this time, he could exchange these fine horses and carriage, for a one way ticket to America on a ship. It might even afford him a first class cabin and a little cash to go along with his gold.

Once in America he could start a new life. He could even start a family. And no one in Austria would find him most likely. He just had to drive the carriage to Venice.

He already faced ruin at home. There would also be the questions about his late wife and her friends if they were found. Benjamin’s departure could make this event unlikely.

Mr. Leitner cashed out his pipe again, picked up his lantern, and made his way confidently to the carriage. He then whipped the horses toward Venice, in pursuit of happiness, and freedom.

Thank you,
Cyrus Emerson

Also, available from the Author:

Steemit Blog: Contests – ebook, and now a new print edition available!
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Lost Angel – Introduction with Ray Manzarek of The Doors
https://www.downpour.com/lost-angel?sp=249812

Red Roses - audiobook
https://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Red-Roses-Audiobook/B07F2LWHPN