200 years later...

"He said he wants to see us." Robert stood by the ancient fireplace with his leather jacket on. He had not grown to the same height as his father but almost. His eyes were metallic blue and seemed to reflect the light that the fire spat on them.

There were lights hanging from the ceiling that the house keeper, Mrs Greene had insisted one turning off in mourning. Now candles stood to attention around the room randomly. The soft glow did little to illuminate the living room. It was a huge room. Too big for most houses. It had stone statues of women with no arms standing beside the two doorways that led to other rooms of the house. The mat, which lived in front of the fire, was a series of squares of varying degrees of gold. The middle was the smallest square and the darkest colour.

The huge brown curtains were drawn, and their tassels hung against the faded wallpaper. The fireplace itself was the centre of the room. The worn sofas and flat cushioned chairs all faced it. It was wooden and decorated with many twists and knots. A mirror hung above the fireplace and was surrounded by relief carving figures who were all enduring some horrible punishment at the hands of a blood crazed vampire. Either side of the fireplace were coffee tables lined with expensively decorated vases. All the vases were of varying ages. Richard collected them all through his one thousand three hundred and eighty-seven years. Safe to say, there were a lot of them.

"Well I'm up for that." Eddie dusted off the arms of his suit and pulled it tighter against himself. While shaking out his arms, a silver cufflink fell off and he raced across the floor to retrieve it. His floppy hair fell into his face and he battled with it to remove it.

When he had caught the cufflink, both the brothers turned to the third. James was leaning against the front door. He wore a ruffled white t-shirt and dirty jeans. He was taller than Eddie now, about Roberts height, and his hair and eyes had become darker with age. He was like a cat lounged carelessly on a branch. He shrugged. "Whatever father wants. He is going grey after all." James smirked.

Mrs Greene emerged from the kitchen door on the left of the room. Her auburn hair was tied in a bun and she wore a knee length skirt and a blouse. "James don't be disrespectful. He may not be man of the year but we all need the closure."

"Maybe you do. But fine." James held his hands up in surrender. "I'm sure when he says all, he means you two anyway."

Robert ignored the venom and led the way to their father's room. The hall was long, and the journey made longer by James stopping at some of the paintings to have a look. It was dark, and a glow beckoned the brothers to the room where their father lay.

Robert was the first in. He strode over to the side of the bed and then sat on the edge of it. Eddie and James piled into the space just beside the door and stood together, James leaning and Eddie scuffing the floor with his shoe.

Their father looked small. As if there was something under the bed that was sucking all the life out of Richard and shoving it into the place where he would go next. He was pale, but vampires were pale by nature, so James ignored that. His cheeks were caves and his eyes sour milk. The curtains around the king-sized bed were pulled on every side but the one where they looked in. The large windows had long ago been bored up. Vampires don't really like the sun at the best of times, when they were sick sunlight would burn them and make them die much faster. Or worse, James thought, he could have caught fire and burnt the whole place down. The rest of the furniture looked normal. The wardrobe door held Richard's trench coat, now rotting with age, out to him on its handle. As if in a moment he may decide to go out somewhere and would need the coat again. The full-length mirror showed the beds veiled reflection. The photograph of their mother had been moved from the bedside table to the pillow beside Richards face. He would lift it and just look, for hours, at her face. He tried to reach for it but was too weak to lift his hand.. Robert picked it up for him and held it where he could see it.

"She would say something nice now," Richard's voice was like a rubber band on the edge of snapping. "Bet you wish I was her."

"We all miss her." Robert agreed.

"I miss her singing." Eddie added.

James stayed quiet and looked at the ceiling.

Richard chuckled with a creek at the end. "You don't though James. Suppose you should miss me the most. I'm all that you've ever had." He was taken over by coughing then.

James shrugged again but didn't look at his father. "Not so much."

"I guessed that." Richard spluttered.

"Father." Robert moved a bit closer and took Richards hand.

Richard shook him off. "Get off me. You're sappy like your mother. This is not a sappy meeting."

Robert sat back and folded his hands in his lap. "Why did you call for all three of us then?"

"Just wanted to look at yous. See what I'd done with my time." Richard stretched his fading lips into a smile.

"Bullshit." James looked at him now. Eddie raised his eyebrows and dropped his eyes to the floor.

"There was a time I would have been pissed about a comment like that," Richard let the smile grow wider. "But this time you're right." He aimed the smile right at James. James turned to the ceiling again.

"Father," Robert pressed. "What is it then?"

"I'm leaving this house to the three of you. You better keep it just as it is. Its our family home after all." Richard let his head thump into the pillow. "I would ask you to promise but I know that only means something to one of you."

"We could still do it if you'd like." James smirked.

"We won't bother." Eddie said. "It's an expensive place anyway".

"I have something to say to each of you." Richards voice was fading. "Robert, my favourite son, don't be too like your mother. Assholes like those two hiding by the door will walk all over you."

Robert nodded but James knew the nod was hollow.

"Edmund," Richard continued. "Don't let them call you Eddie. No son of mine is gonna have a stupid name like that. Lots of money means expensive name."

Eddie smiled nervously. He was the one who had come up with the nickname himself. He had also recently legally changed his name to it.

"And James." Richard began.

"Let me guess, I regret all the times underestimated you and admire everything about you?" James sneered. Robert shot him a look.

"Always the disobedient child." Richard breathed. This earned a grunt from James as he took to examining the ceiling again.

"I was going to say, don't get your brothers into trouble. By all means put the wolves down, but be smart about it not reckless." Richard sighed into silence.

"Reckless? I don't even want to-"

"James" Robert interrupted him. Richard was not breathing or moving. Robert leaned forward and dug a nail into his skin. No blood came out, the clearest sign that Richard Morris was dead.

The three brothers stood in silence. Robert closed the old mans eyes and gently held his hand. Eddie had stopped fidgeting for the first time since he had entered the room. James stopped breathing.

"He's gone." James broke the silence. He clapped his hands together once. "Right fellas, lets get to work." Neither of the other two moved so James slapped Eddies arm. Eddie snapped back to life.

"Oh yea lets go." he said as he followed James out of the room. Robert remained where he was for a second longer before rising and going after them.

James led Eddie into the living room where he threw open the curtains. The light bounded in in one big heap and James squinted against it. Without delay, he moved on until all the curtains were open again.

Mrs Greene came from the kitchen once more, she had three classes of whiskey with her on a tray. "Here boys. It's for the shock."

James skipped over to her. "It's for the party," he sang. "Ding dong the witch is dead!"

Mrs Greene gave Robert a worried look. He simply shook his head and sat down in the big slouching arm chair.

Eddie went and lifted his own drink then Mrs Greene brought Robert his. James danced about to no music then paused with his mouth full of drink. Swallowing loudly, he gave the empty glass to Robert as he passed him.

"Forgot something." He hollered, going back towards his fathers room. When he returned, he wore the ratty old trench coat from the wardrobe handle. "Fits like a crown." James bounced his shoulders.

"Come on," Eddie moaned. He downed the rest of his drink. "Stop asserting your dominance and lets have our party."

"Yes indeed. Mrs Greene" He pointed to the piano in the far corner of the room. "Play us something with bounce."

"I won't take part in this. You need to-" She only got so far before James interrupted her.

"Robert then, play us a tune".

Robert didn't react but drank the whiskey slowly while watching the fire.

"Aww we don't need music anyway." Eddie decided.

"You're right. Let's give the old man the send off he deserves". On the final word of his sentence James hopped onto the left side coffee table with the vases. He waited with a smirk till Eddie jumped up onto the other one. Then they both traipsed across the tables kicking the vases down while singing "Ding Dong the Witch is dead". Their voices were almost drowned out by the smashing of the precious pottery as it met its end.

When they met in the middle, they linked arms and skipped in circles. Then they separated, joined the opposite way and skipped again. Robert remained like stone.

Mrs Greene looked at the mess made and rubbed her eyes. "Perhaps when the two of you are done you could clean this up"

"Clean it up?" Eddie sounded out of breath. "Why bother? This old dump is being sold anyway."

"We haven't decided that yet." Robert took another sip.

"Oh please. Do you wanna live in this dusty old place?" Eddie landed onto the sofa while James moved around to trample over the pieces of the vases one more time.

"I don't." Robert admitted, giving a meaningful look at James.

"He won't want it either." Eddie spun around and hung backwards off the sofa. "It's too old!"

James paused in his path of destruction. "Well I might wanna keep it. Do it up and that."

Eddie sat straight again and Robert smiled.

"But it's the home of the wicked witch." Eddie said.

"Don't worry." James focused on his own feet as he started to walk again. "I am scrubbing every speck of his existence out of here."

"Well in that case I will sell you weirdos my third." Eddie lounged on the sofa and put his feet up on the end.

"Feet!" Mrs Greene waved her hand at him and he took them down.

"Are you sure?" Robert asked. "This is our family home."

"I have five houses now, FIVE. What use would I have for an out of date one" Eddie jumped up again to join James. He started humming.

Robert nodded. "Okay. James, this means the house is ours."

"You're staying too?" James laughed. "You know you can't stop me from changing things?"

Robert shrugged and set down the now empty glass. "We will compromise".

"That means he will take a room and the rest is yours." Eddie muttered leaning over to James' ear. Both laughed, and James tossed the end of the trench coat into the air.

"I suppose you want me to leave now." Mrs Greene gathered up the glasses from around the room.

"Not at all." James roared running to her and handing her a glass from the table. "We need someone to do the washing up."

Robert rolled his eyes. "It's a family home so family can stay."

Mrs Greene smiled. "Well in that case I shall start to sweep up those vase shards."

"Ahh please do," James wandered off into the house. "and maybe sweep up dad too." He yelled back.

"Hey wait!" Eddie staggered up and ran after him.

"You will make sure your father is buried right won't you?" Mrs Greene asked Robert.

"I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm thinking I will put him with mother."

"That sounds lovely." Mrs Greene gently patted Roberts hand on her way past him to get a brush. "and I'm sorry for your loss."