The Man Who Sold The World | Luke Castellan
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Katherine. She was the one who started it all for Luke Castellan, the reason he did what he did.
Warnings: Mature themes/language. Violence. Sexual content.
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen: Sorry
“If it’s a girl, I think I wanna name her ‘Adrienne’. If it’s a boy, I wanna name him ‘Luke’,” Katherine grinned as she sat in front of a small campfire, with Luke’s arms wrapped safely around her.
“Aw, you mean we’re gonna make him a junior?” he complained.
“What, what’s wrong with being a junior?”
“Nothing, it’s just… I know I’m gonna get lazy, and I’m gonna start calling him ‘Junior’, like every other lazy dad, and start morphing into Homer Simpson.”
“Hey, at least you’ll be one of the dads that’s there,” Katherine reasoned, “And doesn’t traumatize their kid. Not to mention… You’ll be the only dad who still has a ‘V’.”
“Fair enough,” Luke sighed in surrender. “You know… I never could’ve imagined myself having a kid. Especially not before twenty, but… Katherine, I’m glad I get to do it with you.”
She smiled, knowing she shared the exact same feelings.
“You know, I, uh… I can’t speak for the Katherine with a soul, but I really feel good about keeping this baby,” she admitted, changing the tone of the conversation.
Luke nodded slowly, recognizing the poignant fact that normally, in their specific situation, keepingw the baby would have been more of a choice as opposed to an obvious next step the way it would be for slightly older couples.
“Honestly, Katherine…” Luke trailed off for a moment, shuddering internally at the idea of having to abandon the idea of having a child with her, shaking his head, “I don’t know if I would’ve been able to get through it. If we decided not to keep it.”
His eyes held a deep sadness, even as he just imagined the hypothetical.
“I know,” she murmured, understanding his attitude towards children.
“I just… I want the chance to be better. Better than my father, and the gods, and better than I’ve been. I really do. I’m scared, shitless, but I know that’s what I want,” he thought.
She just nodded as she listened.
“Do you really think we’re doing the right thing?” he said after taking a beat. “Bringing a child into this world?”
“Hey. Look at me,” she held his face in her hands.
He looked at her almost pathetically as he felt her fingers clutching his jaw, saving his pouty puppy eyes only for her.
“You know what not to do to a child, because of your own father. We both do; you know not to abandon your kid, and I know not to groom my kid,” she laughed as she made her point. “But… we also know what to do with a kid. I’ve seen you care for these kids at the camp; the kids in our cabin, Annabeth? You wanna love them like your own,” she reasoned.
Luke smiled as he listened to her, accepting her praise. “You see the good things in me I don’t wanna see,” he said softly.
“I love you, Luke Castellan,” she reminded him in a cool whisper.
“I love you, Katherine Montalvo. More than anyone in the world,” he teased her back, kissing her lips as he held her in a silly sort of bear hug. “Hey, what if we have twins?”
“Oh, don’t even say that!” she warned.
The two of them laughed as they were actually able to enjoy themselves together for the first time in months. They both had expected the pregnancy to have a negative impact on their lives, especially with Kronos and the nightmares that plagued them both, but oddly enough, everything was fine.
Neither of them had even dreamt of him or heard his voice in weeks, so they assumed that they’d been doing everything right. Katherine had decided that as long as Luke kept up their work in the last several months of her pregnancy, everything would be fine for the both of them. Of course, they still hadn’t broken the news to Chiron or Mr. D, or really anyone else, but that, they figured, was a more minor obstacle.
“Oh, I forgot, I haven’t even told you about my plan!” Luke realized as they sat cozily in front of the fire.
“Ooh, what plan?” Katherine asked eagerly. “Wanna keep getting me knocked up? Make Kronos a whole baby army?”
“Can you be serious?” Luke shook his head, laughing at her.
“I am being serious! You know how much fun we’d have making that whole army?”
“Okay, listen. Chiron told the Head Counselors he’s planning a camp field trip to Olympus, in August,” he explained.
“Okay, I’m intrigued,” Katherine nodded along, realizing they’d be visiting the home of the Gods themselbes.
“You know what’s in the throne room of Olympus?” he asked her.
“What?” she asked expectantly, allowing him to answer the rhetorical question.
“The Big Three’s symbols of power,” he murmured, referring to the brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.
Katherine looked at him in awe, the warm light from the fire along with the darkness of the night making him look psychotic.
“Wait, if we get our hands on those…” she realized.
“The gods will wanna kill each other,” Luke completed, a victorious grin on his face. “We’ll start a war, and Kronos will reward us.”
“It’s perfect,” Katherine realized.
“We can steal two of them; pit two brothers against the other one,” he pointed out. “They’ll start destroying each other before Kronos is even back.”
“Oh, baby, it’s perfect!” Katherine exclaimed, crashing into Luke as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.
They pulled apart after a long, passionate kiss, reveling in their own evil plan.
“We can do this,” Luke promised her. “Just you and me.”
“You and me,” Katherine murmured, lost in his baby blue eyes as she leaned in for another kiss.
*****
Everything was still perfect. It had been a few days since Katherine had first discovered she was pregnant, and still nothing had gone wrong. She and Luke were still waiting to tell everyone the news, enjoying their happiness together before it would ultimately be ruined by Chiron or Mr. D’s wrath. Today was the first time he wasn’t insanely busy with Head Counselor duties during the day, so they had decided to take advantage.
The two of them decided to spend their afternoon sitting on the beach looking out at the Long Island Sound, the waves gently crashing on the shore in front of them as they talked, about anything and everything.
“Okay, so we’ve come to a compromise,” Luke announced. “Megan if it’s a girl, per my request, and Luke if it’s a boy, per your stupid request,” he teased.
Katherine wasn’t completely sure, but she’d felt Luke had responded positively to the name ‘Megan’ because it had reminded him of his own mother’s name, May.
“Are you that opposed to me wanting to name our hypothetical son after you?” she exclaimed in amusement.
“It sounds so egotistical!” he cried. “‘Oh, I’m a big, strong man, and my firstborn son, my only heir, needs to carry on my bloodline and my legacy’!”
“You are a big, strong man,” Katherine teased, looking up at him in a way that made him crumble. “And kind, and warm, and funny. I want our potential son to turn out like you.”
“Okay, fine,” Luke pretended to complain, knowing the way she spoke about him made his heart skip a beat. “We can name him Luke Jr.”
“Yes!”
Luke laughed as he threw his arm around her, looking out at the calm waters.
“I can’t believe we’re gonna have a baby,” he said quietly. “What do you think happens, when two demigods have a baby? Is there even a word for that?”
“You’re gonna have a baby?!”
Luke and Katherine both whipped around with a start, realizing that someone had been standing right behind them. Luke then realized why he hadn’t noticed when he saw Annabeth standing there, dark blue Yankees cap in hand.
“Annabeth!” he exclaimed, horrified.
His reaction shifted from anger to fear as he realized no one else knew, and Chiron would have to be told eventually. Katherine looked up at her boyfriend in shock, silently pleading with him to resolve the situation.
“Annabeth, I can explain…!” he tried to calm her down.
“You can’t have a baby!” she cried.
“Hey,” Luke began, trying to reason with her, “We’re nineteen…”
“And still at camp!” the daughter of Athena argued. “Chiron’s gonna kill you!”
“Look, we’re both adults,” Luke reminded her, “I’m sure we’ll just have to work it out…”
“You have to tell him! Now.”
“I’m not telling him right this second,” he scoffed.
“Well, either you are, or I am!” she crossed her arms angrily. “There’s no way I’m risking him finding out I knew about this—”
“He’s not gonna find out,” Luke assured her.
“Famous last words!” the blonde girl argued.
“Look. Just give us a few days, and we’ll figure it all out,” Luke offered, “Okay?”
“Alright. Fine!” Annabeth exclaimed angrily. “But if you don’t tell him in three days…”
“I’ll tell him,” Luke assured her, trying to diffuse the situation. “Wait. What are you even doing over here?” he asked her.
“Well, it seems stupid now!” she exclaimed in disbelief. “Lee told me to find you and tell you Mikey keeps picking his nose, and it’s disturbing people.”
“Seriously?” Luke sighed, realizing he was only in this predicament because one of his ten year-old campers had a nose picking problem.
Annabeth Chase stormed off in silence, leaving Luke and Katherine alone on the beach.
“I’m sorry,” he sighed, finally meeting her gaze, “I fucked everything up…”
“It’s not your fault,” she promised him, taking his hand. “We’ll just tell Chiron soon. No big deal.”
“No big deal,” he repeated the mantra, holding her close as he looked out at the water.
The next day, things took a turn for the worst. Luke had come back in the middle of the day after a patrol around the camp’s perimeter. He had left early that morning and hadn’t gotten to see Katherine all day, and he was looking forward to spending more time with her once he got back. And he found he did get to spend time with her, only not in the way he’d hoped to.
“Luke!” Annabeth came and found him as he headed toward the showers, exhausted and covered in sweat. “Chiron—”
“Annabeth, we’re gonna tell him soon,” Luke told her with a sigh. “But please, just let me take a shower first, I’m so tired—”
“Chiron said you need to get to the infirmary! Now.” Annabeth yelled over him, her grey eyes full of worry. “It’s Katherine!”
Luke’s face fell as he put the words together in his head, immediately panicking. He started sprinting off in the direction of the infirmary, as Annabeth followed.
“What the fuck happened?!” he demanded breathlessly.
“We were eating lunch… I sat next to Katherine, and she seemed fine. But then her stomach started to hurt, bad. I brought her to the infirmary, and she started seizing.”
“Seizing?!” Luke exclaimed.
“Yeah. It was bad,” Annabeth told him.
She began to regret saying that as she realized it only made his panicking even worse. He all but knocked into everyone in his path like bowling pins, scanning the room for his girlfriend.
“Katherine?!” he yelled, panicking as his heart started to beat too fast for him to keep track of.
“Over here!” one of the Apollo kids called to him.
Luke ran to one of the cots in the corner surrounded by people, trying to shove his way through the crowd.
“What’s going on?!”
He finally made his way through, looking like he’d seen a ghost once he saw all the blood. Katherine was almost unconscious, lying there passively as everyone just watched. It seemed the healers were all just cleaning her up, cloths full of blood around the bed. She was lying beneath a sheet on her lap for her own privacy.
“What happened?!” Luke yelled.
“Luke, I’m gonna need you to be quiet,” one of the daughters of Apollo said as she tried to tend to Katherine. “Don’t freak her out. We just gave her some herbs to numb the pain and help her sleep, but she’s still scared.”
But Katherine seemed pretty subdued, almost unconscious at this point. Luke looked up to see Chiron, who had a very grim expression on his face.
“Luke, I need to speak to you in private,” the centaur announced, his jaw clenched.
Luke went along with him, too afraid of what was happening with Katherine to be nervous about Chiron. As Chiron pulled him away from the crowd of people, Luke was the first one to speak.
“Did she—”
“Lose the baby? Yes,” Chiron said, the fact coming out more angrily than he intended.
Luke’s jaw dropped as he looked back at the crowd standing around her cot, at a loss for words.
“And while I do have much sympathy for you, Luke, unfortunately there is another issue at hand,” Chiron said as patiently as he could. “I need to know what happened to this girl’s soul.”
“What?” Luke looked at him in confusion, starting to panic and cry.
“Luke, why does Katherine not have a detectable soul in her body?” Chiron demanded.
“I… She almost died,” Luke breathed, trying to avoid sobbing as he quickly came up with a lie. “I prayed to my father, anyone to save her. And then she was pretty much fine. I don’t know how it happened—”
“She must’ve died momentarily, and left her soul behind in the Underworld when she returned,” Chiron realized quickly. “It happens to mortals, and to demigods even more often.”
Luke stared at him blankly, not connecting the dots as his mind wandered back to Katherine and the baby.
“When mortals die, and come back with out a soul, they sometimes change, and their loved ones just attribute it to a near-death experience.”
“What does this have to do with anything?” Luke asked impatiently.
Chiron looked at him gravely, delivering the news to him as kindly as he could. “Entities without souls rarely survive childbirth, Luke,” he told him. “Not only was the life of Katherine’s child at stake in carrying it, but her own as well. She could have died.”
Luke’s entire world seemed to melt away as he stood there, slowly realizing the grave mistake he’d made.
“I, uh…”
He didn’t know what to say to Chiron. He stood there, frozen, trying to come up with some sort of apology, until the older man realized that it wasn’t him who really needed the apology.
“Just go,” Chiron nodded sadly, permitting him to leave. “Be with her. We’ll sort out the rest later.”
Luke Castellan didn’t need to be told twice. He was back at Katherine’s side in an instant, as the healers all did their best to clear the area to give them space. Annabeth was the only one who remained. She just watched sadly as Luke took Katherine’s hand in his, breaking down as he tried to talk to her despite the fact that she was in and out of sleep.
“I’m so sorry,” he choked out, struggling to get the words out as he hung his head. “I wasn’t there… You needed me, and I wasn’t there!”
Annabeth’s face twisted into a pained expression of grief as she watched her friend’s entire world fall apart.
“I don’t know how I’m supposed to forgive myself,” Luke confessed, watching over her as she slept. “I was nervous about telling people, and you could’ve died,” he sobbed.
“Luke,” Annabeth tried to comfort him, “It’s not your fault—”
But Luke just shook his head, refusing to listen to any justification of what had almost happened to the one person he cared about.
“I almost killed her,” he reasoned, “Because of my own selfishness. I didn’t listen to you, and I killed our baby, and I almost killed her. I knew I shouldn’t have been having a baby! What the fuck was I thinking?! I’m not fit to be a parent, I shouldn’t be anybody’s parent!”
Annabeth tried to find the right words to comfort him, but even as smart as she was, there still weren’t any words that could’ve made up for what he’d lost. She wanted to find the right words, to soothe her friend after he’d lost what could’ve been a child, but even as smart as she was, she was still twelve years old.
“You know…” she began, trying to think of a fact that spun this in any positive direction. “They don’t really call it a fetus until it’s about eleven weeks old,” Annabeth provided awkwardly, quickly realize that definitely wasn’t the right choice of words.
“It was a baby,” Luke insisted, still too angry with himself to even consider being angry at anyone else. “It was our baby, and now it’s just gone. All because of my selfishness. What the fuck was I thinking, like I was gonna be a father?! I’m a piece of shit!”
Annabeth’s heart broke for him in that moment, and although she’d always hated when people said ‘I’m sorry’ to her, because she thought it was pointless, and stupid, she found in that moment it was all she had left.
“You’re not a piece of shit, Luke,” the younger girl promised him. “You’re far from it.”
“I wanna believe that too, but it’s hard to say that to a dead baby,” he muttered, resentful of himself.
“I’m sorry, Luke,” she said quietly. “I really am.”
They both knew that ‘sorry’ comforted no one. She turned to leave him, as he watched Katherine sleeping, the whole thing weighing on his chest. He sat by her bed the entire time, waiting for her to wake up, but she never did. He must’ve been up for another ten hours or so, but it didn’t matter for him. He needed to be there for, because he wasn’t when she really needed him to be there.
Luke didn’t sleep at all that night. He was up all the way until early the next morning, when Katherine woke up from her long sleep, eyes lowly adjusting as she sat up.
“Hey,” Luke said immediately, eyes heavy and bloodshot from exhaustion.
He was antsy with heavy bags under his eyes, and Katherine knew something was wrong. It took her a moment after the herbs she’d been given the day before, but she remembered what had happened to her in its entirety.
“The baby,” she said slowly, the reality setting in for the second time. “It’s gone?!”
Luke grimaced, fighting back tears as he gave her a quick nod, reaching for her hand. But Katherine handled the news much differently than he did, and probably much different than she herself would have under different circumstances.
He just looked at her, waiting for some horrible, traumatized reaction as she processed the information she was given. But no reaction ever came. Katherine just sat there, leaning up against the wall as she tried to come up with something, anything at all, to feel.
He saw the pain in her eyes, the way she so blankly stared off into nothingness, silently begging to feel anything.
“I, uh…” she tried to think as the reality of the situation hit her.
Like watched sadly as her hand instinctively went to her stomach, feeling for something that just simply wasn’t there. It was like a ghost limb to her, the feeling of still having something that had been lost.
“I don’t know what to say,” Katherine reached a conclusion, staring off at nothing as she tried to get a grip on reality.
Luke watched helplessly as she slowly began shaking, like a puppy left out in the rain, panicking as her hands cradled her stomach, looking for the baby as she still tried to understand that it simply didn’t exist anymore.
“I lost my baby, and I don’t know what to say!” she howled, devastated.
“I know, hon, I know,” Luke said, feeling useless as he squeezed her hand.
He didn’t know in that moment what would comfort her, but something in him knew it didn’t matter. Nothing could’ve eased this pain.
“My baby…!”
Katherine was reduced to tears as she buried her face in her hands, crying so many tears that even her hair began to wet. In need of comfort himself, Luke got up off of the chair, wrapping his arms all the way around her as she collapsed onto his shoulder. They both wept together, but even Luke knew that the pain she must’ve felt was entirely different from his own.
Overridden with guilt, he held onto her as tightly as he could, his body desperately seeking out comfort in hers. He felt helpless in his predicament, unable to fight or kill or persuade anything to get his child back, or ease his girlfriend’s pain.
-
Chapter Seventeen
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Married to a Murderer
Married (before/during) Murders:
Aileen Wuornos - married to 69 year old Lewis Gratz Fell, annulled after nine weeks
Albert DeSalvo - married to Irmgard Beck in Frankfurt, had two children, one disabled
Dennis Rader - married to Paula Dietz (1971-2005), had two kids, later divorced
John Wayne Gacy - a closet homosexual, married to Carole Hoff (1972-1976)
H H Holmes - bigamously married three times; Clara Lovering (1876-96), Myrta Belknap (1887-96) and Georgiana Yoke (1894-96), until his execution on 7th May 1896
Albert Fish - paedophile, child rapist & murderer, married to Estella Wilcox (1898-1917) and together had six children: Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John and Henry Fish.
Janie Lou Gibbs - poisoned her husband Charles Gibbs, their three sons and grandson
Judy Buenoano - murdered husband James Goodyear and her son Michael, attempted to murder of her fiancé John Gentry and murdered her boyfriend Bobby Joe Morris
Kristen Gilbert - married to Glenn Gilbert (1988-95) with two sons
Dorothea Puente - married to soldier Fred McFaul (1945-48), Swede Axel Johanson (1952-66), Roberto Puente (1966-68) and Pedro Montalvo (1976)
Velma Barfield - married to Thomas Burke (1949-69) until his death and Jennings Barfield (1970-71) until his death, both committed by Velma Barfield
Gary Ridgway - married three times; Claudia Kraig Barrows (1970-72), Marcia Lorene Brown (1973-81) and Judith Lorraine Lynch (1988-2002), only Lynch was married to Ridgway during his 16 year killing spree
Randall Woodfield - married three times, once whilst in prison to Jennifer Lyn Coria
Donald Henry Gaskins - married five times, one who was 13 years old, has two children
John Allen Muhammad - married and divorced twice, once to Mildred Muhammad
Arthur Shawcross - married four times; to Sarah Chatterton with one son, Linda Neary, Penny Sherbino and had an affair with Clara D. Neal
Glen Edward Rogers - married Deborah Ann Nix aged 14 years old (1978-83)
Charles Manson - married and divorced twice to Rosalie Willis (1955-58) and Leona Stevens (1959-63)
John Reginald Christie - married to Ethel Simpson (1920-52), who he murdered
John George Haigh - married to Beatrice 'Betty' Hamer (1934), annulled, with one child who was given up for adoption
Donald Neilson - married to Irene Tate with one daughter Kathryn, jailed as an accessory
Fred West - married to Catherine “Rena” Costello (1962-71)
Harold Shipman - married to Primrose Shipman (1966-2004, his death)
Peter Sutcliffe - married to Sonia Szurma in 1974, separated in 1982, divorced in 1994
Anthony Hardy - married to Judith Dwight (1972-86) with four kids, all prior to murders
Colin Ireland - married twice to paraplegic athlete Virginia Zammit (1982-87) and Janet Young (1989-91) but claimed he "pretended to be gay" to lure his homosexual victims in
Levi Bellfield - unmarried but fathered five children with three women, the final three children with Emma Mills (1995-2004)
Raymond Morris - married twice, second wife was called Carol Morris
George Joseph Smith - married bigamously seven times between 1908 and 1914; Caroline Beatrice Thornhill, Florence Wilson, Edith Peglar, Sarah Freeman, Bessie Munday, Alice Burnham and Alice Reid, two of whom he murdered... to name but a few
Peter Tobin - married and divorced three times; Margaret Mountney / MacKintosh (1969-71), Sylvia Jefferies (1973-76) and Cathy Wilson (1989-93)
Steve Wright - married Angela O'Donovan (1978-87) and Diane Cassell/Cole (1987-88)
Married (after) Murders/Crimes
Richard Ramirez - married in prison to Doreen Lioy, up to his death (1996-2013)
Ted Bundy - engaged to Diane Edwards known as Stephanie Brooks in 1973, and later married Carole Ann Boone whilst on trial and had a daughter with him
Arthur Shawcross - Clara D. Neal who he later married whilst in prison for murder
Henry Lee Lucas - married Betty Crawford after his conviction for kidnapping three girls
Charles Manson - engaged in prison to Afton Elaine "Star" Burton, never married
Myra Hindley - engaged to Ronnie Sinclair on her 17th birthday for six months
Killers Couples
Ray & Faye Copeland - the killer couple of Missouri (1940-93)
Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka - "The Ken & Barbie Killers"
Ray Fernandez & Martha Beck - "The Lonely Hearts Killers"
Carol M. Bundy & Doug Clark - "The Sunset Strip Killers"
Cynthia Coffman & James Gregory Marlow - another killer couple
David Ray Parker "The ToyBox Killer" & his girlfriend / accomplice Cindy Lee Hendy
Ian Brady & Myra Hindley - "The Moors Murderers"
David and Catherine Birnie – “The Moorhouse Murderers”
Fred West & Rose West - "The Gloucester Killers"
Single / Dated Only: (or unmarried owing to a lack of equal rights for gay couples)
Dennis NIlsen - single, homosexual, lived with David "Twinkle" Gallichan
David Berkowitz - single, no wives or known girlfriends
Edmund Kemper - single, troubled upbringing, unable to maintain a normal relationship, but was briefly engaged to a 16-year-old Turlock High School student
Jeffrey Dahmer - single, a homosexual loner, one brief relationship with a boy at school
Joel Rifkin - single, with learning difficulties, no known girlfriends
Ed Gein - single, no girlfriends, his only true love was his mother
Ted Kaczynski - single, but "dated" Joy Richards whilst in prison (1998-2006)
Rodney Alcala - dated Beth Kelleher for a few months before his arrest in 1979
Robert Pickton - habitual user/murderer of prostitutes, he once dated Connie Anderson
Ronald Dominique - single, homosexual serial killer, no known boyfriends or partners
Larry Eyler - single, homosexual serial killer, no known boyfriends or partners
Dean Arnold Corll - a homosexual "relationship" with 12 year old David Brooks
Lee Boyd Malvo - single, a few girlfriends, once was referred in the press as "Kaitlin"
Orville Lynn Majors - unmarried, single
Herbert Mullin - had a steady girlfriend but expressed worries to her that he was gay
Richard Chase - single, hospitalised, no known girlfriends
Graham Young - single, no known girlfriends, convicted / hospitalised
Michael Lupo - homosexual, claimed to have had over 3000 lovers
Patrick MacKay - single, institutionalised from his early teens
Robert Maudsley - single, rent-boy / drug-addict, sexually-abused and incarcerated
Robert Black - single, occasional girlfriends, nothing long-term
Kenneth Erskine - unknown
Steven Grieveson - unknown
Stephen Griffiths - dated Kathy Hancock for 12 months, stalked her for 10 years
Trevor Hardy - his partner Sheilagh Farrow provided his alibi, which meant he was released from prison, and went on to murder Sharon Mosoph
Stephen Port - homosexual, numerous former boyfriends but names unknown
Robert Napper - Single, sexually-abused, unknown of any long-term relationships
Beverley Allitt - boyfriend Stephen Biggs, the only real love in her life
Source Michael J Buchanan-Dunne
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