The Howlett's family secret hiding place.
1.
The family mansion was built on a secret that only true family members knew. Nobody spoke about it; keeping it a secret for the kids to find out. On the Howlett’s family estate the mansion was built directly over a large cavern. There is a secret entrance and short tunnel from the basement to a hidden cavern below. The cavern served multiple purposes. It was a natural storm shelter. It made a reasonable storage cellar. It was also used as a burial crypt. In the Howlett family they had difficulty determining whether or not they were dead; more so than most folks. So, when family members appeared to be dead, the seriously injured were laid to rest on stone beds carved into the side of the cavern. On rare occasions the ‘dead bodies’ would be found up and wandering about on the road to recovery days later. If it looked like the bodies started to decay after a few days, then they would be treated as deceased and buried. The problem with super-healing types is just how much punishment can their bodies take before the ability to heal themselves is too broken to keep them alive. And how does one know when a super-healer is dead ?
It is said that one can tell who is a Howlett and who is a Creed based on which entrance to the cavern they use the first time they find it. Carved into the rock over the entrances is the letter ‘H’ for Howlett or the letter ‘C’ for Creed.
Peter’s Tomb
Peter is Logan’s nephew who was born about 1900 (sometime before the first world war). As a child Peter was always ill. He was ill so often and seemingly on the brink of death so often that his parents built him a small tomb in the cavern to rest in. There was a sad family assumption that Peter would probably be dead soon; there were no hopes that he would make it through his childhood. Sometimes Peter could be seen lying in his tomb, soaked in sweat from illness. Peter was undersized for his age and considered to be the runt of the litter. Abnormal for the Howlett family, Peter did not seem to have any super healing factor. In fact he seemed to heal more slowly than most people would. A common cold would often put Peter in his tomb for a month while he struggled to recover.
Then one night Peter finally died, after losing a battle with the common cold. The night Peter died was a full moon. At the moment of Peter’s death a powerful wind struck up and the moon clouded over for a moment. It looked like it might storm, then the weather cleared up just as suddenly as it darkened. A short mournful howl could be heard; Logan’s brother showing the faintest semblance of humanity at the death of his son.
Peter whispered his last words: “And with a kiss I die.” And his mouth formed a small kiss; kissing the air. Peter had stopped sweating, he wasn’t breathing, there was no heart-beat. Peter’s body had grown cold. As cold as the surroundings of his tomb. A local doctor confirmed and pronounced Peter deceased about two days after his family thought he was. Peter’s body was buried in a cemetery near a school, in the shade of a tree, as he requested. A tombstone marked the burial site: Peter Howlett, deceased 1908.
Most mutations are detrimental to a person’s health. One of Peter’s mutations was almost the opposite to what other family members had. He seemed to have a slow healing factor.