The Haunting Within (5 page)

14

She walked into the large hall to the phone stand at the bottom of the long winding staircase. Her shoes scuffed the worn and tattered rug that adorned the floor. Stepping off the rug and onto the tired and dull wooden parquet floor she instantly tip-toed without giving it a second thought. As a child she was always made to walk silently across hard floors because it riled her father if she made a noise and she would be punished. Her mind flitted back to the time when she was about three years old. She knew a lot of people believed memories from so early on in life could not possibly be remembered, but Debbie remembered it well because it was the first time she had been locked in the closet under the stairs. She had been playing with a toy and had accidentally dropped it from her chubby little baby fingers. He had been so angry he snatched her up roughly from the floor and locked her in the tiny room. She had been beyond terror there, alone in the pitch blackness, a frightened three year old with a snotty nose and bloody lip from her fall to the floor as he threw her in. When her mother was finally allowed to unlock the door she found Debbie curled in a little ball, fast asleep from sheer exhaustion and terror, her tiny body still heaving from her sobbing. Her mother had rocked her all night, crying into her child’s soft downy hair that smelled of sweat from her panic. 

Wiping a welling tear of anger away, she walked to the phone and took a moment to compose herself. Just before picking up the receiver she glanced up to the top of the stairs. The window that over looked the stairs was very long and very wide. It let in dusky light that seemed to get swallowed up in the deep green velvet drapes that hung around it. The dreary sunlight that fell through the window picked out the particles of dust swimming in the air above her and it seemed that the dust was dancing; parading in a strange but peaceful sort of performance that was just for her. She felt relieved that she saw nothing, although, what she was expecting to see she wasn’t entirely sure, and she felt silly about thinking the dust was dancing for her, but she couldn’t help gazing at it for a little longer. She had to pull her gaze away, so relaxed was she just looking at the dust. It captivated her so much so that she could hardly bear to take her eyes from it; she wished she could just stand and watch the dust all day. The particles were like tiny creatures, maybe fairies, and the more she thought about them being like fairies the more she believed they were fairies. Minute but perfectly formed. Weaving around and about each other as though in a parody of courtship. It felt to her like she was an intruder, some sort of trespasser, spying on a sensual act between the fairy-folk. So lazy was the dust that she found her eyes starting to feel heavy as she observed their private dance. Slowly she picked up the phone and turned her back to the stairs, fretful of losing her concentration whilst she was on the phone because of the dancing dust.

While Debbie was on the phone to the agent, Lisa and Aiden were still in the kitchen sat at the table making small talk, attempting to take their minds off the fact they were in the house which had caused most of their nightmares when they were children. It seemed to be working as they chatted away about nothing in particular, nothing that was of great importance, yet that seemed so vital to them now to keep their minds from returning to their fears. After a half-hearted conversation about how the weather been recently and how Lisa needed some new summer shoes, their chat was abruptly cut short by an ear shattering scream from the front of the house. Their chairs scratched along the tiled floor and Aiden’s tipped back and landed with a crash as they both ran into the hall. They rounded the staircase and came to a halt, their hearts beating a violent rhythm in their chests, beside their mother who was crouching on the floor at the foot of the stairs crying and trembling. Taking an arm each they helped to get her to her feet and guided her into the lounge and led her towards a large hard backed chair upholstered in crimson velvet. As they tried to get her to sit down she twisted and jerked until she broke free of them and darted away from the chair.

“Neither of you must sit in that chair!” she screamed hysterically, oblivious to the mucus that ran from her nose over her lips.

“It’s alright mum; we won’t” said Lisa gently.

Debbie looked up at her with wide red-rimmed eyes that contained a terror which Lisa had never seen in them before and never wanted to again. “You really mustn’t. It’s his chair and he will go mad if he sees you sat in it.” She let out a heart wrenching sob and put her head against her daughter’s chest. Lisa and Aiden’s eyes locked as they silently feared for their mum.

To them she looked like a sad, defenseless child not their strong mum who had raised them all by herself and dealt with the usual trouble teenagers put their parents through. To him, the unseen spectator to Lisa and Aiden, yet who Debbie
knew
was there, in the room with them, trying to sit in
his
chair,
she looked like the stupid, pathetic, horrid little mummy’s girl he knew her as and she knew he was loving every minute of her fear.

15

Once her sobs had subsided and she had calmed down a bit - with a little help from the large whisky Lisa had poured her - she was able to tell them what had happened.             

“I was on the phone to the estate agent and we’d arranged for someone to come tomorrow to value the house and bring the paper work. After I put the phone down I turned to go back in the kitchen and I…” she trailed off as she began to weep again.

They gave her some time and when she had control of herself she carried on. “As I turned around I glanced up the stairs, I didn’t want to but felt I
had
to and there he was standing there glaring at me and for a second I…I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. Then he started walking down the stairs towards me…” Debbie broke off again to sip her whisky with shaky hands, the glass banging against her teeth.

They sat in silence for a while until Lisa said “I think we should all stay together from now on.” But they knew it didn’t need saying; that was the way it was going to be. In a strange way, Lisa and Aiden knew that it was irrational to be thinking of ghosts and such, but after all their mother had told them and after what they had witnessed in this very house all those years ago it seemed there were such things as ghosts. At home the idea of things that go bump in the night could be dismissed, put down to over-active imaginations which is what they had been doing for as long as they could remember. But being in the house where it all happened, it wasn’t so easy to think like that. The fear that oozed from their mum crept over them like a swarm of tiny insects until it had them in its hold.

The night was drawing in when Debbie looked up at them. “We’re going to have to stay here the night.” She had said their worst fears out loud and knew what their reactions would be.

“Why are we?” asked Lisa unsure why her mum thought that and already feeling the panic rising in her chest. 

“The estate agent can’t get anybody out here until tomorrow morning.”

“Well what time in the morning because we might still have time to go home and be back here for then.” Lisa waited for her mum to reply, hoping they would have time to make the four-and-a-half hour journey back to their home, catch a bit of sleep - if they possibly could - and get back here in time for the estate agent arriving.

“He didn’t give me a time love, just said sometime after eight o’clock. We won’t have time to go home. We’ve got no choice but to stay here tonight.” Debbie replied with a sigh, aware that she had just shattered her children’s hopes but not knowing any other way around this dilemma.

“No way! I’m not staying here all night!” Aiden shouted, feeling close to tears which shocked him as he wasn’t one for crying and hadn’t done so since he was thirteen and their beloved dog Benji had to be put down because of his arthritis which was caused by old age the vet had said. Near the end the poor thing could hardly walk. They kept him as long as they could without being inhumane, but in the end they realised it just wasn’t fair to keep him suffering for their own selfishness. Aiden had often wondered if he was to blame. He used to play with Benji and get him to chase him and do tricks for hours on end. Surely that couldn’t have helped his arthritis. His mum always told him of course it wasn’t his fault but he had never been so sure. He questioned if maybe it would have been better to let Benji laze around all day doing nothing like old Mrs. Connel who lived next door to them did with Shep. Shep was a boring dog. Aiden tried every time he saw him to get him to play but he was never interested. The most Aiden ever saw him do was give a pathetic wag of his tail whenever he was petted. Even when they got Benji and he first met Shep, Shep barely even opened his eyes to look at him. Benji had wanted to play but the old lazy dog was having none of it. No, that wouldn’t have been any life for a dog. Aiden took solace in knowing Benji had a full and happy life.

Debbie had driven him to the vets while he lay in the back seat with the children. They cried all the way there and back. It was like Benji had known what was happening because, for the first time in weeks he perked up slightly. He had a little roll around on the floor with the children that morning, as though he was giving them the last precious memories of him before they were left alone; one family member gone. Benji was a beautiful black Labrador with soft, shiny fur and the biggest brown eyes they had ever seen. He had always been so loving and playful and they had all adored him - still did, if the truth be known. He was a ripe old age of fourteen when he was put down; he’d lived a good life with a family who had worshipped him like he was a tiny baby.

“We’ve got no choice love.”              

“Yes we have! How about if we go find a B&B? There must be one round here somewhere.” Aiden pointed out, too anxious to feel silly at his over the top outburst.

“Well we’ll have to drive into town because there isn’t any round here as far as I know. There’s never been any point in building one round here. This is the only house for miles. It’s worth a try though so come on, let’s go.”

Their spirits rose as they shut the doors of the manor behind them but soon came crashing down around them as Debbie delved into her handbag to retrieve the car keys only to realise she must have left them in the house somewhere. They all went back into the house and began searching frantically, desperately for the missing keys. After half an hour of searching every place Debbie had been in the house they had still not found them. She knew who had done this. She knew he wanted them in the house with him. And know she had to face the fact that they would have to spend the night in the house they hated so much.

They gathered at the front room window just as dusk was setting over their part of the world giving everything an unholy glow. Debbie hugged her children close as they were silhouetted against the darkening sky. As they turned back to the room they knew something was getting ready to unleash itself on them and they were absolutely terrified.

16

Lisa took her mother through to the kitchen, flicking on the light as they passed and sat her at the table. As she moved over to the kettle she felt better, more comfortable, as the long light overhead switched on with a faint hum of noise from the surge of electricity. It gave the whole kitchen a friendlier glow, even if it did make everything seem a little imposing and sterile. The light was shining on the stainless steel kettle and the taps at the sink and it appeared to bounce off everything, giving the whole room the appearance of being twice as bright as it actually was. If it wasn’t for the rustic worn wood dining table and authentic stone floor, Lisa thought that it would look almost surgical with the coldness of the appliances and the harshness of the light. As it was though, it was very welcoming to them. The only thing was with the light being reflected off all the surfaces, everything seemed to loom at them like over-sized jack-in-the-boxes. Their sizes distorted and their shapes in chaos. But that was a small price to pay for light and peace of mind.

Although it wasn’t fully dark yet and wouldn’t be for another hour or so she felt their need for light. The house was eerie enough in broad daylight, let alone in the depth of night. She had never had a penchant for dark corners that couldn’t be seen and this house certainly had more than its fair share of them. The house was made of sharp angles and corners that protruded out everywhere; there was not one room in the house that had a soft shape to it. The corners gave way to darkness and it seemed like the purpose of the walls that stuck out so sharply was to shield the corners of the rooms from any light. There were so many darkened areas in the house that the dark appeared to reflect from wall to wall creating an extremely dull and oppressing atmosphere as though the walls were closing in. The darkness seemed to have a life of its own as it moved around the rooms during the day, much as daylight would move casting shadows on the walls and floors as the sun moved across the sky, the darkness had the same quality as light when it came to bouncing from walls to another place in a room. The lighting did little to help as different lights and lamps illuminated their own small areas but they also created new shadows in places where there were none before. The darkness that Lisa and Aiden knew of was a soft blackness that didn’t move, nor did it reflect off anything, but the darkness in the house seemed to do just that. Its inky form appeared to be all around them, engulfing everything the seemingly solid mass touched and sucking it into its black heart, it was everywhere. Even with the overhead lights on it still managed to worm its way into the outskirts, leaking a little of its poisonous mass into the safe haven of the light, a constant reminder of what awaited them.

Lisa refilled the kettle again and took comfort in the noise the fast running water made as it hit the empty metal. It was a familiar, welcomed noise. She put it on the stove that sat in a recess made of bare brick and lit the burner with the matches that were on the work surface next to the aga. It amazed her just how old fashioned this house was. It was nothing like their little home. Under ordinary circumstances she would have loved to visit a house like this, loved to see how things used to be. But this was definitely not an ordinary circumstance.

Aiden came in while she had her back to the rest of the kitchen. It was only when he spoke to their mum that she knew he was there. “You alright mum? Lisa’s making us a nice coffee and maybe she can look for some biscuits eh?” He looked over at Lisa and gave her his most cheeky smile. “Go on sis. Any’ll do, but if there is any I’d prefer chocolate ones. Ooh, or hob-nobs. Whatever.” He turned back to his mum who looked so pale and tired. “Hob-nobs are your favourite aren’t they mum?” Aiden was purposefully trying to keep the conversation relaxed and hide the disquiet he felt at seeing his mum have a meltdown.

“Huh? What did you say love?” Debbie asked her son.

“I said hob-nobs are your favourite aren’t they?” he replied.

“Do you know, I can remember one time when I was, oh, now how old would I have been?” Debbie’s forehead wrinkled in a frown as she tried to recall her age. “I must have been about five. My father came home from work one day, this was after his practice was closed down, that happened before I was even born. Anyway, he came home from his job as an assistant psychologist - which meant he didn’t actually
see
any patients, just helped to analyse their cases, I think that’s the correct name for it, and walked in here and went over to my mother who was stood at the sink washing-up, just near where you are Lisa.” Lisa subconsciously moved away from the sink with a shiver passing the length of her spine “and he gave her a kiss. I hardly ever saw my parents kiss so I knew he was in a good mood. Then he came over to me and sat at the table next to me, right where I’m sat now, that’s where I was sat that day” her eyes glazed over at the memory. “He pulled a huge package from under his arm and handed it to me. It was wrapped up in pretty pink paper with a big red bow tied round the middle. He said that it was mine for being a good girl and he called me his
princess
. I was so happy, I tore the wrapping off and it was the most beautiful dolls house I had ever seen. He took me into the lounge and helped me put all the furniture inside just how I wanted it. It even had the dollies with it. I absolutely adored it. For the rest of that night I played with it and the next day when my father was at work me and my mother played with it together. I felt wonderful and knew that he
must
love me after all.”

Her children were watching her as she spoke so contentedly, but suddenly her eyes became moist and tears started rolling down her cheeks. They didn’t like to see her cry and they rarely did, except for today.             

“Only, the next day when he arrived home from work he was in a bad mood
again
. After shouting at my mother for not having his dinner ready he turned on me. He marched me up to my room and told me I must be punished for being naughty. To this day I don’t know what I’d done to make him so angry with me. He went over to my beloved doll’s house and smashed it to pieces while I stood there crying, then he just walked straight past me as though I wasn’t even there. I scrambled around on the floor crying, trying to put my precious doll’s house back together again while he was down stairs
punishing
my mother for his dinner being late. She used to try so hard not to scream so I didn’t get frightened but when he beat her with things, whatever was to hand, a belt, a pan, a fire poker, or if nothing was in his reach, his hands would do, she couldn’t help but scream. I was
five
years old for God’s sake. No child should have to go through that” she trailed off and cried even harder. Lisa and Aiden comforted her as best they could until the tears stopped flowing.