I pulled up the edge of the doona, inviting her to dive into the bed. She curled up beside me, her skin feeling extra hot after the previous coldness in the room.
“What happened?” I asked gently, not wanting Bea to relive her nightmare but needing to know exactly what had upset her so much.
“It was dark and I couldn’t see. I was scared.”
It was difficult to know whether Bea was just dreaming or whether something had happened to her while she was awake. Either way, I didn’t want to scare her anymore and cuddled her closer.
At least the little girl had gone.
For now.
When I woke in the morning, Bea was gone. I found her in the kitchen, happily eating breakfast with our parents. She didn’t seem to be scarred from the night before so I decided not to bring it up again. Bea was probably just having normal dreams, not experiencing all the paranormal things I was.
“Can you look after your sister this morning while your father and I go out for a few hours?” Mom asked as she placed some toast in front of me.
Panic gripped me. It was too soon to be left alone. I wasn’t ready for it after last night. “Can’t we come with you?”
“We won’t be gone long, you’ll both be bored. You can take the time to unpack your rooms and get settled in.”
“Please? Let me come?”
“We won’t be long, honey. You’ll be fine.” Mom patted my shoulder like it would make everything okay.
It wouldn’t.
The little girl didn’t appear to my parents. As long as they were around, she wouldn’t do anything. The moment they were gone she had free reign to do anything she liked to us.
But maybe last night was a once off. We’d moved all this way to start over and get away from the little girl, I had to give the new place a chance. Perhaps I had dreamed everything too, like Bea. Maybe it was only the memories of the past haunting me now.
Our parents left straight after breakfast. Bea decided she wanted to watch television instead of unpacking her room so I set her up in the living room. The reception was terrible so she had to settle for a DVD.
I walked around our new house, looking in every corner and finding nothing out of the ordinary. Everything looked like it belonged, there was nothing out of place.
There were no signs of the little girl either. It boosted my theory that last night had all been imagined. I was very tired and my fatigue was probably blurring the line between waking and sleeping.
It was a nice house this time. We’d gotten lucky. Some of the homes we lived in over the years were tiny and falling apart. We never inspected a house before we moved in, there was never time. The day we moved in was the first time we got to see where we’d be living. It was a bit hit or miss.
I had a good feeling about Buttercup Bay. It was summer, we didn’t have to worry about school for a few months, and the town was small enough to embrace the newcomers.
“Penny, the DVD isn’t working,” Bea called out. I returned to the living room, finding the television showing only static lines and buzzing with an angry noise.
The sound of something coming down the stairs stole my attention away. A red ball the size of a soccer ball bounced down each of the steps until it reached the bottom. It moved slowly until it stopped beside my foot.
I’d never seen the ball before.
I went to pick it up but it was frozen cold. I dropped it again, recoiling from the freezer burn. “Is this your ball, Bea?”
She stood on the couch to see over it. “No. Can I have it?”
I opened the front door and kicked it out. “No, don’t ever touch it, okay? It’s not ours, it’s dirty or something. Just don’t bring it inside.”
Bea nodded, knowing something was wrong but not asking what it was. “Can you fix the DVD now?”
“Sure.”
But no matter what I played or how many wires I fiddled with, the television wouldn’t play anything but static. It had been working fine at our old place.
The little girl was getting stronger.
* * *
I unplugged all the television cords. “Bea, we’re going for a walk. Come on.”
“But-”
I shot her a look. Bea knew when I wasn’t messing around. She closed her mouth and followed me, managing to keep up with my fast pace.
The moment I stepped outside it felt like I could breathe again. Fear kept me going. I didn’t want to be anywhere near the house, not when the little girl was growing in power. Nothing like these events had happened before.
“Penny, slow down,” Bea whined.
Only when we were down the road did I slow down. “Sorry, kid.”
“Where are we going?”
I had to think quickly before I scared her. The last thing I needed was Bea seeing ghosts too. “Let’s look around the town and explore. That will be fun, huh?”
She seemed satisfied with that idea. We walked slower now, taking in all the houses in our area. Buttercup Bay wasn’t big by any standards. Only a few hundred people called it home.
It was only a short walk to the main street, if you could call it that. A few stores lined the road on both sides. Half were boarded up and closed.
The place was busy, considering the size of the town. At least a dozen people were standing on the sidewalks. They were all staring at us as we walked past.
They gave me the creeps. Even when I stared back at them they didn’t look away, just openly gaping at us. All the hair stood up on the back of my neck. I was covered in goosebumps and it was summer.
I tugged on Bea’s hand so she walked faster again. “Want an ice cream?” I asked.
“Yeah, ice cream!” If she noticed all the weird townspeople, she didn’t let it scare her like it did me.
One of the few stores open was a small supermarket. I put my head down and made a beeline for the door. It was only a few yards away but it seemed much further.
At least the single checkout operator didn’t stare at us. She looked up from the magazine she was reading and then went back to it. They also had air conditioning, which was another huge bonus.
Bea took her time in choosing the perfect ice cream, which was fine by me. I grabbed a chocolate flavored one and was done with it.
The supermarket was quite well stocked for being in such a small town. I’d never lived anywhere so under populated before so I didn’t have a comparison but it seemed good to me.
Bea finally chose – vanilla, of all the flavors – and we went to pay for them. The checkout chick was about my age and she seemed friendly enough. As soon I paid, Bea took her ice cream outside to eat.
I hung back. “So is there anything to do around here? My family just moved in yesterday.”
“Not really. Some people go swimming at the creek, which is fun. It’s a little hard to find though unless you know your way around.”
“Swimming sounds good in all this heat.”
“Yeah, Buttercup Bay is like an oven in summertime. It messes with my hair like nobody’s business.” She tugged at her strawberry blond hair. It looked fine to me. “Where did you say you lived?”
“I didn’t. We moved into the house at the end of Sunflower Road.”
“That house?” Her eyes grew wide. “Nobody’s lived there for a long time.”
“Why’s that?”
“There’s a lot of history with that house. It’s been vacant for as long as I can remember.”
“Why? Did something happen there?” I was starting to get that creepy feeling again, making all my hair stand on end.
She shook her head. “It’s not for me to say. Nobody should talk about the devil.”
“The devil?” My voice was about as high as a screechy bird.
Her face relaxed into a polite smile. “Have a nice day. Welcome to Buttercup Bay.”
I eyed her suspiciously but she never faltered. I picked up my ice cream. “Thanks. I guess I’ll see you around.” She watched me leave, every step I took.
Something weird was going on in Buttercup Bay and I got the horrible feeling in my gut that I’d only touched the tip of the iceberg.
When I joined Bea outside, people were staring at her. She was completely oblivious to them all as she ate happily. I sat next to her on the curb and tried to do the same thing.
What was their problem? Staring back at them didn’t work, neither did making a face. They continued to stare without flinching.
Even with all the people looking, we took our time going home. I wanted to ensure we gave our parents enough time to beat us. There was no way I wanted to be in that house alone anymore.
When I saw our car parked out the front, I knew it was safe to return. Mom was on the porch, she ran for us when she saw our approach.
Sweeping us both into a hug, she said, “I’ve been worried sick. Where did you go? You didn’t leave a note or anything.”
“Sorry, Mom. We went to look around and got an ice cream,” I replied.
Relief washed over her. “Make sure you send me a text or something next time, okay? Save my heart from having an attack. Come in and I’ll make you some lunch.”
Mom and Dad never said where they went, avoiding the subject when I brought it up. We ate sandwiches together but I still couldn’t relax. There was something going on in this house and it put me on edge.
I could barely stand being inside. As soon as lunch was finished I went outside again, riding my bike around in circles on the driveway.
Eyes were on me. They drilled into my back and sent goosebumps prickling down my arms. The girl was watching from the second-floor window. The faint outline of her body could be seen in the shadows when I looked up.
She was always watching me.
“Hey, the new girl,” a boy’s voice startled me as I whipped around to face him.
There were a half dozen kids staring at me. For once, all of them were real. They ranged in ages from about ten upwards to sixteen. Judging by their tanned faces and carefree attitudes, they were all locals.
And not being haunted by a little girl.
The boy continued. “We’re going to the hole to swim. Wanna come with?”
Being anywhere other than the house was a good option. Add in some cool water swimming and I would be in heaven. “Sure, I’ll just grab my suit.”
They waited for me while I ran inside and yelled my intended whereabouts to my parents. My dad replied so at least one of them heard me.
There were no signs of the girl when I hurried through my room. I grabbed my swimsuit from a box still to be unpacked and remembered to pick up a towel on my way out.
The moment I hopped on my bike, we were off.
The swimming hole was a small lake, barely bigger than my house. It had huge trees overhanging the water, making their branches perfectly designed for swinging from.
Feeling the cool water was a relief from the humid heat that scorched the air. I swam until I was refreshingly cold and then headed for the bank where some of the others had stretched out on towels.
I lay my blue towel on the grass, close enough so that my feet could still dangle in the water. The trees provided shade from the burning sun.
The girl with ginger hair beside me squinted to look at me. “You live in the Sunflower Road house, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, we just moved in yesterday.”
“Are you brave or just stupid?”
“Excuse me?”
She flipped over and rested her chin in her hands, still looking at me intently. “Why’d you choose that house to move into?”
“My parents found it on the internet, I guess. I don’t really know. Why?”
“Nobody’s lived there since the Carlsons. Nobody has been game enough to stay longer than one night.”
* * *
My skin had that prickling tingly feeling all over. “Why won’t people stay in the house?” I asked. I was almost too worried to find out. Maybe I didn’t want to know what was wrong with my new house.
The young girl on my other side sat up quickly. “You shouldn’t be telling that story, Sadie. You’ll freak the girl out and she’ll be too scared to go home.”
Sadie – the ginger-haired girl, apparently – shrugged. “She has a right to know. I’d want to know if someone was murdered in my house.”
“Wait, someone was murdered in my home?” My voice took on that screechy tone that I always used when I was about to freak out. The other girl was right.
The younger girl nodded with wide eyes while Sadie continued in her matter-of-fact voice. “Not just one person, but a whole family. Mom, Dad, and two daughters. They went to bed that night and never woke up again. They’d only lived in the house for a few weeks.”
I gulped. The story was too much like my own family to throw away as just a ploy to scare the new girl. I knew the house didn’t feel right, but I thought it was because of the little girl.
Maybe she had helpers now.
“How were they killed?” I crossed my fingers, hoping it was a peaceful gas leak or something.
“Their heads were all hacked off,” Sadie said, slipping into storytelling mode. “They say late at night you can still hear them walking around, looking for their heads. They drag their feet and bump into things because they can’t see. The moment they find somebody, they try to pull off their head so they can use it as their own.”
“Sadie!” the other girl scolded. “You shouldn’t be talking about the ghosts. They’ll come for you. My grandmamma always says the dead only have power if you talk about them. It calls them back.”
The story Sadie was spinning could have been an urban legend, or something the kids said to the new kid to see what she was made of. I wished it was that, but I got the feeling there was more truth to the story than fiction.
I’d heard the dragging feet.
It wasn’t hard to believe the story was true. Not when I’d heard and seen things in the house that might not all be attributable to the little girl. Maybe she’d finally met her match.
I swallowed down the fear and tried to keep my voice level. “How long ago were they murdered?”
“About ten years, I think. Everyone knows the story, that house is a legend around here. Kids break into it every Halloween, daring one another to stay in the rooms alone.”
“Did they find the killer? The one who cut off their heads?”
“Nope. They say he’s still out there, taking heads and keeping them in his basement as a reminder. He could be anyone and anywhere.”
“But it’s only a story, right? Nobody has actually seen the ghosts?”
“I’ve seen them,” the girl said in a small voice. She instantly captured all of our attention. “When it’s a full moon, they come to the windows like they are waiting for something.”
“I have, too,” a boy beside Sadie said suddenly, sitting up on his orange towel. “Heaps of times. They stand in the windows and look out as if they still had heads. All you can see are the bloody stumps of their necks. It’s really gross.”
I listened as more and more kids added their sightings to the list. My head was spinning by the time they changed the subject. I needed to get home and warn my parents.
We needed to move again.
I packed up my towel and threw apologies at the kids, claiming I had a ridiculously early curfew to meet. My bike didn’t peddle fast enough as I whizzed through the lonely streets of the small town.
By the time I arrived home and left my bike on the lawn, I was puffing. Nobody was in the first level of the house. I took the stairs two at a time and stopped in the middle of the hallway.
My parents were talking in their bedroom, the dull thud of furniture moving sometimes covered their voices. I froze as I listened to their conversation.
“At least we have a new start now,” Mom said.
“I hope it’s the last one,” Dad replied. “Our savings are almost gone. Moving isn’t cheap.”
“I like it here, I have a feeling it’s all going to work out. Once w
e find jobs we’ll be able to build up the savings account again.”
Dad sighed and they moved another piece of furniture. I couldn’t go in there and tell them what I’d learned about the house. I just couldn’t. They would both look at me with disappointment in their eyes, even though they would try to hide it.
Every time we moved it took something away from us. Money, opportunity, friends, everything. If we ran away now the whole thing would start over again.
It had only been two days here, maybe we could stick it out a while longer. All I needed to do was keep the little girl under control. Maybe she would be able to deal with anything else that happened in the house from the murdered family.
I turned and changed course for my bedroom. The minute I opened the door I knew the little girl was around. Everything was icy cool even in the blazing heat of summer. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Warily, I walked to my bed and sat down.
Waiting.
She was there. I just needed to wait for her to show me her form.
I was tired of waiting. “I know you’re here. You don’t scare me anymore.”
The air rippled in front of me before her body took form, almost like she was made from the atmosphere and not the body of a dead child.
I lied about her not scaring me anymore. She terrified me. The little girl, in her perfect white dress, wasn’t scary to look at. It was more the feeling she gave me. A feeling of evil.
Her eyes were hollows but it felt like she could see everything I did. Her hands always remained at her sides but I knew they could strangle me if she wanted to. Her feet hovered above the ground, making her glide instead of walk.
A smell like rotten peaches filled my nostrils, the same stench she always brought with her. It choked me, even when my hand covered my nose and mouth.
“You have to leave me alone,” I told her. She continued to float in front of me, oblivious to my pleading. “Please, I don’t want you here. We have to stay, we can’t keep running. Please leave me alone.”
She shook her head side to side slowly, giving me the answer I expected. She would never leave me alone, no matter where we ran, no matter how many times we moved. She would follow me forever.
Spectral Tales: A Ghost Story Anthology Page 8
