After that, he left them and went to his room.
“Well.” Kate shrugged.
Emily looked at Kate. “Well, what?”
“Well, I think it is obvious what we should do tonight.”
“And that would be?” Chris sounded intrigued.
“We should go on a ghost hunt.”
“That’s crazy,” Emily exclaimed. “Why would that be what we should do?”
“I thought that you would be the first to agree,” Kate shrugged. “It might be the best way for you to prove that there is something in the house. I mean, come on. You asked Father Bolton to investigate deaths in and around the house, but you don’t want to find the answer for yourself? Sounds like someone is scared?”
“Sorry, Kate,” Joshua said, “but I’m with Emily on this one. Something doesn’t feel right about this.”
“You’ve been with Emily since we arrived, Joshua.”
“Maybe because she’s either right or she is the victim.”
Kate looked ready to burst after that comment.
“I’m in,” Chris said. “Sounds like fun.”
“We’re in, too,” Andrea said, pulling Carol closer.
“That leaves the two of you,” Chris stated the obvious.
Emily and Joshua exchanged glances. They both knew this was a bad idea, but the others couldn’t or wouldn’t understand. Joshua looked at Chris and shrugged.
“I guess I can’t go home and tell people I let you die because of a gut feeling,” he said, but he didn’t sound like he had convinced himself.
Emily wanted to stay out of it all but felt she couldn’t anymore. Once they had left, the ghost might target her again.
She regretted saying yes the moment the words left her mouth. “Where do you want to start?”
“What better place than where it all began?” Carol said.
* * *
The search of the house began. After Emily’s room came up empty, they started going through the other rooms.
They found nothing out of the ordinary.
That was when Kate had the idea to go outside. “It is the only place we haven’t looked,” she shrugged. “And didn’t Father Bolton say something about one of them dying in the garden?”
So they went outside, which was where things started going from bad to worse. It was bad enough when they didn’t believe her, but then they saw it for themselves.
Chris was leading them around the house, giving them a tour, as he called it. They came to the tomb Kate had told them about. It was a large stone building with thick wooden front doors. There no windows that they could see, given that most of the building was covered by plants.
Emily was about to suggest that they turn back when Chris stopped in front of them, and each of them bumped into the person ahead of them, like a car pileup.
“What is the big idea?” Kate snarled.
Chris pointed to their right silently.
He was standing to their right, next to the house. Not ten metres away from them. The man Emily had seen after every dream she experienced in her room. He was pointing in their direction, but no one cared about that.
Everyone just screamed and scattered.
Emily and Kate headed back the way they came, followed closely by Carol. Chris, Joshua, and Andrea had taken the other way around. Though Emily couldn’t see where they were, she could hear their frantic screaming quite clearly.
These three were the first back into the house, and they slammed the door closed after they burst through it. Still screaming, they tried to hold the door in place. Seconds later, Chris started banging hysterically against the door.
“Let us in! Let us in! Let us in!”
Emily, Kate, and Andrea moved out of the way and the door flew open. The others burst in.
Everyone was breathing heavily and lying in heaps on the floor. Before they could get a word out, Mrs. Galpin came storming down the stairs.
“Now we’re in trouble,” Chris whispered. “It’s after lights-out.”
* * *
Missing
Despite them finally getting along, though it took a dead man’s ghost to accomplish this, Mrs. Galpin wanted to hear nothing about their reasons for being outside. All she saw was six teenagers breaking the rules.
“I see you like it here,” She said, her temper flaring. “Why don’t we let you stay another night?”
The more they tried to convince her otherwise, the madder she got. She was threatening them with having to stay a whole week if they didn’t get to their rooms.
One by one, they moved off without another word, fearing that they might get punished more severely if they stepped slightly out of line. They said their goodnights and headed to their own rooms.
Emily had a tough time falling asleep, but finally managed to drift off.
This time her dream was completely different.
She was standing in the garden outside the house. It was late in the evening, with the moon high in the sky and stars lighting up the air around her. In front of the house stood a handsome young man in blue overalls. He had his arms open to Emily and greeted her with a joyous smile.
“Where have you been, Dorothy?” he asked. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Before Emily could wonder why he was calling her Dorothy, a young woman ran right through her and jumped into his arms.
“I’m sorry Harry. I had to wait for everyone to go to sleep,” she said.
Harry helped Dorothy onto a blanket he had placed on the ground and took his place beside her. Emily watched them as they lay in each other’s arms, just staring into the night.
Then Emily recognised them.
Dorothy was the woman who had hung herself in Emily’s previous dreams, and Harry was wearing the same blue overalls the man beside her bed always wore. They were lovers.
She watched them for a while before she heard something behind her. Standing just outside the garden was Dorothy’s sister. She was glaring at the two of them from behind a tree.
Once more the dream changed.
She saw Dorothy’s sister standing in the kitchen with an old man and a woman, who appeared to be his wife.
“Father,” she said, her voice seemed to be filled with sorrow. “I’m afraid I have some… some… upsetting news.”
“Calm down, Marianne,” he reassured her. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s about Dorothy.”
Emily watched how Marianne told her father and mother about all the horrible things Harry did to Dorothy, and how Dorothy had locked herself in her room. She told them how she had seen Harry looking at her sister many times before, and how she had warned him to stay away from Dorothy.
Her father was furious and stomped up the stairs to Dorothy’s room, the one Marianne unlocked earlier in the dream. He stopped outside her door, his knuckles centimetres from the wood panels. Dorothy's sobs were clearly audible through the door.
That seemed to be all the proof he needed. Their father went back downstairs and called for all the staff but Harry to join him in his study. Once they were all there he told them that he wanted Harry dead.
He told them that Harry had committed a horrendous crime, but didn’t say what.
At this point, everything started to make sense to Emily. She wanted to wake up, but she couldn’t; the dream wasn’t over yet.
The vision continued.
Emily saw how the staff waited for nightfall and headed to the garden, where they found Harry patiently waiting for Dorothy. They surrounded him and ambushed him. Emily had to endure seeing him beaten to death. Bones cracked and muscles tore.
She was crying by the time they left Harry alone, and it was clear that he was dead.
She was walking back through the house. She walked up the stairs and Marianne passed her at the top of the stairs.
NO! She screamed. I know what is going to happen. I don’t need to see it again. I don’t want to see it again. Wake up! Wake up! You know how this ends. You must wake up!
<
br /> But she was forced to watch it all again.
* * *
Emily opened her eyes and looked into the darkness of the room. Her bed wasn’t shaking, nor was she a metre in the air. A shimmering light appeared. The shimmering grew into a single solid form. The form of a heartbroken young lady.
“D- Dorothy?” Emily stammered.
The ghost of Dorothy Sculthorpe nodded. “No need to be afraid of us,” she said, her voice no more than a whisper. “We aren’t going to hurt you. Harry and I just want to warn you. She senses your presence, just as you first sensed hers.”
“You mean it wasn’t the two of you I felt?” She tried to control her voice.
Dorothy shook her head. “I came here to thank you,” she changed the subject.
Emily looked at her, her eyes questioning Dorothy, fear still rising inside her.
“Since my father had Harry murdered and my grief drove me to my own death, we’ve never heard anyone tell the world the truth. Everybody in this town knows that Harry and I died in this house, but they blame Harry. You saw the truth. You know what my sister did.”
“I don’t understand,” Emily said.
“You now know the truth. All I ask is that you clear Harry’s name. We can never move on as long as the world still blames Harry for everything that happened here.”
Then she looked over her shoulder and said, “She’s coming.”
Before Emily knew what happened, the woman before her began to fade, and Emily felt a cold iron hand grasp her spine again. She jumped out of bed and ran to the door, across the hall, and straight into Joshua’s room.
He almost sprang out of bed when she slammed the door shut.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “What time is it?”
“Never mind that,” she told him. “Dorothy just spoke to me.”
“Who’s Dorothy?”
She told him about her dream and the conversation she just had with Dorothy. “That’s who we saw tonight,” she said. “We all saw Harry’s ghost.”
“Is that what all this is about?” he asked as he scratched his head.
“Yes,” Emily nodded. “That and-”
Suddenly Mrs. Galpin rushed into the room, looking all around as if searching for something important which she misplaced.
Emily wanted to apologise for not being in her room, but Mrs. Galpin only muttered something about being here.
“Mrs. Galpin,” Joshua started. “It everything okay?”
“They’re missing!” she was beside herself. “Chris and Kate are gone.”
“What do you mean gone?” Joshua and Emily asked.
“They’re no longer in the house. And I still have the only keys.”
* * *
Marianne
Rain started pouring outside as everyone gathered in the hallway outside their rooms. Andrea and Carol looked lost in the house without Kate by their side. Father Bolton and Ms. Dodge came running up the stairs.
“The doors are all locked,” Ms. Dodge said as she stumbled towards the gathered group. “There is no way they could be outside.”
“But they are not in the house, are they?” Mrs. Galpin snapped. “They are outside. They must be.”
There was a loud thunder clap and the lights all went out.
“Stay calm,” Father Bolton said. “There are candles throughout the house.”
They could hear him rummaging around in the place where the nearest table was supposed to be. A small flare appeared as he struck a match and lit a series of candles. “Ladies?” he turned to Carol and Andrea. “Would the two of you please light the candles throughout the house?”
They nodded and took a candle before walking off to the next candle.
“And close any open windows you might see.”
Then Father Bolton turned to the rest of them. “What are we going to do?”
“Father,” Joshua said. “Emily and I could take a quick look and see if we can find them?”
“Take a quick look, then come straight back here.”
Joshua hurried off with Emily next to him.
“Where could they be, Joshua?” Emily enquired.
“They could be anywhere. We should start at the end and work our way back.”
“That would be the study?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
They headed for the study, walking slowly through the hall. Emily lit a candle and walked into the study. Joshua had just entered the room when she felt a presence behind them. She turned to find the man, Harry Rowe, standing behind them. He was pointing awkwardly to the corner.
Emily and Joshua looked in the direction he was indicating, but could barely see anything. The corner was still in absolute darkness. Emily lifted her candle a little higher and saw a slight movement in the corner.
A woman, seemingly weaved from the shadows, stepped out from the corner of the room. She was almost as beautiful as Dorothy, but unlike Dorothy, she wasn’t shimmering. She was drawing light towards her, like a black hole. She sucked it up and did away with all of it.
“Marianne,” Emily said.
At that moment, they were thrown into the air and out of the room. Invisible forces pressed them against the wall. Marianne crept out of the study, crawling against the wall like a giant spider.
“Emily,” Marianne hissed. “You know.”
The words came out slurred and broken, like she was learning how to pronounce them for the first time. She was nearing Emily, muttering to herself as she crawled along the walls.
Then, out of nowhere, Father Bolton came rushing into the room. He was holding a crucifix as he came closer to Marianne. “Away foul creature,” he commanded.
Marianne backed away, hissing at Father Bolton as he neared her. She swung her arm towards him and a chandelier came crashing down on him. He tried to move, but he couldn’t get out from under the chandelier.
“Father,” Emily exclaimed and fell to the floor.
The invisible pressure had subsided and they could move again. Emily and Joshua crossed over to Father Bolton as the house came alive. The doors slammed one after the other, before swinging open and slamming shut again.
The furniture began shaking, before lifting completely off the ground and flying in all directions. Lamps, tables, and chairs flew into the hallway from the rooms, and more objects hurled against the walls inside the rooms.
Joshua called for Emily to help him lift the chandelier from Father Bolton as he dodged a lamp flying from a nearby room. She rushed to his side and they heaved the heavy chandelier off the Father's leg.
Emily grabbed the crucifix from where Father Bolton had dropped it, before she and Joshua pulled Father Bolton from the hall and into the living room.
“Quick!” Joshua said as he sat Father Bolton down on the carpet. “Close the door.”
Emily shut the door and turned to see Mrs. Galpin and Ms. Dodge run into the room, followed by Andrea and Carol. There was still no sign of either Kate or Chris.
Ms. Dodge raced to Father Bolton when she saw him lying on the floor. “What happened?” she demanded as she lifted his hand and felt for a pulse.
“I’m fine,” Father Bolton said, attempting to hide the pain in his voice. “Just hurt my leg a little.”
“A little?” Mrs. Galpin asked. “It’s broken and you want to claim that it is nothing?”
“Listen,” Father Bolton said, his voice suddenly stern. “We can’t stay her any longer. We need to get out of the house. Now. Someone must get the bus ready,” he looked at Mrs. Galpin.
She nodded and left to get the keys.
“The rest of you,” she continued. “We need to find Chris and Kate. As soon as we get them, we need to leave. We can’t stay in this house anymore.”
They left him with Ms. Dodge to find Kate and Chris. “Be careful,” Ms. Dodge’s voice came from the living room as they walked through the kitchen.
“What’s going on?” Andrea asked. “What happened to Father Bolton?”
Emil
y and Joshua looked at each other, wondering what they should tell the others. “A chandelier fell on him while we were looking for Chris and Kate,” Joshua said.
“But what’s going on? What was that commotion we heard?”
Emily sighed. “You know that ghost we saw outside earlier?”
Both Carol and Andrea lifted their eyebrows in shock and nodded.
“They were trying to warn us about another spirit in the house. The spirit is mad about what we discovered about the house’s history, and is trying to get rid of us. I think it took Kate and Chris.”
“Are you sure?” Carol asked as they passed into another hallway.
Emily was suddenly frozen in place. Her mouth hung open, but she didn’t say a word. Her eyes were staring at the floor at the other end of the hall, where Chris was lying face down on the ground. He seemed to be unconscious, but Emily knew exactly what was wrong.
“Chris!” Carol exclaimed and ran towards him.
“Carol, stop!” Emily commanded, but Andrea and Carol were already standing beside Chris’s body.
Emily and Joshua followed them and arrived just as they flipped his body over. Joshua gasped and the girls let out terrified cries. Chris’s glassy eyes were staring in pure terror at the ceiling and his mouth was hanging open in a silent scream. His whole face was frozen in terror.
A scratching sound was heard from the room in front of them. Suddenly the shadowy figure of Marianne emerged from the darkness of the room and hissed at them. She lifted a dark finger and pointed directly at Emily.
“Get out!” she hissed again.
Carol and Andrea yelled and ran back in the direction they had come. Just as Marianne threw her hand to the side, Joshua bumped Emily out of the way and was thrown into the doorway, hitting his head against the wall before landing limply on the floor.
“Joshua!” Emily gasped and struggled to get up from the floor. She finally managed to stand and move away as Marianne started crawling towards her again, ignoring the rest of them.
Haunted Happenings Page 13
