“I’m not blaming it on anything. You asked,” he sighed. He didn’t want to talk about this now. He didn’t want to talk about this ever. What had happened in the house when he was a child was something he wanted to forget about. It was something that had taken years of therapy for him to push to the back of his mind. But now it was all coming back forward again. Now it was all happening again.
“So ghosts…” She looked at him as if he was the one going insane.
“The sooner we can get out of this house the better, Marie. It’s not safe for anyone. It’s definitely not safe for the kids.” He glanced over at Paul who was sleeping soundly in his crib. He’d slept soundly every night since they’d gotten there. It was a small blessing, but Eric feared there was something more malicious behind it.
“Not safe?” She followed his gaze.
“Nothing about this place is safe, Marie. Nothing at all.”
Chapter 6
The Woman
* * *
The next day Marie was feeling weary. She was exhausted from a sleepless night full of worry and speculation. Eric had been gone by the time she’d gotten out of bed to deal with Paul, who was having a crying fit, so she couldn’t even question him further.
What had he meant that none of them were safe? What had happened in the house when he was a child? Who had been harmed? Was it him?
Her mind swarmed with questions to which she had no answers. She wasn’t certain that she would ever get the answers from him. He seemed fairly tight lipped about it. And she knew that if he didn’t want to talk about something then he wouldn’t talk about it.
And she couldn’t ask Shannon. She seemed to have her own view on what had happened in the earlier years of the house. If she thought it had harmed her sons in any way she didn’t hold the house responsible. At least not responsible enough for her to want to leave it. She seemed to have a stronger bond with the house than she had with her own children. It was a little bit unnerving.
Marie settled down in the kitchen. The girls were playing outside. They were getting along most days, which was nice. There wasn’t a great deal for the to do around the house but they both managed to occupy themselves outside well enough. She was glad for their imaginations. It was something she would always be thankful for even if they were overactive at times.
Paul was in his playpen in the kitchen busy building a tower of blocks and destroying it the moment construction was done. It was his favourite game at the moment. She couldn’t quite understand the appeal of it, but from a developmental perspective she understood. So she left him to it.
Shannon was having a bad day. Marie had made sure she was set up with tea and a light meal. She made sure that Shannon took her medication and was comfortable. And then told her to call down if she needed anything. It made her feel a bit like a servant, but she was okay with it. The woman was dying, after all.
It was the first time in days that Marie had a moment to herself. She settled down at the breakfast nook and opened up her computer. The research paper she’d been halfway through writing was still open on her screen and she sighed at the sight of it.
“Will I ever get you done?” she pondered to the empty air. Paul’s block tower crashed to the tile floor in response. “Well that’s not very reassuring,” she chuckled but she set to work on it regardless.
It became her task for the day. She took breaks to make food for the kids and deal with there perpetual boredom. She worked well into the afternoon and was still working on it when Eric stumbled into the kitchen.
He blinked his eyes owlishly at her as if shocked to find anyone still awake in the house. “What are you doing up?”
“Working,” she replied as she continued to type. She didn’t want to lose her train of thought on the sentence she was working on.
“Are the kids in bed?” He opened the fridge and stared in at its contents.
“Kids are fed, bathed, and in bed. There’s left over roast from yesterday on the second shelf,” she said without taking her eyes off the screen.
“Thanks,” he mumbled and set to work to make himself a cold roast beef sandwich.
She mumbled a response and finished off the sentence. That was when she caught the movement out of the corner of her eye. It was a flash of red fabric, like a bit of a dress or a wave of a cloth. She couldn’t be certain. She turned her head to see it better but it was gone. Her brow creased in confusion.
“Did you see – ” she stopped when she saw it again out of the corner of her eye but on the other side of the room. She turned to see it but again it was gone.
Marie let out a sigh and drew in a deep breath. There she was seeing things again. Maybe she should go get herself tested. Maybe she was going insane. Maybe the stress of parenthood was finally going to do her in.
She turned back to her computer, the screen now dark from inactivity. And reflected in the screen was a woman in red. She wore a silk nightgown that fell to her knees and dipped low at her chest with white lace around the edges. Her hair was a mass of black curls around her olive skin. She was beautiful. Her eyes were downcast but Marie could tell that she was beautiful.
Marie turned around but there was no one behind her, no one but Eric who was busy shoveling his sandwich into his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten anything the whole day. And realistically, he probably hadn’t. She knew what his eating habits were like when he worked. They consisted of coffee and vending machine food. He’d dropped weight just in the two weeks they’d been there.
“Did you see her?” She asked him and knew by his confused expression that he didn’t have the faintest idea who she was talking about. “Did you see the woman in red?”
He raised a brow and swallowed the bit of sandwich that was in his mouth. It was incredibly dry. He reached for a cup and filled it with water, gulping down a few mouthfuls before he dared to speak again. “What are you talking about?”
“Have you ever seen her before? The woman in red with the dark hair?” She knew that her voice was a little frantic but she needed some sort of validation that she wasn’t going crazy. She needed to know that she wasn’t just seeing things.
Eric’s eyes widened a fraction. He debated lying. It was his first instinct. He wanted to deny everything that had to do with this house. He wanted to deny everything that had happened to him here. But he could see from the look in her eyes that she needed this. He could see that she was at the edge and that if he didn’t give her something to hold onto she was going to fall off.
“I’ve seen her before,” he replied and could visibly see her relax at the statement.
“She was just in the kitchen,” Marie informed him and watched him glance around himself rapidly as if he could see her now. “I don’t see her any more.”
“Stay away from her, Marie. Stay away from all of them.” He took another bite of his sandwich as if to indicate that was all he had to say on the matter.
“All of them?” She raised a brow but he just kept eating.
On her way to bed that night she saw the woman again, out of the corner of her eye. They passed each other in the hallway as casually as two people living in the same house.
Marie smiled as she walked forward. She wasn’t going crazy. That didn’t mean she was happy with what was going on but at least she wasn’t going crazy.
Sometimes it was the small things.
Marie learned too quickly what Eric had meant by they were not safe. When she woke up the following morning Eric had left for work, as usual, and Paul was crying in his crib.
She went to tend to him and gasped at the sight before her. Her little toddler was covered in bruises. And not the, oh he just fell over kind. Large handprint sized bruises marked his body, branding him with violence.
She picked him up and cradled him gently in her arms. She wasn't certain what had happened to him or who could have done this, what could have done this. She knew that there was no living individual in the house responsible. And that thought alone was enough to h
ave her throat constricting with fear and a chill running up her spine.
She looked down at Paul who was peaceful now that he was in her arms and her thoughts went to her other two children. If one had been maliciously attacked in the night then what of the other two?
She raced down the hall, Paul clutched to her chest. She pushed open the door to the girls' room to find them both still sleeping soundly in their bunk beds. Sure, it was still early, barely passed six in the morning, but this had to be a good sign. If they were in any sort of danger they would be awake, right?
She crept across the room slowly. She wasn't afraid of waking them. She was passed the point of worrying about dealing with her cranky daughters if she woke them up this early. She crept so slowly because she wasn't certain she wanted to see if there was any damage. She wasn't certain she wanted to open that door.
She checked on Rachel first. She pulled back the comforter and gave her body a slow scan. Her arms were covered in scratches as though an angry cat had mauled her in her sleep. The scratches were long but not very deep. They extended from her shoulders down to her wrists.
When Marie pulled the cover further down she found more scratches on her legs. She tried to swallow the lump of fear that threatened to choke her as she moved to the bottom bunk to examine Laura.
She pulled the comforter back slowly and dropped it as though it had bit her. Laura's arms and legs were not adorned with scratches like her younger sister. Her shirt was soaked through with blood at its midsection. The fabric dark with it.
Marie's hand shook as she went to pull up the shirt to see what was underneath. She didn't want to know. She wanted to be dreaming. She wanted it all to be a dream. She wanted to wake up at their old house in Wells where she'd never heard of the Pike House before and where she still didn't believe in ghosts.
She pulled the fabric back and saw the angry red letters carved into her daughter's stomach. "GET OUT."
Her breath froze in her throat for just a moment. And then she screamed.
Chapter 7
Professionals
* * *
Marie called Eric home from work for the first time since their kids had been born. She knew that his job was important. And she rarely bothered him at work. But this crossed a line. This was something she wasn't willing to deal with on her own.
Shannon was appalled when she saw what had happened. She could provide no explanation for it but there was a look in her eyes that Marie couldn't quite explain. It was like she knew perfectly well what had happened. It was like she'd seen it before but she didn't want to say anything or she couldn't say anything.
Between the two of them they did their best to calm the nervous children and treat the wounds. Marie would feel better once Eric got home and had a look at them, especially little Paul. She was concerned about the bruises. He didn't seem too put out by them but she wanted to be sure nothing had been too seriously injured.
She was also worried about the deep cuts on Laura’s stomach. They had done their best to bandage them, but they were still bleeding slightly. She didn’t seem to be in a great amount pain, which was a relief. Rachel was the only one that was experiencing any pain. Her arms ached. Her legs ached. And the scratches were beginning to itch a great deal.
She felt terrible for all of her children. But there was nothing she could do about it. There was nothing she could do to make them feel better beyond what she’d already done. All she could do was wait for Eric to get home.
There was another call she made that morning. She called an old friend, one who'd been on her mind since things had started getting weird at the Pike House.
Wes Seymour was a professor of parapsychology and as much as she didn't subscribe to the practice she felt it was one she needed in her life at the moment. They’d worked together at the University Centre of Somerset back when she’d still been teaching and Wes had always worked in close partnership with a woman named Dana, who was a self proclaimed spiritual medium.
Marie had always been skeptical of the profession. She had always been skeptical of their research and their results. But there was no denying that there was something strange going on in the Pike House. There was something strange that had been going on in the house for a long time, likely. And it was about time that it was dealt with.
Shannon seemed in no hurry to address the issues. She seemed content to die in the house and let her ghost join the rest of the ones that haunted the hallways. It was a morbid thought, but Marie could see no other reason for her compliance with everything that had happened over the years.
She heard the car pull into the drive and rushed to meet Eric at the door. His face was set in firm lines as he came into the house and she couldn’t tell if he was irritated about being called home or if he was concerned about what had happened.
“The kids are all in the kitchen. We figured making them pancakes would distract them from what happened this morning,” Marie explained as they made their way back into the kitchen.
“And what exactly happened this morning?” His voice was tight as if he was forcing the words out through a great deal of effort.
“I don’t have a bloody clue. Perhaps you could shed some light on it. You’re the one who said we weren’t safe here, Eric.” She gave him a pointed look but he didn’t respond. She didn’t expect that he would. She didn’t expect that he would offer any insight at all. She was beyond hoping that he would tell her about what had really happened at the Pike House all those years ago. She would have to get her answers from a different source.
In the kitchen Eric tended to his children. He redressed Laura’s wounds, put ointment on Rachel’s scratches, and gave Paul a thorough examination. His jaw was clenched the entire time. His hands were competent but he was holding in a level of anger that Marie was not used to seeing on him.
When he was certain all of the children were taken care of he turned on his mother. “Are you happy now, mum?” He demanded his hands clenched in white knuckled fists at his side. “How many more have to suffer before you’re satisfied? How many more innocents have to disappear before you are content?”
Shannon’s mouth gapped open like a fish out of water as she struggled for the right words. “I-I-I,” she stammered.
“What, mum? What do you even have to say?” Eric was close to her face now and all the colour had drained from it at the moment.
“It wasn’t my fault,” Shannon said weakly cowering away from her son. “None of it was my fault.”
“Oh, of course not, mum. You’re just a victim in all of this. Even though you just stood by and let it happen. You let her just disappear. I won’t let that happen with my family. I’m not going to sacrifice someone to appease whatever creatures control this house!” His face was red from shouting and the kids were staring now.
Marie couldn’t even be bothered to worry about what the kids thought. She was more concerned with what the hell they were currently talking about.
“Who disappeared?” She asked looking from mother to son and back again. “What is this about sacrifices?”
Eric looked at his wife. This is what he hadn’t wanted to tell her. This is what she should have gone her whole life without knowing. But here they were. And he had to make her understand. She had to know what was at stake for them.
“Mum, why don’t you tell her what happened to Molly? Why don’t you tell her what happened to my sister?” Eric looked at his mother, his face set in hard lines.
Shannon shook her head as the tears welled up in her eyes. Her hands went to her mouth as if to hold the words in.
“Really? Can’t bring yourself to say it? Well let me then.” Eric turned to his wife and took a deep breath. “Molly was my younger sister. She was no older than Paul when it happened and it started much the same. First there were bruises and then there were scratches. And then one morning we woke up and she was just gone. The words burned into the bottom of her crib read, she’s mine.”
He glanced over at Paul who
was playing happily in his playpen, building his blocks and knocking them over again. “We never found her. The police looked. We looked. But we all knew what had happened. It wasn’t a person who took her. It was this damn house. It took her, just like it took mum’s brother. And if we stay, it’ll take Paul as well.”
“Oh my god!” Marie’s hands flew to her mouth.
“I never should have come here. I never should have brought you guys here.” He sent a glare towards his mother. “You should have gone and died in a hospital like any other normal person.”
“You know I can’t do that,” Shannon sobbed. “This house owns me. I have to stay here.”
Marie shook her head. She didn’t understand any of it. But she knew that one thing was very clear. They couldn’t stay there much longer. They needed to leave and they needed to leave as soon as possible.
Wes and Dana arrived at Pike House two hours after they received Marie’s frantic phone call. It had been years since they’d heard anything from her so to get a call out of the blue was a clear indication that something was amiss.
Dana knew there was something wrong the moment she stepped out of the car. She could sense the energy of the house, of even the ground it was built on. She cast a weary glance at Wes.
“This isn’t good, Wes. This isn’t good at all.”
He could hear the concern in her voice and knew that he should take it seriously. He’d once been a skeptic of her talent, but time had proven them over and over again. He knew now that it was best to jut trust her no matter how far fetched what she suggested was.
“Is it really that bad?” Wes glanced up at the looming two-story house and felt the dread fill him just at the sight of it. But there was also an element of excitement. There was always excitement when exploring a new building. There would always be the chance to write about it later. He never passed up the chance to get another journal article out there into the world.
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