Henderson Manor

by Emma L. Clapperton

  She made her way down the hallway toward the kitchen where she thought she would be able to turn the light on and have it shine out. As she crept slowly, terrified to turn and face the open doors of the bedrooms in case a face met her gaze, she looked straight ahead until she reached her safe haven, the kitchen. She flipped the switch and the light came on, much to her relief. It shone out of the kitchen and into the hall, where she instantly saw what had been making her feel uncomfortable.

  As she faced her bedroom, horror was written in her expression at the message on the door of her wardrobe. She couldn’t move, frozen in anticipation of what might come next. She read the message over and over, not sure what it meant or who had put it there.

  Do not trust her!

  The words alone were strange enough, but the medium used to put it there was what freaked her out. Her red lipstick laid on the floor next the bedroom door and she could tell that force was used to write the strange message as it was completely crushed out of its proper shape.

  She was scared but also a little pissed off. Who, for a start would break into her home and secondly why would they write such a message with lipstick? Then it dawned on her, could it be Sarah? Surely she wouldn’t be so desperate as to break into Sam’s flat and try to scare them?

  “Stupid bitch,” Jenny muttered as she bent down to pick up the lipstick. When her hand connected with the tube, it felt cold, unusually cold, freezing in fact. She couldn’t lift it as it stung her hand at the very touch, like lifting an ice cube and holding it for too long.

  “Jesus!” She exclaimed, pulling her hand away.

  She stood back up and as she did, felt a breath on the back of her neck. She twirled around to see who was there so quickly that she almost lost her balance. No one stood in the place she had expected to find her intruder. The hairs on her arms stood on end, like on a cold day when the bitter wind bites and rain drops fall onto your skin.

  “Who’s there?” She called out, fully aware that the person wasn’t going to reply with an introduction of themselves.

  There was no sound, which scared her to the depths of her soul. It was too silent, until she heard the drawn out rasp which chilled her blood.

  Jenny ...

  She didn’t know where to look, what to say. She didn’t want to breathe.

  Jenny ...

  Again, the long, drawn out rasp came and this time, Jenny decided in a split second that she was leaving, regardless of who or what was in her home.

  She forced her feet to leave the floor, allowing her to escape whatever it was that was tormenting her. She moved quickly out of her bedroom and down the hall towards the front door, without looking back. Already in her head were unpleasant images of what could be approaching her from behind, and she didn’t dare look round to have her thoughts confirmed. She finally reached the door and moved out to the landing. The silence was still intense, almost like she had gone deaf.

  “Now what?” She found herself saying aloud.

  She moved down the stairway to the bottom of the building and to her relief, she saw Sam approaching the main door. He was alone and could see that Jenny had gone pale. He put his key in the door before she could open it and she fell into his arms.

  “Oh my god, what is it? What happened?” He asked in terror at the sight of his friend.

  Jenny felt a wave of calm wash over her the minute that Sam spoke. “There’s something in our flat,” she said quietly.

  “What do you mean something?” Sam held her away so that he could look into her eyes. He saw terror, even through the now steadying calmness that had begun to take over her.

  “I mean something, as in I don’t think it was human!” She exclaimed.

  “Ok, stay calm. I’ll check it out, and you wait here.”

  Jenny shook her head vigorously, becoming panicked again. “No, don’t go in there.”

  Sam gripped Jenny’s arms tightly to support her. He was a little frightened at how much she was beginning to shake. “We have to go back in at some point. We live here.”

  Jenny knew he was right. But she didn’t want him to go back in, not because of what was in there, but in case of what he might see. The message written in lipstick, if it really was Sarah who had left it, then how would Sam react? He had only just got back to normal after their break up. She didn’t want Sarah coming back into his life and attempting to ruin their friendship. However, the chilling voice was something that tampered with her rational explanation.

  ***

  Sarah watched as Sam came quietly through the front door of the flat. She knew that he was thinking that Jenny was being a little irrational when she said that she didn’t think the presence in the flat was human.

  Of course, Jenny was wrong. The presence was human, or at least used to be. Sarah wasn’t sure what to class herself as, now that she was dead.

  She could feel herself beginning to ache at the sight of Sam approaching her as he walked strongly and firmly towards her down the hallway. She still loved him with everything she had, and could still feel it in her heart (even though she no longer had a physical form) when she saw him that he was and would be the only one for her. She would wait for him for as long as it would take.

  “Hello?” He called out as he threw open the doors of the rooms in the flat. “If you’re in here, I strongly advise you leave within the next five seconds before you get hurt!”

  Sarah knew that her time was up, for the moment. She wanted to let him know that she was with him, ready to protect him at any expense. She passed him by and made her way to the front door, ready to leave. But before she did, she gathered her energy into her mind and once she had enough, she lifted her hand and knocked a photo frame from the wall.

  She watched him turn to face the direction of where the noise had come from. When he noticed the frame on the floor, he called out. “Jenny, was that you?”

  “I’m still downstairs. Are you alright?” Her voice was strong again.

  Sam moved closer to the frame which now lay on the floor. He wondered to himself how it had managed to fall from its hook. It had been up there for a long time … why would it fall now?

  “Yes, I’m ok. You can come up now. There’s nothing in here,” he said as he cautiously picked the frame up from the floor and placed it back on the hook.

  “Are you sure?”

  Sam looked at the frame as it was back on the wall and then he turned to face the rest of his flat. He failed to mask the doubt in his voice. “Yeah, I am sure.”

  Jenny reluctantly made her way back up to their front door to see Sam staring at the photo frame that he had just hung back up on the wall. “What are you doing?”

  “It fell off the wall, so I’m hanging it back up,” Sam replied with little expression in his tone.

  “It fell off the wall?”

  Sam nodded and turned to face Jenny, who was now inside the flat, closing the door. She watched him as he regarded her, unsure of what he was about to say next. She was nervous, had he found something that he shouldn’t have.

  “Are you ok? You seem ... weird,” she asked quietly.

  “What exactly happened in here? Something doesn’t feel right. I feel invaded.”

  “Invaded?” She almost laughed.

  Sam frowned. “It’s not funny. I really don’t feel right.”

  Jenny took his hands in her own and gripped them tight. “I told you, I thought there was someone in here, but obviously I was wrong.”

  “But you were so sure, and you were scared when I found you downstairs. What’s changed?”

  Sam’s head began to ache and he wasn’t entirely sure if what he had just experienced was real or not.

  “Nothing’s changed, I must have gotten it wrong,” she said, even though she knew that someone or something had been inside. She had seen the lipstick message on the wardrobe door. She had heard her name in her ear, just thinking about it made her shudder. But she couldn’t show her fear, not now after seeing Sam like this. He seemed genu
inely spooked by something. And how did that frame just happen to fall off the wall?

  “I need a coffee. You want one?” His tone suddenly changed, and he seemed less tense.

  “Erm, yeah I’ll have one.”

  Jenny watched Sam walk to the kitchen and heard him fill the kettle. She ushered herself into her bedroom and closed the door. She turned to face the wardrobe, seeing the message on the door made her feel sick. Someone had been in here and left it for her to see. They had gone through her things, looking for something to write the message with.

  Do not trust her.

  She wracked her brain, trying to think of who could have been in her home and who the message was about. She definitely wasn’t about to let Sam see it; he’d been through enough crap. Jenny was quite sure this was down to Sarah and if she was proven to be correct, she wouldn’t be held accountable for her actions. Jenny would kill Sarah for this if she caught up with her. Jenny took out her mobile phone and took a photograph of the message before wiping it away. She decided that she wouldn’t go to Sarah’s house to confront her, which is what Sarah would want them to do. Jenny would wait to see if anything else would happen. Then and only then she would deal with the situation by herself. Sam didn’t need to know about this.

  ***

  Sarah had left, allowing Sam to calm down. She could see how distressed he had become after she had knocked the frame from the wall. Sam had meant and still did mean everything to her so she didn’t want to be the one who caused him to freak out.

  Sarah watched Jenny in her bedroom, studying the picture on her phone of the little message that had been left for her. There was anger in Jenny’s eyes as she read it over and over. Sarah couldn’t hear her thoughts but she knew what Jenny was thinking.

  Sarah knew that her work for the moment was done, so she left Jenny and Sam to have a peaceful night. But she wasn’t going to be gone for long and she would make sure that everyone knew the truth. Sarah was already dead, so she had nothing else to lose.

  7

  Deborah took the wipe across her face, removing the make-up that she had carefully applied to impress Sam. She looked deep into her own reflection in the mirror and wondered what had happened. She knew that Sam had a female friend, she understood that they were close and that it was nothing else other than friendship but she just couldn’t get it out of her head. She just couldn’t help but think that there was something else between them. She had felt it, in the air as they all sat together.

  Sam had seemed oblivious to her thoughts as did Jenny. Deborah didn’t want her imagination to ring true, but she just couldn’t shake it off. Something had or was going to happen between Sam and Jenny. She didn’t know what that something was but she knew that it was going to be big, something that would change things for all them all.

  She wiped her eye, leaving a smear of black mascara across her cheek. Deborah could feel the tears begin to sting her eyes and even though she knew that she shouldn’t, she couldn’t help but allow them to fall.

  Get a grip, she thought to herself as she dabbed at her face with the wipe. She looked into the mirror once more and continued to remove the make-up.

  The mirror resembled that of a dressing room mirror backstage at the theatre, oval in shape with small light bulbs all around the frame allowing the person sitting in front of it to see the whole face. Deborah loved the theatre; she loved plays and productions.

  That is how she had come to know of Sam. He was the biggest Scottish theatre actor there ever was and he had also come to appear in some small time television dramas. Everyone knew who Sam Leonard was, especially in Glasgow.

  Deborah had specifically asked her university lecturer if she could do her placement in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. It just so happened that Sam’s current project was showing there at the time her placement was ready to commence, at least that’s what she told herself. She had impressed the concert hall staff, offering to stay on and help out when the big productions were about to start. She would show people to their seats and ensure the audience were comfortable and had everything they needed. Of course, all free of charge. The purpose of her placement was to observe and learn how to write reviews but the more she was in Sam’s company and breathing the same air as him, she couldn’t bring herself to leave, knowing that he was still there. She needed to be near him, feel him around her and most of all she wanted to introduce herself to him. However, every time that she tried to do that, something would stop her, like rehearsals or just plain old nerves getting the better of her. What if he rejected her? What if he laughed in her face?

  Deborah had decided that she didn’t want to face rejection during her placement there and mess up her degree, so she waited. She waited until the final show, the final curtain call. She wanted to be able to meet Sam for the first time without being tied to the concert hall and it just so happened that the final night of the show was her final day of placement.

  She had listened in on a conversation between cast members about a celebratory drink in a bar in town after the show had finished and Deborah had decided to go along to the same bar and try to bump into Sam.

  Her plan had worked and had worked well. She didn’t mention her involvement in the concert hall, or the fact that she had become a little obsessed and followed his work. She had made sure that she knew everything about his work, where his schedule would take him, what his next project would be. All she had mentioned was that she had seen his play that final night. He had seemed to like the fact that she knew of him, little did he know just how much.

  She had scanned his home that night, as he slept beside her. She had taken in every photograph, every object. She had even gotten up to go to the bathroom and noticed that there had been another room next to Sam’s. The door had been slightly ajar and Deborah could see that there was a girl sleeping in there.

  Deborah had found herself standing over this girl, Jenny, as she slept soundly in her bed. She instantly found this girl irritating, even though she hadn’t had a conversation with her. She didn’t know anything about her and maybe that was the problem. She knew everything that there was to know about Sam, so maybe she would feel better if she knew more about Jenny. But how would she find out the things that she needed to know without looking suspicious to Sam?

  She decided that she would start by making it look as though she knew that all Sam wanted was a one night stand. She would trick him into thinking that that was all she had wanted too.

  Deborah crept back into Sam’s bedroom to retrieve her clothes, with every intention of keeping Sam’s t-shirt which she had pulled on once she had decided to have a look around.

  She had dressed herself quietly and made her way to the kitchen to get her handbag. Then she thought better of it. If she left her handbag, he’d find it and bring it to her, surely?

  Deborah did one final scan of the flat, making sure she took everything in, just in case her plan didn’t work and she might not find herself in the flat or his company ever again. As she crept past Sam’s bedroom, all she wanted was to climb back into that bed and snuggle into him. But she knew this was the crucial time to leave if she wanted to find out if he really liked her. Waking up beside him in the morning wouldn’t give her a true reaction. If he didn’t like her, he would have to pretend, giving her a false impression. If she left at the moment she had intended then she would know for sure. He would either ignore the fact that she had left her bag in the flat and she would never see him again or he would bring it to her and she would know for sure if he wanted another night with her.

  Deborah admitted to herself that it was a long shot but if it worked, everything would be amazing. She had smiled as she continued her way down the hall with her thoughts, stopping one last time outside Jenny’s bedroom. She watched Jenny sleep, wondering what would come of Sam living with another female if he got into a serious relationship. Jenny began to stir, so Deborah made a quick and quiet exit.

  Of course, her plan had worked as Sam had phoned her the ve
ry next day and asked her out on the date.

  She continued to wipe her face, all the while thinking of the disastrous date and how Jenny turning up had thrown a spanner in the works. Sam had a history that Deborah didn’t know about, with other females that she didn’t know anything about. She began to worry as she looked at herself in the mirror.

  She viewed her reflection and wondered what she was turning into. Deborah used to be strong, independent and full of drive towards a happy life with a good career. Now all she could think about was Sam Leonard. It wasn’t that she wanted him, it was that she needed him and she knew that it wasn’t healthy. She wanted to stop her obsession, but it had taken her over. She could feel it in her bones and hear it in her heart beat.

  Deborah wanted Sam and it scared her that she would stop at nothing to get him.

  ***

  Deborah had been staring at her reflection for over an hour now, completely unaware of the time and the fact that the room was bitterly cold. She snapped out of her trance and got up to close the window, only to find that it was already closed.

  “Where is that breeze coming from?” Deborah found herself saying out loud. She looked around her bedroom, confused by the breeze that had crept its way in without an open entrance.

  Things had gone eerily quiet and she didn’t like it. She traced her movements after coming home. She had locked the door, closed the window in the kitchen, and turned all the lights out. So where was it coming from?

  Just as the question came she heard a thumping sound coming from the other side of her bedroom door. She was frozen in fear.

  “Who’s there?” She called out.

  There was no reply. The breeze had stopped and so had the thumping.

  “Hello?”

  Deborah watched as the tiny hairs on her arm stood on end and she felt them rise on the back of her neck too. What the hell was going on?

  Deborah refused to leave her bedroom. Instead she turned on the television and climbed into bed. She refused to let the thought of ghosts enter her mind, but she couldn’t think of anything else that could have made that sound. She was too scared to leave the room to check. The fear of the unknown held her there, in her bed. She wanted to do something to take her mind off what had just happened.