Thriller: Horror: Conceived (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story)

by Stephen Kingston

  As for Joan, Meg heard the uproar the night Joan disappeared, the way she screamed until Doctor Nelson arrived and gave her a shot. Then Joan disappeared into the elevator. An hour later Meg heard Nurse Pracket at the nurse’s station asking Joan’s husband if he’d seen his wife recently. The call confused Meg but then Bella started to cry and Meg took the baby in her arms, forgetting the world around her for a moment.

  Meg was finally allowed to go home and tried to settle in to a routine without Joan there to help. The women from Robert’s ministry tried to help her but Meg missed Joan and wanted to know what happened to her. Meg would leave the youngest children with a sitter for months and joined the search for Joan with Joan’s husband Scott. The entire town turned out in the first week to search the woods and mountains, even the creeks and ravines were searched, but not a single clue was found. After several months the town quieted down, people moved on, and Joan was quietly forgotten by all but Scott and Meg.

  Even Meg had to give up the search eventually, her children demanding her attention as her husband insisted she stop neglecting her household duties and get back to the living. Meg looked sharply at her husband when he made that statement, wondering why he hinted that Joan was dead, but did as she was told.

  Months passed without a sign of Joan and Scott eventually moved away, unable to remain in the home that reminded him of all he had lost. When the death certificate, issued after Joan had been missing for seven years, arrived Scott packed the belongings he’d left in place exactly as Joan had left them, and moved away, never to be heard of again.

  Meg’s life moved forward, ever forward, and her hair turned grey as her skin began to age. Brown spots began to appear on her skin in her late thirties, and fine lines formed around her mouth and eyes. Her children began to graduate from school and life became hectic with televisions and radios being phased out by computers and smartphones. The world stopped making sense to Meg and as her children started to age she slowed down.

  Bella proved to be her last child and the light of Meg’s life. Her oldest sons went off to join the military and her two eldest sons died in wars in places she’d never even heard of. Her eldest daughter became a writer, telling the stories of the mountains she’d grown up in, and the others had all found their way into variety of jobs and vocations but none joined the ranks of their father.

  Robert passed away when little Bella was fifteen years old but by then little Mary had become a successful writer and young Roger had become a doctor. All of the older children ensured their younger siblings and mother were provided for, never making a single complaint. Meg never again wanted for anything and counted herself lucky as the women around her complained about a son that was imprisoned on drug charges or a daughter that lost her way and had a string of children that were fatherless and stuck on welfare.

  The world changed dramatically around Meg but her children bloomed and young Bella went on to become a fashion model in Paris, where she brought her mother when her mother was in her mid-sixties. Meg went back home to Louisa Falls, shocked at all she had seen and pleased for her youngest child.

  Meg may no longer understand the world or how it worked but she knew her children were grounded and cared for, all of them connected and always in touch.

  On the last night of her life Meg, tired and aching from the cold, sat before her fire in a rocking chair going through the years of her life in her mind, her favorite songs playing on a device her great-grandson had called an MP3 player. Meg didn’t understand it but her home was filled with the sounds of songs she knew and loved so she followed his handwritten instructions until the device played what she wanted to hear.

  As Meg rocked she thought of Joan and Anne once more. Joan had never been found and more women went missing over the years but they too were never found. Poor Anne wasted away in her mother’s home locked in her own world. The damage of the EST had changed her and Anne was never the same. First Anne’s mother then a nurse cared for the damaged woman and when Meg saw Anne the poor woman was usually so drugged up Meg knew the woman had no idea where she was. Pushed in a wheelchair Anne was a painful sight for Meg and Meg would often turn away to save herself the pain of seeing poor Anne.

  Meg’s thoughts then turned to Bella and the miracle that occurred after her birth. Somehow Meg had never conceived again. Robert had railed at first, destroying the house in search of birth control pills. Robert had even gone so far as to call Doctor Nelson, accusing him of somehow engineering some means to prevent Meg from conceiving another child. Meg did not know what prevented her from having another child but suspected it was the Lord’s work.

  Besides, she was pleased about her inability to conceive anymore. Bella was her crowning achievement and she was no longer burdened with pregnancy or caring for more infants. Meg knew that the Lord worked in mysterious ways and accepted her fate, happy to no longer be a baby machine. Robert never helped her with the children anyway so why he wanted so many she’d never quite understood.

  Meg prepared for bed and turned off all the machines that accompanied modern living, promising herself that tomorrow she’d take paint to all of those blue, red, green, and white lights that seemed to be a requirement for everything made in the modern world. As the house suddenly turned quiet, or as quiet as it could be with all of those appliances her kids bought her to make her life “easier” Meg made her way to her bedroom window to look over at the now decrepit house that used to belong to her best friend.

  For a moment Meg thought she saw Joan staring back at her from the tree that still stood in the front yard but then the image faded. Only a notion of her foggy brain, she told herself. Settling into her bed, the one modern comfort she truly appreciated, Meg pulled the old quilt over herself and sighed. The simple act of stretching out easing some of the constant aches in her body immediately.

  Meg’s eyes closed and she smiled, thinking of all of her children once more and finally settling on Bella. Bella was in Italy tonight, Meg saw it on the calendar. She’d be home in a few days and her favorite child would finally be at home. Meg had tried to hide her preference for Bella from the others but knew she’d sometimes failed. She’d done the best she could, however, and as her heart stopped in the middle of the night, the almost silent house going suddenly quieter, Meg went to her death peacefully knowing that she left her children happy and whole in the world and that was far more than some of her old friends could say.

  Chapter Eight

  Present Day, Louisa Falls

  “Who’s that woman, Beth? She looks familiar.” The young woman in the booth by the windows heard the man cooking behind the diner counter ask the waitress. Smiling to herself the young woman acted like she hadn’t heard them.

  “I’m not sure but you’re right, now that I think about it she does look familiar. I can’t place her but I know I’ve seen her before.”

  Looking down at her laptop and the files spread out on the table before her the young woman, actually a 38 year old woman with a degree in journalism went back to work. She brushed her dark chestnut hair behind her ear, away from her face, and looked again at the file on Doctor James Nelson. It seemed the hospital he’d operated, after eventually coming to be the head of the hospital, had closed a few months ago and the building was still being emptied. She’d heard gossip about that already from the couple behind her as they whispered to each other.

  “I heard Doctor Nelson used to torture women down in the basement, Bobby. I’m so glad they built the new general hospital before our babies were born.” The woman had whispered loudly.

  “Larry told me that he knew a man, used to work with him, whose wife just disappeared one night. Said the woman’s baby had been sold off and the woman was told the baby died. Seems the poor woman lost her mind, Debbie, and just ran off out into the woods to never be seen again.” Bobby had replied in an equally loud whisper.

  “Wow, I wonder about some of these tales we’ve heard. There has to be some kind of truth to them or we wouldn�
�t still be hearing them, surely? I wonder what their names were.”

  Debbie spoke again but this time so low the young woman had to lean back a little to hear the words.

  “I’ve heard people saying the hospital is haunted now. I heard one man saying patients wouldn’t go near it but you know, it’s been closed for a couple of months now”.

  The young woman noted down the words, the names, and took a bite of the apple pie and coffee she’d ordered for the end of her meal. She continued to write as they chatted behind her and was almost finished with her pie when they left. It seemed she wasn’t the only one that had had suspicions over the years. Taking the last bite she asked for her bill and paid before leaving.

  Going back to her hotel the young woman, famous in Charlotte but perhaps not so much on this side of North Carolina, called her producer at the news station she worked for and reported in.

  “I think we might have a story but I need to get into that hospital, can you arrange that for me?” She asked as she unlocked her room, pushing the door open.

  She settled into the room, putting her bag down, and kicked her shoes off as she listened to the voice on the other end of the line.

  “Great, I’ll talk to you in the morning then, let me know what you hear.” She paused for a moment listening to the speaker on the other end of the phone.

  The woman got up from her bed and walked to the bathroom, looking in the mirror at herself. Reddish brown hair with reddish brown eyes greeted her. A pretty face, still unlined unlike many of her college classmates faces now, and a trim figure greeted her. Not bad. And considering where I come from that’s doing pretty good, the woman thought to herself. Wandering over to the window she looked out at the mountain town, the lights barely hiding the night sky. She was home now and perhaps she’d finally get some truth about who she was.

  “So you’re a reporter?” The maintenance man asked, unlocking the door to the hospital as the young woman looked around the complex.

  “Yes, but I’m working on a documentary at the moment. How much access do I have?” The woman asked walking into the abandoned building.

  “Well, you have to stay away from patient files, though most of those should be shredded by now, and you should stay out of any areas that are marked as “do not enter”. I have to go check on that area where the tree fell the other day but I’ll be back shortly. Just stay in this wing until I can get back, alright?” The 40-something year-old man told the woman, not really wanting to leave her but needing to check on that damage. He’d already wasted two days of securing any damage because he’d been gone on a fishing trip. If he hurried the woman wouldn’t be alone for long anyway.

  “Sure, I’ll just stay close to the front here. Just shout when you’re back and I’ll come out to you.” The woman said with a smile, her fingers crossed behind her back.

  The man left and the woman ran over to a sign that showed where all of the doctor’s offices had been. Finding the office for Doctor Nelson the woman looked down the hall to where the man had disappeared and then walked quickly to the area where the office was. She pushed the door open and saw a desk, two filing cabinets, and some chairs.

  The woman went first to the desk, hoping to find something interesting there, but saw all of the drawers had been left open and were empty. She then moved to the filing cabinets. One was empty but all of the drawers were shut but the other one was full of files. She looked at the lock and realized someone had forced it open already so she didn’t feel as bad about digging through the cabinet. Someone else had already broken the lock so she didn’t have to go that far.

  She went through all of the drawers, finding nothing of interest until she got to the bottom drawer. She pulled out a cloth bag that had been taped shut a long time ago by the looks of the tape. The entire bag had been taped over and from the feel of it the contents were files. Hearing the guard calling for her the young woman slipped the bag and its contents into a bag of her own before heading out of the door of the office, hoping she hadn’t left behind signs of her own pilfering. Going back into the room to slide the drawer shut that she’d left open the woman panicked, hoping the man wasn’t coming down the hall, as a spur of the moment idea hit her. She ran to a window and unlocked it. The woman started to hear footsteps so she ran out of the room and down the hall until she saw the man.

  The tour of the building continued once she’d caught up with the man and he seemed to not notice anything suspicious. The young woman smiled at him as he took her through the building, showing off the state of the art changes Doctor Nelson had made in the late 1980s but failed to update since. Even the walls were still painted that horrible green that people associated with hospitals so long ago.

  The power was still on in the building and they used the elevators to go up each floor but the woman noticed the maintenance man did not take her to the floors below the first floor and they skipped the fourth floor altogether. The woman didn’t mention the fact that they’d skipped so many floors she simply noted the oversight and carried on with the tour.

  “What is that in the very back there? That area with the tall fence and that black sheeting over the top?” The woman asked, her nose pressed to the glass of a window on the fifth floor.

  The man walked over to the window and looked out. For a moment the man’s face was grim but then the look disappeared, replaced with a blank look. “That’s just Doctor Nelson’s little hospital garden. –Apparently he grew flowers from seeds he’d imported from all over the world there. Never did make sense how he could do that with that black fabric hanging over it all but what do I know.”

  The tour concluded after that with the woman making notes of the things she’d seen as they went down to the ground floor in the elevator. Curiosity burned in her mind, though she presented a calm exterior, and she was dying to know what was taped up so securely in that bag. Her curiosity was so great she went through the only drive through in the small town rather than going back to the diner she’d eaten at the night before then rushed back to her hotel room, pulling the package out of her own bag as she shut the door.

  The tape had somehow melded together and wouldn’t come lose so the woman pulled at it, attempting to break the seal until it snapped apart and the whole pile of tape fell loose from the cloth bag. The woman pulled the bag away and found three cardboard files inside. With awe she read the names and knew who the three women were without even reading the files. These were the women she’s heard the men talking about at the cemetery, the women she’d heard the couple talking about at the diner; she just knew it. One of these women was her mother and now she might finally find out which it was.

  With shaking hands the woman ran a finger over the names on the file, reading each one aloud.

  “Anne Rasnake. Joan Parker. Meg Skaggs. What are your stories?”

  Chapter Nine

  Present Day, Louisa Falls

  Inga Parr, documentarian and reporter, looked down at the files she now had spread on her bed and wondered which of these women was her mother? She’d gone the logical route and looked at birthdays, the days the mothers were told their children had died, and anything else she could think of but the files revealed no more to her than the information about the women, none of the files contained information about the children stolen from them.

  Inga sat back against the headboard, not sure what she should do next. Inga had come to Louisa Falls in an attempt to find out the truth. The truth of who she was, who her birth mother was, and if the story her adoptive mother Alice had told her was true. From what Inga had read so far the part Alice had told her was true.

  “Your mother was some poverty stricken woman from the hills of North Carolina. Your father and I were desperate and we met Doctor Nelson when we were trying to conceive. He moved away but about a year later he contacted us and told us that if we had the money he had a baby we could adopt, no questions asked. We’d been planning to adopt but the process was so long so arduous that we contacted him back a d
ay later and agreed. We had to pay a lot of money but two days later you were ours and we brought you home with us.” Alice’s voice had fallen to almost a whisper as she spoke from her deathbed, her conscience not allowing her to leave Inga in the dark anymore.

  “You bought me?” Inga had screeched, stunned beyond words. Looking at the cancer stricken woman on the bed Inga’s entire world felt like it shifted as the words kept coming.

  “Yes, we were told your real mother was very poor and the doctor told her you’d died so she’d never come looking for you or try to take you away from us. You have to understand Inga; it was a different world, a different time. We thought we were doing the woman a favor and Doctor Nelson was being kind to the woman and her family. I felt guilty at first but then I learned to love you and you became my world. I couldn’t have given you back if the US Army was standing outside with their rifles ready. You were mine and I loved you no differently than if I’d given birth to you. Nobody could take you from me. But it’s time you know the truth now.” Alice’s words stopped and she spoke no more that night. She passed away in her sleep and Inga was left with far more questions than answers.

  A month after the funeral Inga had convinced her producer there was a story here that needed to be told and started digging up information. From her own birth certificate she learned she’d been born in Louisa Falls but the parents’ names had been listed as her adoptive parents. The attending doctor’s name had been listed though and Inga was able to do some research on him.

  He’d been a good doctor in his time but the hospital he administered was growing old and decrepit and the state shut it down. Inga found a website where a few people asked about stories they’d been told about their adoptions and Inga contacted the people but their addresses were either old and out of date or they simply never responded. Inga had been disappointed to get no response but forged ahead with her idea and her producer approved a budget for the investigative piece Inga had planned out.