by Carrie Bates
Catherine anchored her arm over the edge of the tub, feeling around the smooth tiles for a towel. The water was lukewarm and flat. As much as Catherine wanted to soak her troubles away, she knew something had to be done.
A glance around the bathroom told Catherine what she’d suspected - Leonard forgot to bring her a towel. Sighing, Catherine carefully exited the tub. She waddled wet to the linen closet, leaving a trail of water behind her. Catherine regretted her decision to get the towel herself. Not only could she have slipped while exiting the bathtub, thus injuring herself further, but the linen closet was located across from the room that bothered Catherine most of all - the master bedroom.
At first, Catherine assumed the ragged breath to be coming from her own body. After all, the master bedroom made her nervous. But as she paused before the linen closet, she realized that she was not producing the sound at all. Catherine swiftly pulled a towel from the closet, wrapping it tightly around her slick skin. She was not at all interested in sticking around to discover the source of the ragged breathing. She turned to leave, but was met with an invisible barrier. As hard as Catherine tried, she could not make herself move a single step. It was as though someone had cut her nerves, rendering her paralyzed.
Brimming with panic, Catherine cried out for help. The cry made no sound. She’d been silenced!
“Don’t leave me!” a voice croaked. The atmosphere turned frantic; the labored breathing grew louder. Catherine’s heart jumped in her chest. She felt as though she was going to have a heart attack. She wanted to cry and shout. She wanted to run and hide, but she was as stiff and silent as a tombstone―a monolith of flesh.
A hot breath tickled the hairs on Catherine’s neck. She was naked and vulnerable, completely at the disposal of this creature’s hysteria. A hand gripped her shoulder, injecting Catherine with a rush of desperate emotions. The grip was relentless, as was the sense of betrayal, and fear. Nails pierced Catherine’s skin. They dug deeper and deeper into Catherine’s flesh, searching―digging for life.
Chapter Five
“Baby, what are you doing?” Leonard discovered Catherine in a state of shock in front of the linen closet. A pile of towels lay disheveled at her feet. “Are you feeling disoriented?”
“No. It―it’s not that,” Catherine said in a choked voice. “Get me out of here!”
Hearing the panic in her voice, Leonard didn’t stop to ask questions. He lifted Catherine up with his strong arms and carried her into the bedroom, placing her delicately on the bed.
“What was all that about?” Leonard asked. He had his hands on his hips and a worried expression written on his face.
Catherine slipped into the pajamas she had folded by her pillow. She was cold and traumatized by the encounter. “Leonard,” she began, her lips quivered, making it hard for her to formulate sentences, “It―It’s the house.”
“What?!” Leonard crawled into bed next to her. “What do you mean, Love?” He stroked her pale, damp hair.
“It’s haunted.” Catherine could feel tears rising to her eyes. “When I was in the attic the other day, I saw a girl rocking back and forth. Her eyes were massive leaking holes. I could feel her sadness in my very core.” Tears streamed down her face. “Then, just now, something paralyzed me in front of the bedroom where I was having all those nightmares. I felt a hand grip my shoulder, and breathing on my neck. Whoever it was… they suffocated. That’s why sometimes when I go into certain rooms of the house, my lungs tighten and I feel like I’m drowning,” Catherine explained.
Leonard’s face was the picture of compassion. He took Catherine into his arms, filling her with the warmth of his body and said, “I think this is all an extreme stress reaction to our move. These ghosts you speak of, they only exist in your mind.” He kissed her forehead. “You’re tired and sick. I’m going to take the next few days off and help you recover.”
Catherine nodded, although she knew he was wrong. It hurt Catherine to think the only way Leonard would believe her, would be if he saw the spirits for himself.
“It’s okay, Love,” Leonard reassured her. “I’m here to fend off your ghosts! Tomorrow, consider yourself a queen! I’ll do all the chores and prepare all your meals. Your job is to rest that fretful mind of yours.”
While Leonard left the room to fix Catherine a cup of tea, Catherine remembered the awkward introduction she’d experienced with Nadine. Nadine had said the Redding house literally took her breath away. She could sense the spirits as Catherine could. Catherine wondered if Nadine knew more about the house than she had let on during their meeting. She fell asleep, with images of the large-haired woman floating around in her subconscious. She awoke much later to find the sun had set. Leonard was in his boxers and in the process of climbing into bed next to her.
“Hey, Sleepyhead!” he said, pressing his body next to her. “You were out for so long, your tea got cold!”
“What time is it?” Catherine asked, rubbing the sleep-scales from the corners of her eyes.
“About 10:30 at night,” Leonard responded, grinning. Catherine did not return the expression. “My dear Catherine,” Leonard said, brushing his fingers down her cheek, “What ails you so?”
“This house,” she said, simply. “Do we have rats?”
“Rats? I’ve never seen any rats…”
“Then why did you leave that cyanide in the kitchen, by the trash can? I thought you were poisoning rats.”
“Cyanide? What are you talking about, Honey? I haven’t seen anything like that in the kitchen.” His expression grew more worried as he wondered if the fall from the attic had done more harm to Catherine than the doctors were able to find.
“Yes – cyanide! I clearly read what it said. It looked really, really old – I thought maybe you found it in the attic and left it in the kitchen. I saw it right before I went up to the attic.”
“No, Honey, maybe it was something else you saw? Or perhaps you’re not remembering what you saw after that horrible fall you took.”
Leonard enveloped himself around her in attempts to make her feel secure. “Allow me to hug your woes away,” he said. He then fell asleep.
Catherine’s mind screamed in terror. I’m not crazy. I saw the cyanide. I bet that lady put it there. Does she want to poison me – Leonard?
Having slept the entire afternoon, Catherine tossed and turned through the night. There was a spiritual war happening in the house. Catherine could feel it. The feud was between the crying woman in the attic and the desperate, prejudiced woman in the master bedroom. The air was tense with the negative emotions they felt towards each other. Their emotions affected Catherine greatly. Emotions had always affected Catherine. Perhaps, that was why she was sensitive to the spirits’ presence, and Leonard was not. Catherine was more empathic than Leonard.
Catherine snuggled closer to her fiancé as she felt a sickening dread take root in her stomach. She could hear footsteps approaching the bedroom. The floorboards creaked louder and louder. There was a second sound. It resembled the sound of bicycle wheels treading on tarmac. Catherine held her breath and squeezed her eyes closed. She dare not look at whatever was coming towards the entrance of the bedroom.
“Leonard!” she wept, quietly. “Something is coming for us!” Catherine sat up to shake him. As she did so, she saw a shadowed figure outside the door. The ominous shape grew, spilling onto the walls in the bedroom. She gasped. It was the outline of an elderly woman in a wheelchair. “Leonard!” she cried, louder.
Leonard awoke. The silhouette vanished from the wall as though it had been produced by a projector. “What is it, my dear?” he said, yawning. Catherine crumpled into his arms, sobbing bitterly. He held her as she cried, stroking her back and shushing her softly.
“I think we should call a doctor first thing tomorrow,” he suggested. “For all we know, there’s some kind of chemical in this old house affecting your mental health. I suppose the concussion wouldn’t have helped either,” he reasoned.
“I don’t understand.” Catherine sniffed and shook her head. “The spirits won’t touch you.” Her statement couldn’t have been more wrong.
“Well… in that case…” Leonard wrapped his entire body around Catherine as though he was a blanket. “Consider yourself ghost proof!”
Chapter Six
“Everything is going to be fine,” Leonard whispered encouragingly. “You’re just not used to this place.”
Things were far from okay. A darkness fell over the couple. Catherine screamed as she felt the strength of the spirit’s disdain for Leonard. A pair of hands ripped into Leonard’s shoulders. He yelped, digging his fingers into the bedspread. Catherine grabbed onto Leonard’s forearms as he slid away from her.
“What’s happening?!” Leonard called out in fright. “Catherine, something’s got me. It wants to kill me!”
A great burst of wind snatched the covers from the couple. “Keep your filthy hands off of him, you old bat!” a voice hissed. Catherine knew who the voice belonged to. It was the spirit of the woman in the attic. She was trying to protect them!
A blood curdling shriek tore through the room. The darkness evacuated, leaving both Leonard and Catherine breathing heavily and trembling in shock.
“This place is definitely haunted!” Leonard remarked, breaking the silence. He swore, rubbing the place on his shoulder where he’d been grabbed. “What are we supposed to do now―call the ghost busters?!” Leonard joked.
“No,” Catherine responded. She had a plan. The woman she’d met in Starbucks mentioned the previous owners of the house. She’d also let on like she’d known the place was haunted. “We go to Starbucks.”
“Starbucks?!” Leonard laughed. “Listen, Cath, I know you’re addicted to caffeine and all, but drugs aren’t the answer here.”
Catherine relayed to Leonard the details of her spontaneous meeting with Nadine.
“Let me get this straight,” Leonard said, “you think this Nadine character knows why the Redding house is haunted and can help us?”
Catherine shrugged. “I don’t see what other option we have. There are two spirits in this house fighting against each other. Maybe if we understand the story behind their animosity towards each other, we’ll be able to determine how to deal with them.”
It was agreed. As soon as the sun was up in the sky, Leonard and Catherine would take a trip down to the local Starbucks in search of Nadine―a woman Catherine never thought she’d wind up looking for.
***
The light beamed through the blinds, but Catherine and Leonard were already awake. Neither of them had slept well after being harassed by a ghost.
Leonard slunked out of bed, half yawning, half groaning. He dragged his feet over to the armchair that sat in the corner of the room and carelessly dressed himself in the garments he’d draped over the back of the chair the previous day.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for coffee,” Leonard said to Catherine as she, too, proceeded to get dressed.
The two felt like zombies as they headed toward the Starbucks. “Are you sure this lady will be here?” Leonard asked.
“Positive,” Catherine answered. “She claimed she knew every regular customer that attended this place.”
“I guess I admire her commitment,” Leonard said.
Nadine was easy to pick out of the crowd. Most of the customers were young entrepreneurs doing business from their Mac computers whilst sipping their morning brew. Nadine sat alone, her hair a messy beehive atop her head. Oddly enough, she was sitting at a booth, almost as though she was expecting company.
Catherine approached Nadine. “Excuse me,” she said, “I’m Catherine. Remember me? We met here a few days ago.”
“Why, of course!” Nadine gestured for the two of them to sit down. “I knew you’d be back here.”
“You knew?” Leonard raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“I had a feeling, we’ll say.” Nadine smiled.
Leonard looked at Catherine, shrugging his shoulders and then turning his attention back to crazy Nadine. What the hell have I gotten myself into?
Chapter Seven
Nadine chuckled. “Relax! I’m just your friendly neighborhood lady who’s here to help you. You want to know about those bickering Redding ghosts, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Catherine answered. She leaned forward, eager for answers. “Why are they fighting? What’s the story behind these ghosts? What happened to the previous owners? How do we rid ourselves of these spirits?!”
“My, my,” Nadine clucked. “I can see that coffee is already having an effect on you. Patience, you will get your answers, though, I’m not sure you’ll like them.” Nadine paused to sip her beverage. “I’ll begin with this Starbucks. Once upon a time, this modern joint was a bakery―The Redding Bakery. They served the best pies in town. It was owned by my grandfather, who inherited the Redding house after the death of Elizabeth Redding. Elizabeth is your first ghost. According to my grandfather, she was a snob and didn’t approve of her daughter’s love interest due to the fact that he was a lowly cotton picker.”
“Wow! Wow! Wow!” Leonard interrupted. “Time out! Are you telling me our house is haunted by a snobby ghost?!”
Catherine placed a calming hand on Leonard’s shoulder.
“So, she must see me as a lowly construction worker,” Frank sighed.
“That’s why Elizabeth’s ghost attacked you last night,” Catherine said. “But, there was another ghost that stopped her.”
Nadine nodded. “That would be her daughter, Mary. Elizabeth banned Mary from ever seeing the man she wanted to wed. Their relationship was tense and convoluted. Elizabeth was crippled and ill; she relied on Mary as her caretaker. Mary hated her mother with a passion she kept from the world. Over the years, this hate grew and evolved. My grandfather―Mary’s uncle―suspected she had something to do with Elizabeth’s eventual demise. Elizabeth succumbed from a lung condition. Whenever her ghost is present, the air becomes impossible to breathe. Not long after her mother’s death, both Mary and her lover were found dead in the backyard. No one ever found out why or what killed them. Personally, I have a pretty good idea.”
“Elizabeth,” Catherine uttered.
“Indeed,” Nadine affirmed. “I think she paralyzed and suffocated them. She inflicted the suffering she had to experience on her own daughter and her lowly boyfriend, whom she so despised.”
“Cyanide?” Leonard and Catherine uttered the word at the same time and looked at each other.
Nadine smiled. “Looks like you two are quite the ghost busters. Poisoning was suspected in Elizabeth’s death, but no official cause of death was ever noted for Mary and her boyfriend.”
“So… what do we do?” Leonard demanded. “I’d really rather not die at the hands of a snobby ghost!”
Nadine sighed and chewed on her lips, which were lined with an awkward shade of brown. “This is the part you’re not going to like,” she said.
“Uh… so?” Leonard proclaimed.
“The last owners of the house - fortunately for them, they just barely escaped with their lives. My advice - destroy that wretched place once and for all! In my experience, destroying something that’s haunted frees the spirits, allowing them to finally be at peace. That’s the part you won’t like.”
Leonard stood from the booth, immediately in opposition to this suggestion. “Destroy the house?! Are you nuts?!
“I told you, you wouldn’t like it!” Nadine declared.
“We’ve already signed and paid for that house!” Leonard retorted.
“That’s what the last couple said…but you do have insurance, don’t you?”
Chapter Eight
“Okay. We’re out! Thanks for your help, but, I think we got it covered.” Leonard took Catherine forcibly by the arm. Despite the coffee she’d consumed, Catherine was too tired to fight her fiancé’s grip.
“Did you read the fine print on the house agreement?” Nadine called after them. “Take
a look at it when you get a chance.”
Leonard carted Catherine out of the café and back to the house, where she became overwhelmed with exhaustion.
“Let’s get you to bed,” Leonard remarked, upon entering the house. “You’re still recovering from a concussion.”
Leonard helped Catherine to bed, promising to have a meal on the stove for when she awoke. He shivered as he made his way down the hallway past the master bedroom. His skin prickled with goosebumps, and his stomach crawled with unease. He stopped dead in his tracks; something was behind him.
“Oh, God, please…” he prayed, turning around slowly. Sitting behind him in a wheelchair was Leonard’s worst nightmare - the ghost of an ignorant old woman. Her image wavered like a bad hologram. She was shriveled and scowling. Her meager frame failed to fill out the drab and dusty dress she wore. Elizabeth lifted her knotted hand, pointing a skeletal finger in Leonard’s direction. Her eyes blazed fiercely.
“Don’t you dare come here, you filthy mongrel! I don’t want to ever see your face here again! Get out!” Her voice was animalistic. It was blood curdling in every way. Leonard felt as though his feet had been nailed to the floor. He couldn’t move his body. He couldn’t escape! A weight settled in his chest, and his breath escaped his lips. A mysterious fluid gurgled in the back of his throat. It tasted of metal―of blood. It was in this moment that Leonard realized he was going to die. Then, Mary’s ghost made an appearance. She was exactly as Catherine had described her. Her eyes were tear-producing pits, and her face was twisted with sadness. She came out of nowhere, cursing and clawing at her mother.
