Thomas put the photo face down and dropped the black file back into the drawer. Absently, he shut the drawer and massaged his temples. Perhaps he needed to take Abigail out for a night and bring back some of the old romance they had felt before they both became busy.
When he looked up, he jumped in shock as the same image of a beautiful dark-haired woman appeared and disappeared in a second. It had barely been clear enough for him to realize that he saw anything, but it left him feeling more frustrated. He picked up the photo again and decided to relieve his frustrations. Thomas told himself that it was nothing more than stress that made him see things. And as he began to feel better, he knew that he was right.
10:42 PM, April 2, 1939
New Orleans, Louisiana
Jennie Thomas laid in bed and stroked the embroidered handkerchief on her bedside table. It had been given to her by her best friend on her 14th birthday. The fabric still felt like it was brand new, just beginning to soften from use.
She rolled onto her back and sighed. The move hadn’t been easy for her. She had left all of her friends behind, and her best friend had been the hardest person to say goodbye to. Jennie still missed the nights when they had sleepovers and stayed up whispering secrets to each other. The last secret they exchanged was about the boy down the street who had recently been smiling at Jennie and talking to her whenever they passed each other. They had giggled at the idea of what her father would say if he knew.
Jennie said goodnight to the handkerchief and turned out her bedside lamp. She closed her eyes and fell asleep quickly, dreaming of seeing her best friend again.
What felt like moments later, Jennie’s dreams were no longer pleasant. Instead of playing in the backyard with her best friend, she was back in her new room, sitting by herself in the dark. There was something – or someone – in the room. A soft sound of shoes on her floor made her curl her toes tightly and clench her fists together. Then, a woman appeared at the foot of her bed.
The woman had dark hair that fell to her waist. Blood was streaming from her head, making lines down her faintly golden skin. She began reaching for Jennie. Jennie tried to scream, but it never worked in her nightmares. The woman opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. Then, she disappeared. Jennie blinked, only for the woman to reappear right next to her bed.
This time, she managed to scream and tried forcing herself to open her eyes and wake up. To her horror, she realized that her eyes were already open. She was awake and staring at a real woman covered in blood.
Her bedroom door flew open and the beam of a flashlight blinded. The woman vanished. In her place was a her brother James, who was in the room next to hers. He was sweeping the light across the room and checking to see that nothing was wrong.
“What happened?” he asked, dropping to his knees next to her bed. Right where the blood-covered woman had stood. “What was it?”
“She was covered in blood,” Jennie trembled. “There was a woman in her. She had blood coming from her head.”
“There’s no one in here,” James said. “There’s no blood in the room.”
“She was standing right where you are,” Jennie whispered. “Please don’t make me stay in here.”
“Come sleep in my room,” James said. “I’ll sleep on the floor.” He rose from the ground and went to her room door to reassure the rest of the family as they sleepily arrived to see what had happened.
“No, she’s going to come back,” Jennie shook her head as tears spilled from her eyes. “I can’t go back to sleep, James. What if she comes back?”
“Shh,” James pushed back her hair. He turned on her bedside lamp and sat on the side of her bed. “I’ll stay up with you. It’ll be okay.”
Jennie gave a scared nod. She couldn’t shake the image of the woman standing next to her. Even as the sun started to rise, she knew that she would never feel safe in her room again.
3:41 PM, April 5, 1939
New Orleans, Louisiana
Though the family had finally settled in their new house, his parents were incredibly busy with setting up the new company and making sure that everything was running smoothly. Being the oldest of the five, Robert took it upon himself to get everyone back to their schooling. His mother usually taught them, but since she spent hours in her office, buried underneath documents and expense books, he decided to teach his siblings what he could.
He had left them in their rooms with a few pieces of homework that he came up with. With his own schoolwork completed, Robert took the chance to take a shower.
The water pressure from the showerhead felt nice on his skin. As he rubbed soap over himself, he secretly vowed that he would never have that many children of his own. Three kids were more than enough for him to handle, and there would be less to worry about. It had been three days, but Jennie was still scared of her room after she claimed to see a bloody woman standing next to her bed. His father refused to believe her, but when she stubbornly insisted that she wouldn’t stay in there anymore, their sister, Layla, had offered to let Jennie share her room.
Soap dripped from his hair onto his face. As he started to run his soapy fingers through his hair, he paused. Robert could hear something. He lowered the pressure of the water and listened. It was the sound of a woman sobbing.
Worried that one of his sisters might have gotten hurt, he grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist before running out to check on them. Jennie and Layla were sitting on the floor in Layla’s room, homework spread on the rug between them. Layla gasped and scolded him when he burst through the door, water still dripped from his body. She quickly shooed him from the room and told him to get dressed before their parents came out and found him standing in their room with nothing but a towel to cover himself. Neither of the girls looked like they had been crying.
Robert returned to the shower and washed the rest of the soap from his body in confusion. He had clearly heard a woman crying, but his mother’s office was on the other side of the house, and Isabella was out buying groceries for dinner. As he dried himself and dressed, he remembered Jennie’s story of the woman. A tiny part of him began to wonder she hadn’t been imagining things.
1:45 PM, April 8, 1939
New Orleans, Louisiana
There had been a few days without any other strange incidents. Abigail was still worried about Jennie’s insistence that a woman was in her room, but there was little she could do about it. Robert told her that he thought he had heard a woman crying, but everyone seemed fine when he checked on them. She had no explanation for it, though she did wonder if the stress of moving had made everyone start seeing things.
A pile of crumpled paper on her desk spoke to her frustration of trying to plan a special event for the end of the month. Grant had wanted a boost in publicity, and they had agreed that it would be nice to draw people in with an event and special offer. But it hadn’t been easy to organize. So far, all her ideas fell flat once she wrote them out on paper.
Abigail walked to the window and looked out. The kids were running around in the yard. Robert had made a mask out of a paper bag and was waving his arms wildly as he ran across the grass. He picked up the youngest of them, Kyle, and tossed him over his shoulder. The younger boy gave a shout of laughter as he accepted his playful defeat. Abigail often found herself grateful that Robert was so willing to take care of his siblings. She had wanted to be a more present mother but working with Grant had changed all of that. And while he had always been a good husband and father, she was beginning to wonder if her children saw Robert as more of a parental figure. It was clear enough that his siblings adored him.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Grant’s car coming up to the house. He had been away for a meeting with a new client and had told her that he was planning to spend the rest of the day working from home. As he walked up the driveway, she noticed that Robert removed his paper bag mask. He looked as if he were frowning at his father, though she couldn’t imagine why.
; Abigail picked up a pencil from her desk and jotted down a quick note to talk to Robert. The move didn’t seem to affect him, but she wanted to be sure that she wasn’t missing changes in his life.
1:49 PM, April 8, 1939
New Orleans, Louisiana
Robert removed his paper bag mask as his father walked along the driveway. He knew that the so-called client meeting he had been at was a lie. There were no noticeable signs, but he suspected that his father had resumed having an affair again. It had only taken him a week to start a new affair. Robert tried not to clench his fist. Not in front of his siblings.
He had first grown suspicious when a teammate mentioned that he saw his father with another woman. While he had brushed it off outwardly, he knew that he would have to find out for himself. Three days later, he followed his father to a dinner with new investors that was to take place on the other side of town. He knew that the investment company didn’t exist from looking through yellow-book pages.
It wasn’t surprising to know that his father had lied, but it was to find him kissing another woman in his car. She had been young, much younger than his father. Likely in her mid-twenties. And Robert knew that there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t confront his father when he had no proof, but he couldn’t tell his mother either. It would’ve broken her heart. She had given him 19 years of marriage and five kids, and there was no need to tell her about his extra-marital activities.
At least not yet.
The front door of the house closed, bringing Robert’s attention back to the present. He looked up and saw his mother walking away from her office window. A few windows down, he saw Isabella. She had a dreamy expression on her face and seemed to be staring in the direction of his father’s car.
A frown crossed Robert’s face briefly, and he made up his mind that he would keep Isabella from being the next woman to have an affair with his father. He might not be able to force her to stay away from his father, but if it was a Thomas man she wanted, he was willing to make sacrifices to keep his family together.
10:23 PM, April 10, 1939
New Orleans, Louisiana
It was late, but Layla woke up with a dry throat and a headache. She looked over at Jennie, who was asleep in her own bed. Quietly, Layla left the room and went downstairs to the kitchen for some water. The night air was cool. A contrast against the already warm days.
Her feet were silent as she walked into the kitchen and filled a glass of water. As she sipped, she thought she heard someone walking into the kitchen.
“Want me to fill you a glass?” she asked.
There was no response.
“Fine, get it yourself,” Layla said with a roll of her eyes. She loved her brothers, but they played pranks like this all too often.
She drained her glass and filled another to bring back to her room. A stream of light came in from the back door’s clear glass panels. The corner of her eye caught something as she turned around. She sighed in preparation to scold one of her brothers for trying to scare her.
Layla looked up and saw a woman covered in blood standing before her. The woman’s eyes were wild and her hair was a filthy mess. Thin streams of blood flowed between her eyes.
“You have to stop it!” the woman screamed at her.
Before her brain had fully registered what she saw, the woman lunged for her. Layla dropped her glass and let out a piercing scream.
10:28 PM, April 10, 1939
New Orleans, Louisiana
Robert was the first one out of his room and racing toward Layla’s scream. He had just set down his homework for the night and was preparing to go to bed when the scream rang through the house.
Behind him was James. They both knew it wasn’t Jennie screaming this time. He reached the bottom of the stairs and turned toward the kitchen, where he saw a figure slumped against the sink.
Instinctively, he ran over to check on his unconscious sister. Right as he knelt down to touch her, he felt something trace his cheek. A sound that resembled a whisper passed his ears, but he couldn’t make out any words. Robert shook his head and looked at Layla’s body, unconscious at the center of a puddle of water and broken glass.
Though he knew that something was wrong, he also knew that his father would never believe them. Grant Thomas was a man of hard facts and he had never been very patient with stories, no matter what it meant to his children.
“Go tell Mom and Dad that everything is fine,” Robert instructed James. “Tell that that Layla just saw a rat run past her feet and screamed.”
“But there isn’t a rat,” James said. “She saw the same thing Jennie saw, didn’t she?”
“I think so,” Robert gently slipped his arms around his sister and picked her up. “But I don’t want to stress Mom out right now, she has too much going on already.”
“Dad would never believe us,” James finished his thought. “Get her upstairs. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Robert carried Layla up to his room and set her in his bed. There was no need to wake Jennie when it seemed that she didn’t hear the scream. A knock on his door made him jump and turn around sharply. Isabella was looking in through his half-open door.
“Everything is fine,” he said hurriedly as he stood and moved to block her from coming in. Ever since he first saw the way she looked at his father, something deep inside told him that he needed to keep his mother and siblings safe from her. “It was just a rat. You know how Layla gets when she sees bugs and rats.”
“There’s some glass and water on the kitchen floor,” Isabella said. “I just wanted to make sure she didn’t have any cuts.”
“She’s fine, just a little scared,” Robert mustered up a fake smile.
Isabella nodded and went back downstairs. When he was sure that she wouldn’t come back, he shut the door and sat on the floor next to his bed. Layla began to stir.
“It’s okay, she’s gone,” he said softly. “You’re okay.”
“Where did she go?” Layla gasped, bolting upright. “She lunged at me and I think I passed out.”
“She was gone when I went down,” Robert said. “Was it the same woman Jennie saw?”
“I think so,” Layla pressed her hand against her forehead.
“Mom and Dad believed it,” James said, opening the door and entering. “How is she?”
“They didn’t believe Jennie,” Layla said. “Why would they believe me?”
‘We lied to them,” James said. “What happened?”
“I thought one of you came down to prank me,” Layla said. “But she was just standing behind me. She said that I have to stop it, then I think she tried to attack me.”
“There’s something going on,” Robert said. “We’re going to keep this from Mom and Dad until we figure it out. Whoever this woman is, she wants something from us.”
4:46 PM, April 12, 1939
New Orleans, Louisiana
It had been an unusually warm day. Isabella could feel the sweat on her skin as she cleaned the windows of the house. She wiped a damp cloth over a window and gazed outside. Part of her envied the Thomas children for being able to leave the house and go swimming. Robert had taken them all for a change, instead of running around the yard with a football or a paper mask. He promised her some peace while she attended to the house.
She moved on to another window and saw the shadows of the children coming back. There was a lake at the end of the property the house sat on, and they had all run in that direction hours before. Isabella could see the girls’ wet hair and towels wrapped around their shoulders. James was chasing Kyle as the younger boy ran wildly with what looked like a wet shirt in his hands. Kyle was fully clothed and must have stolen his brother’s shirt. Kyle had a strange habit of getting dressed immediately after being in water, no matter how wet he was. It had confused her when she first arrived to work for the Thomas family, but she had since gotten used to it. Walking behind the four younger children was Robert, hair slightly damp and shirtless.
Isabella turned her head slightly to look at the boy. He was only a few years younger than her, but he had inherited his good looks from both parents. And while she admired his toned, muscular body, he was not the Thomas man she wanted.
The window at the end of the hallway revealed the object of her desire. Grant Thomas was fixing his car in the driveway. He had taken his shirt off about fifteen minutes ago, and Isabella kept returning to the window to see him. Her eyes slipped slowly over the muscle in his arms, expanding to his back. His skin was shiny from sweat.
She had known since her first week that Grant was being unfaithful to Abigail. At first, she couldn’t understand how any woman could be with a married man. Then, she realized that it wasn’t about his marriage, it was entirely about him. Ever since, she had trouble taking her mind off him.
When Abigail talked to her about the clothes she had been wearing, she had been wrong to assume that Isabella was trying to attract Robert or James’s attention. In fact, Isabella had been enjoying the gazes that lingered from Grant. She knew that he found her attractive, but she wanted to know what it would be like for them to be together.
Her fingers traced the outline of his body. Then something pulled her head away from the window.
“No!” a woman screamed in her face. The air in front of her was hot, dry, and smelled strongly of iron.
Isabella stared at the woman before her. All she could see was the woman’s face, barely two inches away from her own.
Haunted House Tales Page 39