Second Chances

by Aaron Brinker

  His voice answered back weak and shaky, “Give me a few minutes.”

  Looking at the picture streaming from the living room she nodded. “Okay, talk when you’re ready.”

  Michelle, Sarah, and Denise saw Dave get up and leave the room. He came back a few minutes later with a bottle, four glasses, and a rag for Gene’s neck. He handed each person in the room a glass and then poured whiskey into each glass. The four sat and sipped at their glasses for the next ten minutes. After it had appeared Gene had calmed a bit, and the guys had talked, Alex came out to speak with Sara and Michelle. As soon as the van door opened, she could tell that he had been crying. Michelle spoke, “Is everyone okay?”

  “Gene’s not. He has a nick on his neck,” Denise jumped out of the van and ran into the house to tend to Gene. “…but that pales in comparison to his emotional trauma. We just now got him calmed down enough for me to be able to step out to talk with you. This will probably be his last investigation.” Sara climbed out of the van and hugged Alex.

  Michelle said, “If you guys leave, we will fully understand. I don’t want your team to be in more danger than it needs to be.” She shook her head as tears fell. “We had no idea Kat would be this hostile to people just coming into the house asking questions.”

  Alex reached out and placed his hand on Michelle’s shoulder. “We’ll stay a little longer, but I can’t promise we will find a solution.”

  Michelle nodded as she said, “I agree. Maybe with some of the things you’ve shown us about communicating we can solve the problem within the next few weeks or months.” Through her peripheral vision, Michelle caught movement on one of the cameras. It was coming from the nursery. She looked over just as Sam stood up in her crib and began climbing out. “Alex, quick, get to the nursery. Sam’s climbing out of her crib.”

  As Alex burst through the front door and bolted up the stairs two at a time, the four in the living room stood up. Chaun and Dave ran for the staircase. Chaun yelled as he ran, “What’s wrong Alex!?” Gene and Denise followed. Reaching the base of the stairs, they saw Alex at the top, facing down the hallway and not moving. He was frozen in place. When they reached the top of the staircase, Alex stepped to the side to allow them room. The cause for Alex’s lack of movement became known when they looked down the hallway and saw Sam standing, unaided with her arms at her sides, in the middle of the hallway. The glass on the window at the end of the hall and the wall sconces were frosted over. Sam looked like she was exhaling dry ice.

  That eerie, recognizable voice emanated from Sam’s mouth once more, “Hello Chaun. Ready for round two?”

  Exasperated, Chaun said, “What will it take to end this? If I felt the pain, you felt that night? Would that solve it?”

  Sam’s brow leveled. “Yes, it would. I want you to feel the pain I felt that night. The only way I can see fit to make you feel that pain is for you and others around you to be helplessly tormented.”

  Chaun shook his head. “Kat, you were so close to the solution at the beginning of all this.”

  Sam’s right eyebrow lifted. Thinking Chaun was being condescending, she spat, “What do you mean?”

  Chaun’s tone was mellow. “Remember possessing the Chaplain at the hospital? He felt your anguish and feelings from that night. It’s simple, possess my body and give me the alertness you gave him while with him.”

  Sam’s brow rose in the center as her lips pursed, “You’re right. I should have thought of this from the beginning.”

  Chaun held up his left hand toward the nursery. “Would you please put Sam back in her crib before we continue? I know you don’t want her hurt.”

  Sam nodded, walked towards the group, turned, and walked into the nursery. Everyone watched as Sam slowly levitated off the floor, over the rail, and finally sank into the crib where she would be safe. Chaun watched as the eyes faded from black to green. As soon as the eyes changed, he noticed another presence within his mind. The other men watched as the eyes had changed. Hello, Chaun.

  The men could hear Chaun speaking aloud to Kat, “Hello Katrina.” He turned and began walking down to the living room once again. Kat had already read his thoughts and allowed him the time to get downstairs and situated. She now realized, she could not allow him to be seriously injured due to his being Sam’s only living parent. Once in the living room and seated, Chaun said, “I’m ready.”

  The replay of the accident played in his head, but this time from Kat’s perspective. He felt her frustration and anger towards him. When the words were spoken, he felt Kat’s feelings from that night. After hearing the words that emanated from Chaun’s mouth, her heart sank. How could he leave her after eight years of marriage? She had felt the cold insecure feelings that come with being disrespected and belittled by the person she cared for most in life; someone she should have been able to trust. As she spoke within Chaun’s mind, her voice was soft and sad. Now you see. I love you, and you treated me that way and made me feel like I was nothing.

  Chaun’s brow furrowed and his tone was penitent. “I’m sorry I made you feel that way. Now, stay a little longer, I have something to show you.” Visions started passing through his mind. Memories of what had transpired throughout their marriage. The first was memories of meeting her in the coffee shop and his peaceful joy seeing her reading among the trees. “You see, I was happy,” His voice turned sorrowful. “up to a point.”

  Then he began showing her the negative memories. They were taken back to a store checkout lane. She felt his emotions and saw through his eyes. While in the checkout lane she kept slamming the cart into him the whole time yelling at him that he was stupid and annoying. She looked on as Chaun looked at the cashier, an older woman with gray hair. Her eyes showed pity and sorrow. They were also questioning, “Why are you with her?” Chaun raised his eyebrows, paid, and then they left. She felt the same feeling he had experienced in her memory of the accident, only it was so much more intense. She had belittled him and made him feel so insecure and small. Katrina felt his ego and emotion constrict within him and with it that cold feeling of embarrassment.

  Katrina’s tone was apologetic yet patronizing. I’m sorry, but that was one time.

  Chaun’s voice rose in anger. “There’s more.” He then showed her a flashback of when his great uncle had passed. She was taken back to the hospital where he had visited alone after class one night. His uncle was hooked up to an IV, heart monitor, and had tubes down his throat. She saw as Chaun broke down in his failing attempts to be strong for his uncle. Kat experienced that deep, caring, heartfelt emotion that Chaun felt for all his family members. Chaun then took her to the night after the Uncle’s passing when Chaun sat by a window, curled into a ball, and crying while staring into the blackness of night on the other side of the glass. The entire time Kat was badgering him and not showing any compassion for the person who was supposed to mean the world to her. Already weakened and vulnerable, he once again felt the embarrassed and betrayed. This time it cut deeper than the incident in the store. His tone softened. “You see, the night you died, you felt what I had been feeling our entire marriage. I’ve got one more memory to show you, and it will give you my thoughts, emotions, and reasons for certain behaviors.”

  The next memory was of the party. She snapped. Did I do something to upset you that night?

  He responded with patience. “Yes.”

  Chaun could sense her rising tension. It was almost to the point when she usually stopped allowing him to speak. What?

  He remained calm and spoke with an even tone. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll show you. She watched that night play out in Chaun’s mind: his talk with Jake, her interrupting his conversation, and the fighting in the car. The entire time his thoughts were of being fed up and his unhappiness with the marriage. She could feel that he loved her with all his heart, but he was tired of being unhappy and not treated the way he deserved. His mental voice remained flat and even. He spoke as if he had been talking to a child. “The blowup that nig
ht was not due to work and the frustration of interrupted conversation. It was an explosion of all the pain and frustration I had experienced at your hand. I couldn’t take it anymore. You were always self-centered and never thought much of anyone else or their feelings and emotions. The pain you felt that night was how I felt the majority of our marriage.”

  Chaun felt her quietness. Her voice was soft and sheepish. I’m sorry Chaun. I didn’t know. Can you forgive me for all the wrong I’ve done?

  Chaun’s tone became lighter. “Of course I can forgive you. I love you and always will. Can you forgive me for my blow up that night?”

  Yes, I can. Her agitation vanished. She seemed calmer and more at ease than she had been in the last years of their marriage. So things are good between us now?

  “Yes they are, but I also think you need to apologize to everyone else, especially Gene.” He paused as if listening, then looked at Gene. Gene, still being on edge from the attack, recoiled. “She is wondering if it is okay to possess you to feel what you felt while experiencing what happened earlier? She wants to say she’s sorry, but to better understand she wants to experience the pain you felt.”

  Gene paused for a few seconds and then nodded. Inside Chaun’s head, she was still communicating for a few more moments. Chaun could sense her fear building as she thought, since everything is good now, does that mean I’ll have to leave?

  “No Kat. You don’t have to leave, as long as you don’t cause harm to anyone ever again.”

  Deal. In a light-hearted, mischievous tone she thought, Can I at least pull pranks on people once in a while? What’s the point of being a ghost if I can’t freak people out?

  Chaun laughed, “That’s fine. I want you to apologize to Denise as well.”

  I will.

  Chaun felt solitude once again within his mind. An instant later, Gene’s eyes were looking around with black orbs.

  Epilogue

  After that day, conditions improved around the house. Everything seemed more peaceful, and Katrina kept her word. Some of the pranks she started pulling were pretty hilarious. She only possessed Sam a handful of times from that day forward.

  Chaun paid for all of Gene’s therapy. Due to the therapist not believing him, the poor guy had to actually take the video footage in of some of the occurrences that happened. First, he showed the knife being held to Gene’s throat and then the footage of the TV being thrown and Sam levitating back into her crib.

  After seeing the footage, the therapist took the footage to the prosecuting attorney, who then had Alex arrested for threatening bodily harm with a deadly weapon. The instance went to court where Chaun, Dave, and Gene testified in Alex’s defense. All the footage of the investigation was shown to the courtroom. The judge and prosecuting attorney dropped the charges after the judge jumped up and started dancing in front of the entire courtroom. The entire time with black eyes he was chanting, “Who’s a sexy girl? I’m a sexy girl!” Immediately after his eyes changed color he called counsel into his chambers and dismissed the case. Dave and Chaun were in tears laughing.

  Katrina, from that day forward, never showed any hatred towards Denise. In reality, and as oddly as it sounds, the two grew decently close. The way they would converse was Kat possessing Denise. In the beginning, they mostly discussed Chaun. Conversing through thought, they would talk about Chaun’s mannerisms and certain aspects that both thought cute or admirable. Two years later, Chaun and Denise were married. It was a small wedding, held in Dave and Michelle’s backyard. Dave was Chaun’s best man, and Sam was the flower girl.

  Alex, Sara, and Gene kept in touch with the family, and the group became very close. Even though the first investigation he went on scared him into therapy, Gene continued to investigate with Alex and Sara. Alex told him that most paranormal investigations never went to that extreme. Usually, they would only see furniture move or capture voices on the recorders. With this in mind, Gene was more at ease to experience the less intense investigations.

  Katrina acted as a protector over Samantha and the family. Those visiting or at the house on friendly terms, she never hurt again. There were a few other times when she got physical with someone threatening harm to one person or another from the family, but those can be written down and told at a later time.

  Katrina and Sam grew to have a good relationship. Granted it was hard for Sam when she was younger to not discuss her relationship with Katrina while at school. Bullies never messed with her for long. They would usually have harmless accidents that would cause them to become victims of bullying themselves.

  I know and am writing all of this after years of having these stories told to me. I have heard them since I was young. Katrina is still present with the family and makes an appearance every once in a while. She has assisted me in the finer details of this story. Katrina, Chaun, Denise, Dave, and Michelle: I love all of these people dearly. I am Samantha Hutchins. I have grown to love Denise like I do my own mother. She has never treated me with indifference compared to my other siblings. I still love Katrina. I always will.

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for your support! I truly hope you enjoyed the story. If you would like to follow updated news on any upcoming projects go to www.aarondbrinker.com for updates on future projects or some of my recommended reads.

  Reviews go a long way for Authors. If you would be so kind as to leave a review with your thoughts over Second Chances, it would big a huge help in letting me know what you enjoyed and areas that I can improve to pen a more enjoyable read in the future.

  Kindest Regards,

  Aaron D. Brinker