Haunted Happenings

by Lucrezia Black

  “Get out! Get out! My house! My house! Get out!” she kept hissing, her voice becoming clearer with each utterance. “Get out of my house.”

  Emily ran to the back door, planning on moving around to the front of the house. She couldn’t leave Joshua there. Not as long as there was a chance that he might be alive. And Chris. They couldn’t leave his body here to rot. But she couldn’t do anything to help if something happened to her.

  She passed Andrea as she was about to leave the house and stopped her.

  “Go back,” she said. “She wants me. Hopefully, she will follow me. If she does, get Joshua and Chris and take them to the bus. See if you can find Kate.”

  “What if she doesn’t follow you?”

  “Get out of the house,” Emily said and left the building.

  She couldn’t just leave them, but she knew that this might be their best chance. And she wouldn’t allow herself to think what might happen if Marianne didn’t follow her. Or what would happen if Marianne caught her?

  Both possibilities were equally frightening.

  She ran around the house when she heard something approaching ahead of her. Her first priority was hiding from whatever it was, since it was most likely Marianne who had followed her outside. Her best and only hope was the tomb in the back yard. She turned and ran for it.

  Emily reached the tomb and moved behind it, leaning against the cold damp stones. She held her breath as she heard the unknown entity nearing the tomb. It was running and gasping, clearly out of breath.

  Then came a soft sob.

  That was when Emily knew who it was.

  Emily leaned closer to the sound and saw Kate moving into view, barely able to stay on her feet. Kate was clutching at her chest and stopped for a moment to wipe a tear from her eye.

  Before she could take off again, Emily called to her.

  “Psst,” Emily called, “Kate.”

  Kate flinched, ducked and looked back in shock. Then she seemed to relax, seeing Emily behind her.

  She stumbled to Emily and nearly collapsed next to her, but steadied herself against the wall of the tomb.

  “What happened?” Emily asked Kate, who was still gasping for breath between soft sobs.

  Kate swallowed, wiped more tears from her face and fell to her knees on the ground. “I’m Sorry,” she whimpered. “I’m so sorry, Emily. I shouldn’t have been so mean to you. I shouldn’t have played all those pranks on you. I shouldn’t have been jealous of all the attention you got from Joshua. I really am sorry.”

  Emily crouched next to Kate and hugged her. “It’s okay,” she reassured her. “Everything’s going to be okay. Just tell me what happened.”

  “There was a shadow,” she swallowed another sob. “I went to Chris’s room earlier. I was scared and afraid. I knew he wouldn’t have a problem with me sleeping in his room for a night. He offered me the bed and got a blanket out for him. But the shadow grabbed him before I could even climb in the bed. He wasn’t even properly out of bed yet.”

  “Wait. Hold on. Where was this shadow?” Emily asked. She understood perfectly well that Kate was talking about Marianne.

  “It came out from under the bed. It grabbed Chris by the ankles and lifted him into the air with one hand and covered his mouth with the other. And I couldn’t do anything,” she started crying. “I couldn’t do anything. It was like I was a statue. A dumb, useless statue. I could only look as she took him and carried him away.”

  “Calm down,” Emily kept reassuring her. “How did she take him?”

  Kate shook her head. “They just disappeared. They were there one moment and gone the next. I didn’t see him again after that. I don’t know what happened to him.” She dropped her head into her hands.

  “Kate,” Emily said softly, careful not to make any noise. “Chris… well… Chris is dead… She killed him…”

  “What?” Kate gasped. “No. He can’t be. Chris can’t be dead!”

  “Not so loud,” Emily said. “I’m sorry. We found him in a back hallway. I think he died of shock.”

  Silence followed before Emily looked at Kate and asked, “How did you get outside?”

  “It came back for me after it disappeared with Chris. They had only been gone a few seconds and I was still trying to get my body to move when it grabbed me as well. I wanted to scream. To yell. To ask for help. But I was useless.” Her hands gripped her hair and started pulling at it. “The next thing I knew we were on the roof. It flew me away from the building and left me before she flew back here.

  “I could move again. I felt my muscles start to move again. So I ran back here. I knew I had to try and warn you all before she did anything to you too. And I didn’t stop. Couldn't. I couldn’t stop. There was no time for that.”

  “Kate,” Emily said. “That man we saw earlier. He was trying to warn us about her. About Marianne.”

  “Marianne?” Kate frowned. “Do you mean Marianne Sculthorpe? Dorothy Sculthorpe's sister?”

  Emily frowned at Kate. “Yes. But it isn’t exactly the way Father Bolton told us. Dorothy had fallen in love with the man Marianne loved, but the man loved Dorothy. Marianne was jealous and tricked her father into killing him. Dorothy only killed herself because she didn’t want to live without him.”

  “They’re buried here, you know?” she gestured to the tomb. “Both of them were laid to rest here.”

  “You mean this is their tomb?”

  “They are the only two buried here, yes. Andrea wanted to take a look inside and Carol and I went in with her.”

  Emily sighed. This was all news to her, but it didn’t help her any. What were they going to do?

  Thunder rumbled overhead and the rain started again. The droplets almost seemed to follow their feeling of helplessness and despair.

  Then Emily realised that Marianne hadn’t passed once, nor did she hear anything happening inside the house. Immediately, Emily started fearing the worst. She needed to get Marianne away from them.

  “I have a plan, but I don’t think you’ll like most of it.”

  “I don’t like it as it is,” Kate tried to joke. “What is it?”

  Emily nodded at the tomb. “Help me in here.”

  They moved to the thick front doors and Emily stood back as Kate opened them. The doors swung open without so much as a squeak and Emily could see two coffins on either side of the tomb. They were identical.

  Emily walked into the tomb and almost gagged. The smell of rot and decay lingered in the air around Emily and Kate for a moment, making it hard for them to breathe. Kate moved to the coffin on the right and pointed at the lid.

  It had a brass plate which read, Dorothy Sculthorpe. Taken from us by the actions of Harry Rowe. May she yet find peace.

  Emily shook her head. The one on the left must have been Marianne’s then. She checked a similar plate on the coffin on the left. Marianne Sculthorpe. Reunited with her family who had long since passed. RIP.

  “This is it,” Emily whispered and nodded. “Help me get the lid off.”

  “What did you just say?” Kate looked at her in utter disbelief. “I thought you just said you wanted to open the coffin?”

  “I do,” Emily said. “We need to get her out of the house. I think we can get her attention by removing the body and stabbing it with this,” she held up the crucifix she had in her pocket.

  “And you expect me to stand here while you try and enrage the ghost of a woman who was willing to kill not only the man she loved, but also her sister?”

  “No, of course not,” Emily said, trying to at least seem brave and confident. “I’ll stab her. I just need you to help me get the lid off. Then you can wait by the door until I signal you, and we can try to help the others get out of here. I’ll join you out front within ten minutes.”

  Kate didn’t say a word. She nodded and they lifted the lid from the coffin, letting out a renewed stench. Kate left the tomb and waited at the door for Emily’s signal.

  Emily held the crucifix in
her hand and gripped it till her knuckles turned white. She took a deep breath and leaned over the body in the coffin.

  “Three. Two. One.” She dug the crucifix into the chest of the body, feeling it slip between bones as she dug in again.

  And again.

  The night shattered as an agonising wail tore through it. Birds flew from the nearby tree as an even darker shadow covered the night. “Now!” Emily yelled as she stabbed the corpse again.

  She couldn’t see anything outside the tomb anymore.

  The world outside suddenly disappeared, to be replaced by a black shadow-clad woman standing in the entrance to the tomb.

  All of a sudden, the world in front of Emily faded away. The room grew fuzzy and the smell of death and decay almost vanished completely from the air around her. She could hear people moving in the house again, but only for a moment before all the sounds died away as well.

  She was falling. Coming closer to the ground as Marianne struggled to enter the room.

  The crucifix, Emily thought before everything went blank.

  The last thing she saw was dark fingers reaching out to her.

  * * *

  Sudden Death

  Smell came back first. The smell of death had passed. She was in a clean place. She didn’t know where she was, but she knew it was cleaner than the tomb. Then sound came back to her. She didn’t register most of it, but she could hear them. Voices. They were talking about a girl named Emily.

  “I’m Emily,” she realised and her eyes struggled to open.

  Then she realised that she didn’t feel the presence of Marianne anymore. The cold, dark presence she had been feeling over the last week had disappeared. The chilling fingers had released their grip on her spine and, for the first time in a week, she felt safe.

  Everything was a blur, and the light was partially blinding her, but she could hear her mother, Kate and someone she didn’t recognise talking at the foot of her bed. They were talking about her.

  “… and I can assure you there will be no lasting damage.”

  “Thank goodness,” she heard her mother say.

  She tried to sit up but fell back down on the bed. Her mother looked in her direction, having heard Emily’s head hit the pillow with a soft thud, and raced to the bed, but Emily was fast asleep by the time her mother reached her side. She was snoring softly; clearly still weak from the week’s events.

  * * *

  It was dark when Emily woke again. She was lying on her side and staring out the window at the moon and the stars. She was groggy and it felt as though she could reach out and hold the moon between her fingers as she enjoyed the peace and comfort.

  Her mother had left the room, and possibly the hospital, in the time she had been asleep. Visitors were probably only allowed into the building during certain hours of the day, and it was noe likely outside of those hours.

  The hospital was quiet. Voices drifted in from down the hall – probably nurses or patients talking among themselves. Her room was almost in complete darkness, save for the bright night sky illuminating it from the outside.

  She felt warm. She felt safe. She had finally rested. She was still tired, but she felt safe in the hospital room. She could rest here and get her energy back.

  She pulled the blankets up to her chin and rolled over to her other side. The wind blew the cold night air into the room and against the bare skin of Emily’s back. The wind crept up and down her spine and made her shiver.

  The covers must have shifted when she rolled over and the air was now slipping in through the open window and into the room. There was nothing to worry about anymore. She considered calling a nurse to help her with her blanket but decided that she could do it herself. She wasn’t exactly useless.

  Her hand reached back and felt for the covers, but the covers weren’t on the side or dangling in the air behind her back. They were hanging loosely next to the bed. She pressed the covers closer to her, but the cold air didn’t release her. It was holding on to her spine and seemed to be searching for something.

  What if she called the nurse to close the window? She could-

  There were no windows in her room! She remembered. At least, there were no windows that could open. The window was one single plate of glass running the length of her room. There is no way any cold air could enter the room. At least not through the window.

  It wasn’t cold air, Emily realised. It was the ice-cold grasp of her clairvoyant abilities warning her of something from a world that wasn’t her own. And it was getting stronger.

  No! It was coming closer.

  She recognised the feeling. The powerful feeling of a creature of pure evil. There was no mistaking it. There was only one thing she knew with that much raw hatred and evil.

  She turned back just as Marianne jumped through the window pane and into her room with a thundering shatter. The room suddenly fell into complete darkness. Emily could see nothing.

  Glass shattered in every direction and clattered to the floor in high pitched clinks. Marianne landed on the bed, sending the breath from Emily’s lungs and making at all but impossible for her to move.

  Her hands clasped Emily’s throat and squeezed. Emily choked for help, but her voice didn’t work. Her words came out as groans and coughs.

  She tried to get Marianne’s fingers from her throat, but she was grasping at mist. The very things that were choking her were of mist and air.

  Emily panicked. She couldn’t call for help, nor could she help herself. She was going to die there.

  She was mad. Furious. How can life be so cruel? Was she to die there after almost surviving it all?

  In a moment of pure anger, she aimed a slap at Marianne. “Go to Hell, you bitch,” Emily choked out the words.

  Marianne withdrew from the slap with a hiss before renewing her mission to kill Emily.

  Emily saw her mother’s good luck charm hanging on her wrist. It was a small silver Rosary engraved in Latin, but Emily had never asked what it meant.

  She shoved it at Marianne’s face, hoping it would have a similar effect the second time.

  “I. Said. Go. To. Hell!”

  And Marianne disappeared with a wail. The roomed seemed to be filling with dark smoke, only it also disappeared without a trace.

  Marianne was gone for good.

  Epilogue

  Emily was never the same after that. The days she spent in the hospital seemed to predict it all.

  She was constantly looking over her shoulder and glancing out the window. Every time the nurse entered the room, Emily’s heart would stop in fright. Everything she saw reminded her of Marianne. She always expected to see Marianne in dark spaces and corners or just at any random time in the hospital.

  She went to the bathroom one night and screamed for help when she turned and, unexpectedly, saw her shadow on the door next to her.

  Life was never going to be the same again. Not as long as she remembered the last school retreat she ever had. And how does one forget something that has been scorched into your memories through sorrow, pain, anger, and death?

  She missed Chris’s burial. The doctors forbade her from the leaving the hospital until her vitals had stabilised. She heard that it was a good service, but who would really know? What can be good about saying goodbye to a close friend or family member?

  Joshua came in one evening to hear how she was doing. They talked for a while. Joshua then did the unexpected. He asked her on a date.

  She couldn’t believe that he had asked her and stuttered her ‘yes’.

  He left her with a smile when the nurse politely escorted him out. Emily was ecstatic. She never thought she would see the day that Joshua Green asked her out on an actual date. Apparently, there is something about life or death situations that brings people closer together.

  Just look at Kate.

  After everything that had happened to them those last couple of days, they had become close friends. Kate had refused to leave Emily behind after everyone had left
the house. She had called Emily’s mother to tell her where they were.

  She even stayed with her most of the time while she was asleep. Especially after Emily told her about the last time Marianne appeared in her room.

  * * *

  Emily and her mother walked out the hospital’s front door, glad to finally leave the place behind.

  “Hey, Mom?” Emily asked.

  “Yes, Emily?” she stopped and looked back at Emily.

  “Did you put this on my wrist?” she pointed to the rosary on the bracelet.

  “Why yes. I thought it would bring you good luck.”

  “Should I give it back?”

  “Keep it. In case something like this ever happens again.”

  “Hopefully it won’t,” Emily mumbled and followed her mother away from the building.

  The Haunting of Trowbridge House

  Prologue

  July 1933

  Richmond House

  Birchwood, Cheshire

  * * *

  The house had been commissioned by Chester Richmond. It had taken five years to complete and ten years ago it was a pride of the town. Every member of the church had raved about the gardens and the lawns were meticulously kept. The two-story brick building had been a symbol of pride until Chester’s wife had suddenly passed away and he’d sold the house without a second thought. He had built it for her and it represented her to him. After her death he couldn’t stand to be in it any longer.

  The town was pleased to welcome Jeremy Simmons and his young fiancée Margaret Trowbridge into the community when they took over the house. It was a bit of a scandal seeing as they were unmarried, but Jeremy’s parents were staying with them until the wedding two weeks later.

  The town waited in anticipation for the wedding. Such an event happened rarely in the small town and it was a source of happiness for the whole community. Therefore, it was a shock to everyone involved when Jeremy abandoned Margaret at the alter on the day of the wedding and was never seen from again.