Haunted Happenings

by Lucrezia Black

  They weren’t the only kids running around in the street, but their mother didn’t want them playing with the other kids. Not today. She wanted them to stay close to the house. She only wanted them to be outside for a short time.

  And after an hour or so she was calling them back inside for lunch. She knew that the rain would start up soon. The air had that heaviness to it that meant another storm was coming.

  Not that rain was unfamiliar for springtime in Newcastle. They got more rain than they did sun, and they were used to it, but the kids hadn’t yet become accustomed to the dreary weather. Such things took time.

  Still, she called them in and made sure that they were fed. Sandwiches and vegetables to snack on, and then she sent them back upstairs to the playroom, much to their displeasure.

  She felt bad about it and she wished there was more for them to do, but on a rainy weekend they would have to entertain themselves. She had work to do and she couldn’t take the time out to entertain them. Perhaps later in the evening.

  She huddled by the fireplace, trying to concentrate on her embroidery, and kept an ear on the noises that they were making upstairs. It was nice to have a fire on a damp day, and it was pleasant to be able to sit at home next to the fire and work. She knew that many weren’t so lucky. Not many could afford to live like this and she was grateful for her situation. Every day she was thankful.

  Upstairs, the children played in the playroom. It was a four-bedroom house and even with four children, they’d kept a room free for the toys. Liza and Angela shared a bedroom and John and Tom shared another. The twins, Tom and Liza, were sad that they didn’t get to room together, but as they got older their parents had insisted that their bedrooms be gender based.

  Not that doors ever really kept the two of them apart. Liza would sleep in Tom and John’s room quite often, and Tom sometimes slept in the girls’ room. The twins were inseparable. It was nonsensical for the parents to even try.

  But they all played together in the playroom in their lovely home, which was a white, double storey with grey trim and shutters. Outside the window of the playroom they could see the rainfall and the leaves from the creeper that covered that side of the house.

  They played until supper time and then played some more before they were sent off to bed. They reluctantly went to their respective rooms and crawled into bed. Night time was always difficult for them. None of them wanted to sleep and no one wanted to stop playing. But a few firm looks from their mother had them huddling underneath the covers and hoping that sleep would find them.

  It always did in time, and the rooms fell silent of the whispers that had floated from beyond their doors. Eventually they settled in for the night and eventually, so did their parents.

  * * *

  Angela woke with a jolt. Something was wrong; something was very wrong. Her chest felt tight. Every breath she took was pained. Her heart was racing. She didn’t know what had happened, but she knew that something was very wrong.

  “Liza!?” She peeked over the edge of her bunk bed and looked down at the bed where Liza had been when she’d fallen asleep.

  But Liza wasn’t there. The bed was empty.

  Angela climbed down from the top bunk and felt the sheets. They were cold. Perhaps Liza had gone into Tom and John’s bedroom. It wouldn’t be the first time.

  Angela poked her head out of the bedroom door and scanned the hallway. She didn’t want to get caught out of bed. She didn’t want to be punished for wandering around at night, but she needed to be sure that Liza was okay. She needed to be sure that everyone was.

  Her hand went to her chest as she crossed the hall. She couldn’t explain the pain there. She couldn’t explain why every breath hurt. But she pressed on and crossed to the boys’ room.

  “Liza?” She asked as she pushed the door open. She found no sign of Liza, and Tom’s bed was also empty.

  John sat up at the sound of her voice and looked at her with fear-filled eyes. “Angela? What’s going on?”

  She shrugged and felt the fear creep over her. “It seems as though Tom and Liza are off on one of their adventures.”

  Even as she said the words, she doubted them. She didn’t believe that they were off on an adventure. She didn’t believe they were even in the house, but she didn’t want to scare John. He might be a year older than her, but she didn’t want to frighten him.

  “We should go wake mom and dad then,” John said in a matter of fact tone. He slipped out of bed and met her in the doorway. “We really should tell them that they’re gone.”

  Angela nodded. She didn’t want to rat out her siblings, but night time wanderings could be dangerous. And Tom and Liza often had a knack for getting into trouble.

  They went down the hall to their parents’ room and knocked on the door. No one answered.

  “Perhaps they are fast asleep,” Angela suggested, but her voice was filled with scepticism.

  John nodded in agreement and turned the handle.

  They pushed opened the door together, but the dim light from the hallway showed the room to be empty.

  “Where are they?” John looked to his younger sister as if she would have the answers.

  Angela simply shook her head. “I don’t know, John, but I have a sinking feeling that we are alone.”

  After searching the house, Angela’s fear was confirmed.

  New Beginnings

  Ashwood House

  Jessop, Newcastle

  July 2018

  * * *

  Cam and Jill Bates stood in the street and looked up at their new home. It was everything they could have wanted. The two-storey Victorian town villa was beautiful, with its white siding and grey trim and shutters it was rather picturesque. It was everything that they could have wanted.

  Cam had been a little reluctant to relocate. For the first eight years of their marriage, they’d been happy to live in Scotland with his parents. The proximity had made sense. They’d both worked there. They hadn’t wanted to spend the money on a house at the time. But things had changed rather suddenly for them when Jill fell pregnant.

  That had been almost eight years ago. It was hard to believe that so much time had already passed, but it had. Their son was seven years old now and their daughter was five. With the children getting older, it had no longer made sense to live with his parents.

  It was too crowded for one, and on top of that, the children were getting to be too much of a handful for their grandparents. As nice as it had been to have live-in babysitters, it was time for them to go it on their own. It was time for change.

  Jessop was a little further than his parents had wanted them to travel, but they’d gone where the work was. Cam had picked up a lucrative position as a software developer and Jill had taken this opportunity to work from home.

  After years of working for the same accounting firm, she was ready to spend some time at home with her family. She would be launching her own bookkeeping business from home, and the house they’d found would work perfectly for it.

  It offered enough space for the children, space for Jill to set up her home business, and it had plenty of yard space for everyone to enjoy.

  He’d always loved his parents’ house for their property. They’d always lived on a sizeable plot of land. There had always been plenty of space to explore and play in. He wanted that for his children. He couldn’t see taking them away from that and not providing a suitable substitute.

  The Ashwood House was perfect.

  Cam and Jill stood together and looked up at the house, looking up at their future. Change had been long overdue, and this was it.

  They’d left the children in Scotland. It would be easier to complete the move without them around, and it gave Gran and Pa some more time with them before they moved away.

  Cam felt guilty for taking the kids away from his parents, but some distance would be good for them. They were spoiled by Gran and Pa, and a child can’t live spoiled forever. They needed to learn to make do on th
eir own.

  The removal truck had arrived moments after they had pulled into the driveway to the house. It had been strange to pack up all their things up and have them loaded onto the truck. It was stranger still watching the two large Scotsmen unloading it all for them.

  Cam’s parents had insisted on hiring a removal company for them. They had argued about it for a day or two, but Cam and Jill had eventually given in. There was really no winning when it came to his parents, so it was best to just let them do as they pleased. It was easier that way.

  “I think we’ll need to get more furniture,” Jill said with a smile. She watched the movers carrying their couch and frowned. They would definitely need some new stuff for this new place.

  After living with her in-laws for so long, they hadn’t really accumulated many of their own belongings. Everything had been shared for the most part. Now they were finally out on their own and it was a little unnerving. So much needed to be done.

  They’d left the nest a little late in life, but she was certain they would find their feet, and she had no doubt that the Ashwood House would be the perfect place to do that.

  “You think?” Cam grinned. The idea of finally getting into their own place was so exciting for him. He couldn’t wait to buy furniture and get everything set up. It was the first time he’d be able to do anything without his parents looking over his shoulder. This was his first shot at freedom.

  He never thought he’d be almost forty before it happened.

  “Do you think the kids will like it?” Jill chewed on her bottom lip nervously.

  The kids hadn’t taken the idea of the move very well but they’d warmed up to it over time. She just wasn’t certain they would like the house, or the yard, or their new school. She was never sure when it came to them, and she just wanted them to be happy.

  “I mean it’s not Gran and Pa’s place by any means, but I’m sure they will love it.” He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “They’ll adjust. Kids always do.”

  She nodded, still feeling uncertain although a little better.

  “Should we help the movers?” Jill watched them carry their bed frame as though it weighed nothing at all.

  “I think they can handle it,” Cam said with a grin. “But we should likely go in and tell them where all this stuff belongs before they run away on us and we have to move it ourselves.”

  “They wouldn’t do that!” Jill looked astonished at the very idea. This was her first move and her first experience of a removal service, so she had no clue what the guys would or wouldn’t do.

  Cam laughed. “No, darling. But we really should give them some direction, or we may end up with a fridge in our bedroom.”

  Cam continued to laugh at Jill’s horrified expression. It was easy to get her riled up sometimes. She was quite gullible, especially for a woman in her early thirties, but they’d both lived quite a sheltered life, so he couldn’t really blame her.

  Jill hurried into the house after her husband. She wasn’t certain how serious he was about the refrigerator in the bedroom, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. This was their new home, their fresh start, and she wanted it all to be perfect.

  Part of her felt bad that the children wouldn’t be there to help them get things set up, but she knew that it would all run more smoothly without them underfoot. They would have enough on their plates when they arrived.

  There would be very little time left in the summer for them to adjust before they began at their new school. They’d have to try and make friends and she knew that they were less than happy about the idea.

  “Is this really the best idea?” Jill’s voice was filled with scepticism as they entered the house. “Should we really be moving everyone and everything here?”

  She wrung her hands nervously and looked at all the boxes scattered around the house. One moment she was happy about their decision and the next she was second-guessing it.

  Everything felt so new, so strange. She’d never been a big fan of change. She’d spiralled for both of her pregnancies; uncertain about being good mother material and then how she’d balance two children. She was always the one who spiralled and Cam was always the level headed one. Just as he was now.

  He took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the right thing, darling. It’s done, so we just have to go with it.”

  “You know, sometimes you’re not very reassuring.”

  He chuckled. “We’ll be fine. The kids will be fine. We’re on a grand adventure. You just need to embrace it.”

  “That’s easier said than done.” She sighed and ran a hand over her hair.

  “I know, darling.” He gave her cheek a kiss. “But you’ll get there.” He looked around at all the boxes and the assorted bits of furniture. “In the mean time we really should start to make heads or tails of all of this before we lose our muscle.”

  Jill nodded in agreement. She just hoped that he was right, and she hoped they’d have everything unpacked before the kids showed up.

  She had no clue what she was doing, but Cam had said it was an adventure, so she braced herself for whatever that might entail.

  Transitions

  Jill decided that she hated moving after only a few hours of dealing with the boxes. They’d packed up gradually over weeks, and in doing so she hadn’t realized just how much they had. Now, staring at the mounds of boxes, she was a little overwhelmed by it all.

  She sat down on the kitchen floor amid all the boxes and sighed unenthusiastically. All the appliances were where they belonged and the furniture was placed correctly before the removal truck had pulled away. But they were still left with a house filled with boxes.

  How had they acquired all this stuff? When had that happened? She assumed it had likely coincided with the advent of their children. Kids seemed to come with a lot of baggage, but she knew that the truth of the matter lay in their hording over recent years.

  She had meant to orchestrate a thoroughly purging clean-out before the move; to go through everything while they were packing, but somehow that hadn’t happened. She’d insisted on keeping things in case she found a home for them at the new house. She didn’t want to get rid of anything they’d end up needing the moment they moved in.

  That had been her logic at least, but now as she stared at the pile of boxes, she wished she’d purged before packing. She definitely didn’t want to go through it all now. She didn’t even want to look at it at the moment.

  “When did we get so much stuff, Cam?” She shouted from her place on the floor. Cam was in the living room and he peaked his head around the corner to look at her.

  “Oh, all of this?” he waved his hands at the boxes and watched her nod. “Not a clue. You sure we didn’t get someone else’s removal truck?”

  Her eyes went wide at the very idea and she glanced around at the boxes. She shook her head when she recognized her own handwriting on the labels. “Nope, it’s all ours. But when did we get so much stuff? I don’t remember this many boxes when we packed up.”

  “It was. You insisted that we pack everything.”

  “I’m regretting that decision.” She sighed and moved to open another box. “Why do we have three sets of dishes when we lived with your parents? We never used our own dishes.”

  Cam’s brow furrowed in confusion for a moment and then he chuckled. “Well, we got two sets as a wedding present, and then you bought the third set because you liked it.”

  Jill looked confused for a moment and then her eyes widened. “I remember that now.” She looked at the boxes around her. “We have too much stuff. We need to go through it. We need to throw out.”

  “I agree.” He crossed the room to her and extended a hand. Jill took it and let him pull her to her feet. “But that is a tomorrow problem. Right now, we need to get food and then make the bed for the night. Tomorrow will be another day entirely.”

  “You want to just quit like that?” Jill raised a brow.

  “Not
quit, darling, postpone the inevitable.” He grinned. “Come on, let’s go grab a takeaway. I’m sure there’s a good pub here somewhere.”

  “There almost always is.”

  They found a pub and returned to the house with their takeaway meals. Jill tried to overlook the work that lay ahead of them. She ignored the boxes and they took their food straight up to the bedroom where they ate while making their bed.

  There was something relaxing about the process of making the bed and it did wonders to distress Jill after the anxiety surrounding the move. The simplicity of making the bed and then sitting down with her husband for a meal brought the reality that the small things in life mattered most.

  They lingered over their meal for a while, chatting about Cam’s new job and discussing how Jill would go about starting up her bookkeeping business from home. They talked about the kids and pondered what they were up to at that moment.

  They hoped they were both happily tucked into bed after yet another day of being spoiled by their grandparents. They knew the children would miss that, but too much spoiling could go to their heads. In a way they were happy that they were moving the children before they got too old and learned to expect the special treatment they often got from their grandparents.

  It was close to midnight before they literally crawled into their freshly made bed and decided to call it a night. Neither had planned on staying up that late. They became lost in conversation. It had been a long time since that had happened. It had been a long time since they’d had an evening without children.

  That had been their choice. Gran and Pa would have watched the children if they’d wanted time out, but they’d focused on work and being in the children’s lives. This would be the longest they’d been away from the children since they were born.