“Thanks. So I take it Faith has shown you around?”
“She has. She’s awesome.” He smiled sincerely at Faith.
Kayleigh nodded. “I agree.”
“Kayleigh, if you want to leave now, I am sure I can manage with Faith’s help. You have absolutely nothing to worry about. Everything will be fine here. I’ll make sure of that.”
He was charming enough. Kayleigh was sure her clients would love him. “You sure?” She asked, and examined his face. He seemed quite relaxed.
“Absolutely. Faith can call you if there’s a problem. Please, don’t worry.”
“Uhm. Okay. Call me if you have any questions.”
“Will do. Bye Kayleigh. Rest well and have lots of fun,” Faith said as Kayleigh turned to leave.
“Thanks. Bye,” Kayleigh said as she left through the door and headed to Rebecca’s store.
Just as Kayleigh reached Rebecca’s store, Rebecca came out. “All sorted? That was quick,” Rebecca said.
“Yes, he seems quite capable. In fact, I think the ladies are going to like him. He’s quite the charmer.”
“Glad to hear. He might attract some more clients for you. Not that you’re not hot, but you know, some ladies prefer the guys.” Rebecca spoke as they walked toward her car.
Kayleigh laughed. “You’re not jealous?”
“I trust you, my love,” Rebecca said, turned toward her and gave her quick reassuring kiss.”
“Is Stephanie going to be okay without you?” Kayleigh asked as they approached the car.
“She’ll be fine. She has the key and a list of instructions. She’s been coping quite well without me a few times. She has my number on speed dial.”
†
It was only a five minute drive to the Sedgefield Frail Care Center. At the reception, they asked for Martin, and the nurse showed them where to go. They found him sitting in his wheelchair and staring out at the garden. He did indeed look like he was one hundred years old. Kayleigh felt nervous. She wasn’t sure how to start the conversation.
“Mr. Norton?” Rebecca asked, and he turned to face them.
“That’s me,” he confirmed with a shaky voice, confusion written all over his frail face.
“I’m Rebecca and this is my friend, Kayleigh. We’re renting your house in Hoekwil.”
“Why would you bug an old man like me, huh?” He sounded very annoyed. ‘I told that damned Graham to keep my particulars confidential. I don’t want to be harassed.”
“We’re so sorry for being a nuisance, sir. We were hoping you could perhaps tell us something about the history on the house?”
“I’m tired. I’m so sick of that house. I wish my mother had never left it to me,” he grumbled. “Nurse. Take these people away.” He turned back to them. “If you don’t want to stay in the bloody house, you should just move out like everyone else did. Now leave me alone.”
The nurse came in and led them away from Martin. “I’m sorry for his outburst, but he’s an old man. It’s best to just leave him be.”
They left the care center with lost hope and frustrated as hell. This was their only chance of finding out anything that could help them. Kayleigh was tired and all she wanted to do was cry. Moving out would be easy, but they had to wait until the end of the vacation to get Rebecca’s house back. Vacationers occupied every house and there were no houses available at this time of the year for them to move to.
They got into the car and drove back to school. It was ten o’clock, and Sarah would be coming out of class. They needed to drop her off at the airport soon. She was to spend the entire vacation in Johannesburg with her dad. Kayleigh was unhappy about letting her daughter go, but at least by the time Sarah returned, they could move into Rebecca’s house. Martin did say they could move out if they wanted to, which was a relief, because they did want to.
Kayleigh finally gave into her emotion and cried all the way home after dropping Sarah off at the airport.
“She’ll be all right, Kay,” Rebecca said and patted Kayleigh’s leg. “We need to get ourselves sorted now. Maybe we can start packing so we can move into my house as soon as the holidays are over. Graham, that asshole, lied about Martin Norton taking you to court if you breached the contract,” Rebecca remarked with an irritated tone. “I just want to go and slap him silly.”
“If we move out, he loses his commission. It’s all about the money for him.”
“Jerk.”
“We just have to get through the next two weeks.”
“I forgot to mention, while you were sorting Sarah out at the airport, Judy called.”
“She did?”
“Yes. Her parents are here for the holiday. I was hoping that they had room for us, but they don’t.”
“Fuck,” Kayleigh spat out before she could stop herself. “I was going to call Lindsay this afternoon and ask her if we could stay over for a few days. That was our last resort.”
“It’s just two more weeks. We’ve gone through longer phases with nothing happening. Maybe we’ll be left in peace for a while after last night.”
Back at the house, they made dinner together and ate it on the patio as they did when they first met.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Rebecca said, and she kissed Kayleigh on the cheek after getting up from her chair.
Kayleigh warmed. This was what she had always longed for—a happy and normal married life for her and Sarah. The fact that it was with another woman didn’t matter to Kayleigh anymore. She watched as Rebecca walked, imagining her beautiful body under those clothes. These past few weeks had been hectic, and they hadn’t made love in a while. Kayleigh felt the need building up inside her.
†
Rebecca walked down the hallway to the downstairs toilet where the shower was. She hated using that bathroom but wasn’t in the mood to run all the way up the stairs to their other toilet. She decided to take her chances as she quickly undid her jean button and sat down. Just as she finished emptying her bladder, she felt the sudden change in temperature in the bathroom. It was like a cloud creeping in and totally enveloping her.
She wiped, jumped up from the toilet, and pulled her jeans up as fast as she could. The air had become so cold that she could see her puffs of breath. She turned to flush the toilet and as she reached for the handle, something burned down her back. It felt as though she’d been cut or scratched. The pain was so intense that it incapacitated her for a moment. She bent over, losing her balance. The instant she realized what had happened, she screeched and turned, horrified that she might see what had caused the burning sensation. Just as she turned her head back, a deep, scratchy male voice screamed in her ear.
“Get out!”
Without buttoning her jeans, she ran out of the bathroom and down the passage to the patio where Kayleigh was busy picking up their dishes. Kayleigh’s eyes widened with shock.
Rebecca ran straight to Kayleigh and grabbed hold of her. She held Kayleigh and sobbed making her whole body shake. “This is ridiculous! I can’t take this anymore.”
“What happened?” Kayleigh asked, concern evident in her voice.
Rebecca turned around and lifted her shirt to where it burned on her back. Kayleigh gasped.
“What?” Rebecca tried to get a glimpse of her back, but it was impossible.
“There are…” Kayleigh swallowed. “There are four parallel scratch marks all the way from here.” Kayleigh gently touched Rebecca’s shoulder blade. “To here,” she said as she touched Rebecca’s lower back. “And they’re bleeding profusely. But your shirt? It’s intact.”
Rebecca felt her legs give out. Kayleigh helped her sit down on the chair and rushed inside, then returned with a first aid kit. When she returned, she made Rebecca lean forward and she cleaned her with saline solution and doused her with antiseptic ointment. She stuck on several large plasters in order to cover the wound. Rebecca’s body shook while Kayleigh tended to her.
“He shouted in my ear, Kayleigh. He screamed get out
right in my ear. We have to get out of here.” Her voice shook when she spoke. She sniffed and swallowed hard.
“Where are we going to go?”
“Anywhere but here, please,” Rebecca pleaded with her. But she knew they had nowhere else to go. At this stage, she would pack up and go back to Cape Town, for all she cared. She could never tell Kayleigh that, however. She knew it would hurt Kayleigh badly.
They sat outside on the swing, holding one another tightly, until midnight, until the weather started taking a bad turn. They were exhausted as hell, and they had no other choice but to go back inside. They decided to sleep in the guest room for the night.
They locked up downstairs and went back to the guest room, Kayleigh carrying Rattex with her. The instant they passed their room, Rattex went crazy. All the hair on his back raised until he looked as if he’d gotten a Mohawk cut. He scratched Kayleigh’s arm and screeched, then raced for the door as he stormed back downstairs. Kayleigh started into their bedroom but quickly stopped. She shivered and rubbed her arms.
Rebecca went still and took hold of Kayleigh as Kayleigh backed right into her. She stared past Kayleigh into their bedroom and then froze. Something—or someone—had flung all of her clothes out of their closet. Rebecca got tears in her eyes as she pushed past Kayleigh and entered the room. She walked up to the closet and peered inside. Only her clothes had been removed from the closet with obvious anger and violence. Kayleigh’s clothes were untouched. Rebecca yelled at the walls. “What do you want from me? Why are you doing this?” Tears were streaming down her face. “Ouch!” she yelled and took a massive step back.
“What’s wrong?” Kayleigh asked, horrified at Rebecca’s expression. She looked scared out of her wits.
Rebecca lifted her shirt and showed Kayleigh her back. “I think he scratched me again. It burns like hell.” She sobbed as she spoke.
Kayleigh gasped as she saw four more red lines running down Rebecca’s back, right next to the bandages she had stuck on earlier. “You’ve been scratched again!” Kayleigh cried. “Are you okay?”
“No.” Rebecca shook her head, her body shaking as she did so.
“Wait. I saw on TV once, that we can use a tape recorder and record everything. Apparently we’ll be able to hear them on the recorder when we play it back.” Kayleigh explained about EVP or electronic voice phenomena. She searched around in her bedside drawer for a few seconds, and produced a digital voice recorder.
Kayleigh pressed the recording button.
“Is there anyone here who wishes to speak to me?” she asked. She waited a while and then continued, “What’s your name?” A few seconds and then, “Why are you trying to scare us?” She waited again before continuing, “Why are you trying to scare Rebecca?”
Rebecca paced up and down the room as Kayleigh made her recording. Then, Rebecca walked to the closet, whipped out a suitcase from the top shelf, and started packing her clothes.
Kayleigh must not have noticed because she continued her conversation with the cassette recorder. “Was it you who beat up the burglars for us the other night?”
Shocked and unable to believe what she was hearing, Rebecca turned around to stare at Kayleigh. Was she giving this asshole of a ghost credit? He was deliberately trying to hurt her yet Kayleigh was talking as if she admired him for everything he did.
Rebecca hurriedly finished packing up all of her stuff from the floor into the suitcase and then turned back to Kayleigh again. “I can’t do this. I’m out of here,” she whispered. She wiped her wet face with the back of her hand and saw the remnants of her mascara on her skin. “You obviously think that this is a big fat joke, Kay, but I’m scared as hell.”
Kayleigh finally looked up from the tape recorder, startled to see Rebecca had packed up her clothes. “Wait, what are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m not staying here another night.”
“Why would you think that I think this is a joke, Rebecca?”
“You with your ghost hunter’s crap while I’m being attacked. I’m scared and you’re talking to them, or him, or whatever this is that’s messing up our lives. I can’t do this, I’m sorry, but I can’t be here right now. Are you coming?” Her heart beat rapidly when she spoke. Kayleigh just stared at her.
After a few seconds, Rebecca took her suitcase and stomped out of the room.
†
Kayleigh sat there and stared at the door as she listened to Rebecca’s retreating footsteps on the stairs. She couldn’t believe Rebecca had just said those things. Worst of all, she couldn’t believe that Rebecca could just leave like that. Was this how gay relationships worked? The minute things got tough, they up and leave? And where was Rebecca going? Her house was full of tenants.
After a few seconds of stunned inertia, Kayleigh jumped up and ran toward the stairs. She had to stop Rebecca. They could sleep in the Jeep for the night. She should have thought of that sooner. As she reached the top of the landing, the door slammed shut in her face. The force of the door was so hard that it knocked her off her feet. She fell back and crashed to the floor with a loud thud. Her head hit the floor so hard, that it bounced twice before it came perfectly still. Everything instantly went dark around her.
Chapter 29
Early 1900s
While she was held captive at Bloemfontein concentration camp, Catherine and Linda became friends. Unfortunately, one of Linda’s children died due to typhoid fever but Catherine had helped to nurse the child while he was ill, right up until he died. Catherine cried as much as Linda. She knew what the mother was going through. No pain compares to that of losing a child.
After the war ended, Catherine left the concentration camp with a mouth full of sores and with the body weight of a twelve-year-old. Catherine was weak and malnourished, but Linda’s family took her in for a while and fed her until she was strong enough to travel back home. The family was kind enough to give her a horse. She left with a promise to repay them as soon as she returned home.
It took Catherine two weeks to travel back to Hoekwil from Bloemfontein. As she rode up to the house, she was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion. She knew that the soldiers had burnt down the house, but she held out hope that she’d soon be reunited with Carrey and Joshua. As she dismounted her horse, her stomach dropped and her heart ached at the desolation before her. The only thing emanating from the remains of the house was a foul smell.
Chapter 30
Present day
Kayleigh awoke slowly from a deep, dark place in her subconscious. Her eyelids were heavy, but she felt as though she were lying in her bed under covers. Her first thought was that Rebecca probably never left and had helped her back into their bed. Then she felt a hand move upward on her thigh. She moaned softly and moved her legs apart. The hand trailed all the way up to her left breast, and she turned her head to Rebecca’s side of the bed, expecting to see her lying there. Instead, the bed was empty beside her. She looked down, hoping Rebecca was crawling up on the bed from the bottom end. Nobody there either. She jolted up and assessed the room anxiously. No Rebecca anywhere. Her heart rate quickened and her breathing came in short rasps. Who the hell—or what the hell—had just touched her? And she’d responded so willingly. She vaulted from the bed and ran to the door. She yanked on the door handle, but the door wouldn’t give way. She twisted around and ran to the window. If she had to jump, she would. The window wouldn’t budge either. Kayleigh pulled at the window as hard as she could, banged against the glass, but it would neither open nor break.
“Catherine…” A deep, scratchy voice whispered from all the corners of the room, as if the voice was seeping through the walls.
She jumped around. “I’m not Catherine!” she shouted.
She searched for her cell phone but couldn’t find it. She must have left it downstairs that night. If only she could call Rebecca and ask her to return. How the hell was she going to get out of this? She broke out in a cold sweat as fear oozed from her pores.<
br />
“Please let me go. I’m not Catherine,” Kayleigh whispered. She could see the vapors of her breath in front of her face. She wrapped her arms around her body in order to get warm. Was he planning on keeping her prisoner in her own house, she wondered.
She backed up until her back reached the wall and slid all the way down to the floor. She sat with her knees against her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs. She was still wearing all her clothes. The ghost must have waited all this time for Rebecca to leave so he could take hold of her. He thought she was Catherine. Sitting there, she didn’t dare move. She didn’t dare close her eyes either. She just sat there as the hours slowly ticked by, staring at the room until the sun came up. The ghost remained silent.
By dawn, it was raining again, so the sun didn’t brighten the room much. She was exhausted. When the room was light enough, she got up from the floor with much difficulty and walked to the window. Her whole body ached, probably from the fall and then sitting in the same position all night. Her bum burned from lack of blood supply until pins and needles signaled that blood flow was returning. She opened the curtains and glared at the view. In the beginning, the view took her breath away every time she opened her curtains. Now, she wondered what all the fuss was about. She held her breath as she attempted to open the window again. With a sharp yank, it slid open. She almost fell to the floor again—this time from relief. The fresh air that slapped her face felt like a million dollars. She took a deep breath in and exhaled before she turned toward the door. Slowly, she crept up to the door and tried the handle. The door opened.
In a flash she raced out of the room, into the hallway, and gripped the door handle at the top of the landing. It now opened, as did the security gate. The key was still in it. Hot tears flooded her eyes when she realized that Rebecca was the last one to move through the gate. Rebecca must have left the key in the gate so that Kayleigh could find it easily, lock it, and be safe on her own. Her heart ached, and she could barely swallow down the lump in her throat.
The Presence Page 19