The Lost Son: A Supernatural Novel of Suspense

by Matt Shaw

  “What’s wrong with you?” asked Emily. She was standing in the doorway. Jason had been so lost in his reading he hadn’t even heard her come in.

  “You scared the shit out of me,” said Jason. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “I’m sorry...”

  “You’re home early,” he said when he noticed the time.

  “I wasn’t feeling very well. Had a rough morning so I thought I’d take the afternoon...Besides, it’s quiet there today.” She noticed the computer screen behind Jason, “What’s that you’re looking at?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” he said. He quickly leaned across and flicked the monitor off.

  “Show me!” said Emily.

  “Nothing to show,” he lied.

  “I want to know what you found today to keep you from unpacking this time.”

  “Really - it’s nothing!”

  “Come on,” she playfully hit him, “show me!”

  Jason didn’t want to show her because he feared she’d react badly. Not many people would want to live with a spirit in their house - even if it were the spirit of a harmless little child. “It’s just something for my book...”

  “Clearly has you spooked,” she said, “why won’t you tell me?” She put her arm around Jason in what he thought was a sweet embrace until she dragged him, helped by the wheels on his chair, out of the way of the computer.

  “No, wait,” he protested as she reached across and flicked the monitor screen on.

  “What’s this?” she asked when the picture of Josh blurred itself onto the screen. She started reading and instantly knew what it was but still asked again, “What is this?”

  “Okay, don’t freak out...I don’t think we’re alone.”

  “What?”

  “I didn’t move that stuff last night. I left it in the hallway where it landed...”

  “You did - it was piled up neatly.”

  “I know - but I didn’t do it. Why would I lie about that? Look...I’ll show you something else,” he said when he suddenly realised he hadn’t cleaned the kitchen up from his earlier attempts at communications. “Follow me!” he jumped up from his chair and led Emily downstairs towards the kitchen. “Okay - don’t freak out,” he said. He had already noticed the look on Emily’s face and knew his words were too late.

  “You’re fucking joking, right?” she said.

  “It explains how the things moved last night. It explains the bangs around the house,” he tried to tell her.

  “You’re insane,” she said.

  “Look...Stand over here,” he gently pushed her towards the corner of the room and went back over to his home-made board. “Josh, are you here?” He looked down to the shaker but it didn’t move.

  “I think you might need to get out of the house a little more,” said Emily. “Did you even take Roald for a walk today? Have you left the house at all?”

  “Josh...I know what happened. I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

  The shaker still didn’t move.

  “Jason - you’re scaring me...”

  “I want to talk to you,” Jason said out loud. “Do you want to talk to me?”

  “Jason...Please...” Emily went to say.

  The shaker moved across to the word ‘yes’ and immediately silenced Emily.

  Jason turned to her, “See?”

  “How did you do that?” she asked.

  He shook his head, “I didn’t.”

  “You expect me to believe in a ghost...A ghost of a child...”

  The shaker circled the word ‘yes’ once more.

  Emily didn’t know what to say so chose not to say anything.

  Jason simply shrugged.

  10.

  Emily and Jason were both lying in bed - the duvet tucked up around them keeping them warm - neither were saying anything, both were staring at the ceiling as though lost in their own little worlds.

  Emily was the first to break the silence, “We can’t stay here. We’ll have to move out.”

  “What?” Jason rolled onto his side so he could look at her whilst they spoke. She didn’t move. “We can’t move.”

  “We can’t stay here either,” she continued, “There is a ghost in our house. A ghost. This morning, I was quite happy not believing in ghosts but now I get home to find they not only exist but we have one living in our house. We can’t stay here.” She didn’t give Jason a chance to talk before continuing, “Do you think they knew? The other occupants... Do you think they knew and that’s why the house was so cheap? Because they simply wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible? We’ll have to do the same - take a loss... Aren’t the estate agents supposed to disclose things like that? I thought there was some law, or estate agents’ rule at least, whereby they had to tell us if anything bad happened in the house? We should look that up. Might be able to sue them.”

  “Will you just wait a minute?” said Jason. “We’re not moving anywhere. Our money is tied up in this property and, besides, it’s a nice house. The spirit... It’s a little boy. A little boy, Emily. All he’s done is slam some doors and that was probably to get our attention. Can you imagine how lonely he is? He’s by himself - probably desperate to be noticed. As for the law - he didn’t die on the property. He died on the road. It was tragic, especially for the parents, but - the estate agents don’t need to tell us about it. For all we know, they didn’t have a clue either.”

  “Do you think he’s in here now?” Emily asked.

  “What?”

  “He could be in here, right now, watching us - listening to us. I won’t be able to sleep now.”

  “No, I don’t think he’s in here now. Look, tomorrow I’ll ask around in the village. I’ll see if I can find out a little more about what happened and whether the previous occupants knew of it. I can even set up that board again and try and set some ground rules for Josh. You know, stuff like - this is the one room he can’t come in as we need to have some privacy from time to time.”

  “You think a ghost will give a fuck about ground rules?”

  “A little boy. He’s a little boy. A little boy, I might add, who picked up all the bits and pieces from the box which fell over. I don’t think his intentions are to hurt us. I mean, do you know how I first came to know he was even here? I was making a hot drink and he moved the coffee pot across the work-top to save me from having to go and get it. Like I said, I don’t think he wants to hurt us. I think he just wants to be seen.”

  “The first sign of trouble...” Emily went on.

  Jason interrupted her, “The first sign of trouble and I’ll pack the bags myself but I honestly don’t think it will come down to that. Look - try and get some sleep - tomorrow I’ll set the board up again and try and have a longer conversation with him. Today I was a little unprepared on what to ask. Tomorrow, I’ll jot some questions down and make sure I’m ready for everything. And, if there’s anything you want to know, you can leave some questions for me to ask too. Does that sound fair?”

  Emily didn’t answer. She wasn’t happy about the situation but she knew their money was tight and moving would be impractical. At least, it would be impractical for the quick move she was hoping for anyway.

  Jason took her silence as an agreement to his plan and leaned forward to give her a kiss on the cheek, “It’ll be fine,” he promised.

  She shifted away from his kiss, “What if he’s in here now?”

  Jason pulled away from Emily, “Josh? Are you in here? If you are... Can you make the door move a bit?” Both Emily and Jason stared intently at the door but it didn’t move. “He’s probably asleep,” Jason tried to reassure Emily.

  “Ghosts sleep?” she asked.

  Jason shrugged, “I don’t know. Look - tomorrow - I’ll set the board up as I said...Set some ground rules with him. I’ll even ask if he minds us living here. Yeah? If he has a problem – for arguments sake - I’ll put the property back on the market and we’ll cut our losses and move on but I honestly think he’s happy we’re here. I�
��m sure he’s happy for the company.”

  Again - Emily didn’t say anything. She just continued to look up at the ceiling as though it held the answers she was desperately searching for. Jason rolled onto his back and also stared dead ahead.

  “Try and get some sleep anyway,” he said, “it’s late.” He knew there was little point in telling Emily to get sleep. There was no way either of them would be sleeping that night. Too many questions were bouncing around in their minds. After all, it was a position neither of them had expected to find themselves in.

  “Goodnight,” whispered Emily after a few minutes silence.

  “Night,” Jason answered in the darkness.

  It was a far cry from the way they normally wished each other a goodnight with kisses and cuddles.

  * * * * *

  Jason awoke to the sound of Emily being sick. He instantly sat up and looked around for her – confused, in his sleepy state about where the noise was coming from. When his senses finally kicked in properly he realised that the sound was coming from the bathroom down the hallway.

  “Emily?” he called out. “Are you okay?”

  She didn’t answer. He threw the duvet back and jumped out of bed and ran down the hallway towards the bathroom. With the door open, straight away he could see Emily was huddled over the bowl, getting her breath back from the latest bout of sickness.

  “Are you okay?” he asked as he walked into the bathroom.

  “I think I’ve got a bug,” she said.

  “You think?” he laughed. “I think you could be right. Can I get you anything? Glass of water? Mint?”

  “It came on yesterday,” she went to explain. Her explanation was cut short with another bout of sickness. Jason perched himself on the edge of the bath and put what he thought was a comforting hand on her shoulder - an act to let her know he was there for her should she need him.

  “Do you want me to call the office?” he offered.

  Emily shook her head at the first opportunity, “I have to go in. I’ll be fine.” She leaned back against the wall, next to the toilet, “It’s out of my system now, I’ll just take some tablets.”

  “You work too hard. If it was your colleagues, I bet they would have called in.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not like that. Could you get me a glass of water, please?”

  The tap, on the sink beside Emily’s head, suddenly twisted around releasing a jet of cold water. Both Emily and Jason jumped.

  “Besides,” said Emily, “you need to sort that one way or the other.”

  “And I will,” he reassured her. “I’ll get you a glass,” he hopped to his feet and hurried from the bathroom to fetch a glass.

  Emily looked around the room, a nervousness washed through her as she wondered whether Josh was still there with her. “Thank you for running the cold tap,” she said - on the off chance the boy was still standing nearby. “My name’s Emily,” she said, unsure of what else to say.

  Much to her relief Jason appeared in the doorway clutching a glass in his left hand, “Here,” he said as he offered it to her. Emily took it and filled it at the sink. As soon as the water neared the rim of the glass, the tap turned off - thanks to a little help from Josh once more.

  “Thank you,” Emily said. She said it the once but hoped they both understood it was meant for the pair of them. She took a swig of water and swished it around her mouth before she spat it into the toilet bowl. The second mouthful of water she swallowed.

  “Maybe you should phone the doctor? We need to register at the new practice anyway,” Jason urged her.

  “I’m fine, it’s just a sickness bug.”

  “Well you’re looking pale.”

  “I’m fine,” she snapped. She couldn’t believe that, after all their time together, Jason still thought it was socially acceptable to point out that a woman - especially one he was supposed to love - was looking off colour. “They’ll only say it’s viral. Nothing they can do. Blah blah. Have to ride it out. You know what they’re like.”

  “Even so - we’re going to have to go in to register. Might as well go in sooner, rather than later, to do it. At least that way, if it is something, they can give you something to help shift it.”

  “Just a bug,” she said once more hoping her tone of voice would stop Jason from hassling her.

  “I just care,” he pointed out. “I’ll leave you to it,” he said. He turned from the room and returned to the bedroom as he finally got the point that his input wasn’t wanted.

  Emily pushed the door closed to enjoy a couple more minutes of solitude before she had to join him in the bedroom to get ready for work.

  “For fuck sake,” she mumbled to herself when it dawned on her she might not be as alone as she had originally hoped.

  11.

  By the time Jason had thought of some questions, and ground rules, for Josh - Emily had left for work although Jason could tell, from her body language alone, she didn’t really want to go in. He couldn’t help but wonder whether she would have taken a sick day had it just been the two of them in the house.

  Jason put his sheet of paper, filled with his various questions, on the kitchen work-top and checked his homemade board, still on the floor, to ensure Roald hadn’t run off with any of the pieces or accidentally damaged any of it. A quick glance and he could tell all was as it should be. He walked over to the door and closed it so Roald couldn’t come bounding in and distract Josh from being able to move the shaker around the floor.

  Roald. Some guard dog he was turning out to be. First of all he barely made a sound when the woman came into the garden, making Jason jump, and then he more or less ignored the husband who came to collect her. Now he happily sleeps in a haunted house. As far as Jason could remember, there was only one time Roald actually acted out of character and that wasn’t anything to do with the house - that was something in the garden stealing his attention away.

  Jason couldn’t help but wonder whether a husky would have acted the same way. A husky being the dog he originally had wanted. Roald was a compromise after Emily said she didn’t want a husky in the house because she had heard what hard work they were with regards to the amount of exercise they needed and their training. She did say that, maybe, they could get a husky in years to come - after they were used to owning a dog and Roald had passed on. Jason couldn’t help but laugh when Emily had said that and he laughed again now as he moved back to the kitchen work-top. They hadn’t even purchased their new pet and already Emily was talking about its replacement further down the line.

  One final check around the room to ensure everything was okay and in place. Done.

  “Josh?” he called out when he felt as though he was calm enough. He didn’t think Josh wanted to hurt either of them but it still felt strange talking to him. Almost as though the whole act itself was actually forbidden. “Are you here?”

  The shaker moved across to the ‘yes’ marker before sliding away from it once more. Jason smiled and waved - not that he knew why. Maybe part of his subconscious thinking suggested it was the friendly thing to do - to show he’s not a threat to the spirit of the child.

  “I was thinking,” he said, “did you see the lady, and the man, who came here yesterday?”

  The shaker moved back to the ‘yes’ marker and slid away again - ready for the next question.

  “Was that your mum and dad?”

  A slight pause. The shaker moved to the ‘yes’ marker.

  “Do they know you’re still here?”

  “The marker moved to across to the ‘no’. Jason didn’t know what to say. They had lived in the house, after the accident, with their son’s spirit and they had never sensed he was still there or that something strange was happening in the house?

  After a slight pause Jason asked, “Did you want me to try and find them? Let them know?”

  The shaker moved as though it was heading for the ‘yes’ marker but suddenly stopped. It moved slightly again before changing direction and settling over on
the ‘no’ marker.

  Jason nodded, “Okay.” He didn’t argue. He couldn’t pretend he understood why he didn’t want the mum and dad to know he was still there. Perhaps he believed they were better off without knowing - so they could try and move on with their lives, even if they were struggling? Perhaps he found it too hard to be able to see them and not properly communicate with them - or even hug them? Whatever the reason - the decision was his to make and Jason wasn’t about to argue with that. He took a deep breath before asking the next question as it was one of the questions which determined their future in the house, “Did you want us living here? Are you happy about it?” he asked.