“How long ago are we talking about?”
“Decades, if not longer. She was apparently very young when it happened and, according to legend, still roams the place. All sounds too much like a Hollywood movie to me. If I was murdered, I’d want to get right out of that place.”
“Do you know anything else about the murder? Maybe what her name was?”
“No dear, I have told you everything I know. It’s not good to speak of the dead, they can’t rest when living in memories. If there was a young woman murdered, then it’s best to let her rest in peace. Why did you come back here today anyway? Surely it wasn’t just to ask an old woman about a ghost story?”
“Things keep happening to me inside the house.”
“Like my husband?”
“No, different things. Sometimes I feel like I’m being watched and I’ll turn around and no-one’s there. It sounds so stupid, like I’m going crazy or something.”
“Were you going crazy before you started staying at the house?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Then maybe it is the house. I wouldn’t jump to conclusions about your sanity. My husband wasn’t crazy and I fully believed him when he told me what he’d experienced. Even if it is all in your mind, there must be something to trigger it.”
“I hope you’re right. I haven’t told anybody about it, I wasn’t sure how they were going to react.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine. Sometimes it’s the ones we love most that surprise us the most. Just when you think you know someone, they turn around and act unlike themselves.”
“That’s the truth,” Charlie thought about Blair and his reaction earlier. “Sometimes it’s not the good way.”
“Did something else happen?”
“No, my boyfriend Blair and I just had a really big fight today and it’s not like us. I think the pressures of the house are getting to us. I know I’m on edge, he might be the same.”
“What was the fight over?”
“It sounds silly now, but some paint brushes. I went to get them from downstairs and they weren’t where I expected them to be. So I yelled at him for moving them. Then, I went back downstairs and they were right where I’d left them. I can’t explain it.”
“It does sound silly. You should go make up with him, not be talking to an old woman about things that go bump in the night. Now, are you sure I can’t get you a drink?”
“Positive. Thank you very much for talking to me. I had better get going though. I think I will take your advice and try and make it right between us.”
“He’s good looking, you should. If you don’t, I might take advantage of the situation,” she giggled and showed Charlie to the door. She thanked her again and walked back to the road.
She didn’t run back to Sage Manor, rather she slowly wondered back, processing the conversation in her mind. She hesitated at the letterbox, unsure exactly what she was going to say to Blair to make up for the fight.
* * *
Blair has completed three of the four walls but the shower was playing on his mind. He didn’t want something to seriously go wrong with the plumbing overnight. If there was something wrong with the tap, then he should probably turn off the water at the main, save any other outbursts. Next time it happens he might not be close enough to hear the running water.
He packed up the paint and headed downstairs looking for Charlie. He couldn’t find her in any of the rooms, but he did run into Cate in the living room watching television with Rahni.
“I’m ducking out to the hardware store, can you let Charlie know if she’s looking for me?”
“She’s not upstairs with you?”
“No, I’m not sure where she is. Will you tell her?”
“Yeah, of course. Do you need a hand with anything?”
“No, I’ll be fine. I shouldn’t be out long.” He went outside to the car and started the engine. He backed down the driveway and drove through the town to the one hardware store. He was becoming a regular there. Gil, the owner waved a greeting to him when he walked through the sliding door.
“How’s it going up at the house? You done yet?”
“No, we have a lot more work to do. I was hoping you’d be able to help me with a plumbing problem.”
“I’ll try my best. What’s bothering you?”
“The shower was running today but no-one turned it on. I was thinking maybe the washer was broken?”
“Washers only help with drips. It sounds like the whole tap is broken. Did you turn the water off at the mains to get it to stop?”
“No, I just turned the tap off and the water stopped.”
“Okay, then the tap isn’t broken. You sure someone didn’t just turn the shower on and forget about it?”
“Pretty sure.”
“I’d do a line up at home, there can’t be anything wrong with the tap if you could turn it off again. Maybe the person that had the last shower didn’t turn it off hard enough?”
“I guess that must be it then. You’re sure it can’t be anything else that’s wrong?”
“If something was broken, just turning the tap wouldn’t have worked. You would have been able to spin the knob with nothing happening at all.”
“Okay, thank you. I guess I’ll just make sure we turn it off tighter then next time.” Blair returned to his car that was parked just outside the store. He felt stupid, Gil must think he was an idiot for asking such a question.
He thought back to that morning, he had taken the second shower, stepping into the recess as Charlie was stepping out. He thought he had turned the tap off all the way, obviously that wasn’t the case.
He turned on the radio for the drive back, feeling a bit grumpy that he had come all this way for nothing. At the very least it got him out of the house. As he listened to the music, Blair could feel his mood lifting, the classic rock doing just the trick to lift his spirits. As he sang along to Bon Jovi’s ‘Living on a Prayer’, he wound his car around the country roads until he pulled into the driveway of Sage Manor.
He saw Charlie walking up the front yard. He wasn’t angry at her anymore, now he felt like he just wanted to get over the argument and have things return to normal. He vowed that he wouldn’t hold a grudge.
Blair reached the front door just as Charlie stepped onto the front porch. She looked tired, something was obviously bothering her - he hoped it was no longer him.
“Where have you been?” Charlie asked.
“I had to go to the hardware store. Where were you? I looked for you to tell you I was leaving.”
“I went for a walk.”
They both entered the house and walked past the living room where Rahni and Cate were still curled up, blissfully unaware of the bad day their guests were having. They climbed the stairs and returned to the upstairs living room. Blair was focused on finishing the paintwork on the last remaining wall. They both picked up a paintbrush and starting stroking paint on the walls. Ten minutes passed before another word was said.
“Blair, I’m really sorry about this morning. Seriously, I didn’t mean to fly off the handle like that.”
“It’s okay, neither did I. Let’s just forget about it,” Blair said, hoping it could be that simple.
“Fine with me. You’ve done a good job in here with the paint.”
“Thanks, I’ll be glad when it’s finished. Turns out I really don’t like painting that much.”
Charlie tried to laugh but couldn’t even summon up a chuckle, instead she placed her brush back on the tray and sat on the lounge. She felt like she couldn’t hold back her thoughts anymore - she had to tell someone. Maybe Louise would be right, they would believe her at face value.
Blair saw something was wrong with his girlfriend and sat down beside her. Before she could say a word, tears ran down her face for the second time that day.
“What’s wrong?” Blair wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer.
“We need to talk but I don’t know what to
say.”
“Well, start from the beginning.”
“Strange things have been happening to me here. I think this place is haunted. It’s the reason the brushes were missing this morning, it’s the reason why I haven’t been sleeping, it’s the reason for everything,” she blurted out.
“What kind of strange things?”
“The other night I couldn’t sleep so I went downstairs for warm milk. I heard footsteps behind me and I thought it was you. So I asked what you wanted to drink. When I turned around you weren’t there. And that’s only one incident. You know all the smashed things in the living room? That was a warning, they want me to leave.”
“How do you know it wasn’t someone else in the kitchen with you? Did you ask Cate?”
“No, it wasn’t her. I went looking for the person but there was no-one there.”
“Okay then, how do know the smashed things were a warning? Are you sure you’re not just over-reacting?”
“Alice told me it was a warning.”
“Alice? As in Rahni’s imaginary friend Alice?” He asked incredulously, trying to make sense of what she was saying.
“Alice isn’t an imaginary friend. She’s real. I’ve talked to Rahni about her and she can’t possibly make up some of the stuff she’s told me. She’s a ghost and for some reason Rahni can see and talk to her.”
“Honey, I don’t know. I know you’re upset, are you really sure? What else has happened?”
“I saw someone - in the conservatory. I was watching you paint there and a face just came right out of the wall. It stayed there for only a second and went back in. I know I saw it,” Charlie couldn’t help but feel silly saying it aloud. She couldn’t stop thinking about it though. If anyone was going to take her seriously, it should be Blair. She yearned to hear him say all the right things, whatever that was.
“What did it look like?”
“A face, I don’t know. I only saw it for a second - only long enough to register the outline. It’s permanently emblazed in my memory but it didn’t have any features.”
“Okay, going back to Alice. Why does she want you out of the house? Why bother with a warning?”
“It’s not her that wants me out, she was just delivering the message. There are others in the house. Alice keeps them away from Rahni but can’t do the same for me. She says I need to leave or something bad will happen to me.”
“Like what? They’re dead, what harm could they possibly do?” Blair was trying his hardest to understand.
“They have energies that can do things. I’m not sure exactly what they are planning, but we know they can already break things. If the living room was a warning, then maybe they plan on smashing me to pieces too.”
“Energies? Do you think they could turn a tap on?” Blair was thinking back to the shower incident from earlier that day. The idea of something else being in the house was almost starting to make sense to him.
“I guess they could. If they can lift a heavy picture frame off the wall, then there is no reason why they couldn’t turn on a tap. Why?”
He weighed up whether he should share his story. “Something may have happened today, but I’m not sure.”
“You’ve experienced things too?” Charlie was eager to hear more. If Blair had felt something weird too, then she couldn’t blame her sanity, unless they both had a case of the crazies.
“Only the one. I was in here this morning and I thought I heard footsteps down the corridor then the shower started running in our room. I thought it must be you but the shower didn’t stop. So I went in to check on you and there was no-one there. The hot water tap was just running full ball. The shower curtain and bathroom door were both closed like someone should be in there. It was odd, that’s all I’m saying. I even went and checked at the hardware store - I thought something might be broken. The guy said it couldn’t be anything mechanical, that it was probably just someone not turning the tap off tight enough.”
“You had the last shower this morning.”
“I know, that’s why I thought it was strange. I’m pretty sure I turned it off all the way.”
“Just now I went down the road. Remember the woman who gave us water the other day? I went and asked her what she knew about the house.”
“That’s right, she said her husband wouldn’t come up here. What did she say?”
“She said a young woman was murdered here. But that’s all she knew about it. Blair, I think we have to look into this. Cate and Rahni live here, what if something happens to them?”
“They’ve lived here all this time and nothing’s happened.”
“I know, but I’m worried about Rahni. What if Alice can’t keep the others away from her? I think she’s in danger.”
“What do you propose we do? Have a séance or exorcism or something?” Blair had no idea what you were meant to do in a situation such as this, only what he’d learnt from the movies.
“I was thinking something less extreme. Like maybe researching the house, work out who the girl was that was murdered. Maybe that will lead us to something.”
“Did the neighbour have a name for the girl or a date or anything? It’s going to be virtually impossible finding out.”
“She said it happened decades ago, or even longer. She didn’t have a name or anything. But seriously, how many people could have lived here? It’s a big family home, it’s generally going to have been passed down through families.”
“That’s two hundred years of history. A lot can happen in two hundred years. Just say we do happen to find out who was murdered here - providing the story is true. Then what?”
“I don’t know, but I really think we have to do this. Are you with me?”
“You know I’ve got your back. Have you talked to Cate about any of this?”
“No, I don’t think I will either. She’s got enough on her plate without knowing there are ghosts running around this place.”
“It would probably freak her out if she thought Rahni was talking to one too,” it was freaking Blair out enough.
“Exactly. Now, let’s finish this room. Tomorrow, we go into town and do some digging. It will be fun.”
“Looking forward to it already,” Blair replied with a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice.
They finished the first coat of paint and started all over again with the second coat. They had just finished the last stroke of the brush when Cate called them downstairs for dinner. The room was shadowed from the sunset outside, they had hardly noticed how much time had passed. Shoulders sore from the repetitive brushstrokes, they went down to the first floor and took a seat at the kitchen table.
“We got the whole room finished,” Blair informed Cate. She placed their dinner plates in front of them, roast chicken and vegetables.
“Good work, how does it look?”
“Pretty damn good, even if I do say so myself. It’s a nice colour you picked out.”
Cate took her seat at the table and poured a glass of water. “Guess what I did today?”
Charlie took the bait. “What did you do today?”
“I went through a lot of James’ financial records. You know this Melanie Lucas woman?” Both Charlie and Blair nodded, she continued. “I found five cheque stubs made out to her. Whoever she is, James was paying her for something.”
“Was it much?”
“One hundred dollars a time. All up, five hundred dollars. Whatever she does, she must be damn good at it to be paid that much money. I can‘t believe he spent five hundred dollars without talking to me about it first.”
“Were there any more clues about who she could be? He didn’t put a description on the stubs?”
“No, they just say ‘Melanie Lucas’. I’ll keep looking though, if he’s paying her then he must have received something from her that might explain who she is. She’d need to give him a receipt at the minimum.”
They finished their dinner and watched television for the rest of the evening. It was a warm night and had been a
long day. It was a relief when Charlie and Blair finally crawled into bed. Blair pulled her close and gave her a tight hug, wanting to convey that he wasn’t going to let anything hurt her. She snuggled into his arms and closed her eyes, vowing that tonight she would get a good night’s sleep.
* * *
The room was pitch black, Charlie hadn’t expected it. It was still mid-afternoon and the sun should have been shining in through all the windows of the room. She blinked, trying to get her bearings in the darkness. She felt around for the light switch but couldn’t find it, her hand moving up and down the wall searching. She remembered there had been a lamp just inside the door, she gave up and took a few steps into the room. Her arms flailed in front of her, waiting to feel the hard wood of the lamp. Her hands knocked into something, she wrapped her fingers around it - it was the lamp. She switched it on and the room glowed in the soft light.
Standing in the far left corner was a man, she was expecting him but still wondered why he had been standing in the dark. He could have opened any of the curtains that ran along the wall, or turn the light on. He didn’t say anything to her, just stared with those bright blue eyes that he had. Even though she knew him, she was starting to get scared - something about the way he was staring at her. His eyes, though gorgeous, didn’t have the same look in them anymore. She wanted to say something, ask him what he was doing, but she couldn’t summon up the courage. She stood by the lamp, focusing her gaze on his.
The man took a step forward, she took one backwards. He stopped mid-step carefully planning his next move. He didn’t want her to run away from him, but yet he didn’t want her to scream either. He wanted everything to play out exactly as he had planned, so far she hadn’t been behaving as he would have liked.
“What are you doing?” He asked.
“I... I... I don’t know,” she bowed her head. “Have you come to save me?“
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