The Haunting Within

by Michelle Burley

  “Please Father, please stop. You’re hurting me! Please, I promise I’ll be a good girl forever and ever.”

  It broke his heart to see her like this. He did the only thing he could think of to stop her from hurting herself any further; he pushed her down into the floor and pressed his whole body weight onto her. Lying on top of her he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. When he looked up there was nothing there. Even with all twelve stone of him on top of her it still took a while for her thrashing to end. When it did, she looked up at him with eyes filled with so much distress that he began to weep for her. It was the first time since he entered the room with her that she actually saw him.

  She simply asked him “Did you see what he did to me?”

  He looked down at her pitiful face and replied in a voice thick with agony “Yes mum, I saw.”

  33

  Upstairs Lisa was just leaving the hidden room still completely shocked and horrified about what she had seen and read in there when she heard a faint shout from downstairs. A little disoriented, she had to work out which way she needed to be. She rushed to the top of the stairs and looked down over the grand hall. There she saw Aiden standing in the centre of the large, open space with tear stained cheeks and pale white skin. He looked ill and somehow, much older. She asked what was wrong and he just shook his head sadly and headed for the kitchen.

  Rushing down the stairs to catch up with her brother she asked hopefully “Did you find mum? Aid, what’s wrong?”

  Coming to a stop just before the kitchen door Aiden turned to her and replied with an exhausted sigh “Yeah, I found her.”

  “Oh thank god for that! Where was she? Is she okay? Oh listen, I’ve got something really important to tell you and I don’t want mum to hear” Lisa quickly whispered, overcome with relief at finding their mum but bursting to tell Aiden the secret.

  “Not now Lisa. I’m worried about mum.”

  “Why? What’s wrong? Where did you find her?” she asked, all of sudden really worried about her mum as well.

  “Just come with me. She’s in the kitchen.”

  Lisa did as her brother asked her, never before seeing him in such a distraught state. She followed him into the kitchen. Sat at the table holding a mug of steaming hot tea in her shaking hands was their mum, only she hardly resembled their mum. The woman Lisa saw looked like she had been run over. Debbie didn’t look up as they entered the room just continued to stare into the tea.

  “Oh my God! Mum, are you alright? What happened to you?” Lisa asked as she rushed over to her poor mum. She began checking her injuries, parting her hair to look for lumps, examining her cuts for any that may require stitches.

  “Father did this to me. He’s not very pleased with me right now. He says I’ve been very bad and I must be punished. I do try to be a good girl though, honestly I do!” Debbie told her daughter in an infantile voice.

  Lisa looked over to her brother but he just shook his head in despair. She understood that he meant don’t ask just yet so she kept quiet and held her mum’s cut hand in her own. She seemed so weak and feeble. Lisa felt like the mother in this scenario and she just wanted to protect her and keep her safe. It was too late for that though, judging by the state her mum was already in so she went to the cupboard under the sink hoping that her grandfather kept the medicines and plasters in the same place they always kept theirs. Luckily he did, so Lisa got out the antiseptic and cotton-wool along with some plasters and went back to her mum. This seemed so strange to Lisa. It had always been her mum bathing her cuts and bruises and now for the first time - and hopefully the last - it was the other way round. She did the best she could under the circumstances, but it was too late to do anything about the dried blood in her hair. That would have to wait until tomorrow Lisa decided. When they got home she would take her mum to the hospital and get her wounds cleaned properly because there was still a lot of grit in the wounds that Lisa couldn’t get out.

  Debbie looked up at them with clear and sudden recognition in her tired eyes. “I’m so tired. Do you think you’ll both be alright if I have a nap?” she asked them.

  “We’ll be fine mum. We’re just going to have a nice cuppa and then we’ll be off to bed as well.” Aiden smiled at her, trying to keep things as light as he could.

  Together they took her upstairs and put her to bed in one of the bedrooms on the second floor. They made sure there was an en-suite and that the door had a lock on the outside and they both agreed it would be best to lock her in to make sure she stayed safe. It was keeping her safe from herself that Aiden was worried about.

  34

  Back downstairs Aiden sat wearily at the table while Lisa made them a drink. When she joined him she asked where he had found her. He told her the whole sad story and when he glanced over his mug of tea at her he saw that she was silently crying.

  “I’ve never seen her like that before. She was fighting nobody for God’s sake! There was no one there and she was punching and scratching herself, pulling handfuls of hair out, all the time saying it was him” this word was spat out with utter disdain “doing it!” Aiden shook his head, disturbed at what he had witnessed. He knew with perfect clarity that he would never forget that image of his mum harming herself for as long as he lived.

  Lisa could think of nothing to say so they both sat for a long time in silence, sipping their tea and trying to infuse some of its heat into their chilled bodies. They were both lost in their own thoughts when Lisa remembered about the reel. For want of something, anything, to say, she starting to tell Aiden what she had discovered.

  “When I was upstairs I found something.” She was going to start to tell Aiden about the film she found but he looked so tired. He was trying to stifle his yawns.

  “Sorry” he said with a sheepish grin. “I’m so tired, can hardly keep my eyes open.”

  “I’m not surprised. It’s been a really long day for all of us.” Lisa said unconsciously mimicking her brother and yawning. She decided he could wait to hear about the film. It wasn’t a big deal anyway, not under the circumstances.

  “She really did believe it was him you know. It was awful to watch. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to come and get you, but I was afraid to leave her alone.” Aiden said shaking his head sadly.

  Lisa remembered the state her mum was in when she saw her at the kitchen table and shuddered. There were pinpricks of dried blood on her scalp from where she had torn her hair out from the roots. She had open cuts on her face, hands and arms from scratching herself. Her lip was blooded and swollen where she had either punched herself repeatedly in the face or where she had battered her head on the floor. She was in such a mess. It looked as though she had gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. Lisa felt so bad for Aiden. He was her little brother, she was supposed to protect him, yet she hadn’t been there to protect him from witnessing such horror. Then she thought if it was her who was there instead of him, she might not have been able to stop her mum from hurting herself. She didn’t have the strength Aiden had. This thought made her feel slightly better. She pulled Aiden towards her and gave him a cuddle and for once, he didn’t try to push her away.

  Holding him close against her she thought out loud. “What if it was something else? What if mum wasn’t harming herself?”

  “I saw her Lis. I heard the sound of her punching herself.”

  “I know, but what if she was being made to hurt herself? Aiden, I know this is crazy but what if there’s something we can’t see? Someone we can’t see?” The question was left hanging in the air, neither sibling wanted to think too much about that possibility.

  In the warm embrace of his sisters hug Aiden had a nagging feeling like he had forgotten something. It seemed like he was two different people; one part of him was trying his hardest to remember what it was he had forgot and the other part of him was trying to keep the memory at bay. He knew he had forgotten for a reason but he couldn’t for the life of him remember why. He tightened his hold on Lisa
and breathed in her perfume…and that was it. He remembered what he had to tell her and the same fear came rushing back into his being like the smell had rushed down the stairs at him.

  35

  Aiden started telling Lisa about the smell on the stairs and what he saw, or rather, what he thought he saw in the garden. He told her about the grave yard and the scream he heard again and the scratching and banging on the doors as well as the unfriendly looking foxes he had come across. As he relayed it all to her his panic started to build up again and as he brushed back his hair in subconscious nervousness he realised his hands were clammy and cold. The more he thought about it the more he realised he was cold, the room was cold. He rubbed his hands together to warm them to no avail and he noticed Lisa unconsciously mimic his movement. As they spoke they noticed their breath curling out of their mouths and vaporising into the air around them.

  “God, its freezing in here! Are you sure you shut the front door?” Lisa asked him.

  “I’m positive! Besides, it was warm in here up until a few seconds ago. Come on and I’ll show you what I found.”

  They walked past the stairs and just as they neared the bottom they saw that the front doors were standing wide open.

  “You definitely shut the doors Aid?” Lisa asked hoping that she didn’t sound accusing. She silently prayed he might have forgotten to shut the doors in all the commotion.

  “Yes! Definitely!” Aiden replied hoping he didn’t sound as scared as he was. “You would have seen them open when we took mum to bed.”

  “It must have been mum then. She must have gotten out of the bedroom.” Lisa said as she took the last few steps and crossed to the doors. She pushed them firmly closed. They turned back to the stairs and returned to the bedroom where they left their mum sleeping.

  Before she unlocked the door she tried it and found it was still locked. After a quick sideways glance at Aiden she turned the key and gently pushed open the door. The curtains were open letting in the light from the huge full moon which looked in through the window at them and they could see clearly. There was their mum still fast asleep in the bed. They looked at each other but said nothing. Something was playing games with them and they didn’t like it at all.

  “At least that explains the coldness.” Aiden said as they started back downstairs.

  “Yes, but it doesn’t explain how the door opened in the first place does it?!”

  Aiden came to an abrupt standstill in front of Lisa on the third step from the bottom.

  “What did you stop just like that fo…” Her voice trailed off as she saw the reason for Aiden’s sudden halt. The two front doors were standing wide open again letting in a blustery, howling wind that was sweeping leaves through the hall.

  “Oh my God! I shut it Aid! I swear to you I shut that door!” Her voice trembled and the words caught in her throat making them hard to say.

  They both warily approached the doors and looked outside into the cold dark space that stood in front of them. They could see nothing except the outlines of the trees and hedges and the silhouette of the water fountain. The wind was even more unsettling because it was the middle of summer yet the wind was strong and cold.

  “Come on, I want you to show me the graveyard.” Lisa said over her shoulder as she walked down the stone steps towards the topiary hedge. She wanted to go now, hoping that what Aiden saw might not be anything other than maybe a memorial or something like that. She wanted to set her mind at ease. And she sure as Hell didn’t want to seem scared because that would make her an easy target. As she strode across the gravel she exuded fake self-assurance.

  “Don’t you think we should leave it until the morning?” Aiden’s voice sounded pleading as he cautiously looked out at the garden her. Knowing Lisa wouldn’t turn back, he reluctantly followed her past the fountain, overtaking her and leading them through the gap in the hedges to the makeshift cemetery. Lisa was horrified by the names she saw on the head stones; Margaret Reynolds, Alexander Holmes, Leyton Clifford, and there were so many more she didn’t dare to look at.

  Her skin looked sallow in the moonlight, her cheeks gaunt as she stared out at the sea of headstones. “Aiden, these were his patients!”

  36

  They made their way back towards the house in silence. Lisa wondered why there was a cemetery next to an old hospital. Maybe that’s how it was in those days. Once they were back in the kitchen again Aiden told Lisa about the things that happened to him earlier.

  “I went over to the grave yard because I heard a noise.” What noise did he hear? Was he even sure he heard anything anymore? “I…I thought it was a scream. Like the one I heard on the stairs…it sounded like it was coming from behind the hedge. When I got right near the front doors, they slammed shut on me! Then the scratching started and then the banging on the door. I don’t know what’s going on Lis!” his eyes looked huge and full of terror and Lisa knew she couldn’t show her fear, so she calmly told him what she thought were rational explanations for the night’s events.

  “Aiden, calm down. It’s hard to see things rationally when you’re scared, but…”

  “Too bloody right I’m scared!”

  “I know which is why you need to listen to me. The scream you heard was probably just an animal, maybe it was being attacked by something. There must be so much wildlife in those woods” she indicated her head to the general direction of the front doors. “You’re probably right about it coming from behind the hedges, but maybe you scared whatever it was away when you went over there. Maybe it was the fox you saw that had killed whatever animal it was. The wind would have been the reason the front doors swung shut on you too, and the scratching could have been leaves or twigs being blown up against the door.”

  Recalling the way the wind came out of nowhere and seemed to whisper his name, Aiden shivered, but he could see the rationality of the explanation. That could have easily happened couldn’t it? The wind was strong enough to slam the doors shut wasn’t it?

  “What about the bang on the door?”

  “That could have been anything blown against the door by the wind.” Lisa tried to reason with her younger brother.

  “Yeah, well it would have to of been something really big to make the door shake like it did!”

  “Aiden, coincidences do happen you know! And to be honest, you need to think reasonably about the things that are happening because if you don’t then you’ll just go crazy! I believe it because I’m not prepared to believe anything that scares me or that just isn’t logical!” Lisa finished her sentence with a sigh and she slumped back in her chair. Aiden said nothing.

  She made them both another mug of hot tea and they sat and drank it while Aiden told her about the cellar.

  “Aiden, please. Let’s not talk about any of this anymore.” she pleaded with an icy cold shiver running down her back. “I’m tired and I want to go to bed.”

  With their drinks finished they got up to go to bed. Walking towards the hallway they once again felt freezing air swirling around them. Casting a quick glance at each other they went to the front doors, only to find them standing proudly wide open again. With tears in her eyes Lisa stared at the doors until Aiden broke her concentration by calling for her to help him move a table. She went to the doors and pushed them closed and then helped Aiden pull up the large heavy hall table and wedge it in front of the doors. Damn her mum for adding the houses keys to her own keys. And damn her for losing them. Lisa didn’t want to spend another minute here but knew with sad recognition that she had no choice; they weren’t going anywhere.

  37

  They both decided it would be best for everyone if they slept in the same room as their mum. When they unlocked the bedroom door they were tremendously relieved to see Debbie in the same spot she was in when they left her, sleeping soundly, on her side in a foetal-like position. Aiden curled up on a reclining chair that was in the corner of the bedroom with a few old blankets to cover him. Lisa slept in the bed next to her mum and wh
en she climbed in beside her, her mum turned to face her and cuddled up to her. It was just like when Lisa was a child again and she would climb into her mum’s bed with her when she’d had a bad dream. She’d always felt safe next to her. The irony of the situation didn’t escape Lisa, it was her mum cuddling up to her now to feel safe and secure in her arms after the nightmare of the day. She was expecting to be tossing and turning all night, but she and Aiden fell asleep almost instantly and enjoyed a surprisingly peaceful night’s sleep.

  He awoke the next morning to his sister prodding him. “Aiden! Wake-up! Its mum, she’s gone!” Lisa’s voice sounded urgent.

  Aiden jumped up from his home-made bed and quickly scanned the room. It took a second or two for it to sink in where they were. They both rushed out of the bedroom and for a horrible moment, couldn’t remember the way to the stairs. As quickly as the panic and the confusion came, it passed and they had their bearings again. As they dashed downstairs they were praying for it not to be another episode like last night. They were on the bottom few steps when they heard a humming noise coming from the kitchen along with a heavenly smell of fresh coffee and bacon. They hadn’t realised how hungry they were until the delicious scent hit their nostrils. They glanced at each other and had a wonderful feeling that everything would be alright.

  Debbie was standing at the aga frying bacon when they entered the room. She turned and smiled a lovely warm smile at them. “It’s about time sleepy-heads! I was hoping the smell of bacon sarnies would get you out of bed.”