The Haunting Within

by Michelle Burley

  “Hey, wasn’t mum doing dinner?” Aiden asked confused.

  “Hmm” was Lisa’s worried response as she stood up quickly and made for the house. She didn’t know what to expect when she stepped inside. Images raced through her mind as fast as her heart raced in her chest. The kitchen was dark and cold and still. Ignoring their empty stomachs they slowly made their way deeper into the house. The obtrusive ticking of the grandfather clock in the hall echoed throughout the silent rooms. The wind gathered in strength and it wooshed down the chimneys and in around the window frames. The rain was gradually becoming faster, making the sporadic lonesome trails on the windows run together into tiny rivers of water which picked up speed as they raced downwards. From somewhere in the great house a floorboard creaked. Holding onto the sleeve of Aiden’s top Lisa jumped as the sound of distant thunder rumbled through the stonework. The rain came down heavier, lashing relentlessly against the outside of the house in a cacophony of noise. They walked through into the front room, flicking lights on everywhere as they passed, where the windows were under an incessant deluge from the rain. Lisa could see nothing outside except faint, blurred shapes. What the shapes were she didn’t know. They could have been trees, they could have been figures. So dense was the rain that she couldn’t even tell if they were still or moving. She hoped to God that they were still. She could feel the hairs on her arms and neck standing on end. Whether that was due to the oncoming storm or something entirely more evil she had no idea. She had the overwhelming urge to shut the curtains on the night. To block it out, like it was prying eyes looking in on them. But she dared not go near the windows for fear that whatever was out there would shatter them and grab her… Leading her out into the hall Aiden was listening intently for a sound which might tell him where his mum was. She could be anywhere and he knew it, but he didn’t want to go on a hunting expedition again looking for her. A door slammed somewhere on the ground floor and outside an animal screamed. Trying to stay in control for the sake of Lisa he shouted his mum and waited in silence for an answer but none came. They headed towards the stairs and had gone up the first few when lightening crackled overhead and all the lights went out, leaving them in almost total darkness. Breathing rapidly Aiden backed them away from the stairs.

  “Aiden, I don’t like this” whispered Lisa gripping her brothers’ arm so tightly he winced.

  Flexing his hand to try and get some blood circulating from where Lisa gripped him so tightly he whispered back “Let’s just go find some candles or something.” Why was he whispering? Who would hear him? He didn’t know and that was the exact reason he wanted to stay quiet.

  As they approached the kitchen a door to their right creaked open slowly, like someone was behind it peeking out at them. It was the door to the courtroom and cellar. A blast of cold air pushed it all the way open and ruffled their hair as it swept through them. Picking up the pace they slammed the door shut and rushed into the kitchen, Lisa screaming as she saw the figure in front of the windows…

  Aiden had spread himself in front of Lisa so he covered her slight frame. He stood in a protective stance, although he didn’t know what good that would do against supernatural forces. For a long while he stood stock still, bracing himself as he faced the black figure. The figure did nothing but he knew it was neither an inanimate object nor a figment of his imagination because he could see a dull glint in its eyes.

  A loud groaning sound reverberated through the house and the lights flickered on and off before staying on, dull at first and growing brighter. The back-up generator had kicked in.

  The first thing they saw flooded them with relief. The shadow near the windows was their mum. She looked vacant of any emotion but, thankfully, she seemed unharmed. Maybe she was just shocked by the power cut Aiden thought.

  The second thing they saw was the huge kitchen knife she held in her shaking, outstretched hand.

  71

  “Mum?” tried Lisa soothingly. “Mum, what are you doing with the knife?” Debbie did not give her any recognition.

  “Mum, put the knife down now, it’s okay” Lisa had stepped away from Aiden and was about to approach her mum when Aiden pulled her back behind him. Surely he didn’t think they were in danger from their own mum? But it seemed that was exactly what he thought as he started to move them both away from her.

  “Aiden? It’s alright. It’s just mum” but before the word had even left her mouth Lisa saw her mum run towards them, her shaking arm holding the knife outstretched, her eyes narrowed in wickedness, her mouth forming a snarl that ripped from her throat as she launched herself at them. Aiden roughly pushed Lisa out of harm’s way and she flew backwards, subconsciously surprised at his strength. Pushing herself backwards with her heels she screamed at Aiden to move but he didn’t have time. Debbie was on him and Lisa watched in horror as she thrust the knife into Aiden’s chest right up to the hilt. He staggered backwards, trying to find purchase on something with his free hand while the other held onto the handle of the blade that protruded from him like a joke Halloween knife. He hit the wall and in slow motion he slid down it, leaving a crimson streak of smeared blood in his wake. He looked with pleading eyes at his sister who still lay slumped on the floor, unable to understand what was happening.

  “I’ll fucking kill you, you bastard! You won’t ever be able to hurt me or my children again, you piece of shit! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” Debbie was screaming at Aiden as she closed in on him again. His mind screamed at him to run, but couldn’t move. His chest felt heavy and he couldn’t understand why there was something sticking out of it. It was a bad dream. It had to be.

  As Debbie pulled as hard as she could at the handle of the knife in her son’s chest Lisa finally managed to make it to her feet. She lurched over to them and tried to help her mum pull the knife out, thinking she was trying to help him. As the blade retracted a few millimetres Aiden cried out in agony. Smiling a sickening smile Debbie tried to get a better purchase on the handle but it was slick with blood and she couldn’t grip it hard enough. Leaving her prone baby boy on the floor she stepped back. Lisa threw herself at Aiden who by now had blood bubbling from his partially opened lips.

  “Aiden” Lisa cried. This could not be happening. How was this possible? Her baby brother was dying in her arms at the hands of their mother. He reached out to her feebly and she grasped his hand, holding it to her cheek which was already wet with tears and now was slick with warm, coppery smelling blood too. Moving closer to his side she cradled his head in her lap and spoke gently to him as she sobbed. She remembered now a time when they were younger when he had fallen off his bike and split his head open. She had been so scared he was going to die. Not that she really understood what dying meant, just that when you died you never came back. She had cried until her head hurt that day. When he had come home a few hours later with stitches and a lollipop from the hospital she had thrown her arms around him and hung on for dear life. If only it was that simple now, a few stitches and home in a few hours. She would give anything for that right now.

  “Don’t worry Aiden. You’ll be fine!” she said in between her sobs.

  “Do you think so?” He managed a small smile at her through his fading vision. “It doesn’t hurt, I can’t feel anything.” He panted through barely parted teeth.

  “That’s good. It must mean it was just a scratch. You will be alright Aiden. You will!” Lisa said as she rocked him back and forth in her arms.

  Aiden tilted his head to look at his chest. There wasn’t much blood on his shirt and that calmed him even more.

  “I think I will be okay, there’s not much blood is there?” he rasped. Lisa looked down to his shirt and saw he was right. There wasn’t much blood. With a small sigh of relief she hung her head and that’s when she saw it…a pool of blood was forming on the floor where she sat, soaking through her jeans. Not wanting to look, but knowing she had to she lifted the right side of Aiden’s body as gently as she could. Pulling up his t-shirt she s
aw that the knife had gone right through his body. He was bleeding to death. Panic overcame her as she pulled down his top. Looking into her eyes Aiden saw the fear in them.

  “What’s wrong?” he pleaded, feeling the pain start. She didn’t answer. He looked to his big sister for reassurance. All she could manage was a half-smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

  Seeing in her eyes what she dared not tell him he suddenly knew. “I love you, sis. And I love mum as well. This isn’t her fault. Tell Lucy I love her and I’ll always be with her, and give her the engagement ring I bought for her.” He took a shallow, shaky breath and let it out slowly with a contorted grimace of pain on his rapidly whitening face. “It’s in my desk drawer in my room.”

  As she looked through her tears at his beautiful face she saw how pale he had become and how shallow his breathing was. Blood was frothing around the edges of the knife wound with each painful breath he took. She didn’t have to be a doctor to know his lung had been punctured.

  “Aiden, I love you” she whispered through falling tears as she gently brushed the hair from his forehead. She traced the outline of his features and tried to etch them into her memory. His eyes filled up and brimmed over with tears that mingled with his blood. His breathing was getting slower now and his eyes started to close.

  Lisa held onto him as he took his last breath and she screamed then, an agonising instinctive scream that cut through the air, slashing down the middle of the silence just as the knife her mother had wielded had slashed into Aiden’s chest. The pain was brutal and feral and like nothing she ever thought possible. For a long time she was oblivious to anything except the weight of her grief. She sat there for what seemed an eternity holding his still body in her arms, telling him she loved him. She didn’t want to let him go. She could feel the coldness pushing away her warmth, but still she held on, desperately trying to warm him up with her own body heat. Sobs wracked her body and caught in her sore, dry throat as she cried for her baby brother. She was unaware of her mother who had retreated to the back of the kitchen and stood watching her son die with an impassive expression.

  72

  As Debbie looked on she could not understand why Lisa was crying over him. Why would anyone cry over him? He was pure evil. She had done what needed doing to protect them from him and now here was her daughter screaming and crying over his body when she hadn’t even known him. She had never known exactly what he was capable of, the full depths of his cruelty and perversions. Debbie knew though. She also knew there was no other way. If she had not done what she did they would never have been able to leave. The man in her dream had told her that. Now as she looked beyond the prone figure on the floor who was being cradled like a baby by Lisa, she saw the man from her dreams in the hall. He still wore the tatty straitjacket and the deranged expression, but now he also had some sort of peace in his dark eyes. She had finally set him free. Maybe now he would set her free and leave her alone in her dreams. As she watched him he told her she was not quite done yet. There was one more thing to be done before the nightmare could be over. It was not enough that she had stabbed him. He could be treated for stab wounds, could recover and torture her some more. Now, she had to put an end to him once and for all. Make it impossible for him to ever hurt her again.

  Nodding her head at the figure only she knew was there she opened a kitchen cupboard and took out a bottle. Then opening the drawer she reached for a small box. Without hesitation she approached him where he lay bleeding profusely and she uncapped the bottle. It was almost like she was outside of her body, watching the whole thing evolve. She saw the pale amber coloured liquid pour slowly from the neck of the bottle and splash lazily onto the body on the floor. She made sure she covered every part of him, from his head to his feet. It was a thick gloopy liquid and it took longer than she thought it would to empty onto him. Lisa was screaming in the background but she could barely hear her. It was like she was under water and could only hear muffled sounds. Ignoring her daughter’s anguished cries she threw the bottle to the floor and gripped the small box tightly in her hands. Agonisingly slowly she watched herself as she pushed the lid open and took out a tiny stick.

  Mesmerised, Debbie surveyed the scene she had created. For once in her life she had beaten him. She was the one in control and she sure as hell wasn’t going to give up now, even though her stomach lurched slightly at the thought of what would happen next. It had to be done. There was no other way. She completely detached herself from her body now, observing as the match was struck and the tiny flame flared into life with a scratching sound. The scent of burning touched her and she inhaled deeply. She had always liked that smell.

  Now Lisa was on her feet and pulling desperately at her arm but she held firm. Pushing Lisa away from her so she didn’t get hurt she tossed the flame onto him and watched in wonder as it caught immediately, small at first then growing rapidly, licking its way up his legs, eating away at the material of his clothes and through to his flesh. It wormed its way up higher and higher until his torso was covered with flames. She watched transfixed as it touched his neck, then his chin, making the skin bubble and crack and spit as the fat burst out of the wounds. The smell was intense, as was the heat but she stayed where she was. She wanted a front row seat for this.

  “Burn in Hell you bastard” she whispered as the flames singed his eyebrows and made his eyes a putrefied gooey mess. His hair was almost instantly burned away from his scalp and his ears melted under the fire.

  Lisa was hysterical. Not once during the whole episode had she stopped crying and screaming. Debbie wanted to enjoy this moment in peace but she could not. Dragging herself from the floor Lisa ran to the sink, emptying cupboards all around her, desperately searching for something she could fill with water to quench the flames. The only thing she found was a jug. A small, insignificant measuring jug. It would never be enough but she had to try. She could not let her baby brother burn. Turning the tap on to its fullest she shoved the jug under it and watched in horror as the force of the water made so much of it spew out over the brim, all that water wasted when it could have been thrown onto the fire. Not giving up she kept going and finally, after what seemed like a lifetime she had a full jug. Turning and running back to him she threw the water onto his body, the hiss of steam burning a hole in her head she would never forget, and ran back. Back and forth she did this, time and time again but still the flames would not die.

  Frantic, she searched for something else to fill and found a pan. Filling that she repeated the process over and over until eventually the fire started to dwindle. The stench of burning flesh and hair was unbearable but she refused to give in to her heaving stomach, repeatedly swallowing back the burning bile that relentlessly threatened to erupt. When, at last the fire was sated Lisa collapsed in shock at what was left of her brother. The fire had taken all of his features, all of his clothes and skin. She could see red raw flesh and stringy sinew where his skin should be. His body was desecrated. She wanted to hold him badly but, as much as she was sickened by her selfishness, she could not do it. She could not bring herself to touch the charred and blackened corpse. She did not want to be near the smouldering remains. Turning her head she finally allowed the deluge of her stomach contents to emerge. She vomited until there was nothing left.

  Debbie was curious as to why Lisa had tried to help him. She could not identify with her trying to save him, holding him as he died, being sick at the sight and smell of him now. It wasn’t very nice, she had to admit, but she felt elated and victorious for the first time in her life. She had done it! In the hall the man in the jacket smiled at her and though it made her shiver she smiled back in triumph. Looking down at Lisa Debbie softly touched her shoulder. Wincing as if with physical pain Lisa crawled away from her.

  “You bitch! You fucking bitch!” Lisa shouted hoarsely over and over as she sagged to the floor. She had no more energy to fight. She had nothing left in her except for sheer anguish. Her baby brother had been murdered in front of he
r very eyes and she had not been able to do anything to stop it happening. She felt like her whole world had ended.

  Debbie approached the wreck that was her daughter and knelt beside her. She looked pathetic. Her hair was a matted mess and her skin was black with soot and her clothes were bloodied. Her breathing whistled out of her as it passed her burned throat. Debbie just wanted to hold her and make everything alright.

  “Come on sweetheart” Debbie cajoled tenderly. “It’s all over now my darling. He can’t hurt us anymore. Let’s find Aiden and go home.”

  Lisa could take no more. She staggered to her feet and hastily freed herself from her mother’s grip. Without looking back she stumbled out of the front doors, through the garden, down the drive and beyond the trees. She had no idea where she was going. Only that she needed to get help and get as far away from her mother as possible.

  Debbie couldn’t understand where Lisa was going. Maybe she was going to find Aiden. But why were the doors unlocked? She had specifically locked them and hidden the keys. Patting down her skirt pockets she felt the familiar lump and heard the jangle as she held them up in front of her face. That was odd. She must not have locked the doors after all. Smiling at her absentmindedness she waited calmly for Lisa to come back with Aiden in tow.

  73

  She walked for hours. The night got darker and the animals quietened down, giving way to the nocturnal mammals. She didn’t care about the unfamiliar noises. None of them could scare her now. She was lost, wandering alone and cold along the wet lanes. The storm had passed but Lisa didn’t notice. She didn’t notice anything. She just kept walking. Her feet were beyond sore and had become numb. She saw nobody. From time to time she had to stop when the coughing started. Her throat felt like she had swallowed a cheese grater. As the sun began to rise in the distance she finally stopped and looked around her. She was surrounded by fields of yellow and green. The road was taking her nowhere. She was exhausted and dehydrated. Sagging to the ground she gave in and cried. She was alone, completely and utterly. Lying down her eyes closed and she drifted off into a blackness that numbed her.