Inga’s head started to spin, exhaustion, shock, and too many questions and people flitting around joining forces to leave Inga feeling overwhelmed. She rushed out of the house and to her car, leaning against the cool surface of the roof to try to ease the ache in her head. After a few moments she opened the door and started to get in.
“Miss? Miss Parr?” Inga heard someone calling out to her. It was one of the police officers, a women in her early 30s Inga had to assume. “Ma’am, could I ask you a question before you leave?”
“Sure, what can I do for you?” Inga asked, holding the door open and looking over the edge at the tall blonde women with pretty blue eyes. Inga thought she looked too sweet to be a police officer.
“Are you related to Bella Skaggs? You sure do look an awful lot like her. Like you could be her twin you look so similar.”
“Who?” Inga asked, wondering who Bella Skaggs was.
“She’s a model that comes from Louisa Falls, real famous lady. Her parents were Meg and Robert Skaggs, have you ever heard of them?”
Inga felt her world shift a little to the right, wondering if it could be true. “I’ve never heard of her but I’ll look her up. I’ve never really paid much attention to models but if I look like one I might have to start, huh?”
“You should, it’s amazing how similar you are. You’re just as beautiful as her too, ma’am. If you don’t mind me saying.” The woman blushed and then rushed off, leaving Inga wondering if she’d just found that missing puzzle peace.
She made her way back to Anne’s house, making sure the woman was alright before she went back to the hotel and got her laptop out.
Inga filled Anne in on what had happened and why she’d actually come to Louisa Falls. Anne’s eyes had brightened with joy as she listened wondering if Inga was indeed her Bridget, the name she’d given the child stolen from her.
“I still don’t know which of you was my mother but it was one of you.”
Anne looked at Inga more closely. If she squinted she could see features that reminded her of Jim, maybe even a little of herself, but there was nothing that screamed out to Anne that Inga was her child.
“We can always do DNA tests, if you’d like.” Inga offered, almost hopeful that Anne was her mother so she could still have a living mother. “But I don’t want you to hope too much. Don’t get your hopes up, I have no idea how this is going to work out.”
“No, I realize that. But you are definitely one of our children. Whether you are mine or Meg’s, or Joan’s doesn’t matter. And if you aren’t mine that’s fine, it just means my child is out there somewhere and so is Joan’s and Meg’s. Poor Joan. I do wish there’d been something I could have done but I wasn’t in any state to help anyone, even myself, at that point.” Anne said, her wrinkled face sad and her eyes filled with tears.
“There was nothing you could do Anne.” Inga said taking Anne’s hand.
“Thank you for saying that, Inga. You’re a sweet child either way. Thank you.”
“So you’ll be leaving tomorrow I reckon?” Anne asked just before Inga left her.
“Yes, I’ll be heading back to Charlotte in the morning. The police don’t need me and I have to figure out how to turn this all into a story for work.”
“Oh how I’d love to get to see Charlotte once more, I so loved it when I was there. I imagine it’s unrecognizable from the last time I was there.” Anne said, her eyes smiling through the tears as she remembered her youth. “I wanted to take my baby there and start a new life. But it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Would you like to come and stay with me, Anne? I have a big old house that needs filling with the sound of people. You can come stay with me for however long you want to.” Inga offered, truly hoping the woman would agree.
“I might come for a visit. I don’t know if I could leave Louisa Falls now, it’s home. But I’d love to come and visit.” Anne replied, and Inga knew Anne really would come to visit her and that was enough, for now.
“I’ll see you soon then. Good night, Anne. And don’t lose my phone number. You call me any time you need or want to, you hear?” Inga said with a hug and kiss before leaving.
Now Inga was back in her hotel, staring in shock at picture after picture of a woman with her face. With her exact face. This woman even had a slight scar on the right side of her eye, though Inga didn’t think the woman had the same reason for the scar. An accident when she was a child learning to ride a bike had left her with a permanent reminder that she had to keep trying.
Inga didn’t know for sure, there’d been no DNA tests but she was 99 percent certain Bella Skaggs was her sister. Which meant Meg had been her mother. Inga sighed deeply, wondering how to contact the other woman, and reached for her phone to call her producer. She had to be sure he was getting the news of her story on air. And maybe start the search for the other children, for Anne and Joan’s children, and for Scott Parker. He had a child out there somewhere and he needed to know about Joan so he could, perhaps, finally have some peace.
Six Months Later, Charlotte, North Carolina
“So Nurse Pracket is going to be in prison for the rest of her natural life, Doctor Nelson has met his reward, in Hell I hope, now that he’s died from that last stroke, and my daughter is coming to meet me?” Anne asked from Inga’s kitchen table as Inga prepared dinner. She had visitors coming and wanted everything to be perfect.
“Yes, Anne. Beth will be here in an hour. And Scott Parker is coming along with his daughter Cathy, we found her as well. And my sister, Bella, is coming too.”
“That is perfect Inga. So perfect. Are you as nervous as I am?” The elderly woman asked, obviously worried her past was going to make her daughter hate her.
Inga and Anne had discussed Anne’s worries before about her past and not fighting harder to save her child. Anne lived with a guilt that Inga couldn’t imagine. Inga walked over to her and sat down with Anne, taking her whisper soft hand in her own strong and nimble one.
“Anne, you did everything you could, my darling. I guess me saying it is different though, you have to hear it from Beth. And yes, I’m as nervous as you. Now, don’t get yourself tied up in knots. You’ve kept me company all of this time since we’ve met and you are a delight and a pleasure to me. If Beth has any since she’ll think the very same thing.”
Inga stood back up, draining the potatoes she’d been boiling, and thought about why she was nervous as well. Her sister, the supermodel, was coming to dinner. Bella had contacted her through the news station and a DNA test had proven she was Inga’s identical twin. Bella hadn’t been able to return home right away but Inga had met her other siblings in the meantime. They were all accepting and loving, glad to have the missing sibling in their fold at last.
Inga hoped she met Bella’s expectations. The woman had written emails to Inga, telling her of how she’d felt something was missing her whole life and of how reading about Inga in the French paper that reported American news had made it all click. Bella had felt like she’d finally found that missing part and could barely hide her excitement. Her contracts had to be honored, however, but now she was coming to dinner.
Inga had always thought that feeling of being incomplete was because she’d been adopted and didn’t know anything about her mother. As she opened the door and saw her sister, however, something clicked within her, and finally she felt whole for the first time in her life as she embraced her sister.
Inga knew now that Meg had been her mother, had heard stories of her, seen videos, and learned quite a lot about her. But even as Anne’s tears flowed as Beth walked into her arms and as Scott and Cathy watched, holding hands from their seat on a couch as they watched, Inga knew that all three of the women, all of the women that had fallen victim to Doctor Nelson and Nurse Pracket had been her mother. But especially those first three.
For a moment, as she stood watching Anne and Beth she thought she saw two extra people in her living room. Two women, a blonde and a woman with light-brown h
air and a gentle smile stared back at her with tears and a happy smile full of pride at Inga. Her heart swelled as the images of Joan and Meg, themselves holding hands, turned away and disappeared into the wall of Inga’s living room.
Inga blinked, trying to hide the tears that filled her own eyes. They all had peace at last and though Inga and a group of adoptees were still looking for answers for the other children Doctor Nelson had stolen, she knew that Joan and Meg, and now Anne, had been given the justice they deserved. A little bit of the world had been made better and Inga looked over at her sister, knowing her life had just become better than she’d have imagined it could have when she started this project.
“Let’s eat people and get to know each other. I think it’s about time, don’t you?” Inga looked around at the happy faces filling the room and felt her own peace at last. This was better than Christmas, Thanksgiving, and birthdays being all rolled into one. She had family again and that was more than she could have ever hoped for.
The End
Possessed
Horror
Copyright © Lovy Books Ltd, 2016
Summer Cooper has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Lovy Books Ltd
20-22 Wenlock Road
London N1 7GU
About the Author
Summer Cooper is a British romance writer who currently resides in England with her husband. As a child, her original short stories were very well received by friends and family, and this instilled in her love for entertaining people with written words. When she is not writing, she can be found practicing piano or playing with her dog. Her stories are now available for your reading pleasure on Amazon Kindle.
About the Book
Adelaide Harmon loved her simple life. Sometimes life was hard in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina in 1960 but she had all she needed. Sweet little Adelaide, a credit to her parents, is a gentle soul. Kind and helpful Adelaide refused to leave her aging parents when she finished school and still lives with them deep in a holler, keeping the animals fed and the garden going. She also tends her Poppa’s still when he gets arthritis and finds it difficult to get up to the still.
An accident changes life for all of them and Adelaide’s life hangs in the balance between faith and modern medicine. An ancient evil intrudes into their lives, attempting to steal Adelaide away, and Eva and Malachi, Adelaide’s parents, have to decide if their faith is the best medicine or if the new doctor in town is right and modern medicine is what the girl needs. Their faith will be tested as they deal with horrors they can’t understand and as they search for answers. Will God save their daughter from an evil as old as the land they live on or will modern medicine cure the girl of her torment?
Chapter One
June 1960, near Elkin, North Carolina
Her momma’s pride and her daddy’s joy, nineteen year Adelaide Harmon had no idea how a stray beam of sunlight bouncing off of her light brown hair turned it into a seam of gold, or that the shadows from the trees filled the hollows of her cheeks and produced a haunting image of a brown-eyed beauty that movie starlets would pay to have. As she walked through the green forest of trees and vines, dark from the canopy of pines and poplars she was unaware of how beautiful she was or that her life was about to change. She’d never really seen an image of herself clearly, the only mirror in her parents’ house was old and the shiny stuff that allowed a person to see their reflection was flaking away. That’s how Adelaide thought of it, as that shiny stuff.
Adelaide, or Addy as her parents called her, hadn’t gone to school much but she knew how to count, where to find berries and wild muscadine grapes, and what seasons to look for them in. She also knew the roots and plants that would make medicine, knowledge passed down by her mother, and which would help to supplement their diet. It was 1960, before the war on poverty, before Sputnik had even climbed into the sky to begin its orbit around the earth, you took food wherever you found it. For Adelaide and her aging parents that meant from the forest or the small garden they planted on the ridge they lived on.
Adelaide continued her trek up the holler, leaving her home behind to search for the summer blackberries that should be black as night, and juicy. Adelaide thought of the succulent fruit, as big as her thumb by now, and her mouth watered. She’d brought a bag with her, slung crossways over her shoulder, to fill with the fruit. The delicate flesh would probably get crushed in the bag but she was going to make preserves out of it anyway.
As she climbed the rocky hill, full of stones and fallen limbs and leaves, Adelaide watched for snakes that sometimes hid in the rocks or sunned themselves on fallen trees. The hills could give you life but they could take that life away too. Adelaide inhaled the earthy scent as she disturbed rocks and the pile of leaves that cushioned the ground. She wouldn’t trade her world for any other.
When Adelaide went into town, something she did once a month or so to retrieve the things they couldn’t produce at home such as sugar and coffee, she’d hear radios playing and hear people talking about the moving picture shows they watched, or the films that were starting to come to theatres with color, but she didn’t want that kind of stuff. Electricity for hot water and lights might be nice but her parents couldn’t afford such things and Adelaide couldn’t leave them. They were both growing weary and full of aches and pains. Adelaide devoted herself to them.
Sometimes she’d dream about having a family of her own but she was happy with her life. She stopped going to school when she was thirteen and the local school closed down. Adelaide didn’t plan on going to college anyway so what good was school? She knew how to take care of the cows, chickens, and the pigs they kept, she knew how to cook and clean, and she knew how to read the Bible, she didn’t need anything else in her life.
Adelaide climbed tirelessly with the vigor of youth over piles of fallen tree limbs, through thick patches of briars, and finally came to the patch clinging to the side of steep hill a mile from her home. The bears couldn’t get to this patch and the birds seemed to ignore it as well. She’d have plenty of berries for preserves when she got home. Smiling to herself Adelaide climbed to the middle of the patch and worked for an hour, pulling berries from thorny vines, pricking herself quite a few times along the way.
Adelaide giggled each time a berry made its way to her mouth rather than to her bag. She knew she’d have plenty anyway. It was going to be a good winter this year, even if the snow settled in October. So far she’d put about three dozen small jars of preserves in the cellar her daddy had dug out when he built their little four room house. Raspberry preserves were just as good as blackberry and the apple jelly would be nice with biscuits.
Adelaide smiled again as she thought about the pickled peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, and corn that lined the walls of the cellar. Yes, winter was going to be good as far as food went anyway. She was having a rough time with dragging downed trees in for cutting up and chopping but she knew she’d get it done. It had to be done or they’d freeze, she’d find a way to get it done.
Seeing that her bag was now full Adelaide made her way off the narrow ledge of rock she’d been perching on. She moved the bag around to her back, throwing her balance off a bit but she was an agile and nimble young woman and climbed up the face of the hill with ease.
Making her way to the top Adelaide paused to look around, seeing distant hills that looked smoky and bl
ue in the midday haze but she could still see valleys far below. Adelaide loved it at the top where the air was just a fraction thinner and she could see for miles. This view was another reason she could never leave. Where else would she find such beauty?
Adelaide inhaled deeply before she started heading away from her home once more, going deeper into the forest, deeper into the mountains. She needed to check one more thing before she headed home. Adelaide went through the list of things she’d have to do once she arrived home, cleaning the floors, preparing the blackberries, wiping down the shelves to keep dust from building up. Tomorrow was wash day and that would take up her whole day and mean she’d have to use up more wood to keep the pot of water hot to boil the clothes in, so that meant more work to replace the lost wood. She never had a dull day, that was for sure.
Adelaide finally made it to the dark part of the woods she’d been walking to and pulled the thin limbs of rhododendron apart. Yep, the moonshine still was there, doing what it needed to do. Mainly being a still. Her father would come up soon enough to bottle the contents after processing finished but sometimes revenuers came up looking for his still. They knew he had one they just didn’t know where. It was still intact so they hadn’t found it yet, anyway.
Neither of Adelaide’s parents had worked outside of their farm since they’d been married. Adelaide’s father, Malachi, had gone off to be a soldier during World War II in 1942 when his little boys, Jacob and Samuel, had been six years old and little Adelaide barely six months old.
Other than that time when he was sent off to Europe to slog through mud and fight the Germans, Malachi had gone no further than to go into Elkin to buy groceries and supplies. His still produced the moonshine he sold to pay the bills at the stores and to buy the few things extra they needed sometimes, a foot pedal sewing machine one year, material for dresses, and a new wood heater another year. Sometimes Adelaide’s mother, Eva, used flour sacks to make curtains or lining for clothes. If the material was pretty, as it sometimes was, the flour sacks might get turned into a skirt or a blouse. The farm and the still were all they needed to get by.
Thriller: Horror: Conceived (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story) Page 22