The House In the Woods

by Marguerite O'Callaghan

  She reaches out to take his hand, but he pulls away before she can touch him.

  ‘I’m really sorry Lydia. You’re amazing. You really are, but some things are not meant to be, and the timing here, and the age gap. It just doesn’t work. Not to mention the fact that I could get into serious trouble at work if they knew. There’s just no way.’

  Lydia goes from initial shock and sadness to a sort of heavy numbness. For a moment, she thinks she’s going to faint, but she manages to get off the bed, collect her things, and get dressed. Before she leaves the room, she turns to Jared one last time, and in a weak matter-of-fact voice, tells him that he’s broken her heart. Outside, on the street, Lydia takes a deep breath, and contemplates the fastest route to the underground station. Her phone rings and she’s actually relieved to see it’s her dad. His voice is bound to make her feel better, and bring some normality to the strange, empty feeling she has in her gut.

  ‘Dad!’

  ‘I have some news. Your mother is in the hospital, Lydia. She... she took an overdose last night...’

  His voice continues to explain what happened, but Lydia can’t hear him. It sounds like he’s just saying random words and isn’t speaking loudly enough.

  ‘Lydia? Darling, are you still there?’

  She feels the familiar wave of cold panic come over her. Her heart is beating so loudly and quickly that she feels it’s going to burst from her chest. She manages to ask which hospital her mum’s in, and hangs up the phone. As if by a miracle, a taxi comes towards her, and she flags it down.

  19

  Kate’s baby bump is showing, and her clothes are becoming too tight. For a few days, she’s been trying to pluck up the courage to ask Christine to find her something else to wear, and eventually, this morning, she manages to, after her shower. Christine actually seems glad to help, and when Kate is back in the bedroom a few minutes later, she offers to leave her hands untied for a while so she can try on the jumpers and long-sleeved thermal top she has left on the bed. Christine must have got them from her room while Kate was finishing in the shower. Melvin still insists that Kate’s wrists are tied together in front all of the time, apart from while she uses the bathroom or changes her clothes in the bedroom, and Christine watches her every move. But, both Christine and Melvin are starting to trust her more; she can just feel it. Over the months, they’ve started to see her as one of them, and ever since she claimed to have that prophetic dream and started praying, they definitely look at her in a new light. Up to now, Kate has only had a few items of clothing to wear, so it’s a bit of a novelty to have some new things. The thermal top looks unworn to her, and sits comfortably over her swelling stomach. Christine seems genuinely pleased that she can help, and tells Kate that Melvin approves of their friendship and wants Christine to help as much as possible right up to the birth.

  ‘We could begin to think of one another as sisters, you know?’

  Kate asks Christine if she knows anything about pregnancy and birth, or has ever been around for the birth of a child but Christine shakes her head apologetically. In the next breath, she tells Kate that there’s nothing to worry about and she’s going to get some books from a nearby town this weekend.

  ‘We can study them together and make sure we know everything that will happen.’

  Kate knew that this was going to be the plan; she knew that there was no way Melvin would allow her to go to a doctor, or have her baby in hospital. The risk was too great that she would try to escape or tell someone what was going on. But as time went by and she felt her body change and her baby grow inside her; she couldn’t help but imagine the worst. What if there was a complication? So many things could go wrong. Kate didn’t know a lot about giving birth, but she knew that sometimes women had to have C-sections and have their babies cut out of them if a vaginal birth was not possible, or would put the baby or mother’s life at risk. Kate already knew that her life was only worth something to Melvin and Christine because she was going to give birth to a baby they thought was the next Messiah. If something happened to her in childbirth, they probably wouldn’t even care. In fact, they might be planning on killing her as soon as they had their baby anyway. That thought had been lingering at the back of Kate’s mind the whole time; these people had been around dark things in the past, and they lived entirely outside of the law. They didn’t care about her. She was just part of their story; this religious fantasy, and delusion that they had fed their whole lives, and as soon as she had given birth they would very likely try to dispose of her.

  Christine sits on the bed with Kate after she has retied her hands and feet.

  ‘Can I tell you something?’

  Her voice is meeker than usual. Kate nods, and smiles gently.

  ‘Of course, Christine. Anything. I’m your friend. What is it?’

  Christine hesitates, and looks down at her hands in her lap. Her eyelids flicker a couple of times, and Kate can see that she’s crying.

  ‘What is it. Please? You know you can trust me. I’m here for you, okay?’

  Christine looks at her for a moment, as if she’s checking she’s telling the truth. Kate’s eyes are large and warm, her skin is glowing. Even as a captive in this strange place, without a friend, and with little hope of a future, Kate’s energy, beauty, and life-force is undeniable. Christine sees a good face and one that she can trust. But Kate is not prepared for what she has to say next...

  ‘You’re not the first girl to come here. So, it took me a long time to trust that you were the one, and this was real.’

  Kate can’t believe what she’s hearing.

  ‘Melvin can’t know that I’ve told you, but about a year before he got you, he took another girl from a town a few miles away. She was like you; beautiful, young… Melvin saw her late at night on the road and he felt God telling him to stop the car and, h-he took her, and brought her here.’

  Kate knows by Christine’s voice that they murdered this girl. All of the saliva disappears from her mouth, and her stomach feels heavy. She manages to ask about what happened, and at least appear to stay calm, but her mind keeps returning to the thought that whatever happened to this other girl could easily happen to her, too.

  ‘She was different to you in temperament, and she fought back too much. After just a few days, Melvin knew he'd made a mistake taking her... he hurt her real bad and...’

  Christine is shaking. She’s obviously scarred by what happened with the girl.

  ‘Christine, please tell me. It’s okay. It’s not your fault.’

  ‘She was bleeding so badly from her mouth and ears, and she just wouldn’t come round, so we had to... put her out of her misery. Melvin realised he had made a mistake and never should have taken her. That’s why making it work with you is so important to us.’

  Kate feels physically sick. She uses every ounce of her strength to keep up the pretence that she’s not judging Christine, but now she knows for a fact that Melvin is capable of extreme violence, and he has already murdered someone with his wife’s help.

  ‘Are there any more girls, Christine?’

  ‘Oh, not here. No. Maybe... in some other places, but not here.’

  Kate is confused. What does she mean by other places?

  ‘Are there other girls somewhere else?’

  Christine stands up, brushes her skirt and apron with her hands, and takes a deep breath. Melvin starts to make some noise downstairs and calls out for her.

  ‘I’ve said too much. The most important thing to know is that you are the one, Kate. Alright? Everything is going to be good from now on. I’ll tell you when I am going to get those books and we can read them together.’

  With that, she’s gone, and Kate sits in the quiet room, letting all that she has just heard sink in. Now, she has a secret with Christine, which is a good thing. But her captors are murderers! And what did Christine mean when she spoke about other girls? This didn’t make any sense. Were there more people like Melvin and Christine all over the place,
just taking girls? Perhaps the people from the ranch had simply moved; scattered across the world instead of all living together in a commune? Did others know that she was here? More than ever, Kate knows that she’s got to start thinking about an escape. She has built up trust with Melvin and Christine, and done a good job at convincing them she wants to be here and become part of their prophecy and future. Now, she needs to make a plan.

  Downstairs, Melvin is in a good mood. A few men from the village had invited him for a drink and he had spent an hour talking about fishing with them. It had erased any doubt in his mind that anyone in Southam knew they were up to anything. He had also got some money deposited to his bank account from the US, and although he didn’t want to tell Christine how much, exactly, she could see by his face that it was more than he’d expected.

  ‘I might change the car, and I need you to make a list of things we need for the baby. ‘

  He glances at the ceiling, towards Kate’s room.

  ‘See if she needs anything specific or whatever. I want to get it in one trip, so don’t be afraid to put everything we need on there. The vitamins and nappies and baby clothes. I’ll go alone, and I’ll pay in cash.’

  Christine nods in approval, and tells Melvin that she’ll start on the list straight away.

  20

  Lydia sits with her mother at the hospital. They’ve given Barbara some strong medication, and she’s barely conscious, never mind making any sense. Lydia asks the nurse when they’re going to start seeing any improvement; she can’t have a conversation with her when she’s like this; and on the occasions that she does seem awake or more alert, Barbara just cries. Lydia asks her why she took the overdose and she just tells her in a matter-of-fact way that she couldn’t go on anymore; that her heart was too broken, and she had been struggling for too long.

  ‘It’s not your fault, darling. You would be happier without me. All of this is my fault. I was never a good enough mother, and your father has just been putting up with me.’

  Lydia is not sure she can even stand to listen to her mother saying these things. She tells herself that what she’s hearing isn’t true. It just can’t be.

  ‘Mum, do you believe that Kate’s alive?’

  Silence.

  ‘Well I do. I know it in my heart. And when she comes home, because she will be coming home, you better be there.’

  Lydia goes out into the hallway, and sees her dad leaning against a wall. She didn’t know he was waiting for her, although he had walked with her to the hospital. He looks lost, not like himself, even his body language is different to normal. Lydia leans on the wall next to him, and tells him that her mum is still zombie-like and miserable.

  ‘She needs to stay in there. I’m scared she’ll do it again, Dad’

  Brian turns to look at his daughter. His face shows how heartbroken he is, and how sorry he feels for her, but, he doesn’t expect to see her looking back at him the way she is. She always surprised him when she got like this; sometimes she managed to find a strength he didn’t know she had.

  ‘Dad, I’m going to Florida to see Jane. I’m going to book my ticket and hopefully fly tonight or in the morning.’

  ‘What? Why?’

  ‘I can’t explain it fully, but I just feel that she might give me some answers if I see her face-to-face, you know? She knows something. I could tell when I skyped with her the other day.’

  Lydia was already planning on the trip to see Jane. The only thing that would have changed her mind is if her mother started talking, but that wasn’t going to happen, and Lydia feels like it’s in her power to get some answers. The thought crosses her mind that maybe it was a good thing Jared had dumped her. She needed to concentrate on her sister.

  21

  Ida is still being haunted with visions of Kate and the other murdered girl. She is having problems sleeping and started to walk around Hampstead village in an attempt to tire herself out in the evenings. This afternoon, she sits in front of the television and tries to concentrate on a sitcom; something she rarely enjoys. She’s trying everything and anything she can to snap herself out of this black mood, but every half hour or so, she has a flash vision of something awful. The visions are aural too, or sometimes all of her senses are engaged, and she can even smell the place. She sees the basement she first saw when Lydia came to her about her missing sister. That was almost six months ago now, and she was still seeing it; this place where Kate Stone was. Surely, this could only be happening if Kate was alive? The other girl that she saw in the visions was probably one that had gone before her. They looked similar, with the same big dark eyes, slender physique, and long, dark hair.

  Ida has seen a lot in the seventy-seven years she has been on this earth. She has had run-ins with some dark entities, been moved and changed by some of them, but she’s never been haunted by something the way she’s haunted by this. She would bet her life on Kate Stone being alive and connected to another murdered girl. But who can she tell about it? The police don’t take psychics seriously, and even the few that do have to do so in private. Plus, she has nothing concrete to go on. She picks up her phone and scrolls to find Lydia’s number; it’s not like her to do this, but she needs to let Lydia her what’s happening, and maybe if they did another session, a clear message, or some kind of sign might come through. She gets through to Lydia’s voicemail and leaves a message asking her to give her a call when she has a moment. She doesn’t want to worry the poor girl; she’s probably going through enough as it is, so Ida adds that it’s not an emergency, she just wants to check in and say hello.

  22

  The next morning Lydia calls Ida from the taxi. She’s on her way to Heathrow.

  ‘Sorry I didn’t get back to you last night. I was packing for Florida actually. My flight is at noon. I’ll be gone for a few days.’

  She didn’t plan on telling Ida anything about the trip. In fact, she hadn’t even thought about her since the last visit to her house, but Ida had obviously been thinking about her. Lydia feels a pang of guilt, and can hear that the woman is genuinely concerned. She asks if she can come and see her when she gets back, then they say their goodbyes and hang up. Almost immediately, Lydia sends her a text to say thanks again, and let her know that she’ll fill her in if she uncovers anything in the States about her mother’s past, or if anyone knows anything about Kate. Then, without giving it a second thought she texts Jared. It’s been three days since he told her it was over, and they’d had no contact since. She types: ‘Just wanted to let you know I’m off to FL to see my aunt for a few days. Hope you’re okay x’. As soon as she presses send she feels better, and breathes a sigh of relief. When the phone rings and she see Jared’s name a few seconds later, she feels her heart beat quickly in her chest. She was barely expecting a reply to the text, never mind a phone call.

  ‘Hello’

  ‘Lyds, are you okay? You’re going to the States? How come? Is everything alright?’

  He’s rambling slightly, and sounds flustered.

  ‘Hey. Yup. I’m okay.’

  Lydia finds herself giggling at him the way she usually does.

  ‘Wow, it’s nice to hear your voice, Jar.’

  ‘It’s nice to hear you too, Lyds.’

  She can hear it in his voice that he’s smiling. Her heart fills with emotion, and she’s not sure what to say.

  ‘How come you called me? I don’t know why I texted...’

  ‘No! No! I was so happy to hear from you. It’s been a few days, but, gosh it feels like longer.’

  ‘Well, why didn’t you text me, then?’

  Lydia can feel herself gently teasing him like she is used to doing, and before they know it, they’ve been chatting for forty minutes and she’s almost at the airport. She tells him she’s got to go.

  ‘Wait, Lyds? Call me when you get there? I want to talk to you about us.’

  Lydia has to hold her mouth to stop from weeping. These are the words she’s been longing to hear.

  ‘Y
eah?’

  ‘Yeah. Lyds, I love you. Safe flight okay?

  Lydia smiles the whole way through check-in and security.

  23

  Jane didn’t answer her phone when Lydia called the night before to tell her she’d booked her flight. Instead, she listened to the voice message, cursed under her breath, and called her sister. But Barbara’s phone was off. Jane would have to make a plan on her own, and make sure that Lydia didn’t cause any trouble for the family while she was here.

  When the doorbell goes at lunch time, she takes a deep breath. She wants to do her best to be a good aunt to Lydia, but what she’s looking for isn’t in Florida. She isn’t going to get any answers here. Lydia had slept on the flight, and all things considered, actually feels quite fresh. It’s been years since she’s been to see them in Orlando, and this is the first time she’s flown here, or anywhere on her own, and she feels free, confident, and totally grown up. The smiling American way is really helping her mood, too. Not to mention the sunshine. The door opens, and Lydia finds herself squealing when she sees her aunt’s face. She loves her. No matter what she’s hiding, she loves her. Yet, it isn’t until she sees Jane that she realises just how much she loves her. She looks like a slightly taller, plumper version of her mother.

  ‘Aunt Jane! You look amazing! I can’t believe I’m here!’

  Jane finds herself literally jumping for joy when she sees her niece.

  ‘Oh my goodness, you are so beautiful! The photographs don’t do you justice.’

  Jane reaches out and tenderly touches her niece’s cheek, and runs her fingers through the ends of her hair. It’s been two years since she’s seen her.

  ‘My oh my, this hair is unbelievable! Which products do you use? Who am I kidding? It’s all in the genes huh? Your mom’s hair. Oh my gosh...’

  Lydia and Jane are actually very similar in personality. Neither of them had noticed it before, but there is also something about their energy, their understated, slower way of acting that is alike. They are thinkers, whereas Lydia’s mother is more reactive and animated, as is Kate. Lydia has come here seeking answers about her mum, but she has a feeling that she is also going to benefit from just being around her aunt. But, it’s weird being around someone you’ve known your whole life and never spent any one-on-one time with, Lydia thinks. There is a sense of ease and understanding between them, but Lydia knows that if her aunt is like her, she could be just as guarded, if not more so. Jane tells her that her daughter, Lydia’s cousin, Jenny will be coming over soon, and Lydia realises that she still has to tell her aunt about what happened with her mum, and that she’s in the hospital. She asks her to sit with her in the living room, and explains what happened and that they are all really worried. Jane is visibly upset at the news, and tells Lydia that she had no idea this was going on. If she had known she would have been there on the next flight to London.