"The rumours of what happened in your home shook this town to its core..." That one sentence plays in my head, over and over again until I pull up to the house. Taking a minute I sit in the car and look up at the gorgeous new paint on the walls.
We were going to change the colour to a lovely light grey, but decided it'd be better to just patch up the old paint and restore it to how it used to look.
Except looking at it from a distance, the colour we chose is slightly different to the original paint.
My thoughts drift back to Jillians visit this evening. At least I'll have some company for a while, I've been feeling so lonely since Mark left for work, maybe we should get a cat? I decide to pull out my phone and try call him again. The exhibition isn't until tomorrow, so I'm sure he's just busy putting the finishing touches on his latest piece.
This time it doesn't go straight to voicemail, but my happiness is shirt lived when it just rings and rings. Finally I hear his voice on the other side. "Hello?"
"Mark! Hey baby, why haven't you returned my..." "Just kidding, I'm a bit busy right now, but leave your name and number after the tone and I'll get back to you.
Beeeep" My heart sinks, first thing I'm going to do when he gets back, is get hil.to.change that stupid message! "Hey babe, call me back soon okay? I miss you."
I end the call and grab the last few packets from the back seat of the car, I stopped past the shop on the way home when I realized we don't really have much in the way of tea and treats at home.
I unlock the door and put the packets on the kitchen counter. While putting the tea and biscuits away I hear a loud thump coming from right above my head, then a three second pause, and four more quick thumps.
I stand still, listening for any more sounds when suddenly the thumps start up again, this time there's no pause, in fact, they're getting faster by the second. It sounds like thunder, like a thousand people jumping up and down on the wooden floors upstairs!
Without giving myself a chance to chicken out, I run upstairs as fast as I can. Breathing heavily, skipping every second step, the sound gets louder and louder.
It feels like I should be looking at someone or something right at the top of the stairs, but as soon as my foot touches the soft beige carpet on the last step, everything stops. There's nothing but silence, the only thing I hear is the sound of my laboured breathing and the beating of my heart sounding loudly in my ears.
Cautiously, I inspect every room in the house but find no signs of anyone or anything upstairs. Finally I relax, letting my shoulders drop down a bit as I rub the back of my aching neck, maybe that was it.
Maybe they'll leave me alone long enough to get some sleep in before Jillian comes over. As I walk down the passage towards my room, I tense up again. I hear a faint sniffling sound that, if I wasn't so on guard I might have missed it.
I walk from door to door letting my ears lead me, when I reach the nursery the sound instantly gets twice as loud. Okay, so it's definitely coming from the nursery, whatever it is. My stomach feels like it's doing somersaults as I peek into the room.
What I see scares the hell out of me and my body starts to shake. No! I'm terrified, yes, but I will do this! I must take control of my home and show these creatures that this is our home now and they're not welcome! I refuse to run!
In the corner next to the rocking chair is a semi translucent little girl sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped firmly around her legs. Her head is down as she sniffles and sobs, causing her small, shaking frame to look even sadder crying all alone there in the corner with sopping wet clothes and long, disheveled hair.
Something inside me wants to reach out and comfort the sad little girl but the fact that I can see the wall behind her stops me from doing anything of the sort. "Hello?"
I wait for a second but the sobbing continues. I decide to try again, "Little girl, you need to move on. You can't stay here anymore." I manage to say in a shaky, quite unconvincing voice. She gasps and looks up at me. Without realizing it, I raise my hand to cover my mouth.
As I look at her face a wave of nausea hits me like a ton of bricks, my body starts swaying and I have to lean on the door frame for support, even through all this, my eyes never leave her face.
Her eyes are nothing but large, gaping, black holes. A thick, red river of tears stream down her face, leaving tracks of what looks like blood on her light skin, running over the dark stripes on her neck.
The left half of her face is covered in black spots, her cheek looks swollen and out of proportion, like she's just been beaten up. For a moment we just stand there, looking at each other in complete silence, neither of us breaking the stare, when suddenly she points to me and in a softer voice than I was expecting, says, "Get out, Get out! Before he gets you too!"
My whole body starts to shake as I realize she's not pointing at me, but behind me. Slowly, I follow the direction she's pointing at, before I even turn half way around, an intense burning sensation makes it's way along my back, It feels like I'm literally on fire!
I scream loudly as I roughly yank my shirt off, but once it's off and I look down at it in my trembling hands, there are no signs of any burns whatsoever! The burning died down, but it still stings like a bitch! I rush to the bathroom, turning this way and that in front of the mirror until finally I glimpse the result of the burning I felt.
A feeling of absolute horror washes over me as I stare, wide eyed at the three deep, red scratches that travel from the top of my spine to the dimples in my lower back. each scratch is about 5 millimeters thick, but despite the large, red marks, there's no blood, just a mixture of red and black where the skin split open.
I start to cry as it sinks in that something scratched me, something in this house actually went as far as to physically attack me, if it's willing to do that, what else is it capable of? I quickly snap a picture and send it to Mark.
As soon as I do I feel a heavy, familiar presence in the room, oh no, not again! I put my shirt back on as the temperature starts to drop rapidly, not abating to stick around to see the shadow creature I run down the stairs and straight out the front door. The heavy feeling subsides as I stand outside with my hands on my knees, breathing deeply.
The cool breeze outside pushes a few strands of hair back as I stand up straight and look up at the house. Without taking my eyes off of, it I dial Mark's number again. He needs to come home, I can't do this alone anymore.
He doesn't answer again so I decide to call Megan, luckily she picks up just after the third ring. "Hey Megan, have you seen Mark since he's been back in town?" "Yeah, he came 'round to the bar to watch the rugby with a few of his friends last night, why? Is everything okay?"
Now I'm pissed! "Just peachy! Except for the fact that he hasn't answered my calls or returned any of my text messages since he left, usually he calls me back five minutes after he misses a call if he ever misses a call from me, which is never!
But for some odd reason, he decides to ignore me completely, and go out for drinks with his buddies? I didn't even get a message to say 'Hey Kayla, I've arrived safely. Love you.' I'm going to ring his bloody neck!
Please will you go to the apartment after work? When you get there, call me and give the phone to him okay?" "That asshole! Don't you worry, Kayla! I'll give him a piece of my mind, just you wait and see. Nobody messes with my bestie!"
"Thanks, Megan, you're the best. Just let me know when you get there and don't forget to call me and give him the phone!" "No problem, I'll check on him after my shift, but if he calls you before then, just send me a text or whatever to let me know so I don't end up traveling all that way and risk getting pulled over with an Illegal firearm."
"Yeah right! Like you could ever shoot someone!" "Hey! I would one hundred percent shoot someone for you!" "Ncaaw, you're so sweet! I'd shoot someone for you too." I tell her in a voice that I usually reserve for cute little babies.
"Careful, I might hold you too it! Now go pour yourself a large glass of wine, watch some Netflix, and wait for my call." "Yes ma'am!" I hear her light giggle and snort just before she ends the call. I glance at the time on the bright screen to see that it's quarter to seven!
That's impossible! I check the duration of my call with Megan but it says we spoke for little over two minutes, but I just got home! I couldn't have spent that much time upstairs, surely not.
It felt like I was only up there for fifteen minutes or so, yet somewhere between when I got home, to ending the call with Megan, the sun had already started it's slow descent behind the large, slender trees surrounding the graveyard behind the house.
Before I have much time to try figure out what the hell is going on here, a little green Toyota pulls up and stops behind my car. I snap my head to the side with a scowl, expecting to see Mark, but soften my expression when my eyes find a little plump woman marching up to me.
"Goodness gracious, Dearie! Aren't you freezing out here?" She wraps me up in a tight hug before grabbing my wrist and leading me inside. "Come, come, come! You shouldn't be out here in the cold wearing just that little shirt! Where'syour jacket?"
I smile at her motherly concern as we reach the door and step in, she really reminds me of Gran, the thought of my crazy old Granny brings a smile to my face. "Hi, Jillian. It's ao nice to see you again, thank you for coming by." Walking into the kitchen, the same heavy feeling settles over me but I ignore it.
Trying my best to look and act normal I try reassuring myself. Keep calm, they won't try anything while I have Jillian over, right? "She Pat's my hand twice before taking a seat at the little round table in the kitchen, her eyes follow my every move around the kitchen.
I can see she's itching to ask me something. She waits patiently as I place the sugar and biscuits on a small tray, along with the milk and two cups of tea, I slowly make my way towards the table.
