Laying A Ghost To Rest

He carefully sat down on the stool across from the interviewer, a man in his mid 40’s  who was there to talk to him about his past. He placed his hands on top of his lap trying to keep his legs from bouncing from the nervousness he felt. He had tried to get everything out of his mind for almost 20 years and yet it still haunted him, the only thing that helped him to sleep at night was the medication he was prescribed but it never went away. Now he was going to try to share his story in hopes that maybe it will help others but mostly himself by getting it off his chest.

He started off cautious and simple at first “hello my name is Marcus and i ..” he stopped and reached up ,removing the mic before standing up and beginning to pace back and forth across the room, stopping in front of the window. He gripped the curtains on the hotel window and tugged them closer together as he let out a ragged breath, his fingers clenching the material as if he might drown if he let go.  He slowly turned and walked back to the stool and sat down, smoothing out his shirt before placing his hands on top of his knees, pressing his fingers into the denim then remembered the mic, his right hand picking it up and attaching it to his shirt. “I never thought the day would come when I would be able to speak of this without fear.” He swallowed hard before he continued.” I need to take you back before it happens so you will understand.” And so begins his story…

They were a typical family living in a modest apartment, small but it was all they could afford at the time. Frank and Millie were always working hard to take care of the family which consisted of them and their 3 children, Marcus, Kyle and Sandra. Marcus was 14, Kyle 12 and Sandra was 8. Frank worked a factory job while Millie worked at the local hospital as a nurse. The hours were long for both of them but they were saving up for something special..a house. It was a bright sunny Saturday morning when their dad burst through the front door like a hurricane, his voice dripping with excitement as he shouted “get dressed and get out to the car, I have a surprise for all of you. We threw on our clothes, our shoes barely tied as we pushed and shoved each other to get out of the car and find our favorite spot in the back of the station wagon, trembling with excitement. It was not often their father had a surprise for them. Their mother sat down in the car and the car started with a hum. We giggled and poked at each other in the back till he yelled at us to settle down and we stared out the back window, waving at other cars as they passed by. It felt like they had been driving forever but it was only about 20 minutes and the change in the road could be felt, having gone from paved and smooth to a dirt road with gravel that pinged against the bottom of the car till it finally came to a stop. We peered out the side window and there it was…a house, bigger than we had ever seen before. Well we were kids so anything that was not our small apartment felt huge but we did not recognize it as anywhere we had ever been before.

Marcus stared off into the distance, pulled back into the nostalgia of what it was like back then before it all went wrong. The interviewer, a man named Carl, waited for a moment before speaking” Are you ok? Are you able to continue?” Marcus slowly looked at him and nodded “I was just thinking how innocent everything felt back then” We piled out of the car nearly tripping over each other, each of us wanting to be the first to stand in front of the house waiting for our father to get out of the car along with our mother. “What do you think?” he asked with a slight grin crossing his lips. “It’s so big” we all shouted in unison. He lifted up his right hand and dangled a set of keys in front of them” It’s ours” he said matter of fact. Our eyes went wide, following them up the front steps and waiting for him to unlock the front door. Once it was open, we rushed inside, running from room to room then up the stairs we scampered to see how many rooms there were. We found that we would each have our own personal space and although the house looked like it needed a bit of cosmetic work, it felt perfect to all of us. “Perfect” he muttered as if the word tasted like ash in his mouth.

That was the only moment in their new house that would feel that way and they had no idea what was waiting for them. The first week was hectic and they did not notice anything unusual as they were busy moving boxes and furniture, setting up their own rooms the way they wanted them. At night there would be the sound of creaking and moaning, but their father chalked it up to it being an older house making noises but it was nothing to be concerned about. For the first month, they got used to the odd noises and when little things would go missing like their fathers glasses, a book their mother had been reading,  not anything of great value but things that were annoying to not be able to find. They would blame one of us for touching their things even though we denied it over and over. It was a Friday night, about two months after we had settled into the house when our parents decided to have an evening out and I was left in charge of my brother and sister. The only rules were do not answer the door or the phone and to not stay up too late or allow them to watch anything scary on tv before bed. I remember the night clearly because it would be the first time my parents would trust me enough to leave me alone to take care of them in the new house and I was nervous but also excited to have free roam of the house.

After cooking a pizza for all of them for supper, we flaked out on the couch in front of the tv, laughing and eating together, time passing by without anything unusual then the first sound happened. There was a knocking sound followed by the sound of something being dragged across the floor but it was not coming from the main floor or even the second floor, it was coming from the basement, the one place they had never thought to explore. Carl could not resist the need to interrupt and ask” what did you think was making that noise?” Marcus looked at him, a flicker of fear in his eyes. “Honestly as a kid I wanted to believe that it was just the house settling as our father would keep telling us but deep down I felt that something was not right.” He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before he reached out and picked up the glass of water from the table next to him and took a sip. “We can continue when you are ready” Carl paused the recorder.

I stood up and told Kyle to keep an eye on Sandra before I slowly walked through the living room towards the kitchen, stopping at the door next to it which led down to the basement. I stood there debating if I really wanted to open the door so I pressed my ear against it listening for the sound. At first there was nothing and I almost convinced myself that it was all in my head and then I heard it. The sound was soft at first, then got louder as if something heavy was being dragged across the floor towards the bottom of the stairs then the distinct sound of heavy footsteps slowly ascending the stairs, each step creaking beneath the weight of whatever it was.

I felt frozen in place as the noise stopped just as it reached the top of the stairs, my ear still pressed to the door. My first instinct was to grab the other two and run out the front door but I could not make my feet move. Then I heard breathing, heavy breathing as if whatever was behind the door was large and might come through that door at any moment. I slowly backed away from the door and turned, running as fast as I could, yanking my brother and sister off the couch , dragging them to the front door as I heard the basement door slowly creaking open. Panicking, I yanked the door wide open and almost threw them outside, slamming the door behind us before I forced them down the porch steps and away from the front of the house as fast as I could make them move.

We turned around to look at the house, seeing a dark shadow pass in front of the living room window and we were terrified to even go back inside so we huddled together at the end of the driveway in the dark and waited for our parents to return. When they finally got home, we tried to tell them about the noise, the door opening, the shadow but our father refused to believe any of it, blaming us for having watched something scary on tv and letting our imaginations run wild.

The next morning he opened the basement door and went down stairs then demanded we all follow him down to prove to us that there was nothing there but we all knew what we heard and saw. There was nothing he could say that would make us change our mind which made him very angry. He was not going to give up something they had put their life savings into because his children were a little afraid of an older house and we would just have to learn to deal with it. He was not going to listen to anything more that we had to say about it and we were on our own. This went on for the next several months and it got progressively worse. We were beginning to wake up with deep scratch marks on our arms and backs, bruises that we could not explain and were becoming more difficult to cover up before we went to school. The teachers became concerned and rumors started spreading that behind closed doors at home, our parents were abusing us. We tried to explain what was happening but they looked at us like we were making up stories just to try to protect our parents.

Eventually the police were involved and despite our parents' best efforts to explain that they had nothing to do with the marks, we were in danger from their abuse and protective services needed to step in. By this point, my sister ended up being put in a mental institution for having a breakdown, losing her grip on reality, while my brother ended up being placed in a home without me. I was the only one left and I got shipped off to a home hours away from both of them. Carl saw the hurt in his eyes and he paused the recorder and gave Marcus a much needed break. “What happened to your parents?” He snapped out of the fog he felt like he had been in and looked at him with uncertainty.” To be honest, I don’t know. They remained in that home but by the time I was old enough to be on my own I learned they had passed away in the house but no one could explain the cause.” Carl set down his notebook and looked Marcus in the eyes and asked him “Did you ever go back to the house?” He knew the question was coming and he was ready for it” I managed to find my way back to the house, back to where everything had ended for all of us and I stood at the end of the driveway wondering what went wrong and I saw it.” His voice cracked as the fear he felt all those years ago bubbled back up to the surface.. “What did you see?” he hesitated “ The shadow moved in front of the window but this time it stopped right in front of the curtains and it felt like it was staring right at me.”

“I wanted to scream. I wanted to run but I could not find the strength to move. I stood staring at it as if I expected it to come grab me.” As I stood there frozen in place I heard the familiar creak of the front door as it slowly opened and then a dawning  horror as I realized something important. It was not afraid of me, it was recognizing me from when I was there before. It had stolen my sister's mind, my brother's childhood and killed my parents and now it was simply waiting there for me. I finally found the courage I had been lacking before and I finally ran, and did not stop running. I think I have still been running, maybe not physically but I have not had a moment of peace since I left.

Carl turned off the recorder and they both sat in silence for a long time, neither of them knowing what to say at first. Finally Carl spoke “You are not running anymore, you finally set down the burden you have been carrying for all these years. You may not be able to fix the damage that has been done but you are not to blame.” He slowly stood up and walked to the door pausing with his hand on the handle as he turned to look at Marcus one last time “ I am sorry that you had to go through it but you survived. It's time to lay that ghost to rest. Find your brother, heal yourself and learn how to move forward”