CHAPTER TEN

Nannie's Ghost

---------------------------Chapter Ten----------------------

 

“I think we’re in for a bite,” said David and Emma hushed him up and Robert grabbed the torch from David and flashed it on to the corner from where the sound came but just at that minute the batteries went dead and all three were in pitch darkness.

“Great…..now what do we do?” asked Emma and David suddenly went through his pockets and hitched up a lighter.

He clicked it several times to get the flame and Emma started shuddering when she felt someone grasp her left leg tightly.

“Get that thing on quickly!” she exclaimed, “Some thing caught my leg,”

The flame came on finally and Emma screamed when David held it below.

“Rachel!” she shrieked as she struggled to get out,

“Help me,” said Rachel shivering, “help me please…….”

“Let go of me!”

David handed the lighter to Robert as he quickly reached in for Emma’s help by pulling Rachel’s hand off her and Emma fell back.

He crouched over Rachel who was wiggling in pain and crying alongside Robert who brought the flame closer to her.

A knife had been dig four inches deep into Rachel’s abdomen and there was a pool of blood around her.

“Help me…..please…..she is trying to kill me….” Rachel whimpered as she struggled to pull out the knife and threw it aside and reached for Robert’s bandaged hand.

Her blood covered hand stained the white linen immensely. Robert looked at David’s face and then looked down at Rachel again.

She tried to tell them something as she tightened her grip like she was trying to ease the pain and Robert dropped the lighter, as he felt a slight weakness over coming him, he took his other hand and kept it over hers.

“What is she trying to say?” asked Emma as she and David observed Robert near his ear to her mouth as she lacked breath on her words but no sooner had he lowered his head, Emma jerked again.

“Fire!” she cried out loud, “behind you David…..get out of there now!”

A fire had picked up onto some sacks behind David and was starting to grow,

“We have to move Rachel, come and give us a hand!” Robert ordered Emma as he and David started to tug on the girl lying half dead on the floor but they couldn’t move an inch.

“Why aren’t any of you moving?” cried Emma as she too started to pull Rachel amongst the smoke that was covering them up.

“I-I I can’t move, I think I am stuck…” started David.

“Neither can I…..something is holding us down,” said Robert,

“Do something quick Emma or it will eat all three of us!”

David started freaking out as the fire got closer towards him as Robert called out to him to be calm but then he recalled the burns on David’s body when David started yelling out that he is afraid of fire.

His hand was glued to Rachel’s hand as the other hand was held tight onto Robert’s.

Emma got up and ran outside ignoring the menace and knowing that in anyway they were bound to be in a lot of trouble, she grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher she could find and ran back to the store room and put the fire out.

David and Robert fell back on the floor as they heaved heavily whilst their faces shined off perspiration.

“That was a close call!” said Robert giving out a deep sigh but Emma didn’t answer back,

“What’s the matter?”

“Where’s Rachel?”

“Rachel……why she was right here…with….” Robert started to speak but just then the door flew open and five or six men stood by the doorway and one of them switched on the light.

“Play times over kids,” said a policeman eyeing all around the place before sending in another two to bring them outside.

He sniffed the air polluted with smoke and informed the head about the damage inside and confirmed that everything is under control

Emma, David and Robert were ordered to be still on their seats while a detective came along to question them but the doctor who checked Robert inquired that three be given medical assistance and the policeman agreed.

He led Emma and David in to his room along with another doctor whilst he took Robert away.

The doctor observed David first and then went over to Emma.

“You both are alright, just a little excited,” he told them and left within minutes, leaving the two alone in the room.

“Now we are really in for bait,” started Emma. “But really what do you think happened to Rachel……and who is after her anyway?”

“I’m bound to know!” said David burying his head in his hands.

“Well, we should get out of here first before start questioning us; they wouldn’t believe a word we have to say,”

Emma paused at her words when someone turned the lock on the door, it was Robert. He was led in by a nurse and locked the door behind him.

“Are you alright? Did they ask anything from you?” Emma questioned him,

“Yeah and that’s what I am afraid off,” said Robert taking a seat and then dug up the same question Emma asked just a few seconds ago about Rachel but there was no answer and silence grew between the three for a few seconds when David suddenly jumped up.

The little boy had appeared again and was right in front of David, holding his wrist.

“Steve!” mentioned Robert but the boy didn’t respond, he kept starring into David like a hungry wolf and didn’t let go. A strange force of wind blew on to his face and he felt some one tickle his neck and then whispered into his ear, ‘time to die!”

Rachel stood behind him with a knife and ready to plunge it deep into his skin but Emma saved him in the nick of time but Rachel was out of control. She pushed Emma aside and got back at David. Robert managed to pull the boy off him and grabbed Rachel by her hair as he tried to pull her off with all his might.

David struggled for his life. Just then a police officer arrived with another team and were raping on the door as it wouldn’t even open though it was locked from the outside. They saw what was going inside through the small glass on the door and hurried to open the door as they thought Robert and Emma were trying to kill David because they only saw the knife and not Rachel nor the boy.

As it continued for a few minutes a police officer pulled out his gun and shot the lock twice.

At the sound of the gun Rachel dropped the knife and disappeared into thin air with the boy.

The three friends didn’t even have time to gasp for breath as the people outside were trying to break in through the door.

“To the window!” shouted Robert and climbed out of it,

“What are you doing?” yelled Emma but he was already climbing down carefully with an injured hand.

“Just do as he says!” David told Emma and door broke open just as David put his legs outside after Emma.

There was an open window as they climbed down and Robert quickly led himself inside followed by the others. There was a patient lying on the bed but seemed to be fast asleep therefore they made sure they’d be in absolute silence as they tried to figure things out or else they would be caught any minute to soon.

 “That was close enough,” said David panting,

“And a near death experience,” Emma added in, “But why did Rachel try to kill you? And who is that little boy anyway?”

“I know,” said Robert grabbing their attention towards him suddenly, “He is just a little boy and the one Rachel kept saying she saw all the time and just a few hours ago I happened to encounter him while inside the washroom…...” he turned towards Emma, “ remember the boy who spilled that hot coffee onto my hand!”

Emma covered her mouth in astonishment, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“Didn’t have the urge to,” Robert muttered, “And I know just one more thing….”

“What’s that?” asked David but Robert only grinned at him.

“Before that……..how did you meet up with your accident exactly … I mean how did you burn yourself?” Robert asked David directly.

David was speechless for a second or two as he tried to figure out how Robert knew about his burns but then Emma interrupted in between and explained to David that Robert knew everything and how he got to know it all.

“I don’t know how it happened?”

“Then how did you know that your name was Steve?”

David glanced at Emma who was also deeply interested in knowing the truth and he knew that couldn’t get away with anything now.

He took a seat and calmed himself first before opening up to them both.

“My name is Steve….. An orphan who once used to roam the streets as a toddler in the hands of strangers, before I met my foster parents, Steve was the name every body in the street called me.”

“But how did you burn yourself?”

“I befriended a boy in that area, he came to live with his mother… she was a very kind woman but I can’t exactly recall her face but she used to cuddle me up too and sing for us to sleep….like I was her own son. But one night after dinner when we sleeping …. Someone had set fire to the house. I barely made it out of the house but he was trapped inside. I burnt myself trying to save my friend but he died in my arms….”

“What about his mother?”

“She died in the fire itself… all I remember was her charred body being brought outside as the people around put of the fire. I lay outside half dead…. When someone carried me away into a hospital, but I don’t know who,”

“And that person would be me,” came a voice from behind them……

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

Thanks to all those who read and review:)

Reviews

[Leslie Philibert]

Good writing that deserves a wide readership.

[SuicidePact.]

You should get this published!

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good chapter. I like how you led the reader to the very good ending. A mystery to close the chapter down. Interesting situation made this a very good chapter.
Coyote