When Love Hurts and Ghosts Linger (14 page)

“Ok, Ok I will tell you but please listen to me, I do have a secret yes and I’ve not told you because I don’t want you to run or think I am insane”

“Robyn please, I’m here for you just tell me” he places his hands on my shoulders and looks into my eyes.

“Ok,” I take a deep breath “I uhh, well, there’s no easy way to say this I guess except I can see ghosts, that little girl’s body I found, she led me there, when you see me talking to myself, I’m talking to them, when I disappear without a word, it’s because they are around, this, these broken ribs and bruises, it’s from one of them because he wants me, he wants Jack.”

I stop; I can see the horror and disbelief in his eyes.

“I know you think I’m bullshitting you but I’m not.” I look at Lucy.

“Lucy please help me here, I need you to help me ok”

Levi looks around with a 
‘who the fuck are you talking to’  
look.

Lucy smiles at me, I don’t know what she is going to do or even if she can do anything to make him believe me. She goes towards the kitchen sink and slightly knocks a cup. Levi see’s it but his eyes are clouded, confused almost.

“What was that?” he seems panicky.

“Lucy, the little girl who I found dead, she’s here, that’s why I’m shivering, it’s so cold.”

“I feel nothing” he looks at me confused.

“Well no you won’t because you can’t see or feel them, it happens when…..”

I stop suddenly and my eyes widen, the temperature drops even colder, I feel the pain of needle pricks it’s that cold, I look at Lucy. I know it isn’t her. I look at Levi as I begin to feel breathless.

I feel the tight squeeze on my neck, oh no…..he’s here.

The kitchen becomes dark, I’m not sure if Levi can see this but he can see that I’m struggling to breathe.

“Robyn what the fuck are you ok” his voice filled with sheer panic.

“WHERE IS HE” the voice screams.

“I’m not telling you, I will never let you have him” 

I’m lifted up of the floor again, in the air head touching the kitchen ceiling. I see the look of horror on Levi’s face, he’s tugging on my leg trying to pull me down but Ivan has got a strong grip on me.

“You will give me your soul” his red eyes pierce into mine.

I struggle to breathe “I will give you nothing”

He drops me and leaves and I cough trying to get the air back in my lungs. Lucy is gone, I can’t see her.

“What the fuck was that? Did….did you….I mean did I…..” he stutters with his words.

“That was the thing that is after me, I told you that you can’t see them.”

Levi helps me up and looks into my eyes, I can see he actually now believes me but he is also terrified by what he just saw.

“You’re going to leave now aren’t you; I’ll go get your things.”

As I go to walk away Levi grabs my hand. He looks at me so lovingly it makes my heart melt.

“I’m not going to leave you, I love you and I’m here for you no matter what because that’s what love is….” He smiles softly.

I try to hold back the tears, my god I feel like an emotional wreck right now. I can’t see Lucy still and the air is mildly warm, I’m not sure if she disappeared in fear or he has taken her, I hope he hasn’t, she’s just a little girl, I had already seen the children he had stolen, I didn’t want that to happen to her too.

Levi kisses me, it’s deep but soft, his tongue enters my mouth as he devours me, I feel his love for me in the kiss and I go weak at the knees. I look him in the eye and then kiss him again, it’s intense, I love this man so much. He pushes me backwards and I feel my back press hard against the kitchen unit.

I can’t wait anymore; I want him right now, right here. In the heat of the moment I rip his shirt off as he quickly pulls down my jeans and panties. He undoes his jeans and pulls his hard erection out, he quickly lifts me up so I’m wrapped round his waist and he fucks me there and then in the kitchen.

It’s fast; he grips me hard, thrusting in and out of me as I feel the sexual excitement run through our bodies.

“Oh baby” he cries out.

“Yes” I moan.

His thrust deepens and I cannot hold back any longer, as I explode around him he follows and explodes deep inside me, I feel his release as he holds me tight.

Breathless he looks into my eyes, “I will never let anyone hurt you, I love you.”

I smile back catching my breath “It’s not that easy, but I love you too.”

I rest my forehead on his as our heartbeats start to return to normal. I’m so distracted by him that I don’t notice Lucy has come back; when I see her I jump and fumble trying to compose myself.

“Oh my god what you doing, you shouldn’t do that…..”

“What, what I didn’t do anything….” Levi replies confused.

“No not you, I’m not talking to you I’m talking to her…..” I point behind him.

But he sees no-one.

She’s giggling “That’s naughty, has the man gone now…..” she says observing the kitchen.

“Yes sweetie he has gone now” I quickly put everything back on.

Levi is looking at me, he tells me he feels weird seeing me talk to myself but also finds it slightly comical. I made a promise to help Lucy and I know I need to fulfil it, so I tell Levi what I’m doing who of course jumps to come with me and I follow Lucy to her home.

Its ages away and it’s a good hours walk, Levi offered to drive but I said no because I wasn’t sure we’d be able to follow her that way. 

She leads us down a lane which comes out onto a closed off street kind of like the one I lived on as a kid, memories come back in my mind of a happy time when life was simple, when ghosts were simple. I smile at the thought of them.

She shows me her house, there is a swing and play set in the front garden, it’s a typical house, white on the outside and a back roof, nice clean windows and reasonably sized. Levi is following me closely, after being dropped on the floor and our fast sex session I’m feeling slight pain in my ribs, I should be more careful really, these broken ribs will never heal otherwise.

I start to walk towards Lucy’s house when I feel her pinch me, 
‘Ow’
  I wince.

She’s frozen, she looks scared almost and she’s pointing at a different house where there is a man coming out and making his way to his car.

“That’s the man who took me away from mummy….”

Holy shit! She was kidnapped by someone who lives a few houses down from her and no-one fucking saw anything?

“What you staring at” Levi prompts.

“That man over there, she’s saying he took her”

We both stare at him and he catches us looking, I keep eye contact with him but the smug bastard gives a twisted smile, like he knows we know what we shouldn’t know but we do know and we can’t prove it. I mean after-all I can’t exactly tell the police that a dead girl pointed out her kidnapper with no proof can I.

“We have to go in there” I whisper to Levi.

He looks at me in shock “We can’t just walk into someone else’s house Robyn, that’s illegal….”

I look at him, “Yes I know that but we have to! Look, he’s leaving….”

His car leaves the drive way, as he drives pass he stares at us, I see the careless look on his face, he’s almost smiling at us, smug bastard.

“C’mon…” I grab Levi’s hand and pull him following Lucy.

“Babe seriously we can’t besides how the fuck are we going to get in”

Lucy manages to find the strength then to open the front window.

I smile sarcastically at Levi, “Like that” and climb through.

I can see Levi stood around outside observing the surroundings to see if the neighbours can see us climbing through the window.

“Hurry up” I call out.

Levi climbs through, I see the panic on his face and right now I find that comical, I’ve done this before, of course that was a more dangerous situation, I was young and alone and the man was a psychotic murderer, but seeing the terror on Levi’s face right now does make me chuckle inside a little.

“What are we looking for” he whispers.

I shrug “I don’t know, find anything you can”

We creep around the house quietly, I don’t know why; I guess it’s just in-case someone else is there in the house we don’t know about. I look through the house, it’s a right bloody mess, there’s crap all over the floor, tables and units, nothing is organised, just dumped.

“Robyn” Levi calls out.

It makes me jump and as I turn I hit a huge pile of clothes and books off the table and they all fall on the other bits of crap on the floor.

“My god you scared me don’t do….” I stop.

There on the table is a bag, it’s a child’s backpack, it’s open, I look inside and there are what I believe to be books for school.

“THAT’S MINE” Lucy shouts.

“Ok you don’t need to shout I’m right here”

I see Levi look at me and he guess I’m not talking to him. Lucy trails off through the walls, she seems upset but before I know it she’s back.

“Robyn come with me….”

She takes me arm and pulls me, how she has managed to grip me I don’t know, then again I’ve never understood ghosts in all this time, some can touch me, some can’t. She pulls me and I go smack into the wall and fall backwards.

“Oh my god you ok?” Levi comes to help me up.

“Ow that hurt, I’m ok, she forgets I can’t go through walls”

I scramble to my feet, falling as I trip over crap that is just everywhere and make my way through the hallway to the room. The door is locked. I push it but can’t get through. Why do people do that, try the handle, it’s clearly locked but then keep trying to open it, just silly I guess, but we all do it. I hear a click and the door swings open.

“Do I want to know?” Levi looks at me his eyes wide.

“No babe, just go with it” I smile at him as I shrug.

We enter the room, it’s like a study, it as a desk with a computer on it, chair and shelves with books on, this room is actually quite tidy compared to the rest of the house, but I don’t get why the door was locked.

I can see the computer is on sleep mode so I tap it to bring it on, to my horror what came up was something I was not expecting. There on the screen in-front of my very own eyes are CCTV images of three little girls in a very small and dark room. They are blindfolded and tied by their hands and feet all sat next to each-other.

My hand covers my mouth, in shock and to stop me throwing up all over the floor. I dare to think how old they are or what the fuck this sicko has been doing with them. I look over and Lucy is pointing at the floor underneath the desk, there’s a rug underneath and you can the miss-match floor boards where the join is a bit off.

I push the desk and there underneath is a door in the floor and an unlocked latch. I look at Levi in shock, we make our way down the stairs using our phones as light, it’s pretty dark.

“You know this man isn’t very fucking bright, no lock on his computer and no lock leading down here.”

Levi senses my disgust and sarcasm. 

“Babe, he hasn’t been caught for that girl and no-one suspects him so he must be good at something.”

Shivers go down my spine at the thought of it. We get to the bottom and have to bend down to fit, the top of this, well, hidden basement you would call it is very low, we follow the dim light, I’m guess this trail is leading us to another part of the house, when we get there, there they are three girls all tied up.

Bile rises in my throat and my eyes fill with tears, how someone can do this to three little girls is just sick, sick and even more fucking sick. I help the girls, they’re terrified bless them and I’m not fucking surprised. They all look like Lucy who is floating next to me looking just as sad.

“Is this what he did to you” I look at her.

“I don’t remember…..” she looks horrified.

Maybe even as a ghost you can block out a memory of something awful that has happened to you resulting in death, I most certainly would.

“Levi call the police”

He gets his phone out but pauses, “how will we explain this”

I look at him, “Uhhh, I don’t know just call them.”

I untie the girls and take them upstairs into the house; they are crying and holding on to me for dear life. Within minutes the police are there and this fucker hasn’t come home yet. They barge in and see me, Levi and three girls.

“Well, Miss Brooke, here we meet again”

Oh great, its fucking detective Shufflebottom whose name still makes me want to burst into laughter, surely with a name like that you go and change it by deed pole. 

“I found these girls in basement under the house, please help them….”

The police are around me, they act quickly and they find the room, the computer, files and files containing indecent images of children, the little girls tell them I saved them.

The detective looks at me suspiciously “Isn’t it odd how you again pop up in the scene of a crime like this…..”

I look back at him raising my eyebrows “Maybe so detective, but I couldn’t let what I saw lie and done my own digging, scumbags like this shouldn’t be able to get away with this shit and someone had to stop him so that’s what I did, now if you have a problem with it then arrest me other than that I’ve done fuck all wrong.”

Both Levi’s and the detective’s mouth fall open. They find enough evidence showing the man who lives here is guilty and they plan to wait around to catch him whilst other team members go to find him.

I leave the house, I have to go and see Lucy’s mum, I’m sure she will want to know that her daughter is at peace.

I get outside and I hear my name being called by that persistent detective.

“Ma’am….” he comes up behind me.

“Yes detective” I sound annoyed.

“I don’t know how you did it and quite frankly I don’t think I want to know, you have saved the lives of three little girls and their parents will not have to suffer the pain of losing their children, so for that I would like to thank you….”

My lip curls up in a slight smile and my inner voice is like 
‘I know dickhead.’  
I turn to leave.