When Love Hurts and Ghosts Linger (4 page)

I brushed it off and carried on helping him pick up his things that were scattered all over the floor. 

This man was handsome; he had green eyes, dark hair, of muscly build and about six feet tall. We finished picking up all his things off the floor and he thanked me. 

This guy was thanking me and he was being so polite after I almost knocked him out, kind of sweet you would say and he took me by surprise. He didn’t seem like a dickhead like all the others I had met but I was cautious, I had been hurt over and over and I wasn’t ready to have my heart broken again. 

“I’m really sorry I hit you with the door, anyway, I have to go….” I needed to get to the library.

“It’s ok, wasn’t expecting anyone to come out of there” he smiled at me.

I smiled back and left and headed to the library. I had a name, an image, what I think was how this woman died and the clothes she was wearing, surely that was enough to try and find out who this woman was, so I went digging.

Sat in the library on the internet I searched for stories of dead people called ‘Amy’ and the search was enormous. 

Thousands of names came up, I never thought that this many people all over the world could die in such horrible circumstances, but even with all that information nothing stuck out as the information I was looking for. 

So tried another approach and typed in ‘woman committing suicide on the day of her wedding day’ I mean she had slit wrists and a wedding dress on, this seemed like a good guess.

The top search said 
‘Woman found dead in her honeymoon suit after her wedding reception….’ 
BINGO! I knew this was the one I was looking for so I clicked on it feeling curious as to what it said about her death.

‘Police officers were called to the King Fisher Hotel last night after a body was discovered in the bath tub of their honeymoon suite. Police identified the woman as Amy Clobber who was celebrating her wedding that day to Andrew Clobber at the luxury hotel.

Andrew stated he had left the room after his wife fell asleep on the bed and returned downstairs to the bar area, staff and other customers reported hearing a man scream not long after 12am and that’s when they found Mrs Clobbers body in the bath tub with a crying Mr Clobber next to her.

Police were called immediately to the scene where they interviewed and questioned all staff and customers, police have determined that the young bride committed suicide but so far no reasons have come up as to why….’

OH MY GOD! I couldn’t believe what I was reading, why would a woman commit suicide on her wedding day? It was so sad to read. Just then she appeared next to me out of the blue which caused me to jump and almost fall off my chair. 

It was so cold. Why was it always cold when they were around, I mean literally freezing, it wasn’t a nice feeling and sometimes it was so cold I would feel like I was being pricked with needles, why couldn’t they bring nice feelings of sun or warmth, always the bloody cold.

“He did this to me” she said low and saddened. 

I didn’t know what I was meant to do at this point, the paper said she had killed herself but this ghostly woman was implying something else, I had her name and her husband’s name but that was it, how was I supposed to find him? 

My computer screen started going crazy, like flickering really fast between images and pages that I couldn’t see anything, clearly she was doing this, I don’t know how but she was. When it stopped it ended up on a page of a business owned by her husband and an address which wasn’t that far away,
‘well aren’t you a clever ghost’
I thought to myself being a tad sarcastic. 

She obviously wanted me to go there and see him but what the fuck would I say? 
‘Oh hi you don’t know me but I’ve seen your dead wife?’
 Oh yeah I’m sure that would go down well wouldn’t it. I printed the information and left to go home.

On the bus on my way home my gut and my curiosity told me to go visit this guy. Why I don’t know but I guess inside of me I cared about this poor woman and I wanted to help actually I was being nosey, I wanted to know what happened.

I swapped buses and made my way there with the help of Amy and before I knew it I found myself outside his home, there I was looking up at this large house. I could see a woman doing the gardening and a man came out to kiss her. He had a new wife? I didn’t want to approach him I had a better idea; I was going to go to the hotel mentioned in the article.

In the hotel I went straight passed reception and headed towards the honeymoon suit. It was a huge hotel so no-one stopped you as they assumed you were a guest, unless you lingered then I suppose they would offer their assistance but I didn’t, I went straight for that room as if I was staying there.

Luckily the room was empty and with help I was able to get in without a key. I guess this woman really did want me to find out. As usual the room was cold and that’s because this bloody ghost was lingering around me, she wouldn’t go away.

“Show me” I told her, my voice trembling, I was so scared.

With one breath images flashed in-front of me of what really happened, like someone playing it out in-front of me as if it were happening right there, right then.

The room seemed to change as if I was being transported in time, there before me was this woman and her husband. I stood there frozen too scared to move in case the images disappeared. I didn’t know ghosts could do this and I wasn’t sure if it was really happening or if she was just planting the memory in my mind but I saw it as if it was happening right there and then.

‘She came through the door after looking for her new husband, she had been at her evening reception and he wasn’t with her, she seemed happy, she had just gotten married. She walked in and there on the bed was her new husband having sex with some woman. She screamed in horror as she witnessed him cheating on her. Next to them on the bed were piles of cocaine and alcohol. This woman was no-one she knew. Her husband jumped off her and the woman looked at the new bride with a glazed expression. She got up off the bed and warned the man that his debt was not fulfilled. The woman screamed at him, what debt? The man was a drug addict and had been messing with a gang and drug dealing for them. He wasn’t what he seemed, he was a criminal and to keep up with his debts he would regularly have sex with one of the drug dealers. His new bride was distraught and in a fit of rage during all the shouting and arguing he smacked her so hard she fell to the floor. Crying she stated she was going to report him and have him locked away but he couldn’t have this, he had more secrets; he gripped a knife, pinned her down and slit her wrists. Blood trickled out onto the carpet so he quickly picked her up and placed her in the bathtub allowing her to bleed out…. He had killed her to protect himself, the marriage was a cover up for his lies and it was never real. He cleaned the carpet to perfection, wiped the knife and placed it in her hands. He then cleaned up the drugs and anything else suspicious before leaving the room and heading to the bar….’

Holy shit! This woman was murdered because her husband was a lying, cheating druggy? How could someone do that? Just switch at the drop of the hat, I mean he must have been loving or something otherwise why would she have married him? 

I felt sick to my stomach. How did the police let this man go? I looked at her, she was still so very sad but I didn’t know what she wanted me to do, I knew how she died by I couldn’t exactly go to the police and tell them that some dead woman showed me that her husband murdered her could I. 

“What is it you want me to do?” I asked her.

“Show him and save her” her ghostly voice replied.

Right so basically she wanted me to go this man’s house to warn his new wife and show him that I know about this, exactly how the fuck was I going to do that? I was the only one that could see her.

“I need your help if I’m going to do this, look you brought me here which means you’re coming with me understand?” I demanded.

I left the hotel and the cold chill followed me, I knew she was there although for some reason she decided to hide herself, why I don’t know; no-one was exactly going to stop and shout 
‘GHOST’
 were they?

On my way to the house it started getting dark, I had been out all day and it was now turning into night, my parents were going to go bloody nuts but I had to help this woman, I was in too deep now there’s no way I could have turned away at this point. 

As I got to the street I bumped into that guy from the college, why did he have to be on this bloody street right then out of all the places he could be.

“Hello again” he prompted surprised and happy.

“Uhh hi….” I stuttered nervously.

“What brings you down here? Never thought I’d be running into you.” 

“Oh just visiting a friend….you?” I wasn’t going to tell him the real reason was I.

“I live here….just over there” 

Fucking great, he couldn’t live elsewhere could he. I felt a pinch on my arm and the coldness now went artic temperature which made me shiver and twitch where she had pinched me, I knew she was hurrying me along, bloody impatient ghost.

“Are you ok?” he asked noticing my change.

“Uhh yeah I’m ok, sorry I got to go….” And without an explanation I left, quickly.

I ran as fast as I could so no-one else could stop me, not that they would but I wanted to get this over and done with. 

Before I knew it I was outside this man’s house on the porch. I knocked but there was no answer so what did this lovely ghost do? Show me where the spare key was hidden. 
‘Of course there’s one there ’
my voice in my head stated as I rolled my eyes at this stupid coincidence. 

I let myself in, now, I’m not an expert but I’m pretty sure what I was doing at that point was in-fact illegal, nevertheless though, I carried on snooping through this guy’s house looking for something to pin on him and settle this, god knows what I was looking for but Amy was there helping me.

Amy was floating in and out of rooms faster than I could run behind her; I think she forgot I couldn’t go through bloody walls like she could. She led me to a wall that she had gone through and was clearly trying to tell me there was something behind it, but I’m alive so there was no way I was walking through it.

I looked at her in a 
‘duh’
 way “Uhh hello….I’m not dead there ain’t no way I’m….” before I could finish the wall moved and I fell through.

I looked and saw the candle that acted as the opener that Amy had pulled on as I was leaning against the wall “Yes, clearly that was easy wasn’t it.”

Looking around I was in some secret room that was hidden behind the wall, obviously this man portrayed one image to the world but secretly he was someone else and then I heard whimpering and some sort of like clanging noise, like metal touching metal.

“Will you stop that already I’m looking aren’t I?” I whispered to Amy trying not to make a peep.

But it wasn’t her; she looked at me with her clueless expression you know the 
‘what the fuck you on about?’
 look, so why could I hear as if someone was crying? 

I followed the noise and to my horror there was a woman chained to a radiator, gagged and blindfolded. I froze for a minute or so contemplating what it was I was looking at, it was as if I didn’t believe my own eyes but when I realised it was real I quickly went to help her, this is what Amy meant when she said save her, well, I'm guessing she did, I still don't know now.

“Oh my god, it’s ok, I’m here to help you” I whispered with fear and sorrow as I took off her blindfold.

“No you can’t be here he’ll kill us both” she warned me.

I could see the terror and tears in her eyes as she gazed at me hard.

“Where is he?” 

“I don’t know, please go…..” she begged me.

But I wasn’t going to leave her here tied up awaiting death, Amy wasn’t the only woman he had done this too and clearly he had no sympathy or morals. This man was a psychopath but what about his wife? Was she his wife? Did she know about all this? 

I pulled out my mobile phone and called the police who answered very quickly, as I was speaking with the operative I heard him come through the front door, SHIT!

This was not good, the wall that led me to this room was wide open so he would know someone was in there where they shouldn't be, I whispered to the police he was there to kill us, I didn’t put the phone down, I just hid it down my bra so the woman on the other end could hear everything.

“Ma’am, ma’am are you there? I’m sending someone over.”

I heard the voice on the other end of the phone talking so I quickly stuck my hand down my bra and turned the volume down, didn't want her voice speaking and him hearing it did I, fuck knows what was going to happen at that point.

“Hide, please hide please” the woman begged me as she whispered.

I could see she was whispering as to not give anything away that someone was there with her but I didn’t want to leave her so I hid under the desk, not a very good hiding place I know but where else was I going to go? 

I couldn’t run out could I because he would see me wouldn’t he, such a cliché, some murderer was walking up the stairs and instead of running outside and screaming for help I hid under the bloody desk where he can easily find me. I heard him come up the stairs, his big stomping feet rumbled on the floor boards. 

“WHAT THE FUCK” he shouted as he charged into the secret room.

The woman was still tied but her gag and blindfold had been removed by me and in a panic I didn’t put it back on. She was then able to see him and he could see something was not right. 

“Where are they?” he demanded as he grabbed her by the throat.

“I don’t know….” Her voice was strained where he was choking her.

“Well, now you’ve seen me I guess there is one thing left to do….” And he reached for a knife.