Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series (51 page)

   “Mmm. I forgot just how good these things are,” Victoria compliments.

   “I'm a believer,” Caroline answers before taking another bite.

   “You have anything planned with your friends after the pep rally Friday?”

   “Not sure,” Caroline covers her mouth while still chewing. She swallows and takes a sip of her Dr. Pepper.

   “I'm probably going to Becca's house on Saturday though. Why - what's up? You need me to disappear for some action?”

   “No,” Victoria picks up a french fry. She points it at her daughter, “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

   Caroline grins coyishly, “Just checking.”

   Victoria shakes her head and then holsters her french fry weapon into her mouth.

  
Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap-tap.

   Victoria nearly chokes on the partially chewed french fry as she inhales.

   “Did you hear that?”, she questions.

   “Hear what?”, Caroline's ears are filled with the crunching of pickles inside of her mouth.

  
Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap.

   “That,” Victoria whispers as her nerves begin to get the better of her.

   “Huh?”, Caroline answers. She doesn't understand her mom's joke.

   “It sounds like someone's running upstairs on wooden floors,” Victoria attempts to explain the strange tapping.

   “Our floors are carpeted,” Caroline points out an obvious fact, “And I don't hear anything.”

   “Hee-hee,” a child laughs loudly.

   Caroline's eyes widen. “But I heard that,” she whispers like her mother, “There's a kid in our house.”

  
Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap. Slam!

   Both ladies jerk as a door slams shut upstairs. Victoria points towards the back door.

   “Get out,” she commands, “I'll go see what's going on.”

   “No freakin’ way,” Caroline objects, “I'm not leaving you in here by yourself. You can forget it.”

   Victoria understands her daughter's concerns. She stands up and holds out her right hand. Caroline stands and joins her by taking hold of her. The two of them walk out of the dining room towards the rear door. When Victoria unlatches the deadbolt, she feels like someone is looking at her. Caroline nudges her back.

   “Mom,” Caroline's tone is barely audible.

   Victoria turns and freezes with her disbelieving stare. A little girl stands down the hallway by the staircase. She is holding a stuffed kitten.

   “That's my cat,” Caroline admits quietly while watching the transparent-looking girl down the hallway.

   Victoria stands speechless. She knows for a fact that the dress the child wears is an old dress her daughter wore whenever she was three years old. It's unmistakable. The white and yellow patterns are a design Victoria made back when she still had hopes of becoming a fashion designer.

   “Mommy, I'm scared,” the child speaks while hugging the stuffed kitten tightly against her chest.

   Victoria's shaky left hand covers her mouth.

   “Mommy?”, Caroline doesn't understand, “It thinks you're it's mommy.”

   “Caroline, it's you,” Victoria utters the horrifying words from her lips.

   “Me?”, Caroline tremors with fear, “I'm here.”

   “Grrr,” a deep guttural tone growls from upstairs. The child glances upward.

   “Mommy, the bad man wants to play.”

   Caroline and Victoria watches as the transparent child disappears behind a dark passing shadow. They hear a child's scream. When the shadow disappears, the child is gone.

   “W-what in the hell was that?!”, Caroline yells out.

   “I - I don't know,” Victoria answers in a calm way to help keep her daughter together. Victoria's eyes stares down the empty hallway.

   “That's just freakin’ great,” Caroline throws up both of her hands before landing them on her hips. “Our house is all
Paranormal Activity
,” she references a movie she has seen. She shakes her head, “I'm not sleeping here.”

   “There must be a rational explanation to all of this,” Victoria addresses her daughter's concerns.

   “Don't even try it,” Caroline counters, “When people do that in the movies, they die.”

   “This isn't the movies,” Victoria parries, “It's real life.”

   “And exactly where do you think they get the ideas for movies like that?”, Caroline objects to her mother's reasoning.

   Victoria pauses. She can clearly see the fear within her daughter's eyes. It's the exact same kind of fear she feels. But she must do everything she can to be the voice of reason. Panic never blossoms a solution other than running.

   “This is our home, Caroline,” Victoria speaks.

   “It needs to be put on the market,” Caroline's tone calms somewhat.

   “Are you going to leave?”

  Caroline staggers a deep breath before exhaling. She shakes her head.

   “I'm not leaving you here by yourself,” Caroline reveals her intentions, “I’m just freaked out. I wouldn't abandon you like that.”

   “We can go to a hotel if you want,” Victoria offers her daughter an escape for the night.

   “If it happens again,” Caroline says, “And I mean if I hear so much as a creek, we’re outta here.” She hugs her mom. She knows her mother is worried. And she, also, understands that her mom doesn't have that kind of money. It wouldn't be fair for Caroline to place her into a financial struggle by renting a hotel room for no telling how long. Especially, over some stupid ghost.

   Caroline steps back so she can look at her mom's face, “Besides, I've never heard of a ghost hurting someone in real life. That's just movie stuff. I’m pretty sure that would be like world news or something.”

   Victoria smiles appreciative of her daughter's attempt to relate to her reasoning. But the truth is, Victoria has patients who claim they have been harmed by spirits before. And now, she's not so sure that they haven't been telling her the truth all along. At the very least, she now questions the doubt she once carried concerning their claims.

   “You can sleep in my room if you want to.”

   “No,” Caroline shakes her head, “It sounds good when I don't have a mattress. But now it just sounds strange. I think I'd rather deal with the little girl ghost. I’ve never had the opportunity to talk to myself without feeling all weird about it.”

   Victoria attempts a smile, but her nerves keep it from forming completely.

   “Love you, mom,” Caroline leans in and pats her mother on the back with a semi-hug.

   “Love you, too,” Victoria returns the hug.

   Caroline steps back, “I need a bath. Maybe I can wash off the creepiness in the water.”

   “I might try that myself.”

   Caroline smiles for her mother’s benefit before heading towards the hallway. Victoria watches her daughter briefly pause to look up the staircase.

   “Alright you little brat!”, Caroline yells out, “You try that crap again and I'm calling a priest to exercise your little ass!”

   Victoria smiles as her daughter looks at her with a wink. She watches Caroline boldly march up the stairs.

   “You okay?”, Rebecca's voice questions over Caroline's smartphone.

   “Yeah. It was freaky though,” Caroline admits.

   “Now what did Tamara say?”, Caroline questions in order to change the subject before spooking herself out again.

   “She said she's clueless as to why the bond was broken. And I can't find anything in the book about it. It doesn't mention anything like that.”

   “Huh,” Caroline ponders, “That's weird.”

   “Not as weird as some kiddie ghost trampling around in your house,” Rebecca counters while brushing out her long blond hair.

   “Don't say that,” Caroline chastises her bff's horrible joke, “I'll never go to sleep.”

   “Ha-ha-ha. Sorry. Couldn't resist.”

   “One extra sounds good on the invites,” Caroline confirms the real reason for Rebecca's call.

   “Sounds like a plan then,” Rebecca agrees, “I'll have them ready when I pick you up in the morning.”

   “Okay.”

   “Bye love,” Rebecca closes her call.

   “Kisses back at ya,” Caroline ends her call by pressing on the screen belonging to her smartphone. She slips down into her covers and pulls them up to her neck. She doesn't like the bedroom light on, but there's no way she's going to sleep without it. Caroline closes her heavy eyelids. It seems the Tylenol P.M. is at least doing what it's supposed to do.

   “Veeek-tor-riaaaahhh,” a whisper calls through the blackness of the doctor's darkened room. She moves her head to the left within her slumber.

   “Veek-tor-riahhh,” the guttural tone increases its beckoning volume to just above a whisper.

   The doctor movers her head from left to right. Beads of sweat form on her forehead. The water drips onto her pillow.

   “Veek-torr-riaaahhh,” the whispers join with the sounds of growling.

   “No,” Victoria quietly calls out in her sleep, “Leave us alone.”

   She rolls over on her left side and whimpers while the deep sleep pulls her back into its mighty grip.

   “Mommy!”, a child's voice yells out, “Wake up!”

   Victoria turns onto her back and sits straight up. Her sudden movement is accompanied by a loud gasping sound like she has been kept underwater for too long. She rubs her neck. It's really sore. Victoria gets out of bed, turns on the lamp sitting in her nightstand, and glances over to her mirror. Her eyes widen.   

   Victoria barely notices the red finger marks on her neck as she makes her way over to her dresser. She reads the word on her mirror instead. It reads:
Viktoria
. She steps back and looks down at the floor. The top belonging to her red lipstick has been removed and the lipstick is smashed flat into the carpet.

   “Sheee izzz miiiine,” a deep voice calls from the back end of the hallway leading to Caroline's bedroom.

   Victoria covers her open mouth with both of her hands.

   “Eh!”, a loud grunt echoes from the hall into Victoria's room. It's Caroline.

   Victoria lowers her hands and runs towards the evil presence emanating from the hallway. She doesn't care. This is her daughter. Victoria swings open Caroline's bedroom door. She stops.

   “Mommy,” a child's voice speaks quietly from the direction of Caroline's dresser. Victoria glances to her right. The little girl ghost is pointing.

   “The bad man took us.”

   Victoria visibly shakes as she looks back to her daughter crouched in the far right corner of the room by her bathroom. Caroline is crying while she digs her fingernails into her left arm. Victoria notices blood dripping onto the floor as she dashes over towards her daughter.

   “Caroline! Stop it!”

   “Mommy,” the little girl ghost speaks out.

   Victoria stops just short of her daughter. She doesn't know how she understands this girl's intentions, but she does. The little girl is trying to help. Victoria steps back from her whimpering daughter in the corner while she digs her nails into her arm. The woman turns and looks at the ghostly apparition.

   “Mommy,” the spirit speaks again, “We died.”

   Victoria begins sobbing as she watches the child change into a white mist that continually breaks apart until there is nothing left to see. She hears Caroline begin to laugh. Victoria turns her attention towards the sounds of many rushing waters. Her daughter's strange laugh is intermingled with many various tones. Yet it is clear, the dominant voice is male.

   Victoria takes a step forward, but stops her approach whenever Caroline begins sniffing at the air like an animal. Caroline pauses to cock her head curiously. Victoria's lips tremble as she watches blood drip down her daughter's face. On closer examination, however, Victoria realizes her daughter's forehead contains a word. It is a word that instantly angers her…
Mine
.

   The doctor doesn't know God, but she will not bow before this thing attempting to steal her daughter away from her.

   “God help her!”, Victoria cries out within her desperation.

   “Noooo,” many voices sound as if they have been harmed. To Victoria's horror, Caroline stands upright as though she were a puppet pulled by its strings.

   “You can't make us leeeave, Veeek-tor-riaaaahhh.”

   Caroline collapses to the floor and pants like a tired animal caught in a trap.

   Victoria wipes the tears from her eyes.

   “We
will
figure this out,” Dr. Evans comforts while gently placing his right hand on Victoria's left shoulder.

   Victoria listens to her daughter yell out obscenities at the mental ward's orderlies. She watches Caroline struggle against the restraints holding her to the gurney.

   “Would you like to ride with her?”, Dr. Evans questions his boss.

   Victoria shakes her head, “I can't. I won't be able to go through with it.”

   The traumatized woman sighs while wiping her eyes again. She forces a faked professional smile, “I'll meet you over there.”

   “I will personally see to it that she is well cared for.”

   “I know, Jason,” Victoria turns away from the scene by the ambulance, “That's why I called you.”

   She walks towards her house. Her mind is numb. She is lost. And worse than anything else, Dr. Victoria Reynold's has no remedy for her daughter.

    Dr. Evans looks up. Victoria walks down the hallway. He meets her halfway.

   “She's been sedated,” Dr. Evans informs.

   “I need to see her,” Victoria demands calmly.

   “Of course,” Dr. Evans turns and begins walking, “She's this way.”

   Victoria follows the doctor to a set of double metal doors with a glass security room to the right.

  
Buzz...click-click.

   Victoria enters the psychiatric wing of the hospital. She follows Dr. Evans to the third door on the left. He swipes his security card and steps aside.