𝓡𝓔𝓥𝓔𝓡𝓘𝓔 - 𝓟𝓔𝓐𝓚𝓨 𝓑𝓛𝓘𝓝𝓓𝓔𝓡𝓢

2

April 19th, 1909-

"Maura darling," Polly calls. "Go and get your mother please"

"Where did she go?" Maura shouts back.

"The Cut,"

Maura takes her coat from her aunt who makes sure it's buttoned up and she's warm enough to step out into the streets. Spring had only just arrived which meant there were still bites of the winter air around.

The young girl rushes through the streets, wanting to get out of the cold as soon as possible. The young girl walks under the bridge to the spot where they would sit after she returned from school.

She looked to see her mother floating face down in the water, her arms spread wide like an angel.

"Mum?"

Maura felt a deep pit in her stomach but she tried to push it away, hoping that her mother would pop up and laugh which she liked to do. When Maura would return from school either on Arthur's shoulders, clinging to Tommy's back or hand in hand with John, her mother would pretend to be asleep and then would pop up making her children jump.

Her mother doesn't move and Maura reaches her arm out her fingers just brushing her wrist. The young girl lies flat on her stomach, digging her feet into the dirt, before reaching her arm out. She gets a firm grip on her mother's wrist, pulling her closer.

Maura turns her mother over and instantly wishes she hadn't.

Cara Shelby's once fair skin was a haunting shade of blue. Her once blush pink lips were now purple and her eyes were wide and the once white was now blood red.

Maura screams, scrambling back from her mother's corpse.

The child's scream came from a place of terror, telling of a mind lost in absolute fear. Were she an adult there would have been a logical thought process, a race to try and revive her mother but seeing as she hadn't even lived for a decade, her mind was warped with terror.

Nineteen year old Freddie Thorne Thorne was walking along the bridge above the cut with his thirteen year old brother when a loud, terrified scream fills their ears.

There is a calling in the scream of a child that awakens the inner hero of a person to action as the brothers run to the source of the scream.

Freddie and Edward were expecting many things as they headed under the bridge but what they hadn't expected was an inconsolable nine year old Maura Shelby.

"Maura," Edward rushes over to the young girl who was screaming, her eyes not seeing him.

Freddie turns to look at what had caused Maura so much terror and an audible noise of shock leaves his lips.

Edward manages to wrestle Maura into his arms, pressing her face into his chest as to hide her eyes from the corpse of her mother.

"What the bloody-"

Charlie Strong runs to where the two children and the young man were under the Cut and his eyes drift to the figure in the water.

"Maura found her," Freddie says. "I don't know how long either of them has been here"

Charlie nods, staring at the body his eyes showing a sadness of a love lost.

Maura walks through the door, Edward holding onto her tightly as she stumbles.

"Good lord!" Polly exclaims. "What happened?"

"Polly," Freddie says. "Let's talk in the kitchen. Ed, get her in front of the fire"

Maura feels the warmth of the fire on her skin but no matter how warm her body was, she couldn't stop shivering.

The funeral for Cara Shelby was a sombre affair, all of the children attended except for Maura who had adamantly refused. She had kicked and cried at her aunt who eventually caved, leaving the young girl alone.

The bright, carefree young girl who would dance with her brothers and play dress up with Ada was gone. Her eyes were haunted and she seemed to be a ghost within the Shelby household.

Whenever the family would sit and eat, Maura would pick at the food. She eat just enough to keep her functioning but eventually, she would zone out, staring at the wall.

Tommy was heartbroken over his mother's death but what hurt him more was that his baby sister was the one who had discovered her. That she was now a shell of the girl he knew and loved.

It was like she was a stranger in her own home. She couldn't sleep, any moment her eyes closed she was plagued by night terrors which would wake the entire family as the inevitable screams followed.