111 West End

Chapter Twenty-One: The Doctor

Doctor Arthur Bennet watched Ben and Georgie from the bedroom window, his disgust growing by the second. Ben Goldman was truly loathsome.

Arthur had tried to rid the house of Ben many times, but it proved to be a battle of wills neither was winning.

The day Ben brought the Ouija board into 111 West End was the ultimate insult. Arthur had taught the children to stay hidden and never bother the living. Emma and Joseph often played in the cellar, where the living rarely ventured—until he disturbed them.

*

Fifteen Years Earlier,

It was a complete shock when the Ouija board pulled Arthur from his favourite spot by the bedroom window, through the floor, and into the dining room below.

"Doctor, are you stuck here? Do you need my help?" Natalie asked as the cellar door rattled. "Ben, you try."

"I don't know what to say." Ben shrugged.

"Then say nothing," Arthur said. His eyes were inexplicably drawn to the board of letters and numbers.

"Arthur, do you realise this is no longer your house?" Arthur snapped out of his trance and glared at Ben. The man's arrogance was astounding.

"You can't ask him that?" At least Natalie showed a margin of respect. Arthur neither liked nor disliked her. If anything, he found it interesting that occasionally, when she was relaxed or drifting off to sleep, she could hear him speak. Not only that, but she saw the children's spirit lights, and heard Joseph's nervous taps. A tick the young man developed soon after his death.

"Why not?" Ben asked as the cellar door creaked open and two flecks of light emerged.

"Go back," Arthur yelled, shooing them away. Panic replaced his hatred of Ben as the Ouija board drew the children closer.

"This isn't working," Natalie said, rising from her seat.

A breeze from the open cellar door rustled Ben's hair. "I think he's here."

Desperate to end the interrogation and to protect the children, Arthur placed his fingers on the planchette and slid it to YES.

"Why are you here?"

S-T-U-C-K.

"You're stuck here?"

Arthur slid the planchette to YES.

"Why?" Natalie asked.

C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N.

"What does that mean?" Ben said.

"It means, STOP THIS!" Arthur yelled, hoping Natalie would hear him.

"Do you want to leave this house?" Natalie's tone of voice was patronising. This house had been his home for two centuries.

NO.

"Do you like being here?"

YES.

"Why?"

Surely it was obvious. M-Y-H-O-U-S-E.

"This is bullshit! This is my house! You're dead. You had your chance, and you blew it. I want you out!" Tough!  Arthur would see Ben go first, just like everyone before him.

"Ben!" Natalie yelped as Arthur slid the planchette across the board in a rage.
L-E-A-V-E.

Natalie leapt from her seat, severing her connection with the board and freeing Arthur.

"Children, hide," Arthur yelled, and the two flickers of light shot through the ceiling.

What happened next, Arthur could never have predicted. After years of neglect, the glass roof finally cracked. Rain trickled in and dripped onto the terracotta tiles below. Natalie stood in front of Ben, holding his keys behind her back. Caught up in their argument neither noticed the growing puddle, until Ben lunged to grab his keys. In the blink of an eye, Natalie slipped. Her attempts to save herself proved futile. This, Arthur realised, was her time.

Frozen with fear, Ben stood at the top of the stairs. It was a moment that would define the man, and as Arthur suspected, Ben Goldman was a coward and a liar.

*

"Arthur." Joseph appeared beside him. "Can we help Georgie?" The boy frowned with concern.

Arthur shook his head. It wasn't right to interfere with matters of life and death. Who knew what the outcome would be? They may break some cosmic law with dire consequences. Arthur still didn't understand how or why the children remained stuck in 111 West End. He stayed trapped because he ended his life before his time. The children died from illness, which made little sense.

Two centuries passed with no white light or exit, so Arthur took on the role of carer for the children, as he had in life.

"He will murder her if we do nothing." Joseph tapped on the bedroom window. Tap... Tap... Tap.

"Please, Arthur," Emma begged. "Save her."

Arthur turned to the window. The light from the parlour stretched across the melting snow, towards Natalie's shallow grave, and he considered the children's request. With a sigh, Arthur said, "No. We cannot interfere."