The Shattered Soul

The Landing

Amy tossed and turned in her bed, trying to keep her restless body still, trying her hardest to shut off the world but failing. As she tuned to her side, facing the bedroom door, she heard a soft crying noise coming from the landing. They were the same soft sobs she heard last night, and the night before that. She knew it wasn't her little sister Judy because she went to bed hours ago and would be sound asleep by now. It wasn't her parents either because they were still downstairs going over the cases they had coming up. Wondering if her mother could hear the soft crying too, she pulled her covers aside. Cold air hit her body as she slowly lifted herself out of bed, placing her feet firmly onto the floor, careful not to make a noise.

The room was dark with just enough light peeking in from under the door and Amy was grateful that Judy was still young enough to need the landing light on. It wasn't that Amy feared the dark, she feared the things that only she could hear and see, apart from her mother, but Amy never told her that she could possibly have the same gift.

A gift. That is not what Amy liked to call it, she would say it was more like a curse. She didn't ask for this, nor did she want it and she saw the effects it had on her mother. How sometimes when they went out grocery shopping her mother would end up having a vision in the middle of the pasta aisle, completely sucked into her vision and everyone would just stare. Amy didn't want that, especially now she was in her last year at school. The kids in her class already thought she was weird for having "famous" parents and for doing what they do, she didn't need any more weirdness added.

She took careful steps towards the door, turning the handle and very quietly opened the door, trying not to make it squeak. Of course it did, causing Amy to curse her dad in her mind for not fixing it like he promised. She paused for a brief second before opening the door a little wider. The bright light on the landing hitting her eyes, making her flinch before she proceeds to poke her head out.

After hearing the sobs for a few nights this was the first time Amy was brave enough to get up and investigate. Pushing her body out through the door she looked up and down the landing, but couldn't see anything. Suddenly the crying got louder, but it felt like she was only hearing it in her head. Confused that she could hear but not see anything Amy closed her eyes. She wasn't sure why, but she remembered this is what her mother does sometimes when she is trying to sense something, or someone. As she closed her eyes, she could see trees, like the forest near her house and she even felt a soft breeze of wind travel through her long brown locks. A few seconds passed and the sobbing stopped, leaving her with only the sound of her heartbeat pounding in her ears. 

Amy opened her eyes and let out a small gasp, shooting her head around to make sure what she was seeing was real. Her eyes widened as she looked at the trees surrounding her, looking down at the twigs under her feet, moving them slightly with her foot making them snap. She was in the forest, her eyes darting everywhere she started to wonder how on earth she ended up here from the landing? Not brave enough to walk Amy stood still, trying to control her breathing and completely unsure of what to do next.

A soft "Hello?" left her lips, but there was no reply. All Amy could hear was the sounds of branches hitting each other in the soft breeze. Feeling a bit braver, she opened her mouth to call out again, the sound of a rope swinging from behind stopped her. Feeling all the muscles in her body tighten she slowly forced herself to turn around, hoping that when she would do so she'd see the landing again. Amy's body started to tremble at the sight of a black haired woman swinging from the branch by her neck. She gulped loudly and stepped backwards, keeping her eyes on the dangling corpse while trying to see if the woman's eyes were open or closed.

Her fear grew and Amy took another step back, hearing the snaps of the little twigs under her feet. She had heard things, seen things, but this was the first time she ended up elsewhere. "Did I fall asleep on the landing?" she thought as lightly pinched herself to make sure this wasn't real. Not feeling anything she figured there must be a way to escape this somehow.

Amy quickly turned her head when she thought she heard someone whisper her name, but there was nothing there apart from trees that went on for miles. Turning back around again her eyes widened when she saw the hanging woman had disappeared.

"Amy?"

Amy startled, sucking in a sharp breath as she felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned around as quick as she could.

"Amy? what's wrong?"

Amy's eyes darted around her mother's worried expression and then to her surroundings. She was back in her house, on the landing. There were no more trees surrounding her, no twigs snapping underneath her feet and she couldn't feel the cool breeze blowing through her hair.

"Nothing, I was just going to the bathroom" she lied, but she knew that the slight stutter that came with her words her mother was not going to believe her.

Amy watched her mother's worried eyes examine her face and then for a brief second behind her before she looked back at her daughter again.

Could her mother have sensed something? she thought, but none of them said anything.

"Lorraine, could you also grab the Hunters case file, I think it's in the bedroom"

Amy's dad shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

"Okay Hun." her mother replied, never taking her eyes off her daughter.

The landing filled with silence and Amy knew she had to tell her mother. Tell her about how for a while she had been seeing things, things that frightened her, haunted her, and followed her around. Going to a Catholic school Amy knew that some of the Nun's she saw lurking around the halls were not all alive anymore, they had been once, but now their memories lived on in memorials at the school.
A few weeks ago, one of them tried to call out to her, but Amy got scared and ran into the girl's bathroom. Hiding away like a frightened child, she made herself small on the seat in one of the toilets and prayed to anyone that would listen that it would leave her alone. But it didn't, it waited outside the cubical, tapping its dead foot impatiently, calling out to her. COME OUT AMY, I KNOW YOU CAN SEE ME!" it shouted as Amy covered her ears and shut her eyes tightly, feeling the room temperature drop.

Just as her mother was about to speak a bedroom door opened, startling them both.

"Mummy? what's going on?" a sleepy Judy yawns out as she peeks out her bedroom.

"Nothing. I'm just going back to bed. Night." Amy lets out.

She quickly tries to make her way back to her bedroom when her mother stops her by grabbing her arm.

"I thought you needed the bathroom?"

Amy tried to come up with another lie or excuse, but too many lies had already been told and Amy couldn't keep up.

"Hun, what's taking so long?" Amy's dad puffed out as he approached the top of the stairs, his eyes immediately drifting to his wife's hand on his daughters arm.