The Sixth Sense

Back to the Old House

"You must be Avery, I've heard so much about you," a tall man says as he embraces an awkward hug while the four of us are walking up to the front porch. "And you, Astrid."

Astrid makes it well known she does not want to be hugged and walks right past him, through the front door and into the house. Confused and slightly annoyed, the man turned back to me smiling, "I'm Rory."

"Ah the infamous new boyfriend I've heard so much about," I smirk looking over to Delia who clearly does not approve of my mom's taste in men.

"All good I hope," he says smiling oblivious to Delia's disgust.

My mom is looking at Delia like a ticking bomb and Delia's looking at Rory as if she needs a six foot pole inbetween the two of them.

"Of course," I don't think he can pick up the pure sarcasm in my voice or the amused glances I keep giving to Delia's reaction.

"And just know," he puts his hand on my shoulder looking more serious, "In order for us to grow as a family, we must break down that emotional wall. I'm always here if you need to talk. I will never think of you as less if you need to cry. We all need to cry sometimes, I'll be here to cry with you."

I almost let out a laugh, that is the most bullshit thing I've ever heard. I can already tell this guy is trying to get my whole family wrapped around his finger. It might work on my mom, but to hell if I'm going to let it work on me. I smile, condescendingly, as he pats my shoulder before going to grab bags out of the car for my mom and us.
As soon as he leaves, I look at my mom and Delia,

"Well he's uhm-," I pause, "a character."

"He's an overly stimulated manipulative man, whos thinks he can get whatever he wants by simply shedding a few tears," Delia butts in.

Mom sighs, rolling her eyes. It's clear she's heard this ramble from Delia before and doesn't have the energy to deal with it.

Rory comes up the porch stairs with a bunch of bags in his hands and walks into the house.

"Avery please do knock some dear sense into you mother," she says smiling, following him in quickly to make sure he doesn't touch anything.

As Delia leaves, I walk over next to mom who's leaning off the railing of the porch, looking over the hill.

"I know he can be quite," she pauses looking for the word, "dramatic sometimes. But it's been easier with him there. I mean he's been through things too, he gets it. He's knows how to calm me down, like the other day when I saw-," she stops mid-sentence, completely cutting herself off.

I look at her confused as she stops talking. She's hesitating, trying to come up with something else to say. Whatever she was just about to tell me, is something she didn't want to bring up.

"When you saw who, mom?" I eye her.

"Oh it's nobody- Well I really just mean-," she rambles trying to push off the subject.

"Mom," I say not believing her, "What happened?"

When dad died, the whole family stopped talking. Not necessarily basic talking but the support you're supposed to find in you're family circle was gone. Nobody told anybody anything anymore and we were never more far away from eachother then in that moment. That's why I don't like when things go unsaid. While Mom and I have gotten much closer over these past years, Astrid and I have never been so drifted.

Mom looks at me, knowing that lying is no use. That I'll be able to see right past it.

"He's back, in my dreams, in my head, everywhere. Popping up in random places at random times," she says cautiously eyeing me, "He's haunting me."

I knew instantly who she was talking about.

"Does this have something to do with what happened at your interview the other day?," I look at my mom already knowing the answer.

Mom had an interview to help a family with a haunting a few days back for her show. But something happened during the interview that day. She saw something, something that freaked her out. She had to stop mid-interview and leave the stage, something she's never had to do before.

"Yes," she says looking down, lightly looking back on that day, before looking back over the hill.

"Shit," I say a little worried.

My mom has come across a lot of interesting spirits and entities in her lifetime, good and bad. But her absolute worst encounter had happened when she was my age. When she had first moved to Winter River. She had just met her first  two spirt encounters, Adam and Barbara, who had lived in the house previously before her. But they weren't the issue. It was a certain demon that had clung onto them that was. One that really got to her. Mom has never told me his name. Says it's better that I don't know it, that saying his name is a curse. While he slowly became obsessed with her, he forced her into a signed marriage to stop Barbara and Adam from being exercised. Mid-wedding, mom managed to send him back to Other Side, thankfully. I can tell he really has my mom shaken up right now and that's the last thing she needs, more stress.

"Hey, don't let him get to you mom. If you don't give it energy, it'll die out, " I place my hand on her's and smile reassuringly.

She gives me a small grateful smile before Delia screams at us to come inside and talk about funeral plans. This is going to be a long week.