Echoes

Chapter 4

After a few hours of restless sleep. Leah had some breakfast before going our for a long walk, needing to stretch her legs and take in some fresh air. Simon's words repeated over and over in her head. 

He'd been captured and tortured before being buried alive, but he'd escaped. Escaped to where? Did he go home? Did he have a family back in Manchester? Her stomach lurched as the thoughts collided. Did they come after him and kill his family?

"Oh my god" Leah said as she felt tears starting to form. "Did they kill his family and he couldn't stop them?" she whispered.

The thoughts froze her to her core. She herself had lost family members, but to have them murdered and not be able to do anything to stop it, she couldn't imagine what that would do to someone. It was starting to make more sense now, why he was stuck in this awful loop. Even after death, he was going back and re-living his worst nightmares. 

Leah headed back to the cabin and started looking up information about tortured souls and purgatory, wanting to understand as much as possible, but desperately looking for any possibility that someone could escape from this hell.

Much of the advice given, that didn't involve exorcism or banishing spirits, focused on getting the spirit to talk about what happened, even if it was traumatic. A couple of posts emphasised how, expressing the fears and difficult emotions from trauma, just as in life, was also healing for spirits. It would give them the chance to express what they couldn't in life and let go of any guilt or blocked energies, that prevented them from moving on. 

As much as this reassured Leah, she was worried about the effect this would have on Simon. In her heart, she knew that the only way to save him, was to get him to remember who he was and what had happened to him.

Leah spent the afternoon, airing out the decorated bedroom before setting up the new mattress and bedding. The thought of staying in pops' bedroom, still felt a little strange, but once she had everything made up and all of her things moved in, it actually felt more cosy and homely. Needing to still keep herself busy, she started baking some cookies before checking over her clothes for work the next day.

Over dinner, Leah checked she had her personal ID and military paperwork to get on base the next day and started making a list of what she thought she'd need for work. Planning her first day back at work, was a welcome distraction from her situation with Simon, and soon she was starting to feel the nervous excitement of starting a new job.

Later that evening as she was clearing up, she made herself a coffee and plated up a few cookies. When she turned to the table, Simon had appeared and was sat at the table. Not wanting to go straight into the hard questions, she greeted him warmly and sat down. "You only seem to come here at night. Is that the only time you can be here?" she asked with interest.

Simon looked up at her "It's quieter at night, that's when it's easier to escape and come here" he answered simply.

"Quieter? Is it noisy where you are?" she asked perplexed.

"I can't describe it. It's like there's lots of people talking at once and I can't think straight. When I'm in the grave, it's so quiet and I can think enough to be able to escape" he said sounding sorrowful.

"Do you know how long you've been there?" she asked, not really sure what else to say in response.

Simon shook his head "I don't know. I've lost track of time" he whispered.

"You know that you're starting to sound a lot clearer. It's like each time you come here, you're getting stronger" she said, unsure if it made any sense.