The Aftermath

Chapter twenty seven

Thomas felt his face grow pale the people he guessed to be the new owners had finally shown up. He watched from the attic window as they all got out of the carriage the boy with the sandy hair, the man with the dark hair and then there was the girl: Thomas inhaled a deep breath and stared incredulously at her. It is Edith he thought as he looked down at her.

Though the girl looked no older than 20 she was the spitting double of Edith, Thomas disliked this. He didn't want to see Edith after he knew he had led her to love Alan. Alan McMichael... The name churned his stomach, why out of all of the people in the world did Edith decide to love that man. Had her affection for him all been a lie, did she not love Thomas back.

However this girl she looked like Edith had the first time they had met, the way she held herself, the way her hair looked under the light even the way her lips moved when she talked. It was Edith, he knew it had to be Edith. The girl was having a conversation with the dark haired man, which confused Thomas. They both looked up to where Thomas was and he shrunk back into the shadows where there was no chance they could see him.

Thomas wandered back to his work bench with his trinkets out on display. Looking down at bench he couldn't see clearly, it was like his mind had become foggy. Thomas' heart was pounding and he felt like there was a weight on his chest and he realised he was scared. Scared to see Edith? He shrugged off the idea but as he thought about it again he realised something. He realised that he wasn't ready to see Edith, he especially didn't want to see her happy; after all he had been miserable for the last 19 years.

As he paced the room he couldn't shake the feeling that something about this was wrong, like he had missed something big. Thomas wished he could sleep, he wished that a tidal wave would carry him into the dark abyss. He knew there was no point trying because sleep wasn't the same for someone like him.

There was a slam of the large front door and Thomas could hear the new habitants talking from downstairs, he picked up the accent straight away, American. After everything in his life he knew nothing good came from an American Accent; Ashton, Edith, Carter Cushing, Eunice and the worst of all... Alan. Now there was these new people walking around his house all American by the sounds of it and it gave him the chills - if ghosts could even get chills.

Thomas locked the attic door and sat down resting his head on his hand. He noticed something then, something he hadn't noticed before; the house it's seemed to be breathing again, like it had been brought back to life. Thomas didn't know what to think, he thought the house had stopped doing that after he and Lucille had died, he must have just never noticed it properly before. After all being stuck in the same place for almost 20 years, never being able to do anything can really make you disinterested in your surroundings.

He could hear laughter drifting up the stairs, the house still seemed to be breathing and he couldn't figure out why. Maybe it was because the people who were in the house were alive unlike the rest of the people trapped there who were all dead. This made sense he thought, that's why the house is alive, because the people are also alive.

Thomas debated on leaving the attic to find out more about the people, but after what seemed like hours he thought nothing of it and sat back down to try and fix one of his broken inventions. He closed his eyes and tried to think of something, anything.

Thomas was sitting down on his bed Edith was standing opposite him. It had become a tradition of sorts for him to show her what he was working on before they went to bed. He liked showing her his ideas, something made him feel safe about it. He loved the way she seemed to be genuinely interested in what he was doing, when she suggested things he could add or change made him believe that she actually cared.

Looking up at her he couldn't help but feel like a hole that had been missing from his heart, had finally been filled. Edith's hair was down and no longer in an intricate up do, it flowed down to her waist. Her soft golden hair in waves that cascaded down, Thomas wanted to look at it for days, The way it looked different under different lighting.

"Thomas you are staring. Is something wrong?" Edith seemed concerned and he wondered if she knew how beautiful she was like this.

"You look so beautiful" he breathed reaching out to brush some of her hair off her shoulder. "With your hair like this especially"

Edith stared incredulously at him for a second before placing her hand upon his shoulder and kissing him softly on the corner of his mouth. She questioningly looked at him almost asking if she could kiss him again. For the first time he wanted this more than he wanted anything else, he felt comfortable with her in a way he had never felt with anyone else before... Not even Lucille.

Thomas didn't nod in approval like Edith wanted him to. Thomas instead wrapped his arms around her lower back bringing her closer to him and kissing her slowly and steadily. Every touch shared between them left a trail of fire on their skin. Thomas knew in this flurry of intimacy between them that he loved Edith. Something Thomas thought he wasn't fully capable of, something inside of him that he thought was broken, yet it seemed to be happening - he was falling in love.