The Devil and I: The Battle Within.

Ghosts Of The Past.

We didn't have to wait long, nine days after the note and bracelet David played his next move. I was sitting on the sofa with Harry curled up asleep on my lap with his feet on Morgan's lap when one of our windows smashed inwards and a rock came sailing through. I jumped up clutching Harry to me and he was suddenly awoke screaming at the loud noise and Morgan stood in front of us shielding us from the glass. No one was outside but there was a sign. Like a literal wooden sign, the post had been forced so deep in the ground the boards had be cracked. If I wasn't so on edge about David I would have thought that it was just a random attack, it was very uncommon where we lived but it didn't mean it couldn't happen.
"Emily take Harry upstairs?"
"Consider us gone."
I moved up those stairs so fast Harry looked genuinely shocked when I put him on my bed. He pulled at my hair, the way he used to when he was a baby when he was scared or felt threatened, he didn't pull it hard enough to hurt just hard enough to get my attention and to let me know he was scared.
"It's going to be okay Harry, I promise you."
He hugged me as if he was reassuring me instead of the other way around. I wanted to cry but I couldn't not in front of Harry. I had to protect him, I had to keep him safe. I put him under the covers and told him to rest that everything would be fine mama would watch over him. I looked out the window and saw Morgan walking around the garden seeing if he could see his brother, he saw me up in the window and he raised his arms and shoulders telling me he couldn't find him. I went to the kitchen and saw the sign David had left on the kitchen table. It read, "Elizabeth, come to me."
When I saw it I felt a pull deep in my soul I didn't know what caused it and I didn't like it. I put it down to fear. I took a picture of it with my phone before Morgan could destroy it like he did the note. I lay my hand on top of it but I couldn't see anything about it. When Morgan came back in he looked defeated. I knew he wouldn't find David, David didn't want to be found by anyone but me. Well not me but Elizabeth. I looked at Morgan and then back at the sign. I felt as defeated as he looked.
"What are we going to do Morgan?"
"I...I just don't know Emily."
I looked up the stairs and thought about how Harry would cope with the on coming storm of madness. We had to protect him, before it was easier because he was in me I could protect him from anything but now he was his own person, with his own ideas and his own view of the world. He was too young to understand who his father was and what his uncle was capable of. I didn't know what to do so I sent Newt a text telling him about what had just gone down,
Emily: David has left us a damn sign.
Newt replied almost instantly.
Newt: What kind of a sign?
Emily: Like a literal sign. A wooden one. Wait I'll show you.
I sent him the photo and he rang me.
"What happened? Are you all okay?"
"He smashed our window and scared the hell out of Wolf but we are fine."
"Oh God, I've been thinking about taking Lauren on a holiday so we are far from this."
"That is a good idea Newt, where are you thinking?"
He paused, I could picture his brain working to find the right words,
"Actually I think it's best you don't know, you know just in case."
I felt slightly hurt but I understood if it was the other way around I wouldn't tell him where I was taking my family for safety.
"That's fine Newt, take her away and keep her safe."
"We will be gone by tomorrow night, take care okay?"
"Don't worry about us."
I felt upset that my friend, my best friend, the guy who was like my older brother was being forced to flee England to keep his family safe from Morgan's twisted brother. I also envied him, I wish it was that easy so we could take Harry away but David was aiming his return directly at me. There was no escape. Morgan fixed the window with a simple wave of his hand, it was amazing to watch, each parts of the shards of the window melted back into the frame and it was fixed. It looked as if nothing had happened. I found the rock just under the sofa, there was nothing remarkable about it, it was just a common rock.
The next morning we all went to the cemetery to visit my mother's grave. I hadn't really been up since the funeral, I know my mother had never left me, not really, but I needed to be close to her body even for a couple of minutes. The body I was born from, the body I hugged when i was sad or tired or just needed her, the body of my mother. I held Harry's hand in one hand and a bunch of flowers in the other, Harry looked very grown up. He wore a look that understood the world and in his heart he held a belief that it was how he imagined the world to be. Morgan looked more like security, walking behind us but he held himself in a way that made it look like he was ready for a fight. My Mother's grave was clean just with the odd twig sticking in the pebbles and had plastic flowers on. It was quiet and the air was still. When Harry was born I had her gravestone changed from, 'beloved mother' to 'beloved mother and adored grandmother'. I had heard her over the years in my head telling me how proud she was of me and how she loved Harry, it seemed right. Harry faced the grave with some love in his eyes for the stone infront of him.
"Hello Grandma."
A small breeze moved past us and Harry smiled. Morgan stood behind us on the path, watching us but also looking around checking for David. I put the flowers next to her headstone, kissed my hand and placed it over her name.
"I'm sorry for not visiting like I should."
Harry pulled the twigs from the pebbles and bundled them into his pocket. I smiled at him and gently rubbed his head,
"You're Grandma adores you, you know Harry?"
Morgan walked up to me and pulled me closer to him,
"I need to tell you something Emily."
I looked at Harry and nodded,
"It's about Dolly."
"What about her?"
"I buried her here, I convinced her family to believe they buried her after she died after an accident."
"Where is she?"
He pointed to a small grove of trees where there was only one grave.
"Will you watch Harry?"
"Of course."
With every step towards the grave I saw flashes in my mind, memories of the Dolly I thought I knew. They weren't real, that's not who she really was. She was a pawn in David's game and she tricked us all into believing she was my friend, Newt's lover, when she was really bringing us closer to the fatal standoff that left her dead, Newt injured and Harry's birth traumatic but no matter what she had done I remember the girl who cried at Newt's bed when he had been stabbed at work. It had seemed so genuine, so heartbreakingly real. Her headstone was basic, I wondered about how it got there Morgan must have pulled in some favours. Dorothy Burnman. A name I never knew her as.
"Hello Dolly, I know you don't want my forgiveness but I give it to you. I give it with love."
I turned back to face my boy patting my Mother's grave, in the last moments of Dolly's life she had revealed David had promised her Harry because she couldn't have children herself. I could understand her, if I didn't have Harry I would be completely lost. It must have been horrible for her seeming me pregnant, getting bigger each time she saw me, doing something she could never do.
"I'm sorry Dolly. I'm sorry you weren't happy. I'm sorry you felt like you needed David in your life, I'm sorry I didn't know you properly."
I looked back at the grave once, I didn't want to see how she was buried or who had visited her I wanted to let her rest, I headed back to my boys. Harry saw me approaching and he ran to hug me, Morgan held back smiling at our son but when he looked at me his face said 'please don't be mad' but I couldn't at least he had done the decent thing and buried her, given her a proper place to rest where her family can visit and grieve her. I was proud of him.
"Let's go home."
When we got home I made Wolf empty his pockets. It made a nice pile.
"Why don't you put them in the garden Wolf? Make a nice spot for Grandma to visit?"
He smiled so brightly my heart leapt in my chest. My boy was so beautiful.
"That's a great idea mama!"
And he ran off into the garden returning when he realised he had left the pebbles and twigs. I laughed as Morgan walked back in, he wrapped his hands around my middle and put his head on my shoulder.
"You're not mad at me are you?"
I smiled and leaned back into him feeling his breath move my hair gently.
"Morgan, I love you, I am proud of your soul and how decent you are."
He held me tighter and kissed my shoulder.
"Who knew the Devil could do so much good?"
He laughed and I felt the vibrations from his chest on my back. In this moment I completely forgot about David and Elizabeth. I felt his eyes scan the room,
"Where's Wolf?"
"He is outside making a visiting spot for my mother."
"A what?"
I sighed contently,
"The stuff he took of her grave he brought home now he is putting them in the garden."
"Oh I see."
He left me and went to see how our boy was doing. I looked at my hands the red from the bracelet was nearly completely gone. I knew then that David didn't mean the end, there was a chance. A chance of us winning. Of us living through this. I felt that pull in my soul again but this time it touched my mind. It made me shiver.