Afraid Of The Dark ✔️

10: Seeing Things

That night Katya had a disturbed sleep. Jacob was passed out on the sofa downstairs so she was alone in bed with only the warm glow of the candles to comfort her. She kept thinking of how the little girl in the old, squalid, abandoned house was her dead sister. How could it be possible? Katya was always unsure of the afterlife. Did ghosts exist truly exist?

Over the weekend Katya had tried to tell Jacob about what she had discovered. He dismissed her crazy idea and told her she was probably imagining it. When she asked him to visit the house with her he politely declined. She didn't know what was up with him. Maybe work was getting on top of him.

She got a phone call from Ida Sunday evening telling her she would be round to visit in a few days. Katya was over the moon. She hadn't seen her sister in four months and she had so much to tell her and hopefully she'd listen if she decided to tell her about Elsa.

***

Monday morning came around quickly and Katya found herself perched beside the toilet with her head in her hands. She had just thrown up and felt groggy. School started in an hour and she couldn't take time off when she had only been working there for a couple of days. Jacob had already gone into work and didn't seem bothered when she had told him she had been sick. He said it was probably something she ate over the weekend.

She went to school and felt better when she entered the class room. The children greeted her happily and she got stuck in with an art lesson. One of the children in her class reminded her of Elsa. Her name was Anna. She was a bit older then Elsa would have been but she had the same chestnut coloured hair and bright blue eyes. Every now and then she found herself staring at her as she painted different pictures.

After two hours Katya asked each student to join her at the front of the room and present their work to the class. The first boy to get up was Toby. He was eight and had painted a dramatic battle scene.

"Wow Toby." Katya was in awe at how a boy of such a young age had talent this good. Even if the picture was a bit inappropriate for school. He smiled proudly at the class and told a brief story of the background of the picture.

The next person up was Anna. She stood at the front sucking her thumb as she held the picture up with her other hand. She looked as if she didn't want to be standing in front of the class.

Katya knelt down beside her and asked what the picture was of. She looked even more like Elsa up close.

"It's a fairys castle in the woods."

Sure enough the painting was of a bright pink castle with a purple moat around it. Several fairies flew around in the blue sky.

"This is excellent Anna."

When Anna turned around to face Katya her features had darkened. Her eyes had turned black and her skin a deathly white. She giggled and Katya jumped backwards in shock.

"What's wrong Miss?" Anna's face was back to normal.

"Oh nothing Anna. I'm just so impressed at how good your picture is." Katya felt embarrassed and confused.

Am I seeing things?

At lunch she had to rush to the bathroom and was sick twice. She wiped her mouth and sat down on the lid of the toilet. Three hours left. She decided she would pop into the pharmacy on the way home.

It had started to snow outside. She was glad to be home before the roads had turned to ice. Jacob wasn't there when she got back. She sat down in the kitchen and got a pregnancy test out of her bag. She had taken a couple of tests since she was a teenager after having several scares when she had been involved in split condoms and once unprotected sex. Back then she was praying that the result was negative. But now she wasn't sure how she felt on starting a family.

She sat on the edge of the bath tub and counted down the minutes. It was five o'clock and Jacob still wasn't home yet. Why was he taking so long? She picked up the test and took a deep breath.

It read 'Positive'.

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