Beating

Mary Wheeler

She has been stuck in her house for weeks because of the snow.No one can get in. No one can get out. She is alone. She has been for years now. Not because of the snow, but because of all the grief she has experienced damaged her beyond repair.Necessities are delivered by neighbors once a week. She repays them every other week. No one knows where she gets the money. Why dwell on something you will never know? She was a mystery to all. The lights in her house were always on and off at reasonable times. Her bills where always paid. In the spring her flowers bloomed, in the summer her lawn was always mowed, and in autumn the leaves were always raked. But no one had ever seen her do these things. In fact, no one had ever seen anyone do these things. The grief she experienced was the death of her husband, William, and her two children, Madison and James. A year after both children were killed after their barn caught fire William was in a carriage accident that took his life. After a while the gossip and rumors of an affair had finally got to her. She couldn't go anywhere without hearing whispers all around her. She locked herself inside of their huge house. That winter the grief and loneliness had finally got to her. She was losing her battle to keep her sanity after being locked in her house for so long. She could hear a noise. At first it was faint but as time went on it was all she could hear. She would scream and cry. Her migraines seemed to never go away. Waking up every day to the loud sound of a beating hear was unbearable. She was going insane. She began to think the sound was coming from the walls inside the house. She needed it to stop. It was so bad she thought of how nice it would be to never wake up again. She knew she had to find the source of the beating. She started to tear down and rip open the walls. Any time she thought she had found the spot she would tear through the wall to find nothing. After setting fire to many walls and even rooms in her house she stopped suddenly and touched her ear. Blood. Blood was running out of her ears. She dropped to the floor. Dead. Fire was consuming her house all around her. Her body was never found and neighbors lived their lives like nothing had happened.