Wonderland

Curiouser and curiouser...

Nathan felt that he was going mad. The Shepzoy family house had become his own personal hell. He had grown to loathe every inch of it. The stench of death seeped out of the wallpaper. First Gabriel and his first wife Olivia, followed by his mother. And now it had reaped Charlotte from him too - she had died during childbirth. The fact that the baby had been stillborn only added to the tragedy. Nathan remembered when he had lingered in the old mill and demanded for the ghost of Clarity Winlove to tell him whether or not the baby in Charlotte's womb would be a blessing or a curse. Perhaps now he finally had his answer.

The insomnia that plagued him was relentless. Nathan found himself pacing the halls by lamplight. Whatever it was that he was searching for, it remained out of reach. Would he never find peace? Was he truly undeserving? He had the impression that the villagers were hoping for him to return to London. But what was there to return to? He certainly couldn't go back to his career as a psychologist, not in his current state of mind. He would only find himself in an asylum and what was left of his reputation would be in ruins. No, there was nothing for him in London, just as there was nothing for him in Shepzoy. He had no place anywhere, he was truly a lost man. Where else could he wander but the limbo of the hallways at night?

Nathan turned the corner and felt his heart leap up into his throat. The last thing he had expected was to come face to face with a strange woman. Her clothes were of a similar fashion to the woman with a book of light, except this woman carried no such book. As she stared at him  wide-eyed Nathan felt a surge of rage run through him. He was sick to death of being haunted by ghosts.

"What are you doing here? Away with you!" Nathan swung the lamp in front of him, "No ghosts are welcome here!"

The woman stepped back and held her hands up in front of her as if trying to placate him, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to intrude." She looked around in the dark, bewildered, "I don't even know how I got here..."

Nathan paused as his mouth pressed into a straight line and held the lamp up in front of her face, "Are you a ghost?"

"No. I'm not dead. At least I don't think I am...I'm pretty sure that I would remember dying." Her eyes bore into his in the dim light, "Isn't this a dream?"

Time seemed to stand still in the silence as they stared at each other. Nathan reached out towards the woman with a slow and deliberate hand, "Are you real?"

The woman didn't answer as she stretched out her hand, mirroring his action. It was their fingertips that touched at first, followed by their palms pressing into each other. Both jumped back as if they had been burned. Nathan brushed his thumb over the pads of his fingers. He had felt her soft skin, its warmth and the hard bones of her knuckles.

"You are real..." he murmured, almost to himself.

The woman cradled one hand in the other as she stared at him with disbelief, "You're as cold as ice! Are you sure you're not the ghost?"

The sound of creaking wood made Nathan look over his shoulder. Nothing. He turned back to face the woman and his body jolted without him wanting to. Also nothing. She was gone. Nathan let out a deep and tired sigh as he covered his eyes with his hand.

"I am losing my mind..."