Kitty and Ada- Short Stories.

7. To Catch a Killer

I waited in the dark. The only sound I could hear was my heart beating rapidly in my chest. I was cold. I was damp. I was shaking. Outside the world around me continued but I was trapped. I was caught. I was next.

Time seemed to slow down and I could count every second as I waited and waited. I was going to die and I had resigned myself to my fate. A year spent delivering messages from spirits and now I was going to join them in an unknown beyond. I was terrified of what would greet me when I passed on. Would I become like Ada's spirits, roaming the Earth in hope of finding a way to move on? I shuddered. How had it come to this? How did I get to here?

...

It had been so cold and foggy in the new year of 1901 that I had fallen ill, suffered from a terrible fever and had spent weeks in bed suffering with delirium. Ada had been good to me whilst I recovered from illness, bringing me soup and tending to my needs and fortunately she had avoided the sickness herself (though sadly she was suffering from her own kind of delirium) and I was soon back to full health and in good spirits. When I was finally able to leave my bed, and Nellie helped me into real clothing for the first time in weeks, I wandered downstairs, relieved to be able to walk and move my legs. I spoke to Mrs. Jessop the cook as she made me scrambled eggs in the kitchen.

"I'm so glad you're better now, Miss. Kitty. Mrs. Eltree has been rather..." she looked to make sure no-one was listening, "...odd."

"In what way?"

"I don't like to gossip, Miss. Kitty, but the mistress has been spending all hours in that spooky room of hers. When she wasn't tending to you, she locked herself away in there. I'm not sure she's been sleeping. Nellie told me her bed wasn't slept in at all last night."

When I cautiously broached the subject with Ada, she shook it off as a one-off occurrence and instead led the conversation to my awful fever. I cleverly steered it back to the messages that she'd been ignoring. My illness may have blocked my head for two weeks but now I was as clear as ever.

"Ada, I'm worried about you and I'm worried you've been ignoring something important with that message in your head. The woman screamed to you, that's what you told me before. I understand it's frightening and tiring for you but what if this woman is desperate for your help?"

Ada's eyes flashed with guilt for a moment and I sensed she agreed with me. "Maybe later, Kitty, there's much to think about. We'll discuss it thoroughly once you've recovered."

I left it at that for the day. She was using my illness as an excuse but I had never felt more alert. My mind was busy working, thinking of ways to help the woman in the message. Drastic times called for drastic measures and this was a drastic time. As soon as Ada left to attend a coffee morning with Cynthia, I used my time wisely and ventured into her bedroom.

I wasn't sure what I was looking for but I hoped I'd find something that might shed some light on her mysterious messages. In the bedside table under an upside-down photo frame of Robert was a small notebook. I opened it and a small crushed pink petal fell from its pages. I picked the petal up and placed it on the bedside table, thinking nothing of it. I turned my attentions to my task and to my joy I recognised the names written inside the book. On the first page it had notes about the unfinished melody and as the pages went on it described who had contacted her over the months- their names, dates, and even her feelings on the particular case. I had no idea Ada had been keeping track and making notes all these months and hadn't told me. As my eyes scanned over her handwriting, I tried not to read the secret passages which spoke of her feelings towards the situation and instead read only the need-to-know details. Her latest message- the one from the terrified woman- was on the latest page, written in rather a nervous hand, and it was something which shocked me immediately. I could now see that the reason Ada had been ignoring it was because she was terrified. Written in Ada's shaking hand was a man's name and underneath it was written 'MURDERER' in dark ink. I skimmed the rest of the page in horror but in my worry for what I had discovered, I ripped the page out, raced down the stairs and grabbed my coat and hat from the rail.