Lost Souls

3

Katie's heart had just about stopped threatening to jump out of her throat, when the rest of the Rusk family burst into the bedroom.

"What's happened guys?" Michael Rusk asked, as he ran towards Amber, who was now wrapped tightly in Katie's arms.

Katie brushed Amber's hair out of her tear stained eyes, and kissed her nose before she answered. "Amber was coming out of the bathroom, and thought she saw something at the foot of her bed."

"It was a girl daddy." Amber sniffed loudly, as she rubbed a hand over her tear stained cheeks.

"A girl!" their mother responded, shocked at what she'd just heard.

"I think it's just tiredness mum," Katie offered by way of explanation.

"Amber. What do you say honey? Are your eyes just really sleepy? Nobody's in the house except us," Mrs. Rusk said softly as she sat beside the two girls and stroked her youngest lovingly on her forearm.

Amber turned to face her mother, and pointed with a shaking hand. "No. I saw a girl standing right there."

Everyone followed Amber's tiny finger to roughly the spot where she was adamant she'd seen the girl. Katie more than most fully expected to see something, but breathed a huge sigh of relief as all she could saw was empty space.

"What was the girl wearing sweetheart?" Mrs. Rusk asked, trying to distract Amber's attention away from where she continued to point nervously.

Amber sat up straight when she realised she was the centre of attention. "Well, she had curly brown hair, and a red ribbon tied tightly across her forehead. She was wearing a yellow dress. It looked really old and dirty. She was smiling at me though."

A few seconds of shocked silence passed before anyone said anything. Finally, Katie asked, "Did the little girl speak to you Amber? Tell you why she was here or where she came from?"

"Oh come on Katie," Alex yelled in disbelief. "Surely you're not falling for this?"

Katie glared at her brother. "I thought I saw someone upstairs when I was in the garden remember?" she replied angrily.

Alex threw up his arms in frustration. "They're all mad mum. I'm going to my room. I've got homework I have to do before we go back to school...hey hang on a minute. How can we go back living here?"

Mr. Rusk cleared his throat, as if preparing for a major speech. "Don't worry about that son. I've got a Tutor coming from Inverness. She's highly recommended, and she'll teach you all from here. I've already had a room downstairs turned into a classroom of sorts."

"You're kidding dad! That would be so cool." Katie said happily.

"That's good to hear sweetheart. I thought you'd all prefer that than going to a new school so close to exams. Beside, they do things differently up here where exams are concerned."

Mrs. Rusk softly clapped her hands together to draw everyone's attention towards where she was cuddling Amber. "In case you lot have forgotten we were trying to find out just what Amber thought she'd seen at the foot of her bed."

"She didn't see anything love," Mr. Rusk said warmly. "She's just very tired, and if a kid had been there don't you think Katie would have seen her too?"

"Good point, I suppose," Mrs. Rusk agreed, as she looked at Katie for agreement too.

"I had my eyes shut mum. I only looked up when Amber screamed."