Lost Souls

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Katie turned over in her bed for the umpteenth time. She was struggling to find the sanctuary of sleep, her mind flatly refusing to shut down for the night. As she rolled angrily on to her back she sighed heavily knowing that sleep was impossible while the previous days events rattled around in her head.

​Had she seen someone spying on them from the top floor window? Had Amber imagined she'd seen a girl standing at the foot of her bed, or was there really someone there? And what about the incident in the bathroom before she'd retired for the night? Had she really been grabbed on her leg, and if so by what?
​It was no good, she flung off her duvet and climbed out of bed.

​Katie grabbed her dressing gown and went to sit on the shelf surrounding the bay window, pushing the heavy purple curtains out of the way to allow her inside the closed space.

​Outside the garden and surrounding countryside looked beautiful. Every thing was covered in a blanket of white light as the moon tried hard to reach even the darkest recess. It was a surreal effect, looking to Katie as if someone had finely sprayed paint over everything, but leaving it so thin that you could still identify objects beneath their art work. The distant hills stood out against the dark horizon, standing proudly as if guarding their territory, trees swayed below the window as they danced in the nights breeze, and a solitary owl tooted loudly as something disturbed the peace and quiet in the garden.

​Katie peered hard through the glass, trying to identify the culprit, hoping maybe to see her first fox or badger walking across the lawns.

​When the large black crow landed before her and tapped the window hard, Katie fell backwards and landed with a hard bump on the floor, knocking her ankle against the window sill as she hit the ground. "Ouch!" she winced, as the pain reverberated up her leg.

​Quickly she sat up and rubbed her foot. The skin was grazed, and already a lump could be seen just above her ankle bone. "Stupid bird," she cursed as she looked back at the glass to check if the horrible creature was still there.

​The crow had gone, and for a moment Katie sat on the carpet, and watched the moon, wondering what it would be like to be so big and powerful, and thinking that if she had any magical powers,  she'd want to be the person who could make large crows disappear.

​Katie slowly got to her feet, her ankle throbbed, and she was suddenly feeling very tired. She hobbled back to her bed and fell in, pulled the cover over her and closed her eyes, knowing that despite her pain, she was about to fall asleep at last.

​Tap, tap, tap, registered in her conscious just as she was drifting away. Tap, tap, tap, tap.

​Katie struggled to come round and opened her eyes with a huge effort. Her body felt heavy, and her head felt as if someone had filled it with candy floss. What for goodness sake was causing that noise?

​Again the constant tapping filled her room, this time quicker, like a machine gun, growing louder with each burst. She looked across to the window and shuddered. The crow was back, only this time it looked like it was trying to break in.

​Katie didn't know what to do. Should she get out of bed and try and scare it away? Maybe she should call her parents?

​The crow made up her mind for her as it beat at the glass with such a frenzy Katie was sure the window pane would shatter soon.

Despite her limbs protesting from lack of sleep, she jumped out of bed and rushed the window, frantically waving her arms and yelling. The bird stopped tapping immediately and just sat there looking at her. Katie stood opposite and a strange staring contest began. The crow tilted its head from side to side, and Katie despite herself found she copied its every movement.

​Loud footsteps could be heard running along the hallway, and then her bedroom door burst open as her parents rushed into the room.

Katie stood with her back to them watching intently as the crow tilted its head once more, gave a solitary tap on the window and then flew away.

​"What was that noise Katie. It woke us up?" Mr. Rusk asked, as he came to stand beside his eldest daughter.

​Katie didn't reply. She was trying to see where the crow had flown to.

​"Katie sweetheart. Are you alright?" her mother said, as she bent down beside her.

​The trance broke, and Katie turned to her mum, "Did you see the bird mum. Did you see the crow?"

​Mrs. Rusk shook her head. "No dear. Just you standing here. Tell me again. What did you see?"

​Katie looked at her father who looked like he could sleep for a week and felt a pang of guilt grab at her heart. She knew he would start his new job after the weekend and needed to rest up before hand. "Sorry dad. It was a bird at my window, that's all."

​Her father smiled, and kissed the top of her head. "Don't be silly. Dad's are supposed to come running when they get woken up by strange noises coming from their daughter's bedrooms." he said sarcastically, as his grin grew wider.

​Katie mirrored him,  and then turned towards her mum, "It was a huge black crow tapping on the glass. It wanted to...well it seemed like it wanted to come inside."

​"Huh!" her father scoffed. "Why the heck would it want to do that?"

​"Maybe its scared of the dark," Mrs. Rusk teased him.

​"More likely it just got lost, flew into the window and panicked more like," Michael Rusk replied, as he rubbed his tired eyes. "Anyway now we know Katie's okay, can we all go back to bed. I'm knackered."

​"You go honey. I'll just stay with Katie for a bit," her mother said reassuringly.

​Katie watched her father hold his hands up in mock surrender, shrug and then walk slowly away, his shoulders slumped with weariness.

​"How big was the crow?" Katie's mum asked once her husband had disappeared from view.

​Katie opened her hands wide. "It was the biggest I've ever seen mum. It had a huge beak and really dark black eyes."

​"Do you think it's angry because we've moved in perhaps. The Manor house has been empty for a long time now. Maybe its nest is in the trees outside your window?"

​Katie sucked her bottom lip before replying. "Could be I suppose. How long has the house been empty for, and who lived in it before us?"

​Mrs. Rusk thought for a moment as she pondered her answer. "The house has been empty for around thirty years I think, the last people to live here were the Galbraith family. According to your dad, and he did a lot of research before agreeing to rent the house, it was built around 1815 just after the famous battle of Waterloo.

​"Really! We did that in history last year," Katie interrupted.

​Her mum smiled before continuing, "Anyway, it was the family home for all these years up until the last owner, George Galbraith apparently went off to live in Australia, leaving the house empty. His son lives in Inverness I think, but didn't want to stay here. Your dad said there were too many family ghosts for him, but I think he was winding me up a bit."

​"Did anything bad happen here?"

​"Bad! What do you mean honey?"

​Katie shrugged. "I don't know really, I just wondered...I mean there have been a few strange incidents already since we arrived."

​Katie's mum laughed. "You've been watching too many episodes of Britain's Most Haunted young lady. Nothing ever happened here. It was just an old family home. Now come on get into bed."

​Katie wanted to ask about the scratched sign on the front door, she wanted to tell her mother about the wind attacking her in the bathroom, and she wanted to tell her she believed Amber had seen a little girl. Instead she allowed her mum to tuck her back into bed, kiss her goodnight and tell her she'd see her at breakfast.

​Alone again, Katie waited for the crow to return, but sleep overtook her suspicions, and before long Katie Rusk was falling down a deep dark bottomless hole into a world beyond, one filled with demons, ghosts and huge black crows that lived by pecking out the eyes of little girls and teenagers named Katie!

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