Lost Souls

7

Mrs. Rusk walked round the kitchen table pouring cold orange squash into everyone's glasses. The sun had shone intensely down on the family as they'd explored the Manor grounds, and they were all covered in a fine layer of sweat.

​"I needed that," Alex said, as he downed his drink quickly. "I must have walked miles."

​"Good lad, "his father said, clinking their glasses together. "So, come on girls, tell us what you found then," Mr. Rusk prompted Katie and Amber.

​Both opened their mouths to speak at once, but it was Amber who fired out a machine gun burst of excited words. "We found a gigantic barn daddy, filled with tractors and beds. Sheep and hens were everywhere and we didn't even look in the other places. We'll have to go back again to look in them."

​Amber paused for breath, and took a large gulp from her purple tumbler. "Why are there beds in a barn anyway?" she asked to no one in particular.

​"I don't know poppet. Maybe they were the families beds, and they've just been stored and forgotten." Mr. Rusk answered, not really knowing the truth behind the abandoned beds.

​"They look like old camping beds or the type used in the army dad," Katie volunteered. "I don't think they would've been used in a house this posh."

​"Are we posh now then guys?" her father joked.

​"Fantastic!" Alex shouted, punching the air.
"Maybe I'll be knighted?"

​"Mr. Blobby's got more chance of that," Katie teased.

​"You've never got anything nice to say to me, have you?" Alex moaned at Katie.

​"And you've lost any sense of humour you were born with," Katie countered.

​"Wonder why there'd be camp beds here Michael?" Mrs. Rusk asked, trying to stop a major argument developing between her eldest two children.

​"Maybe the Boy Scouts stayed here?" Mr. Rusk shrugged.

​"A hospital!" Katie stated. "During the war perhaps."

​"I like that idea," said her mum. "Maybe the next time we're down in the village we could ask at the store?"

​Mr. Rusk stood up. "Has anyone been in the last room on the right on the second floor. It's a library?"

​"No dad, but where's the swimming pool?" Katie asked hopefully.

​"Ah. I'm afraid I was told there was one, but it was filled in about forty years ago. We might be able to have it dug out in the future though,"
Katie's dad replied, trying to sound enthusiastic about any dubious long term plans."

​"But you said you'd seen it!" Katie said, her voice filled with disappointment.

​"I saw a photograph darling. I couldn't view the whole house when I came to see it. The agent had left some keys at her office. She told me about the pool and showed me a picture. You must have misheard me Katie. Sorry."

​Katie couldn't help feeling let down. She loved to swim, and had believed a fully functioning pool would be available at their new home, and unless she found out bus times to Inverness, she'd have to forget her idea to swim herself fitter.

​"It's a nice house dad, and the grounds will be fun exploring," she said, trying to remember her happier mood earlier. It was as if being inside the house again had sapped it all away.

​"There's loads to do here, and the village is only a ten minute drive away. We'll make it a family policy to go into Inverness every weekend. Deal?" her dad suggested, sensing her disappointment.

​Katie shrugged and pulled a suppose so face.

​"Good. Now come on, let's go to the library and see if we can find out anything about these camp beds, or for that matter anything about the house."

​A loud scraping of chairs filled the kitchen as the family moved en mass from the kitchen to the hallway.

​Quickly, they made their way up to the second floor and along to the door leading into the library. A set of imposing double doors stood before them.

​"I can't believe we have a library," Mrs. Rusk beamed.

​"All part of the rent honey," Mr. Rusk joked. "There's over a thousand old books in there. Probably all rubbish," he added, laughing hard, as he turned the large door handle and pushed the doors wide to reveal shelf after shelf of neatly stacked books, some hard backed, others soft, some as thick as loaves of bread, while others were mere pamphlet sized, most were in good condition, but some looked as if the passage of time and serious neglect had caused them to rot where they stood. The over riding sense that filled the room, was a musty smell, so thick it clung to their clothes.

​"This hasn't been opened in decades," Alex said, as he put a hand over his nose and mouth.

​"It sure stinks!" Amber giggled, as she run up to the nearest shelf, and started to run her hands along the books spines leaving a dusty pattern behind her fingers, looking like an army of snakes had slithered across the shelves.

​"Let's all grab a few books each, and then take them back to the kitchen. I think I'll open the windows and let some air in here before we spend too much time here. I don't want us all to choke to death," Mr. Rusk suggested, as he opened them as wide as possible, while everyone else followed Amber's lead, and went to see what books they wanted to take down.

​"This one might be useful?" Katie shouted, as she carefully pulled out a hard covered book with a dark brown covering, and gothic red lettering printed down the spine. "Manor Houses during WWII."

​"Good choice Katie," her dad agreed. "Has anyone found anything about the house?"
​"Treasure Island!" Amber said gleefully.

​Everyone laughed.

​"Why do you think that might help honey?" Mrs. Rusk asked.

​Amber moved her weight from foot to foot as she thought about what to say. "Well," she began, pausing for ideas. "We've found stuff, and they found stuff, and we wanted to find stuff, and so did they." she said confidently.

​"Exactly!" Katie agreed, bringing a beaming smile to her little sisters eager to please face.

​Alex coughed loudly, and then cleared his throat making every effort to sound disgusting. "I'm going out now before I die," he blurted out dramatically.

​"Let's all leave," his mother suggested to four nodding heads.

​Amber took the lead, almost sprinting to the door. In her hands she carried Treasure Island, and hoped Katie would read from it that bedtime. As she ran along the corridor giggling noisily, as the rest of her family followed at a more leisurely pace, she didn't see the girl standing at the top of the stairs until just before she collided with her.

​Amber dropped her book, brought her hands up to shield her face, screwed her eyes tightly shut and screamed expecting the collision to hurt badly. When she opened her eyes again, she was still standing. Nothing was broken, her family were all standing beside her, and there was no sign of the other girl.
​"I've just seen a ghost." she said in a trembling voice, and then she started to cry.