Lost Souls

8

Amber sat on her dad's knee drinking hot chocolate from a large mug covered with cartoon characters from the movie Shrek. She'd stopped crying, but her face was still the colour of milk.

​Katie, Alex and Mrs. Rusk were sitting opposite them waiting to bombard Amber with questions as soon as she'd recovered enough from her ordeal.

​Mr. Rusk kissed Amber on the top of her head, "Have you finished your drink sweetheart?"

​Amber looked into the mug and sighed heavily. "All gone," she replied in a disappointed voice.

​"You can have another one in  a bit," Mrs. Rusk said lovingly from across the room bringing a slight crease like smile to her daughter's lips. "Do you feel like telling us what you saw princess?" she asked.

​Amber pursed her lips and nervously nodded her head. "Aha," she whispered.

​Alex rushed in. "What did you see Amber? Was she older than me? Was she deformed? Were her eyes bright red? Could she be a vampire or a..."

​"Alex!" his dad shouted.  "Calm down. Give your sister a chance to tell us what she saw in her own time please."

​Alex clammed up and folded his arms huffily across his chest.

​Katie gave him a filthy look to which he responded by holding his hand up in front of her face and snarling, "Whatever!"

​Mrs. Rusk ignored her bickering eldest two and said quietly to Amber, "Okay honey, tell us what happened. Take your time and try to remember everything you saw because it might help us all to understand a little bit."

​Amber smiled harder this time and looked quickly up at her daddy's face, who nodded encouragingly. She took a deep breath, "I didn't see her at first, then I thought I was going to crash into her. I shut my eyes and when I looked again, she wasn't there anymore. Where did she go mummy?"

​"I don't know darling. Can you remember what she looked like this time?"

​This time! Katie glanced at her mum. Did she believe Amber had seen the girl at the foot of her bed the previous night.

​"She had on a dirty yellow dress mummy and her hair was all messed up. I think she'd been crying too."

​"What makes you say that Amber?" Katie asked.

​"She looked like I do after I cry," Amber said quietly. "Her eyes were red and she had dirty lines down her cheeks."

​"Wonder why she'd been crying?" Katie said, more to herself than anyone else in the room.

​"Did she see you Amber?" Mr. Rusk wanted to know.

​Amber shook her head. "I don't think so. She didn't try to get out of my way and then she just...went."

​"Okay honey, jump down and Alex will go with you to the bathroom so you can wash your face and put the mug back in the kitchen. We'll have a chat here and see what we're going to do about our new house guest," her dad said lovingly as he gently let her slip from his lap.

​The three remaining Rusk family members waited until Alex and Amber disappeared from the room before Mr. Rusk asked, "So, do we believe Amber saw a ghost, or is she just imagining things?"

​Mrs. Rusk shrugged, "She seems certain the girl was there. She's never seen anything like this before, I mean she hasn't even made up a friend in the past. Even Katie here did that."

​Katie laughed, "Yeah thanks for reminding me mum," she giggled.

​"Have you had anything happen to you since we've been here Katie?" her dad asked her.