Lost Souls

11

It was the families first trip into Inverness, and they were pleasantly surprised by the hustle and bustle of the Highland Town. Dozens of shoppers darted in and out of an assortment of busy retail stores and the smells from restaurants and street side café's filled their noses. Many of the shops had various Clan Tartan's flapping gently in the breeze, welcoming visitors to Inverness, and in the distance stood the highly impressive castle standing out, silhouetted against the late afternoon sky.

​As the family strolled along, a few large seagulls were scavenging around in the gravelled car park, trying to pick up odd chips and pieces of bread that had been dropped by tourists to the area, or left by friendly locals.

​"You don't see that down South guys," Mr.  Rusk joked, as he swerved to avoid having his ankles pecked by an angry looking bird who'd taken a displeasure at having his supper disturbed.

​"They look fierce," Mrs. Rusk pointed out.

​"Boot them in the head," Alex said as he swung a leg at nothing in particular.

​Katie sighed in disgust. "Charming idea."

​"It's not a nice thing to say Alex now, is it?" his mum asked, as they continued to walk across the car park.

​"They're not particularly nice birds." Alex responded.

​"Maybe we should all kick you then Alex. You're not a very nice brother sometimes," Katie teased.

​"You can always try," Alex tormented.

​"I'll help Katie," Amber said, as she kicked out at Alex's leg.

​Alex jumped out of the way. "Typical girl," he said, as he moved back towards Amber and messed up her hair.

​Amber yelled and charged quickly, taking her brother by surprise. Before he could react to her assault, she'd bundled into him, hard.

​"Oomph!" he moaned, as his breath was knocked out his lungs.

​"Good girl," Katie shouted, as she too rushed at Alex and pushed him over onto the gravel.

​Alex's face went as red as blood. "I'm going to get the pair of you now, you little sh.."

​"Alex! That's quite enough," his father scolded, before he'd even managed to swear at his sisters. "Now, get up, stop mucking about and behave. We haven't got much time left before the library closes."

​Alex climbed to his feet, dusted his clothing down, and glared at Katie. "Don't think you've won. I'll finish this later."

​Katie pretended to be scared and trembled violently. "Oh, I'm terrified," she mocked, as she grabbed Amber's hand and walked past her brother's angry scowl.

​As they reached the library, Alex was lagging behind. It was clear to everyone that he wasn't the least bit interested in finding out about the Manor House and the children who'd died there.

"Won't be the first time, Alex has done his own thing," Mr. Rusk said quietly as they entered. "Let him look at what he wants. It's probably doing us a favour really. I can do without his sulks right now."

​Mrs. Rusk squeezed her husbands hand and smiled at her two girls. "Right, go find anything on the house. We'll look in the public records section. Why don't you find the computer room and see if you can dig up old newspaper reports from around the time the children died?"

​"Great idea mum, "Katie said. "What year do you think I should check out first?"

​Her mother thought for a second or two before answering. "Why don't you start  late thirties and go from there. We need to try and find out when the house became a school, and then what happened after that."