Lost Souls

22

After their initial shock at the find, Mr. Rusk and MacBlaine tried to study the pieces of bone as best they could in such low light.

"I think it's a femur," the old vicar said, sounding fairly confident.

​"Could be. Its certainly a big bone, so leg is a good bet," Mr. Rusk agreed.

​"Should we look for more...bits?" Katie asked, as she scanned the ground around her.

​"I think we should just get out of here and call the police," her mother suggested nervously.

​"We can't do that yet Grace," Mr. Rusk whispered. "We need to try and find some more of the skeleton."

​"Why for goodness sake. It's probably a child's bone. Surely they'd come out and take the house to pieces just for that?" his wife said in disbelief.

​Katie squeezed her mother's arm. "Mum, they might do, but what if we find a lot more bodies? What if we find enough evidence to prove that the children were murdered. We'd be famous."

​"We'd be infamous Katie. The press would have us as ghouls digging up corpses instead of calling in the proper authorities. No, let's call the police in straight away. Michael, I'm right aren't I?"

​Michael Rusk sighed heavily. His shoulders were so tense he felt they might snap at any moment. "Honey, I agree with Katie. If we call the police and they find nothing else, there won't be enough for them to go on with. This bone could turn out to be hundreds of years old. We need to uncover some more pieces before calling anyone else to the house."

​Mrs. Rusk couldn't think of an argument to what had just been said. "Okay, I see what you're saying. I'll go along with it, but don't expect me to get down on my hands and knees and search for...for bones!"

​Katie hugged her mum tightly. "It'll be amazing if we solve the riddle of what happened here. Besides, we might even finally understand why all the weird things have been happening since we arrived.

​"Oh I think I know the answer to that my dear," MacBlaine spoke for the first time in a while. "The ghosts of the children are helping us find the truth. We'll be safe with their help. I believe God is at work here."

​Mr. Rusk coughed back some dust he'd just swallowed. "I doubt God's got anything to do with this vicar. More like the Devil himself."

​"Oh, I've no doubt Satan had a hand in the deaths, but the Lord is showing us the way forward to finding the answers that will allow these poor children to finally rest in peace," MacBlaine replied strongly.

​"Let's just do this thing...please," Mrs. Rusk, prompted as she noticed how cold it had started to get in the room.

​Katie, who was still holding her hand noticed she'd started to shiver. "You alright mum?" she asked. "You're shivering."

​"I'm a bit chilly, that's all. Come on let's get a move on. That'll warm me up."

​Katie squeezed her mothers hand tightly and then let it drop gently. She moved to where her father was examining the pieces of bone found earlier between his fingers and thumbs, trying to get a feeling as to why the bone had been left in the room.

"Will we take another look at where we found that bone?" she asked, eager to get on with the search.

​"Might as well. I can't think of another way," her father answered.

​"If you and Katie take this room, I'll move forward and start searching the next one. Mrs. Rusk can either come and help me, or perhaps she'd be kind enough to pop back into the kitchen and rustle up some hot drinks. I must admit my joints are starting to stiffen up a bit," MacBlaine suggested politely.