Halloween

1927

Marie curled up in bed. It was Halloween and Edward Mordrake was yet to appear. Part of her hoped he would, even though she hadn’t summoned him. If she had the energy, she knew she would perform. She knew it was likely she would survive her next few encounters with the ghost since he spared her.

“Good evening, Marie,” said Edward. The weight on the bed shifted as he sat on the edge of her bed. Slowly, Marie turned and sat up, she hissed and winced as she moved. There was a bruise on her forehead and her cheek was swollen.
“Edward, you’re here.”
“Yes, my dear,” he said. He sounded a little confused. Then, his eyes seemed to stare through her again, as if she was invisible and he was staring at the headboard behind her. He pulled his glove off of his right hand before reaching out and moving her messy hair from in front of the third eye she usually hid. “I think this is a story it would like to hear.”

She quickened her pace, someone was behind her. Their footsteps were heavy and loud, was it one person or two? Marie didn’t dare look behind. She wasn’t too far from her house. If she could just make it back in time…

Hands grabbed her shoulders and there was a pain in her head. Her vision blurred and she gasped for air as someone hit her stomach.
“Dirty freak,” she heard one of them mutter. They had a gravelly voice but Marie couldn’t recognise it. She coughed and hoped for someone to stop them. Utterly helpless, Marie remembered the last time it had happened. Closing her eyes, she tried to forget those memories and focus on trying to avoid being hit.

Crawling, Marie felt one of the two, there had to be two, grab her and pull her shoulder so she was lying on her back. A foot pressed down into her chest, the heel digging into her skin. She could see the bat in their hand and tried to push the man’s foot off of her chest so she could move out of the way.

“Marie shuffled closed to him, grimacing as she did so.
“I went to three doctors,” she said quietly. “And all three refused to treat me. I can’t see out of my eye properly.” Edward held her hands in his own. Both of his hands were freezing but Marie couldn’t find it in herself to care.
“You could see out of your third eye before?”
“Yes,” she whispered. Her voice trembled as she tried not to cry. Crying on hurt her ribs more than they were already hurt. “Yes, I could, when it wasn’t hidden by hair.”

“This is a horrendous incident, do you know the criminals?”
Marie shook her head. “No, it only happened two days ago. I was on my way back from work. I was hoping you’d come.”
“But you did not summon me.”
“Everything hurts too much for that,” she said as she rested her head on his shoulder. “I suppose you did say I would regret it.”

“Even so, it is a horrible thing to happen,” he said softly. His thumb rubbed the back of her hand.
“I’m scared, Edward,” she said honestly, closing her eyes. “Scared that I’ll wake up tomorrow and I’ll just see darkness. They hit me in the head a fair few times, kicking and with a bat or some sort. I’m scared that it’ll happen again.” Edward seemed to stare through her again and then his eyes looked to the side.
“Marie, I can promise you this much,” he said, “when you wake tomorrow you will not see darkness. I must go on.”

Marie lifted her head from his shoulder and smiled a little as he stood. With his cane in one hand and his gloves in the other, he bowed his head before turning to leave.
“Goodnight, my lovely.”
“Goodnight, Edward.”