Haunted in the Night

Chapter One- Part One

Copyright © 2019 by Nicola Marie Rattley.

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Prologue.

It came in the night, always at night, never heard, never sighted, but it haunted, haunted in the night.
It was dark, it was cold, it was evil, it hid in the shadows, watching, waiting, taunting and haunting.
It brought horror, it brought nightmares but it left grief, it left despair, it stole all hope, it stole all happiness until there was nothing, nothing but madness and sadness.

Chapter One.

Part One.
It was a cool night, as Helena Goldsburgh laid in her bed, the room was mostly dark, the only light that dimly seeped in was from the moonlight.
As the seconds ticked by the temperature seemed to keep dropping drastically, the hairs on the 63 year old lady's arms stood up straight, with goose bumps popping up all over her body.
This is why she had shut and locked all of her doors and windows, to avoid the cold autumn nights, besides everyone locked their houses up tight this time of year, not that it seemed to work, people still went missing without a trace.
As soon as Helena felt her scalp prickle and her body jolt with a shiver she knew it had come for her.
She could feel it's cold, sickly presence and that was when her eyes found it as she frantically scanned the room.
It's figure, the dark shadow that haunts in the night, it‘s shadow was on the floor at the end of her bed right by the window sill and Helena knew then that it was right outside looking in.

Part Two.
Claire Handerson sat on the three seater old brown victorian couch, her grandfather Henry Handerson sat across from her in his favourite armchair.
He was 78 years old, very tall with a broad build, his grey hair was thin and balding and he shared Claire's brown eyes, a family trait, although he had glasses, big square ones and quite a beard too, not a dirty tangly one, Henry always kept it nice and neat but it was long, it went all the way down to his belt buckle, it reminded Claire of those old wise men that you see on movies.
They didn't speak, not like they normally do, when Claire came downstairs this morning she knew that something had happened, she knew as soon as he had asked her to come sit down, that they needed to talk about something.
"Hello dear, sorry I took so long, I was making us some tea" Claire's grandmother explained as she came walking in and placed a shiny silver tea tray down on a brown wooden coffee table in front of Claire.
The moment that she had entered the room Claire knew that it was bad news, her grandmother never said hello in the morning or anytime for that matter, it was always good morning, good day and good night, her grandmother lived for positivity, also there had been no skip in her step, she had walked in slowly and calmly, like she had considered every step carefully.
Claire sat stiffly on the couch as she fidgetted her fingers nervously as her grandmother slowly sat down next to her making the old couch creak.
Her grandmother was 76 year old Gail Handerson, her last name had been Sanders before she had taken Henry's family name when they married, she was a small lady, her curly white hair went down to her shoulders and she also wore glasses like Henry, only her's were small and circle but Claire loved how they complimented Gail's green eyes.
"Now darling I don't know how to tell you this and I don't want to hurt you but you deserve to know" Gail said as she reached over and grabbed Claire's hands, stopping her from fidgetting.
Fear rushed through Claire, she became even more tense and her breath caught in her throat in anticipation.
'What if something was going to happen to her grandparents? Had the doctors found something?' Claire hadn't known about any doctor appointments but the fearful thoughts still found themselves in her head.
"Helena Goldsburgh, your godmother went missing last night" Gail told her, her voice soft and laced with concern as she watched for Claire's reaction.
Claire however felt like she had just been punched in the gut, sure she hadn't seen or spoken to Helena in 14 years but it still felt like that breath she had been holding was sucked from her body and she couldn't get any air in her lungs, she felt weak and dizzy.
It had been a long time since Claire had even thought of Helena or the little town in which her godmother lived, not since she left it 14 years ago to come live with her grandparents when she was only 10 years old.
Claire was now 24 years old, like her grandmother she was small but healthy, Gail made sure of that, her hair was naturally blonde which had a shoulder length pixie cut and even though she was Australian she was still quite pale with only slight tanning.
"Claire are you alright? Can you speak?" Henry finally spoke, his deep throaty voice catching her attention, pulling her from her mind and she felt oxygen fill her once again as she looked at him, pain and fear in her eyes.
"It's happening again" Claire barely managed to whisper, what had happened 14 years ago had helped shape her into who she was today and she had hoped to someday find answers but she had never wanted it to start again.
"Darling there is something we need to tell you, this isn't the only time it had happened again, we were hoping to protect you from this but now that it's happened to your godmother you deserve to know" Gail said and Claire gasped, she was shocked, her grandparents had never kept secrets from her before, she knew how strongly they felt about honesty, it was them she had learnt it from.
"What are you talking about?" Claire asked even though she wasn't certain that she wanted to know however she knew deep down that she needed to know, that questions needed to be answered.
"There was a man a couple of years ago who also went missing, it had the same evidence that Helena's had and..." Henry had been telling her before trailing off at the end, she knew what he had been about to say but was glad that he hadn't.
"His name was Keith Rowe" Gail spoke up trying to fill in the awkward silence, it didn't work much.
"Did he have any connection to..." Claire didn't finish, thankfully she didn't have to, they knew what she was asking.
"Not that we are aware of, the police chief who had rang us told us that Keith was a hunter and a loner, no one in the town really knew him, there had been rumours that people suspected him but when he went missing that trail went cold" Gail told her.
"Speaking of the police chief he was hoping that you would be willing to go down there, apparently Helena had no family and has left everything to you" Henry said and Claire gulped, attempting to clear the lump that had formed in her throat.
Her hands were also starting to sweat and become clammy but Gail made no attempt to let go, it was the only comfort that she could provide Claire, she knew that there was nothing she could say that would make it better.
"I have to go back don't I" it wasn't a question, it was barely a whisper and it was more to herself than it was to anyone else.
The memories that that place held for her would only offer her more pain, more torment and more nightmares, memories that she tried her best to avoid, after all what person would want to remember the night that her parents went missing when she was only 10 years old.

Shortly after that Claire had gone and packed her things for the trip while Henry rang up and booked her transport and they had said their farewells, Gail had cried while Henry and Claire tried to remain the strong ones.
Claire had always admired Henry's strength, he was after all one of her role models, someone she always looked up too, especially in tough times.
The flight hadn't been too bad, it was only an hour and 50 minutes from Adelaide in South Australia to Sydney in New South Wales, it was the bus ride from Sydney to the town where she used to live that took the longest, 3 hours and 18 minutes not including the half an hour food break.
There hadn't been many on the bus travelling there, maybe 2 or 3 but it was more people waiting to get on the bus to leave, there had to at least be 20 and that was a fair few for a town that only had the population of 517.