Free The Haunting Within by Michelle Burley

looking behind her every time she heard a small noise, half expecting to see… what was she expecting to see? A ghost?  She was a bit too old to be caught up in such notions. How stupid. She was well past the age of being terrified by ghost stories and things that go bump in the night. Even so she couldn't help but wish she could find her mum so they could all go and sit back in the kitchen where it was warm and relatively cosy. Well, as cosy as can be expected in a house such as this, but she dared not go too fast for fear of what she might find. Had there ever been a time she had been in such a dilemma? On the one hand, she wanted to find her mum and the sooner the better. On the other hand she really, really didn’t want to go any further.
    It was like the time when she was about fifteen and the boy her friend had a major crush on told Lisa he liked her, not her friend. She’d had to admit to herself she quite liked him too. They ended up going out for a few weeks, but of course she was torn because her friend didn’t know she had gone behind her back like that. God she had felt awful about it. At the time it was the hardest predicament she had faced. Now she’d give anything to be in such a childish situation.
    The kitchen was where she would rather be than anywhere else in this house. She’d never been upstairs before and wished it could have stayed that way, but they had to find their mum. How oddly her mother had been speaking in the kitchen. She never spoke about her childhood unless she had to and she hadn’t had to, had she? All Aiden had said was that her favourite biscuits were hob-nobs. It was as though she never heard him, like she was in a world of her own where no-one else could reach. She felt selfish for wishing she wouldn’t talk to them about her upbringing. What kind of daughter didn’t want to know about her own mums’ childhood?! But then it was far from a conventional one. Maybe her mum needed to talk about it, to get it off her chest. It wasn’t like she had anybody else to talk to. But why did it have to be them? Why couldn’t it be a friend? She had friends. Ok, not close ones, but still. Why not a psychologist? That’s what they were for! She should have gone to one and told her story to them. Hell, they would all probably end up seeing one after this. This brought a sad smile to her face. They could book their appointments for after one another. Sit in the waiting room together… yeah right! She was not going to sit and be analysed by some know-it-all pompous arsed “doctor” who spoke about their own childhood and made suggestions that something had gone wrong there. No thank you! Although she had not had any previous dealings with psychologists, this is what Lisa assumed they were all like. She had seen enough films.
    Oh she really hated this. At least Aiden was downstairs where all the lights were on and he knew where he was going. It was her idea for him to be downstairs though so she couldn’t complain too much but she was in two minds about whether to call him back upstairs. She decided against it. They’d find her quicker if they split up so she carried on. It was so dark and she had no idea which rooms were which. She stopped outside the first door on the right. Slowly, she pushed it open and a gust of air rushed out through the gap, giving her the unnerving thought that it was as though the house was breathing, reveling in having new guests under its roof, eager to show them what it could do… She shivered, shook off the thought and gave a nervous laugh to try and make herself feel better but it didn’t work. She couldn’t see a damn thing so she stuck her hand round the door-frame and fumbled for a light switch. For all she knew she could be walking into a pissing morgue! Feeling the plastic switch under her palm she flicked it on, dreading what the light would uncover. The sudden brightness hurt her eyes and she squeezed them tight shut against it. Opening them