Haunting

Chapter Sixteen & Seventeen

He slammed the door behind Erich and collapsed on his couch, tears forming in his eyes.

Chapter Seventeen

“Reggie, baby, I think you need to shower,” Shannon said.

Reggie looked down at her body, Shannon was right she was filthy. Covered head to toe in blood she assumed was hers.

She nodded and looked up at Shannon with a shy smile. “So do you,” Reggie said and tugged on Shannon’s now blood coated shirt.

“But there’s only one shower,” Shannon said, feigning innocence. “Whatever shall we do?”

Reggie snorted and shoved Shannon lightly, causing her to stumble backwards. She took hold of Shannon’s shirt and dragged her towards the gutted bathroom. They were lucky the shower even worked.

Reggie turned on the shower, revelling in the feel of the cool metal on her hands. It had been so long since she had felt anything that she would use any excuse to touch something different.

She put her hand under the icy water and waited for it to warm up when a feminine scream echoed through the house.

Shannon pulled away from where she had been pressed against Reggie and ran through the doorway, getting tangled in the sheet in the process.

Reggie followed, leaving the water running and trailed behind Shannon as she sprinted down the stairs. Before she descended she saw Missy peek around her door with a frightened expression on her face. When she caught sight of the blood soaked girl in her hallway her eyes widened and a scream got caught in her throat.

“Stay in your room and lock the door,” Reggie told her softly before hurrying down the stairs.

She found Shannon in the kitchen leaning over her step mother’s still body, blood pooling beneath them.

She gasped audibly and Shannon turned to look at her, her eyes wide and frightened. “Call an ambulance,” she said and pointed to the phone on the counter.

Reggie picked up the unfamiliar device and had it immediately snatched from her hand by Kelly who had snuck down the stairs in confusion. He glared at her before talking urgently into the phone.

“Is she alright?” he asked after he hung up with the emergency operator, his voice quivering.

Shannon looked at him. “I think it’s the baby,” she said and turned back to Fiona. “Go upstairs and wait with your sister, I don’t want her seeing this.”

Kelly vehemently shook his head. “N-n-no,” he stuttered. “I can h-help.”

“You can help by looking after your sister,” Reggie told him, her voice softening as she looked into his wide, frightened eyes. The boy had reason to be scared; his mother was lying prone on the floor of the kitchen with an ever increasing pool of blood. “She’s in her room,” she added as she turned him around.

He walked away in a daze and just as he reached the top of the stairs a pair of paramedics rushed in the front door.

“Over here!” Reggie called and waved them over.

“Are you okay miss?” the young Indian man asked, looking over Reggie’s blood stained night gown.

“I’m fine,” she rushed to assure the man. “It’s her, she’s pregnant.” She pointed at Shannon who was still cradling her step mother.

The harried looking middle aged woman moved Shannon away and began working on Fiona.

Shannon stood in a daze watching the paramedics, unsure of what to do.