The Boy: Play With Me

Chapter 2 Back in Time

A little girl holding a teddy bear stood there watching. The house burning. The screams. She was to terrified to move. "Mr. Heelshire! Mrs. Heelshire!" She yelled in terror. Soon enough two adults ran out of the house. Fearing, the little girl waited a moment. Not seeing the other person come out, she panicked. "Brahms!!!" She screamed. The girl cried and cried. The tears streaming down her face. Mr. Heelshire grabbed the girl and held her. She dropped the teddy bear. It hit the ground.
Razi woke up and sat up fast. She was sweaty. She wore a grey tank top. She wiped her face and let out a sigh. "Stupid house." She said wiping tears off her face. She took her pills. She went downstairs. Razi poured herself a glass of wine. "This stupid house." She said as she took a sip of the wine. She sighed. Razi got up and got a book to read. She sat down and read the book.
After an hour or so there was a knock on the door. She got up with the glass and went to the door. She opened it and Seān stood in the doorway. "Oh hey. What are you doing here?" Razi said taking another sip. "I thought I'd stop by and get to know you. I know that sounds creepy. Sorry." He said. "Not gonna lie that is creepy." Razi giggled. Seān chuckled. "Come in." Razi said. She moved out of the doorway and they went inside.
She went into the study and Seān followed. They sat down. "This house is crazy." Seān said in awe. "Yeah, agreed." Razi said.
       "How are you settling in?" He asked. "I'm getting there. Just finished cleaning this bloody house yesterday. It was a pain. Everything covered head to toe in dust and cobwebs. It was crazy how filthy it was. I have to work on the gardens tomorrow. Right now it's my break day." Razi replied.
                "Wow." Seān said. "Yup. So how long have you owned the shop?" Razi asked. "Ever since Malcolm left." Seān said. "Ah so about a year and a half then." Razi said. "Yup. How do you know Malcolm? You were in America by the time he was born." Seæn asked. "Back in America when I was in high school our teacher announced, 'for the first time in the history of this school we will be having you kids pen pals be in England.' Much to all of our surprise really. The younger classmates we had to be pen pals with were from here. Scatter throughout England. Someone got a friend from London and a friend from Walls End and even Manchester." Razi replied.
      "Lemme guess. Malcolm was your pen pal." Seān said. "Yup that is correct. After being pen pals for awhile we actually became friends. We wrote to each other after that year. Even even called each other a few times. Then he visited me with his girlfriend Greta and that is when we met in person. And he told me about what happened here. Although I feel like he missed a detail when telling the story." Razi said. "Interesting." Seān said. Razi refilled her glass of wine. "Want any?" She asked Seān. "To early for me but thank you." Seān replied.
    "I can tell you're from here. You still have a bit of the accent." Seān said. "Yeah it died down but never went away. Now that I'm back here it's starting to come back." Razi said. "That'll happen. Just out of curiosity, why did you move to America?" Seān asked. Razi froze for a moment. She set the glass of whine down. Razi cleared her throat. "Do you know about this place and what happened over 20 years ago?" Razi asked her voice trembled a bit. "Yes. I think almost everyone does." Seān answered honestly.
          "My parents were friends of the Heelshires. As usual amongst rich folk. They're always friends. But anyway. When I was 5 years old we were invited to their son Brahm's birthday party. He was turning 8. There was another kid there. I forgot her name but she disappeared. My family and I went home without knowing about her murder. My mother told me we forgot to give something to the Heelshires and sent me to give it to them. I lived close by so it was an easy 15 minute walk. I get there and the house is up in flames. I couldn't help but freeze up in terror." Razi gulped, "Soon the Heelshires came out but Brahms didn't. I was always creeped out by Brahms. He was an odd boy. But that didn't stop me from grieving him.".
      Seān blew air out of his mouth almost like a sigh. "Wow that's a lot. That must have traumatized you. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked." He apologized. "It's fine." Razi said as she downed her glass of whine. "After we heard about the murder and the death of their son my parents got freaked out and moved to America. I never knew why they were so freaked out." Razi said.
     She refilled her glass. "You shouldn't be having so much this early." Seān said. "Eh I don't care honestly." Razi said taking a sip. "Just lay off the whine a bit. Hangovers aren't good." Seān joked. Razi chuckled. "Hey um since you said you were from a rich family like the Heelshires, what is your surname?" Seān asked. Razi took a moment to herself. "I'd rather not say." Razi said taking a sip of her whine.
          After awhile Seān went home. Razi made them lunch since it was lunchtime. Razi cleaned up the table. After putting everything away, she cleaned the dishes by hand. There was no dishwasher. Razi didn't mind. She used to be a housemaid for awhile. Usually for the elderly who couldn't clean. She figured she'd get going on the garden early. Razi got dressed into a more suitable outfit.
            She looked around for a shed or something of the sort. Soon she found it. She grabbed gloves and tools. She figured to wait on the hard stuff such as the vines. Razi got to work pulling out weeds, replanting flowers, turning over soil.
      Soon it got dark and she had to stop. Razi was in the study. She put a pencil to her mouth. She made a list of what she had to finish in the garden. She sighed. "This is going to take a couple at days at least. Great." She tossed the pen and pad of paper onto the table next to her. She went upstairs and got changed. She grabbed the phone and brought it to the bed. She dialed a number and waited.
   "Hello?" The voice on the other end of the phone said. "Hey mom. Just me. I wanted to call and let you know how things are." Razi said. "Oh Razique how are you sweety?" Mom said. "Good. I got the inside of the house clean finally. I started working on the garden a bit. It's going to take awhile to finish though. I forgot how big their gardens were." Razi said. "That's good sweety. I can see your accent is coming back." Mom said. "Pft yeah. Hey mom. I don't know if this was a good idea." Razi said hesitantly. "Are the memories coming back?" Mom said. "Yeah. Really strong." She let out a sigh, "but we'll see what happens. I do enjoy this house. I don't want those bad things coming to stop this.". "Well get some rest, I know how late it is there. Plus you've been working very hard." Mom said. "Yeah I will. Goodbye mom." Razi said. She hung up the phone and put it back. Razi got back into bed and went to sleep.
             Razi slept in late. She got up around 2 pm. Surprised at the time Razi got ready for the rest of the day. After finishing a cup of coffee, Razi put on her coat and went outside. She got out to the back. She dropped the tool in her hand. Most of the garden was clean and tidied up. She looked around to see if there was anybody. She got to a marble bench. On it was her list she made last night. She picked it up. Most of the things were crossed off. All that were left was chop fire wood, clear vines, and polish the marble benches. Still freaked out she continued to look around for anyone. She took a deep breath and walked away to the shed.
        She grabbed an axe. Razi soon got to chopping fire wood to sell at the market. She set a small log of wood onto a stump of wood. She swung and hit the log breaking it clean in half. Razi has done this many times before. Back in America, she lived in a northern state. She had to chop fire wood for the winter there.
       Seān approached. Razi chopped another peice of wood. "Looks like you've been doing that for awhile." Seān said. "Yeah." Razi said picking up another peice of wood and putting it on the cutting stump. "Chopping up the wood here to sell at the market. There's a lot of wood here and I can't use it myself as it would be a hazard to." Razi said. "Yeah. Makes sense. The place screams inferno." Seān said. Razi looked at him seriously. "Oh sorry. Forgot." Seān apologized. "It's ok." Razi said.
      "Did you come by earlier by any chance?" Razi asked. "Um no. This is my first time coming here today. Why you ask?" Seān asked. "No reason." Razi said as she lifted the axe into the air. She swung and hit the log with a loud crack and the two new pieces of wood falling to the side.