Jersey still did not appear to be around when she returned home. She took the blessed water straight to the kitchen and placed it in a cupboard under one of the counter tops.
The metal rod she placed in the cupboard under the stairs. The thought of using it was making her uncomfortable but she knew the time would soon come.
Luckily, Judith remembered to get wine while she was out as to look like she had been to the local store for supplies.
She poured herself a glass and sat in the front room, this time feeling the presence of Jersey nearby.
The spirit stood over her and Judith could almost feel it staring down at her. "Hello, Jersey," she tried to sound casual, even though her heartbeat picked up pace.
Jersey knelt down in front of her and Judith felt her dress slowly riding up and light kisses placed on her bare knees.
"Mary stop!" Judith raised her voice, they both paused. "Sorry, I meant Jersey." Judith was surprised with herself, Shit, what was I thinking?
If she thought Jersey was going to get annoyed and leave her alone, she was only half right. The spirit pressed against her again, this time roughly, planting kisses on her lips and cheeks.
Judith threw her head from side to side to get away and tried to kick out at Jersey as the spirit continued its attempts to raise her dress above her thighs.
Her whole dress was then being groped and pulled at and Judith felt the seams were about to give way. "Get- off- m-me!" She tried to scream in-between the attack on her mouth.
The dress tore at the shoulder and Judith immediately clasped her chest to prevent any more fabric from tearing. She could feel the spirit grab a fist full of fabric on her stomach and she was horrified at knowing what was coming next. What did happen was unexpected.
The doorbell rang.
"What?" Judith whispered with quiet relief as Jersey's relentlessness eased off. They were equally as confused and frustrated on top.
With quick thinking reflexes Judith managed to jump to her feet and dive towards the front door. She crashed into the door causing a loud thud before she was grabbed and dragged back into the room.
"Help!" She screamed before her mouth was covered.
"Judith? Are you ok?" It was Rose. She opened the front door and entered the house. A look of terror spread across her face when she saw Judith.
From her point of view the scene was of Judith being held down on the sofa with her dress torn in several places, her arms were pinned to her sides. Although invisible, there was a clear indication that something was pressed tightly against her mouth. Judith was rocking slightly and Rose could see what could only be described as her underwear twitching as if she was using an invisible toy on herself.
"What the fuck?" She asked.
Judith stared back at her with pleading, tearful eyes. "Help me," she tried to whimper. Jersey wanted to use her and was not afraid to do it in front of her friend.
Rose knew instantly something was wrong. "Shit! How can I help?" She moved towards Judith but was suddenly thrown sideways as a force struck her across the cheek like a slap. She fell into the TV and pushed it against the wall, the screen smashed under her weight.
Jersey released Judith from their grip and immediately fell upon Rose. They pulled at her coat before attempting to rip her trousers from her.
"What the!" Rose screamed. "Get off me!"
Jersey had already forgotten about Judith as they preyed on their new target. The spirit wanted rid of Rose once and for all and was willing to do to her whatever it took to make it happen.
"Get away from her!" Judith screamed. The spirit ignored her as it continued to grope at Rose.
Judith grabbed Rose's arm and somehow managed to pull her free from Jersey's grip. They ran to the kitchen for safety.
Silence followed as the women held each other and waited for the imminent attack. The silence was long drawn out and they thought that maybe Jersey would leave them alone.
No such luck however as a scraping sound approached the doorway. After a few seconds Ollie the wooden owl appeared in view. It turned and stared at them, they both screamed again.
Suddenly a hand grabbed Rose by the leg and dragged her back towards the front room. Judith could not keep hold of her friend and lost her grip. She could hear her friend screaming out of view
Thoughts crossed her mind of what Jersey was going to do to her. Suddenly she remembered the holy water she had stored recently in the cupboard near her.
She grabbed the bottle and slowly approached the front room. She could see Rose flailing about in the middle of the floor trying to defend herself from the unseen terror.
Judith instinctively threw the contents of the bottle at Rose. Smoke evaporated from the couple on the floor. Water surrounded Rose and formed into the shape of a human on top of her.
It was apparent then that Jersey was no ordinary spirit, the holy water was not supposed to have that sort of effect, but in truth it had hurt it.
Rose screamed horrifically as an outline of a face appeared right before her. A spark of blue light appeared above them and they both looked up.
Judith stood over them both, the rod held firmly in both hands, malice appeared in her eyes. "Get away from my friend you vile creature!"
Jersey opened their mouth as if to say something. Rose felt the spirit's grip loosen and she crawled away behind her friend.
The spirit lunged forward at Judith and threw her into the sofa. She waved the rod wildly towards Jersey but missed completely. Jersey pinned the woman down and she dropped the metal rod.
"You demon!" Came a shout.
Jersey turned to face the door and saw Rose, shaking but attempted to stay firm and stand her ground.
Jersey smiled and readied for an enjoyable chase as for some bizarre reason, Rose ran upstairs to the master bedroom.
As Jersey ascended the stairs and entered the bedroom they saw Rose searching around for options. Jersey grabbed her and threw her onto the bed. It grabbed at her clothes again.
Rose closed her eyes and screamed loudly.
"This ends now, Jersey!"
Jersey turned to face an angry Judith. The spirit reached forward to grab her.
"I'm sorry, Jersey. I loved you." Judith cried and plunged the metal rod forward into Jersey's chest.
There was no sound, only a bright light. Judith and Rose covered their eyes and when they looked again Jersey had gone.
The women sat silently for several minutes before either moved or said a word.
"Is it over?" Rose asked eventually.
"I hope so," Judith was more upset than she wanted to admit. She thought she had something special with Jersey and she did truly love them.
It was over. Judith's first real love was over. Life with her ghost landlord-lady was over.
A week later Judith moved out of the house and back to Birmingham to be closer to her family. A new life awaited her, Judith just hoped it would not involve ghosts.
The End
***
A year later, a new car pulled up onto the driveway of the house once occupied by Judith Ainbridge. A young couple stepped out of the car and admired the house and the new life that awaited them.
The recently turned Twenty-Three, Melissa Fitzpatrick felt almost starstruck as she gazed upon the little house with awestruck eyes.
Their first adventure was perfect and Melissa very much had plans to make it a home. Eventually, Melissa released her house from her gaze to help her young husband, Samuel, with the bags from the car.
Once the bags were on the doorstep, Samuel put an arm around his new wife and they both looked up at the house together.
Unbeknownst to the couple condensation grew in the window of the master bedroom overlooking the driveway. The shape of a love heart appeared in the centre of it next to the print of a hand.
Melissa gave a bewildered look as she saw the curtain move in the bedroom window. She shrugged it off when she noticed the small window was open slightly.
An unseen spirit once known as Mary, Jersey and many other names stood behind the glass. They stared down the centre of the heart which perfectly encircled Melissa where she stood. It had found someone new to love...
End of Part One
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