Valentine's day
pairing: AmeliaXHarvey
genre: Hurt/comfort
A nore easter passed through all parts of Maine over the weekend, causing power outages, and waves to crash violently against the shore lines. Whipstaff manor was well aware of the snow as it crept through the cracks in the basement and in the attic of the house. An elder gentlemen could be seen sitting in his office chair scribbling down what looked like to be chicken scratch. ' Today is the worst storm maine has experienced since 1978, the storm reigns hell against this old croocked house as it's call can be heard through the cracks in the windows. Such a sorrowful tune it brings. Almost as if it's calling for someone to come join it. The storm is probably as miserable as the people it holds hostage in their houses, or the ones that made it to their houses or even have a place to call their storm reminds of how miserable I was when I lost someone very important to me, well I had two people very important to me. My wife Amelia harvey. Amelia died of cancer. We weren't able to afford the chemo, so silently, she passed. She was found desceased in the wee morning hours. Discovered by my daughter was rather young at the time and didn't understand the concept of death as well as I or her mother did. She didn't understand that her mother would never be coming home to us.' He rubbed his wrists as he paused to collective his thoughts.' I was tired that morning and wasn't registering anything around me until kat came downstairs into the kitchen and told me that amelia wasn't waking up. I knew what this could meen, I picked up the phone and called 911 and then I called kat's grandmother so she could take care of her at her house. Before the ambulance arrived I went upstairs and looked at my wife, her head was bald, cleaned of her beautiful hair. Back in the early years of cancer being discovered treament was very little even if the little treament is their it was still over expensive. We just couldn't afford this for my darling.' He rubbed his fingers on his temples.' After the funeral, kat was always asking where her mother was and why she wasn't coming home. I lied something awful I told her "Don't worry you're mother will come back and we will be a happy family one day." She bought this and went continueing her life happily. As the days grew longer and colder I bought our second flat in the early days of december. I was un packing my stuff and my daughter's when she was visiting her grandmother one day and as the day ticked on I heard a thump coming from the basement. Without haste I picked up a bat and a kitchen knife in one hand and went to investigate. Up on my discovery I found a broken china doll. The left side of the face smashed, the eye all the way on the other side of floor. The scariest thing about this doll? It looked so much like Amelia that I ended up dropping the bat and backing into a corner, like a dog with it's tail between it's legs from being scolded.'
James harvey had fallen asleep on his journal entry, his session with the ghostly trio was the same as always. A useless attempt to figure out why they chose to stay with the living. He woke up as the sun crept through the battered curtains he looked around the room and noticed the room in shambles. He must have said something that set the leader of the trio off last night. Some could say they had a strang hate and friendship relationship going on, but sometimes it doesn't seem like it. He tried to be understanding of the trio's behavior as they were born in completely different times periods. He rubbed his face and mentally wrote a list of things to do in his office and what he was going to say to stretch later the next. " Sometimes an angered man just needs a good cool down to think things over." He said as he stretched. He looked at his journal and noticed some hastily written words. His heart thumped to his stomach as he read the writtings. It was as if he was possesed. He chuckled a the thought. One of his patients probably came in to posses him last night to reveal his panicked filled passed on the pages. He rubbed his eyes to keep the tears at bay. He began to pick up his copper engraved pen and began to finish where he left off. 'The doll began to shake like it was having a seizure fit and the hand twitched. The doll opened it's mouth, gagging noises began to spit out of it's clay throught. The doll began to say those dreaded words." It's all you're fault, you could have gotten a second job to help pay for my chemo, you could have graduated you're night classes to get your GED and move onto college to find a better paying job, but no you're were lazy and selfish and always made excuses to me as I lay dying in bed and my hair that I cherished so much falling on to the comforter." I panicked and clutched my head and moved closer to the corner as the doll rolled over to me and looked me straight in the face with one eye. " Now, you're lying to our daughter saying how I am going to come back? If I knew you were going to be so selfish I would have never married to you. You pitiful man." The doll gaged. " I hate you." The doll finished as it cracked into doll was right, it is my fault that all of this happened.' I said as I ran back upstairs.
Harvey heard the door slam from upstairs he wasn't sure if it was kat waking up from a horrible sleep or the trio punishing casper by making him the slave for the day. Actually, that's any everyday occurence. "Hello?" He asked as he opened the door. He saw nothing he looked around for any signs of life, or no life at all. He heard the bagning noise again. It was coming from the basement. "No not again." He said through his teeth. He followed the sound of the noise and upon in the a room that he had not seen before was discovered. The door looked like it had it's share of better days. "Hello?" He whispered so he did not awake the residents. He walked downstairs and infront of his feet was a flood of family antiques and precious items. He looked at a dressed with a cherubs face looking straight at him. The cold eyes nerving. The dresser held a trinket, a locket. Locket's back in the mc'faddens family time period, were used for anyone in mourning. Back then mourning was an art form and they highly respected the dead. The locket looked like it had been forced open and he was contiplating opening it. His curiosity getting the better of him he opened it and inside was a women. 'This must have been the mother to casper.' He thought. On the back it was engraved. "Elizabeth mc'fadden"
"It's not forced open, it was one of those lockets that connected to each other."
"Casper?"
"..."
"I... sorry casper I didn't meen to look in hear I just heard a noise and followed."
"I know how humans are. Curiosity get's the better of them. The point is, you apologized and I forgive you for that."
"I don't want to pry any further-" he was cut off
"Yes you do. I can see it clear as day." He smiled and floated over
"Well..."
"It's all right dr harvey. I will tell you tell you about this stuff if you would really like to know."
James nodded
"Just promise me one thing?"
"What is it casper?"
"Please don't tell my uncles about this place. Other then the attic they don't come to this place."
"Reall?" He asked
" As surprising as it sounds it's true, my uncles do respect these places and never enter hear. Well, I'm not aware of it if they do." He said
James looked at the floor
"The locket you're holding, my father gave that to my mother on my third birthday she's worn it since then. I only know this because when I was older my mother told me the story."
"Their's more too it then that right?" James winced. That sounded more grouchy then he intended.
"Yes their is. Where do I begin?"
"Which of chapter of the story you feel comfortable with."
"I could start from how this locket was given to him in the first place?"
"All right."
"After I passed, my mother ended up getting sick. We aren't sure what it was from, but my father got the hint that it was from my earyly passing. At the funeral. My mother and father had recieved my ashes as a "gift" for my passing. My father took the ashes and put them in his lab; the attic. He spent months building the lazarus hoping it would solve their problems. My mother passed away the night that my father was halfway done with the machine. He went up stairs to check on her and noticed she wasn't moving."
James looked to the ground. He felt awful he was making casper re tell the story of how his mother passed.
"I was their and witnessed the whole thing. My mother never came back, I guess her buisness with the living was finished, but I don't think she passed on so easily I think a part of her wanted to stay and I could feel that spark when my father started to shake her."
"Casper..."
"Please let me finish." He said holding up his hand in protest.
James let casper finish. He was just worried about the boy, he sounded like he was on the verge of tears and was about ready to collaps from exhaustion from how fast he was speaking.
"My father told my uncles and the funeral was held a few days after her death was confirmed. The owner of the antique shop where my mother worked had also worked in the mourgue. The owner used one of the old lockets and made it so my father could have it as a mourning gift." He sighed
" My father wore the locket around his neck and never took it off. He continued to work on the lazarus. He put my ashes in to the machine once it was finished. The machine rumbled and collapsed in on it's self. My ashes were no one to be seen inside the machine. My father broke down that night and began shouting hystarics. Someone from the town below heard them and alerted the mayor. The mayor had decided that my father was not fit to live on his own and my uncles were notifyed that their brother had been sent to pyschich evaluation."
"Casper I'm sorry.." That was james could say to the boy.
"It's not you're fault . Life is just cruel to both the living and the dead." He said as a matter of fact. James nodded at the boys reply. How full of wisdom he was at his age. "What about you're wife? Did you..." James stopped momentarly and took out his wifes ring he wore on a chain around his neck.
"When my wife passed away this was the one thing I wanted from her. I didn't cremate her body I didn't know where to hide the ashes from kat. So, I had a traditional funeral." He sighed. "My wife died of a disease known as cancer. Cancer, if caught early has a higher chance of being cured, but at the time chemo had barely had a brake through. Chemo had began in the early 40's to late 50's it wasn't until 1967 that a huge discovery of treatment had been made. I couldn't afford to give my wife the therapy she needed and she passed away quietly in her sleep one night. In the early mornings of her death kat had gone to wake up her mother. It was unusual for Amelia to sleep in so late she was up when the sun was up." He said taking a breath. "I had sent kat to her grandmothers before I called the ambulance so she wouldn't have to be surrounded by that at a young age. After her death had been confirmed at the hospital the funeral was held three days later. We had made preperations before her death.." He said sounding guilty. " As time went on me and kat had moved in to a beaten down flat. While I was unpacking our things I heard a thump coming from the basement. I grabbed a bat and a kitchen knife before I went to investigate the source. What bothered me the most upon my discovery was a porciline doll laying on the floor. The doll had came to life and had told me that it was my fault my wife passed away. I instantly believed the doll, it looked so much like my wife that I thought amelia had possessed it." Casper looked upset for asking this question. " Dr harvey, it wasn't you're fault that she died. She had an illness that took her away and I don't think she'd blame you for her passing." He said to the doctor. That was all he could think of saying and he didn't like how it sounded. " Thank you casper. It's comforting to hear that, but unless if it comes from my wife I will always think this." James left the basement and went to the coat rack and got his coat. "I'm going out for a while I will be back before night fall.
Dr harvey made his way to the cemetary. living hear for three years he's never bothered to visit this place. More then likely it's stems from the fact of living with the dead and working with them so he really didn't feel rushed. Today was different though he moved across the country to try to find his dead wife's ghost and has yet to find her. After what happened during the therapy session with the ghostly trio and the conversation he had with casper in the basement he needed fresh air badly. He thought it was stupid, but after coming accross a grave he just sat on the bench and began taking to it. " My name is dr james harvey, i'm not a normal dr I speak for the dead and try and help them move on. My wife had passed away years ago when kat was younger. She's my daughter. After my wife's death I've traveled across the country looking for her ghost and looking for answers. I have found the latter. I have not yet seen my wifes ghost. I want to see her ghost so badly and be able to ask her something. In my old flat I was living I found a china doll in the basement and it had looked like my dead wife." He coughed a bit as the cold was getting to him. "The doll had told me it was my fault my wife had passed." He said to the grave stone. He put his face in his hands and rubbed them to calm himself down. " As long as I have kat, casper, and the ghostly trio I think I will be ok with waiting. I have people who care about me and need me to some exstent even if it might be very little to some. I will always be hear for others and I will keep trying my hardest. I hope that one day I can be rewarded with finding my wife's ghost and being able to talk to her about everything." He got up from the bench and left the cemetary to return home. Somewhere in the cemetary the wind blew revealing red roses from the snow covered earth.
