Vivien sat in the front room running the bow across the strings of her cello. It was calming to hear the music reverberate and echo through out the large estate.
It helped her to forget. All she had to do was close her eyes and let her fingers work their magic to ease her restless soul. She had done it when she was alive, the phrase had more meaning for her now.
She opened her eyes to glance at the bassinet where Matthew slept soundly. She stopped playing her gaze falling on the girl that was standing in front of her.
"Carrie, right?" She asked. The girl nodded.
"Vivien Harmon." She replied. Vivien stood settling the cello against her chair.
"Violet told me she had met you." She said. "She also said she's pretty sure you're hiding from Tate."
Carrie shifted her weight uncomfortably crossing her arms in front of her.
"I should have told Violet not to tell him she saw me." She stated glancing away. "Now they're both looking for me and I know if she finds me, she'll tell him."
"You were friends with Tate, when you were alive." Vivien said.
"And afterwards too, when we were both here." She said.
"So what happened since? Are you afraid of him?" Vivien asked curiously.
"What happened was that he became more violent towards people. He's killed with no reason to. He's hurt you and your family through his stupidity. He just isn't a person a I want to associate myself with." She said softly.
"I can understand that Carrie and that's fine." Vivien stated. "Do you want me to tell Violet to leave you alone?"
"I need...advice." Carrie said hesitantly. It took Vivien slightly by surprise that the teen visibly noted. "I've been watching you and Violet for a long time now. You're a good mother, you try hard to be. I wish my mom had been like you."
"Well, thanks. Alright then, what's up?" She asked.
"I was just talking with Chad. He said that he thinks the way to help all of us here is for everyone to forgive and forget. Basically for everyone to get along." Carrie said.
"Okay." Vivien replied. "Regardless if that will help any of us, Carrie we're all going to be here, together, for a long time. Torturing yourself over things that already happened won't help now. Tate made his decisions, poor decisions, but we all have to live with those now."
"Have you forgiven him? For what he did?" She asked curiously. Vivien gave a short nod.
"I have but not for him, I did it for myself. I didn't want to become hateful and bitter. In this house that leads to delusion and that's how it traps you in an endless cycle." Vivien said.
"So do you talk with him or anything like that?" She asked.
"Only when I have to. I exist with him here along with everyone else simply because I don't have a choice. I choose to be civil and not hide away because ultimately it would be hurting me." Vivien stated.
"Should I forgive him? Even after all of the bad things I've seen him do?" Carrie wondered.
"That's on you Carrie. You're the only person who can make that choice but whatever you do decide I'll be around if you need someone to talk to." She said offering a smile.
"You!" The voice shouted from the doorway. Both Vivien and Carrie turned in that direction to see Constance standing there with a scowl on her face. "How dare you show your face in this house!" She demanded storming over to the teen.
"I'm kind of stuck here, you say that like I have a choice!" Carrie shouted back.
"This child is unwholesome. Don't let her near your precious Violet unless you want her thoroughly corrupted." Constance said to Vivien. She kept a well manicured finger pointed at the girl.
"She's unwholesome? She's been hiding from your murderous, rape happy son up until a few days ago. You have no right to come into my home and start throwing accusations at this girl." Vivien said standing in between Carrie and Constance.
The elder woman lowered her hand and gave a knowing smirk. She placed her hand over her necklace to twist at it slightly.
"You forget that it was mine before it was yours, twice over." She stated snottily.
"Yeah that you lost, twice over if I remember you saying correctly." The other woman quipped back.
"Yes, that's true. I did lose this house twice due to extenuating circumstances." Constance said. She brought her hand up to place it against her hair making sure it was still in place. "My son, my perfect son...hm. He was perfect, a completely normal boy until he met this temptress."
"You really are something else, do you know that?" Vivien said disgusted by the other woman.
"She introduced Tate to drugs, sex, and that god awful suicide music they used to listen to...that garbage." Constance said softy.
"Tate was miserable because of you. You made him believe he was nothing, that's what he thought of himself. He wasn't perfect enough for you even when he tried so guess what? He stopped freaking trying." Carrie shouted at her.
"How dare you! You don't know my son!" Connie shored back.
"I know him better than you! He could never tell you the things that he told me because you'd never approve or care since it wouldn't be what you wanted." She said clenching her fists. "Tate will always be a sad little boy, that's what you turned him into."
"What you and this house turned him into is more like it." Connie stated flatly.
"After I died out there I could hear and see everything. I heard everything you told him, saw everything you did to him. You made him believe that my death was his fault, that if we weren't friends the accident never would have happened." Carrie ground out from between her teeth.
"If you had never sunk your claws into him he wouldn't be trapped here with the rest of the delinquent spirits trapped here." Connie said.
"Excuse me?" Vivien asked raising a brow.
"I warned both you and your husband about this house. You didn't take it, not my problem." She said.
"Oh, and for your information your son was smoking crack way before he met me, stealing your booze for years, and with all the jacking off he did while you locked him in his room, well he gives great bone." Carrie said smirking.
"Why you filthy little slut..." Connie said with her hands clenched and advanced towards the girl. Vivien placed her arms out in front of them to protect the girl before both of them disappeared along with the baby leaving Constance alone in the room seething with anger.