"AAAAAHHHHHH!" I jolted upright in my bed at the sound of a woman screaming! Running to the window to see what happened, only to find Fanny flat on the ground. She then gets up and walks away as if nothing happened. I frowned, looking confused Fanny, then noticed the clock. 8am. Definitely better than an alarm clock. After getting my dressing gown on, I went down to the main room, finding Alison there as well.
"Morning Tilly."
"Morning Alison." We smiled at each other. "So, what was that noise from this morning?"
"Oh, with Fanny? Apparently, it's something to do with how she died."
"Oh God!"
"According to her, when she found her husband in bed with the butler– "
"Wow!"
"AND the groundskeeper– "
"You're joking!"
"Her husband pushed her out of the window at 3am in the morning. That's how she became a ghost."
"Hang on, if it was at 3am, how come she re-enacted her death at 8am this morning?"
"Oh, because some of the ghosts managed to push the clock back so they could get some rest without getting woken up."
"I'm still intrigued by the idea that ghosts need sleep." We both laughed.
"Well, we're still getting on with things, still use some energy." Alison shrugged. "Heard anything back from Thomas?"
"Not just yet." I looked down at the floor. "As much as I loved that poem he gave me, I still have that self-doubt about all of this." Alison came up and hugged me.
"I'm sure everything will be ok, Tilly." We smiled at each other again, then suddenly, Mary ran in.
"The witch has placed a curse over the ghosts here!" She immediately ran out again. I looked at my cousin, who in turn looked at me, and we both burst out laughing.
"I'll go see what's happening and try to convince Mary you're not a witch!" and with that, Alison waved at me, and left the room.
I returned to my bedroom and got myself ready for the day. I didn't know what my day would entail, but if yesterday involved discovering ghosts, then this day would only expect more craziness. Especially in a place like Button House. I dressed myself and went to the kitchen to see if there was anything I could have for breakfast. As I got down there, I found Julian doing some stretches by the radio with a view I did NOT want to see! Even with my yell of surprise, he didn't seem to notice me. He was so fixated by what was on the radio, silently egging on whatever sport was on. I rolled my eyes, made my way to the radio, and switched to a music station that was blasting some My Chemical Romance.
"Excuse you, but I was listening to that!" Julian said, exacerbated.
"And now you're listening to this." I snarkily replied, pointing back at the radio. I went over to the cupboard, pulled out a box of cereal and a bowl, and set them on the table. "Why don't you put on some trousers, Tory boy?"
"In case you haven't noticed, small child, but I can't touch anything. I am a ghost."
"If you can't touch anything, how did the radio come on?"
"Now, you see, there was a lot of concentration and practice that went underway for…there's a few complications…circumstances what they are– "
"Yep, you're definitely a politician." I poured my cereal, got a spoon, and went to the fridge for milk. Pouring it into my cereal, I began to tuck in. "You didn't answer my initial question."
"If you won't say why you can see us, I won't tell you."
"Well that's a stupid ultimatum to go for!"
"It's only fair."
"Fair? Didn't even think that word was in a politician's dictionary!" Julian stomped his foot down like a child having a temper tantrum.
"I saw those marks on your wrist!" he said, pointing at them. I quickly covered them with my other hand, my playful attitude dying away in an instant. "Just because I've not got any trousers does not mean I'm the only one with easily-told stories." I didn't feel hungry anymore. I stood up, looking him dead in the eye (figure of speech!).
"Just because I have stories does not mean I want to be so transparent with them. And someone with your calibre should mean you know better than to pry with someone's private affairs, especially when you yourself have your privates out!" With that, I left the kitchen quickly, holding back my tears as much as possible. It wasn't until I reached my bathroom that I truly broke down. Holding my wrist in my other hand, I thought about my father, my family, Alison; remember what your therapist told you, Tilly. Breathe. Just breathe. I closed my eyes, thinking about mum, Cheryl…Thomas…I was still a crying mess when I could feel someone near me.
"My dear lady!" said a comforting, yet surprised voice. "Whatever could be troubling you?" I felt Thomas pull me closer to him. He stroked my head as I let my emotions go. "Please, I am here for you." I pulled back, looking into his eyes. Wiping my tears with his thumb, he repeated "What is troubling you, my sweet?" I looked down at my hand covering my wrist. I lifted it up but kept it close to my chest.
"It's just Julian being an absolute prick, that's all." Thomas suddenly stood up.
"Where is he?! I will dual him to the death for insulting my beautiful lady!" I grabbed his arm before he could leave.
"Don't. You'll only sink to his level."
"But I must defend thy honour!"
"Thomas, please." He turned back to me and knelt down to me.
"What is it that thy lady wants?"
"Just…hold me." Thomas put his arm around me, and I just leant my head on his shoulder. It was weird how relaxed I immediately felt, but this was a feeling I wanted to last. "Thank you for the poem by the way." I said, softly.
"Thank you for your beautiful letter." He replied, matching my level of softness. We just sat there for a few minutes, in our comforting embrace. No words were needed. "Tell me, my dear," Thomas said, breaking the silence. "What do you with yourself during the day?"
"I'm a writer myself." I replied. "I write a lot of music. Mostly for my band. Well, I say band, most of its members like to leave!"
"A fellow poet!" Thomas looked impressed. "What topics do you write about?"
"Love, betrayal, different things…sometimes even basing it on existing material, like books."
"What are your favourite books, I never asked?"
"Oh, different stories. Sometimes romantic, like Jane Austen novels, or more on the gothic side like Dracula." I then sat up, realising something. "You've not been able to hear some of the stories that were released after your…um…ghostly transformation!" Thomas' eyes widen.
"More books?!"
"Of course! Come with me…" With that, I took Thomas by the hand, and got him to follow me to the library.
""A cold voice answered: 'Come not between the Nazgûl and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shrivelled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye."
A sword rang as it was drawn. "Do what you will; but I will hinder it, if I may."
"Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!"
Then Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. "But no living man am I!""
I looked up at Thomas as I read one of my favourite passages from Lord of the Rings, his eyes full of wonder.
"Éowyn!" he jumped up and yelled in excitement. I smiled, seeing this excitement.
"Just wait and see, Thomas." It was so sweet to see him amped up for what was about to come. We had spent hours just reading through Lord of the Rings, seeing Thomas excited for every detail that happened. Just I was about to continue, however, Alison came through. She looked very shattered.
"Oh, there you both are! We've been looking for you for ages!" I put the book down, leaving a bookmark inside.
"What's the matter?" I asked. Alison didn't look too pleased.
"Someone that I had to deal with when I first moved in. Julian will help you." Grimacing at Thomas, I left him in the library and made my way to the door, where Julian was. Still hurt by what he said this morning, I pulled my sleeve down further on my arm, and remained stern with him.
"Who is it?" I asked him. He was very cold with me as well.
"Barclay Beg-Chetwynde." he replied. "Nasty piece of work."
"Coming from you, that says a lot!" Julian chose to ignore that.
"If you get stuck, bring up the fact he has an illegal account, Fiji." I rolled my eyes and opened the door to see a very creepy elderly man smiling. Before he had the chance to say hello, I shut the door in his face.
"Why did you do that?!" Julian sounded exacerbated.
"I don't know, I panicked!"
"Well open the door and talk to him!"
"I don't want to talk to him!"
"The problem will not sort itself out by you hiding away!"
"Why, isn't that what you did?" Julian was taken aback by that. Fury in my eyes, I opened the door again to see Barclay was still standing there.
"Hello, you must be the new Button House owner. I'm your neighbour, Barclay Beg-Chetwynde." He continued with his creepy smile. I didn't smile back.
"Oh, the dude that lives by the drive." Barclay seemed surprise by my attitude. "What do you want?"
"Well, see, you mentioned that we live BY the drive – you do have to cross our land to use it–"
"Hold up, you saying you want some compensation for MY friends and family having to use a tiny fraction of your land to visit me?!"
"It's only fair–"
"No, here's what's fair then; you would have to pay me every time that you want to walk on my grounds with your dogs, and don't call them bitches, that's derogatory. Considering you have a lot of dogs that need to walk around, that probably would be more than any chance of friends visiting me. Either that, or we could not mention this again, and neither of us would get in each other's way – ok?" Barclay looked stunned at my response and stammered to find something to respond with.
"Excuse you, but the last owners were very receptable to this agreement–"
"Excuse you, but I doubt my cousin would agree to that level of scam for HER property! And I'd recommend you'd show my family some respect, or it won't be this house that knows about your little Fiji account." Barclay turned and practically ran off. I slammed the door and saw Julian still there, stunned.
"Wh-where did that come from?!"
"Let me be real, anger at you." I left Julian at the door and went into the main room. As no one was there, I took out my guitar out of its case, sat by the window, and started strumming. Music always managed to calm me down; it takes my mind away from the mayhem that happens every day. I knew I was going to have to pull out all of the stops with my music so that I could keep this beautiful house.
As I started to jam out these loud chords, trying my hardest to cool off, when I heard some jumping up and down. I turned around and saw Robin, surprisingly, jumping up and down excitingly. When I stopped playing, Robin made grunts of unhappiness at the lack of music.
"Sorry Robin, I didn't expect an audience just yet." I laid my guitar on its stand and sat by the window. Robin made his way next to me and sat down as well.
"Bear eat your arm?" Robin asked. I looked confused, but I knew what he meant.
"Just…tired of everything, annoyed, fed up. People are annoying, mentally just meh, you know?" Robin nodded, looking like he was trying to understand what I just said. "I just hate myself right now." I added.
"Maybe settling in to new environment?" Robin suggested. "Seeing something new?"
"Probably. So much has happened in a small amount of time already, I don't know if I'm able to cope."
"Me been here long time. Me know how busy people can be. Lot of events. But it all important. It all have good results at end. Even when looking terrible, positivity will come." Even with a limited vocabulary, I could tell what Robin meant. What he meant was really good advice.
"Thank you, Robin. I really needed that." I smiled back at him. I picked up my guitar. "You want me to play you something?"
"Yes, yes!" With that, I thought and strummed the chords to the first song I remembered. With that, I started singing the words to 'A Grave Mistake'.
"Here lies a lifeless bride and groom
Till death do us part came far too soon
Buildings burn and people die
All of the time
But I heard that you reap what you sow
So around and around we go
And when you see my face you'll know
You can't save yourself or save your soul
When you meet the man whose life you stole
With weathered wings and broken bones
A flight for the fallen, flies the crow
You can't save yourself"
I stopped strumming to see not only Robin, but the rest of the ghosts as well, taking me by surprise. Even Mary was there, not calling me a witch for once. Suddenly, everyone started clapping – I just continued to sit there awkwardly.
"That be some amazing noises you be making on that lutes!" Mary commented.
"True poetry from your voice!" added Thomas.
"I will admit it's not the finest opera" of course, Fanny, "but it is certainly a talent that you possess, young lady."
"Thanks – if you liked that, you should hear me with my band-" I smacked myself with my hand, having just remembered something.
"Uh-oh, what's up?" Pat asked.
"My band! I said we'd have a band rehearsal as soon as I moved in! I texted them the address and everything!" I put my guitar back in its case and grabbed my phone, looking at the group chat messages.
"Band? As in marching band, or…?" The Captain inquired.
"Rock band." I put my phone down. "And they're coming tomorrow!"