Holes In The Wall

by Snapplelinz

*****'*****

They were all seated around the wooden coffee table, talking animatedly and laughing together. The kids were all giggling happily and chasing each other around the richly decorated Christmas tree all along the plush white carpet. Bailey watched the kids in their exploits for a few minutes, completely lost in thought. It had taken a lot of preparation to make this trip happen, but London's many contacts had finally come through for them. So London, Cody, Bailey and Zack had departed from Boston with their brood of children and travelled along all the way to California for Christmas vacation. It had been close to a year since they had all last seen each other, what with London starting her new fashion line, Cody starting his new job at TMI and Bailey and Zack moving into their new house. But they were all finally together for the holidays and Bailey couldn't be happier. She should've been happier.

And yet, there was this nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right. She sifted through her mind for what could possibly be wrong, landing unceremoniously on a few unpleasant memories just from that day alone. First, there had been the atrocious flight with its delay of an hour right before take-off and the atrocious turbulence during the flight itself. Then the car rental service that they'd made their booking through had delivered the wrong car to the airport; so naturally, the four of them (along with five screaming children) had to go down to the dealership to get the car they wanted in the first place. Then they had gotten lost en-route to the vineyard estate just outside of Los Angeles that they were supposed to be staying in for the next two weeks. But they found the place at last and unpacked their belongings before settling down for a nice family dinner together in the early evening.

Bailey had to admit, the vineyard estate really was quite exquisite. It was comprised of four stately-looking 6-bedroom mansions, grouped together in an arc with sweeping gravel driveways, littered with oak trees and lush gardens filled with flowers of every colour imaginable. And if one looked to the west, you had a clear view of the vineyards several meters away, the grapes the colour of blood red under the glare of the waning sun. Bailey had to admit, the view was incredible from this vantage point of the house which Cody and London's family was occupying. She and Zack and their two daughters, Katie (6 years old) and Jessie (4 years old), were staying in the house immediately to the left. The other two houses would remain unoccupied for the duration of their stay. The elderly grounds keeper had been kind enough to give them a tour of the houses, save for one. According to him, the fourth house was currently unavailable for rental because the owners (an elderly and wealthy couple from England) wanted to have it renovated, particularly the living room.

So the grounds keeper was under specific instructions by the owners not to let anyone into the fourth mansion in case anyone got injured. Bailey had been secretly thankful for this precaution while she warned her eldest daughter (who had inherited her father's taste for adventure) in a low voice not to go near the fourth mansion under any circumstances. But it wasn't simply the dangers of a renovated house that worried Bailey, it was the grounds keeper too. While he had a wrinkly benevolent face and a courteous tone which complemented his refined and well-oiled English accent, there was something off-putting about him. Bailey couldn't help thinking that his dark brown eyes (which often looked black in the dimming light) didn't seem to match the rest of his kindly features. And then there was his overall demeanour, as if his hunched shoulders carried a weighty secret. In short, the man gave her the creeps.

Bailey tried to dismiss these disturbing thoughts while focusing all of her attention on the kids playing around the Christmas tree. She grinned to herself while she watched London and Cody's youngest son, Matthew (3 years old) chasing Jessie around the tree. And then he was closely followed by the twins, Paris and Sydney (both 8 years old), who were making scary noises with their mouths to make the younger kids run faster. Bailey still remembered when Cody told her about London first going into labour and being utterly shocked when two twin girls had come out of her.

"Cody, I didn't know we were having twins!" London exclaimed hysterically.

"Sweetie, how could you not? Don't you remember a few weeks ago when the doctor did the ultra-sound and he said that they were two heart-beats?" Cody pressed patiently.

"I remember about the two heart-beats. But I thought he meant that our baby had two hearts, and two heads. Why do you think I freaked out so badly?" London asked weakly of her husband.

Bailey laughed inwardly at this while she continued watching her children. Despite the age gap, she was glad that the kids got along so well, being cousins and all. Even with Jessie and Katie, she was grateful that they were so close, always playing together with their infectious happiness.

Then it dawned on her. All this time that she'd been watching the kids, she finally realised that Katie wasn't right behind Sydney and Paris like usual, trying her hardest to catch her kid sister and tickle her stomach. Bailey's eyes flitted in bewilderment around the living room. Zack was in the midst of telling another story from one of his and Cody's crazy adventures of old; Cody was adjusting the settings on his camcorder and London was kicking back with one too many cups of eggnog.

But no Katie.

"Zack!" Bailey called out sharply, trying to get her husband's attention.

"…do you remember what Mr. Moseby was wearing? He'd just come back from that roller-skating reunion with that huge afro, Bermuda shorts, Knick-Knack sunglasses and rollerskates on. And Woody had to head him off while Marcus and I got rid of the models?" Zack asked laughingly, looking on the verge of tears while regaling everyone with his humorous tale.

"Zack!" Bailey tried once more, this time with success.

Zack glanced at his wife with an impatiently puzzled expression on his face.

"Babe, what is it?"

"Where's Katie?"

"Katie?" Zack asked in confusion.

"She's playing with her sister and her cousins around the Christmas tree." He replied knowingly with a wave towards the corner of the room.

"No, she isn't. She's not in the living room." Bailey protested vehemently.

"What?" Cody questioned sharply, looking up from his camcorder.

"Where'd she go?" Zack asked curiously.

"I don't know, I thought she was here the whole time." Bailey replied quickly.

"Did she go to the bathroom while we were eating?" London questioned calmly, putting her glass onto the coffee table.

"No, I don't think so."

"Maybe she went up to bed." Cody reasoned helpfully.

"But this is yours and London's house. If she were tired, she would've already asked me and Zack to take her back to the house to sleep in her own bed." Bailey went on in a frantic tone.

"Bailey, it's gonna be ok. She's probably around here somewhere. We'll find her." Zack stated while rubbing Bailey's shoulders reassuringly.

Bailey nodded rapidly, tears forming in her eyes while she tried to pull herself together.

*****'*****

Little Katie Martin was skipping down the hallway of the house without a care in the world. She knew that her Mommy had told her not to come in here, but she couldn't help herself. While she, Bailey and Zack had been walking over to Cody and London's house that afternoon, she turned back towards the fourth mansion in the courtyard and thought she had seen an odd flash of light and a face in the window. It had reminded her of her porcelain doll that Aunt London had given her for her birthday that she'd brought with her on their Christmas vacation. As much as Katie liked playing with Jessie, she loved playing with her doll named Crystal even more. And because she had already had a baby sister, she wanted to find the source of the face in the window so that Crystal could also have someone to play with too.

She hadn't been surprised in the least when the front door opened to her touch, as if it had known she would be coming. She ignored the musty scent permeating the air while she skipped happily through the dimly hallway, Crystal swinging helplessly from her hand. Then she began skipping airily through the big living room, still not noticing anything strange in the least. The room in itself seemed to expand in size the longer she skipped through it, passing the four walls in a round-about fashion.

And as Katie started slowing down, she began to notice more of the living room itself. For one, it didn't resemble the rest of the house that was clearly under renovation. There were no hefty wooden boards strewn across the floor or dusty ladders resting against nearby walls. This room was decorated lavishly with expensively antique furniture which rested atop the plush white carpet. A single chandelier lit the entire room, which hung overhead. But instead of brightening the room, the light itself cast a rather opaque shadow on the room, illuminating the dark spots in every corner. A brass grandfather clock chimed softly in the corner of the room, the big hand sweeping across the dial like a double-edged sword.

But there were strange dark patterns on the walls to the left that caught Katie's eye, causing her to stop skipping and move closer towards them. She gasped loudly when her index finger made contact with the first pattern and encountered empty space. To her bewilderment, she realised that it was a hole: a strange circular form deliberately gouged into the wall, its brother located several centimetres from it. As Katie stared at the entire wall, she discovered that there were two pairs of holes every few centimetres, lining the left wall from top to bottom in a peculiar collage. The one that Katie had touched was as big as her hand when she made a fist. But the higher the wall went, the bigger the holes became.

Her big blue eyes widened in curiosity when she looked towards the ceiling on the left wall and saw that the larger holes were stuffed with things. Upon closer inspection, Katie realised the holes were stuffed with what looked like little china dolls. But their faces weren't shiny enough, making Katie idly think for a moment that they were in fact little children (roughly her size). But what were they doing there? Why were there so many holes? And who had made them?

While little Katie Martin pondered on these puzzling questions, she failed to notice the slightest of movements behind her. While Katie stared at the strange holes, there was another pair of holes located near the fireplace, the size of two adult hands, if they were balled into fists.

And out of those holes, two white-gloved hands slipped through, the fingers flexing ominously in the glare of the chandelier.

Katie didn't even hear his soft footsteps until he was standing right behind her, his gloved hands behind his back. Katie turned around sharply on the balls of her heels and faced the stranger with wide eyes. So that's who the face in the window belonged to. It wasn't the face of a porcelain doll at all, but a gilded porcelain mask with rosy cheeks and holes where the eyes should be. And the eyes staring out from the mask were as black as the night just beyond the front door.

Then he finally took off his mask and Katie recognised him as the English groundskeeper that she had met earlier that day. But that brought her no sense of relief when his black eyes bored right into her, like he meant to bore holes right through her. All she wanted right now was her Mommy and Daddy. As Katie tried to run past the groundskeeper, he simply grabbed her around her waist and picked her up in his arms, as easily as if she weighed the same as her porcelain doll, which now lay pathetically on the fluffy carpet. Then he placed her on her back on the glass coffee table.

"Let me go," Katie pleaded in a tiny voice, the first of her tears beginning to fall.

The groundskeeper shook his head simply and continued smiling at Katie, his grip on her arms tightening all the more while he leant in closer. And seconds after that, all that could be heard was the sound of whimpering, reflecting off the dark holes riddled into the walls.

*****'*****

Bailey gave an almighty lurch in her bed, her eyes shooting wide open in horror. The scream had died instantly on her lips, muffled by the violent hammering of her heart in her chest.

"Katie! Katie!" Bailey cried out in alarm, searching blindly for her eldest daughter in the dark bedroom.

A few seconds later, she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her, muttering soothing words in her ear, easing the worst of her hysterical state.

"Bailey, it's ok. You just had a bad dream," Zack murmured comfortingly in Bailey's ear.

"But Katie –"

"She's fine. Both she and Jessie are asleep in their beds down the hall." Zack replied assuredly.

"But the dream…it was so real, Zack. We went away on a trip for Christmas vacation with the kids and Cody and London and their kids to this old house. And then the groundskeeper attacked Katie. Oh God, it was awful." Bailey whispered painstakingly, clutching her face in her hands to dispel the bad memories.

"I knew we shouldn't have watched that Halloween special on HBO tonight. Now it's gotten you all freaked out." Zack remonstrated seriously.

"Are you sure the kids are ok?" Bailey asked worriedly of Zack.

"They're fine. I'm surprised they fell asleep at all after all that candy they ate from going trick-or-treating earlier. But all your screaming and fussing is probably gonna wake them up again, and then we'll never get any sleep." Zack chided lightly.

"I'm sorry." Bailey apologised meekly.

"There's nothing to apologise for. You had a bad dream, it happens. I promise you, nothing bad will ever happen to you or the girls. Not on my watch." Zack promised seriously, cupping Bailey's face gently in his hands.

"I love you so much," Bailey whispered in a husky voice.

"I know," Zack remarked airily, his signature grin in place before Bailey leant in and kissed him tenderly on the lips.

She started getting really into the kiss when she realised what had caused her nightmare in the first place.

"Zack, the walls!" she exclaimed abruptly.

"Huh?" Zack questioned in bewilderment, his brain still a little hazy from Bailey's kissing.

"The cable company made all those holes in the living room when they were supposed to be installing the ADSL. We have to get them fixed and stopped up!" Bailey remonstrated impatiently.

"In the morning, Bails. I gotta get some sleep if I'm gonna make it through that meeting in a few hours." Zack groaned before turning over on his side once more to sleep.

"Fine. I'm gonna go check on the girls quickly." Bailey whispered in Zack's ear.

"That's great, honey. I'll have twelve." Zack mumbled sleepily and began snoring loudly.

Bailey shook her head, grinning at her husband's sleeping form before she put on a pair of slippers and exited hers and Zack's bedroom. She walked down the hallway slowly till she entered Katie and Jessie's room that they shared. The two girls were asleep in their twin beds adjacent to each other, their faces angelic against the backdrop of the moonlight. Without thinking twice about it, Bailey moved towards their beds and began shaking each of them gently out of their sleepy stupor.

"Wake up, sweethearts. You're gonna come sleep by Mommy and Daddy." Bailey urged in a tender voice.

"Is it break-fast time, Mommy?" Jessie asked in a drowsy tone.

"Not yet, honey-bunch. Come on." Bailey continued.

Both Jessie and Katie obediently got out of their beds and took Bailey's hands while they walked back to the master bedroom. Then Jessie and Katie climbed in next to Zack, who snorted something and continued sleeping. Jessie fell asleep instantly while Katie watched Bailey get back underneath the covers.

"Are you ok, Mommy?" Katie asked quietly.

"Uh huh, kiddo. Just having some trouble sleeping." Bailey admitted softly.

"Did you have a bad dream?" Katie pressed in a small voice.

"Kind of, Baby." Bailey murmured wearily.

"Don't worry, Mommy. I'll protect you," Katie whispered pleasantly before planting a sloppy kiss on Bailey's cheek and wrapping her arms tightly around Bailey's neck.

Bailey smiled and kissed Katie tenderly on the forehead as they lay there together. But the minute that Katie fell asleep, Bailey's unease returned and the memories of her nightmare returned to her in full force. So all she could do for the moment was shift over onto her side and not look at the dark spots on the walls formed by the shadows of the moonlight.

*****'*****

A/N: This was inspired by a nightmare that I had a year ago, which is forever seared into my memory. If Mary Shelley can do it with 'Frankenstein', then so can I ; ) The pairings were inspired by Elianna22's 'Just One of the Guys' and 'Repercussions' series. Happy writing, everyone!

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