CHAPTER EIGHT

Nannie's Ghost

Rachel was restless, she walked around in circles in her room, checking the time and trying to phone her friends but no one answered. She bit her nails and finally decided to give it a rest and sat on her bed and had only closed her eyes for half a minute when she heard a loud thud from the attic.

She looked around outside her room and hoped for no more excitement or problems than she already is in and decided to check what had made the noise.

The door to the attic was open but the lights were off, thinking that it could have been Frasier she called out for him but there was pin drop silence. Rachel turned on the light and saw an old chest tumbled onto the floor, and something shining on the ground.  It was a small hand mirror. She replaced the chest and took the mirror and held it up in the air and was taking a good look at it when some one screamed into her ear making her scream and she screamed even louder when she saw the reflection of the person standing behind her.

David took off his mask and burst out into laughter. Rachel looked embarrassed and whacked him on the back and left the attic. David fidgeted about as he followed her and tripped himself down the stairs along side Rachel unable to control his laugh.

“That’s enough,” she yelled and got up and checked the mirror to see that it wasn’t broke after the fall.

“Any way what are you doing here and how did you get in anyway?”

David cleared his voice as he got up and dusted himself off and told her that he saw Helen driving in,

“So what were you looking for in the attic?”

“Nothing, I just happened to pass by and found this old mirror, here come with me,”

Rachel dragged David into her room and up dated him on what she learned from her brother but before any further questioning Rachel insisted David to stay in her room while she go out and come back.

“Where are you going?”

 “I won’t be long,” she told him and left with the mirror.

Five minutes later Helen came looking for Rachel but on seeing David she asked him about her but he had no idea where she had gone.

David waited for another ten seconds, momentarily rubbing his palms warm and looking around when Robert and Emma broke in.

“Where’s Rachel?” asked Robert but David shook his head and said that he didn’t know and called them in and closed the door, then opened the door again to see if anyone was around and closed the door again and turned towards his friends who were wondering what he was doing.

David told them everything that had happened within those minutes in the attic and about what she told him.

“She left before I could ask why,”

“Things are starting to become stranger than I thought,’ said Robert going though a piece of paper,

“What’s that?” asked Emma

“A piece of paper with an address on it and seems as if though Rachel has been doing her homework,” Robert said pointing to a telephone book lying wide open on the bed with her phone aside it.

“What are you trying to say?”

Robert handed the paper to Emma as he reached for the phone and threw it over to David who checked the numbers she had dialed.

Emma read the name, ‘Tower Hamlets Register Office,’ what is she implying?”

“To check on Mr. Dan, Ms. Claire and Scarlet,” mused David and the three of them looked at each others faces for a second or two.

“Speaking off Scarlet, if Eric can remember her he can probably remember where she lived,”

“Possibly,” said Emma and the three of them got out of the room and went in search of Eric who had already left for college and Helen was about to leave when they caught up with her in the garage.

“What is it now?” asked Helen chewing gum first thing in the morning but all dreary, “I’ve been pulling up an all-nighter, cram studying for exams and I’ve lost my little sister again, and now her friends are after me, please, I have work to do and by the way if you all happen to find Rachel, lock her up and um….feed Frasier before you leave, thanks,”

She got aboard, pulled the seatbelt over her, started the engine which gave out a puff of smoke right into Frasier’s face making him scrawl out choking.

Emma immediately grabbed him into her arms before she ran him down,

“And lock him inside when you go out and hide the keys under the carpet!”

“And she didn’t leave a word for us to say!” said David the minute she left and Emma chuckled.

“Now what do we do?”

“Let’s part!” said Robert at once, I will go to this office, David will go in search of Rachel and you go for Eric and we’ll meet back up here,”

“Ditto,” said Eric, “but I’ll take the cat, I think he has some kind of an effect on Rachel, it will make it easy for me to find her,”

“Then you better feed him before taking him hunting,” Emma told David as she handed Frasier over to him and Robert and Emma went back in to get their bags when Helen raced back.

She looked at Eric who was holding the cat and gave him a ridiculous look and slammed the door as she got out and went inside to get her bag and rushed back to her car.

Emma and Robert came running downstairs to catch up with Helen who was in haste and asked if she could offer a lift and she did.

Eric waited until they all left after which he went into the house to feed the cat.

On their way Robert told Emma that he changed his mind and wanted her to come with him as he had another plan.

Emma put on a questionable face wanting to ask Robert why but he said that he will explain everything to her later.

Thanks to Helen’s speed driving they managed to get over within two hours.

“You’ll have to get off here people,” said Helen parking her car by college grounds and Robert quickly stirred up something.

“Mind if you can lend your car for the day…..please,”

“Oh no, not that kiddos……for one you’re under eighteen and two I don’t trust you….sorry but no will do,”

“What are you doing?” nudged Emma but neglecting her he went on telling Helen that he is eighteen and has license to drive and that he promises to bring the car back to her safe and sound,”

“No,” she said again

“For Rachel!” he pledged

“Before six,”

“We promise,” Robert grinned

Helen halfheartedly handed over the keys and ran towards the college on seeing Joan waiting for her.

They switched seats and drove to the said place. There was a line of people at the counter so they had to wait, during which Robert decided to ask Emma about what’s going on with her and David, the question was at the tip of his tongue when his father happened to arrive unexpectedly. Robert covered his face with a magazine and then slowly slipped out with Emma.

They got back into the car and waited for him to come out and Robert took the time to finally ask Emma about what he had been holding up for the last few days.

“Why didn’t you tell me about you and David?” he asked her at once and she got startled,

“What about us?”

“That you two have something going on for sometime?”
“Who told you?”

“No one, I saw  it loud and clear, that night when you were at my place, you said you had to go home urgently after that phone call but you didn’t go home……you were at David’s place, I was there too.”

“What!”

“I followed David that night to his house to have a stay over but I suspected something strange so I crept and hid in his cupboard, I saw everything, and how did he burn his skin?”

“Perhaps you should find that yourself too!” Emma scolded him and started to get out of the car but Robert grabbed hold of her hand and held it tight as she struggled,

 “I am not answering to you!”

“I thought you were my friend……why did you lie to me and Rachel?”

“Let go of my hand and I will tell you,”

“Sorry,”

Emma put her foot down unable to hear Robert wailing on and on and took in a deep sigh as she faced him; her eyes had taken certain redness;

“I knew him long time back, when my family and I were on holiday in Ireland. I met him in the hospital when I went first because of a bad fall during hiking and secondly to see my grandmother. He was in a state of bad mentality and was taking treatments for his burns. We were like nine or ten at the time. He said he couldn’t remember exactly how he got himself burned. We kept in touch and soon enough we fell in love I guess.”

“But you only used to go on about a guy named Steve whom you met online….what about him?”

Emma gave out a short laugh, “David is Steve!”

“I met him back online after five years in the name of Steve, and then we got to know each other even more,”

 “You could have told us,” mused Robert, “but why did he call himself Steve?”

“I can’t tell you that, it’s a secret,”

“I’m your friend, you can trust me,”

Emma spoke after a few seconds, “His real name is Steve but soon after he was adopted by his foster parents they called him David, they basically gave him a new ID and brought him into a new life,”

“Adopted? In that case he knows about his accident, if he can remember is real name!”

“I don’t think he knows that much, but why do you want to know?”

Robert hit his own forehead with his hand and smiled to himself and then turned towards Emma and shook her hard.

“Don’t you know what this means?”
“Not indeed……what are you trying to say?”

“What I am trying to say is that David is Steve!”

“I already know that!”

“I mean can’t you think that David could perhaps be the boy in the picture, Scarlet’s son?”

Emma felt a slight twitch on her spine.

“Hold onto your adrenaline rush dear boy there goes your father……” she suddenly said,

Robert glanced through the screen at his father who came out in a hurry with a file in hand and got aboard into his car and drove off.

“Time to rock,” Exclaimed Robert, “but consider about what I said,” he underlined his words and alongside with her they went back into the building, there was a lesser crowd now. They went up and talked to the woman at the counter and told her that they wanted to get information of some of their relatives very convincingly. The woman first observed their faces carefully to see if they were lying.

 

 

Author's Note

Thanks to all those who read and review:)

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

Some questions are opening up in this chapter. I had to do a re-read of story to catch up. I like the secrets coming alive in this chapter. I like the way you make each situation seem important. A excellent chapter.
Coyote

[SUGATA M]

gripping althrough......great job

[Jordan's Back]

This storyline gets creepier and creepier everytime I read it.

Wonderful

[Robbie~xoxo~]

This chapter is good! I like the way your character's interact with each other, a very nice chemistry amongst their personalities...and you have revealed David's secret (opening for more questions).... Nice work!

[Leslie Philibert]

I bet I will at some time in the future see Amila`s name on the cover of a book in a bookshop.Good work.