The next day, Laura lent over her kitchen counter, with one of Lily’s toys embraced in her fingertips, confused about what had happened last night. But today wasn’t to be spoilt. As Lily bounced down the stairs shouting
“Mummy, where my uniform, I want to get ready. Mummy!” Lily was very excited about her first day at school; her daddy has told her many wonderful stories about school, how she will make so many new friends, and that it will be so much fun. She was such a wonderful little girl, so enthusiastic and adventurous.
Laura gave Lily a hug, and then she sat her down on the sofa, where her uniform was laid neatly on the arm of the chair ready waiting. Laura helped Lily get changed for school. At 8.30, Laura walked Lily down the road to school. After all the children went in, she walked the short road back to her house, and all that was on her mind, all day, was what happened the night before.
So the day passed, when Lily came home, all they heard about was what such a wonderful day she had and how she can’t wait until tomorrow. But in all the excitement, the evening went so quickly and it was time for Lily, and then Laura and Ben to go to bed. But in the middle of the night, Laura again heard a noise, but this time it was crying and it was much louder. So she swung her legs to the side of the bed, crawled out, but she didn’t even get out before she saw a little ghost girl clutching the old tattered suitcase, huddled in the corner next to the open window. She had seen this suitcase before; it was the same one that was in her daughter’s room. At first, she was in confusion, as you might have thought. But then, even before she could try to wake Ben, even though she was prodding and shaking him, the girl had gone in an instant, but leaving the suitcase. Laura still stared at the corner for about 10 minutes where the ghost girl had stood, and then she lay back to try and fall asleep. The next morning the suitcase was gone.
The next evening, before they all went up for bed. Laura could hear very faint crying, but she just thought that it was her imagination and tried to take no notice of it. But how ever hard she tried, it was still there etched in the back of her mind, wondering who it was? Where is it?
“Can you hear that? The screaming.” she asked Ben, hoping so much for the answer to be yes, to confirm her queries.
“No, what noise? Are you alright” Laura just kept on skimming the room with her eyes, just wanting to see something, something that will answer her questions. But she saw nothing.
Later that night, all now in bed, Ben was just dropping off to sleep to the sound of the 10 o’clock News in the background, but Laura was still very awake. But now it wasn’t screaming she could hear, just like last night, she could hear crying now. She squeezed her eyes tight, and lay back, and tried to sleep.
After half an hour of restlessness, Laura went downstairs to clear her head. But as she walked down the stairs, and around into the living room, there, on the sofa was the suitcase. And the noise of the crying was louder than ever. But this time there was no little girl. She couldn’t see anyone. So she just grabbed it, ran out the front door, down the steps and threw it out into the road. Then, taking her hand, and sweeping her hair behind her ear, she went back into the house, up the stairs and crawled back into bed.
The next morning, as per usual, Laura got up first, made the breakfast, and got Lily’s clothes ready. Ben was second to surface from upstairs, and then Lily. After all getting ready, Ben leaves the house for work and Laura and Lily take the short walk down the road to school. On the way Laura noticed that the suitcase had vanished. Now as she was feeling much better that the case had finally gone, she went out for the afternoon, leaving Ben to collect Lily from school.
After her relaxing afternoon out, she returned back home to peace and quiet. She walked over to the sofa, lounged in her seat, and drifted off to sleep. As the night passed, Laura woke up to the sound of giggling. This was from her daughter’s room. She turned to Ben,
“Who is Lily with?”
“No one, go and see what’s she’s doing up there.”
So Laura made her way up the stairs and pushed open her daughter’s room’s door to discover that Lily was talking to the little ghost girl that she had seen two nights before. She was speechless and her legs just went stiff. She couldn’t move. Lily, after realising that her Mum was there, said.
“Mummy? Are you ok?” Laura walked towards the suitcase, and the ghost girl vanished out of the open window, leaving the suitcase behind. Laura picked it up, gave Lily a hug, and said
“Can you please leave this suitcase alone?”
“But Mummy. What about Annie? Can’t I see her again?” Lily replied, as Laura was just about to leave the room.
“Who is this Annie, is it that girl?” Lily nodded, “Sorry you can’t see her again.” Laura now moved out of the room, still clutching the suitcase in both hands. She walked down the stairs into the living room, and gave Ben the Case.
“Please can you get rid of it? I don’t want it anywhere near me and my family anymore!” She pushed it into his chest and stormed off into the dining room and sat down on one of the chairs, and put her head into her hands, and just sat their in complete silence. Ben walked out of the front door and into the car, and drove off.
Lily walked down the stairs over to her Mummy and gave her a hug.
“Are you ok Mummy?” Laura just hugged her tighter; a tear ran down her face,
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Lily walked over towards the sofa, and before sitting down said,
“Annie didn’t mean to cause any trouble; she just wants to find her Mother.” Laura turned her head towards her daughter. “She’s been searching for a long time. She thought if she called her mother, she would come and take her to peace.” Laura walked over to the sofa and sat down, and placed her daughter on her knee.
“Where did she come from?” Lily looked out of the window and said.
“She lived here, in the Second World War; I think that’s what she said. She was taken away from her mother” Lily got up and walked over to the stairs, “It’ll be ok, I don’t think Annie will be coming back, she likes to keep her case with her.” She continued up the stairs and into her room.
At that time, Ben walked through the door
“What did you do with it?” Laura asked
“I got rid of it don’t worry.” Laura walked over to Ben and gave him a hug.
“Thank you.” She then went into the kitchen and asked “What do you want for tea then?” Ben just smiled at her, and sat down, turned on the TV.
Laura was now free of the paranoia and was now back to a normal life. Well as normal as life can be.
