All Hope Lost (5 page)

               
I stepped back into the landing and headed for the master bedroom. I was quite
surprised to find it mostly clean and tidy. Everything had a place, it seemed,
cupboard doors were properly closed, and there was even a vanity unit next to
the double bed. Curious, to never having a vanity unit myself, I decided a
little snoop around in it wouldn’t hurt. Carefully, I slid open a drawer to
find boxes of earrings and other jewellery placed snug and neatly in their own
sections. I closed it and tried the next one. My mouth became a silent O as I
spied what looked like sex toys.
Let’s not touch those Sharon.
I quickly
shut the drawer and opened another one.
Now this is interesting.
Inside,
were some small wrapped up parcels? I had seen such things on day-time TV when
I was too ill to go to work, cop stuff came on, and I ended up watching drug
raids, car chases and what the law and the justice system ultimately handed out
to the evil villains. Got to say, most of the time the sentences were pretty
disappointing. No wonder the country is such a soft touch and the most inviting
place for anyone wanting to commit crimes. You basically could get away with
murder. Well apart from those idiots who killed me, they had left their DNA all
over, and inside me.
I grinned slyly. Fools!

               
I took the wrapped drugs, and walked out of the bedroom with them. An idea popped
into my head and I quickly headed downstairs to the kitchen and placed the
small bag behind a table leg, out of obvious view. The doorbell rang, and
Shelby answered it with a display of double cheek kisses and fag fumes. A young
girl must be mid-twenties with a bump of a belly heaved herself through the
door and headed straight toward me and the kitchen.

“Seriously Shelb, I hate being pregnant, I don’t even
want this kid. It was a mistake with some drunken guy. Just wish I could get
rid of it.” She helped herself to a glass and grabbed the vodka bottle.
Holy
hell, is this girl stupid or something? That poor kid of hers is going to be so
messed up in the head.
I felt sorry for the poor soul who was coming into
this world.
No sense at all.
I shook my head in disgust. I hadn’t had
time to have my own children, but there was no way in hell I could let that
child be brought into the hell it would no doubt be in if she continued. I
focused on the glass in her hand and made it shatter as she went to take a swig.
The vodka spilled over her lap to the floor. “SHIT” she gasped, and clutched
her hand as it started to bleed where the glass was embedded.

“Fuck Lindsey, you Ok?” Shelby asked “you better go get
that sorted down the A and E, girl. I’ll get you a taxi.” She took out her
mobile and hit the speed dial for her local taxi service.

“Dammit, I was all looking
forward to the party this weekend too.” She looked down at her lap sulking.
“Now it looks like I’ve pissed meself too!” She hoisted herself up and looked
down at her bump. “Fuck, can’t even get rid of you right.” She thumped her
belly, but winced at the pain it caused.

The doorbell rang again as I
was feeling more and more disgusted with this sorry excuse for a human being
next to me, and another person walked in. This time it was a male, eyes
dilated, wearing sagging jeans and an obscene tee-shirt. He was followed right
behind by two more men and a female, who already appeared to be drunk,
staggering indoors and heading straight for the kitchen for more drink.

I decided to leave them to get
their drinks sorted, and entered the living area again. I had had no idea that
things were this bad for people to get so wasted, to want to destroy a life
growing inside of them. That or they just didn’t care? Maybe. Responsibility
and respect for your fellow humans, animals and the planet in general didn’t
appear to be high on the curriculum these days. That’s if they even went to
school.
Was this like a circle of inevitability? Were their parents just as
bad as their kids are now?
I shook my head.
This is the problem with
today’s society. There is no discipline any more, no sense of morality or
self-pride. Everything just seems to be a sick joke, and you can all do what
you want and nobody thinks anything less of you, as they all have the same
mentality
.
This has to stop. I must do what I can to start making things
better for my friends, my family, the children and future generations. But
would this one act of vigilantism be enough? No. But I can continue to help others
after this? Should I be the judge, jury and executioner?
I shook my head,
too many questions to be answered right now.
Let’s just get our revenge on
this woman and at least make myself feel better and the estate have one less
nuisance.
I nodded as the talk with myself made me more confident to carry
on with what I was going to do.

The group made their way to
the living area and fell into the seats, one sat on the floor, and Shelby went
to turn the music up. “Let’s get the party started! WOOOOO!” I hung my head,
but lifted it again as I heard the door open and the pregnant girl leave. I
guess the taxi had arrived. How she had heard it over the music was anyone’s
guess.

Shelby moved over to the door,
and looked back. “I’ll grab the gear be right back.” I knew what ‘gear’ she was
talking about. I headed out to the kitchen and checked behind the table leg. It
was still there. I heard the drawers’ upstairs open and close, and then the
cursing began. She clearly wasn’t happy. I heard her move about again, and some
more cupboards being opened. She appeared moments later with some other
paraphernalia in her arms, and dumped them on to her small coffee table between
the sofas. “I couldn’t find my regular gear so we can use this. I keep it for
emergencies only, and this here’s an emergency. I need to get high!” They
grabbed a needle each and filled them with some sort of liquid. I wasn’t sure
what it was, but it seemed most likely to be heroin. As the group started tying
tourniquets around their chosen limbs, one even opted for their foot; I decided
it was now or never.

               
I started to create movement around me, and laughed so that the coldness of my
aura swept between them, causing them to shiver as they injected themselves. I
shimmered into focus causing a few of them who looked up suddenly, and tried to
understand what they were looking at.

“Holy shit, this stuffs good Shelb.” The guy who had
spoken sank backwards into the chair staring at me. The others looked over to
me, and I flashed in and out of the mortal plain.

“What the fuck?” one of the girls shouted. “What the fuck
is that?” She pointed at me, and I lifted my head to stare at them, my eyes
wide. My mouth started to open, and it looked like I had their attention, one
of the girls was now backing away, the others too wasted to realise what was in
front of them. Shelby was staring, her jaw nearly in her lap. “I’m gonna
fuckin’ kill my dealer, man, what’s in this shit?”

I flung my head back, my hands
in fists at my side and wailed as loud as I could. The group tried to scatter,
but were so messed up they tangled amongst themselves, curling up on the
chairs, the floor, whatever was closest and covered their ears. My wail grew
louder. It mattered not to me how loud I could go, it couldn’t affect me, but
it could them. As they all huddled in balls, I swept over to the music player
and twisted the volume to off. Now for the manipulation, whilst they were all
docile. I headed for each brain, finding the electrical impulses and causing a
repeat of their booming music to turn on inside their head.
They want to
listen to this so-called music; they can listen to it all day and all night
long now without annoying everyone else!
I laughed joyfully as one by one;
they clutched their heads, hitting themselves, trying to rid the noise. “Turn
it off” they were shouting, “turn it off!” Shelby had run to the stereo but
found that the music was already off, at least the volume was. She looked about
trying to find where the music was coming from. I appeared suddenly in front of
her, a ghostly form, no real identity, but my eyes came into focus for her,
deep black pools of nothing. She screamed then, and ran for the door, mobile in
hand. “Police, ambulance, everything! Help, help!” I could hear her shouting
down the phone. I ran back to the kitchen and grabbed the small bag behind the
kitchen table, and placed it on the coffee table. No one saw it floating
through the air; they were all too occupied with their own turmoil. I decided
that I should wait for the police to arrive and watch the finale, so I made
myself comfortable on the stairs in the hall.

Five minutes later, sirens
wailing turned into the road and officers came into the house, attempting to
make sense of what was being said. They were shaking their heads as they found
all the drugs, instruments, and alcohol and judged that they should all be
locked in a cell for the night to cool off. Notes were made about evil spirits,
and that they all had an annoying beat in their heads that wouldn’t go away. The
police assumed the drugs and drink were to blame, and told them all it would be
gone once it was all out of their systems. Paramedics confirmed the status of
most of them, due to the dilated pupils, and let the police cuff them and haul
them down to the local jail.

I clapped my hands and laughed
again, causing a chill to swim about everyone making them shiver. I retreated
quickly back to my house, through the adjoining wall, to find Michael and Steve
chatting about was I was up to.

“Hey Sharon!” Michael greeted “how did it go? We heard
the scream of course, what else happened?”

I happily replayed the evenings’ shenanigans with Michael
who laughed, and repeated it to Steve.

“That’s awesome,” replied Steve. “So is this it? Is it
goodbye now?”

I shrugged. “I really don’t know. It doesn’t feel like
the end. I was thinking when I was next door; maybe I’m supposed to be here to
help others in similar situations. I certainly don’t feel like my work is done
anyway.” As Michael told Steve what I had said, I suddenly remembered
something.

“Damn, I forgot to find out how my friend did online with
his noise nuisance after I went and shut it down!”

Michael grabbed the laptop.
“Let’s take a look then!” The loading screen fired up once more.

As I read the update on
Torment’s blog, the doorbell rang. Steve answered it. It was the police. They
were trying to get more information about the activities next door during the
evening. Reading the blog, it appeared my actions had stopped some of the noises
for a while, until the machinery was back up and running. I knew it was only
temporary, but it seemed that was enough for him to get proof of where the
noise was emanating from. I grinned. That would help him to get the noise
reduced, or stopped, maybe even the ability to sue them now for the damage they
had done to his health.

Michael and Steve were talking
with the officer at the door, answering any questions they could, explaining
the type of person Shelby was and what the noise she produced did to them every
weekend, and during the week. The officer nodded, then wishing them a good
evening, left for his vehicle.

Closing the front door,
Michael spoke to me. “I’m beat, so I’m gonna go get some sleep. You’ll be ok
Sharon?” I nodded. There were things I wanted to do anyway, whilst the living
slept.

As the house grew silent and
dark, I made the decision to go visit the pregnant girl at the hospital. I had
to see what condition she was in, especially the unborn; that disturbed me the
most.

I slipped through the wall,
and rode the air currents to the hospital.
I guess being a ghost isn’t so
bad,
I thought.
No more overpriced commuting, no more worrying about my
weight, no more neighbour from hell. In fact there was a lot going for this,
apart from no children of my own, the grief my family and friends have had to
go through for my death. Swings and roundabouts.

Reaching the hospitals A and E
department, I walked through the automatic doors. They rattled as I passed
through. Looking around the large reception, I was surprised at how many people
were here, roaming the floor, some sitting in chairs waiting for triage, others
just standing about, heads down.

One person caught my eye. She
was wearing a bright pink shell-suit. But it wasn’t just the outfit that I
noticed. It was the translucency of her.
A ghost,
I thought. I walked
towards her, and she stopped pacing, her wide eyes stared at me. “Er, hi.” I
said. Not sure what to say at first. Her head tilted to one side, as though the
concept of someone talking to her was unheard of. Her brow furrowed.

“Hello.” She replied. “Is it time for me to leave yet?”

“Leave where?” I asked, confused.

“Hospital. I have been made better, but they won’t tell
me to go.”

Does she not realise she is dead?
I absently
scratched my nose. It wasn’t itchy, just a nervous habit I used to have when
alive. “Erm, what is your name?”

“Mary, Mary Winters. Will you see if it’s ok for me to
go?”

“Mary, what year is it?” I had to ask. Other people were
walking past, and through us. Mary wasn’t even aware of this. Why? Surely she
had some reasoning by now of what has happened to her?

“1988 of course. I would really like to go now, I feel
much better.”

“Mary. It’s not 1988 anymore. I-I- I’m not sure how to
tell you this, but, well, you died a long time ago.” She was staring at me,
confusion on her face, which quickly changed into a pout. She didn’t believe
me.