Broken Promises (19 page)

There was silence between them for a few moments until finally she turned to him. “Stanley, I think this angel is going to be going up to heaven soon,” she whispered.

He shook his head. “No,” he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. “No, you’re going to get better. We’re going to have a lot of years ahead of us.”

She loosened her hold on his hand and lifted it, so she could stroke his face. “I love you,” she said with a gentle smile. “But we have to face reality.”

He turned his face and kissed her hand urgently. “No, no we don’t,” he said, his voice breaking. “We hit harder times than this, and we’ve gotten through them, together. We’ll get through this together too.”

“It would be easier for me if you would just accept it,” she said.

Shaking his head, tears flowing freely down his face, he whispered. “I don’t want to make it easy. I want you to fight every step of the way.”

“I’ve been fighting,” she sighed. “And I’m so tired now. I’m just so tired.”

He wiped his eyes and took a deep shuddering breath. “I know you have,” he said, immediately contrite. “I’m sorry. I’m being selfish. I just…I just can’t let you go.”

“You’re not letting me go,” she said. “You’re just saying good-bye for a little while. We’ll be together again. But I want you to promise me something.”

He nodded. “Anything.”

She waited until he looked at her, met her eyes. She wanted to be sure she saw the promise in his eyes. “I want you to keep living,” she said. “I want you to laugh again. I want you to hike at Devil’s Lake without me. And I want you to fall in love again.”

He shook his head. “No, I can’t promise you that,” he said. “You will be taking my heart with you. I’ve had enough love in my life. I don’t…”

“Stanley,” she interrupted, “I know you. You need a good woman by your side. Someone who will love you and take care of you and boss you around a little too.”

“But…” he began.

“No, buts,” she said. “You can mourn for me, for a little while, but when the time is right, I want you to love again.”

“I’ll try,” he said. “I promise I’ll try.”

She nodded. “That’s enough. And I want you to tell her about me, show her the family photo album. I want to be friends with her when we meet someday. Promise?”

He nodded. “Yes, Verda, I promise. I’ll tell her all about you.”

She smiled and closed her eyes for a moment, her body exhausted. He watched her, his heart dropping, this couldn’t be it. He wasn’t ready to say good-bye. He leaned forward. “Verda?”

Her eyes opened slowly and she smiled softly. Then her eyes opened wider. “Oh, and one more thing,” she said. “Don’t forget…”

Then she wasn’t saying words any longer, she was beeping, like his cell phone.

“Verda, what is it?” he said, the cell ringing over and over. “Tell me.”

Stanley opened his eyes; the cell phone in his pocket was still ringing. He reached down and answered. “Hello,” he said wearily.

“Stanley, it’s Bradley. Are you okay? We’ve been waiting for you for about an hour.”

Stanley looked at the clock on the nightstand. He’d been asleep for over an hour.

“Sorry, Bradley,” he said. “Guess I fell asleep here at the house. I think I’ll stay here tonight.”

“Are you sure, we can come over…”

“No, I’m sure,” he said. “I need to be here tonight. Good-night.”

“Good-night Stanley.”

“Are you sure you want to do this tonight?” Mary asked as she and Rosie walked up steps to Rosie’s home.

“Yes, I’m sure,” she said with a decisive nod, gripping her keys tightly in her hand. “I’m actually surer than I was last night.”

She turned to Mary with an excited smile. “We actually had him on the run last night,” she said. “He was afraid of us.”

“Yes, but tonight could be different,” Mary warned. “Last night we had the element of surprise on our side. Tonight, he’s probably expecting us.”

Rosie paused before inserting the key into the lock. “Expecting us? What do you mean?”

Mary leaned on the wall, next to the door and met Rosie’s eyes. “Last night we frightened him. He wasn’t expecting us to act the way we did,” she explained. “It seems that he is all about intimidation and fear. Tonight he won’t have those weapons, at least not the way he’s had them in the past. So, we don’t know what’s going to happen tonight.”

“Do you want to go home, Mary?”

Mary shook her head. “I want to do whatever you want to do, Rosie. But, I want you to understand this might not be a cakewalk.”

Rosie looked down at the key in her hand. It would be so much easier to turn around and go back to the safety of Mary’s house. Mary and Ian could come back to her house when she and Stanley were on their honeymoon and get rid of the ghosts. It would be so much easier to just walk away.

She thrust the key into the lock and shook her head. She’d done easier before, she’d run away before, she was not running away ever again. “Mary, I want to do this,” she said, her determination evident in her eyes.

Nodding, Mary stood up and moved next to her. “Okay, then, let’s do this.”

The door opened quietly and the two women slipped inside. Rosie didn’t bother turning on the light this time, there was enough filtered light from the streetlamps to see their way through the house. She walked directly to the bedroom, Mary hurrying behind her, and threw open the closet door.

“Okay, out with it,” she yelled. “I’m not playing any games tonight.”

Mary felt the atmosphere of the room change immediately and she pulled Rosie back a few steps. “Release the Kraken,” Mary whispered ironically and waited to see just what was going to spew forth from the closet.

Darkness fell over the room, like a dark cloud had covered the little light available. The air became thicker and almost hard to breathe and it was charged with a tension that caused their hearts to race.

“Mary, what’s happening?” Rosie whispered, clutching her friend’s arm.

Mary took a deep breath and wrapped her arm around Rosie’s waist. “I think we’re about to find out.”

Small tendrils of black slid from the inside of the closet and wrapped their way around the door frame and up the side of the walls. They sprouted more tendrils and pushed on throughout the wall. Soon the area was covered with a moving, squirming mass of darkness that continued to spread.

Rosie gasped and put her hand to her throat. “They’re surrounding us,” she said in a whispered panic. “They are going to wind themselves around us and strangle us to death.”

Mary looked around the room, studying the moving mass. “Yeah, that could happen,” she said casually. “But, really, they’re kind of puny vines.”

She took a step toward the wall.

“Stop!” Rosie screamed, grabbing her arm and pulling her back. “They’ll kill you, Mary, they’ll kill you.”

“Rosie, they won’t kill me,” she said, turning back to her friend.

“Yes, they will,” Rosie cried.

One look at her face convinced Mary that these vines represented something much more sinister to Rosie. Her eyes were wide with fear, her skin was pale and she was shaking. “Please Mary, I don’t want you to die,” she pleaded.

“Did you ever see these vines kill something, Rosie?” she asked, her voice calm.

Rosie nodded slowly and when she spoke, her voice seemed younger, like a child. “My kitty,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears as she looked around the room at the growing vines. “The kudzu killed my little kitty.”

Mary put her hands on Rosie’s shoulders and moved close enough to block her view of the room. “Rosie, look at me,” she said, “and pay attention.”

Rosie’s eyes snapped to attention. “Yes, ma’am,” she responded politely.

“Who told you the vines killed your kitty?”

“Daddy,” she said, her voice breaking. “I found my kitty in the backyard; it was stiff and cold and covered with kudzu. Daddy said the kudzu came out and grabbed my kitty and strangled the life out of it.”

“What else did he tell you?” Mary asked, trying her best to keep the rage she felt towards Rosie’s father to herself.

“He told me if I didn’t do what he wanted, he would leave my closet door open and the kudzu would get in and kill me too,” she said.

Mary remembered Rosie telling her about the abuse she suffered as a child and she realized it was far worse than she had thought.

“Rosie. Are you paying attention to me?” she asked.

Nodding, Rosie looked up into her face. Gone was the confident, self-assured woman and in her place was the child who had been manipulated by a sick, evil parent. Maybe she wasn’t ready to face this yet. She looked around the room. The kudzu had now covered all of the furniture and most of the walls. Only the wall that held the doorway was clear. She took Rosie by the hand and led her from the room.

As if she had been in a dream, Rosie shook her head and looked around. “Mary, why aren’t we in my bedroom?” she asked.

“Tell me about your kitten,” Mary insisted gently.

“My kitten?” Rosie asked, a little confused.

“The kitten that died in the kudzu.”

“Oh, that kitten,” Rosie said sadly. “I haven’t thought about her in years.”

“You need to think about her now,” Mary said. “You need to remember as much as you can about that time in your life.”

Rosie nodded, then closed her eyes and thought about it for a moment. “My mother and I had gone away for a few days,” she said, biting her lip as she tried to remember all the details. “My mother was hurt, her face was bruised. She must have fallen…”

Looking up at Mary, Rosie shook her head. “He hit her,” she said, as she finally realized what had happened to her mother. “He beat my mother. She didn’t fall down. Ever. He beat her.”

Mary nodded. “Yes, he probably did,” she agreed. “Men like your father are bullies and like to pick on people and animals who are weaker than they are. It gives them a perverted sense of power.”

“My kitten,” she said slowly. “He must have killed my kitten.”

“He might have been angry that you and your mother left,” Mary suggested.

She walked back to the open bedroom door and looked at the kudzu on the walls. “And he left her in the yard. He didn’t even bury her,” she said. “He left her there so I would find her.”

Mary followed her. “He wanted you to be afraid, Rosie,” she said. “His greatest power is fear.”

She shook her head and walked into the room, to the vines on the wall. “You know, if you think about it, the kudzu only tried to give my kitten a proper burial,” she said. “Another couple of days and I would have never found her.”

She reached forward and pulled a vine from the wall. It writhed in her hand, but she kept a tight hold on it. “It can’t hurt me,” she said, grasping it with both hands and ripping it in half. “It’s just a damn plant.”

The black vine melted into thin air and the kudzu on the walls began to recede back into the closet.

“Who else hid in your closet, Rosie?” Mary asked.

Her head snapped up and she turned and stared at her friend. “Oh, you’re right. Mary, how could I forget that?” she asked, bewildered.

“Our minds are wonderful instruments; they try to protect us from the things that frightened us. They often hide the things we can’t handle,” she said, she put her hand on Rosie’s shoulder. “But you can handle this now.”

Nodding, Rosie walked over and stood in front of her closet. She took a deep breath. “Daddy, come out of the closet,” she yelled. “Dammit, you come out of that closet right now!”

The darkness seemed to deepen and the door actually shook.

“Remember, he wins when you’re afraid,” Mary whispered, coming up and standing behind her back. “Don’t show your fear, Rosie.”

The ghost was tall and almost spider-like as he crept out of the closet. Darkness encompassed him and there was little left of his human form. His eyes glowed red and his teeth were sharp and pointed. He crawled toward Rosie. “What do you want, little girl?” he lisped, like a reptilian creature, his voice was slow and cold.

Rosie looked over her shoulder, a frightened question on her face.

“Tell him what you want,” Mary said, nodding her encouragement. “Tell him exactly what you want.”

Rosie faced the creature, which was now looming over her. “I want you to leave me alone,” she said slowly. “I want you out of my life.”

“You don’t mean that,” he replied. “You have always loved me. You told me so.”

She swallowed. Her heart was pounding against her chest and the little girl inside wanted to dart under the covers. She could run, but she realized she would be running forever. This time, this once, she had to take a stand.

“I didn’t love you,” she whispered, her mouth dry.

“You’re lying to me girl,” he spit. “You know what happens when you lie.”

She nearly flinched, nearly gave him the satisfaction. Then she turned and saw herself reflected in the mirror over her dresser. She saw the photos of the people who really loved her. Who taught her what love was all about.

Instead of stepping back, she stepped forward and the ghost flinched. Rosie felt a surge a power. “I hated you,” she cried, releasing all of the feelings she had bottled up inside. “I hated how you treated me and my mother. Every night I prayed that you would die. You are evil, selfish and you are a coward.”

“You wanted me,” he insisted, “I was giving you what you wanted.”

“No, you weren’t, and you knew that,” she said sadly. “But, you can’t hurt me any longer. I am not afraid of you. I am stronger than you are. I can’t be manipulated any longer. You need to leave.”

Mary noticed his size was diminished by Rosie’s words. “Tell him again,” she encouraged.

“Go away,” Rosie said. “Never come back. You are not welcome here, you are not wanted here. Your body died a long time ago. But you were dead to me much, much earlier than that.”

“You need me,” he said, as he shrunk back into the closet.

Rosie shook her head. “No, I never needed you,” she said. “I needed a father who would protect me and that was never you.”

“You are afraid of me,” he said, his voice thin and weak.

She took hold of the closet door and laughed bitterly. “No, I’m not,” she said, and then realized what she was saying was true.