The Resurrection Of Amelia D. Taylor (3)
Chapter 6 Amelia awoke in a cold sweat. Her breath was slow and deep. She was horrified right now. She looked at the oil lamp above the bureau and the light still dancing inside of it. She let out one more deep breath. She looked at the porcelain doll on the pillow beside her. The image of the murder scene was even more vivid now. It sent a shiver straight through her. Amelia got up and walked slowly over to the bureau. The small light shadowed the room so perfectly it reminded her of naked moonlight in a lightless room. She stared in the mirror. Her hair was a mess, knotted from her nightmare. The air around her smelled different. She sniffed and winced. The air smelled like smoke. It made Amelia cough. Her eyes watered from coughing and her vision became blurry. She looked up and at the reflection in the mirror. Amelia squinted and put her face up close to the mirror. What she saw froze her. Amelia threw her hand up over her mouth and spun around. She saw nothing, but her heart was racing. She shut her eyes tight and took in many little, deep, gasping breaths. Amelia opened her eyes again and looked around the room in front of her. Nothing. She turned back around to the mirror and fell backwards onto the floor, knocking something off a bookshelf behind her. Amelia screamed and shut her eyes again. Light poured into the room and Amelia looked up. William rushed down the stairs, nearly falling and kneeled by Amelia. “My God, are you ok?” She was searching for words she couldn’t seem to find. She felt like screaming. But her throat wouldn’t cooperate. All she could do was point at the mirror on the bureau. She couldn’t see if anything was still in the mirror from her position on the ground, but she was sure she saw something. William stood up and walked to the bureau. He just stood there staring at his scratched reflection in the mirror, searching for something in the background. Nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary. He turned back to Amelia. “There’s nothing there.” “Yes there is. Or there was.” William shook his head and knelt down beside her. “Amelia, there is nothing in the mirror.” Amelia was sitting there, staring at him like he was insane. She did see something in the mirror. That, or she was really loosing her mind. William widened his eyes at her struggle to talk. He got up again and looked at the mirror even more tediously. He couldn’t find anything still. He put his hands on the bureau top and sighed. “Amelia, what did you see in the mirror?” he asked. Amelia looked up at him. “Did you see something too?” He shook his head. “Just describe to me what you saw, please, Amelia.” Amelia nodded and looked down at her feet and started describing what she saw in the mirror. “It looked like a little girl. She was wearing a red and white dress. She was holding something but I don’t know what.” William paused. More so, he froze. His eyes flickered up into the mirror. His expression was sunken, and his heart was racing. “Amelia, did you see her face?” Amelia shook her head. “No. Her head was down.” William let out a breath he wasn’t aware he had been holding. For a long while, he just stood there staring at his reflection. The same feeling he had last night was surfacing again. Amelia looked ahead of her and saw a small box on the floor. She reached out to it and pulled it toward her. The box was faded and tarnished. Amelia turned it over in her hands, examining it. She opened the box and set it on the floor. As it opened, a glass trinket started turning. A melody started playing that was strangely familiar to Amelia. William turned over his shoulder and looked at Amelia on the floor with the music box in her hands. The twine of the music made him cringe. He stepped to Amelia and sat on the floor beside her, staring at the tiny box. Amelia too was staring at the tiny glass people inside the box. “This song is so familiar,” She said to him. The tone of her voice haunted him. She sounded so calm. She closed her eyes and thought up the lullaby in her head. She could think up the words so easily. Dancing bears, painted wings, things I almost remember. And a song someone sings once upon a December. It made her smile. William looked at her. Something about the way she looked at moments scared him. She always looked so fragile. Amelia set the music box on the floor in front of her and kept on thinking up the words to the lullaby. They sounded so melodic to her. In her own head. Someone holds me safe and warm. Horses ride through a silver storm. Figures dancing gracefully across my memory. The music kept playing, and the figures kept spinning. Soft, melodic words continued to pour into Amelia’s head. Far away, long ago. Glowing dim as an ember. Things my heart used to know. Once upon a December. William reached over and gently shut the music box. Amelia looked at him and smiled. “I know that song,” she said, “my mother used to sing it to me all the time.” He turned his head to her. She was smiling the brightest smile he’d seen her with. God, she’s gorgeous. William smiled at her. “Really,” he said. Amelia nodded. Beneath her smile she could feel a quiver. she hated talking about her mother. It always made her feel broken. Nothing but a broken child from a broken home. William got up and offered her his hand. She took it and stood, brushing off the backside of her dress. As she did, William drifted around her and moved back her hair. He stared at the red back of her dress and traced the stains to the deep cuts on the back of her neck. “Amelia…” She turned her head around to look over her shoulder at him. “Yes?” “Did something happen?” She made a puzzled face. William shut his mouth tight and led her over the mirror. Amelia could plainly see the red back of her dress. She remembered the necklaces she had torn from her neck. William stared at her back and her neck. From the front you would never guess that this is what hid behind her. “I did that…” His eyes widened. “What exactly were you attempting?” “Nothing dangerous.” “You wouldn’t think so.” Amelia swallowed hard. She felt disgusting now. William let her hair fall back behind her shoulders to cover the cuts on her neck. “I can probably get you a change of clothes,” he said, “stay here a moment.” William let go of her and walked up the stairs into the living room. He left the light on and the door open. Where he would find something that fit her, he wasn’t sure. Amelia watched him leave her alone in the room. She looked at the music box still laying on the floor. She knelt down and picked it up. It was a beautiful little box. She wouldn’t doubt that it belonged to Carolina. Just like the porcelain doll. Amelia quickly turned her head toward the bed in the corner of the room. She scanned it for the doll, but she couldn’t find it. She looked around the room almost frantically. She started walking around the room, looking under the tables. Then she thought of something. She looked at the bureau and into the mirror. She walked to where she saw the little girl standing earlier. Sure enough, to her right was the doll. Lying on the floor like someone had just dropped it there. She was holding something. Amelia took in a deep, quavering breath. Now she knew. And there wasn’t a doubt in her mind. The little girl. It was Carolina. Carolina is still in the house. Chapter 7 William walked around the room thinking. Amelia was finding clues to a violent past. He couldn’t let her take the same path so many had before her. In the event though, William had a master alibi thought up. “She has developed a severe case of schizophrenia. Oh, how do I know this? I’m studying medicine. Come now, the poor girl is seeing dead people.” He hoped it wouldn’t go that far. He cared about Amelia. “Now where can I find a change of clothes,” he said to himself. He thought for a moment, then rushed over to the boxes shoved underneath the table in the dining space he had. He pulled out one of the boxes that he figured might have some of Laura’s old things in it. He pulled the flaps of the box over and pulled out a long black dress. It would have to do. He pushed the box back underneath the table and folded the dress over his arm. He figured it was probably to long for Amelia. But he didn’t have much other choice. He walked to the staircase and looked down at Amelia. She was standing there, staring at the mirror. She looked emotionless. He looked at her hands. She had the music box in one hand, and the porcelain doll in the other. He walked down the stairs to her and held out the dress. “Amelia, here.” She looked at him. He couldn’t help but stare directly into her eyes. They looked hollow, and her face didn’t show much either. Amelia looked at her hands and then at the dress. She walked to the bureau and set down the doll and music box, then walked back over to William and took the dress from him. “Thank you.” He nodded and turned away, heading back up the stairs. Amelia watched him as he shut the door and left her alone again. She hated being alone. She opened the music box again and sang along to the tune. “Someone holds me safe and warm. Horses ride through a silver storm. Spirits dancing gracefully across my memory. Far away, long ago. Hear this song and remember, soon you’ll be home with me. Once upon a December.” The song had a haunting melody to it, really. But it made Amelia feel so calm. She reached behind her and unbuttoned the back of her dress. She could feel the dried blood. She felt disgusted and quickly changed into the black dress William had given her. It was long for her, but fit just fine. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. She looked like a mourner. She tried to comb her hair with her fingers, but all she did was pull her hair out in strands. The music box kept playing the same tune over and over. Amelia closed it carefully and walked away from the bureau. She had to hold her dress up so that she didn’t trip over the end. She walked up the stairs slowly, watching her feet. She twisted the door knob and walked out of the door, closing it as she walked into the main room of the house. She looked over at William sitting at the table with his head in his hands. She walked quietly over to him and sat in one of the chairs next to him at the table. “Thank you for letting me wear this dress. It’s lovely.” William looked up at her and smiled slightly. “Your welcome, Amelia.” Amelia bit her lip. She wanted so badly to ask what had happened to Carolina. “William,” she began. She was clearly hesitating, “You aren’t telling me something.” He looked at her. He looked stricken. she’s got it. “What do you mean?” he asked. Amelia took in a deep breath and held it. “I want to know what happened to Carolina. And Laura.” William was incredulous. How did she possibly know about her? He hadn’t even mentioned her to Amelia. They sat in silence for a moment, neither he nor she looking at anything other than what was right in front of them. “Ok,” William finally said, “I’m going to tell you Amelia, but whatever you do, don’t repeat what you’ve heard. I beg of you.” Amelia looked at him and nodded. “My lips are sealed,” she said. William took in a deep breath. “It was only about three years ago this happened. I lost absolutely everything in one day.” “What did you do to Laura?” “Her and I were always on edge with each other. Carolina was supposed to be her heaven-sent gift, but she felt quite different about her.” “She wasn’t fond of you, was she?” William was staring at Amelia as she asked these questions. It was as if she was there when it had happened. “no, she wasn’t.” Amelia shook her head. “She was insane, wasn’t she?” William swallowed hard. “Amelia how do you know all of this?” She looked at him and smiled. “I saw It.” William looked at her with no expression on his pale face. “You saw it,” he said. Amelia nodded. She realized how pathetic she sounded right now, but it was the truth. He would just have to try and understand her. “I saw it in a dream, actually,” she prompted. “Last night.” “Yes.” William began piecing together facts in his head. The commotion in the basement, Amelia seeing Carolina in the mirror. They sat, staring at each other with crazy expressions on their faces. Amelia couldn’t help but replay the entire dream she had had the previous night. One question scraped at Amelia’s thought’s though, and refused to stop. “She burned to death, didn’t she?” William looked at her. He took in a breath and held it. “Yes.” “And Carolina?” William guessed she had been talking about Laura. “She did, as well.” Amelia nodded. She stood up and walked to the door that opened into the basement. William stopped her from leaving the room. “Amelia, I have to go into town for a bit. Would you mind staying here and watching the place?” She looked at him and made a face. Once again she would be alone. “No,” she groaned. William patted her shoulder and hurried over to the front door. He grabbed his coat, and began to walk out of the house. “Try not to burn the place down whilst I’m gone,” he joked. Amelia didn’t laugh but she smiled. “I’ll try.” William walked out and Amelia started down the stairs into the basement. It’s a shame I’m not alone.
Copyright © 2007 Jacqueline P Ervine |