Scratchings - Part 2 (A Halloween Special)

Janet pulled back the drapes to invite the glorious morning beauty into their wide, open plan lounge. Sunlight filtered in casting majestic, swaying shadows on the wall from the tall silver birch outside. This time of year produced some of the world’s best weather. Always a satisfying added bonus to living out here in the heart of Asheville, North Carolina. The only shame was that it still couldn’t break through the cloud hanging over the Williams household. The damage done would take days, if not weeks to repair. Hard times certainly lay ahead.

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She made her way over to the large dining table in the kitchen. “Hey Jamie, breakfast is ready. Come down, sweetheart.” she called out whilst pouring fresh milk into a bowl of cereal. The events of yesterday had mentally drained them both and she wanted to let him catch up on as much sleep as he needed before school. A few seconds had passed by yet still no reply. She looked up at the ceiling, ears pricked to attention. “Jamie, sweetheart.” she repeated a touch louder this time. Still no response.

Leaving the eggs on the counter, Janet made her way into the lounge and up the stairs. She glanced a little longer than normal at a stain at the edge of the fifth step. A small memento left behind by Mia when she vomited there as a kitten. It never did quite wash off completely, which now upon reflection may have been a blessing in disguise. A treasured souvenir if you will. She approached his door and knocked gently. “Sweetheart? You awake?”

Finally, a timid reply. “Yes, mamma. Can you come in please?” She turned the door handle and entered discreetly. He was still in bed, yet blanketed all the way up to his neck. He lay on his back, facing forward but eyes turned in her direction. She examined him cautiously and advanced into the room. The first thing she noticed was how lethargic his movements were. Almost as if he had been drugged. Even his face was a shade paler than last night. She furrowed her eyebrows with worry.

“Hey baby, are you OK?” she asked in her usual sing-song style, attempting to divert the focus away from the immediate problems at hand.

“Not really, mamma. I had a rough night.” He replied through a half yawn. “I didn’t get any sleep at all. In fact, I couldn’t sleep.”

She moved closer and sat down on his soft, springy mattress. “What do you mean? Did you have bad dreams or something? You should have come and told me, darling.”

He looked up at her with sleepy, half-closed eyes. “No, mamma. I couldn’t move. I was so afraid. You see, Mia was with us last night. Out on the landing, outside my door. I think she wanted to come in.”

Janet had to pause for a moment to process what she had just heard. “Baby, Mia’s gone. I mean, she’ll always be in our hearts, but it’s just the two of us in the house from today onward.” She understood the stress of losing a family member, be it an animal or person, so what Jamie was experiencing was a very natural phenomenon. She put a hand to his forehead to brush away his tousled hair from his eyes, but he backed away instantly. Tired, weary eyes glared back at her.

“No, mamma. She was really here. I wasn’t asleep or dreaming. Scratching outside the door and meowing. I swear I’m not making it up.” He was passionate in his plea to make her see things from his perspective, but she thought it best to handle the situation as delicately as possible. She tilted her head to one side in a quizzical manner.

“But if he was outside the door meowing and clawing and all, why didn’t I hear anything? Surely I would have heard it too, right?” She could see the annoyance building up in him again.

“No, mamma. I’m telling you I heard it.” He looked fearful and anxious with a modicum of irritation at her dismissal of his statement.

The doorbell rang.

She looked at him lovingly. “Look, Jamie, your friends have arrived. Remember, it’s only been one night so far. I’m sure when you meet them, you’ll be able to talk about it in a more open manner and hopefully feel a little better when you get back home tonight.”

He shook his head with disapproval. “Fine, but I’m telling you. I know what I heard.” She smiled at him sympathetically, quietly got up and left the room.

After a brief interval, Jamie came down the stairs, much slower than usual. His perkiness temporarily dispensed onto the scrapheap, Ricky and Barry greeted him in the lounge. They both had their heads lowered, partially out of respect and also unease as to what the appropriate thing to say was.

“Man, I just heard what happened from your mom.” said Barry compassionately. “I’m so sorry to hear about Mia.” Jaime looked at Ricky who sullenly nodded his head in acknowledgement.

Janet appeared form the kitchen. “Jamie, you haven’t eaten anything. Will you at least take something with you to school?”

“I’m fine, I’m not hungry for now.” he replied morosely. “I’ll see you later, mamma.” She bent down and kissed him on the cheek, before giving the other two a furtive wink to look after her Jamie throughout the day.

On the way to school, Jamie didn’t say much as did his friends. Ricky and Barry exchanged a few secretive looks with each other but that was about it. The atmosphere was thick with tension stemming from Jamie so their best proposed solution seemed to be silence for the time being.

From Jamie's point of view, the afternoon had arrived in what seemed like an unconscious time warp. The heavy weight of exhaustion and fatigue was catching up with him in a hurry. Even though quite sure he was awake, his vision had gradually developed a slight lag whilst trying to keep up with his brain. The crossover point between dreams and reality was where Jamie now existed. By the time Mr. Wilson’s class had begun, he had acquired a dull headache and concentration was an arduous task, to say the least. The drone of Mr. Wilson’s voice did nothing to improve the problem.

Jamie sat at his desk, resting an elbow on the table and cushioning his chin with an open palm. It seemed sleep was now coming for him as he rapidly started drifting off into the land of fantasy and illusion. A low noise startled him back into the classroom. A familiar meowing. He looked under the desk to where he thought it could have been coming from and there gazing up at him, was Mia, one furry forepaw resting up on his shoe. But she no longer looked as he remembered her to be. The midsection had been completely caved in, leaving a set of large, indented type prints in its place. The jaw was dislocated, giving her a crimson yawning maw filled with broken and splintered yellow teeth. Blood and puss oozed out of a huge tear just below her throat. Her ginger fur was matted and muddy, pasted together into a slimy moist slug. A gaping hole near her hind legs flapped loosely open, out of which intestines and various other innards entwined forming a sickening biological spaghetti. Her yellow eyes, the only part of her still wholly intact, stared at him with pure adulation and love.

Jamie froze in pure terror, unable to move or speak. This nightmarish aberration that was Mia continued staring lovingly at him. She purred abnormally as the sound seemed to be emanating from the gash in her neck as well as her mouth. Instinctive self-preservation and repugnant horror consumed Jamie till he could take no more. He screamed into the air, pushing his desk and hurling himself into an unsuspecting student. His chair flew noisily to the side as he rolled awkwardly onto the desk behind him. Mr. Wilson clutched at his heart in a sudden panic as he watched on in a confused fluster. Jamie writhed on the wooden surface, as if in excruciating pain. Barry leapt out of his seat and ran over to him. “Ricky, get over here now!” he yelled as he tried in vain to hold Jamie still. Within a few seconds Ricky arrived and both of them pressed down firmly on either side to secure him down. Mr. Wilson had now composed himself enough to attempt to take matters into his own hands. He pushed past all the shocked faces that had gathered to watch the spectacle unfold.

“What the hell is going on here?” he exclaimed in bewilderment.

“Please just help me, sir!” Barry cried out as the two of them struggled to subdue Jamie who had begun gurgling and frothing at the mouth. “Quick, will one of you idiots make yourself useful and go get the school nurse now!” shrieked Mr. Wilson at the assembled gawking faces, as all three of them steadily held him down in unison. The freaked out school teacher slowly loosened his grip as his hysterical student calmed down slowly but surely. His eyes appeared glazed and barren. One of the students at the back shoved roughly through the onlookers, trying desperately to catch her breath. “Sir, the nurse is on her way. She told me to tell you to keep his head elevated at all times and make sure his airways are clear.”

But Jamie hadn’t heard that. His mind was stunned into a state of catatonia. Barry took out a small tissue to wipe away the white bubbles and spit that were beginning to congeal around the edges of his mouth as the nurse hurriedly entered the room.

Janet ran into the school’s medical office and was greeted by Mrs. June. Her eyes were bloodshot and raw. “What happened? Where is he?” she pleaded.

“Right this way, Mrs. Williams.” the friendly school nurse replied as they made their way into the main infirmary. “But please be aware that he needs peace and quiet now so if we could keep our voices to a minimum, that would be great.”

“Of course, of course.” said Janet in a frenzy. “What happened to him? I asked the secretary on the phone but she said to find out from you when I arrived here.”

“OK, so from what I hear, he had some sort of fit. I went through his school medical records and as I’m sure you already know, there have been no previous episodes of this nature.”

“A fit? You mean like an epileptic fit? That’s impossible! He’s a healthy boy. Out of the blue, he suddenly has a fit?” She held her fist to her mouth and clenched her teeth over it. A heavy feeling of regurgitation washed over her as she took a deep breath to try to relax herself.

“We will need to carry out further tests that can only be done at a hospital. Here we are, Mrs. Williams.” Mrs. June opened a white door with glass panelling leading to the school recovery room. She rushed in to see her son, sitting up in a small single bed with a plaster stuck on to the side of his neck. The momentous joy felt for seeing him after all that worry was accompanied by a sense of disturbance at how pinched and anaemic he looked from when she bade him farewell this morning. Janet hugged him, running her fingers through his golden brown hair. The feeling of relief was overwhelming.

“My God, sweetheart, what happened to you! I was so worried!” she said softly in his ear, her arms still locked lovingly around him.

“I don’t know, mamma. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I’m so scared!”

He squeezed his mother tightly, frightened and scared beyond reason. She tried to fervidly reassure him that everything would turn out OK, that this was just a normal part of the grieving process. What she didn’t know was that he was looking fixated at the far corner of the recovery room. He was looking straight at Mia. She sat there, deformed and broken, yet watching him endearingly. The garbled purring ripped through his eardrums like a knife through butter as the perpetual sound just refused to capitulate. He closed his eyes and tried to dream a sleepless dream far away from the monstrosity before him. Janet then signalled to the nurse. They were going home.

Jamie had been asleep in his room for almost eight hours now. Janet had already made all the necessary arrangements for the next day. An appointment to see the local doctor in the morning, her kindly neighbour Derek to carry out their weekly grocery shopping, a meeting with Lou about some time off from work to handle “personal” affairs. The schedule was implemented and that in itself eased some of the pressures of the last 36 hours or so. “This is a goddamn nightmare.” she whispered looking listlessly up at the ceiling. “They say that bad luck comes in three’s. I hope to God that's just some stupid superstitious nonsense.” She turned over on her side and looked at the alarm clock. Just gone one on the morning and she wasn’t sleepy in the slightest.

Upon browsing through a mental review of recent events, she thought it best to check in on Jamie. To make sure he was alright and resting well. She assumed after a good few hours sleep, it would be a safe bet to do so now. After all, since administering him with half a pill of sedative, the last thing she wanted to do was interrupt him too early on. She got out of bed and pulled on a light, silk nightgown. The hallway was eerie and black. She had never imagined being so afraid of the dark, but a combination of her final image of Mia and Jamie insisting she was scratching outside his door last night, was enough to send cold shivers up and down her spine. A flick of the hallway light switch and the safety of an ordinary illuminated light bulb caused her to heave a huge sigh of relief. She crept stealthily up to his door and for a split second pondered if she should knock gently or just peek in. Common sense pushed her to choose the latter.

She carefully turned the handle trying to make the least amount of noise. The door opened almost silently as she poked her head inside. Terror bit through her heart like a savage beast. She experienced a vision she would never, ever forgot. Jamie was cowered behind his thick, warm blanket, save for only his head and fingertips. His eyes were filled with deranged madness, dumbstruck fear to his very core. They were transfixed aghast to the windowsill of his bedroom. His skin had turned to an almost faded grey through the dim light.

She immediately slammed the switch in his room and ran up to him. He screamed in terror and retreated fearfully under the bed covers. “It’s me, Jamie! Your mother! It’s your mother!” she bellowed as tears of anguish and pain flowed down her face. His loud exasperated shrieks gave way to gasping sobs as she pulled the sheet back and hugged him. “God forgive me, what’s happening to you!” She rocked him back and forth as his whimpers subsided and quiet was soon restored.

Janet leaned away to look at him properly in the light. His expression was of one frozen in horror and he still wouldn’t avert his gaze from the window. “What is it, Jamie? Please tell me, baby? What’s the matter?” Barely able to speak, he whispered almost soundlessly, “Mia… Sitting over there… Look.” She spun around and scanned the area. Nothing but a corner of his room she had seen a thousand times over.

She looked at him again, petrified. “Baby, there’s nothing there. Please, what are you seeing?”

“She won’t stop speaking to me, mama. She will never stop speaking to me now…"

(To be continued)

Hope you enjoyed this post, please look out for more on the way... (author: @ezzy)

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