The Richmond Curse - {The Richmond Haunting 2}

Chapter Twenty Seven

After Katrina's appointment with Camhs, the horror continued — raping the house.

Harmony's eighteenth birthday finally arrived, yet she was too weak to celebrate it because she had come down with a mysterious illness. Constant vomiting, diarrhea,

What it could be, nobody knew, and as quickly as the illness came, that's how it went!

Not that Harmony had any complaints, although she did wish she could have gone out with her mates to celebrate her birthday. Forget the bad shit at home.

Still, it wasn't to be — unlike waking up screaming because she thought her legs were on fire.

Fiona — when she would hear her daughter screaming, would come rushing into the bedroom to see Harmony wriggling on her bed, trying to grasp her legs. Hot steam — rose from them as though they were about to burst into flames.

'It burns, mum, it burns.' Harmony would scream.

Fiona seeing how much pain her daughter was in; would run to the bathroom; turn the cold water on, and come back with a cold sponge, soaking the girl's legs.

Hard to do when Harmony kept thrashing around on the bed, screaming.

Steven, watching from the sidelines — would be grinning — not because his daughter was in pain, but something else.

A voice he could hear crying in the distance, pleading for help.

And following this, for the next two weeks, Fiona would try to fight the terror in the house, saying what prayers she could remember. Only to have somebody whom she couldn't see, grabbing her from behind, and putting her in a chokehold.

'You shut your fucking mouth! You stinking bitch?'

And then the hand was gone, and she was alone again. Or that's what she thought, had it not been for the pig she could see through the kitchen window.

Naturally, she had ran out to the backyard, only to see nothing there, just the same old scene, weeds growing in between the cracks of the flagstones, the yard gate that could do with a good lick of paint, the small shed, the wheelie bins.

But no pig.

She was also becoming more afraid of Steven's behaviour, as were the girls.

One morning he asked Fiona to stop searching for help, and until she said yes, he nearly smashed every plate on the kitchen floor.

Harmony had tried to interfere, and Steven had taken her into the front room, where a few minutes later, she came back crying.

Not just crying — but really shaking, trying to form words. But nothing.

'What have you done to her?' Fiona yelled, her daughter by her side.

Nothing really, I just told her you would die from Cancer!'

'Why would you say that?'

And now Fiona was starting to get upset. Because of that image on TV.

'I was in so much pain.'

She couldn't go through that and the girls — losing their mum to Cancer. Was it any wonder Harmony broke down?

'You just stay the fuck out of our way.'

Steven did, but not the horrors; the fires were still breaking out.

The most alarming happened in the girl's bedroom. Alarming because — at the time, Katrina was in bed when it occurred. The sheets at the bottom of her bed had begun to crackle — a golden light emerging.