Haunted

Epilogue

It's been two years since Chad and I got married and I couldn't be happier. My arm and hand has completely healed, allowing me to continue to do hair, which I still love. I do have the occasional flare up, causing my hand to get stiff and ache, but I take my anti-inflammatories and work through it. What I hate more than the pain is the fact that it's always a reminder of what had happened.

I've not seen Mable, or anything else, since that night in my bathroom when I told her she was free and that she could move on. Even so, I'm still afraid to take a shower when I'm home alone. And when I hear a strange noise, my skin crawls, afraid it's happening again. The condo can't cool down at night without me jumping at each popping noise it makes. Chad usually laughs, but I know he hates the fact that after all this time that I'm still afraid. But to be honest, I probably always will be. I can't walk into a room without turning the light on. It's not that I'm afraid of the dark, but more so what's in it.

Chad no longer investigates the paranormal, mainly because I asked him to stop. I hated taking that from him, but the thought of him possibly bringing something home with him scared me. And after what we'd been through, he thought it might be best not to risk it. Neither one of us wanted to go through that again, even if it was what originally brought us together. I told him we had a great story to scare our kids with on how we met, if we ever decide to have kids. Right now, I was content with it just being us.

The house burnt down a year after I sold it, which didn't surprise me. If I had possessed the capabilities and know-how at the time, I might have burnt it down myself. They found human bones under the house when they demolished the rest of what the fire didn't. The last I heard they were doing forensic testing on them, but I knew who they belonged to without hearing the results. Maybe that's why I hadn't heard from Mable. Maybe she had a hand in the house's demise. Maybe that's all she wanted was for the truth to come out. Who knows. All I care about now is the fact that that chapter of my life is over and Chad is writing a new, better chapter—he's giving me my happy ending. He fixed me.

I'm sure you're wondering about Billy. Billy Jakes. His name seems so foreign to me now, like a dream that you try to recall, but can't remember all of the details. I've not heard from him since that night he came to my condo and unloaded his troubled heart on me. I still don't know if he was telling me the truth or not, but even if he was, it was too little too late . . . and stupid. What was done was done, and even if I had forgiven him that night, I'd never have been able to forget. A beaten dog might come when you call its name, but will still flinch every time you go to pet it. Every move he would've ever made would've always poked at my trust and made me flinch.

Not only was the Billy chapter of my life over, but Chad had taken the book and ripped out those pages, never to be read or relived again. But as happy and content as my life is now, the memories are still there; the ones that make me afraid. Any time that I'm alone, I'm afraid. It's gotten to the point that I can no longer wash my hair in the shower, opting for the kitchen sink instead. Even when I go to the bathroom in one of the old local restaurants, I sit there and get that feeling that I'm not alone. I'm worried that the lights are going to go out on me at any moment, plunging me into pitch black darkness. I even hate being the last one at work, having to lock up by myself, knowing something is going to grab my hand as I reach back to shut the door. 

Surely I'm not the only one who thinks about things like that. Surely.

The fact that there are things in this world that we can't see and have no control over haunts me every day. Every unexplained noise that I hear or shadow that I think I see out of the corner of my eye makes me afraid all over again. We aren't alone in this world, and the scary part is that most of us don't even realize it. And when we do realize it, it's usually too late.

If you ever experience the unknown, you, like me, will forever be haunted.