The Memories That Haunt Me | Completed ✅

Chapter 4 ~ Don't Make Me Remember

Chapter 4

The hall light flickers as I push my way along the wall, leaning heavily onto the surface for support. The bedroom door slams shut, and I hear heavy footsteps stomping behind me in pursuit.

I increase my pace, desperate, almost stumbling multiple times in my frantic fight to escape.

When I finally reach a door and turn the knob, it won't open, and I kick it several times in panic.

"Go!" the voice shouts, so close I feel its breath against my neck.

I rush forward, moving to the next door in the hall. It too, is jammed, and I want to give up.

"No! Go!" it rages, even louder, even more desperate, even deeper still.

I fall forward, landing onto my hands and knees, immediately crawling in a desperate attempt to get away. Tears pour down my cheeks, my chest feels tight, my limbs are ready to give out completely.

When I reach the final door, it opens easily, but the victory doesn't last for more than the time it takes to look inside.

A scream rips through the air, and it only takes a moment to realize it's me that's making the sound.

Wide lifeless eyes stare up at me, unseeing, blue as the sky on a perfect summer day.

Familiar.

Memories come rushing back. The puzzle pieces of my life reform inside my mind in a rush, one after the other.

My childhood.

My parents.

My wedding day.

All coming together to form one larger picture.

A picture of the lifeless man in front of me.

A picture of my husband, of him being murdered, of me trying to save him, of the man named Tom shoving me away and into the wall.

He'd broken in not long after the storm hit. He'd been following me for months. The police had been hunting him. They'd said to keep alert...

The report had said Tom had a history of mental illness, that he'd done this before.

"John!" I drop down to the ground and lift his head into my lap. "John." A sob rips out of me. My life is gone. John is gone. It isn't real, it can't be real. He was the only thing I had in this world. "John!" I scream, clutching him tighter.

"Laura..." It's him. The ghostly mirage is him. My name isn't Sarah. My name is Laura, and Tom isn't my husband. John is.

He's trying to save me. "Oh John!" I cry, burrowing my face into his hair.

"Laura... Go!"

I look up, and that's when I notice them. Footsteps heading down the hall.

Tom is coming for me.

"No," I choke out. "I won't leave you."

"Go!" the voice booms, startling me.

I look up just in time to see Tom step into the doorway. One look at the sight in front of him, and the mask falls away, revealing the monster beneath. "He's gone now. We can be together."

"Never!" I scream. Rage at this man and what he'd taken from me fills me up to the point I feel like I might insinerate. Fire fuels my actions as I stand, grabbing the closest thing I can reach.

A lamp.

With a roar of outrage, I throw it as hard as I can, aiming for the man who'd ruined my life. "I'll kill you, you bastard!"

Tom deflects the blow and lunges for me.

He doesn't make it more than a couple steps, however, before more items begin to fly, not one of them coming from me. They come from any and every direction. Wall art, furniture, nothing in the room is left in its place. One by one each item lifts up and goes flying towards my husband's killer.

Tom's arms flail, attempting to bat the assault away, but he isn't fast enough to keep up, and as more items continue to pummel him, he becomes more and more defeated.

It's a chair that ultimately ends the struggle. It lifts up and something propels it forward. I watch in a mixture of horror and disgust as the leg imbeds itself right into the man's eye socket.

Tom stands stock still for a full minute, shock marring his features. A gargling sound leaves his chest and he falls backwards, crashing to the ground, his chest still and eyes just as wide and lifeless as the man he'd killed a few feet away.

I sink to my knees, shoulders heaving, chest tight, lungs deflated and unable to bring in any of the oxygen needed to fill them.

Icy fingers caress my cheek, and the apparition appears, more detailed than before.

John.

"Please, don't go!" I sob. "John!"

He kneels down closer, and his face becomes as clear as it was when he was still alive. "Laura..." Cool air caresses my flesh, sending an array of goosebumps across my skin. "I love you..."

"No! Don't go! I need you!"

"I'm sorry..." he says as his body slowly begins to fade.

I reach for him, but there's nothing tangible for me to hold onto, nothing for me to grasp to keep him with me. "No! Nonononono! John!"

But it's no use. He's gone, leaving me behind with nothing more than his lifeless body behind me, and the body of his killer in front.

As I sit here, mourning the only man I'd ever loved, the only man I could ever love...

I wish more than anything that the memories would go away.