Instead to eating the food, Nick played with it. Twirling the fork in the mashed potatoes.
"Nick!" Mary called him to attention. "Eat!" She demanded.
"You know what? I'm not really hungry. I'm going back to bed." He left the kitchen leaving his parents worried.
Mary looked at Charles quizzically. "Did you ask him about the drugs."
He swallowed the food that he's been chewing. "He said he wasn't and I believe him." He took a sip of his soda. "But he is having nightmares again."
"I thought he was over that." Mary said, remembering Nick's younger years. I remember he'd wake up so scared. Poor little guy, that look in his eyes when he'd tell us about the dreams."
"He's not a little guy anymore, he'll be fine."
***************
He felt so weak, so drained. What was happening? His body told was yelling for rest...it would be so easy to just fall to the floor and sleep...but he could make it to bed...just a few steps.
It felt so good, the soft bed. As soon as he landed he fell to sleep. The slumber didn't last long for he was woken up by sobs...that of a girl.
Abruptly he stood from his bed and looked around only to find no one. As the sobs grew louder a girl appeared on his bed...naked and crying.
"Do you regret this Angela?"
Nick followed the voice to the bathroom doorway. There stood a guy that looked a lot like him. If it weren't for the dark hair and eyes, Nick could have sworn he was looking in the mirror.
The girl, Angela, shook her head vigorously. "No I don't...I've never been happier Brad...I'm just so afraid because my dad wont let us be togther and I don't want to loose you."
He walked toward and kneeled in front of her. "My little Angel, don't you worry about anything....everything will turn out just like we planned. Don't worry."
The door swung open, like before no one entered his room. Nick stood frozen, staring at the vanished scene. "Either this house is hauted or I'm fucking nutz." After his fear subsided, he looked out of his bedroom and into the hallway, hoping to see anything that would be out of the ordinary, but everything seemed normal.
Laughter was ascending the stairs and for a moment Nick was frightened until he realized it was just his parents. They were acting like teenagers.
"I'll show you how much I love you." Charles playfully said to Mary.
Neither of them seem to notice Nick was there. They entered their bedroom and Nick heard a clicking sound that signaled the door had been locked....Nick shuddered...the thought of his parents still...doing...that...scared him more than the idea of the house being haunted.
In fact he forced his mind back to that idea..it was better. Maybe someone had died in the house and they needed to resolve some issue or something. It could have been that girl Angela, he was seeing her a lot.
Before going back to bed he made a mental note to go to the library...if there had been a death in the house it would have been in the papers. Libraries had archives...he'd check into that.
********
(Next Day)
3 hours of searching through the newspaper archives had gotten him nowhere. If only one of them had been wearing something that could give him a hint of what year or decade they lived in.
Just when he felt like giving up, he found an article dated July 4, 1953. It was a picture of his house, exactly as it looked today. The accompanied article was about a woman named Joyce Stephen. She had jumped from the window of her second floor bedroom, instantly killing herself.
One of the dreams he had came instantly to mind. The woman on the floor and the daughter by her side...then the dead woman turning into his mother...could it be a coincidence that his dream had been of a woman jumping to her death and then finding this article?
The librarian placed another stack of newspapers on the table. "I found some more, I hope these help with your research."
"I'm sure they will." He smiled.
The first one on the stack was of the same year, only a couple of months after. That one was dated August 15 and the headline read: Father Goes On A Killing Spree.
Right underneath the headline there was a picture of all three victims. The father, John Stephen, was about 40 years old, almost completely bald, and mustache, no beard and a mean looking face. Brad Cooper, the boyfriend, was 18...he really did look like Nick. Maybe Brad Cooper was a long distant relative of his...Next was the picture of the girl, Angela who was 15 at the time of her death. For the first time, Nick noticed that Angela had a strange birthmark, shaped like a diamond on the corner of her right eye. She was beautiful and Nick was saddened that her life had to end at such a young age.
He read the rest of the article. It explained how John had gotten home early on August 14. He found his daughter when she was about to runaway with Brad. This enraged him. He took his gun from his room and chased them through the house (all this was assumed from investigations, because bags filled with clothes were found) until finally they ended up on the beach. John fired a shot which hit Brad in the head. Back then there weren't many houses and the space between , and "neighboring homes" were miles and miles apart, so no one heard the gunshot. Then John preceded to chase Angela until, presumably he shot her too and then shot himself. Angela's body was never found. Authorities concluded that when John shot Angela, he threw her into the ocean, and that her body drifted away.
He looked at his watch. It was almost dinner time. He had to get home, he left the house telling Mary he was going to the local park. She offered to give him a ride but he said he didn't want to bother her and he'd left before she could protest.
He went to the copy machine and copied both articles. He'd studied them further when he was at home.
As he made his way to the front of the library he bumped into a girl. Being the gentleman that he was, he picked up the books she was carrying. One in particular caught his interest. Reincarnation: A Past Life Regression.
The girl saw him eyeing it. "You can check it out if you want. It was just returned."
So she works here. "I don't have a card."
"I can get you one...just let me put these other books where they belong."
He nodded. "Okay."
***********
Book in hand, Nick made his way home.
When Nick arrived home, he was welcomed by blinking lights of red and blue. It was the cops and paramedics and firemen. He ran to one of the cops and explained he lived there.
"I'm sorry, but something terrible has happened", said the cop to him.