The Mortis House

“I want my Mama!” The child cried.

I struggled against the urge to roll my eyes, the girl had been dead for nearly two hundred years yet she still knew how to pitch an awful fit.

Despite her tantrums I had come to see Jane as something of a little sister. Death was taking more and more from the girl’s memory with every day that passed.

Secretly I wondered when it would begin taking my mind as well. That was if it hadn’t already.

I picked up my skirts and crouched down.

“Your Mama is gone, just like mine. Come now Jane, I know you remember.” I said earnestly.

Janes eyes cleared, slowly the girl came to herself.

“My brothers?” She asked.

I chuckled. “The fever twins are up and causing trouble, have been for nearly a week now. Your naps are becoming longer and longer.”

Naps. That was the kinder term for it. We all experienced them.

Jane looked off despondently. I took her hand and squeezed.

“What shall we do on this lovely evening.” I yawned. “Hurry and choose I’m getting tired.”

Jane’s eyes widened with that all too familiar panic. “No I just awoke! You cannot leave me here all alone!”

I offered her a wry smile. “Then you’d best find us something to do.”

“Didn’t Mr. Amor say the house has been bought out? Let’s go have a look, I bet the new owners handsome. Maybe he is a Prince!”

“Firstly Mr. Amor perished from a head injury so you must take anything he says with a fair amount of salt.”

Jane blew raspberries at me.

“And secondly,” I continued. “They don’t have Prince’s in the states.”

We made our way through the insubstantial halls of the old haunted Mortis house.

“Meg?”

“Hmm?” I dodged a group of movers as we walked down the stairs.

“Do you think-?”

I did not hear whatever Jane said next as suddenly I was staring at perhaps the most handsome man in all the world. If I still had flesh I might have blushed.

“Meg?” Jane tugged at my skirt.

“Sorry I-.”

As if sensing his eyes on me the man turned to where I stood. His lips thinning with frustration as he gazed right through me.

“Yeah dad I’ll call-. Dad I’ve got it, movers are here. I’ll call you later.”

There was a beep and the device went quiet.

“Jane?”

“Yes?”

“Go find Mr. Amor. Tell him I wish to know about the new owners.”

“But you said-.”

“I know what I said. Go.” She huffed but eventually did as I had bid her.

I gazed at the man and he gazed back. Could he see me? Surely not.

He released a deep sigh then turned and walked away, his pace slow almost… inviting. So I followed.

“Watch yourself Margaret!” Roger grunted. “There’s a war on, and you look as though you are about to shop the town!”

“The war’s over idiot, and you lost.” I sneered under my breath. “Besides,” I raised my voice. “I told you not to call me that!”

“I-.” But whatever Roger was about to say was cut short as he fell into the eternal oblivion that was sleep.

I did not particularly care for the civil war soldier but it was difficult to stay angry with a soul so steeped in his own end without facing my own mortality.

I wipes the thought away and realized that at some point I had lost my query.

“Lost?” His voice was deep but I knew before I turned that he was speaking to me.

“Can… can you see me?”

“I can hear you as well though…” He took a deep breath and looked around the room. “It is difficult. You’re voice calls on an absent wind as if from a great distance. And the look of you, well I’ve only caught glimpses out of the corner of my eye.”

“Are you..?” I left it hanging.

“Dead? No, though I came quite close once.”

Above us the fever twins made a racket.

“Are they all like this?” The strange man asked.

I smiled. “The fever twins can be rowdy but they are harmless. And Jane has her tantrums. Roger is usually napping, and Mr. Amor is… unreliable.”

“And they all died here?”

“That’s our working theory, yes.”

“How?”

“Typhoid took the twins. Consumption took Jane in her girlhood. Rogers gun misfired before the poor man could enlist. Mr. Amor thought to renovate the house and took a tumble while fixing the roof.”

“Right, and you?”

“My father bought the house for my husband and I.”

“Oh? Does he dwell here as well? Your husband that is.”

“No, he sold the house after my death.”

“So what took you then?” He asked again.

“I died on the child bed. My son survived though, even came back to my grave as a boy a few times.” I smiled to myself. I was proud of the lad. So proud.

“What about you? Jane seems to think you’re a fairytale Prince.”

The man laughed. “Did you tell her we don’t have those here?”

I smiled warmly. “Tried to, but the girl is young, or she was at least.”

The man began to say something when a rustle came from the doorway. I started at the site of a living man covered in dust and dirt.

“Mr. Thomas, there’s something that needs your attention.”

“Mr. Thomas?” I asked.

He began to say something else, but I was already slipping. The warm grasp of sleep pulling me into that dark oblivion.

I awoke startled and confused. There had been a bed, and a woman, blood and pain. So much pain. I clawed at my throat, shrieking. And… oh god!

I grasped frantically at the wooden floor I had awoken on. I screamed for him, for my baby. Where was he?

At the foot of the steps, entirely breathless and white in the face was…Thomas.

“What on earth is with all the racket?”

Memories pierced the hazy fog of my memory.

More steps sounded and now when I looked up, I could see Jane. The young girl ran to me and I embraced her, hugging her hard.

“How long was I out for?” I asked gently, stroking her hair.

“Three days.” She said, her head still tucked into the crook of my shoulder. “I didn’t realize you were napping…oh I missed you, Meg!”

“Are you alright?” He asked awkwardly.

Jane turned and stared at him. “Can he see us?”

“Apparently so.” I laughed. “So be nice to the lad.”

“Oh! Can I touch you?”

“I-” But Jane did not give Thomas time to reply before rushing over to him and running right through him.

“That was… unpleasant.” He offered.

“What happened just now?”

I managed a small chuckle. “You got the Jane special. Note for the future, if the girl ever asks you something, it’s not a question.

I expected him to laugh at the little joke, but his gaze was worried still.

“The demolition crew heard your screaming. Nearly pissed themselves, threatened to quit then and there if I didn’t come check on the racket.”

“That bad?”

He nodded. “What on earth happened…”

“Meg.” I supplied. “And I apologize. I took a nap, that is all. I get a bit… out of sorts when I wake.” I made a gesture with my hand. “We all do.”

Voices sounded above us. “I’ve got to head back, before the weather gets worse. Will you be alright?”

I smiled at his ridiculous concern. “It’s not like they can kill me again.” When his look grew even more concerned, I gave him a concerned sigh. “Oh, for the love of-. Go or I’ll order the hellion to run you through again.”

That got him going. Though not without glancing my way once more.

Once he was gone, my dear sweet Jane fell to the floor in a bout of laughter!

“He really is a Prince.” She sighed.

I rolled my eyes, now fully awake. The nightmare of my last moments faded like dream, so easily forgotten.

I found Thomas asleep on the sofa in the living room. It was late in the evening, raining hard now. I sat beside him, wondering absently what he was dreaming of.

As though he could feel my gaze on him he startled awake.

“Don’t do that!” Thomas croaked.

“Whatever do you mean?” I teased.

“Just stay the night.” I shrugged. “You might as well, you own the place after all.”

He considered it, then fell back with a sigh. “Ah your right, might as well.”

“Will you sit with me?” he asked.

“You can barely see me.”

“I know you’re here.”

I looked down at the space between our hands.

“Then I shall expect company every evening.”

He smiled. “Every evening.”

For once I hoped I would not get tired.

“By the way, the whole house is wondering why your workers left so early.”

“Hmm? Oh that, the demolition crew doesn’t work in storms this bad. Safety thing I presume.”

“Demolition? I thought you said you were flipping the house.”

Thomas’ expression pained. “I’m sorry Meg. They found mold. It’s everywhere, in the walls, in nearly every room.”

“Thomas you can’t.”

He put up a hand to stop me. “I know what you’re going to say Meg, but the house is rotting from the inside out. It isn’t livable.”

I reached out my ghostly hand and placed it upon his. “Thomas, the house is our home. It’s my home, Jane’s-.”

“I know and I’m sorry, but it will just continue to rot if I don’t do something. At least this way we can start over.”

Urgency swirled around me and I felt the house shudder with my own emotions.

“Thomas!” I yelled and he faced me now. “The house is our anchor! We cannot leave it. If you demolish the house, we may never awake from oblivion again.”

“Your naps?” He asked. His face gone stricken with realization.

“Yes, the naps. What use have the dead for sleep. It is the tug of an endless oblivion, the final death. But the house keeps us here. If you kill the house, you kill Jane and Roger. You kill the twins and Mr. Amor. And you kill me!”

I was crying, I realized. Sobbing and pleading all at once. My throat aching just as it did on the night my son was born. Just as it did when my husband’s mistress had taken a knife to it while I was still abed.

I dread like nothing I had ever experienced rose up in my chest. Anything was better than dying again. I would suffer that awful a thousand times over just to have some semblance of existence. To have Jane and the twins in all their antics. To be frustrated by Roger’s senile yammering and Mr. Amor’s ridiculous stories.

I expected Thomas to consider my words but instead he was typing into his phone.

Slowly I rose. Why should he listen to me?

Thomas was speaking into his device, but I couldn’t hear him. I didn’t want to hear him. Vaguely I wondered if I should warn them.

I had nearly left the room when I registered Thomas calling my name.

“Yes?”

“Oh good, you had me scared. I thought you might have fallen asleep again.”

“That won’t matter soon enough.”

He shook his head. “I left my father a voicemail. With any luck he should cancel the demolition this weekend. I-.”

His device buzzed, then rang out with an upbeat melody.

“Dad? Hey, did you get my-. What? Can we talk about this? Dad!” Thomas threw the device to the ground cursing.

“I’ll go tell them. They deserve to know.”

I had gathered the occupants of the Mortis house in the twins old room. Gently I explained the situation. Roger had tried to pay attention, but we could all see him fading. It hurt my heart to know that this time he would not awaken.

The twins did not quite understand, and I could not bring myself to force their fate into terms they would understand.

“I don’t know when it will happen, but it will happen and we will face it together, as we have done time and time again.” I finished.

Silence. Then a laugh.

Roger stood and patted my arm.

“Just like a young lady to worry over a house with a war on. Ah well Margaret, that’s alright.”

“There is no war!” I nearly stomped my feet.

He looked me over, his gaze suddenly very sharp. “There’s always a war. Someone’s always trying to kill their neighbor, their friend or their lover. Maybe this time when someone tries to kill you you’ll fight back.” He whispered the last part before walking off.

The thought that Roger had figured out my murder without my knowledge unsettled me. And yet he had kept it secret from the other residence.

I looked over to Mr. Amor who was tapping a finger against his chin.

“Curious, isn’t it? A Prince arrives and now we’re all stuck in this foul tower for good. Perhaps he shall find a way to destroy our tower and grant us our freedom.” He said it so casually and with such an optimistic attitude that I dropped my head into my hands and groaned.

“That is the exact opposite of what we want to happen! The house is what keeps us here! Don’t you understand it is our anchor!”

Jane flinched and I forced myself to calm down.

“I’m sure the Prince will find away.” He said with blissful calm.

At some point during the argument the twins had left to go play poltergeist.

And Jane remained the only other soul in the room.

“It’s ok Meg, maybe this nap won’t be so bad. It will be nothing like dying of course. That was…” She shivered. “Nothing will ever be that horrid.”

Gently the girl took my hand.

“What about you? You’ve never told me how you died. I’ve always imagined it was peacefully in your sleep.”

Despite myself I smiled at the girl.

“I died in my bed, with my son in my arms, and my husband at my side.” It wasn’t a lie, but I would never bring myself to tell anyone the full truth of it.

The demolition crew arrived the next morning and so began our end. The twins played on, entirely unperturbed even enjoying the chaos. Mr. Amor tended to the garden.

And Roger… he fell asleep that morning. He would never wake again.

On the demolitions third and final day Thomas arrived. I felt him before I saw him, desperately gazing about for a glance at me.

I went to him brushing my hand against his to calm him.

“You’re alright.” He breathed.

“For a murder victim, quite well actually.” He winced at that. “Don’t worry, we talked it over. Everyone’s fine.”

“So what happens now?” He asked. The two of us standing among the ruins of the house that had once tethered me to the mortal realm.

“Without the house we will sink into oblivion.”

“I- I wish I could keep you here. I wish-.”

His words were cut off when a piece of the rubble atop a mound began to crumble.

“Thomas!” I screamed.

He didn’t have time to exclaim as the rubble crashed into him, burying him where he stood.

I stared in horror at the mangled corpse of the most handsome man I had ever seen.

Someone was shrieking in horror, an awful ear curdling sound, it was me I realized. Jane came running, her face going pale at the site of Thomas dead on the ground before me.

Then slowly they gathered all around me. The family that had kept me sane all these long years. The family that I now stood to loose to oblivion.

Mr. Amor, the twins and an empty space where Roger would have stood.

Then the impossible happened.

Out of the rubble shot a hand.

Thomas.

He managed to get himself out then stared at us in confusion. I realized with a start that he had never truly seen us before.

“Meg?” He asked tentatively in my direction.

I nodded.

“Am I?”

“I’m so sorry.”

He looked down at what remained of his body. His mouth opened, but no words came.

I took his hand giving him a moment to clear his thoughts. A distressed look came upon his face, but he quickly hid it.

“The house,” he said at last. “When we fall asleep…?”

“There’s nothing to pull us back.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know.”

“And that doesn’t scare you?”

I smiled sadly at him then I threw my arms around him. He held me for a moment before he kissed me hard.

“It terrifies me.” I whispered into his lips.

A sigh behind us reminded me that the children and Mr. Amor were watching. I pulled away quickly. When I looked back Jane was grinning from ear to ear and Mr. Amor was smiling pleasantly.

Jane took my free hand and I held tightly to her.

Thomas brushed his thumb across my knuckles. “I wanted another evening.”

“So did I.”

I yawned before I could stop myself.

His hand tightened around mine.

“Meg?”

“I’m here.” I forced my eyes open even as the familiar hands of oblivion gripped me. “Keep talking.”

“About what?”

“Anything.”

He began to tell me about the evening we would have had. I watched his face, trying to listen to every word.