Shameful by May Dawson
73
Legacy
Fiona and her friend,Ellis, came to the island the next morning and helped us summon the ghosts.
“Thank you for helping us,” I told the ghost. “I understand what happened to you and your childrennow.”
She had been murdered here by her own husband, and he had killed their children. Then he framed someone else. He had a new family after that, a new life… but when he died his spirit camehere.
He’d tried to killus.
She’d tried to scare us away, not understanding that we were trapped here and couldn’t leave.
“It’s time to peel his fingers off this house and make him leave you alone,” Isaid.
We started the rite to banish his spirit from the house.
She appeared, along with her children, dressed in their old clothes. The little girl clung to her mother’s skirt. The boy stared at us from in front of her with his big, solemn eyes, as if he would try to protectthem.
Then his ghost arrived, and attacked her. The little boy screamed and tried to stop him. The grisly scene started to play out all over again, the one that I knew now ended with her body on the floor, with the man dragging the screaming, fighting boy to the pool, with the little girl crawling into a closet and trying tohide…
“Not today,” I interrupted the evil ghost.
Then we banishedhim.
Teresa Kate and her children appeared again.
“Thank you,” shesaid.
“You can stay here if you want,” I said. “We’re leaving. No one should bother you. If you want to go and you need help, we canhelp.”
She shook her head. “We stayed at the beginning hoping for justice, when he sealed up the house.”
“No one can give you back what he took from you, that would be justice,” I said. “But I can promise you that everyone will know the truth. The world is curious about what happened here and they’ll finally get the answer to their mystery. Everyone will know what he did toyou.”
“Good,” she said. She looked down at her children, touching their heads fondly. “We stayed after that to fight him. These brave children chose to stay here with me. But now we can move on together.”
“Goodbye, Legacy,” she whispered as they faded. I hadn’t even realized she knew myname.