Laughter is the best medicine

I was excited to move in to the little house.  My friend needed a sitter and I needed some time away from my life.  It was the perfect scenario.  Her place was cute and quiet.  I was exhausted from hearing the engine breaking of trucks, the coping with unreasonable/indifferent clients and breathing the stench of the city.  "Dink", my friend since high school, had moved only a couple hours away in to a snoozing, spacious lake community.  Her cottage sat at the back side of a small private cove.  She left me the keys to her boat (not for me since I don't swim) and home as well as the opportunity for a much needed break. I had all but been crippled by a recent case and wanted to escape. My life as a prosecutor was becoming too big a burden and I needed to change things in my life. Contemplation in peace was as good a place as any to start (again).

I had put in for the time, leaving early one Friday morning.  The drive, beginning through the congested, sweaty streets ended with soft voluptuous tree-lined roads and the sweet breath of the lake.  The house was gorgeous and quaint.  The gravel applauded my arrival as I crunched up to the door and pulled the key left for me.  The latch shouted and I stepped in.

The first thing I noticed was the silence.  It screamed at me and filled my ears like warm damp cotton.  The sun peeped through the blinds as the breeze drifted in and around me.  It felt thick, cloying.  I don't know, maybe I expected blue birds to alight on my shoulder and for Dopey to begin to sweep the floor while Doc and the others tidied up.  The furniture instead was covered with white sheets, crisp with dust and neglect.  The rays of light stabbed the room dripping a ticker tape of dust as I moved about.  I heard the scurry of mice and above me the scratch of pissed off squirrels.

And a laugh; small and breathy as if someone had found something funny that they shouldn't have.  Dink hadn't told me of a care taker or any neighbor in particular, so I searched the house slowly; not calling out; just looking around.  The scampering became a little heavier and followed me throughout; like someone was leaping on their haunches or clambering on all fours. I picked the room I wanted, flopped my bag down and quickly found something to do outside.  Walking along the paths brought some ease to my pounding heart.  It took me some time, but I convinced myself the stress of work and the city had made me hypersensitive and foolish.  The sky began to repaint the sky with soft lavenders and fiery pinks.  I headed back to have supper.

I felt as if I had interrupted something but wandered to the back of the house to the kitchen , beginning to cook; something that always relaxes and brings me comfort.  I opened a bottle of wine my friend had left for me and stared out the window.  Down along the tree line, I could see the cove and the last of the boaters as they headed home.  Motors hummed drowsily, carrying precious tired cargo back to cabins much like this one.  Maybe a little lighter, happier.

The movement was sudden and off to my right.  My mind quickly shoved the picture of a deer in to my brain and shouted it "IT IS A DEER".  I leaned closer to confirm. The woman sprung in to view of the bottom right pane.

Her face was pasty and grey with eyes empty and black.  There were cool bluish purple lines cracking parts of her cheeks.  Her fingers were up near her mouth as if trying to catch a laugh but the flesh was rubbed away leaving dirty splintered bones in varying lengths.  When she pulled them from her mouth, I covered mine and dropped my glass.  Her lips were split on either corner in thick, dark gashes.  Flashes of chipped muddy teeth gnashed together.  Her hands clapped as I stared at her.  She was laughing.  Hysterically.  Her dress must have been grey or blue at one time.  It was thread bare and frayed with crimson stains across its front.  Her hair was wiry and matted clumping to one side; a jagged hole above her naked ear seemed to be wet, oozing.  Bile rose in my throat.  She laid her hands on the window and began to speak; rapidly.  Her jaw slacked and dropped as if one side wasn't attached, it seemed to tear new along the already ripped corners of her hideous mouth.

The bleat of the smoke alarm jolted me from this nightmare.  I stumbled back to the kitchen to rescue my burned remnants of dinner.  Swearing and waving my towel, I plunged the pot in to the sink and began to pour water.  Steam filled the small area above the counter.  I heard the light pop like that of a small rock being thrown; hitting the little window in front of me; from the inside.  I froze.  Fear crept under my flesh and slithered in to my joints locking them in place.  My lips trembled and although I thought to scream, no voice could be heard; save hers. I felt a tug at my wrist; cold, slimy.  My knees threatened to collapse.  her voice was soft yet grainy as if she was shouting through wet sand from her throat.  I expected to hear the soggy slapping as chunks of it splattered to the floor.

"I am so glad to see you at last I just knew you would come to save me from him I waited and hid like you said to but he found me and I screamed and ran but he caught me and then he tried to hurt me I had to hide in my mind just like you said but how did he know where I was did you tell him you promised I was safe you promised he couldn't get to me you lied you lied you lied but here you are and you came back and now you can take me with you and I can be safe again I forgive you for lying I forgive you I forgive but the pain is so great did you know that so great my mouth and my head oh they hurt so deeply and he just wouldn't stop no matter how I begged did you know I begged I begged for you to come I begged for you to make it stop I begged him to kill me I begged but no one heard you lied no one heard I begged..."

The confession, accusation, and redemption came in a steady yammering with no breath.  Of course. She had no breath. It burned in my ears as she continued to talk and whisper pausing only for tiny moments of hard bitter laughter.

I felt my shoulders slump and my stomach wither.  I thought I had left her behind.  Her name was Liza and she was the last client I would ever take.  A witness to a brutal crime, I had convinced her to testify against a man so dark and depraved; a grave mistake for the young woman who disappeared before the trial.  He was convicted of a lesser charge. She was haunting me.

I rushed to my room and locked the door.  I sat on the bed and held my throbbing head.  I heard her laughter between my ears.  I felt the push of an icy breeze as she sauntered through the wall and stood before me beginning her tirade again. I swatted at the specter and pleaded for her to stop, dashing passed her and out in to the night.  her laughter escalated and followed me out.  Every turn I took, every path I chose seemed to bring me closer to her yawning clamoring jaws.  Her eyes bored through the trees and across the night to see me, blame me.

 The water lapped at the shore beckoning me to hide within its safe dark cover.  It hurried me to seek cover, sanity and silence.  I hesitated but Liza was rushing up behind me, her incessant ranting tickling the back of my neck which pushed me over the edge in to the void from which I could not be saved. It was so cold I instantly sucked in mouthfuls of water, my lungs beginning to burn.  Not knowing how to swim, I began to flounder; kicking wildly and crying out in the water.  Then I felt her hands; powerful and angry around my neck.  My eyes flew open and bulged.  She was watching me die and laughing; her distorted features swelling and separating in the water.  Darkness swallowed me.

There was no noise.  Although afraid, I was peaceful. I felt her let me go.

I woke to the sting of bleach from my hospital bedding.  Dink was sitting next to me.  She had forgotten something and had come home to retrieve it; finding me unconscious on the shore.  It had been five days that I had not participated in the world

She leaned over me and we both cried.  Once the tears had stopped we laughed at each other and sat in comforted silence.  I saw her frown and rub her tired eyes.

"What is it?"

She looked around with puzzled fear.  "Well, I am sure it's nothing, but lately I've been hearing things.  Seeing things."

My blood began to thicken.  "Liiiike what?"

"A girl.  A girl I don't know and she laughs at me.  She talks to me; constantly.  She blames me.  Says it was almost done and she was robbed  I can't find anything about it in the papers.  I don't know who she is.  It's driving me mad.  I even had the house cleansed with sage... but....she won't shut up." Dink fidgeted and looked around rubbing her ears as if a gnat was buzzing in her ear.

Rest came for me at last.  I closed my eyes and laughed lightly; just inside my head, feeling relief and fatigue.  


A little different; not what you expected? Ha me neither.  it wasn't how this one started out, but I like the way it finished.  I had a nightmare the other night and wrote down the basics.  This is the finished product.  I hope you enjoyed it or it gave the creeps... just a little. Thank you for coming by and checking on me.  You're such good company. We do have fun together, don't we? I think so too. :)

Until next time, sleep tight.