The Cursed High School Reunion

Chapter 10

“Marsha, boys, I am home!” Mike called out as he walked in the front door. About an hour had passed since he saw the hand and footprints.

“Daddy!” Ryan and Ralph yelled as they ran down the hall to meet him.

“Welcome home, baby. How was your day? We missed you at lunch,” Marsha said teasingly as he picked the boys up one at a time and gave them a hug.

“I know. I am so sorry. I forgot that we had inspectors coming today. I thought it was next week,” Mike said as he wrapped his arms around Marsha and pulled her in for a kiss.

“Eww!” the boys almost screamed as they turned and ran back down the hallway, giggling as they ran.

“So, how was your day? The boys seem to be in a better mood than they were in this morning,” Mike said as they followed the boys back into the living room. Marsha sat down on the couch.

“Yeah, after you called and said that you weren’t coming home for lunch, I called to see if my friend, Bianca wanted to go to the park. So, we met up and the boys had a blast playing with Zoey and Lance. They aren’t fully back to normal but they seem happier at least,” Marsha said.

“That’s a step in the right direction, right?” Mike asked, almost excitedly.

“Yeah, seems like it. Maybe a play date was the best way to get their minds off of it, at least for a little while,” Marsha said.

“So, what good things are we eating for dinner tonight?” Mike asked.

“Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans,” Marsha said. “I just put the meatloaf in the oven and the potatoes on the stove.”

“Oh, awesome. My favorite,” Mike said as his stomach started growling with approval.

“Daddy, will you play trucks with us?” Ryan asked.

“Of course, Ryan,” Mike said, moving to sit on the floor next to the boys.

“Are you good with them while I go finish dinner?” Marsha asked, standing up from where she had been sitting on the couch.

“Yeah, I got them, babe. If you want, I can handle bath time before dinner,” Mike offered as he pushed around the blue truck around that Ralph had handed him.

“I was thinking that since we are having meatloaf for dinner it might be best to do bath time after dinner for the two messy eaters,” Marsha said, giggling. “I am going to go finish up dinner. Be good for daddy, boys,” she continued as she leaned down and gave each one of her boys a kiss.

“We will, mom,” the boys answered in unison.

Marsha headed towards the kitchen as the boys started to tell their dad about their made-up rules to their made-up game with their toy trucks. As she entered the kitchen, the lights flickered weirdly. But before she could really question what happened, her cell phone began to ring. She pulled it out of her pocket and saw that it was her mother.

“Hey, mom,” Marsha said, as she put the phone to her ear.

“Hey, Marsha. How are you doing?” her mother asked concernedly.

“I am okay, considering. I keep checking the news for anything new. I just still can’t believe that Curtis is gone,” Marsha said, quietly.

“Have you told Mike yet?” her mother asked.

“No, not yet. I am waiting till the twins go to bed. I don’t want them to see their father that upset right before they go bed,” Marsha said, trying to rationalize her stalling. “Have there been any new updates? How’s his mother doing?”

“No, not today. She is doing as good as she can considering everything that is going on. No one can get a hold of Curtis’s father, either. His mother seems convinced that he is down in Florida with some floozy on a boat out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico somewhere. I am guessing that divorce was messy,” her mother said. She sounded amused as she said the last part.

Before Marsha could let her mother in on just how messy it was, the lights flickered again.

“What in the world is going on with the freaking lights?” Marsha asked aloud, more to herself than to her mother.

However, the voice that she heard on the phone next, did not sound like her mother.

“I am here,” a gravelly male voice said.

“Who are you?” Marsha asked, loudly.

“I am your mother. What do you mean ‘Who am I’? Marsha are you sure that you are okay?” her mother asked concernedly.

“Yeah, I am fine. I guess there was some kind of interference on my end. I heard a guys voice say that he was here. It caught me off guard, that’s all,” Marsha explained hurriedly. “I got to go, Mom. I really need to finish cooking dinner. I love you, Mom.”

“Oh, okay. I love you too, dear. Have a good night and give the twins a hug for me,” her mother answered.

Marsha hung up and laid the phone down on the counter. What in the hell was that? That voice sounded just like my brother Ralph’s. But that is impossible. Especially if mom didn’t even hear it. I had to have been hearing things, she told herself as she walked over to the refrigerator.

As soon as her hand touched the handle to open it, she felt the strangest chill seemed to take over her body. The strange chill seemed to be the worst around her neck as it suddenly became very hard for her to breathe. Because of the difficulty to breathe, she stumbled backward into the counter across from the fridge.

Gasping for air, she tried to call out to Mike for help, but she couldn’t make a sound.

Frantic, she looked around and saw the sheet pan that she had put on the counter to make garlic bread with. She pulled it off the counter. It fell to the ground with a loud clang.

“Babe, you okay?” Mike called from the living room.

As she began to weaken she kicked the sheet pan across the floor just before her knees buckled underneath her.

“Babe?” Mike called out again.

Marsha could hear him telling the boys to play and that he would be right back. Then just before she blacked out, she saw his feet appear in the doorway.

Mike rushed to her side. “Marsha?” he almost yelled as he rolled her over. As soon as he touched her, she began to take deep, gasping breathes. Whatever had been choking her seemed to vanish.

She tried to take slower deep breaths as she and Mike just stared at each other. Once her breathing had somewhat calmed down, Mike helped her up and move to sit in one of the kitchen chairs.

“Marsha, what happened?” Mike asked, super concerned as he knelt in front of her.

“I don’t know. I went to open the fridge to get the green beans out, and a strange chill came over me. Then suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. It felt like someone was choking me, but there was no one there. I threw the sheet pan down because I was panicking,” Marsha said.

“You don’t think it was just a weird asthma attack, do you?” Mike asked hesitantly.

“This definitely was not an asthma attack, Mike. The pressure was on the outside of my throat, not inside,” Marsha said, rubbing her neck absently. “But that isn’t the only thing strange that happened. Mom called right as I came into the kitchen. While I was talking to her, the lights flickered. Not once, but twice. After the second time they flickered, I heard a strange, garbled man’s voice say ‘I am here’. I swear that voice sounded like my brother. It makes me wonder if he is the one that attacked me,” Marsha continued, explaining her train of thought to the best of her ability. She just hoped secretly that Mike didn’t think that she was going crazy.

But Mike was focused on something that he had noticed on Marsha’s neck.

“Why do you think the ghost of your brother is trying to kill you? Babe that is impossible,” he said as he moved the hand that she had been rubbing her neck with to reveal purple fingerprints were appearing on her skin. These fingerprints were far bigger than hers.