Chapter 9-Don’t Fear The Reaper.

-The Other Child

By: Chanel Harry

Patsy hummed Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’ song while she organized the non-fiction books on the tall shelf of the library. She was in a good mood today after hearing from one of her sons that lived in California. The library hadn’t been busy at all today and she was finally happy that she could leave early.

After putting away the last returned book back in its rightful place, Patsy grabbed her coat and handbag. She turned out all of the lights and walked to the front door. Once she opened it, she gasped when she saw Dana and Terrance standing there, looking worried.

“Sweet Jesus, you all done scared me!” Patsy said, clutching her chest.

“Sorry Patsy,” Terrance replied. “But we need your help.”

Patsy looked him in the eye and could tell he was serious. She sighed and turned on the library lamp near her desk. She placed her coat and purse together on the chair knowing that it was going to be a long night.

        “What is it now?” Patsy asked them.

        “I’ve been reading the old articles that you gave me. What happened here?” Terrance asked.

        “Do you really want to know?”

They both nodded.

        “Alright, then I’ll call Patrick.”

        “Who’s that?” Dana asked.

        “Patrick owns a thrift store up on Main. He told me you’ve came in and asked questions.”

Dana thought for a moment and remembered the old man she met a couple of days ago. She nodded her head. Patsy picked up the desk telephone and punched in some numbers. She waited for the phone to ring and started talking.

        “Mhm, yeah. We’ll be right down then.” Patsy hung up the phone. She grabbed her coat and purse and without a word walked to the back of the library office. Dana and Terrance looked at each other and then watched as she came back a minute later. She held onto something that was wrapped in brown packaging. Patsy handed it to Dana and glared at her with concerning eyes.

        “This is for you, for the both of you. But don’t open it yet.” She said. Dana took the book and they walked out of the library.

        The walk to the thrift store wasn’t too long. Most of the stores in the town were on Main street. The old man was already outside holding the door open for them. Dana couldn’t help but feel like they were doing something secretive.

        “Hi Pat.” Patrick said. When Dana saw the both of them together in the same room, she instantly knew that they were related.

        “Hi brother.” Patsy said. “This is my brother Patrick.”

        “I didn’t know you had a brother, Pats.” Dana said.

        “A lot of people don’t know.” She replied, chuckling. Patrick led them in the back of the thrift store to a room that was dimly lit and smelled of incense. Taking off their coats, Dana and Terrance sat down on the velvet covered chairs across from Patsy and Patrick.

        “Ok, now what do y’all wanna know?” Patrick asked, he rubbed his hands together as if he were in the mood to tell a long story.

        “What happened twenty –six years ago?” Terrance asked. Patrick looked at his sister as if he were seeking her approval to talk. Patsy nodded.

        “If I told you what happened twenty-six years ago” Patrick said. “I’ll have to start with what happened one-hundred and fourteen years ago first.”

Dana’s eyes widened as she and Terrance listened with complete attention.

****

        “Black Hallow was a town founded in the year 1890, by a free African named Daniel Mackie and a white farmer called Thomas Artford. Now they stumbled on this land while trying to find a place to settle with their family. It was a long harsh winter but finally, Daniel thought he made it to the promised land, so to speak. The town thrived taking in free men, women and children of color and white that wanted to live amongst blacks, progressively. The Mackie family prospered as well; making strides in banking mainly.

That same year, Daniel’s daughter, Katie Mackie, who I might add, was the only female Mackie born, became blind from glaucoma.  Daniel was overcome with grief when that happened. He and his wife already had their son Percy and Katie was becoming too much to take care of. Daniel decided that he would build a school just for girls like her in hopes of helping with the growing glaucoma diseases that was plaguing most of the children.

So, in 1891, Daniel began to build. He hired many foreman and construction workers from all over town and the town over.  They worked day and night building and building. Until it was finally complete in 1892 and the whole town gathered to see the finished product of what was now the school for their sick girls.

However, it wasn’t just the girls who were sick…” Patrick paused, looking at his sister.

“What do you mean by that?” Terrance asked. Patsy nodded her head.

“What I mean is that Daniel had a ‘sickness’, a sickness that trickled down to his son and his son after. There was another little girl that was stricken with an illness. She lived in the town with her mother alone. People back then used to say that little girl was possessed with the devil and her mama couldn’t get it out of here.”

“Typical of those times when mental illness wasn’t talked about.” Dana said.

“That’s right. The mother called on Daniel to help her daughter by putting her in the school. Daniel agreed. About a month later though, the little girl came stumbling into town, blood all over her ripped dress. Her hair was in a disarray. Her face full of bruises and cuts while in between her legs dripped blood. The towns people all screamed while the girl cried out for her mama. When her mama saw her daughter she yelled to the sky something awful. Unfortunately, her daughter died that day right in her arms.”

“That’s terrible.” Terrance said, with his head down.

“It is. That painting you saw the other day is the depiction of that day.” Patrick said to Dana.

“But you said it was a murder.” She replied.

“Indeed it was. Daniel Mackie killed that poor child. He had a sickness; he was a child killer. He took delight in harming children along with his friend Tom. You see Daniel and Tom founded this town to do whatever they please and building that school was a front for them to take advantage of small children, especially girls.”

Dana gasped and glanced over at Terrance who was gritting his teeth in anger.

“The mother knew that Daniel had killed her child from overhearing a conversation between two staff members who worked at the school. The mother was so distraught by what had happened, but she didn’t have the strength or the resources to enact the same violent treatment on Daniel and Tom, like they did her child. Feeling helpless, all she could do in that time was to use an old tactic that her family used in dire need.

She cut a lock of hair from her daughter’s head, a piece of her skin as well. She then gathered the earth from the town. The woman used some of her daughter’s blood for the mixture. She mixed everything up in a lemon and called upon a god from the land of where her family was stolen from, and buried her daughter on the grounds of the school with the sour lemon. The woman didn’t think it would actually work—she wanted to satisfy the heart-wrenching pain that came with losing her daughter so brutally. Little did she know, a curse was brewing. That night, the child’s spirit came back wandering the night, searching for someone to possess, someone to use as a vessel to take revenge on her killers. The child wandered until she came upon the Mackie mansion. Inside, Katie Mackie was sitting alone reading a book in braille in her room. The child wandered into the room through the opened window and took possession of Katie. Giving her eyes to see—’’

Oh my god! Dana thought to herself.  That’s what Kari said to me! Her head started to hurt again.

“The child took a hold of Katie and together, they roamed the house, looking for Daniel. Katie grabbed a knife from the kitchen and without noise, went into her father’s study. He didn’t know what hit him, his daughter, with the strength of a man, stabbed him everywhere on his body you can imagine. Blood gushed and splattered all over the walls of the study and his screams were muffled as he choked on his own blood. The child, finally pleased, left Katie’s body, blind and helpless as she was. Her spirit able to rest with her body in her grave. Ann Mackie found her daughter trembling still holding the knife, covered in her father’s blood, the next day.

 “What of Tom Artford?” Terrance interrupted.

“Well, Tom was so stricken with fear that he jumped off the Black Hallow cliff and into the sea.”

“So, did this curse end with the child?” Dana asked.

“The child was avenged but the curse was never-ending. With each born Mackie who has the murdering ‘sickness’, the curse will continue. Each girl that dies up there will wander forever looking for vengeance, someone to take possession of, to carry out that vengeance.”

Dana’s blood ran cold and the hairs on her neck stood up. She was frightened from what she was hearing because of the things that she had seen previously. Her and Terrance exchanged terrified glances, trying to find some comfort from the horrible story.

“I suggest both of you leave this town while you still can.” Patsy said, flatly.

“You can’t be serious,” Terrance said. “It’s just a story; an old legend.”

“I’m afraid it’s not,” Patrick replied, turning to Dana. “I know you saw her because I see her too.”

Dana kept quiet trying not to agree with the old man. She just couldn’t bring herself to believe that something like that could be going on in the town.

        “Well, I heard enough,” Terrance said, getting up. “I need to keep looking for my sister not chasing a ghost.”

Dana got up with him and headed for the door holding onto the package that Patsy gave her.

        “Careful son, you just might be chasing one. Especially if you’re sister went there.” Patrick said. Terrance looked at him with fiery eyes. He walked out of the store with Dana leaving Patsy and Patrick alone.

        “Well Pats, it looks like they’ll have to learn the hard way.”

Patsy stared at the door feeling that something bad was going to happen.

****

        “I can’t believe they wasted our time on a story.” Terrance said, making his way through the deserted, night-filled streets. He was driving Dana home.

        “What if it’s true…” Dana said, quietly.

        “Come on, don’t tell me you believe that stuff?” He replied. Dana kept her eyes on the road not saying a word. She was still shaken by the story, particularly  the line that Patrick said. “She gave her eyes to see.”

        “I’m not saying I do but, something strange is definitely going on here. I told Richard that Kari was showing signs of sexual abuse.”

        “What?”

        “Yes, and he just brushed it off like it was nothing.”

        “Then you’re right, Mackie is hiding something.”

Dana looked out of the window, keeping her eyes on the bright moon. She followed it and saw the school sitting on top of the hill. Two of the large windows were lit and it looked like it had eyes, peering down on her ominously.

****

Patsy said goodnight to her brother and got into the old beetle. She revved up the old engine a few times before the car responded with a weak turn on. She carefully drove down main street toward her house on Clarkson road. The streets were dark, pitch black basically. She adjusted her rimmed glasses and squinted trying to see in the darkness. Turning her high beams on, she swerved once she saw a girl walking in the road. She lost control of the old beetle; the tires screeched on the dark road as Patsy spun the steering wheel trying to regain control of her car.  Suddenly, the same girl jumped on the hood of the beetle and screeched. She stuck her hand in the windshield and grabbed the steering wheel from Patsy. She screamed in a blood curdling scream, trying to get the girl’s leathery hands off the wheel. They fought for the steering wheel, but Patsy tried her best to regain control of the now, spinning Beetle.

        “Aaahh!” She yelled out, as the girl steered the Beetle into a tree. Patsy’s head went into the windshield cutting her face. Blood was everywhere and she screamed in agonizing pain. There was a shard of glass that jutted into her neck, sinking deeper into her flesh as she squirmed.  

        The girl with the black eyes slowly walked from behind the tree; the fog lights from the old Beetle illuminating her horrid face. She looked at the mayhem she caused and giggled.  She bent down to Patsy’s face with her tiny, leathery hand, pushed the shard of glass deeper into Patsy’s neck. Patsy screamed and then gargled and spluttered blood from her mouth. Her eyes rolled back and she stopped squirming. The girl giggled and whispered into the now dead librarian’s ear.

        “…I won’t let her…leave…”