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Edith stood in the snow, covered in blood, staring at Lucille.
“You have no one left.”
“You’re wrong.” As she looked over Lucille’s shoulder she saw Thomas. Thomas, standing there with black hair and a loose white shirt under his black waist coat. He was looking at Lucille with anger and sadness.
Edith swung the shovel down onto her head and it was over. The monster who had been controlling her life since she’d arrived to Allerdale Hall, and Thomas’s since they were children, was finally gone.
She rushed over to him, touching his face, not completely believing he was really there… but sure enough he was. He hugged her tightly as they cried together.
After retrieving Alan, they made their way to town with the caravan that he had requested. The ride was tense. Thomas had made attempts to speak to Edith. She had simply told him it could wait. They all needed to clean up, settle down and then discuss what they needed to.
After arriving at the general store and post office, they were allowed to clean up and stay the night. Edith insisted Thomas and Alan sleep in their own room while she stayed in the room her and Thomas had the night before.
The next morning they made their way back to America and Edith made it clear that she would stay married to Thomas but would keep him at arm's length until they arrived in her home.
Alan was not pleased with her decision to remain with Thomas, but was thankful towards him for sparing his life when Lucille demanded otherwise. Edith informed him it was not his decision and that as a friend he needed to respect her wishes.
Then there was one night when Edith sat down with Thomas after a few days of coming back. They talked. He exposed his inner thoughts to her, told her of everything that had transpired between him and his sister, his experiences with his parents and the unfortunate wives. He spoke with brutal honesty of the plan they had when he had come asking for investors, of what made him change his mind and pick her, the moment he fell in love with her and the moment he finally felt free of Lucille’s hold on him.
He bared his soul to Edith hoping only for her to listen and understand, not expecting her to forgive him and give herself to him that night. But she did. It was lovely and slow, different to their first night but she allowed him to take charge and worship her. There were many nights of similar passion to follow.
Their marriage was perfect. Thomas was extremely flexible and bowed to every whim of Edith’s. She would surprise him with her domineering confidence in everything she did, but would also take in his words just as seriously as her own. The two worked so well together it was hard to believe the horror they had been through.
Thomas was much happier and carefree now. Discussing things where he openly gave his opinions, with Edith listening and actually taking them into consideration was something completely new to him. Their dynamic was the two having an equal footing on every subject which rubbed many people the wrong way. Edith always made it known that she was no blushing bride that would bow to anyone’s whims, even her husband’s. And Thomas wouldn’t have it any other way.
Edith began writing again with a new understanding of love and tragedy. Her book was a success and before she could finish her second manuscript she found out she was pregnant.
Thomas had been given a room and shop to work on his inventions and became a toy maker. He loved tinkering with everything and would fix any little thing he could find needing fixed in the house. To Edith’s delight he had already begun creating a mobile with little toy books hanging from it that moved with clock like gears when she’d told him her news. He was ecstatic and swung her around his workshop before putting her down gingerly and apologizing for being too rough.
The nine months of Edith’s pregnancy were fairly smooth up until it became hard for her to sit at her desk and type, to which Thomas took the role of transcribing for her. The handmaids would help with things when Thomas was working, but for the most part he was the perfect doting husband.
Thomas was tinkering with his latest invention when a handmaid came rushing into his workshop.
“Sir Thomas, your wife she is in labor and she is asking for you.” She said, attempting to catch her breath.
“L-labor? Are you c-certain?” As he stuttered this he began putting away some of his tools and reached for his sign to post up that he was closed.
“Yes sir, the baby may be here before the afternoon is over.”
“So soon?! I-I ah, thank you. I’ll be right there.” He couldn’t believe it. His child was to be born soon. Edith was in labor and she needed him. He rushed to the back of the shop, to the door that connected to their home and pushed through. Making his way through the house he could hear a loud scream come from their bedroom. With a huge smile on his face he made his way up.
Bursting into the room, he spotted his wife spread open on their bed sweating and straining, with the midwife and her attendees surrounding her. He rushed to her side, taking her hand in his as she angrily yelled at him for causing this. She yelled, cried and beat at him for five hours straight but he could not lose the smile from his face the entire time.
When the child finally came into the world, both Thomas and the baby cried. Edith, exhausted and breathing heavy, looked over to him. He was holding their child, looking very proud, with tears streaming down his face. She couldn’t help but reflect on everything they had been through up to that point. Their love was an odd one but it was real and it was theirs.
When Thomas finally took his eyes off their child, he looked up at Edith with a huge smile before her eyelids got heavy and she slipped into an exhausted sleep.
Edith woke with a start, sitting straight up in her bed. Sweating and with tears in her eyes she looked to her side only to see her bed as it always was, empty.
She suddenly remembered everything. What really happened, Thomas’ ghost behind Lucille, the trip home with Alan, the birth of her son Carter and the one night a few months ago.
That night was when she had finally gotten closure with Thomas. His ghost had arrived and told her that he had been watching over her and their son and was proud of how well he had turned out.
Fresh tears began rushing down her face as she recalled her dream. Everything seemed so real.
Why would her mind do that to her? Give her that false hope that she would wake to her husband at her side with graying hair and smile lines matching her own? That she could actually feel his touch from her dream, when they had made love in her bedroom after their long talk.
She took a deep breath, composing herself as she heard footsteps coming towards her room. Cautiously, she stood from her bed wrapping her sleeping gown around herself as she made her way to the door.
The sound of small metal parts clinking together came from the other side followed by the brushing of fabric against fabric and with it a fragrance of a distinct male scent swept through the door frame. Steam, earth and him. Thomas.
She opened the door to an empty hallway and white smoke slowly swirling and dissipating in the air. Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground sobbing.
This was not her last encounter with Thomas’ ghost. After that first night, she began having similar occurrences at decreasing intervals. Five months, three months, one month and then two weeks. Each time the dreams were more vivid and would be followed with some sort of vague encounter.
After the third encounter, she began getting headaches and memory loss. She didn’t want to alarm anyone, especially her son, so she never mentioned it to them. By the fifth encounter she was having trouble distinguishing the dreams from reality and Alan began noticing something was wrong.
She had called him Thomas one evening and asked if he had finished fixing their son’s mobile. Alan questioned her about it and after a few minutes she came back to herself, confused.
He told her she needed to see a doctor but she refused. He spoke to Carter about it, trying to explain as best he could to the boy why his mother kept asking him when his father would be back from the workshop. He had gotten the general idea but the two were both confused as to what was causing it.
Finally, against Edith’s wishes, he called a doctor to come see her. She refused to be examined until he had mentioned how her episodes were affecting Carter and she finally gave in.
She was dying. The poison that had been administered to her for that short amount of time had left something in her that slowly took it’s toll. Her memory loss, her detachment from reality and her dreams were all apart of it. The past ten years her body had been able to keep up a resistance to its effects but as she got older her body weakened slightly and the poison began to take her.
She spoke to Carter about it, who understood what was happening after she explained, like the bright boy he was. He didn’t know where the poison had come from. Edith refused to tell him of his father and aunt’s lives and what they had done to her. She would not have her son hating his father when he had died trying to help them survive.
Tonight she knew the dream was coming. It had been only three days since her last dream but she could feel it. Her mind had been escaping her more often than she’d like. She had asked Alan to take Carter in for her. Alan had agreed immediately but Carter had put up a fight.
He wanted to be with his mother no matter what, but she didn’t want her son to see his mother fall into insanity as she could feel she was. The things she could inadvertently reveal to him about his father and aunt was something she could not risk.
So, here she lay in her bed, that from one minute she knew was her own and the next felt expectant that her husband was just in the other room preparing for the night.
Suddenly, the room grew cold and she wasn’t the slightest bit surprised. The sound of clinking metal came from the other side of the door along with footsteps and a knock. She didn’t move from her spot on the bed and simply waited.
The door knob shook slightly as it slowly turned and clicked. The door creaked loudly as it opened to reveal her husband, Thomas, standing in the doorway just as she remembered him. His ethereal beauty always astounded her.
He walked towards her and stopped on the far side of her bed that she would reserve for him during her episodes. He slipped under the covers and slid next to her. She turned towards him and to her surprise she could touch him. His body was solid and in that moment she knew these were her last moments.
Snuggling close to his chest and taking in his natural scent, she wept with a smile as he held onto her whispering how much he loved her and missed holding her.
Later that night, Carter felt a shiver run through his body and he jumped up from the spare bed in Alan’s home and looked through the open door into the hallway.
Standing at the end of the hall, were two white figures. A man with wavy hair in a waistcoat with a spot on his cheek and chest that emitted a lazy smoke and a woman with long wavy hair down to her waist in a long night gown with smoke coming from her head.
They smiled at him and he knew it was his parents and before he could stand up to go to them they were gone in a gust of wind coming from nowhere.
He only hoped that his mother went as peacefully as she deserved and knew that he loved her more than anything in the world.