The Haunting of Annabelle (4 page)

Once inside she went straight back to work,
and after two hours had finally finished reviewing the progress of
the painters. She went outside to see how the new landscaping
sections were going and was satisfied with the progress of the
workers.

Chapter 11

Heading inside to the welcome coolness of
the house, she went along to the kitchen to pour a glass of wine
before going upstairs and taking a quick shower. Heading for her
chaise in front of the window, she began to unwind with a novel she
was in the process of trying to finish. She dozed off somewhere
towards the end, thinking she didn’t like how the story was
progressing. Waking up, she noticed that the room was dark, so she
changed for bed and crawled under the covers. She was still very
tired and tried to sleep, but after an hour, she still felt wide
awake.

Getting out of bed, she quickly crossed to
the bathroom’s medicine cabinet and shook two sleeping tablets into
her hand. Heading back she quickly took them with the last swallows
of wine in her glass. Twenty minutes later, Annabelle was in a very
deep sleep. The only difference between this night and the last was
that it wasn’t cloudy and the full moon was shining through the
window. The light bathed the room in an almost magical aura.

Everything was quiet until the early morning
hours, when the door to the bedroom could be seen opening again,
much like the night before. The same footfalls came towards the
bed, only this time when the apparition crossed into the moonlight,
the translucent figure of a man could be seen. He stopped at the
foot of the bed, and stood over Annabelle’s sleeping form. His eyes
intently gazed upon the contours hidden by the covers.

Bending forward, he began to pull the covers
that hid her from his gaze, and slowly they slid down and uncovered
her body, until they ended up once again on the floor. She was
wearing underwear, but this time they were just bits of black lace.
His eyes continued up her body to the twin mounds of full and
shapely breasts. He grew hard gazing at her, and he climbed onto
the mattress and straddled her body. Just then, a huge cloud
blocked the moonlight and the figure disappeared from sight, but
the squeezing of Annabelle’s breasts gave away the fact that the
apparition was still there.

Annabelle murmured softly, asleep and
unaware that her nipples were now stiffly erect. Had she been
looking at them, she would have seen the pink-tipped ends moving
back and forth and being pushed inward as if someone was licking
them. The ghostly mouth continued pulling and sucking on her
nipples, and then there was the telltale sign of small imprints
traveling down her body, as if someone was kissing her abdomen
until they reached her panties. They rose slightly, and it appeared
as if fingers were roaming under the material, until they started
to be pulled down and over her thighs. They moved down to her toes
until they were being pulled off and left to drift to the
floor.

Imprints could be seen coming back up to the
bed and then her legs began to part and her buttocks rose slightly.
The lips of her sweet sex parted and were moved back and forth, and
the indentations over and around the clitoris made it pop out from
the protection of the tiny hood that covered it. Then her bud was
moving from side to side, and although Annabelle was in a deep drug
induced sleep, her body began to react.

“
Oh, oh yes…oh…mmm,” were
the sounds coming from her lips.

Seconds later something was inserted into
her willing and very moist body, because the lips parted leaving a
clear and wide hole. Her head began to move back and forth on the
pillow as her body was being pushed backwards and forwards and then
the moonlight hit the room once again. There on the bed was the
apparition. His hands were holding Annabelle’s legs up tight on his
hips while his head was thrown back in ecstasy. His mouth was
silently groaning his approval as he violated her body while she
slept.

“
Oh please don’t stop,”
she uttered, as her head rolled from one side of the pillow to the
other.

Then she could be seen
rising off the bed and her legs were opened wider. With each
thrust, her breasts rolled back and forth. The figure then started
to glow a brighter white making his features more pronounced.
Annabelle could be heard raising her voice as she began to approach
her climax. At the very peak of her orgasm, she opened her eyes and
screamed, “
I’m coming
.” Her body was gripped in the throes of pleasure and she
wasn’t quite sure what was happening.

She finally realized that it wasn’t a dream
and caught sight of a hazy figure on top of her, thrusting. She
could feel it entering her body and then it shuddered and stopped.
Suddenly she fell to the bed and caught sight of something moving
quickly out of the room and away from the moonlight that was
revealing it. She let out a whimper, her hands clutching the bed as
she tried to figure out what had just happened. This wasn’t her
imagination this time. She could feel where her body was still
tender from the fullness of his invasion. Her body was weeping with
pleasure and the aroma of sex filled the air. She had a good look
at the face of her assailant as it turned to look back before it
disappeared from the room. He was young and a quite handsome man,
and the fact that her body even now was recovering from what had to
have been a very intense moment, made her feel cheated. She now
wished she’d not awoken, but of course, she had and now she knew
what had happened the night before.

Chapter
12

Annabelle wasn’t able to fall back to sleep
and passed the time going through the rooms and down the halls, but
the apparition was gone. She decided to turn on her computer and
search for any news clippings concerning the murder that happened
here years ago. It wasn’t long until she found one. The short piece
was taken from the local newspaper and read, “Richard Granger, age
35, was found dead at his home, on the morning of October 21, 1940;
police are looking into the whereabouts of his wife,
Annabelle.”

The article went on to say, that it was
discovered Richard had been poisoned and the police wanted the wife
for questioning.

The other articles she found only mentioned
it in passing, there were no further developments in the later
writings. The only other comments were along the lines of, “This
was the second murder in the town’s surrounding area.” The first
occurred in a drunken brawl that got out of hand. Annabelle sat
back in her chair and thought about the events of last night. It
still sent a shiver down her spine, along with the mixed feelings
of anger and curiosity. She wondered why or even how this spirit
could do the things it did last night, and the more she thought
about it the more she wanted answers.

In the end, Annabelle finally went up to the
fourth floor where she’d seen the figure in the window that day.
She crossed over the room to look down onto the driveway searching
for the spot where she had stood.

The early morning sunlight was beginning to
illuminate the grounds and it was Saturday, so she was going to be
alone in the house for the rest of the weekend until the workers
returned on Monday. She felt like a fool for what she was planning
to do but she’d never been the type to put things off. She turned
away from the window and walked back to the doorway.

“
I’m assuming that you are
Richard Granger; if you can hear me I’d very much like to
communicate with you,” she forcefully said aloud.

The house was silent, nothing could be heard
other than the slight wind outside.

“
If you can hear and
understand me, would you let me know by making a sound? Any sound
will do. I want to talk to you,” she said.

At first there was nothing but silence, but
just as she was about to walk through the bedroom doorway, she
heard a door slam in the hall. Quickly going out of the room, she
checked the other bedroom doors but they were all closed. She went
to each room, one by one, gingerly opening the door and peering
inside. She reached the final door and stopped, there was a faint
scratching sound coming from the inside. With her hand on the
doorknob, she silently stepped inside and there on the far wall was
scratched the word ‘understand.’

Chapter 13

It seemed like hours had passed since
Annabelle first saw the word; her limbs felt frozen and her eyes
jerked nervously around the room. She knew that it had to be only
minutes, but she waited. She waited for something else to happen
but it never did. She finally unlocked her frozen legs, moved about
the room and even into the adjoining bathroom, but nothing else
responded to her occasional question. She decided that she had had
enough; she needed to get back to work.

She returned to her room and dressed for the
day, heading down to the kitchen with her portfolio in hand. Her
thoughts were chaotic as she moved to make a strong pot of coffee
and a light breakfast to keep her going for the day. Annabelle used
one of the painter’s high stools to sit at the counter and work on
her notes for the house. Munching through the slices of crisp toast
and fresh fruit, she just couldn’t shake the thought that she was
in touch with a ghost. She wondered how all of this would play out,
and for the first time in her life, she was more than
apprehensive—she now knew that there could be real danger here.

Later that day a telephone call came from
her agent telling her of a great offer on a modeling assignment
being held in New York. She quickly accepted and advised that she
would be heading back to her condominium that night. They made
plans to go over the details first thing Monday morning. Annabelle
was relieved that she had a legitimate excuse to head back to the
city. She wasn’t really running away — she was just taking a break.
Prior to leaving, she left written notes for the contractors and
didn’t even bother to pack. She was heading home and wouldn’t need
to take a thing with her except her purse and car keys for the
drive to the train station. She’d leave the car there in the
parking lot until she had to return.

Chapter 14

Time in the city passed too quickly. The
modeling assignment kept her mind busy and she felt safe at night
when she returned to her condominium. She fell back into her
regular routine quite easily and Annabelle had nothing but nights
of uninterrupted sleep. Her whole body felt rejuvenated from the
time spent in the city. She awoke knowing that today would be her
last day here and she would be heading back to the estate this
afternoon.

The first stirrings of dread began to creep
into her thoughts, but she consciously made the move to stop them.
She focused instead on the anticipation she felt of getting back,
in order to continue her work on the estate. She had ordered rugs
and furniture, along with draperies and other key items. The only
thing left was to inspect and determine the extent of the work done
while she’d been gone. When that was accomplished, she could set
the date for the deliveries to take place. With her thoughts now
headed in the right direction, she packed a small case of
necessities she would need for the return trip.

Chapter 15

Arriving at the train station in the early
evening hours she carried her case to the car and began the short
trip to her new investment. Turning up the driveway, her first
sight of the house still thrilled her senses. The house was just
beautiful and she couldn’t wait to get it finished so that others
would be able to stay there.

The workers had already left and the
automatic lights were turned on. Parking the car near the front
entrance of the house, she used her key to open the door and found
that a small table was just inside with notes from the contractor’s
supervisor.

Grabbing the papers, she locked the door and
headed up the steps to her suite, once again enjoying the feel of
the banister under her fingertips. She had already had a light
dinner on the train and decided to unpack and get ready for bed.
Not once did she let her thoughts stray to the ghost until she was
under the covers. She’d reasoned that the ghost hadn’t hurt her and
he apparently could have. The spirit hadn’t been afraid to reveal
itself when she awoke, so perhaps there was something about a
person being cognizant and fully aware of their surroundings that
stopped this kind of activity. She turned the lamp off and tried to
calm herself by ticking off her to-do list for the next day.

Minutes passed and she started to drift off,
when suddenly her bedroom door slowly opened and although she
couldn’t see anyone, she knew it was her resident ghost paying her
a visit.

“
Come in Richard,” she
said softly. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Just then, the shimmering and unmistakable
shape of a man walked into the moonlit area at the end of her bed.
Annabelle could just make out the features of his face thanks to
the light from the moon, and when he stopped to face her, she
spoke.

“
Can you talk to me?” she
said nervously.

She could see his lips moving but no sound
came from his mouth.

She released one hand’s grip from the
covers, raised it up and said, “I can’t hear anything. If you can
hear me, will you move your head up and down for yes and shake it
for no?”

The ghost stood silently for a moment, and
proceeded to move his head up and down as he was asked. He paused
and appeared to smile slightly.

“
Let’s try to communicate
with one another. Are you Richard Granger?”