But he had been so certain of her existence. He had seen her sitting on this very spot, looking at him through those eyes. Those tearful eyes. Eyes he could never erase from his memory. And he had felt terror. Terror he had never before experienced.
What if he was losing his grip on reality? How would he even know? Surely all unhinged human beings believed in their hallucinations, believed with all their hearts in the world that surrounded them, the world of visions that consumed them. What if he was just another unhinged man? Perhaps his hectic job and his collapse at the office—what if they all contributed to seeing the woman in the white dress? What if this was all just a vivid dream, while he was sprawled out on the floor of his office? What if Leah was still standing over him, trying desperately to wake him? Or perhaps he was still at the hospital, and Christina Long was merely one of the nurses tending to him as he lay in his hospital bed, hooked up to a monitor, trying to break free from a coma, with Nicky standing over him, pleading with him to come back to her. Back home.
After several minutes, he lay back on his bed and closed his eyes. Don’t be so stupid—you’re not nuts, he thought. You know what you saw in the kitchen; you didn’t imagine the smoke detectors all going off at the same time. Even Nicky saw the fridge and freezer doors open, and the TV come on by itself. You’re not some lunatic. There is a ghost in your house. And you did see her poster today for the first time. There’s nothing wrong with your mind.
But no matter how hard he tried to convince himself, a dark and overwhelming shadow of doubt still loomed over him. Until he could get through to Nicky, that shadow was only going to get bigger.
The bedroom lights were out. Only the faint moonlight through the window silhouetted the room.
Richard was lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling, wide awake. Nicky was curled up at the other side of the bed. They had made no contact since she joined him in bed over an hour ago. He could sense the tension in the air even though she was fast asleep.
Nights like this really got to him. He despised arguing with her, especially if it practically meant sleeping alone. After everything that had transpired since being off work, the last thing he wanted was to lie alone in bed, in complete silence.
How was he ever going to move things forward, to draw a line through Christina Long? How was he ever going to be able to live a normal, everyday existence in this house with such a problem hanging over him? The only way he could see some kind of resolution was to convince Nicky that he wasn’t crazy, and then maybe he’d have a little more help with getting the house free from his ghost. Or accept that his wife was right, and that he did need help. Accept that there are no such things as ghosts and the supernatural. Only then could things go back to the way they were.
Either way, Richard had a long way to go.
As the hours rolled by, his thoughts about Nicky and their earlier fight slowly slipped away from his mind. Now all that dwelled in his head was the solitude of his darkened bedroom. He tried to close his eyes, but every time he did, images of Christina Long’s saddened expression filled his mind, forcing him to reopen them. He shuffled from side to side, trying to find a more relaxed position, but every spot had the exact same effect.
This was going to be another long night.