She quickly spun around, but there was no one; the figure was gone.
‘Justin?’ she asked again and slowly walked from the kitchen to the living room. Although no one was there, it felt as if someone was watching her every move. She shrugged and as she turned to go back to the kitchen, the open study door caught her eye.
‘Justin?’ she asked again as she started walking towards the study. ‘Are you here?’
No answer.
She picked up her pace and once inside the study, stopped cold.
Nothing.
No Justin.
Everything appeared normal to the eye, yet something felt out of place. A chill crawled down Rebecca’s spine and she felt an urgent need to leave the study. She pulled the door shut behind her and walked back to the living room while calling out to Justin. She stopped in mid-sentence. The emptiness of the living room walls caught her eyes immediately. Both paintings that she would have sworn her life on were hanging on the walls a mere minute ago, now lay face-down on the floor.
‘This can’t be,’ she said and took a step back. The click of the study room door made her spin around. Slowly it opened. A scream escaped Rebecca’s lips and she grabbed the keys and ran from the house. Moments later she was sitting on a ledge in what little of the setting sunlight she could manage to find while fighting back tears that desperately tried to break free.
* - - - *
What’s she doing outside? Justin wondered as he parked the car. He locked the door and as he approached Rebecca, he could sense that something was wrong. She was sitting on a small cement step with her head tucked into her arms as she rocked backwards and forward.
‘Hey you,’ he said as he approached her. ‘What are you doing outside?’
Rebecca looked up. Her facial expression told Justin that she was relieved to see him back earlier than expected.
‘You’re going to catch a cold out here, love.’
‘I don’t care!’ Her words escaped as a sob. ‘I’m not going back into that place alone again.’
Justin frowned. ‘What place?’ He looked up at their front door. ‘Our home?’
Rebecca didn’t answer. She just kept on rocking.
‘What’s wrong, Becky? What are you talking about?’
‘Paintings,’ she said. ‘They’re off.’ Her eyes darted from Justin to the apartment and back to him. ‘Little man with big eyes. Study door...’
‘Whoa there,’ Justin said. ‘You’re not making any sense. Come, let’s go inside and talk about it over a nice cup of tea, eh?’
He wrapped his arms around his wife and led her to the front door. It was unlocked. He opened it and she instantly headed for the living room.
‘These paintings,’ she said and pointed without looking.
‘What about them?’ Justin asked.
‘They...they’re down.’
Justin frowned. ‘Down from what?’
‘The wall, Justin!’ she snapped. It was hard to hide the irritation in her voice. She looked up and her heart sank. The paintings were back on the wall as if nothing had happened. ‘They...they were on the floor,’ she said and walked to the nearest painting. ‘This one was lying right here.’
‘And now it’s not?’ Justin asked. He couldn’t help but smirk at his own joke.
‘Do you think it’s funny?’ Rebecca asked with an agitated quiver in her voice. ‘Do you think I’m making this up?’
‘Calm down, hun,’ Justin said. ‘I know you’re not lying, but you have to see the humour in this.’
‘The study door was open again.’
Justin walked to the study. ‘Well, it’s closed now,’ he shouted from the little hallway. He appeared again and took Rebecca into his arms. ‘Are you sure that you’re okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ Rebecca said and pushed herself away from him.
‘I’m just wondering if you’re…you know…all right up here...’ he twirled his finger next to his head and crossed his eyes. He meant it as a light hearted joke to try and ease some of the tension.
Rebecca didn’t appreciate Justin’s condescending tone of voice. ‘I’m not crazy,’ she said, but the last word came out choked. The first tear started the chain reaction.
Justin stepped forward and took her into his arms again. ‘I’m sorry, Becky,’ he said softly. ‘It was a terrible joke.’
‘I’m not crazy,’ she said, her voice muffled with her face pressed against his chest.
‘I know, my love.’ He held her for a moment longer and allowed her to cry it all out. Whatever it was that piled up inside her had to come out. Hormones? ‘Don’t pregnant women sometimes hallucinate?’ Justin asked when he thought it was safe to talk again. ‘I think I read it in one of your pregnancy magazines.’
Rebecca shook her head. ‘I didn’t hallucinate,’ she said.
Justin decided that it would be best for him to drop the subject. If he didn’t, she might cry the night away; something he was not in the mood for after a long first day at a new job. ‘It’s okay,’ he said as re-assuring as he could. ‘I’m here now. Everything’s going to be just fine.’
She held him tighter.
‘I’m here to protect you now. Nothing will harm you.’
* - - - *
Rebecca’s hands were still shaking when she turned the taps. After a rumble and a clank from the old water pipes outside the small bathroom window, warm water spurted and then sprayed from the shower head. She could hear Justin hard at work at the dishes in the kitchen. Despite his occasional flaws, she still loved him very much. He was a sense of comfort to her that neither words nor feelings could properly define. She also adored the little things he did for her that ordinary husbands would deem unimportant.
You’re looking too old for your age, she thought as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Did it come with the territory of being pregnant? She couldn’t help but wonder.
A soft scratching sound at the door made her stop and look up. She stood perfectly still. Did she hear right? Did Justin walk past the door and accidentally brush his arm against it? Her thoughts were interrupted by another scratching sound at the door. Louder this time.
‘Justin?’ she asked. Her voice emitted a hollow echo in the confines of the bathroom. ‘Is that you?’
No answer.
Scratching again.
Longer. Slower. More purposeful.
‘Justin?’ she asked, loud enough for him to hear it from the kitchen. Rebecca’s heart bounced around furiously in her chest as she reached her hand out to the handle. Another scratch made her jerk her hand away. ‘This isn’t funny, Justin! Stop it!’
The scratching stopped.
Rebecca placed her hand around the cold handle and pressed it down. She pulled the door back hard and screamed when she saw a figure standing in front of her. The figure grabbed her and she tried to fight back, but to no avail.
‘Becky, it’s me,’ Justin said. ‘Calm down.’
It took a while for Rebecca to register that it was her husband holding her. ‘Let me go!’ She screamed.
‘Geez,’ Justin said and released her. ‘It was only a joke.’
‘Get away from me!’
Justin took a step back. He could sense that he had crossed a line.
Rebecca slammed the door shut and, for the first time since they were married, locked it. She stood in the corner of the bathroom and slid to the floor, her hands covering her face.
‘I’m sorry, Becky,’ Justin said from the other side of the door, but it was futile. His voice was drowned out by the shower’s water and her sobs.
* - - - *
The engineers at Cybernetics Computers had a ritual where they would drop whatever
they were busy with each day at ten o’ clock, and meet each other in the lounge for a smoke break. Those who didn’t smoke mingled in by making it their coffee break. They would usually spend the next fifteen minutes complaining about management or clients, or worse; management’s unrealistic promises to unforgiving clients. There were no such qualms today. A new topic had slowly taken over the past two weeks. Nightmares.
‘I had another one last night,’ said Luke. He was outsourced as a site engineer to a major communications company. ‘I can’t remember everything, but I do remember the spiders.’
‘I had one too,’ Bill said. He had greasy hair that he slicked back and wore black thick-rimmed glasses that almost gave him a Buddy Holly look. Bill was the company nerd. A nerd’s nerd. Justin found it hard to imagine that this man would ever admit to having nightmares. Too retro. Bill drained half his mug of coffee before continuing. ‘I was trapped in a mental asylum with all these half-human creatures running around and hunting us down. Eventually I was the only one left.’ He finished the last half in one gulp. ‘Then I woke up.’
They all looked at Justin. ‘And you?’ Luke asked.
Justin hated being placed on the spot. He was the new guy. He didn’t want to share his personal problems or experiences with them yet. He nodded. ‘Same as yours, Luke, but with snakes instead of spiders.’
‘Had the snake one last week,’ Bill said.
The spotlight was off Justin again and moved to Rupert. He shook his head even before the question was asked. ‘No nightmares here.’
‘It’s because you live so far,’ Luke said. ‘No reception there.’
Everyone chuckled.
‘You might be onto something there, Luke,’ Bill said. ‘I can’t help but notice that all the guys having nightmares live in more or less the same neighbourhood.’
‘It’s a government conspiracy,’ Rupert said. ‘They’re testing their new brain-wave manipulators, and you guys are the lab rats.’
‘Everything’s a conspiracy with you, Rupert,’ Luke said.
‘Have you guys listened to yourselves the last two weeks? You all have bad dreams. You all fight with your girlfriends or wives. You all have a low sex drives.’
‘That’s because we’re techies,’ Luke said and everyone laughed.
‘And it all started at around exactly the same time,’ Rupert finished his thought.
For a moment there was an uncomfortable silence among the guys. Rupert had a good point supported by a valid argument.
‘Come,’ Luke said and crunched the remainder of his cigarette inside an ashtray before twisting it several times. ‘Time’s up. We gotta go.’
In less than a minute, everyone had separated and gone their ways; scattered from the lounge like roaches in a kitchen when the light goes on. Justin finished his coffee alone and then made his way back to the workshop.
* - - - *
Rebecca dipped her hand in the lukewarm bath water and moved it around to mix the hot and cold water properly. As she did so, she stared at her own reflection in the mirror. Was she gaining weight? Was she losing colour? The reflection that stared back at her was someone else. The hair was unkempt, and the cheerful glow in the cheeks, gone. She worried about the pregnancy; about the creatures she saw in the corner of her eyes, the nightmares, but most of all, Justin’s strange—almost aggressive—behaviour since they heard that she was pregnant only two short weeks ago.
‘Are you losing it?’ Rebecca asked the reflection in the mirror. ‘Are you going out of your mind?’
The reflection in the mirror didn’t answer.
Once the bath was relatively filled up, she closed the taps and took off her gown. Slowly, one foot at a time, she got into the warm water and melted away into the thick, foamy bubble bath. She wet a face cloth and twisted it to drain the excess water. Rebecca then laid her head back on the rim of the bath and placed the damp cloth on her face. The warm water against her neck aided in relaxing her otherwise very tense muscles.
The analysis of your blood indicated the presence of the human chorionic gonadotrophin hormone, the doctor’s words echoed in her mind as she thought about tomorrow’s appointment. In other words, you’re pregnant.
Rebecca let out a little chuckle. She was pregnant. Going to be a mother. The reality hadn’t set in properly yet. Sometimes she didn’t feel pregnant, but Rebecca knew that it would only be a matter of time before she would. She wondered if Justin felt like a father yet. If he did, he hid it very well. He didn’t read the strategically placed magazines and parenting books she left lying around the apartment. He also didn’t talk much—if at all—about the baby and their future as a family. Tiny bubbles popped softly in her ears and she sighed. Nothing relaxed her as much as a long, warm, bubble bath. Eventually the water cooled down and Rebecca used her foot to pour some more hot water. She re-dipped the cloth and twisted it again, placing it back onto her face. After she had repeated the process twice more, she decided that it would be best to get out and prepare dinner. Justin would be home soon. She drained the tub of its water and rubbed her hair with a towel. Rebecca wiped her hand over the fogged up mirror and eyed her fresh, rejuvenated reflection.
Definite improvement, she thought approvingly. She didn’t notice the light fixture slowly turning above her head. She brushed her hair as she hummed softly to herself. The colour had returned to her cheeks, and she hoped that it wouldn’t only be temporary.
The fixture above her head turned faster.
As she stepped into the cool hallway, a loud crash sound behind her made her shriek and jump. She turned around and stared at the shattered glass on the floor where she had been standing only seconds ago. She looked up at the glowing, naked bulb and shuddered at the thought of the fixture smashing on her head. She tried to fight the shock as mixed feelings of anger, fear, and sadness all overwhelmed her at once. She lost the battle and buried her tear-stained face in her hands as she slowly slid down the wall.
* - - - *
‘Please remember to keep the study door closed,’ Justin said as he got into bed.
Why? Why must we always keep that stupid door closed? It obviously doesn’t want to be closed to begin with. ‘I thought it was closed,’ she said casually instead.
‘I just walked past it now. It was open.’
‘Well, maybe the wind just blew it open or something.’
Justin nodded. He hadn’t thought about that as a possibility yet. It could very well have been the wind. Maybe the door wasn’t closed properly and a stray cat came in through the window and pushed it open. ‘Was it the wind that blew off the light fixture too?’ Justin asked and laughed out loud at his own joke.
‘That’s not funny, Justin,’ Rebecca said. ‘I could have seriously gotten hurt.’
‘I know, my love,’ he said. ‘It was just a joke, okay?’
Rebecca didn’t say anything. She merely nodded. Justin took her in his arms and hugged her tightly. He then read her a scene out loud from his mystery novel before they turned out their individual bed lights.
Soon, they were both asleep. Neither of them heard the study door down the hallway click off its latch and slowly swing open.
Chapter 4
Justin and Rebecca waited. The doctor was running late with a patient, and so they found themselves waiting for almost forty five minutes after they should have been called in. Justin sighed and looked at his watch. It was an absent-minded move. He didn’t take in the time, and had to look at the watch again before he registered the actual time.
‘Could you pass me the Wonderfully Woman?’ Rebecca asked and held out a magazine.
Justin shrugged and took the one from her hand and placed it on one of two piles of magazines on a small wooden table.
He then leaned forward a bit more, picked up the requested magazine and shoved it into her hand.
‘Thank you.’
Justin forced a smile and shifted uncomfortably in the little wooden chair that had been his prison for the past hour already. It creaked under his weight as if scolding him for not sitting still. Justin scanned his eyes across the room to see how many future mothers had been bothered by his shifting, but found none looking at him. He sighed again. It was so quiet that he could hear the seconds on the wall clock tick by.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The phone rang and Justin jumped a little.
‘Doctor Taylor’s office,’ the receptionist said. She listened for a while, and eventually Justin thought that she had fallen asleep on the telephone. He wouldn’t blame her. ‘Yes, Mrs. Goemans, we have a cancellation on Wednesday at around ten. Would that be okay for you?’ She nodded and scribbled something down on her notepad. ‘Wednesday, ten o’ clock it is, Mrs. Goemans. Right. See you then. Good bye.’ The receptionist put down the phone and without looking up, continued with what she was doing before the phone rang.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Justin shifted again. He looked at Rebecca who was deeply engaged in an article about babies or something. For a split second he wondered what would have happened if that lamp fixture had fallen and shattered on top of her head. The image of a blood coated Rebecca made him shudder. He then wondered if she didn’t perhaps turn out the fixture and broken it herself in a desperate attempt for some sort of attention. Since he got the job at Cybernetics Computers he didn’t get to spend as much quality time with her as he used to.
Maybe that’s it, he thought, but decided to rather spend his thoughts constructively by reading something instead. The chair creaked as he leaned forward to pick up a magazine.
He looked up.
Nobody noticed. Nobody cared.
Good.
Relieved, he scanned the options of magazines. They were mostly family or pregnancy orientated. He selected a family magazine and picked it up. After three minutes worth of ‘reading’, he caught himself absentmindedly flipping through the pages. He wouldn’t know what was on the previous pages even if he looked at it again. He breathed deeply and then decided to actually focus and read an article.