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Charlotte's Sorrow

Part 3 of the VCS Halloween Spooktacular

By Natasja RosePublished 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago 4 min read
6
Charlotte's Sorrow
Photo by David Menidrey on Unsplash

This is Part 3 of the VCS Halloween Spooktacular, a collaborative effort from the Vocal Creators Society members.

Read Part 1: A Mother's Undying Love, by Untraditional Mother

Read Part 2: Abigail's Truth, by Tiandra

By Neven Krcmarek on Unsplash

Everyone speaks of Purgatory with dread, the horrible grey nothingness that awaits those destined for neither Heaven or Hell.

Dante had it mostly right: Purgatory is the place where you make choices that will either prove you worthy of Heaven, or condemn you to Hell. It's not an island mountain, though, or even Australia*, and if there are angels guiding the lost, then they are very discreet about it.

Abigail had spent enough time shouting into the void to be sure of that much.

By Vino Li on Unsplash

The other factor is your 'tethers', for lack of a better word. Regrets, guilt, things you left unfinished. Things that you hadn't come to terms with, so they bound you to the mortal plane.

Abigail's tethers were obvious as she pieced her memory back together. She loved her sister, but resented that Camille was the 'cool mom', and the countless arguments caused when Charlotte, her daughter, didn't see why she wasn't allowed to do the things her cousin was, from make-up to staying late with friends. Abigail worried that Charlotte would blame herself for the fight that they never got to talk through. She worried about what tethered her sons, now eternally not-quite-seven, and what would happen to them, if they lacked the emotional maturity to recognise and work through their own tethers.

Grief manifests in strange ways, but mothers never stop worrying for their children.

By Bekir Dönmez on Unsplash

Grief has a way of opening One's eyes to the important things in life.

What did waiting a year or two before she could wear make-up matter, against a lifetime of missing half of your family? If Charlotte hadn't shouted all those things at her mother, maybe Mom would have been able to stop before that truck ploughed into them. Charlotte had complained about Mom spending too much time in the garden, or with the twins, and no time with her, but now Charlotte was the one toiling under clear sky in the crisp Fall air, because Dad could barely bring himself to set foot among the plants that his wife had poured so much of herself into.

Grief has a way of opening our eyes to what is important.

By Rohan Makhecha on Unsplash

When she saw her first ghost, Charlotte thought that she was dreaming.

It was Halloween, after all, and she'd been missing Mum and her brothers, and teenagers tended to put more effort into their costumes than an old sheet with black dots. She'd just put the weeds in the garden bin, and washed her hands before going inside to nudge Dad back out to visit the tiny trio of graves. Dad had even got people from their church to come out and consecrate the small corner of their huge yard, so that it could be a proper family graveyard.

(It had taken hours, and they'd gone away grumbling about the job being far harder than it should have been. One had rolled his eyes and told the others to stop placing so much stock in heathen-based superstition. The Priest told both of them to shut up and stop being so unprofessional)

Just for a moment, there was a small flicker in the corner of her eye, and she thought she saw her an old man in very dated clothing, standing among the pumpkin vines, arms folded and scowling.

Then a squirrel raced across the lawn, and the image of the old man vanished like smoke in a wind.

Charlotte shook her head, rubbed her eyes, and went inside.

By Caroline Attwood on Unsplash

Charlotte had spent most of the afternoon carefully pruning flowers to place on the three graves. "In the Aumtum, I almost think I can feel her here, in the garden. Sometimes I swear I can hear my brothers laughing."

Her father squeezed her shoulder. "It's not the same without them, but if I didn't have you, I don't know what I'd do."

Charlotte tried not to shiver. She had far too good an idea of what he'd do if all of them had been killed. She knew what he'd almost done, before she'd begged him for grief councelling and family therapy, framing it as something she needed, because Dad might have been in a dark place where he didn't care about himself, but he'd still move Heaven and Earth for his little girl.

Something flickered in the corner of her vision again, and Charlotte saw her mother, crying and tearful, and her brothers, in the white dress and matching demon costumes they'd been wearing, ready to go trick or treating after dinner.

There was a sunflower on the grave, one that Charlotte hadn't put there, and she bent down to pick it up.

The ghost of her mother smiled through her tears, taking her brother's hands... and then there was a bright light, roaring up to consume everything, and the sound of distant screams that Charlotte knew no-one else would have heard.

Something was wrong.

By Daniel Lincoln on Unsplash

*Dante's Purgatorio, the second part of the Divine Comedy, his famous fictional journey through Hell, describes Purgatory as the place in which "the human spirit purges himself, and climbing to Heaven makes himself worthy." Dante's Purgatory consists of an island mountain, the only piece of land in the southern hemisphere. During the time of writing in the early 14th Century, the only "known" piece of land in the Southern Hemisphere would have been Africa, since Australia and the Americas hadn't been discovered yet. Australia fits the description better, though.

Read Part 4 by Sofia Duarte HERE

Horror
6

About the Creator

Natasja Rose

I've been writing since I learned how, but those have been lost and will never see daylight (I hope).

I'm an Indie Author, with 30+ books published.

I live in Sydney, Australia

Follow me on Facebook or Medium if you like my work!

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