Haunting Secrets

"What are you doing?!"

Serena Bradford approached her wife, Aria North, with a bit of a worried expression on her face.

"I'm washing dishes," said Aria. "What's up?"

"I know that," said Serena. "But do you have to... whistle?!" As Aria was washing the dishes following a romantic dinner that saw them celebrate one year as a married couple, she was also whistling the tune of one her favorite songs, Alive and Amplified by The Mooney Suzuki.

"Come on, Serena," said Aria. "Don't tell me you believe that stuff about whistling at night."

"I'm just saying, why take chances?" Serena asked sweetly. "We celebrated one year of wedded bliss together. Let's not spoil it with all this talk about superstitions." The couple kissed romantically, and headed to the bedroom, though Serena couldn't help but sense an ominous presence in the house, watching them.

Aria wasn't surprised by Serena's outburst, which remained in her mind on the following day. She still remembers how she and Serena first met, and how Serena won her over with her humor and her sweet nature. Aria also knew about Serena's past, a relationship that was tumultuous and heated.

"Natalia Bridges," Aria recalled Serena saying in a conversation from 18 months prior. "I thought she was the one, but I was trapped. I was suffocating under her control, until finally... I had the courage to get out." Serena didn't say much else about her past relationship, only that Natalia tragically passed following the dissolution of their status as a couple.

"Somewhere under that darkness," Serena said to Aria during a past conversation, "there was a heart, and it was broken."

Aria also remembered Serena's appreciation over their current relationship, and later that night, Aria was woken up by loud noises coming from the kitchen.

"Serena!" exclaimed Aria. "Serena, wake up!"

Serena was sound asleep, which didn't surprise Aria; she knew it took a lot to wake up Serena. Aria rushed to the kitchen, armed with a bat, expecting to come face to face with a prowler. Instead, what she received was something much more unbelievable.

"Aria..."

Aria turned around and suddenly saw a young woman, who appeared to be quiet and not very threatening, so it really surprised Aria when she recognized who it was.

"Natalia?!"

Aria recognized Natalia from a photo that she saw that featured her and Serena, and it was a far cry from the woman Serena described.

"Get out, Aria!" exclaimed Natalia. "Get out now and save yourself!"

"How is this possible?" asked Aria. "Serena told me that you died two years ago."

"That's one truth she told," said Natalia. "Is there anything else she told you?"

"That you died of a broken heart," replied Aria. "That you carried a lot of guilt over how you abused and controlled Serena." Natalia suddenly closed her eyes following Aria's statement, but once she opened them, her ghostly powers and energy shattered light bulbs in the room.

"That's what's she's saying?" asked Natalia. "So nothing about how she only got with me for my money? Or how she made constant threats against me if I didn't fulfill her whims? Or on the very day in question, the day I died, how I caught her stealing from me to fulfill her gambling habit?"

Aria stood stunned over Natalia's words, and then, a realization hit her:

"I lent Serena $1000 a month ago. She said it was for a work project. Oh, my God."

"All I asked of Serena was to not take from me," said Natalia. "And what did I get? My body full of carbon monoxide."

"You deserved it!"

Those venomous words came from Serena, who took the bat and knocked out Aria, and later gave a glaring look at the ghost of the previous woman she loved--the very woman she killed.

"All you had to do was keep me happy," snarled Serena. "and you couldn't do it! You had more than enough, but you used it to look down on me!"

"All you did was take advantage of me!" shouted Natalia. "And not only do you kill me, you had the nerve to show up at my funeral! And of course you warned Aria about whistling at night, because you made the mistake of going straight home after my funeral."

"And you've been nagging me ever since!" Serena snarled as she went to the supply closet and took out a gas can. "Thanks to you, I have to set this house ablaze, along with the love of my life. But all I have to do is claim that Aria went crazy with jealousy of my past relationship, and burned down the house in a final act of rage. Time for me to play the grieving survivor again."

Serena doused the area with gas, and lit the match, but she found herself tackled by Aria, who barely came to and tackled her insane wife, but the lit match dropped and resulted in a huge blaze growing. Serena's attempt to escape was thwarted by Aria, leading to a brawl between both women that ended with both of them laid out, as the fire was growing.

Moments passed, and Serena opened her eyes and found herself on a hospital bed. She was relieved to be alive, and after seeing doctors standing over her, she told her story.

"Aria... I tried to stop her. But she was consumed with jealousy; she couldn't handle that I was once happy with someone else before her. I... I loved Aria so much, and I'll miss her dearly."

One of the doctors opened the door, and a pair of police officers entered. As it turned out, Aria survived and revealed the truth to the same doctors: Serena stole from Natalia and murdered her, and tried to do the same to Aria after the truth came out. Police also managed to get Serena's financial records, and saw that everything added up.

Serena was arrested, and convicted, and she finds herself in two prisons: a literal one behind bars, and a mental one where Natalia appears to her, day in and day out, reminding Serena of the evil that she's committed. As for Aria, she's recovered and she's moved on, seeing Serena and the home they shared together as a dark chapter that she has risen above like a phoenix.

This thrilling story for RMS's 𝕾𝖊𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖒𝖇𝖊𝖗 𝕾𝖚𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖀𝖓𝖔𝖋𝖋𝖎𝖈𝖎𝖆𝖑 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖊𝖓𝖌𝖊 which you can check out here: