The Fourth Mistress

All the lights in the room had suddenly extinguished themselves, and Louise turned her head left and right. The light of lightning came through the open window, and she tried to get to where Lady Viola was in the dark. 

"What happened?!" questioned Lady Viola, panic in her voice. 

"Why did all the lights blow out?" Louise heard Father Edward questioning them from where he stood. 

"Gilbert!" Lady Viola called the butler so that he could bring in the lit lantern into the drawing-room. 

The next words that Father Edward said had Louise turn alert. He said, "I think she is here. I can sense the presence of evil and its turning heavy! It would be best for us to step out of the room and also step outside the manor with everyone to be together!" he advised. 

Father Edward was right, thought Louise in her mind. It was much better for everyone to be at one place so that the ghost wouldn't surprise and hurt them. 

"Lady Viola, please stay right where you are right now," instructed Louise. Having already walked in and out of the drawing-room many times before, it wasn't too hard to make her way towards the couch where Lady Viola had been waiting. "Where are you?" she asked. 

Louise heard Lady Viola respond, "I am here," and she felt Lady Viola catch hold of her hand. 

Same time, she heard footsteps that moved towards the entrance of the drawing-room. She believed it to be Father Edward, who said, "I am going towards the door, Lady Louise and Lady Viola."

Louise tugged Lady Viola's hand, leading her towards the door. But Lady Viola suddenly stopped walking when they were almost going to step out of the room. 

"Lady Viola? We need to leave the room and get to where others are," stated Louise, not knowing what had got the lady to stop walking.

When the butler came with the lantern, light spilled in the corridor, little by little it reached near where Louise and Father Edward were standing. 

"What's the matter, Lady Louise?" questioned Father Edward, perplexed. 

Louise was about to speak to Lady Viola when she noticed that Lady Viola's grip on her hand was tight. Her face turned pale, and a chill ran down her spine when she caught sight of the hand that looked nothing less than a corpse' hand that was still in the process of decomposing. 

She tried to pull her hand away from the ghost's hold, and when the butler walked forward with the lantern, the light fell on the deceased woman's ghost, whose hand held Louise' hand in the dark. 

The ghost whispered to Louise with a maddening smile, where parts of its decaying face didn't have flesh and showed bones, "Did you think I would let you go that easily?" 

Suddenly, the Emily' ghost pulled Louise back inside the room, and the door shut with a bang. 

The ghost had too much strength that Louise couldn't resist the force with which it pulled her. The people who were outside the room tried to get it open. The ghost had Louise just where it wanted. 

There was no one inside the room to help Louise, and with the darkness that surrounded her, the only light she could see coming through was the lightning from the window that had earlier opened. She heard the soft crying sound of a woman, as if it was coming from every side of the room. 

She knew Emily was trying to play tricks with her. She asked, "What do you want? Why are you back?!"

It would be a lie to say that she wasn't frightened at this moment. Her heart raced in her chest, and her breathing had quickened.

At Louise's question, the crying sound in the room stopped, turning the room quiet except for the raindrops that fell on the ground outside. 

"Don't you know what I want?" questioned Emily's ghost in a whisper. "You know what I want."

"I don't," said Louise, and she walked around the room, trying to find where Lady Viola was and if she was hurt. While walking in the dark room, her feet touched something on the ground. Without being able to see clearly, she bent down and her hands moved for it to touch a person's head and face, that belonged to Lady Viola. 

When she placed her hand on the nose, she felt Lady Viola wasn't breathing anymore. Emily's ghost had killed her, and with the Reed's members all dead, the ghost was finally trying to get to her. 

"She's dead. It was an easy kill. My dear mother-in-law," came the sinister voice from across the room. 

Staying so long in the room, Louise's eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and she noticed a shadow that came to stand in front of the window. 

"You could have killed her any time… Why did you choose to kill her now?" asked Louise, and she heard the giggling of the ghost that echoed in the room. 

"Louise… you are a smart lady, aren't you? I thought you would have known by now," Louise heard Emily's voice from right behind her. 

Hearing the voice close and next to her ear, Louise staggered back, and tried to get back to the door, but Emily caught hold of her and threw her back on the ground. 

Louise winced in pain because of the fall, and she pushed herself to stand before walking towards the window. The window immediately shut so that she wouldn't escape from the room.

"You are always smart, trying to find answers," whispered Emily to her. "I have been saving you for the last. To make sure you knew what exactly they did to me. Dear Graham killed his last wife, me. You must be disgusted by him," the ghost's voice held hoarseness to it.

"Is that why you didn't kill Lady Viola? So that I hear how you were mercilessly killed?" questioned Louise.

The person Emily used to appear to be, even when she was alive, was never truthful. The image of her that she had built in front of everyone had been nothing but a fragmented lie by her. 

"You want me to hate Graham," saod Louise, and the ghost giggled from the other side of the room. 

"Louise," the ghost said her name, which echoed in the room. "I was waiting for Graham to realize that you weren't a suitable wife for him. After all, I know him better than anyone. Better than his own mother. You were never his type of woman. Loud and brash, opinionated and even going so far as to insult his mother in front of him, I was hoping he would realize it."

"Doesn't that only confirm that you were wrong in believing that you knew what he liked and didn't?" questioned Louise. The sound near the door continued with Gilbert and the others trying to break open the door. 

On hearing Louise's words, Emily turned extremely angry. The ghost let out a chilling scream that stopped people outside the room from what they were doing. 

"Accept it, Emily. Somewhere you knew that you would never stand a chance to gain his love or affections. It is why you never mustered the courage to confess to Graham about your feelings to him even once-" Louise's speech was interrupted by Emily's ghost that had moved to where she stood, catching hold of her neck. 

"You are a foolish woman, Louise. Thinking you are right, what do you know about me?" the ghost's voice thundered in the room.

Louise tried to get the ghost's hand off her neck, but the ghost's hold was strong and she felt against it. She tried to breathe while struggling. 

"My dear mother had killed herself because of how people shunned her. Everyone was responsible for her death. You don't know how people looked at our family before my father decided to kill us! I have loved Graham since the beginning, no one but I deserve him," spoke the ghost in anger, and Louise felt the ghost's decayed nails starting to dig into the sides of her neck. 

"He loved… Lisa… n-not you," Louise struggled to speak, and her words were enough to provoke Emily's ghost to throw her back on the ground. The ghost growled and seethed with anger at her. 

"I will tear you limb by limb. For staying next to Graham and thinking you can tear us apart," Emily's ghost threatened her. The next moment, Louise, who had tried to stand up from the ground, touched her neck and coughed. This time, she was pushed to the ground with the front of her body touching the surface of the floor. 

Emily's ghost took hold of Louise's hand and twisted it, and Louise screamed in pain. She tried to push herself up and get away, but her effort was in vain. 

The door suddenly broke open, and the lanterns and the candle light were quick to spill into the room. On seeing the ghost, the servants gasped, seeing what had been haunting the manor until now. The former maid they had seen that morning, looked rotten now. 

Father Edward quickly threw holy water on the ghost and Louise. Emily's ghost screamed in pain, and smoke started to appear on the spirit's body. 

"AHHHH!" Soon Emily's ghost disappeared into the smoke. 

Louise, who was lying on the cold floor, her face was scrunched in pain because of her hand that had been twisted. It felt as if her arm had dislocated itself from her shoulder, and pain shot up from her left hand. 

"Lady Louise, are you alright?" asked Father Edward, holding a bottle in his hand, which Louise believed to be holy water. 

Gilbert entered the room, while the other servants didn't dare to move. While the priest went to where Louise was, the butler looked around the room and caught sight of Lady Viola, who was covered in blood, lying on the floor with blood smeared on the floor. 

"We should head out right this instance. She will be back soon," informed Father Edward to Louise, and helped her stand. 

Louise went to where Lady Viola was, bending down, she closed the woman's eyes that was still open. She then turned to look at Gilbert and said, "We need shovels, oil and fire." The butler held a slight look of shock on his face, but on Louise's words, he snapped back into reality and nodded his head. "Let's go there together, I don't want to split up right now."

One single blow of the wind and it had cost Lady Viola's death. Emily's ghost had killed the woman out of pure vengeance, while Louise knew it was partly because the woman had kept Graham away from Emily.

The male servants picked up the shovels that had been stored in the shed while the maids carried lanterns. While counting the people and watching the shadows of each of them every once in a while. 

"Wait, where is Meg?" questioned Louise, noticing the maid had disappeared by the time they had reached the shed. 

"She was right here," said another maid named Camella. "Where did she go?" asked another servant. "Did she go back to the manor?" 

They looked around where they stood, before they heard a scream from inside the manor. Everyone's eyes moved to look at the manor.

"AHHHHH!!! Lady Louise, please help me!" The maid's voice echoed in the hall and the corridors of the manor. Everyone who stood near the shed heard the spine chilling scream, not knowing what to do. 

"The ghost must have caught her," said Father Edward with a grim face and looking at Louise. 

"Let me go and check, milady," one of the servants offered, ready to leave and bring the maid back. But Louise raised her hand, and she shook her head as if to stop him. 

"I don't think it was Meg who screamed," said Louise. 

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