Edith’s Last Wish- Part 2

The writing prompt, titled one last wish, wanted you to write about a character that fulfills someone’s dying wish. I wanted to continue on with a story already featured. I again had to split this into two parts due to the length of the story. Read last week’s post before this one.

They prepared a second bedroom and settled in for the night. Michael took his nightly medicine to try to stay off the anxiety. Claire decided to set up a camera in the living room to maybe get evidence of what was happening. Claire settled in, fearing that she was wrong, and all of this was in Michael’s head. She could never have imagined that what Michael had described was even worse when experienced.

A few hours after going to bed Claire was startled awake. Looking around nothing had changed except for a distant humming. Or was it beating wings? It sounded like a strange bug, but she couldn’t be sure. The longer she sat there and listened the more intense the sound became. Whispers! That is how Michael had described it. It was the only way to explain it. She strained her ears but could not distinguish voices or words. That’s when she looked out the window and saw a thick fog. This made no sense because the weather did not warrant even a light mist let alone the denseness that you couldn’t see through. Claire walked down the hall to Michael room. She could hear him talking to himself. Repeating over and over that wasn’t real. Claire went to the living room to grab the camera. She walked outside to capture the fog on camera and record the whispering. She wanted to be able to show Michael, and anyone else, that Michael wasn’t mad. When she made it outside, she saw what she missed inside. A red hue deep in the fog, illuminating the island. She was mesmerized yet determined to get to the bottom of this. She walked towards the edge of the clearing, ready to march right into the forest to find the source. But then she veered off. When she became conscious of the fact that she wasn’t walking in the same direction. She couldn’t understand what was happening. Then Claire heard Michael’s ear-piercing scream from the house.

Claire dropped the camara and sprinted back. She remembered him having nightmares as a kid, but this was different. This was torture. By the time she reached him, Michael was inconsolable. As much as she tried to calm him down nothing worked. So, she spent the night hugging him. When dawn hit everything suddenly stopped. The fog receded, the red light went out, and the whispering faded out. That’s when Michael finally took a deep breath. An hour later Claire was able to get him back in bed to get some sleep. Then she sat down on a chair across the room and Claire, and she fell asleep as well.

Two hours later Michael awoke. Coming out of his drug induced and fear induced fog always made him a bit slow in the mornings. But he looked across the room and saw Claire, sleeping but having her hands covering her ears. He decided to go downstairs to start some food.

As Michael was cooking, he looked up out the window. The same thought crossed his mind again. That it was all in his head. Even now he could still hear a faint sound around him, but it wasn’t strong like it was at night. Then he focused on something lying on the ground outside. When he realized it was a camara, he went outside to get it. It must have been the one Claire was using. He went out and picked it up. It had run out of battery at some point. He left it on the counter for Claire. Michael needed to convince her to leave today so that she wouldn’t have to endure another night of him screaming.

Claire woke with her anxiety on overdrive. She had never had a bad attack before, so this was a whole new feeling for her. She got up and washed her face. When she looked at herself in the mirror all she saw was a scared little girl. Michael had always felt emotions so much more extreme than her but that didn’t mean she was immune to fear or anxiety. She wanted to leave, that thought dominated, but there was no way she would let Michael stay. She didn’t know how bad it was exactly for him but what she saw last night was not something anyone should go through. She knew he would never be safe here. She steeled herself and walked downstairs to talk to Michael.

Michael had the breakfast laid out waiting for her. Michael started the conversation by telling Claire that it would be best if she left right after she was done eating. Claire said she wouldn’t leave without him. When Michael tried to argue. Claire stayed firm. Something wasn’t right about this island. That what Michael had been going through all those years, she had a small taste of its terror last night. When Michael brought up his mom and that she never felt like that. Claire responded with the fact that Edith had always worried about him and his mental state. Maybe she didn’t recognize when things got worse for her because they had turned ten times worse for him. Claire also reminded him that the reason she was there visiting him was because on Edith’s death bed she had asked Claire to get Michael off the island. By the time the cousins finished breakfast they agreed that Michael would leave the island with Claire before nightfall.

Claire and Michael spent the afternoon going through the house finding all of Michael’s positions he wants to keep. Also found some keepsakes of Edith’s and from their childhood. Finally, they got everything packed up and back on the boat. The cousins took a final trip through the house, that’s when Claire found her camera sitting on the counter. Michael saw her pick it up and explained that he found it, but it was dead. She said that they would look at the footage when they made it back to the mainland.

Two weeks later Michael’s doctor reviewed the footage that Claire took. The doctor did agree that what was happening on the island is real, but the years of torture that Michael had experienced he may never get over it. Claire stayed with Michael every day and night, but he couldn’t escape his nightmare anymore. One morning Claire woke to find Michael had taken his own life.

When settling on the estate, Claire convinced the rest of the family to stay away from the island. After watching the footage and listening to Claire explanation they let the courts take possession of the island.

Back on the island, Maribelle floated over the big willow tree admiring the empire of Faires she was responsible for. They were only getting stronger after finding that a special kind of magic existed in this world. It was time for Maribelle to take her Faires to new levels.