section7mfu | The short Affair - April 6 - A Forgotten Past

Prompt Word: Solemn
Prompt Colour : Red

Words: Approx 1000

Link to Part One: A Forgotten Past
Link to Part Two: A Forgotten Past

Becca laid her hand on the door handle and after a steadying breath, pushed the handle down, nothing happened. Thinking it may be stiff from years of unuse she pushed harder, but still came up against resistance.

"It must be locked," Grams said disappointedly.

"I could break down the door, but it would be a shame to damage it unnecessarily if we can help it," Illya added.

"I think I may be able to help," Gramps said, "there are some old keys in the study; I've never known what they were for, but kept them anyway, maybe one of those will unlock it."

Becca's Grandfather hurried away and returned moments later with three large old keys. He tried the first one but it didn't fit.

The second slid into the keyhole, it moved slightly and after a bit of brute force, rotated completely, the lock giving a loud satisfying click. Gramps pushed the handle down; finally, they would see what had been hidden for so long.

The door opened with a groan, the hinges stiff and protesting after years of inactivity. Inside it was gloomy, small shafts of sunlight broke through the darkness showing up dust motes drifting in the air.

The rays came through gaps in the closed wooden shutters, dark shadows sulked around the room, everyone half expecting to see pairs of shining eyes peering out of the darkness.

"Lets open the window so we can see," Emily suggested as she picked her way across the room.

Again, hinges protested from being awoken from their slumber, but bright daylight flooded the room and the shadows formed into physical objects.

"Why it's a child's room!" Grams exclaimed.

The room was filled with toys and games, the two largest shadows revealing themselves to be an old rocking horse and a very large dolls house. Smaller items were neatly placed along the walls or on shelves. Stuffed teddy bears lay on the bed and a selection of porcelain headed dolls sat on a chest of drawers. It all had a very solemn feeling to it.

"It all looks victorian, could it really have been lost for so long?" Rebecca replied in wonder.

"I wonder why it has been left like this." Grams said, sadness in her voice.

"This rocking horse would have been very expensive, the child was obviously much loved," Illya chipped in as he ran his hand along the dusty neck of the wooden animal.

"Look at this dolls house," Emily said, "I do believe it is a replica of this house, what do you think Dad?"

"It certainly looks like it, a few of the rooms are slightly different, but overall it does look like Brockenhurst Park."

Becca opened a free standing oak wardrobe in one corner of the room, it was still full of dresses and coats, she very carefully pulled out a red velvet dress, in it's time it would have been very beautiful, but the years had not been too kind. She replaced it and pulled out a bottle green two piece, it looked to be a riding habit, with a long skirt and short tailored jacket.

Suddenly she caught something out the side of her eye and gave an involuntary scream.

"What is it Becca?" Illya enquired as he quickly went to her side.

"I think I saw a ghost," she pointed to the rocking horse,"over there."

"I do not see anything, are you sure it was not a shadow?"

"No, I didn't think I believed in ghosts, but I definitely saw this one."

"What did it look like?" Grams aked.

"It was a little girl, probably about seven or eight years old."

She walked over to the rocking horse, the dark varnish peeling from it and leaving a patchy appearance, she push it a bit and it started to rock, creaking a little as it moved.

"She was standing just here and pretending to feed it, then she seemed to know I was here, turned around and smiled at me before disappearing."

A tremor went through Becca and Illya put his arms around her.

"I did see her Illya, and she definitely looked straight at me."

"I believe you. I can, how do you say, feel shivers down my spine? It feels very sad in here."

Gramps had wandered to a door in the wall opposite the window. "Seems we do have another room."

He placed one of the other two keys in the lock, which also needed some force before it clicked and opened the door.

Inside was a smaller room, it also had the wooden shutters closed; but with the light coming from behind them, they could see it had been turned into some sort of shrine. Framed photos, jars with candle wax in the bottom and long dead flowers in vases had been placed around the room.

It was full of pictures of a little girl growing up, the last ones of her being of about seven years old. In a lot of them she was riding a pony; a dark coloured one when she was younger, and finally on a dappled grey in the later ones.

In some of them, holding the bridle of the pony, stood a bearded man with similar features to the little girl and more than a little resemblance to Gramps. It could only be the child's father and he always gazed at her with intense love in his eyes.

"Do you know who he could be Dad?" Emily asked as she picked up one of the photos.

"I would have to look through the family records, but I think I can find out. But at a guess, going by the period in time, I think he might be my great or great, great grandfather,"

"Can we find out who they are Gramps? I really want to find out what happened to this little girl."

"I too, would like to know. It seems something very sad must have happened for all this to have been locked away and eventually forgotten. Illya added.

All in a sombre mood, they closed the doors and made their way downstairs to find out what they could within the Andrews family records.

Just before Rebecca closed the door, she had a last look around the childs room and there by the rocking horse was the apparition of the little girl from the photos, her blonde ringlets falling neatly around her face and wearing the red velvet dress Becca had seen in the wardrobe earlier.

"We will find out about you and you won't be forgotten any more, I promise."

The child smiled in reply then vanished.