Spellbound

"No, Eric, it's a new start for both of us and because it is, you and I are not stepping foot into it until we talk."

"Here in the driveway?"

"Yes." Emma took a deep breath. "I've tried talking to you for months and you ignore me or act like such a jerk I give up talking to you."

"Sorry, mom. I just," he shrugged and slumped back into the seat. "Didn't want to move. I feel like we're trying to forget about dad."

"I am." Emma put her hands up at the look on his face. "Not literally, Eric. I'll never forget your father, but I need to not be reminded of him everywhere I look."

"We bought that house a year after we were married. I spent twenty two years in it. Every night of which we spent together in that bedroom. The house, the furniture, the neighborhood. All our friends, all the places we went." She paused to steady her voice. "All I see is him and I can't move on with life like that. I just can't."

"But here?" Eric spread his hands. "Illinois? Hoffman Estates? Look at us; we're in the damn sticks."

"My family was from Chicago. I met your father when I went to school in Boston and stayed out there with him. As for the sticks? We're thirty minutes outside of Chicago. Hardly the boonies. Plenty of things to do, people to meet and some good schools." She added the last part hopefully.

"I'm sorry you're pissed I quit college."

"Your dad would be..."

"Yeah, well dad's not here. He lost the right to be disappointed." Eric snapped. "So okay, you moved here to get rid of ghosts of dad past. I get it." He grunted disgustedly. "Didn't even take half our furniture."

"I couldn't stay in that bed anymore and this house comes furnished. All we needed was your bedroom set and a few other things. The movers will be here tomorrow and all our personal things are in the trailer and we'll have that emptied today. We're renting, Eric with a year lease. We don't like it, we move."

"Where next, Idaho?"

"Knock it off," she was getting pissed off at him. "Seeing your mister no friends with zero ambition why do you care?"

"I care because this was about you, not me."

"Bullshit." She stared into his eyes.

Eric himself was why she would never forget Steven. He looked just like his father when she had met him twenty three years ago. The same dark hair, intense brown eyes and square jawed rugged features.

The resemblance went past looks. Eric had the same big easy smile, not that she'd seen it much lately, same mannerisms and facial expressions. He was even built like Steven, just under six feet, but with a rugged build both had gained from football and a love of the gym.

"This is for both of us," she continued. "Eric, I know you hate talking about it, but what Ashley did ruined home for you too."

Eric looked away from her and she hesitated. Ashley and he had been together since seventh grade. What started as a cute little infatuation between two kids had blossomed into a seven year relationship that spanned high school and their first two years of college.

It had Eric investing in an engagement ring last year and even asking her father permission to ask her to marry him when they graduated before giving it to her. That old fashioned tradition had come from Steven who had done the same thing years ago before he proposed to her.

Then Eric had gotten a call from a fellow student telling him to get down to the restaurant he waited tables at. Eric had gone down there to see Ashley with his best friend of ten years, Mark.

Ashley was supposed to be working and here she was with his best friend. Eric had managed not to confront them. Instead, he waited outside and followed them to the hotel Mark worked at. Mark would often take keys to unoccupied rooms from the front desk and use them to fool around with girls.

Eric followed them from a distance and watched them go into a room together. He then knocked on the door. When Mark answered, shirtless, with Ashley visible, on the bed behind him barely dressed, Eric had beaten the shit out of him and ended up getting arrested.

Emma had bailed him out and later that night discovered from the mother of the student who had tipped Eric off that it had been going on for months. Her son hadn't wanted to get involved, but it bothered him to the point he had gone to her for advice and she'd told him Eric needed to know.

Eric was not only heartbroken, but betrayed by both the only girlfriend he'd ever had and his best friend. Things got even worse when once the secret was out he discovered many of his friends had known as well as some of Ashley's.

Eric was humiliated and upset to the point he quit school because he could no longer see her or his alleged friends anymore. Emma knew that wasn't the entire reason. Since Steven had passed, Eric's grades had been slipping and he'd mentioned leaving.

Emma used his father's dream of him graduating college and becoming an architect like him to guilt him into staying. It was a terrible thing to do in a sense. But she wanted the best for him, and he had two years invested. The Ashley ordeal was the final straw.

But it wasn't just school. In the months since, Eric was a shut in. He had gone full time at the UPS store and when not working watched television or played video games. The only social life he had was when the two of them would go for dinner or have their Friday night movie tradition they'd had since he was a young boy.

In that instance, Emma herself was only slightly more social, occasionally going out with some friends. In the year since Steven's death she'd had two dates and both were horrible and because of her. She'd been nervous, awkward and in both cases had all but physically pushed them away when they asked for a second date.

The second man had unknowingly taken her to the place Steven had proposed to her. No, this was the right move. Maybe a bit extreme as far heading back to the Midwest from Boston, but it was the right choice. No memories here other than the pleasant ones of her childhood.

"Eric, look at me."

When he shook his head, she put her hand on his shoulder. "Look, if you don't want to talk, that's fine. But because you don't talk to me I made this decision on my own, so you can't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you," he whispered and she could hear he was choked up. "I'm mad at life."

"Okay, that's fair. It's been kind of sucky for both of us. So when you don't like where you are in life, you change, right?"

"I guess."

"This is big for me too, hon. I sold the house and there's no going back. But that gave us plenty of money to do this and my firm got me an interview out here," she laughed. "Who would think anyone would need a lawyer in Chicago?"

"I'm sure I can find some disappointing job here." Eric rolled his eyes. "After I get a car."

"We'll find you one. I wasn't towing that crap box of yours here. Thing would have left a trail of pieces across the east coast."

Eric turned to her with a grin. "Okay, I'm lousy at fixing cars. Can I really get one?"

"We'll go into town in a couple days and find you something reasonable."

"Cool, thanks."

"See? Things are already getting better for you." Emma gestured at the house again. "Let's start over. See that house, know what it is?"

"Cursed!" Eric replied with a smirk.

"Would you stop that? It's not cursed. Something bad just happened here once."

"Bad like death." Eric held up his hand in the shape of a gun. "Guy lost his marbles and shot his wife." He bent his finger as if pulling a trigger. "Then his son." He repeated the motion.

"I know."

"Then?" Eric put his finger in his mouth. "Blew his own damn brains out. Yup, that would be bad."

"So what? This isn't a damned movie where the house is haunted, Eric." She waved her hand at him. "I bet if you look through the history of any old house, someone died or was killed."

"Yeah, but how many?" Eric was now facing her and even though she didn't like the topic, at least he was speaking to her and seemed excited, albeit for a stupid reason.

"Three years before that guy went nuts a woman committed suicide. Hung herself in the attic while her husband was at work. They used to fight all the time and he was investigated because they thought he might have done it."

"Did he?" Emma had heard about the murders, but not this.

She had put the car back in drive and was slowly cruising up the long driveway towards the house.

"No, they cleared him. Their son ended up in a mental ward for a while. Took her death really hard. He said it was his fault, but never said why."

"He lost his mother that would be enough to do that. Especially like that."

"I'm not in the loony bin." Eric pointed out.

"Your dad died of cancer and was sick for a long time. A lot different then something sudden and gruesome." Emma was now sorry she'd encouraged him.

"See, gruesome," he nodded. "Moving into the gruesome house."

"Coincidence."

"Year before that, two people vanished. Mom and son. The father said he had no idea what happened."

"Are you making this up?"

"No, mom," he sighed. "I keep telling you, google is your friend. I found a bunch of stuff about this place."

"Wonderful, you pay no attention when I show you the tour, but you'll research murders."

"This was weird too because it was sort of the same. Guess they fought a lot. Cops came a couple times to break them up, so they thought he killed them. But he was cleared. The mom and son turned up in California a couple years later."

"Seems like the husbands in this place were all losers." Emma frowned.

"Well, we have nothing to worry about then," he laughed harshly. "No husband or dad here. Maybe we'll be safe."

"Way to be positive." Emma pulled up in front of the house. "Hey, the front door is open partway."

"It's inviting us in, Muahahaha!" Eric burst into creepy laughter. "Join us!"

"Knock it off." She smacked him in the arm. "Robin is probably inside doing some last minute cleaning."

"Hope they got a new bed for your room." Eric undid his seat belt and opened the door to exit the car. "Else you'll be sleeping in the same bed that sick bastard did."

"Its new." Emma suppressed a smile. "And I read the article it was your room they all died in." she winked at him. "Sweet dreams tonight."

"You're funny." Eric grumbled while she got out of the car.

Emma stretched her arms over her head, and moved side to side, cracking her back. Eric had driven most of yesterday, but she'd been behind the wheel the last seven hours. She reached back into the car to grab her purse and when she closed the door saw Eric already heading for the house.

"Hey, wait up!"

Eric turned and shook his head.

"Let me go in first, the door being open bothers me."

"Seriously?" She raised her eyebrows. "Taking this cursed thing a little too far."

"No, mom. We're in the sticks and sick pricks can be anywhere. You don't know that woman's the one if the house. I'll go first."

He was completely serious and turned back to the house. He was several feet ahead of her and Emma ran to catch up with him, wincing as the flip flops she had driven in her ended up getting rocks in them.

She caught him at the top step of the porch.

"She's never seen you, let me go first or she'll think you're the creeper."

"No." He looked over his shoulder at her. "Dad said look out for you and I take that seriously. Just give me a sec to walk in and see if anyone's here."

Emma was touched and put her hand on his arm. "You my man of the house?"

"Have been since dad got sick," he told her. "As much as your stubborn ass lets me anyway. And until you decide to find someone."

"Let's not discuss that again."

"I'm in no hurry for that," Eric shook his head. "But someday you will and it's my job to make sure he's not a dick." He turned back to the house. "Like the guys that lived here. Fucking weird, three assholes lived here the last few years."

"Watch your mouth."

"I'm twenty, not twelve."

"And I'll always be your mother. Watch your mouth."

"Yes, mom," he rolled his eyes, then approaching the door, pushed it open and leaned his head in.

"Hello?" he called. "Um, Robin? Its Emma and Eric, you in here?"

Emma didn't hear a response and Eric walked into the house.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed.

"What is it?" Emma quickly followed him in.

"This place is huge." Eric continued into the center of the enormous living room. "Hey look, a fireplace!"

"I told you it had one," she grunted. "You would have seen it online if you paid attention."

"I thought it was fake." Eric walked around the large black sectional couch and over the fireplace built into the far wall. "This is real. Hey, I get to chop wood! I loved that when we'd go to that cabin in New Hampshire!"

Emma smiled. It was good to hear him excited. "Better watch out, Eric. You didn't sound miserable just then."

He gave her a rueful grin. "Yeah, I know, I've been kind of a dick lately."

"I won't correct your language on that one," she winked. "And you're right, I haven't been myself for months either. Like I said, this is a new beginning, but where we'll find our old selves."

"Hmm, that's deep." Eric smirked. "You sound like one of those family channel movies."

"Back to being a dick," she muttered.

"Next week as part of the clichéd heartwarming movie series," Eric spoke while he walked around the large room, touching the chairs and looking at the rustic paneling and shelving built into the walls.

"Emma and Eric, a heartbroken mother and son flee Boston to get away from their pain and come to shitsville where they discover a fireplace that will make everything better."

"Eric." Wow, he was in rare form.

"But that's not all! Soon the script will bring in love interests for both of them. Emma will forget the man who meant everything to her and Eric will meet some naïve country girl who will fall for his city slicker charm and..."

"Eric, shut up!" She snapped, with more force than she intended on. "I'm tired of your shit. You want to wallow in misery that's fine, but I did this so we won't have to. This isn't to forget about your father, but to move on and ease some of the pain."

"Right." He nodded. "Sorry, but I did get dad's sarcastic sense of humor."

"The one trait I didn't like in him. Try to tone it down for a bit, okay?"

"Okay," Eric said, but looked distracted as he stared around the room.

"What's the matter?"

"We're in here yapping away and no one's come in here and I don't hear anything. Maybe they left the door open? I suppose not many people come up this way."

"Or they were here and went next door to get something."

"They?"

"Robin's husband, I think his names Cliff. I never saw him on the skype chats."

"Uh-oh a husband. Hope their house doesn't have the effect on them this one does."

"Back to that? Know what?" Emma waved at him. "Stay with it. I'd rather hear your haunted house crap than your woe is me routine."

"Oh, ouch." Eric hooked his fingers into claw and raked the air with it "Meow!"

Emma laughed at him and turned away, heading for the archway that led into the next room. It was closed off with wooden folding doors. Emma hadn't seen those since her grandparent's old house.

Despite the laugh, Eric worried her. His moods were mercurial these days. Today was a perfect example. He'd gone from sulking to chatty to nasty and back again just in the time since they'd pulled up to the house.

But this was day one and the finality of the situation had hit him. Hopefully he would settle into this quickly. If not the next step would be counselling and that was a fight she didn't look forward to.

She unlatched the doors and pushed them to the right enough to enter the dining room. Emma whistled at the size of both the antique table chairs and enormous matching hutch. The furniture alone in this house was worth a fortune.

Supposedly the last tenants, the victims of the double murder suicide had chosen to only use the dining room set. Robin had all the other furniture stored in the large barn behind her house, then moved it all back in once the former tenants things had been removed.

She hadn't wanted to admit it to Eric, but she had inquired about the bed in her room being brand new. She left hers behind to get rid of the memory of two decades of being with Steven. She had no desire to lay in someone else's memories, especially those of an unhappy couple. Seemed like that's all that had lived here for some reason.

There was a staircase that led to the second floor which contained three bedrooms and a master bath off what was going to be her bedroom that featured a large hot tub. Emma couldn't wait to take a nice long soak in that tub.

She thought about telling Eric she was heading upstairs, but then felt foolish. There was no one here and she refused to act spooked or worse, act like some hapless female.

Emma walked up the stair case, her hand trailing along the ornate hand carved railing. There were slightly discolored squares on the dark paneling along the way where artwork had formerly hung.

When she reached the landing, she stopped and cocked her head. She had sworn she'd heard something. Emma remained still and wanted to smack herself when she noticed her heart beating faster. Fucking Eric and his lame curse comments.

Emma noticed the door down the far end of the hall which led to her bedroom was closed. There was a small door along the corridor wall which she knew was the second entrance to the master bath. She would have to remember to lock it if she wanted to soak. She didn't need Eric wandering in on her.

The door half way down on the right side would be Eric's room. The furniture wouldn't be coming until tomorrow so he would most likely sleep on the sectional downstairs tonight. The door closest to her was the smaller third bedroom where a guest could stay if they ever had one.

That door was partially open and as she slowly walked down towards her room, a sound reached her ears. She stopped in her tracks. That wasn't nerves; that had been real. A moment later she heard it again. It sounded like a low groan and was definitely female.

"Robin?" She called softly from just outside the door.

She received no reply other than another moaning sound. Had she fallen and hurt herself?

Emma eased the door open and her eyes widened.

Lying on the side of the small twin sized bed was Robin. Her red sundress pushed up over her hips and a man Emma assumed, or at least hoped, was Cliff, kneeling between her thighs.

One of his large hands had Robin's panties to the side and the other was between her thighs and moving back and forth as he fingered her. His face was buried between her legs, and Robin was staring up at the ceiling moaning.

She'd pushed her dress down and her breasts were exposed. They were large and milky white, and she was tugging on her pink nipples. Her legs lifted and she placed her feet on the man's shoulders.

He was completely dressed as was Robin technically, but her dress at this point was pretty much gathered around her waist to bare all. Emma swallowed hard and backed out of the room. More correctly, she told herself to back out, but remained standing there, watching.

Emma hadn't had sex since a few months before Steven's death and her body had made her acutely aware of that. In addition to her two failed dates she'd tried a one night stand, and that had started well and ended horribly.

That led to her masturbating like a horny college coed, and watching porn far more than she'd care to admit to anyone. The scene before her was sexier than any porn she'd watched because it was real. Robin's long auburn hair was fanned out on the white sheet and her eyes were only partially open as were her lips as she moaned softly.

The look of pleasure on her face caused a warm sensation to stir between Emma's thighs and she was aware of her nipples stiffening. Her own lips parted as her breathing picked up in time with Robins now louder and more frequent moans.