slowly, green eyes turn to her side, vacant and distant and glazed, shining only thanks to the tears that gather and fall down her cheeks. she cries without knowing so, a hand shakily rising to brush the tips of her fingers just above her jaw, and when she looks down, they’re wet. oh. her brow furrows, clarity briefly flashing as she looks up at the boy, and she knows him. or, she’s seen him before. playing in the house, hiding around corners and beneath beds. she knows of him. and she thinks she knows his name. ❛ – jeffrey ? ❜ she blinks, shaking her head as she looks back towards the window and steps closer, as close as she can get. her hand moves from her own cheek to the window pane. ❛ i think … i think i’m sad. i think – i had the strangest dream. and, the children are gone. and, hugh … hugh left me. he, he left me, and he took the children, and now i’m – ❜
her brow furrows, her voice cracks and she backs away from the window, winding her arms around her waist, turning dead eyes towards the boy by her side. ❛ – i’m all alone. ❜ liv gasps then, a shuddered breath forced through her lips, but the painful ache in her heart remains. with one arm still tightly wrapped across her stomach, the other bends and a hand grasps at the fabric over her chest, bunching between her fingers. ❛ i don’t understand, i don’t – why ? why would he, why would he leave ? it’s not safe, out there. it’s safe in here. i don’t … i don’t understand. ❜
AN EMPATHETIC CREATURE IS HE , THE LITTLE BOY GHOST WHO DEFIES LOGIC , coming now to stand juxtapose to her , his little hand ghostly and white and never once kissed by the light of sun , clasping onto hers as he does . this house , while he may not yet have been born for most of the horrors his family faced while staying here within these walls , he still knew just what it was capable of and the horrors which it held . some ... some , that it even birthed . squeezing her freshly dead palm , still clung with the warmth her corpse spilled upon the floor in red blooms of blood , he smiles up at her . though a sad smile it is . “ i don’t know missus crain , nellie and me , we were going to play in the play room tomorrow . “
it’s true ! in fact , jeffrey has been known only to speak such . he’d never lived long enough to learn what the world outside could teach him . he never learned to lie , he never even learned to fib . he , despite his appearance resembling his father greatly , in that aspect is vastly different— though that’s not to say that ben harmon was a one sided man , for despite his lies he is a good father . to this jeffrey can attest . “ i’m sure they’ll come back ! “ he speaks suddenly & with hopeful intent , disrupting a silence that attempted to settle between his words , “ nellie promised to play with me . so i don’t get lonely , you know ? “