Chapter 4b

Jennie was terrified. The woman in the white dress was scary, of course, but what terrified her was the look of desperation in Freddie's eyes as he yelled for her to leave.
She ran into the house, which was miraculously unlocked, then to her mother's room. She lept onto the bed, and started shaking her mom awake.
Emma grunted. "Mmph...Jennie? What in heaven's name...?"
"mum, we don't have any time. We need to leave. NOW."
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"We need to leave this house!"
Emma chuckled. "Oh Jennie..." as she looked at her daughter's face, she realized that she wasn't kidding. "Jennie, you can't be serious."
"I am, Mum! I wish I wasn't, I wish for all the world that I wasn't serious about this, but I am! We need to move!"
Emma studied Jennie's face for a few minutes before speaking. "Jennie, I love this house. I thought you loved this house. We've been here for one week! What could possibly have happened in the last week that changed your mind?"
Jennie took a deep breath. "our house is haunted."
Emma said nothing, shes just froze. Jennie continued.
"Let me start from the beginning..." she began with the whispers in the basement. When she got to Freddie, Emma got pale and interrupted her. "How do you know about Freddie?"
"Well, when a guy wearing old fashioned clothes sits in your bedroom, you tend to notice."
Emma sighed mournfully, and Jennie knew immediately that she didn't believe her.
"Jennie, I thought we were over this!"
"Mum, I'm not crazy! Freddie's real, and so is his mother!"
Emma sat up, even paler. "What was her name? Was her name Catherine?"
"I don't know, I didn't ask. Why?"
Emma relaxed slightly. She looked as though she was going to say something, but thought better of it.
After a long silence, she said, "Jennie...go back to sleep. Let's try talking about this sometime when we're not deliriously tired."
Jennie sighed. She knew the conversation was over, so she left.

She went to her bedroom window and looked out at the backyard. There was no sign of Freddie or the woman, whom she assumed was Catherine.
She had expected to feel somewhat relieved, but not knowing where Freddie was made her feel vulnerable.
She crawled into her bed, and immediately began hearing noises. She wished that Freddie would come, but it later occurred to her that he was dead, not psychic. Instead, Ro came in and jumped up on the bed. As he made himself comfortable, the noises began to subside, and finally stop. She wondered why for a moment before deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth. She began to relax, then fell asleep.

*Jennie was lying in her bed, and she heard music outside. She got up and went outside. She saw a boy and girl, dancing. The girl was wearing a pale pink, flowy dress that reached to her knees. The boy was wearing a dark suit that she couldn't see very well. She sat down and watched them.
As hard as she tried, she couldn't think of a word that described what they were dancing. It had the fierce passion of a tango, and the beauty and grace of a pas de deux. The two people moved as one. Jennie was amazed. All of a sudden, she realized who they were.
The boy, she saw, was Freddie. She felt jealous of the girl for just a moment, until she realized that the girl was her. Suddenly, she wasn't watching from the side anymore, she was in the pale pink dress, dancing with Freddie.
There was a rushing sound in her ears. She couldn't hear the music anymore, but she didn't care. All that mattered was that she was in Freddie's arms. It was pure bliss.
Suddenly, a screech cut through the rushing in her ears. The music stopped. It was dead silent. Then, Freddie's mother jumped out at Jennie and tore her from the safety of Freddie's arms. Jennie landed hard on the ground, with the woman on top of her, shaking her by the throat. She tried to scream, but couldn't breathe. Freddie was yelling, "No! Stop! Jennie! Wake up!"*

Jennie sat up and yelped, but Freddie put his hand over her mouth.
"Shh! It's okay, it's just me."
She relaxed. He removed his hand.
"Are you alright?" He looked really worried. Jennie took a moment to just breathe and massage her throat before speaking.
"Yeah, I guess. What happened?"
"I came in to check on you, and you were sweating. Then you acted as though something was holding you down, and you were grunting. What were you dreaming?"
"Your mother was strangling me."
He got an expression on his face that appeared to be a combination of relief, fear, and anger.
"Of course. One of her favorite ways of killing is by convincing your subconscious that you're being attacked, so your body acts as though it is."
"So I really could've died, then."
"Yes, alot of ghosts work that way. It happens so much, that there's a myth floating about that if you die in a dream, you never wake up."
"You know, I never really believed that."
Freddie smiled slightly, Jennie's heart backflipped.
"Freddie...what's your mum's name?"
"Catherine, why?"
"When I went to talk to my mum about leaving, she wanted to know."
"Any idea why?"
"I don't know, I think she believes me, but she won't tell me for some reason. It's like she's afraid to, or something."
Freddie got a somewhat startled look in his eyes. "I have to go."
"What? Why?"
She looked at him for a moment. "You know something, don't you?"
"Sort of. I'm not certain yet, I need to check on it."
"You will be careful, won't you?"
"Jennie, I'm dead. What exactly is going to happen?"
"I don't know, your mom's kind of a psychopath."
Freddie smiled again, his brown eyes twinkling. "If you hear any sounds, go find Romulus. My mum hates cats."
Jennie nodded. He looked at her for a moment, and was gone.