“Unlocking Fear: 50 Haunting Words That Will Leave You Breathless and Bewildered”
I suffer from mental health problems due to a brain injury. When he said that, I didn’t know if it was just the delirium or his true, uncensored opinion of me. I hope the former, but I will never know. I still think of it many years later.
Mine started with a recurring dream.
My parents had died a decade ago, and their estate was being worked by the executor (our brother) until all debts had been paid off, so we could get our inheritances free and clear. My sister had inherited the main family home, which had been built in the 1850s, and I’d inherited a smaller cottage, which had been built in the 1890s. The cottage was in terrible condition, but the main home was habitable. I was excited about having the land, so I could build a more modern home, and my sister was very happy with being heir to an old but comfortable place.
I hadn’t been out to the home place in years because the executor was supposed to be taking care of all that, but for some odd reason, I had a dream about the main family home. In the dream, I walked up to the door and knocked, and my dad met me. He was dripping with sweat, like he’d been doing heavy manual labor, and his face was distressed. He told me, “You need to come home, Thorny, I need help over here, we’re flooding real bad.” When I walked in, the outside walls were the only thing remaining intact. The house had been gutted, and all that remained were the floor, wall studs, ceiling joists, and roof. No furniture, no personal effects, nothing else. Just…nothing, and the smell of mold. And my dad said again , pleading, “We need help. Call your brother and tell him that I said he agreed to take care of this place until you girls got it, and he’s not doing what he promised. This place is falling apart and I can’t do anything to fix it.”
