Writing Prompt 26: Ruined Building
I Hear Things
This week I have a guest picture for you taken by my sister. Her fabulous photograph is of Hartwood Hospital, an abandoned psychiatric hospital built in the late 1800s situated in Lanarkshire, Scotland. We bring so much of ourselves to places; memories, emotions, stories. Maybe this is a great start for ghosts. Happy writing.
The hand on his shoulder eased the pain from the accident, a shiver of warmth crept deep into the muscle.
"Yvonne?" Jared turned his head, stretching round before turning his whole body. No one.
The bathwater rose steadily, rippling and bubbling in the stream from both taps. He reached to turn them off, the Victorian pipes in the wall groaned with the pressure drop. He pushed on the side of the bath easing his broken body into a standing position. The accident filled his mind, clear yet strangely muddled. He peered out of the bathroom and called down the corridor.
"Yvonne? Did you want something? I'm just about to get into the bath."
His voice trailed away into the gloom of the hallway.
"I'm right here. Why are you shouting?"
Jared jumped at the sound of his wife's voice so close behind him.
"Jesus," he said. "I didn't see you there."
"I'm glad you're here." Yvonne leaned in and kissed him, her lips soft and gentle. A hint of her perfume hovered in her hair. Jared looked at her. She stood the same height as him. Tall, unusually tall. Tall and strong. Jared let go of the glass in his hand sending it crashing to the floor.
"Christ," he said, raking his fingers through his hair. "What's wrong with me?"
The glass lay broken on the floor. He knelt poking at the splinters with the tip of his finger. A cold draught swept over him.
"I'll sweep this up later," he said. "Just an accident," he added as an afterthought. He stood up lifting a hand expecting to feel his wife’s reassuring arm to steady him. But there was no one there.
Story first posted September 2020 // Photo: Sam Scobbie 2020
