The Girl in the Wych Elm: Part Two

 

2. Two Ghosts, A Disgraced Detective, & a Woman Named Wysteria

Not even mid-morning yet and Hollis was already on his fourth glass of bourbon. Ironically, Hollis had never been much of a drinker. The taste of alcohol always made him sick to his stomach. Eventually, that very substance became his comfort. Drinking was the only way he could tolerate the ghosts that plagued him night and day. Their hollow stares had driven him to the brink of insanity. Only alcohol dulled his mental anguish. It was also slowly killing him too.

Hollis pleaded with the ghosts to leave. No matter how many times he apologized for failing them, the ghosts wouldn’t leave. They followed Hollis everywhere he went. He even felt their hollow stares in his sleep (not that he slept much those days). There was nowhere Hollis could go where the ghosts wouldn’t find him.

“You know, Nicolai, I often wonder what that bastard James is up to these days? You remember him, right?” Hollis expelled a hoarse laugh. He realized he had finally lost his mind. There was nothing crazier (or absurd) than holding a conversation with a ghost. “We couldn’t stand his ass or that idiot partner of his. We were always beefing with them. What was that idiot partner’s name again?” Hollis tapped the rim of his glass with a finger. “Argh! I can’t remember his name, but I do remember he was a smart-mouthed, hot-headed, pain in the ass.” Hollis drank the last swig of his drink and pushed the glass off to the side. He was done drinking, at least for the moment.

Hollis closed his eyes, and his mind began to drift to a darker place. He tried to reel his mind back from that place. The memories were too painful and traumatizing. He regretted drinking that last glass of bourbon. The large quantity of alcohol had crippled him emotionally and mentally. Hollis was forced to relive those haunting memories.

Fifteen years ago, Hollis Alexander was once a detective. His partner was Nicolai Aardsma, one of the ghosts that haunted him. Due to an incompetent and last-minute decision made on Hollis’ part, Nicolai was killed. Not only was Hollis responsible for his partner’s death, but he was also responsible for another. Sadie Penn. She was the other ghost that haunted him.

Sadie had been the unfortunate victim of a kidnapping that ended terribly. The poor child was only nine when she died. Hollis was pressured to resign from his position, which he did so out of guilt.

Since his resignation, Hollis made a living doing freelance work. They were always simple tasks like collecting owed debts or searching for lost pets. The work was meaningless, but it kept him afloat for the time being.

“Oh my! How much longer do you intend to view the world through the bottom of that glass?” Hollis opened his eyes. He was shocked to see the unfamiliar woman leaning against his kitchen counter.

The trespasser was in her later teens, possibly early twenties. Her black and kinky hair fell to her shoulders. Underneath her left eye was a beauty mark. The young woman’s unnaturally black eyes reminded Hollis of dark chasms. Though beautiful the woman had a somber aura about her.

Hollis was baffled by her silent entry into his home. “How-how…? How did you get in here?” The ghosts of Sadie and Nicolai turned their hollow stares on the woman. Hollis felt like a two-ton weight had been removed from his shoulders and back.

The uninvited guest chuckled at the question. “Sneaking into a run-down shack of a house isn’t as hard as you think it should be.” The young woman pulled up a chair and made herself comfortable at the table. “My name is Wysteria Graves.” She said with an eerie smile.

 “I didn’t ask your name. I asked how you got in here.” He told her in an agitated tone of voice. “What do you want from me?” Wysteria looked around at the poor excuse of a shelter Hollis called home.

“Nothing in here, that much I can tell you.” Hollis slammed his fist down on the table, but Wysteria was not startled in the least.

“Just answer my damn question!”

 Wysteria nodded. “I’m here because I need your services, Det. Hollis Alexander.” The drunk man chuckled bitterly. His days as a detective we long gone. He was just Hollis Alexander.

 “Just call me Hollis. I’m not a detective…not anymore.”

“I see. Whether you’re Det. Alexander or not isn’t important. As long as you get the job done, I’ll be satisfied.”

Hollis told the woman to back up. He hadn’t agreed to anything. In fact, Hollis had no intention of helping Wysteria given that she trespassed into his home. It wasn’t happening. “You can leave now Ms. Graves. I’m not interested in hearing you out and I’m not interested in helping.” Hollis didn’t need Wysteria’s money, not at that time at least. He would be fine until next month. “I would show you the door, but you already know where it is.”

Hollis reached for his glass, thirsting for another drink. Wysteria slapped her hand over the cup. She stared Hollis straight into his eyes. The woman had an unnerving presence about her. There was something unusual about Wysteria to Hollis, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He wanted that strange woman out of his house, immediately.

“Hollis Alexander,” Wysteria addressed him formally, “if you agree to help me, I’ll evict your ghostly roommates over there for you.” Hollis straightened at the mention of the ghosts of Nicolai and Sadie. He never thought the ghosts were actually real, only manifestations of his guilty conscience.  

“You said-?”

“-You heard me clear as day.” Wysteria interrupted. Her black eyes continued to gaze into Hollis’ bloodshot ones. “Their presence in your life is the reason why you began drinking, no?” She stated matter-of-factly. Hollis moved away from the table slowly. Wysteria was freaking him out to the point where he started to sober up a little.

How does she even know that? Who is this woman? Hollis told Wysteria it was time for her to leave.

The woman, however, reiterated her statement. That time with more authority. “Complete this task, and I’ll get rid of your ghosts.”

Hollis thought to threaten the woman with harm if she didn’t leave his home. Somehow, Hollis knew not even violence would run her off. He decided to accept Wysteria’s task, hoping it was something simple and quick. “Fine… What do you need me to do?”

Wysteria needed Hollis to solve a murder.