Dating : A Traumatic Experience

A tale of terror and trauma.

The doctor stared over his round glasses, expression a mixture of sympathy and morbid curiosity.

“Do you think you can describe to me your experience?”

He stared down at his shaking hands. Hands that were young and tough but seemed to have wrinkled and shriveled over night.

“I can try.”

His voice still surprised him. This was not the easy, confident brawling voice which had been a part of him his whole life. This was the soft, trembling voice of an old or sick man.

The doctor gave him an encouraging smile.

“The trauma appears to have been very severe. Do feel welcome to stop talking whenever you wish.”

He nodded.

“I better start with Ruby. I met her back in New York City when I was working for one of those finance companies. Eli and Lerman. They had these parties you know, and she was one of those chicks that was invited by someone or another.

“I had a couple to drink, she did too, I think. Anyway, I approached her and we had an amazing conversation. Time passed and we left the party, walking around the streets. You know how things are.

“Well before you could count to ten we were head over heels and I proposed to her. She said yes and we were happy as any lovebirds can be.”

“And this was before you stayed at her family’s country house.” The doctor interjected.

He held up his hand. “I’m getting there. Don’t rush me doctor.”

The doctor nodded and sat back in his chair.

“Ruby was an old fashioned gal. She came from an old, moneyed American family. She was scared to do anything without her parents go-ahead. So she insisted I meet her family.

“The only problem is her parents were older folks and they no longer left the house. So she says to me, ‘can you come up to the old country house for the weekend? That way they can meet you.’

“I was so deeply in love that I would have gone to Timbuktu for her. I agreed and drove up to their place in July. It was hot as holy hell upstate, but gosh I didn’t care.

“I survived the damn mosquitoes trying to suck the blood out of me. That weekend had the worst infestation the whole summer. And they were carrying some damned disease from some place.

“I finally got to the place, an old gothic looking place, dark and grim. I could have sworn when I got there I saw a face in the window staring down at me. But as I tried to make it out, it seemed to disappear.”

“So when you say you saw a face in the window, this was the face of…” the doctor began to ask.

“Of no living person.” His voice dropped to a whisper and his hand shook more violently.

“Can I get you a glass of water?”

He nodded quickly, relieved for the respite.

When the water came, he drank deeply.

“Are you sure you wish to continue?” The doctor said, glancing up from some quick notes he had scribbled.

He nodded and cleared his throat. “If I don’t say it now, I’m never going to. Well after the long drive up from the city in that heat and then that face, I wanted to sit down with a cold one and look into my Ruby’s eyes. I knocked and was greeted by my love. Her parents came over too and it was beautiful as can be. That moment, maybe, was the last truly happy moment of my life.

“I was supposed to stay in the guest bedroom because they wouldn’t have had me staying with her. The day I came though, there was some freak flooding in the guest bathroom and the whole room was out of commission.

“So I joked, c’mon in this huge house you don’t have one other spare room? You see, they suggested I sleep on the couch.

“I shouldn’t have taken offense but I did. So they give each other this funny little glance, the folks. Then the old man says there’s a room that’s never used that used to belong to his sister.

“Apparently she suffered from depression which they used to call melancholia back in those days. This woman, Ruby’s aunt, apparently never left that room. She spent her whole life lying in bed, looking out the window and eventually hanged herself.

“Well when they showed me into the room, I right away had some sort of sixth sense about it. Like there was some kind of negative energy resting there. I never believed in any of that stuff, but as soon as I walked in there goosebumps started rising on my arms and I felt a sense of deep fear.

“The room was plain and nice enough. There was a bed, all set and proper. There were some art pieces on the wall, pictures of mostly nature. I looked in the closet and saw stashed away was an old, dusty portrait of this miserable sad looking girl.

“Something about that face staring right at me gave me the creeps. Hell, the whole damn room gave me the creeps. But what was I going to say at that point? I forced myself to shrug it off.

“We had a nice little dinner party, the four of us. The old man had grown up here and he said all manner of people had walked through these doors over the years, most of them long dead by now. He said he remembered the parlor parties his parents used to throw, where the cream of society as well as some of the more low characters used to make their appearances. I had a bunch of wine and Ruby and I sneaked some flirty faces at each other.

“Before I knew it, we were done. We said our good nights and then I was back in the room. I thought I had closed the closet but the door was open, that miserable girl staring up at me.

“I thought, hell, this place sure is giving me the creeps. I closed that closet door, a bit harder maybe than was necessary and for some illogical reason put a chair in front of it.

“I lay on the bed, listening to the quiet of the big old house and thinking of all the history of it thanks to those stories I heard at dinner. I was kinda getting a bit freaked out by the thought of dead people partying it up in here, sleeping in this very bed. Thanks to some wine I drank at dinner, I was able to doze off pretty quickly.”

He stared down at his hands which then started shaking violently.

“I thought I was dreaming when I heard those voices. A man, a woman, a little girl. I pinched myself and realized I was awake. My eyes stayed closed, but I could see the room was still dark. But there were definitely voices around me speaking. A little girl was crying and this man and woman were telling her off. They spoke oddly, almost like actors from an old movie. The man said something like, ‘Well you better mind yourself Molly, or I’ll give you a right spanking on the bottom.’ And the girl was moaning something about not wanting to go to that doctor. And the woman was trying to calm her, ‘Molly darling, the doctor will give you a candy if you go. He will fix the boo-boo in your head.’

“I lay there listening to this conversation, consciously keeping my toes covered by the blanket without making the slightest movement. The woman continued on saying, ‘You’ll love it at the sanitarium, you’ll see. We’ll even come and visit you.’ The girl just kept on moaning and crying over and over, ‘I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go!’

“Finally the voices seemed to fade away into nothingness. I lay there still, my heart pounding. Eventually I got the nerve to open my eyes after laying still for a while. The windows were open and the room was full of mist. And the closet was once again open, with the chair on the floor, as if somebody or something had flung it down.

“I was shaking and sweating. I got up to close the window. As I pulled the window shut, I froze. I heard a scurrying sound behind me. A low giggle. Hard breathing. My heart pounded in terror. I turned around and there was the portrait, the miserable girl, hung up on the wall itself. Only now her mouth was twisted into the most horrible smile!

“I smelled death and rot and mold somehow all over the room. I heard the sobbing of a child coming from all around me. I had never felt such terror in my life. The sobbing suddenly turned to a bone chilling laugh and ice cold fingers seemed to dance up and down my spine.

“I had had it right then. I didn’t care what anybody thought, I wasn’t staying in this haunted place a moment longer. I flung open the door and raced to Ruby’s room. Only…there was something very wrong with the house.

“Music and voices drifted up from the living room. I edged towards the staircase and saw downstairs a room full of black suited men and black dressed women socializing over cocktails. I had never seen a single one of these faces. A piano was being played, a haunting melody by a thin, mustached man with white gloves.

“Then I recognized a voice and I saw a man talking to a woman…the same man who spoke in my bedroom! He seemed to be the host of this party, as people came over to compliment him on it. I knew I was no longer in the twenty first century. The people’s look, their speaking, the whole thing was unreal. And nobody seemed to notice me.

“I tried to place it — this must be Ruby’s grandparents, I thought. Before I could give it another thought, a woman approached the host and said, ‘Nothing like a splendid party after such a dreadful war.’

“The host laughed. He said, ‘Enjoy my dear. The crows are pecking at their rotting flesh on the battlefields. At least we the living should feast on pleasure, for tomorrow we may join them!’

“Then I heard a crying sound behind me and the whole crowd turned to stare up at me and all the music stopped.

“I felt a prickle on my neck and knew the girl was behind me. I turned around slowly. She stood there, a few feet ahead whimpering and clutching a teddy bear. Her nightgown was soaked in sweat and her hair was a tangled mess.

“Somebody called from downstairs, ‘Why don’t you got back to bed, child. This is an adult party.’ I looked at the girl and then realized she was staring straight at me. Smiling.

“I backed off and she started moving towards me, almost slithering like a snake. I ran down the stairs, and the partygoers started noticing me.

“They began to surround me, to stop me from leaving. I was being swarmed all around. A ghastly woman whose skin seemed to be slowly melting like cheese, smiled and reached out to me saying, ‘Leaving so soon? The party has only just begun.’

“I somehow made it to the door and managed to get it open. It slammed shut behind me and I was grateful to see my car was still parked outside. I raced to it and quickly left, looking back just once to see the house enshrouded in mist…and the girl’s ghastly face grinning down at me from the window.”

He stopped talking and took a deep, ragged breath.

The doctor’s mouth was open.

“Did you ever hear from Ruby?” he asked.

He shook his head. “I was terrified. I still see the little girl in my nightmares. I cannot deal with any of it.”

“And that’s why you’re here.”

He nodded.

The doctor sighed. “I am not sure what to make of it. I will say though, that you certainly seem to exhibit the symptoms of trauma. Sometimes the best way to deal with trauma is to face your fears head on. I think you should talk to Ruby about what happened.”

He stared at him. “I can’t. And besides, after all that, why would she want to. “

“Oh don’t worry about that. I took the liberty of inviting her.”

The door opened and he turned around.

His mouth opened in a voiceless scream, as the woman from the portrait walked towards him, eyes staring crazily, mouth opened rabidly.

“It’s your Molly, darling.”