*Based of the Music Video for Within Temptations Memories.

It had been nearly twenty years since she had last seen this house. The house she had spent the majority of her life. She had grown up here. Found love and gotten married. Had two children and watched them grow in this house. All that she had to do now was die there. But that was impossible now. Unless she decided to take a gun to her head. But she was too old for such an unclean way to go. And even then her old knurled fingers were probably too weak to pull a trigger. And even then she had no intention of taking her own life. As old as she was it would only be a matter of time before she was finally reunited with her beloved.

Looking at the for sale sign that was standing in the front yard she let out a sigh. Twenty years ago this sign had been put up. Twenty years ago when her husband had died. She probably wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place but this was something that she needed to do before the end came. And she knew that it was coming soon. Walking up the path she pulled her coat tighter across her. Sensitivity was one of the many unpleasant gifts that age brought with it.

The path to the house was very much the way that it had always been. Other than the fact that it had been a long time since anyone had tended it. The stones were untidy and the grass was starting it’s slow takeover of it. The autumn leaves were falling all about her like they did every year. She remembered these trees all too well. She loved them. But more than that she loved the memories that they brought with them. The memories of her childhood crawling up and down the trees and being scolded by her mother for being a tomboy. Then doing the same with her own children when they were young while her husband laughed in the background. Only to come running when one of the children fell down and scraped their knee. She smiled at how afraid she had been. At how scared she was of loosing the children. But now she laughed knowing that with children that age it would only be about ten minutes at most before they started up their games again as though nothing had ever happened. Even as she walked she could almost see it clear as day…wait…was that? A child looking to be about five years old running off out of the corner of her eye. But no. She shook her head. It was only a trick of the light. It had to be.

Continuing down the path she looked up at the house. The four floors and many windows. The place was more of a manor than it was a house. But a house she called it and that was what it would always be in her mind. She could still see the splendor of what it had once been. She was surprised that the place hadn’t been turned into a museum. But with the many years of not receiving any matinence it was probably in need of severe repair. She looked at the window. She carefully counted them. Up three…left five…there it was. The room where she had become most familiar with. And where she had known what love truly was. But there it was again. No. No it just couldn’t be. He was dead. He died twenty years ago. It wasn’t him standing there in the window. She shook her head and looked at the window again. And nothing. She sighed. Age was tricking her again. She stared at the door. Every year she came this far but was unable to go any farther. She wanted to make her peace with this place. So every year she would come hoping that she would. But this was the farthest that she had ever gotten. She looked at the window again. There it was again! The apparition or trick of her mind she didn’t know. But there it was plain as day looking at her.

“You’re not him.” She muttered. “He’s long dead. Now be gone! Or so help me I’ll make you go myself!” Still the figure watched her. She had had more than enough of this. An intruder in her beloved mansion. And intruder in the home that was her husbands castle! But the fact that this being took the form of her long dead beloved only added insult to injury! In the years before she had not found the strength to take the door handle and go farther than the stairs. But the blood in her was boiling and she grabbed the handle and turning it she marched into the home.

As soon as she opened the door the smell of dust and beginning of decay filled her nostrils. The place while once beautiful was now coated in cobwebs and dust. Obviously there hadn’t been anyone in this house for years. That was more than obvious too her. She and the real estate agent in the next town were the only possessors of the two remaining keys. The third key had gone missing years ago. And anything in this house that was worth stealing was too coated in dust to be recognized as valuable. But she had a mission to do. She had to find this specter and make it known that it was not welcome here.

Her walk was fast. Not like how it had been when she was young but still speedy for the gait of an old woman. She knew the house better than anyone alive would ever know it. But yet as she walked she slowed down. The memories began flooding her mind. Every hallway bringing its own fresh set of them. She saw the hall where her husband had carried her when they were married. She saw the table that her son had jumped off when he was going through his superman phase and was under the impression that he had the ability to fly. And the dining room where so many dinners had been spent together. She felt tears sting her eyes she looked down at the gold wedding band. She had worn it since she was twenty. When he had first proposed to her. And even after his death fifty years later she still wore it. And twenty years of widowhood after that she still carried it with her. And she would do so till it was pulled off of her cold dead hands. Feeling a tear fall onto her hand she shook her head and looked up. She was not going to let herself cry after all these years. Not now. But as she looked up she clutched at her heart. This just couldn’t be.

It was the same manor. But yet…it was as though time was in reversal now. As though some unseen hands had taken the clock and turned the hands backwards. The place was going into reversal. Tables that were long since broken were suddenly fixing themselves and the chandelier in the main guest hall where many parties had been held in the past but had long since crashed to the floor was now back on the ceiling where it belong. As bright and beautiful as it was once before. The beauty of the place was back. As young and splendid as it had once been. She smiled and, her original quest forgotten, began exploring the place she had once called home.

She wandered through the many rooms and loving them more and more than when she had first seen them as a child. And then the final room came to her. The top floor and the final window. The room she was most familiar with and the one that she feared to go into the most. The candles that were now lit in the hallways were leading towards this room. And she knew that this what she needed to do. But fear still held her back. For while this was the room where she had learned true love and happiness. It was also the room that had taught her was pain and grief was. What it truly meant to be sad and to feel as though the world was going to end.

Trembling she reached out her hand and touched the doorknob. Yet instead of feeling a the usual coldness the doorknob felt strangely warm to the touch. As though someone had already been there. Remembering the specter from earlier she hesitated. Was this some cruel joke being played her. Was the house going back to what it once was simply a horrid trick being played on a helpless woman? She clenched her jaw. If it was she wasn’t going to let them whoever they were frighten her. She had seen a world war and death and she had endured not one but three childbirths! One of them not having survived his first year. And she wasn’t going to let some silly prank get to her! Nodding she turned the handle and marched into the room. But then she stopped.

Instantly there was a wave of emotion. The happiness an the pain. The love and the sorrow. Of all the places and memories that she had. This room was the one that carried the most of them. It was as though the door to this room had been a box and when she had opened the door she had unleashed every single memory that she had ever stowed away in this place was unleashed. She walked over to the four poster bed and touched the mahogany wood. This was the room that she had spent fifty years with her husband. Until his death and it was too painful to stay. That had been the year that she had abandoned the home that had belonged to the family for more than ten generations.

Just then she felt a presence. Like there was someone standing behind her. Turning she saw not a person standing there but the full length mirror that her beloved had given her for their anniversary. She remember that that year she had given him a gold watch. He had broken his old one when he was trying to rescue their son from the tree that he had been climbing. But what astonished her the most about this wasn’t that it looked as though it had been left unscathed by the merciless hands of time. It was what she saw in it.

There she was. Not the old wrinkled face that she had grown accustomed too. But the young wide eyed face that she had long forgotten. The face of a young bride just married to her husband. Reaching her hand up she touched her hair. She could see it in the mirror and she could feel it as thick as ever. She was wearing her wedding dress that had been worn by her mother and grandmother before her. And then there it was again. That presence.

“As lovely as ever my darling.” Again the tears came to her eyes. There was no denying it. That voice.

“My love.” She whispered. “But beloved you’ve been dead for twenty years.”

“Have I?” He asked. She saw his face in the mirror his eyes as wild as ever. “I’ve been so lonely without you. Why did you go?”

“When you died…” She had to pace herself. Her voice kept cracking from the tears. “I couldn’t bear to be in the place. I didn’t want to live here if it meant being without you. So I left.”

“But I’m here now.” He smiled wiping a tear from her cheek. “So there’s no more need to weep. But tell me love. If my leaving this world was so painful for you then why did you come back?”

“I...I need to see this place one last time…Before I move on.” She said. “I know my time has come. The doctors say that there’s nothing wrong with me but I know it. I’ve known it for many days now. Every year I’ve come here to make my peace with this old place and this is my final chance.”

“And you’ve succeeded.” Her husband said smiling. “Now come. You must be tired.”

“But our son and daughter are waiting for me.” She said. “I told them I wanted to be alone for a while and they said they’d expect me back in a few minutes.”

“The children will be alright.” He said. And before she could say anything he picked her up and carried her over to the bed laying her down on it before kissing her lips. “Now tell me everything that’s happened. I want to hear it all.”

*

“Hey.” A man looked over at his sister. “I’m going to go see if mom’s ready to go now.”

His sister nodded. “Want me to go with you?”

“Yeah if you want to.”

The two children looked out at the place. They remembered how heart broken their mother had been when they had left. But they had long since moved on and had children now of their own. As they walked through the place they were surprised at how well it had been maintained. They would have expected the place to be in total decay. And was that music they were hearing?

“Do you remember that table?” The sister said pointing. “You broke your arm after jumping off of it.”

The brother laughed. “I remember alright. Mom was so mad. And Dad was laughing his head off.”

As they walked through the halls they finally came to their parent’s room. As soon as they saw their mother the sister started crying and the son held onto her. There was their mother lying on the bed smiling softly and looking as though she was asleep. But this was the kind of sleep that one doesn’t wake from.

“She looks so happy.” The sister said finally calming down a bit.

“Do you think she got her closure?” The brother asked.

They looked at each other and silently nodded. They didn’t need to speak to get their answer.

EL FIN!