Fletcher kept on looking at the lake as the woman beside him shed a tear.
"What was it like? Growing up in Salem?" He asks her with a new curiosity. He had always wondered how life in places like this worked.
"It used to be good. I was always happy when I was a kid" she smiled as if I'm a memory, her voice softened "I didn't had any parents. They died when I was young" she stopped.
"I'm so sorry about it" Fletcher genuinely spoke. He now understood what if feels like to loose a parent.
"No need to be. I've never seen them so there's no point of missing them. But I had someone who loved me more in their place. My aunt" She said and he nodded. He wondered if this is the same aunt she told him earlier about.
"She was enough for me. Everything was good earlier. I grew up, I fell in love and got married" she continued. Her voice has become shaky now.
A gulp formed in Fletcher's throat. Why? He doesn't know.
"But then they left me" her voice became dark and pained. "Both of them" she continued.
"What happened to them?" He asked but cursed at himself internally. It was visibly paining her to speak, he shouldn't have poked her even more.
"They took her, then they took him" she quietly said.
"The spirits?" He asked now sadder for her loss. He felt like he could feel everything she has been saying.
"No Fletcher. The people. People are worse than the spirits and it was too late for us to realise" she took a deep breath. The wind became more aggressive but it was somehow calming Fletcher as it slapped his body.
"But that about him? He could also talk to spirits?" He asked.
"No" she nodded. "He was innocent. All he ever did was love me and then loose his life because of me"
"Don't blame it on yourself Alice. If anything, he must be happy with the fact that he could save you. That's what love is" he said as he thought about Cecilia. How she was not afraid to kill herself just to save him.
"Yes, maybe" she said and gave him a small smile. Her smile warmed his insides. He felt like pulling her in for a hug and crushing her body with his. What was happening to him? Why were his thoughts getting clouded with her?
"But why did you come here? Why did you really come here? Do you have a connection to this place?" Alice questioned him, suddenly as curious about his life as he has been about hers.
"I told you, I was becoming a threat to everybody because of everything I have been going through. I lost my wife, my mother and now my job and father because of this curse" he said with defeat. It was so easy to talk to her he thought. It was almost like he could say everything in his mind and that will not be any kind of problem for him.
"But do you have any connection to this place? Anybody or anything unfinished lining you to it?" She questioned. Her questions were weird for him but he tried answering them honestly.
"My father owned this place. Actually he needed a means of transferring his black income to legal but it was my mother who wanted to be here" he said. He was not scared to speak the truth. Maybe Alice will tell everyone, maybe she won't. But it's not his problem anymore. His father has chosen his business over him, just like what he had done his whole life.
"Your mother? She connected you to this place?" She asked warmly.
"Yes, my grandmother passed away in this mental institute and we used to come here since I was a kid to meet her. Since then mother had been really connected to this place" he said and took a deep breath. It felt good to finally talk about his mother remembering her.
She nodded and kept silent, looking into the lake as if the lake had all of her answers.
"When father suggested her to start a charity, she was overjoyed and suggested purchasing this place, so that they can improve it for the needy." He continued, smiling as he remembered his mother's smiling face "She didn't care about his reasons because to her, it was a means of helping people, she didn't care about what father initially wanted." Fletcher said.
"World needs more people like your mother Fletcher" she spoke softly and looked into his eyes.
A bitter laugh left his mouth "yeah and that's exactly why she was taken from the world" Alice's eyes went wide as she heard this.
"Fletcher, where is she?" She asked alarmed.
"Nobody knows. There was a note that said she's leaving because she didn't want to stay with us anymore." He said. "But it was a lie. I have a bad feeling about it. She was left handed, her writing has a little slant to it but the note was not written by her" he gulped as he had finally said what was disturbing him since months.
"So you think someone might have?" She asked and he nodded. "But don't you feel anything strange in" she stopped herself and Fletcher looked into his eyes.
"Strange in?" He asked and she shook her head.
"Nothing" she dismissed. "Strange in living in a mental institute when you're clearly fine" she spoke carefully as if her words were too danger if left out of place.
"This place is fine. People here mind their own business. I like that. Also" he stopped as her face became more curious. "Also I met you. Finally someone who understands me" he said and smiled at her in gratitude.
She looked like she was shy all of a sudden and Fletcher thought she looked really cute. He smiled.
"Well you have something to do Fletcher, I don't know what it is but there is something this place is stopping you here for." She sighed.
"What do you think my mother will feel like, if she comes to know that I am here as a patient?" He asks her with a quiet voice.
"Maybe it is her that has brought you here Fletcher. And I'll be here to help you with whatever it is" she said and held his hand.
This was a sweet gesture as he was in a bad state but her holding his hand made him restless. It felt like something he cannot explain.
And the most weird thing about it, is that it felt like he has done it before.