The Family Legacy

This story is more a plea for assistance.

Two years ago, the woman who raised me passed, who I called auntie but was in fact a distant cousin once removed, leaving me all her worldly possessions and the rather beautiful country house she had brought me up in. Though not a day goes by in which I don't miss her, my inheritance could sadly not have come at a better time.

Two months prior to her death my son was in a serious car accident, in which a drunk driver smashed into the side of the car he and his friends were travelling in. On the way to the hospital, my son's heart stopped beating three times, the longest time being for six minutes in which, I was later told, his brain was starved of oxygen and they feared I would never truly have my son back.

He eventually awoke four days after the accident. Due to the injuries he received the vision in his left eye became very limited which required rehabilitation made worse by one of the passengers in the car and a close friend of his losing their ability to walk and another losing use of their left arm, my son felt he'd gotten off 'light' and as such became extremely depressed.

He was discharged from the hospital after a month, his leg still in a cast from it having been broken. It was then we moved into my old home and we both began experiencing strange happenings. Items would be moved during the night and occasionally we'd hear tapping on windows. One night I came downstairs and found the cake I made the day earlier which had been carefully placed far back on the counter had ended up on the floor.

My aunt was a very spiritual woman and believed in the presence of a world beyond, assuring me that she would always watch over me so for a time, rather than being afraid I welcomed the little nuisances believing it was my aunt telling me she still watched over me. My aunt said that people in our family always were attuned to other presences and while she pitied me greatly that I personally could not tune into spirits she taught me to respect them.

Though my aunt would speak openly of her beliefs she would not teach me, as you can imagine as a young child I was devastated I couldn't have a pet ghost to show all my friends, luckily I've learned since then, my aunt wouldn't teach me because her beliefs had caused a separation of the family over the years and now I fear her desire to please my parents may have endangered my son.

The first case of the nuisances becoming more pronounced was when I discovered my son, who was on crutches at this time sprawled on the gravel of the drive unable to get up. He told me he felt the crutch being pulled by something but being ever the sceptic refused to allow me to say it was anything but his own clumsiness.

After this I began to see things, movement mainly from the corner of my eyes or a dark form in the shadows that would vanish if I turned to look at this again. By the time Richard was on a single crutch he would wake up at five every morning (which was a massive surprise to me who's never know him to get up before noon unless he was working), he'd then travel to the bottom of our garden and spend hours standing before the large oak tree. I only started to worry one day when the whole garden was flooded and it was still raining he still stood there for hours staring at the tree, I asked him what was the matter but he always looked at me as if I was going crazy.

The bruises came a little time later. He tries his best to hide them along with the scratches but it's gotten to the point I'm desperately worried about him, he's stopped speaking to me and spends most of his time by the oak whispering to himself. Is there anything I can do to help him because I don't believe my aunt, who loved us all so dearly would purposely hurt my son. So please help, any advice no matter how little would help.