6.

Sometimes in death something remains. What stays behind is not always the same as what went away. Anger and hatred may hold a spirit or an essence of a spirit to this world, to the exact place it transitioned, though in some ways it may still resemble whom it had belonged to prior to passing. What stays may have nothing at all else in common to what once had been.

If you were ever to come across such an anger and recognize its owner then just hope and pray that something else of its owner also remains, something with which you could appeal to, for such hatred has just one goal, to seek revenge. This revenge may not pick and choose. It may very well go all out and take out whatever comes its way, and as well as that it may also have restrictions working against it.

***

Late in the evening on Monday the 22nd of June, the day after that storm that was, and Gordon was more than surprised that Lydia had not shown up for work. She had never missed a day of work in the whole time she had worked at Abe's Diner, and she hadn't rung in ill either. From having talked to her before she left the evening before, there had been no indication whatsoever that Lydia would miss her next shift. There had been no word from her at all that she would not be in, which was something which most definitely was not in keeping with Lydia's personality. Sophie had been around and available, so she covered Lydia's shift.

Gordon knew where Lydia lived so after closing the diner, he thought he would drop by to see if all was well. Not having shown up to work and not having notified anyone, Gordon had no problem letting that go. Thing was too, she did head home during a storm and quite a storm at that. Making sure all was well and good would be what he was looking for even if it was just to put his own mind at ease.

The weather was more of the same as the night before but only nowhere near as severe. Rain was falling not quite as hard as it had been. Thunder and lightning had returned but not as loudly or as frequently as the previous night, winds had eased. He really should have made sure she took his offer of a ride home.

The house porch provided Gordon with some shelter from the rain as he knocked at the door and waited without response. The lack of light and sound apart from that of the rain, thunder and lightning added to Gordon's worry. From the outside there was no sign that either Lydia or her father were home. Gordon did not know enough about Lydia's personal life to hazard a guess as to where she may be.

He stood at the front door, knocked once more and hopefully awaited an answer, one which was not to come. With thunder sounding followed closely by a flash of lightning Gordon felt uneasy though it was not the thunder and lightning that created the uneasy feeling. This feeling was heightened when Gordon was sure that he could see something move quickly through the rain behind him and to one side from out of the corner of his eye.

There was nothing more that Gordon could do but return to his car and make his way home. Unbeknown to him, Gordon was watched as he pulled away. The dark and grey figure of a young lady stood just inside the living room window. Gordon did look back towards the house but with it being so dark inside there was no way for him to notice that figure looking back at him. His gut feeling told him that something very much indeed was not right.

The following day Sophie came to Abe's Diner. She had also been worrying about Lydia. The visit to the diner from an older gentleman prior to Lydia's return had Sophie doing more than her own fair share of thinking. Sophie knows as well as anyone else that lack of contact from Lydia was strange.

'Do you think we should inform someone?' Gordon asked Sophie.

'I think we should. Neither of us may be related to Lydia but we both know that something is not right.'

'Is there family elsewhere that Lydia and her father could have gone to?'

'Don't think so, but even at that we still would have heard something.'

It was just before five in the afternoon when Officer John Willis arrived at Abe's Diner. Gordon had made a call. He would feel a little more comfortable knowing that some sort of investigation may get underway. The diner was quiet; only three customers, all of whom sat separately at the counter, so both Gordon and Sophie had time to speak to the officer.

After having introduced himself Officer John Willis insisted that both Gordon and Sophie should call him by his first name. There was not much he could do for the moment but take the details. The name Scott Harmon was quite likely not that individual's real name, the individual who had come looking for Lydia, it may be an alias. Finding him, whoever he may be, probably would not be an easy task. The one sure thing as far as everyone was concerned was that Lydia never returned to work.

Thursday August 16th, 1990, a class from the local senior school consisting of thirteen- to fourteen-year-olds, out on a school excursion turned up a bit of a find in the Castletown Park. Bones were found, human bones, bones it would be discovered to belong to an adult male. It was now likely that an answer had been found as to what happened to Lydia Devlin's father and as to what happened to Lydia herself.

Castletown had never been a place known for wrongdoing of any sort. There had been very few records of violence, robbery, disturbances, murder, or anything else of the sort. Change was very much on the horizon.

7.

By February 1995, major change had come to Castletown. Abe's Diner no longer existed. It had been replaced by a casino. What were the odds of that happening? Actually, quite high as the man who had been referred to as Scott Harmon bought the plot the diner had once existed upon and built that casino of his.

A tragic event saw to the destruction of the diner, an event which will forever be a piece of Castletown history. However, that Scott Harmon did not take the name of the diner to mark the casino as a sign of respect, nor had he stepped foot back into Castletown since the night Lydia died, not until the last day of February that is.

Yeah, a man who does not deal in respect, would be well known in all of the town's shady corners. He had his men work out the deal on the piece of land and he had them sort out all the ins and outs of the business transaction prior to his return. He was a person of interest in the case of the disappearance of Lydia Devlin, but never anything more than a person of interest, so no charges or accusations could be made.

With the town growing at a phenomenal rate, there could not have been a better time for such a business transaction to have gone ahead, with new housing, offices and businesses popping up almost on a daily basis, even being on the outskirts, like the Diner had always been and the casino now is, there is so much more just a short distance away than there had ever been in the past.

The man who had used the alias of Scott Harmon had also bought the house where Lydia Devlin and her father had lived, and this is to add insult to injury despite those two family members now no longer living. As far as Mister Harmon was and is concerned, that house should have been rightly his without having to make any kind of payment, such was the debt owed to him, though he kept such information from anyone in authority.

As luck would have it, it was raining on that last day of February 1995. The sky had darkened long before 'Scott' arrived back in Castletown. He headed straight for the house he had been in those few years earlier. The smell of stale air and dust inside the house made him place a handkerchief over his nose and mouth. He felt strangely drawn to the basement. Surely this feeling was nothing more than the knowledge of what came from before, playing up.

Just like Lydia did, not long before her death, Scott had trouble with the basement light. Despite the light malfunction, Scott still walked slowly but surely down those wooden steps. Smiling a confident smile, he had no idea that the still available lightning which illuminated his almost sinister smile also illuminated the dark figure of a young lady standing behind him, a dark figure ready and waiting to seek revenge.

Fairly soon, Scott found himself standing alone in his own casino. It had closed for business for the day. He took a moment to stand still and survey the place. The rain outside, which had been falling lightly for a few hours prior to this time, had just begun to fall so much heavier at that very moment in the evening when Scott stood alone in his newly acquired establishment. He had only been admiring the place for a couple of moments when the casino lighting lowered.

'Hey' he called out, 'turn those lights back up, I am not done here.'

He was supposed to be alone, or so he thought. From the corner of his eye, he caught a swift movement of darkness. Scott turned quickly.

'Who is that? Who is there?'

There would be no reply and despite his protest the lighting remained lowered.

Once again Scott caught movement out of the corner of his eye and once again, he turned quickly. The movement had come from the opposite side to where it had come the first time around. The roulette table all of a sudden became illuminated as if a strong spotlight shone directly upon it. The numbers wheel began to spin. A one-dollar casino chip fell onto the table right upon the number ... zero, soon to be followed by the roulette ball beginning its run around the wheel in the opposite direction to the spin of the numbers.

Scott wanted to look around the casino to find someone to be responsible for what was going on, though he was also very much drawn to what the roulette ball was doing. It soon came to a firm halt right on the only green number on the wheel, zero. He began to struggle to breathe before he could question what the hell was going on.

The bet was against the house, Scott Harmon is the owner of the establishment so therefore he was ... the house.

Falling to his knees, his face had turned red. Completely unable to breathe, Scott put his hands to his neck but there was nothing that he could do. He fell forward and rolled onto his back. That was it. He was done. Before the last ounce of life left his body, he saw the dark figure of a young lady stand over him. He saw ... Lydia Devlin except it was not quite ... her.