I sat at the table re-reading the letter for the tenth time. I still couldn't believe it. My dad's sister, Marie, whom I'd never met, had passed away. According to her lawyer, she left me her house.

My dad rarely spoke of Aunt Marie other than to say she was a bit eccentric. He had told us stories about her when we were kids. She lived alone in the countryside, in a large house. She had lost the love of her life before they could get married. They planned their future in that house, so she never moved out of it. She also stayed away from the family after that. The story was that she could never move on after losing her love and kept his room exactly as he had left it. To her dying day, she spoke to him as if he was there in that room with her.  

I put the letter back in the envelope and wondered why she left the house to me and not to my brother. He was the eldest and definitely had more sense in business and life. However, this couldn't have come at a better time for me. I'd just got my eviction notice, and no-one seemed to want to hire me. Even if this house was in the middle of nowhere, at least I wouldn't be homeless. 

*********

I pulled my car onto the dirt road that my GPS had directed me to. I had been driving all day and the sun was beginning to set. I just wanted to get inside and relax. In the distance, I saw a roof and hoped this was my destination. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I went over the last bump in the road and pulled into a clearing. The lawn was overgrown with weeds and some wilted flowers in front of a ramshackle two-story house. I stepped out of the car and looked up at the windows. I could swear I saw a figure standing there beside a curtain on the second floor, but I thought my eyes were just tired and were deceiving me.  

Hauling my suitcase and a bag of groceries, I walked up a couple of steps and to the front door. A chill crept up my spine at how eerie this whole situation seemed to me. An isolated house and my mind playing tricks on me did not lead to feelings of comfort. As ominous as this was, I put the key in the lock and turned it. The door wouldn't open, I tried the key again, and this time I pushed hard until it burst open with a groan. Entering the kitchen, I set my bag on the table and went back to grab my suitcase which was still on the porch. Once everything was inside, I pushed the door closed. The wind was picking up outside and the house felt cold and damp. It smelled musty and felt old and abandoned.   

I looked for the thermostat to get some heat into the place and hoped it would cut the chill. I went from room to room as I turned on the lights and looked around. Through grimy windows, I could barely see the waning light of the sun. Cobwebs festooned the ceiling and dust was settled in a thick mantle on every horizontal surface. In the living room was a fireplace with a stack of wood beside it and some rather old but what seemed to be serviceable chairs and a sofa facing the fireplace, but where was the thermostat? 

I proceeded up the creaking stairs to the first room at the top of the landing. On opening the door, I flicked the light switch, but the light wouldn't turn on. Using the flashlight on my cell phone, I look around. It was colder here than in the rest of the house. I was in a small bedroom with old masculine furnishings. I had a creepy feeling that something was in here. 

I quickly left that room and opened the next door to find the bathroom. This was where that musty smell was emanating from even more intensely. Mold and grime coated all the accessories. Covering my nose, I backed out, vowing that this was the first room I would clean the following day. 

There were two more doors, and the next one I opened led to the master bedroom. This was the room where I thought I saw a figure in the window. I was nervous as I turned on the lamp. Everything appeared to be left just as Aunt Marie had left it. Anyone who didn't know better would think she was going to be back at any time. 

I picked up a picture of what must have been my Aunt and her boyfriend. It was taken when she was about my age. My dad had told me I looked like her, which is why he named me Amelia Marie. Now I could definitely see the resemblance. I could pass as her daughter or even twin more so than her niece. She was quite pretty. She had dark hair and bright green eyes that shone brightly as she looked up at a very handsome young man, you could also see the love in his eyes as he looked down at her.  

I put the picture down and continued my walk-through. I opened the closet door and saw a red sweater. I took it off the hanger and wrapped it around myself. Going back downstairs, I started a fire in the fireplace. I hoped I would find the thermostat in the morning. Once the fire was lit, I emptied my grocery bag to have something to eat before I called it a night.  

I decided I would sleep in Aunt Marie's room as it looked the cleanest. It didn't have the same musty old smell which much of the rest of the house did, and even the bedding looked freshly made. I put my nightgown on but was still cold. I pulled Aunt Marie's sweater back around me and laid down on her bed. Before I drifted off to sleep, I could have sworn I smelled a man's cologne.  

In my sleep, I heard someone call out, "Marie." The feel of hands on my body sent tingles coursing through my body. Lips brushed across my cheek, and a warm breath caressed my ear, arms held me in a close embrace with a hand that cupped my breast.

That same voice whispered, "My Marie, I've waited for you to return, my beautiful sweetheart. I love you, my darling." 

I woke with a start in the morning conscious of the dream I'd had. I looked around groggily, trying to understand why I was turned on so much. I reached under my nightgown and found my panties were soaked. I wondered what had happened during the night. Who was the man in my dream? Was I dreaming?  

I got up to prepare for the day before I made myself more creeped out and decided to leave. I threw the sweater on the bed, grabbed some clothes and went to shower. Overcoming my disgust, I used the shower in the bathroom. I came back to the bedroom to make the bed, and I noticed the sweater was no longer laying on it. I looked around and couldn't find it anywhere, when I opened the closet door it was hanging back up. Uneasily I closed the door and left the room. 

Downstairs I set up the coffee pot so I could clear my foggy head. As my java brewed, I looked around the house some more. I walked through the living room into a den. I opened a desk and saw some papers and pictures of my Aunt and her sweetheart. There was also a playbill, as well as a newspaper clipping of a car accident. As I rummaged around the desk drawers, the house seemed to get colder. I closed the desk and went back to the kitchen for my coffee.  

After a small breakfast, I decided to tackle some of the cleaning. I set my phone to charge on the counter while I played some Poison. I hoped my one guilty pleasure of eighties hair bands would help me not feel as apprehensive. I sang along as I cleaned out cabinets, washed down walls and made the kitchen presentable. As I began to put my supplies away, my phone suddenly switched from 'Unskinny Bop' to Frank Sinatra singing, 'I've Got You Under My Skin.' I hurriedly turned the music off.  

After scrubbing the bathroom from floor to ceiling, I heated up some soup and decided to call my dad. I told him how scary it was here and the strange feeling I got that I was being watched. I also told him about my phone and the sweater. He said that Marie and Edward would dance to Frank Sinatra all the time. Ole blue eyes was Marie's favorite. 

He told me to be careful out here in the boonies and to keep my phone close. We chatted some more before he said he had to go but reminded me that it was only a house, and even though it was almost Halloween, there was nothing that could harm me in the house.  

After we hung up, I wasn't really tired yet, so as the wind blew outside, I went to light a fire and relax. I put some of the wood in a pile and found some kindling. I reached for the matches that I had placed on the mantle only to find they were not there. I looked around the floor and all around the room but couldn't find them anywhere. I got goosebumps when I heard a voice whisper, "Marie."   

This was really getting to me. The room felt even colder as I could see my breath now. I decided I would go upstairs and wrap up in the blankets on the bed. As I climbed the stairs, I saw a light flicker in the smaller bedroom.

 I was too afraid to open the door. I walked faster into the room I had claimed as my own. I slipped into my nightgown and pulled on Aunt Marie's sweater. I immediately felt warmer. I couldn't explain why, but this room and this sweater were the only things in the house that made me feel safe. I sat on the bed, and as I looked through the nightstand, I found a journal. I leaned back on the bed and flipped through some pages.  

October 30, 1963

Edward came to visit today, he is going to be here for a week before he has to head back to the city for business. He told me how happy he was I made the room up for him. Getting out here to the country is out of the way for him. I was just thrilled he was here. He took me out for dinner, and we went to his club to listen to some music and danced. We met up with some of his associates, and they talked business for a while. I just sat back and listened. They invited us to come to a Halloween get together at their home tomorrow. Afterward, we went for a stroll to discuss our wedding plans. I still can't believe in less than six months I will be Mrs. Edward Williams.  

October 31, 1963

No, no, no! How could this be? My Edward is gone. Our life together had not yet begun. We had so many hopes and dreams. The lovely wedding we planned so meticulously was now only a dream. I sit here with tears streaming down my face as I think of the children we wanted to raise together. I'm just in utter shock. They told me that he died quickly, that he was struck on the driver's side by a speeding car. Why was he snatched away from me so quickly?  

I thought about my poor Aunt. I couldn't believe she lost him so abruptly. She must've been devastated. I see why she hid away in this house, why she stayed away from her family. I flipped through some more pages. 

October 31, 1965

It's been two years since I lost my dear Edward. I can't bring myself to change his room around or get rid of any of his things. This morning I went to the cemetery and placed flowers on his grave. I never talk to him there. I talk to him only at our house. I know he can hear me. I sometimes think I can hear him whisper my name.  

November 1, 1965 

I did not want to get up this morning. I had the most wonderful dream. Edward was here in my bed with me. He kissed me harder than we ever had. I felt his hands on my body and wrapped in my hair. He kissed my neck, then opened my gown and suckled on my breasts. It felt amazing. He pushed my legs apart, and I had the incredible feeling of his mouth on my lady parts. I couldn't believe he spread me open and devoured me as if I was a tasty dessert. I found myself squirming all over as I experienced my first orgasm. He kissed his way back up my body, and before I knew it, he pressed his hardness against my opening. Even as I write this, I feel the heat between my legs and the color of my cheeks is sure to be crimson. He entered me gently as he knew I had never done this before. We had our share of petting but were waiting until our wedding night to do any more. As he moved inside me, I felt like I was in heaven. He started slowly until the pain passed then moved faster, pushing harder and harder. I woke up as I yelled out from an orgasm. I could not believe it was a dream. My legs feel stiff, and I feel sore down there. I want more of him. I want my Edward, but as much as I tried, I could not go back to sleep to that heavenly place. 

I fell asleep with the journal in my hand. 

I was rolled onto my back and felt hands glide up my legs. My breasts exposed as my nightie was pushed up farther. My nipples were fondled before they were sucked on, making the peaks hard. A hand pushed between my legs to my pussy. I felt fingers press inside of me as they moved to find my g-spot. My juices flowed as the fingers moved faster. A mouth joined the fingers and sucked on my clit. A ripple of an orgasm began as a hard cock entered my wet channel and pushed deep inside. I moaned as it began to move inside of me. My hands were held above my head, and the cock in me pushed harder and faster, drawing out my pleasure until I screamed: "Oh fuck, I'm cumming." 

I jolted up with a start. What just happened to me? I was twisted in my nightie, and my panties were in a bunch on the floor. There was a wet spot under me that indicated I had definitely cum in my sleep. But was I asleep? This felt too real to be a dream. I haven't had such an erotic dream since I was a teenager dreaming of Bret Michaels doing all those naughty things to me that I had seen in that book I found, 'The Kama Sutra'. There was a slight smell of men's cologne in the air. When I looked down at my body, I saw redness on my alabaster skin. This was no ordinary dream. I knew that someone or something had been in this room with me.  

As I went to get a drink, I saw the flicker of light under the door again and heard a sad voice calling, "Marie." Quickly I ran down the stairs. In the kitchen, I found a bottle of brandy. Once I poured some, I thought about the light upstairs. After two more glasses, I returned to the stairs. This time I climbed slowly up. When I reached the landing, I decided to peek in the small bedroom. Slowly I turned the knob, and the door creaked open. There was a small bedside lamp that cast an eerie glow in the room. I looked around, and everything seemed to be in place. There was a woodsy scent that enveloped me. 

Drawn towards the bed, I lay down. I removed my nightie but kept the sweater on to ward off the chill of the room as I lay on the bed. Soon I was in a dream-like state. My pussy began to tingle with need. My nipples hardened into peaks on my sensitive breasts. I felt hands slide along my body, kisses along the side of my neck until they settled upon my mouth. First, soft kisses before that soon became much more passionate. Tongues danced as my legs spread, I felt hardness press against my wet opening. It sent an incredible sensation all the way to my core. 

I moaned as we began to move with such fluidity that it was as if we were one. It felt like this is where I belonged, and I was completed at this moment. There was an aura around me as my body felt such pleasure that it seemed heavenly. My body began to rock as I was fucked harder and harder. My orgasm came fast, and my pussy tightened around the cock like a vice. I was pushed harder and harder as I rode orgasm after orgasm. Soon I felt pressure against my cervix until I felt the release of load after load of fluid deep inside me. 

I woke in Aunt Mary's bed wrapped in her sweater and nothing else. My body was sore in many places. I went to take a hot shower as I contemplated what had happened during the night. I knew it was not a dream, yet I was not awake. I couldn't tell anyone I thought I saw Edward but wondered if he would come back to me again. 

The sex was better than any I'd had before. I came harder the second time last night than I had ever done. I reached between my legs as I remembered the feeling of completeness I had in the other bedroom. 

With one leg on the side of the tub and the warm water running over me, I pinched my nipples and squeezed my breasts. I slid my hand over my belly to my pussy. I inserted first one finger then a second as I fingered myself. I pressed my thumb to my swollen clit as I remembered the out of body feeling from the night before. I moved my fingers faster until I yelled out from a massive orgasm. I allowed the hot water to run over me a little longer. When I stepped out, I saw an apparition in the steamed-up mirror. The same voice said, "So sexy, my love."

"Edward?" I asked, but the apparition dissolved, and there was no answer.

I hurriedly dressed to start my day as I had to go to town to get some groceries and just get away from this house for a while. Before I got in my car, I looked back and again got the bizarre feeling I was being watched. Glancing up at the bedroom, I thought I saw the same figure at the window before the curtain fell into place. I shook my head and went to start my car. I turned the key, and nothing happened. I tried again and still nothing. Frustrated, I rolled down the window and yelled out into the nothingness. Suddenly the car started on its own. Not questioning anything, I drove into town.

After I had driven for a while, on the outskirts of town, I came to an intersection and the car stalled on me. I popped the hood in the hope I could see what was wrong. I took in my surroundings when I noticed a marker in the brush at the side of the road partly hidden by weeds. I made my way to look at it more closely. It was a plain wooden cross obviously homemade, on it were carved the words, "Edward, yours forever Marie."

I cleared away some of the dead brush and straightened the cross up. I made a note to come back with some flowers to leave in my Aunt's memory for her loss. As I stood up to leave, I felt my body stopped by a pair of arms that wrapped themselves around me in a bear hug, and a voice whispered in my ear just one word. "Forever."

I got back to my car quickly and prayed it would start. Once I made it to town, I stopped at a cafe and ordered a coffee and a muffin. I needed time to contemplate what was happening. With a clearer head, in that I was away from the house, I could put things in perspective. There was no denying that I was climaxing every night and that my body was marked as if I was being sexually used by someone or something.

Someone was an impossibility that meant that it was something, but what? The only logical or was it illogical conclusion I could come to was that Edward's ghost was the culprit, and I was being mistaken for his Marie. I didn't understand how this was happening but knew there wasn't any other explanation. I'd never been one to have erotic dreams, and while I was not sexually inexperienced, what was happening was beyond this realm. 

I reviewed all the times he had come to me, and it suddenly hit me. I was always wearing the old red sweater, or it was near me each time he manifested himself. Something about that sweater brought him close to me, thinking I was Marie. 

I jumped into the car and raced back to the house. Again the apparition was in the window. I dashed upstairs and found the sweater back in the closet again. Going back downstairs, I started a fire in the fireplace. I held the sweater one last time, and just as I was going to throw it into the fireplace, my arms were pinned to my side so I couldn't move. I struggled, but something was holding me back. 

I heard a scream in my ear just one long protracted, "Nooo!" Fighting with all my might, I freed myself from the steel grip and threw the sweater into the flames where it immediately ignited. I watched it burn.

"What have you done?" The eerie voice wailed.

I could feel the cold and the clamminess dissipating when a second voice, a female voice came from the fireplace, "Edward, my Edward, you have finally come." 

Then there was total silence, and the only sound was the crackling of the fire.

I sat there, bemused at what had just happened. I thought about my Aunt and wondered if Edward came to her each night as well. I suddenly realized that it was October 31, ironically Halloween. This was the night of Edward's accident that took him away from his beloved Marie and now it was the night I allowed him to return to his love. I must have stared into the flame and the embers for hours. I woke up in the morning lying in front of the smoldering embers, having had my first night of uninterrupted sleep since my arrival.

Rapidly the memories of what had happened dimmed as I set up to make the house habitable. I cleaned every room and decided to donate most of Edward's and Marie's belongings to charity. Before winter came, I cleared the front yard and planted bulbs in hopes of transforming the front yard into a garden again. 

The owner of the café where I now had made it a habit to go for breakfast offered me a job, which relieved me of my financial worries. I enjoyed waitressing and getting to know the town's people. Some of the older folks would regal me with memories of Marie and Edward. I would just smile and listen. 

Jack, the owner, flirted with me regularly and asked me out on a date at least twice a day until I finally relented and went out with him. He was a really sweet man whom I felt I could talk to about almost anything. All was rosy again in the world for me. Although I had not talked about what happened in those first days of moving into my Aunt's house. 

Right around Valentine's Day, I started to feel achy as if I had the flu. When I checked my calendar, I realized I had missed my period for two months now. This was not unusual for me as I always was very erratic with my periods, especially when I was stressed. I went to see the local doctor to get checked out, and after a thorough exam, he told me that I was pregnant. We did an ultrasound to be sure everything was okay, and she gave me an estimate of being three months pregnant. 

My mind reeled. I must have turned pale as the doctor asked me if I was okay. I said I was and left to go back to work. Jack, the owner of the café, came to me during my break and asked me what was wrong. He told me I needed to take the rest of the day off and drove me home. 

Sitting at the table, I broke down in tears. Through my tears, I said, "Jack, I don't know how to tell you this, but I am pregnant."

He handed me a tissue, and before he could speak, I went on, "I don't know how much you know about my Aunt Marie and Edward, but they loved each other very much. Unfortunately, Edward was taken way too soon, and they never were able to have the life they wanted. 

When I moved here, I did not realize how strong love could be. You might think I'm crazy, and I'll understand if you do as I thought I was when this happened. You see, Edward would come to me in my sleep. I would wake up from these dreams having had climaxed several times. He would call me Marie. The last time he came to me was in his room. That night I experienced sex like no other. It was almost like my body was possessed by him. I felt every part of him, including his release deep inside of me, and I believe that is when I got pregnant."

I sat back and held my breath as I waited for Jack to respond. 

He held both my hands in his and kneeled in front of me, "Amelia, will you marry me?" 

I didn't think I heard him correctly as I asked, "Wha.., what did you say? Did you just hear me say that my Aunt's dead fiancé got me pregnant?"

Jack smiled at me, "I heard you, and I believe you. I've heard stories from people around here about your Aunt and listening to you, I don't think she was crazy any more than I think you are. I know we haven't known each other long, but I feel you are the person I've searched for. I want to spend my life with you. So will you marry me?

I looked him in the eye as tears again streamed down my face, "Yes! Yes, I will marry you. Are you sure about this, and what about the baby?"

"I am very sure, and as for the baby, if it's a girl, we'll name her Jenna Marie. The baby is mine from this moment on. I love you, Amelia Marie."

******"

I looked down at my beautiful daughter. She had dark hair and green eyes just like mine. My dad's words still rang in my ears from his visit earlier. 

"Amelia, she is gorgeous. She looks just like your Aunt Marie when she was born. Look at that crop of hair. You have made me a proud Grandpa, and your Aunt would adore her."