Haunting Melody Part Two

Upstairs the two children were running about. She heard but ignored them; they would tire soon if they didn't get any attention.Her mother drifted through the room. "Still can't find my scarf...." she complained as she passed by. Silence. Finally she felt alone.
Maybe they had all turned in early tonight. She settled down in bed to read. She rarely slept until the early hours because the others often wanted her attention, she was the link that held them all together and sure enough, her mother was back within the hour. "Just looking...." her mother whispered as she peered around the door which was always kept ajar. Just after midnight, the children crept in to play snakes and ladders on the floor by her bed but kept their fighting confined to hoarse whispers so as not to disturb her too much.
Her father stomped his way down the long passage to her room at the back of the house to shout that she read too much and should get out more and then left. Great Aunt Sophie collected the children and took them to their own room. She slipped down the piled pillows and allowed her eyes to close for a moment. A metallic clicking forced them open again and Sophie was sitting by the curtained window, knitting. The sound of the needles was hypnotic and she closed her eyes once more, allowing her mind to drift. Mother was playing Mozart's Fantasia in D minor, a hauntingly sad piece and the musical threads spread like scented smoke throughout the house, soothing and calming.
Bright fingers of sunshine poked around the edges of the curtains and crept over the floor and bed. As she stirred and woke, she saw that Sophie had gone. After checking her clock she went through the house with a light heart, opening curtains to allow the sun to flood every room and then stood at the open back door with a cup of tea watching the sparrows squabble over her toast crusts. She must dress for work; the family wouldn't be her concern again until she returned home in the evening. She hurried, she didn't want to be late and she had a doctor's appointment later. She dashed out of the door to catch the bus, waving to her neighbour Audrey as she went.
Audrey had lived at number 61 for sixty years and she liked to befriend the younger, newer people; that way she could keep herself informed on what was what. So it was no surprise that she was talking to Lissa who had moved into number 70 the year before. She shook her head sorrowfully as the woman from number 59 boarded the bus after they had returned her wave. "A tragic life...." Audrey left the sentence dangling, well baited. Lissa raised an eyebrow inquiringly and Audrey needed no other encouragement. "Last of her family; everyone else gone and in terrible circumstances. Her mother was strangled by her own scarf and young Melody found her when she came home from school. Lying in the bath her mum was, stark naked. Well you would be naked in the bath wouldn't you? But not with your face all blue and a silk scarf so tight that they had to cut it off....and the police looking for the husband." Lissa looked suitably shocked and Audrey felt encouraged to go on.
"They found him in the end, the husband. At the bottom of the river and her little brother and sister with him. All with bricks tied to their feet. Twins they were and little monkeys too. Still...to be murdered like that. Lucky she was at a music lesson after school or else...There was an inquest; I went of course, felt it was my duty as we lived so close, being semi detatched and all. The wife and kiddies were murdered by him and he committed suicide 'whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed'. That's what the coroner said. And that little girl sat there a white as a ghost with her Great Aunt who'd come to care for her. Course she's gone now too.. the Great Aunt I mean." Audrey stood musing for a moment as Lissa expressed her shock whilst secretly revelling in the fact that she has something really interesting to tell Steve when he got home. "Still..." Audrey continued, "It's nice to see that Melody's over it and getting on with her life. I suppose they're all resting peacefully now...."
Melody rested her head against the window of the bus and half closed her eyes. How many years had she been seeing one doctor after another in a bid to stop her thoughts dwelling constantly on her murdered family? They were as real now as they were 17 years ago. Melody prayed that this new doctor could banish them from her head forever and the nightmare could finally end.