Halton Cray (Shadows of the World Book 1) (18 page)

‘Not drinking tonight, Thom?’ questioned Carla-Louise,
examining his empty hands. ‘Have a glass of wine, at least. I wish I’d taken a
taxi here now,’ she reflected, leaning in to him and patting his thigh, ‘so I
could at least have another glass. It’s not a little depressing this so-called
party.’

He chortled sarcastically as if to a private joke,
and then turned to her all charmed.

‘What can I do to make you happier?’

She smiled and went to say something – but Lee at
that moment wasn’t looking where he was walking and crashed into Frances. She
had a full glass of cider, which flew into Carla’s lap.

‘Argh!’ She sprang to her feet, looking down to her
soaked self, hands outstretched. ‘You
idiot
woman!’

Lee, apologising, tried not to laugh.

Thom moved from his seat to retrieve napkins, while
Dan and Mel exchanged looks.

‘I
am
sorry,’ said Frances, furrowing her
brow in resentment at the name-calling. ‘It was an accident!’

‘It wasn’t her fault,’ added Terry.

Carla’s top lip curled up over her teeth as she
glared at Frances. She robotically brushed her lap, though the fabric had
absorbed the strong smelling cider. Terry fetched his wife another drink, rubbing
her shoulder on his return.

‘Thank you, Thom.’ Carla’s tone changed as she
took napkins from his hand. ‘It’s useless! I’ll have to change my dress.’

‘Nonsense,’ he said, disappointing me. ‘It’s
pouring down, and this’ll be dry before you know it. Stay and try to forget it
happened.’

She tutted. ‘Cider! – on French silk! I doubt the
rain could make it worse. Ugh! My drycleaners aren’t open tomorrow. Well, I’m
not sitting here smelling so vile.’

Thom Smiled. ‘Whatever you wish.’

She pouted and moved towards the door.

‘How long will you be?’ he asked, following her.

‘I hope no more than an hour.’

They disappeared together out the Great Hall,
turning towards the main entrance. From that moment my eyes consistently revisited
the door, checking for his return. Meanwhile I sat next to Frances with Terry
by her. Opposite were Jan and Geoffrey, who agreed that Carla was completely
out of line.

Thom didn’t return and eventually Dan went to his
office looking for him, but reappeared saying he wasn’t there.

‘Did you check the De Morgan Gallery?’ I asked.

‘Yep.’

‘So it wasn’t locked?’ I leant forward.

‘No.’ He looked baffled. ‘Why would it be?’

‘No reason, I guess. And the window shutters?’

‘What about them?’

‘Nothing.’ I pursed my lips.

Stacey was eyeing us both suspiciously. ‘Can it be
locked then?’ she asked. ‘Because I’d like it if it was. I’d feel better.’

‘Thom has the key to it,’ Dan replied. ‘I’ll ask
him though, when he makes an appearance.’

Geoffrey made himself and Jan some tea, which was
available on the drinks table. To which Dan joked that this wasn’t a tea party.
We all sat uncomfortably silent with one another as Geoffrey and Jan slurped
their hot drinks. What broke the ice was the re-entrance of Mike and Amy,
looking vastly altered to when they left. Moreover, Amy was in tears.

‘We got to our car,’ panted Mike, ‘and found the
windscreen badly cracked down the driver’s side. Couldn’t see a thing out of it.
Plenty of other cars were okay – why did it have to be ours? We saw that woman
leaving, the one in the red dress – didn’t we, love?
Her
car was
alright, but she still looked furious as she sped away. So, we’ve come back to
dry off until our breakdown service arrives.’

All this propelled a few other guests who’d driven
to the party to say their goodbyes quickly.

‘We’d better get you both dry as possible,’ said
Frances. ‘It’s too hard keeping warm in this old house as it is. Maybe I can
find some towels.’

‘We’ve only got tea towels!’ Mrs Evans
interjected.

‘I may be able to acquire a couple,’ I said,
seeing how Mike and Amy shivered.

‘Yes,’ muttered the old battle-axe. ‘Someone has
friends in high places!’ She raised her eyes to the double-height ceiling of
the grand room. ‘And dark places, too.’

I headed for Thom’s office, finding it empty and
his door ajar. I went round to the stairwell that I’d once climbed soaked
through myself, remembering how close I’d felt to Thom that day.

‘Thom?’ I called, knocking at his apartment door.

Silence.

I tried the handle and it opened. It was pitch-black.
I switched on the light.

‘Thom, are you up here?’

With no response I hurried to his bathroom. I
didn’t feel that uncomfortable taking his things without asking. I was sure he
wouldn’t scold me genuinely for it. If nothing else, I hoped we were good
friends.

I handed the towels to Frances who showed the
couple to the toilets. Then I walked the corridor encompassing the courtyard in
a full square, wondering how things came to this. I’d foreseen talking to Thom
at the party, recapturing moments lost in recent weeks. How I never imagined he
would bring a date and I suffer Mark turning up. Speaking of which.

‘Hey, Alex.’

‘Hi, Mark. I was just heading back to the Hall.’

‘Hang on,’ he said, taking hold of my arm. ‘You do
know I came here hoping you’d give me another chance.’

‘To be frank, I really hoped that wasn’t the case.
I’m just not–’

‘I think you’re still a bit angry, Alex, that’s
all. And I get it, I do. But maybe it’s a waste of time staying angry. Love and
hate are just opposite sides of the same coin, you know.’

Some might see this as romantic; I saw it as a
problem. I hid my smile and gently pulled my arm free of his hand.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said apologetically, ‘but I just
don’t feel that way about you now. I won’t change my mind.’

He looked put out, annoyed even, as if I’d been
leading him on.

‘Mark, I don’t know what Stacey said when inviting
you along, but you should doubt what she says when talking about my feelings.’

‘Fine.’ He tightened his jaw, looking away. ‘I’m
gonna get going then.’

‘I think that’s probably best.’

‘You know, Alex, I really did like you. I made one
little mistake and then said sorry. Why are you being like this? It’s not like
you’ve got blokes lined up around the corner waiting to go out with you.’

‘So, I should just go out with anyone who takes an
interest?’

‘I’m not
anyone
, Alex. And I’m probably the
best you’re gonna get.’

I realised something very worrying. Mark reminded
me of Owen – not in looks, but personality. How had I never realised before?

He shook his head and walked off.

I scanned the corridors, almost expecting to see
Thom standing in one of them looking at me vexingly. He wasn’t there. An image
of him and Carla-Louise laughing together entered my head and I almost shed a
tear.

I returned to the Great Hall feeling deflated.

‘There’s something very different about this
house,’ I heard Jan say, as I made my way back to where everybody sat. She
looked up and around the Great Hall, with hands clasping a fresh mug of tea,
and her flesh-coloured plastic ears still attached to the sides of her head.

‘You’re telling me,’ I said in a reflex.

‘You’ve seen and heard things, have you?’

‘There have been some odd things happening lately
that no one can explain.’

‘What like?’

‘Like–’ I paused and thought best not to mention
the ghostly hammering sounds. I tried to think of an example less grim.

‘Like,’ began Dan, ‘a visitor complained this
morning that the fireplace growled at her.’

Everyone’s eyes leapt to where Dan pointed.
Stacey’s glued there.

‘But I’m sure she must’ve imagined it,’ I said.

Geoffrey turned to his wife, who was just as grey
and wrinkled. ‘What do you mean when you say the house is different?’ His
glasses steamed up where he held his hot tea beneath. ‘Different from how it
used to be, or just from other houses?’

‘I remember it from the last time I came here,’
she answered him. ‘It used to feel so friendly. Now it feels like it’s got a
nasty game to play!’ She pulled her shoulders in. ‘There’s a dark feeling about
it.’

Stacey’s eyes filled with fear.

It surprised me to hear silent Su utter coolly,
‘This isn’t helpful.’ as she stood looking out the window.

‘Humph!’ carped Mrs Evans, attempting her third
mince pie. ‘It’s had a dark feeling about it for a while now, let me tell you!
And I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s noticed.’

Su looked at Doreen and then to Stacey. ‘Don’t
fret.’

‘I’m bored,’ moaned Lee, pulling out his phone to
play a game.

‘I used to visit this house when I was a small
girl, from down in the village,’ said Jan. ‘We called it the haunted mansion.’

‘Perhaps we shouldn’t talk about this now?’ I
interposed.

‘Oh, we didn’t see anything,’ Jan defended
herself. ‘They were just stories put about by the adults to keep you away from
such places.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Geoffrey. ‘Why would
adults want to keep you away, and from what places?’ He shook his head
impatiently.

‘None of the children admitted to seeing the
ghosts, but they were told stories by their parents. The children always said
mummy or daddy saw a shadow lurking in the gardens.’ She gesticulated. ‘Or up
at the windows, or down by the Shockers. Quite rightly too they should try to
keep their children away, because of the murder.’

‘Murder?’ repeated Mrs Evans. Her ears popped up
like toast. ‘What murder?’

‘I wouldn’t have been ten years old when it
happened. They never caught him.’

‘That’s sexist,’ blurted Dan, sipping on his beer.
‘Many a woman has killed.’

Mel elbowed him.

‘Not like that.’ Jan shook her head. ‘A woman
couldn’t kill like that.’

‘Oh please stop!’ Stacey pleaded, with tears
visible on her cheeks.

‘Yeah, leave it out,’ said Darren, rubbing her
back.

Lee stared at Jan. ‘How’d they die?’

Jan was about to speak. As she drew breath to do
so, all the lights went out.

Seventeen

‘
Thou didst, as one, who,
journeying through the darkness, hears a light behind, that profits not
himself, but makes his followers wise.’

– Dante Alighieri,
Purgatorio

Some might imagine there
was a scream, a whimper, perhaps even a death or two in the darkness. In that
first thirty seconds – which is rather a long time when trapped in a
pitch-black, haunted old mansion – no one spoke, moved, or cried out. Stacey
may have fainted, but who could tell? Dan broke the silence first.

‘Must be a blackout.’

‘No, it can’t be!’ cried Mrs Evans.

‘It is,’ I said, looking out the bay window, which
had a good view of the main road. ‘All the streetlamps are out. I can’t see any
cars on the road either.’

I heard her shuffling my way. It was easy to
distinguish her tread: quick steps in stout heels. She bumped into me, huffing,
as if I deliberately got in her path. I could make out her sturdy figure while
she stood so close against the glass. Fuzzy gleams of light bounced back and
forth off the panes, making up the slightest glimmer in the darkened Hall, as
my eyes adjusted to it.

‘How long do you
fink
this’ll last?’
Courtney piped up.

Mrs Evans scoffed, ‘How long’s a piece of string!
I’m glad my friends couldn’t make it now. So many had the good sense to cancel
at the last minute.’

‘Wonderful! Just wonderful!’ exclaimed Geoffrey.
‘This is the perfect finish, Jan, to all your ghost stories. – Jan? – Jan?’

‘Where is she?’ Dan asked. ‘Have you found her?’

‘Oh, Christ!’ he cried.

‘What is it?’ asked numerous voices.

‘I put my damn fingers in her tea! Frigging
boiling! Jan, is this you?’

‘Geoff?’

‘Yes, I’m here. Now sit up. What are you doing? Did
you fall? Faint?’

‘No, I – I was thinking about that murder when the
lights went out. I got down onto the floor, in case I fell off the chair.’

Stacey had since been breathing heavily and
sobbing, but keeping her panic fairly controlled. With each howl of the wind
and crash of rain on the windows, her audible terror increased. ‘Where’s
Frances? Where’s she gone?’

‘She’ll be back soon, Stace,’ I told her. ‘It’ll
be okay.’

‘No it won’t!’ she cried.

‘Use your phones for light,’ yelled Dan, as a
small white beam pierced the blackness yards away. It barely made a difference
to the rest of the grand room.

‘I haven’t even got my phone!’ snapped Stacey.
‘It’s in my bag in the staffroom.’

‘Mine too,’ I said.

‘I’ve got mine,’ said Darren. ‘Come on, Stace,
I’ve got you.’ Using his phone he lit the space between them. ‘It’ll be alright
– although, I haven’t got much power left.’

 ‘Oh!’ she sobbed hard. ‘It won’t be alright! Not
while we’re in this place. I want to go home. I want to leave right now!’

‘Oh, Stacey, for heaven’s sake, calm down!’ Mrs
Evans insisted.

‘I could search about for torch,’ said Geoffrey.
‘Could someone sit with my wife until I get back?’

‘I’ll take care of her, Geoffrey,’ Su volunteered.
‘Is this you, Jan? You’re like a twig!’

We heard Geoffrey feeling his way along the
darkened hallway. Dan began offering to fetch people drinks using his phone to
guide him. Meanwhile Terry asked if Frances would be able to find her way back
to the Hall okay, as he didn’t know the building to go and fetch her. Stacey
continued sobbing while Darren consoled her. His light very soon went out and
Lee used his in its place.

‘Doesn’t anyone else have their phone?’ asked
Darren.

‘Actually,’ said Dan, ‘I’m not sure we should run
our batteries low considering we might be stuck in here for a while. I mean,
it’s torrential out there. I’m not driving in that with no streetlight. We may
need to make calls later.’

‘Yes,’ said Terry. ‘I’m turning mine off. I’d
rather sit in the dark for five minutes.’

‘But the power might not come back on in five
minutes!’ grumbled Mrs Evans.

‘I didn’t mean it literally.’

She huffed. ‘Well, I’d use my phone but it’s in my
handbag.’

‘I want to get out of here!’ cried Stacey. ‘If I
can’t drive in this, I’ll just sit in my car.’

‘Don’t be such a baby!’ uttered Lee, his phone
light waning until the darkness swallowed it up completely, and the room was
utterly black again.

‘We’re better off in here, Stace.’

I thought I might escape to search for Frances and
find out if she was still with Mike and Amy. Last I knew they were in the
toilets. Now Geoffrey was somewhere in the house too. Not to mention my –

‘Is everyone alright?’ Thom’s voice was firm.

‘Thom,’ I whispered in relief.

‘Rues, there you are!’ exclaimed Dan.

‘Don’t come in here!’ griped Mrs Evans, before
stuttering a little. ‘It– it’s much too crowded as it is!’

‘Mrs Evans, we’re in the Great Hall!’ I reminded
her.

‘Is Carla back?’ asked Dan.

‘If she were, Dan, you’d regret shortening her
name.’

Frances re-entered the Hall – her clunky heals
trekked cautiously into the room. ‘We made it,’ she said. ‘Everybody – I have
Amy and Mike with me.’

We heard nothing of them for a few minutes, until
chairs scraped on the floor as they felt their way over and sat down.

‘Fran?’ Terry called out to his wife, ‘where are
you?’

‘I’m over here. Were you going to come and find
me?’

‘And waste my phone battery?’ He laughed. ‘Not a
chance. You know this place better than me.’

We all expected the lights to come back on any
minute. Mike quietly whispered to his fiancée, trying to keep her calm.
Suddenly he raised his voice to the room –

‘Is there no other lighting anywhere in this
place?’

‘I’m not aware of any,’ answered Thom.

‘Shouldn’t you be doing something useful, Thomas,’
lanced Mrs Evans, ‘like checking the fuse boxes? Maybe one of those has been
tripped and it controls all the lights around here!’

‘A fuse box in here which controls all the lights,
including the streetlamps on the main road?’ He laughed subtly. ‘Is
that
how it works then?’

‘I don’t know how it works, do I! Do I look like
an engineer?’

‘Certainly not,’ he replied. ‘But rest assured,
it’s no blown fuse or tripped breaker from in here.’

It was odd that Thom’s voice came back at me from
all different corners of the Great Hall. It made me feel a little dizzy. He was
so talented, I had no doubt he was capable of throwing his voice. I just found
it puzzling why he would. The only other explanation was that he moved about
the room, as if searching for something. But what?

‘I should probably know this, but is there no
emergency generator?’ asked Mike.

‘Afraid not.’

‘How stupid!’ declared Mrs Evans.

‘Yes, most ridiculous,’ Thom replied, ‘because of
all the brain surgery and heart operations that go on here. Why on earth didn’t
they prepare better?’

She sighed heavily.

Mike interjected, ‘I take it we’re on the same
distribution grid as the local neighbourhood then, are we?’

‘The very same, yes,’ Thom confirmed. ‘They’re as
powerless as us – no pun intended.’

‘What about the phone lines?’

‘Conventional phone lines would run on their own
power supply, but the phones here are cordless and require AC power to
operate.’

‘How convenient you know so much about it all.’

‘I should know since I live here,
Doreen
.’

‘Please address me properly, as only my friends
may use my Christian name.’

I tutted in her direction knowing nothing would
stop her. I wanted to pinch her!

‘Just know this,’ she continued, ‘you can’t get
away with anything in here. We’ll all bear witness!’

‘Doreen!’ Frances’s voice broke in. ‘That’s an
awful thing to say!’

It was not a minute after this that the familiar
banging noises revisited the Cray. With nowhere to fix our eyes for
reassurance, it was all too easy to let our imaginations run wild.

‘Will someone please put their phone on!’ begged
Amy. ‘Ours got wet so we left them in the car to dry out.’

‘Considering what Thom told us about the phone
lines,’ said Frances, ‘if we’re here all night, we may need our mobiles later.’

With a backing track of wind and heavy rain, I
could only suppose what sort of dread Stacey was currently under. She surprised
me by calling out –

‘Thom, are you there? Dan said you’ve got a key to
the De Morgan Gallery.’

‘That’s correct.’

‘Would you lock that door please?’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Because it’ll make me feel better. I don’t know
what it was earlier, but I’d just feel better if it was locked.’

Silence.

‘
Please
? Please lock that door!’

Silence.

I knew he wouldn’t mock her in her current state,
but he didn’t stir. Perhaps he was thinking. Perhaps he’d already left the
room,
shod with velvet
, to lock up the ghost.

‘What was in there earlier?’ asked Jan.

‘Thom?’ she called out again.

‘Give me a moment.’ His voice arrived from the
hallway.

It was a few minutes before we all clearly heard
the closing of a heavy wooden door. It was much louder than I expected for that
gallery. Perhaps the removal of our eyesight just made our hearing more acute.
We heard a bolt drawn and the key grate in the lock.

‘It’s done – all locked!’ he said on his return.

‘Thank you!’ Stacey sighed with relief.

‘Will someone tell me why doors are being locked?
What are we afraid of exactly?’

‘The girl had a fright,’ snapped Evans. ‘Thought
she saw a ghost. Nothing to worry about.’

When the banging noises went on in the daytime I
could never tell where they came from, even as they grew louder, which may have
indicated they were closer. Suddenly we all knew where it was coming from. It
became clearer in the darkness and more menacing than before. My heart thumped
hard in my chest. It was certainly coming from the fireplace in the Great Hall.
Perhaps it came from under the hearth. Everyone was muttering –

‘What is it?’ – ‘It’s getting closer!’

Then the moaning began; a man’s voice, just as
Stacey had described. It was wailing distantly and echoing.

‘Oh, Mike,’ said Amy. ‘I don’t like that, it’s
awful. What is it? Other people who work here, what is that noise?’

‘Thom?’ gulped Frances. ‘Do you know who or what
that is?’

In a listless accent Thom replied, ‘Sorry. I can’t
help.’

‘It’s okay, Stacey, don’t panic!’ Darren tried to
pacify her, as she was likely climbing the walls.

It very suddenly stopped and went silent. Even
Stacey stopped her noise to listen, with the occasional sniff.

A faint glow pushed back the darkness. ‘Is that
the fireplace then?’ asked Lee, barely able to reach the huge carved
mantelpiece with his phone light. He then began using it to identify each of us
by face.

‘Shall I video it too? We could upload it to
YouTube. They might find our bodies–’

‘Oh, shut up!’ cried Stacey.

He laughed and continued beaming his light round,
probably in an attempt to mask his own fears. I could see everyone except Thom
when the light passed between us. Abruptly his light went out and the sound of
plastic crashed to the floor. ‘My phone! It was knocked out my hand!’ He
proceeded to swear his head off. ‘It’s all over the floor! Mind where ya
treading! Can someone shine a light here, please?’

‘Here you go,’ said Courtney, using her phone.
‘There’s a bit down there, and there –.’

Suddenly the thumping started up again,
accompanied by a loud groan. It sounded from the fireplace, followed by
footsteps running across the floorboards in the room with us.

‘I’m not staying here!’ Stacey cried. ‘Let me go!’

‘Where are you going?’ Darren called. ‘Stacey!’

‘Stace?’

‘Stacey, don’t run off in the dark!’ Frances
yelled. ‘You might hurt yourself!’

‘Courtney, gimme your phone!’ demanded Darren.

Stacey wasn’t answering our pleas. We could only
hear her sobs waning distantly. Then we heard her piercing scream! It went
right through me. An image entered my mind of a murderous psychopath dragging
her away. Darren was trying to move after her but fell over a chair. There was
a crash of metal to the floor before Courtney’s phone went spinning across the boards,
until the light was lost. Darren moaned aloud in pain.

‘Are you alright?’ Mike asked out.

‘Yeah, I’m okay. Just bruised my knee. – Stacey?’

‘What about my phone!’ yelled Courtney. ‘Where did
it go?’

Everyone talked in a panic, but hesitated to find
Stacey in the dark. Nobody knew how to act. We called out to her but she didn’t
respond. After some seconds, we heard her crying and intermittently screaming
at a lower volume.

Frances was whispering something, and to this Terry
responded, ‘
No
. I’m not wasting my battery.’

‘Someone will have to get her,’ whispered Su.

‘Don’t!’ snapped Lee. ‘Everyone splits up in
horrors, and then they all get killed off one by one!’

‘I’ll go,’ I volunteered, rising from my seat.

‘It’s okay.’ Thom clutched my arm to hold me back.
‘Wait here. I’ll get her.’

Stacey then re-entered the Great Hall by herself.
We knew because she began yelling forcefully –

‘We’re locked in! The front door’s locked! It’s
that thing! It’s locked us in and we’re trapped!’

‘What?’ cried Evans.

‘Oh my God!’ Amy screeched, which set Stacey off
crying even more. ‘This
is
an actual horror movie! The ghosts have
locked us in and will drag us away one by one! Oh Jesus!’