Halton Cray (Shadows of the World Book 1) (19 page)

‘No, they can’t be locked!’ exclaimed Mike.

‘She’s probably just confused,’ said Evans. ‘It’s
not difficult.’

‘They are! I tried them over and over!’

‘Oh, Jesus, we’re all going to die in here!’

‘Some one shut her up!’

‘Who said that?’

‘I did!’ shouted Courtney.

‘I’ll do it!’ cried Lee. ‘If I can find her.’

‘Touch her and you’re dead!’ yelled Mike.

‘Oh, what about Geoffrey?’ sobbed Jan. ‘He’s
somewhere in the house alone.’

‘Oh no!’

‘Doreen?’

‘I’ve got frozen meat in the staffroom freezer!
It’s not going to be any good now!’

Everyone fell silent for half a minute. All we
could hear in that time was drumming, which had softened a little. That and the
pitiful moans from inside the walls. Heavy breathing increased in the room.
Several of us made sharp movements.

‘Listen everyone,’ said Terry, ‘we all need to
keep calm and behave rationally. Can anyone think of anything in this place
that creates light? Torches, candles, matches?’

‘I have matches,’ cried Evans. ‘But it is strictly
prohibited to light them within this establishment.’

‘We’re in a blackout, Mrs!’ he snapped. ‘In
strange circumstances! Perhaps a change of attitude is in order!’

‘“A change of attitude!”’ she quoted heatedly.
‘Are you an imbecile? This house is over five hundred years old and surrounds
us with timber. Do you think I’ll risk burning it down? To top that off, if we
are
locked in, which I seriously doubt, would it be wise to start lighting fires?’

‘Nobody said anything about starting fires, you
stupid woman!’

‘How dare you!’

‘Stop!’ cried Frances. ‘Does anyone else have
their mobile phone? Mine’s in my coat, so… anyone?’

‘I’ll use mine,’ said Dan. ‘Forget the light
though, we can call for help! Wait a minute– I can’t find it. I had it a minute
ago!’ He spoke in utter disbelief.

‘It’s that thing!’ screamed Stacey. ‘It’s taken
our phones!’

‘No, Stace,’ said Darren. ‘Terry still has his. He
just won’t use it. And I’ve got mine here, but it’s out of power.’

‘Terry, please use yours,’ Frances pleaded.

‘We might need it later! And I haven’t got much power
left as it is!’

‘We should just call the police!’ shouted
Courtney.

‘What’s the point in that?’ questioned Mike with a
wobble on his vocal cords, owing no doubt to being cold. ‘Even if we called the
council, who would come out in this weather? We’ll just get told to sit tight
until it’s over.’

‘But the doors!’ yelled Stacey. ‘They have to come
get the doors open! We can’t stay in here all night! We won’t tell them it was
ghosts or anything. But they have to get us out. They can use axes or
something!’

‘For heaven’s sake!’ sighed Evans. ‘Don’t be
ridiculous. This is a Grade 1 Listed building. No one is axing those doors! –Oh,
just a moment!’ she exclaimed. ‘I know where there are some torches!’

‘Where?’ demanded a tearful Stacey.

‘Come along! Let’s all make our way to the shop.’
She began shuffling away. ‘I’ll find the torches. Then I shall go to the
staffroom and get my phone. I’ll call the authorities to find out about this
blackout. Is everyone coming?’

Jan’s shoes jingled as she went forth. Many voices
sounded in the affirmative, but I didn’t hear Thom’s.

‘Thom, are you coming?’ I asked the darkness.

‘No,’ he said decidedly. ‘But it’s a good idea
that you all go together.’

‘Leave him be, Alex,’ said Evans coldly. ‘Come on,
everybody to the shop and stay together. Feel your way to the wall, and round…’

‘But Thom?’ I whispered softly, before hardening
my voice. ‘What about Carla-Louise?’

‘Don’t worry about her, Alex. She’s not worrying
about you. – It’s all right. Go with Mrs Evans and the others.’

He pressed his hand to the small of my back and
guided me forward.

‘Why won’t you come with us?’

‘Because,
ma dame
, I’m allergic to
celluloid and other cheap plastic crap. It brings me out in a rash.’

‘Don’t joke around, Thom. Please come with us?’

His hand vanished from my back.

‘Thom?’ I called out. ‘Thom!’

‘Here –’ he said, placing his own jacket about my
shoulders. ‘You’re cold.’ He got close to me and rubbed the tops of my arms.

‘How did you know?’

‘You usually are in this house.’

Without another word he took hold of my hands and
chafed them in his.

‘Please let me go with you, sir?’ I whispered.

He gently squeezed my hands. ‘Trust me?’

‘I do.’

‘Go to the shop. I’ll come back for you in less
than ten minutes.’ His hand cupped my face as his thumb caressed my cheek.
‘Just give me that?’

‘Yes, sir.’

I went silently with the others, now enveloped in
his scent. Their footsteps moved in unison and their voices echoed through the
hallway, as they called for one another, and seemed to move in pairs.

Eighteen

‘Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires.’

– William Shakespeare,
Macbeth

Once in the shop Evans
frequently moaned she was ‘Dying for a ciggy’ while conducting a headcount.

‘Right, the little torches are for sale in here,’
she continued. ‘So I’ll find them and hand them out. They’re not very big, and
the light is green, but they’re better than nothing! Plus, they’re those wind
up ones, so we don’t need batteries. Frances, could you come over to the till
area a moment? Oh, is this you?’

‘Me? No.’

‘Who is it then? Who am I touching?’

No one answered.

‘Thomas?’

No one answered.

I knew it couldn’t be Thom. It just wasn’t like
him to be that mean. Besides, he never came in the shop.

‘Doreen, are you okay? I’m still finding my way to
you.’ Frances gulped loudly.

‘I’m fine,’ replied old Evans, nervously (who
wouldn’t be?) ‘I must have touched the curtain and– and pushed it back. Right,
here you are?’

‘Yes, this is me,’ said Frances.

‘I need to get to a basket down here. Where is it?
Ah, here we are, they should be in here. For once I don’t need to find my
glasses! Oh, I think I’ve found one! Where’s the wind up bit? Ah, here it is.
What a noisy business winding these up. There!’

She shone it round the room, including behind her,
and then into all our faces.

‘Are there any more?’ fished Stacey desperately.

‘I’m looking. They’re in this basket of mixed
toys. I can’t see any. Ah, here is another one I think. Yes, it is. That’s for
you Stacey, since you asked first. Here is another, and it seems to be the last
one. Here, Frances, you can use this one.’

‘Shhh! Did you hear that?’

‘What?’

We all listened. There was a creak on the
floorboards. It came from the hallway. Then another creak. Evans pointed the
green light straight at the door. The torch lit up the wood panelling across
the hallway under its faint speckled glow. Certainly someone was out there.

‘Hell-ooo?’ it called out, rather nervously.

‘Geoffrey? Geoffrey, is that you?’

He wandered into the light. ‘Jan? Frances? Are you
all in here?’

There was no need to put his hand up in front of
his face, as he soon found; the green light wasn’t bright at all.

‘Yes, we’re here! We didn’t know where you were.’

‘I’ve been searching high and low for a torch.
Then I heard you all screaming and yelling! It took me such a while to get from
one end of the house to the stairs. And I couldn’t get down them in a hurry. I
went to the front door, but that’s locked!’

‘See, I told you it was locked!’ cried Stacey.
‘We’re all trapped in this place!’

‘Come on now,’ said Geoffrey, ‘don’t let all this
scare you silly. I only just remembered I have a key to the caretaker’s shed, where
I know he keeps a flashlight. I can’t get to it now, but all the better,
considering the rain. I’d rather be dry in the dark than wet in the light.’ He
took a few steps into the shop.

Just as he stopped moving, something ran behind
him. We all jumped back
en masse
at the sight of it in the green glow. I
heard everyone in that room make a vocal noise of surprise, and the soles of
their shoes tread down. Jan’s jingled.

‘What was that?’ whispered Amy. ‘What the hell was
that
!’

‘I don’t know,’ muttered Evans. ‘I don’t…’

‘Oh, Geoffrey, come here please!’ begged his wife.

The torchlight was shaking a little on Geoffrey.
He was turning about in the quivering glow.

‘What– what did you see?’

‘I don’t mean to scare you, Geoffrey, or anyone,’
said Evans in a bit of a daze. ‘But something just ran behind you. It looked
like a half-naked man!’

Everyone was talking at once. Evans began
questioning all the men in the room, determining which out of them it could be
playing a sick joke. They all forcefully denied it. Stacey began crying and
intermittently screaming, despite Darren’s pleas. Amy was just as hysterical.
Evans kept her light shining on the doorway, however nervously.

‘Whatever it was, it’s still in here.’ Her voice
dropped an octave. ‘It’s got to be one of you messing about!’

She accused Lee directly who insisted it wasn’t
him.

‘Oh! There it is again!’ cried Frances. ‘Did you
see it?’

‘I saw it,’ muttered Evans. ‘It went in the same
direction, like it circled us!’

‘Terry?’

‘Hang on – I can’t find my phone!’

‘We need to get out of here, please!’ begged
Stacey.

‘Well I’m not going first!’ exclaimed Evans.
‘There! I’ll keep my light on the doorway, so you can see where you’re going.
Who’s going first then? – Alex, pick up Stacey’s torch, she’s dropped it!’

I grabbed it and started searching the room with
it.

‘Obviously no one wants to be the first to walk to
the door!’

‘Who else is in the house?’ asked Geoffrey, a
little cynically, because he was the only one who didn’t see it.

‘Thomas is in the house somewhere,’ said Evans.
‘It sure as hell wasn’t him. He’s much taller!’

‘What else?’ Geoffrey asked curiously. ‘What did
this person look like exactly?’

‘
Person
? More like a creature!’ insisted
Evans.

‘Of small to medium build,’ recalled Frances.

‘Yes, that’s right,’ Evans agreed. ‘Its skin was
bare, as if it had ripped its clothes off! – Who’s shining their torch to the
right?’ she cried out. ‘
It
went to the left. Look to the left of the
room! Whose torch is dimming?’

‘My one,’ I replied. ‘I’ve tried winding it up
again, but it’s jammed! Useless! I’ll have to make do with what’s left.’

I used the waning light to check people, as they
begged me to do – that is, shining it on them to ascertain the creature, as
they termed it, didn’t stand behind them. Frances joined me in doing this until
Evans told us to stop. She complained that we should be looking about the room.
We shone our torches round the floor again, looking for where the creature
crouched or stood. If we couldn’t see its feet, then it couldn’t be there,
right?

Very quickly, my light faded completely and only
two torches remained. We’d searched the floor and now Frances alone searched
the furniture, and up the walls.

‘What’s that?’ she cried, her torch shining up to
a corner of the ceiling. It was a face, a grotesque face looking down on us.
Attached to the face was a body, and this had limbs each fastened to the corner
of the walls and ceiling. Amy started the screaming; others continued it.
Frances clearly shook with fear. Her torchlight was bouncing all over the
place. In this commotion, it left the face for a moment and we heard a thud.
She shone the light up again. The face had gone.

‘Wait–’ I yelled. ‘The ceiling is covered in faces
anyway, carved in the plaster. It could’ve been one of those!’

‘No, it wasn’t! It was that thing!’

‘We’ve got to get out of here!’

Though most agreed to leave the room no one
actually did. The doorway ahead was a dark lonely hole in the wall, which Evans
kept her torchlight on.

‘Let’s just think a moment!’ Evans insisted. ‘The
main thing is we stick together.’

‘Alex?’ I heard Thom’s voice in the hallway.

‘Thom!’ I flew towards the green light to get to
him. I thought the others might follow. They didn’t. In fact, I saw Evans’s
light behind me sweep from side to side. It seemed they were edging back,
deeper into the room, keeping close together. Another room sat behind the shop,
though this was often unused and locked up, as it was today.

Thom was waiting in the hallway to one side of the
door. I could only make out one vertical line of his shape.

‘Thom, where have you been? We need your help!
Please, come in the shop a moment?’ I made a grab for his arm in the dark, but
missed.

‘Impossible,’ he responded sharply.

‘What is?’

Silence.

‘Thom, I can’t leave them. There’s something in
there, and it’s not right – it doesn’t seem like a normal person. Just help me,
please?’

‘I will always–’ he rushed to say before
hesitating. He got next to me, grabbed my arm firmly and spoke rapidly in my
ear. ‘I know about the person in that room, Alex. Listen to me! It won’t harm
them; do you understand? Do you understand me?’ – I only nodded. – ‘Good. Now,
in order to help them, I must do something that will make you angry. Don’t be!
It won’t harm them. Just remember that!’

He moved away from me. I felt the breeze of how
quickly he swept by. I thought he was going into the shop. He didn’t. I saw the
green light of Evans’s torch being pushed back, fading away bit by bit. Evans
began yelling as they all did. None of them knew it was Thom closing the door.
I said nothing; it stunned me. I wasn’t silent to protect him! It literally
took me aback. He closed the door and locked it with a key. I couldn’t believe
it! I was so angry.

‘It was you?’ I mumbled, astounded. ‘It was you,
Thom –
you
locked the main door! You pretended to lock the De Morgan
Gallery when Stacey asked you, but you locked us all in here! You did, didn’t
you?’

‘Alex, you don’t understand.’ He tried to hold my
hand, but I pushed it away.

‘I understand they’re all terrified in there! Why
is
that exactly? Who’s in there with them?’

‘I asked you not to be angry. Don’t judge this! I
hoped you’d all go.’ His tone heated up. ‘But you all decided to stay and wait
out the storm. I can’t help that. I haven’t time to go into detail. I need to
fix something!’

I felt him move away. I tried to follow on my own in
the darkness.

‘Thom? Don’t leave–’

He took hold of my hand and led me round to – I
believe – the De Morgan Gallery: where today’s events had all begun.

‘Thom, tell me one thing. If they’re in no danger
locked up with that
person
, why did you get me out of there?’ – It’s
easier to ask the more daring questions when you don’t have to dodge someone’s
eyes.

‘Because– quite simply because with you, my brazen
Cassandra, I didn’t want to risk it.’ He stepped closer, squeezing my hand a
little. I breathed in his delicious scent. ‘I’m sure they’re in no danger,’ he
continued. ‘But to leave my favourite lamb so near a wolf’s den, what a foolish
shepherd I’d be.’

I wasn’t sure how to respond.

He placed one of my hands on a nearby table. ‘Stay
here!’ he commanded. I heard him go right across the room, towards the windows.
A door opened – and closed. I realised he was using the secret passage that led
under the house. The room was quiet. It was empty, but for me. I wasn’t scared,
so long as I didn’t think too much on the noises. Currently nothing occurred. I
stayed. I waited. I realised that what Stacey had thought was in this room had
probably been coming from under it. Whatever it was, Thom knew all about it.
Was it the stranger? The creature that ran around the gift shop was a deal too
small to be the stranger. But whoever made noises below stairs – well, that
might be him. Distantly I could hear the cries of Frances, Stacey, Evans, and
the others. It hurt to hear them, knowing a little more than they did. I could
only hope Thom would return soon and release them.

After a while the same familiar noises returned to
where I stood: the thumping and whining followed by the faint rattling of
chains.

Silence again.

‘Thom?’

I couldn’t hear a thing in the room. I just had a
feeling he was back in there with me. I felt a presence, and I could smell his
scent getting stronger, closer – intoxicating me.

‘Thom, are you here?’ I reached out a shaky hand
to grope the darkness in front of me. Nothing. Then I felt his steady hands on
me – on my waist! I put my hands on his, in shock. He slid them round to my
back, beneath his jacket I still wore, and pulled me against him. My heart
quickened with nerves and excitement. His nose and mouth nestled against the
top of my head, in the roots of my hair, where he groaned with pleasure.

‘Thom?’ I raised my head.

Silently his mouth went first to my neck. He
pressed his lips against my skin and I surrendered to his touch. Tenderly he
kissed down to my shoulder, moving the strap of my dress slightly to one side.
Parting his lips, he retraced the length of my neck, softly kissing those
places I found I was utterly sensitive – under my jaw, beneath my ear. Tingles
ran the length of my body as the tip of his tongue caressed my skin. I placed
my hands on his muscular chest, partly feeling the strength of his body against
mine, and partly in ready defence – to not allow too much of this. He was
making his way to my mouth, his hand supporting one side of my neck. My heart
pounded loudly, but it couldn’t outdo the sound of my colleagues still yelling
for help! Their voices had muted a while. Now they were again in the forefront
of my mind.

‘Thom, we can’t–’ I forced out these words, gently
pushing at him. It was wrong to do this now.

‘Alex?’ I heard him call from the other side of
the room. No hands were on me! The secret door shut loudly, yards away. ‘Alex,
did you call me?’ His footsteps came my way, quickly.

‘What are you playing at?’ I said – confused –
upset! I felt foolish, as if I’d just imagined it all. I couldn’t have, but in
the darkness it might be easy to give in to such sweet fantasies! I became so
annoyed, though unsure with whom. ‘What are you playing at?’ I repeated. ‘They
need to be let out of there!’

‘C’mon!’ He grabbed my hand with his familiar grip
and dovetailed our fingers. ‘Everything’s back to normal.’

He took me round to the main door where he
unlocked and opened it. It wasn’t raining anymore, though the blackout
remained. The clouds had opened up to reveal a bright moon. In the light of
her, Thom turned to face me and held my shoulders firmly while looking me in
the eye.