by steve higgs
Gulping down my fear, I pushed myself in front of Frank and opened the door.
‘What are you doing?’ squeaked Frank.
‘Close the door, woman,’ demanded Dr Parrish, which got him a fast, raised eyebrow he probably couldn’t see. If he called me woman again, we were going to have words.
I stood my ground, keeping my legs tensed in case I needed to move, but no monster appeared from the gloom on the other side.
‘Can we get out of here now?’ asked Tempest’s mother. I turned to find everyone had followed us from the library and were looking eager to find a way out. ‘I have had enough of the dark and there has to be some decent wine to drink in a house this size.’
Her husband said, ‘I thought you wanted to go home?’
‘And I’ll be taking the wine with me,’ she snapped.
I couldn’t blame her for wanting to leave. As soon as I found Tempest, I would do the same. There were two murder victims here though, so someone had to stay and deal with the police, but regardless of any of that, we first had to actually find a way out. I held the lamp high and stepped through the door. Nothing skewered me, though my heart beat hard in my chest as I swung the lamp in each direction and half expected it to reveal a snarling row of giant teeth bearing down on my head.
I was moving slowly, which invited conversation. Dr Parrish asked Frank what he had seen. ‘Seen?’ he echoed. ‘I didn’t see it. I found my way through the conduit by luck more than anything, guessing which way to go. It was filled with electrical cable and ventilation pipes so I was lucky I could squeeze through at all.’
‘I said I wouldn’t fit,’ Big Ben reminded us.
‘So, what do you think it was?’ asked the blonde witch. ‘What did it sound like?’
Frank took a second, then blew out a hard breath before he spoke. ‘I think it was the monster again. When I was most of the way through the crawl space, a terrible wind stared pushing dust and goodness knows what around and into my face. There was a terrible moaning sound.’
‘We heard it too,’ Dr Parrish assured him.
‘Then I found a ventilation panel and could see a corridor on the other side. I had to knock the panel out with my head and then dive to the floor face first so I think it was talking but I really couldn’t hear what it was saying.’
‘It was threatening Lord Hale,’ explained Dr Parrish. ‘I was going to fight it…’
‘With the captured dawn?’ asked Frank, his excitement obvious. ‘I have always wanted to see what it would do to a demon.’
‘Well, I would have used it, but it met with a little accident and the monster escaped.’
‘What happened to it?’ Frank wanted to know.
‘A great big…’ Big Ben growled in the darkness. ‘I’ll tell you later,’ Dr Parrish concluded.
Lord Hale’s voice cut through the quiet. It was the first time he had spoken in ages. ‘When we reach the junction ahead, the elevator is just along to the right. Make sure you turn right not left.’
I can admit I breathed a sigh of relief at that news. Getting out of the basement wasn’t the same as escaping the house but it would feel like we were getting somewhere. At least we could access the rest of the house and maybe find out why the control room crew were not talking to us.
The moment I turned the corner, I knew my hopes were dashed again. The elevator, visible because I had the lamp in front of me and also because it looked like an elevator unlike the one on the ground floor, was dead. The call button, which I was sure should have a glowing light behind it, was just as dark as the rest of the basement. Even so, I paused in front of the door to futilely jab the button.
Tempest’s dad asked, ‘Problem?’
‘No power to the elevator,’ I called back, feeling despondent and trying to not sound it.
After a few seconds of silence, he said, ‘I can fix that.’ The dinner guests nearest me parted to let him through, Mary still on his shoulder as he fumbled in his pockets and produced a multi-tool. ‘I never leave home without it,’ he said brightly as he held it up to the light.
‘He never does,’ agreed Mary, though it was clear from her tone that she didn’t consider it a good thing.
‘Will he be able to fix it?’ asked a witch.
I was getting fed up not knowing their names. They hadn’t felt the need to introduce themselves at any point and since I had decided to take charge of the group and depose Dr Parrish’s leadership, I wanted to know who they were.
I held up a hand. ‘While Michael fiddles with the elevator and tries to get it to work, I think we would benefit from finding out who we all are. I’ll start. I’m Amanda Harper. I’m a paranormal detective. Point to note: there is no such thing as the paranormal.’ I pointed to a witch whose face was now a confused O. ‘You next?’ I suggested.
‘Um, I’m Hazel, I’m a sister of the earth and one of the sistren of earth witches. The supernatural world surrounds and guides me.’ She was presenting an argument against my statement but I ignored her as I pointed to the woman next to her.
Patience butted in, ‘Wait. Sistren? What the heck is that?’
Next to Hazel, the blonde witch who liked to show her legs said, ‘It’s like brethren, but for women. I’m Lily, by the way, another witch.’
The other witches were Narcissus, Rosemary and Violet. When I got to the end of them, I noticed something amiss. ‘Where’s Lord Hale?’
Everyone looked around.
Hazel said, ‘He came along this bit of the corridor with me.’
Next to her, Rosemary said, ‘He needed to tinkle, I think. Said he wouldn’t be long.’ I shook my head. He led us to the elevator which means he thought that was our way out. If he needed the bathroom then we were just about to access the rest of the house and find lots of them. Why would he sneak off now?
‘Everything okay?’ asked Big Ben.
Pursing my lips, I replied, ‘I’m not sure. I don’t entirely trust our host anymore. I could say there is something strange going on, but that’s so obvious as to be laughable. I want to see where he went.’
‘Maybe he tried the stairs,’ said Dr Parrish, appearing so close to me in the dark that it gave me a start.
‘Stairs?’ Big Ben and I said at once.
Knights. Sunday, December 11th 0016hrs
Just like any building, this one had stairs as a back-up to the elevator. It was the intended route out for the guests once they had solved the riddle in the library. Dr Parrish explained all this merrily as he led us through the dark passageways. I wanted to ask why he hadn’t mentioned the stairs before and why we were not already leading the group that way now. I almost went back for them, but something intangible stopped me. I wanted to see what Lord Hale was doing, without him seeing us. In other words, I wanted to see his behaviour when he thought himself to be alone.
Dr Parrish led us through passageways, back past the exit from the library and around a corner. This time I had the lamp held by my knee to limit the amount of light it cast. I had a feeling Lord Hale was up to something, especially since we didn’t find him around a convenient corner taking a tinkle. He chose to sneak off when the rest of us were distracted by the elevator, seizing his first chance to get away now that we were no longer trapped in the library. When we reached the first junction, he went left and sent us all right. That was my guess anyway.
Dr Parrish was still jabbering on about planned additional levels of escape room they could yet employ but I spotted a light ahead and clamped a hand over his mouth. Squinting in the dark, Big Ben and Dr Parrish doing the same, I could make out what looked like a phone screen. It was jerking about, but as it was lifted into the air, I caught a glimpse of Lord Hale’s face reflected in the light from the screen. I took my hand away from Dr Parrish’s mouth, but he instantly drew in a breath to speak and I had to clamp it back in place to stop him.
Lord Hale was making hushed, but urgent and very angry threats. By keeping quiet we could hear him. ‘Where the hell are they? They h
ad better not have double crossed me. Why haven’t they answered?’ I wanted to know who he was referring to. ‘I can’t distract them for much longer, they must know that, how long do they think I can keep them down here?’ He made a move like he was trying to squeeze the life out of his phone in frustration, swore loudly and hurried away from us.
As we moved to follow, Dr Parrish tripped, pitched forward and knocked the lamp from my hand. It hit the floor and broke, the paraffin inside spilling to ignite. It wouldn’t be a problem on the stone floor, there was nothing combustible around to burn. However, if the noise it made hadn’t been enough to give our presence away, the bright flames at our feet certainly were.
‘Who’s there?’ called Lord Hale, failing to keep the fright from his voice.
‘Where are you going, Lord Hale?’ I called after him, my voice sufficient to make him run.
I started after him, instinct making me give chase like a cat who has seen a rabbit. Dr Parrish ran too, catching up after only a stride or so. ‘Why did he run?’ he asked, befuddlement in his voice.
I shrugged, but realising he couldn’t see that, I yelled between breaths, ‘Let’s ask him.’
‘He’s heading for the stairs,’ Dr Parrish puffed, keeping up with me, but both older and less fit than me, he was starting to show the effects of his effort. I glanced back to see Big Ben still following close behind. Around the next dark corner there was light. Not a lot of it, but enough for it to emanate a glow as we neared. ‘It widens ahead,’ Dr Parrish managed. I got the impression he wanted to stop for a breather but there was no time for that.
‘We’ve missed him,’ shouted Big Ben. ‘He’s eighty years old. There’s no way he could outrun us. He ducked in somewhere and we passed him.’
I put the brakes on. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Skidding to a stop and taking a breath, Dr Parrish bent over double and gasped for air. He tried to speak, but couldn’t get enough air in, so held up a finger to ask for a moment’s grace and went back to trying to breathe.
We had come to a stop right at the corner where the glowing light shone. Dr Parrish was right about it opening up, the new passageway was four times as wide and had suits of armour lining each side. On the walls behind the armour were more weapons, pikes, swords, lances and more, each pinned in place by steel brackets and between them were burning torches, half a dozen of them on each side, throwing dancing light in every direction.
In the distance, beyond the knights in their armour, was a set of stairs. ‘Perhaps we should just get the others and get out,’ I suggested. It wasn’t really a suggestion though; it was the thing we were going to do. Nothing else could be considered even remotely sensible.
I expected Big Ben to nod his agreement, but looking at me, his focus shifted to look beyond me to the stairs. ‘Hey, there’s Lord Hale,’ he pointed and started moving. ‘How on earth did he stay ahead of us?’ He was right, the old man must have been hiding in a shadow when we got to the corner and was trying to sneak up the stairs now. I was also curious to hear how he had got there so fast but assumed there was a shorter route than the one we had taken. In the dark, I had lost sight of him several times.
Dr Parrish was in front of us both, waving an arm at the retreating lord as he called, ‘Lord Hale! Lord Hale, where are you going? Your guests are still down here.’ Then he glanced back at us with a shrug and a grin, ‘I guess he is getting a little deaf. I hope I’m that sprightly at his age though.’
He was walking backwards to speak to us, so didn’t see the first suit of armour move, but I did, and I saw that Dr Parrish had heard it. I gasped, unable to mask my shock as the knight stepped down from his podium and turned to face us with his sword raised.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Dr Parrish with a chuckle. ‘I had a hand in these actually. We only just had them installed. Damned expensive animatronics, but sure to give the guests a solid scare when we get to this point.’ More of the knights were joining the first in the passageway to bar our path though Dr Parrish couldn’t have been less concerned about them. ‘At least it means the chaps are back in the control room. They get operated from there. I’ll give them a shout and tell them to put the kettle on.’ Dr Parrish reached into his jacket to get his radio, patted his pockets and made a glum face. ‘I forgot; Lord Hale has my radio.’
Dr Parrish was surprised when the first one stuck him with a pike. He had just turned around with a plan to sidestep the walking suits of armour and was too close to them to get out of the way when it thrust forward with its right arm.
I choked out a gasp of surprise myself, something I felt like I had been doing all evening, but Big Ben burst into action. As Dr Parrish fell backwards away from the knight, clutching his side and whimpering, the giant double-headed battle axe Ronald the dwarf had been wielding took the knight’s head clean off. It sparked and fizzed as it fell backward, and that might have been that, but my large friend wasn’t taking any chances. There were eight knights in total, goodness knows what they must have cost to make, but Big Ben reduced them to scrap in less than ten seconds, the giant axe whirling in fast circles from his right hand as he protected his injured left shoulder.
Dr Parrish was trying to say something. Cradled in my arms, his eyes were wide with a desperate need to speak but the pain from his wound kept him from forming the sentence until it was too late. ‘I walked into the blade; it didn’t attack me. They are just machines,’ he managed finally, clearly upset that Big Ben had destroyed them.
‘It looked like it took a swing to me,’ I replied. Big Ben just looked pleased with himself. ‘How long have you had that axe?’ I asked.
‘I picked it up after the thing killed Ronald. It felt like a wise addition to my outfit.’
Dr Parrish tried to sit up, winced against the pain but managed to snarl, ‘You just trashed a million pounds worth of robotics, you oaf. We never even got to use them.’
Big Ben crouched to get close to Dr Parrish, and I thought for a moment he was going to take issue with being called an oaf again. He placed the axe on the floor though and pulled Dr Parrish’s hands away from the abdominal wound. ‘You have to be careful with stomach wounds. If it nicked your intestines, you’ll be in trouble quickly. You need to let us look at it.’ With a yank, Big Ben exposed Dr Parrish’s midriff. On the opposite side to where one might expect to find an appendix scar, was a deep puncture wound. Blood leaked from it which was a good thing because it wasn’t gushing; there are some big arteries in that area. ‘I think it’s okay,’ he announced. ‘We need to dress it and it will need closing as soon as we can find something to do that with.’
‘We need to fetch help,’ I pointed out grimly. ‘We have two dead and now two injured, plus Tempest is missing still. Whatever is going on, it isn’t finished. Somebody activated the knights on purpose to stop us or slow us down.’
With a nod, Big Ben stood up, hefting the axe once more in his right hand. ‘I’ll see what I can find.’ With that he went for the stairs and vanished up them, disappearing from sight as he climbed.
Dr Parrish was getting heavy. When he fell backward away from the knight as it stabbed him, I caught him, and he came to rest half on top of me as I lay him back on the floor. Now I needed to get up and it would be better for him to get him back to the library or something. ‘Dr Parrish, I am going to try to get you up. I want you to relax and let me push you into a sitting position, okay?’
He nodded rather than speak but let himself go floppy so I could lever him upright. Now I was going to have to pull him off the floor by putting my arms under his and performing a dead lift. I licked my lips and geed myself up for the task, but there were footsteps coming back down the stairs already, the sound lifting my hope until I saw that it was Big Ben and he was by himself still.
Seeing my face, he held his arms out in defeat. ‘There’s a steel door at the top and it’s locked. Had it been wood, I might have tried to beat my way through it with the axe.’ The axe wasn’t made for hacking through trees though, it
was a weapon for slicing up people. Using it to cut through a wooden door would probably have just broken it.
The three of us looked at each other’s faces in the flickering dim light: we were still stuck in the basement; all exits cut off.
To Trap a Demon. Sunday, December 11th 0056hrs
More questions were queuing in my head, chief of which now was why Lord Hale had run and why he then locked us down here. Dr Parrish couldn’t explain it, he assured us, which wasn’t very reassuring. The old man had snuck away and then ran when he saw us following. Clearly his intention was to evade us and leave us trapped in the basement. Why though?
I wasn’t going to get an answer any time soon and I suspected I was going to have to work some of this out for myself if I wanted to get out of here.
Between us we got Dr Parrish back onto his feet, but I had to help him walk, his arm around my shoulder for support rather than Big Ben’s because he is just too damned tall.
Trudging along the dark passage, Dr Parrish’s weight making my back hurt, we all heard the low moan that always preceded the monster making an appearance. Big Ben said some colourful words as he looked about and hefted the axe. ‘Come on little monster, come to Big Ben. I have a little present for you,’ he sang like it was a nursery rhyme.
‘It’s in the basement somewhere,’ winced Dr Parrish. ‘It’s hiding down here where it can pick us off. We need to stay together.’
‘We need to get back to the others,’ I agreed. ‘Ben, come on.’
‘Coming, dear,’ he said as if we were husband and wife. ‘I thought I saw something.’
I limped along with Dr Parrish draped over my shoulder to weigh me down. If the monster appeared, I was going to have to drop him so I could fight it. But suddenly Big Ben shouted, and I spun my head around to see it dart out of an alcove behind us.
‘Come on then, beasty,’ cooed Big Ben. ‘Come and meet my friend, Mr Axe.’
