Promised Land Lane

by Brown, Marcus

“You must hold her down as tightly as you can, David.”

  “What do you intend to do?” David shouted, struggling to hear over Maisie’s screams.

  “There’s no time for endless questions. Use all the strength you have. We don’t have much time left.”

  The cats were still attacking Maisie.

  “GO!” Mark roared at the cats as they fled in every direction.

  Maisie had fallen to the floor, but was scrambling to her feet and sniffing the air.

  Chapter 48

  Mark was struggling to keep hold of his crazed daughter. “Now, David, for the love of God. Hold her down. We have to do it now or…” but was interrupted as David lunged and grabbed hold of Maisie. She screamed as she couldn’t stand to be touched by him.

  “Force her onto her back – quickly. There’s no time to lose.”

  David gathered all his strength and rolled Maisie over onto her back, but she fought him. He could feel how strong she had become as she had scratched deep gouges into his arms. The blood began to pour from his wounds as she sniffed the air – he knew the smell of blood excited her.

  “Whatever you intend to do, you must do it soon. I can’t hold her for much longer.”

  Maisie was transfixed by the smell of the blood and stopped struggling. She smiled and put her bloody fingers to her mouth and began to hungrily lick at them.

  The distraction didn’t last for long. She began to kick and scream once again.

  At this, Sandra bolted from the staircase and ran towards David. She knelt on the floor and pressed firmly onto Maisie’s legs, holding her down with all her might.

  Mark knelt beside her and stroked the hair away from Maisie’s face. She hissed and spat at him. He had placed the doll on the floor beside his daughter and reached for it. The red and scabby eye sockets on Maisie were making Sandra retch. She winced as, with his finger, he dug one of the eyes out of the doll’s head with his finger, followed by the other.

  He looked down at his daughter as he held her precious eyes in his hand.

  “David, please, you must help me now.”

  “I can’t touch them,” David said turning away. “No, I won’t do it.”

  “Mark, he won’t do anything to harm Maisie. Whatever you’re planning, you better do it now. I’ll help David hold her down.”

  “You’re very brave and I thank you for it.”

  “Never mind that. Just do it,” she shouted at Mark.

  “Hold her tight, David. She will fight me with every fibre of her being,” Mark begged.

  David held Maisie tightly with both hands as she continued to scream. Sandra kept one hand on the little girl, pressing down to keep her in position.

  Mark knelt next to his daughter before forcing one of her eyes back into the empty socket.

  Maisie exhaled sharply and wailed, begging, “No, Father, please. Don’t do this to me. It hurts.”

  She began to scream again, the noise hurting Sandra’s ears.

  He spoke tenderly to his little girl. “This was never your destiny, my daughter. It won’t be long now.”

  Mark’s kind words to his daughter threw Sandra, and she momentarily took her mind off what she was supposed to be doing and loosened her grip. Maisie directed a kick towards her, striking her arm. Shaken, she gripped hold of Maisie’s legs again, but struggled to hold her down. Sandra was shocked by how strong Maisie was.

  “Hold her still, both of you,” Mark begged. “It’s nearly over, but you cannot allow her to escape or we will all pay dearly.”

  “I can’t hold her much longer. She’s too strong,” David replied, blood gushing from the wound on his arm.

  Maisie was struggling to free herself, screaming at the top of her lungs.

  “Hold her still for all of our sakes. It’s almost over,” Mark commanded.

  It didn’t seem possible, but Maisie’s screaming became louder. She managed to free one of her hands and latched onto Sandra’s wrist.

  Sandra cried out in pain as Maisie dragged her nails across the flesh of her wrist. The evil creature giggled and sniffed the air. Sandra grabbed Maisie’s hand and held it firmly to the floor.

  David restrained Maisie again as she cursed and spat at him.

  Mark was struggling to hold onto his daughter’s head as she thrashed about, but with one hand he pushed the second of her eyes back into its socket.

  Maisie began to make the eeriest sound, as though the air was being pulled from her lungs. The noise echoed off the walls of the hallway. She lay calmly on the floor and now, believing them to be safe, Sandra and David released their grip. Suddenly Maisie sprang from the floor, screaming and lashing out.

  Maisie caught hold of Sandra’s hair and pulled a huge chunk from the root. Sandra screamed and instinctively pulled away before jumping to her feet and backing away.

  Maisie was crouched again, sniffing the chunk of hair in her hand, looking like she was ready to attack. Seconds later she began to make a moaning sound before frantically clawing at her own eyes. Deep gouges formed where Maisie scratched, and the blood ran down her face. No matter how hard she scratched at herself, she was unable to remove her eyes. The eerie noise began again as Maisie finally stopped – it seemed her strength was finally diminishing as she slumped to the floor and lay on her side, letting go of the clump of hair. All seemed calm for a few moments as David, Sandra, and Mark all stared at Maisie, waiting for her to lash out again in a fit of rage. Instead, and for the first time in over a hundred years she stared at her father with the most beautiful bright blue eyes. It wasn’t long before she began to silently convulse for a few seconds. She lay still with her eyes wide open.

  Sandra felt her body relax, certain Maisie was dead.

  The house fell deathly silent.

  The cats, positioned to attack suddenly began to leave, until only four of them remained.

  “Thank you,” David whispered, acknowledging the debt he owed to his feline friends as he stood up and staggered backwards towards the wall. Sandra looked at him and for the first time she could see how tired he was and that he didn’t have the strength to stand any longer. David struggled before sliding down the wall.

  Now focused back on the little girl, Sandra watched as Maisie lay still on the floor. Seconds later, the little girl exhaled loudly, sat bolt upright and began to cry.

  “Daddy, it hurts, please help me,” she said putting her arms out.

  Mark walked towards his little girl and opened his arms as she steadily got to her feet and ran towards him. He engulfed his little girl and covered her face in kisses.

  “You’re safe now, my child, and you will cause no more harm.”

  Sandra stood wide-eyed, unable to fathom what she was seeing. The humanity was slowly returning to the little girl. She watched in amazement as Maisie’s once dirty blonde hair was now restored to its former glory, the bouncing curls now a golden yellow. The dirty skin turned milky white and the wounds around her eyes had begun to heal. Her big blue eyes shone with tears as she buried her face into her father’s shoulder.

  “Sandra,” David said weakly

  She ignored her own pain and rushed to him, dropping to her knees.

  “David, oh my God. Are you alright?”

  “I’m tired my love and want to go to sleep.”

  “Please don’t leave me, David,” she begged.

  “It’s time for him to go,” Mark interjected. “He has fulfilled his promise and now it’s time for him to be reunited with his loved ones. He deserves nothing less, and you of all people shouldn’t deny him that.”

  She turned back to face David. “But, I love you and don’t want you to leave me,” she said, as the tears filled her eyes.

  “I don’t want to leave you either, but I’m only here because of Maisie. I’ve done what I had to do. Always remember I love you. You brought the light back into my life and even though you won’t be able to see me, I’ll always watch over you.”

  She pulled him close as the tears ran down her
face. Stroking his hair, she could feel his shallow breathing and knew he was slipping away.

  Out of nowhere, a blinding light forced Sandra to shield and close her eyes. The light was gone within seconds, but when her eyes opened again, she was alone.

  Sandra jumped up and ran to the back of the house towards the garden. She instinctively knew that David would be there. Stopping at the French doors, she watched from the windows as David walked towards the well, hand in hand with Maisie. Mark walked alongside them. The man she had grown to love turned back and smiled at her, slightly bowing his head. Suddenly, tiny pearl-coloured orbs of light began to fall from the sky, surrounding David and Maisie. Even from behind the glass, she could feel the warmth radiating from the light and watched as David and Maisie were slowly enveloped. She could just make out the shape of them, then Maisie reached out her tiny hand, inviting her father to take hold. They all walked slowly into the light as Sandra looked away.

  The warm feeling subsided as Sandra rubbed her eyes – trying to clear the speckles from her vision, caused by the intensity of the light. When she looked up again they were gone. Tears cascaded down Sandra’s cheeks. She wiped them with the sleeve of her jumper and scanned the garden, hoping she was wrong.

  It broke Sandra’s heart that he had finally passed over. Every part of her wished him back, and the tears continued to fall.

  Sandra opened the doors and sat on the steps leading to the garden hoping David would somehow return to her. It was getting dark and she couldn’t sit there all night. Even though Maisie was now gone, she was still scared to be there alone without David to protect her.

  Forcing herself to move, she walked back through the beautiful old house and took a last look around as she made her way towards the front door.

  She wiped her face on the sleeve of her jumper once again and reached for the front door handle as a noise from behind startled her.

  Sandra turned around to see a beautiful dark haired woman standing behind her. “You frightened me.”

  “Did I? Oh good, I’m so pleased! That was my intention after all.”

  Hundreds of cats raced back into the house and surrounded Sandra, standing guard once again. She looked around, confused as to what was happening as the woman bent down and picked up the doll from the floor and brushed her finger over its cold cheek. Then she stood upright, looked at Sandra and giggled.

  THE END

  A message from Marcus…

  If you enjoyed this novella, please take the time to leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads.

  An honest review is the best gift you could give an author.

  Thank you!

  x

  MORE TITLES AVAILABLE FROM MARCUS;

  The Crockworthy Sisters

  Part One - The Dark Magic Murders

  Available now in eBook / Kindle / Paperback

  from Amazon stores.

  THE Crockworthy Sisters

  Part Two -The Secrets of Moonlight Manor

  ~ Released 24th September 2017 ~

  Available to pre-order now on all Amazon stores.

  Acknowledgements

  A HUGE thank you to the following for their help and encouragement with various aspects of this project.

  To my family - I know we don’t always agree, but I do love you all!

  Jonathan – For helping me with the read-throughs. I know at times you lost the feeling in your backside and wanted to throttle me, but I couldn’t have asked for a better person to sit beside me.

  Jeanette – Thank you for your endless encouragement in this little project of mine. You helped me when I lost my writing voice and inspired me more than I could ever say. And a huge thanks for the wonderful work you did in designing and executing the cover art. You’re a very talented lady!

  Sandra – For all the hard work you put in with editing this book – my heartfelt thanks.

  Dale – We’ve never met, but thank you for your help with the trailer images – I was ready to throw the PC out of the window until you came and waved your magic wand.

  Tammy / Helen / Pamela / Jeanette / Georgia / Serena – My beta readers. Thank you all for reading the book and giving me your honest feedback. Oh, and for picking up errors we had all missed. Are you ready for the next book?

  Verse 13 – For allowing me to use ‘The Dollmaker’ on the trailer for my book. It is a beautiful and haunting piece of music. (www.verse13.com)

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Marcus Brown lives in the North West of England with his partner, Jon and their cat Tobias, plus two dogs, Sally and Sammy.

  For more information or just to touch base with Marcus you will find him at:

  Facebook

  Twitter

  Instagram

  Or drop him a line at marcusbrownpll@outlook.com

  Copyright © 2017 Marcus Brown

  All rights reserved.