by Simon Clark
‘I’ve found her.’
Beth found she looked into Tommy’s colourless eyes.
‘Miss Charnwood’s at the abbey ruin. They’ve put her in a grave.’
The dog stuck close to his master. Both appeared anxious. Then the siren penetrated Beth’s skull. That rising-falling note could have been a drill bit boring through. Tommy appeared to accept Theo’s presence without any concern. No doubt he divined that the gaunt man’s nature shared similarities with his own.
‘You must be quick,’ Tommy called.
Theo asked, ‘Is my sister still alive?’
Tommy already hurried back along the street. Sam moved with effortless grace beside him.
Beth gripped the satchel strap tight to stop it swinging dangerously against the cottage walls. Then she and her friends followed the boy. Soon they scaled the long flight of steps up towards the cliff-top cemetery. Theo’s energy appeared boundless. For the others, this climb proved a tough one with their burdens. Beth gulped cold air into her lungs. Her calf muscles burnt. A stitch dug into her side. Yet nobody paused, nobody complained.
As they climbed the steps, they left the main body of Whitby behind. Cottages thinned out. Searchlights shone upward from so many different angles that the glow reflected by the cloud layer conjured shadows that danced across the ground. Even the shadows of stationary objects, like trees and lamp-posts, darted madly. Restless, shape-shifting phantoms, or so they seemed to Beth.
When they reached the graveyard, they continued along the path towards the abbey ruins. Two miles beyond them, yet more searchlights. The rods of white light could have been unearthly columns that held the night sky aloft. And as they hurried to the abbey, the siren finally stopped. A sudden silence pressed down on them with an ominous force all of its own. They entered the ancient cliff-top ruin. Gothic walls, pierced with vast arched windows, towered over them. The abbey lacked a roof, so the searchlight’s reflected gleams lit the grass where a tiled floor would have once lay. Masonry poked from the ground, like giant fists pushing through from beneath the earth.
Tommy held up his hand. Then he pointed.
Beth followed his outstretched finger. There, crouching on the ground, a figure in white. But Tommy claimed that Eleanor had been put in a grave? Besides, the figure wasn’t the proprietor of the hotel. This was a vampire. The woman who, in life, had been Mary Tinskell. The creature appeared interested in what lay beneath her. She leaned forward to pick at something.
Theo gestured for them to take cover behind a curtain of masonry. He set down the jar of X-Stock, then climbed the pitted wall, until he could look through one of the stone window frames. The weathered stonework provided easy handholds, so Beth joined him. From this vantage point they had a plain view of what Mary found so fascinating.
Eleanor had been placed in one of the disused stone coffins. The anthropomorphic tomb consisted of an oblong stone block, which, centuries ago, had been hollowed out to form a human shape. Into it, Eleanor had been partly concealed. The artefact lay buried in the earth almost to its rim. Clearly, the vampire had dragged a stone slab across it, so it formed a partial lid on the tomb, covering Eleanor’s chest. However, it left her head exposed. The vampire took pleasure in digging her fingers into the mortal woman’s face.
‘What’s she doing?’ Eleanor whispered.
‘Mary knows Gustav is in love with Eleanor. If you ask me, the spiteful creature is torturing my sister, because it will hurt Gustav when he finds out how she died.’ Theo spoke so matter-of-factly that Beth shuddered. ‘Remember, vampires don’t operate to normal rules of logic. Mary will take great pleasure in producing Eleanor’s head to Gustav, so proving how strong she is. No doubt she wants to rule the vampires.’
‘We’ve got to get Eleanor away from there.’
‘We can’t use the bombs. The explosion would kill my sister, too.’
‘Then I’ll lure Mary away.’
‘No.’
‘Theo, I’ve got something in my veins that Mary wants.’
Beth scrambled to the ground. In whispers, she told the others what she’d found, then urged them to stay out of sight. After plucking one of the bottles from the satchel, she set the bag down so, when the time came, she could move fast. As stealthily as she could, she crept through the skeletal edifice. Its ruined towers flickered in hues of brown and gold in the searchlights’ glow. Shadows conducted an eerie, undulating dance across the walls.
Beth moved along the wall to her right, in order to ensure that the vampire’s back remained to her. However, the creature took so much delight in tugging hard at the rings in her victim’s ear lobes that she didn’t notice the intruder. What’s more, Eleanor’s groans of pain drowned the whisper of Beth’s feet through the grass.
Sliding along the wall as quickly as she dared, Beth glanced ahead of her. She knew what she wanted. A moment later she found it. In that eroded masonry she found a Gothic archway that led to the steps of the tower. These only ascended a few feet before they reached an iron fence – a barrier to anyone foolhardy enough to desire to climb the unsafe structure. In those swarming shadows lay ancient stone slabs. Monks’ feet had passed over them for more than a thousand years. Bit by bit the sandals had worn the stone slab away until it had formed a shallow concave.
Perfect!
Beth Layne glanced out through the door. The vampire plucked hairs from Eleanor’s head, chuckling with glee as the woman cried out. Beth thought: Careful now. One slip and you’ll blow sky high. Hands shaking slightly, she used a lip of stone beside the doorway to force the metal cap from the bottle neck. That done, she gently tipped its contents into a floor slab that had been worn into something resembling a shallow bowl. As she did so, she prayed there’d be no moss on the slab, otherwise the X-Stock would react so aggressively it would blaze her face from her skull.
When the last drop had been poured (fortunately with no detonation), Beth went to the doorway that opened into what would have been the interior of the abbey.
She whistled. Vampire Mary’s head came up, senses alert; she turned with savage speed. When the white eyes fixed on Beth, they burnt with utter ferocity. What the creature would have seen was an oh-so-vulnerable victim filled with fresh blood. Confident that her prisoner in the stone coffin couldn’t escape, Mary leapt to her feet. Her white nightdress billowed in the breeze.
Then she ran at Beth. A blur of movement. A shocking spectacle of aggression fused with bloodlust.
Beth retreated through the doorway into the base of the tower. There was no exit here. Her plan must work, if she was to escape with her own life intact. Taking great care not to step into the X-Stock, Beth hopped over to the other side. Then she moved as far as she could from the shallow depression in the stone slab that contained a pool of liquid explosive, which was perhaps an inch deep and eighteen in diameter. Pulses of radiance from the searchlights made that puddle of death flicker an iridescent blue.
Mary darted through the archway, hands stretched out, fingers hooked into claws; an expression of greedy anticipation deformed her face.
Her bare feet splashed into the fluid. Instantly, her feet exploded. Amazingly, she regained her balance, so she stood on ankle stumps. Yet the expression of bloodlust on her face had changed to one of confusion. Those uncanny eyes glanced around her; she knew something had gone wrong, but couldn’t identify the problem.
The X-Stock was relentless. Each time the vampire’s flesh and bone touched the chemical it reacted explosively.
Beth watched a machine gun-quick series of explosions devour the monster. The bursts of white flame set the nightdress alight. Each explosion destroyed five inches of limb. With each one, the vampire became shorter. To Beth, it looked as if the creature sank through the stone floor into the ground. When the detonations reached Mary’s hips she suddenly opened her mouth to let forth a huge scream of pain.
The explosions quickened. Hips, stomach, chest: all vanished in a flash of fire. Incendiary jaws devoured the vamp
ire’s body. From start to finish, it took maybe ten seconds. And after those ten seconds all that remained resting on the slab, like a mask, was the flesh of the face. Still its eyes rolled in the sockets. An expression of someone desperately searching for an escape route.
But there was no escape. Soon even the face melted.
Beth stepped over the smeary remains of the creature, then hurried through the cavernous body of the ruin to free her friend.
Fourteen
Eleanor’s a formidable woman. Her speedy recovery, however, surprised even Beth. As they left the abbey, she told Eleanor what had happened since the kidnap.
When Eleanor saw her brother with the group, she nodded at him, a strangely formal greeting. Then, with smiles of relief, she hugged him – then the rest of the little band of vampire killers.
‘So you brought my home-made bombs,’ Eleanor observed. ‘Good. Let’s put them to the test.’
Alec said, ‘But we can’t run around in the dark, trying to pick off vampires one by one.’
Beth retrieved her satchel. ‘You said you’d devise a plan, Theo. Have you?’
‘It’s got to be something that involves Hag’s Lung Cave,’ Sally ventured.
‘You are my favourite.’ Theo took a firm grip of the gallon jar. ‘And I am falling in love with you.’
Beth started walking. ‘So it’s the cave, then?’
‘I’ll go first,’ Theo told her. ‘We don’t know what might be waiting for us.’
Fifteen
Searchlights stalked the night sky; rapiers of pure silver. The church on the headland tolled midnight. The sound ghosted over the graveyard and the ruins of the ancient abbey to die amongst the hills.
Seven of them walked across the meadow. The dog stayed close to Tommy. Maybe adrenalin gave her renewed energy. Beth could hardly feel the weight of those bottles of instant death in her satchel. She glanced at the faces in the dappling glow of those restlessly probing searchlights that skated the underside of the cloud layer. Everyone wore expressions of determination. White gusts of breath blew from their lips. Their eyes were locked tight on the low mound ahead that marked the entrance to Hag’s Lung. Eleanor had recovered from her ordeal remarkably quickly. The bloody scratches on her face didn’t appear to bother her. Then no doubt her veins were flooded with adrenalin, too.
‘The authorities might not have connected the disappearance of the soldiers with Hag’s Lung Cave,’ Alec told them. ‘If they have, they might have sealed it back up again, and we don’t have any tools.’
‘We’ve got to get into that cave.’ Theo hugged the gallon jar to him as he surged through the grass. ‘If it’s the last thing we do.’
Beth knew that Theo’s plan would be torn to pieces if they couldn’t enter. Though she didn’t know exactly what he planned, she figured it was connected to the ancient vampires trapped in the sump cavern that adjoined the cave.
Alec grunted. ‘Keep a look out for soldiers. There’s still the curfew, remember.’
Sally asked, ‘Do you really think they’ll shoot on sight?’
‘They’ll know that some of their comrades have vanished hereabouts, so they’ll be jittery.’
Eleanor’s clear eyes regarded the mound. ‘We don’t have to worry about the doors, anyway. Just take a look at them.’
Even in the unsettling, shifting glow of reflected searchlights, it was plain to see that the doors had been brutally torn open. Sections of timber a foot long and six inches wide had been ripped from those once formidable structures.
Theo crouched to examine the doors. ‘My plan also involves these being intact.’
Beth crouched, too. ‘The timber-work’s taken a mauling, but they’re still sound.’
‘And the lugs are in place, too.’ He fingered the O-shaped iron work set in the planks. Through these heavy-duty loops an iron bar would be slotted before being padlocked. Amongst the debris, scattered about the turf, he found the bar. It even bore the teeth-mark of one of the vampires – a mark of its hatred of humanity and everything that belonged to it. He handed the bar to Alec. ‘Keep this safe. You’ll need it later.’
‘Are you going to share your plan with us?’ Alec asked.
‘Spill it, Theo,’ Eleanor told him sharply. ‘We don’t have time for your theatrical quirks.’
Sally added, ‘Stage Door Johnnies – that’s what Theo told us would stop the vampires.’
Eleanor cocked an eyebrow. ‘Stage Door, Johnnies? Theo, are you compos mentis?’
‘Absolutely. Never more so.’ A grin flared. ‘And since that witch potion of yours leeched itself out of my body I’ve never felt so alive. Now, let’s see if anyone’s home.’
Eleanor stopped him. ‘You know this can’t last. As soon as this is over, you will have to start taking the drug straightaway.’
‘I was afraid you’d say that.’ An immense darkness seemed to flow into his eyes. He knew that he’d return to that comatose state he’d endured for the last two decades. He tried to dispel that melancholy expression with a shake of his head. ‘Each of you take out one of your bombs. You never know, there might be a welcome party waiting for us.’ Theo appeared to have no need for illumination because he lightly ran down the steps into the shadows. Alec pulled the torch from his bag, switched it on, then followed the gaunt figure.
To Beth’s relief she found the cave was empty. However, it had changed . . . and changed profoundly.
‘It’s hot,’ Sally exclaimed. ‘Can you feel the heat?’
‘I told you the vampires in the sump were getting excited.’ Theo set the gallon jar down in a corner of the cave. ‘That’s body heat you can feel. And smell that.’
Beth inhaled. ‘It’s an animal scent. Tell me I’m wrong, but I think those creatures trapped in the next cave are in a different kind of heat.’
‘The heat of bloodlust.’ Theo all but shouted the words. ‘That excitement of theirs! The knowledge they’re going to break out and rampage through the town! It’s contagious, isn’t it?’
Even Tommy’s eyes burnt; he sensed some great change in the air. Sam whimpered, his ears flat. He sensed danger, too. The dog’s eyes were fixed on the hole in the rock that connected this vault with the sump cavern. When air gusted out from it, the heat made steam, like the exhalation from a whale’s blowhole.
Eleanor grabbed her brother’s arm. ‘Alright. Tell us why we’re here.’
He held out his hand to Sally. ‘If I can have one of your bottles, my dear.’
She passed him one, its blue contents sloshed inside.
‘Listen up.’ Theo sounded excitable. His eyes darted from the bottle to the blowhole in the wall. ‘My Stage Door Johnnie theory works like this. The vampires out there in the town are attracted to the ancient vampires imprisoned in the sump. More than that! They are obsessed. Gustav’s pack broke in here, so they could soak up their scents. They crave to be close to them. They worship them. And they long for the day when the sump vampires break out. And, after years of inactivity, they are no doubt striving to do just that. Imagine them digging a route to the surface with their bare hands. No doubt that accounts for the generation of all that body heat you’re feeling right now.’ He carefully slipped the bottle into the five-inch wide hole in the wall. Then he picked up a long twig from the floor. ‘Now let’s stir up some mayhem.’
Alec’s eyes went wide. ‘You’re going to kill the creatures on the other side of the rock?’
‘No, not kill, my friend . . . I plan to make them howl the place down.’
Beth nodded. ‘So the other vampires come running.’
‘Absolutely.’ He used the stick to push the bottle further in. Yet he held off from shoving it through the mini-tunnel to the other side. ‘Please listen very closely.’ His face became serious. ‘There isn’t enough X-Stock in the bottle to kill every vampire in the sump. After all, there must be hundreds of the things. But it will hurt them – they’ll call on their own kind for help.’
Alec said, ‘So, minu
tes from now, this cave will be flooded by very angry vampires.’
‘Indeed so.’
‘We can trap them in this cave.’ Sally’s eyes lit up. ‘Then we can use the bombs to kill them all.’
‘Almost.’ A note of sadness flowed through Theo’s voice. ‘What you must do is go to the steps. When I push the bottle through it will explode in the sump. The vampires will howl. The other vampires will hear, then they’ll come running. By then, my friends, you will be outside, and in hiding. When all the vampires are in here that’s when you close the doors. You, Alec, will use that bar I gave you to lock them shut.’
Eleanor’s expression was one of pure shock. ‘Theo. Don’t you dare.’
Sally’s eyes filled with tears. ‘Theo, you’re going to stay in here with the vampires, aren’t you?’
‘You’re smart,’ he told her with a sad smile. ‘That’s what’s made me fall in love with you tonight.’
Beth’s heart pounded. ‘This isn’t a joke!’
‘No.’ Theo’s smile was grim. ‘No. At last, I’m deadly serious.’
Eleanor shook her head. ‘No, no, no. Give me a few minutes. I can come up with another plan.’
‘For one, dear sister, that new plan of yours puts me back in the cottage. Where I’ll be under the spell of the drug for another twenty years. A husk. A half-man, existing like some poor prisoner. No, thank you. Tonight I’m alive . . . so alive I feel as if I can reach across the universe and play with the stars.’
‘That’s lunatic talk.’
Calmly, Theo made this statement: ‘The gallon jar will be enough to kill the vampires in this cave. When they’re dead, and it’s safe to enter again, keep feeding those bombs of yours through that hole in the wall until all the devils in the sump cavern are dead, too.’
