The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels

by Travis Luedke

  ‘Good idea,’ Juliet replied wearily.

  Tommy said, ‘Come hold him up, would yuh, Nick?’

  Nick passed the shotgun to Juliet and then took hold of Aldrich; the man’s weight was still supported by Tom, who also restrained one of Aldrich’s arms behind his back.

  Although Juliet appreciated the level of trust in being handed the shotgun, she was disgusted to hold such a thing. It was smooth, heavy, and had the same squirming effect on her that she imagined holding a dead and gory bird would have. She placed it on a step, out of the way, and as she did, she noticed her mobile phone on the floor. She picked it up and put it in her pocket.

  Tommy ripped at the jacket sleeve where the fresh bullet hole was. The bottom half tore off completely, and he used it to blindfold Aldrich.

  Juliet suddenly felt wrong about all of this. ‘Wait. What are we doing? Shouldn’t we call the police?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Tom chimed in. ‘We can’t hold him hostage like this. He tried to shoot you, Nick. The police should deal with him.’

  Nick shook his head. ‘We can’t tell them about Aldrich’s ability. They won’t believe us, and when they take the blindfold off of him, he will be able to control them. And no offence, Juliet, but he could do more damage with a police officer than he did with you. He’d kill all of us.’

  Juliet could see his point and wasn’t offended, but she hated the situation. Pacing back and forth, she didn’t respond for a while. She caught Nick’s eyes; he looked at her compassionately. ‘We’ll figure it out as we go along,’ he said to her, ‘but we’re not involving anyone else until he tells us what he knows about my mum … and why he tried to kill me.’

  ‘Okay.’ Juliet mustered what courage she could.

  ‘Nick, we should close the front door,’ said Tom, ‘and if we are going to question him, we should tie his arms behind his back. I don’t want to hold him like this all day, to have to touch him … He’s creepy.’

  Tommy scurried off into another room, and after a while he came back with a black wire. Nick and Tom laid Aldrich face down on the floor while Tommy tied his hands together behind his back. This is so wrong, thought Juliet, but what can we do?

  ‘We should take him outside, away from the front of the Manor.’ Tom was on a roll. ‘If a visitor comes, he might try to alert them. I saw from the hill as we drove here that there’s loads of land behind the manor. It stretches right out to the cliff. We should lock the front door and take him far outside. It’s so windy that I doubt anyone would hear us that far out.’

  ‘Have you done this before, Tom?’ Nick asked with a laugh. ‘Is there something you’re not telling us?’

  ‘I just don’t want to be caught with a tied-up and bloodied man. If we’re going to interrogate him, let’s do it properly and not get caught in the process.’

  ‘I was only joking, Tom …’

  ‘Well, you’re about as funny as a log,’ Tom said bitterly, then after a pause, he grinned and laughed with Nick.

  Must be a personal joke.

  Nick asked, ‘What should we do about that puddle of blood?’

  ‘Just leave it. If someone comes to the door, they won’t be able to see it through the windows. There are bullet holes everywhere, anyway. I just hope he lives here alone.’ Tom began to frown, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here. He wasn’t the only one.

  ‘We should try to wake him,’ said Juliet, ‘unless you plan on dragging him outside. I’ll fetch a glass of water.’ She walked through a hallway to the left, assuming the kitchen (or a kitchen) would be at the rear of the manor.

  The hallway echoed with the sound of her wedge boots clip-clopping on the floor. She could hear Nick and the twins mumbling about something back in the entry hall. The utter silence dwelling in the rest of the manor kept her on edge.

  Every room she passed was decorated in the same style as the entrance. There were statues of winged angels, naked men and women, and bodiless heads. There were bronze platters and ornaments, and the Greek meander pattern trailing the hallway. Most things resembled ancient Greece, but then Juliet passed one distinctly Egyptian-style room with hieroglyphics, scarabs, and various gods.

  At the end of the hall, she was greeted by a disturbing statue that stood taller than her. The figure was of a man with the head of a bull, and his arms were up at his sides, positioned as if showing a policeman that he was unarmed. Its upper body was broad and muscular, but its lower was non-existent; the place where its legs were meant to be had been converted into a sort of miniature furnace. Its wrists and neck were spiked, adding to the beast’s hostile appearance.

  Juliet hated statues, the eerie way they appeared ready to spring to life. She half expected its eyes to follow her, or to blink. She tore her eyes away and continued on her way.

  Finding the kitchen, she located a glass and filled it with water before hurrying back to the entry hall.

  Tommy turned Aldrich onto his back and then propped him upright. About to pour water into his mouth, Juliet realised he could well choke on it. A lot of things went through her mind—recovery position, I’ve done first aid training, call an ambulance, call the police—but due to the circumstances, she decided to flick water on his face and give him a light slap on the cheek. It worked.

  ‘Unnghh,’ he groaned. One side of his hair was dried flat with dark blood, which smelt rusty, and his curly fringe was dishevelled, partially covering the mark on his forehead where Nick must have hit him. Blood had stained one shoulder of his tweed jacket a mouldy brown colour.

  ‘We need to speak to you,’ Juliet said gently.

  ‘I can’t see,’ he mumbled, and then with more power, ‘I can’t see!’

  ‘We’ve blindfolded you so you can’t get me to attack anyone.’

  Aldrich wailed and writhed fiercely, but Tommy held tight to him. Juliet’s heart sank miserably; even after the abhorrent things this man had done, she couldn’t help feel wretched seeing how pathetic he looked right now.

  ‘You’ve tied my hands,’ he complained. ‘It’s too tight. I’m cold.’

  Tom looked around nervously, afraid that someone would hear Aldrich shouting. He gestured towards the back of the manor and gave a strict nod.

  ‘We are going to take you outside to speak with you,’ said Juliet. ‘We will find a blanket to keep you warm. Would you like some water? I have some here.’ She spoke clearly.

  ‘You fucking bitch, you whore, you slut, untie me!’ Spit flew from his tense lips.

  Nick’s face changed. He appeared ready to yell something in protest, but Juliet calmly held up a hand, gesturing for him to not bother. She said to Aldrich, ‘I’d appreciate you not speaking to me in that manner.’ Her voice was firm but reasonable. ‘We came here simply to ask some questions, but you’ve attacked us repeatedly. I don’t take orders from anyone, and name-calling gives me no cause to help you. If you answer our questions, I’m certain we can come to an agreement in which we all walk away with no further harm.’

  Aldrich didn’t reply. Juliet watched his nostrils flare and his lips pull together into a resentful line. Breathing heavily out of his nose, he remained silent. Tom raised his eyebrows and nodded, impressed at Juliet’s handling of the situation. Nick seemed to have calmed down.

  Pressing the glass to Aldrich’s lips, Juliet said, ‘Drink some water, and then we’re going to stand you up and take you outside.’ He did as told, and then Juliet turned to Nick and Tom. ‘Could one of you go and find a blanket for him, please?’

  Tom jogged up the staircase to the indoor balcony, then through a doorway and out of sight. He returned with a chocolate-brown throw. Tommy pulled Aldrich to his feet, and then everyone headed down the hallway and into the kitchen. The back door was apparently locked from the inside, so Nick searched for the key. When he had no luck, Aldrich begrudgingly mumbled, ‘The flowerpot.’

  Nick found the key underneath the pot on a nearby shelf.

  The ‘garden’ wasn’t exactly a garden at all. Behind G
rendel Manor was a large field. There was a faint trodden path, making it apparent that someone had regularly walked in that direction. They decided to follow it.

  The sounds of the sea grew louder. The force of the wind swelled stronger. Strangely, walking Aldrich out into the field made Juliet think of war films, as if they were marching their hostage to a secluded area to execute him. She felt terrible.

  Aldrich hummed on the way, a tune Juliet didn’t recognise, like a secret lullaby. It gave her the creeps, and also the impression that Aldrich was hiding vital information from them. Then that reminded her of horror movies—the type she sighed at when characters made infuriatingly stupid decisions. Would she be cursing herself now if this were a film she was watching? Had she made ridiculous choices? She hoped not. Those characters usually died.

  It was difficult for her to walk in wedge boots on the uneven ground. In hindsight, they weren’t the best choice of footwear; she’d already had to run a few times this morning, and she also felt awkwardly taller than Nick and the twins. Next time I do a spirit’s bidding, I’ll wear trainers.

  After walking for over ten minutes, she turned back and saw a tiny Grendel Manor in the distance. They were definitely far away enough.

  There was a copse ahead, offering shelter from the wintry wind. They headed in between the trees. Tommy pushed Aldrich down against a trunk, and then Tom placed the throw over him.

  ‘I’ll tell you nothing if you don’t take this blindfold off,’ Aldrich murmured. ‘Take it off. I need my eyes. I want to see. Take it off, take it off!’

  Juliet couldn’t place his accent at all. It was very slight—the occasional elongation of a word, the occasional roll of the tongue. Nothing matched up about Aldrich Grendel. When they’d first knocked on his door today, he’d been so polite … for a fraction of time. And then he’d turned pompous, showing only contempt. And now? Now he was a snivelling wreck, his voice a strangled, helpless whine.

  ‘Juliet,’ said Nick, ‘if you stay out of sight, then we can take off his blindfold. We should be fine.’

  ‘How do you know he can’t control the twins?’ she asked, as if they weren’t present.

  ‘Because if he could, then he would have used his ability on them earlier instead of you. Again, no offence, but look at the muscles on Tommy.’ He laughed awkwardly.

  ‘Okay, but be ready to cover his eyes if he tries anything,’ she suggested. She walked off through the trees and found a fallen trunk to sit on.

  When she took out her mobile, she checked the time. 12:42 p.m. She bitterly thought, Oh, how time flies when you’re having fun. But what was the point in sulking? She mentally chided herself for being so resentful.

  There was inchoate hunger in her stomach. Either that, or her insides were still unsettled from the fear of seeing a shotgun pointed at Nick’s head. For breakfast, she’d had muesli with added fruit and low-fat yoghurt, and that was at about 7:30 a.m. Maybe she was feeling some incipient hunger.

  She hadn’t thought about Samantha Crystan’s appearance since it happened, the way the spirit literally zapped in and out of this world to help save her sons. She told me she didn’t have time to stay before; how did she manage to appear again?

  There was a lot Juliet didn’t know about the Spiritworld.

  And then a horrifying realisation struck her. We left the shotgun in the manor, on the step … Was that a mistake? She didn’t know, but she couldn’t exactly go and alert the others now. Not until she was certain Aldrich was blindfolded again.

  All she could do was sit and wait, something she hated doing. But before much time had passed, something in front of her caught her attention: a small, glimmering sphere that bobbed through the air.

  Like a firefly, or a little fairy.

  It swirled around the trees and branches as if to make her notice it. What is that? she marvelled, standing up. She walked towards it, fascinated by its beauty. It trailed through the trees … guiding her down a mysterious path.

  Chapter Fifteen

  AUTUMN LEAVES COVERED the ground; some whipped about occasionally as the wind wended through the trees. Nick peered down at Aldrich, who sat against a trunk. Looking at him made Nick’s blood run. He still shook from almost having his head blown off.

  Aldrich had tried to kill him repeatedly now, making Nick certain Aldrich had played a foul hand in his mum’s disappearance. Once he found out what that hand was, he wasn’t sure how he would react.

  Aldrich’s eyes were still covered. Nick came towards him slowly, knelt down, and got ready to lift the blindfold. ‘If you try your trick on my brothers, I’ll blindfold you again.’ His jaw was clenched as he spoke. He already hated the man.

  When Nick lifted the blindfold, Tom appeared to take an instinctual step away. Tommy stood strong and glared at Aldrich. Moving back some more, Tom shouted, ‘Nick!’ He grabbed at his head. ‘I can feel him trying to get in. He’s inside my mind!’

  A second later, Tommy said, ‘He’s tryin’ it on me as well. Cover his eyes!’

  With an impatient huff, Nick yanked the blindfold back down.

  ‘I’m not telling you anything.’ Aldrich wriggled from side to side, kicking at the earth. ‘Take the blindfold off. Take it off. I won’t answer any questions.’

  ‘Yeah, I know,’ Nick said harshly. Bloody broken record you are. He rose. ‘Would you two go out of sight, please, maybe each to opposite ends of the manor and keep an eye out, in case anyone comes?’

  Tommy’s face screwed up indignantly. ‘No. I wanna hear what he says about Mum.’

  ‘I’d like to hear too,’ added Tom.

  ‘I know, but he’s not going to talk with the blindfold on. Please, just go. I’ll tell you everything he says.’ Nick felt odd talking about Aldrich as if he wasn’t there, tied up, blindfolded, bloodied, and bruised.

  ‘No, I’m stayin’,’ Tommy insisted with frustrating finality. ‘I can keep him outta my head, I bet yuh.’

  Nick shouted, ‘Tommy, just go!’

  ‘What makes yuh think you’re the boss of this family, Nick? Talkin’ to Dad like shit, makin’ decisions for us. I can do what I like.’ He outshouted his older brother with ease.

  Nick became heavy with guilt at the mention of the argument with his dad, but making up for that was part of why he was here. ‘Tommy. You saw what he did to Juliet. What if he managed to control you and forced you to do something to Tom or me … or to Juliet? How guilty would you feel?’

  ‘Pffftt.’ He gave Aldrich a scornful glare. ‘He can’t control me.’

  ‘Please, Tommy.’ Nick tried a reasonable tone.

  Tom spoke up then. ‘Tommy, let’s just go keep a lookout. Nick wouldn’t keep anything from us, and he’s right … It’s better not to risk it.’

  Tommy relaxed his stance a bit, then said, ‘Whatever. But I wanna know everythin’ he tells yuh.’ He strutted away without another word. When Nick nodded to Tom in thanks, his brother returned a weak smile before leaving.

  Worry swam in Nick’s mind. Part of him wanted to run from this, another wanted to cry, and the rest just wished Aldrich would spill the beans already and then vanish out of existence. He began to pace back and forth, tapping the centre of his left palm repeatedly. I’m calm, I’m focused, I’m calm, I’m focused.

  ‘Are you going to take this off of me?’ Aldrich caught him by surprise, making him jump.

  ‘Yeah,’ he answered halfheartedly. He pulled the blindfold up to rest on Aldrich’s forehead, and it pushed his mop-ish curly fringe up like a schoolboy’s gelled quiff. He noticed how much Aldrich’s head had swollen with bruising—it was horrifically distorted. Oddly, he felt very little guilt.

  The question of his mum’s disappearance was the most important, of course, but here was another man with a higher ability! There was so much Nick wanted to ask—where Aldrich’s power had come from, how he’d gained control of it, if it had taken practice, and how long he’d been able to do it. The list of questions gave him a frisson. ‘How do you co
ntrol other people?’

  ‘I see their minds.’

  That’s too simple. ‘Care to elaborate?’

  ‘A web, patterns … little pockets, shapes, colours, all sorts. I see their minds. Not tiny brains. Their minds. Larger than their head, seeps into their bodies, hovers around them. Intentions.’ He spoke slowly, plodding over each word.

  Nick frowned. ‘You’re not making sense.’

  ‘I can’t see yours. Not exactly. I can sense it, but I can’t penetrate it.’ He smiled sardonically.

  ‘Penetrate it? My mind?’

  ‘I see people’s minds! I see the patterns … I place my will inside of those brains, those minds, those patterns. I fiddle, immerse myself, tamper, edit memories. All is different inside one’s mind. Time doesn’t exist, not there. All memories are there for access, for editing, for planting seeds.’

  It was tiresome listening to Aldrich, and Nick started to resent the growing wish list of questions in his head. ‘Editing?’

  ‘It takes time. I sift through a mind and plant intentions. Change beliefs. Destroy memories. Distort realities.’

  The thought of it raised an aversion in Nick’s body. It was so immoral, so invasive, and just … wrong. ‘You said you can’t see my mind … What did you mean?’

  ‘I can see it, in a sense. But not the patterns. Your mind is all-encompassing, connected to the fabric surrounding us, the fabric of time and space.’ He gave a cryptic flash of his eyes. ‘Your mind is everywhere at once.’

  Nick felt suddenly weak and took a moment to lean on a tree. He thought about the vision he’d brought upon himself earlier today, how he had made it work—imagining himself as a tree, spreading outwards, entwining with the universe, being connected to everything. It was that state of being that had brought on the premonition. Could Aldrich sense Nick’s ability? Was that what he ‘saw’ when he looked for Nick’s mind? Was that how Nick could see the future? Because his mind was connected to the ‘fabric’ of time and space?