The moon was out tonight, not bright, but shining through an ancient skylight to bathe part of the landing in a gentle white glow. As her eyes began to adjust, Lucy could see a figure beyond, a shadow in the darkness. She knew what she would see before that thing stepped into the moonlight, because it was no more human than the dog she could hear barking outside.
It was Mo.
She looked the same as she had all evening as she had made jokes and small talk with everyone. She was just a little old lady ... except the eyes. Where her eyes should have been all there was, was shiny black. Then she smiled and it was worse, because the smile was too wide, the teeth too long and needle sharp, and all pretence was broken.
"I will have to punish you," she said and Lucy felt those black pits bore into her soul. "I had that troublesome shade right where I wanted her and now I will have to put her back all over again."
Mo took a step towards her, but then there was a shape between her and the demon. Latin phrases that Lucy half recognised from her classical education were falling from Sil's lips at speed. She hadn't even realised Sil knew Latin.
She dared hardly breathe as Sil walked step by step towards Mo. She kept her eyes firmly on his back, needing the rock that his actions made him. Then it laughed.
"Oh Shaman," Mo said, voice having gained a grating edge, "I warned you. Did you not like the pain I lashed into your mind. Must I repeat my warnings on your body?"
Sil's litany faltered for just a moment. Lucy saw a shadow move out of the corner of her eye before Sil made a strangled choking sound as his words died completely. To her horror she saw his feet lifting off the ground. Then Mo stepped round, holding Sil aloft by the neck as if it took no effort at all. The tiny woman's body now had disproportionately long arms and legs making her seven feet tall. Mo looked as if a strong wind should have knocked her over, but the evil energy, the pure malice emanating from her pushed at Lucy's skin like a physical thing.
"Troublesome worm," Mo said, glaring up as Sil as he clawed at her hand, "now you will die."
"No!" the voice boomed around the whole landing.
Lucy didn't want to take her eyes off the apparition in front of her, but she had to. That voice drew her. She wanted to scream, she so wanted to scream, but the sound caught in her throat.
There in the doorway was Luticia Franklyn in all her dead glory. Her straw-like curls hung around her sunken face like rusted ringlets and her flat stare, through half lidded eyes was focused solely on Mo. So slowly that Lucy was sure she could hear the creaking, Luticia raised her right arm, with one bony finger pointing straight at the other supernatural creature.
"You have trapped my family long enough," she declared, voice booming from the half open, but completely still mouth. "I am free infernal beast and now I have the power."
Mo dropped Sil, who collapsed onto the hall carpet gasping for breath.
Luticia took one step forward and Lucy whimpered, although she could not move. This was so far beyond anything she was prepared for. She knew Luticia was not the enemy, but the vision of the animated corpse was so dreadful it passed all logic. Her terror was so complete every muscle in her body was frozen. 'This can't be real' the little voice of reason kept chanting in the back of her mind, but at a fundamental level she knew it was.
"You will feed on us no more, hellspawn," Luticia boomed. "I sever the pact. Leave this house."
"You have no power over me," Mo shrieked back.
"I know your name!"
Somehow Mo became even more hideous at that. Her neck grew like her arms and legs, leaving her head bobbing at a grotesque angle, her eyes bulged out and her fingers became long, lethal looking claws.
"You lie!"
"You know it's true. You brought power to this house, you infused it with the soul of each generation so you could feed off us. I saw you and recognised you while on my sick bed and I prepared for you. You locked me away behind that door before I could gather myself after my death, because you fear me. Leave this house, child of evil, or I will name you."
Every word reverberated through Lucy shaking her very soul. Stumbling back she hit the wall and slowly slid down it.
"You dare not. My name would bring this house down."
"And you would be destroyed. My family will be free."
Luticia took another stilted step, her stiff body wobbling forward like a mannequin.
"Mol..."
The ground shook.
"No!" Mo screamed, cowering down.
"Then go. This is your final warning. I protect this house now."
With a wail that turned Lucy's blood to ice, Mo began to shrink. Like air being released from an old balloon her skin wrinkled even more, turning grey then black. Soon there were no features of a human left at all as she became the twisted shrunken thing, voice climbing higher and higher as she began to fade away.
Tears prickled Lucy's eyes as she slammed her hands over her ears, unable to scream her own pain away. The noise was so loud. Her eardrums wanted to explode.
Then, just like that it was gone.
Where Mo had been there was nothing. It could almost have been a horrible nightmare, but Luticia was still standing there.
"It is done," Luticia said and lowered her arm back to her side.
Much to Lucy's horror the mummy turned on teetering steps and looked directly at her.
"Thank you," she said in that terrible booming voice, "I can sleep now."
Almost as if that flicked a switch the mummy stilled completely. For a moment it was like looking at a statue until it began to fall backwards. It hit the carpet with a thud, a lifeless husk in a mildewed nightgown. All Lucy could do was stare.
"She's gone," Sil said, voice husky and painful, "and it's gone."
Lucy began to cry.
~*~
Morning brought at least some sanity. She had roused the rest of the crew the previous night when she had gathered enough courage to move. Sil had been shipped off to hospital to check his very bruised throat and Karl and Spook had taken charge of everything else.
No one questioned her account as she told them what had happened, but it didn't start feeling real until the sun came up. Only in the clear light of dawn did the shock really start to leave her. She was sitting in the kitchen wrapped in a blanket and on her fourth cup of tea when reality finally reasserted itself properly in her brain. She blinked and looked around.
"Back with us then?" Karl asked from the other side of the table.
She nodded and wondered how long she had to have been sitting there just staring at her mug.
"Sorry," she said.
"Don't apologise," he said, "you've clearly had a really bad shock. I think we should have sent you off to be checked out with Sil."
"What's going on?" she asked, because the night's events after she had woken Karl up were a bit of a blur.
"I've got Paula checking out that room with every gadget we've got and Spook is reviewing what the cameras caught last night. So far she has told me that they kept going on and off and there was some kind of interference on all of them, but we still have some great shots."
"Luticia and ... and that thing?"
"I don't know yet. Spook is working to clear up the images. We'll have to see."
Lucy wanted to laugh. Of course she had to go through all that and most of it wasn't even on camera. Then again, if anyone could get something back it would be Spook, she was the best in the business. No doubt they'd get a great show out of this even if it had scarred her for life.
####
Lost In the Dark
by Sophie Duncan
Kate stood up, and for the umpteenth time, paced across the little waiting room. Palms sweaty, she rubbed them down her jeans as she walked – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, turn, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, turn, sit. It was habit now, and Kate sat again, looking around at the empty deep blue walls with their pale lights that barely lifted the gloom. She had no watch and no phone, they weren't allowed, something to do with interference, s
o Kate had no idea how long she'd been there in the slightly uncomfortable modern, grey, armless chair, but she was sure it have been hours, not minutes.
There was no window, either, which only added to a sense of otherness that had been creeping over Kate since an austere-looking woman, whose name had not been granted to her, had shown her in. And then there was the camera mounted very obviously in the corner of her room above the door. A tiny light blinked constantly at her, her only measure of time. It was deliberate, the logical part of her brain tried to tell her, all part of the mystery that was Miss Evelyn Edness. The problem was, for the rest of her psyche, it was working.
An elegant little bone china cup and saucer had been delivered some time earlier, well she thought a lot of blinks had gone past since then. For something to do, rather than wanting to drink, Kate picked it up and glanced down at the clear tea within The cup rattled in the saucer, the sound spilling out into the room, but deadening on the dark walls quickly: another part of the effect. Kate sipped once and then, as the acrid flavour slipped down her throat, she remembered why she had left it to go cold in the first place. Her mouth salivated, desperately to replace the moisture the concoction had sucked out of it, and her empty stomach gurgled for the promised sustenance that the tea did not deliver. Hastily, Kate put the cup back down and then rubbed her forehead instead. The bridge of her nose had been humming since she'd arrived. It was only getting worse, building pressure behind her eyes like something there was vibrating maliciously. Much longer and the oppressive silence would give her a full blown headache.
Kate practically leapt to her feet as the monotony was interrupted by the sharp click of the door lock releasing. Instantly her heart was thumping, which wasn't like her at all. She couldn't help the wild around the edges feeling she had to have been showing as the same tall woman from before came in. British politeness sent Kate searching for her name again, and it took her distracted thoughts a worryingly long few seconds to remember that they had never been introduced. That felt odd, but, then again, everything that afternoon had been strange.
The woman, who merely stood at the door, staring at Kate with rather mournful eyes, was the only living person she had seen since she'd arrived. To be honest, just like everything else, the woman's thin, almost gaunt frame and long black dress were as spooky as hell. Still, Kate reminded herself that she wasn't here for touchy feely hugs, or a feel-good factor. She steadied herself as much as she could as she stared right on back.
Without any other indication of what she should do, Kate finally closed the small gap between them. Only then did her guide turn and walk out of the room, Kate trailing behind her. The space outside the little isolation chamber, which Kate had crossed without really thinking about it on her way in, now felt vast as it spread across most of the rest of the ground floor, equally as empty as the place she had just come from. The light remained low here as well, and, with all that space came shadows. Kate started wishing she was back in her tiny waiting room.
It was silly, she'd been in lots of darker, more gothic places, but the ultra-modern emptiness gave her the creeps. Hugging the waterfalls of her cardigan around her more for comfort than warmth, she couldn't help it as her attention skittered from one patch of gloom to another, looking for things she knew could not be there.
Kate realised her senses were being tricked, but logic didn't help. She rubbed her forehead again as they came to a halt at the far wall and her guide pressed a single button next to a pair of matt black lift doors. She listened to the distant whir of the mechanisms within as the lift came to their bidding and then found herself squinting into mirrored brightness as the doors slid open. The woman stood aside, hands folded in front of her, just gazing flatly at Kate. That really didn't help Kate's already distracted attention as she was left wondering what to do.
Her thoughts were fluttery, not something she was used to, and it took Kate a moment to kick herself and do as she was supposed to do—step inside the lift. The space was small, for one or two people only, and the mirrors did not help as they reflected her pale expression back at her. She had grey eyes anyway, but the sudden shock lighting had reduced her pupils to pinpricks, washing out her face. Dark circles under her eyes revealed her lack of sleep the night before.
Kate only realised she'd been staring dumbly at herself when the doors clunked closed behind her. She turned sharply, heart hammering as she was trapped in the small space.
Claustrophobia was a new experience for Kate, a tiny panic beginning at the nape of her neck that quickly prickled up over her scalp and down her spine. She gasped in a shallow breath, but it didn't feel like it was going into her lungs. She gasped again, shoulders knitting tighter. This wasn't normal, she knew it wasn't normal, but no amount of logic could help as the sense of being trapped, of no air, spread out through her body.
There was no floor indicator in the lift, nothing to tell her how fast the lift was travelling, or how long she would have to endure the closed little world. The waiting room had been spacious in comparison. Kate's sanity tried to remind her that when she had arrived she had taken in all four floors of the modern building. Yet, stuck in the tin box, that memory was a whole other life and she shied away from the reflections on all surfaces, hunching over herself as the journey stretched endlessly ahead.
Kate was dizzy with used up oxygen by the time the mechanism whirred to a jolting halt. She glared at the doors, willing them to open. It felt like an eternity as Kate waited for the remote algorithm to do its work. As soon as she heard the clunk of the doors opening, she was on her toes and shot through the gap, grazing one shoulder as she did so. She almost fell into the space beyond, dragging in the largest lungful of air she could.
Instantly, her nostrils and soft palate were filled with pungent, sweet smoke. Bile rusing in the back of her throat, she heaved, leaning on her thighs for support, and then she coughed away the sour taste that threatened the back of her mouth. Alternately gasping and hacking, Kate had a good view of the parquet flooring. She could only watch the definition slip away as the bright light from the lift closed behind her. It left much lower illumination, and Kate's wandering thoughts had almost forgotten why she was in this strange place. Yet, as her struggles gradually eased, a rich voice drifted over to her.
"Good evening, Miss Grange."
Kate straightened up, feeling her cheeks heat up at her loss of control. She peered into the golden, low lighting of a large room in search of the source of the voice. She had not yet met Evelyn Edness. All contact so far had been remote, so her attention moved over the clean lines of the mostly empty room until she found a figure sitting on one of a group of sofas in the corner opposite to the lift. Evelyn Edness stood up as her gaze was met, a soft smile on her face, her dark eyes sparkling in the lamp light.
Unlike her employee below, Miss Edness, who could not have been more than thirty, was dressed casually, but expensively in slashed jeans and a loose, white shirt which contrasted with her soft brown skin. Long dark hair fell in expertly coifed curls around her shoulders, and her makeup was flawless, accenting the shine in her bright eyes. Her whole perfect appearance made Kate feel inferior, and she caught herself wrapping her cardigan defensively around her not so perfect body.
Evelyn Edness had to have been used to such a reaction, because her smile just deepened and she told Kate in a gentle lilt, "Do not be alarmed, Miss Grange, I am here to help. Please, come and take a seat, you look like you need it."
Her host indicated to the sofa nearest to the one she had taken, and Kate crossed the room slowly, trying to regain her composure. Still, she sat down rather more rapidly than she was intending, the world going round for a second. She could only blink away her unsteadiness as Evelyn practically glided down into her own seat.
"Have some water," Evelyn held out a glass from the coffee table and just kept smiling in her uncomfortably superior way as Kate took it and sipped.
The liquid was ice cold and instantly soothed Kate's throat. Ther
e was just a hint of a taste behind the relief, but Kate didn't care as she took another big draw from the glass.
"I apologise, the cleansing time can be disorienting for those not used to it," Evelyn continued as Kate finished the water and put the glass down.
Her question was all over her face and Evelyn looked surprised, then something clicked in her expression.
"I must apologise again, Margaritte was supposed to have explained when she showed you into the cleansing room, but she is very shy," Evelyn almost purred the apology, still smiling gently. "My gifts came to me through my Haitian Grandmother and make me sensitive to influences that you would not even be aware of, Miss Grange, bits and pieces of spiritual flotsam that every human picks up as they go through life, so I am very careful about ensuring none of that reaches my sanctum."
Evelyn indicated around the room and Kate dutifully gazed at the minimal, but stylish décor.
"Do you mean ghosts?" she asked absently before she'd realised what she'd said.
Evelyn breathed an indulgent laugh, which brought Kate's attention back to her beautiful smile.
"Sometimes the departed cling to the living, but there are other influences too."
Kate didn't want clarification and was glad when Evelyn continued, "So, I do insist that my clients pass a little time in the soothing atmosphere of the cleansing room to dissipate any such emanations before they are admitted to my apartment. I am sorry if that has left you feeling unwell."
"A small price if you can help us," Kate stumbled on the last word as the old familiar pain settled in her heart.
Evelyn didn't respond immediately, she sat with her hands in her lap regarding Kate closely. When she did speak it was an observation.
"You still speak of yourself and your sister in the unified sense."
Kate huffed and found the floor with her eyes once more.
"We were joined in body and soul for 10 years, that hasn't gone away, even after 30 years."
Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law Page 3
