A loud, instinctive scream erupted from her.
ONCE AGAIN, Danni found herself acting on impulse, and she raced up the stairs to help one of her children who, yet again, seemed to be in need. The same feeling of panic and rush of adrenaline shot through her. Again, she was the first to react, the quickest, with Jon running behind her.
Leah continued to scream.
It was different from when she had heard Alex yell earlier. He had screamed once, but this sound was continuous, and to Danni that meant danger.
Something was happening.
It’s this fucking house, she said to herself. We shouldn’t be here. It was a stupid fucking idea, and I should have left the old fucker to rot in here alone.
Danni barrelled headlong into the first-floor corridor and saw the door to the bathroom slightly ajar, steam pouring out of the room. She kicked the door open and launched herself inside, braced for something.
Anything.
Leah was curled up on the floor of the bathtub.
She was huddled into a foetal position, and was screaming incessantly. Without thinking, Danni ran to her and took hold of her, pulling her up into a crouched hug. The water still sprayed from the shower, soaking Danni, but she barely noticed.
‘What is it?’ she asked, breathless, as Jon ran in behind her.
Leah didn’t answer, she just continued to cry. Jon turned off the shower and looked around, panicked and confused.
‘What happened, Leah?’ Danni asked again, more firmly this time. She saw that her daughter, whilst scared, appeared physically unharmed. However, that didn’t mean any potential danger had passed, and she needed to know what had frightened her daughter so. She needed to know what to do to protect her.
‘Someone was outside of the door,’ Leah said softly, her voice not much more than a whisper.
‘What?’ Jon asked, urgency and disbelief in his voice. He dashed to the corridor outside, and Danni heard him then run from room to room, searching.
‘Who was it?’ Danni asked. She grabbed the towel and draped it over her daughter to help warm her trembling body.
‘I don’t know,’ she said. The young adult that Leah was growing into was momentarily gone, replaced with a frightened child. ‘But he was just standing there, watching me.’
‘Mom!’ came a concerned voice. It was Alex, shouting up from the bottom stairs. Danni could hear him making his way up. ‘Is everything okay? Is Leah all right?’
‘She’s fine, hun,’ Danni called back, rubbing Leah’s arms and shoulders in an effort to stop the shaking. ‘Everything is okay. But stay down there.’
But it wasn’t okay, was it? Nothing felt okay. Nothing about this seemed right.
Something was very off.
She heard Alex work his way up the stairs anyway, and felt a split second of anger, annoyed that he had seen fit to ignore her.
Jon re-entered the room.
‘There’s no one here,’ he said. ‘I’ve checked everywhere.’
‘I saw somebody, I swear,’ Leah said. ‘Someone was standing right there.’ She pointed to the space just outside the doorway, just behind Jon. A space Alex filled as he stepped into view. He looked worried, too, which was only natural, Danni supposed, considering the horrible screams that had been coming from Leah only moments ago.
Then Danni remembered that only a little while earlier, it had been Alex who had been the frightened one, the one who had been screaming.
Because of something—he said—he thought he saw.
Something was definitely wrong with this place.
Danni felt it.
‘There’s no one here, sweetie,’ Jon said. ‘I’ve checked everywhere.’
‘But I saw someone,’ she said as tears continued to run down her face. ‘I’m not making it up.’
‘Are you sure?’ Jon asked, trying to sound as gentle as possible, but he couldn’t hide the skepticism in his voice. Leah buried her face into the towel, pulling it up around her shoulders, and continued to sob.
‘I know what I saw, Dad,’ she said, not bothering to hide the anger in her voice.
Danni looked up to Jon. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. The message was clear: as much as he loved his daughter, he didn’t believe her. If someone had been up here, Jon would have found them. The place wasn’t that big, and there weren’t that many places to hide. No one had passed them coming down the stairs.
Despite all of that, and the logic that would indicate Jon was right, Danni knew her daughter.
And she believed her.
‘Come on, honey,’ Danni said, coaxing Leah up to a standing position. ‘Let’s get you dried and dressed. Then we’ll all go downstairs. I’ll make us a warm drink and we can talk about it.’
Leah raised her red eyes to meet Danni’s. She looked deathly afraid. When she spoke, it was a whisper.
‘We aren’t alone here.’
8
JON AND ALEX headed downstairs and left Danni to help Leah compose herself. Jon walked in front of Alex as they descended, but kept turning his head to watch his son as the boy navigated the old stairs. They then moved into the living room where Alex took a seat. Jon noticed Alex rub his wrists, clearly sore from the strain of the plastic wrist-supports attached to the aluminium crutches.
‘What do you think happened, Dad?’ Alex asked, and Jon could see the worry in his face.
‘Nothing,’ Jon said, not wanting Alex to fall foul of any kind of hysteria. Jon was quite sure there was no one in the house with them, and that Leah’s episode had been brought on by something else. Maybe the stress of the situation was filtering down to the children in ways he hadn’t envisioned. Alex, too, had experienced an incident of his own, but thankfully was be able to rationalise it. He wanted that to continue. ‘I think with everything that’s going on, and the fact we’re in a new place, one that's pretty creepy, imaginations are running away with themselves. But I promise you, Son, there is nothing to worry about here.’
Alex nodded and smiled. ‘Okay,’ he said.
‘And we need to be strong for your mother and sister,’ Jon went on. ‘We need to make sure we don’t let little things spook us, you understand what I’m saying? If we make a big deal over things that turn out to be nothing, we aren’t helping anyone.’
‘I understand,’ Alex said, with another nod.
Jon smiled and patted his son’s shoulder. ‘I knew you would,’ he said.
Soon, Danni and Leah returned to the living room and, as promised, Danni fixed them all hot drinks. She then tried to talk to Leah a little more, to pry a little more information from her, but Leah closed up. The girl just sat on the sofa next to her mother and brother, her knees pulled up to her chest. She took tentative sips from her hot chocolate, but remained silent. She had a glazed look in her eyes and was staring off into nothing.
It looked to Jon like she was suffering from a mild case of shock, so he knew something had genuinely spooked her. But, at the same time, he had checked everywhere he could, and had found nothing. When Leah had first told them someone was standing outside of the bathroom door watching her shower, he had felt a chill run down his spine. Could it be that someone was here in the house with them? In short order, that chill had turned to white hot fury, and he had set off to try to find whoever was there with the intent, he realised only now, to hurt them.
That feeling had soon subsided. He’d searched everywhere he could think of and had come up empty handed. It was then he’d realised that, more likely, Leah hadn’t seen what she thought she had. Not to say she was lying—Jon knew his daughter better than that—but that she had been genuinely mistaken.
The shock she was now in, he reasoned, was either her mind’s way of dealing with what it thought it saw, or, perhaps, it was a way for her to deal with the realisation that she was wrong and had scared everyone for nothing. Maybe she was dealing with the embarrassment of it all, which Jon could understand. The same thing had happened to Alex earlier, and perhaps that had�
��in part—fuelled Leah’s subconscious, twisting the most mundane thing into something it was not.
‘How about we all sleep together in here tonight?’ Danni asked. Jon cast her a confused look.
‘Is there space?’ he asked.
‘Might be a little snug,’ Danni replied, ‘but we can make it work. It’ll be nice, all of us in the room together. Like a little sleepover.’ She leaned in to Leah. ‘That sound good with you?’
Leah nodded and took another sip from her drink. Jon understood what Danni was trying to do; if they were all in the same room together, Leah might feel more comfortable, though he didn’t like it. He didn’t want to wrap her up like that. She was strong, they all were, and the best way for Leah to pull through this was to return to normality. At least, as much as their present situation would allow. Staying in the same room with her parents, to Jon, was like letting a child sleep with the light on after a nightmare. It didn’t really help.
It just reinforced that it was okay to be scared over nothing, and to let others come and fix everything.
‘I’m not sure that is needed,’ Jon said, and Danni shot him a scowl. ‘I’ve looked everywhere, there’s no one here. We’ll be fine. Besides, Alex is in there with her.’
‘I just thought—’ Danni started to say, but Leah cut her off.
‘It’ll be fine,’ Leah said quietly. She was looking up to Jon, and he saw that her cheeks had flushed a little. So she was embarrassed. He felt bad for making her feel that way, but knew that everyone huddling together down here, all scared of every shadow, was not helping anyone.
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Tell you what, to put everyone’s minds to rest I’ll go and search the house again. I’ll check everywhere.’
Leah nodded and looked back to her drink, gently swirling it in the mug. Jon looked over to Danni and saw that his wife looked furious.
Again, he felt bad for adding to her worries this weekend, but by morning this would all be behind them, with more important things to concentrate on.
‘Want me to come with you, Dad?’ Alex asked.
‘Thanks, buddy, but I’ll be fine. You stay here with your mother and sister.’
Alex nodded, and Jon left the room to head upstairs. When he reached the top, he stood on the landing, looking to his right down the length of the dark corridor. He flicked on the light and then went room to room. First, to one of the spare bedrooms, then to the bathroom, which was still steamed up, then on to the master bedroom, Arthur's old room, and finishing with the last spare bedroom.
Nothing.
He came back to the landing, ready to make his descent, when a sound from behind alerted him. He turned and looked up, toward the attic hatch. Whatever the noise was, it didn’t repeat itself. He couldn’t place it, somewhere between a whisper and a gust of wind. Perhaps the roof was patchy and wind was spilling in from outside. He noticed that one corner of the attic hatch had a hole in it, and he could see the darkness behind.
He shook his head, not letting himself fall into the same trap Leah had earlier. It was an old house, and one that had quite an oppressive atmosphere, and a man had died here only days ago, so it was natural they would be unnerved.
Jon turned back to face the stairs.
The lights suddenly flickered.
Only briefly, but enough to stop him in his tracks. He paused, waiting for something else, half-expecting the lights to blink out completely.
Great, he thought to himself. The lights going out in the house is just what I need right now.
That would send his family into a complete panic.
And that’s when he heard it; an exhale, directly behind him. He felt cold breath roll over the back of his neck.
He froze.
Impossible.
He didn’t have time to turn around before a forceful push launched him down the stairs.
THE THUNDEROUS SOUND of something heavy crashing down the stairs caused Danni to jump. Leah jolted as well and pressed herself against her mother. The sound continued until whatever it was had settled at the bottom of the stairs.
Jon.
Danni pulled herself free of Leah, feeling like every time things had calmed down and were quiet, something else happened that forced her into action and raised her adrenaline again. She ran into the entrance hallway, hoping that maybe Jon had just dropped something down the stairs. She had no idea what that could be, but anything was better than what she pictured finding.
She brought her hands to her mouth and drew in a sharp intake of breath as she saw him.
Her worst fears were confirmed.
John lay crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, face down, with one arm behind his back and one leg resting on the bottom stair. He was motionless.
‘Jon!’ Danni yelled and ran to him.
‘Dad!’ she heard Alex scream from behind.
She shook her husband, careful not to be too firm in her movements, not knowing what injuries he may have suffered. ‘Jon,’ she said again, frantic. ‘Are you okay? Please be okay?’
He moaned.
It was a pained, groggy sound, but one she was intensely glad to hear. It meant the worst had been avoided.
He was alive.
‘Honey, are you okay? Can you move?’
Slowly, his arms began to untangle themselves, and he tried to roll over. Danni helped him do so, but made sure the movement was slow. She then helped him straighten out and settle onto his back.
‘He’s bleeding,’ Alex pointed out.
Danni looked up to him as he spoke and saw Leah standing behind her brother with the same look of terror on her face that she’d seen only an hour or so before. Danni looked back down to Jon and saw blood smeared below his nose and over his mouth. It had also pooled on the bare wooden floor where his face had been resting.
Fuck! So much blood!
She searched for injury as his eyes fluttered open. She couldn’t find any cuts or bruises on his mouth, and as he opened his lips she saw his teeth and gums were fine as well. However, blood was spilling freely from his nose, though the appendage didn’t look bent or disfigured.
He let out another, longer groan.
‘Jesus,’ he said, then focused his eyes on Danni.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked.
Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay.
‘I think so,’ he eventually said.
‘Are you hurt?’
‘My face feels sore.’
‘Can you move?’
He winced and began to push himself upright into a sitting position. Blood ran down onto his top.
‘I don’t think anything is broken,’ he said, forcing a pained smile that Danni knew was meant to reassure her. A nice gesture, but a futile one.
‘Leah, Alex,’ she said, turning to her children, ‘one of you go and get some towels from the kitchen.’
Leah hesitated, but Alex carefully made his way through.
Danni turned back to Jon. ‘What happened?’
He took his time answering, as if measuring his response. ‘I lost my footing,’ he said, ‘and fell.’
Jon brought a hand to his face and pressed the back of it beneath his nose. He pulled it away and saw it was streaked with blood.
‘Damn it,’ he said.
‘Anything else? Is anything broken?’
‘I don’t think so.’ With Danni’s help, Jon eased himself up to unsteady feet, resting one arm over her shoulder. He put his other hand on the stair banister for support. ‘I think I bounced pretty good on the way down.’
Click, click, click.
Alex returned with a towel in hand. A drying cloth, rather than a paper towel, but it would have to do. The blood would wash out, or they would throw it away. Right now, that didn’t matter. He handed it to his mother who gently dabbed it around Jon’s nose. Jon winced and pulled back.
‘Sorry,’ she said, handing the towel to him. ‘Tilt your head back and press this to your nose to try to stop the bleeding.’ He did as instructe
d, still using Danni for balance.
‘Are you okay, Dad?’ Alex asked.
‘I’m fine, buddy,’ Jon said, his voice muffled by the cloth.
‘Come and sit down,’ Danni said. ‘I’ll call a doctor, or an ambulance or something.’
‘No need,’ Jon said as Danni led him back through to the living room.
‘There’s every need,’ she told him. ‘You just fell down the stairs. You might have broken something.’
‘I haven’t,’ he replied. ‘It hurt, but there’s no serious damage done. I may end up with a swollen nose, but that will be about it.’
Danni helped him onto the sofa. To her, he still looked a little dazed, but he seemed to be coming round. Danni allowed herself to feel a little more relieved and tried to calm her heart rate.
First Alex, then Leah, now Jon.
‘Some trip,’ she said. ‘I’ll be glad when we are back home and away from all this. We shouldn’t have come.’
She rubbed her husband’s free hand as he continued to dab at his nose. The bleeding seemed to be easing now, but his shirt was ruined.
‘It’s fine,’ Jon said. ‘Just a little run of bad luck. Nothing to worry about.’
It may have been her imagination, but Jon’s normal, self-assured tone was gone.
It was as if he didn’t really believe it himself.
9
LEAH DIDN’T SLEEP that night.
Her father’s fall had shocked her. After seeing him laid out at the bottom of the stars, like a broken doll, she’d been sure the man she’d seen watching her in the shower had caused it. Her father had insisted, however, that he’d simply tripped. The only thing they had to be scared of, he had maintained, was their own clumsiness.
Shortly after, he’d suggested they all turn in for the night. Leah’s mother seemed as reluctant as Leah to do so, but they both went along with the idea. Leah almost asked if she could sleep in her parents' room, like she had done as a child, but the shame of such a question had stopped her.
Lying in the old bed, with Alex on the inflatable mattress on the floor, Leah could hear his soft breathing grow into light snores. For some reason, knowing her brother was now asleep only served to further her unease. It was like she was alone in the room now, and whatever things lurked in the shadows would target her, and only her.
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