‘He hurt his arm in the crash,’ Leah said. ‘I don’t know if it was broken, but he was screaming. When Dad dragged Alex out of the car, he didn’t seem to care that Alex was hurt.’
Danni turned around to look at the state of the car that lay on its roof. The prognosis wasn’t good.
Most of the windows were out, the metal was crumpled and twisted, and its paint was streaked along the road in random patterns. She saw a pool of liquid seeping out from one side of the vehicle—presumably petrol or oil—like a pool of blood.
If she did manage to get Alex out, they now had no way of escaping other than on foot.
She cursed herself.
So eager had she been to get her children away to safety that she had been careless.
Maybe Jon had been right. Her desire to run, to always flee from difficult situations, had now cost her. The car was fucked, Alex had been taken, and she and her daughter were alone and unprepared for what they had to do next.
‘Mom,’ Leah said, ‘we need to go. Alex is back there. We need to help him.’
‘Okay,’ Danni answered, trying desperately to form some kind of plan. She checked her pockets for her phone, but quickly realised she had left it inside. ‘Do you have your phone?’ Danni asked Leah.
Leah shook her head. ‘It’s back at the house.’
Damn it.
Calling the police for help was clearly a no-go. She could wait and hope someone drove past who could offer help. But the road was a quiet one, and Danni had no idea how long that would take.
That left only one option; she had to go back.
‘You wait here,’ Danni said to her daughter, intending to do this alone.
‘What?’
‘Keep away from the car and keep off the road as well. Stand in the field. Whoever comes by will have to stop—its hard to miss a car lying on its roof in the middle of the road. So when they do, you need to get them to call the police. Tell them where we are, and that we need help. I’ll go and get Alex.’
‘No,’ Leah said.
‘Don’t argue, Leah. This isn’t up for debate.’
‘You’re right, it isn’t,’ the girl said. ‘And I’m not staying. Alex is in trouble, and I’m going to help. I’m not staying here while you run off and get yourself killed.’
‘Leah—’
‘No, Mom. I don’t care what you say, I’m coming. You can’t keep me here, anyway. Besides, you’re hurt, and can hardly walk. It’s going to take both of us.’
Danni looked her daughter up and down. The girl was scared and physically shaken. She had been through so much this weekend. Ever since the scare yesterday she had been a shell of her normal self, retreating inside to get away from what she couldn’t understand.
It appeared now, however, that she’d had enough of being helpless. Now, her little girl was standing up for herself. And for her family.
Even in a situation such as this, a terrible and nightmarish one, Danni couldn’t help but feel a swell of immense pride towards her daughter.
But she couldn’t take her back to that house. Not when she knew, or partly knew, what was waiting for them inside. It was irresponsible to an extreme degree. What kind of parent would she be if she allowed that?
She shook her head, ready to have the final say, but Leah simply turned and started walking back to the house.
‘Leah,’ Danni shouted.
‘Let’s go, Mom,’ her daughter said without looking back.
Danni limped after her, and as she did she became aware that Leah was actually right; Danni couldn’t move very well. Her ankle still hurt terribly, and if that was the case, what good would she be to Alex?
‘Wait, Leah,’ Danni said.
‘I already told you, Mom, I’m going.’
‘I know,’ Danni replied. At this, her daughter stopped and turned to face her. ‘But I could do with a hand.’
Leah let slip a small smile and jogged back to her mother. Danni put an arm over her daughter’s shoulders and let her take some of her weight. The two of them then made their way back to the house, slowly but steadily.
‘Mom, what happened to Dad?’ Leah asked. ‘Why is he acting like this?’
‘I don’t know,’ Danni said, though that wasn’t strictly true. She’d read the diary, the one that was back at the house, and had a good idea of what was going on—as outlandish as it seemed. However, she didn’t see the need to scare her daughter further with stories of evil things living in the mill. Though maybe it was past that point now.
‘But he isn’t himself, is he?’ Leah asked.
‘Not at the minute, sweetie, no.’
‘Will he hurt Alex?’
‘I don’t know, Leah. I really don’t. But he won’t if I can help it.’
‘And if we get Alex back? He’ll try and hurt us as well, won’t he?’
Danni paused, then nodded. It was pointless lying, because they needed to be prepared for the worst. ‘Probably, yes.’
‘This is so fucked up.’
Danni didn’t even make a move to admonish her daughter for swearing. The girl had summed up the situation perfectly.
‘Yes. It is.’
‘So, those things we saw in there. They’re real, aren’t they?’
‘Yeah,’ Danni said. It sounded crazy to admit that, but there was no other answer.
Danni felt a chill run up her spine. It was ludicrous, absolutely bat-shit insane to think there were honest-to-god ghosts, or demons, or whatever the hell they were, back at the house. Impossible things that seemed only to want to cause pain.
And her own father was among them.
She remembered his black eyes, his cold touch, and shuddered again.
‘I saw something last night too,’ Leah said. ‘An old woman in our room. The same one we saw before we ran. Do you think they are ghosts? People who used to live in the house?’
Danni was shocked her daughter had experienced another scare that she hadn’t shared. She also considered her daughter’s question, and didn’t have an answer, but she did remember stories from when she was younger about an old woman. There was even a rhyme about her.
Old Mrs. Hobbes, all alone she sobs,
Dead and forgotten, underground and rotten,
Lying in her coffin, with her eyes wide open.
She wondered if this Margaret Hobbes was the same old woman they had been seeing. It seemed to make sense, as insane as that sounded.
None of this should have made any sense.
‘I don’t know,’ Danni said, answering her daughter. ‘But why didn’t you say anything about that? I had no idea.’
‘Because I was scared,’ Leah said. ‘Scared of what happened, and scared of what you would all think of me.’
‘You know you can tell me anything.’
‘Yeah, I know, but I didn’t know how Dad would take it. So, it seemed easier to keep it to myself and just try to get through it.’
Danni tightened her arm around Leah and gave her a hug.
‘I’m sorry,’ Danni said. ‘We should never have come up here. It’s my fault.’
‘No,’ Leah said, ‘it's not.’
‘You don’t have to go through with this, you know,’ Danni said, giving it one last throw of the dice. ‘There’s no shame in waiting here for me.’
‘Yes, there is,’ Leah said. ‘Alex needs our help, and I’m not going to let him down. I’m not going to run.’
That struck a chord with Danni. She admired her daughter and wished she had been as brave when she was of a similar age.
They reached the turnoff for the road up to the house and paused. Danni could see the skid marks she had left during her unsuccessful attempt at fleeing. She felt another pang of guilt for nearly killing her children with her recklessness. She contemplated apologising to Leah for that, but didn’t think her daughter would feel the need to accept it.
She looked back down the main road and saw their car on its roof absolutely ruined. She could still smell the burnt, meta
llic aroma in the air. She then looked past the wrecked vehicle, hoping to see headlights approaching through the dark.
There was nothing.
They were on their own.
And it was time to go.
It was dark, but up in the distance she could make out the silhouette of the house, standing against the dark sky, and behind that, the tower-like mill. Both looked ominous, as if they were daring her to approach.
She hesitated, trying to find another option. Surely it was suicide to just walk into the jaws of death like this?
But one of her children was up there, and he desperately needed her. He needed them both.
Danni took a breath and gave her daughter another squeeze.
‘I’m proud of you,’ she said. ‘And I love you.’
‘Thanks, Mom. I love you too.’
With that, the two women made their way up the driveway.
22
HE STOOD, looking from the window.
Waiting for them to arrive.
As he knew they would.
The trap was set.
As if on cue, he saw two forms making their way towards the house. The taller one, who seemed to be struggling, leaned on the shorter. He recognised the older one as Dannielle, his daughter.
The other was a granddaughter he had never met.
And with good reason.
Why would she ever bring her family back here and introduce them to him? He had been a monster.
And not by choice.
The old evil that lived here on this land had gotten inside of him and twisted him into something he wasn’t.
And the worst thing was, he couldn’t stop it. The harder he fought, the more it took hold. Only when it was too late, and the thing had full control, did he realise what his dear wife, Alice, had gone through.
However, Alice had found a way to free herself before it was too late.
He hadn’t been that smart.
Or that strong.
And so its hold became absolute, claiming him completely. It got inside, infesting him, taking his body and soul as its own.
But, if life had been bad under the control of that thing, in death it was worse.
So much worse.
It was beyond madness, beyond pain, beyond torture. He had no real form to ever inhabit again, just a twisted echo of it. And Arthur was simply a bystander, a puppet on a string manipulated to follow his master's whims and desires. An endless torment, existing with no agency of his own.
He was nothing more than a floating consciousness that was used and played with as desired.
And there was more.
Bad enough he had to watch what was happening to his daughter and her family while they were in this house, and watch as the thing that owned him started to seep into the husband’s consciousness as well, but there was the never ending-pain he felt.
That same agony that had been present ever since he had died and re-awoken like this.
And pain was different in this existence. It was at once constant, and yet ever-changing and undulating. It wasn’t quite physical—he wasn’t a physical thing anymore—but he suffered it none the less. It felt as if he were rotting away, that his consciousness was souring and being torn apart, again and again.
This was a torture that would never let up. Never end.
It was eternal.
He was trapped between two places: here in his home, a prison in life and in death, but also somewhere else.
Somewhere worse
He knew it was the place this hideous thing had originated from.
A nightmarish place that touched the edges of his own world, but was removed from it. A place of chaos, desecration, and malevolence.
Through whatever connection the monster had over him in its control of him, he would see this place sometimes—exist there for a while, until needed.
And he learned a very surprising thing: he knew that this demonic entity—if that term was actually accurate, which he suspected it was not—that now owned his soul, was actually scared in this place. Through his connection to it, he could somehow sense its fear, and came to learn it was a lower being that managed to find a refuge in his world. A place for it to hide. There were other things in this place, many unimaginable things, beings he could scarcely comprehend that terrified him beyond understanding.
That ripped at his mind and sanity.
But, the old entity that resided on this land, that had taken residence here long ago, was the danger his daughter would face. And it was a danger that would claim her very soul for eternity if she could not overcome it.
And worse, he would be part of it.
He would only be able to watch as the vile creature from that terrifying other place used his own twisted image to terrorise and torture what he prized, and loved, more than anything else in this world. He would feel her as it made him do things, as it did when he was alive; things that tortured his mind.
And he also knew, however, of the one thing that would weaken this demon’s hold on their world. An element that could scorch the link and give his daughter and her family a chance to escape.
He prayed Dannielle was strong enough to overcome this.
He wanted that more than anything.
But, he just couldn’t see how it was possible.
23
AFTER REACHING THE HOUSE, Danni considered where to look first. The mill seemed an obvious place to start; it was small and wouldn’t take long to search. Also, the thing behind all this, whatever it was, seemed to have an affinity with that place.
However, she heard something that diverted her attention and removed the need to make any choice at all.
A noise from inside the house. Faint, but definitely there.
Click, click, click.
‘That’s Alex,’ Leah said.
Danni turned towards the house and jogged to the front door, trying to bear as much weight on her ankle as she could. Leah kept pace, helping Danni move, but was confused.
‘What do you mean?’ she asked. ‘I didn’t hear anything.’
‘His crutches,’ Danni said. ‘I heard him moving.’
They stopped just before the entrance and Danni listened, trying to hear signs of her son again.
But there was nothing.
‘What should we do?’ Leah asked.
Danni put her hand on the handle and pushed the door open. ‘We go in.’
The hallway inside was dark and cold. Danni stepped over the threshold and tried the light. It flicked on, then immediately blew, popping the bulbs with a bang. Leah let out a brief shriek and hugged her mother tight. Danni wasn’t sure if she had caught a glimpse—just before the lights blew—of a figure standing at the top of the stairs.
If she had, could it have been Alex? Or something else…
Danni pressed on, because she knew that she would likely have to go through hell here in order to find her son. She decided to check the ground floor first, though she didn’t hold out much hope, knowing things wouldn’t be that easy.
She was a fly, knowingly entering the spider’s web.
Ready to be caught and devoured.
The living room gave up nothing and there was no one inside, so they moved into the kitchen. Leah clutched onto Danni’s arm, and Danni felt her daughter trembling. Regardless, the girl still moved forward. She was fighting through her fear.
They both were.
The kitchen was also deserted, as was the dining room, both cast in darkness like the rest of the house. Danni was about to turn back when she saw movement through the glazed double-doors of the dining room that looked out to the back of the house.
It had been a fleeting movement, but Danni was certain.
She started to walk over to the doors, needing to check just to see if it was Alex. Maybe he’d gotten free and escaped outside? When she reached her destination, she looked out through the glazing to the rear garden. She couldn’t see much through the night, but whatever she had seen move before wasn’t there no
w. She contemplated shouting, to see if she could draw it back.
But she had no need to.
Something moved, revealing itself from the darkness outside.
Leah screamed and backpeddled.
The old woman, Margaret Hobbes, stood directly outside of the glass doors.
Close up, Danni could now see all the horrible details of the grinning old woman’s face.
Her pale, ashen skin was actually lined with thin, dark veins. The pupils of her eyes had a tinge of striking yellow to them, and they glinted in the darkness. Her thin hands were linked before her midsection, and the long, plain dress she wore, one with a high collar surrounding her neck, actually had a subtle, embossed pattern to it. Her grey hair was up in a bun, and her smile was wide enough to show blackened gums and teeth.
Danni’s body initially locked up in fear upon seeing this wretched woman. In short order, however, anger emboldened her. She clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and walked up to the glass. She slammed the flat of her palms against it.
‘What the fuck do you want from us?’ Danni screamed.
The woman continued to grin, but stayed motionless.
‘We need to run,’ Leah said from behind, pressing herself against the wall.
‘Where is my son?’ Danni demanded and slapped her palm on the glass again. ‘Tell me, you fucking bitch!’
Still the woman remained motionless, the only hint of understanding, or emotion, her continued, cruel, mocking smile.
‘Mommy.’
Danni snapped her head around, again hearing her son. It sounded like he was close, literally right beside her, but when she turned, there was no one there. Danni felt a sudden burst of cold, and a horrible, rotting smell assaulted her.
She turned her head back, but didn’t have time to scream.
The old woman was now on the inside of the glass door, standing directly in front of Danni, practically nose to nose.
The old witch’s smile changed into a wide-eyed scowl, and she suddenly grabbed Danni around the throat with hands so cold that their touch felt like a burn. The grip was powerful, and Danni felt herself pushed back, her feet lifted from the floor as the woman moved through the air.
Danni’s back slammed into the wall, and in her peripheral vision she saw Leah slide out of their way. The old woman then lifted Danni up higher, leaving her legs dangling and kicking the air. The hands closed tighter, cutting off the last trickle of air Danni was able to suck into her lungs.
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