by Amy Cross
He just looks up at me, still refusing to say a word.
I stare at him for a moment. “You have some nerve,” I say finally. “Showing up here like this, bringing these two fools to the great house of Gothos. Have you no respect for the traditions of your predecessors?”
Slowly, and with a smile on his face, Patrick stands up. He walks across the room to the patio doors, and he reaches to the handle. I see one of the maids outside, walking slowly to meet him at the door, and I rush over and push Patrick's hand away.
“You can't!” I hiss at him.
He grins, turns and walks away across the room. I look down at the handle and double-check that the door is properly shut.
“Let me in,” the maid says from outside. I look up at her grey face, then I turn and swiftly walk back to the rest of the guests.
11.
“What's in there?” I ask as we walk past a door on the upstairs floor. There's a faint noise coming from behind the door, as if something is thudding in the distance.
“Nothing at all,” says Astley, clearly trying to change the subject. “Now come on, I've got so much to show you”.
I follow him along the corridor, and eventually we come to a door.
“What do you know about the vampires”? Astley asks me.
I stare at the door. “They're all dead,” I say. “Except one”.
Astley nods, seemingly lost in thought. “But what were they like? Do you know that? Why are they dead? Why does your boyfriend hate his own species so much?”
“He's not my boyfriend,” I say.
“The question stands”.
“I don't know,” I say. “It's not as if Patrick has ever sat down for a long chat about it”.
Astley puts his hand on the door-handle. “The vampires grew to become the most powerful of the three species. So powerful, that they threatened the werewolves and the gods. Eventually, the werewolves pulled away and broke all communication with the vampires, but the gods chose to stay”.
“I've met werewolves -” I start to say.
“They made the right choice,” Astley says, interrupting. “The gods were the fools. They trusted the vampires, and do you know what they got in return? They became slaves. Servants. Maids”.
He pushes the handle down and opens the door just a fraction.
“My people,” he says bitterly. “Reduced to the level of common household help. Treated like dogs. And then the war came. Or... wars. Plural. And finally the vampires fell. All except one. And they left behind Gothos and the servants became the masters, but we're trapped. Do you see that?”
I'm starting to wish that I'd stayed downstairs with Patrick. Astley seems to be on the edge of some kind of madness, and I don't want to see what's on the other side. He seems angry, and it's as if he feels that I'm part of the problem.
“It's not my fault,” says Astley. “The others all died and I was left alone here. They died, but they left their bodies behind. Beautiful, empty bodies. And I tried to resist for so long, but I was tempted by them and eventually I had to give in. I had to”. He pushes the door open. “See for yourself”.
Although I know I should go back and find Patrick, I step forwards to look through the door. All I see, though, is a bare, pale blue room with a bed in the corner.
“I don't see anything,” I say.
“Step into the room,” Astley says. “And then turn and look back, and you'll see everything that happened here at Gothos on the day he came to kill us”.
I think about this for a moment, but the idea of being alone in a small room with Astley isn't something that interests me too much.
“Thanks,” I say. “But I think -”
At that moment, Astley grabs me and pushes me into the room. I trip and fall, landing hard on the wooden floor, and I turn to look back at the door but Astley isn't there. Instead, I can hear screaming and sounds of wood being broken. I sit up and listen to what sounds like a woman begging for her life in the distance, before her voice suddenly falls silent.
Getting to my feet, I hear glass shattering, and the whole floor shakes. There are more screams, and for a moment it seems as if everything – even the light – is flickering. I step to the door, but as I do so a figure appear. I step back as I realise that I recognise the figure. It's Patrick, but he looks different, as if he's slightly younger. He has blood all over his hands and down the side of his face, and he looks at me as if he has no idea who I am... as if he feels nothing towards me but pure hatred.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
He turns and snarls at me. He really doesn't recognise me, and there's something terrifying about the look in his face, as if he's completely out of control. This is the Patrick I've always feared, the beast who I've always worried might one day turn on me. I've seen flashes of his anger before, but never like this, and never directed so obviously at me.
From along the corridor, wisps of smoke start to appear, and I realise that the sound I can hear is a large fire.
“Don't you know who I am?” I ask Patrick. I look at his hands and see that he's holding something white, something that's glowing. “Think,” I say. “Think hard. You know me. Come with me, let's get the hell out of here right now. Let's leave Gothos and never come back”.
I step forwards, but he growls at me in a way I've only ever seen him do when he's facing down enemies.
“Patrick, it's me!” I say, keeping my distance, trying to sound firm but aware that my voice is trembling. “Sophie! It's Sophie!”
From the look in his eyes, he seems genuinely hesitant, as if he's fighting an urge to kill me. He opens his mouth to bare his fangs and he hisses. It's like I'm being sized up by a wild animal, one that has no understanding of me as anything other than a piece of meat.
“Please, Patrick,” I say. I step towards him, trying to show him that I'm a friend. “Try to remember who I am”. I take another step forwards, and now suddenly I'm out of the room and Patrick isn't there any more, and Astley is standing next to me. I turn and look back at the room, which is still bare“What just happened?” I ask.
Astley smiles. “Has no-one ever told you that two sides of a door aren't necessarily connected in ways that you think?”
“There was a fire,” I say. “And there was...”
“There certainly was a fire,” Astley says. “A long time ago. Everything you saw, it certainly did happen. But happened a long time ago, back when Gothos was still the ancestral home of the Vikings, before Patrick came and destroyed all of that”.
I look along the corridor. There's no sound of violence, no sound of people screaming, no sign of Patrick. No smoke, no fire. “Where is he now?” I ask. “Where's Patrick?”
“Probably downstairs, enjoying the meal,” says Astley. “Not like last time he was here. Last time he was here, almost a century ago, he got really angry. For him, that was so long ago, but the house allowed you to see that past as it really happened”.
“Patrick destroyed Gothos?” I ask.
Astley nods.
“That's what I saw,” I say. “I saw what happened last time he was here?”
Astley smiles. “You more than saw it,” he says. “For a moment, you were there”.
“Does Patrick remember?”
“Of course,” says Astley. “He remembers that for one brief moment, at the height of his anger, he caught a glimpse of the girl he would not meet properly for many years”.
I step back into the room. Patrick is now in the doorway. He growls at me, and he looks ready to attack. I step back out into the corridor, and it's just Astley again.
“Patrick met you long before you were even born,” Astley says. “To him, you were the flickering twilight ghost that tried to calm him as he cleansed the house of Gothos of all its pain. It's no wonder he sought you out when you finally arrived. No wonder he watched over you and waited for you to grow older”.
I realise what he's saying. “The prophecy...”
“Began here,” he replie
s.
“And where does it end?”
Astley laughs. “I thought you were the one who said there's no such thing as a prophecy?”
“Until just now,” I say, “I didn't think there was any such thing as a time-travelling door”. I think back to what Vincent told me the first time I met him, about how one day Patrick will kill me. “It's all true, then?” I ask. “He really is going to kill me, isn't he?”
Astley puts an arm around my shoulder. “What do you think?”
I push his arm away. “I need to get out of here,” I say. “I need to get as far away from Patrick as I can”.
“Good luck,” says Astley.
“No, I mean it,” I say. I start walking down the corridor, with Astley following. “I have to go and I have to make sure that I never see him again”.
“That's your choice,” says Astley.
As we get to the top of the stairs, I look down and see Patrick in the hallway, looking up at me. There's a look in his eyes, a look of absolute sadness, as if he knows that something terrible is about to happen, and this isn't the Patrick of a century ago, this is the Patrick of today. I have to get away from him. I have to get away right now.
I immediately run down the corridor, with Astley still on my tail.
“How do I get out of here?” I ask, turning to Astley. “Is there a back way or something?” He just stares at me, but I grab him by the shoulders and I shake him. “You've got to help me get out of this place”.
“You want to run?” Astley asks. “Where will you run to? He can follow you anywhere you go”.
“So what?” I ask. “Are you saying I should just hang around until he decides it's time to kill me?” Along the corridor, behind Astley, Patrick appears at the top of the stairs. He's looking at me as if he knows everything, and as if he's sad about what has to happen.
Astley turns to see Patrick. “Hello, old boy,” he says. “Your girlfriend and I were just talking about the good old days”.
Patrick starts walking towards us.
“You can't kill me,” I say to Patrick, backing away. “You can't, I'm... It's me!”
Astley grabs my arm. “This way,” he says, leading me away, around the corner and down a set of back stairs. He stops halfway down. “I'll delay the vampire, you run and get out the back way”.
“He'll kill you,” I say.
“Maybe, maybe not,” says Astley. “But he and I go back a long way, so I can slow him down enough for you to get away”.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“I'm sure,” he says. “There's no escape for me. I'm doomed. But you can run. Just get down into the kitchen, go to the door and open it, do you understand?”
I nod. I turn to run, but Astley grabs my arm and pulls me back.
“It's very important that you open the external door,” he insists. “Open it all the way”.
I look up and see Patrick at the top of the stairs. Then, without saying anything, I turn and run, pulling my arm away from Astley's grasp. Eventually I find myself in what appears to be a large kitchen area, with pots bubbling on the stoves. I see a door and run to it, but as I get there I realise that there's someone outside. It's Jessica, the maid from earlier, the one who went down to the bottom of the garden.
“Let me in,” she says, staring at me.
I pull the door, but it's locked. The key's in the lock, though, so I turn it and pull the door open. As I do so, dust falls away, as if the door has been closed for many, many years. “I need to get out of here,” I say to Jessica. “Are you coming with me?”
Jessica steps through the door, and two other maids come with her. There's something odd about them, though, as if they're just staring at me, and they seem to be cold, almost grey. And they're walking strangely, tottering almost, as if they're walking on ice and they don't have complete control of their limbs.
“Are you okay?” I ask, backing away. I glance over my shoulder. Still no sign of Patrick. I turn back to Jessica. “What's wrong? I don't have all day, are you coming with me?”
“Let me in,” says Jessica, taking a step towards me.
I look over at the door, which is wide open. “I did,” I say.
“Let me in,” she says again, her eyes fixed on me.
“You're in,” I say, looking around the kitchen. “You're in, okay?”
She moves towards me. “Let me in,” she repeats.
“Okay,” I say. “You're being a little bit creepy, yeah? You should probably work on that”. I turn to run, but as I do, Astley staggers into the room, covered in blood and with cuts on his face.
“Sorry,” Astley says. “I did the best I could. I fought him off, I made him work to get past me. I tried”. He stares at me, and then he smiles. “But you opened the door! Excellent!” And with that, he collapses to the floor just as Patrick steps into the room. He looks at me with that sad, desperate expression on his face that I've seen before.
A hand touches my shoulder. I spin around to find Jessica standing right behind me.
“Let me in,” she says, staring at me intently. “Let me in”.
I pull away and I run. As fast as I can, I run across the kitchen and through another door, and I keep running. There's no way I can stay here. Patrick is too dangerous, and Gothos is too confusing. I still don't understand why Patrick brought me here, but I have this mounting feeling of dread that suggests I really don't want to find out. All I want to do is find a way out of here, and for that I need the help of one person in particular.
12.
Let me in.
Though she runs, I know it is only a matter of time. She must let me in eventually. She is scared, and that is understandable. The threshold between life and death is not an easy place. But she will learn. They all learn eventually. They all learn that they have to let me in.
The vampire is in the room. He stares at me... at us. There is fire in his eyes, like the last time he was here. But he does nothing, because he knows that he cannot stop us. He always knew that one day someone would let us in, and he knows now that he cannot persuade us not to do what we are going to do.
He knows better than to argue with dying gods.
13.
The Lock is standing in the corner of the room, a drink in his hand, talking to someone as I run over.
“Get me out of here,” I blurt out as I reach him.
“Excuse me,” says The Lock to his friend. He turns to me. “What's the problem now? I don't suppose you've seen my wife anywhere, have you?”
Wife? “Patrick's trying to kill me,” I say. I grab his arm and try to pull him with me to the door. “You have to help me get out of here, you have to help me get away from him forever”.
“And why would I do that?” The Lock asks. “Look, I'm very sorry if I've mistakenly given you the impression that I'm concerned about your safety, but really, I have more pressing matters to attend to”.
I let go of his arm. “You've got to help me...” I say, looking back over my shoulder. Still no sign of Patrick. Not yet...
“Listen,” says The Lock. “Patrick is going to kill you, yes. That's true. But not yet. Not now. Not for a long time and, frankly, you might not want to hear this, but when he does finally do it, he will have a very good reason”.
“A reason?” I ask. “What kind of reason could there be?”
The Lock shrugs. “A very good reason. And it will be entirely your fault”.
“If you know everything,” I say, “why won't you just tell me?”
“I'm really very busy,” he says, attempting to turn back to talk to his friend, but I grab him again and pull him back so that he's facing me.
“Why are we here?” I ask him, begging him to answer. “Why did Patrick bring you and me to Gothos?”
The Lock sighs. “He brought me here because he always knew that the only way to get rid of me would be to bring me back to my wife and family. And he brought you here because... Well, there are many reasons for that. You'll find out, in due course
”.
I think about this for a moment. What does he mean? Why won't he just be honest with me? “If I just go out the door,” I say slowly, trying to sound calm, “will I be safe? Can I just walk out of here?”
“I have no idea,” says The Lock. “Why don't you try, and if you get anywhere, send me a postcard. But to be honest, I doubt you'll get very far”. He turns back to his friend, and this time I don't try to get his attention back.
Looking up, I see that Patrick has entered the room. He's walking towards me, but I turn and run out into the hallway. I go to the main door, but when I try to open it, I find it's locked, so I turn and run up the stairs. At the top, I look back and see that Patrick is slowly following me, so I head down the corridor and into the room where I changed into my dress earlier. I push the door shut, then I turn and face the bare room and I realise there's no way out. I go and try the window, but it's locked and, as I keep trying, I hear the door open.
I turn and Patrick is just a few feet away.
We stand in silence for a moment. I've been scared of Patrick before, but never like this. I've never actually believe that he's about to kill me. There's a look in his eyes, though, that seems weighed down with dread. It's as if he doesn't want to kill me, but he has no choice.
“Are you here to kill me?” I ask. I wait for some kind of signal from him, some kind of response, but there's nothing. “Because if you are,” I continue, “I'm going to fight you, okay? I won't just lie down on the bed and let you sink your teeth into me. I'll fight. I'll shout and I'll scream and I'll make you hurt me. I won't be brave. You'll have to rip me apart, and I'll haunt your fucking dreams for the rest of your miserable never-ending life, do you understand me?”
He takes a step towards me. After all this time, I still can't read his expression. I still have no idea what he's thinking, what he wants. I've never known. I've always assumed that Patrick is a friend, that he cares for me, that he... Well, that he seems me as someone special. But all this time, maybe he's just been keeping me alive because he wants to kill me in his own special way.
