The front door was still open and she was about to take Bonnie’s hand and run back to the car but before she could make a move he seized hold of Bonnie, putting his arm across her neck. To Ursula’s horror he produced a knife from behind his back and held it at her throat. Their worst fears had become reality.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he said in a low, menacing voice.
“Please don’t do this Damien, we’re your friends and we only want to help you. Don’t you remember calling us and asking us to come and get you?” Ursula implored. He only laughed in response.
“Friends, is that what you think you are? You stole my money and tried to poison me, but now I will take my revenge. I’ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time.” He pushed the kitchen door open and pulled Bonnie with him. Ursula could see how utterly terrified she was. “Come with me or I will slit her throat from ear to ear.” She had no choice but to do as he said and lead the way into the kitchen, where the cellar door stood wide open. He forced Bonnie down the stairs in front of him then beckoned for Ursula to go next.
“Hurry up, woman.” As they descended into the cellar Bonnie let out a shrill scream that almost caused Ursula to fall down the stairs. She had to stifle her own scream when she saw what had frightened her. In the flickering candle light there was a woman’s body at the bottom of the stairs. She was lying very still and Ursula recognised the clothes immediately as those Yvette had been wearing that morning. Her head seemed to be twisted at an odd angle and her hands and feet were bound. She was certain that Yvette was dead, but as they got closer she blinked, and Ursula felt such a surge of relief that her legs almost gave way beneath her. She had to grip the railing to stay upright.
“Get over there,” said Damien, motioning to a dank corner of the cellar. She and Bonnie scrambled over to where he pointed and huddled together on the ground, powerless to do anything but wait and see what his next move would be. Damien seemed confused as he paced up and down the small room, muttering incoherently to himself, but then he froze as a loud ringing sound broke through his reverie. It was Bonnie’s mobile phone.
“What is that noise?” he said, stepping closer to them. “What manner of creature do you have there?”
“I don’t know,” stammered Bonnie.
“Liar,” he said, seizing her by the arm and pulling her roughly to her feet. He stuck his hand into her pocket and took out the phone, looking at it in confusion. “Is this some sort of object to deceive me with?” He threw it on the ground with force and it smashed into many pieces. “It is the same as the object she had. You are all in league together.” He pointed at Yvette who just stared back in mute horror, and Ursula noticed there were pieces of a phone scattered on the floor around her. Their last chance of making contact with the outside world was gone. It seemed there was no escape now unless they could somehow make Damien come to his senses, but how?
“What are you going to do with us?” she asked, trying to make her voice soft and soothing.
“Be quiet. You have no right to question me about your fate when you have been plotting with these other two wretches to take my life for so long. I have heard you whispering to one another in the hallways and seen you following me. But now, finally, I will rid myself of you forever.”
“But we aren’t who you think we are, and you’re not Edward Stanton. You’re Damien Knight, and this is the twenty-first century.”
“I said be quiet,” he yelled, turning on her fiercely. “You are only trying to confuse me.” Bonnie shook her head almost imperceptibly to indicate that she should not say anymore. She was only aggravating him further, and it was clear that reasoning with him was not going to work. Damien could not be reached that way, so they had to think of something else.
He paced around the cellar for another few minutes before sitting down abruptly on an old packing crate. Ursula noticed there was another crate next to it with a flat piece of wood on top.
“What should I do with these women who have been the bane of my existence for so long?” he said, placing his fingers on an object on top of the wood. As she watched his hand glide over the wood she realised he was using the Ouija board he had found in the kitchen the previous day. It seemed the stories about Edward Stanton communing with the devil were all true.
It was far too dark to see what the letters spelt out, but when he stood up again he seemed satisfied with the answer he’d received. “I’ll need three strong pieces of rope and an axe to cut them down,” he muttered to himself. Ursula’s blood froze in her veins, and she felt Bonnie stiffen beside her, but she didn’t dare turn to look at her. Any movement was dangerous as it could attract his attention, setting him off again.
Without even giving them another glance he strode up the steps and then closed the door loudly behind him. Ursula heard the key turn in the lock. He could be back at any second and they had to do something quickly, otherwise they had no hope of surviving.
“Untie me,” called Yvette. Bonnie rushed across the room and pulled her into a sitting position.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes, I think so.”
Bonnie’s concern quickly turned to anger. “I hope you’re satisfied,” she said as she worked on the knots tying Yvette’s hands. “You know this is your fault.”
“What do you mean my fault? The man is a psychopath. He ambushed me as soon as I set foot in the house.”
“This is not Damien, he’s been possessed by the ghost of Edward Stanton. He didn’t even know what a mobile phone was. It’s this house doing something to him the way it has done strange things to every person who has ever stayed here.”
“Don’t try and make excuses for him. He’s lost his mind and it has nothing to do with this house. Everyone said he took the divorce far too well.”
“You would say that, wouldn’t you, Yvette. We know the reason you were so anxious for Ursula to stay here is because you’re the owner. I can’t believe you could be so sneaky and underhanded.”
“Can we leave this conversation till later, please? At the moment we need to think about what we’re going to do,” said Ursula. She was desperately trying to come up with a way to get them out of this situation alive, but the only option was to overpower him. “Listen. When he comes back downstairs we’re going to have to try to get him onto the ground so we can tie him up. There are three of us against one, so we might stand a chance,” she said.
“But he has a knife with him,” said Yvette, “and he’ll use it too.”
“We have to take the risk. You heard what he said; if we don’t try then he’ll kill us anyway.”
She scanned the cramped space for weapons when her eye fell on the Ouija board. At first she thought she was seeing things when the planchette seemed to wobble and then move on its own, but she stepped closer to take a better look. There was no draft at all in the sealed room, and she knew she couldn’t be mistaken when it shook and then moved half an inch across the board. She put her finger gently on top and was stunned when it flew to the other side of the board and landed on the letter A. It then moved to three more letters as it spelt the word Anna.
Bonnie had finished untying Yvette and they both came over to watch.
“What’s going on?” whispered Bonnie.
“It just spelt out the name Anna. I think she’s trying to talk to us.” She didn’t get a chance to say anymore because the planchette began flying across the board very quickly and she had to focus on the letters. First it spelt Mary and then Rebecca, in quick succession, and then, more cryptically, the words “help us remember.” She was about to ask what it meant when the door flew open and Damien re-entered the cellar. He came down the first couple of steps carrying rope and an axe, but he stopped abruptly when he saw them standing around the board. Before they could react he lunged down the stairs towards them, and Bonnie and Yvette screamed in Ursula’s ears, almost bursting her eardrums.
Although things were happening quickly, it all seemed to move in slow
motion for Ursula as she tried to work out what do to. There had to be a reason why Stanton’s wives had contacted them and asked for help, and why they had used the word ‘remember.’ She recalled the strange painting and the dream where she was being chased by a scary man. When she and the other two little girls in her dream began playing Ring Around the Rosie he had disappeared. Ursula knew she was grasping at straws as she reached for Bonnie and Yvette’s hands, but as soon as her fingers closed around theirs a bolt of energy shot through the three of them and radiated outwards like an explosion. Sparks flew off them just as they had in her dream and for a couple of seconds the dark cellar was illuminated with what looked like fireworks. The force was so strong it knocked Damien off his feet and sent him backwards up the stairs. He landed with a loud crash, dropping the axe which fell back down the stairs and landed at Ursula’s feet. He didn’t get up but just lay were he had fallen.
When Ursula turned to look at the other women it was not Bonnie and Yvette she saw but Mary and Rebecca. For those moments she could see everything through their eyes, and she lived and understood all three of their stories at the same time. She knew they’d been unable to escape from Colton Manor because Edward Stanton’s occult practices had kept their spirits earthbound while he was still alive, and then after he died his hold over them had grown even stronger. He had fed off their energy like a vampire, and the only way they could overpower him was for the three of them to unite with the energy of three living women. Only the combined force would give them the strength they needed to move on, hence the significance of three hands with the number six inside them in her painting.
Somehow everything had aligned that day to provide the perfect opportunity for them to conquer him. Because of the strange series of events Stanton’s tragic wives could finally leave the house behind forever and move forward on their spiritual journey. Anna was the one she’d felt the strongest connection with of the three, and Ursula wasn’t surprised that she’d united with her spirit for the attack on her tormentor. She could feel Anna’s exhilaration and her intense gratitude as she began to separate from her body. She looked on in awe as Mary and Rebecca also left Bonnie and Yvette, their spirits literally lifting up and floating towards the ceiling. Then they just disappeared, and silence fell over the cellar. Bonnie and Yvette had witnessed the whole thing too and they could only stare at each other with their mouths hanging open.
Before any of them could utter a sound Damien began to stir. Ursula prayed that Edward Stanton had been driven from his body by whatever supernatural event had just taken place, but when he raised his head she saw murderous fury in his eyes and she quickly picked up the axe from where it had fallen at her feet. It seemed it would not be so easy to break his spell after all. Damien stood up and focused his glare on Ursula. Ignoring the other two women he came down the stairs and advanced towards her. She backed away from him with the axe raised to defend herself, but she just couldn’t bring herself to use it against him when it was Damien she would hurt, not Edward Stanton. He ripped it from her hands and she stumbled backwards, falling over a crate. In desperation she picked up the crate and held it in front of her for protection.
“You, this is all your doing,” he said as he swung the axe, slicing through the wood as if it were flimsiest piece of paper. She threw what was left of the crate to the side and scrambled across the floor, but there was nowhere to hide. She could only cower against the wall as he loomed over her. He raised the axe again and she looked up at it in terror, truly believing that she was about to die, but before he could swing it Bonnie came up behind him and smashed the other crate into his back. The blow caused him to lose his balance and he fell forward. The axe hit the hard stone wall and then bounced off, broken. He threw the handle to one side and knocked Bonnie out of the way like she was a rag doll. His hands closed around Ursula’s throat gently, as if he was savouring the moment.
“Tell him he has to fight,” said a voice in her head, “but he must first accept that this is real.” Anna’s face flashed before her eyes.
“Damien you have to fight him and force him out of your body. It’s the only way. All of this is real and until you admit that to yourself he’ll have complete control over you.” He was squeezing harder now and she feared she would not be able to get through to him in time. She suddenly remembered the conversation they’d had on the beach and it gave her an idea. “Damien, didn’t anyone ever tell you there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy?” she said with her last breath.
For the first time she saw a flicker of awareness in his eyes. It was his denial that had enabled Edward Stanton to hold the upper hand for so long, but now she could see that Damien was beginning to come back. He would have to be quick if he wanted to save her life. Her vision was dimming and she was about to pass out when he let go suddenly and slumped onto the floor beside her.
He took a deep shuddering breath and buried his face in her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Ursula,” he whispered into her hair, “I’m so sorry for hurting you. Are you okay?”
“I think so,” she said hoarsely, raising her hand to her neck. She could still breathe, which was a good sign, and although she would have some nasty bruises, the damage didn’t seem to be permanent. She looked around the cellar to make sure Bonnie wasn’t hurt. She was on the ground where Damien had pushed her and Yvette was standing over her. Although they both looked shell shocked they seemed to be okay. For a few moments they all just remained frozen to the spot, unable to move or speak.
“What did I tell you about throwing Shakespeare at me, young lady?” said Damien finally as he raised his head to look at her. To Ursula’s amazement she actually managed to laugh.
“At least I’ve lived to regret it,” she replied. This time it was Damien’s turn to smile, and she was so relieved to see the familiar crinkle at the corner of his eyes that a sob rose up in her throat. He pulled her into a tight embrace and held her for a very long time.
****
“I’d better get Yvette home,” said Bonnie. “She needs to take a valium before she loses it completely. I might take one myself. It’s either that or a bottle of Scotch. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“I won’t be far behind you,” said Ursula. “I’m just going to get my stuff together, and then both of us will probably book into a motel in town for the night.”
“You’re always welcome to stay at my place for the night, but we only have room for one of you on the sofa bed in the study.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” said Ursula, giving Damien a quick glance.
“Oh,” said Bonnie, looking a little confused before she understood Ursula’s meaning. “Oh, it’s like that between you is it? And all this time you never said a word to me. How could you keep something like that a secret?”
“You must admit we’ve been a little preoccupied.”
“That’s true, but I want to hear about everything, in detail. I really have to get out of here now though, so I’ll see you both at my place later?”
“That would be great, thanks Bon, but are you sure Yvette is okay?” said Damien, looking over towards Bonnie’s car where the real estate agent sat motionless in the passenger seat, staring straight ahead. She’d barely said a word since the four of them had hobbled out of the cellar like battle-weary survivors.
“She’ll be fine, she just needs some time to get over it. Don’t worry, she’s not going to make any reports to the police after what she saw here today. I don’t think there’s any doubt in her mind that Colton Manor is haunted, or was haunted. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of those ghosts.”
“I hope so,” said Ursula, but I don’t really want to stick around here to find out.” After they’d seen Bonnie off, she squeezed Damien’s arm as they walked back into the house. “Let’s get this over with, and if you start to feel like he’s coming back please let me know straight away.”
“He won’t be back. I know how to keep him out now and it’s so si
mple. If only I’d listened to you from the start, but I really couldn’t accept that any of it was real. I kept expecting to wake up at any minute.”
“You must have been trying to fight him when you had that fever, but because you refused to admit what was happening he got the upper hand. At least something good came out of it though,” she replied. “Stanton’s wives finally got away from here and if you ask me it was worth it.”
“I guess, but it’s not an experience I’m keen to repeat in a hurry.”
Upstairs in her room she didn’t bother to fold anything but just threw all of her clothes and other belongings into her bags and hauled them to the top of the stairs. It took her less than ten minutes, but Damien was even quicker and he was already waiting for her. He carried her bags down to her car and he was loading them into the trunk when a long black sedan pulled into the drive and made its way slowly towards them. The windows were heavily tinted and they couldn’t see the driver. Ursula felt a stab of fear as they waited for the car to stop. Who could it possibly be?
“Do you know him?” said Damien as a tall dark haired man wearing round glasses stepped out of the car. He looked to be in his early forties.
“No, I’ve never seen him before in my life.”
“Hello,” he said, as he approached them with his hand outstretched. “My name is Father Sebastian. I was told there was a problem here and I thought I might be able to help. I hope I’m not too late.” He was very softy spoken and she had to lean in close to hear him properly.
“I’m Damien Knight, and this is Ursula,” said Damien as they both shook his hand.
He looked at their bruises and scrapes with curiosity.
“You are a bit late,” said Ursula. “We had what you might call a showdown with the ghost of Colton Manor, and I think we actually managed to get rid of him.” Father Sebastian studied the house for a long moment without speaking.
Colton Manor Page 10
