The Third Skull (Book Two - The Revelation): A Paranormal Mystery Thriller

by Andrew Stafford

  “Is that the best they could offer, bread and butter and a glass of water?”

  “We should eat it. Like he said, we need to keep our strength up.”

  Drake and Snow went back to the study as Morris scooped away the pile of bones and fabric into the black plastic bag.

  “We need none of this shit. One of you get rid of it and leave no trace.”

  Snow took Mathias Morris’ remains and drove the Rolls Royce to the council recycling centre, where he dropped them in the landfill section along with thousands of other black bags full of household waste.

  “No one will find you here, my elusive friend,” said Snow as the bag plunged into the skip.

  Back at the house Drake and Morris were contemplating the long road they’d travelled to get to where they were today.

  “Joseph, I have to say, I never thought you’d do it. We have all three skulls and just in time……., but I hate to bring up one small point…….., we don’t have Albert Cromwell.”

  “Don’t worry about Cromwell, I’ve told you before. I have everything in hand.”

  “Really? We have less than ten hours before the rite and there’s no sign of him. I’ve not seen him since eighteen hundred and four, and I’m getting more than a little concerned.”

  “Alexander, when I say don’t worry, I mean don’t worry! He will be here. You have my word.”

  Drake didn't know what Morris had planned. He was a man of few words. He hated being left in the dark, but had no other choice than to trust him.

  “We should try to escape,” said Sophie.

  “There’s little chance of that. We’ve seen what Morris can do, he’d snap us like a twig if he caught us.”

  “But we’re not even tied up, we should at least give it a go.”

  “Part of me wants to get out of here, and part of me wants to stay. Tonight the men intend to raise the Devil, and I believe they will do it. Maybe I’ve let Charles Nash down, but perhaps I can stop Drake, Morris and the other man from carrying out their plan.”

  Sophie slumped against the wall. She had to stay with her sister. If there was just a hint of a chance she could get her husband back, then she needed to stay in the basement and help Heather.

  “By what means could we stop them?” asked Sophie.

  “I've no idea. But Elizabeth said I have a gift and I believe her. I’ve spoken with dead people and seen incredible things these past few months. Maybe I really have been blessed with something to stop these men from bringing the Devil from Hell to Earth.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  Snow returned and joined Drake and Morris in the study.

  “What do we do now?” asked Snow.

  “Nothing other than patiently wait. We’ve done all we can,” replied Morris.

  Drake wanted to know Morris’ plan regarding Cromwell. Cromwell was as crucial to raising Azazel as the three skulls, and yet there was no sign of him and Morris didn’t appear concerned.

  Morris poured a small whisky for himself, Snow and Drake.

  “Let’s raise a glass and salute our achievements. Each of us have played an important role in getting to where we are today.”

  Morris lifted his glass and smiled at the others.

  “To us.”

  Drake and Snow raised their glasses and in unison said ‘to us’.

  Morris replaced his glass on the table.

  “After today we will live in a world where the devil walks amongst us in physical form and we should take a little time to consider the consequences of this fact.”

  “He will infiltrate his way into every living soul and will overpower anyone or anything that tries to stop him.” said Drake.

  “And what of us? Consider the powers he will bestow upon us. He has already made us immortal, just imagine how formidable we will be when sitting at the right hand of Azazel,” added Snow.

  “People have a misguided understanding that the world is a bad place. Just wait and see what they think of it after today,” laughed Morris.

  The three men spent the rest of the morning and afternoon contemplating their future and the future of mankind. They were confident that there was nothing to stop them. Alice Donaldson hadn't prevented them from finding the skulls of Azazel‘s children, and Morris’ plan to bring Cromwell back to the fold had been instigated days ago.

  All they needed was patience. There was under five hours until the ceremony. It would be the longest five hours the men would know.

  Heather and Sophie didn't know the time or how long they’d been in the basement.

  They were tired and scared. Sophie thought of her children and Heather was beside herself with anxiety.

  All of a sudden, the atmosphere changed. Sophie sniffed the air and sensed something was going to happen.

  “It’s that smell, you’re about to have a visitor," said Sophie.

  She was right. Seconds later Charles Nash stood in front of them, but only Heather could see him.

  “It’s Nash,” said Heather under her breath.

  “Heather, I’m sorry you and your sister have been put through this. But we were certain you were the chosen one and could have defeated Morris and his men.”

  “Well, it looks as though you're wrong,” said Heather in an angry tone.

  Nash lowered his head.

  “Can you at least put me out of my misery and tell me what Morris, Drake and Snow want from you?”

  Nash nodded sadly.

  “When I was alive, I carried a secret with me. Something only a few people knew of.”

  Sophie looked at the expression on her sister’s face and listened to the one sided conversation taking place next to her.

  “Memories of my childhood are blurred. I had no mother, and I was brought up by a man called Joseph Morris. He treated me well and I remember being happy. Until one cold and dark day he took me from the house. He didn’t speak, but I recall he was angry about something. I have a memory of falling through a frozen pond, but after that I knew nothing of Joseph Morris, or what happened after the pond. It was as though my life started over again. I grew up a troubled child who lived under the roof of a Baptist minister called Reverend Paul Nash and his wife Sarah. Reverend Nash and his wife were protective towards me. I gained a new identity and became Charles Samuel Nash. He named me after his father.”

  “So Morris was your father. What was your name when you lived with him?”

  “Mathias…. My name was Mathias Morris,” replied Nash.

  “You said you carried a secret.“

  “It was something I couldn't see, but Reverend Nash and Sarah told me of a strange mark on the back of my head embedded deep into the bone of my skull. I could make it out if I ran my fingers over it, so I knew it was there.”

  “That must have been frightening.”

  “It was, but I didn’t know until I was eleven. He told me how he and Sarah rescued me from the pond. They’d been out walking and saw the shadowy figure of Morris dumping something into the frozen water. That something was me. The Reverend had known that Morris was an evil man and that he associated with other bad people, including the unscrupulous businessman Alexander Drake. He risked his life to save me. I nearly died, and if it wasn’t for Reverend Nash, I would have.”

  Things were making sense, but Heather was angry that none of what Nash told her had been relayed to her before by either him, Alice or Elizabeth.

  “When did you discover what Joseph Morris wanted from you?”

  “After I’d died. I lost my life in a riding accident in my late thirties, and since my life ended I’ve never entered the Kingdom of Heaven because of the secret I hold. If Morris raises the Devil, I will go to Hell, through no fault of my own.”

  “So you’ve been at a midpoint between Heaven and Hell since eighteen thirty nine, that’s over one hundred and sixty years.”

  Nash nodded.

  “Believe me, one hundred and sixty years is a very long time when you’re locked in a halfway house.”
<
br />   “So, when was everything revealed to you? When did you find out what Morris’ and Drake’s intentions were, and what they still had in store for you?”

  “Alice Donaldson told me everything. She is also in limbo, and is in the same position as me. She’s never entered Heaven, and like me will go to Hell should Drake succeed. Alice has told me of William and Louisa, my brother and sister, and how between the three of us we hold something deadly to mankind.”

  Heather swallowed hard and shuddered as Nash continued to speak.

  “I’ve spent a long time watching over those two scared children. Unlike Alice and me, they’ve never been released from the grasp of mortality. They’ve continued an existence of purgatory in that well. And like Alice and me, their fate depends upon the success of Morris in raising the Devil this evening.”

  Heather saw a tear in the ghost’s eye.

  “You’re not the first to be chosen to protect me from Morris. Before you, my granddaughter Hermione was there for me. She tended to my grave weekly and vigilantly watched over me. She did so without grievance for seventy-six years ever since she was a young lady. She’d devoted her life to me and in doing so never had one for herself. She’d never married and raised a family, instead she waited in readiness to stop Morris from finding me.”

  Heather lowered her head. She considered herself useless and pathetic. Nash was waning.

  “We saw Morris take your bones from your coffin, and before he did, he found the body of Alexander Drake lying in the grave alongside yours. Why would that be?”

  “We were buried in the church of St Michael for a reason. St. Michael defeated Satan twice. First when he ejected Satan from Paradise and secondly in the final battle of the end of times. But that won’t be the final battle if Morris succeeds. Drake and I are considered the adversary of good. Drake, because of his association with Morris, Snow and Cromwell and their intentions to bring the Devil to this world, and myself because I carry the mark of Satan. We were buried alongside each other not by chance, but by divine intervention so that St. Michael could stop us from raising the Devil and allowing him the opportunity to walk among mankind.”

  The door to the basement creaked open. Heather looked up and her blood ran cold as she looked towards the stairs.

  “They’re coming and I must go. You still have a chance to stop them. Please Heather, do whatever you can.”

  And with that, the ghost of Charles Samuel Nash faded away.

  Chapter 80

  Linda remained in her bed for the rest of the day. The head scared her, but she kept it next to her on the pillow. There was something about it that lured her.

  She'd drifted in and out of sleep. The most horrific thoughts and images had troubled her as she lay in a half sleep. She’d visions of her husband tied up and bound as Butler beat him to within an inch of his life.

  Then she saw death and destruction on a scale of unbelievable proportions. She’d foreseen streets of cities in darkness and thousands of scared and hungry souls existing in a living hell as around them everything turned to rubble. She saw the aftermath of an event as horrendous as the wake of Hiroshima after the bomb fell, but the destruction was on a worldwide scale.

  Linda woke from her dreams and sat up when she heard the front door slam. The clock on the bedside table told her it was twenty minutes to six. From the window she watched Kieran get in his car, pull off the driveway and head away in the darkness to Butler’s house. He hadn’t even said goodbye.

  She had a horrible feeling she would never see her husband again.

  She sat on the edge of the bed and remembered the voice of the elderly lady she’d heard earlier in the day.

  ‘Help me Linda.’

  Had she dreamt it, or had it been real? Whether she’d imagined it or not, it scared her.

  The head was hotter. Using a shoe which had been on the floor beside the bed, she rolled it on its side and saw a scorch mark on the pillow.

  “Just what's your story?” she whispered as she knelt down and looked at the painted face.

  She was alone and had no one to whom she could turn. She was groggy and bleary-eyed after spending the day in bed, so she decided to make some strong coffee to help pull her out of the fog.

  From the kitchen she called Kieran’s mobile, but he didn’t pick up. It was ten past six and he would be at Gabriel Butler’s house by now. She suspected he was being briefed by Butler to do whatever it was he wanted him for.

  If she did nothing to stop her husband, she knew she would live to regret it. She had an awful feeling about Butler and knew she needed to get her husband out of there. But how, what could she do?

  Drinking the coffee made her more awake. She returned to the bedroom and again considered how alone she was.

  Linda looked at the head and noticed it had moved. Before she’d left the bedroom to make coffee she’d placed it on its side and saw how it had scorched the pillow. But it was back where it was before, facing towards the ceiling.

  The caffeine raced through her veins and she became alert. She looked it square in the eyes and asked a question.

  “What the fuck are you?”

  Of its own accord it rolled to one side and then back to where it originally lay.

  Linda jumped back as it stared towards the ceiling.

  Again, she heard an elderly woman’s voice.

  “Please Linda, help me stop them.”

  Chapter

  81

  Drake descended the staircase just as Nash faded.

  “Who were you talking to?”

  “No one,……… I mean I was talking to my sister,” replied Heather.

  Snow followed behind with the rope he and Drake had used to tie them to the railings earlier that day.

  “Something momentous will happen tonight, and we can’t have either of you getting in the way. We know one of you has been sent to stop us under the guidance of Alice Donaldson and we’re not taking any chances.”

  Snow pulled a knife from his pocket and passed it to Drake.

  “No, please don’t hurt us,” cried Sophie.

  Drake paused for a second, smirked and cut the long rope in two.

  “You, stand up and walk over there,” snapped Drake pointing to the other side of the basement.

  Sophie reluctantly got to her feet and cowered as she did as he commanded. She had to keep reminding herself that he was not her husband.

  Snow stood over Heather while Drake secured Sophie to a chair. He pulled the same scarf from his pocket he’d used to gag her in the graveyard and tied it around her mouth. When she was securely tied he walked over to Heather and secured her with the other half of the rope and gagged her with a scarf. The sisters shuddered with fear as they faced each other from either side of the basement.

  Morris clumped down the stairs and saw the women were securely tied.

  “Good work,” said Morris checking the time. “We’ve just over an hour.”

  Snow was going to speak when the doorbell rang.

  “Excuse me gentleman, I’m expecting a visitor,” said Morris. He turned and left the basement.

  Kieran pulled his coat around him against the cold December chill and waited for Butler to open the door.

  “Good evening Mr. Tempest, it’s wonderful to see you again. Please come in, let me take your coat,” said Butler gesturing to Kieran to come into house.

  Kieran handed him his coat and Butler hung it from a coat stand in the hallway.

  “Follow me to the study. I’ll get you a drink and we’ll talk about your little job.”

  Kieran was uneasy. What kind of ‘little job’ paid one million for an evening’s work?

  “Please take a seat. What would you like to drink? Maybe a brandy to warm you up on this cold night.”

  Kieran nodded warily.

  “Gabriel, what is it you would like me to do for you?”

  “Not an awful lot. I’d like you to meet a few friends of mine. We’re having a celebration, and I’d like you
to make up the numbers. Unfortunately we’re a man short,” said Butler with his back to Kieran. He poured the brandy and added a tiny amount of chloral hydrate.

  “What sort of celebration?”

  “Don’t be concerned. We’ll discuss the finer details later,” said Butler handing the brandy to Kieran.

  Butler had poured one for himself and watched Kieran take a sip.

  Kieran felt odd. He looked at Butler who appeared blurry.

  “Tell me about the celebration?” repeated Kieran whilst slurring his words.

  “Think of it as a fancy dress party, where you won’t be coming as Kieran Tempest, you’ll be someone else for the night.”

  He found it hard to concentrate as the drug took hold of him.

  “Tonight, you will become a good friend of mine by the name of Albert Cromwell,” laughed Butler as he watched Kieran’s head roll from side to side.

  Joseph Morris put his hand under Kieran’s chin and lifted his head up. He opened his eye lids with his thumbs and looked at his eyes. Kieran was out for the count.

  He hauled him over his shoulder and carried him from the study to the top of the staircase leading to the basement.

  The women were terrified. Heather watched Morris carry the stranger over his shoulder and down the stairs, whilst Sophie saw it was Butler who carried the man.

  He lowered him to the floor and Sophie realised who the man was.

  Shit, it’s Kieran Tempest.

  Butler turned to Sophie and threw her a sinister grin.

  “I think it’s time for you to see me as I really am.”

  Butler muttered a few inaudible words and before Sophie’s eyes changed from the tall handsome gentleman, to the short ugly man with missing teeth and a blue tattoo on one side of his face.

  Sophie gasped beneath the gag.

  Morris ordered Drake and Snow to lift Kieran and sit him at the table.

  “Gentlemen, prepare to be reacquainted with our old friend Mr. Cromwell,” said Morris as the two men lowered Kieran onto a chair.