Secret of the Shadows

by Cathy MacPhail

Next thing I knew Aunt Belle was hurrying into the living room. ‘I heard you scream. What on earth happened?’

  I so wanted to tell her. To share my fear with someone. But not her, not now. I had to think fast.

  ‘I . . . I got an electric shock off the computer.’ My voice trembled.

  She was all concern. ‘Switch that thing off. Unplug it.’ She was looking around for the cable.

  ‘I’ll do it, Aunt Belle.’ I was happy to do it. I snapped the laptop shut and took it into my room. I didn’t even step over the threshold, just stood at the door and threw it on the bed. Then I slammed the door closed and went back into the living room. Aunt Belle was sitting in one of the armchairs. ‘Now I’m up, I might as well stay up for a while.’

  I was so glad she said that, because I couldn’t stop shaking, and I needed her here with me, awake.

  She rubbed at her backside. ‘I’m getting bedsores with all this lying about. Have to get myself better. I’m never ill. Don’t like being ill.’ She said it as if she was angry at herself. As if her body was doing this deliberately to annoy her. I would have suggested the doctor again, but I saw that she was afraid. Afraid that something really was wrong with her.

  I made her tea and toasted pancakes and we sat looking out at the view down the river. My hand trembled as I lifted the cup to my lips. I was scared.

  ‘Your gran and I used to joke that we would sit out here in our wheelchairs when the time came.’

  ‘I’m sorry it didn’t work out like that, Aunt Belle.’

  She waved that away. ‘That’s life, Tyler. You just have to accept it. When it’s someone’s time to die, it’s their time.’

  ‘Do you think that’s true? I mean, that people have their time to die? Or do you think it might be possible to go back into the past and stop someone dying?’

  She smiled. ‘That’s why you were on the laptop, wasn’t it? You’re working on a story?’

  I smiled back and nodded, glad of the excuse to talk to her about it. ‘I’m thinking of a story about someone who can change the past. Go back in time and prevent someone’s death. Do you think that’s believable?’

  ‘Well, Einstein said all time was happening simultaneously. And he was a genius. So, if that’s true, then, yes, why can’t you move in and out of other times. I like the idea of that story, Tyler. But I think you’d have to be careful. You should only save the people who are unlawfully dead.’

  ‘Unlawfully dead?’ I said.

  ‘I think with some people it is their time to die, you know, if they die of natural causes. I don’t think you should change that. But with the unlawfully dead – people who should not have died, because it wasn’t their time, it was an accident, or murder, maybe even suicide – yes, I think you could change that. It would make a great story.’

  The unlawfully dead. I liked the idea of that too.

  Was Eleanor one of the unlawfully dead? Could I save her, so she could go on and expose Sister Kelly as the ‘missing murderess’? I was sure that was what my gran wanted me to do. To make sure Sister Kelly’s evil was exposed. Gran hadn’t had time to find out the whole truth. But now I had the time and the opportunity. And a sudden realisation hit me. It wasn’t Eleanor who had been keeping me here at all. It was Gran.

  I had found out what my gran had already discovered. That Sister Kelly and Dorothy Blake and all of the others were one and the same. She had disappeared to this small town on the wild west coast of Scotland, but she hadn’t stopped killing. The frail old Eleanor had been her next victim. Sister Kelly had still wanted to be seen as some kind of a saint. Looking after the old lady as if she was her own mother, yet, in reality, keeping her prisoner. A hero complex, they called it. She thrived on the excitement of seeming like a heroine, but she was no heroine, she was a villain.

  And no one had ever guessed.

  But now I knew.

  Aunt Belle was shaking my arm. ‘You were off in a dream there, Tyler. You know, if I did that they would say it was my age.’

  She was ready to lie down again. I could see the weariness in her. I so wanted her to go back to being my lovely, funny, Aunt Belle. If only I could get her out of here. But she was afraid that if the doctor was called she would end up in hospital, and to tell the truth so was I.

  Because where would I go if she went into hospital? I could not stay here on my own.

  ‘I’ll be on my feet tomorrow, you wait and see,’ she said.

  The house won’t let you, I felt like saying. Sister Kelly won’t allow it. I would have to do something to help her. And do it soon. I had to expose Sister Kelly, save Eleanor.

  But what proof did I really have? An old photograph with a passing resemblance to a murderess. I need more evidence, Gran, I thought. There has to be more.

  ‘You’re off in a dream again, Tyler,’ Aunt Belle said, as I helped her back into her room. You need a good night’s sleep. So you have to promise me that you won’t sleep in here tonight. Get into your own comfortable bed. If I need you, you’re only a shout away.’ Already her eyes were closing. ‘Promise me, Tyler.’

  But I could never sleep in that room, not with that shadow coming ever closer. I went back into the living room and watched the sun set. I’d never felt so alone. Not knowing what to do, or how to do it, if I did. And I was too tired to think about it. Aunt Belle was right. I needed a good night’s sleep. But not in that room.

  In the living room there was a big squashy sofa. I could sleep in here. No coldness in here. No shadows. And the sunset filled it with golden light. I took a soft velour throw from the chair in my aunt’s room and checked on her once again. Then I went back into the living room, switched on the television and settled myself on the sofa.

  I’d be able to sleep here. I shivered at the memory of that voice, that terrifying roar, but I pushed it to the back of my mind. A voice could not hurt me. I refused to be afraid. I was safe here, with the light on. With the television on. No evil in this room. Nothing could reach me here.

  But I was wrong.

  Chapter 24

  I dreamed. I was floating through the house, in the darkness, leaving the front room, winding my way along the hall and into Aunt Belle’s room. I hovered over her as she lay sleeping, watching her draw laboured breaths before I moved away and floated once again into the hall. I came to the closed door of my own room, and I watched it slowly open, and though I knew I didn’t want to – even in my dream I tried to pull myself away – I couldn’t stop myself from moving forward. It was as if some unseen force was sucking me in. The room was in darkness. I could just make out the bed, the table beside it, the lamp. I tried to keep my eyes from that chair in the corner. But no matter how I tried, and oh, how I tried, my eyes were drawn there.

  Don’t look, Tyler. Shut your eyes, I prayed. But my eyes remained wide open. And fixed on that chair.

  At first it seemed empty. I felt relief, but it only lasted for a moment. How long is a moment in a dream? Less than a heartbeat. Longer than a lifetime. And then something moved, something dark and shapeless. It seemed to rise from the chair. I shrank back. There was no form to it. No face. Yet I could feel its eyes on me. Eyes that petrified me. I wanted to get out of that room. But I couldn’t move and the shape was rising from the chair, rising to my level, floating towards me, and I knew if I once saw its face, I would be finished. I began to shake. I tried to scream, but no sound came and the dark shadow was coming closer, closer, reaching out to me.

  No!

  I woke up, still shaking, but so relieved it was only a dream. I sat up. The room was lit by the flashing static of the television screen. I took a deep breath and tried to blot out that image, that shadow. Tried to wipe my memory clean of that nightmare.

  I changed the channel. There had to be something on, something that would take my mind away from it. Anything would do. I finally found one of those American talk shows. Two young woman arguing about something, carefully orchestrated and meant to entertain. I started to watch it, but without want
ing to, without meaning to, I fell asleep again.

  Something was tugging at my cover. I pulled it back and turned on the sofa, tucking the throw round my chin. My feet were cold. Cold, as if fingers of ice were gripping my ankles.

  My eyes opened. Another dream. Another nightmare.

  Had to be.

  Let it be.

  But I was awake now. The room was in darkness. No television, no light, yet I hadn’t switched either of them off. I lay still, too afraid to move. Something was there. Something moving. I was paralysed with fear.

  I wanted it to be another dream. I would leap awake in a second. But no, this was real. I was awake, and something was next to the sofa. I could feel the icy cold of it near me. I couldn’t breathe.

  She was here. She’d found me. Nowhere was safe from her. Not for me.

  I had to move. Had to get away. Yet, still I couldn’t breathe.

  My body was freezing into solid ice. Any closer and I’d be trapped.

  I squeezed my eyes tight shut and leapt from the sofa, rolled across the floor. Didn’t stop till I hit the wall on the other side of the room.

  My shaking hand reached for the lamp and light flooded the room.

  There was nothing there. The cover lay on the floor. The door of the front room was closed.

  Another dream?

  No.

  She’d been here. I was getting too close to the truth about her, and she wanted to stop me.

  Well, I was not going to let her.

  I was going to get her first.

  Chapter 25

  The final day

  I sat the rest of that night in the safety of Gran’s room just watching my aunt. I could not let her spend another night in this house. I had to get her out of here and tell the world about Sister Kelly. I had to make someone believe me. I had to make someone listen. Aunt Belle stirred in her sleep. She began to mutter. I crossed to her bed, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. Then her eyes opened. She smiled, but not at me. She was looking at some point behind me. I swung round, terrified. I was so afraid it was her, that she’d found her way into this room. But there was nothing there.

  Aunt Belle closed her eyes and was soon asleep again. I felt her brow. It was cool to the touch, but beads of cold sweat pearled there. She was getting worse. I made a decision. I would call the doctor. I wanted her in a hospital. She would be safer there. At least till Steven came home. I would sleep on a chair by her bed in the hospital if I had to. But I had to get Aunt Belle out of here.

  I started calling our surgery back home at eight o’clock, ringing every five minutes until finally my call was answered. The receptionist was full of sympathy, that is until I gave her our address. A coldness came into her voice then. ‘The doctor couldn’t come all the way down there. Why don’t you call a local doctor?’

  ‘I don’t know any local doctors,’ I said.

  ‘Phone NHS Direct. They’ll advise you,’ she said. ‘They’re very helpful.’

  I felt deflated when I came off the phone.

  I was still standing in the hallway with the phone in my hand when the doorbell rang, shrill through the house.

  It was the policeman who’d come to visit us before, Sergeant Ross. He stood there at the front door smiling, his big frame blocking the sun.

  ‘Just thought I’d pop in to see how things are going. How’s your arm?’

  He was looking at the plaster I had there. I’d almost forgotten it. I waved his question away. ‘It was nothing.’ But I couldn’t hide my relief at seeing him. ‘I’m trying to get a doctor for my aunt.’

  He stepped inside the door. ‘A doctor? What’s wrong with her?’

  I wanted to tell him clearly and succinctly, without sounding like a drama queen. ‘We both thought it was jet lag, but she’s getting worse. She needs to see a doctor.’ Once I started, it all came tumbling out. I couldn’t stop myself. And, I was thinking, surely a policeman was the right person to tell? He would have to listen, wouldn’t he?

  ‘I have to get her out of this house. And I have information about the woman who used to live here, that Sister Kelly? She was a mass murderess.’

  I told him all I’d found out about Sister Kelly. I even ran into the front room and brought back the book and the photograph. I could see he was listening carefully, taking it all in.

  His expression didn’t change. His face was like granite. ‘And you found out all this in this book?’ he asked.

  I nodded my head. ‘And on the internet. There’s loads of stuff there too.’ I wanted so much to convince him. Why couldn’t I just keep my mouth shut? Because then I really blew it.

  ‘And she’s still here, haunting this house. She’s the one making my aunt ill.’

  His lips pursed, then his eyes creased in a smile. ‘Ah, wait a minute, you’re the lass that makes up the stories.’

  ‘I’m not making this up. Sister Kelly is here!’ I snapped at him, and his smile, what little there was of it, disappeared.

  ‘I think you and your aunt should leave this house if you’re having nightmares.’

  ‘She needs to see a doctor,’ I insisted.

  ‘Ah well, there I can help you.’ He took a notebook from his top pocket and began to write down a name. ‘Local doctor. Doctor Gordon. Give him a buzz. Tell him Sergeant Ross gave you his name.’

  He handed me the piece of paper. ‘Will you pass on the information about Sister Kelly?’

  He hesitated, looked out over the river. There was a windsurfer already there on the water. ‘Based on an old photograph and stuff you read in a book? No. I will not,’ he said at last. ‘You should keep your stories for your notebooks.’

  ‘This isn’t a story. This is the truth.’ But I knew then I couldn’t convince him.

  ‘You call the doctor for your auntie. I’ll stop by tomorrow.’ He turned and began to walk back to his car. I almost called out to him again. To force him to listen. But then I remembered.

  I was the girl who was convinced I had seen my teacher, the teacher who had been dead for six months. I’d been laughed at, ridiculed, when I had tried to convince everyone at my last school about that. I had ended up being expelled. So how could I expect anyone to believe me now? I was just a girl, a girl with a history of telling stories.

  It was obvious now that I had lost any trust Sergeant Ross might have had in me. No one was going to believe me about Sister Kelly.

  Aunt Belle called out to me, her voice weak, ‘Who was that?’

  I went into her room, told her the sergeant had just been.

  ‘Ooh, that big handsome sergeant?’

  ‘Yeah. You’d better hurry up and get better, Aunt Belle. He might ask you for a date.’

  And then she said something that floored me. Really scared me. ‘I think it’s too late for that, Tyler.’

  I clutched at her hand. ‘Too late for what?’

  ‘If I tell you something, you won’t be afraid, will you? Because I’m not.’

  I was already afraid, but I said nothing.

  ‘When our mother was dying, that would be your great-grandmother, Tyler,’ Aunt Belle went on, ‘she said she saw her mother standing in the corner, her father too. They’d come to lead her to heaven, that’s what she kept saying.’ Her voice weakened. I had to lean close to hear her. ‘We thought she had dementia, didn’t know what she was saying. But you know, later, after she died, your gran and I thought that maybe she had seen them. It was her time to die, and they knew it and they didn’t want her to be afraid. They wanted to lead her on to the next world. And she wasn’t afraid, Tyler.’

  I held my breath, because I was sure I knew what was coming next. ‘I think now is my time, Tyler.’ Her eyes moved to the corner of the room, and she smiled at someone she saw standing there. I swung round again and there was nothing, but now I knew who it was she saw there. ‘Your gran’s come for me, Tyler, and I’m not afraid.’

  Chapter 26

  I tried to tell myself she was raving. She had a fever; she
was delirious. I felt like crying. I was completely alone. I couldn’t handle all this by myself, but there was no one else, and now . . . I was certain my aunt was dying.

  I would not cry. There was no time to feel sorry for myself. I lifted the phone and punched in the number Sergeant Ross had given me. It was busy.

  I went into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of orange juice and opened the patio doors. I looked along the beach at the surf roaring in. There were people walking along the shore, the warm wind blowing through their hair, filling their clothes. There was a family setting up for a day at the seaside, laying a tartan blanket on the rocks, unpacking their car as their children ran and laughed and played in the water. Free.

  And I was trapped here. I couldn’t leave Aunt Belle now, not for a moment.

  I tried to call Paul Forbes. I needed to talk to someone. His phone didn’t even ring. NUMBER NOT IN USE, came up on the screen. Not in use? And he had told me to call him anytime, day or night? I would have laughed if I hadn’t been so close to tears. I tried again, just in case it was a mistake, but again got the same message. NUMBER NOT IN USE.

  And there in the kitchen I did cry, couldn’t stop myself.

  I didn’t want to stay here for another night. The thought terrified me. If I could get Aunt Belle into the hospital, I could stay the night there with her. I’d sleep on the floor, in the foyer, anywhere. I’d refuse to leave.

  Gran had kept me here for a purpose, to find out about Sister Kelly. I had done that. At that moment all I knew was that I could not stay another night in this house.

  It was Aunt Belle calling out to me that brought me back. ‘I’m coming,’ I called and I splashed my face with water and pulled myself together.

  She needed help to get to the toilet and as I took her arm I felt how weak she’d become. In just a few days, my robust, funny aunt was weak and shaky.

  Don’t die on me, Aunt Belle, I prayed. Not you too.

  After I got her back into bed, I tried the doctor again. The number was still busy. Then I went into the bedroom and sat with Aunt Belle and watched the gulls flying over the water.