by Helen Phifer
‘Agnes, should I phone for the doctor?’
‘No, thank you; I think you’re right, Patrick. I’m very tired and I haven’t eaten much today. I’m sure I’ll feel better in the morning.’
She watched him leave, closing the door behind him. As soon as her legs felt strong enough to carry her weight she would lock it, then drag her heavy chest of drawers across to put in front of it. What good that would do was beyond her, but it would make her feel better. A voice whispered in her ear: It didn’t help poor Mary, did it? She’s still here, stuck in this house with nowhere to go. Agnes could no longer keep her eyes open and she closed them, sinking down into a deep sleep. So deep that she didn’t make it off the bed to lock her door.
Chapter Five
Kate watched Ethan and Jack drive away in Ethan’s battered Corsa. Ollie was still working upstairs and she was so glad. She had been unsettled all day. It had felt as if someone was watching her and she’d kept turning around every few minutes to be greeted by empty space. As she’d crossed the hall she saw a dark shadow at the top of the stairs. Fear had filled her mind and she opened her mouth to scream, but it had disappeared leaving her questioning herself.
She had no idea what was going on. She was blaming Joe and his talk of all things spooky. Going back into the kitchen, she filled a pan with water and put it on the hob to boil. She would make some pasta that was quick and easy. After chopping bacon, garlic, chillies and tomatoes she began to sauté them ready to add to the cooked pasta. Pour over an M & S shop-bought pasta sauce and bake a garlic baguette and hey presto she would look like a gourmet cook. She wouldn’t have to admit to anyone she’d cheated. She took the bottle of Pinot Grigio from the fridge and poured herself a small glass. As she took a sip she felt it begin to work its magic. Her whole body started to relax. Ollie walked in and sniffed the air.
‘Something smells very nice.’
Kate laughed. ‘It’s just some pasta and garlic bread. Would you like some? I mean it’s the least I can offer after crushing your pie at lunchtime.’
He chuckled. ‘It still tasted pretty good though. I don’t want to put you out, Kate. Have you got enough?’
She turned around so he couldn’t see her cheeks flare red. ‘I most definitely have enough for the both of us, but do you need to get home?’
She wanted to ask if Mrs Nealee would have already cooked his tea and be waiting for him to go home, but she didn’t. He was old enough to decide where he wanted to eat and who with. Maybe they weren’t getting on after all.
He shook his head. ‘No, not much to go home to really; not now I’m on my own and besides I will only dream about eating some of your pasta and garlic bread when I get there. So you might as well feed me and put me out of my misery.’
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that you and your wife had split up.’
He smiled at her with such sadness in his eyes it made her heart ache for him.
‘I think it would be easier to accept if Ellen had left me for someone else; only she didn’t leave because she wanted to. She passed away last December.’
The shock almost rendered Kate speechless. She’d had no idea. So consumed in her own grief and crappy life, she hadn’t read the newspapers or kept in touch with anyone.
‘I’m so, so sorry to hear that, Ollie. I had no idea.’
‘Don’t be daft; you weren’t to know. It’s not something I’m comfortable talking about openly. It still hurts too much, but I guess you know how that feels – losing Amy. You two were very close, weren’t you?’
She nodded. Her eyes misting up, she turned away as he sat down on one of the chairs and watched as she cooked. ‘Would you like a glass of wine to go with it?’
‘You know I think I would. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a meal cooked for me by a beautiful woman, or a glass of wine.’
He winked at her and she wondered if he was flirting with her. Or was she so obsessed with him that she was taking every single word and twisting it to fit what she wanted it to? She took out another glass and poured him one. Passing it over to him, her fingers brushed his. She jolted back her hand. It felt as if she’d got an electric shock. It must have been static. It was like a small charge of lightning rushing through her veins.
The food was ready so she plated it up and served it, slicing the garlic bread and placing it in the middle of the table. She sat opposite him so she could watch his chiselled, tanned, good-looking face. He was so attractive and she would very much like to get to know him better. He was grieving though, and it was obvious he was still hurting. There was no way she would make the first move. If he wanted her as much as she wanted him then it was down to him. When he was ready, she’d be here. It wasn’t as if she had anywhere else to go. In the meantime, it was nice just to have a friend to lean on again.
He began to talk about how much better the house looked and what needed doing. Before long they were chatting, eating and drinking. He was funny. He made her laugh a lot and she felt so much better with him here. She wondered if he would stay the night. Ollie finished his pasta, mopping up the sauce with the last piece of garlic bread.
‘That was wonderful; thank you, Kate.’
‘You’re welcome. It’s the least I can do. I can’t believe how hard you’ve been working on this place. It really looks so much better. I like that it’s lighter now. It was so dark before. Even though we’ve kept as much of the oak panelling and woodwork as possible, I think the white and pale grey really lighten it up.’
‘Yes, you have good taste. It’s so much easier when the client knows exactly what it is they want the finished project to look like. Well it is for me; it makes my job easier anyway.’ He finished his wine and stood up. ‘I suppose I better get going. I need a soak in a hot bath. My bones are aching a lot more than they did twenty years ago.’
Kate felt her heart sink. She smiled and didn’t let her disappointment show. She wouldn’t let him see how desperate she was, but the thought of being on her own tonight wasn’t one she relished. She walked him to the front door so she could lock up behind him. As they walked through the house to the front hall she smelt a faint whiff of the odour from this morning and sniffed. What was that smell? She’d used garlic to cook with. She’d had the kitchen window open and the extractor fan blasting. It shouldn’t be lingering at the bottom of the stairs.
‘Can you smell that funny smell?’
Ollie looked around and sniffed a few times, then shook his head. ‘The only thing I can smell is fresh plaster, paint and that pasta you made. What can you smell?’
‘I don’t know. It’s like a faint whiff of garlic and burning flesh all rolled into one.’
‘Nice. Nope – I don’t really know what burning flesh smells like to be honest, though.’
She started to laugh, not wanting him to think she was drunk and delusional. ‘It must be the garlic bread. I did burn it a little.’
He opened the front door and turned to kiss her on the cheek. ‘Thank you again. It was nice eating a meal like a civilised person. I could get used to it. I’ll see you tomorrow and if you need me for anything before the morning don’t hesitate to ring. I mean it, Kate, if you get worried or hear noises phone the police then ring me. Promise?’
‘I promise; thanks, Ollie. See you tomorrow.’
She shut the door and turned the lock, afraid that if she watched him drive away she would be too scared to go back inside on her own. His engine started and she heard the sound of his tyres on the gravel as he drove away. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Forcing herself to be brave, she decided to check the entire house just to make sure there was no one in it before she locked herself into her makeshift bedroom for the night.
Kate walked back to the kitchen and the drawer where she kept the huge torch Ollie had left there for her in case of a power cut; then she locked the back door and began to make her way into each room, checking they were secure. She got to the very last room downstairs and opened the door. As she flicked the light switch t
here was a bang as the bulb exploded and she swore to herself. Turning on the torch she shone it around the empty room. Satisfied there was no one in there, she pulled the door shut.
As she made her way upstairs she could still smell whatever the odour was from before. She forced herself to carry on. She was tired and sad that Ollie had actually driven away. Maybe she should have asked him to stop. Feeling tetchy and more than a little bit angry she ran to the top of the stairs to check each room upstairs. The first two were fine, so was the third but as she got to the fourth one a feeling of dread began to settle over her. Man up, Kate, it’s just a big, old, empty house. That’s it, nothing more. You’re spooking yourself. This is your dream house, so check the rooms, then you can get to bed, on your own once again.
She tutted out loud. Sometimes she wished she could turn off the internal voices in her head. Grabbing the handle she twisted the knob and threw the door open. Flicking on the light switch she grinned to herself. The room was empty. It smelt of fresh paint and the window was open a small gap. She crossed the room to pull it shut. She didn’t want the wind to pick up in the night and cause any draughts or banging doors.
As she was trying to tug down the heavy wooden frame, she didn’t see the figure dressed in a nun’s habit watching her from the doorway. She did, however, get a creeping sensation on the back of her neck that someone was behind her and her heart began to race. Kate whipped her head around, but the doorway was empty. She managed to slam the window down so loud the noise echoed around the room. Then she turned and walked back out, switching off the light and closing the door behind her.
As she walked out onto the landing a cold chill went right through her entire body, as if she’d just walked through a cold spot. She shook her head. No, it felt like you walked through a ghost. She shuddered. The rest of the bedroom doors were closed. Suddenly she didn’t feel so brave. Her anger at Ollie for leaving her and the strange feeling of being watched unsettled her. She was torn. Did she finish checking the rooms or did she go down to the safety of her bedroom where she felt comfortable, cocooned in her own little world and surrounded by the few things she owned that meant something to her?
A muffled thud echoed around the hall, making her jump. As she turned in the direction where it came from, a vision of a beautiful, petite, dark-haired woman flashed through her mind. She was staring straight at her. The woman smiled and whispered, ‘Hello, Kate, welcome to my world.’ Then she was gone and Kate knew that her name was Lilith. The word filled her mind, silently screaming a warning to her. The door from the room where she’d heard the noises earlier and where that smell had come from was ajar. How had that happened? Or more importantly who had opened it? Because it had been shut seconds ago.
Kate wasn’t a fool or particularly brave, but she wanted to know what was going on. This was her house. Every penny she had was being ploughed into renovating it. If it was something to do with Martin, as Ollie suspected, then she wanted to know. If only she had cameras. She would ask Ollie tomorrow if they could hurry them up somehow.
Can you really go downstairs, knowing that someone is up here? Are you going to sleep soundly when anyone could be prowling around? She knew that she would, but only in an alcohol-induced haze and she didn’t want that. She wanted to get her life back together without relying on alcohol. Her feet made the decision for her and began striding towards the door. She held the torch up to use as a weapon in case she needed to defend herself.
‘I’ve phoned the police so whoever you are you might as well come out and show yourself; then you can tell me what the fuck you are doing in my house because I’ve had enough.’
Her voice trembled a little, but she was quite impressed with herself. As she reached the door and heard no reply, she kicked it as hard as she could with her right foot. It slammed open against the wall inside and she shone the beam around. The room was empty. Reaching in she flicked the light switch down.
As light banished the shadows she saw the outline of a huge black figure with glowing red eyes and she screamed. Horror filling her soul, she heard a voice whisper in her ear, ‘Get out, demon, you’re not welcome.’ The black figure vanished and she turned to see who was standing behind her. She was shocked to see nobody there. Out of the corner of her eye she could have sworn she saw the ghostly figure of a nun disappear at the top of the staircase.
Her legs shaking so much she could barely stand, she stumbled towards the stairs. Where did the nun go? As she stared down she felt a sharp push in the small of her back and lurched forwards, wondering if this was how she was going to die. As she fell forwards, another pair of hands broke her fall. They pushed against her chest, stopping her from going any further.
Kate managed to catch her balance, saving herself from falling down. She whispered ‘thank you’ under her breath. She knew in that moment that there was something evil in this house. The nun had saved her, but saved her from what: a small, pretty woman called Lilith or a monster? Her hands shaking, she went into the kitchen where she pulled a bottle of wine out of the fridge and struggled to pour some into a glass without spilling it everywhere. As she leant against the sink she wondered if that had really happened or whether it had been a culmination of today’s events making her mind play tricks on her.
Overwhelmed with fear and exhaustion, she picked up the almost empty bottle of Pinot and hurried to her room. She was unsure if she should phone the police. Did they attend haunted houses? She gulped down the wine, needing it to work its magic and spread its warmth through her cold, weary body.
Opening her bedroom door she took a deep breath. She liked the feeling in here. No matter what time of day it was or who was banging around upstairs, whenever she came in here it felt peaceful, uncontaminated. Where did that come from? This house wasn’t contaminated – or was it and by what?
When the rooms were all finished and the attic had been turned into a self-contained apartment for her and the girls, she would keep this room as her office and library. There was something about it that made her want to keep it all for herself, her sacred haven from the outside world. Closing the door behind her she put the bottle and glass down on her bedside table then dragged a chair over to wedge under the doorknob. If anyone or anything was still in the house they wouldn’t be able to get in without waking her up. If she needed to, she could escape through one of the windows. She had it all planned out.
Too tired to shower, she undressed and put her pyjamas on. Then plugging her phone in to charge she sat down on the bed, cross-legged, and poured herself a large glass of wine. The first one she drank down as fast as she could, then tipping the rest into the glass she turned the radio onto Smooth FM. Her eyes already felt heavy. The wine had begun to warm her insides enough to make her start to finally unwind. She wanted to fall asleep, not have any bad dreams or think about Ollie, to just sink into oblivion until her alarm began to vibrate in the morning.
***
As the clock reached three a.m. the scratching began again. This time it was more insistent as it tried to gain Kate’s attention. The house began to fill with shadows that moved from one room to the next and the beast that had waited a long time for someone to move into this sad, unloved building felt its presence getting stronger. The crosses the nun had put up were now crushed on the floor of the room she’d tried to keep sacred. The nun was strong and stubborn, it would give her that, but she wasn’t a match for it and never would be.
The black, winged shape stood outside Kate’s door, listening. Its long, sharp talons began to scratch the door harder. It wanted the woman to wake up and hear it. It wanted to terrify her and control her. It wanted to crush her like it had the nuns.
***
Kate began to thrash around in her bed. In her dream there was something watching her and it had red, glowing eyes. She tried to wake herself up and couldn’t because whatever it was she’d seen earlier was now inside her bedroom, pinning her to the bed. It was strong and she was trying her best to throw it off her and s
cream, but she couldn’t move. She was held down, breathing in the fetid stench of decay and gagging on it. Her mouth was open, but no sound was coming from it because her vocal cords were frozen.
The harder she fought against it the less she could move. She knew she was dreaming and tried to summon up the image of Ollie, the safe image of the man she wanted to come and save her more than she wanted anything. The weight was so heavy on her chest her entire body was aching from it and she began to pray the only prayer she knew: Kate Parker’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. She closed her eyes so she didn’t have to look at the thing sitting on her chest and began to repeat the prayer over and over again. She felt the weight shift and carried on, then it was gone as fast as it had appeared and her eyes flew open. She took in huge gulps of cold air to ease the burning in her suffocating lungs.
She was so terrified that she couldn’t move a muscle. She lay there taking deep breaths and feeling dazed. What was that? Had she just had the worst nightmare of her entire life or had it really happened? She was so scared she wanted to pull her legs up and curl into a ball under the covers, spending the rest of the night praying to God to protect her from the horror that had just happened. It was just a dream, it was a dream, she kept repeating over and over until she felt brave enough to try and move.
Her hand snaked out from underneath the duvet as she pressed the switch on the small bedside lamp; she felt the warm glow from the light, but couldn’t open her eyes in case that thing was still there watching her. After some time when her breathing had almost returned to normal and her sixth sense told her she could open her eyes she did. She looked around her room and then lay her head back on her pillow.
She felt violated. This was her space and she’d come to bed relieved that she had her own sanctuary to protect her from the outside world, and it had been taken over by something dark and evil. Forcing herself to sit up, she looked to see the chair was still in the same position. It was a nightmare, Kate – a bad dream and nothing else. But no matter how many times she repeated it she couldn’t shake the feeling that it had been real and that she was in serious trouble.
