44 Gilmore Street

by Shani Struthers

  Get out!

  “Tiresome soul, isn’t he?” Ness muttered. Being called all the names under the sun was truly beginning to grate.

  Taking a deep breath, Ruby tried again. They were in the kitchen, where his presence was strongest. She was surprised about that, because he’d died in the living room, sitting in his chair, in front of a blaring TV, flies gathering around him – attracted by the aroma of decay. Perhaps he wondered round the house, some spirits did, whilst others remained tethered to the exact spot they’d met their end – there seemed to be no hard and fast rules, no black and white. As they’d been in life, each spirit was unique.

  “Ben, you need to let go of this realm, there’s nothing more for you here. Can you see the light? If so go towards it. You’ll find peace there, you’ll be welcomed. You’ll be going home. That’s what the light is, Ben – it’s home.”

  You know shit!

  Ruby flinched. The voice – his voice was right by her ear. Previously there’d been distance between them. She hadn’t expected him to come this close, hadn’t felt a sense of him rushing towards her. If only she could see him, get an impression of who he was – she’d have to dig around, see if she could find a photo. There must be one. Maybe the press had used one when reporting his death. A photo would help to demystify him, a disembodied voice was often unsettling; she was human and could admit that. Seeing the whole package would be better. Manifestation, however, didn’t seem to be on the cards. She got the impression Ben didn’t want to show himself. He wanted to hide, or maybe he was toying with them. That was something else the spirits did – thinking they had the upper hand and exploiting that position. More often than not though, it was a protection mechanism, they wanted to stay, or thought they did, and so would do anything in their power to scare away those who could sense them. But if they stayed they’d grow more frustrated by their limitations, become more destructive. It was then that interaction with the living could prove fatal. Fear could kill a person. She knew that. Failure wasn’t an option.

  Ness was picking up on her thoughts. “Ruby, don’t be so hard on yourself. If we make no headway today, we come back again.”

  The words were barely out of her mouth when a roar sounded in Ruby’s ear, setting every nerve ending she possessed on edge. Ruby looked at Ness, saw alarm on her face – she’d heard it too. Between them, they started to ramp up protection levels to maximum. Before making a psychic connection, it was imperative to surround yourself in white light, drawn straight from universal source and visualising it as an impenetrable shield. Ruby also wore a tourmaline necklace, an heirloom from her great-grandmother, and one of the strongest protection stones. Ness, preferring snowflake obsidian, had a huge chunk of it on her finger. Black tourmaline spray was another ‘Ness staple’, used to cleanse the atmosphere, to form another line of defence. They’d doused the house with it on their initial walk-through – the smell both comforting and clean.

  “Ben, let me reiterate, we are here to help you, please allow us to do that. We’re not afraid of you. Don’t be afraid of us. We mean you no harm.”

  The atmosphere, already oppressive, became even more so. Her words were angering Ben. A common enough reaction, spirits often became defensive initially. Patience and perseverance were integral, that and refusing to take any abuse from them either, be it verbal or physical, although thankfully it was rarely physical. The amount of energy required on a spirit’s behalf to become physical, to interact, was just too immense.

  Not that that stopped Ben.

  The blow to her stomach caused Ruby to double over. As she did, the breath left her mouth in a whoosh. In an instant Ness was by her side. Jed – a black Labrador that had attached himself to Ruby over a year ago, a dead black Labrador that is – materialised and started fussing over her too.

  “Jed, Jed, I’m okay. Ness, I’m fine.”

  Despite her protests Ness looked furious.

  “You are not fine!” She whirled round, faced what they could not see. “Ben, I’m warning you, we won’t stand for this!”

  “Ness, I don’t think that’s going to—”

  But Ness wasn’t listening.

  “You don’t belong here, not anymore. This house belongs to others now. You can see the light. I know you can. We can all see the light, no matter how much we pretend otherwise. It’s there and it’s waiting. Go towards it, rest in peace and give the new occupants of Gilmore Street a break too.”

  The spirit was getting ready to attack again; Ruby could sense it well enough this time. She braced herself but Ness stood in front of her, quickly retrieving the tourmaline spray she kept in her jacket pocket and spraying it in short, sharp bursts. Jed too shielded her – her allies, her friends, putting themselves on the front line, as they had done so many times before. Such bravery lent her courage. She drew herself up, adopted what she hoped was a formidable stance and echoed the sternness of Ness.

  “You’ve no reason to attack me, Ben. Don’t do it again. Your time here has come to an end. You cannot stay any longer.”

  She heard his scream again and even the dog shuddered. There was the flick of a switch. She tried to place it. Was it the kettle? The radio also burst into life as he directed his energy towards implements that could be easily manipulated. On the draining board, plates stacked neatly on the drainer started to vibrate. It was bright outside – a crisp March morning, but the light seemed to want to find escape. The room grew darker. Had clouds suddenly covered the sun?

  The kettle started boiling, the sound of water bubbling rapidly usually an innocuous one but not this time – there was a threat behind it, a serious one. Something was going to come hurtling their way soon, she had no doubt of it.

  “We have to get out, come back with Theo and Corinna in tow.”

  Although Ruby hated to admit defeat, Ness’s suggestion was a sound one – there was safety in numbers: the four of them stronger than two.

  Jed barked.

  All right, the five of us.

  Had she not been preoccupied with what was going on, the dog’s insistence would have made her smile. Imminent danger, however, had wiped out humour. Just before she turned towards the door, a cup from the draining board was seized upon and lifted upwards to hover in mid-air.

  “Go, go, go,” said Ness, clearly as fed-up as she was at being forced out but not willing to chance a face full of crockery. Reaching for the handle, the door suddenly shut, as though with an almighty push Ben had shoved it back in its doorframe. The radio grew louder, vying for attention with the rattling plates. The kettle continued to boil.

  Ness took charge. “Hunker down, protect your head.”

  There was nothing more they could do. Ben’s fury was too great to reason with. As she obeyed, Jed doing his best to shield not just her but Ness too, Ruby heard another door slam – at the front of the house this time.

  “Yoo-hoo, it’s only me. Where are you, in the kitchen?”

  It was Samantha, back from coffee and sounding bright and breezy. “Hello,” she called again. “I’m coming in, is that okay?”

  Ruby held her breath, watched as the door opened before she could warn Samantha to stay out. The moment she entered, however, the kettle stopped boiling, the radio switched off and the mug crashed back down to join the plates again, somehow remaining intact. All was normal. Or as normal as it could be in a house haunted by an extremely pissed-off spirit. Even the atmosphere was lighter as if he’d retreated, the sun’s rays shining fully through the windows. Perhaps he had slunk back into the shadows, but he wasn’t gone completely, she knew that – she could still feel his presence, albeit more distantly, his lingering anger too at his ‘performance’ interrupted.

  With almost indecent haste, Ruby scrambled to her feet. “Samantha!” She hoped her voice held no trace of alarm. “It’s good to see you!”

  Beside her, Ness was also standing; her forced smile a rictus grin.

  “Everything all right?” Samantha asked, frowning slightly at such
enthusiasm. “Anything happen whilst I was away, did you make contact?”

  You could say that.

  Ness glanced at Ruby, clearly catching her thought.

  Striding over to the kettle, Samantha offered to make them a cup of tea. When she got there she was surprised to find the water in it was hot already.

  “Oh, have you just had one?”

  Keen to assure her they’d not been shirking their duties, Ruby asked her to sit. She explained what had happened, carefully dressing it in plain terms. This was Samantha’s family home – their new family home – and the last thing she wanted was to scare her out of it. In fact, it was imperative they stay and inject it with fresh energy. Besides, she had a sneaking suspicion that what Samantha had experienced was tame compared to what had just taken place. She asked her client for more details and was proven right.

  “Well, it’s really what I’ve told you already,” said Samantha, tucking a few stands of blonde hair behind her ear, “I haven’t seen anything it’s more ‘felt’ you know? And yeah, a lot of the time it’s in the kitchen, eyes boring into my back, that sort of thing, and feelings, bad feelings, mainly aimed at me.”

  “Not your husband or children?” asked Ness. Children were usually highly sensitive to the paranormal so Ruby listened to the answer with interest.

  “Well… as I’ve said before, maybe my daughter. But no one likes it in the kitchen much. I mean, we don’t eat in here or anything. We used to, when we first moved in, but then the arguments started, mealtimes became something to endure rather than enjoy. Pretty soon, the kids started refusing to eat anything at all. As a family we get on, so this behaviour was unusual. We’ve started eating in front of the telly instead, it’s not ideal, but at least the bickering isn’t as bad.”

  As Samantha spoke, Ruby nodded. A spiritual presence could affect a person in a number of ways, argumentative behaviour and loss of appetite being two of them. Ways in which she herself had reacted when being haunted. But that haunting was over and this was about Samantha, not her.

  “So it’s you that’s the sensitive one?” she queried.

  “I suppose.” Samantha actually looked quite proud as she said it. There were some people who didn’t mind being ‘different’. Even so, it wasn’t a false pride and she was no ‘wannabe’. Putting her mug down, which she’d been sipping from, the same one that had hovered in mid-air a short while previously, she added, “I get the feeling he doesn’t like women.”

  “I think you’re right,” Ness replied. “What we need to do is find out why.”

  “Do you know anything else about Benjamin Hamilton,” asked Ruby, “other than what you’ve told me?”

  Samantha shook her head. “Sorry, no. The neighbours might though.”

  “Good point, and he must have had family.”

  “Not necessarily,” denied Ness, a shadow darkening her features.

  Ruby conceded. “He was old, a lot of his family could well have died off.” Solely addressing Samantha, she continued, “There is a spiritual presence in your home and one that’s not particularly keen to leave. I’d like to come back with the rest of the Psychic Surveys team if that’s okay and carry out a thorough spiritual cleansing, using purely holistic methods of course.”

  “I’ve read about that on the website, but remind me again what’s involved.”

  “Aside from psychic connection, we use smudge sticks, which are herb bundles, made up of white sage primarily, to cleanse dark corners, bells to break down negative frequency and we also promote the use of crystals in the home, tourmaline, obsidian and pink quartz for example, which repel negative energies, discourage them in other words.” As Ruby explained, one hand went up to caress her tourmaline necklace, a ‘comfort blanket’ as she often thought of it. “The more crystals you have around the house the better – we can provide some but they’re relatively inexpensive to buy. I can point you in the direction of shops that sell them. We’ll also arm ourselves with more information about Ben. If we can understand him, we can empathise and hopefully encourage him onwards. You can help us with this, Samantha, if you don’t mind. We’ll dig deep officially but are you happy to talk to your neighbours about him? We could go knocking on their doors but two psychics visiting out of the blue might not be appreciated.”

  Samantha assured Ruby that she would.

  “That’s great. In the meantime, you and your family are staying put?”

  “Of course!” Samantha seemed amazed she’d think otherwise. “We’ve scrimped and scraped to buy this house, put every penny we’ve ever earned into it. He’s had it for long enough, the selfish beggar, it’s our turn now.”

  Ruby only hoped Benjamin would see it that way too – in time.

  Chapter Three

  After saying goodbye to Samantha, Ruby and Ness stood outside on the pavement. 44 Gilmore Street looked innocent enough, but then most exteriors were benign. It was what was on the inside that mattered.

  Ness kept checking Ruby was okay – that blow to the stomach had had quite a bit of weight behind it, despite being spirit-delivered. Certainly, it had shaken her up but she didn’t want to dwell on it and so assured Ness she was fine. Ness was still furious about it though, she could tell. Her eyes had a glint to them she’d never seen before. Only slightly appeased, her colleague turned her attention from Ruby to stare at the house’s exterior – number 44 was magnolia in colour, but its rendered front was ingrained with grime. No doubt the Gordons would get round to rectifying that soon too. Whilst Ness stood in contemplation, Ruby checked her mobile phone for messages. Cash had texted asking if she wanted to meet for lunch, she replied saying she couldn’t but that she’d see him tonight. He spent most evenings at her flat, anyway, when they weren’t out with friends, most of whom, after more than a year together, had blurred into ‘mutual’ territory, including Cash’s brother, Presley, who’d been seeing Corinna for a good few months.

  Thinking of Corinna, there was also a text from her, checking in for the day and one from Theo, the wording very similar. There was a special bond between the oldest member of her team and the youngest, which reminded Ruby of a mother/daughter relationship, but she was surprised to find it extended to echoing each other in texts. Smiling at this, she was about to switch her phone off when another text came bouncing through from Ellie.

  Hi, I hope you don’t mind me texting, I was just wondering if you had any more thoughts about my case, Ellie x

  Ruby couldn’t believe it. How the heck had Ellie got hold of her mobile phone number? She hadn’t given it to her. As for the kiss at the end, it was far too familiar for her liking. She wondered how to answer. Why she had to answer. She’d made herself plain. Reincarnation was not their area of expertise, end of conversation – as far as she was concerned anyway.

  Ness must have noticed the frown on her face.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing, it’s just…”

  “Just what?”

  They started to walk to the train station, Ness falling into step beside her. Normally Ruby drove everywhere but considering how much it cost to park centrally, the train was the more sensible option. Grabbing a coffee for each of them from a stand on the concourse, Ruby enlightened her as to ‘just what’ was on her mind once they were on-board.

  The journey was only fifteen minutes and, by the time they’d disembarked, Ness wore a matching frown.

  Walking back up the hill that led to the high street, the older woman admitted she actually found Ellie’s case very interesting. She thought it might add a string to their bow, so to speak, in exploring it.

  “We’re busy enough,” Ruby dismissed.

  “I realise that, but the paranormal world: what’s in it, how it operates, is vast. Anything that increases our understanding is a good thing.”

  Ruby could feel irritation rise in her again. Her level of understanding of all things paranormal, whilst perhaps more developed than those that were non-psychic, could certainly be improved upon
. But on the other hand she knew more than she ever wanted to. What last year had been taken up with, dealing with something spawned of the human imagination but with no human attributes whatsoever, had ‘increased’ her knowledge in a way she could have done without. Perhaps Theo was right: she was still recovering from the ordeal. And little wonder, whatever it was – a thought form made manifest, an entity or a demon – had haunted Ruby for most of her life. And not just her, but her mother too – who, together with her lover, Saul, had conjured it up in the first place, the pair of them coaxing it forwards from the very lowest of planes. Jessica had suffered a nervous breakdown because of it, had hidden within herself for so many years, at times unreachable. It was Ruby’s grandmother, Sarah, who had looked after them both, tenderly, with great love and affection, her devotion tireless. Having faced the entity, Jessica was in recovery too but it was a process that couldn’t be rushed.

  They had reached Ruby’s office. Outside, the street was bustling, by Lewes standards at least. People were either shopping in the many bespoke shops that the county town specialised in, intent on emptying their purses, or heading out to grab a late lunch from one of several delis and cafés nearby. Ruby had been hungry too but thinking of the past curbed her appetite.

  “What’s on the agenda for the rest of today?” Ness asked.

  “I’m going over to a house in the Malling area to do an initial survey, they’re complaining of nasty smells in the spare bedroom.”

  “Nasty smells? And they think that’s a psychic matter do they?”

  “It could be, if someone’s buried beneath the floorboards.”

  Ness grimaced at the prospect. “So you’ll finalise a date with Samantha?”

  “Yeah, once I’ve checked my diary and the sooner the better I think. And you’re okay for tomorrow’s survey are you, that house in East Preston?”

  “Of course, your second visit and my first.”

  “Corinna’s going to join us on that one. I sensed it’s an elderly woman that’s still in residence, quite benign, very pleasant in fact, just… stubborn.”