by Sam Short
“Yes, let them in,” came the crackling reply. “I’ll come and speak to them myself.”
Stepping aside, the man waved Millie through. “Sorry about that,” he said. “This area is off-limits to the public. A sergeant from the local police force cleared access for you and anybody accompanying you. A very nice sergeant. Very polite.”
“Where is my dad — I mean, where is Sergeant Spencer?” asked Judith, dropping back into her seat as Millie allowed the car to creep forward.
“He’s with my boss,” said the guard. “They’ll be along to speak to you right away. I’m just the guard. I don’t really know what’s going on, if I’m honest. I never do these days.”
Millie thanked the man with a smile, and drove slowly along the track. As she neared her cottage, a black van followed by Sergeant Spencer’s police car approached from the direction of the lighthouse, and parked on the patch of gravel next to Millie’s home.
Drawing her car alongside the two vehicles, Millie raised an eyebrow in Sergeant Spencer’s direction as he approached her. “What’s happening?” she said. “What are they doing on my property?”
Sergeant Spencer shook his head and gave a frustrated sigh. “Think of the most outrageous thing you could imagine happening on a normal Tuesday,” he said. “Then multiply it by ten. You still won’t be close to guessing what’s happening.” He headed towards the cottage door, pointing at the man climbing out of the black van. “Come on, let’s get inside. He’ll explain what’s happening. I don’t think I quite believe it.”
Chapter 6
Millie stared at the man standing in her living room. Dressed completely in black, he seemed a formidable presence, but Millie wasn’t about to feel intimidated in her own home. She pointed at the sofa. “Have a seat,” she said. “And you can remove your baseball cap and sunglasses if you like — there’s no sun in here, my roof does a good job of keeping it out.”
Sergeant Spencer coughed, the sound hiding his laughter, but unable to conceal the mirth his wide smile exposed. “It’s his uniform,” he explained. “He’s from a —”
“I’m quite capable of explaining who I am, and what organisation I represent, thank you, Sergeant,” said the man. He smiled at Millie and Judith. “I’m Mister Anon, which is a clever pseudonym, of course — I like to keep my real identity a secret. I have to keep it secret. I represent a group known as the Alien Search Syndicate and Hazard Alert Team.”
“Erm,” said Judith. “You’re from a group called ASSHAT?”
Mr Anon sighed. “You’re quick at working out acronyms. Very good. Most people don’t pick up on it. The group was named before I joined it. That mistake would have never slipped past me if I’d been in charge at the time.”
“You could change it?” said Millie.
“Too late,” said Mister Anon. “We’ve got headed paper, business cards — the works. We don’t have the funds to make such sweeping changes.”
“Funds?” said Millie. “Don’t you work for the government?”
“No,” said Mister Anon. “We’re a non-governmental organisation which specialises in the search for extra-terrestrial life. Extra-terrestrial life on this planet.”
“What an alien hunter is doing standing in my cottage, aside,” said Millie. “If you’re not from a governmental organisation — why on earth do you think you have the right to cordon off a huge chunk of the beach, and have a guard preventing people accessing my property?”
Sergeant Spencer stepped forward. “Because if we don’t allow them access, and the right to keep the beach cordoned off, they’ll call in the real authorities to look at the skeleton which Tom found,” he said. “And if that happens, this town will hit the headlines all over the world.” He raised an eyebrow in Millie’s direction. “And we don’t want that. Do we?”
Millie swallowed. The concealment spell was good, but could it disguise the paranormal inhabitants of Spellbinder Bay from the whole of the world’s press? She doubted it.
“No, you don’t,” said Mister Anon. “You’ll be flooded with tourists — and not the sort of tourists who will be a financial boom for the town, but the type whose own mothers would describe as a little eccentric, and possibly even dangerous if provoked.”
“But the real authorities were called,” said Millie. “Tom reported it to the museum, and a man came. I was there! He said the skeleton was probably an unknown dinosaur — a predator to be precise.”
Mister Anon smiled. “Luckily for the Alien Search Syndic—”
“Luckily for ASSHAT,” said Millie.
Mister Anon pursed his lips. “Luckily for our group,” he said, with a scowl, “the man who Tom Temples reported his find to, is a friend of mine, and when he saw what it was that Tom had dug up, he sent me an urgent message. I dropped what I was doing immediately and called the rest of the team right away.”
“Rest of the team?” said Judith. “How many of you are there?”
“It’s a small team,” said Mister Anon. “It’s really just me and Mister Incognito — the man who was guarding the entrance to the track.”
Judith giggled. “Another clever pseudonym?” she asked.
“Are you laughing at me?” spat Mister Anon, ripping off his glasses, to reveal piercing blue eyes. “You’d better not be! This is an important matter. There’s an alien skeleton laying in the sand in the dunes below this cottage, and you think this is an appropriate time to be ridiculing me and my organisation? You should be more concerned as to whether the dead alien was a random visitor to our planet, or a member of the first line of an outer space invasion force! And believe me, aliens won’t be coming here for our jobs or women, they’ll be coming to make humans extinct — so they can take over our planet!”
“What?” said Millie, raising an eyebrow in Sergeant Spencer’s direction. “You think the skeleton is an alien? Of course it’s not an alien! It’s a dinosaur.”
Mister Anon gazed upward as Reuben fluttered in through the open roof window and landed on Millie’s shoulder. “That’s your bird, is it? It’s been circling us since we got here. It even tried to get into the tent I’ve erected over the site of the alien’s remains.”
“It likes people,” said Millie. “He’s friendly, that’s all. I wish you would stop referring to the skeleton as an alien, though. That’s quite a claim to make. It’s a dinosaur. We’re on the Jurassic Coast!”
“When you saw it, Miss Thorn,” said Mister Anon. “It was barely visible. You probably saw an eye socket and a few teeth, but since we’ve excavated it further, it looks nothing like a dinosaur!”
“I must say,” said Sergeant Spencer. “It does look a little strange. Like the skull of the Cheshire Cat placed on the body of a meerkat. Very creepy.”
Mister Anon withdrew his phone from his pocket. “Here,” he said, turning the screen towards Millie. “Does that look like a dinosaur to you?”
The screech which Reuben emitted sent shockwaves through Millie’s skull, and she put a hand to her ear in an attempt to stop the high-pitched ringing reverberating in her head. The cockatiel screeched again, and launched himself from Millie’s shoulder, flying in frantic circles around the room, before zooming through the open roof window.
“What’s wrong with him?” said Mister Anon.
“I’m not sure,” said Millie, studying the photo on Mister Anon’s phone. “Maybe it was the picture that scared him. It does look a little…. freaky. I saw the top of the spine when Tom and I dug out the hole, but I had no idea it would be so short.”
“It doesn’t look possible,” said Judith. “The body is tiny. How could it possibly hold the weight of a head that large?”
“And that’s the question which proves that it is extra-terrestrial in origin,” said Mister Anon, with a satisfied smirk. “The gravity on this planet would not allow such a creature to evolve here.” He tapped the screen of his phone with a dirty fingernail. “This creature comes from a planet where gravity works very differently than on Earth. And loo
k at those teeth. They make no sense. There are at least four rows, and I counted over a hundred individual teeth in one row alone. What manner of prey must it feast on to require such gnashers? Ladies and gentleman, you are looking at an alien. Quite probably one which was extremely dangerous in life.”
“What happens now?” said Millie, as Mister Anon slipped his phone back into his pocket. “What will you do with it?”
“Today, we’ll do nothing,” he said. “We require some specialist equipment which myself and Mister Incognito will be collecting overnight — we rushed here when we got the message from our informant at the museum, and we’ve arrived with a lack of equipment. The skeleton may be radioactive, and until it’s been tested for such dangers, nobody is to approach it. Including myself. We may already be contaminated. Sergeant Spencer has promised to keep the area cordoned off until our return in the morning, and as your cottage overlooks the site of the skeleton, I’d be obliged if you would keep an eye on the area for me, too.”
“Erm, yes. I suppose so,” said Millie. “But what will happen to the skeleton when it’s been fully excavated? If people find out it was discovered here, Spellbinder Bay, and my property in particular, is never going to be the same again.”
“We shall remove it from this area, and never reveal where it was found,” said Mister Anon. “I have big plans for that skeleton, and they don’t involve this tiny town. You have no need to worry.”
Millie nodded. “Okay,” she said. “We’ll make sure nobody goes near the skeleton while you’re gone.”
Mister Anon placed his sunglasses back on his face. “Then we shall leave. Mister Incognito and I will return tomorrow morning, at which time we’ll begin a proper investigation into the origin of the specimen, and set about removing it from Spellbinder Bay. I thank you all for your cooperation. It’s far better that you keep this situation away from the authorities, and in my capable hands. The authorities would force you to abandon your cottage, and would probably cordon off the whole of the town, which is not a situation anybody would like to find themselves in.”
“Don’t worry,” said Sergeant Spencer. “No authorities higher than myself will hear anything about this. The skeleton will still be there when you return in the morning.”
“Untouched?” said Mister Anon.
Sergeant Spencer sighed. “Untouched.”
With an approving nod, Mister Anon muttered his goodbyes, and let himself out of the cottage. No sooner had the door slammed behind him, than a loud sound like a cracking whip filled the room, and Millie’s hair brushed her cheek as a draft blew over her face.
A brief flash of light in front of the fireplace quickly morphed into the shape of Henry Pinkerton with Reuben perched on his shoulder, causing Judith to jump with fright. “What the hell?” she said. “Give us some warning!”
“Forgive the intrusion,” said Henry, pushing his little round spectacles higher up his nose. “It’s highly important, though. Reuben came to me with grave news, and when he took me to see the skeleton beneath the tent in the dunes — I realised the news is graver than even Reuben described it — and he was panicking so much he’s left feathers all over my office. It’s lucky I don’t have any letters to write – it will take me some time to find my quill.”
“I’m sorry, Henry,” said Reuben. “I was scared.”
“I didn’t know you could do that,” said Judith. “I know you travel along beams of energy, but I didn’t know you could bring somebody else with you.”
Henry smiled. “It’s easier to travel alone,” he said. “But yes, if the need arises I can bring somebody along for the ride. And Reuben’s panic made it quite clear that this was one of those occasions. Anyway, Reuben is so small I hardly noticed him draining any of my energy.”
“Sorry I left like that,” said Reuben, fluttering to Millie’s shoulder. “But when I saw that photograph on the phone, I had to act quickly, and I couldn’t say anything about my concerns in front of that strange alien hunting man.”
Millie ran a finger over the cockatiel’s chest. “What is it?” she asked. “What scared you so much?”
“It’s awful news, Millie,” said Reuben. “I’m so scared that I discovered I can fly almost four times faster than I imagined I could. I made it to Spellbinder Hall in record time!”
“What’s happened, Reuben?” said Millie. You’re shaking.”
“Allow me to explain,” said Henry, beginning to pace in front of the fireplace. What Henry lacked in height, he made up for in confidence, and the smart tweed three-piece suit he wore embellished him with even more authority.
Everybody remained silent as he spoke. “Reuben arrived at Spellbinder Hall in quite the panic,” he said. “He insisted I came with him right away, so I moved quickly. We went to the sand dunes first, and had a look at the skeleton for ourselves, and as soon as the gentleman dressed in black left, I came straight here. With bad news, I’m afraid. Troubling news.”
“What is it?” said Sergeant Spencer.
“The skeleton on the beach is neither a dinosaur or an alien,” said Henry.
Reuben’s claws dug into Millie’s shoulder. “It’s far worse!” he squawked.
“Indeed,” said Henry. “It is far worse. The skeleton on the beach is the remains of a demon. A particularly nasty type of demon. And a recent arrival.”
“Recent?” said Judith. “It’s a skeleton.”
“If a demon manages to pass through the dimension gate below Spellbinder Hall, it will pass through as invisible energy, allowing it to evade detection,” explained Henry. “If it does not find a suitable human host quickly, it will revert to its physical form and die. It cannot survive in this environment, and it will decompose remarkably quickly.”
“We call the type of demon in the sand dunes a scurrier,” said Reuben. “They were my biggest fear when I lived in The Chaos. We called them that because they scurried around on those tiny legs, causing pain and untold misery with that huge mouth and those sharp teeth.”
“A demon got through the gate?” said Millie. “I thought my magical energy was keeping the gate to The Chaos closed? How could a demon have come through?”
“The gate is never fully closed,” said Henry. “But I believe it was weakened by the recent storm. The electric in the air must have interfered with the magic, weakening the force-field.”
“That’s not the worst of it,” said Reuben. “Scurriers never travel alone. They only ever travel in pairs. Where there’s one scurrier, there’s always another one right next to it. With no exceptions! Had both demons died, they would have died side by side, and the fact that there is only one skeleton in the sand leads to only one conclusion.”
Henry removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “That the other one managed to find a human host, and possess the unfortunate person.” He put his glasses back on, and stared at everybody in turn. “There is a person possessed by a demon present in Spellbinder Bay. We paranormal people needn’t worry. It won’t try and harm us, unless threatened, and it is no stronger than the person it possesses, but people like Sergeant Spencer — humans, may be at risk. The demon may not be strong, but it will be vicious and uncaring — capable of extreme violence. We should keep our eyes and ears open. People may be in grave danger.”
“What about those alien hunters?” said Sergeant Spencer. “I don’t trust them. I’m sure they intend to publicise the find, and if people ever discover that demons exist — which they will when that skeleton is examined properly, the paranormal community will be in danger of discovery.”
“Shouldn’t the concealment spell work on them?” said Millie. “If the skeleton is the remains of a paranormal creature, shouldn’t the spell have made them lose interest in it? I thought it was designed to draw people’s attention away from paranormal events?”
Henry sighed. “The sort of people who become alien hunters are the sort of people who thrive on conspiracy theories and rumours. The concealment spell uses gentle magic which nudges people�
��s thoughts away from anything paranormal. They simply don’t register it as strange, and move on. A conspiracy theorist’s mind is too well trained for spotting the unusual — too resilient to the effects of Spellbinder Hall’s concealment spell. It will work to an extent, but those two men will smell a rat eventually. We’ll need to come up with a different plan to put them off the scent.”
“We could just move the skeleton,” offered Judith. “When they come back tomorrow morning we could tell them they imagined it. They’ll have no proof.”
“They have photos,” said Millie. “But I suppose if we did move the skeleton, the photos would mean nothing without any physical evidence to back them up. People are always faking photographs.”
“No,” said Henry. “The skeleton mustn’t be disturbed any further. Although by human standards the demon is dead, there’s still a danger that some of the demon’s residual energy remains within its bones. When it failed to find a host, it was likely drawn to this area by the magical energy emitted from your cottage, Millie, and when it realised it was dying, it burrowed into the sand in a futile attempt to reach The Chaos. It would have died quickly, and begun decomposing at a very fast rate. A very fast rate indeed. The bones will take a little longer to decompose — maybe a week, and until they are dust, nobody must touch that skeleton. It can be looked at, but nobody must lay a hand on it. It is not yet fully dead as we understand it — simply in an enhanced form of dormancy.”
“And still able to take a human host if disturbed,” said Reuben.
“Yes,” said Henry. “So, until no bones remain, humans must be kept away from it — especially those alien hunters.”
“How do we do that?” said Judith. “With magic?”
Henry fiddled with his cufflinks and shook his head. “No,” he said. “It’s not wise to use magic in front of conspiracy theorists. You’ll have to come up with a plan which doesn’t involve spells or potions, and remember — a human in Spellbinder Bay is already possessed by a demon. I’ll do my best to hunt it down, but they hide well. I’ll warn the other members of the paranormal community, but we should all be on high alert. This is a dangerous time. Be on your guard. All of you.”
