Frozen Charlotte

by Alex Bell

  I knew he was right. I probably would regret it. For the rest of my life.

  “All right,” I heard myself say. “I’ll stay.”

  I wanted to get out of the house for a while, so I told Uncle James I needed some fresh air and was going for a walk. The wind was still blowing fiercely, so he made me promise not to go too close to the edge of the cliff before he’d let me go.

  I didn’t get very far before Cameron caught up with me, planting himself on the path in front of me so that I had to stop. I could feel a blush creeping up my cheeks and really wished Cameron hadn’t been around for my conversation with Uncle James. He must think I was a total basket case.

  “Running around in towels one minute and stomping along clifftops the next,” he said, staring at me. “I can hardly keep up with you. Dad says you’ve changed your mind about leaving. Will you at least tell me what she did?”

  For a confused moment, I thought he meant Rebecca. “Who?”

  “Piper, of course.”

  I thought of the water freezing around me in the bath, and the black sand that had clogged up my throat, and shook my head. “Piper had nothing to do with it.”

  “Look, it might seem that way to you but, trust me, whatever it was, whatever happened, Piper was responsible.”

  “Do you think Piper is a witch?”

  Cameron looked confused. The wind blew his hair into his eyes and he brushed it away impatiently. “Of course I don’t think she’s a witch.”

  “Then she couldn’t have been responsible for what happened earlier. And why are you so hung up on this anyway? Piper and I have been getting along fine ever since I arrived, so what makes you think she’d go out of her way to be horrible?”

  To my surprise, Cameron laughed, an unsteady, sudden laugh that burst out of him without warning.

  “Because,” he said, “that is her nature. She doesn’t need a reason, you didn’t have to do anything to her. That’s just her way. She sees opportunities for mindless cruelty everywhere, and she takes them. How do you think Lilias got her fear of bones?”

  “But… But how could Piper possibly be responsible for that?”

  Cameron shook his head and stared out towards the grey sea below us. “She’s so clever about it nobody ever guesses the truth. When Lilias was a baby, I heard her crying one day. It wasn’t her normal cry, not the kind she’d do if she was hungry or tired, this was more of a scream. I was afraid she’d hurt herself somehow so I went running into her room. When I saw Piper standing by the cot I thought she’d gone to comfort her. But then I realized she was pinching her, as hard as she could. Pinching her on her arm hard enough to create a great black bruise there. She was just standing by the cot, smiling down at Lilias while she screamed.”

  The idea sent a chill through me. I hugged my jacket closer and said, “But that doesn’t explain why Lilias is afraid of bones.”

  “When Lilias was about three years old, Piper said she wanted to take her up to bed and read her a story,” Cameron replied. “At the time I thought it meant she was warming to Lilias a bit. After Rebecca died, Mum sort of withdrew into herself and wasn’t always aware when Lilias needed something, and Dad just shut himself away with his brushes and paints. I watched out for Lilias and I made sure she wasn’t left by herself all the time. So when Piper wanted to read to her I was pleased – I thought she wanted to help. But then, a few weeks later, I noticed that there’d been a change in Lilias. She was quiet, nervous, subdued, not herself at all. I never thought to connect the change with Piper’s bedtime stories but one day I went upstairs earlier than normal and I heard the story Piper was telling Lilias. She wasn’t reading from any book. She’d made up something special for our sister. A ghastly story about how there was an evil skeleton inside her that wanted to take control of her body and do all kinds of awful things. She’d been telling her these stories for weeks. That was when Lilias developed her fear of bones, a fear she hasn’t been able to recover from since.”

  “Perhaps Piper didn’t realize how frightening her stories were,” I said, not wanting to believe what he was saying.

  “She knew,” Cameron said. “Piper doesn’t do anything by accident. Do you think it was just chance that Lilias ended up with a bone in her steak the night you arrived? The entire episode was a carefully staged spectacle, specially designed for your benefit and Piper’s own grotesque pleasure. The same way it wasn’t an accident that she served me food she knew I wouldn’t be able to eat without assistance. And, later, when she asked me to play ‘Sweet Seraphina’ on the piano, she knew perfectly well that I can no longer play that tune. Piper is a master of death by a thousand cuts. How do you think our mum ended up in a mental hospital?”

  I shook my head, not quite knowing what to say.

  “I told you I went away – I made the mistake of going to a music summer school one year, and when I got back I found that Mum had been committed while I was gone. She said she kept hearing Rebecca’s voice calling out to her when no one else was around. Piper is an excellent mimic. She’d deny it, of course, but I’d bet my life that she put on Rebecca’s voice, just for the sake of tormenting Mum. There was an incident with some pills… Mum was lucky to survive. She might have been OK in the end, if Piper could have just left her alone. That’s why it’s not safe for you here. That’s why I still think you should go.”

  I was trembling from head to foot, hardly able to take in what Cameron was saying. “I can’t,” I whispered.

  “Why not, for God’s sake?”

  “Because of Rebecca.”

  He stared at me. “Rebecca? What can she possibly have to do with any of this? She’s dead.”

  “I came here to find out how she died.”

  Cameron shook his head impatiently and turned away from me. “I don’t want to talk about Rebecca.”

  “I know you blame her for what happened to your hand,” I said. “And for starting that fire. But the reason I came here in the first place was to find out more about her.”

  Cameron slowly turned round to face me, and the look on his face was so frightening that it took all my willpower not to take a step back from him.

  “Rebecca didn’t start the fire,” he said. “Piper did.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Said Charles, “How fast the shivering ice,

  Is gathering on my brow.”

  And Charlotte, still more faintly said,

  “I’m growing warmer now.”

  “Piper started the fire?” I said. “But I thought Rebecca was in the tree house when it happened?”

  “She was. She was up there playing when the fire started. I saw the smoke from my bedroom window. And you know what else I saw? Piper standing on the grass staring up at the tree house as smoke poured out of it and flames blackened the leaves and Rebecca called and called for help. But Piper just stood and watched and smiled and did nothing.”

  “What are you saying?” I asked, horrified. “That Piper actually wanted Rebecca to … to die in the fire?”

  Cameron took a deep breath and exhaled hard through his nose. “Of course not,” he said quietly. “I didn’t say that, and I’m not suggesting it. All I’m saying is that Piper is not a good person for you to be around and that you shouldn’t stay here. You should leave – you should get off this island and never look back.”

  “I’m not leaving.”

  “Must I beg you to go?” Cameron snapped. “Do you want me on my knees, is that it? Do you really want to end up like Lilias and me?” He took his burnt hand out of his pocket and held it up in plain sight, but this time I refused to flinch. “This is what will happen if you don’t leave. Sooner or later, there’ll be some accident, some unforeseen incident, something will happen … and you’ll get hurt.” He shoved his hand back into his pocket. “Do you want to leave here with more scars than you came with?”

  “My best friend died,” I said, finally managing to say the word. “Before I came here.”

  Cameron frowned. “Yes, I kn
ow,” he said. “And I’m sorry. But I don’t see what that—”

  “We were at this café, messing about with a Ouija-board app on his phone,” I said. “When Jay asked me who we should speak to, I said Rebecca – her name just popped into my head. And then the board confirmed it was her. I know it sounds ridiculous but you weren’t there. Something terrible happened that night. All the lights in the café went out, everyone started screaming, one of the waitresses was horribly burnt. And Jay died. I think we spoke to Rebecca and she got out of the board and now I’ve brought her back here to the house with me. She’s angry and she wants something, but I don’t know what it is.”

  Cameron stared at me, and a long moment stretched taut between us. The waves hammered the rocks, the wind battered the cliffs, and seagulls screamed at each other in the distance.

  Finally, he said, “What do you expect me to say to that? Do you actually believe it or are you as unhinged as everyone else around here?”

  “It’s the truth.”

  He threw up his hands. “All right, so it’s the truth! So what? If this Jay truly was your friend then he wouldn’t want you in harm’s way, would he? If he were here, then he’d tell you to go home.”

  “You don’t get to speak for him!”

  “Look, I know I never met him, that I don’t know the first thing about him, but I’m telling you that if he was any kind of friend to you at all, then he wouldn’t want you here with us.”

  I knew that Cameron was right. I could almost hear Jay’s voice inside my head, not joking like it normally was, but quiet and serious instead. “Go home, Sophie. Please.”

  But we were the ones who had let Rebecca out. And I was the one who’d brought her back to Skye. She could hurt Lilias next, or Cameron, or Piper, and it would be my fault. What if I went home and then a few weeks later we received a telephone call from Uncle James to say that Lilias had frozen to death in the bath tub? Or that Piper had fallen down the stairs and broken her neck?

  “Rebecca is here,” I said. “I know she is. I’ve felt her.”

  I wanted to tell Cameron about the Frozen Charlotte dolls scratching at the glass, the music box playing in the middle of the night, the little girl skipping around the burnt tree, the cold fingers curling around mine, the strange experience in Rebecca’s bedroom with the humming and the rotten smell of death and, finally, the way the bath had turned to ice around me and the writing that had appeared on the mirror. But the expression on his face made me falter. How could I ever expect him to believe me?

  “I’ve felt her,” I repeated feebly. “And Lilias has seen her. She’s spoken to her too.”

  A dark look came over Cameron’s face at the mention of Lilias’s name, and in a couple of strides he had covered the distance between us. His left arm reached out towards me and I thought he was going to grab me, but then, at the last moment, he clenched his fingers into a fist and dropped his hand to his side instead.

  “I don’t know if you’re actually demented, or as big a liar as Piper, or if you’re just grieving for your friend, and to be honest I don’t really care, but if you breathe one word of this nonsense to Lilias, I’ll—”

  “You’ll what?” I demanded. I knew all this was a lot for anyone to accept but I refused to be bullied, not by Cameron or anyone else. With both hands I shoved him back so hard that he stumbled over his feet and almost ended up on the ground. “Flog me with a riding crop like you did to Brett?”

  Cameron clamped his jaw shut and I distinctly saw a muscle twitch there. “Say whatever you like to me,” he said quietly. “Repeat this fantasy to Piper and my dad if you must, but don’t bring Lilias into it. She’s terrified of Rebecca’s room and lives in a state of constant fear as it is without you convincing her that our dead sister is haunting the house as well. I won’t have life made any more difficult for her than it already is.”

  “I know you don’t believe me,” I said, “and I can’t really blame you for that, but Rebecca is here – I’m sure of it. And I think she might be dangerous.”

  Cameron was silent for a moment. Finally, he said, “This was a mistake. I realize that now. You clearly need some time to yourself to calm down.”

  I watched as, silently fuming, he turned and walked away.

  Dinner that night was a strained event, which wasn’t much of a surprise considering what had happened with Cameron’s piano that morning and then the drama I’d managed to cause in the afternoon. I noticed that Uncle James kept shooting nervous glances at me, as if he half thought I might stand up and demand to leave again at any moment. At the end of the meal he cleared his throat and said, “I’m taking Lilias into town tomorrow for her therapy session. I spoke to her therapist on the phone earlier and she said that if you’d like to have a word with her too then she could see you for half an hour after Lilias has finished.”

  It took me a moment to realize that Uncle James was looking at me. “Why would I want to talk to a therapist?” I asked. I glared across the table at Cameron, thinking he must have told his dad about the conversation we’d had earlier, but then Piper said, “Oh, I hope you don’t mind, Sophie, but I told Dad about how you’ve been … well … struggling since Jay died.” She smiled at me, absently playing with the Frozen Charlotte necklace at her throat, her fingers stroking the doll’s white porcelain cheek.

  My face felt suddenly hot. Everyone was looking at me. “Struggling?” I said. “Well, I lost someone and I miss him, but I wouldn’t call that struggling. That’s just normal, isn’t it?”

  “Of course,” Uncle James said at once. “Of course. Perfectly normal. It was only a thought, that’s all. But if you don’t want to go then there’s an end to the matter.”

  When we went upstairs to bed I stopped Piper in the corridor outside our rooms and said, “Why did you say those things to your dad?”

  She looked genuinely surprised. “You don’t mind, do you? I just thought it might help you to speak to someone, that’s all. I know a lot of people don’t like the idea of therapists but this one is really good. She’s helped Lilias a lot. I’ve heard that grief counselling can be really helpful for some people. I hope you don’t think I betrayed your confidence in speaking to Dad? I’d be mortified if you thought that, really I would.”

  I stared at her for a moment in silence. She seemed so completely genuine, and there was a real look of concern in her eyes as she gazed at me.

  “You’re not cross with me, are you?” Piper asked, putting a hand on my arm. I noticed she no longer had a bandage on it, which seemed strange. In fact, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her hand at all. “I’m so sorry if I did the wrong thing.”

  “Never mind,” I said. “Just forget it.”

  She went to her room and I was glad to see her go. I went to my room and had only been there a minute or so when there was a soft tap at my door. I opened it to find Lilias on the other side. She glanced up and down the corridor, as if nervous of being overheard, then she leaned in closer to me and said, “Be careful tonight. One of them got out.”

  “One of them?” I frowned. “Are you talking about the Frozen Charlotte dolls?”

  Lilias nodded. “I counted them,” she said. “Just now. One of them is missing. One of them got out. You should check your room. Make sure it’s not in here and then lock your door. Don’t open it till the morning.”

  “But Lilias—”

  “I don’t want to go blind, do you? Lock your door if you don’t want to end up like that girl in the photo.”

  “All right, but what about the others?”

  “Others?”

  “Cameron and Piper.”

  “The dolls wouldn’t hurt Piper,” Lilias said, as if that were obvious. “And Cameron doesn’t believe in them so I’m going to tell him the evil skeleton is speaking to me again. That way he’ll sleep on the chair in my room all night and I can keep him safe. The dolls want to hurt Cameron most of all.”

  “Why Cameron most of all?”

  “Becaus
e Piper hates him.” Lilias curled her lip in contempt. “He’s the best brother in the whole world ever but Piper hates him because he can really see her.” Her hands clenched into fists at her side, and she went on, “Sometimes I have nightmares that the dolls get to him and they poke his eyes out with their needles and then he’s blind and he can’t play the piano any more and that would make him so sad, sadder than anything else in the world. But I’m never ever going to let that happen. Not to Cameron. I’ll stamp on all their ugly little rotten heads if they ever come near him.”

  After Lilias disappeared down the hall to her own room, I closed my door, hesitated a moment, and then locked it. I checked the room and couldn’t see any Frozen Charlotte dolls around.

  All Lilias’s talk about going blind made me think of the black and white photo downstairs in the old classroom, of the schoolmistress who used to live in the house, standing outside with all her pupils, including the girl with the blindfold. Suddenly, something I’d heard the Frozen Charlottes whisper came floating back to me:

  Let’s play the Push-Teacher-Down-the-Stairs Game!

  I could see the teacher’s stern, serious face in the photo and my hands turned clammy as I pictured that steep flight of stairs outside my door and the thought that had gone through my mind when I first saw them: stairs to break your neck on…

  I wiped my hands on my jeans. It couldn’t be true. When the school closed down, the teacher probably just moved on to teach at some other school in the village. Or perhaps she got married and moved away with her husband, somewhere far away from Skye and the schoolhouse and the Frozen Charlottes locked up in the basement.

  I shook my head, trying to clear it of the image of the teacher lying at the foot of the stairs with her neck broken. But I couldn’t get the thought out of my head and knew I wouldn’t be able to until I’d proved to myself that it hadn’t happened like that. So I turned my laptop on and Googled the old schoolhouse on the clifftop.