Feel the Fear

by Lauren Child

  ‘Sadly, Margo Bardem can’t be here tonight. . .’

  A groan from the audience.

  ‘. . .but she will of course be joining us for the film festival finale on Friday 15th!’

  Applause.

  ‘Thank you, thank you,’ said Ray, trying to be heard above the clapping. ‘This, folks, will be a very special occasion, because on that night at this very theatre will be the world premiere of Feel the Fear, a movie that also features the Scarlet Pagoda in some scenes. A movie shot in 1954 but for some reason never shown, so you lucky people will have the chance to be its first audience!’

  Wild applause now.

  ‘Jeepers,’ whispered Elliot, ‘I wish this guy would move it along a little.’

  ‘Talking of this wonderful actress, one of the highlights of this particular evening will be the fabulous costumes worn by Ms Bardem in the thrillers: The Truth Will Out, The Last Wish, Catch Your Death and of course The Cat that Got the Canary.

  Yes, tonight you will all be fortunate enough to see those awe-inspiring outfits worn by Ms Bardem that made those particular pictures such a movie sensation. . .’ He paused for suspense.

  ‘The feather dress. . .’ Applause.

  ‘The white fur trim gown. . .’ Applause.

  ‘And yes, those legendary US size 3s, the Little Yellow Shoes.’ Applause.

  ‘The list goes on,’ said Ray, who was going on a little too much as far as Ruby was concerned.

  ‘You will also be dazzled by costumes from films such as Fingers from Outer Space, It’s Behind You and The Claw at the Window.

  There was a loud whistling – there were obviously a lot of The Claw at the Window appreciators in the audience.

  ‘And folks, let’s not forget the other of this evening’s highlights – the raffle!’

  More frenzy, Ruby suspected most of it generated by her own mother.

  After a bit more build-up, the show finally began. Music started up, Ray Conner thankfully slipped stage right, and a succession of models started strutting across the stage in a variety of outfits, each one more outlandish than the last. Ruby was engrossed – her favourite movies were coming to life.

  Red too leaned forward in her seat. ‘Isn’t that the dress from Two’s Company, Three’s a Shroud?’

  ‘I believe so,’ said Ruby.

  ‘It looks like it’s made from actual cobwebs and look at that. . .’ As Red stretched her arm out to point towards another costume classic, she knocked her drink right into her lap.

  ‘Oh cripes, not again!’ said Red, violently wiping at her dress.

  ‘If that’s a blue slushy Red, you better go pour water on it,’ said Elliot. ‘That stuff stains, man – talk about radioactive.’

  Red had an accident of this nature most hours of the week, and she was well practised at dashing to restrooms or water fountains.

  While Red made her way to the bathroom to deal with the slushy, Ruby and Elliot continued to enjoy the show – there was so much more to the outfits than one ever saw when just viewing on a screen. It was fair to say, some of the costumes were a whole lot better than the movies they had appeared in.

  Fifteen minutes later, Ruby looked up to see Red making her way back to her seat. By the looks on people’s faces she was stepping on an awful lot of toes. As she got closer, Ruby saw that the blood seemed to have drained from her face, which gave her a strange almost ghostly appearance.

  ‘What’s up with you?’ Ruby asked, as Red finally sat down beside her. ‘You look like you just ran into the Scorpion Spectre.’

  ‘Yeah, well maybe I did – I got lost and ended up backstage, and there is something weird back there. It may not be the scorpion but it sure to goodness put the wind up me.’

  ‘Seriously?’ said Elliot.

  ‘I tell you, I think this place is haunted, just like they say,’ said Red.

  Ruby gave her the once-over. ‘Look, maybe you should ease up on the slushies Red – you know they put a lot of chemicals in those things. I think some of them mighta gone to your head.’

  ‘I’m not kidding around you guys. I know I tend to walk into a lot of things but this time I swear I tripped over something that wasn’t there – I mean there was something there, nothing I could see, but there was something – I mean, I couldn’t have tripped over nothing, right? And I swear I heard footsteps.’

  ‘Red, you are always tripping over nothing,’ said Ruby.

  Red stared back at them both. ‘Well this time I didn’t,’ she said firmly. ‘This time it wasn’t down to me.’

  And the weirdest thing was. . . Ruby believed her.

  Chapter 10.

  IT WAS SHORTLY AFTER THE INTERVAL, just ten minutes into the second half of the show, that something seemed to go wrong.

  The organiser came onto the catwalk to apologise for the hitch in proceedings, blaming it on a technical problem.

  Then Ray the host came back on and made some so-so jokes suggesting it might be something to do with the Claw at the Window or the Ecto Grabber and everyone laughed good-naturedly.

  The organiser returned to announce that unfortunately one of the star pieces had been mislaid but the show would go on.

  Ruby and Red looked at each other.

  ‘Told you,’ said Red. ‘Something is back there.’

  ‘I’ll go check it out,’ said Ruby nonchalantly. By now her curiosity had really got a grip, and even if it meant coming face to pincers with the Scorpion Spectre she needed to know just what was going down. Happily, she didn’t believe in scorpion spectres so there wasn’t a whole lot to fear, besides, she had come through a forest fire almost unscathed, she had survived two encounters with the evil Count von Viscount, she had escaped the clutches of a sea monster. She was beginning to think she might be invincible.

  Ruby slipped out of her seat and made her way backstage. She did it with such confidence that no one accosted her, at least not until she reached the area where the show director was issuing orders.

  ‘You can’t come back here!’ said an intimidating-looking woman in an asymmetric dress and asymmetric haircut.

  ‘I’m just. . .’

  ‘Scram,’ said the woman, slamming the door an inch in front of Ruby’s nose.

  ‘Darn it,’ hissed Ruby. As she turned to leave, she spotted a whole stack of fish heads, giant ones. The fish heads were made from papier-mâché. Ruby recognised them; she knew the movie they came from, she had watched it over and over again squished in next to Mrs Digby on her settee. She had been just three when she first saw The Sea of Fish Devils.

  Ruby picked up one of the heads and examined it. Worth a try, I guess. She pulled it down over her head so her face was totally hidden – she could see out all right but no one could see in. It was uncomfortable but it was bearable. She checked the rack of costumes and found what she was looking for. Pulling it from its hanger she wriggled into one of the fish tails. There was no telling who she actually was now. She was just a short Fish Devil. She opened the door and this time the woman ushered her in.

  ‘About time! Where’s the rest of your shoal?’

  Ruby shrugged.

  ‘No one’s a professional any more,’ said the asymmetric woman, shaking her head. She looked more closely at the fish in front of her. ‘Kinda small, aren’t you? Your fins are dragging.’

  The fish shrugged but said nothing. Then it indicated that it needed to go to the bathroom, the woman rolled her eyes and said, ‘OK, but make it snappy Bubbles.’

  As Ruby threaded her way between the rails of costumes and boxes full of props and accessories, she overheard one of the models talking to the host. ‘I swear, one minute they were totally there and, like, the next, you know, gone – weird, right? Only I swear I felt something – like air moving past me. A breeze, you know?’ She sighed. ‘Not that it matters, I could never have modelled them anyway.’ She looked down at her feet. ‘No chance of squeezing these size 9s into those teeny tiny shoes – that Margo Bardem must have pixie feet.’
>
  Ruby slipped out of the side door into the labyrinth of passageways. She shed her fish ensemble and tiptoed along the various backstage corridors. She had no real idea where she was headed but she followed the voices – they were coming from high up in the pagoda. Ruby had once been told that there was a strongroom up top there, built long ago for a famously difficult actress who insisted on having a dressing room at the very top of the building and insisted that her valuables be locked safely away in the room next door while she performed on stage.

  As Ruby climbed the next set of stairs, the voices became louder. Using the extendable mirror that was one of the many attachments belonging to the Escape Watch, she managed to peep round the wall. Two guards were explaining to the show organiser how they had not moved one inch from the door of the room that contained prop 53.

  ‘Not only did we not move one inch from the place I am standing right now,’ insisted one of the guards, ‘but no one even so much as touched the handle of that door, let alone walked inside, at least not until the stagehand came to collect ’em.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said the other guy, ‘everything Stan says is exactly what happened – until you unlocked that door, no one went in.’

  ‘So you want me to believe that you’ve been standing here the whole time?’

  ‘Look lady, I don’t want you to believe nothing. I’m telling you, me and Al never moved an inch from where we are stood now.’

  ‘Not an inch,’ confirmed Al. ‘Everything’s been ship-shape and exactly as it should be, so far as we’re concerned.’ Al picked up a little piece of paper from the floor as if to illustrate his point. ‘Everything in the right place.’ He tucked it into his pocket. ‘Ship-shape, see.’

  ‘So prop 53 was just spirited away? Is that what you’re saying?’

  ‘It’s the only explanation,’ said Al, ‘and I don’t mind telling you, as of today, I’m never working here again. This place is haunted – no two ways about it. When your stagehand guy came up to fetch your so-called prop 53, I felt the weirdest sensation, like someone brushed right by me. So as of tomorrow lady, you can find another security guard for your grand finale premiere shindig.’

  The woman shook her head, as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. But despite her protests Stan and Al were not to be persuaded otherwise.

  ‘Ghosts or no ghosts,’ she said, ‘could you at least assure me that all exits have security on them? No one – and I repeat, no one – costumed or otherwise, is to leave this building without being checked for stolen items!’ She turned to leave and then added, ‘And that includes me!’

  The security guy nodded. ‘Affirmative,’ he said, ‘no one leaves without our clearance.’

  If this was true, thought Ruby, then the thief was very possibly still somewhere in the building, lurking, waiting for his chance to escape. But how was he going to do that? She looked around.

  Via a window? she thought.

  She ran back down the stairs. There were no windows on the ground floor and the windows on the stairway did not open and there were no missing or broken panes of glass. No way out. She started down the corridor back towards front of stage.

  It was when she rounded the next corner that she thought she heard something, something a little like soft movements. Coulda been a mouse. . . or a rat. She shivered. Pull it together Redfort.

  By the time Ruby made it back to her seat the show was just wrapping up. The raffle had been drawn, the pledges of financial support all collected and now it was the showstopper finish – atmospheric lights, sinister sound effects, and a parade of the monstrous and villainous were playing out on the stage, complete with a shoal of Fish Devils.

  Ruby tried to appreciate it all, but she was understandably distracted by what she had overheard. As the last outrageous costume left the stage, the theatre broke into applause.

  Few of the audience seemed to have been bothered by the non-appearance of prop 53, there was so much else to look at. Sabina Redfort, however, was very disappointed.

  ‘Where do you think they got to? I thought they were supposed to be one of the highlights of the evening?’

  ‘I’m sure they were there,’ said Brant, ‘you probably just missed them.’

  ‘I don’t think I would just miss the Little Yellow Shoes Brant, get real,’ said Sabina.

  ‘Well,’ said Brant, ‘don’t be too disappointed – don’t forget, you did win the Ada Borland prize.’

  ‘Oh yes!’ cried Sabina. ‘Ruby, I won the raffle and you, you lucky kid, are going to have your portrait taken by the great Ada Borland!’

  Ruby didn’t feel so lucky – she was never too thrilled about smiling for the camera. It was usually a very boring activity. But what she said was, ‘Super.’

  ‘You had lady luck on your side,’ said Brant.

  ‘Well,’ said Sabina, ‘I cut the odds a little. I did purchase a hundred and twenty-two tickets.’

  The Redforts, carried by the tide, spilled out onto the street with most of the other theatre-goers. Brant glanced up at the old building. ‘Looking at it, you can’t help kind of believing this old place might just be haunted.’ He winked at Barbara Bartholomew. ‘Kind of exciting isn’t it Barb.’

  Barbara gave an involuntary shiver. ‘Gives me the creeps,’ she said.

  Ruby said nothing the whole journey home. Her brain was trying to make connections and bring a little logic into the evening’s events. She listened to her parents’ conversation but they spoke of nothing more interesting than their appreciation of the canapés and concern that the valet parking was understaffed – they seemed to have forgotten about the Little Yellow Shoes already.

  Ruby took a juice from the refrigerator, bid her parents goodnight and climbed the stairs to her room.

  OK, so Red Monroe was about as gullible as they came and no one was more accident-prone, but it was weird that Red, the security guards and the model had all experienced something so similar; had all sensed a presence that they just couldn’t explain. Ruby might have been tempted to write this off: imaginations stirred by the theatre’s rumoured hauntings; the spooky sensations conjured by the noises and draughts of an old building. People could be pretty suggestible and once one person described a strange experience, often others would follow suit. Ruby had read all about it in Dr Stephanie Randleman’s book, I Think I Saw That Too.

  On the other hand, it was important not to dismiss a possibility just because it sounded like the far-fetched ramblings of a gaggle of highly suggestible folk. Was it possible that the rumours about the Scarlet Pagoda had some substance after all? Ruby remembered back to the case she had worked on involving the Sea Whisperer. In that instance, the people who had claimed they had heard a whispering sound coming from the ocean had not imagined it – it was absolutely true.

  She too had heard it, and even seen the creature the sound came from, but ghosts? Ghosts were a stretch – Ruby would need a lot more evidence before she concluded that something from the spirit world was responsible for stealing a pair of size 3s.

  She took out her key-chain

  and set about turning the

  five different keys. . .

  . . .in the five different locks. She pushed open the heavy door, stepped inside and closed it behind her.

  Someone was there.

  She knew instantly that it was him: she could smell the polish on his Italian leather shoes. He was in the apartment.

  She walked slowly along the corridor, her stiletto heels sharp on the marble floor. The door to her study was open and she could make out a shadowed figure sitting in the armchair in front of the window.

  ‘A long day at work?’ he asked.

  ‘You could say that,’ she replied. Her voice betrayed no fear, yet she was afraid.

  ‘By the way,’ he said, ‘red hair suits you. Does your accent match your new look?’

  ‘I didn’t want anyone to recognise me so I opted for another face.’

  ‘It’s very arresting and an interesti
ng choice,’ he said. ‘People will think that they’ve seen a ghost.’ He paused. ‘But enough chitchat. I trust everything is proceeding as it should?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ she replied.

  He smiled. ‘Oh dear, uncertainty is a terrible drain on one, isn’t it?’

  She said nothing.

  ‘Not knowing can make one horribly paranoid.’ He looked at her, his black eyes seeming to fathom her soul. ‘Best to fix the situation before sleepless nights set in. You don’t want to find yourself dead on your feet.’

  She knew what he was saying and she had no intention of finding herself dead on her feet or dead from a nasty fall for that matter. She would find the traitor and she would make him an offer. Life or death. There was no in between.

  Chapter 11.

  FOR THE SECOND MORNING IN A ROW Ruby was woken by the sound of ringing. This time it was the phone and this time it was a good deal earlier than 11 am. Ruby checked her alarm clock but the numerals were fuzzy. She sat up and fumbled for her glasses. 7 am, brother!

  ‘This better be important buster,’ said Ruby into the receiver.

  ‘Sorta,’ said the voice.

  RUBY: ‘Oh, hi Red, I thought it was Clance.’

  RED: ‘It was in the paper. It means I wasn’t imagining it.

  RUBY: ‘What was in the paper? Imagining what?’

  RED: ‘The ghost.’

  RUBY: ‘What?’

  RED: ‘They confirmed it had to have been a ghost who took them.’

  RUBY: ‘Took what?’

  RED: ‘The Little Yellow Shoes – that’s what were stolen last night.’

  RUBY: ‘I already figured it had to be the shoes but how do you propose a ghost carries a pair of shoes?’

  RED: ‘It has arms, doesn’t it?’

  RUBY: ‘Ghosts can’t pick up solid items.’

  RED: ‘Well that’s not what the Twinford Echo is saying.’

  RUBY: ‘Hang on a sec Red.’ She replaced the receiver, hurriedly pulled on a pair of jeans that were sprawled next to the bed; found a cleanish T-shirt and moved to the bathroom. Plucking up the soap-shaped phone, she grabbed her toothbrush at the same time.