by Jack Lewis
It was the same mannequin. Its face was a fleshy pink colour, and a moustache and glasses had been drawn on it in permanent marker. As much as she was relived, she also felt stupid. How was she letting this get to her?
The floorboards creaked behind her, as if more weight had been put on them. She dropped the sheet and turned around.
“I’m going to bed, Mum,” said Ruby, standing in the doorway.
“Yeah. Me too. Let’s get you tucked in.”
She put her hand on Ruby’s shoulder and they walked down the hall. As she passed her room, she heard Trev snort in his sleep. They went into Ruby’s room. Her daughter scampered into bed.
“Can Glanville come in the house soon?” said Ruby.
In Jonathan’s absence, Trev had been taking care of the dogs. He’d found a buyer for most of them, he said, but it was harder to find somewhere for the adult dogs.
“In a day or two,” said Scarlett. “He needs to be near his mum right now.”
“Like me?”
She laughed. “Yeah, I guess. A little bit. I’m going to bed. I feel like a sack of-” she paused, stopping herself before she said a word that wasn’t fit for her daughter’s ears.
As she went to leave the room, she felt a sharp pain in her foot. She lifted it, and a marble rolled along the floor.
“Damn it,” she said, unable to stop herself this time. “You need to start putting these away, Rubes.”
She knew she better clear them up before anyone else got hurt. She kicked the marble near her foot toward the rest of them, where it rolled to a stop. She reached above Ruby’s bed and then flicked the switch, filling the room with a pale-yellow light.
Hang on. The light hadn’t been working a few minutes ago.
It was all wrong. With the yellow glow filling the room, she saw that it was all wrong.
“Mum? What’s going on?”
She couldn’t process the question. All she could do was stare at the walls, turning in a slow arc to take all of it in.
The walls of Ruby’s room were covered in witch marks. Circles within circles, drawn in black soot all over the walls. There were so many that it would have been impossible to count them. They covered each wall.
Looking around the room, Scarlett realised that they were darker and larger on the wall where Ruby’s head would be when she slept.
Chapter Twenty-One
She showed Trev the marks on the walls. After that, their decision was made. Ruby was going to sleep with them, from now on. Scarlett spent thirty minutes with a bucket of water and a rag, and she scrubbed the witch marks off the wall.
Most of them came off with a single swipe of the cloth, since they had been drawn on with charcoal or soot. The ones near Ruby’s pillow, however, had been scratched into the wall. Although she cleaned away the soot, the marks would never leave.
With that done, she locked the room. After that, she secured every other room upstairs but their bedroom.
“We tell each other if we ever unlock any of the rooms, yeah?” she said.
Trev nodded. Scarlett expected a sarcastic come back, but all he said was, “Will do.”
It seemed the sarcasm had been knocked out of him. He couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation for the marks. Even so, Scarlett got the impression that he still didn’t quite believe them. As if he thought that maybe Ruby or Scarlett had left them.
She felt better with the upstairs doors locked. Downstairs wasn’t much of a problem; apart from the dining and living rooms, they barely spent any time down there.
After breakfast, Trev stood up and grabbed Scarlett’s hand. “Come on,” he said.
“Let me finish my toast,” she said, cramming in the last mouthful.
“Come on. This’ll take your mind off things,” he said.
He led her out into the lobby. Ruby came scampering behind them. She’d always been a curious kid, and it was rare that Scarlett or Trev could do something without their daughter wanting to know what was going on.
When they reached the centre of the lobby, Trev let go of her hand. He smiled. “What do you think?” he said.
“About what?”
“About my work! Come on, look.”
She glanced around the lobby. The panelling on the upper part of the east wall was gone. Trev had removed it completely, but she guessed that it was beyond his expertise to replace it. The sheet still hung over the gap where the dining room door had been. Other than that, what was there to say? What had he done?
He sighed. “Guess I’m going to have to point everything out to you. See the second step on the staircase? I replaced the tread. And I switched the top hinge on the front door as well. It was a few pushes away from snapping.”
“It’s…great. Good work,” she said. In her head, all she could think was ‘Is this what you’ve spent hours on?’
She looked around. She knew it had taken him a while to strip the broken wood panels and take them outside. She’d seen him coming back and forth from the house with broken tables and other junk. But other than that, what had he done with his time? There had to be more.
Looking around, she realised that there was something. Just beyond the staircase, in a narrow hall that was left to the kitchen, part of the wall was missing.
“And I fixed some of the skirting board in the living room,” Trev carried on.
Scarlett walked away from him and toward the hall.
“There’s nothing over there,” said Trev.
“No?” she said, reaching the hole in the wall. It was two feet wide, and it looked like it had been done with a hammer. “What’s this, then?”
Trev scratched his head. “That…uh…was an accident.”
Ruby scoffed. “Daddy!”
Scarlett shook her head. She couldn’t say too much about it, because she knew Trev was trying. Together, if they worked hard enough, they’d be able to get Gawthorpe ready for sale. She didn’t know what would come after that. In the back of her mind, the question about the mobile phone lurked, but she’d deal with that later.
Trev reached down and scooped up Ruby in his arms. “I’ve got a surprise for you,” he said.
“You’ve made a hole in the bathroom as well?” said Scarlett.
He laughed, then looked at Ruby. “Nope. Not yet, anyway. The surprise I have, my little goblin, is that your friend Glanville is coming into the house today.”
Ruby let out something between a scream and a squeal. “Glanville! Today?”
Trev laughed. Ruby’s smile was infectious. Despite everything, Scarlett couldn’t help grinning.
Trev and Ruby left the house and went off in the direction of the kennels. As the front door slammed shut behind them, Scarlett stood in the empty hallway.
The lobby had always seemed much bigger when she was a kid, as though the roof was miles away and the stairs stretched out endlessly. It was so big, now. That was how things changed when you grew older, she guessed.
She walked over and sat on the bottom step. Had she ever been alone in the house before? Not just in a room, but truly alone, with no family or staff members around?
For a second, she wished they hadn’t let the staff look for jobs during their notice period. It would have been good to have them around, to hear pans clanging in the kitchen, chairs scraping back as the maids moved them.
The room started to turn cold around her. She felt the windows darken, as though the sun was drowning in the middle of a cloud. She shivered. Something was wrong.
She felt a presence near her, as though something was creeping down the stairs behind her.
She stood up and turned around. There was nothing there save the worn treads of the staircase.
She was being stupid.
She turned to face the lobby again. She felt her throat close when she saw that a black mist had started to fill the room.
Her first thought was that there was a fire and the room was filling with smoke, but there was only an oval-shaped block of it. It was a thick fog, an
d it seemed to be coming toward her. She rubbed her eyes, no longer trusting her vision.
She was going mad. Carbon monoxide. Lack of sleep. A buried mental illness beginning to surface. Take your pick.
She backed away. She couldn’t help but think that this was real. Despite the daylight pressing on the windows, the house seemed dark. And she smelled it now. It didn’t stink of fire, but meat. As stupid as it seemed, that was the aroma it gave. Meat that had been left out of the refrigerator too long and had been allowed to turn.
Before she could react, the mist drifted her way. She had just enough time to lift her hands, when it hit her in the face. Black tendrils crept into her mouth and slivered up her nostrils until she gagged.
She heard whispers in her ear. Light strained into her vision, but there was too much of it. It seemed like it would never clear. When it did, she couldn’t believe what she saw.
The room had changed around her. It was still the lobby, but different. Trev lay at the bottom of the stairs in a twisted bone heap, his legs snapped, neck bent, blood trickling from his mouth. His eyes were frozen in a look of terror.
She couldn’t breathe. It was as though a hand covered her mouth, but nobody was in front of her. She shook her head. She coughed and spluttered, trying to force the mist out of her. She ran up the stairs, stumbling when she reached the top. She stuck her fingers in her throat and pushed until she vomited.
She had to go. Run.
As she reached onto the floor, she felt the room change again, but her eyes watered, and she didn’t dare turn to look. The front door slammed, and she heard footsteps.
“Scarlett?”
She was at the top of the stairs now, on her knees. She thought she had been sick, but there was nothing in front of her. She turned her head and saw Trev and Ruby were at the bottom of the stairs. Ruby had Glanville in her arms, while Trev held a small metal crate against his chest.
She straightened up. She wanted to explain why she was on her knees, but couldn’t think of an excuse. Looking for a contact lens would have been perfect, except there was nothing wrong with her eyesight.
“Let’s just go,” she said.
“What?”
“Let’s leave. Today.”
He set the crate on the floor. “Come down so we can talk.”
She walked down the stairs. Her legs felt unsteady, so she grabbed the bannister. Ruby was looking at her strangely. She didn’t want her daughter to worry, so she tried to smile.
“You look like crap,” said Trev.
Glanville wriggled from Ruby’s grasp. He padded along the floor and to the staircase. When Scarlett reached the bottom, the puppy jumped up and begged for attention.
She kneeled to pat him. As she did, she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. It was the sheet that covered the dining-room door. She was sure it had rippled.
What was this? Another vision? What was real anymore?
More movement in the corner of her eye. It was the fabric where the door should have been. The edges curled up, like a woman lifting her dress. It was displaying something to her, forcing her to look.
She didn’t want to turn her head but knew she had to. At the back of her mind, still there, was her mantra. Be strong for Ruby. Don’t be a coward, Scarlett, be strong. Face it.
She turned to look at it. She immediately wished she hadn’t.
Feet were poking out from the bottom, where the sheet didn’t quite reach the floor. She saw two old, battered shoes, with thin legs stretching up from them. The sheet covered everything else from the shins up.
“Scarlett?” said Trev.
She had to get a hold of herself. Thoughts shot through her mind, but chief among them was that they had to go.
“What do you mean, we need to leave?”
The feet moved. She saw how grey the skin was. Completely drained of blood. Twitching. She wrenched her attention free of it. There couldn’t be anyone in the dining room. Certainly not someone hovering off the floor.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Just that we should leave.”
“And go where?”
“Anywhere.”
Trev seemed annoyed now. “Back to our car? Living wherever we can park? That’s no life for a kid.”
Ruby looked up at the mention of her name. She picked up Glanville.
“I’m worried about her,” said Trev.
This felt wrong. They never talked about their problems in front of their daughter. Scarlett didn’t want to worry Ruby, but she couldn’t help it. A feeling of dread engulfed her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the feet under the sheet start to turn. It was as if they were rotating on an axis. Scarlett didn’t want to look at them. Looking at them would make them seem real.
Was she losing it?
The feet turned fully now, so that they pointed away from Scarlett and toward the dining room. In a sudden movement, they jerked up, so that they dangled two inches above the floor. She heard a choking sound, like someone desperate for breath. It was horrible to listen to. It was even worse to see the feet, inches above the floor, as they kicked and jerked.
Her chest tightened. She stood up. Trev said something, but she tuned him out. She knew what she was looking at. Someone was being hanged in the dining room. As ludicrous as it sounded, it could be nothing else.
As her whole body shook, she crossed the lobby and to the dining room. She gripped the sheet.
You’re going crazy, she told herself.
She steeled her nerves, held the sheet, and then pulled. The nails sprang out from the wall, and the fabric fell to the floor.
There was nothing there.
Despite what she’d seen, she knew there wouldn’t be. She just couldn’t understand. The carbon monoxide detectors hadn’t gone off, so that ruled out one rational explanation.
She dug deep into her brain and tried to think of more. Something logical to clarify it all. Was she tired? Had she eaten something bad?
She turned to face Trev. “I want to go. Just for a day or two. I need a break from this place.”
“I’m worried about you.”
They said nothing for a while. They just looked at each other. Finally, Trev forced a smile at Ruby.
“Go and play with Glanville outside for a while. But stay where we can see you.”
When Ruby left by the front door, Trev and Scarlett were alone in the lobby. She felt uneasy, but the girl stayed within view of the front door. Trev walked over to her and touched her shoulder, but she flinched.
“The puppy needs a new name,” Scarlett said. “And I want to leave.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Just trust me, Trev. Okay? You left with me once when I needed you to, and I’m asking it again. Just one more time. No questions, no discussion, just have my back.”
He thought about it. Finally, he nodded. “Okay. If it’ll snap you out of whatever this is. But not today. We need money. Just give me a day or two, okay?”
She knew he was right. They couldn’t just get in the car and go. They barely had enough money for food, let alone petrol, and she wouldn’t put Ruby through it again. She’d just have to keep it together for another couple of days.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Later that afternoon, she and Ruby were in the lobby playing fetch with Glanville. Ruby tossed her tennis ball along the floor, and the dog bounded after it, mouth open, before snapping its jaws around it. Glanville grunted as he trotted along with the ball in his mouth and waited for Ruby to try and grab it from him.
Everything’s a game to you, thought Scarlett. Still, she needed the diversion.
Trev had gone out into the village. With Scarlett’s permission, he’d taken some of the antiques that she had boxed away. Hopefully, he’d get enough in the village pawnshop for them to live on for a while.
The most important thing was that she kept herself together for their daughter. If she needed help, counselling, or just sleep, she’d get it, but she would stay
strong for Ruby.
Ruby had been through more than most kids her age, and Scarlett worried that their constant upheaval would have a detrimental effect on her. She decided that if they were only staying in Gawthorpe for another couple of days, she’d paint a smile on her face and make sure Ruby was happy. The last thing she needed was the guilt of making her sad.
As Glanville jumped up at her, Ruby looked at Scarlett. “Can we play Catch a Thief?” she asked.
