The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker

by Lauren James

  “That’s your fox, isn’t it?” Qi crouched down to the spirit. Cody sniffed her hand politely, then stared at Harriet, perplexed.

  “I’m not sure,” Harriet said weakly. Her feet were changing back. She was losing Rima, bit by bit. “We’d better hurry, before Harriet manages to escape.”

  When she took a step past Cody, the fox growled, deep in her throat. She raised her hackles.

  Surprised, Qi said, “Rima, I’ve never heard her make that noise before! Do you think she’s ill?”

  Harriet laughed. “Oh, it’s just a game we play. Come on!” The transformation was creeping up her calves now. She was gaining height as her legs grew longer, pyjama bottoms rising up her calves. She straddled two steps to try and hide the height difference. As soon as the change reached her chest, she was done for. Harriet’s body was a completely different shape to Rima’s. There was no way that Qi wouldn’t notice.

  She tried to move past Cody, but the fox snapped at her, fast and quick. Harriet jumped back, pressing herself against the wall.

  “Oh!” Qi said. “That doesn’t seem like a very fun game!”

  She was going to work it out any second. Harriet grabbed her elbow, guiding her past the snarling fox and down the last few steps to the basement door.

  Harriet hesitated, unsure if she could actually do this. Then she caught sight of Norma, watching from the shadows. She mimed a pushing motion at Harriet, a fierce look on her face. Harriet’s hesitation disappeared.

  Qi was still looking back over her shoulder at Cody. “Are you—?”

  Harriet shoved her through the basement door. There was a flash of light as she passed through the barrier, and Qi made a small, frightened whimper. That was all it took for Harriet to realize that it was a step too far. How could she possibly have been considering sacrificing Qi too? She had to pull her out again.

  Harriet reached through the door, but it was too late. The Tricksters were dragging Qi into the depths of the basement. She screamed, writhing to get free.

  Harriet backed away, filled with horror, and bumped into Norma.

  “Good girl! You’ve done so well for your granny!” Norma hugged Harriet to her chest, ignoring her stiff and unyielding reaction. “We’ll be safe now. You’ve done the right thing!”

  This was a mistake. This was all a huge mistake.

  FELIX

  Kasper was staring at him with some new and determined expression, fingers looped around his wrists. He wasn’t speaking.

  “Is everything OK?” Felix asked, wondering if he should go and fetch Rima.

  “Felix.” Kasper said Felix’s name like it was a sacred word, savouring it on his tongue.

  “What are you – what is—?” Felix said, but before he could make it to the end of a sentence, Kasper kissed him.

  Felix let out a tiny, soft noise, and sunk into him, fingers clenching and unclenching against the muscle of his shoulders.

  “Is this really happening?” Felix laughed.

  “I think I’m finally ready. For this. For us.” Kasper kissed him again. Everything had changed about Kasper. He moved and spoke differently now. He was more alert and confident.

  “You’re really ready?” Felix breathed out.

  Kasper touched the side of his neck, rubbed his thumb over Felix’s eyebrow. “I am.”

  Felix closed his eyes, and let Kasper kiss him. Something had made him brave enough to finally look back at Felix, to take the risk of trying this. He must be really convinced that Harriet was about to destroy them, if he was taking this leap now, of all times. After so many years of pining, he finally had Kasper all to himself. However much torment and pain Harriet had put them through, at least something was finally going right.

  HARRIET

  Harriet stared at Norma. “I don’t understand any of this. Why are you making me do these horrible things? Even now, after we’re both dead?”

  Norma repeated, “I want what’s best for you.”

  “No, you don’t. You never have! You just made me condemn someone to death, Gran!”

  Norma folded her arms, gaze fixed distractedly on the basement door behind Harriet. She looked completely unconcerned.

  A hundred little things twisted in Harriet’s memory, becoming knives instead of needles. Her whole life, her gran had been trying to control and hurt her.

  Norma had never cared for her, not really. She didn’t love her like her parents had. Everything Norma did had a purpose. This was what she’d always been like, ever since Harriet was a child.

  The time she had forced eight-year-old Harriet to eat peas, which she hated – that hadn’t been because she’d cared about Harriet eating her vegetables. It had been because she liked seeing her cry into her plate.

  Refusing to take her to the doctor’s when she was sick.

  Feeding her foul, inedible food until her stomach hurt.

  Pinching and prodding her until she got her own way.

  How had she never noticed that those weren’t things done out of love? Her parents’ love had been simple and kind, not filled with booby traps and trick questions and poison disguised as nectar.

  If they hadn’t died, Harriet would only ever have seen Norma at Christmas. For the rest of the year, they would have been out of her reach in America. They’d been so close to getting away. It had been such terrible timing, that they’d died from food poisoning only weeks before leaving Norma behind for good.

  It was an odd coincidence, actually. Her parents had usually been so careful with cooking properly. But by chance, on one night at Norma’s house, they hadn’t paid proper attention and had eaten slightly raw meat. By chance, that piece of meat had been product-recalled after a salmonella contamination. By chance, they’d died from it.

  It was an awful lot of coincidences, to all happen in her grandmother’s house. Almost like they weren’t coincidences at all.

  Harriet stared at Norma, who was still watching the basement door.

  Had – could – what if Norma had been trying to make her mum and dad sick on purpose? She could have been desperate to stop them leaving, to keep them in England with her. One final act of control when nothing else had worked.

  Had she poisoned them?

  “You killed my parents, didn’t you,” Harriet said. It wasn’t really a question.

  KASPER

  “We should probably go and find the others,” Felix whispered eventually, resting his chin on Kasper’s shoulder. “We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

  He spoke the same way he always had, but now it made a shiver run up Kasper’s spine. “Do we have to? I’m not ready to go back to dealing with the Stoker Family Monsters just yet.”

  They were silent for a moment. Kasper noticed with satisfaction that they were breathing in sync.

  “Are you gay, do you think?” Felix asked, his face still buried in Kasper’s shoulder.

  That was the question Kasper had been dreading for years, but for the first time, it didn’t make him panic.

  “I think I’m bi.” Kasper had never said that out loud before.

  Everything about being bi had been scary to him. He’d been afraid that girls might not like him as much if they knew he wanted to kiss boys as well. He’d been too intimidated by LGBT culture to even start learning about it. He’d been sure that he would do something wrong and offend people, or say stupid things and become a laughing stock. He’d had no idea how to even try to be with a man, after only ever being with women.

  He could still see all those reasons to stay in the closet. They made sense to him. But somehow … they didn’t matter as much any more. Who cared if he embarrassed himself, and every other gay ghost in the building disowned him? So what if no girl ever wanted to date him again? It wouldn’t change anything. Inside, he would always feel like this. Being true to himself had to be more important than avoiding those worst-case-scenarios.

  He wanted to tell Felix all of that, but he didn’t have the words to explain. “It just felt like the right time to c
ome out.”

  “I’m really happy for you. I’m glad that you feel comfortable being who you really are. But – Kasper, there’s no pressure. There are other guys in the building, if you want to experiment. And you know you can come out without dating someone, right?” Felix’s face was still hidden against his shoulder, like he was avoiding eye contact.

  “Felix, I liked you even before I realized that I liked guys as a general concept. That part was a lot harder to accept, actually. If it had just been you, there would have been less pressure.”

  Felix finally pulled back, looking flattered. “Really?”

  “Really. I’m bi, but I’m also very much into you. Do you want to be with me? Or is this just an adrenaline thing? There’s a lot going on right now.”

  “I want to be with you,” Felix said, the words tumbling over each other as they left his mouth.

  “That’s settled, then.”

  For one peaceful minute, Felix let Kasper kiss him, and then he pulled away to ask, “Can we tell the others?”

  Kasper looked over his shoulder, where Rima was walking up behind them. “I think it would be hard not to.”

  She let out a squeal. “You guys! Are you – is this…?”

  Kasper couldn’t help the grin that broke out on his face. “It is.”

  Felix made a tiny, embarrassed noise.

  Rima gasped again. “I can’t believe this is finally happening. Felix! Oh my god! It only took you almost three decades of pining to get your man!”

  “Three decades?” Kasper said, surprised, just as Felix said, “Shut UP, Rima!”

  Rima’s eyes sparkled. “He’s been completely gone on you for the whole time I’ve known him. He used to stare at you in the dining hall while you ate your porridge.”

  “Since we were alive?” Kasper asked, stunned. He wasn’t sure he’d even known what emotions were for back in freshers’ week.

  “Since, like, freshers’ week.” Rima wasn’t about to let it go.

  Felix, mortified, made claws of his fingers, dragging them down his face. “Rima,” he moaned. “Rima, stop, no.”

  Kasper leant in and whispered in Felix’s ear, “I’m glad you waited for me.”

  Felix melted against him.

  “Are you two going to do this all day?” Leah called from Rima’s bedroom. “Because we’ve got a serial killer to deal with. We need to find Qi, so she can take Harriet down to the basement when we use the eyelid to subdue her. Do you, like, remember?” she added in a Valley-girl drawl.

  “If that was supposed to be an impression of me, it is not accurate. I will not respond to it!” Rima yelled back.

  “No rest for the wicked,” Felix said, ruefully.

  “Don’t let Harriet hear you say that,” Kasper said. “Come on. Let’s work out what terrible things we’re going to have to do next.”

  “What’s got into you lately, anyway? You’ve changed so much.”

  He kissed Felix’s shoulder. “I’m just happy.”

  Kasper wasn’t ever going to tell him about the fear thing, if he could help it.

  HARRIET

  “You killed my parents,” Harriet repeated, unable to believe it. Norma looked away from the basement door. “You mean you didn’t already know? I was sure that you’d guessed years ago. It seemed so obvious.” She sounded genuinely astonished.

  “You put something in their food. You’ve – I know you’ve tried to do it to me, too. All those times I passed out after eating your cooking. You used to say that my body just needed a long nap, that I must be coming down with something, that I had a sensitive stomach. You were trying to murder me.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic, Harriet. It was nothing bad, just some natural herbal remedies. I was teaching you a lesson. You’ve never known how to behave yourself. What happened with your parents was an accident – it got out of hand, that’s all. I’m not a murderer.”

  How had Harriet not seen this before? Had she really been so under her grandmother’s thumb that she hadn’t even recognized the abuse for what it was? Or did Harriet somehow, deep down, hate herself so much that she thought this was all she deserved?

  Why had she ever wanted to go back to this woman’s house?

  “An accident,” Harriet repeated. Her grandfather had died before she was even born. Hadn’t the circumstances been mysterious then, too? Some kind of problem with medication after surgery? What had he done to deserve that – threatened to leave as well?

  “It might have been an accident the first time,” she continued. “But you’ve been doing it to everyone, for years and years. What about your husband?”

  Norma shook her head. “You never listen. Just like your parents never listened. Like your grandfather. None of it would have needed to happen if you’d all just done as I told you.”

  “Mum – Dad – they—”

  “They knew,” she confirmed. “They tried to keep you as far away from me as possible. But they couldn’t keep their guard up all the time, I suppose. And then it was just me and you.”

  Harriet took one furious step towards her. “You sadist.”

  Harriet knew first-hand how easily power could turn into something worse. She’d inherited her dark desires from her grandmother, after all. Harriet had never known anything else. She had reflected that back on Rima and the others, because that’s what she had always been taught.

  Norma grabbed her chin. Her voice was hard, unamused. “Where did you think you got it from? Did you really think that you were an original?”

  Harriet could let this go. It would be easier to forget about it, to keep the peace and save her last remaining family bond. But she was going to spend eternity being tortured by this woman.

  Harriet spat in her eye.

  Norma froze, and then carefully wiped it away. She pinched Harriet’s cheek with a sharp finger and thumb. “Don’t pretend any of this comes as a surprise, young lady.”

  Harriet gasped. It wasn’t just a pinch this time. Now, Norma was pulling the energy out of her. She was leaching it through her fingertips.

  “No—” Harriet tried to tear away, but she couldn’t make herself move. Even now that she knew the truth, Harriet was the same person who’d spent her whole life trying desperately, hopelessly, to please her granny. She still loved her.

  How did her gran even know how to do this? She’d only died a few hours before, and now she was stealing energy? None of this could really be happening.

  “I hate you,” Harriet said through clenched teeth. “My parents hated you, and so did your husband. We were all willing to die to get away from you. Nothing you do will keep me here with you. I’d rather walk outside and disintegrate right now than spend eternity with you, I swear on it.”

  Norma’s eyes blazed with rage. She went completely still, and then lunged forward and bit into Harriet’s neck.

  The pain spurred Harriet into action. She wrestled her, breaking free and sprinting for the stairs. But Norma had the energy of a fresh young ghost, not an elderly woman. Before Harriet could make it across the foyer, Norma leapt on her back and pinned her to the ground.

  She squirmed, pushing a dizzying kaleidoscope of emotions into Norma – pain, anger, sadness, lust, grief, one after the other. Norma just gritted her teeth, and bent Harriet’s head backwards. A bone at the top of her spine snapped.

  “Give it to me,” she crooned. “That’s a good girl. You’ve collected so much energy for me, haven’t you? Now let it all go.”

  Norma started glowing as all of Harriet’s hard-won energy left her. Her gran had clearly decided that she was useless, so she was taking everything she could from her weak, pathetic excuse for a granddaughter. Part of Harriet wanted to let her, so that this would all be over.

  Something vital tore free then, leaving an aching hole behind. Norma had taken one of her powers. It hurt so much; raw and aching, deep in her soul. Was this what the Shells had felt, each time she had taken their powers? Once again, Harriet was freshly horrified by all the t
hings she’d done under the energy’s influence.

  Norma sucked up Harriet’s energy. It was too much for her body to hold, and the power shot straight out of Norma’s hands, tearing her skin to shreds and cracking the delicate bones of her wrists and fingers.

  Pain scraped at Harriet’s bones until she felt weak and dizzy. There was no way Norma could be doing all of this on instinct. From the moment she had died, she had been calm and collected and ready for anything. There was something bigger going on here.

  Norma let go of Harriet when she’d emptied her out. Harriet fell limp, too weak to move. Her neck must have broken, because her head hung to the side, and didn’t respond when she tried to look at Norma.

  Dry-heaving, she searched for any power inside her. But there was nothing. Her invisibility, emotional manipulation and shapeshifting were all gone. But she had stopped before Harriet disintegrated completely. Why hadn’t she killed her?

  “Thank you,” Norma said, smoke pouring from her mouth.

  Harriet tried to hold her head upright on her broken neck, watching as Norma inspected her fingers, which were charred black with burnt energy. She was incandescent with energy, burning up from the inside out.

  She walked away from Harriet, staggering like she was drunk. Without looking back at her granddaughter, Norma turned herself invisible using the now twice-stolen power.

  As she melted into the depths of Mulcture Hall, Harriet let her head fall slack and slipped into sleep.

  Would you like to see what’s happening down in the basement, while Harriet and Norma talk, and Kasper and Felix kiss away their pain?

  Qi is suffering.

  As soon as she entered the basement, Vini bit off her head. Rufus tore away her limbs, each one jerking with involuntary movements of pain. He wasn’t even trying to eat her, just dismantling her so that she couldn’t fight back. Qi managed to shoot off just a single burst of lightning, misfired and useless. Vini picked up an arm, sucking it down in one gulp.

  They consumed every part of Qi in only a few minutes. When Vini swallowed her last little toe, the lightning barrier on the basement door glowed, then faded into nothing.