by Lauren Algeo
‘Is it ok if he comes too?’
Ellen nodded. She was too drained to put up a fight. He waved Mitch over and followed her into the house. Mitch sprinted up behind him within seconds and closed the door.
The house had a musty smell, as though there was something rotting somewhere inside. Ellen led them through the doorway on the left into the living room and stood awkwardly in the semi-darkness. She didn’t seem to register that the curtains were closed and there were no lights on.
Brewer silently flipped the switch by the door and weak light flooded the room. He saw that two of the three bulbs in the ceiling light fixture were out. The room had a homely feel, despite the odour. There were two large, leather sofas in a cream shade, sitting on plush navy carpet and surrounded by dark oak furniture. The fireplace was the main feature on the left hand wall, with a TV on a stand to the left of it. Brewer clocked a framed photo of Lucy on the mantelpiece and quickly looked away before Ellen noticed him staring at it.
She made no move to offer them a seat or a drink. Brewer perched on the edge of the nearest sofa and cleared his throat. Mitch leant against the arm beside him. Ellen stayed standing where she was.
‘I’m very sorry for your loss,’ Brewer said. He knew the words would have no comfort for her but thought he ought to say them anyway. ‘Would you be able to tell us about that day on the trail?’
‘I don’t want to,’ came the whispered reply.
‘Please. We need to hear exactly what happened from you.’
Thankfully Mitch was keeping quiet during this sensitive exchange.
‘It’s too hard.’ Fresh tears began to stream down Ellen’s cheeks.
Brewer stood up and walked across to her. He put his hands on her arms and looked down into her eyes. ‘I know how difficult this is; believe me. I’ve lost people I loved too. If you tell us, we might be able to answer some of the questions you have, and maybe give you a little bit of peace.’
Ellen seemed to find something she could relate to in his gaze as she nodded slowly and let herself be led across to the sofa. Her body crumpled onto the cushion and she wiped her eyes. She tucked her knees up to her chest in a surprisingly child-like pose.
‘I’ve lived in West Rock for over ten years,’ Ellen began. ‘We moved here when Lucy was young. A fresh start after her father… left. We’ve walked that trail dozens of times before.’
Brewer settled on the second sofa and Mitch stayed on the arm, staring solemnly at Ellen.
‘Lucy had been having a rough time at school for the past couple of months. She went to Hamden high school, not far from here. Some other girls were picking on her… I don’t know why… I thought it had stopped.’ She looked down sadly. ‘She told me it had. She was so much quieter than she used to be, less bubbly. I palmed it off as teenage angst but it must have been those girls. The day we went to the trail she was acting strangely. She said she was feeling ill so I let her stay home from school, and then an hour later she said she was much better but she didn’t look it, she was very pale. She was short with me, and a few times I heard her muttering to herself. She spent most of the morning in her room. In the afternoon, she asked me if I would go for a walk with her at the ridge. I said no at first but she was very… persuasive.’
Ellen shrugged. ‘I thought the fresh air might do her good. She hadn’t wanted to spend much time with me, so I selfishly agreed for some mother and daughter bonding. I should have realised something was seriously wrong…’ Her voice trailed off.
‘You couldn’t have known,’ Brewer said.
Ellen carried on speaking as if she hadn’t heard him. ‘Lucy suggested the Regicides trail so I drove us over there. It was early afternoon so we had plenty of time. I’d packed some bottles of water and snacks, and thought we could sit and admire the views at some of the high points along the hike and talk.’ She gave a bitter laugh and fell quiet.
Brewer and Mitch waited silently for her to continue. He caught Mitch’s eye and the kid gave a sombre shake of his head. This was heavy stuff.
‘Lucy seemed tense the whole way there. I figured once we were out on the walk she’d loosen up and relax, but she never did. It was a couple of miles along the trail when I heard him for the first time.’
Brewer leaned forward eagerly.
‘It was so faint, just a murmur really. All he said was my name. I’d looked around, thinking someone we knew was on the hike too only there was no one there. I asked Lucy if she’d heard it as well but she didn’t answer. She just stared at me with wide eyes that seemed so much darker in the shadows of the trees, then she carried on walking. We reached the highest point and Lucy stopped. She told me that we were there. That’s what she said: “we’re here”. I assumed she meant where we could stop for a break, although when she turned to face me she was crying. Then I heard him again. It was so much clearer the second time. He told me to look at my daughter and see how unhappy she was. I could hear him in here,’ Ellen tapped the side of her head. ‘But there was no one up there with us. We were completely alone.’
She took a moment to gather herself. Brewer could see her whole body trembling and wished he could take away some of her pain.
‘The man laughed at me. A horrible, cruel sound.’ Her voice was heavy with emotion. ‘He asked how it was possible that I hadn’t noticed how much Lucy was suffering at school. That the bullying had gotten worse. I couldn’t seem to move while he was talking, like my whole body was frozen to the spot. I tried to go to Lucy only my legs wouldn’t obey. The man told me that he wanted me to see what was about to happen. That I should know it was my fault…’ Tears began to flow from the corners of her eyes again.
‘Lucy didn’t say anything the whole time. She stood in front of the ridge and watched me. Her face looked cold and hard, not like my Lucy at all. There was only one moment when she did. For just a second before it happened her expression softened and she looked like she was about to speak, but didn’t. She took half a step towards me then her body went rigid again and the darkness returned. She didn’t say a single word. She just turned and marched straight to the edge of the ridge. I screamed at her to stop but I was paralysed. I couldn’t help her! She lifted her arms out to the sides, as though she could fly, then she just stepped off. She was gone.’ Ellen’s voice hitched. ‘It was over so quickly. There was no scream as she went down, only the one coming from me. I tried as hard as I could and managed to get closer to the ledge. It’s all a bit of a blur. I could hear the man faintly in my mind, he was telling me to join Lucy, only I wasn’t listening. I screamed and screamed then I think I blacked out as it was suddenly quiet and I was lying on the floor. Someone else on the trail had heard me shouting and found me. He tried to help but he was too late. I guess that’s it.’
Her shoulders heaved forwards and the sobs she’d been holding back erupted from her throat. Brewer rushed to her side and put an arm around her shoulders. It was the only thing he could do to try and comfort her. Mitch fled from the room and Brewer wondered if it was all too much for him.
‘It’s ok,’ he repeated over and over to Ellen, even though he knew for her it would never be ok again.
Mitch came back a minute later with a glass of water and a box of tissues. He put them on the small coffee table in front of the sofa and Brewer gave him a grateful nod. It took Ellen nearly ten minutes to calm down enough to speak again. Her eyes were puffy and raw from crying and she blew her nose several times. She drained half the glass of water then looked at each of them in turn.
‘You said you would be able to answer my questions?’ She spoke directly to Brewer. ‘I want to know what the hell really happened to my daughter? I know she would never ever have taken her own life.’
‘No, you’re right. She probably wouldn’t have under normal circumstances,’ Brewer said. ‘I… we, believe she was under the influence of a hiker.’
‘A what?’
‘A hiker.’ Brewer gave her a quick overview of his experience with them and Mitch d
idn’t butt in for a change.
‘They get a sick pleasure in killing others and making people take their own lives,’ he concluded. ‘That’s why we believe one was involved in Lucy’s death. The male voice you heard in your head. It was probably a hiker who was being over ambitious and trying to kill both of you, but it didn’t factor in your reaction to Lucy going over that edge, and you were strong enough to push it from your mind.’
Ellen had been toying with a tissue and listening quietly. Now she raised her eyes to meet Brewer’s. ‘So you’re saying this thing killed my daughter? That Lucy was murdered?’ The last word came out as barely more than a whisper.
‘I knew it,’ she said louder. ‘I knew there was something more to this.’
Bizarrely to Brewer, she didn’t seem too concerned that he had just told her there were people in the world who could read your mind and make you act against your will. That they were stronger than any normal human and possessed amazing regenerative abilities. She’d just focussed on the one part that mattered most to her – Lucy had not willingly killed herself.
‘Yes, I believe Lucy was murdered,’ he nodded.
Ellen stood up and several crumpled tissues dropped to the carpet from her lap. ‘Right. What are we going to do about it?’ Her voice was much steadier now. ‘Should I call the police? Can they catch this thing?’
‘Hold on.’ Brewer stood up and tried to usher her back to the sofa. ‘You might want to sit down for a minute.’
‘He’s not finished yet,’ Mitch added.
Ellen frowned in confusion and reluctantly sunk back on to the sofa. ‘The police don’t know about them, do they?’
‘No,’ Brewer admitted. ‘When I tried to tell people back in London they didn’t take me seriously. You have to admit, it all sounds crazy. It doesn’t help that other people can’t hear them either so they won’t believe you. You can only hear them once you’ve had one inside your head. There’s no way to track them otherwise. That’s why I was laughed at when I tried to get help. Would you believe in something like that if you hadn’t experienced it first hand?’
‘I guess not.’ Ellen still didn’t look convinced.
‘I can’t hear them,’ Mitch piped up. ‘I haven’t had one in my mind but one of my friend’s did and he was killed by it. That’s when I started really paying attention to the news and all the strange things going on. I put some of my theories online, and most of them got passed off as psycho, but that’s where Scott found me. Since he got here, I’ve seen what a hiker is capable of close up.’ He shuddered at the mental image of the girl in the sauna.
‘The police thought I was crazy,’ Ellen sighed. ‘When I gave my first statement, I told them about the voice – that a man had been there too. They palmed me off as hysterical, which I was I guess, and gave me a sedative. When I came too and spoke to them again I changed my story.’ She looked down, ashamed. ‘I didn’t want anyone thinking my Lucy had done that to herself, so I lied. I told them she’d been looking over the edge and lost her footing. That it was an accident. No one asked me about the voice again. There was only a little mention of it by one of the reporters but it got swallowed up by the rest of the story.’
‘Not quite,’ Brewer said. ‘That report is the thing that brought us to you. Mitch found it when we were searching for strange deaths. Now we know for sure that it was a hiker.’
‘What are you going to do now?’ Ellen asked, her voice becoming shrill. ‘Are you going to track it down and kill it?’
‘We’re going to hunt one down and try out a new method of killing it,’ Brewer replied. ‘If we can find your hiker, then yes, but it may be long gone by now.’
Ellen nodded and picked at the hem of her t-shirt. When she glanced up again, her face was set in determination. ‘I’m coming with you.’
‘Hang on a min…’ Brewer started.
‘No. No arguments.’ Her voice was forceful. ‘I’m not going to be mollycoddled or talked out of this. You said yourself that once a hiker has been in your mind then you can hear others. That means I can now hear them too and I know exactly what this one sounds like. His voice haunts me every single night, as I lay awake in this empty house. That thing murdered my beautiful daughter. I’m going to be the one who hunts it down and kills it. Got it?’
Brewer and Mitch nodded meekly.
‘Good. Now, tell me absolutely everything.’
Chapter 9
‘I’m afraid I haven’t been to the shops for a while,’ Ellen apologised.
She searched in several cupboards before opening the freezer and rooting around inside. ‘It’ll have to be frozen pizzas, if that’s ok?’
‘It’s fine.’ Brewer leant against the kitchen counter and found himself staring at the side of her face.
Since insisting she was going to be coming with them, something had switched in Ellen. She was calm and composed, and there was a steely strength in her eyes that Brewer couldn’t help but admire. She had a new purpose. She wanted to avenge her daughter’s cruel death and he wasn’t going to stand in her way.
She’d asked them dozens of questions about hikers, taking everything on board, before announcing that she was starving and they should fuel up for the trip ahead. Mitch had stretched out on the sofa for a quick nap while they had retreated to the kitchen to find some food.
Ellen turned on the oven and removed two frozen, pepperoni pizzas from their boxes.
‘Would you like a drink?’ she asked.
‘Just water would be great, thanks.’ He wasn’t sure if she’d have anything else.
She filled him a glass from the tap and drained another one herself. ‘I’m going to have a quick shower. Will you be ok to keep an eye on the pizzas?’
‘Sure,’ Brewer nodded.
She left the kitchen and he heard her go up the stairs. He sipped his water and listened to her move around in the room above him. The last thing he’d expected when they arrived was to have another person join their twisted mission. Mitch, Ellen and him – they really were an odd, mismatched group.
Still, it wouldn’t be for long and if he was honest with himself, he was glad of the company. There might not be safety in numbers against hikers but at least he had other people to focus his attention on, rather than becoming paralysed with fear that the Grand was still out there somewhere.
Brewer checked the oven then sat down at the breakfast bar. The house was messy but he could imagine how nice and cosy it had been a few months ago. He found himself looking for any male presence. There had been none in the living room and Ellen hadn’t really said what had happened to Lucy’s father. Did ‘left’ mean he was gone for good? Maybe it had just been the two of them that lived here.
Ellen came downstairs twenty minutes later, just as Brewer was putting the piping hot pizzas on to two large plates.
‘Perfect timing,’ she smiled.
He smiled awkwardly back, aware of an odd stirring in his stomach at the sight of her. She’d washed her hair and it hung, slightly damp, on her shoulders. She was wearing a light coating of make-up on her face and some colour had returned to her cheeks. She’d traded in the baggy clothes for a fitted, pale blue jumper and well-cut black jeans. He realised how attractive she was and felt a flush creep up his neck.
He hadn’t thought about anyone like that since Karen had died. He hadn’t wanted to. For the last couple of years he’d had zero sex drive, yet the smell of Ellen’s perfume wafting across the room was causing all sorts of long-forgotten feelings to come bubbling to the surface.
Stop being an idiot, he scolded himself.
She’d just lost her daughter and might already have a partner. She looked to be a few years younger than him as well. There was no way she’d ever go for a scruffy, foreign guy, who’d come to her house with stories of mind-controlling monsters. It dawned on him that he really knew nothing about her yet.
Ellen was busy cutting the pizza into slices. ‘You might want to wake Mitch up,’ she said. ‘We can eat in here
.’
He trooped obediently into the living room and nudged the kid awake.
‘Five more minutes,’ Mitch mumbled.
‘Grubs up.’
That got him off the sofa; he was in the kitchen before Brewer had even moved. They sat around a small, circular dining table in the corner of the kitchen and tucked into the pizza. It was still scalding and Brewer burnt his lip on a string of cheese. That didn’t seem to stop Ellen though, she devoured her first slice in seconds and Brewer wondered how long it had been since she’d eaten some hot, decent food.
‘How old are you?’ Mitch suddenly asked her.
Brewer tried to kick him under the table. It was rude to ask a woman her age, but Ellen just laughed. The sound was light and cheery, and something he hadn’t heard from her yet.
‘I’m thirty-eight,’ she replied.
So only four years younger, Brewer thought.
‘I’m twenty-five,’ Mitch said. ‘Scott’s the oldie, he’s in his forties!’
Brewer wanted to kill him. ‘I’m only forty-two.’
‘That’s not much older than me,’ Ellen smiled.
‘Yeah but you don’t look it, he does.’ Mitch barked a laugh and shoved more pizza into his mouth.
Brewer bristled but had to admit that he was right – Ellen barely looked mid-thirties. It was hard to believe she’d had a sixteen-year-old daughter.
‘What do you do, Ellen?’ he asked to change the subject.
‘I worked in the local library before…umm.’ A glimmer of the fragile Ellen they’d first met a couple of hours ago surfaced, then she regained her composure. ‘I used to take reading classes and book groups, and I enjoyed it. My job’s still there but I don’t know if I can ever face going back. Not full-time anyway.’
‘Won’t you need the money?’ Mitch asked.
This kid seriously had no decorum.
‘Not for a while,’ Ellen shrugged.