Other bones were inching free, she saw; and she realised now that there were eight mounds – one for her mother, and one for each of the victims she’d seen only moments before: Annie. Ruth. Sarah. Linda. Margaret. Carrie. Sue. And her mother, Lauren.
It wasn’t clear, at first, which bones were working themselves free, but Maddie could see there was some design to all this. She saw Frank edging backwards, shaking his head frantically in negation, unwilling to believe the evidence of his own eyes. Elsa was growling low in what passed for her throat, the essence of her presence very much there now, ready to fight to keep what little form she had. She was flickering in and out, never quite gone but clearly fighting to stay here, to stay present. She sensed Maddie watching her and turned, snarling. Her eyes were blazing, probably the most present part of her – and she wanted Maddie. Wanted to take her body over, wanted not to have to fight anymore. She wanted to come back.
Maddie ran. She raced towards the exit, feinting left just before she reached it, so that she could crawl behind a gravestone, crying out as she brushed her wounded shoulder against the stone, biting her lip as she pulled the limb closer, tucked her hand into a pocket to try and keep it as still as she could. She leant her forehead against the stone and tried to think. What could she do? She could only hope that her mother and the others had kept Frank busy while she ran.
A branch cracked and she lunged upright just as the cosh landed against the stone where her head had been only moments before. So much for that.
Maddie surged forward, crying out in pain, running again for the cemetery gates – they were still quite some way ahead; the swell of the ground between her and the gates prevented her from making sure they were still open. She heard Frank cursing as he stumbled after her, coughing and gasping as he fought for breath. He wasn’t a young man, she knew; he was her father, after all, and he hadn’t been a teenager when she was born. And he was sick. Everything about him, from the pallor of his skin to the reek of his breath as he’d loomed over her at the gravestone, stank of sickness. He was barely more than skin and bone himself. She kept running, however badly, and somehow she was managing to stay ahead. She wondered where her mother was, what had happened to her and her fellow victims.
Then Elsa was there. She floated a few dozen steps in front of Maddie, and she was white hot now; Maddie couldn’t understand how she was the only one who could see what was happening in the sky over Highgate cemetery. The afternoon itself was growing dark, the wind rising and what was left of the leaves whipped through the air, thrown by the oncoming storm. Elsa was hovering just this side of the crest of the slope; if she moved back only a few steps then surely someone would see her from the street. Maddie inched forward, hoping Elsa would – like Frank – move the corresponding distance back.
Elsa bared her teeth at her in what she probably thought passed for a smile. I’m not stupid, child.
Maddie stepped back; panting for breath herself. They hadn’t gone far, she shouldn’t be this exhausted. She coughed, and spat out bright phlegm, and she knew. The wad of snot and spit lying on the ground before her was a vivid red, and she could feel the effort of every breath. Her shoulder was broken, she knew; and now she knew that one or more fragments of bone had travelled, burrowing into her lung and slowly filling it with fluid.
She groaned, and was rewarded with the sound of Elsa snickering in front of her; delighted at her pain.
“I don’t know why you’re laughing, Elsa; I didn’t think you wanted damaged goods.” She spat on the ground again to illustrate her point, and smiled when Elsa hissed.
“Don’t worry,” Frank said from behind her. “We can get the body fixed easily enough; just so long as what’s in here…” he tapped the back of her skull, none too gently, “is intact.”
She cried out as he pulled her hair, yanking her head back until she could see him leaning over her, his own breath laboured.
“It is intact, isn’t it?” He pushed her head forward, and laughed as she groaned at the bolt of pain in her skull as he tapped it with the cosh.
“Mum…”
Your mother can’t save you now.
Elsa. She’d come closer now, eager to worm her way inside, to remove Maddie from her own body. Maddie wondered how she did that, and then decided she probably didn’t want to know. It was bad enough knowing she was about to be evicted from her own body without knowing in advance how much it would hurt, or what would happen to her afterwards. She lowered her head, and started to cry.
Maddie. We’re coming.
Maddie raised her head again. They were here after all; Frank hadn’t destroyed them all over again. Something flickered at the edge of her vision, and she felt her mother pressuring her to play for time, to give them a chance to do whatever it was they were planning in order to save her from joining their number.
Frank, seeing the girl raise her head, frowned as she turned her gaze on him. “What?”
“I was just wondering what happened,” she said. “To make you kill my mother.”
“I killed your mother?”
“You know you did, Frank. My mum, Lauren; there were more too: Annie, Sarah, Ruth…”
“Stop it.” Frank shook his head, trying to clear the images her words had evoked. He could see Lauren, standing there defiant in the seconds before he’d crushed her skull; he could see the others, too, a long line of them going back years. All the way back to… his eyes widened as he stared down at the girl glaring at him.
“I mean,” she said, “you let her go, to start with, didn’t you? Why did you do that? You must have loved her. I mean, you murdered her parents, but not her. You killed my grandparents.”
Frank stared, his mind a muddle of different faces: the same hair, eyes, but all those faces…
“You must have loved her once,” Maddie went on. “Or you’d have murdered her when Elsa first told you to, wouldn’t you. Although,” she went on, “Elsa was still alive then, wasn’t she, so she didn’t need Mum, really. She just wanted her out of the way. She didn’t want you to know.”
“Know what?” Frank mumbled, and now his face was bone white, the shock of realising who Lauren had been clearly hitting him hard. He’d forgotten all about her, until now.
Now Maddie stared at Frank with wide eyes, her expression curious. “What were you like then, Frank? Were you kind, decent?” She shook her head. “No. I can’t see it, somehow. Not the way you are now.” Shakily, she got to her feet. “At least, not once Elsa had hold of you. I don’t’ think Mum would have dated you if you were like this then. Let alone sleep with you.”
Frank gasped; the memories starting to shine, details starting to link up – he remembered her skin, the way she smelled…
Maddie leant in, eyes taking in every detail of Frank’s face: his eyes, the way his eyebrows beetled over his eyes, hooding them, making him look like a vulture. She laughed as she looked at the lines of his nose, the little hook at its bridge, the way his lips drooped down at the sides, deep creases either side of his mouth. He hadn’t shaved in days, and the stubble was ragged and greying in patches. It looked diseased.
“I don’t look like you at all, do I,” she said, and now she laughed as she watched the realisation of her parentage hit him, full force. “I’m all Mum.”
He staggered back, and whispered, “Lauren…”
Forget that bitch! She’s gone, I told you. You’re mine now.
And just like that Elsa was right there, standing in between Frank and his newly discovered daughter, and she was in his face, shouting at him, trying in vain to hold his face in her hands.
And through it all, even as he nodded dumbly at her instructions to hurry up, get it over with, Maddie could see he kept his gaze on her. His daughter. She wondered if he was sorry; if he had ever, for one moment, regretted splitting with his mother and taking up with the monster that hadn’t given him a single moment’s peace in all the years since. She saw a tear track down his cheek and almost felt sorry for him.
/> But not quite.
She turned, leaving Frank to be harangued by Elsa, and watched as her mother and the other women who’d fallen prey to the pair moved closer. They’d managed to combine, somehow, forming one formidable aggregate creature. Maddie could see the bones knitting together, the bones from eight different graves – her mother’s skull sitting on top of a skeleton made up from various parts of Sarah, Annie, Sue, Carrie, Margaret, Linda, Ruth… and of course other bits of Lauren, her mother, too.
She could see a mist around this creature of bones; a mist made up of all these women, and of her mother – they were giving it the closest semblance of flesh they could, eager to help protect Maddie, and to end Elsa’s menace, once and for all. No more would die to feed her twisted desire to come back, to know what it was to live again, to breathe and love and feel skin on hers.
Frank groaned.
Chancing a look back, Maddie saw him sink to his knees, his face like parchment. Elsa was beside herself; whipping to and fro in a frenzy, keening in horror at what was before her, coming closer.
Her mother drew near, and Maddie moved backwards, ready to allow these women their say, after all they’d been through at the hands of this man and his demented lover, or what was left of her.
You can’t have her, the women grated, their voices blending into one, resonant voice – its tone was oddly melodic, comforting somehow. The creature raised its arms, and its shadow was different, somehow; wider and bigger than the arms it had raised. Maddie laughed as the significance of that shadow dawned on her, knowing it was for her benefit – her mother would know it would make her feel safe. The shadow resembled a pair of wings; together with the domed shadow of the head it resembled nothing more than the shadow of a giant owl.
Her mother was right. It worked.
Elsa drew herself up, glaring at these… creatures that dared to defy her, denying her her dearest wish, to be flesh again. She’s the one, she said, and her tone wasn’t what Maddie had expected. It was almost pleading. I won’t need any more after her. She’s the last one, I promise.
You can’t have her, and now the voice was Lauren’s alone, and it was firm. She’s not for you; you’re dead, lie down and let it go.
Never!
Elsa rushed forward, eager to grab Maddie, to force her way in, and Maddie fell back under the pressure of her advance.
Maddie couldn’t move. The air around her felt frozen, and this… thing that wanted her body wouldn’t relent, wouldn’t give up. She had only moments left to live, and all she could think of was her mother.
“Mum…”
We said LET GO!
The creature that was the dead women grabbed Elsa in its cold hands, and Elsa screamed. Marks of bony fingers rose on the mist that made up her arm, and there was a sudden scent of burning flesh in the air. It wasn’t possible; couldn’t be possible, and yet it was. The bone woman picked Elsa up bodily – something that defied logic, defied what could be seen – and wrapped its arms around her. Now Annie, Sarah, Ruth and the others separated from Lauren, leaving her alone to bear the burden of Elsa’s almost-flesh. Elsa started to struggle, spitting curses at the women in front of her even as she began to lose cohesion. Smiling, each of them took hold of a different part of Elsa – a leg, an arm, her hair, a hand… and they started to pull. The noise was deafening as Elsa started to come apart bodily, screaming and begging all the while.
Frank! Help me!
Frank stood there, immobile, watching as his victims fought to save his daughter, and finally he rebelled; finally he stood up to her. He shook his head. “No,” he said. “Not her. Not my daughter. You can’t have her.”
There was a rising wail, and a flash of white light, and when Maddie could see again, Elsa was gone. The women were still there, but battered; Maddie saw smoke rising from them, saw them quiver and struggle to maintain cohesion.
Maddie’s mother was still in control of the skeleton, and now she turned and pointed at Frank, who was lying on the ground, apparently in the middle of some kind of seizure. He lay there, limbs spasming, eyes rolled back in his head, grunting; piss running down his leg and onto the ground beneath him.
In there, she said, and Maddie knew. When all else had failed, when Maddie was protected and Elsa knew she couldn’t have her, the only way she’d been able to escape the onslaught of Frank’s victims had been to dive into his body, to take him over, at least for a while. Maddie moved closer, and saw – just for a moment – Elsa’s steel blue eyes glaring at her from beneath Frank’s half-open eyelids. Then she was gone, and Frank’s gaze was desolate.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and then started to shake once more. He said one more word before the women followed Elsa and invaded his body, desperate to rip her out of him and destroy her once and for all. That word was “Sorry.” Then he was done, the light dimming in his eyes even as they started to bleed, and Maddie watched as he seemed almost to shrink into himself, right in front of her.
Finally it was over, and the women had had their revenge; now they stood by Maddie once more, searching their surroundings even as they continued to protect her. Maddie saw her mother take position by her side, and whispered “Elsa?”
She left Frank, before we went in to find her.
Maddie shuddered. All that and she wasn’t even there?
Maddie felt her mother’s words resonate deep inside, and knew she was right. I know what you’re thinking. It was the right thing to do; Frank would never have stopped, so long as he was still alive.
“I know,” Maddie answered, “I can’t help feeling a little bit sorry for him, though. It was hardly a peaceful end, was it.”
No. But then he didn’t deserve one.
Maddie had no answer to that; Frank had been a monster, responsible for the deaths of God knew how many women – but he’d still been her father, responsible for her being here at all. And at one time, a long time ago, he’d loved her mother and she’d loved him.
Her mother’s voice came again. It wasn’t love, Maddie. Not really. I don’t think he knew how.
Elsa swam into view a little way ahead of them; furious. She was bedraggled, her hair hanging in wisps, her eyes blazing cobalt fire – and yet there seemed to be something missing, some vital part that made her who and what she was. She was having trouble maintaining her presence, Maddie could see, there were deep gashes in whatever fabric she consisted of now – deep holes in her arms and chest that gaped and let the world behind her bleed through. She saw Maddie, and with a scream she rushed forward – desperate not to let this last refuge go.
Maddie found herself on the ground, buffeted by a blast of wind as her mother and the other victims rushed forward, intent on denying Elsa her last desperate attempt to gain refuge, to win and have form once more. They circled Elsa and Maddie heard the creature’s keening rise and rise, fading as it did so. The effect was similar, Maddie thought, to a tea kettle getting further away from you as it blew its top. The whimsical thought seemed wrong, out of place in the middle of this… destruction, and yet she couldn’t get it out of her mind. She felt her mouth twitch with the beginnings of a smile, and fought to subdue it – but she couldn’t, and then she was laughing, sitting on the damp earth laughing, tears flowing down her dirt-streaked face and she couldn’t stop, couldn’t breathe…
She woke up to find her mother staring at her. She could see her, she could properly see her, and that made her start to cry all over again.
Don’t, Maddie. It’s over. You’re safe.
That just made her cry harder. “But you’re still gone,” she said, and gestured at the others hovering nearby. “You’re all still gone, and for what?”
She sat up, eyes widening as she remembered, and stared around for any sign of Elsa.
She’s gone.
“What did you do?” Maddie whispered.
What we had to, her mother answered, and there was a severity in her tone that stopped Maddie asking anything more.
The others parted,
allowing Maddie to see a prone figure on the ground some distance off. It looked oddly shrunken, shrivelled and curled up like a piece of rotten fruit. Frank.
“He’s dead?”
Silence, but she didn’t really need an answer to that one. It was obvious. Maddie hauled herself upright and made her way over to his body; stood over him and stared at the man who’d taken her mother away, who’d made their lives a misery for so long… but to whom she owed her life. She wouldn’t even have been here without him loving her mother. He’d loved her mother first. Before Elsa. And that must have driven Elsa wild.
Frank looked so much smaller, in death, than the bogeyman Maddie had created in her mind’s eye as a child, the dark figure that loomed into their lives every time they started to think they might be safe – the body lying before her was old, and worn, and looked utterly unable to do harm to anybody. Maddie looked closer, and frowned. There were small fragments, off-white, some almost yellow, lying around the corpse – they looked as if they’d been scattered there in some kind of ritual, their placing quite close the body, ringing it almost, not haphazard in any way.
“What are…?”
Bones. Those small parts of us that Elsa used to maintain her presence, those parts that Frank kept about his person – trophies of the work he did for her, reminders of what we were, who we were, and what became of us.
“He kept trophies?” Maddie swallowed, revolted. She remembered how few bones she’d found when searching for her mother’s grave, how things had appeared to be missing, or lost. She’d thought they might have been taken by animals, foraging for food; not once had she thought Frank himself might have them.
You have to get rid of them, Maddie, her mother said. It’s important.
“Why? Oh God, she can’t come back, can she?” She whipped around, gazing for any sign that Elsa might be stirring, intent on one last try.
Now her mother smiled. No. At least, I don’t think so. But we need to make certain, we need to be sure she can’t find any more totems.
Bury Them Deep Page 6