Very quickly, my light faded completely and only two torches remained. We’d searched the floor and now Frances alone searched the furniture, and up the walls.
‘What’s that?’ she cried, her torch shining up to a corner of the ceiling. It was a face, a grotesque face looking down on us. Attached to the face was a body, and this had limbs each fastened to the corner of the walls and ceiling. Amy started the screaming; others continued it. Frances clearly shook with fear. Her torchlight was bouncing all over the place. In this commotion, it left the face for a moment and we heard a thud. She shone the light up again. The face had gone.
‘Wait–’ I yelled. ‘The ceiling is covered in faces anyway, carved in the plaster. It could’ve been one of those!’
‘No, it wasn’t! It was that thing!’
‘We’ve got to get out of here!’
Though most agreed to leave the room no one actually did. The doorway ahead was a dark lonely hole in the wall, which Evans kept her torchlight on.
‘Let’s just think a moment!’ Evans insisted. ‘The main thing is we stick together.’
‘Alex?’ I heard Thom’s voice in the hallway.
‘Thom!’ I flew towards the green light to get to him. I thought the others might follow. They didn’t. In fact, I saw Evans’s light behind me sweep from side to side. It seemed they were edging back, deeper into the room, keeping close together. Another room sat behind the shop, though this was often unused and locked up, as it was today.
Thom was waiting in the hallway to one side of the door. I could only make out one vertical line of his shape.
‘Thom, where have you been? We need your help! Please, come in the shop a moment?’ I made a grab for his arm in the dark, but missed.
‘Impossible,’ he responded sharply.
‘What is?’
Silence.
‘Thom, I can’t leave them. There’s something in there, and it’s not right – it doesn’t seem like a normal person. Just help me, please?’
‘I will always–’ he rushed to say before hesitating. He got next to me, grabbed my arm firmly and spoke rapidly in my ear. ‘I know about the person in that room, Alex. Listen to me! It won’t harm them; do you understand? Do you understand me?’ – I only nodded. – ‘Good. Now, in order to help them, I must do something that will make you angry. Don’t be! It won’t harm them. Just remember that!’
He moved away from me. I felt the breeze of how quickly he swept by. I thought he was going into the shop. He didn’t. I saw the green light of Evans’s torch being pushed back, fading away bit by bit. Evans began yelling as they all did. None of them knew it was Thom closing the door. I said nothing; it stunned me. I wasn’t silent to protect him! It literally took me aback. He closed the door and locked it with a key. I couldn’t believe it! I was so angry.
‘It was you?’ I mumbled, astounded. ‘It was you, Thom – you locked the main door! You pretended to lock the De Morgan Gallery when Stacey asked you, but you locked us all in here! You did, didn’t you?’
‘Alex, you don’t understand.’ He tried to hold my hand, but I pushed it away.
‘I understand they’re all terrified in there! Why is that exactly? Who’s in there with them?’
‘I asked you not to be angry. Don’t judge this! I hoped you’d all go.’ His tone heated up. ‘But you all decided to stay and wait out the storm. I can’t help that. I haven’t time to go into detail. I need to fix something!’
I felt him move away. I tried to follow on my own in the darkness.
‘Thom? Don’t leave–’
He took hold of my hand and led me round to – I believe – the De Morgan Gallery: where today’s events had all begun.
‘Thom, tell me one thing. If they’re in no danger locked up with that person, why did you get me out of there?’ – It’s easier to ask the more daring questions when you don’t have to dodge someone’s eyes.
‘Because– quite simply because with you, my brazen Cassandra, I didn’t want to risk it.’ He stepped closer, squeezing my hand a little. I breathed in his delicious scent. ‘I’m sure they’re in no danger,’ he continued. ‘But to leave my favourite lamb so near a wolf’s den, what a foolish shepherd I’d be.’
I wasn’t sure how to respond.
He placed one of my hands on a nearby table. ‘Stay here!’ he commanded. I heard him go right across the room, towards the windows. A door opened – and closed. I realised he was using the secret passage that led under the house. The room was quiet. It was empty, but for me. I wasn’t scared, so long as I didn’t think too much on the noises. Currently nothing occurred. I stayed. I waited. I realised that what Stacey had thought was in this room had probably been coming from under it. Whatever it was, Thom knew all about it. Was it the stranger? The creature that ran around the gift shop was a deal too small to be the stranger. But whoever made noises below stairs – well, that might be him. Distantly I could hear the cries of Frances, Stacey, Evans, and the others. It hurt to hear them, knowing a little more than they did. I could only hope Thom would return soon and release them.
After a while the same familiar noises returned to where I stood: the thumping and whining followed by the faint rattling of chains.
Silence again.
‘Thom?’
I couldn’t hear a thing in the room. I just had a feeling he was back in there with me. I felt a presence, and I could smell his scent getting stronger, closer – intoxicating me.
‘Thom, are you here?’ I reached out a shaky hand to grope the darkness in front of me. Nothing. Then I felt his steady hands on me – on my waist! I put my hands on his, in shock. He slid them round to my back, beneath his jacket I still wore, and pulled me against him. My heart quickened with nerves and excitement. His nose and mouth nestled against the top of my head, in the roots of my hair, where he groaned with pleasure.
‘Thom?’ I raised my head.
Silently his mouth went first to my neck. He pressed his lips against my skin and I surrendered to his touch. Tenderly he kissed down to my shoulder, moving the strap of my dress slightly to one side. Parting his lips, he retraced the length of my neck, softly kissing those places I found I was utterly sensitive – under my jaw, beneath my ear. Tingles ran the length of my body as the tip of his tongue caressed my skin. I placed my hands on his muscular chest, partly feeling the strength of his body against mine, and partly in ready defence – to not allow too much of this. He was making his way to my mouth, his hand supporting one side of my neck. My heart pounded loudly, but it couldn’t outdo the sound of my colleagues still yelling for help! Their voices had muted a while. Now they were again in the forefront of my mind.
‘Thom, we can’t–’ I forced out these words, gently pushing at him. It was wrong to do this now.
‘Alex?’ I heard him call from the other side of the room. No hands were on me! The secret door shut loudly, yards away. ‘Alex, did you call me?’ His footsteps came my way, quickly.
‘What are you playing at?’ I said – confused – upset! I felt foolish, as if I’d just imagined it all. I couldn’t have, but in the darkness it might be easy to give in to such sweet fantasies! I became so annoyed, though unsure with whom. ‘What are you playing at?’ I repeated. ‘They need to be let out of there!’
‘C’mon!’ He grabbed my hand with his familiar grip and dovetailed our fingers. ‘Everything’s back to normal.’
He took me round to the main door where he unlocked and opened it. It wasn’t raining anymore, though the blackout remained. The clouds had opened up to reveal a bright moon. In the light of her, Thom turned to face me and held my shoulders firmly while looking me in the eye.
‘Alex, I’m going to let them out now. You won’t be lying if you say that you saw nothing – not a thing!’
I waited there while he went to the shop and released the prisoners, relieving a frantic Evans and all inside. They came rushing out, barely listening to him, and heading straight for the main door. Once outside, Amy and Stacey
wept. Evans lit up a cigarette. Dan and Mel hung close to the doorway where I stood near Thom. Everybody talked loudly over one another and made stabs in the dark as to what had happened. I said nothing and felt like a traitor.
‘I found the keys on the floor and so unlocked the shop door,’ said Thom. ‘This door was open already. I don’t know who he was, but I’ve a feeling we had a thief in there when the lights went out.’
‘I never saw him get out the shop!’ said Evans. ‘I had my torch on the door nearly the whole time! Whose keys did he use?’
‘Mine, I’m afraid!’ Thom continued the lie. ‘He must have picked them from my pocket. Ah, Dan, is this your phone?’
‘Yes! Wow – thanks, Rues. Hey, where was it?’
‘Down here.’ He pointed to the floor.
‘He must have picked my pocket, too. I never felt a thing.’
‘It’s not difficult for a professional.’
I tried not to look at Thom as I listened to him getting lost where one lie ended and another began. For some reason he’d let me know about these lies, when he could have easily left me with the others none the wiser. Still, I couldn’t hide the annoyance on my face when I did look at him. He turned his eyes to me just once, a look that held complete shame. He never looked at me again until everyone had left the grounds.
Frances returned to the staffroom for Stacey’s coat since she refused to step back inside. At the doorway, while pulling on her gloves, she turned to her husband. ‘Maybe your phone is around here somewhere too?’
‘Possibly–’ Terry began to say, before pulling his hand from his pocket holding his phone. ‘What the–? It wasn’t there! Honestly, I checked–’
Frances was shaking her head. ‘I can’t believe you!’
‘Fran, I wasn’t lying!’
They argued their way to the main gates. Evans and Su accompanied Stacey, Darren and friends to the car park, bidding everyone else a hasty goodbye.
Mike and Amy waved down their breakdown service as a van rolled up outside. Dan and Mel seemed the only couple who took it all rather well. Geoffrey took Jan’s hand and congratulated her on having a ghost story of her very own, before leading her towards the gates.
Remaining behind with a certain individual, I grabbed hold of him at the first opportunity.
‘Is it easy for you to tell them it was some thief, Thom? How can you look them in the face after locking them up in there? I thought Mrs Evans was going to have heart failure! I thought Stacey might throw herself through a window to get out!’
‘Yet they’re both well, are they not?’
‘But look at what could’ve happened to them because of you!’
‘That’s a lot of power, Alex, to thrust upon someone. Do you think I have that kind of power, to dish out heart attacks and broken bodies, merely by locking that door over there?’ He pointed. ‘Or even that one?’
‘Cause and effect, Thom. You provide the cause, and then there is the effect.’
‘Where is the effect?’ He stepped closer to me. ‘I don’t see Stacey on a stretcher, or Evans in a morgue.’
‘You’re very harsh!’ I moved back. ‘I’ve never known you to be like this. You take no responsibility for what might have happened to them. And who was that person anyway? What did they want, and how did you–’
‘Alex, please don’t–’ He turned his eyes away and put his hands on his hips. ‘Don’t make me tell you things before I’m ready!’
‘But how could you leave them in danger?’
‘I didn’t create that danger.’
‘But you added to it! You certainly didn’t help them–’
‘And why should I help them?’ he snapped angrily. His eyes grew blacker and larger than I’d ever seen them. His skin flushed a darker tone before it drained pale again. I felt a tear roll down my cheek. It was for nothing other than my disappointment in him.
‘They were mainly scared at being locked up,’ I muttered.
He looked to the floor and rubbed his face.
‘I’m sorry, Alex; you’re right. I was trying to evade responsibility there, without realising it. I was trying to get away from that nuisance called Blame! I didn’t start the thing. It all comes back to me though. And no, I suppose I couldn’t know for sure that they’d be completely safe.’ With his voice stifling, his eyes glazed over. ‘I knew no more than that they would live.’
‘What?’
‘I knew they’d live,’ he repeated lowly. He seemed to be somewhere else. ‘I am half sick of shadows,’ he mumbled, pausing and gazing past me. ‘I’m prisoner, Alex, and the mirror is already cracked.’
‘I don’t follow?’
‘I am cursed.’
‘Thom, what do you mean?’
‘I knew for certain none of them would die,’ he said, looking back to me. ‘If you only knew all, you’d have trusted my judgement!’ He turned and walked away.
Something always made me feel like I was in the wrong to question him. I felt bad for making him feel bad. I knew he wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t someone who would deliberately hurt to get his way. He was conscientious. In fact, he would protect others and I knew this. So why, after just witnessing such a terrible deed, did I begin to feel he was probably in the right to do what he’d done?
I needed some space to think, to consider if I was being one-sided on his part. When you feel a strong connection with someone, you tend to place them up on a pedestal, magnifying their virtues and dismissing their faults, only to discover later that they are no different from anyone else, when you have run out of excuses. I needed a confidante. I needed Beth. I would tell her everything, and endeavour to absorb the feedback. Just as soon as she had a free day to lend me her ear and bestow her advice.
Before Beth and I could meet, I had another two shifts at the Cray. I went there utterly conflicted. How should I feel towards my other co-workers versus my strange friend, who had lied to us all, but kept me half in on his secrets? I was convinced I’d be interrogated by all of them on what I thought had happened Saturday night. I dreaded answering their questions with lies. They’d want to know what had happened to me, while the so-called thief had locked them in the shop.
When I entered the staffroom they were all so normal. Evans, Frances, Geoffrey, all sat in there chatting over afternoon tea and cake.
‘Hi,’ I said meekly on arrival.
‘Hello!’ returned Frances. ‘We’ve all been worried about you!’
‘Really?’
‘Of course. Doreen called your house phone a couple of times yesterday. We wanted to tell you all about it, as soon as we found out, in case you were as restless as Stacey. Not that you’re as brittle. But she didn’t get a wink of sleep all weekend. And she didn’t come in yesterday, which we sort of expected. She probably won’t be in tomorrow either. She’s a bag of nerves!’
‘Maybe I’ll pop round to see her,’ announced Evans, hastily placing her tea on the coffee table. ‘I can’t go on the hunt for another sales assistant so soon. I’ve got enough to do. I’ll tell her to take a few days off. Alex can give her a call as well – there’s a good girl – she’ll listen to you. Tell her we all feel a bit silly, being scared out of our wits over something that’s all been explained now.’
‘It was quite trippy, wasn’t it?’ exclaimed Frances. ‘We were all shaken up. To think the blackout was caused by some vandals stealing cables!’
‘Is that what caused the power cut then? I didn’t know.’
‘So you haven’t seen the paper, Alex? You don’t know anything about it?’
‘About what?’ My heart skipped a beat.
‘About the mental patient escaping.’
‘The what?’
‘During the blackout, a mental patient escaped from Bixney Hospital. He actually broke out soon after the power was lost. He was found in the middle of the night–’
‘Half-naked!’ interjected Evans, with a mouthful of cake. ‘Just like what we saw in the shop!’
I started to worry that this was another fiction fed to them by Thom, because people often cover one lie with another.
‘We were all discussing it yesterday,’ Frances continued. ‘And there’s a map in the paper of the route he took across the fields. He was most certainly the man here with us that night. He must have looked for shelter from the rain. What a poor creature he must be!’
‘He’s a crank!’ snapped Evans, spitting crumbs everywhere. ‘We’re lucky to be alive!’
‘He must’ve been terrified with all our screaming. That’s probably why he locked us in the shop, because he was scared of us.’
‘Though I can’t imagine how he got hold of Thomas’s keys, or Daniel’s phone!’
‘He must have been so desperate to get away from the hospital,’ said Frances.
‘I have to say,’ added Geoffrey, crossing his legs, ‘I didn’t even think there was such another person in the room with us. I thought the darkness had got to you all! And when we saw the face of a carving on the ceiling, and we all thought it was some demonic creature! Well’ – he laughed – ‘it was quite convincing.’
‘So it was just a carving?’ I asked.
‘Oh, certainly!’ said Geoffrey. ‘Thom was saying yesterday how he often feels in this place of a night, as if they’re staring at him. He said sometimes he hears a noise and comes down to the main floor to check it out, and that he’s been startled before by some of the gargoyle-type creatures.’ – In this time, he passed me the copy of yesterday’s paper so I could peruse it for myself. – ‘But this story’ – he tapped the table – ‘still doesn’t explain why we’ve been hearing the noises for weeks.’
‘Geoffrey, you’re right!’ said Frances. ‘How can that be?’
‘It can’t have been the same man then,’ grasped Evans.
‘Unless he’s been escaping regularly all this time and it’s gone unnoticed. He might have been coming here for ages,’ said Geoffrey. ‘Who’s to say? I suppose now they’ve realised he’s made a run for it, they’ll keep a closer check. So the test will be whether or not the noises stop altogether.’
Halton Cray (Shadows of the World Book 1) Page 20