Colton Manor

by Carroll, Francene

  The French restaurant he took her too was much classier than the places she usually ate at with her friends, and she looked around nervously as the waiter showed them to their seats.

  “This place looks really expensive.”

  Damien laughed. “I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be a broke student, it seems like such a long time ago that I had to worry about things like that.”

  “It couldn’t be that long ago. How old are you?”

  “Thirty-four. What about you?”

  “I’m twenty-three.”

  “Just a child really.”

  “Twenty-three is not that young. I bet you didn’t consider yourself a child when you were my age.”

  “No, but that’s because I didn’t know any better. Now I have the benefit of wisdom and experience. Believe me, at twenty-three you don’t know anything about life.” Ursula felt her hackles begin to stir again, and she thought it wise to change the subject.

  “What made you decide to become a science professor anyway?”

  “I was one of those kids who was always doing experiments at home, blowing stuff up and dissecting things. I drove my parents crazy. It wasn’t even something I had to think too much about, I just followed my interest and ended up teaching. I love it and wouldn’t want to do anything else.”

  “You’re very lucky. Not many people know what they want to do from childhood. Some people spend their whole lives looking for the right career.”

  “What about you? What do you want to do?”

  “Well, paint, obviously.”

  “No, I mean seriously, for a living.”

  “Paint,” she repeated, trying to keep her voice light.

  He laughed before realizing she was wasn’t joking. “Painting is great, but it’s really just a hobby. You need to have some kind of career plan in place or you could find yourself working at a checkout for the rest of your life. Believe me, you don’t want that.” Ursula could hardly believe what she was hearing. Damien Knight, a man she had known for just over twenty-four hours, actually had the never to lecture her on her career choices. It was bad enough that she had to hear it from her parents every time she spoke to them, but from a virtual stranger it was too much.

  “I know many people who make a living through art. It’s not impossible and there’s nothing else I want to do besides paint,” she replied, trying hard to keep her temper under control.

  “When you say ‘make a living’ do you mean they are earning enough to be comfortable or just scraping by?”

  “Money isn’t important to everyone, you know. Some people are happy to live without much just as long as they can do what they want and be free.”

  “Free to be poor, to live off the government and worry about where the next meal is going to come from. Is that what you want?”

  “It’s not like that at all. None of my friends live off the government, except for the occasional grant, which is very hard to come by. They don’t have much in the way of material possessions, but they’re happy. Not everyone wants to be a corporate drone living for their four weeks of annual leave each year.” She was working herself up to say more when she noticed his eyes were twinkling. “Why do I get the feeling you’re winding me up?”

  “I realised last night when we were talking about ghosts that it’s very easy to do. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

  “Oh, so you really believe painting is a good career path then?”

  “Let’s just agree to disagree on that one,” he said with a laugh. The waiter came and took their order, and Ursula was only a tiny bit embarrassed when Damien had to explain what the fancy dishes were to her. The food was fantastic and they talked easily during the meal. When they’d finished eating she was reluctant to go back to the house.

  Fortunately Damien ran into a group of his friends as they were leaving the restaurant and they invited them to join the group for a drink. Although his friends were all older than her, Ursula didn’t feel out of place at all. Everyone went out of their way to make sure she felt included, and she couldn’t help giggling when she heard a couple of the guys congratulating Damien on snagging a young woman. When he tried to explain that they were just housemates they refused to believe him and teased him about going through an early mid-life crisis.

  It was late when they left the pub. As they drove towards the outskirts of town, the street lights grew scarcer and then disappeared altogether. Ursula couldn’t help stealing a few sideways glances at Damien in the dark as she wondered if he’d kiss her again tonight. He seemed to read her mind because when they were a few miles from Colton Manor he finally brought up the subject of the previous evening.

  “I can’t believe how bad I felt when I woke up today. It was like I hadn’t slept at all.”

  “It doesn’t really surprise me. You must have lost a couple of hours. It took me ages to get back to sleep.”

  Damien glanced at her without comprehension. “What are you talking about? I went to bed right after you.”

  “Your sleepwalking episode, of course.” This time he turned to look at her completely, almost running the car off the road. “God, look out, Damien.”

  “Sorry. Seriously, Ursula, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Very funny but you already told me you were taking me out to say thanks for last night.”

  “Yes, for cooking me dinner. What did you think I meant?”

  “Are you joking?” She could tell by his expression that he wasn’t. “You really don’t remember anything about last night?”

  “No. I finished my glass of wine and went to bed about fifteen minutes after you, and I woke up this morning feeling like crap. That’s it.”

  “Damien, I found you down in the cellar last night, sleep walking. We had a cup of tea and then and we…….well, we kissed. I didn’t mention it today because I thought you were embarrassed or something.”

  “We kissed? My god, this is bizarre. How could I not remember any of this?” By now they were almost home, and as they turned into the drive Colton Manor loomed ahead of them in the darkness. At the sight of the house Ursula was overcome with a feeling of dread. It looked so sinister and foreboding, crouched there like some sort of living creature waiting to pounce.

  “Why are all the lights out downstairs?” she said. “I’m positive I left a couple on so we wouldn’t be coming home in the dark. Did you turn them off before we left?”

  “No, you must have been mistaken. At the moment I’m a bit more concerned about my sleep-walking. I’ve heard of people carrying on conversations when they’re asleep and not remembering it the next day. Do you think that’s what happened to me?”

  “Yes, I’ve heard of that too. I’m so sure I left those lights on.”

  “Would you forget about the lights for a minute,” yelled Damien. His voice was very loud in the car, causing Ursula to jump. She could only stare at him in shock. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Ursula, this whole thing has just freaked me out a bit.”

  “Yeah, me too,” she replied, “but there’s no need to yell at me. Please don’t do it again.”

  “You have my word. That was not like me at all. I don’t understand what’s going on.” When Damien pulled up in front of Colton Manor they both just sat there for a while staring at the house. Ursula was the first to speak.

  “I hate to bring this up now, but do you think it could have anything to do with the ghost stories?”

  He gave her a stern look. “I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer. We need to put all thoughts of ghosts and ghouls from our minds because it was probably talking about those stories that caused me to sleep walk.” They were silent as they walked up the path together and Ursula unlocked the front door. When Damien switched on the light in the entrance hall she noticed that he looked very tired again, much as he had that morning. His eyes had sparkled with laughter at dinner, but now they were heavy and glazed.

  “I was going to ask you if you wanted a cup of tea before bed but yo
u look exhausted.”

  “Yeah, I’m not feeling very well. I think I’ll turn straight in. Thanks for a nice evening.” He didn’t even look at her as he turned towards the stairs, and Ursula noticed that he stumbled on the first step. If she didn’t know any better she’d say he was drunk, but she’d only seen him have two glasses of wine all night.

  “See you in the morning,” she called after him but he didn’t reply. She thought about going straight to bed too, but there was no way she’d be able to fall asleep after Damien’s strange behaviour. His outburst in the car had shaken her up more than she wanted to admit, and made her wonder if he really was what he seemed to be. Although his identity had checked it, he could still be unstable, and she didn’t relish the thought of sleeping in the room right next to him.

  Instead of going upstairs she made herself a cup of tea and then settled on the couch to watch television. She found an old black and white movie, and despite her worries she was very engrossed in it when the hairs on the back of her neck began to stand up. She had the distinct sense that someone was watching her.

  Getting off the lounge, she walked over and closed the blinds. The house was in such an isolated spot that she’d never worried about it before, but now she found herself imagining all sorts of scary things out there in the darkness. After she’d made sure no one could see inside and checked that the front door was locked she returned to watch the movie but she couldn’t shake the feeling something wasn’t right. She was just getting back into the film when a noise from the kitchen caused her to jump.

  With her heart in her mouth Ursula got up and slowly walked towards the kitchen, hoping that she’d find Damien in there. Just like the previous night, he was nowhere to be seen. She thought she must be imagining things when she saw that the cellar door was ajar again, but this time when she heard a muffled sound coming from down there she didn’t stick around to find out what it was. If Damien was sleepwalking again, and he couldn’t remember anything about the last episode, who knew what he was capable of. She’d read news stories about sleepwalkers murdering people, and Damien had shown an angry side to himself tonight that she did not want to see any more of.

  Taking the stairs two at a time she bolted to her room. Damien’s door was closed, but that didn’t mean anything. Once inside her own room she locked the door and tried to calm herself down by texting some friends and doing some sketches. If she had anywhere else to go she would have hightailed it out of there immediately, but the only person she knew in the area was Bonnie and she couldn’t just turn up there in the middle of the night. When she finally got into bed it took over two hours for her to drift off, and she didn’t hear Damien return to his room at all during that time.

  Ursula had no idea how long she’d been asleep when she was awoken by a noise in the hall just outside her door. She assumed it was Damien finally going back to bed. She held her breath as she listened for the sound of his door opening and closing, but there was nothing. She figured she must have been dreaming and she was about to roll over and try to get back to sleep when a faint squeaking sound caused her to sit up in fear. In the dim light from the lamp she’d left on she saw the door handle move. Damien was trying to get into her room!

  It seemed like time stood still as she waited to see what he would do next. She half-expected him to start pounding on the door, or even try to kick it in, but to her intense relief his shuffling footsteps moved away. She heard his bedroom door open and close, and then there was silence.

  After her fear had subsided a little her next emotion was anger. Just what kind of game was he playing? How dare he try and come into her room uninvited in the middle of the night. She did not want to think about what he had planned to do to her if the door was unlocked, and she made the decision that the next day she would ask him to leave. Even if he was sleepwalking, his behaviour was just too strange for her to deal with. She’d be better off on her own with the ghosts because they at least couldn’t physically harm her. Who knew what Damien Knight was capable of when he was sleepwalking, or if he was sleepwalking at all.

  Chapter Four

  Ursula was up very early the next morning. She hadn’t been able to get back to sleep after her scare, and now she just wanted Damien to come downstairs so she could break the bad news to him. She needed to get it over and done with so she could concentrate on her painting, but as she sat in the kitchen waiting for him to surface the hours ticked over and she feared he was going to sleep in till noon like he did the previous day. The cellar door was closed again and she couldn’t bring herself to look in there to see if anything had been disturbed. Instead she paced the porch and did some sketches, but by ten o’clock there was still no sign of him.

  When the antique clock in the hall struck eleven she couldn’t wait any longer and she made her way up to his room.

  “Damien, are you awake?” she said, knocking on the door, softly at first. When there was no response she knocked a bit harder. “Damien, I really need to talk to you about something important. Please get up.” Now she was beginning to lose her patience and she tried his door handle, but to her surprise the door was locked. “Damien, I know you must be awake. Please get dressed and come downstairs. You were sleepwalking again last night and we need to talk.” There was no response. “Damien, are you okay?”

  When he still didn’t reply Ursula began to grow concerned. What if he was sick or injured? He’d been acting so strangely that anything was possible. For a moment she just stood in the hallway, unsure of what to do next. Then she remembered Bonnie. She’d known Damien for a long time and she had been the one to suggest he move in here. She was the best person to deal with this situation. With a sense of relief she went into her room and retrieved her mobile phone before realizing she didn’t have Bonnie’s number. She tried to ring Yvette at the real estate agency to get it, but to her frustration the call went straight to message bank.

  “Hi, this is Ursula St Clare. I urgently need to get in touch with Bonnie Forbes. Can you please call me back as soon as you get this?”

  Ursula sat on the bed and flicked through some new messages on her phone as she waited for Yvette’s call, but she was too worried to focus on anything. She got up and looked out the window, noticing through her distraction that it was raining again. A noise caught her attention and she was relieved that Damien had finally woken up. She went into the hall to wait for him, but then she heard the noise again. It was coming from downstairs. Damien definitely hadn’t come out of his room, so that meant he’d either been down there all morning, or there was someone else in the house.

  With trembling legs she walked down to the ground floor, grasping the railing tightly as she went. She’d just reached the bottom step when there was a loud scraping sound from the kitchen. It was the same noise she’d heard the night before and it sounded like the cellar door being pushed open. Once again she did not stick around to find out what it was. Instead she hurried into the entrance foyer and grabbed her bag from the stand, and ignoring the rain she ran she ran across the drive to her car.

  As she turned the car around she glanced up at the window and this time there was no mistaking what she saw. Someone was definitely up there, looking down at her. They were standing behind the curtains so she couldn’t make out any more than the outline, but from the bulky shape she could tell it was a man. If it was Damien she’d heard in the cellar, he hadn’t had much time to get upstairs from the kitchen. If it wasn’t him downstairs, he could be the one watching her now, but why would he do that, and who was it in the kitchen? With a shudder she took off down the drive as the rain came down harder and a thick fog rolled in from the ocean.

  ****

  “Well this is a nice surprise,” said Bonnie, wiping her hands on a dish cloth as she crossed the floor to answer the door. “I was going to drop around today to see how you and Damien are getting along. I was baking some cookies to bring with me.” The kitchen was filled with delicious aromas, and in another room she could hear the sound
of children playing. It couldn’t have been more different from the house she’d just come from. Although it was sprinkling lightly here, the sky was much clearer and the fog had not made it this far.

  “I think there’s something wrong with Damien and I’m really scared,” she blurted out, “He’s acting really strangely.”

  Bonnie’s brow wrinkled. “What do you mean? Is he in danger?”

  “I don’ know,” said Ursula, wringing her hands. “I don’t know what’s wrong.” She was almost in tears by now. Bonnie took her by the arm and led her to a chair in the kitchen.

  “I’ll just put the kettle on and you can tell me all about it,” she said in a motherly voice. “I’m sure it’s nothing to be worried about, Damien is a grown man who is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. If there was any danger he’d leave, he’s not that stubborn.”

  “I don’t know if he’s in a very rational state of mind at the moment. He’s been sleep walking, and last night he tried to come into my room.” When she’d finished recounting the strange events of the previous two nights Bonnie’s face was white.

  “This is so completely out of character for Damien. I’ve never known him to lose his cool like that, and there’s absolutely no way he’d try to get into your room in the middle of the night, under any circumstances.”

  “It has to be the house, then. It must be doing something to him, just like it’s done to everyone else who’s tried to stay there. Damien obviously doesn’t have a dark side or a reason to lose the plot like this, so there’s no other explanation.” She noticed Bonnie hesitation. “What is it?”

  She shook her head as if to dismiss the thought. “It’s probably nothing, but when Damien and Tracey divorced just over a year ago some of our friends commented on how well he was dealing with it. He never showed any emotion at all, even when she got the house and a huge chunk of his money. Some said it wasn’t normal and eventually he’d have to snap.”