by Natasja Rose
Thomas stared at her, clearly confused. “But why is that so unusual? You said that there were lots of deaths pretty much everywhere.”
Tina ran her hands through her hair, trying to calm down. “Because they weren’t there yesterday, and they’re not ghosts from this time period. That shouldn’t even be possible!”
Joshua eyed the book rather like a suspicious object in a minefield. “There’s a lot of energy residue floating around, but it’s not all ghosts. It’s not something I’ve come across before, either.”
Rachel closed her eyes. “No actual ghosts, either. I don’t know if they didn’t want to linger, or if something made them unable to, but there’s no-one for me to talk to, unless the grey lady outside is still around.”
Christopher lost a quick ‘rock, paper, scissors’ between the research crew, reluctantly going up to the altar. “The inside is vellum, but the binding is definitely not leather. If it didn’t sound so much like a horror movie, I’d say it looked like human skin. Someone else gets to test that theory, though.”
Thomas paled slightly, only partially because he was the most likely candidate for ‘someone else’ in the immediate vicinity. “Well, since we don’t know what’s lurking around, can we take further discussion somewhere else?”
The good thing about towns on the tourist map was that there were always lots of cafes and restaurants, and at least one coffee ship near a hospital, in case relatives needed a pick-me-up after visiting. The other good thing was that they could charge the drinks to the company card.
Bringing the drinks over and sitting down, Valerie sighed. “Now’s probably a bad time to mention it, but I took a closer look at Doctor Davies, while we were there signing in.”
Christopher raised an eyebrow. “I’m guessing that you discovered something that isn’t exactly helpful to us?”
Valerie nodded, sipping her latte. “He’s a contradiction. He exudes a kind of ‘don’t notice me’ aura toward the aether, and some degree of resistance, but possession for a few minutes at a time would be easy. That’s probably what you saw, Tina.”
Tina nodded thoughtfully, “Possession is easy to spot, but multiple curious ghosts temporarily dropping in would appear differently to a single one. Well, that throws a bit of a spanner into the works.”
Rachel stared at her in disbelief. “That’s not ‘a spanner in the works’! That’s ‘a goddamn exploding Home Improvement store’!”
Christopher sniggered quietly as he tilted his coffee cup in the smaller woman’s direction, “What she said. At least it can help you get some names if the doctor remembers who the voices in his head are.”
Valerie pulled a face. “I doubt that we’ll be that lucky, but it’s worth a try.”
Chapter Eight
Tina wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that she was seeing dead people again. On the one hand, it brought them closer to solving the mystery, and not having to watch her every step or deal with ghosts desperate to tell her their life stories was slightly disorienting. On the other hand, most of those deaths were decidedly sickening.
They had exited the cavern and were nearly back at the hospital proper when she stepped directly into another vision.
A girl, this one in modern-day clothes underneath a hospital gown with the crest of St Andrews, appeared out of nowhere, her eyes wide with terror. She started to run, somehow finding breath for a scream. “Thomas, help me!”
A man in regency clothing appeared, just in time to catch the girl as she fell, her bright eyes suddenly dim and staring into nothingness. He looked down at her with immeasurable sorrow, carrying her body back into the hospital.
Yanked back to the present, Tina forced herself out of the automatic disorientation. “Quick, Rachel! Can you call a ghost off just a first name?”
Caught by the urgency in Tina’s voice, Rachel nodded. “With as few as there seem to be around here, yes. Who am I calling for?”
Tina almost fell down in relief. “Man in his twenties or early thirties, name of Thomas.”
Rachel closed her eyes and made a beckoning gesture with one hand, her voice taking on an echoing timbre. “Thomas, appear before me. I will speak to you.”
Those who normally couldn’t see spectres jumped back when the ghost appeared, just as suddenly as he had in Tina’s vision, looked as though he were struggling to escape an invisible tie, and his sullen, resentful attitude reflected it. “What do you want?”
Rachel’s expression firmed. “What is your connection to the girls who died recently, and why do you linger here, when no others do?”
Thomas glared sulkily. “I tried to help them, to bring them to safety. I didn’t want them to suffer as I had, in this cursed place.”
Joshua, losing the distant look that suggested he had been examining the energy surrounding the ghost, frowned lightly. “Why did you suffer here?”
Instantly, Tina knew that had been the wrong question, and regretted being too far away to kick Joshua as the ghost’s face twisted in anguish. “Because they locked me away!”
The sheer amount of raw pain in the ghost’s voice took Tina by surprise, though in hindsight, it probably shouldn’t have. “Because I wasn’t normal enough for them! Because I saw things, and had dreams that came true, and they didn’t care that I was terrified and confused, just that it was embarrassing to them!”
If ghosts were capable of crying, this one would be. Tina and Valerie exchanged an awkward look as Rachel stepped forward, drawing Thomas’s attention back to her. “That is terrible of them. I understand why you would want revenge, but what does that have to do with seeking out and punishing those who had similar abilities?”
Tina was reminded strongly of Lizzy after Tina had endured a particularly bad vision: unable to truly understand, but compassionate and caring and doing her best to help, and the recipient almost pathetically grateful for someone who was even willing to try to empathise.
Perhaps the ghost felt the same, because while he lost none of his pain, he did calm a little. “I wasn’t trying to punish them! They did no more wrong than I! All that I wanted was to help them escape, the only kind of escape there is for those cursed as I was, before they suffered as I had.”
Tina wasn’t very good at being reassuring, but she tried anyway, attempting to mimic Lizzy’s tone when dealing with distraught clients. “Mental health isn’t as stigmatised anymore. It could be better, but most people who have illnesses still manage to lead full and productive lives. I know you mean well, but killing innocent people isn’t the way to solve things.”
The ghost frowned. “Killing? All I did was lead them away, to the same place I escaped to when the asylum became too much to bear. I never hurt anyone!”
Christopher’s face was difficult to read as he looked in the ghost’s general direction (actually about a foot to the left), “We’re here because several psychically gifted girls have been found dead, and we have been tasked with finding out why and how. Thus far, you’re our only lead.”
The ghost staggered back, looking horrified. “But… but he said I would be helping them. I don’t… why should I trust you, when he was the only one there for me?”
Joshua frowned. “Who is ‘he’? How did he say you would be helping people?”
Thomas (the living one, and wasn’t that going to get confusing in a hurry?) leaned forward, “Did he tell you anything other than that you would be helping? Anything you can tell us will be very appreciated.”
Thomas-the-ghost frowned in concentration. “I remember. He told me that ‘It was dangerous, and foolish, to give one such as I a child to love, only to take it away. My son saw through the veil between worlds, and they punished him for it. I will not allow it to happen again’. You can’t fake that kind of emotion, so I knew he was telling the truth.”
Kayla’s face contorted into an almost invisible wince. “Right when we thought we’d narrowed down the areas of investigation, too.”
Christopher nudged her. �
�At least it’s specific enough to narrow things down. I’m sure I’ve read about a ‘veil between worlds’ before. I just need to remember where.”
Rachel ignored both of them. “Tina says she has seen people from different time periods. Is there any exact amount of time between the girls disappearing and when they return?”
Thomas-the-ghost tilted his head in thought. “It’s possible to leave if you truly want to, but normally, the official window of passage from Under the Hill is every hundred years. Some leave then, others choose to stay another century. I can give you the names of the girls, if you wish.”
Kayla scrambled to switch her iPhone notepad to dictate in preparation for the list, while Tina had one last question, “Is there a time limit on when He will strike next?”
Thomas’s brow wrinkled in thought, before he slowly shook his head. “Not for at least a week; He knows that the mortal authorities are aware that something suspicious is going on. Besides, the Passage Under the Hill is in eight days. Most likely he will wait for that to pass.”
Valerie nodded thoughtfully. “Thank you, Thomas… not you, Tom, the other one! Will you be available if we need to ask you anything else?”
Thomas-the-ghost nodded, a trifle reluctantly, as he listed about a dozen names, and Rachel released him, wavering slightly on her feet. “OK then, let me try the most recent victims, then we should get back to the hotel and plan on ordering in. We have a lot of work ahead of us. I’ll do the list Thomas - the ghost, not you, Tom - gave us tomorrow, once I’m back at full strength.”
Rachel attempted to summon the ghosts of the missing girls, but met with unexpected resistance, leaving her so exhausted that she barely managed to hold them long enough to get confirmation of their identities.
Looking closer at the ghosts, who were wavering like a mirage as Rachel attempted to remain upright, Valerie jerked in surprise. “Rachel, let them go, for now. We’ll call on them again when you’re better rested.”
Tina glanced at their leader, and the darker woman shook her head in wordless reassurance as the ghosts faded and Christopher helped Rachel to a nearby garden bench. “They’re gifted, Tina. Like you and Rachel and Joshua. All of the victims. In almost exactly the same way.”
Joshua paled drastically. “That can’t be a co-incidence, and I’m willing to bet that it isn’t the first time this has happened.” He ran a hand through his already-tousled hair. “Why is it that every time we make progress, this mission only gets worse?”
Kayla was harder to read, but gripped Rachel’s hand tightly. “Once is chance, twice is a suspicious coincidence, but three is a pattern. Whatever is causing this, we need to stop it at the source.”
Thomas-the-living (Tina had to concentrate to avoid calling him that to his face) was still stuck on how no-one had noticed the strange disappearances by the time Valerie unlocked the door to their hotel room, all of them thankful that she had shelled out for a family room.
Christopher was the only one not gritting his teeth as Thomas gestured wildly in frustration. “But why wouldn’t any of it be reported? Surely someone would have noticed disappearances on that scale!”
Tina frowned in contemplation, thinking that she and everyone else seemed to be doing that a lot. “Maybe not. Lizzy could tell you for certain and in more detail, but the stigma surrounding the mentally ill was infinitely worse then than it is today. I wouldn’t be surprised if the families of Asylum inmates claimed that they had died of a sudden illness, to avoid the scandal.”
Kayla looked horrified, but Rachel only nodded grimly. “There are actual records of husbands sending wives they wanted to be rid of to Bedlam, and telling their children that she was dead. It was cheaper and easier than convincing an ecclesiastical court to grant an annulment, since divorce didn’t really exist, and it had to be proved to be someone’s fault. Remind me to tell you some of the other nightmare material I’ve heard from ghosts.”
Thomas blanched. “Remind me not to remind you, in that case! Didn’t women have any rights?”
Kayla scowled at him. “Not many, and most of those were dependent on the permission of their husband or father. It took until the 1920’s before women were even allowed to vote, and longer before they were allowed to own property or control their own finances!”
Thomas held up his hands in a placating gesture. “I, personally, was not alive back then. It’s just hard to fathom, with how far we’ve come.”
That earned him glares from all four women, who had all experienced proof that Society still had a long way to go. Valerie abruptly changed the topic. “Well, at least we know enough to rule out ghosts as anything other than unwitting accomplices. What other theories do we have?”
Christopher glanced up from his laptop. “Vanishing for a hundred years crops up a lot in fairy stories, and phrases like ‘under the hill’ and ‘veil between words’ crop up in late Celtic folk tales.”
Ghosts were enough of a hassle, and now they had to deal with Fairies of the non-Disney variety? Tina thumped her head on the table, ”Well, now I definitely want to pay Lizzy and her in-laws a visit.”
Tina only hoped that it didn’t bring up too many bad memories for Lizzy and James, since she knew for a fact that Lizzy, at least, still had nightmares about their ordeal. She elaborated when everyone except Valerie looked confused about they needed to visit random non-locals, “They run the Inn of a village that put itself on the map due to legends of ghosts and supernatural deaths, and they know a lot of stories. I’m betting that there will be information about non-ghostly things in there somewhere.”
Valerie nodded. “Mrs. Dawson had a strange aura about her that I don’t recognise. I’d like to talk to her about that, too, if I can. We are not in a scenario where I would welcome any unpleasant surprises.”
Kayla considered the possibilities. “Well, a curse disguised as a blessing definitely fits the pattern of Fae interference. Being promised an escape from suffering, only to lead to your doom.”
Tina nodded. “Being tricked Under the Hill would also explain the lack of gory deaths in the area, and the first vision I saw in the cavern. Disappearing isn’t the same as dying, and is usually a lot less traumatic for the victim.”
Joshua looked far less happy. “You’re all missing something. Ghosts have a set agenda, usually not that hard to figure out. Fae are a lot more dangerous. If they are involved, our problems just got a lot worse.”
Chapter Nine
The emotional drain of the day, and the fact that they needed to be up early for a four to five hour drive in the morning, meant that the entire team was asleep almost as soon as they hit the pillows after a second afternoon of research.
Of course, that didn’t mean that the night was peaceful, even discounting the people that snored like a freight train.
For the first time since she had arrived in England, just when she had let herself hope that she would be spared the usual ghost-induced nightmares, Tina dreamed.
A forest clearing, lit with candles and lanterns that cast a flickering light over the assembled figures.
Most were tall, almost un-naturally so, and moved with a fluid grace that was not quite human. Some few were human, children or teenagers, most of them wearing dreamy, spellbound expressions.
Here and there, in the shadows, lurked small, twisted figures, even more out of place than the mortal visitors, and who vanished in less than a heartbeat when someone seemed to notice them.
One of the children, not more than ten, dressed in hospital pyjamas with the emblem of St Andrews on the breast, looked directly at Tina. “Help us.”
Tina awoke with a start, causing Kayla, who had been leaning over to wake her, to fall back onto the floor with a yelp. Tina rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, “Sorry about that.”
Valerie offered Kayla a hand up as she glanced at Tina. “Strange dream?”
Tina shook her head. “Psychic dream, and not a reassuring one. I’ll tell you in detail while we’re driving, just in case.”
If the ghosts or the Fae had ways of spying on them while they were in St Andrews, then the last thing that Tina wanted was to give them any hints that the team was onto the supernatural antics. Besides, she needed coffee before she could be expected to function enough to remember and analyse what she had seen in the vision.
At least she was in good company, since Kayla clearly had something bothering her as they got dressed. “The only people taken this time are girls, and we were chosen just in case there’s some kind of seduction going on, but Tina said that one of her visions in the cave showed a man. I don’t know if it’s relevant, but it’s been bothering me.”
Christopher walked out of the bathroom, clad only in a towel and a few scraps of the imagination. “Nowhere in the bathroom to put clothes, sorry. Hope none of you are body-shy.”
Tina and Kayla took a moment to appreciate the view, Kayla sassing right back. “I’ve patched up enough naked bodies not to care, honestly.”
Christopher grinned at them and flexed an arm. Tina shrugged, admiring the aesthetics with the same detachment as she would a classical art exhibition, where statues didn’t ruin the scenery by talking. “Aussie summers. Believe me, when you go for weeks without the temperature dipping below 30, clothes just aren’t worth it unless you’re at work.”
Valerie rolled her eyes. “Back on topic, the gender exclusivity could be co-incidence, or just personal preference on the part of the abductor. We’ll look into the identities of the missing in previous generations when we get back, though. Well-spotted.”
There was a knock on the door before Rachel, Joshua and Thomas entered with coffee. “Oh, good, you’re all up.”
Thomas reached into a bag and threw a bundle of cloth at Christopher. “No offence, but please put a shirt on.”