After Darkness Falls 2 - 10 Tales of Terror - Volume Two

by Matt Drabble

  “That is most definitely not going to happen!” one of the lawyers choked.

  “Everyone out,” Mrs. Dahlberg said quietly.

  “You can’t be serious?” one of the policemen said with wide eyes.

  “You heard my wife, everyone out, NOW!” Marcus Dahlberg ordered.

  Doris waited as the gathered men and women filed past her with angry expressions; she lowered her eyes and refused to meet their glares.

  “Please,” Mrs. Dahlberg motioned for them to sit, once it was just the four of them left.

  Doris took a seat at the table and Taylor sat next to her. They faced the Dahlbergs across the huge table and Doris felt dwarfed and lost in the Great Hall.

  “It’s nothing but a house,” Mrs. Dahlberg said to Doris’ nervous face. “It’s just a big one.”

  “I want to go on record from the beginning that I don’t believe in what you’re selling,” Marcus said strongly. “But at this point we are willing to try anything.”

  “I understood that this was supposed to be a private meeting, Mr. Dahlberg?” Taylor said coldly. “My client is much in demand and she doesn’t work under the gaze of a three ring circus!”

  “I apologies,” Mrs. Dahlberg said directly to Doris. “It won’t happen again. I give you my word.”

  Doris looked at the young woman who seemed to have aged terribly and in such a short space of time. “Mrs. Dahlberg…” she started.

  “Please, it’s Anita,” the young woman responded.

  “Anita, I’m not sure what it is that you expect from me,” Doris said quietly, ignoring Taylor’s kicks under the table.

  “My baby is missing Ms Cassidy and we don’t have anywhere else to turn to. There was a ransom note that said we’d be contacted in 24 hours but that was days ago and we’ve heard nothing since.”

  “Please call me Doris and this isn’t exactly what I do Anita.”

  “I thought that Ms Quinn here said that this was something that you could help us with?” Marcus demanded.

  “And it is,” Taylor responded quickly. “But you must understand that we aren’t dealing with an exact science here, Mr. Dahlberg. We’re not talking about taking your car in for a service.”

  “No, we’re talking about our daughter,” Anita said with wet eyes and Doris knew that she had to try and do something.

  ----------

  “What the hell are we doing?” Taylor hissed an hour or so later when they were alone in the missing girl’s bedroom. Taylor had insisted that Doris required total concentration and silence and that the parents’ negative energy would interrupt the flow. Doris figured that at least one of them had come prepared.

  “You’re the one who dragged us here,” Doris hissed back. “You were the one that started sleeping with that policeman as a way of getting close to a case like this one.”

  “Yeah but I had us out the bloody door again. Didn’t you see all those cops and lawyers? You really want to mess around with a roomful of sharks?”

  “Didn’t you see her face? She was so desperate,” Doris said pleadingly.

  “Oh brilliant, Einstein, and just how exactly are you going to help? It’s not like they’re a pair of old biddies in a nursing home,” Taylor said angrily. “I thought that we could slip in and take a look, maybe drum up a little publicity just by being here. That many suits in one place sure as hell makes me nervous and it should do you as well.”

  “I don’t know. I was hoping for a glimmer or something,” Doris shrugged. “My mother always swore that the gift was real, at least for some of the Cassidy women; I just figured that I ought to try.”

  “Well?” Taylor said tapping her foot impatiently. “Any great insights from beyond the grave?”

  “No,” Doris replied in a small voice, “I don’t feel anything.”

  “Fabulous,” Taylor sighed. “Now what are we going to tell them?”

  Doris was about to say that she had no idea when a movement of light caught her eye. At first she thought that someone was shining a torch into the corner of the room by the bed. “What’s that?” she asked pointing.

  Taylor turned to follow her finger. “What? Where? I don’t see anything.”

  “Right there,” Doris insisted as she strained her eyes into the shadows.

  The light was grey in color rather than white. It flickered and faded before returning again, only this time stronger. Suddenly, she could see a shape in the light as the form of a small girl emerged from the ball of grey light. She was vaguely aware that Taylor was speaking but her voice seemed far away and faded fast.

  Doris watched on in fascination as the home movie played out on a flickering grey repeat. Two year old Ivory was woken in the night by a large dark shadow with its back to Doris. The girl was led gently from her bed. Doris thought that the figure must have been a man judging by the height and breadth of its frame. She watched on as the girl and her abductor crossed the room and slipped out of the door. As soon as they exited, the whole scene replayed over again.

  She closed her eyes and willed the movie to stop. When she opened them again, it was just her and Taylor alone in the child’s bedroom.

  “Oh dear God,” Taylor said in awe, “you saw something didn’t you? You saw it, for real!”

  Doris nodded, as much in shock as her agent.

  “Well what did you see?”

  “She was taken from her bed in the middle of the night,” Doris answered slowly.

  “Did you see who?” Taylor asked quickly.

  “No I couldn’t tell. I think it was a man but he had his back to me the whole time so I couldn’t see his face.”

  “Holy crap, what do we do now?” Taylor asked uncertainly.

  “We tell the parents of course.”

  “Tell them what though? They know that she was taken but you’re not exactly adding anything new are you?” Taylor said.

  “What do you suggest?” Doris asked, puzzled.

  “Maybe we should just sit on this new found ability of yours until we can get a better handle on it,” Taylor shrugged.

  “You can’t be serious?”

  “Look, we don’t know what’s going on with your…, whatever you want to call it. What if it was just a one off? What if it was just a hallucination?”

  Doris turned to leave the bedroom, eager to be gone from Taylor’s negative energy. For some reason, it was starting to give her a headache. As she reached the hallway outside, she felt the world fade away again. She looked down the corridor to see the large figure leading the girl by the hand and she followed.

  She was dimly aware of other voices trying to rouse her as she followed the grainy movie playing out in front of her. She felt an unwanted tugging at her arm and ignored it, pushing the real world further away.

  Doris could still only walk behind the couple and therefore could still not see the man’s face. As they reached the top of the stairs the man picked up the girl into his arms and carefully descended the sweeping staircase with his precious cargo.

  Doris followed them out through the back of the atrium and along a narrow hallway which then opened out into a small private kitchen. The man walked casually through the empty room out through a set of rear doors into the grounds.

  Doris followed out into the cold wet night but barely felt the rain whipping at her face. She crossed the patio area still following the man. She was suddenly aware that he was struggling to hold the girl. The man reached the covered outdoor pool that was presumably all the rage in the hot summer months.

  Ivory squirmed in his arms, kicking out and struggling to get free. Doris watched as the man fought to keep his grip on the eel in his arms and then he stumbled forwards. Doris could only stand by in horror as the small girl flew forwards through the air and landed on the hard patio stone slabs. Doris couldn’t look away as the girl lay motionless and the man bent over her trembling. He tried to lift her tiny fragile body but she wasn’t moving. Doris watched as the man unhooked and pulled back a corner of the pool’s cover
and pushed the girl underneath and into the water before fixing the cover back in place. Doris closed her eyes.

  When she opened her eyes again, her cheeks were wet with tears and she was surrounded with concerned faces.

  “What did you see?” Anita said, grabbing her arms with desperate sorrow.

  “I’m so sorry,” Doris could only say and Anita’s face broke into a thousand pieces.

  ----------

  The police were brought back in by a disbelieving Mr. Dahlberg at his wife’s insistence. The swimming pool cover was removed and the tiny body was plucked from the cold water. The ransom note that had been left stating that further contact was imminent had provided no clues and no one had thought to initiate a thorough search of the house and grounds for a body. They had only combed the area for evidence of the intruder, but had found nothing. The fact that the abduction had seemed perfectly executed had given the officers in charge cause for optimism as they were clearly dealing with professionals. But the lack of further contact had started to worry them all badly.

  The next few hours were a whirlwind of questions fired at Doris from all angles. There were those who eyed her with suspicion, of committing the crime, and those she noticed who subconsciously crossed themselves whenever they got too close.

  Mrs. Dahlberg was removed to her bed chambers, at the insistence of her husband, and sedated by the family doctor to avoid further outbreaks of grief.

  Eventually, when everyone seemed to have fired a million questions at her, Doris was finally allowed to leave. The police seemed baffled as to whether or not to regard her as a suspect and the Dahlbergs were keeping their distance. Marcus Dahlberg had sent a car to collect them earlier and Taylor’s sometime boyfriend, Dave, had offered to give them a ride home.

  Doris sat in the back of the car as Taylor sat up front with the security man. She felt her eyes drooping as the night passed by outside and her energy felt drained by the stress, excitement and terror of the night’s activities. She had a million questions and a million fears about what had happened and before they had gone more than a mile she was fast asleep.

  ----------

  “What the hell happened in there?” Dave hissed as quietly as he could manage. “I thought that you said she was a fraud?”

  “She is,” Taylor replied shaking her head. “Or at least she was.”

  “Well you really screwed us over here, didn’t you?” he barked.

  “Me? You were the one who was supposed to hold the bloody girl and you couldn’t even manage to do that right, could you?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Dave answered defensively.

  “Yes you bloody well do. She saw everything, everything that you did and where you hid the body,” Taylor snapped.

  “It wasn’t my fault,” Dave said sulkily. “It was an accident.”

  “Biggest opportunity of my life and you screwed it up. You only had to take the girl and hold her for a couple of days and then I’d bring in the next great medium to find her. We’d have all been rich but you killed the girl!”

  “I said it was an accident.”

  “Well that really helps now, doesn’t it?” Taylor said sarcastically. “One small child and you couldn’t handle her.”

  “Hey, don’t push it,” Dave said warningly. “This whole thing was your idea from the start; I told you that I didn’t want to go through with it.”

  “Oh boo-hoo for you big boy, but just who do you think everyone is going to believe? I’m her best friend. Hell, I’m her only friend; I can make that puppet dance whichever way I choose.”

  “Oh right, so you’re going to try and push the blame on me are you?” Dave laughed bitterly.

  “Keep your bloody voice down!” Taylor hissed, nodding towards the sleeping Doris in the back.

  “We’re both screwed, you bitch, and I’m gonna make sure that everyone knows just what a cold-hearted cow you really are. Hell, I think that I’m going to claim that it was your idea to kill the girl in the first place instead of just kidnap her. I’ve still got enough friends on the force that’ll back me up.”

  “Bullshit,” Taylor sneered.

  “Nope, just think about it. Yeah, sure, Doris there is your best mate, but what kind of a nutcase is she going to look like when you start making all sorts of psychic claims? Me, I’ll have a whole bunch of coppers on my side and you’ll have a nut job on yours.”

  “But they found the body based on her directions.”

  “All that does, sweetheart, is make her a suspect,” Dave laughed. “And you along with her. You know what I think? That I’ll just name you two as the culprits and deny ever even knowing you. I’m sure that I can get one of my old mates to lie and give me an alibi.”

  “You unbelievable bastard!” Taylor said, wondering just how she had ever thought that this guy had been in her pocket.

  “Maybe we don’t have to go down with the ship,” he said enigmatically.

  “How do you mean?”

  “Well, the public outcry is going to be huge; just imagine the fuss when they find out that the little girl is dead. They’re going to want to hang someone for it. Does it matter who, just as long as it’s not us?”

  “You mean…,her?” Taylor said, gesturing towards Doris.

  “Why not? Rather her than us, right?”

  Taylor was considering the risk/reward scenarios on the table when she saw the kid in the middle of the road. “LOOK OUT!” she screamed at Dave who appeared not to have seen the child.

  Taylor reached out and grabbed the steering wheel, yanking it hard to the right and spinning the car out of control. They veered off the road and down the embankment, rolling as the car flipped over. Taylor’s world spun out of control as the hard crunching pressure of the car as it rolled was suddenly lifted and they were airborne. They hit the water’s surface, finding it more akin to concrete than liquid and the dirty river water closed in around them as they sank to the bottom.

  ----------

  Doris woke into a world of darkness and was disorientated by her surroundings. It took her a few moments to remember that she had been in a car being driven home. The confusing and upsetting details of their night rushed back and her dreams had been full of a child’s tears and terror.

  The details of the crash came back to her as, even though she had been asleep, she had seen everything through Ivory’s eyes. Despite the child being only two years old, apparently age mattered little in the afterlife. The girl’s aura had been black and full of rage at her passing and she had shown Doris everything that had happened to her and just who had been responsible, sharing the conversation between Taylor and Dave whilst Doris had slept. Ivory had caused the car to crash by appearing in the road, caring little for the one innocent in the back seat. Doris could feel that the dead had little time for the living and only existed inside emotions that were confused and often violent.

  She reached up to touch her forehead and felt a large lump there that had slightly split open and her fingers came away bloody. In the front seats she could just make out the dark silhouettes of Taylor and Dave slumped forwards and not moving.

  The car was stationary now, save for a gentle rocking motion. She pressed her cupped hands against the glass and peered out into the great beyond, only to find a small fish looking at her with interest before it swam past.

  She vaguely remembered some TV show on one of the documentary channels doing a special on crashing a car into a river and she fought hard to recall the finer details. She remembered them saying that you would be unable to open a door and instead should open the window and allow the cabin to fill with water before swimming out. It seemed like a terrifying prospect to sit and wait but she was sure that it was the right thing to do.

  She leaned forward and shook Taylor lightly by the shoulder. The agent groaned in response. “Taylor? Taylor?” she said, shaking her more vigorously.

  “What?” Taylor said groggily.

  “We have to get out before we lose the oxygen.
How long have we been down here?”

  “I dunno,” came the reply.

  “How’s Dave? Is he okay?”

  Doris watched as Taylor unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned over to the driver to check. Doris’ stomach churned as Dave’s head lolled loosely on his shoulders.

  “Oh Jesus!” Taylor said, pushing the man away in disgust. “I think his neck is broken; he’s dead.”

  “Okay, I’m going to open the window,” Doris said slowly.

  “What? Are you nuts?” Taylor exclaimed.

  “Listen to me, when I do we’re going to wait for the car to fill up with water and then swim out,” Doris said calmly.

  “You can’t be serious? We have to sit and wait for help to arrive,” Taylor said firmly.

  Doris didn’t bother trying to explain as all of her experience with her agent told her that the woman was not big on listening. She rolled down the rear window and fought against the rising wave of panic as the cold dark water poured in.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Taylor shrieked.

  “Listen to me Taylor, I know what you did, you and Dave.” The words were a verbal slap that halted any response. “But that doesn’t matter right now. We have to get out in case she comes back to finish the job.”

  “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Taylor snapped.

  “Yes you do and we have to go. Take a deep breath and follow me out of the window,” Doris commanded just before the car finished filling with river water.

  She eased herself out of the window and held onto the car’s roof as she motioned for Taylor to follow her. For a moment, she thought that her agent was going to sit and drown inside before the woman struggled her way over the seats and towards her.

  Doris let go of the roof and started to float upwards, watching as Taylor pushed her top half through the window. Taylor’s face suddenly filled with panic and she started to jerk violently as though trying to desperately free herself. Doris stared back through the gloom and saw a small child’s hand grasping Taylor firmly by the leg. Ivory’s hands may have been delicate in life but in death her grip was strong.