The Dark Corners Box Set

by Robert Scott-Norton

  And it wasn’t something that had any chance of ending well.

  Malc had been there at Seth’s the day the police had discovered her body.

  So what had he just seen roaming the corridors of Ravenmeols Hospital?

  31

  Seth didn’t know how they would make it out of the chamber. The doors were fading on the other side of the altar and they were trapped, surrounded by shadowmen and Adam Cowl, albeit in shadow form.

  Roy stumbled to his feet. His face hurt and confused. He’d got stung and didn’t know what to do about it.

  “It’s not too late to let everyone go,” Seth said. “I mean, you don’t exactly have a lot of choice and when those doors close, you will find yourselves trapped here with no way back. Is that what you want?”

  The Adherent behind Judy bent down and held its face close to her neck. He seemed to be sniffing her. They were being more cautious after discovering that Seth already had a hitcher, perhaps thinking that if he had one, the others did too.

  Adam growled. A deep grumbling noise from his throat.

  DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GOAD ME. YOU’RE TAINTED.

  “You’re annoyed that you can’t take my body. I get that. It’s in reasonable shape. Admittedly, I probably drink too much and that niggling chest pain is something I really should get checked out. But I reckon you’d be getting a good vessel. No offence everyone,” he addressed the ghost party, “but I’m the man with the gift after all.”

  Adam tipped his head like he’d just encountered a thing he’d never encountered before. A man without fear.

  Not true. Seth was shitting himself.

  Johnny would not last much longer. True, the bastard had tried to kill six people tonight, but Seth refused to be brought down to his level. He would save everyone he could and let the authorities deal with the fallout. Only one problem, Seth didn’t think he would survive the next few minutes.

  “Let him go. He’s useless.”

  HE’S STRONG.

  “Take me instead,” Roy offered.

  The creature regarded Roy like one might a fly sitting on the kitchen windowsill. An irritant but nothing of immediate concern.

  I’VE CHOSEN.

  And things happened quickly. Adam struck his spare hand into Johnny’s chest at the same time as setting him down. There were no colourful lights, no flash of lightning. It was all very undramatic. One moment the shadowman was holding onto Johnny, the next, the shadowman had gone.

  Johnny stood, unsupported by anyone. He blinked furiously and clutched his throat, taking in deep gasps of air. His face had gone a strange puce colour, but that was quickly returning to normal. What had just happened? Seth checked on Judy. The Adherent behind her was close but still, not prepared to make a move until it was instructed. But without Adam, what course would these hitchers take? They were free of him now. Did that make them more or less of a threat? Roy was crying. Tears of relief or fear, Seth wasn’t sure of, but the man was not the confident man he’d met two days ago.

  “Thank goodness,” Roy said and embraced his son.

  Something terrible was wrong.

  “Wait—”

  Too little, too late. Johnny allowed the man to embrace him, but there was no tenderness on his part. It was like he was in shock, or not entirely himself. Johnny turned his father around and continued the embrace. Roy’s face creased with confusion, then his eyes widened as the realisation of what had just happened sank in.

  Adam hadn’t disappeared. He’d done what he’d said he’d do. He’d possessed Johnny. And Adam was loving every minute of his new found corporeal body. “I can’t breathe,” Roy stammered.

  “That’s not your son anymore,” Seth said. “He’s been evicted.”

  Roy needed no more explanation. He dug his elbow into Adam’s stomach and kicked backwards, aiming for Adam’s legs. Adam laughed. If he was bothered in the slightest by the attack, he didn’t show it. And the grip didn’t lessen. Roy fought back, his fingers digging under the arms across his chest, trying to rip them from him. Seth couldn’t do anything but watch. Watch and listen as Adam doubled down and crunched the old man under his deathly bear hug. Roy never gave up. Not even when the first bones in his chest cracked under the pressure. He was struggling for breath. This wouldn’t take long now. Small mercies.

  “You’re not worthy of being an Adherent. You’ve had thirty years to make this right and you’re failed. Do you think we would be appeased by six bodies? There are hundreds of us. We are legion. We will take what you’ve given us today, but there is no place for such incompetence anywhere near me. My brothers will walk this land again, but this time, there will be no place for cowards and incompetents.”

  “But…I’m your—” something louder cracked and Roy’s last words never left his lips. His head slumped against his chest and Adam dropped him like the bag of bones he’d become.

  Adam kicked the body to make sure, but Roy was dead. That was no way to die.

  “You’ve got a new body. Let the others go,” Seth said.

  “They have been waiting too many years to walk away from this now. But, you shouldn’t worry.” And he was addressing them all, “You will soon serve a greater purpose. I will bring meaning to your meaningless lives.”

  The Adherents were restless. The shadows were moving, eager to claim their prize.

  “You won’t win. Just look at what happened before.”

  “And what would you know about that?”

  “You were shut down. That you were expelled to the Almost Realm tells me you’re a grade A loser.”

  Adam’s face became thunderous. “A loser? I’m not the one trapped in darkness. I’m not the one who reeks of fear.”

  “Dr Lowman killed himself to get away from you,” Judy said, and Adam shifted his attention to this new antagoniser.

  “Lowman was weak. He welcomed the darkness with open arms, but he didn’t know what to do with that power.”

  “If he was so weak, how did he beat you?”

  Adam was quick. His hand was on Judy’s throat and the soft cry of surprise from Judy suggested she hadn’t seen him move either.

  “His body was too weak. It had ceased to have any value.” He let go and she let out a half-sob, half-choking gasp.

  How did she know so much? Seth resolved to find out later when they got out of this mess.

  “You’re the granddaughter of Matthew,” Adam said coldly.

  Judy nodded reluctantly.

  “He was a survivor, much like me.”

  Judy glared. “You know nothing about my grandfather.”

  But Roy had claimed they were all related to Adherents.

  “Matthew was a charmer. He knew how to get what he needed. He had his family, but at his core he wanted more. Something that didn’t chain him to this reality. He wanted what only the Adherents could provide. Power. The power to survive. To endure. To dominate the weaker and thrive in a world designed for chaos. And the things he was willing to do to achieve those goals. He was ambitious, perhaps too ambitious.”

  Adam gestured to the darkness behind Judy and Seth saw what Judy couldn’t. The Adherent lurking behind Judy stepped forward. Hesitantly like a nervous lion facing its whip bearing master.

  “This one is all yours,” Adam said.

  Judy could turn her head enough to see the Adherent bearing down on her.

  She screamed.

  32

  Seth was in the perfect position to watch it all unfold.

  Adam was beside the altar. From a crate on the floor, he retrieved a black candle, about a foot tall and as wide as a fist. He settled it, then muttered and the candle lit. A flame almost a foot high, speared into the air, before settling down into a regular-sized flame. But as it did, it changed hue, losing all the reds and yellows, becoming a dark, impossible fire. Despite the impossibility of what Seth was seeing, he realised the intent as the shadows around the edge of the room thickened. Where before he could see around the perimeter—its exit and the woo
den slope of the eves, and the more worrying sign of the Almost Doors the hitchers had arrived through—now he could only see a black fog of impenetrable darkness all around them. A barrier.

  The others had seen its effect as well. Low moaning emanated from Michael.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll get out of here.” But he didn’t believe his own words. He had to goad Adam into delaying. Anything to give him more chance to think of a way out.

  The Adherent wasn’t giving up on Judy, the shadow candle hadn’t disturbed it at all.

  Was this how tonight would play out, each of them taken over by the spirit of their dead relatives? Were they all just vessels to be used? Seth had no one that would miss him, maybe Malc, but no one else. Judy had a daughter though. The others had spoken about their families. He couldn’t let this happen. He had to get them out before others suffered the same fate as Johnny.

  And he was powerless to help Judy. The Adherent was reaching before her now, its hand outstretched in a pattern that was becoming familiar to Seth. First it would extend its claw into Judy’s chest, then whatever the shadowmen had for a soul would pass into Judy and Judy would be gone. He couldn’t let that happen.

  “Charlie, help,” he said. His hitcher had given him moments of insight before, hell, he’d gladly give over his body, temporarily at least, if it meant Charlie could get him free. But there was only a sense of emptiness. A vacuum. The hitcher was quiet for now. Seth was on his own.

  The disruption came from the last person Seth expected to see.

  He heard rather than saw the sanctum door slam open and a figure ran through the shadow fog.

  Malc.

  In his hand, he brandished a silver crucifix attached to a chain around his neck. His face was controlled, the eyes quick to take in the surrounding scene. And the first person he came to was Seth.

  Charging across the room, he yelled “May the power of Christ compel you.” He kicked the goat’s head from off Seth’s chest with a powerful left foot. It settled in a far corner of the room and was lost to the darkness. The weight that had been pressing on Seth vanished and he reached for Malc’s arm. His friend hauled him to his feet. Blood from the goat’s head dripped down his stomach. He wiped it with his hand.

  Adam screamed. “Get him out of here!”

  And the Adherents reacted, abandoning their chosen vessels and gathering by the altar, ready to attack.

  Besides a light-headedness and the beginnings of pins and needles in his legs, Seth was fine, but it was clear the rest of the people in the room weren’t.

  Glenda and Alisha were tearing at their chains. Michael had his hands clasped around his legs with his head tucked against his knees, rocking silently back and forth.

  Judy shouted. “Roy had the key,” and lifted her chained wrists to illustrate what she meant. Seth ran for Roy’s fallen body and scooted down to search. Frustratingly, satanic robes didn’t appear to come with pockets.

  Malc had a vial in one hand and the cross in his other. Seth’s head was filling with so many questions that it hurt. He’d known Malc since childhood and his friend was not a man of action. Of sitting down and preaching about God, yes, he was an expert, but interrupting demonic rituals with nothing but his faith to protect him, no.

  Yet he was doing it.

  If they got out of this alive, there would be some explanations to be made.

  Malc’s casual stance and square poise, gave him the air of one not to be messed with. Not that that would stop the hitchers. The shadowmen struck as one. They whirled around Malc, their shadow forms blurring into a continuous stream of blackness. It dizzied Seth watching their movement. He had to help his friend but what could he do?

  It quickly became clear that Malc didn’t need any help. He’d come prepared and ready to fight. A cross clenched fist struck through the streaming shadows and disturbed the flow like a boulder dropped into a stream. The shadows broke apart again and backed away, but now that Malc was on the offensive he wasn’t slowing down. With his cross before him, he flipped the lid from his vial. Choosing a shadowman, he yelled something in Latin and cast a fine spray across the room.

  Adam laughed and although the vocal cords belonged to Johnny, the noise wasn’t anything human. Gooseflesh broke out on Seth’s skin. Malc’s assault was proving to be entertainment for Adam, and Seth wasn’t about to question it because now he was distracted, he had a chance to get the others free. He reached through a hole in Roy’s robes and found his trouser pockets. In seconds he had the key in his hand and had unlocked the padlock that wrapped through the chain securing Judy’s straps to the bolt in the floor. She was shaking, despite the warmth of the room. Seth kept his eyes on her face when he spoke to her. “I’m sorry. I should have got us out sooner.”

  “None of this is your fault.” Then, thumbing her bra strap higher on her shoulder, she took the key from Seth, threaded the chain out from the bolt then hauled over to Alisha. Seth was ready to help his friend, lost within that wall of shadows, but he caught a sense of movement from his right and was knocked to the floor. Adam had ceased to be entertained and had punched him in the stomach. He thought he might be sick, but grasped a breath and grabbed Adam’s fist as it came racing for the side of his head. The deflection took some power from the punch but Adam was uncommonly strong. Stronger than he had any right to be.

  Seth twisted and scrambled to his feet, his bare soles scratching against the grain on the floorboards, aiming to put some distance between them but another blow came from behind and struck his kidneys. He fell to his knees as the lights seemed to dim.

  “I’ll make sure you suffer in the Almost Realm.” Adam’s voice was by his ear, his breath hot.

  Seth couldn’t stand. He fell forward and braced himself with his hands, trying to fight back against the pain.

  “Suffer this.” Alisha. There was the unmistakable sound of chain links knocking against each other, then a striking clank and a hiss as something split the air.

  Adam raged and Seth heard him retreat into the shadows at the edge of the room.

  Hands grabbed Seth’s arm. “Get off your arse.” Judy got him to his feet and handed him the chain that had been used to fix her straps to the floor. She hurried to Glenda and worked on the older woman’s lock.

  Adam stood with his back to the edge of the shadows, touching a finger to his bleeding lip. Alisha had got a lucky strike in. His face looked like it had experienced every one of those chain links. Besides his torn lip, blood trailed from his nose and he was squinting his right eye.

  “You’ll pay for that, bitch. A thousand times over.”

  Judy glanced at him then returned her focus to getting the rest of the ghost party free.

  Adam stepped back into the darkness and was lost from view.

  “Where’d he go?” Alisha asked.

  “Good shot,” Seth said and patted her arm. She flinched at the touch. “Keep an eye out.”

  Adam didn’t strike Seth as the fearful kind, so it made little sense he would back off now. Malc was helping Judy get Glenda and Michael to their feet. They each held onto their length of chain, only Glenda didn’t seem as committed to the weapon as the others. She rushed to the side of her dead husband and grabbed his hand, urging him to be alive.

  Alisha crouched beside her. “I’m so sorry.” She helped her to her feet and brought her to the others. “Arjun’s mum will be devastated. He was all she had left.” The woman was hiding her own pain well and Seth recognised something of his own ability to compartmentalise about her. That pain would help fuel her anger and increased their chances of making it out. They gathered in the centre of the room, which Seth noted with disdain, meant he was still in the centre of the pentagram.

  One step forward…

  Malc grabbed his sleeve. “You lied. You told me you weren’t taking the job.”

  “I needed the money.”

  Malc shook his head then spoke to the group. “The Adherents are strong and they’re growing stronger the longer t
hey have to acclimate to this realm. We need to dispel them before they latch on.”

  “How do you know all this?” Seth asked.

  “We’ve dealt with them before.” Came the curt response.

  Something for later then.

  “Is everyone all right?” Seth asked the group. Glenda was huddled in tight next to Alisha who was doing her best to keep her calm whilst also scanning around the room. The Adherents would attack. It was only a matter of when and from which direction.

  “What are they waiting for?” Alisha asked.

  “They’re waiting for Adam. They listen to him,” Seth replied. “We need to get to the doors the shadowmen came through. The Almost Doors. I can close them.”

  “Where are they?” Judy swung the end of her chain like she was preparing to use it as a lasso.

  It was difficult to tell. Everywhere beyond the pentagram was now in darkness.

  “Does it seem to anyone else that we’re running out of space?” Michael asked. He couldn’t keep still. Constantly turning, seeking where the next attack might come from.

  Seth hadn’t wanted to point this out to anyone, they were already terrified. He needed them to stay calm or they would be at Adam’s mercy.

  “You’re right!” Glenda said, “I don’t think I can take this anymore.”

  “We’ll get through this. Don’t worry.” Judy squeezed her shoulder.

  “I don’t see how,” countered Michael.

  “Not helping mate,” Malc said.

  “Just who the hell are you? How did you know to come here?”

  “Does the dog collar not give it away?” Seth suggested, then realised that Malc wasn’t wearing it.

  “You’re a vicar? I thought you were some wannabe Van Helsing.”

  “He did vampires,” Alisha said.

  “What?”