The Dark Corners Box Set

by Robert Scott-Norton

“Van Helsing was in Dracula. He became a vampire hunter in other movies.”

  “OK. Not sure that matters right now.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t recommend trying to stake any of these hitchers,” Malc said.

  The shadow barrier had stopped drawing in, leaving them with a space about ten metres across. They stood on top of the spot Seth had been chained to.

  “The doors were behind the altar,” Alisha said. “That was in that direction.” She pointed to a point ahead of her.

  “No,” Glenda said. “That’s where I was chained. The altar was facing me.” She pointed to a spot in the opposite direction.

  “Are you sure?” Alisha hissed. “I was sure…”

  Seth glanced at the floor and the way the floorboards were running, and the small pool of blood that had dropped from him onto the floor to his right. “Glenda’s right, they’re this way, which makes that way the exit.” He pointed to the right.

  An Adherent pounced out from the shadow barrier and grabbed Michael by the shoulders, dragging him back into the darkness with a terrified scream. The moment his body entered the darkness, the scream cut off.

  “Face the barrier,” Seth commanded, and then to Malc he said, “I don’t suppose you’ve got any more of those crosses?”

  “Just mine, not sure it makes a whole lot of difference. These Adherents are desperate.”

  “How do we stop it?” Judy asked. “We’ve got to get Michael back before they kill him.”

  “They’re not trying to kill him. They want to take over his body so they occupy this realm again,” Seth replied.

  “What are these realms?” Alisha asked.

  “Planes of existence,” Malc said. “These particular Adherents ended up in the Almost Realm with their leader, Adam Cowl.”

  “And you said you can stop them?”

  Seth nodded. “Once they’ve experienced the Almost Realm, they’re forever connected. Even once they’ve taken a new body, there’s the constant pull back.”

  “But that’s good, right?”

  “The bodies don’t last forever but the Adherents want to. They need to be able to travel freely between our realm and the Almost Realm.”

  “So, by forcing their doors closed, you cut off their safety net?” Judy asked.

  “Exactly,” Seth replied. “They’re scared of being trapped with nowhere else to go. They’d sooner return to the Almost Realm than risk that.”

  “We need to find the doors,” Judy concurred.

  The surface of the black fog bulged as another Adherent reached for Glenda. Malc punched across the Adherent’s arms with his crucifix hand and the Adherent fell back into the darkness. Alisha pulled Glenda back behind her before resuming her confident chain swinging. The chain had hurt Adam, but he was in a new corporeal form now. There was no chance of it hurting an Adherent, but Seth didn’t want to concern her with that. If they knew there was no true defence, they would be useless and the Adherents would swarm in and take them. Their confidence was protecting them for the moment.

  Seth took one last look at the patterns on the floor and only when he was confident he’d not made a mistake, did he take a breath and run into the fog. He heard the cries of the others but the moment he stepped across the fog’s boundary, it was cut off.

  He was alone.

  Was he moving?

  The transition from where he was to where he found himself was like stepping into a tar pool. He could move, but it hurt him to do so, and there was a weight pressing on him. Around him, the barrier swirled. Not a solid colour, within it, there were marbled patterns, patches of brightness even. But where was the altar? He couldn’t have got his bearings wrong. He’d kept a clear eye on the vector he needed to take. Noises came from the darkness. A low vibration that stemmed from the floor until it cloaked him, ripples across his naked flesh like skeletal fingers raking his body. A claw stabbed through the fog just in front of his eyes. Seth held his breath and paused. Were they reaching for him, searching for him? Could they not see where he was? A familiar prod in his back reminded him he wasn’t alone. Charlie was still with him. Seth felt an insistent nudge on his right side so turned to his left.

  Was Charlie helping him? And if he was where was he leading him to? “The altar,” Seth muttered. Getting to the doors was his goal but if he didn’t do something about this barrier quickly, his friends would be picked off one by one until they were all gone. An insistent poke in his chest and he stepped back just in time to avoid a claw reaching out from the space where his head had been. Seth’s heart hammered and he silently thanked his hitcher for saving his skin. The Adherents might not be able to possess his body but killing him shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Another push from behind, and another. A quickening series that led Seth forwards and to his right. He kept moving until his legs banged against the hard edge of the altar.

  The fog had made it difficult to see anything in front of him. His field of vision had shrunk to barely an arm’s reach. With cautious hands, he felt across the top of the altar. His fingers brushed against the dagger he’d seen earlier, the fog making the object ice cold. He stepped along the altar, moving along to each new object. The book. He lingered on that, feeling a deep sense of unease as if it wanted him to take it. Shaking his head, he ignored it and moved along. The dark fog swirled and coalesced into twisting patterns. Spirals of the impenetrable mist drew Seth to the centre of the phenomenon and his fingers brushed the bottom of the black candle that Adam had lit. As he did so, the veil of darkness lifted from the area around the candle, letting him see the black flame burning, sucking the light from the room. With tentative fingers he reached out to snub the flame between finger and thumb.

  The flame extinguished, the barrier vanished.

  Seth spun his head around at the sound of heavy footsteps. Adam was charging at him, hatred distorted his face, making that heavyset brow even thicker, the eyes full of murderous intent.

  33

  Seth grabbed the cloth from the altar and whipped it away. Objects tumbled to the floor. He couldn’t help but notice where the book landed. Seth threw the cloth over his attacker and used Adam’s momentum to propel him into the altar table. The table tipped against Adam’s weight. Once down, Seth kicked hard for the man’s bollocks and heard a satisfying gasp of pain. He picked up one of the heavy candlesticks and brought it down hard on Adam’s head. The man stopped moving.

  Christ. What had he done?

  “Hurry,” Judy shouted.

  But Malc had seen and cautiously bent over Adam. When he rose, there was blood on his fingers from where he’d touched the back of his head.

  “He’s alive,” Malc said.

  “We need to bind him. Then get him out of Johnny’s body.”

  “We’ve more pressing concerns. The Adherents are restless.”

  Perhaps confused by the elimination of their leader, the Adherents had fallen back to the perimeter of the chamber, keeping themselves in the shadows.

  “Why aren’t they attacking?” Judy asked.

  “Give them a chance to realise what’s happening and they will.”

  Against the far wall, Michael remained, following the group. Alisha saw him and ran over. “Are you OK?”

  Malc left Seth and stood alongside Alisha. Gently, he pulled her away.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “He’s not who you think. Count the shadows.”

  Seth understood, but it took Alisha a moment to get what Malc meant. “You mean… like what Adam did to Johnny?”

  “Yes.”

  The door to the treatment room was visible now. “Take them out of here, Malc. Get them to safety.” Seth was trying not to look at the book that had been on the altar, the book that had rattled his nerves as his fingers had brushed over it.

  Something was burning.

  Judy had noticed to and took Seth’s arm. “We need to leave,” she urged. Then she indicated the small fire that had begun at the edge of the room. One of the smal
ler, ordinary candles had toppled over in Seth’s scrap with Adam and set fire to the altar cloth. It had caught quickly and already the flames were a foot high.

  “What are you doing?” Malc asked.

  “I need to close the doors. Get that hitcher out of Michael.”

  “Then I’m staying.”

  “No. You’ve got to get the others out of here. The hospital isn’t safe. It doesn’t want us here, you’ve seen that.” Seth could tell from the expression on Malc’s face that he had seen something on his way up here. From the years of the Adherents inhabiting this building, some of their power had seeped into the fabric of this place and corrupted it. It was haunted in a very true sense. Eventually, Malc nodded in agreement and took Alisha and Glenda by the hands, leading them to the exit. “Come on,” he called to Judy but she didn’t move.

  “I’m staying with Seth. He needs someone.”

  “We don’t have time for this.”

  “So go. Save the others.”

  “OK. You’ve got five minutes. I’ll get these out but if you’re not outside by then, I’m coming back for you.”

  Then he was gone.

  Seth hurried to one of the Almost Doors. The outline was not as bright as before. He tentatively reached out and let his fingers brush the surface of the door. As ever, he was amazed by the realness of the thing. For something that shouldn’t exist, it felt more real than anything around him. The texture of the wood grain under his fingers, the small imperfections as the paint had found the knots in the wood, holes from nails or woodworm.

  “They don’t like you being so near to them,” Judy said.

  “Come here.”

  She obliged, keeping a wary eye on the doors. “I’m trusting you’ve a plan.”

  “We open the doors.”

  “But you said this Almost Realm is on the other side.”

  “It is.”

  “And it would be a terrible idea to open the doors.”

  “It is.”

  “You’re not selling this,” she replied curtly.

  “The Almost Realm is dangerous, but only if we cross over. We need to make sure we stay on this side of the doorway and we’ll be fine.”

  “But how does opening the doors help us?”

  “The Adherents—the hitchers—shouldn’t be here. Their natural place is the Almost Realm. Opening the doors will expose them to the one place that they do belong. It will pull on them like a magnet. They’ll have no choice but to leave.”

  “And Michael?”

  “It should be enough to pull the hitcher from him as well.”

  Seth saw the fear in her eyes. She knew what it was to be afraid, and she didn’t let it stop her.

  She grabbed hold of a door handle.

  “On the count of three. Be prepared for them, keep out of their way. They should ignore us once the doors are open.”

  “What about anything else coming through?”

  “One problem at a time.”

  He grabbed a handle. “One,” he said. The Adherents were approaching. The wall of darkness across the room was shifting, tumbling blackness into blackness. The room suddenly felt very cold.

  “Two.” Judy was ready for this. Her feet were planted squarely on the floor, legs braced.

  “Thr—”

  The fist sent Seth reeling. Adam stood before him, his face tense with rage. “You didn’t think it would be so easy?”

  “Do it now, Judy!” Seth yelled.

  With a dogged expression, Judy pressed down on the handle and pulled open the door.

  34

  It was a tidal wave in reverse. The air pressure dropped and Seth felt a tug on his body, an insistent pulling on his chest. It was harder to breathe. Judy had braced herself against the wall, and using the open door, she was shielded from the worst of the turbulence.

  The effect on the Adherents was immediate. A noise like a howl heard over a dying radio signal came from the ones that had no bodies to claim. And they were being pulled towards the open doorway. A bright green light spilled out from the portal, casting the whole chamber in its sickly hue. Judy had pulled the door open as wide as she could and was now trying to find another handhold to brace against. The door didn’t want to remain open. There was a very real danger of Judy getting sucked into the Almost Realm. If that happened, there would be no saving her. The green light meant damnation. The end of the line.

  “You will pay for what you’ve done,” Adam promised. “I swear to torture every single person you ever cared about. And I’ll make sure they know their agony is due to you.”

  Seth was finding it hard to stay on his feet. The pressure created by the open realm door was building to a wind and it was whipping around the sanctum, building up into a terrible frenzy. The room was angry with them all. The wind would cleanse the room of its sins.

  Seth had turned, looking for an escape, when steel hands grabbed at his back. Without his shirt, he slipped the attempt and charged to the far end of the room, picking up a fallen chain as he went. He swung it behind him in a blind effort to strike his tormentor but it whizzed through empty space. Adam was already to his left and kicked at his knee. The pain was immediate and came with a sickening crunch. Seth could only drop to the floor, putting his weight on his unhurt right leg, and gasp at the sudden fire that burnt at his ligaments. Something was torn, or dislocated. Any hopes of outrunning the bastard were quickly shredded.

  Judy was having problems of her own.

  The handle of the Almost Door was burning her hand. It had been icy cold when she’d first grabbed hold, but the temperature had been steadily increasing until it had become almost unbearable. But letting go was not an option. Especially as the Adherents she was trying to expel were now so close. Their features were distorted. It reminded her of reflections in the Hall of Mirrors by the pier entrance. An invisible force was tearing the Adherents’ bodies into pieces. Their will alone to stay in this dimension would not be enough.

  Four of the Adherents were being ripped apart from their position at the centre of the pentagram. They must have thought it would be enough to protect them. But Judy didn’t think it worked like that at all. From what Seth had told her, she extrapolated that they were fighting elemental forces older than time. The closest Adherent was being lifted from its feet and as its nebulous form left the floor, it appeared even more like vapour. Insubstantial like a bad dream upon waking. She almost felt pity for the creature as the forces tore it in two and a plume of smoke rushed past her and into the open doorway.

  Across the room, the flames were making a lot of noise and smoke. Whatever happened in the next few minutes was all the time they had left. This room wouldn’t be habitable for much longer.

  The pressure increased by a degree of magnitude and she found it increasingly difficult to keep the door open. If she survived this, she concluded that her arms would be several inches longer.

  If she survived.

  Seth was demonstrating just how difficult it was to stay alive across from her. The thing that had taken over Johnny was devilish. She wasn’t a church goer, couldn’t remember a time she’d ever believed in God, but when faced with these terrors, it was difficult to ignore.

  Johnny, Adam, Satan. Were they not all the same thing? Did they not all want the same power, the rule of the weak and vulnerable? Dominion?

  She shook her head and the thoughts vanished. She didn’t feel like she belonged any more. The ideas didn’t seem to be hers.

  Adam kicked Seth. He landed several feet away. Plaster fell from the wall and a cloud of dust exploded around him. His taut features and the way his hand moved straight to his ribs told her all she needed to know about how badly he’d been hurt. Why wasn’t the open doorway affecting Adam?

  The remaining Adherents were being torn into pieces. A desperate howl began, but it was cut off as the spaces where their forms had been distorted. Shadows merged, facial features drew together, then apart. Claws softened, reached for something to grip but whatever t
angible form they’d been able to take before eluded them now. The Almost Realm forces were stripping them back to their bare energies. There was nothing to hurt them anymore.

  And then, with a final funnel of black shadow, twisting in the air like a rope formed of smoke, they were finally dragged back into the Almost Realm. The howling wind made it difficult to concentrate, dust caught in her eyes and she blinked furiously, trying to clear her vision.

  “Seth! Watch out.”

  Adam had picked up a length of chain and was swinging it in wide arcs, catching the floor and ceiling with his initial thrusts. Suddenly, he swept his arm wide and brought the chain back in a violent arc. It struck the plaster above Seth’s head and more debris fell on him. He brushed it aside then dragged himself along the edge of the sanctum. His eyes locked with hers for a moment and then back to his destination, the door to the treatment room and the escape through the hospital.

  What the hell? He couldn’t really be thinking of leaving her.

  She coughed. The smoke from the fire was being lifted and twisted through the air but with nowhere to flee to other than the open portal, much of it was coming back to her.

  Only Adam now. Why wasn’t the hitcher leaving his body? Seth had said the open door would be enough to extract it from Johnny’s body.

  The door handle was now almost too hot to bear. She switched hands, but the change didn’t make the discomfort go away.

  “I can’t hold it much longer!” She coughed again.

  “Then don’t,” Seth said. “Get out.”

  Seth was in more pain than he thought he’d ever been in his life. At least one rib was cracked, it was getting difficult to breathe, and he doubted whether he’d ever be able to use his left leg again. White fire owned it now and wasn’t letting go. But if he stayed, he died. He had to draw Adam away, so that Judy had a chance.

  The book.

  Two words in his ear. No. Just inside his ear. Nothing had been spoken.

  “Charlie?” he said urgently.

  Adam grabbed Seth and lifted him to his feet with one arm. Sweat coated Adam’s face, and Seth had a thought that he was melting like the wicked witch. If only it was that simple. He saw Judy, being pulled off her feet by the door.