If the Vigilance Society had been keeping tabs on him as Olivia had alluded to, they’d know about his return to the hospital and about his meeting with Adam. Perhaps they’d seen Adam and were keeping tabs on him as well. What would they do to him if they caught up with him? The man was walking around in another person’s body. Would they be able to expel him?
When Seth eventually fell asleep, it was the blackest kind of sleep that came when the body was most exhausted, the kind that came when the mind wasn’t prepared to deal with the burden of reality any more. It was deep and smothered Seth.
The dreams came from that blackness, but Seth recognised them as more than dreams. These visions were draining, pulling Seth into the space behind dreams where past and future collided.
He was back home, his first home where he’d lived as a baby until he left to live in a caravan on his own. The dining room table was just as he’d remembered it. Circular, dark walnut, the surface never treated nor cared for, ring marks from hot drinks scarring the varnish. In the centre, a small crystal vase that his parents had brought back from a weekend away at Coniston, a posy of plastic flowers embarrassing themselves by failing to look anything other than half-hearted.
Zooming out, he recognised his dad, a cigarette in hand, ashtray close, spilled ash on the table. But this was his dad from his childhood. He had more hair. The man across the table was his uncle. Back then, they looked much more alike than they did in later years. They could almost have been twins. Whilst his dad had gotten thinner and leaner over the years, his uncle had grown larger.
The position was fixed. Seth tried to look around him to see where his mum was, but he couldn’t shift the view. The vision was limiting what he was about to experience and when that happened, the best thing to do was try to relax and see what came of it.
The brothers were arguing. His dad was doing most of the talking, his fingers hammering his points home whilst Lamont took it calmly. It was a dignified, sedate argument. Lamont didn’t interject, preferring to wait until his dad had finished, but when he countered, he wasn’t giving his dad an inch. His face was cold, the eyes narrowed and calculating. Whatever they were arguing about, it meant a lot to both of them. It reached a peak when his uncle threw his arms up and stood abruptly, knocking the table and spilling more ash from the ashtray.
The vision switched. A flash of orange light and suddenly everything changed. Time had moved on. Seth was in an unfamiliar space, then he realised it was Lamont’s study, but back then it was the dining room of the house. Lamont was sitting across from a woman his own age, who was wearing a light summery dress and smiling. It was the smile of someone very much in love with Lamont. Wide eyes that couldn’t be pulled away from the host, a smile that said a thousand words, all of them kind.
Seth barely recognised Olivia Gwinn.
She was thirty years younger, just entering middle age. Candlesticks had been lit before them, their flames dancing, the light catching in the couples’ eyes.
Lamont’s face was relaxed. His eyes were locked with his guest’s, the half-eaten food on the plate forgotten whilst they shared wine and enjoyed each other’s company. It was the strangest feeling, watching these two in such an intimate setting. Seth reminded himself that this happened a long time ago.
Why was he seeing this?
When the first green lines appeared on the dining room walls, Seth tried to shout out a warning. Sound came but neither Lamont nor Olivia reacted, they just continued eating and chatting. The doors were all around them. Almost Doors, ripening into existence, faster than he’d ever seen them appear before, like they were always there waiting just below the surface.
Seth couldn’t move. The light became brighter, a green blaze that hurt his eyes. Seth screamed another warning. The light was total, complete, consuming all other sights. And then Olivia did a surprising thing, she put her hand on Lamont’s arm, and she tilted her head. Did she hear him? Her eyes suddenly met his own, and a chill ran across Seth’s back. A second later, the green fire consumed the scene.
Seth woke.
Sweat covered his body and his chest hurt.
The two had been more than just acquaintances. Olivia had been holding back on him. His pulse quickened. Why would she do that?
With the heavy curtains on the windows closed, the bedroom was gloomy and it took Seth a moment to realise he wasn’t alone.
Lamont was standing at the end of his bed.
This was an older Lamont, the Lamont he’d seen two nights ago at the vicarage, only then he'd failed to recognise his uncle. Now it was obviously him. The intense eyes were so similar to his dad’s, the grim smile, another legacy of the Loomis genes.
Seth didn’t move, afraid that the vision would end, and he’d be alone.
“What do you need me to do?” Seth asked, noticing now that his voice was dry, his throat parched.
His uncle didn’t answer. Even if he did, Seth wouldn’t have been able to hear it. Seth just wasn’t powerful enough. But he spotted the clenched fist. Lamont raised his hand then opened it to reveal a key.
The key looked about two inches long, dark metal. No signs of rust or tarnish.
“What’s it for?”
His uncle promptly turned and headed out of the room, passing through the closed door as if it were open. Seth grabbed a t-shirt and pulled it on before following. Seth thought he’d lost him, but as he rounded the end of the staircase, he saw his uncle walk across the hallway downstairs and disappear into the study.
The study with a safe in the corner that Seth hadn’t been able to open. The safe that took a key.
Seth ran down the steps, his heart racing at the thought of what this might mean. What was his uncle trying to show him?
He opened the study door and saw his uncle by the fireplace, completely ignoring the safe in the corner. Seth hesitated, not wanting to interrupt. Lamont was doing something to the fire surround. The fire surround was a dark wood, and the mantelpiece edged with intricate carvings. Seth had noticed the fine detailed work when he’d been in here tidying, but at the time it hadn’t struck him as anything important.
Lamont’s fingers found what he was searching for and he paused, his index finger resting on an acorn, right in the centre of the design. His uncle turned to face Seth and regarded him with a sadness in his eyes that made Seth want to hug the man and tell him that everything would be all right. No matter how events panned out, Lamont had done all he could to keep the world safe from the likes of Adam Cowl and his Adherents, risking his own life by hoarding the occult collection in the basement. What else had the man sacrificed?
Lamont vanished.
When a vision ended, there was always that moment of crashing back to reality. Now was no different and Seth stumbled as he was drawn back into the real world, placing a hand on the wall to steady himself. His uncle had shown him something important. What was it though? Seth almost tripped on the curled-up edges of the rug as he hurried to the fireplace. He found the acorn his uncle had indicated and inspected it carefully. The wooden detailing had been beautifully carved. The acorn was only one instance of many along the repeating design, and Seth couldn’t discern anything special about this particular one. But then, he saw the fine line at the base of the shape, a line that encircled the carving.
Seth pressed the acorn button and felt the click as the secret mechanism released. A drawer appeared, about the size of a large box of matches and from within, Seth picked up the key that his uncle had been holding.
With the cold metal clasped tightly in his hand, Seth glanced at the safe in the corner.
A sickening dread pulled at his insides. Was this going to work? Whatever secrets lay inside that thing, Lamont wanted them exposed.
The key slipped effortlessly in the lock and turned with the lightest of clicks.
Seth’s hand was trembling as he pulled down on the safe’s handle and cranked open the door.
The Book of the Fourth was lying on the top shelf, almost like
it had been waiting for him.
28
His uncle was an Adherent.
That was the only reason he would have a copy of the book in a safe in his study. Olivia had told him that there were few copies and Adherents were expected to protect their own with their lives.
Seth could only stare at the inside of the safe, looking for something else, something that might explain why Lamont had a copy. Could it be somebody else’s? Seth gingerly reached in and pulled out the book, his fingers tingling as they touched the rugged leather cover. It was similar but not identical to the copy he’d seen at Ravenmeols during the ritual. The book was about A5 sized and had been hand bound and stitched; the pages were crinkled with age and rough on their edges. On the front, a pentagram symbol, scratched into the leather.
Seth turned the cover back and the first page confirmed it was the book he’d been looking for. The title had been written in a dark black ink, a fountain pen’s distinctive loops and whirls. Lamont’s name had been added in printed letters at the bottom of the page and a dark red smudge that Seth suspected was blood beside it.
Seth put the book down on the top of the safe and stepped away. He didn’t want this to be true. It couldn’t be. His uncle had worked for the Vigilance Society until their split. He’d spent years scooping up occult detritus that had been out in the open to keep it away from those that might use it to harm. Olivia wouldn’t have been so close to him if Lamont had been connected with the Adherents.
Would she? It got him wondering about her backstory and reminded him that he really knew very little about her.
Seth shook his head and flung the book back into the safe, slamming the door shut, then locking it. He took the key with him as he quickly left the room and headed for the kitchen. Despite the early hours, he flicked on the kettle and started to make a coffee. The routine helped him focus and as he listened to the steam building and the water boiling, he wondered how much of what he knew about his uncle had come from other people. Practically all of it. He’d not seen his uncle for over ten years, probably longer, and back then he hadn’t much interest in the man. He never even knew what the man did for a living. Something had happened between Seth’s dad and his uncle. There had always been the suggestion that they were never that close, but never any indication that there had been anything more serious underlying it. What had his vision been about? The start of a feud?
When had his uncle first got involved in the Adherents? Was that what they were fighting about? It was a sickening thought that Lamont had been mixed up with the same people responsible for the deaths at Ravenmeols.
But other things made sense if he considered that Lamont had been an Adherent. He’d been able to collect a large collection of occult artefacts on his own. His network for acquiring them must have been solid, and Seth wondered how many dodgy people he must have known to get this far.
Seth felt like he might need to be sick.
Upon returning to the study with his coffee, he retrieved the book from the safe and settled down in an armchair to flick through it. And then he discovered the text wasn’t written in English. He didn’t know the language the book was written in, but it wasn’t anything familiar. He grabbed his phone and typed in a few words into an online translation service but it spat out gibberish and failed to detect the language.
The text throughout was in the same handwriting as the title page and had been scribed neatly in a tiny disciplined hand. Many of the pages contained images, and these were minor works of art, each a combination of black and red ink. Some depicted objects that he could well imagine residing in the basement beneath his feet. Some appeared to be more abstract in nature. Seth worked his way through the book, trying to find anything that might explain what was so special about the painting, but if that intelligence was even there, it was too opaque for him to find.
But that wasn’t the only reason why he had wanted to find a copy of the book was it? Olivia had mentioned why the books were so important and now Seth’s mind was flooded with the idea that there was information inside that would help him reach Kelly. She was in the Almost Realm; he was sure of it. It had been her who’d opened the door and saved him from the fall at Ravenmeols, and even though he couldn’t remember what it had been like on the other side, he had the strongest feeling that he’d connected with someone significant. It was Kelly, it had to be. But how could he find what he needed when he didn’t even know what language he was looking at?
Undeterred, he took another sip of his drink and continued perusing the book.
29
“What are we doing here, Mum? I’m already late for school.” Jemma had calmed down a lot but her tone had shifted to the voice of a young girl again, back before she’d had to face high school, back to when she still needed her mum.
Judy had parked on the main road outside Seth’s house. It was larger than she remembered on her first visit and she wondered how she’d have felt if she'd been bequeathed something so expensive. Some chance. Most of her relatives were broke, living off the back of government pensions and enjoying the life of Bingo and drink. Her own parents lived on the east coast, four hours’ drive away. They didn’t do technology; they barely even drove anywhere. Phil had liked those aspects about them very much. Moving back to the east coast wasn’t even something Judy considered. What would be the point? They were hardly the best of parents. Many evenings, she’d have to come home from school and make her own tea, often, she’d be expected to make theirs as well. And like the stupid, naive girl she was back then, she thought that was entirely normal. She’d vowed that Jemma wouldn’t be brought up in an environment as cold as that. Her daughter deserved the life she’d not experienced herself.
And Jemma didn’t get it.
Instead, she got a life with her and Phil.
Judy shivered and got out of the car. The traffic was still light in this part of town and she heard pigeons cooing on the rooftops of the houses around. But none on the roof of Seth’s house.
Jemma followed her mum’s lead and stood beside her on the pavement. “What is this place?”
“It belongs to a friend.”
Jemma raised an eyebrow. “A friend?”
Judy noticed the look. “Just a friend.”
“Oh,” Jemma replied, disappointed.
Judy opened the boot and pulled out a large sports bag.
“Why have you brought that? I’m meant to be going to school.”
“Not right now. Not today.” Judy hitched the strap across her shoulder and locked the car.
“You’re keeping me out of school? You can’t do that. I’ve got my test today. If this is about that woman following me, don’t worry. I’m fine.”
“The test will have to wait until you go back.”
“But when will that be? You’ll get into trouble. You’ll get a fine.”
“I’ve already left a message on the office answering machine. Told them you’re sick. There won’t be a fine.” Judy smiled and glanced expectantly at her daughter, hoping there would be a smile in return. Instead, she got the impassive, stony face of a young girl who wasn’t getting her own way. “Hey, I’m sorry, but this is important.”
“Is this where you were last night?”
“Come again?” Judy began the walk across the tarmac to the front porch, reluctantly followed by Jemma.
“Have you got a boyfriend?”
“No, of course I haven’t.”
“Because, if you have, that would be OK. I wouldn’t mind.” Jemma seemed amused by the thought her mum might have a life outside of home.
“I’m honestly not dating anyone. This is just a friend.”
“Seth by any chance?”
Judy rang the doorbell. A flash of something. A blast of nausea. She wobbled and Jemma was there to steady her.
“You OK?”
Judy didn’t know. It was like those times back home when she’d thought she wasn’t alone when she knew that the house was empty. A feeling that she was being
watched from the inside out. A warning to get away from here and never come back. She glanced to the floor and to her left, certain that she’d heard movement from that direction.
This was a mistake. Jemma should be in school. That would be safe enough whilst she worked out what she would do next. Coming here wasn’t the smart move.
But just as she was turning away and pulling on Jemma’s arm to go back to the car, the door opened and Seth stepped out. His face was tight, but his eyes widened upon seeing who it was.
“Hey, what are you doing here?”
He’d just woken up. His hair was flattened on his left side and he was blinking against the light, shielding his view with a raised hand.
“I’m sorry, we should be going.”
And then he noticed Jemma and his expression darkened. “You’re Jemma, right?”
“Yeah, and you’re Seth?”
“Yeah.” And he fixed Judy with a look of intense concern. “Why would you bring her here?”
Judy sighed. “I think they came for my daughter. I needed somewhere to stay where we could think.”
Seth hesitated before nodding insistently that they should come inside and he firmly shut the door behind them, flicking over four separate sets of locks and bolts.
And they stood awkwardly in the hallway. Seth seemed on edge, and it wasn’t just that he’d woken up. This was the first time Judy had been inside the house before and she felt a chill run through her. It was like she’d stepped out from the sun-blasted beach, right into a freezer. Jemma gripped her hand and took a step away from Seth. They both looked around, Jemma peering up the stairwell, unashamed to be so nosey, Judy couldn’t keep her eyes from the doorway at the end of the hall where she could see a line of kitchen cupboards. Something was very wrong in that direction, the same feeling she’d felt from the outside of the house. A faint trembling came through the floor and she glanced at Jemma but her daughter hadn’t seemed to notice.
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