The Dark Corners Box Set

by Robert Scott-Norton

  “Call him,” Adam said. “He has ten minutes.”

  Malc looked at Georgia and a spark passed. His arm pressed into her side and she almost flinched when her finger caught the edge of the knife he’d concealed behind his back all this time. The meaning was clear, she’d have to take it from him whilst he called. Deftly, she took the knife, veiled the movement as an encouraging rub of his arm, then shifted it to lie behind her back, resting against her buttocks.

  Free of the knife, Malc pulled out his mobile and made the call. After a minute he thumbed the end call button. “There’s no answer.”

  “You’re playing for time.”

  “I’m not. He’s not there.”

  She heard the truth in his voice, or what she’d once believed to be his truthful voice. Georgia realised that she couldn’t trust anything she thought she knew about him anymore. If only a fraction of what he’d told her earlier had been true, then she was back to early days in getting to know her husband. One thing she didn’t think he could lie about was the love he had for Joe, and she knew in her bones that he wouldn’t do anything to risk Joe’s life.

  “Try again.”

  “I’m telling you he’s not there.”

  “Do it!” Adam commanded, punctuating his point with his knife.

  She didn’t know what she was doing until she started to move, and even then, she was acting in a haze of adrenaline. Georgia rushed Adam and slashed his arm with her own knife. In that moment of her knife striking, she yanked Joe from his grip and swung him at Malc.

  “Bitch!” Adam flung his arm to smash it against Georgia’s body. She dropped, clutching her stomach. Oh my God, how could something hurt so much? Adam was stronger than a man rotting from the inside out had any right to be.

  She caught an impression of a leg being raised, and realised this would be her final few moments alive, but the foot didn’t get a chance to connect with her face, a secondary movement from the opposite side moved even quicker and collided with Adam.

  Malc was fast and struck Adam hard in the face with fists that blurred as she watched. An anger, the likes of which she’d never seen before, etched on his face, turning him into a stranger. The peaceful god-loving son of a bitch was fighting the decaying man, forcing him back against the fireplace. A picture frame fell to the floor and glass shattered.

  Small hands helped Georgia to her knees, then to her feet, and she embraced Joe and turned to take him from the room.

  But the way was blocked. A shadowman guarded the exit. There was no way past. The window then.

  Adam was taking a pounding. Malc was delivering on his promise to always protect her and Joe. Tendons were prominent on his neck. Strain punctuated his arms, muscles taut. The two fighting figures were well pitted against each other. Adam was desperate and desperate men were a force to be reckoned with. But her husband was a desperate man as well, protecting those he loved.

  Joe, understanding what she meant to do, was ahead of her, and working on the window catch, his child fingers struggling with the awkward mechanism. He cried silent tears, determined not to let his emotions slow him down. Like his father then.

  Gently, she moved him aside whilst she opened the catch and swung the window open. The air outside, quickly found its way in, and the normal banality of the May morning refreshed and energised her. They could do this.

  The TV fell as two bodies behind collided. Plastic and glass crunched. Joe shrieked. Malc was on his feet first, snatching at the first heavy object that came to hand, his son’s swimming trophy. He struck Adam with it. The trophy smashed on impact.

  “Mum!” Joe screamed. A second shadowman had grabbed him, hands like claws digging into her son’s fragile arms.

  The cry distracted Malc at precisely the wrong time. He spun, reaching for Joe, only for Adam to deliver a punch to Malc’s face that sent him flying back across the room. His head struck the wall, and he slumped to the carpet, dazed.

  More doorways appeared. Green light was spilling into the room, drowning the natural light. Adam paused, amused by the change.

  “I want that piece of painting. Your friend knows where it is and he knows where to bring it. Let’s call it an exchange. He’s got until midnight.”

  Suddenly, the doorway closest to the shadowman slammed open and Georgia could no longer see anything. Her vision consumed by a terrible brightness that burned brighter than the sun. Quickly, she closed her eyes and flew towards where her son had been, no longer caring that she was running blind. She cried to Malc to help her, and she heard a movement from his side of the room.

  And a noise that sounded like the decaying man was laughing.

  She tried to open her eyes to guide her, fine tune her direction, but she was blinking furiously, her eyes watering too much and that green light that was so intense it caused a pain at the back of her eyes.

  “Joe!” she called.

  And she heard her son call back to her, and then the noise was cut off abruptly.

  Georgia knocked into a wall and opened her eyes.

  The light had gone. The room was a mess. Broken.

  But then the room was also empty of her son.

  All that remained was her and Malc.

  She collapsed on the floor and screamed.

  31

  They both watched Jemma hurry up the footpath to the school entrance and Judy didn’t pull away until the reception doors had closed behind her daughter. She wasn’t about to let her daughter come with them to the hospital and she wouldn’t leave her alone in Seth’s house or their own. It wouldn’t be fair to bring her to the hospital whilst waiting for news on Seth’s dad. There were too many memories waiting to be stirred, too many realities that needed to be acknowledged. Jemma wasn’t ready for the whole truth about her father, but one day she would be and Judy prayed that she’d be strong enough to tell her everything.

  School was the safest place for her for a few hours at least. Jemma had seemed happy enough to face the music for being late, the pair of them concocting an excuse en route that they’d had a flood at home and Jemma had stayed to help her mum sort things out.

  She shook her head, popped the car into drive and pulled away from the kerb. She glanced at Seth. He’d been quiet since the phone call from his mum. From what she’d gathered from the little Seth had revealed, he hadn’t spent any time with his parents since leaving home to live in the caravan. The situation had been strained ever since Kelly’s death and Judy found it easy to empathise with them. A tragedy like that was bound to cause lasting friction within the family. Seth had taken the easy option by bailing, but it might have been the best all around. He was possibly hoping that one day, they’d reconcile and things would go back to how they were.

  Throughout the drive, Judy felt uncomfortable. The doors had been terrifyingly real today. It was one thing encountering them in a haunted asylum, quite another to see them swarm your typical suburban house. It was a poor reflection on Seth’s state of mind that he’d not been able to notice the Almost Doors in his own home. If she hadn’t been there, would he have been able to get out in time? And there was that book, had that something to do with the doors becoming active?

  At the main junction before the hospital, Judy paused at the traffic lights and rubbed the back of her neck irritably. There was something she’d forgotten. What the hell was it?

  Don’t think about it.

  Back at her house, after meeting Jocelyn Scardovi, she’d found something with that painting Jocelyn had given her. What had it been?

  Gingerly, she began to roll the sleeve of her blouse up. There was an itch. A gentle pressure on her forearm like fingers gripping her flesh. She needed to see what was hidden underneath the fabric, discover what was sheltering on her skin.

  Let it go. You don’t need to look.

  When she realised that the thought wasn’t hers, her mind froze.

  A car horn sounded. Seth tapped her on the arm.

  “You all right?” he asked.

  �
��Yeah, sorry. Don’t know what I’m doing.” And she put the car into gear and drove on, lifting a hand in apology to the driver behind.

  It took fifteen minutes to reach the hospital. Judy pulled up by the entrance to Accident and Emergency and waited for Seth to get out.

  “Do you want me to come and find you?” she asked.

  “No. I won’t be long.”

  “Seriously, Seth, take as long as you need. I’ll find a space in the car park and come looking soon.”

  He nodded and hurried inside.

  She parked up and switched the engine off. Her head was heavy and she fancied if she were to place her head against the window, she’d be able to catch a few winks before looking for Seth. She’d barely had two hours sleep that morning. After getting back home and finding out what had happened to Jemma, her brain had been racing non-stop. She imagined that nightmares were always there for her now, just waiting under the surface for her to fall asleep.

  You could leave Seth. You know where you need to go.

  She could leave. Why should she wait around for him? He’s done nothing but brought trouble to her door. She brushed her fingers through her hair and thought how lifeless it felt. Years ago, she’d never have left the house looking like this, unkempt and scruffy. Phil would have frowned at her and gone into one of his sulks, and when that happened, she only had a small window of time to bring him back from the edge of his anger.

  She glanced at her sleeve and thought about attempting to look under the material. Her fingers traced the edge of the fabric and she withdrew quickly. She had nothing to prove. Whatever was under there could wait until later.

  Seth had only been inside for ten minutes when she noticed another car pull up into the ambulance bay. She thought she recognised the vehicle but wasn’t sure until the female driver went to the passenger side and pulled out Malc. The woman was crying for someone to help her. That must be Malc’s wife.

  Judy ran across and lent in to support Malc on his left, leaving the woman to bolster his right side.

  “What happened?” Judy asked.

  “He was attacked,” came the reply. “I’m sorry, do I know you?” Together they brought him inside the department. A nurse talking to a receptionist behind the glass spotted them and came rushing out to meet them.

  “Let’s get him onto a trolley,” he said, then noticing the car parked in the ambulance bay said, “You’ll need to get that moved.” Awkwardly, they got Malc onto a trolley. Judy held the vicar’s hand and took in the dark shadow over his left eye. A deep gash had been slashed in his forehead above his brow.

  “A man broke into our house, he did this. He’s taken our son.”

  The nurse stopped what he was doing, then shouted across to a woman in a white coat. She hurried over. “We need this patient in a bay,” she said, examining his head injuries. “Let’s go.”

  “Come over here, he needs booking in.” The nurse led Malc’s companion away, leaving Judy staring at her departing back.

  Judy rushed to the desk, grabbed the woman’s arm. “Who’s taken Joe?”

  Georgia’s face was dazed. She was in a deep state of shock.

  “The burnt man took him. His name was Adam.”

  Judy turned to the receptionist. “I need you to find me Seth Loomis. His dad’s in here.”

  “I’m just dealing with this lady—”

  “Find him. This can’t wait.”

  32

  How had it all got so complicated?

  Seth’s dad was in a stable condition. His mum had been surprised to see him and there had been an awkward but heartfelt hug that covered up the tears.

  Judy had found him and taken him to Georgia where she told him about Joe’s abduction.

  “This is your fault,” she’d said. “All your fault.”

  Thoughts of his dad were pushed to the side to be picked up later. He at least was in the safest place for him which was more than he could say about poor Joe. The boy would be terrified. Just seeing a man so twisted in your home would be enough to fuel nightmares for the rest of your life. What would being abducted through the Almost Realm do to you?

  Judy had driven Seth to his parent’s house. He knew where the spare key was and had quickly made his way inside and back up to his childhood bedroom. If he was going after Adam and his cult, he would get as prepared as he was able. He might recover what he’d lost and become whole once more.

  Half an hour later, Judy found Seth smoking by the back door.

  “Did you find what you were looking for?” He looked guiltily at her and for a moment tried to hide the cigarette like some naughty schoolboy. He shrugged and took another drag before stubbing it out on the brickwork and dropping the half-used cigarette into the kitchen bin.

  “Thought I’d kicked the habit.”

  “Hell of a day to start again.”

  “Figured it couldn’t get much worse.” He sounded tired, and his eyes were lifeless. He’d aged in the last twenty-four hours. She guessed she had as well. “No,” he said. “He wasn’t there.”

  “It was a long shot. There was no reason to think it would be here waiting for you.”

  “Except he should be here. He left me to fend for myself on the top of the hospital.”

  “You don’t believe that. Not really. Your hitcher saved you. Gave you enough time to get away.”

  “By jumping off the roof.”

  Now it was her time to shrug. “Perhaps it wasn’t as simple as you’d like to think. How much do you really know about the shadowmen? You don’t know why some of them hitch onto us. We’ve only got Adam’s word that the shadowmen at the hospital were connected with the Adherents at all.”

  “When Charlie was with me, he showed me things.”

  “But you still see things. Your visions have nothing to do with whether you have a hitcher. You’re a medium. That’s part of what makes you who you are.”

  The first drops of rain were falling and with it came a light breeze that made her hug her arms close. She noticed Seth shiver, and he skimmed his hand over his face, brushing past a light stubble.

  “I can’t do this. I don’t think I can get Joe back.”

  “Then we make a new plan. We call the police.”

  “I’m sorry I dragged you back into it. I know you don’t want any of this.”

  A couple of days ago, he’d have been spot on. This definitely wasn’t what she imagined she’d be doing once Phil had gone. A sickening feeling settled in her stomach when she realised that she still had all of this to explain to Jemma.

  “What happened to me at the hospital, with my…” she floundered on the words, “abilities. Was any of that because of you? Am I seeing doors and visions because of you?”

  Seth slowly shook his head. “I don’t see how.”

  “So, what do you have to apologise for? As far as I see it, I was developing this sense, anyway. I’m grateful that I’ve met somebody who can help explain what it all means because if this had happened to me and I was dealing with it on my own, I’d have gone insane. Seriously. You’ve saved me from the embarrassment of going to the doctors and trying to explain what’s happening.” At the hospital, when they were tied up in the sanctum awaiting their fate, Roy had suggested it hadn’t been a coincidence that they'd been brought together. And that implied they were somehow monitoring people like her and Seth. Those that had this extra sense. “They’d have come for me eventually, even if I hadn’t gone to the hospital. At least this way, I’m prepared. Well, as prepared as I can be.”

  Seth nodded. “We should get going. I don’t think coming here was a good idea. Adam has Joe. He’s given us until Midnight.”

  She understood. “If we're going to go it alone, we need a plan.”

  “I never said we would go it alone.” Seth had his phone out and a small rectangle of card was pulled from a trouser pocket. “There’s still somebody we can ask for help.”

  33

  Judy had driven taxi-driver fast to get back to Seth’
s, and she’d been quiet all the way. She’d barely spoken since Seth had made his phone call. Shouldn’t she be happy that they had an ally? Finally, there was somebody’s expertise they could tap into instead of being reliant on Seth’s patchy knowledge. But she’d not said a word since getting in the car for the journey home.

  Strange that after only a few days he was already thinking of this haunted building as his home. His dad must know that the property had been bequeathed to him. Seth couldn’t guess how that would have made him feel? Anger that it hadn’t gone to him instead? Had that had any impact on his health? Was that why he’d had a stroke?

  But the collection. Oh yes, that was the ball and chain. The reason his uncle hadn’t left it to his brother. He wanted to protect him from this world. Seth respected his uncle for that decision and silently thanked him for leaving his parents out of it.

  “But what about the Almost Doors? They’re all over your house.” Judy had a fair point.

  “I’d be surprised if they’re still there. They were there to push us out of the house. They wanted to retrieve the book.” His heart sank at the thought of losing his uncle’s copy of the Book of the Fourth and the secrets that lay within.

  Olivia was waiting for them on the porch. “I’m sorry about your dad.”

  “You’ve really got to stop spying on me.”

  “If there’s anything I can do.”

  “There’s plenty you can do, but first things first.” He explained about their leaving the house in a hurry earlier.

  She frowned. “I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to go back inside.”

  “I think we’ll be safe enough. I think Adam sent the doors. I found Lamont’s copy of the Book of the Fourth. Tell me, how long had you known he was an Adherent? I’m presuming that’s why the two of you went your separate ways.”