The Dark Corners Box Set

by Robert Scott-Norton

  Her nostrils flared. “Lamont was never an Adherent. He kept that book because it was dangerous.”

  “That book had his name in it. It belonged to him. It was hand copied by him. Whatever he was doing with it, it wasn’t as innocent as you suspect.”

  Seth opened the front door and stood on the threshold, getting a feel of the place. Judy came to stand beside him. “There’s nothing here. They’ve gone.”

  Seth led the way inside and hurried to the study where he’d last left the book. The room was no messier than he remembered but a chill ran up his arms as he entered the room all the same. He hadn’t been the last person to have been in there.

  “Is it here?” Judy asked.

  Seth came out shaking his head. “It’s gone all right. Damn.”

  “Don’t dwell on it. There’s nothing you can do about that now. We’ve got bigger problems.”

  They gathered around the central kitchen island.

  There was no time for pleasantries. Seth had already filled Olivia in on what had happened with Adam at the vicarage.

  “I don’t mean to be rude, but why is it just you?” Judy asked Olivia, no attempt to hide her disdain. “What difference is having you with us going to make?”

  The older woman looked affronted, and touched a finger to her earring, adjusting the back absentmindedly. “What gave you the impression I was coming with you?”

  Judy’s eyes darted from Olivia’s to Seth’s then back to Olivia’s. “I thought you were helping us.”

  “I’m hardly a spring chicken. I’m not much use in a fight.” A crack of a smile flitted across her face and it reminded Seth of a cat slyly watching the birds enjoy the bird table whilst stalking them. “But you don’t need more people. You need a way to stop Adam and you only do that by ripping him from his body.”

  “You’re saying you can help with that? We tried that before at the hospital, using the Almost Doors to draw out the Adherents from the bodies they’d snatched.”

  “But Adam escaped,” she said dourly. “I’m well aware of that. But I wasn’t talking about using the doors against them. Just because it worked last time on some, it doesn’t mean it will work this time. And you can’t be sure that any doors will appear, anyway. No, what I’m suggesting is that you use something else. Something you already have in your possession.”

  Her eyes rested on Seth’s. What did she mean? Then it came to him. Pieces of an idea started to appear. They just needed fitting together. “You’re talking about the collection. There’s something in there we can use.”

  She nodded, slowly like humouring a small child. “I’m sure you’ve appraised yourself of everything in the collection by now.”

  Seth glanced at the basement door. A faint vibration ran up his feet and tickled his belly. The damn thing was laughing at him. “Not everything, no.” And shit, he hadn’t yet gone down there today checking up on the collection. No wonder it was restless.

  Olivia smiled a knowing smile, the most perfect of smiles that let Seth know exactly what she thought of the situation. Seth felt stupidly like he should apologise to her, bow down to her weight of expertise. But he wouldn’t. No way was he giving her the satisfaction.

  “The soul mirror.” Seth walked away from the island and stood facing the basement door. “It’s on the second rack to the right, top shelf. Lamont kept a black tablecloth over it.”

  “Actually, it’s the burial shroud of a dark mage.” Olivia stated this remarkable fact with the same calm she might if she was communicating when the next bus was due to arrive.

  Seth shrugged. “The mirror is listed in Lamont’s catalogue. It has the power to conjure an entity. Anyone foolish enough to stare into the mirror for longer than a few seconds will seal their fate.”

  “How does conjuring this entity help us? Will it fight for us?” Judy asked.

  “The mirror is complicated,” Olivia explained. “It isn’t for just anyone to gaze upon. The entity trapped within will show itself, but only to those it deems worthy. To anyone else, it merely sucks out their souls.” She let her words rest between them. When it clicked with Seth, he straightened.

  “It works like the doors. It can suck Adam’s soul right out of Johnny’s body. Trap him in the mirror.”

  “By accounts, it can only hold one soul, but if you steal Adam’s, the rest of the Adherents should fall back.”

  “They’ll regroup,” Judy said. “Come back again.”

  “Maybe, but this will give you the opportunity to get the boy back and trap the one person who’s been driving them for decades. The Adherents are troublesome but without their leader, their approach is haphazard. It will give you the time we need to make a move against the others vying for power.”

  “What others?”

  “Adam has been gone a long time and he left a void. We’re keeping track of others who want to fill that void and lead the Adherents.”

  “Someone like Kain Scardovi?” Judy asked.

  Olivia nodded. “Kain was a charismatic man, very much like Adam. There were those in the group who would gladly follow him.”

  “Kain and Adam have both been out of the picture for two decades. What’s happened to the Adherents in that time?” Seth asked.

  “To be honest, it’s difficult to know for sure.”

  “Don’t you have people on the inside?”

  “You’ve got us confused with a cop show. It would be impossible for a member of Vigilance to pass the tests to get close enough to report back.” She glanced out of the window but there was something in her body language that suggested to Seth that she wasn’t telling the truth, or at least not the whole truth. It was one he would file away for asking later.

  “So, without a solid leader, they’ve been lost. But now that Adam is back and Kain is on the way, you’re getting worried, aren't you?”

  She pursed her lips then shook her head. “There’s little point in worrying.”

  “Even about the Unravelling?”

  That stopped the head shaking. Seth may as well have slapped her cheek. “Where did you hear that word?”

  “Here and there,” Seth replied, enjoying this moment of one-upmanship.

  “Where? I demand that you tell me.”

  “You can demand all you like. Now, maybe if you tell me what you know about the Unravelling, I would be happy to share what I know.”

  For a few seconds, Seth thought he’d gone a step too far. He needed the Vigilance Society more than it needed him and there was little point in antagonising them.

  “The information I have on what that word means can only be shared with other members of Vigilance. I’m afraid I can’t share with an outsider.”

  It looked like she was about to say something else when there was a stronger vibration through the floorboards. Judy’s face whitened. “Is that the collection doing that?”

  “It wants some attention. Unless you’ve got anything else to help us with, I think we’re probably done,” Seth said, keeping his expression neutral and his head facing Olivia.

  “There is one more thing,” Olivia began, “but it must be in private.” She cast a glance at Judy and to her credit, Judy resisted in looking annoyed.

  “One minute,” Seth said, and he smiled wanly at Judy. “Don’t go down there without me. I’ll be as quick as I can.” And he led Olivia out of the kitchen and into Lamont’s office at the front of the house, feeling Judy’s eyes burning into his back every step of the way. “Now, what do you want to talk about?” he asked Olivia as he closed the door and shut Judy out.

  34

  “What did you talk about?” Judy had waited until they’d left Southport and were on the way to Marsden before she asked the question that had clearly been on her mind ever since they’d left the house.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Seth replied, and kept his eyes on the road. He was starving and desperately wanted to stop off to get something to eat but at the same time he was feeling sick at the thought of how scared Joe must be. Un
til now, he’d been able to compartmentalise his worries, but they had a long journey ahead and he couldn’t push aside the images of Joe with the shadowmen and Adam.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  “I do too.” He rolled his shoulders back in the seat and tried to loosen some of the knots building there. “I’m sorry, for everything.”

  She didn’t reply. Seth assumed she didn’t want to hear his platitudes, but he did genuinely mean it.

  If the mirror worked how Olivia expected, they had a fighting chance of getting in and saving Joe. He shivered thinking of the thing that was lying face down, still under its shroud in the boot of the car. The thing was only a metre away and he could feel its dark malevolence snapping at his subconscious. Whatever that entity was, it was hungry.

  “How do we know that the mirror will target Adam and not us?”

  “We don’t. We’ll make sure we’re on the other side of the mirror when we take the cover off. Just don’t look at it.”

  “You think that will be enough?”

  “I think we're going to have to keep our wits about us. The plan will work. It has to. We have to get Joe out.”

  “You don’t think Adam will really… I mean, he’s only a boy.”

  “You don’t really need to ask that do you?”

  They continued the rest of the journey in silence.

  35

  “That was the turning,” Judy said, glancing at her phone then back at the junction disappearing behind them.

  The afternoon sun had given itself over to the early evening twilight. Clouds roamed the slate sky, oppressing the land beneath. Seth drove quickly past the road he’d parked on the other day but cast a glance to his left and checked out the view. He got an image of the track leading up through the woods and although he couldn’t see the house from the road, he had the craziest irrational feeling that it was still somehow able to watch them.

  “They’ll be monitoring the approaches. We need to find a way in from the side. If we can get around to the west, we can cut through the woods and get close to the back of the house.”

  “But we’ve got to get the mirror in there. I don’t see how we do that without him getting suspicious.”

  Seth had been worried about that since they’d first pulled the mirror up from the basement. With what they hoped to achieve with it, Seth had assumed it would be much heavier than it was. Judy had a fair point. The mirror was just small enough for one of them to hold, but it was an awkward hold and was not something one can do without drawing attention. But this is where the woods would come in helpful. They could get close without being seen. And these clouds could only help by blocking out some of the approaching moonlight.

  Seth explained all this as he took the next left and saw a sign for the Talbot Hotel. As he pulled in, Judy was still questioning his judgement. “If this is the best plan you’ve got, I think we’re in serious trouble.”

  “We have nothing else. It’s a decent plan. It will work.”

  “Now’s the time you tell me what you and Olivia Gwinn were discussing. I trust there’s a reason you’re not sharing that.”

  Seth pulled the car into a space in the hotel’s car park and switched off the ignition. The place was half-full. A nicely dressed couple in their sixties were heading back to their Audi, the man stumbled as he crossed the back of Seth’s car, then turned to look in their direction before stopping completely in the middle of the car park. The woman with him tapped him on the arm and gently drew him away, laughing at him like he was too drunk to be driving, and digging her hand into his pocket to retrieve his car keys. The mirror was sending out signals, vibrations all the time, broadcasting its presence, waiting to see who would bite.

  “My conversation with Olivia had nothing to do with the plan. Trust me.”

  “It would be easier to believe you if you weren’t holding back on me. Why isn’t the Vigilance Society here? They keep the Adherents in check, don’t they? So, they should be here helping us.”

  She was shaking. A thin sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead. It wasn’t that hot, but then Seth realised she had driven with her window half down. Was she ill? Stressed about the plan? It made Seth nervous. “We should go, we don’t have much time.”

  They got out of the car and Judy proceeded to the boot. Seth got there first and frowned. Something was wrong. Once he’d opened the boot and saw the uncovered mirror he moved quickly, a desperate arm snatching for the fallen shroud. He pulled it back over the mirror, but his first attempt was clumsy and the material dropped away, revealing the silvered glass in all its terrible glory.

  Except it wasn’t silver at all.

  It was black. Glass that has been blackened by fire and pain. An impenetrable black glass. Glass that does not want you to look into it.

  Seth looked.

  And it hooked him like a tiddler on the end of a desperate fisherman’s line. It was the weightless feeling after the first drop of a roller coaster, that moment when your mind and body separate and you feel that one step closer to death.

  He saw his reflection and it wasn’t alone.

  A shape that might have been a man was behind him. The air trickled across his shoulders, kissed his cheek, found its way under his shirt chilling the flesh.

  He was going to faint.

  The shroud was dropped into place and a hand gripped his arm and yanked him backward, away from the boot.

  “What the hell? Seth?”

  “That was no fun at all.” It felt like an hour had elapsed but the drunk man that had passed earlier was still getting into his car now. Seth looked around, certain that the entity was close but the only things around him were a bunch of cars and a rapidly chilling summer evening.

  “What’s happening with the weather? It’s like December’s come early.” Judy took her jacket from the backseat and slipped it on, that glassy sheen to her skin still evident.

  It was to do with the Adherents, Seth felt sure of it. Seth remembered the shaky soviet video footage of the workers at Chernobyl, scurrying across the roof of the reactor building after the catastrophe, trying desperately not to trip or look over the edge. They were on the edge of their own disaster now only there would be no exclusion zone if Adam Cowl had his way. They were about to walk into ground zero armed only with a mirror and a sense of duty, and of right and wrong.

  They were on the cusp of dark things happening.

  Seth had deliberately parked his car on the far edge of the car park, away from the road and close to the edge of the wood. A stone wall separated the car park from the trees but someone had seen fit to install a stile. If this was on a hiking trail, he hoped that the worsening weather would put people off. He would not be responsible for any more injured people.

  “Let’s do this,” he said to Judy and grabbed the mirror from the boot, making sure the cloth shroud was tight and wouldn’t slip. He tucked it under his arm and slammed the boot shut, trying to ignore the cold emanating from it.

  They climbed the stile and dropped onto a light trail that followed the stone wall for a hundred metres before bending to the left and into the woods. Walking in silence, their feet crunching on pine needles and cones, Seth felt sick. What if they reached the house and Joe was already dead? Or the mirror failed to work? He forced his negative thoughts to the side and focused on walking for now. Everything else could come later.

  Judy had not said a word since crossing the stile. She kept close and walked a quick pace that Seth struggled to match. In a couple of minutes, he was breathing heavily in his efforts to keep up.

  Inside the woods, the world changed around them again. The air was humid like a laundry room after a day of full loads, and the pine scent clung to his nostrils unpleasantly. As they moved away from the pub, the path they followed narrowed between the trees. Seth glanced behind, but the tree density had increased and he could no longer make out the pub or the car park. A scrabble of claws high but close caught his attention, tiny grey shadows a
nd bushy tails twisting out of sight.

  Judy was a machine, marching along the uneven trail.

  “Slow down,” Seth hissed. “We’ve got to be cautious.”

  But she didn’t reply, nor did she slow down. Seth hurried to pace alongside her and tapped her on the shoulder. The tap made her stop and Judy faced him, except the face wasn’t entirely Judy anymore. If someone had made a perfect mask of Judy’s face, then hidden inside that, you would have something akin to what Seth was looking at.

  Instinctively, he stepped back, holding the shrouded mirror close to his chest where he could feel it stir. There were movements under the cloth. The thing wanted to be free of the dark. His fingers tingled like tiny shots of electricity were sparking and needling his flesh. It would make the most sense to drop it and run. Run somewhere far away from the thing inside Judy.

  Seth spun at the sound of footsteps and from behind the trees, people appeared. Dressed like regular people, the kind you would walk behind in Tesco without batting an eyelid. These were Adherents. Real flesh Adherents of the Fourth, not the shadowmen Adherents doomed to roam Ravenmeols Hospital. And they’d come to protect their master at his homestead. It was a shock to see them at first, how dull they were. But as they walked towards him, he saw their faces, and the emptiness there, and Seth felt curiously unhappy for them. On one level, they were dangerous; he knew that, much like you should never approach a stranger’s dog despite how banal they appeared, these figures were the same. We might look harmless, their expressions were saying, but we have teeth. On a second deeper level, they were pathetic. Men and women, no doubt with ordinary lives and jobs, playing at some fantasy game, striving to find any kind of meaning in their lives. The Adherents had been waiting for them. They knew Seth and Judy were coming here.

  “Be ready to make a break for it,” Seth said to Judy. She didn’t seem concerned that they were now cut off from their retreat.

  She answered by rolling back her sleeve and showing the paint on her skin. Seth didn’t understand at first. What was she trying to tell him?