by Mark Lukens
No answer.
“Kristen! Are you okay?”
Still no answer.
“Kristen, answer me!”
Still no answer.
“Hang on!” Billy yelled into the walkie-talkie. “I’m on my way!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
The sunroom
“They’re gone,” Warren said.
“What’s gone?” Harold asked.
Harold and Nigel walked over to Warren who was already in the middle of the sunroom, staring at the other side of the room at the static camera that they had set up yesterday.
“You don’t notice it?” Warren asked them.
“What?” Harold asked as he took another step and then stopped abruptly like it had suddenly dawned on him. He turned his camera to Nigel with a smile of disbelief on his face now. “You really don’t see it?” he asked Nigel.
“See what?” Nigel spat out. “Stop playing games.”
“Remember when we were up here before?” Warren asked Nigel. “When we were making our first tour of the manor and we set that camera up here.”
Nigel nodded impatiently.
“Remember the metal clipboard and the hardhat we found on the floor, the ones left behind by the construction crews? The white hardhat with the word BOSS on the back of it?”
Warren saw the lights coming on in Nigel’s eyes as he looked back at the bare floorboards.
“The clipboard and the hardhat aren’t here anymore,” Warren said. “They’re gone.”
All three of them walked over to the wall and looked down at the floor where Nick had laid the two objects down yesterday.
“Somebody took them,” Nigel said matter-of-factly. He looked right at Warren as if daring him to challenge his theory. “That’s what happened. Nick had one of you guys come back up here and take them.”
“I haven’t been back up here,” Warren told Nigel.
“Me either,” Harold added.
“He’s got other people here on this island,” Nigel said. “I’m sure of that now. He’s got a whole crew here moving around inside these walls, playing tricks, setting up this hoax.”
Warren just shook his head; nothing they said was going to get through to Nigel.
Harold lowered his camcorder down to his side and stared at Warren and Nigel. “What about what I said earlier? What if there are people squatting on this island?”
“I still don’t think that’s true,” Warren said.
“But it could be possible,” Harold insisted. “What if they saw us coming when we were still miles out at sea? They could’ve cleared up any evidence that they are staying here?”
“Why would they?” Warren asked. “We’re not the owners.”
“They don’t know that.”
Warren shook his head; it still didn’t make sense to him.
“If it’s true,” Harold said. “They could be dangerous. They probably don’t want us here.”
“Or they could just be hiding until we leave.”
“They could’ve sabotaged the construction crews,” Harold said, not willing to let this go. He seemed to have a vested interest in this theory of his being true. Warren sensed something in the man’s mannerisms, his expression, just a feeling he was getting from him. He was scared, Warren realized that now. And then Warren realized why Harold was scared … he had seen something here on this island.
“I would be willing to believe in some kind of tribe of people living off the land here on this island,” Nigel said, “before I’d be willing to believe some ghosts swooped into this room and spirited away with a clipboard and a hardhat.”
Warren glanced over at the static camera. That was it! “What about the camera over there? Maybe it caught something on film. If it was really people taking these items away then it would’ve been hard for them to stay out of the way of the camera.”
“Not if it was some of Nick’s crew who knew to stay out of the way of the camera. Not if that bit of footage has already been edited out by his employee downstairs—Billy the camera expert.”
“It’s worth looking into,” Warren said. It was exhausting arguing with Nigel.
“Okay,” Harold said. “Let’s go back down to the first floor and get Billy to look up the footage from this camera.”
They started heading to the door of the sunroom when they heard a scream from below them … a woman’s scream.
Nigel grabbed the walkie-talkie from his hip and pressed the button. “Billy, are you there? We just heard a scream.
No reply from Billy.
“Come on,” Warren said, running out into the hallway. That had definitely been a woman’s scream and there were only two women on this island with them: Kristen and Laura. Laura was down on the first floor so it had to be Kristen.
CHAPTER FORTY
Kristen stood at the door to Room 214. She had tried the door handle but it must’ve been locked—she couldn’t even budge it. She’d also pounded on the door, screaming at Shane to answer her and to open the door, but he hadn’t responded. She heard sounds from down the hall and turned to see Warren, Nigel, and Harold running towards her, the light beams from their flashlights and their camcorder bobbing around crazily in the darkness as they approached. Their shouts blended together in incoherent yells that echoed down the hall towards her.
Kristen tried to twist the door handle again, but it still wouldn’t turn.
Shane was alone in that room with that … that person she’d seen, that old woman.
Kristen remembered filming Shane a few minutes ago as he told his story about the Cranston House. As soon as she’d walked in front of the open door to Room 214 a hand had reached out from the darkness and grabbed her arm, trying to pull her inside. She’d only seen the pale, thin hand for a moment, but she had no doubt it was an old woman’s hand. It was like Shane talking about the Cranston House had somehow brought the old woman to life.
“Shane!” she screamed and pounded on the door again. She stopped pounding for a moment, listening. Shane didn’t respond. She couldn’t hear anything from inside the room. Footfalls from down the hall turned her towards the darkness.
Warren reached Kristen first. His eyes were wide O’s of concern. He grabbed on to her shoulders and it felt like her world, which had been tilting out of control, was suddenly stabilizing just from Warren’s touch. She focused on the man’s eyes, his dark eyeballs just dots in the whites of his wide eyes right now. He was saying something, repeating the same thing over and over again, but she couldn’t hear him at first … he sounded so far away. But everything was coming back now; it was like she’d been flying and now she had come back down to the ground again.
“What happened?” Warren asked her.
The other two men were there now, both concerned.
“Shane … he’s in the room,” Kristen said, her words rushing out of her. It felt like she couldn’t catch her breath. “There’s … there’s someone in the room with him.”
Warren didn’t even question who or what or how, he was at the door in a flash, twisting the door handle, pounding and kicking at the door, calling Shane’s name.
Kristen was going to tell Warren that she had already tried to open the door, but Nigel stepped in front of her, ready to interrogate her. He had a look on his face like he was going to get to the bottom of the nonsense going on around here. She felt like slapping that stupid look off of his face.
Harold was doing his duty like one of Nick’s good dogs and filming the whole thing. He even took a few steps back to get everyone in the shot.
“Who’s in there with him?” Nigel asked, his words clipped, his expression pinched and serious.
“I … I don’t know. All I saw was her hand. She grabbed me.” Kristen looked down at her arm, holding it up. She wanted to show Warren the scratches on her skin from the old woman’s fingernails … but the scratches weren’t there now. “I … uh … there were scratches on my skin. That old woman grabbed me. Tried to pull me inside the room.”
<
br /> “You saw an old woman?” Nigel asked.
“I just saw her hand … her arm.”
“So you didn’t see the woman.”
“Nigel, leave her alone,” Warren said.
“I’m just trying to get a sense of what’s going on here.”
“Shane’s stuck in that room,” Kristen said. “That’s what’s going on here.”
“So, just to be clear, you didn’t see what this old woman looked like?”
Kristen could feel the camera on her; she could sense Harold moving slowly to his left, filming everything. She shook her head as she stared at Nigel. “No. I just saw her arm.”
“If you didn’t see the person’s face, then how do you know it was an old lady?” Nigel asked with a sneer.
“Because I saw her arm. It was an old woman’s arm.”
“But you can’t be positive about that?”
Kristen stared at him. “Are you calling me a liar?”
“Kristen,” Nigel said in a low voice. “Just come clean with me. It’s time to admit that this is all a hoax.”
“Why don’t you leave her alone?” Warren asked as he tried to twist the door handle, but he couldn’t move it any more than Kristen could. “Leave her alone and help me get this door open.”
“What’s going on here?” Billy asked as he rushed up to them. He was a little out-of-breath from his run up the stairs and then down the hallway. He had his flashlight in one hand and his walkie-talkie in the other.
“Shane’s locked inside that room,” Kristen told Billy. She was glad to see a familiar face, someone she knew, someone who wasn’t questioning her honesty. “We need to get him out. There’s someone in there with him.”
“Who?” Billy asked, obviously shocked.
“An old lady,” Kristen said.
“Kristen claims she saw an old woman inside the room,” Nigel told Billy.
“We just need to get the damn door open!” Kristen said, ignoring Nigel.
Billy jumped into action, reacting more from the near-panic in Kristen’s voice than what she’d said. He looked at Warren who was still pounding on the door and calling Shane’s name. He looked back at Nigel and Harold. Kristen could read the look on Billy’s face: Why aren’t you two helping?
But Billy didn’t waste time saying anything to Nigel and Harold, he hurried to the door. “Let me try,” Billy told Warren.
Warren backed up out of the way as Billy kicked at the door, planting the sole of his hiking boot right in the middle of the door.
“Aim more towards the door handle,” Nigel called out to him.
Billy glared at Nigel, but he kicked near the door handle this time. He was about to kick it again when the door handle clicked, turned, and then the door slowly creaked open … like someone had just unlocked the door from the inside and opened it.
Shane stood there in the darkness just beyond the door with his flashlight beam aimed down at the floor and a blank look of shock on his face.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Shane watched the door creak open in front of him, and then he saw a surprised Billy standing there in the doorway with Dr. Warren Savage not too far behind him. Kristen and Nigel stood next to each other with Harold beyond them, filming everything.
Billy and Warren rushed inside the room. Warren aimed his flashlight right at him, blinding him for a moment.
“Who’s in here with you?” Billy yelled at Shane.
Shane just shook his head and looked at Kristen and Nigel as they came to the doorway. Harold was right behind them, filming over their shoulders.
Shane’s mind felt a little foggy, like he’d just woken up from a deep sleep, and now all of these people were in his face, shouting at him, shining lights at him, demanding answers. He was trying to remember for a second why he was in this room … why the door had been closed, why everyone looked so frightened.
“Where’s the old lady?” Kristen yelled at him, her face a mask of fear. She had already scanned the room and now she was looking at Shane again. She stayed close to the open door like she was afraid it was going to close again and trap them in here.
It all came back to Shane in a rush when he heard Kristen say: “the old lady.” The old lady was in this room. She had grabbed Kristen’s arm. Kristen dropped the camera. Then he had gone inside this room with his flashlight and the broken camcorder. The door had closed. And then he had seen Mike stuffed inside the hole in the wall, his pale face in the hole. Mike had been calling him, whispering his name. But then it wasn’t Mike anymore … then it was Old Lady Cranston trying to climb out of the hole … and then … then …
Shane turned around and looked at the hole in the wall.
“What is it?” Warren asked.
Shane stared at the dark hole. It looked bigger to him now. Was it bigger? Had the old lady made the hole bigger? Had she torn more of the edges away with her long bony fingers? Clawed more of the plaster and lathe away with those sharp yellowed fingernails?
“What did you see in here?” Warren asked in a lower voice. He was calmer now.
“An old lady,” Shane finally answered and looked back at Warren. “She was inside the wall, trying to get out through that hole over there.”
Billy rushed over to the hole in the wall and pointed his flashlight beam at it, aiming it inside. He crouched down in front of the hole, peering inside. He shoved his flashlight inside the hole, all the way up to his shoulder, so he could see inside better.
“Don’t,” Kristen said to Billy from the doorway, but her word didn’t have much strength.
Harold brushed past Kristen and entered the room, still filming dutifully.
“You saw an old lady in here, too?” Warren asked Shane. “Both you and Kristen saw an old woman in here?”
Shane nodded but he wasn’t looking at Warren, his eyes were on Billy who was still investigating the hole in the wall with his flashlight, pushing himself into the wall even more, the lathe and plaster crumbling around the edges as he pushed himself farther into the hole, making the hole bigger.
The hole was bigger now, wasn’t it? It had to be bigger now if Billy could practically squeeze into it.
“What’s going on in here?” Nick roared as he plowed into the room, practically pushing Harold out of his way. His eyes went right to Kristen for an explanation; the way he stared at her, like he’d been scared to death for a moment that something had happened to his niece.
How could I not have seen it before that she was someone dear to him? Shane thought.
“There was someone in this room,” Kristen told Nick. “An old woman was in here. She grabbed me and then Shane went inside and then the door slammed shut. We couldn’t get it open and then …” she looked right at Shane. “And then the door just opened and Shane was standing there.”
Nick’s eyes darted from Kristen to Shane.
Shane just nodded, corroborating her story.
“Where’s the woman now?” Nick asked.
Shane looked at the hole in the wall that Billy had just pulled himself out of, dusting himself off as best he could with one hand, still holding his flashlight. The branches of the trees outside the window shook relentlessly, the rain dripping down the glass, the wind howling. Another flash of lightning lit up the room like daylight for a millisecond.
“I don’t see anything in there,” Billy said. “We could put a camera in there to get a better look but the space only goes so far and then it looks like it ends in pieces of wood … like fire blocks or something.”
“Or we could tear part of that wall down,” Warren said. “Use some of the tools from downstairs to pull the plaster and lathe off.”
“No,” Nick said, shaking his head a little. “I want to keep things in this manor the way they are for the film. I just want us to observe for now.”
Nigel’s attention was still on Billy. “So you’re saying that there’s no one inside that wall?” He seemed to be confirming this for the camera that Harold operated and the static camer
a on the tripod, getting this affirmation documented on film. “And no one could possibly be in there?”
“There was someone in this room,” Kristen insisted. “It was an old lady. I saw her.”
“Where did this person grab you?” Nigel asked. “Did she scratch you or bruise you? Is there any kind of evidence?”
“She grabbed my arm. There were scratches on my arm … but—”
“—but now they’re not there anymore,” Nigel finished for her, nodding.
“But they were there. You can ask Shane. He saw them.”
“Did you get the scratches on your arm on film?” Nick asked Kristen.
Kristen turned to her uncle. She looked like she might burst into tears as she shook her head slightly. “I … I dropped the camera when she grabbed me. It just slipped out of my hand. I think it broke.”
Shane had the camcorder in his hand. “It’s not working anymore.” He handed the camcorder to Billy.
Billy inspected the camera for a moment and looked at Nick. “It’s not working but I think I can get the footage off it.”
Shane met Laura’s eyes. She had stayed just outside the doorway, out in the hall. If anyone believed his and Kristen’s story about the old lady, it would be Laura.
“And you saw this old woman, too?” Nick asked Shane.
“I came in here and I …” He sighed like he was delivering bad news. “When I got in here, the room was empty.”
He looked at Kristen—she looked devastated, like she’d been betrayed by a friend.
“I realized the camcorder wasn’t working,” Shane continued, “so I set it down on the floor. I still had my flashlight—”
“But you said the room was empty,” Nigel confirmed.
“Yes,” Shane snapped at him. “I didn’t see anyone when I first came in. But I heard a voice coming from the hole in the wall over there. Someone was calling me.”
“Who was calling you, an old lady?” Nigel said. “You’re not trying to make us believe you saw Old Lady Cranston in here, are you? The old lady you saw in the Cranston House in Ohio when you were twelve years old?”