The Third Skull (Book Two - The Revelation): A Paranormal Mystery Thriller

by Andrew Stafford

  “Charlie?”

  “Charlie, he’s the stone head that bounced onto the bonnet of your car. I was on my way to the Suspension Bridge. I was going to throw him into the river.”

  “Well it’s a bloody good job you didn’t. If it hadn’t been for ‘Charlie’, I doubt whether I would have been able to stop what was happening here tonight,” smiled Linda

  The two women went to grab Morris’ side so they could roll him onto his back, but were bemused when they found there was nothing beneath the cloak for them to grip. Heather whipped away the cloak and beneath it was nothing. Just as Albert Snow had appeared to disappear, Joseph Morris had also vanished into thin air.

  Sophie pulled at her husband’s hand and pleaded with him.

  “Finn, it’s me, Sophie, don’t you know who I am?”

  He moved his head and looked at her with a distant look in his eye. Sophie reached out and pulled down the hood of the cloak which partially covered his face.

  Sophie put her hand into her pocket for a tissue to wipe her eyes and found something large and soft. She pulled it out, it was Rosie’s pink bear. She took a few seconds to look at it and was going to hold it to her breast when Finn raised his hand.

  He reached for the bear and with a trembling hand took it from her.

  She heard him whisper, almost inaudibly beneath his breath.

  “Rosie.”

  “That’s right, it belongs to your daughter Rosie,” said Sophie.

  “My daughter?”

  Finn was still confused and disoriented, but the pink bear stirred something deep within him.

  “Rosie’s your daughter and you have a son called Jack. Rosie’s five and Jack’s one.” Sophie paused and then continued, “my name’s Sophie and I’m your wife.”

  Finn had difficulty understanding what was going on around him. Sophie touched his hand and felt the ring on his finger given to him by Albert Snow. She lifted his hand and looked at the ghastly thing. It made her shudder. Everything went wrong the day he put it on. She gave it a tug and was surprised at how easily it came off. She threw it to the floor and watched it bounce and settle on the cloak which Snow had been wearing.

  Sophie and Heather watched in astonishment. The ring dissolved before their eyes, burning a hole in the cloak. Within a few seconds the cloak caught fire and burnt so ferociously that in under a minute it was reduced to smouldering ash and the ring had disappeared. Nothing near the cloak had been burnt, the flames hadn’t even left a scorch mark on the floor.

  Finn blinked and looked around. By removing the ring Sophie had broken the strange spell that had taken over her husband. He looked at her with a quizzical expression.

  “Sophie?”

  She smiled and threw her arms around him. He hugged her and kissed her neck. Suddenly he stopped and staggered towards the table. Heather grabbed a chair and placed it behind him just in time.

  “I'm dizzy, where are we?”

  “All in good time, all in good time my darling,” said Sophie with a smile as she knelt to his level and placed her hand on his knee.

  She turned to Linda sitting with Kieran and looked at her with a sombre face.

  “You knew about this. What kind of people are you. You’re devil worshippers.”

  “No, it’s not how it looks,” said Linda. She took a pause and continued. “I don’t think it’s over, there’s another man we need to stop, someone who’s behind all of this.”

  “Who?” asked Sophie.

  “Gabriel Butler. He asked Kieran to come here tonight. Butler offered Kieran ridiculous money for an evening’s work, and now I know why. He had no intention of paying him, and if I hadn’t stopped this tonight, I would have lost my husband to the Devil.”

  “Butler’s gone,” said Sophie.

  “Why, what happened? Where did he go?”

  Sophie pointed to the cloak which Joseph Morris had been wearing.

  “That was Butler, he’s gone, he's no more.”

  Linda frowned. “That wasn’t Gabriel Butler.”

  “Believe us, it was Butler,” said Heather.

  “That wasn't Gabriel, you must be mistaken.”

  “Sorry Linda, it’s difficult to understand, you must believe me……. that was Butler.”

  Linda looked bewildered and shook her head.

  “But how can………….?” said Linda, her voice trailed away, comprehending what she’d been told.

  She removed the gold cloak from Kieran, tossed it onto the floor and helped him to his feet.

  “If you ladies don’t mind, I'd like to take my husband home.”

  Kieran was unsteady as Linda helped him to his feet. She walked him to the stairs, and he hobbled like an old man.

  “What’s happening?” shouted Sophie pointing to the gold cloak which Linda had thrown down.

  It lunged back and forth across the basement floor.

  “There’s something underneath it,” said Heather, who made her way towards the cloak as it twisted and turned.

  “Be careful,” said Sophie.

  Heather hesitantly reached for the cloak, lifted it and screamed as the raven flew at her.

  “Get that bird,” shouted Sophie.

  But it was too late. The raven flew out of the basement. Heather trembled with fright.

  “It’s okay, it’s gone,” said Linda.

  Sophie led her husband to the stairs. He was weak, but could walk. Kieran and Linda followed behind. Kieran hadn’t spoken a word since he came round. Linda looked at him and gave him a weary smile and saw the whites of his eyes had returned.

  Heather waited for the others to leave before it was her turn. Apart from the creaking of the old stairs, the basement was silent.

  Then she heard a voice.

  “Heather, you did well.”

  She looked around to see Elizabeth standing before her with a beaming smile.

  “Elizabeth!” Heather went to hug her, but stopped when Elizabeth raised her hand.

  “Don’t get too close, don’t forget I’ll burn you.”

  Heather took a step back when she felt heat radiate from the vision.

  “But I didn’t stop it, it was Linda, the other woman.”

  “I suppose things didn’t happen quite as we’d expected, but if it hadn't been for you, then Morris, Drake, Snow and Cromwell would have summoned the Devil this evening.”

  “But I didn’t protect Charles Nash, I was only partly responsible for what Linda did tonight. She smashed his skull.”

  “And that’s what protected Nash from them. Without his skull they’ve no need for him.”

  “So is he okay?”

  “He will be, and so will his brother and sister. They will be happy now. They will move on.”

  Elizabeth paused and smiled.

  “Those men, they’ve gone now haven’t they? They can’t harm us anymore,” asked Heather.

  “Unfortunately not, they will be back, but hopefully not for a long time, and when they do it will be someone else’s job to stop them and not yours.”

  “That bird, it signified the Devil didn’t it.”

  “No Heather, the raven didn’t signify the Devil……….. it was the Devil, and like Morris, Snow, Drake and Butler, it will return."

  The image of Elizabeth faded, and as it did Heather could just make out her final words before she vanished altogether.

  “Heather, remember, you did okay.”

  Then she was no more.

  She stood on her own in silence and contemplated what Elizabeth had just told her and the events of the evening.

  Another voice brought her out of her thoughts. This time it was Sophie.

  “Heather, hurry and get out of there, we’re waiting for you.”

  She took one last look around the basement and gazed at the smashed skulls on the floor. The room dimmed as the candles quickly burnt out one by one.

  “Wait for me, I’m coming,” called Heather breathlessly and ran up the stairs.

  She slammed the
secret door to the basement and heard it click as it locked.

  She threw her arms around Sophie and Finn, and looked over Sophie’s shoulder to Linda and Kieran.

  “Come on, let’s go home.”

  They slowly lumbered their way along the hall and out of the door.

  The crunch of the gravel beneath their feet felt good.

  Somewhere in the distance they heard the caw of the raven as it soared high in the dark December evening sky.

  “What a hideous night,……… did that really happen?“ said Sophie.

  Heather nodded.

  “I’m just glad it’s over. I’m desperate to see my children,” added Sophie.

  Heather turned to her sister with a solemn look and touched her hand.

  “This thing will never be over.”

  The End

  Epilogue

  After many months Finn Maynard made a steady recovery from the events leading up to the 14th December 2006. He had no recollection of ever being Alexander Drake.

  In February 2007, for the first time, plants began to grow in the front and back gardens of 11a. A small crop of narcissus and crocus grew by the front gate and by early summer grass was growing, even though neither Finn nor Sophie had sowed any seeds.

  Finn and Sophie decided to move away from Whitcombe Fields Road and bought a new property in the summer of 2007.

  Also in February Heather returned to her flat, but like Finn and Sophie, in Whitcombe Fields Road, she couldn’t bear to live there and moved out the following summer.

  Finn left SOS Graphics and doesn’t keep in contact with his old work colleague Sally.

  Linda Tempest felt partly responsible for what had happened to the Maynard family and insisted that Kieran pay for the damage that had been done to 11a. Kieran paid for the repairs to the foundations and a brand new kitchen.

  Ruth Jackson’s body was found by police investigating her disappearance. She was discovered where Butler had dumped her in the chest freezer in Kieran’s old house. Both Kieran and Finn were principle suspects, as at the time Kieran still owned the property and police were aware Finn had been digging beneath his kitchen. Police suspected Finn had been digging a hole to hide her body.

  During their investigations, police inspected the hole in the Maynard’s kitchen. They didn’t find the remains of William and Louisa which had inexplicably disappeared. Finn had no recollection of the skeletons he had been digging for.

  After forensic DNA testing, both Finn and Kieran were no longer suspects in Ruth’s murder enquiry. The police turned their attention to Gabriel Butler who was known to be living in the property after Kieran and Linda had moved.

  Police are still searching for Butler. His Rolls Royce Silver Cloud was found in the driveway of his empty mansion. In the basement police found the crushed remains of two infants’ skulls and one adult’s. They also found a strange painted stone head. One of the investigating officers said the stone head felt warm.

  Forensic evidence dated the skulls between one-hundred and fifty to two-hundred years old and also confirmed that they were related.

  Charles Nash, William and Louisa no longer live in purgatory and have moved on to find happiness.

  Kieran suffered a nervous breakdown in early 2007. He made good recovery, but always looks over his shoulder and is never lets his guard down. He became paranoid and expects Gabriel Butler to return at any time.

  Heather and Sophie are haunted by what happened that night in the basement and are plagued by nightmares.

  Occasionally Heather hears the caw of a raven, although she has never seen one since that night in December 2006.

  Heather never heard from Alice Donaldson, her great grandmother Elizabeth, or Charles and Hermione Nash again.

  There is one thing of which Heather is certain.

  Azazel will return

  A Message from the Author

  A personal note from Andrew M Stafford

  Hello,

  Thank you for reading The Third Skull. I’m grateful that you’ve chosen it and have taken the time to read it.

  I am a relatively new author. If you would like to contact me with your thoughts on this story, you can email me at andy@andystaffordbooks.co.uk

  If you did enjoy it, I would be grateful if you would leave a review on Amazon telling other visitors to the site what you thought of The Third Skull. Positive reviews can really help new authors succeed and could help others decide whether or not to purchase a book.

  It is easy to write a review and can be done by going to the Amazon page where you purchased the book and scroll down to where it says ‘Customer Reviews: Write a customer review’.

  In the UK, you could try clicking this link to write a review.

  In the United States you could try clicking this link to write a review

  You may like to visit my website at:

  andystaffordbooks.co.uk

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  My very best wishes

  Andy Stafford

  Other books by Andrew M Stafford

  The Hill: A Paranormal Murder Mystery Thriller

  ‘The Hill reveals the world for what it is; a place where the impossible is real, and the dead speak with the living’

  What if you were murdered? And what if by supernatural intervention you are given the chance to help the police find your killer? This is what happened to rookie police officer Ben Walker after he and his new girlfriend, Liz Mason became victims of a callous and brutal attack by Daniel Boyd, a grudge bearing drop out, and his gang.

  Ben’s body lay alongside Liz, who was unconscious and barely alive at the bottom of Mill Tut, a Bronze aged burial mound in the beautiful Badock’s Wood in Bristol.

  DCI Markland Garraway, who at the last moment is brought in to lead the investigation into Ben’s murder has a reputation of being a maverick detective who thinks outside the box.

  The mystical powers of the ancient burial mound begin to influence Garraway’s attitude towards the case and soon he is alienated by his colleagues. Mill Tut, or The Hill as Garraway refers to it, opens up a Pandora’s Box of supernatural happenings which infiltrate his waking and sleeping life, creating a host of mental demons which the Scottish detective must learn to deal with.

  Daniel Boyd has fled Bristol to evade capture for the crime he has committed. To those who know him, he’s vanished off the face of the earth. But can he escape the mystical powers of The Hill?

  The power of The Hill does not only affect Garraway. It reaches out to many, including Christopher Jameson, who was born at the precise moment Ben’s life ended.

  The Hill reveals to Garraway and the others who are affected by its influence, the world for what it is; a place where the impossible is real, and the dead speak with the living.

  What people are saying about The Hill

  Reviews of the Omnibus edition of The Hill from Amazon UK (Containing both Book One and Book Two).

  5.0 out of 5 stars Wow 2 August 2015

  What a fantastic book. I have been reading books for 50+ years and never ever have I come across anything like this one. I just had to keep reading and reading. The plot was unlike anything I have ever encountered. Very well thought out and even believable. I was constantly asking myself if the story could be based on truth it was so convincing. I find it hard to believe this was the author’s first book.

  The spelling was very good and the grammar (apart from 2 or 3 mistakes) was excellent far better than most books I buy on Kindle I sincerely hope there will be further books from this author.

  Give yourself a pat on the back Andrew you deserve it.

  5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I've read on kindle, 21 April 2015

  I loved this book, I felt as though I was there with the characters. Full of suspense and would love to see it made into a film. Can't wait for more by this author. Well done Andrew Stafford.

&
nbsp; 5.0 out of 5 stars Superb! 19 April 2015

  This is a truly excellent book and a page turner from start to finish. It has a gripping plot and holds the attention all the way through. I can thoroughly recommend it as an excellent read.

  5.0 out of 5 stars would make good viewing, 12 April 2015

  Can't wait for his next book. Why don't they make films or tv dramas, would make good viewing

  5.0 out of 5 stars A truly amazing read best book I've read by far 7 April 2015

  A truly amazing read best book I've read by far and I read a lot. A fantastic story of which you feel every emotion cannot rate it highly enough truly brilliant

  5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book and couldn't put it down, 28 Mar. 2015

  I loved this book and couldn't put it down. .would make a fabulous mini series or film.. highly recommend.

  HOW TO BUY THE HILL

  Purchase The Hill: A Paranormal Murder Mystery Thriller. (Omnibus Edition containing both Book One and Book Two) from your Amazon store.

  Click the image above to purchase The Hill from your Amazon store

  Or available for Free

  The Hill - Ben's Story (Book One). A Paranormal Murder Mystery Thriller.

  (50% of the Omnibus edition) for free from your Amazon store

  If you enjoy Book One, you can go on to purchase Book Two from Amazon.

  Andrew M Stafford