by Amy Cross
I want to tell him that he'll be fine, but I know that I'm only delaying things. Getting to my feet, I hesitate for a moment before leaning down and placing the knife next to Matt's hand.
“No!” he hisses. “Take it! You need it!”
“You need it more,” I reply. “If they spot me, I can try to run. You can't.”
“Take the knife!” he replies, but I start making my way toward the door. As I get closer, I can tell that Nick and Alex are almost done, but I don't dare go too much faster. I glance back at Matt and see the fear in his eyes, and then I slip out onto the landing.
I can do this.
My heart is racing, but I know I can do this.
I'm -
“Damn!” Nick yells suddenly, and I hear footsteps in the next bedroom.
Startled, I duck down behind the landing table, just as Nick comes storming out of the room and starts hurrying down the stairs.
“Hey, come back!” Alex shouts after him. “It's okay! It's not a big deal!”
He doesn't reply. Instead, I hear him heading into one of the downstairs rooms and slamming the door shut. At least he didn't go to the basement, and I figure I still have a shot of getting out of here. I check over my shoulder, to make sure that there's no sign of Alex, and then I crawl out from behind the table and over toward the top of the stairs. I stop for a few seconds, listening to make sure that Nick isn't coming back, and then I get to my feet.
“Maddie?” Alex says suddenly, right behind me. Reaching out, she grabs my wrist tight. “Where the hell do you think you're going?”
Chapter Fifteen
Doctor Charles Grazier
Thursday October 4th, 1888
I push Delilah's cold, lifeless corpse off the slab and send her crashing to the floor. I shall dispose of her later, but for now I have other work to finish.
***
I can hear her down there, still trying to break through the door in the basement. It's evident that she has not managed to get through just yet, but it is also clear that sooner or later she will achieve some degree of success.
And then what?
I must do something, yet I cannot begin to imagine how I shall stop her. The most obvious solution would be to somehow take her body apart, to undo the work I have done, but I am not sure that I can summon sufficient strength. Then again, perhaps fire would be a better option. I could set the basement ablaze and burn the whole house down. In some ways, that would seem to be the most appropriate course of action, yet I am not sure I could bear to hear her screams.
Stepping toward the door that leads down into the basement, I hesitate for a moment before stopping again as I realize that I cannot go down there yet, I just cannot.
Slowly, I turn and look up the stairs. I must ask for guidance.
***
I swore I would never do this. I swore I would never kill a child. Yet now, in the palm of my hand...
***
“Are you here?” I ask, standing in the doorway that leads into the main bedroom. “Catherine, can you hear me? I know now that the thing in the basement is not you, but I must... Are you here?”
I feel so utterly foolish, but at the same time I cannot hold back. If there is even the slightest chance that Catherine is here in this room, in some manner that perhaps I do not understand, then I have to attempt to make contact with her. And whereas I have delayed this moment for several days now, I know now that I can delay no longer. This nightmare must end tonight.
I do not want to believe in something so common as a ghost, yet I have no choice.
“I know that I have become a bad man,” I explain, stepping forward and removing my spectacles, so as to reveal my torn eyelids. “Perhaps I am not even the man that you married. Not really. In truth, I no longer know who or what I am, and I rely entirely upon your judgment. Can you not come to me and speak? I should very much like to die knowing whether you will accept me in the next world.”
I wait, but the room remains silent. I can still hear, however, the sound of that thing still trying to break out from the storage room in the basement.
“I shall destroy her in a moment,” I continue. “I do not know how, but I shall find a way. Even if I have to hack her apart with an ax, or burn the house to the ground, I promise you that she will not persist beyond this night. Yet before I do any of that, I must know whether you are here. Do you survive in spirit, Catherine? Is such a thing possible?”
Please be possible.
Again I wait.
Again, I hear no reply.
“Just one thing,” I whisper. “I have braved ghosts in the streets tonight, so I am certain that I can brave one more. Do not recoil from me, my darling. Show yourself.”
Staring at the empty bed, I wait for a moment before stepping closer. I wish I could say that I sense Catherine's presence, that somehow I know she is close; in truth, however, the room feels utterly abandoned, and I cannot fool myself. Perhaps a lesser man could let his guard down and make all sorts of outlandish claims, but at heart I am still a man of science and I know full well that I have neither heard nor felt any evidence of Catherine's presence. Nothing beyond desperate hallucinations, at least.
After all, if I could imagine a police inspector, and hallucinate whole trips to Scotland Yard, then I could most certainly fool myself into thinking that I detected hints of my dead wife in this room.
“I have been a fool,” I whisper finally. “I have told myself over and over again that I am on the brink of a breakthrough, yet there has been no breakthrough. I was a wise man once, but I have allowed myself to -”
“Charles,” Catherine's voice whispers.
I freeze, staring down at the floor. I must have imagined that voice, I cannot have heard it, yet it seemed so utterly real. I am sure, however, that -
“Charles, come with me,” she says suddenly.
I look toward the bed, and I am shocked to see her sitting in plain sight. She is staring at me, watching me with her usual smile, and she looks as healthy and as happy as I recall from the days before she was sick. There is a faint glow to her, too, as if she is not entirely of this world. For a moment, I can only stare at her with a sense of wonder.
“You are still a good man,” she continues. “I know that. Despite everything you have done, I know that you still have a good heart. You have done bad things, but out of love for me, and I know that your soul remains strong. Trust me, there is no judgment in the next life, at least not beyond that which you pass down upon yourself. I can help you, but I think...”
She pauses, and I think I see tears in her eyes.
“Oh my darling,” she says finally, “forgive me, but I think it's time for you to join me now.”
“This is not real,” I whisper, thinking back to all the things I have imagined. “Such miracles cannot be bestowed upon man.”
“Come with me right now,” she continues, reaching a hand out toward me. “Don't wait a moment longer, Charles. I wanted you to live without me, but now I can see that your life is drawing to an end. By the time this night is over, you will have left the land of the living and we shall be together forever.”
“No,” I say, taking a step back. “You are not really here. This is all a trick, designed to draw me even deeper into madness. You are nothing more than a cheap parlor trick.”
“Follow my lead, Charles. Do not overthink this. Instead, take my hand and come to me in the world that follows this. We can be together, and we can leave this mortal place forever. You have done terrible things, but there are ways to atone. I can help you. You need me, do you not?”
“If I believed you were real,” I reply, “I would at this moment be the happiest man who ever lived. I would dearly love to throw myself into this fantasy, yet I must hold back. I have imagined so many things, including my own brilliance, and now at the end I must cling to some semblance of reality.”
With that, I step back and pull the door shut.
“You're making a mistake!” she calls out.
“I've finally broken through to speak to you, Charles. You didn't realize at the time, but you were pushing me away. Now you're ready to understand, but you need to listen properly. Charles, please!”
Listen?
I shall not listen to this phantom that has been summoned from the depths of my mind. I shall not allow myself to be fooled again, especially not by my own delusions. I am a better man than that, and the real Catherine would most certainly be horrified if she could see me now. I know that the vision on the bed was merely a hallucination, and that I am completely alone here in the house, and I feel that I have finally found the strength to push this madness away. Despite all the insanity that has gripped me, I insist upon dying with a clear mind.
Indeed, I no longer hear Catherine's voice coming from the other side of the door. As I back away toward the top of the stairs, I feel some degree of satisfaction at the thought that at least I have conquered these fears. Now I must simply deal with the last of my affairs, and settle a few outstanding matters, and then I shall do what I should have done last week. I am finally ready to meet my fate. I must leave behind a confession, and then I must burn this house to the ground so that nothing can ever again disturb its evil. And this time, I shall let nothing stand in my way.
“Doctor Grazier.”
Startled, I turn and look down the stairs.
“I have returned,” Jack says calmly, staring up at me with an unusual intensity in his gaze, “for one thing and one thing only. Where is Delilah?”
Chapter Sixteen
Maddie
Today
“You dumb little bitch,” Alex whispers, keeping her voice down as if she doesn't want Nick to hear us from downstairs. “Do you seriously think you can get out of here?”
Backing away, I bump against the wall. All I can think right now is that I have to somehow draw her away from Matt.
“I was going to help you!” she continues, stepping toward me. “I wasn't going to let him hurt you, Maddie. Not properly. Come on, do you seriously think I'd let anything happen to my little Maddie? I know that what Nick and I did was bad, but I had no idea he could get like that. He can be extreme sometimes, but I didn't realize he was going to actually hurt people. He even told me...”
Her voice trails off for a moment.
“Please,” I whimper, still trying to figure out what to do next. “Alex, I have to get help.”
“He killed someone already,” she replies, and I think I can see fear in her eyes.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
Suddenly pulls me into one of the bedrooms. Glancing past me for a moment, she seems terrified that Nick might overhear us.
“He told me,” she continues finally, lowering her voice as she turns to me. “He killed one of the girls who was found dead in the streets, one of the girls who was supposed to have been killed by a Jack the Ripper copycat. He says that's how it is now, he says there's not one killer out there, it's more of an initiation rite. He fell in with these assholes who worship Jack the Ripper, and they each have to commit one murder in his style in order to join the group. Nick killed some girl on Vauxhall Road, and now I think...”
Her voice trails off for a moment.
“I think he's lying to me,” she adds finally. “He says we're going to get rich from this place, but then he keeps stalling, he keeps saying we have to wait until it gets dark but he doesn't say why. None of what he says or does makes sense, not unless... I think he's going to get other people to come here, people who are like him. Maddie, I'm scared of Nick and I don't know what to do. He's violent, he gets really mad sometimes. He makes me do things, and I can't stop myself. I even hurt you, and I hate that so much. He just gets into my head and changes the way I think!”
“Funny,” I reply, “he said the same thing about you.”
“I swear,” she continues, “he's so good at manipulating people. He's made me do bad things, Maddie, really bad things. Things you don't even know about. I'm scared he'll hurt me. I'm scared he'll hurt us all!”
“Then let's leave,” I tell her. “Let's go and get help.”
“He won't let us.”
“I don't care whether he'll let us!” I reply, starting to worry that this is taking too much time, that maybe she's trying to delay me so that Nick will eventually come back. “Alex, you have to come with me! We'll get help and -”
“I'll keep him busy,” she says suddenly, stepping back from me.
“Alex -”
“I'll distract him and make sure he doesn't see you leaving,” she continues, “and then I'll try to keep him busy until you can get back with help. He gets in my head, Maddie. He makes me think differently, he makes me do things I'd never normally do. Please, you have to get out of here before he does it again, 'cause I'm scared I might betray you again. As soon as I get him out of the way, you have to run!”
I open my mouth to tell her that we need to go together, but suddenly I hear a door opening downstairs.
“Hey!” Nick calls out. “Alex, baby! Why don't we go down and check on little Maddie?”
Alex gestures for me to wait a moment, and then she turns and starts heading down the stairs.
“Sorry,” she says to Nick as she reaches the hallway, “I just had to fix myself up first.”
“Who were you talking to?”
Dropping to my knees, I crawl around the side of the table until I can just about see them down there. My heart is pounding and I have no idea whether I can trust Alex, but I guess right now I don't have a choice.
“I wasn't talking to anyone,” she says, although she sounds scared. “I was singing to myself. Maybe you heard that.” She steps past him and opens the door to the basement. “Come on, why don't we go down together?”
“It didn't sound like you were singing,” Nick replies cautiously, and it's clear that he's suspicious. “It sounded like you were whispering.”
“I checked if that cop was awake,” she explains. “He wasn't. You really beat him to a pulp, yeah? I'm not even sure he'll ever come around.” Holding the basement door open, she waits for him to join her. “Why don't we both go down to the basement and check on Maddie? She's been down there for hours now, she's probably losing her mind.”
She waits for a reply, but now Nick is simply staring at her.
“I want to check on Maddie,” she says again, and now she sounds really nervous. “Can we just do that?”
“Why the hurry?”
“I want to make sure she doesn't find some way to get out of those ropes,” she continues. “Trust me, I know her pretty well, and she's smart. If there's any way to get loose, she'll find it. She's sneakier than she looks.” She hesitates for a moment, as if she's waiting for him to say something. “She's brave, too,” she adds. “You don't know her like I do, but Maddie's brave and she always finds a way. That's one of the things I admire the most about her. I know that no matter what happens, she'll always manage to get through.”
Again she waits, and again Nick says nothing.
“Fine,” he replies finally, “then go take a look.”
“Let's go together.”
“Why?”
“What if she's loose and she attacks me?”
“Then fight her off,” he says with a shrug. “She's not as big as you, Alex. You can take her.”
“I'd really rather we went down together,” she explains. She's sounding less and less convincing all the time, but I just have to hope that she manages to persuade Nick. If I'm lucky, she might even be planning to trap him down there. “Is that such a problem?” she adds. “I mean, don't you think it'd be fun to give her a kicking? You were laughing while you were beating that cop senseless.”
He hesitates, before stepping over toward her.
“You know we're in this together, right?” he asks after a moment.
“Of course, but -”
“And we're on the same side.” Stopping, he puts a hand on the side of her face. “That means we tell each other everything. No secrets, no
lies, just good old-fashioned honesty and truth.” He pauses, staring into her eyes. “We're a team here, Alex,” he continues finally. “Five minutes ago, up in that bedroom, I proved to you that I know how you work. I know how your mind functions, and I'm getting a pretty good idea about your body too. Now, I think you might be right, we should probably go and check to make sure Maddie's still tied up in the basement. First, though, I want you to think about whether there's anything you haven't told me. Anything at all.”
“Like what?” she stammers.
“If I knew, I wouldn't need to ask.” He pauses again. “Are you hiding something from me, Alex?”
“Of course not!”
“You're not keeping any little secrets?”
He waits for an answer, and for a moment I worry that she might be about to rat me out. After all, she told me that Nick can get into her mind and manipulate her, and maybe that's what's happening right now.
“I don't know where you're getting all this stuff from,” Alex stammers finally, “but let's just go and check on Maddie, okay? Why would I want to go check on her, if I was hiding anything? We're totally on the same side, Nick, so just relax. We'll check on Maddie, and then we'll go do whatever you want. We can kill that cop, if you like. That's what you're planning to do to him, right?”
He pauses. “Yeah,” he says after a moment. “Sure.”
“And Maddie too?”
“Why not?” he asks. “If I'm gonna have to dig a hole in the garden, makes no difference whether I throw one body down there or two.”
“Then let's go,” she says, tugging on his arm.
“Or three bodies,” he adds.
“What?”
She stares at him, and even from up here I can see the fear reaching her eyes.
“Nick,” she continues, “what do -”
Suddenly he steps closer, and Alex lets out a pained gasp. It takes a moment before I realize that Nick's right arm is twitching, and a moment later I see blood dribbling down onto the floor between Alex's legs. Then, when Nick steps back, I see that he's holding a knife.