She was reminded of the reality of their situation by a loud bang on the bedroom door that made it shake and rattle on its hinges. She let out a scream at the sound. Rahni let out a whelp and clung on even tighter to Cate’s side.
“Charlie, help me move that chest of drawers over the door. Now!” Cate commanded. They quickly stepped out of the bed and each took a side of the drawers. It was made out of a heavy dark wood, they couldn’t pick it up to move it. Together, they put their weight against the one side and slowly slid it over to stand in front of the door. It may not completely hold off whatever was on the other side of the door, but it would certainly slow them down. They ran back to the bed and dived underneath the covers again.
Suddenly, the clock radio that was perched on the bedside table started making a noise. It was tuned into the local radio station which was playing the pop song of the moment. They heard half the song before the radio went off the station. Now all that could be heard from the small speaker was the crackling and hissing of the in-between frequency. Charlie rolled over and tried to turn the radio off, the sound was annoying if nothing else. The buttons weren’t working so she found the cord and pulled it out of the wall. The noise continued.
“Does this have batteries in it?” Charlie whispered.
“No it doesn’t,” Cate responded, almost in a whimpering voice.
They stared at the radio, there was no possible reason to explain how it could still be playing. It didn’t have any electricity or battery power to keep it alive. Yet, no matter what Charlie did, she couldn’t get the noise to stop. Frustrated, she tried tuning the frequency in, at least to get it back onto the station. She couldn’t pick up anything, all the signals were being blocked. As she was about to give up, the radio went silent again. She replaced it on the table and just stared at it.
The footsteps outside ceased, all they could hear now were the knocking sounds again. They reverberated around the manor house, one knock here, two knocks there. They clung to each other, praying it would stop. They spent the entire night listening to the sounds and waiting for the morning to dawn. Not a moment of sleep was had at any stage.
Eventually, the noises calmed down and the house was plunged into silence once again. The first light of the new day was more than welcomed into the room. They let out a collective sigh. Exhausted, but still in one piece, they each cautiously placed a foot on the floor. One step at a time, trying not to make the floorboards creak, they walked over to the door. Leaning over the chest of drawers, Charlie placed her ear against the cold wood of the door. She couldn’t hear any sound from the other side. She nodded to Cate and they pushed the drawers back into place.
Cate placed a hand on the door knob and slowly turned it. She pulled the door into the room and peered into the hallway. It looked like it usually did. There were no signs of any of the activity from the previous night. The pictures still hung on the walls, the other bedroom doors were still closed.
Still staying close to each other, the three of them slowly moved down the hallway towards the stairs. Charlie chanced a glimpse at the chandelier but thankfully, it was motionless.
One step at a time, they descended the stairs. At the bottom they saw the smashed plate from the night before that Charlie had dropped. It was exactly where they had left it to clean up in the morning. Rounding the foyer and entering the living room was another matter. Books from the bookcase that lined one of the walls were on the floor, randomly spread out to create a stepping stone effect. Some were splayed open, others were closed tight and sitting upright. There was no pattern, or explanation, for it.
Leaving the living room, they approached the kitchen. It was apparent immediately that things weren’t normal there either. Every single cabinet door was open, revealing all the contents in the cupboards. Not even one was left closed. Their eyes went to the floor, expecting to see the same kind of mess that was in the living room. However, the floor was clean. Everything else in the room was untouched save for the doors. Cate went around and closed each one in turn.
Charlie was the first to speak, up until then they had walked in silence. Not only to avoid alerting anything to their presence, but also because it was beyond words what they were seeing.
“Okay, I’m going to say it. This is weird.”
“It’s so far beyond weird that we’re in another dimension. What happened here last night?” Cate stood facing her sister, complete disbelief in her expression.
“I have no idea. All I know is that I don’t want to go through anything like that ever again.”
“It’s going to take all morning to put this place right again. All those books. James had them in alphabetical order too, it’s just all over the place now.”
Charlie bent down to be level with Rahni. She hadn’t said a word all morning, it wasn’t like her. “Have you see Alice since last night?”
Rahni shook her head. “No.”
“Do you think if you see her you could ask if it was the Others who did this?”
“Okay.”
She stood back up again and glanced at the clock, it was only six in the morning. “Do the lights work?”
Cate walked to the light switch and flicked it to the ‘on’ position. The light overhead lit up. “Yep.”
“At least that’s something. I vote we have breakfast and get the hell out of this house for the day. Who’s with me?”
“I fully agree.” Cate replied.
They had each showered, dressed, and eaten breakfast within the hour. They would have been quicker except they couldn’t leave each other’s side yet. So they each waited in the bathroom to take turns in showering before returning back downstairs to eat.
They left the living room in disarray and just walked straight past out to the car. Cate locked the door behind them, still baffled over how it could have locked itself the previous night. Not much was making sense any more.
“Where should we go?” Cate asked, as she inserted the car keys into the ignition.
“Anywhere but here. Do you have any suggestions?”
“Well, I still need to work out who Melanie Lucas is. I was going to look into it today anyway. It could help to keep our minds busy and awake. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night.”
“I didn’t either. I was too worried about what could happen if I closed my eyes. The quest for the elusive Melanie Lucas sounds good. It will stop us thinking about going home. Do you have any leads?”
“Not really. I’ll drive into town, inspiration might hit us along the way.”
“Do you think it’s too early to call Blair? I want to see if his father is okay.”
“Give him a try. He’s not likely to be sleeping in if he’s worried. He might even be at the hospital already.”
Charlie pulled out her mobile phone from her handbag and hit the speed dial for Blair’s mobile phone. She kept telling herself to make sure she sounded like her usual self. She may be screaming for him to come back in her mind, but she wouldn’t let herself convey that to him. His family needed him a lot more than she did, even if she had just experienced one of the worst nights of her life. The line only rang twice before it was picked up.
“You’re up early,” he answered.
“So are you. How’s your dad?” Charlie was already feeling better just by hearing his voice.
“He’s much better than expected. He had an emergency operation to remove his appendix yesterday afternoon. It was about to rupture or something. He’s already up and walking around this morning. They don’t mess around in this hospital.”
“I’m so glad to hear he’s doing well.”
“Are you alright? You sound a little tired.”
Despite herself, tears started to well in Charlie’s eyes. She was cursing herself in her mind, she had tried so hard to sound normal. Whether it was the lack of sleep, or high emotions, it was getting the better of her. “We had a rough night.”
“What happened?” His voice instantly changed
to be full of concern for her. “Is everyone okay?”
“We’re fine. We just had to get out of the house this morning. Last night a lot of strange things happened, it frightened us to death.”
“Do you want me to come home? My dad’s going to be fine. He’ll probably be out of the hospital by tomorrow. I can come back if you need me.”
“No, honestly, you’re needed more there. We’ll survive. We may not sleep, but who needs it anyway?” She forced a laugh.
“Charlotte Lane, you can’t lie to me. I know you too well. I’ll be home this afternoon.”
“Only if you’re sure. We really can survive without you for a few days,” she hated to admit how relieved she was by the thought of seeing him that afternoon.
“I’m sure. I’ll see you then.”
“Thank you. And Blair? Don’t call me Charlotte.”
They hung up and she wiped her eyes with a tissue. The last thing she wanted to do was to put pressure on Blair to leave his family. There was one thing she really hated in the world and that was being so dependent on someone else. She never wanted to be the damsel in distress. However, Blair had taught her a long time ago that it’s okay in a relationship to need the other person. It had taken her months to believe him. She had to admit he was a pretty smart guy when it came to those kinds of things. She also had to admit at the same time she was lousy at relationships.
“Blair’s coming back this afternoon. His dad had an appendectomy yesterday and is doing really well.”
“Thank goodness,” Cate sighed. “If the lights go out tonight, at least he can tinker with the electricity box. I’ve been thinking. I thought we’d go over to Landsdown. They have a shopping centre there that we can hang out in. If all else fails in our search, at least we can wander around the shops.”
“Shopping always cures my ailments,” Charlie agreed.
Cate continued driving until she entered the car park at the Landsdown Village Shopping Centre. She found a spot in amongst two other 4wd’s and they jumped out. The only problem was, it was still only early and the shops were locked securely. They slowly walked down the aisle, looking in all the windows. They reached the food court and Charlie spotted an internet cafe that was open.
“Have you tried searching online for Melanie?”
“No. All I’ve done is check in the phone books at the post office. I also asked Brenda at the library because she usually knows everyone in town. She hadn’t heard of her either,” Cate replied sheepishly.
“Sis, you seriously need to get with the times. You know the entire phone book is on one website? It’s Australia wide too, none of this regional crap.” Charlie teased.
“Some people have better things to do than sit in front of a box all day, you know.”
“Let’s try the internet at the cafe. We can have a coffee and try to wake up at the same time.”
They placed an order with the waitress and sat down in a booth. Charlie took the keyboard and typed in the address for Google. As soon as the search box popped up, she typed in ‘Melanie Lucas’. They waited. A total of fifteen hits came up on the screen. She instantly disregarded most of them due to their location. She doubted whether James would have been paying someone from overseas for anything. The last hit caught her attention, she clicked into the link.
A crystal ball appeared on the screen, she moved the curser over it to enter the website. They read through the page. This particular Melanie Lucas was a psychic. She had a small business in Calliton where she carried out private readings for people. She was also available for in-home consultations for an additional fee.
“Coincidence?” Charlie pondered.
“I wonder if this is our girl?” Cate replied.
They scanned through the rest of website. It held some testimony from a few of her clients. They said she was one hundred percent accurate. One satisfied customer said she was so spot on that it was ‘spooky’. The site listed her address in full, they jotted it down on a napkin.
“Calliton is only half an hour from here. Shall we?” Cate asked. Charlie nodded. They finished their coffee and paid for the internet usage. They were back on the road in no time and heading out of Landsdown.
The road to Calliton was full of twists and turns. Charlie was starting to feel nauseous with the movement of the car. It seemed to take a lot longer than half an hour before they arrived. The car slowly cruised down the main street. They looked at each shop, trying to find anything that resembled a psychic store. Giving up, Cate found a park and they continued the search on foot.
The shops were varied, with most of them being boutique clothing stores. They held everything from haute couture to something a gypsy would be proud to own. At the very end of the street, tucked away down a narrow alley way was the storefront for Melanie Lucas. Her shop was simply called ‘Psychic Gifts’. From the outside, it looked deserted as they peeked in through the windows. They had a limited view. Lace curtains were strung up inside to shield the visitors from prying eyes.
They pushed the door and it swung open easily. A little bell tinkled in a chime. They looked around the store while waiting for a shop assistant to appear. It was a tiny room to say the least. Rows of shelves filled each available wall. Sitting atop them were books and little figurines. Charlie took a closer look at some of the titles, ‘How to Find Your Inner Goddess’ was one. Another was titled ‘Create Your Own Karma’. Her attention flicked over to the figurines. There were tiny witches and wizards, stars, moons, and pewter little statues of what appeared to be gnomes. They were cute little trinkets.
Cate kept a close eye on Rahni, there was way too much potential to break things in the tiny store. You only had to move the wrong way and you could possibly take out an entire shelf full of breakables. She was studying the different crystals when a voice startled her from behind.
“Can I help you?” She spun around to see a large woman with a huge beaming smile greet her. Her white hair was so long it almost touched her waist. Cate looked the woman up and down before replying. She wore a long, flowing purple skirt with a matching tie-dyed tank top. It was not flattering and, by far, not fashionable. Her presence was enough to fill the entire store.
Charlie managed to speak before Cate composed herself. “Hello. We were wondering if there was a woman named Melanie Lucas here?”
“Wonder no more! I am she. What brings you to my store today ladies?” She spoke in a loud voice, far too loud for the small space.
“Oh. Would you have a few minutes to speak with us then?” Cate asked politely. “My name is Cate Sinclair, this is my sister Charlie and daughter Rahni.”
“Sure, why don’t you come on through and take a seat? Can I get you a coffee or tea?” She ushered them through a narrow doorway into a larger room behind the counter. Now they understood why the shop was so small - people didn’t stay in it very long. They were shown to a brown couch that could easily have been at least twenty years old. It had a charm to it though, like it could tell a few good stories about what it’s been through.
They accepted the offer of another hot drink and Melanie bustled over to a small kitchenette at the back of the room. The three sat there while they waited for their drinks, feeling awkward in the silence. They were relieved to have her return and place the steaming mugs on the small round table that separated the couch from an arm chair.
“There’s some cordial and biscuits for the young one,” she smiled and plonked down on the arm chair. It was considerably more modern than the couch but still looked to be straight from the nearest op shop. Rahni was mesmerised by the women, smiling at her as she accepted a biscuit from the tray.
“Thank you, this is great coffee,” Charlie started the conversation.
“You’re welcome. Now tell me, to what do I owe this pleasure of having you visit me today?”
Cate rested her coffee back on the table before she spoke. “I think you know my husband, James Sinclair.”
“James? Oh heavens, do I know James! I take it he f
inally told you about our little visits?”
She was taken aback for a moment, mulling through what possible reason James would have had for visiting a psychic. “No. Actually, my husband passed away unexpectedly a few months ago. I saw he had written a few cheques out to you and was trying to work out why. So here we are.”
A look of shock passed over Melanie’s face. “James died? I am so sorry. He was a wonderful person. His aura was so beautiful that it almost dazzled me the first time I met him. How did he go?”
“He had a car accident on the way to work.”
“Is this his baby?” She turned her head towards Rahni, Cate nodded a confirmation. “She looks so much like him. I’m surprised I didn’t pick up on it the moment I saw her. At least he lives on through her. Although, I’m sure he’s at peace in the afterlife. A soul like that has no troubles on the other side.”
“Why did James come and visit you? Was he getting readings?” Cate was slightly uncomfortable with the women, she was keen to get the conversation back on track.
“I was helping him with a problem he was having. It wasn’t really ‘readings’ as such. I’m not sure how much to say because I don’t know what you know.”
Charlie interjected. “We know about the house and that there are spirits there.”
Melanie sighed with relief. “Oh good. I didn’t want to scare you unnecessarily. Some people hear the word ‘spirit’ and they run a mile,” she chuckled to herself. “James had come to me many months ago and explained there had been some strange things going on in his house. He wasn’t sure if they were spirits at first, but the more we spoke, the clearer it became.”
“So James was experiencing things too?”
“He was. He said at first it was just a feeling like he was being watched. Then they started interacting with him. They would hide some objects when he was looking for them, a favourite was his car keys.”
“He was always looking for his car keys,” Cate interrupted.
“Indeed, and now you know why. He said the catalyst for seeking my help was when he woke up one night and someone was tugging on the bed sheets. He had to keep a grip on them just to keep them on the bed. He said that he thought it was you or his daughter but there was no-one there. It worried him enough to find me and ask for my assistance.”
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