The Haunting of Peligan City

by Sophie Green

  Lil tried to stay calm; she took a deep breath and then gave Nedly a small but confident smile and a nod that meant. ‘OK – do it.’

  Nedly stepped up to Hench. At once the temperature started to fall. Even in the fuzzy darkness, Lil could see a web of ice form on the surface of some old spilled paint on the floor in front of her.

  Hench tried to stifle a shiver; he held Inch’s poppet by the head, squashing it inside his fist to keep the bell from ringing and letting its legs dangle. Walking slowly along the shelves in the workshop, he used the tip of his stubby finger to nudge boxes and reams of fabric aside, mumbling, ‘Poisoner, swindler, mugger … Where have they put you all?’

  He opened a tall wooden cabinet and appraised the contents, which were mostly doll parts. One of the heads rolled suddenly off the shelf and bounced on the floor. Hench put out a foot to steady it and the doll’s eye dropped down in a slow wink. Instinctively he toe-punted it away.

  ‘Mr Inch. Is that you?’ he whispered, casting a frightened glance at a nearby tower of crates.

  The air in the workshop had started to freeze and Hench’s shallow breaths appeared in tiny puffs in front of him. ‘At ease, Mr Inch,’ he hissed. ‘You stay where you are.’

  Hench took a gold engraved lighter from his pocket and struck it. The lazy yellow flame swayed, stretching shadows in the warm glow it created.

  Nedly blew it out.

  ‘Stop fooling around,’ Hench yelled at the poppet in his hand. ‘I tell you what to do; just sit quietly in the corner – wait for instructions.’ He bashed the poppet on the side of his palm, muttering to himself, ‘Why aren’t you working properly? Why aren’t you doing what you are told?’

  There was a sound like the flutter of wings, and Hench whipped round, his eyes wide with panic as a hard plastic fairy doll swooped down from the top shelf and struck him with a miniature karate chop on the nose. He held the poppet right up to his face and snarled: ‘Don’t mess with me, Inch!’ The sounds of the TV sparking into action came from the next room. ‘You have to do what I say! Those are the rules!’ He shook the poppet over and over again. Its little bell ring-dinging madly in protest.

  Nedly rushed at a shelving unit and a whole row of jars flew into the air and smashed onto the floor, spilling their contents all over the place. Hench ran in to see what had happened and slipped on the glass eyes that had scattered. He went over hard on his back and the poppet slipped from his grasp. Lil darted forward and made a grab for it but Hench was faster; he snatched it out of her reach and scrambled to his feet.

  ‘Not so fast … Hey, ain’t you the little girl who was looking for her dolly?’ He peered at her in the low light.

  ‘That’s right.’ Lil’s eyes went to the poppet in Hench’s grasp.

  ‘Oh no’, he chuckled. ‘This one ain’t for you.’ He darted forward and made a grab for Lil.She shrieked, ducked out of the way and threw her pencil at him.

  ‘Yaargh!’ It caught Hench in the face and he staggered back, clutching his fist to his eye socket.

  Lil fled into the back room, looked hopelessly for somewhere to hide, and then dropped to her knees and scrambled beneath the sink, pulling the curtains round her until there was just a thin crack where the two sides met.

  Hench’s lumbering body blocked the moonlight that was streaming through the window as he passed the shelves that divided the room. ‘That wasn’t very nice,’ he said, knuckling his eye socket. Floorboards creaked as he lumbered forward.

  Lil’s trembling knees were pushing against the curtains, the toes of her boots peeking out from under it. She realised with a surge of panic that she wasn’t really hidden at all, and cut her losses. ‘Nedly!’ she cried out. ‘Do something!’

  The crack in the curtain darkened suddenly.

  Chapter 25

  The Last Poppet

  Hench swivelled just in time to see what was coming but not fast enough to escape it.

  The floorboards groaned as they took the weight of the toppling bookcase. The TV skidded from its perch, and struck Hench on the top of his head, skimming like a boulder over his oily hair and dive-bombing the floor where it sprang apart with a crunch as it hit. A wave of paperbacks quickly followed and pelted Hench from all angles. He crooked his elbows over his head as finally the bookcase fell, hitting him with a blow that floored him instantly, knocking the poppet out of his hands and burying him amidst the pages of the Classic Westerns Collection.

  Down in the basement everyone stared at the ceiling.

  ‘What was that?’ Naomi gasped. ‘It sounded close. You don’t think Lil …?’

  The glow from the furnace deepened the shadows in Abe’s furrowed brow. ‘Lil will have gone to get help; she’s a smart kid.’

  Margaret peered up at him from under the tufts of her eyebrows and rested her head on her paws.

  Abe started pacing. He glared at the locked door, and worked his jaw like he was chewing on an iron spring. ‘If that goon hadn’t taken my Swiss Army hand, I could have gotten us out of here by now.’

  Naomi cupped her ear to the metal grille of a ventilation shaft cut into the wall. She closed her eyes and listened hard. ‘What if she didn’t go? What if she’s still up there alone?’

  ‘She won’t be –’ Abe looked like he wanted to say something else; he opened his mouth a few times, and then gave up and closed it.

  Naomi stared past the grille into the square black tunnel beyond. ‘We can’t just sit around here waiting. If there’s any chance she’s still up there, she needs help.’ She rummaged around in her pockets, took a coin out and used the edge of it to turn the old screws that held the grille in place. ‘This could be a way out.’ Once two of the screws were on the floor Naomi took hold of the edge of the grille and yanked it away from the wall.

  Abe peered doubtfully into the hole. ‘That’s way too small for you to get through.’ He took the discarded grille from her and held it up against himself. ‘Let alone me.’

  Naomi wiped the sweat off her forehead and left a rusty smear there instead. ‘I wasn’t thinking of either of us.’ She looked at Abe and then they both looked down.

  Margaret stared back at them.

  Lil poked Hench’s hand gingerly with the toe of her boot. It lay bent and motionless, like a dead spider.

  ‘He’s out cold.’

  Nedly looked sickened. ‘Do you think I’ve killed him?’

  Lil knelt down and reluctantly held her fingers to Hench’s wrist to feel for a pulse. It was there – a surprisingly strong one. ‘No, it’s OK. He’s alive.’ Nedly sagged with relief.

  The poppet lay on the floor a few inches away from Hench’s hand.

  ‘Where’s Inch now?’

  ‘She’s sitting in the corner just like Hench asked her to.’

  Lil tried to slide her glance from under her eyelids to the empty armchair in the corner. At least it looked empty.

  Nedly dropped his voice even further so he was almost mouthing the words as he said, ‘We need to get her poppet sorted as soon as possible. I think once she realises what we’re planning she will try and stop us.’

  Lil nodded. ‘OK. And we’ll need to get the Key to the furnace room off Hench, so we can get Mum and Abe out and the poppet in.’

  She bent down carefully, and stretched her hand towards the poppet. Her fingers grazed the sack-cloth body. She shuffled nearer, reached again and Hench’s hand suddenly sprang to life, grabbing her ankle. Lil screamed. He pulled her over and she went down with a gasp, cracking her knees, and smacking her hands on the hard floor just as Hench burst out from under the pile of books, Godzilla-like with a roar, pushing the bookcase aside and staggering to his feet.

  A frantic thumping noise struck up from the cellar. Lil opened her mouth to shout for help but her breath was snatched away as Hench lashed out again, grabbing her by the hood of her mac. Lil jabbed him as hard as she could in his pod-like belly, but he just scrunched the collar tighter round her neck. Nedly was looking around for something heav
y to throw at him when suddenly a flash of sandy-coloured fur flew out of the ventilation shaft, sending the rusted grille clattering to the floor.

  Margaret tore across the room and sprang at Hench, clamping her small but sharp teeth round his wrist like a pearl-toothed vice.

  ‘Yoweraghhh!’ Hench cried, letting go of Lil. He grabbed Margaret by the scruff of the neck with his other hand. She yelped as he tried to wrench her away.

  With a flash of luminescence Nedly rushed at Hench, his jaw set, his eyes black and furious. Hench tumbled backwards, releasing Margaret who scampered away with her fur on end.

  As the dust settled around them, Hench lay back on the pile of toys, grey-faced, his bitten wrist buried in his armpit.

  From the basement Lil could hear Naomi frantically yelling, ‘LIL!’ through the ventilation shaft.

  ‘Mum? I’m OK!’ Lil shouted back. She peered down the shaft and then kneeled down beside Margaret and spoke in a soft voice. ‘It’s all right, girl. It’s all right.’ She reached out a hand and gently stroked Margaret’s spiky scruff. ‘You were very brave coming to find us, but now you need to go back.’

  Margaret tilted her head to one side with a worried look. ‘We’ll be OK.’ She gave her forehead a reassuring rub and then looked over to Nedly. He glanced fleetingly at the ‘empty chair’ and nodded. ‘I want you to find Abe.’ Margaret cocked her ears. ‘And I want you to take this.’ Lil stretched her hand out and carefully picked up Inch’s poppet. She held it out to Margaret who looked apprehensively at it and then at the chair in the corner, her neck hair spiked again and her forehead wrinkled. ‘Please,’ Lil added, and Margaret took it gingerly between her teeth.

  ‘And as quickly as possible.’ She picked the little dog up and pushed her into the mouth of the ventilation shaft shouting, ‘Now! Go, go, go!’

  The telltale bells tinkled urgently as Margaret shot through the square metal tunnel, the sound of her tippy-tapping claws faded, and then there was silence. Lil looked into the black void for a moment while around her the temperature dropped and the hair on the back of her neck began to prickle.

  ‘She’s coming,’ warned Nedly.

  Lil stood up, and whipped round just in time to see that Hench had got to his feet too and was standing there clutching his bloodied wrist. His mouth twisted into a smirk but when he saw the look on Lil’s face his expression changed. Lil knew he could feel it too: the creeps, all around him. Or more specifically: right behind him.

  Lil watched as his lips began to quiver; his face rippled and for a second his features darkened and took on grey shadows as the spirit of the dead woman walked though him, and then he fainted.

  ‘Get back!’ Nedly yelled, rushing forward. Lil circled round, took a running jump at the armchair and sprang over the back of it. She crouched down low and shot a look round the side. In the centre of the room Nedly appeared to be grappling with thin air. Lil saw his sweatshirt stretch out like it was being clawed at. Inch was pulling him towards her.

  ‘Don’t let her get hold of you!’ Lil yelled.

  She thought she saw a fleeting look cross Nedly’s face along the lines of Thanks, I hadn’t thought of that, and then he began to shake out his right arm and Lil saw that instead of just one finger, his whole hand was glowing now; Nedly himself had dimmed but he was channelling his power into one part of his body, focusing it where it counted.

  ‘Go on, Nedly!’ she shouted.

  Nedly nodded, kept his chin down, drew back his fist and released it like he was loosing an arrow. All his spectral energy was behind the punch as he twisted mid-air, spun 360 degrees with the force of his own momentum – and then fell flat on his face. He lay there motionless.

  Lil raced out from behind the chair. ‘Nedly! Are you OK?’ She felt the temperature in the room thaw. ‘Has Inch gone?’

  ‘Yep.’ Nedly still wasn’t moving.

  ‘Margaret must have got the poppet back to Mum and Abe so they could destroy it in the furnace,’ Lil explained helpfully.

  ‘Looks that way.’ Nedly pushed himself up onto his knees and from there onto his feet.

  ‘It was shaping up to be a really impressive punch, though. Maybe even a knockout.’

  He gave her a bashful shrug and blew on his knuckles. ‘I’ve been practising that one.’

  The strong sense of menace in the room had seeped away with the demise of Inch. There was only Hench to deal with now, and he was still out cold. Lil raised her eyebrows hopefully. ‘That’s all of the poppets gone now, right?’

  Nedly’s expression turned grave. ‘There’s still one missing. We haven’t got Mr Grip yet.’

  Lil flicked on her torch and ran back to the cabinet where the other poppets had been. The shelf was empty. She checked the floor, the drawers and the cupboards next door, but she couldn’t find Mr Grip’s poppet anywhere.

  Slowly she returned to the back room, her eyes narrowed, jaw set. She nodded at the collapsed heap of Hench. ‘I’ll bet he knows.’

  Gingerly she prodded his chest. Hench’s shirt was tight and wrinkled with sweat. She pushed it again and then gave his shoulder a shake. ‘Wake up!’ she told him sharply and gave his nose a good pinch.

  Hench sparked to life with a gasp, his eyes wide with panic. ‘Get away from me!’ he wheezed.

  Lil looked down at him with contempt. ‘Give it up, Hench. Inch is gone. They’re all gone. And you’re going back to jail.’

  He shook his head stubbornly. ‘That’s what you think. This place is still haunted, all right. I can feel it.’

  Lil slid her gaze towards Nedly and gave him a nod that meant give us some space, will you?

  Nedly politely stepped back.

  Hench was mumbling to himself, twisting his handkerchief into knots in his clammy hands. ‘Old Henchie has just about had enough of spooks. He didn’t sign up for being the one who got scared,’ he whimpered.

  Lil took a step closer until she was standing over him and turned the laser-like Penetrating Squint on him at close range. ‘I think you want this to end just as much as we do, but you don’t know how to end it.’ Hench peered curiously up at Lil, and a flicker of something crossed his face. Lil let the Squint soften. ‘So why don’t you just hand over whichever poppets are still in the game to me and I’ll take care of them?’

  Hench balled the handkerchief up in his palm and kneaded it until his knuckles turned white, and then he made his choice. ‘Mr Grip. He’s the one you’re looking for, am I right?’ His hand twitched in a suggestion of the jab that he hadn’t the heart to deliver, even as a mime.

  Lil nodded.

  ‘All right,’ Hench agreed. Lil noticed that some of the shine had returned to his small blue eyes. ‘Let’s do a deal – I give you the last spook and I walk.’

  Lil and Nedly exchanged glances. So Grip was the last of them; that confirmed it. Lil wanted to snap the deal up straight away. She wanted to put an end to this for good. She said, ‘I want the key to the furnace room too.’

  Hench smiled. ‘Naturally.’

  ‘OK, deal. So, where is he?’

  Hench pulled himself up on one of the shelves and limped over to an old tea chest. He took off the boxes that were stacked on top and then picked up a claw hammer from the workbench and used it to crowbar the lid open.

  Lil looked nervously at Nedly but tried to keep her voice steady. ‘Can you give us the key to the basement first?’

  But Hench wasn’t listening. He was reaching deep into the tea chest, and then he pulled out the poppet.

  ‘Careful!’ Lil warned him. ‘Don’t wake him up!’

  ‘Get them!’ Hench threw the poppet up in a high curve. Its black bead eyes glinted as it flipped in the air and then began its descent towards Lil, the tinkle of its topknot bell ringing out in the silence.

  Lil watched it plummet towards her in slow motion.

  ‘Lil!’ Nedly was shouting. ‘He’s getting away!’

  Lil switched her attention to Hench, to see him stumbling across the workroo
m, dragging a sheet of bear fur that got hooked over his leg behind him. He hurled himself through the front door, into the black night and the snow, and ran.

  ‘The key!!!’ Lil yelled after him.

  She and Nedly watched Hench stagger into the middle of the road, then, like a bowling pin, he was suddenly knocked off his feet and fell face down onto the frozen ground. He got up on to his knees and then, under the cold glare of the moon, they saw his eyes widen and start to bulge. He clutched at his heart and then crumpled forward, his black oily hair turning perfectly white, like a fire had spread over his skull and turned it to ash.

  Chapter 26

  Mr Grip

  ‘Mr Grip,’ Nedly breathed.

  Very slowly they stepped backwards, through the scattered toys, past the broken jars until they hit the the workbench. From there Lil ducked round the shelves and then ran quickly down the stairs to the door to the furnace room and rapped urgently on it.

  ‘Mum?’ she whispered as loudly as she dared.

  ‘Lil! Naomi gasped. ‘What are you doing still there? Are you OK? Is that man still here? Why aren’t you?’

  ‘Shhhh!’ whispered Lil. ‘Tell Abe that Mr Grip is about so you need to be really quiet, OK? Or he’ll come down here after you.’

  ‘Who’s Mr –’ Naomi started to ask but Lil interrupted her.

  ‘You don’t know him. Abe will explain. Trust me. Just don’t make a sound. Please.’

  ‘I –’ Naomi started and then she stopped and was silent. Finally she whispered, ‘Be careful.’

  Lil held her hand against the door for a moment and then crept back up to the workshop where Nedly was standing by the shelves, his eyes still fixed on the road. Lil whispered as quietly as she could manage, ‘What’s he doing?’

  Nedly shrugged and whispered back, ‘He’s just standing there in the snow, looking at the stars. Or a really tall building. Maybe he’s waiting for an instruction?’

  They both looked down at Mr Grip’s poppet, which was now lying on the floor staring up at the ceiling with its crazed bead eyes and expressionless mouth. Lil tucked her hair behind her ears in a way that meant business. ‘Nedly, I’m going to go for the poppet, real slow.’