by Alison Smith
She ran as fast as her feet and her legs would take her. She knew that she was fit. So why was she getting slower with every pace? Her legs felt heavy and she glanced back at the house with dismay. It was as though she were trying to run through a quagmire or though mud. She had barely covered a few metres. She turned her head forwards again and pushed forward. She needed to put distance between herself and the house.
With horror she suddenly saw a large black dog appear immediately in front of her. She froze. Out of the corner of her eye she saw another dog and then another. Slowly she turned around. She was surrounded. Where had so many dogs come from? They were unlike any dogs she’d ever seen before. No, she realised, she had seen these dogs before. A dog just like these had been in her back yard. Over the last few months she had seen dogs like these by her bus stop and by the Casino door. But there had never been more than one at a time. Not that she had seen. Never as a pack. With mounting horror she noticed they all looked exactly the same. In the twilight they all seemed to have the deepest blackest fur she had ever seen. Luminescent eyes. She tried to breathe but her throat felt constricted.
Dogs will only attack if provoked, she told herself. But they were all moving and, slowly, padding around her in a spiral, closer and closer. The distance between her and them became less. She put a foot forward and, as if one, they all growled. The joint growl was like a rumble of thunder. Frozen to a stop, Jewel’s heart was in her mouth. The dogs continued to circle until they were so close she could have put a hand out and touched one. They stood higher than her waist. Could they hear her beating heart? Her brain seemed as frozen as her legs and time echoed on interminably. The dogs stopped. She didn’t dare to breathe. But she felt and smelt their breath. It smelt of terror. Hers.
‘Please,’ she tried, but her mouth was dry, ‘please don’t hurt me.’ The strength went from her legs and she staggered. They growled. She summoned every ounce of energy possible to stand still and then, slowly, she turned towards the house.
Anton and Sable were standing by the door, watching her.
‘Hounds, down,’ Anton’s called and the dogs backed away slightly. Jewel felt detached from the scene as her terror brought numbness.
‘They won’t hurt you Jewel, they’re protecting you.’ Sable said quietly, but Jewel still heard the words.
‘Protecting me?’ Jewel was relieved to have regained her voice at least, even if her legs still felt like jelly. ‘Protecting me?’ she repeated ‘how do you work that one out? They’ve scared me half to death. And I want to go home.’
‘Interesting choice of words my dear Jewel.’ Anton paused and then clicked his fingers. The dogs turned and slowly started to walk towards the side of the house. ‘They will return only if you try to leave the protection of the house. It really is for your safety. Please, Jewel, trust us. Just listen to what we have to say and then, as soon as it’s safe, you can go home. We can help you to remove the blindfolds.’
At his words the dogs stopped in their progress across the garden and turned back. Towards her. What was that Anton had said about the blindfolds? Did he know about the reading Diana had given her? About the eight of swords? She straightened her shoulders and walked back towards the house. The dogs padded away.
Chapter 4
The only sound in the large room was a tall grandfather clock ticking the minutes away. Anton flicked his fingers and candles burst into light all around them. The room became bathed in a glow, giving an ethereal and unworldly atmosphere. Jewel looked down at her place setting. There was a glass of water alongside her wine glass and she was both thirsty and hungry. Was it safe for her to eat and drink?
‘The food and drink is exactly as it should be Jewel. We sedated you to bring you here ... we had to. I apologise for that but we felt it the quickest means of keeping you safe. Nothing untoward will happen now. I promise that I will never use magic to control you again.’
Jewel picked up her glass of water and sipped, feeling the purity sweep through her veins and a sense of reassurance. Somehow, she did feel safe here. Protected. She believed him. More than that, she believed in him. She jumped as the clock started to chime. 8 bells.
‘Eight o’clock,’ she said quietly neither addressing the statement to Anton at the head of the table nor to Sable who sat opposite her. Anton wore a deep green velvet jacket, she noticed and wondered when he had changed? They had entered this room straight from the garden and, she was sure, he hadn’t had it on earlier. ‘This is the time that I usually start work. Does Diana know where I am? That I’m safe? Will she be able to let the casino know I intend to be back? I …’ She stopped as Anton sat down. Had he even heard her?
Her attention was diverted by the arrival in the room of two identical men carrying trays of covered dishes. She looked closer at them and, with a start, exclaimed just as they were leaving the room. She recognised them. But they continued to walk out of the room and closed the door behind them.
‘Yes, Jewel.’ Anton said. ‘You have seen The Twins before. It was in the forest. They are … helpers.’
Jewel frowned. Was he reading her thoughts? She had seen them in the forest?
‘So they helped you abduct me?’ she said whilst wondering why she didn’t feel more angry about the situation. The only sense she had was that of fate. This is your destiny. A feeling of calm descended through Jewel. The words had come from a familiar source.
Jewel looked at Anton who was watching Sable busying herself uncovering dishes and rearranging the table so as to give them all access to the food.
‘They drove the car, Jewel. Abduct seems a harsh word to use. We needed to keep you safe and had to act faster than we would have preferred. Please. Let us just enjoy the meal. The Twins are accomplished chefs and they have prepared one of my favourite dishes tonight. Do you like Jugged Hare?’ He looked at her questioningly.
‘Very much so.’ Jewel said quietly. Obviously her questions would be answered in his own good time. She was still annoyed but her stomach growled at the scent of the meat. She was very hungry.
‘I am glad you like the dish. The recipe is quite rich with blood and port in the gravy. I’m sure it will meet your pleasure. Enjoy it all, you have nothing to fear here.’
Blood and port? Surely he couldn’t actually have said blood? Jewel frowned for a moment. But then she loved steak tartare, which wasn’t even cooked, and black pudding. How different could it be to have blood in gravy? She watched as Sable took a large portion and then helped herself to an equally sized amount.
‘The first part of our tale belongs to Sable and I shall let her tell it.’ Anton said.
Sable placed her cutlery neatly at either side of her plate. ‘I promise you, dear Jewel, no harm will come to you here. I have a part of your story, as well as my own, to tell you. We are linked, all three of us, but in very different ways.’
Jewel watched as Sable raised her wine glass to her lips and sipped. Jewel could sense an inner turmoil and wanted to hold Sable’s hand to give comfort. Then in the shadowy light, Sable replaced her glass onto the table.
‘We are sisters, you and I. We share the same mother but not father. I am older, but we are blood sisters. Indeed I cared for you when you were a baby. Our mother was often … away.’
Jewel felt her stomach flip. She had a sister. A family of her own.
‘Why now? I’ve always wanted a sister, a proper family. A real family. Why tell me this now?’
She looked at Sable who remained silent.
Anton spoke. ‘There is much for you to learn over the next few days, Jewel.’
Days. Words spilled from her lips. ‘I can’t be here days. I have work, friends, people who care for me.’ She had been quiet for long enough and needed answers. ‘You abducted me. Kept me drugged. You have just dropped into a conversation that I have a real family history. You’ve stopped me leaving. And now I’m just expected to stay here. I want to go home and you come to my house with your explanations.’ Jewel leapt up. This was
all too much.
Anton stood and put up his hand. ‘This is most difficult for all of us. We are unsure just how long you need to be here with us. You have known for a long while that changes were coming. That your twenty-eighth birthday meant that nothing would ever be the same again. This is a part of it but please, dear Jewel, give us time to explain.’
‘If you truly expect any co-operation from me.’ Jewel paused and took a deep breath. She would speak slowly so that there could be no mistaking her words. ‘If you really want me to stay here and listen to whatever you have to say. From now on.’ She looked directly at Anton and focussed all of her concentration on her words. ‘From now you will speak in proper sentences. No more hidden meanings. No more half answered questions. Truth. I want truth. And to be able to contact Diana.’ Jewel sat down.
Anton sat in silence.
‘Jewel?’ Sable said quietly and Jewel looked towards her. ‘We fear that, if Diana knew where you were, she would come for you. No matter how many assurances you gave her. And that could put her in danger. From our mother. From Monique.’
Jewel was silent. Words filtered through her brain. Mother. Sister. Fathers. Danger?
‘Diana would be in danger from my mother?’ This was not making sense. Jewel was missing something crucial she just knew. ‘You mentioned our fathers. Are they still alive? Can I meet mine?’
Sable appeared unsure how to answer and the only sound Jewel could hear was the ticking of the grandfather clock.
Anton cleared his throat ‘Sable’s father is dead. As is your own, I’m sorry. Neither of you had a chance to know them. I wish it could have been different, very different, for you both. But it is because of your mother, Monique, that you are here now.’
‘You said that she could put Diana in danger. I don’t understand. Can I meet her? Is she here?’
‘No.’ He said sharply. ‘She is not here and is unlikely to ever visit. She is not quite as you have imagined her to be. She has a different … way … about her,’ he stopped.
Jewel forced herself to drink some more water as she wondered about his choice of words. The truth. She had asked for the truth.
‘Is she unbalanced? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?’
Surely she hadn’t found a sister only to learn that her mother was either in an institution or worse, should be in one and wasn’t.
‘Perhaps some would say unbalanced, Jewel.’ Anton’s face darkened. ‘It is more a question of ethics, morals. She has none. It isn’t safe for you to meet her yet. I am sure that you will meet soon. I beg that you wait until you are stronger. Eat and drink some wine. Get to know your sister. Both you and Sable have much in common. That will be enough for tonight. Tomorrow we will tell you more. Please trust us.’
Jewel knew that she did trust both him and Sable. But, she wondered, where would that trust lead her?
Diana sat in her small car outside the Tapper’s house. She’d had another sleepless night and there had still been no word from Jewel. She and Chris had decided, in the early hours, that Jewel’s parents had to be told. It was now Tuesday. How was she to tell Paul and Elsie that their daughter had been missing since Sunday evening? But it had to be done. The police were taking no notice of her. Surely they would respond to Jewel’s parents? With a heavy heart she got out of the car and locked the door.
She pushed open the blue garden gate and stepped appreciatively onto the tidy path. Paul Tapper took such pride in his garden and she loved the neat flowerbeds of geraniums and roses. She walked up to the front door and raised her hand to knock.
A part of her brain registered that something wasn’t quite right. The door was slightly ajar. The wood surrounding the handle was splintered as if it had been forced open. She knocked on the door but there was no reply and so she gently pushed it open. It immediately swung wide and she stepped over the threshold, wiping her feet automatically on the hall mat.
‘Mr Tapper? Mrs Tapper?’ No voices answered and so she tried again ‘Paul? Elsie?’ Instantly she felt her gut retract. Something was wrong here. More than that. Very wrong. She called for a protection light to surround her. Diana sensed evil. But that wasn’t possible, was it? She needed more than the light and immediately pulled strong shields to her body. Four shields. Positioned to defend her body from each of the four directions. She took a moment to carefully open her senses and smelt an unusual scent in the air.
Should she go or stay? Her intuition told her to run away. To get as far away from this place as possible. No, Diana, she told herself sternly, you are doing this for Jewel. Jewel might even be here.
‘Is anyone here?’ Nothing. Just a void of soundless echo. She took another step and shivered. She wanted, no needed, help from the other dimensions.
‘I call upon the spirits of love, of light. Surround me with your presence.’ Diana’s voice rang out, much stronger and louder than she expected as her words reverberated through the house.
She took a few more steps into the narrow hall and something crunched beneath her feet. Looking down she saw broken glass on the floor and then, as her gaze travelled upwards along the wall, she saw the framed family photographs. All of them shattered and fragments of glass all over the carpet. The photos still in their frames suspended on the walls. But she looked closer and saw that almost all of the photos had been slashed. Faces scraped off. The only ones left whole were those of Jewel.
Turning she walked with an instinctive dread towards the open door leading into the sitting room. The television screen showed a morning news programme as she entered, but there was no sound. Diana felt blackness as if dark hands were gripping her heart and took a deep breath. The smell was stronger here than in the hall and she slowly turned around. Towards the settee. Everything was red. Red blood. Everywhere. All over the carpet and the walls. With growing horror her eyes slowly started to focus on a slumped body on the settee.
Paul Tapper.
Taking a step she realised that the carpet was sticky beneath her feet. She put a hand out towards him and then immediately withdrew it. The man was dead. He had to be. His face was distorted with a grotesque smile.
Trembling knees took her out of the room and upstairs. What if Jewel was here? Diana had to check. She just had to. As she ran from room to room it was as if it were a different house. There was nothing out of place upstairs. Everything was neat and tidy - a complete contrast to the horror of the sitting room. She stood nervously at the top of the stairs. The bedrooms were exactly as they should be. A framed wedding photo, Paul and Elsie’s, caught her eye. Whoever or whatever had done such harm downstairs hadn’t come up here. Diana knew with certainty that Jewel wasn’t here either. There was only the kitchen to search now.
She clutched her bag as if it were a weapon and tried to take out her phone whilst walking shakily downstairs. Her eyes glazed and she could barely make her way down. She couldn’t find her phone and gripped the handrail instead. Her mind was blank as she reached the bottom of the stairs. She had no idea what to do next.
What had happened here?
Where was Elsie Tapper? If she was injured maybe she could help. Call for an ambulance. Do … something. Shouldn’t she call the police? She recalled the image from the sitting room but it seemed faded as if it had been a scene from the television. Not real. And yet it was.
She turned her head, her eyes, away from the awful red of the sitting room and forced her feet to walk to the kitchen. The same kitchen that had been the hub of Saturday’s party. In a fog she saw Elsie, standing, in her apron and leaning against the counter. Two mugs were set out next to the kettle. Diana opened her mouth to speak but no words emerged.
There was Elsie. But she had no head.
Why didn’t Elsie have a head? A face? A smile?
Where was it?
Where was her head?
The reality slowly trickled into her mind and her stomach heaved. A silent scream reverberated through her body and then numbness cascaded. She staggered through the hall,
outside and collapsed onto the small lawn. Her bag fell to the ground and its contents fell out as she vomited. Sharp pains in her stomach told her that there was nothing left to bring up and yet she still retched. Her car was just beyond the garden gate and she tried to crawl towards it and safety. Her knee collided with her phone and she picked it up. She quickly dialled the emergency number and prayed that her voice would be strong enough to summon help.
Dimly aware that the operator had registered the address, she knelt and waited. Tears coursed down her cheeks as she gently stroked the geraniums.
Jewel woke from a deep sleep refreshed and alert. She found, once again, that her clothes had been laundered and were at the bottom of her bed. She looked carefully around the room and, seeing another door, opened it. With delight she made use of the surprisingly modern shower room. Ten minutes later she walked down the wide staircase towards the back of the house, where Sable had assured her, she would find the kitchen.
There was no one about but she had expected that. ‘We rarely rise before late afternoon,’ Anton had said last night. What was it about the man? she wondered. When he had held her in the forest, she’d felt warm and safe. She dwelt on the picture in her mind from last night. Broad shoulders encased in green velvet. His long dark hair shining in the candlelight. And then she remembered him lighting the candles with just a flick of his fingers. Jewel wished she could share the image with Diana. She frowned at the number of occasions that the two of them had tried to light candles in that way, and had failed.
Everything about this place was comfortable except for both Anton’s and Sable’s insistence that she couldn’t reveal her whereabouts to anyone just yet. Even when she’d said that Diana could be trusted they had still insisted. But Anton had promised more of her history today and she wanted to know. All she could do was continue to project a sense of her safety to Diana and hope that it reached her.
Whilst making coffee and toast she wondered about his relationship with Sable. The question sent a momentary pang to her heart. She couldn’t find him attractive, not if he were involved with her sister and she pushed all thoughts of Anton away. After eating she would go outside and find the garden that Sable had so lovingly described to her. Sable’s herb garden. Sipping her coffee she did allow herself a few moments to smile at the thought that she had a sister. A real sister.