Forgotten Souls

by Rooster Smith

  ***

  Back at the doctor’s surgery, Maggie was sitting up and having a sip of water.

  “Where’s that bloody doctor gone? He’s been ages,” she whispered to herself.

  Then she heard a noise coming from outside her room, so she shouted, “Doc, is that you?”

  The door opened and Bartholomew Smith himself walked in. Behind him, the same pale-skinned young girl from earlier stayed in the doorway.

  “I told you I’d be back for you, didn’t I?”

  Maggie was rigid with fright, and she couldn’t even speak.

  The Entertainer quickly walked over to the horrified woman and spoke the last words that Maggie would ever hear. “You have caused me trouble for the last time.”

  He pulled out the handle of his cane to reveal a secret sword hidden inside. Without any hesitation at all he swung the blade through the air and sliced Maggie’s head clean off.

  The head flew from her sitting body and landed on the floor with her open eyes staring up at him; open eyes when dead seemed to be a common trait and liked in the killings. Blood spurted up out of her neck and splattered on the ceiling above before cascading back down like a deep red waterfall all over Maggie’s body and bed. Scarlet blood oozed out from under her decapitated head and seeped all over the floor, turning the colour of the carpet from beige to a sickly shade of claret.

  The Entertainer removed a Joker playing card from his sleeve and placed it on Maggie’s chest, laughed and turned to the door, where the young girl was still standing. He smiled and walked up to her.

  “Come, my child,” he said lovingly as he put his arm around her. “Let us go and complete our revenge.”

  Waterloo

  Josh had now reached the deserted mansion on the clifftop where he hoped he would find his wife. It was a spooky old place and bats were flying around the area. Overgrown, thorn-covered bushes were everywhere, and the house hadn’t been lived in or taken care of for years. He didn’t know that the Entertainer was already inside, planning Rosie’s demise. Josh walked up the short, dusty pathway to the front door and tried the handle, but the door was locked. He looked around on the ground and saw a large rock, which he picked up and, without a second’s thought, threw through the window, shattering the glass.

  ***

  The smash was heard in a room upstairs where the Entertainer was preparing for Rosie’s death. She was securely strapped to a chair in front of a large window. The faint glow of the night’s first glimpse of moonlight forced its way through the dirt and grime stuck to the glass. There was a sheer, deadly drop down onto the cliffs below it.

  Rosie’s feet were tied to the chair’s legs and her hands and arms tightly fixed to its arms. There was even a leather strap around her waist, securing her to the back of the chair. She tried to scream, but her voice was muffled by the thick strip of tape the Entertainer had placed firmly over her mouth. Tears of fright rolled down her cheeks and her mouth was struggling to open and close behind the tape, trying to force out sounds to attract anyone’s attention who she hoped would be able to save her, but she was only producing faint noises. There was a noose tied around her neck, and the other end of the rope led out of a small pane of glass in the window behind and was tied to a wooden frame protruding outside from above.

  The Entertainer looked at the terrified woman. “Ah, it sounds like your beloved husband has arrived.”

  The young, wicked girl who had been with the Entertainer on the road and at the doctor’s surgery walked over to Rosie and tightened the noose around her slender neck, which forced a muffled yelp from Rosie’s mouth. The girl then spoke words that horrified the securely fastened woman.

  “There we go, Mother; we don’t want it to fall off, do we?”

  Rosie’s stunned eyes opened wide and she slowly shook her head. The loathsome creature then grabbed her by the hair and peered deeply into her eyes.

  “Take a good, hard look, Rosie,” the Entertainer said with an evil smile. “See what you can see.”

  Rosie stared into the girl’s dead, black eyes and the tears rolled down her face faster than before as she seemed to recognise something about the sinister nestling, some kind of vague, long-gone connection. An understanding began to dawn on Rosie, but she didn’t know exactly what it meant. Then the evil child let Rosie’s head go and stepped back.

  “OK, let’s get started, shall we?” Bartholomew said with a cackle. “This is going to be a good one.”

  A very large and heavy sledgehammer was fixed to a pivot on the ceiling by its handle, which made it swing like a crude sword of Damocles, waiting to harm its victim below. However, Bartholomew Smith didn’t hang the hammer directly above Rosie. A length of strong reinforced string was also tied near to the head of the hammer which threaded through a brass ring that was also fixed to the ceiling, and when this string was pulled it forced the heavy hammer up to the ceiling, where it stayed in a dangerous horizontal position.

  Smith walked over to the door of the room with the end of this string in his hand. He opened the door, put the string against the inner door frame, and carefully closed the door, trapping the string as he did so. Whoever opened the door would release the hammer and send it swooping down into Rosie’s chest, and we all know who that person would be.

  Bartholomew Smith then walked back into the centre of the room, raised his bony finger and pointed to the door. “Go on, my child, go and help Josh to find us.”

  Rosie started to move around on the chair in panic, and again muffled screams came from her tightly taped mouth as the ghastly young girl went over to the door where she silently and somewhat gracefully walked right through it without opening it.

  ***

  Downstairs, Josh was quietly walking from room to room, looking for his wife. He tried the handles of various doors but most of them were locked and had been for quite a few years, and the ones that opened only revealed empty and dusty rooms.

  Suddenly he had the horrible feeling that he was being watched. He slowly turned around and was stunned at what he saw. The dishevelled, fiendish young girl was standing in the middle of the large hallway, and immediately he knew she was one of the Entertainer’s evil offspring.

  Josh pointed at her. “You stay right there and don’t move!” he shouted. “Where’s my wife?”

  The girl laughed and slowly walked to the bottom of the stairs, where she stood, ready to run up them to lure Josh to the room where his beloved Rosie was.

  Josh sensed she was ready to run and said, “Oh no you don’t.”

  The demonic child smiled and ran up the stairs, with Josh running as fast as he could in pursuit. As he reached the top of the stairway, he turned and found himself looking down a long landing with many doors leading off it. But where did the child go? Josh turned around and looked the other way, but there was no sign of her so he turned back to the long corridor. This time, the ghostly girl was standing outside the room where the Entertainer and Rosie were waiting.

  “Don’t you move” Josh said as he pointed at her, but she just walked straight through the door and disappeared from sight.

  Josh walked slowly down the passageway and stood outside the door. He grabbed the handle, but hesitated for a few seconds as he sensed something was wrong. He removed his hand from the handle and stood back, wondering if he should go in or not. He wanted to enter the room, but something told him not to.

  ***

  Inside the room, Bartholomew Smith knew he had to do something, so he walked up to Rosie and whispered, “It seems he needs a little encouragement.”

  He put his hand up to her mouth and ripped off the tape which had been gagging her.

  Instinctively she screamed, “Josh!”

  But that was the worst thing she could’ve done.

  ***

  Josh heard Rosie’s scream, and as fast as he could he grabbed the door handle, turn
ed it, and ran into the room.

  As soon as the door was flung open, it released the string securing the hammer and sent the heavy load swinging downwards towards Rosie. For the split second before the hammer hit its target, Josh’s eyes and Rosie’s met across the room. They both knew what was about to happen, but it was too late. With Rosie still tied to the chair, the sledgehammer swooped and smashed into her chest splitting her skin open as it crushed her ribs. A sickening crack was heard as her ribcage pressed inwards, puncturing her lungs and heart, sending thin sprays of flesh and blood jetting into the room and doing untold internal damage.

  The helpless woman, still fixed to the chair, was lifted off the floor by the force of the hammer blow, and the Entertainer and the evil girl laughed loudly just before Rosie was sent crashing out of the window behind her. She dropped down the cliff face below, and the rope snapped her neck as it tightened about halfway down. Josh had killed his own wife just by opening the door.

  Rosie dangled down the cliff face, turning slightly in the night’s breeze. The vile young girl walked up to the shocked Josh and handed him a King of Clubs playing card.

  “You’ll need this,” she muttered.

  Josh looked down at the card and came to his senses. He ran to the window and screamed, “Rosie, Rosie, no!” but he knew she was gone.

  He grabbed the rope and started to pull Rosie up as Bartholomew said to the girl, “Come, let us gather our souls – it’s over now.”

  Bartholomew and the wretched child walked out of the room as Josh, with adrenaline fuelled strength somehow pulled Rosie up and back through the window. The heavy chair, still bound to her body, banged onto the floor. He untied his dead wife and cried as he hugged her.

  “I’m so sorry, Rosie,” he sobbed, “I didn’t know.”

  Eventually Josh composed himself and stood up, leaving Rosie on the floor.

  “I’ll come back for you, I promise,” he whispered. He knew he had to follow the Entertainer.

  He tore up the card in his hands and left the room to think about what Smith had just said.

  “Gather the souls,” he muttered to himself. “Now, where would an entertainer go to gather his souls?”

  Then it dawned on him and he blurted out, “The fairground!”

  Josh ran to his car and drove to the funfair where he hoped to somehow stop the Entertainer, but he hadn’t a clue what he would do.

  ***

  He drove as fast as he could back into Mablethorpe and along the coast road towards the fairground. As he got nearer he could see some faint lights in the distance near the gates of the funfair. His eyes adjusted as he approached and he was horrified to realise that the lights were the ghostly, grey forms of the Entertainer’s victims, and they were all slowly disappearing up the few steps at the entrance of the fair and through its locked gates.

  Josh then saw the sad, dull light of Rosie and she was the last in the ghostly line, so he drove faster and then slammed his brakes on and skidded as he reached the fair.

  He got out of his car and sprinted to the steps, calling out to Rosie as he started to run up them. He stretched out his arm in the hope of actually grabbing her, but he stumbled and fell to the ground.

  Composing himself, Josh quickly looked up to the top of the steps and saw that Rosie was just about to glide through the gates. He ran as fast as he could back up the steps and held out his hand, but it was too late; he missed Rosie by mere inches as she passed effortlessly through the shut metal gates.

  Josh crashed into the gates and stretched out his arm through the bars, but it was all in vain – Rosie was out of reach.

  Tears ran down his face as the devastated man yelled, “Rosie!”

  The shout made Rosie glance back towards her husband, and there was some sad recognition but it didn’t last long and she turned and walked further into the funfair, where she sat in a dodgem car.

  Wiping away his tears, Josh saw that all of the ghostly victims were going to various rides and stalls – some went to the waltzers, some to the ghost train, and some to a shooting range. One even went to the hook-a-duck stall and sat down on top of the floating plastic ducks.

  He then saw Bartholomew Smith standing near the centre of the fairground. Josh saw everything quite clearly as the fairground wasn’t that big and the way the rides and stalls were set out made the fair easy to see from one end to the other. The Entertainer then raised his cane high into the air and all of his demonic, vile children began to emerge from their hiding places behind different stalls and rides and gather around their master.

  A victorious smile beamed all over his face as he spoke to his hateful descendants.

  “Go on, my children,” he bellowed; the evil grin still on his face. “Go and have your last play!”

  With an eerie sense of magic, all of the fair’s rides and attractions started up and their music began to play. This was obviously the signal for the children to choose what rides they would go on and who to torture as they then began to make their way to their preferred victims.

  One urchin went to the waltzers, and as the ride spun round the child spun the seat with the ghostly victim inside, which made the victim bang from side to side in the carriage. Another child was shooting pellets on the rifle range, and as they passed through the head of another victim standing in front of the targets, the doomed man let out screams of pain. Three of the poor wretches were in one of the seats of the ghost train, and a fiendish nestling was standing behind them as they disappeared into the ride. Painful wails and shrieks were heard outside; there was no telling how they were being tortured. The man sitting in the hook-a-duck stall was being beaten by two of the ghostly children with the hooks, and this scene was being played out all over the fairground in various different ways. Each child was inflicting injury upon the innocent sufferers, causing them distress and pain in their undead state.

  Josh looked towards the dodgem cars where he saw Rosie and other casualties of the Entertainer being rammed hard by malicious brats who were laughing as they drove into their targets. Rosie was being tossed from side to side in her seat, and her head shook violently to and fro. Josh saw one of the victims being sliced in half on the mini roller coaster towards the rear of the fair; even in death there was no rest from Entertainer and his evil children’s torture.

  Josh looked back at Rosie and the tears began to fall down his cheeks once again.

  Suddenly, the Entertainer stared at him and shouted out into the night, “I am Bartholomew Smith, the Entertainer, and I finally have my revenge!”

  He then walked a little closer to the locked gates where Josh was kneeling and looking longingly through the bars at Rosie. Bartholomew gracefully swung his cane as he bowed down low, and as he rose back up, he spoke some final words to Josh.

  “Who will be the next to enjoy all the fun of the scare?”

  Bartholomew chuckled loudly as he turned and walked back to the centre of the fair, where he disappeared into a strange mist. The victims’ tortured screams of agony and the children’s evil laughter faded away and echoed in the emptiness of the ungodly night sky as they also vanished, leaving the fairground totally still. A revolting smell filled the air and everything was in complete darkness, and all that was left in the putrid atmosphere was an eerie silence.

  About the Author

  Rooster was born and raised in the Midlands, where he works in the industrial sector. He likes horror, comedy, the coast, rock music and live concerts.

  This is his debut novel and the first of a trilogy.

  Acknowledgements

  I am eternally grateful for the help and support from my wife Karen; my children Jenna, Adam and Stacie; my mum Barbara; my siblings Angie and Carl; and all of my family and close friends.

  I must give a personal and special thank-you to my brother Carl for his direct input in getting this book published, and to my son Adam who said, �
�Just write a book, Dad”; so I did.

  I love and thank you all…