The Clockwork House

by Wendy Saunders

  He hurried up the stone steps and almost fell through the doorway.

  ‘Ava!’ he gasped in relief as he saw her standing in the foyer, her back to him.

  Hearing her name Ava turned and saw Kelley, bloodied and covered in mud, lurch through the doorway.

  ‘KELLEY!’ She rushed forward wrapping her arms around his shivering body. ‘What the hell happened to you?’

  ‘The car,’ his teeth chattered as he swallowed, ‘flipped in the rain, I crashed it in the woods. I thought I saw someone in the road, I swerved to miss them.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he pulled her in close, ‘they disappeared.’

  ‘Jesus Kelley,’ she cupped his face, pushing his hair out of the way to examine the cut, ‘you could’ve killed yourself.’

  ‘I came for you,’ he grasped her face urgently, ‘you shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe.’

  ‘Well isn’t this sweet?’ a familiar voice intruded.

  They both turned to look and saw the reporter Derek Carpenter standing in front of the open doorway, watching them with a smirk. He wore a yellow raincoat with the hood pulled up, his glasses were steamed up and his bangs clung to his wet forehead, but as he watched them, he held up his phone as if he were filming them.

  ‘What are you doing here Carpenter?’ Kelley glared dangerously at him.

  ‘Same thing you are,’ he smirked, ‘came to see a ghost. I saw Ava here take off like a bat outta hell, then not long after you followed. How could I resist?’

  ‘You’re crazy being out in this storm,’ Ava scowled at him.

  ‘Just following your lead princess.’

  ‘You saw me wreck my car and you didn’t stop to see if I was okay?’ Kelley growled.

  ‘Hate to burst your self-righteous bubble there Mr Ryan but by the time I got to your car you were already gone.’

  Suddenly there was a loud clunk, the generator stopped whirring, and the lights went out plunging the three of them into darkness. The phone Derek had been holding in his hand flew across the room and smashed hard against the opposite wall, shattering.

  ‘What the hell?’ his eyes widened.

  Suddenly a shrill scream echoed through the house. It was chilling, filled not with fear but rage and malice. They could feel the sheer fury vibrating through the walls.

  Kelley turned to look at Ava.

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  He grabbed her hand and started toward the door, with Derek already moving in that direction but before any of them could reach it, the doors slammed violently shut. Kelley grabbed the doors and rattled them, but they were locked tight. There was no getting out that way.

  ‘The windows,’ Ava tugged on his arm and they ran toward the schoolroom where the original windows had just been reinstalled.

  Kelley grabbed the sash window yanking on it hard, while Ava tried the one next to it and Derek grabbed the third which made up the curve of the window alcove, but none of them would open.

  ‘Stand back,’ Kelley grabbed the old rusted iron poker from the fireplace and lifted it to swing at the glass.

  Ava watched in horror as Kelley was thrown violently across the room by an invisible force.

  Both Ava and Derek stumbled back as the wooden desks suddenly parted down the center of the room and shot across the floor in a loud ugly screech of wood, piling up against the walls. The lightening lit up the entire bay window and standing in front of it was Luella Lynch.

  Her pale bruised eyes stared at them from a stark white face, her hair wild and bushy, escaping the bun at the top of her head, her lips peeled back into a snarl.

  Ava felt Kelley grab her and they ran through into the smaller parlor and out the doorway which opened into a hallway.

  ‘I know another way out,’ Ava yelled breathlessly, ‘follow me.’

  She took them through the butler’s pantry, and across to the other side of the house, past the music room and into the billiards room, slamming the door behind them.

  ‘What the fuck?’ Derek was breathing so rapidly he was almost hyperventilating.

  ‘I need a light, I can’t see anything in here,’ Ava cried out in panic.

  ‘Hang on,’ Kelley fumbled in his pocket, one hand still clutched around the poker and the other dragging his phone out of his pocket and turning on the flashlight setting.

  She ran her hands underneath the edges of the old billiard table.

  ‘Where is it… where is it…come on…’

  Suddenly there was a click and as Kelley lifted his phone, he saw a panel in the wall open up. It was another hidden room.

  ‘How did you know that was there?’ he asked as they rushed toward it.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she panted, ‘I just did.’

  Derek crammed in after them and she slammed and locked the door with a deadbolt.

  ‘What is this place?’ Kelley asked as he lifted the light and saw roughhewn stone walls, not paneled like the other hidden corridor, and instead of carpeting and wooden parquet flooring there were just stone steps leading down.

  ‘It’s an escape route,’ she breathed heavily, her heart pounding in her chest from the fear and adrenalin. ‘It leads down in stages to the foot of the cliff.’

  ‘I don’t remember there being any caves or openings on the beach at the foot of the cliff,’ Kelley frowned. ‘If we follow it, how do we know we can get out the other end? What if its collapsed?’

  ‘We’ll have to risk it.’

  ‘Oh, hell no,’ Derek shook his head. ‘I’m not getting trapped in a secret tunnel in the cliff and suffocating to death.’

  ‘It’s that or face the ghost.’

  ‘Come to think of it, if we just breath shallowly…’

  ‘I thought so,’ she nodded, ‘come on.’

  They started to climb, but it didn’t just descend straight down, every now and then it would flatten out into landings then turn and descend again. They’d passed two of these strange little plateaus when they suddenly came to a dead end.

  ‘I thought you said this went all the way to the bottom of the cliff?’ Derek frowned.

  ‘It does,’ Ava murmured as she stared at the pile of rocks in front of her.

  ‘There’s no way we’re at the bottom already,’ Derek replied.

  ‘We’re not,’ Ava shook her head, ‘we’re not even halfway.’

  ‘Ava, this isn’t part of the passageway. The roof has collapsed in over the original tunnel,’ Kelley whispered as he examined the rocks. ‘Do you remember me telling you that the night of the storm in 1919 the cliff was struck by lightning? I think it might have brought the ceiling down in this section.’

  Ava turned to look at Kelley. As he moved the phone, the light fell on something poking out from under a rock. Kelley kneeled and shifted it out of the way, revealing the cracked face of a doll.

  ‘Oh no,’ Ava’s breath left her in a rush.

  She stepped back and looked up toward the top of the pile near the ceiling. Grabbing the poker from Kelley she scrambled up the rockslide.

  ‘Ava be careful,’ Kelley warned, ‘you don’t know how stable it is.’

  ‘It’s okay,’ she reassured him.

  She lifted the poker and stabbed it into a gap between two small boulders. She repeated it a couple of times then wiggled it back and forth. When it was loose enough, she dropped the poker back down to Kelley and yanked out a couple of the rocks. Shingle and pebbles rained down, skidding down to the floor in a shower of smaller rocks. She used her hands to dig a hole big enough to climb through.

  ‘Kelley give me your phone,’ she scrambled halfway back down the rock pile.

  Once she had it in her hand she climbed back up and looked through the gap she’d made. There was a huge void beyond.

  ‘It doesn’t look as if the whole thing has collapsed, just sections,’ she called back to him. ‘I’m going to take a look.’

  ‘Be careful,’ his voice echoed in the darkness.

  She wriggled
her body through the gap and climbed down the rocks on the other side. When she hit the ground and turned, her heart shattered.

  The beam of light carried through the corridor to where another section of rock had fallen in at the far end, sealing a void in between, and lined against the walls huddled together in the darkness were the skeletons of the children.

  She heard the skittering rocks behind her and turned to see Kelley climbing down with Derek behind him.

  ‘Damn it,’ Kelley cursed softly, ‘they must have suffocated in here.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Ava whispered.

  She moved the beam of light and watched as it fell on the skeleton of a fully grown adult. It was a woman, judging by the severe corset, high necked shirt and full-length skirt holding the bones together. Her dark hair hung either side of her vacant eyed skull. In her lap, undisturbed for a century were the remains of a child, her arms wrapped around him holding him close. A small tuft of blonde hair was still visible against his bleached white skull.

  There was a sudden rush of sound, like an indrawn breath. Ava felt the hairs on her arms rise and her skin prickle. She turned her head slowly to find herself staring into the eyes of Luella Lynch.

  Kelley jolted and raised the poker like a club.

  ‘KELLEY NO!’ Ava stopped him.

  They froze, breathing heavily as the spirit in front of them watched with frightening pale eyes.

  Ava’s gaze landed on a small gold locket hanging against Luella’s blouse, just below her breasts and her gaze narrowed. Her hand fumbled for the locket she wore beneath her t-shirt; the one Baz had given her. It was the same one. Luella’s eyes landed on the locket in Ava’s palm.

  Ava flipped it open. This time she peeled back the green lining paper and realized there was a small photograph concealed behind it. A small fair-haired boy.

  ‘Peter.’

  Ava turned to glance at the bones of the woman cradling the child and the pieces slowly began to fall into place.

  ‘That’s Peter, isn’t it?’ Ava whispered as Luella’s eyes locked on her. ‘He’s yours…. he’s your son, isn’t he?’

  Luella continued to stare at her but didn’t move.

  ‘You couldn’t claim him because he was illegitimate,’ she guessed, ‘so you brought him here and opened the school. It was the only way you could keep him close to you, wasn’t it?’

  Ava looked back at the bones of Peter, then across to the other children.

  ‘You tried to save him,’ she murmured, ‘you tried to save all of them. You were trying to get them to safety when the passageway collapsed.’

  She turned her attention back to the spirit who watched her carefully.

  ‘You weren’t trying to hurt Julia and those boys,’ Ava realized, ‘you weren’t trying to hurt me. You were trying to warn us.’

  ‘Warn you against what?’ Kelley asked.

  ‘Whatever it is that’s trapped in the house.’ Ava stepped closer to Luella, her mouth dry and her heart pounding. ‘Show me, like you did before.’

  ‘Are you crazy?’ Kelley hissed as he grabbed her arm. ‘Last time she knocked you out for nearly a week, this time she could kill you.’

  ‘She won’t,’ Ava shook her head, keeping her gaze on Luella. ‘She’s not trying to hurt me; she’s trying to tell me something.’

  ‘Ava, you don’t know what will happen. What if you end up like Declan? Like Todd?’

  ‘I won’t.’

  ‘You don’t know that,’ he argued.

  ‘Yes, I do,’ she replied firmly. ‘Last time it was a shock, I was unprepared. This time I’m not, this time I’m giving her my permission.’

  ‘And if you’re wrong?’ Kelley whispered. ‘I don’t want to lose you Ava.’

  ‘You won’t,’ she replied softly, ‘but if we don’t figure this out, whatever it is up there will kill us and we’ll be trapped here forever just like they are.’ She nodded toward the children’s bones. ‘They’ve waited long enough,’ she told him, ‘we have to help them.’

  He reluctantly let go of her arm as she stepped closer to Luella.

  ‘Try to be a little gentler this time,’ she murmured and for a second she could’ve sworn she saw her thin lips curve a fraction.

  ‘Okay,’ Ava blew out a nervous breath, ‘show me… show me what really happened that night.’

  Luella lifted her hands slowly and deliberately, her fingertips crackling with blue energy. Ava felt her grip her head, felt the shock and then there was blackness.

  24

  The Night of the Storm.

  31st Oct 1919.

  ‘Mother please, you have to eat something,’ Luella held the spoon to her shriveled lips, but they remained tightly closed.

  The left side of her face permanently drooped, and she’d lost the ability to speak, but there was still intelligence behind those eyes and a coldness Luella had learned to fear as a child.

  ‘Mother come now,’ she tried again, lifting the spoon, but Eleanor turned her head sharply and the mashed stew slid off and landed with a plop on Luella’s skirt.

  ‘Oh, for goodness sake mother,’ Luella sighed in frustration, ‘I’m trying to help you.’

  Eleanor resolutely kept her head turned.

  Luella took the napkin and wiped up the mess, then picking up the tray, she headed across the room. Eleanor still refused to look at her, barely acknowledged her. It had always been the same even as a child. It had been different for Edward, as a boy her mother had seemed to hate him even more.

  The sudden random thought of her younger brother still made her heart ache. When she’d woken on that morning and found he’d died in her arms during the night she’d wept bitterly, and she’d vowed never to forgive her mother for what she’d done to him.

  She’d left the house and the island as soon as she was old enough. Her intention was to gain employment in one of the big houses over on the mainland. It had worked for a while, she’d been free. Then she’d met a handsome young servant who’d worked in the same household as her. He’d won her heart, seduced her, and then ultimately abandoned her the moment he’d discovered he’d planted a babe in her belly.

  Peter had been born soon after and it had been the happiest moment of her life. The second she’d held her son in her arms she knew she’d do anything to protect him.

  Still exhausted from the hard labor, and bleeding heavily from his birth, she’d run, stolen away into the night with him tightly wrapped in her arms before they could take him from her. She’d moved from place to place, stealing if she had to, finding work where she could.

  When word finally reached her that her mother had taken ill, paralyzed down one side of her body, Luella had hesitated, but the truth was they were slowly starving. It was getting harder and harder to find work. Peter, who was barely a year old, was sickly and getting thinner by the day. They were staring at a long hard winter with nowhere to live.

  She’d vowed she’d never return to the island, to that house, but she had no choice. Her son would die if she couldn’t provide better for him. So, she’d returned with a small blonde boy in her arms. She could’ve lied, told them that she’d been married and that her son was legitimate, but she couldn’t, not on Midnight Island. She didn’t want him tarnished by the Lynch name. No one could know he was her son.

  She knew what the islanders whispered, about the crippled father she’d barely known, about the young brother she’d lost far too soon, and about the frightening grandfather she’d avoided at all costs while he’d been alive.

  Ephraim Lynch had terrified her. She’d heard the whispers about him, heard what kind of man he was. She’d witnessed herself on more than one occasion what he’d done to her mother, the perversions he’d inflicted on her, things she’d been far too young to see.

  No, she didn’t want Peter to be compared to any of the Lynch men. So, she’d lied, she’d told them he was an orphan in her care. She’d returned to the house to find it in a shocking state of disrepair.

  She’d
found her mother had suffered a stroke and in her condition was no longer a threat to her or her child, but she required constant care.

  Luella had stayed.

  She moved her mother to the topmost room in the house, the room she’d once sentenced her and her brother to. It was petty, but at least she’d given her mother a constant warm fire and had all her bedroom furniture moved into the smaller room. It was more than her mother had given her and Edward.

  She’d cared for her mother from a sense of duty to the woman who’d given birth to her. She’d always harbored a seed of hatred for what she’d done to her brother, but it battled with the barest hint of sympathy, knowing what she’d suffered at the hands of her cruel grandfather. It was a messy knot of emotions that, no matter what she did, she couldn’t untangle.

  And so, they continued on, Eleanor in her small room which Luella kept locked, just in case. Not that Eleanor could’ve moved on her own but there was still that little kernel of fear in her belly, that she would harm her son the way she’d harmed Edward.

  Luella had turned her attention to the house. The repairs had been costly, and it was then she’d realized that the family fortune was all but gone. She would need an income if they were to survive. The solution was so simple, she would open the grand house as a school. It would bring in a good income, especially if she boarded children from the mainland. Peter would have children his age to befriend and the house would be filled with laughter, chasing away the dark memories of the past.

  They’d come, a few at first, then more. After a while she’d been forced to hire another teacher to help her manage so many beautiful rambunctious children.

  Jonathan Sedgewick had come to them from Boston that spring. He was a good man, sweet and he loved the children as much as she did. He was not handsome as such, not like the rakish boy who’d stolen her heart and given her a child. No, Jonathan was quiet and self-effacing, slightly rounder, soft rather than fat. He had a comely face and the sweetest temperament and as the years passed, she came to love him fondly.

  They married in the January and were content in their house filled with children.