Frozen Charlotte

by Alex Bell

  She sighed. “Aunt Martha blamed the other girls.”

  “The girls?”

  “She said that they turned on each other. At the start of term they were all friendly and well behaved – good students, you know – and then something changed and some of the girls started misbehaving. Just little things at first but then it got worse and worse. Aunt Martha believed that the deaths at the school, including Miss Grayson’s, weren’t accidents. She used to say that it’s easier than you think to push someone down the stairs.”

  “So if they were all well-behaved girls to begin with, what changed?”

  Pat shrugged unhappily, and I glanced at the door, worried in case a customer should walk in. As soon as that happened, I knew our conversation would be over. There wasn’t time to tiptoe around the real question so I just came out with it. “Did it have anything to do with the Frozen Charlotte dolls?”

  The quick look she gave me told me that she already knew about them. “Are they still there at the house?” she asked.

  “Yes. My cousin Rebecca found them in the basement. They’d been plastered into the walls but my uncle chipped them out for her.”

  “Someone, I don’t know who, gave them to the school for the girls to play with. For some reason my aunt developed a kind of phobia about them. It seems that a few of the other girls told her that they could hear the dolls whispering at night and moving around in the toy room. There was some unpleasantness when the school cat got shut in there one night and the next morning it was dead. Aunt Martha said that whenever anything around the place went missing or got broken, the girls would blame it on the Frozen Charlottes. She said that the dolls made the girls evil. But I’m sure it was simply a case of naughty children trying to blame their behaviour on toys.”

  “So you don’t think the Frozen Charlotte dolls are dangerous?”

  “Of course not. They’re only dolls. But… Well, I feel quite embarrassed saying this but I would never have one of them in the house.” She shook her head. “It’s so silly, but the way my aunt talked about those dolls has stayed with me my entire life. I’ve never seen one, except in pictures, but if either of my girls had ever brought one home I would have taken it away and got rid of it. Maybe your uncle should think about doing the same? After all, they’re antiques now, perhaps they’re worth something? I’m sure some auction house or museum somewhere would love to have them.”

  “And the girl who jumped from the window?” I asked. “Do you think she did it because the dolls told her to?”

  “No,” Pat replied. “At least … my aunt always believed that she did it because she knew she couldn’t resist the dolls and so she killed herself so that she wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else. Like I said, it happened the same day the teacher died so my aunt always believed that this girl pushed their teacher down the stairs and then killed herself.”

  The bell over the door rang out as a family came in, and although Pat gave me a smile, I could tell she was glad to get away from me. So I paid for my breakfast and walked back to the bus stop.

  Chapter Fifteen

  They reached the door and Charles sprang out,

  He reached his hand for her.

  She sat there like a monument

  That has no power to stir.

  Piper was waiting for me when I got back to the house, swooping down on me almost the second I walked through the door.

  “You should have told me you were going out,” she said. “I would have come with you.”

  “It was a spur of the moment thing. I couldn’t sleep so I thought I might as well get on with something.”

  “Oh yes, the photos.” Piper smiled at me. “Can I see them?”

  “There’s something wrong with my camera,” I said, pleased to note that my voice came out pretty normal. I was obviously getting good at brazenly lying to people. “I wasn’t able to take any.”

  “What a shame,” Piper replied.

  We looked at each other for a moment and I sensed that she didn’t believe me. And, what was worse, I’d just trapped myself in the lie, which meant I couldn’t show her my photo of Rebecca.

  Even though I’d been desperate for proof, part of me was glad to have a reason not to confide in Piper. Lately, I found myself unsure around her. But that morning, at the first opportunity, I showed the photo to Cameron.

  I saw him leave the house from my window later that morning and ran down the clifftop path after him. It was the perfect opportunity since we couldn’t be seen or heard that far away from the house. We hadn’t really spoken since that awkward conversation on the clifftop the day before, when he’d practically accused me of being a nutcase.

  “Cameron,” I called, and he stopped and turned back towards me. “I want to show you something.”

  When I switched on my camera and brought up the saved photos, I was afraid that the one of Rebecca might have mysteriously vanished, but it was still there, just as disturbing as ever.

  “Take a look at this,” I said, holding it out to him.

  Cameron took the camera from me without a word and looked down at the screen. He stared at the picture for a long time before finally looking up.

  “Very impressive,” he said in an icy voice. “Looks like the kind of thing that would win you first place in any photography competition. Although, I have to say, I’m not sure it’s in very good taste.”

  “This isn’t for any competition, you idiot!” I said, losing patience. “This is a photo that I took downstairs in the middle of the night.”

  “Which night?”

  “Last night.”

  “Impossible. The piano is still there.”

  “I know! But it happened just the same. Rebecca is here – she’s right here in the house with us – and she’s trying to tell me something. Something to do with the Frozen Charlotte dolls. I think maybe they had something to do with her death.”

  “I don’t see how,” Cameron said, and I could hear the contempt in his voice as he handed the camera back to me. “They’re dolls, for God’s sake.”

  He turned and started to walk away but I hurried after him and grabbed his arm. “You’ve got to believe me,” I said, hating how desperate I sounded. “If even a photograph won’t convince you that Rebecca is back then what will?”

  Cameron gazed back at me for a moment, then he said, “I’d have to see her with my own eyes. And, even then, I probably wouldn’t believe it.”

  He pulled his arm free and carried on walking, and this time I let him go.

  I was standing there, digging my nails into my palms and trying to control the frustration bubbling up inside me, when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I took it out and saw that it was Mum calling. I frowned as I remembered I hadn’t got around to replying to her email. There was a massive time difference between us – it must be the middle of the night in San Francisco.

  I pressed the button to answer the call. “Hello?”

  “Sophie!” Mum’s voice sounded very far away on the other end of the phone, and the wind on the clifftop didn’t help.

  I pressed the phone closer to my ear. “Mum, I can’t hear you very well. Is something wrong?”

  “I just wanted to make sure you were OK,” Mum said.

  “Of course I’m OK,” I said. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t reply to your email, but—”

  “It’s just that you sounded so upset last night.”

  “What?” I frowned again. “I didn’t speak to you last night. Do you mean the email?”

  “…can’t hear you very well, Sophie,” Mum said. I could just about make out the words crackling over the line. “But I wanted to make sure … very hard for you … Jay’s death…”

  “Mum, I really can’t hear you,” I said. “I’ll email you later, OK?”

  “OK, darling. Just be brave, all right? We’ll be home in no time.”

  “Just have a good holiday, Mum,” I said. “Don’t worry about me – I’m fine.”

  I rolled my eyes as I hung up t
he phone. This was why I shouldn’t try to speak to her about Jay. Why did everyone have to overreact so much? It was like I wasn’t even allowed to be upset about my best friend dying.

  I didn’t realize, didn’t even suspect, the truth. If only that phone call had made me see the danger I was in.

  When Piper came to my room at around 6pm to tell me they were all heading down to the beach, I felt a sudden strong urge not to go, but couldn’t think of any suitable excuse, especially since Piper had said that I was the only reason she was still allowed to go in the first place. Unfortunately, the weather forecast had been accurate and the wind had died down completely as the afternoon wore on.

  I was just putting a few things into a bag when Lilias came into my room.

  “Rebecca says I have to give you the rest of the message,” she said, looking cross. “She says it’s important. You got all weird and wouldn’t let me finish last time, but she says you need to look on your phone. He left something for you on it that you have to see.”

  “Who?”

  “Your friend. The one who died. The one who asked Rebecca to give you the message. She says she promised him that she would.”

  Lilias didn’t give me a chance to reply, she just took off and left me staring after her. I picked up my phone but then Piper called me from downstairs so I stuffed it into my pocket and went to join her.

  We took the clifftop steps down to the beach, with its smooth carpet of black sand. Brett was already there with another guy called Kyle, and a couple of girls Piper knew from school.

  The trip was a disaster from the start. Piper seemed to change as soon as she was with her friends. Instead of being sweet and friendly she became, all of a sudden, kind of a bitch.

  When she introduced me to her schoolfriends she said, “This is my cousin, Sophie. She’s OK, really. You’re just a little bit of a goody-two-shoes, aren’t you?” She smiled at me as if this was all a joke.

  Something seemed to have changed between us but I wasn’t sure how or why. Suddenly she was acting as if she didn’t even like me.

  The other two girls – Gemma and Sarah – were both effortlessly pretty, even if they were nowhere near as stunning as Piper. They annoyed me as soon as I met them, and it was obvious from the start that they didn’t like me. Gemma had actually turned up wearing great big platform heels, which seemed a stupid choice for camping on the beach, as she kept falling over. In the end, Kyle picked her up and carried her, giggling, down the sand to where we set up the tents.

  When we got the fire going and started cooking some food, I thought, for about half a minute, that maybe the night wouldn’t be a total disaster after all. But then Piper suggested that we get changed into our night things.

  I got dressed in the tent then went to brush my teeth. When I came back, the other girls were sitting round the fire. They were all wearing silky nighties with lacy trims, and when they saw my sheep pyjamas they fell about laughing, and no one laughed louder than Piper.

  “Oh dear, Sophie, you really are quite the baby still,” she said sweetly. “What are we going to do with you?”

  I forced myself to grit my teeth. Piper was acting as if we were friends and it seemed to me that she was being careful to be not quite nasty enough. If I said anything, I knew it would look like I was overreacting. I had no choice but to go along with it.

  “It’s like looking at a six year old!” Gemma squealed. “Haven’t they got any grown-up pyjamas in England?”

  Have they only got slutty nighties in Scotland? I wanted to say.

  Instead I gave her my brightest smile. “You should see my onesie,” I said. “It’s got unicorns on it.”

  It had been a present from Jay last Christmas. He’d given it to me at the café. There’d been Christmas music playing and, as we sat there eating our way through a great big plate of mince pies, it started to snow outside. That memory was so sweet to me now that it was actually painful, and I wished I hadn’t thought of it, sitting here on this black beach with these people I didn’t like. I knew then that coming on the camping trip with them had been a mistake, but it was too late to turn back to the house now – it would make it look as if they’d chased me away, and I’d die before I gave them that satisfaction.

  Brett got out a packet of cigarettes and passed it around the group. When they got to me, I handed them on without taking one. I wasn’t surprised when Piper instantly drew attention to it by saying, “Haven’t you even smoked a cigarette before?”

  “No, and I don’t want to, thanks,” I said, struggling to keep my voice level.

  I was trying very hard not to think about Jay because this entire evening was making me miss him badly. As the others started to talk about some party they’d been to a few weeks before, I couldn’t resist taking out my phone and scrolling through the photos, looking for whatever it was that Lilias had mentioned back at the house.

  Suddenly, a photo came up that I didn’t remember ever seeing before.

  It was Jay in my bedroom, taking a selfie with my phone. And, straight away, I knew what day this was because I could see the toffee cake we’d bought from the supermarket on the way home. It was the day he had asked me to go to the end-of-school dance with him and I’d laughed. Shortly afterwards I’d gone downstairs to get us some plates and Jay must have taken the opportunity to grab my phone. He was smiling into the camera and holding up a piece of paper he’d scribbled a message on:

  I wasn’t joking, silly.

  And I’m going to ask you again.

  For long moments I stared at the photo.

  I won’t cry, I told myself, I absolutely will NOT cry.

  I knew I’d have to at some point, but not here, not now, in front of these people who were not my friends. But why would Rebecca have wanted me to see the photo? She was a vengeful, evil spirit. She was responsible for what had happened to Jay. Wasn’t she?

  “This is getting a bit boring,” Piper announced suddenly, bringing me back to reality. “Let’s liven things up a bit. How about truth or dare?”

  I knew from the start that this was going to be trouble but the others all seemed keen. I put my phone back in my bag and waited nervously until it came to my turn.

  “Truth or dare?” Piper said, smiling at me. The light from the fire threw strange shadows over her perfect features so that, for once, she didn’t look pretty at all. Her Frozen Charlotte necklace was in full view now that it wasn’t hidden beneath her T-shirt, and I felt like the doll’s eyes were staring right at me.

  “Truth,” I said, hoping that would be the least painful.

  “Have you ever been kissed?” Piper said at once.

  I felt myself blushing furiously in the dark. “No.”

  “That’s no big surprise with pyjamas like that!” Sarah laughed, while I wished the sand would just swallow me up.

  “Oh, I dunno,” Brett, who was sitting between Piper and me, leaned over and nudged my arm. “Some guys like sheep.” He then looked a bit confused by what he’d just said. His tiny eyes appeared even smaller in the firelight, and I pulled away from his touch.

  Piper was still looking at me. “Is that the truth?” she asked. “You’ve honestly never kissed anyone?”

  “No,” I said, wishing she would just drop it.

  “I thought perhaps Jay…?” she prompted.

  “Who’s Jay?” Gemma asked at once.

  I didn’t think I could bear it if they started talking about him. “No, I told you—”

  “Yes, yes, he asked you to the school dance and you laughed in his face,” Piper said, waving her hand as if it were nothing.

  “Wow, that’s harsh!” Kyle said.

  I glared at Piper. “You know it wasn’t like that.”

  “Sorry, Jay,” Piper said, in a voice that was a shockingly accurate imitation of my own, “but, you see, I’d rather die than go to the dance with you.”

  Cameron’s words from yesterday came back to me suddenly: Piper is an excellent mimic…

  I
t really was like hearing my own voice coming out of someone else’s mouth. Whatever game she was playing here, I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

  “You know what I think about Jay?” Piper asked, switching back to her own voice. “I think that he—”

  “I don’t want to know what you think about Jay,” I said. “I don’t want to hear you speak about him at all.”

  Everyone was staring at me. One of the other girls giggled but I ignored her. My eyes were firmly fixed on Piper.

  “Oh, settle down,” she said, not seeming at all concerned. “Can’t you take a joke?”

  “Not about this,” I said. “Not about him.”

  “All right, all right, we won’t talk about Jay any more if it’s going to kill the mood like this. Geez! It must be my turn by now, anyway?”

  “Truth or dare?” I said, before anyone else could beat me to it.

  Her green eyes glittered in the firelight. “Truth.”

  I looked right at her, my heart thumping fast in my chest as I summoned the courage to ask my question. “What happened to Cameron’s piano?”

  I’d thought Piper might be angry. After all, even asking the question was pretty much an accusation against her boyfriend. But instead she looked delighted. “Well, it’s quite simple,” she said, beaming. “I took it apart, piece by piece.”

  It was obvious by the silence that none of the others had known this. For a moment, the crackle of the fire and the lapping of the waves on the sand nearby were the only sounds.

  Then Gemma gave an uncertain laugh. “Wow, Piper, that’s cold. Wasn’t that piano worth a fortune?”

  Brett seemed less amused. “What the hell, Piper?” he snapped. “I got dragged in by the police over that bloody thing. Why didn’t you say anything? I could have gone to prison!”

  “Oh, don’t overreact,” Piper said. “You’re not going to prison.”

  She put a weird emphasis on “you’re”, almost like she thought someone else would be going to prison instead.

  “Why did you do it?” I asked.

  “No, you don’t,” Piper said, wagging her finger at me. “That’s two questions. No freebies!”