by Colin Garrow
'Nope. Did it occur to you?' She shook her head. 'Anyway, I've got a better idea.' Approaching the brazier, I took one of the burning sticks and prodded around in the embers until I managed to wrap a couple of bits of cloth around the end. It wasn't much like the flaming torches you see in old adventure movies, but it was better than nothing.
Heading along the passage, I held the light in front of us, concentrating my gaze on the dark shape lolloping along a few yards ahead.
'You do realise we might be chasing a monster?' said Suzi.
'What's the most memorable thing about Jimmy Brick?'
Suzi made a face. 'You mean apart from that he's hardly ever at school?'
'Yes, apart from that.' I stopped and looked at her.
'Well,' she dropped her head and thought for a moment. 'He has a limp. From the time he fell off the roof of the pool hall.'
'Exactly.' I looked back at the distant figure ahead of us. 'I think that's him.'
'So why doesn't he stop and say hello?' I couldn't tell from her tone if she was being sarcastic.
I set off again, Suzi following close behind.
'And what about the weirdo in the cemetery? Where's he gone?'
'I really don't know, Suzi, but if that's Jimmy up there, he might be able to tell us what the heck's going on.'
'If it's Jimmy, why's he running away?' But she grunted a petulant agreement nevertheless.
We'd reached the end of the passage and our target seemed to have vanished. I stopped at a sort of junction and looked around. Running off in different directions were three more passageways. The one directly in front of us was by far the darkest. 'Let's go this way,' I said, pointing towards the left hand passage. I was still pondering on my decision when Suzi tapped me on the shoulder. 'What?'
'We've got company.'
Swivelling my head, I followed her gaze. The Creature/Monster/Weirdo from the cemetery was coming towards us from the opposite direction.
'Oh, pants...' I muttered. Glancing around, I caught sight of the person I'd assumed was Jimmy Brick. He seemed to be waiting for us. Grabbing Suzi's hand, I hurried after him.
The one I'd thought might be Jimmy didn't move, but stood watching as we approached. As we came closer, I heard the thud of footsteps behind us. Whirling round, the taller of the two figures was almost upon us. He stopped suddenly and held out a hand. There were now only a few yards between us. I tried to pull Suzi away, but my feet refused to move. If only I had a weapon of some sort. Then I remembered the flaming torch. The burning rags had almost burned out, but I still had the stick. Throwing my arm back, I prepared to thrust it in the face of our attacker.
'Don't do that, mate,' said the monster.
I dropped the stick. 'Mr Taylor?'
The man in the black robe threw back his hood. 'Yes, and no, actually.'
Suzi let out a low moan. 'You're bleedin joking?'
Mr Taylor gave her a hard stare. 'Language, Miss Charlton.' He waved a hand towards the smaller hooded figure. 'Perhaps we should go inside?'
He pushed past and led the way to another door. We followed him into a small room with a table and a few dusty-looking stools. Mr Taylor lit a paraffin lamp and placed it in the centre of the table. The boy had already sat down and thrown back his hood. It wasn't Jimmy.
'Do we know you?' said Suzi.
The boy looked at the floor and muttered, 'Neville. Neville Mole.'
'They were talking about you on the news,' I said.
Mr Taylor waved his arms. 'Alright, alright, we can get to that later. For now, we've got other things to discuss.'
When we'd taken our seats, Mr Taylor clasped his hands in front of him and looked at us. 'I'd like to say I'm happy to see you, but I'm not.'
I shrugged. 'Thanks.'
'What I mean, is,' he went on, 'like you, I ended up here by accident. As far as I can ascertain, there's no way out.'
A crease slid along Suzi's brow. 'Can't we just climb back up through the hole?'
'It's a chimney, actually, and yes, you'd think so, but it's too wide. Maybe if we had a ladder or some means of making one, but there's nothing here, only bits of old furniture. Most of it rotten with woodworm.'
'How come you're here?' I said.
He smiled ruefully. 'I was searching the cemetery for signs of Devilgate Drive and someone pushed me.'
Me and Suzi exchanged glances. 'You were searching for Devilgate Drive too?'
He nodded. Slipping a hand inside his robe, he held out a card. It read:
Mysteries Incorporated
No Mystery Too Small
'It's a sort of hobby of mine,' he explained, 'but what I really want to know, is how you two got here, and what you know about all this.'
We took turns relating our adventures, from finding Harry McSpawn's body to almost getting buried alive.
When we'd finished, Mr Taylor nodded slowly, his face creased in thought. Eventually, he said, 'I got you into this - it's my fault. I wanted you to find Jimmy Brick to prove he wasn't involved.'
Suzi leaned forward. 'Involved in what?'
His fingers tapped the table. 'I knew Jimmy had one of the tee-shirts - I saw him wearing it at a Monster Mash Convention a few weeks ago. Trouble is, we hadn't realised how important the tee-shirts were.'
'I think you'd better explain,' I said.
'You know about Nathaniel Darke?'
'We've heard of him.'
'Well, our group believe he's a Demon.'
Suzi coughed. 'A demon. And what's one of those?'
'I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's true. Darke had dabbled in the black arts for years and when his firm got a contract to build a new estate, he had very specific ideas on its design. At first, he built Devilgate Crescent and Devilgate Lane, and at that point, he stuck to the plans, but when he began work on Devilgate Drive, the local authorities demanded the site be demolished.'
'Why?' I said.
'Because,' said Mr Taylor with a grim face, 'he built it in the shape of a skull.'
'Wow,' I said. 'Cool.'
He laughed. 'Maybe it's cool to you two, but a hundred years ago it was seen as sacrilegious. The whole town turned against him. In fact, they hounded him into his grave, quite literally.'
'He is dead, though?' said Suzi.
Mr Taylor took a long breath and let it out slowly. 'He should be.'
'Hang on,' I said. 'When you say they hounded him into his grave...'
'You like horror movies, don't you, Jeff?' I nodded. 'Well, it was a bit like one of those old films, where the villagers chase the monster out of town and he falls over a cliff or gets burned in a fire.' He paused. 'One night in 1881, when Nathaniel Darke was finishing off some paperwork in his office, he heard voices outside. When he went to the window, the townsfolk were marching up the road holding burning brands. Before he could do anything, they'd set fire to his house. He was able to escape, but they chased him to the building site. When they were sure he was inside, they boarded up the windows and doors. Using soil and rubble transported from Darke's other building sites, they buried Devilgate Drive, making it into an artificial hill. It was renamed Haggerty's Park, and as the town was in need of a cemetery...' He shook his head. 'Nathaniel Darke was never seen again.'
'Cripes.' Suzi shivered, then sat up straight. 'Wait - are we...?'
He nodded. 'We are inside Devilgate Drive.'
We sat in silence for a moment, then I said, 'Hang on, how d'you know all this?'
Mr Taylor cleared his throat. 'Because I intend to put things right, to force Skeleton Cove to recognise the genius known as Nathaniel Darke.'
'Er...' I began.
'You see,' he continued, 'George Taylor is Nathaniel Darke's great, great, grandson.' He paused, then, 'I, on the other hand, am the real thing...' His smile faded and as we watched, Mr Taylor's face fell away, revealing the skull underneath. His eyes turned red and his mouth dropped open. Somewhere deep inside my brain I was aware of being totally unable to move.
&nbs
p; Sixteen
Cool dank air wafted over my face.
The notion of being propelled backwards floated into my head. I blinked and tried to focus. In front of me, the wall slid towards the floor. I blinked again and tried to shake my head, but my head said no. As my senses gradually returned, I realised I was lying on a trolley, travelling along a wide stone passageway. The wall I'd thought to be sliding downwards, was in fact the ceiling.
'He's waking up, Master,' said a voice.
Something prevented me from lifting my head - a strap or belt held it fast to the cart. My hands too, were fastened at my sides and I could hear the clatter of metal wheels on the stone floor.
'What...?' I tried.
The boy I knew as Neville Mole leaned over me, his blackened teeth grinning like some hideous gargoyle. 'Wouldn't say nuffin if I was you, or you'll get it for sure.' He grinned again and slithered out of sight.
This was bad. Very bad. Whatever they had in store for me, maybe I was better off not knowing. But whatever it was, it would be happening to Suzi too. Where was she? I tried again to lift my head, but it was no use. Focusing instead on what I could hear, I endeavoured to separate out the various sounds - the clattering of the wheels, the wheezing of my childlike captor and the two sets of thumping footsteps. That's it - there was another cart following us. It had to be Suzi.
I can't say this information made me feel better, but knowing she was close by calmed my nerves, if only temporarily. All I had to do was get hold of the knife I'd stashed in my pocket for just such an occasion, cut my bonds, grab Suzi and shimmy up the non-existent ladder inside the chimney to safety. Oh, and roll away the massive boulder that was blocking the hole.
Except I couldn't do any of that because I'd left my knife at Suzi's house.
A feeling of deja vu crept over me. All we needed to complete this total mess was to be trussed up like mummies and thrown into an open grave. Again.
A sudden jolt interrupted my fantasy as the trolley came to a halt. We banged through a door and into a darker room. Two pairs of hands shoogled me onto a stone slab. I realised the thing I was tied to wasn't a trolley after all, but a sort of wooden frame - I'd been stretched across it like a spider's web, and like an unlucky fly, I was well and truly caught.
There was movement close by and I heard a Suzi-like grunt. The two sets of footsteps receded and a door slammed thud. When I was sure they'd gone, I said, 'Suz? That you?'
'Course it's me - didn't think I'd leave you here to die a horrible death all by yourself, did you?' She laughed, harshly, her voice choked with tears.
'Can you move?'
She moaned. 'Don't think so. You?'
I tested each limb in turn - left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg. Nothing. Then I had a thought. 'Hey, are you tied to a wooden frame?'
She was silent for a moment, then, 'Yeah, think so.'
'Me too. But I reckon the frames aren't fastened to the tables.'
'How does that help?'
She was right. Even if we could manoeuvre ourselves off these slabs, we'd still be tied up. But as it was pretty unlikely some superhero was going to fly in and rescue us, we had to give it a go. If only because I was getting really bored with being tied up by a bunch of demonic villains.
I did a mental checklist and worked out that my head, hands, feet and ankles were attached to the frame. Maybe I could shuffle my way off the slab? Pressing down with hands and feet, I found I could lift my bottom an inch or two off the stone surface and move it a couple of inches to one side. I did this again, then again, until I could feel the edge of the table under my right thigh. With a little more shoogling, I could probably tip myself and the wooden frame over the edge. The problem was, if I landed face down, I'd be snookered.
'I'm going to try something,' I said, in what I hoped was a reassuring voice. Moving another inch to the side, I felt the edge of the table digging into my leg. Just a little more and I'd be over. Giving it one last go, I felt myself tipping and a second later, I was standing upright, gazing down at Suzi.
'Wow,' she said, swivelling her eyes towards me. 'You did it.'
'Now I just need to...' Pushing my bottom away from the edge of the table I was leaning on, I tilted forward, then thumped backwards. Another go, and this time I fell forwards and crashed against the slab holding Suzi.
'Hi,' I said. Now I was standing over her, the base of my frame wedged diagonally against the base of my slab, while my stomach rested against Suzi's slab.
'Is that better?' she said.
I gave her my most hopeful smile. 'Hang on.' Stretching myself as low as possible within the frame, I jumped, or as near as I could get to a jump, upwards, and found I was able to move sideways, towards Suzi's head. After several minutes of similar moves, my left hand was level with her left hand. All I had to do now was unfasten her bonds.
My fingers grappled with the ropes, but I could only just reach the knot so it was difficult to do very much. However, after a few goes, I managed to loosen it enough for Suzi to move her hand closer to my fingers. In another few minutes, I got her hand free.
I watched her reach over and undo the knots in her right wrist, then she undid the strap across her forehead.
It took another few minutes to unfasten my bonds. As I straightened up, I heard a noise. 'They're coming back. Hide.'
Suzi looked around the room. 'Where?'
At the other side of the room was a long cupboard with two doors on it. Pulling open the nearest one, it was the obvious place for two children to hide. Pushing the door almost closed, I grabbed Suzi's arm. 'Behind here. Quick.'
We'd barely squeezed into position when the door opened, prompting us to press ourselves as close to the wall as possible.
There was a shout and a hooded figure moved towards the cupboard. As he did so, I swung around between him and the edge of the door, then out into the passageway, pulling Suzi behind me.
Another shout came from the room, but it was the black-toothed boy in front of us who looked most surprised. Throwing up his hands as if to stop us, he let out a yell, but I barged straight into him, knocking him sideways.
Pelting down the passage, there was no time to stop and get our bearings - we could be anywhere in this maze of corridors. Arriving at a junction of yet more passages, I turned left for no other reason than there were flaming torches lighting the way.
There was a door at the end standing ajar. Since we had no time to discuss the merits of entering a room unannounced, I barged right in. We were in the kitchen again.
'Oh, great,' I muttered.
'Wait,' said Suzi, staring at the massive fireplace. 'It's not the same.'
'What isn't?'
'There's no straw. It's a different room.'
I followed her gaze. She was right, though I couldn't see how that information would help us. There was still a massive fireplace with a massive chimney above it...
Ducking under the lintel, I looked up. Sure enough there was a light at the top, but this time it wasn't darkness, but daylight. There was enough light so see the sides of the chimney and a few feet up from where I stood, I could clearly see footholds carved into the sides of the brickwork.
'Come on - it's a ladder.' Standing with my back against the wall, I cupped my hands. Suzi wasted no time and plonked her foot in, stretching up to the first step. As soon as she was a few feet up, I moved to the other side of the fireplace and took a running jump, generating enough momentum to grab the lowest of the footholds. For a second, I hung there a few feet off the ground, then swinging my other hand up, grasped at a ledge and heaved. Scrabbling with my boots against the stonework, I thought for one horrible moment I wasn't going to make it, but then my left foot slid into a crevice and I was climbing upwards after Suzi.
Below us, a cry of anguish echoed up the chimney. Looking down, I could make out a face peering up at me, but couldn't tell who it belonged to. I stared at the face, terrified some unearthly power would reach up and haul me back down to God knows
where. But nothing happened.
It was a long climb to the top and we both had to stop several times for breath. With the light above us growing brighter all the time, we had plenty motivation to carry on. Eventually I could make out the detail of the bricks around the edge of the chimney. Suzi heaved herself over the rim and as she disappeared from view, I heard her gasp with relief.
There were only a few more feet now and though I was struggling to keep going, I began to imagine sitting down at the kitchen table at home, tucking into a plate of Captain Cockeyed's Fishy Fingers. As I reached up and grasped the rim of the chimney, a hand clutched my wrist. The shock caused me to lose my footing and I slid a few inches back down, my free hand flailing around. A moment later, another arm reached down and I was hauled out into the daylight.
Tumbling onto the grass, it was a moment before I was able to look up at my saviour. When I did, I was in for a shock. It was Mr Taylor.
Suzi was leaning against a tree, staring at him, her eyes wide, her mouth open. Jumping up, I slid my arm around her and turned to face him.
'Leave us alone, you –'
'Now lad, now lad,' said a familiar voice.
I whirled round to see Sergeant Potter standing behind me, hands on hips. He laughed.
'Get him away from us,' I yelled.
Potter stepped forward. He glanced at Mr Taylor and gave him one of those 'here-we-go' looks, as if me and Suzi were just two stupid kids.
'We've had half the town out lookin fer yous two. What the bleedin heck yer been doing?'
My eyes flicked between him and Taylor, but I stayed where I was, holding Suzi close.
Potter frowned. 'What? Nowt to say for yourselves? Right then, better get yous down the station. Cocoa and biscuits'll be the order of the day, eh? Then you can tell us all about it.'
I allowed the sergeant to guide us across the lower end of the cemetery and through the gate to the waiting police car. Maggie Stewart was waiting by the car and gave us both a hug, though she didn't say anything.
The journey to the police station seemed to take ages and I spent most of it looking out the back window at Mr Taylor's Morris Marina. Whatever story he'd told Potter, I was going to make sure the police heard the true version of events.