by Helen Phifer
Glenys stood up and rushed towards the front door. ‘It’s okay,’ she called back, ‘it’s just Seth and Alfie.’
Maddy breathed a sigh of relief. She needed to speak to the police. Maybe Seth could take her to the local station.
Chapter Seventy-Three
S eth got out of the car. Alfie clambered out of the passenger side, took one look at his mum standing on the steps with her hands on her hips, and ran off.
‘Alfie, come back here! Where are you going?’ Glenys shouted after him, but he waved and carried on running towards the jetty.
Seth walked up the steps to the front entrance and turned to see the boy heading for the rickety wooden pier. He felt his legs turn to jelly and he turned away. If the lad fell into the lake, Glenys could go after him. He was her son, not his.
When Maddy joined Glenys at the front door, he felt his heart sink. Christ, he hoped they weren’t going to try to fill his head with some bollocks about the house being haunted. He could believe in many things, and had an open mind, but he didn’t believe in stuff like that.
As he followed them inside, he turned to take one last look at Alfie, and felt his stomach lurch. The kid was kneeling down at the edge, staring down into the water.
‘Glenys, what the hell is he doing?’
She shrugged. ‘No idea. Leave him to it. He’s okay.’
‘No, he’s not. What if he falls in?’
‘Serve him right, won’t it? He won’t drown, Seth, he’s a good swimmer.’
He shook his head but couldn’t erase the image of Alfie kneeling on the rotting jetty. The boy looked as if he was praying. But praying to what? A voice whispered in his head, the lake people.
‘Seth.’ Glenys was shaking his arm.
‘What?’
‘I think someone is trying to scare the shit out of Maddy,’ she told him. ‘I’ve been through the entire house and there’s nothing here apart from some residual memories. No intelligent activity or haunting.’
His head was pounding. He was worried about the kid falling in the lake and drowning, and now she was telling him there was some nutter trying to scare Maddy.
‘Tell him about the radio last night,’ Glenys urged.
As Maddy began to relay the tale about the radio, he listened to her talking while keeping an eye on the view of the lake from the entrance hall window. When he saw Alfie stand up and run back onto the grass, relief filled his body.
‘Are you even listening?’ Glenys snapped.
He stared at her and nodded. ‘Yes, I am. You can’t stay here on your own, Maddy. We need to sort it out.’
‘She knows that,’ Glenys said, ‘and she’s agreed to come and stay at the pub with you.’
‘Good. That’s good.’ A sharp pain suddenly shot across the side of his head, causing him to squeeze his eyes shut as he lurched forwards.
‘Seth, what’s the matter?’ Maddy asked.
‘Headache. I get migraines every now and again.’
She looked horrified. ‘Oh my God, I’m sorry. It’s all this stress, isn’t it? I’m such a pain in the arse. Honestly, I’m fine, I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about me, you go home.’
Glenys shook her head. ‘It’s not you, it’s me. I get on his last nerve, don’t I, Seth?’
He tried to shake his head, but the movement sent a fresh wave of pain through his mind. ‘I’m fine,’ he assured them. ‘Your car is almost ready, Maddy, so if you get your stuff together, I’ll go home, get my tablets, and come back for you. I won’t be more than an hour. Will you be okay?’
‘Yes, it only ever happens at night. Whoever it is isn’t brave enough to do anything in broad daylight.’
Glenys agreed. ‘There’s too much going on here today for anyone to try to do anything. I’ll go back with Seth. If he’s no good to drive, I’ll bring your car then I can drive mine back and you can drive yours.’
Maddy smiled at them. She felt terrible at all this fuss she was causing, but she needed to make sure she’d saved her work and pack her case.
Glenys took hold of Seth’s arm and led him out to the car, and Maddy could hear them bickering about who was driving. Seth gave in, she helped him into the car, then went around to the driver’s side.
Turning to wave, Glenys shouted, ‘Get your stuff and wait on the front steps if you’re worried. Alfie’s around somewhere, so you’re not alone.’
Maddy lifted her hand and waved back, an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Good job she didn’t have much to pack. She would grab her stuff and wait on the steps. Somehow it felt safer outside. She hurried back inside, not bothering to lock the door behind her.
Chapter Seventy-Four
A lfie decided to climb the fell and get away from everyone. He needed to think about stuff. The lake people were still there. He’d counted them; no more had appeared, and none of them had left. He’d been worried it was them who were trying to scare Maddy away, but at least he knew now that it wasn’t.
He didn’t like it when there were too many people around, especially when they were talking too loud and shouting, like his mum was doing at Seth. He didn’t want to listen to it, because she spent enough time shouting at him. He would get away before they noticed and made him get in the car.
He decided to go and visit the old summer house; he hadn’t been there for weeks. Last time, he’d left his pack of football cards tucked behind one of the loose bricks, and he wanted to get it back before they got all wet and ruined. His legs ached a little from the steep climb, but it wasn’t that far away. He used to play in there a lot before it started to smell bad. Sometimes it smelt really bad, as if an animal had died in there. It turned his stomach when it smelt like that and put him off his food.
As he got nearer, his nose wrinkled at the smell being carried towards him by the breeze. It smelt worse than ever and Alfie lifted his T-shirt over his mouth and nose, wondering what could be causing it. If the adults weren’t being so noisy and if he didn’t want his football cards, he’d have turned around and gone back home.
Then a thought struck him: Maybe someone needed help, and he could be a hero like Seth. He’d like it if people were patting his back and telling him well done. Although that smell suggested it was a bit too late to help anyone. It smelt like the sheep did when they died out on the fell and the farmer left them outside to rot away in the sun.
As he reached the broken window, the smell made him retch and he lifted his arm to his nose. He needed his stuff and he wanted to make sure no one was hurt. Clambering through, he lost his balance and landed on his knees. His hand touched something hard but squishy, covered in something soft.
He looked down and screamed. When he landed, he’d managed to push down a bit of a sleeping bag, and there were two dead eyes staring back at him.
Alfie had never felt such fear in his life, and he scrambled to his feet and threw himself back out of the window. Afraid to turn around in case it was one of the lake people, he began to run back towards Lake House to tell Seth, his mum, and Maddy. Seth could be the hero this time; he didn’t want to.
Those eyes made him shiver. They were covered in white stuff, and he’d seen maggots crawling along them. Halfway down the fell, he stumbled and fell to his knees. Alfie began to throw up the contents of his stomach, which included the salt and vinegar crisp sandwich Seth had made him earlier.
When he’d finished retching and there was nothing left to come up, he stood up on legs that were a lot wobblier than when he’d set off, and carried on. He was too scared to turn around in case the thing in the sleeping bag was following him. What if it was a zombie? He’d watched a zombie film a couple of weeks ago when his mum had fallen asleep. He had to get back to Lake House. The grown-ups wouldn’t let a dead zombie get him.
As he stumbled towards the front of the house, he was glad to see his mum’s car still there. Seth’s car had gone, but his mum or Maddy could phone him to come back.
Alfie ran straight up the steps and turned the handle,
then stepped inside the gloomy entrance hall.
Chapter Seventy-Five
M addy had packed her laptop, washbag, all her clean underwear, and as many clothes as she could fit into the small suitcase. The whole time she was packing she felt as if she was being watched, and she wondered briefly if there might be secret passages in the walls. How many horror films had she watched where the occupant of the mansion was crazy and hid in the walls, or they were being stalked by someone hiding in their walls? Quite a few.
The thought terrified her beyond belief. Connor could be inside the wall right now, watching her through a mirror or one of the pictures. A cold shiver made her entire body tremble, and she grabbed the small suitcase and ran out into the hall…straight into Alfie. Not realising it was him, she let out a blood-curdling scream, which terrified him more than her. He put his hands to his ears, turned, and ran back downstairs.
Maddy recognised him and shouted, ‘Alfie! I’m sorry. You scared me. Are you okay? Is everything all right?’
He paused on the stairs, turning to look back at her. ‘Is my mum still here? I need her.’
‘She’s driven Seth back to the pub because he isn’t very well. Can I help?’
Maddy dragged her case down the stairs, and he began to run down the last few steps to get away from her. When he reached the bottom, he looked at her case. ‘Are you leaving?’
‘Not really. I’m going to stop at the pub for a bit. It’s too cold here and I can’t get any Internet.’ There was no way she was going to tell him they had to leave because a maniac could be hiding in the walls watching their every move. There was no point in scaring the boy even more than she already had.
He nodded. ‘I need to show you something. I was going to show Seth, but if he’s not here, then I better show you.’
He looked solemn and she wondered what it could be. She reached the bottom step and wheeled her case to the front door where he was now standing, shifting from foot to foot.
‘Where is it or what is it?’ she asked. She was praying he wasn’t going to say it was the lake people, because right now she was already a bag of nerves and feeling on edge.
‘It’s in the old summerhouse, up the fell.’
She frowned. ‘Can it wait until later?’
He shook his head vehemently.
Maddy sighed and let go of her case. ‘Well, I guess you better show me then. Is it far?’
‘Not too far, but a bit of a climb.’ He looked down at the shoes she was wearing. ‘Wear your boots.’
Trying not to swear out loud, she turned back to the kitchen where she’d kicked her boots off the last time she’d worn them. All she wanted was to get out of this house until she knew where the fuck Connor was and that he wasn’t about to jump out on her and scare her to death. She kicked off her dolly shoes and slipped her feet into her Uggs. If they got all muddy and covered in grass stains, she’d be well annoyed.
When she returned, Alfie was now standing outside on the front step, watching or looking into the distance. He nodded to see her boots then began to walk off, leaving Maddy to jog to catch-up with him.
‘Slow down,’ she said. ‘You’re far too fast for me. I’m not used to this. I told you I’m from a city where we don’t have many mountains to climb up.’
‘Fell,’ he replied. ‘This one’s a fell. It’s not a mountain.’
She laughed. ‘You could be a tour guide when you’re older. You know an awful lot about stuff I don’t have a clue about.’
‘What’s a tour guide?’
‘Someone like you, who knows an area well and can show people around.’
He grinned. ‘I could do that.’
‘Yes, you could. You would be very good at it.’
As they began to climb higher up the fell, the breeze carried the most awful, gut-wrenching smell towards them.
Maddy stopped, her face wrinkled in disgust. ‘Alfie, what’s that smell?’
He shrugged. ‘Smells like a dead sheep, but much worse.’
Her stomach was already a mass of churning knots and this wasn’t helping; it was making her want to retch. He lifted his T-shirt over his mouth and nose, so she did the same. A crumbling, decrepit stone building came into sight.
‘What’s that?’ she asked.
‘The old summerhouse. It’s a wreck now. It belongs to the house. The people used to sit in it and look at the view of the lake and the mountains.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Seth told me a long time ago when I asked him about it.’
She smiled. Seth knew everything.
She hoped he was okay; she didn’t like to see him unwell. When she got to the pub, she’d make a fuss of him and tell him to take it easy for a bit. He’d been through so much the last few days, yet he had still been happy to help her out.
Chapter Seventy-Six
H e reached the house and waited to see if anyone was around. She’d had to call in help, so things must have been getting to her. He must have been getting to her, which was exactly what he wanted. She was a nuisance, a liability, not to mention a pain in the arse. Her being here was stopping him from visiting his bodies in the lake and preventing him from disposing of any more bodies.
He noticed the front door was ajar. Standing still, he strained to listen for any sounds but couldn’t hear a thing. Then again, the house was vast inside, so he didn’t expect to hear much.
Stepping slowly inside, he began to look around. He didn’t want to hurt her, but she wasn’t leaving him with very much choice. If she stayed here, then she had to die. It was that simple. He’d tried his best to scare her off, but she was stubborn, and he liked the thought of having her pretty face as an addition to his collection. It would be the first time he’d killed someone so beautiful that his heart might regret it, but she’d be forever frozen in time. He’d always be able to visit her whenever he wanted, and she’d belong to him, so it would be worth it.
The house was empty. There were no voices or sounds carrying through the deserted corridors, and he noticed a small suitcase sitting by the door. Running upstairs to the room he knew she slept in, he pushed the door open and looked around. The bed was unmade, as if she’d left in a hurry, but there were still clothes around, a couple of pairs of shoes, and a pair of jeans was slung over the back of a chair. If she was leaving for good, wouldn’t she have packed all her belongings?
He crossed to the bed, picked up a corner of the duvet, and saw an open notebook on the floor. Bending down, he picked it up and saw a list of names. Oh, she was good; much better than he’d given her credit for. She’d listed the people she’d met and what little she knew about them.
Sudden movement out on the fell caught his eye, and he dropped the book as he looked out of the window and saw two figures almost at the summerhouse. One was the kid – he’d recognise that walk anywhere. Pressing his face to the glass, he felt his heart begin to hammer in his chest. She was limping along beside the lad, and they were very shortly going to come face-to-face with her dead, ex-boyfriend.
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck!’
An anguished cry left his mouth as he slammed his palms against the glass. He had no choice but to get up there before they left and went for help. Panic filling his chest, he ran out of the room, down the stairs, and out onto the overgrown gardens. He kept a steady pace, not wanting to use every last bit of his energy before he’d even reached them. He didn’t know how strong that kid was, but he should imagine he wouldn’t go down without a fight.
The same went for her. If she was cornered and her life was in danger, he didn’t imagine she would go down without a struggle either. She didn’t look like much of a fighter, but the quiet ones never did. It was always the most unassuming people who were likely to take you by surprise. Despite the mixed emotions of anger and fear that were bubbling inside his chest, he grinned. It was all about to come down to survival of the fittest, and despite being outnumbered, he wasn’t about to let anyone get the better of him.
&
nbsp; Chapter Seventy-Seven
‘O
uch.’ Maddy felt her ankle give way as she misjudged her footing and stumbled over a rock jutting out of the hillside. She landed on the ground in a heap.
Alfie turned to look at her. ‘You okay?’
She smiled at him while desperately rubbing her ankle. It was the same one she’d sprained a couple of days ago, and it hurt like a bitch. She was tired and terrified of what the hell was making that smell. She just wanted to forget about it, go back to the house, wait for Glenys, then tell Seth about the smell. He and the Mountain Rescue guys would know what to do.
She was out of her depth here, and for the first time since she’d arrived, she was wholly regretting the decision to move her life out of the city and into the middle of fucking nowhere without so much as a phone signal.
But she never voiced any of her angry thoughts. She didn’t want to scare Alfie, who was watching her with a worried look on his face. The poor kid was probably panicking in case he had to carry her back down.
‘I’m fine,’ she told him. ‘My ankle gave way. It’s still a bit sore from the other day.’
He was shaking his head. ‘You’re too slow, I told you that.’
She agreed with him; compared to him, she was like a snail. She looked back down the hillside in despair. Oh crap, it’s too far, she thought. I’m not going to be able to make it back down.
A loud crack of thunder made the pair of them jump. She’d been so worried about her current predicament that she hadn’t noticed the ominous dark clouds brewing in the sky above the lake. The smell of ozone clung heavily to the air, along with the stench of decomposition.
Neither of them had a coat, and the sky was getting blacker by the minute.
‘We’re going to have to take shelter in the summerhouse,’ she told him.
He shook his head. ‘No! Can’t do that.’
‘Why? I can’t walk fast enough to get back down before the rain starts to hammer it down. It won’t be for long. It’s only a passing storm.’