He was trapped.
There was only one way out — back through the gap he had just run through only something was there.
Snarls came from the gap and he could see something moving. It was big but he couldn’t make it out completely though in his heart he knew it would be a demon of some kind. Possibly even a hellhound. There was no winning this he had to try to climb. Looking at the blood on his fingers from just touching that wall he balked at the choice.
Maybe he should give in, let the hound catch him, rip him to shreds and wait to come back. Only what if that didn’t happen? Or what if it took too long? Stacey needed him and he would give every breath he had to help her.
Nick ran to the wall feeling the ice-cold breath of the panting hound on his neck. Stretching his hand up as far as he could he prayed that he could make it.
A snarl, almost made him turn his head but he couldn’t stop, not now.
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Stacey thought of the ruins of the old house. Many time she felt compelled to go there. To sit and watch the place and though she hated every moment of it she couldn’t stay away. It was like a compulsion, pulling her back to her addiction.
Once she had the place firm in her mind she appeared before it and as always she was surrounded by black smoke. Which didn’t make sense. The fire had been out for many months and she could never sense any spirits or anything but the place was, still evil.
Stacey took a few moments to steady herself, it was always the same coming here. She was disorientated when she first appeared. Staggering about as if she may be drunk. Slowly her head cleared and she felt more even.
Many times she had tried to find out why she came back. Was it because of the impact of that terrible night? Or was she here to do something, was that why she wasn’t ready to pass over?
It didn’t matter, here today she was sure that something was happening, something bad. She let her spirit flow, searching out any others that may be close and searching for the children.
The first thing she saw was a man. He was stocky and had a scar across his lip and up to his nose. It looked like it came from a cleft pallet operation but if so was poorly done. Slowly, cautiously he limped down the hallway of RedRise House.
Stacey recognized it easily and realized that this was an imprint. It had been left here, probably by him, so it must contain strong emotion.
Seth turned a corner and rubbed his hands together with glee. He was excited and voices talked to him.
Stacey could hear it all and see it as if it was happening in front of her. He wanted to hurt some children.
Stacey hated to do it but she concentrated harder and she could hear his thoughts.
“Little girls, mmmm. Stab them, cut them, and slice them till they bleed all over. Poke them till they scream and then till they stop.”
Stacey reeled back.
“Seth, what are you doing here?”
That voice sounded familiar it was coarse and guttural. It bounced Stacey right out of her concentration and the imprint was gone.
“One day I hurt the girls,” the voice was just a whisper on the wind.
Stacey felt herself fading. She had expended too much energy but she couldn’t go yet, not until she found the children. Concentrating hard just on them and their vibrations she let her spirit drift. Dissipating on the wind she filled every part of the building even down into the tunnels below.
Down and down, past the underground river and into the sacrificial chamber. There they were, huddled together. The raw emotion coming off them was so intense that it almost drove Stacey away. Gritting her teeth she clung on and then she saw him. The one called Seth stood in the middle of the room bowed over and he was talking to himself.
Stacey wondered if she could get the children and usher them past him.
“Fell, fell I did and broke this body.”
Slowly she closed her eyes and concentrated her strength,
“Before I could hurt the little girls. Wanted to hurt them, dirty things, want to stab them, cut them, feel the blood.”
Stacey thought of the spot where the children were but before she could move Seth turned to face her.
“Another dirty girl, spirit girl, I will hurt you first.” He pushed out at her and she was sent spinning back out of the house to land on the grass near the tent covering Emily’s body.
“Oh Emily I’m so sorry,” she sobbed before she faded to nothing.
Noah pulled Sophia down next to him and held her close. It was so dark in this place and damp and he knew they were beneath the ground. Maybe it was hell, only wasn’t that supposed to be warm?
Sophia lay in his arms shivering. Her tears had stopped long ago and now all she did was shake and clutch on to him as tight as her little hands could.
His own fear came in waves. This last one was a monster. The man who brought them here was talking to himself. Talking about cutting them… well not them but Sophia and he couldn’t bear to see that happen but what could he do.
Then the man looked away as if he was talking to something else. There was a faint glow where he looked and he shouted at the glow. Telling it the same things.
Noah cringed further into the wall and pulled his sister as tight as he could covering her with his arms to try and keep her safe.
Then the man spun in a circle and with his crazy limping and stooped gate he walked over to the other side of the room. Something was catching his attention. Noah stared after him and that corner seemed even darker, an impossible black, but that just had to be his head.
The man was a long way away and Noah knew they had a chance. Could he remember how they got here? It didn’t matter, he would find a way out, back to mum and dad.
“Come with me quickly,” he whispered to Sophia.
She tensed in his arms and her fingers tightened on his shirt but he gently pried them away and gave her a smile.
“Let’s get out of here.”
That worked, she nodded, wiped her tears and followed him.
Noah moved quietly but as quickly as he could toward where they had come in. It was a narrow door that creaked when opened but the man had left it ajar. It was so close and he could still hear the crazy man talking to himself.
Quietly, quickly he pushed Sophia in front of him as they got past the man. That way he could push her along or protect her, he wasn’t sure which.
They were so close. Noah could see the entrance to the passage and he wanted so much to run. Only if they did they would make more noise and they might trip, so he walked a little faster, ushering Sophia in front of him.
Just ten more steps and they would be to the door. Noah desperately wanted to look back. He could no longer hear the man talking but that didn’t mean anything. Maybe he was too far away.
The building excitement was making him pant and he tried to control his breathing. Sophia stumbled, her foot slapping on the stone floor.
Noah hauled her back to her feet and stole a look behind him. There was nothing. He couldn’t see the man just the torch flickering and casting crazy shadows on the walls.
They had made it. He pushed Sophia on and they were through the door out into a corridor. In front of them they could hear the rushing of the water and could see better now. There were lanterns all along the walls. Noah grabbed Sophia’s hand and went back in front. Past a small alcove full of books they ran and then out into another chamber. The one with the river. As he ran through the door he was hauled off his feet and came face to face with the scarred man.
Noah screamed as he let go of Sophia’s hand.
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The stone ripped into Nick’s hands and knees as he searched for a handhold. Anything to haul him away from the terror behind him but there was nothing to grab onto. Every touch of the cliff face tore at his skin but he had to keep trying. There was nowhere else to go.
Reaching up just a little more his foot slipped and he tumbled down the few feet he had climbed. As his feet touched the ground his face was pushed into the
cliff.
Pain lanced into his jaw and it felt like his cheek had been grated away. This was it, he had failed. Nick tensed for the blow that would drive him back to oblivion.
Eyes closed, teeth clenched he shrank against the cliff in some lame effort to make himself as small as possible.
The creature growled in triumph.
Nick reached up one last time and something warm grabbed his hand. Though it felt like his arm was being yanked out of its socket he didn’t mind as he was pulled away from the cliff and up.
“Who are…?” Nick looked up to see light and knew he was leaving this place. Was this an angel, was he being transported back to the place of peace? Though he knew he should be overjoyed at that thought, and part of him was, another part wanted to stay, to see this through. Another part knew he had to see it through.
The next thing Nick remembered was being on the grass next to the ruins of RedRise House and he was a spirit again.
Standing next to him was Stacey and an elderly lady with a sweet smile and grey hair.
“Nick, I thought you had gone back, I need you, the kids.”
Nick held his hand up and faded a little as a wave of dizziness rocked him.
“Take your time, I am Sylvia, spirit guide to Jesse,” the lady said. “I brought you back because your connection to this place is tangible.”
“What?” Nick still felt as if the world was spinning.
“You are still needed here to fight for good.”
Nick shook his head. “I will find the children and then I must leave.”
“Must you?” Sylvia asked. “It is I who must leave.”
“Wait.” Nick got to his feet and fighting down the nausea he walked to Sylvia. “Can all spirit guides do that?”
Sylvia shook her head and there was sadness in her old pale eyes. “I was sensitive before and my tie to this world is not yet over. I can see the threads that others can’t it is why we must all be so careful. One good deed can sometimes set a thousand bad ones in motion.”
“What do you mean? That I should not save these children?” The thought of that brought Nick great pain.
“No, I see a heavy burden for you Nickolas Aubrey. One that you have carried before and one you must carry again. You may choose peace and that would be understandable considering the torment you have been through… will have to go through. I wish you all the strength you can muster for the decision that will come.”
“Will you help me?”
Sylvia shook her head and faded away to nothing.
“I know where the children are,” Stacey said and her voice shocked Nick back to the moment.
He pointed after Sylvia and shook his head.
Stacey put a hand on his shoulder and laughed as it passed straight through him. “She’s always like that but I think she means well.”
Nick nodded. “Okay where are the children?”
“They’re in the Old Hag’s sacrificial chamber.”
Nick should have known. The place of his years of torment. His years of agony as he watched children die unable to stop them. Just the mention of that place crushed his soul and dimmed his energies. Could he face it again and what did Sylvia mean?
For a moment Nick had a memory of peace, of how things had been and the harmony and bliss pulled at him. He knew that all he would have to do was want it and he could be back there.
One good deed can sometimes set a thousand bad ones in motion.
It was so tempting, but somehow he knew he wouldn’t be here if he weren’t needed. He would save these two children and then he would return to his peace and all of this horror would be forgotten.
Maybe he should persuade Stacey to move on before he went. Nick understood how lucky he was to not have changed. It was partly because he convinced himself over the years that he was here, a real person. Falling back into his old routine and hiding from the pain. Would Stacey be able to do that? Maybe if he explained how it was she would understand and leave.
“Are you ready?” Stacey asked.
Nick pulled himself back to the present and the task ahead. Once he went into that chamber he would have to shut down the memories for they would play with his mind. He needed to be here and to be ready for what came, not fighting ghost that had gone.
“Yeah, as I’ll ever be.”
“I’m weak,” Stacey said. “I may not be much help.”
Nick wanted to explain that she wasn’t weak, not considering how young she was. He hadn’t been able too much at all for the first 50 years as a ghost and Stacey wasn’t that far behind him.
Stacey blinked out of existence and Nick closed his eyes and thought of the chamber. A rushing feeling was followed by a deep cold and he opened his eyes to see a flickering torch hung in one of the sconces that surrounded the room. Right in front of him was the sacrificial altar. Stained in blood for all these years.
A crushing weight of fear, regret, and terror engulfed Nick. Faces in agony swam before him and threatened to drag him down. Then he saw the Old Hag, laughing and holding that wicked knife.
“It’s not real,” he chanted and pushed away the memories.
Stacey was across the other side of the room, near the door, but she was translucent and fading. How much she would be able to help he didn’t know.
So where were the children? Then he spotted them and was frozen to the spot.
Across the room a darkness of pure evil filled the corner. Stood next to it a tall thickset man was holding a knife in front of two frightened children.
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“This brought me here,” Seth said as he pointed the knife at the darkness. “I was there, in pain, hunted, hurt, always hurting and then I saw this blackness. I liked it and went to it and the next thing I know I’m here.”
“Can we go home?” Sophia asked.
Seth swung around to her, the knife coming so close it almost sliced her cheek.
“You are my reward, how could I let you go?” Seth licked his lips and devoured her with his eyes.
“Keep behind me.” Noah put himself in front of his sister and wondered what he could do. For the past two months he had been bullied at school. Every day they punched him in the stomach and took his lunch money. Every day they told him that if he told they would hurt him more. The teachers never believed him and he didn’t know what else to do.
Noah had been at his wit's end and eventually he spoke to his dad, not mentioning that they hit him just that they threatened.
His dad was like a magician, he always knew what to do in every situation and this had been no different.
“Bullies are cowards at heart son,” his dad had said. “Stand up to them and they will run a mile. If not, you come to talk to me again and I will sort this out for you.”
So the next day in school Noah had waited for the bullies to come. As usual they threatened him with a punch if he didn’t hand over his money. Noah squared his shoulders. “Anyone who punches me gets one back. This is my money and no one is getting it.”
For a moment the four boys were shocked and they backed away. Then the biggest one, Nathan came up to Noah and hit him on the cheek.
The pain had exploded in Noah’s face but he was angry and he knew that if he stood up to them they would run, after all his dad told him so.
Nathan had turned away laughing but Noah kicked at his legs and when he turned back he swung his fist and punched the boy right in the lip. It was as high as he could reach but it seemed to do the trick.
Blood sprayed all over him and Nathan ran away crying. Since that moment they had never come after his lunch money again.
When Noah got home that night he told his dad and was so proud but his dad looked sad and said he was sorry and that he would never let him get hurt again.
“Dad I need you,” Noah whispered as the big ugly man waved the knife and talked nonsense.
“This rift is going to bring lots of people back and they will be so grateful they will bring me nice rewards like this little gir
l.” Seth licked his lips and closed his eyes.
Nick could see the ghost taunting the children. The spirit shouldn’t have been able to touch them, not when he was this new, but this was RedRise House and everything worked differently here.
Fear, pain, sadness, engulfed Nick and he knew he couldn’t see this again. No one could expect him to go through this again so he reached for peace. Once the children were dead they would experience it too, how bad could that be?
The light was there, warm, blissful and just ready for him to take. Nick wanted to go and reached out his hand but he knew he couldn’t as the faces of the victims swam in his memory. No matter what he had to face, he would do it, he would see this through.
The man raised a wicked eight-inch long hunting knife. It gleamed in the darkness, a thing of terror, and Nick moved in an instant. Putting himself between the children and the knife.
“I command you to leave this place,” he said and watched Seth’s eyes open wide. How he knew the spirit’s name, he didn’t know, but this close he knew everything about him. The man’s desires and needs were seeping off him and Nick wanted to shower to get the stench of such corruption off his soul.
“Go away priest,” Seth spat back. “Me and these little ones have some business.”
Nick could feel a change and he understood what he had to do, but could he do it. Pushing Seth back through the rift would be relatively easy and maybe he would have time to get the kids to safety but something seethed beneath that darkness. Something was waiting and he thought that blood would ease its passage.
“Only a soul can close a rift like this one,” Sylvia’s voice was in his mind.
That gave Nick an idea. This spirit must have a soul, maybe he could use that to close out this terrible place once and for all, but first he had to free the children.
The Ghosts of RedRise House Page 50