Kiera Hudson & The Creeping Men (14 page)

“Why did you do that?” Ms. Locke cut in, and I sensed she was a little hurt that such a secret had never been confided in her.

“At the back of my mind, I still feared that one day I might need it again,” Sir Edmund explained. “It might be a place where Amanda might seek out refuge like her mother had on a full moon. She promised not to tell anyone.”

“And Miss Amanda honoured your wish,” Ms. Locke said. “She even kept it secret from me.”

Sir Edmund gently stroked his daughter’s hair again as she continued to rest against him, her chest slowly falling and rising as she slept.

“But she soon started keeping other secrets,” Sir Edmund said. “Just after her sixteenth birthday, Amanda came to me.

“‘Look what I can do, father,’ she said, holding up both hands in the air. I’m double-jointed.’

“I looked with horror as Amanda slowly made her hands turn one-hundred-and-eighty-degrees so they looked as if they had been put on backwards.

“‘How long have you been able to do that?’ I gasped.

“‘I only just noticed,’ she said. ‘I can do it with my feet too!’

“I stifled a scream as I watched her turn her feet at the ankle. Then she walked slowly backwards across the room.

“‘You must never do that again,’ I warned her.

“‘Why not, father? It doesn’t hurt,’ she told me over the sound of her bones snapping and crunching in her wrists and ankles.

“‘Because it could be very bad for you,’ I insisted. What else could I say?

“It just so happened that I had to return once again to the Bay of Biscay. The business deal I had put in place there so many years ago had started to turn sour. I had no choice but to go. If I dealt with my affairs correctly when I got there, I might not need to be away for more than twenty-four hours. I did not want to leave Amanda after what she had shown me. As it turned out, and to my luck, the problems I had abroad with my business partners were not as bad as I thought. So with a few hours free before taking my return flight back to England, I went back to the beach where I had first met Magdalena. Nothing much had changed. There was even another party taking place on the beach with dancers and conjurors performing their tricks. With that longing for Magdalena anew in my heart, I walked away from that beach and did not look back.

“I had only been back a few days when I received a letter in the post. It had been written in an unfamiliar hand, but the text was plain to read. It had been written by a Leshy. One of them had seen me on the beach on my return visit to the Bay of Biscay and recognised me as the man who had some years before mixed with one of their own. Apparently they had never stopped looking for Amanda – the child they called an abomination and an insult to their race,” Sir Edmund said, his voice dropping to a mere whisper so as not to upset Amanda should she be secretly awake and listening.

“What else did this letter say?” I asked him.

“The letter writer said that one of the Leshy had followed me back to England and had discovered where the child and I lived. The letter stated that on the next full moon, they would come for the child – for Amanda. You can only imagine the horror and fear I felt after reading the letter. I flew into a blind panic, my only concern to protect the life of my daughter from these creatures. I decided that I must get her far away from England and as soon as possible. I therefore enrolled her into the care of a private school in Switzerland, but I knew my plan was doomed before it had even started. Amanda was showing more traits of the Leshy with each passing day. There was no hope of me sending her abroad. Desperate, I took Amanda into my confidence. She was no longer six, but sixteen and turning into a woman. So I told her everything, just as I have now told you.”

“So instead of sending her away like you told me you had, she was really hiding down here all the while?” Ms. Locke asked him.

“Yes,” he said. “I didn’t mean to lie to you, Ms. Locke, but I was trying to protect you as much as I was my daughter. That is why I demanded you leave. Because I wanted you to be safely away before the Leshy came for Amanda. Therefore, I am sorry I lied to you. You have been a loyal, hardworking, and trusted employee for many years, and I realise that perhaps now I should have taken you into my confidence.”

Hearing these words, Ms. Locke began to weep beside me.

“What’s the matter with you now?” Potter groaned.

“That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” she wept, sniffing back her tears.

“What, that you’re a good cleaner? Really?” Potter said. “You need to get out more, sweetheart.”

“Ms. Locke has been more than just a cleaner to me, Mr. Potter,” Sir Edmund scolded him. “She has been like a mother to Amanda, and I for one will be eternally grateful to her for that.”

Hearing this, Ms. Locke broke out in a heavier flood of tears.

“What the fu…” Potter started.

“So why keep your daughter locked away?” I quickly cut in, saying the first thing that came to mind.

“What else could I do?” Sir Edmund said. “I hadn’t taken Ms. Locke into my confidence so I couldn’t risk her seeing Amanda. I couldn’t go to the police for risk of them discovering what Amanda was turning into. We were both trapped. But with each passing day, Amanda would start to throw violent fits. It was as if the Leshy had hold of her from the inside. But I soon came to understand that like all adolescents, she was beginning to turn from a child into an adult – except in my daughter’s case – from a child into an adult Leshy. And then one night as I sat in here with her, looking more wolf than human and tethered up so that she couldn’t break free and hurt anyone living beyond the walls of Bastille hall, I had an idea. I suspected that the Leshy were watching the house as they waited for the next full moon. So what if they caught sight of Amanda in her Leshy form? What if they saw that she wasn’t so different from them? My hope was that they wouldn’t want to kill one of their own, and therefore leave us in peace.

“So on the nights that Amanda looked more wolf than human, I put her on a leash so she couldn’t escape me, and paraded her back and forth along the edge of the wood where I believed the Leshy were waiting and watching from amongst the trees, as I knew they preferred the solitude of a wood or forest as a full moon grew nearer.

‘“Leshy! Leshy! Leshy!” I would holler, trying to draw their attention, desperate for them to see that Amanda was not so different from them. But I do not know if my plan has worked,” he confessed.

“I’m afraid I don’t think it has,” I told him.

“What makes you think that?” he asked.

“Was Amanda loose in the wood this morning?” I said.

“No,” he shook his head. “She has tried to escape, but her attempts have always been thwarted. The closest she came was last night as she managed to sneak back into the house and climb from the window. But I caught her before she had managed to escape.”

“Then it must have been a Leshy I saw in the wood this morning,” I said.

“What makes you think such a thing?” he asked.

“I thought I saw an old friend of mine,” I tried to explain without wanting to get upset again. “I love this friend very much, so when I heard her call out my name, I spun around and there she was, beckoning me deeper into the woods. I followed, believing –
wanting
– it to be her.”

“How can you be so sure it wasn’t her?” Sir Edmund asked.

“Because my friend is someplace else right now,” I said thoughtfully. “All my
true
friends are.”

Potter stepped away from the wall, dropping another smouldering cigarette end to the floor. “How do you know the girl hasn’t escaped these grounds?” he asked sir Edmund.

Sir Edmund looked at him “Why do you ask?”

“Because there was a very interesting article in the newspaper this morning about a girl who followed her brother into a wood not so far from here,” Potter told him.

“So?” Sir Edmund asked.

“So the brother was already dead, and so now is the girl,” Potter said.

Before Sir Edmund had had a chance to say anything back, Miss Amanda had sprung from her father’s lap looking like something close to a wolf.

“Help me!” Sir Edmund shouted, lunging forward and folding his arms tight about the wolf. But as its eyes blazed, I could see that the creature still looked very like the girl it had once been. Her face hadn’t stretched into a snout. She still looked human, but was covered in fine lengths of grey hair. Her eyes blazed a hot red, her mouth full of jagged teeth and her long, blonde hair hung matted about her shoulders.

Amanda jerked her head back, gnashing her fearsome jaws open and closed just inches from Sir Edmund’s throat. I leapt from off the edge of the bed as Potter darted away from the wall. Locking one thick arm about her neck, Potter dragged her to the floor. She released a harrowing wail. I pinned the girl to the floor as she thrashed beneath us. I looked at her hands, and they didn’t look like giant paws like I’d seen on so many wolves before. They were longer than human hands, thin and stretched into claws, and they had twisted around again. I glanced back at her feet and they too were pointing painfully backwards. Never before had I seen such a creature. As Miss Amanda writhed and snarled beneath our collective weight, Sir Edmund shouted at Ms. Locke, who sat dumbfounded on the bed.

“Ms. Locke! Ms. Locke! There are some chains beneath the bed. Get them quickly!”

“I can’t chain her…” Ms. Locke started.

“Do it!” Potter now roared as the three of us struggled with the girl.

“But that is still Miss Amanda…” Ms. Locke blurted out, looking terrified.

“You won’t be thinking that when she breaks loose and rips your fucking face off!” Potter tore into her. “NOW. GET. THE. CHAINS!”

As Amanda continued to howl and bite, Ms. Locke dropped to her knees and reached into the dark space beneath the bed. Without taking her eyes off Amanda, she felt for the chains with her hands. I heard a rattle and clinking sound as she pulled them out.

“They’re stuck,” she said.

“It’s okay,” Sir Edmund shouted. “The other ends are bolted into the floor.”

The thick, metal chains clunked against the stone floor as she pulled them toward us and Amanda.

“Fasten the ends about her wrists,” Sir Edmund ordered her.

“I don’t think I can,” she whimpered, cowering away from Amanda’s snarling face.

“Don’t think, just do it!” Potter yelled, his dark eyes bulging.

With eyes half shut, like she couldn’t bear to look, Locke closed one chain about Amanda’s wrist.

“Now the other one!” Do the other one!” Sir Edmund shouted.

Crawling on her hands and knees across the floor, dragging the chain behind her, Ms. Locke headed toward the other hand. Pushing all my weight down onto Amanda’s arm, I pinned it in place so Locke could secure the second chain.

“Done,” she said.

“Thank fuck for that,” Potter sighed, edging away from the girl.

I pushed myself backwards on the seat of my jeans as Amanda fought with the chains that now had her held in place.

“It just seems so cruel,” Ms. Locke said, looking down teary-eyed at the girl she had raised. “She’s just a child.”

“She’s a wolf,” Potter said, his usual dislike for the species showing itself. “She isn’t a child when she’s like that. She’s a killer.”

“She can be tamed,” Sir Edmund said.

“Can she?” Potter shot him a disbelieving look.

“She has too much of her mother in her to be a killer,” Sir Edmund tried to reassure Potter. Or perhaps it was himself he was trying to convince.

“Really?” Potter said, brushing dust from his clothes. “Try telling that to the girl who was ripped to pieces not too far from here.”

“She wasn’t killed by my daughter,” Sir Edmund protested.

“Miss Amanda doesn’t have a nasty bone in her body,” Ms. Locke added.

“You two just don’t get it, do you?” Potter sighed, looking down at the girl who continued to thrash about on the floor.

“Get what?” Sir Edmund asked.

“That ain’t your little girl anymore,” Potter said.

“Are all wolves so bad?” I asked Potter, stepping forward. If he was the man who I loved and had loved me, then perhaps somewhere deep inside, he might remember that some wolves could be good. Some wolves like Pen and Sam had helped save our lives.

“I don’t know,” Potter said with a shake of his head. “She looks pretty damn mean from where I’m standing.”

“But if there’s a chance, then there is hope,” Sir Edmund tried to reason. “I know what you’re thinking, Mr. Potter, but it wasn’t my daughter who killed that girl. She has been under my watch the whole time.”

“Who killed her then?” Potter asked.

“The Leshy I saw in the wood,” I spoke up. “The same Leshy who took the form of my friend and tried to draw me deeper into the wood so it could kill me.”

“Why should I believe you?” Potter asked. “You’ve already lied to me once already.”

“I’m not asking you to believe me,” I said, not wanting to argue with him again. “I just need you to trust me.”

“Aren’t they the same thing?” he said, looking across the room at me.

“Look, if I’m wrong then I’ll happily go back to the agency and ask them to post me somewhere else. You’ll never have to see me again,” I said.

“Let’s just hope for your sake you’re right,” he said, brushing past me, heading back toward the hatch in the floor. “You never know where the agency might push you next.”

“What did you say?” I said, spinning around to face him.

“When?” he said.

I stared at him. “Just now.”

“I said I hope you’re right because you never know where that temping agency might send you next,” he frowned. “Got a problem with that? Because there are worse places to work. Believe me, not every boss you’ll work for has my natural charm.”

“Charm, is that what you call it?” I shot back, part of me feeling confused and wondering if I had misheard him after all.

“Well, at least I tell the truth, however much it hurts,” he came back at me. “At least I’m not a liar.”

“I only lied to you because you’re so impossible to work with,” I said right back.

“I’m impossible?” he scoffed. “I did the decent thing this afternoon and came and apologised for being a bit tough on you, when the whole time you were lying your tits off. Well, I’m sorry I said sorry now. I take it back.”

“Yeah? Well, I’m sorry I kissed you. I take
that
back!” I hissed.

“Are you sure you both only met just a day or so ago?” Ms. Locke cut in.

“Yes!” we both barked at her.

“It’s just that you said you kissed him,” Ms. Locke added.

“It wasn’t how you think,” I snapped.

“My parents were married for more than fifty years and I never heard them argue like you two,” she said.

“Your mother probably didn’t have to live with a complete jerk like him,” I said, pointing at Potter.

“So you’re living together?” she persisted.

“What is this?” Potter cried. “You’re not paying me to tell you my life story?”

“I’m surprised I’m paying you at all,” Ms. Locke said. “You haven’t done much.”

“Haven’t done much?” Potter nearly choked. “I just saved you from that thing!” He pointed at the girl who still convulsed on the floor.

“That’s not a
thing
, that’s my daughter, if you don’t mind,” Sir Edmund joined in.

“Well, actually, I do mind. I only took this case because Locke said something about someone being infected. And the only thing I can see that’s been infected around here is your brains,” he said, glaring at the three of us.

“I never said infected,” Ms. Locke gasped. “I said I
suspected
someone. Did you really think I told you that I had
infected
someone? Infected them with what, exactly?”

“Do you really want me to answer that, sweetheart?” Potter asked.

“What are you trying to imply?” Locke gasped with shock.

“Look, can’t we just stop this?” I said.

“You started it,” Potter came back.

“Are you going to help me or not?” Sir Edmund asked.

“With what, exactly?” Potter said.

“It will be a full moon tomorrow night and the Leshy will come for my daughter,” Sir Edmund said. “I can’t defeat them alone.”

“And you think having me, a liar, and a neurotic nursemaid are really going to be a match for these Leshy?” Potter asked.

“Haven’t you got some friends you could bring along to rough the Leshy up a bit?” Sir Edmund suggested.

“Rough them up a bit?” Potter said with disbelief. “Do you think that’s all it’s going to take to defeat these creatures? These creatures that can shapeshift, run backwards, and tear little girls to pieces?”

“Well, what do you suggest?” Locke said. “That’s what I’m paying you for.”

“I suggest that you have yourself a fucking reality check – and fast,” Potter told her, turning away and climbing into the hatch.

Once he had disappeared from view, I looked at them both and said, “Leave him to me, I’m sure I can talk him into helping you in some way.”

“Thank you, Miss Hudson,” Sir Edmund said.

“I’ll call you tomorrow with a plan,” I said.

“You’ll need my number,” he said.

“I already have it.” I told him.

“How?” he frowned.

“What do you prefer, mellow mushroom or pasta kebab topping on your pizza?” I smiled back at him before disappearing down into the passageway below.