Spirits from Beyond (21 page)

“You shouldn’t have come here,” he said, in a painful, rasping voice. “You’re all going to die in this awful place. And after you die, the really bad things will happen to you. Ask your little ghost girl, Kim. Except you can’t because she won’t be coming back. We have her now, and oh the things we’ll do to her . . .”

“Liar,” JC said calmly. “If you did have her, you’d show her to me. But you can’t because you don’t. Because Kim is far more powerful than anything you’ve got. Now get out of Melody’s lap-top, or I’ll have her show you what the exorcism function can do.”

The bloody-faced weather-man disappeared in a moment, replaced by the head and shoulders of a pretty young blonde woman with cold, dead eyes.

“That’s her!” said Happy; and JC and Melody both jumped a little because they hadn’t heard him come over to join them. He looked over Melody’s shoulder and jabbed a stubby finger at the young woman on the screen. “That is the woman I saw in my room!”

The blonde woman smiled out of the lap-top screen, entirely calm and composed, and when she spoke, her voice was ordinary, and matter of fact.

“You’re going to die here. And you won’t like it at all. Death isn’t what you think it is. Being dead isn’t what you think it is. This whole building is soaked in death and suffering and horror. They killed me here. A human sacrifice. The priests nailed my guts to the old oak tree and sang sacred songs to drown out my screams. They told me it was an honour; but I still wouldn’t volunteer. They laughed and did it anyway. Because, they said, it was necessary. They should have known better. By sacrificing me in a place of power, they made me powerful. My time has come around at last, and I shall have my revenge on everyone. And taking those won’t help you at all, Happy.”

JC looked around sharply, to see Happy necking several different colour-coded pills, one after the other. Melody saw it, too, and made a low, soft sound of distress. Happy ignored them both, washing his pills down with several large gulps of the good brandy. He smiled beatifically, then leaned over to stare happily at the face on the screen.

“That’s what you think, Blondie. You don’t know me at all. These aren’t pills to pump me up; they’re ammunition. I can See you now, See you for what you really are. You’re not real. You’re not a person. You’re not what you appear to be at all, not a ghost or any kind of surviving personality. You’re the door I saw in my room. The blood-red corridor that leads only to death and destruction. You’re the last angry, defiant screams of a murdered young woman, given strength and purpose by a place of power. You’re the storm. You’re what’s outside. And if you had any sense, you’d run away and hide, because you . . . should be afraid of us. You’ve never met anyone like us.”

The lap-top shut itself down, and the screen went dead. Melody struggled to get it up and running again, but it didn’t want to know. She pushed herself back on her stool and turned her glare on Happy. JC and Brook were staring at him, too. Happy smiled serenely back at them.

“I feel good!” he said. “I’m not scared of anything. Which is, in itself, I’ll admit, a bit scary.”

“What have you taken?” said Melody. “How much have you taken?”

“Like it would mean anything to you if I explained,” said Happy. “Enough to do the job, that’s the point. Let us talk about Blondie.”

“She said she was killed, sacrificed, by priests,” said JC. “And given how old this inn is supposed to be, I think we can safely assume they were Druid priests. According to all the reports, the Druids never met a problem they thought they couldn’t put right with a sacrifice. They used everything from sacrificial altars in rings of stones to burning whole communities alive in giant Wicker Men. But what was the point of this particular sacrifice? And why did it go wrong? Why is it still . . . persisting, clinging on, after all these centuries?”

“And why does Blondie want us dead?” said Melody. “I mean, she doesn’t even know us!”

“I’m sure she’d like us if she knew us . . .” murmured JC.

“We’re not dealing with the ghost of a murdered girl,” said Happy, “but her last dying emotions, manifesting in this world as the angry storm outside.”

“Is it me?” said Brook. “Or is the storm getting really loud now?”

In fact, the storm was howling so loudly that they’d all had to raise their voices to be heard over it. They turned to look at the rain-lashed windows and jumped pretty much in unison as Kim came running through the wall and back into the bar. She stopped abruptly and looked wildly about her.

“I found something!” she said. “I found something out there; and I think it’s followed me home!”

It took them all a moment to realise she wasn’t in her white nurse’s outfit any more. In times of crisis, Kim always reverted to the long green dress she had been wearing when she was murdered. She moved quickly over to stand before JC, huddling as close as she could get without actually overlapping him. He wanted to hold her and comfort her but knew he couldn’t. So he made slow, calming motions to her with his hands and gave her his best encouraging smile.

“What did you see out there, Kim?”

“It’s more what I didn’t see,” said Kim. She was slowly regaining control of herself though her voice was still very small. “The stars have all gone out . . . and the moon is gone. It’s all gone dark, JC! Take a look out the window; see for yourself.”

JC started towards the windows, then paused when he realised Kim wasn’t coming with him. She gestured for him to go on. JC nodded gruffly and went over to stare out the nearest window. Happy and Melody were quickly there with him, staring out the next window. They looked out at the night; but the night wasn’t there. Only an endless, impenetrable darkness. Brook listened to their gasps and cries and came reluctantly out from behind the counter to join JC at his window. He leaned in close, almost pressing his face against the glass, and still couldn’t see anything but the dark. Brook stumbled backwards, his face slack with fear and disbelief.

“There’s nothing out there,” he said numbly.

“Nothing but the dark,” said JC.

“Kim’s right,” said Melody, in a shocked, unsteady voice. “No stars, no moon; not even any lights from the town at the end of the road . . . This can’t be right.”

“And,” said Kim, still not budging from the counter, “there’s Something out there.”

JC looked back at her. “In the dark?”

“I think it
is
the dark,” said Kim.

It occurred to JC that Kim was seriously frightened. He hadn’t seen her look that scared since both of them were nearly destroyed in the hell train down in the London Underground. He was sure he hadn’t seen her look even seriously worried since then. He started to say something; and all the lights in the main bar went out. And stayed out. Everyone made some sort of noise. They couldn’t help themselves. Things were bad enough already, without this. The dark seemed so . . . absolute, this time. Like the kind of dark you find at the bottom of the sea, down in the depths where the light has never penetrated.

JC turned his head quickly back and forth but couldn’t make out a damned thing anywhere.

“It’s all right!” said Brook. “I’ve got some candles behind the counter, for emergencies! You stay put, and I’ll go back and find them! I know this bar like the back of my hand!”

Several loud bangs and crashes and a certain amount of rough language suggested that might not be entirely true, but Brook did make it back to the counter. They could all hear him, scuffling and searching behind the bar. Picking up things that probably felt a lot like candles and putting them down again. JC turned in what he hoped was Melody’s direction.

“Melody! Try your lap-top again! The light from the screen should give us something to work with!”

“Way ahead of you, JC,” said Melody’s voice from over by the counter. “I’ve got my lap-top, but it’s dead in the water. Nothing’s working. I think the faces manifesting through the screen screwed it over, big time.”

JC thrust one hand into his jacket pocket. “All right, nobody panic, I’ve got my lighter here with me.”

“Who’s panicking?” said Happy. “Who said anything about panicking? I’m concerned, for Melody’s sake. And what are you doing with a cigarette lighter? You said you gave up smoking ages ago.”

“I did,” said JC. “But a lighter is still a very useful thing to have about your person in this business.”

Everyone made emphatic and very satisfied sounds as JC’s lighter burst into flame. The cheerful yellow glow didn’t spread far, but the simple dancing light was enough to warm all their hearts after so long in complete darkness. JC held his lighter up high, but the glow didn’t even travel far enough to reach the counter. It was only just bright enough to illuminate his hand and arm.

“Now if this were a movie,” said Happy, “that lighter would provide us enough light to do emergency surgery by.”

“Hollywood lies to you all the time,” said JC. “Get used to it.”

“I am not panicking!” said Happy. “In fact, in my current highly medicated state, I don’t think I’d panic if an elephant stood on my foot. And then danced Gangnam Style.”

Brook set out several assorted candles, in various assorted holders, on top of the bar-counter, and lit them up, one after the other. A flickering pale yellow light illuminated the bar, and everyone hurried forward to stand in the narrow pool of light. JC put out his lighter and tucked it away. Making a careful note of which pocket he put it in, in case he needed it later. Happy moved quickly over to be with Melody, who had given up on her lap-top and pushed it away. Brook was breathing more easily, his eyes fixed on the candlelight. JC had almost reached Kim when she looked suddenly back at the windows and made a loud sound of distress. They all turned to look.

Darkness was seeping through the closed windows, right through the solid glass. It passed swiftly through all the windows and spread out across the far wall, like so much sticky black treacle. It oozed through the windows, without breaking or even affecting the old leaded glass, and covered the entire wall from floor to ceiling in only a few moments. As though the darkness from outside the inn had . . . pressed forward and broken into the main bar. It was inside now and still moving forward. Edging slowly across the floor, eating up the open space, and replacing it with darkness.

There was no sense of physical presence, no sense there was anything in the dark. Just the darkness itself—a huge, impenetrable wall or curtain of utter darkness. A brutal implacable absence of light. Drawing steadily closer to the small, beleaguered group in their pool of yellow light.

“The night’s come in here after us,” said Kim.

“I really don’t like the look of that,” said Melody.

“Should we run?” said Happy.

“Where to?” said JC, angrily. “Use your head! There’s nowhere to go!”

“We could go upstairs,” said Melody.

“Bad idea,” Brook said immediately.

“Why isn’t my tech working?” said Melody, picking up her lap-top and shaking it, then slamming it down hard on the bar-counter. “There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be working!”

“Hold on, Mel,” said JC. “Don’t let it get to you. Happy, are you picking up anything?”

“I’m getting nothing,” said Happy. “And I mean nothing. I can’t See or feel anything. There’s a total absence of any kind of presence. Which is . . . weird.”

“Have you noticed?” Kim said suddenly. “The storm’s gone, too. Not a sound anywhere, not even a murmur. It’s all gone quiet.”

They all stood very still, listening. The entire main bar seemed stuffed full of an eerie, oppressive silence.

“As though . . . the storm isn’t there, any more,” said Kim. “As though there isn’t anything outside this room. Like the darkness has . . . swallowed everything up.”

“Nicely put, Kim,” said Happy. “Very smart, very succinct, and evocative. Oh yes. If you have any more insights like that, do feel free to keep them to yourself.”

“No disagreements in front of the enemy, children!” said JC. “Put on a brave face and a united front and stare the darkness down! I’ve got an idea.”

He grabbed the brandy bottle off the top of the counter and strode forward. He emptied the bottle’s remaining contents out over the nearest chair lying on its side on the floor, right in the path of the creeping dark. JC used the last of the liquor to lay a thin trail back to the counter, put the bottle back, knelt, took out his lighter again, and lit the trail of brandy. A puff of blue flames sprang up from the trail, shooting forward to ignite the liquor-soaked chair. It burned brightly with the same blue flame, blazing away in the face of the approaching dark. It made loud crackling and creaking noises as it burned, while everyone watched silently from the counter, waiting to see what would happen. The light from the burning chair helped illuminate more of the bar; but the light stopped dead where it met the approaching dark. Until, finally, the dark wall rolled over the burning chair and engulfed it, stamping out its light in a moment.

And now the darkness covered more than half of the main bar.

“Bugger,” said JC, succinctly. “I was hoping for rather more than that . . . Okay, everybody fall back, and get behind the bar with Brook.”

By the time he had finished talking and joined them, they were all lined up behind the counter, standing huddled together, shoulder to shoulder. For company and support. Kim stuck as close to them as she could get, staring wide-eyed at the slowly moving dark. The light from the candles on top the counter stopped where it met the creeping darkness; and inch by inch the dark pushed the candlelight back towards the counter.

“JC,” said Kim, in a very small voice. “I’m scared.”

“Don’t be,” JC said immediately. “Take it easy. We’ve faced worse. It’s just . . . dark.”

“What have you got to be scared of, Kim?” said Happy. “You’re a ghost! You’re already dead!”

“I don’t think the dark cares whether you’re alive or dead,” said Kim. “It’s the end of everything. Can’t you feel it?”

“I’d offer you one of my pills,” said Happy. “Except I don’t think I have anything that would affect ectoplasm.”

“Thanks for the thought, though,” said Kim.

“Have you got anything incendiary?” said Melody.