The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw (15 page)

But Emma was too intrigued to really take any notice of what Lana had said and so she put her hand out and gently tugged at the handle.

It was another door. A hidden door.

'Lana, come and check this out,' she said as her sister appeared fully dressed in clean, warm clothes.

'Oh wow,' she said, almost pushing Emma aside so she could step inside.

'Don't mind me.'

'Sorry Sis. It leads down to somewhere. You coming?'

Emma followed as they both stepped into the tiny room which contained a thin ladder leading downwards. Emma closed the door behind them and they walked down to the bottom where they were faced with a hatch.

'Well we can't open it. It'll flood the boat,' Emma said with a sigh.

'Not necessarily. It looks like one of those submarine hatch things that you see in the movies. It's got something to do with air pressure or something like that.'

'So you want to open a hatch on a boat on the river based on old movies you've seen? Lana we're not even on a submarine. We're on a boat that doesn't belong to us. We can't sink Declan's boat on a hunch.'

But it was too late, Lana had taken it on herself to open it.

'Lana you're insane,' yelled Emma as she started running back up the steps.

When she heard chuckling, she turned back and peered down.

'See,' said Lana with her hands on her hips. 'It's a hatch that leads to another tunnel. This Praxos Foundation has certainly got everything covered. Come on, let's go.'

'But I never got to shower or get cleaned up,' complained Emma as Lana left her behind.

With her hands on her hips, Emma dropped her head backwards. Looking upwards, she let out a deep sigh before following her sister into yet another tunnel.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The tunnel seemed cleaner, more modern, like it had only fairly recently been built. There were a few lights overhead, some that flickered off and on every few minutes. They slowly walked through it, both wondering where it would lead them.

Emma let out a deep yawn.

'I know, me too,' answered Lana as she couldn't stop herself from doing the same thing. 'It must be pretty late. It's certainly been a long day. Hey, what was that?' she said as she stopped suddenly, putting out an arm to prevent Emma from moving further.

She pulled them both to one side of the tunnel.

'What?' whispered Emma.

'There's something down there.'

'Maybe it's just Declan.'

Shaking her head, Lana put a finger over her mouth to quieten her.

'No, it definitely wasn't Declan. I'm sure I saw glowing red eyes in the darkness down there. It didn't look... human, Em...' she breathed.

'That's crazy, Lana. What else could it be?'

'I don't know. All I know is what I saw.'

'It is dark in here, there are creepy shadows everywhere. Maybe it was just your imagination. Let's walk a bit further and see,' said Emma.

But as they tentatively began taking steps further down the tunnel, a deep roar echoed down towards them.

They stopped, eyes wide open and looked at each other.

'What now?' mouthed Emma.

'Let's get out of here,' whispered Lana.

Turning to make their escape, the girls were about to make a run for it when a high pitched scream pierced the air around them.

'Oh God... someone's in trouble down there. We've got to go and help,' shouted Lana as they both turned back again and began to run towards the frightening sounds ahead.

As they rounded a corner, they were faced with something that stopped them dead in their tracks. Lana was right, whatever it was certainly didn't look human. Well, not really. He was probably at least seven feet tall with large, wide wings that scraped the top of the tunnel. Deep set fiery red eyes turned towards them and he scowled, snarling.

A woman lay unconscious at it's feet.

The sisters turned to look at each other as the same euphoric sensation began to bubble in their stomachs. With adrenaline pumping, they ran towards the beast. Just before they reached it, they literally ran up the sides of the tunnel and threw themselves on top of it.

But moments before they could do any damage, a bright light was shone directly onto them and the beast began to laugh. Not an evil laugh like they would have expected, but a familiar gentle chuckle.

Sounds of laughter and applause began to fill the tunnel all around them as the beast opened his mouth and began to speak, much to Lana and Emma's confusion.

'It's okay now girls. You can stop beating me. I'm not the enemy,' he said softly as the girls stopped what they were doing, shielding their eyes from the light.

Looking down, Emma noticed that the woman was no longer lying on the ground. She stood smiling up at them, clapping her hands.

'Emma, Lana, initiation is over,' said a familiar voice from behind the light. 'You can let Wilbur go now.'

'Wilbur?' said Emma.

As the beast gently placed the girls back on the ground, they watched in utter shock as he transformed back into the man who they'd met earlier at the Praxos House.

'Well done, you've passed with flying colours,' said Eleanor who stood with Declan, Saleena and the rest of the Watchers who all looked exhausted.

'This was fake? This was part of the initiation? And Wilbur? What is he?' asked Lana as Emma let herself plop down on the ground as she got her breath back.

'We'll update you tomorrow. For now, you can head back to the boat with Dec and Sal and get some sleep. I bet you're both exhausted,' she added as everyone began talking among themselves.

Lana quickly disappeared to chat to Liam who stood at the back of the crowd, leaning against the wall, grinning.

'Hey Emma, how are you doing? Did you get on okay?' asked a lovely voice that made her grin and made her feel all warm inside.

'Hey,' she said as Diarmuid helped her up off the floor. 'I'm okay. Seriously ready for a good night's sleep though. How did you get on with your initiation?'

He smiled warmly at her. 'It was good, I know what you mean about being tired though. It's been a long night. It's good to see you,' he added as the group began to gather together.

'The initiations went remarkably well, everybody. I just wanted to let you all know that it's over now. You can all go home and get some food and rest. We'll reconvene tomorrow at Praxos House. Thank you for all your efforts. You should all be very proud of yourselves,' announced Eleanor. 'Now go. See you tomorrow,' she added.

'Look, we'll catch up tomorrow, okay?' Diarmuid said as he casually leaned forward and kissed Emma's cheek before he smiled down at her and then turned and walked away.

Standing with her hand over her cheek, which had turned a distinct shade of pink, Emma sighed happily and she squealed inside.
He kissed me!

'Come on girls, let's head back,' said Declan as he ushered them away from the group.

'Congratulations,' said Saleena as they walked back towards the hatch. But they were far too tired to answer back, and Emma was far too entranced by that gentle kiss to even think about anything else.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Sitting on her unmade bed, Lana was humming along to her ipod, painting her nails a bright shade of orange, while Emma lay sprawled across her own immaculate bed reading a book, when Declan appeared at the door.

'We'll be leaving in ten minutes girls,' he said with a smile before disappearing again.

'Okay, thanks,' Emma yelled after him as she placed a magnetic skull and cross bones bookmark inside the book and closed it, carefully placing it on the bedside table.

'Lana,' said Emma but she ignored her.

'Lana,' she repeated, louder.

When she still didn't hear her, Emma stood up and pulled the earphone out of her ear with a quick tug.

'Ow, what did you do that for?' she complained.

'We're leaving in ten minutes.'

'Oh, okay,' Lana said, carefully placing the brush back in the bottle and screwing the top on. With her fingers flared out, she shook her hands and blew on her wet nails while she sat and watched Emma put on her shoes.

'I wonder what's in store for us today.'

Emma raised her eyebrows, 'Whatever it is, I'm sure it's no-where near as bad as yesterday. I hope not anyway.'

'Yeah I know. I'm just looking forward to hearing about some of the others' initiations.'

'You mean Liam's,' Emma said with a smile.

'Maybe. I bet you can't wait to see Diarmuid again. Young love,' she said with a sarcastic sigh, 'and first kisses...' she said as Emma laughed, standing.

'Come on, let's go,' she said, playfully punching her on the shoulder as she walked past.

'Are you coming, Saleena?' asked Lana as they stood on deck waiting for Declan as he put on a light jacket and basketball cap.

'No, I'm staying here this morning, girls. I'm going to prepare us a nice dinner for this evening. I might pop over this afternoon though. I don't know yet. Have a good time,' she said, smiling as they headed off while Declan busied himself by taking his girlfriend in a long hug and a kiss.

'See you later, Sal,' he shouted as he joined the girls.

'Oh,' Emma suddenly said, 'When did this happen?' as she realised they were no longer moored by the Thames Barrier.

With a cheeky grin, Declan told them he'd stayed up later and moved the boat to another location.

'Where are we now?' Lana asked as they followed behind him, matching his fast stride.

'We're in Camden,' he said, barely taking a breath.

'Is that the same Camden with the cool shops and stuff?' Lana asked.

'Hm hm,' he replied.

'Cool.'

'But we're not here to shop, Lana. We're headed down to Praxos House.'

'Are we close?' Emma asked.

'So so,' he said pointing straight down the road. 'Just a few miles or so in that general direction. Not far from the British Museum, UCL, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art....'

'UCL? What's that?' asked Emma.

'University College London.'

'Are we using the same entrance as yesterday? You know, in through the house and the weird wardrobe thing?'

'There's a different entrance we prefer to use. Less conspicuous,' he said with a grin as the girls noticed a group of young women smiling at him.

'Looks like you've got plenty of admirers down here, Declan,' Lana said cheekily.

He just turned and smiled, saying nothing.

Continuing to walk in silence for a while, Emma was taking notice of all the street names they'd walked down. They were now on Gower Street.

Just a little further down the road was a beautiful red brick building on their right. Declan, who noticed Emma's admiring glances, piped up, 'That's the UCL Cruciform Building.'

'Oh right. It's impressive.'

As they walked by a couple of red telephone boxes, Emma's eyes suddenly widened and she cursed to herself.

'What?' asked Lana.

'We forgot to ring Mum.'

'Uh oh... we'll be in trouble,' said Lana as she grabbed her purple leather handbag, delving inside it to the find the mobile phone Audrey had given her before they'd left Andilyse.

'Oh God... it's broken. I guess water got into it last night.'

'Don't worry, girls. Sal and I both spoke to your Mum and Dad last night. They know you've got lots going on and they're fine that you haven't spoken to them. In fact, they said for you to just ring them at the end of the week. I reassured them that all is well and you're having a great time.'

'Aww thanks Declan. That's a relief. She'll kill us though, when she hears we've broken my phone.'

'Mine's broken too,' added Emma as she pulled out her own mobile and found water sloshing about inside it.

'Here, give them to me and I'll get them fixed before the end of the day. Don't worry about it,' said Declan as they handed him the phones with a grin.

'Grant Museum of Zoology... sounds like a blast,' said Lana sarcastically as they walked past a sign pointing down to the right.

'I bet it's great,' said Emma.

'Yeah, if you're a total geek,' replied Lana, sticking out her tongue in jest.

'Ooh look there's a Waterstones!' Emma said, almost jumping up and down. 'Must remember that for when we have some free time. I could use some new books.'

Lana rolled her eyes as they carried on walking.

'Eleanor's got tonnes of books if you need some more reading material,' smiled Declan.

'I doubt she shares the same tastes as Emma,' joked Lana.

'Actually, I think she does. When we first saw her yesterday, she was reading The Hunger Games.'