The Blackwood Curse, page 8
High above me, there was a huge bank of stained-glass arched windows, where the staircase changed direction. It was a welcome bit of cheer, leaving little dancing lights on the grim faces looking out of the walls.
It occurred to me then that most of the portraits were men. The ones at my aunt’s were mainly women. How odd.
Finally I reached the top of the stairs and a long hallway that went in both directions. It looked like a hotel, there were so many doors on either side. The house was certainly big enough.
There was a loud clomp and then a moan that made me freeze. I looked behind me and debated whether to go back down, but something made me want to go on. I could say I was lost looking for the toilet, if someone challenged me.
I pushed on slowly to the right, thankful for the thin strip of rug that ran the length of the corridor to mask my footsteps. Every black carved door was closed, and I moved steadily onto the next. I was beginning to think it would be the case for all of them, when the next one opened and a woman in a black dress and white apron came out and went left without seeing me.
It happened so quickly, I barely had time to flatten myself against the wall. She didn’t see me though and disappeared through a door further down. I took some breaths, composed myself and straightened up. I wanted to see in the room she just came out of.
I inched closer and carefully peeked around the doorpost. I intended just to take a quick look and then go, but my feet froze, and the sight rendered me useless. I simply stood there, unable to move. There, in the room, completely decorated in black, was the boy I knew I’d come to see. He was lying in a huge carved bed with black curtains draped from above it and a coat of arms like something out of a fairy tale.
Those brilliant-blue eyes met and held mine. I felt mesmerized and was no longer hiding at all. I just stood there helplessly looking and he appeared to do the same. He didn’t say a word and neither did I. His black hair was an overlong mess around his face and his skin was pale. A nurse was bending over his wrist administering something. He was propped up on black pillows and covered in blankets to his waist. What I could see of his body was entirely covered in ink; from the knuckles of his hands to his arms and his neck. His stomach was covered the same, with the design on his chest morphing into wings along his collar bone and feathers and flames up to his jawline. I couldn’t quite make it out what they were, but I was sure there were smaller tattoos around his eye.
I just knew, without doubt, it was to ward people off. It had nothing to do with fashion. I would bet good money it was to scare people, to make them form a bad opinion and keep them away. It didn’t scare me. All it made me think was, why?
His eyes looked directly at me as if he were lazily mapping me in the same way. Then I saw his eyelids lower and I realised he was too relaxed. He’d been drugged. The nurse straightened up and it was clear what she’d been doing; a syringe was in her hand.
It was then I saw the pain in his eyes. His lips parted as if he was going to say something, but then his eyes slowly closed.
A man appeared from behind the door in front of me. He was slim, in a black suit and had greying hair. The uncle. I was about to blabber some sort of an apology, but, without uttering so much as a word, he looked right through me as if I wasn’t there, and slowly closed the door in my face.
I stood there, stunned, and blinked. He was rude, but I’d been trespassing where I didn’t belong, so I could hardly complain. I prayed that he didn’t either.
I turned quickly and retraced my steps down the stairs as quickly as I could on my crutches. I used the loo to calm my nerves and cover my tracks and then went back to find the others.
My hands were still shaking when I entered the room. I paused when I saw Tallulah sitting across Ollie’s lap. His arms were circled around her. I coughed to announce I was there. They turned their heads and smiled, but neither jumped up. In fact, it was me who went red for them. ‘You’ve got some great old paintings out there,’ I said as the first thing that came into my head. ‘All quiet now,’ hearing myself sounding more ridiculous by the minute. They didn’t seem bothered at all. I wanted to question Ollie about why his brother needed to be sedated but knew I couldn’t.
Ollie smiled in his easy-going, laid-back way. ‘Yeah, the old ancestors. I expect you have them too.’
I nodded and sat down, a little more at ease now. ‘But did you know that yours are all men and the ones at my aunt’s are mainly women?’
His eyes widened. ‘I’ve never been in your place, but I guess that is strange.’
‘Maybe it’s the curse,’ Tallulah said, wide-eyed, putting on her best scary film voice.
I looked straight at Ollie to gauge his reaction. He just laughed and shrugged. ‘Maybe. The guy who started it is the one at the top of the stairs.’
My heart stalled. The ones at home were labelled. I had no idea who was who here. ‘Who? Jedediah Waxley-Black?’
Ollie blanched as if he was confused for a moment. Then he shook his head. ‘No, it was his brother Ainsley.’
My heart stopped completely at that. ‘But I thought Lila Blackwood was marrying Jedediah?’
Ollie shook his head again. ‘No, the story was, she was in love with Jed but meant to marry Ainsley.’
I was stunned. I needed to think about this and what it meant with all the clues I’d already found.
Tallulah was already bored with the subject and blurted, ‘Becks has got her costume for Saturday, haven’t you, Becks?’
It pulled me out of my thoughts. ‘Yeah, if it’s still on with everything.’ I said, immediately blasting red at drawing the attention back to poor Ollie’s family situation, but he didn’t seem perturbed.
‘Great! I can’t wait for you to meet everyone,’ he said. ‘I think they’ll think you’re a right laugh.’
Tallulah giggled.
I felt uneasy about it. It wasn’t an ideal way to meet new people dressed as a tart and I remembered the haunted look in his brother’s eyes. It felt wrong planning a party in the middle of all that.
There were three cans of coke on the table, so I guessed one was for me and took one. I cracked it open and took a huge gulp. ‘Are your parents cool with it?’ It was a bit daunting after having just met the uncle.
‘Yeah, they travel a lot. My dad’s business takes him away and my mum prefers London. My uncle stays here most of the time to keep an eye on things while I’m at school.’
‘I thought all you Brits went to boarding school.’ Although Ollie at Hogwarts didn’t compute somehow.
Ollie and Tallulah both laughed at that.
‘Only the posh ones,’ Tallulah said, looking lovingly down at him.
‘Well, we did,’ Ollie said, a little more seriously. ‘But Wax got expelled and I refused to stay after that. So we came to St Bart’s and I met this one,’ he said, tickling Tallulah in the ribs.
I smiled, deciding I liked Ollie. He was obviously devoted to his brother and, despite his fun-loving personality, apparently the more responsible of the two of them.
‘And Wax is older?’
‘Yeah, twenty.’ He was still cavorting with Tallulah and speaking absently, but the age was very relevant to me. It was exactly what the mystery guy had told me on my computer. It had to be the same person.
‘Where does he go now?’ I was genuinely intrigued after today’s events.
‘He doesn’t. He’s one of those brooding geniuses. He does his degree online.’
The vampire boy who never came out of his room. It made up my mind more than ever. That drugged, tattooed, wild boy upstairs was the one I’d chatted to, I just knew it. Today had been a success in more ways than one.
Wax, Jedediah, Ainsley. I couldn’t shake the growing feeling that everything was connected.
Chapter 8
It was late afternoon by the time we walked back and the sun was leaving an orange blast on the horizon before it went down.
Tallulah chattered on, but I tuned out for most of it, answering with a ‘Mmn’ and a ‘yeah’ in the appropriate places.
As soon as we walked into the kitchen, she launched into an exciting blow-by-blow account to her mom, Gerty, about Wax’s meltdown. I kept quiet. It wasn’t something I felt comfortable gossiping about. Gerty just tutted and shook her head, listening, while she dished up our supper.
I ate the stew ravenously with huge chunks of bread while they talked.
‘Those boys have no real parental supervision. No wonder they run wild,’ Gerty said.
It made me frown when I thought about my own situation, which she seemed to have missed.
I demolished my food in less than five minutes, so I helped load the dishwasher and clear away. Gerty said they were going and she’d see me in the morning.
‘Will there be school, do you think?’ I said.
Gerty shrugged. ‘It’s so out of season, there’s no telling. We’ll have to wait and see.’
Tallulah said, ‘Later,’ while she was looking at her phone and they bustled out the door with Gerty’s various bags. It left me sitting at the kitchen table in absolute silence. I looked around and wondered, what now? I was tired and it was too dark to check on the round house so, grabbing a water from the fridge, I decided to go up to my room. Downstairs seemed too big to be all on my own.
I climbed the echoey staircase slowly on my crutches, saying hello to all the grim faces on the way. It took my mind off the wind groaning up in the rafters. It had been an exhausting day and I couldn’t handle any more excitement.
I decided on a strip wash after my last experience in the bath. The bathroom was creepy and it felt too unsettling to spend any time in there. I put on my PJs, clomped along the landing double-time and slid into bed with my old laptop on my knees.
My heart was already beating fast as my finger hovered over the power button. My thoughts raced. I knew if it was the boy I’d seen this afternoon, there was no way he would be awake to message me, but I still really hoped for one anyway.
I switched it on, and the curser flickered. I held my breath, knowing the message would come before the Welcome screen. Then I sagged with disappointment when the laptop prompted me for my username and password. I gave myself a mental slap. This just meant I was right; Wax probably was my mystery messenger, and that thrilled and terrified me at the same time. He was dangerous, attractive and fascinating; all rolled into one.
After that, I played some music for a while with my earphones on, but it reminded me too much of Pete. There was nothing as emotive as music to remind you what you’d lost. We’d loved those songs. It wasn’t a good idea to do this when I was tired; I’d be bawling in a minute. It made me decide that I had to get some new songs and start to associate them with new experiences. Perhaps I’d get to like some UK bands.
Next, I checked the weather forecast for the morning, which seemed non-committal about more snow. Somewhere between that and checking my Instagram account, I must have fallen asleep.
I awoke with a start.
My head and heart went straight into overdrive when the noise happened again.
Three slow knocks on my door.
My heart was in my mouth, strangling my voice when I called out timidly, ‘Who’s there?’
No one answered.
Then I’m sure I heard some whispering.
‘Tallulah?’ I called, a bit louder.
There seemed a lot of whispers until they all came together in what sounded like a female voice saying something very much like, ‘Shade … Shade … Come with me, Shade.’
It made no sense; I couldn’t figure it out at all. I was terrified, trying to sit up and pull myself together enough to answer. ‘My name is Beccah. Who is it, please?’
When I got no answer, I leaned over to turn on my lamp, but nothing happened. The power was out.
‘Shaaade,’ came like a moan from the other side of the door. I swallowed, but all the spit had gone from my mouth. I slowly put my legs out over the side of the bed and slipped down. I grabbed one of my crutches and stood up, a little wobbly at first. I was too shaky to go without. I needed a free hand with a crutch that could act as a weapon.
I went to the window first and pulled the curtains to let in some light. A full moon helped me see the room in shades of grey. Then I slowly approached the door and held out my hand to grab hold of the round brass doorknob. I turned it, holding my breath. It felt icy in my hand. I pulled the door open and took a step back all at the same time.
There was nothing there but a huge rectangle of blackness to the hallway. I couldn’t see anyone or anything because there was zero light.
Then the voice sliced through the air and repeated the words again from a little way off. ‘Shade … Shade … come with me.’ It sounded like it was singing a melody to a song.
My heart was still thrashing in my chest, making me swallow with a sandpaper-dry mouth. Whoever she was, she wanted me to follow, but my mind was lurching all over the place, working quickly for a logical explanation of who it must be. But there simply wasn’t one and a grim suspicion crept up my spine. I was scared stiff. I’d seen enough horror films to know following something into the dark was the last thing I should do; I shouldn’t step into the blackness of that hall.
Then a thought occurred to me. I remembered my phone on charge next to the bed. I retraced my steps to the nightstand and pulled the charger out from the phone. The power must have been out for a while as it was only half charged. I hoped it was enough for what I was going to do.
I switched on the torch, arranged my crutch under my arm and headed back to the open doorway. ‘Hello!’ I said before I stepped into the darkness.
I edged out, stopped and looked left into the black. All I could see was the landing going off into the dark. When I heard no more sounds I began to walk slowly along, careful not to scuff the rug and trip. My chest was heaving up and down as if I was out of breath and I could only see a few feet in front of me. ‘Where are you?’ I said, my voice sounding weak and choked.
I stopped dead when it said, ‘Shaaade,’ again in a long, drawn-out whisper. I couldn’t see it anywhere and yet all my senses said it was a little way ahead of me. ‘I don’t understand. Who are you? What do you want?’ It began to feel like it was waiting for me, so I started to walk again, very slowly along the landing in the smallest steps. I was very conscious of feeling more exposed the further I got from my room. It felt like the darkness was circling and surrounding me.
I finally came to a dead end; a wall with wood panelling. It took me a moment to get my bearings, but I realised I was right next to the bathroom at the top of the stairs.
‘Shaade,’ the voice said again, but she sounded distorted.
I moved to the left and quickly checked inside the bathroom by throwing open the door and pointing the torch at every corner, but the room was empty. The whispering noises definitely sounded like they were coming from behind the panelled wall.
A loud bang made me jump backwards in fright. I only just grabbed hold of my crutch, so I didn’t fall, but I’d dropped my phone and was plunged into ink-black darkness. I squealed and looked down all around me and found it had fallen face down. I had to bend down shakily to grab it, which wasn’t easy balancing on one leg. When I stood back up, I was barely breathing. My heart was beating so fast, I felt sick. The noise was definitely coming from the other side of the wall. At first, I wondered if it was a trapped animal, like a bird or a rat but, deep down, I knew that it wasn’t.
I tried to breathe while I strained my ears to listen. Whatever it was appeared to be still. I edged forward, slowly, holding out my shaking hands to touch the wood. Then I ran them over the surface.
I almost missed it: a small keyhole tucked right next to the raised edging of the panel. I wondered if it was just a small cupboard at first, but someone had gone to a great deal of effort to conceal the keyhole, making me suspect it was a secret door. I ran my hands over the wood in case there was a hidden handle, but I couldn’t find anything. I need a key.
I stood up straighter. The only bunch of keys I’d found were the ones in the library. I wonder? It was a long shot, but I had to check. Despite being terrified of what was behind it, I knew I wouldn’t sleep until I found out.
I crept down the creaky staircase as fast and as quietly as hobbling on one crutch would allow. Sliding my free hand down the banister holding my phone, I prayed the battery wouldn’t die on me.
The library was the same as I’d left it, so I went straight over to the desk and opened the drawer. The keys were in exactly the same place. I put my finger through the ring so I could hold my phone and not drop them and made my way back up the stairs. It was harder going up on one crutch, so my progress was slower.
It was totally quiet when I came back to stop in front of the secret door. No more bangs or whispering voices. I leant my crutch against the wall and angled my phone on a small pedestal while I examined the bunch of keys. I tried a few but they were all too big. Then I came to the last one. It was brass, narrow but long, and had a small loop at the end. It looked much older than the others. It had to be the one.
I held my breath as I gently put it to the keyhole and pushed it inside. It went in, so I gently turned it, hearing the satisfying click. The door didn’t move. I gripped the raised part of the panel and pulled. At first it wouldn’t budge, as if it hadn’t been opened for centuries. Then it scraped a fraction and dust spilled out of the tiny gap. I could just about get my fingers inside for a better grip and yanked it all the way. Strangely, I wasn’t as scared as I should be. Excitement was slowly overcoming my fear.
Dust was everywhere and took some time to settle. Eventually, I could see it was far smaller than an ordinary door: about three feet high by about eighteen inches wide. It had to be an unused cupboard or a door to secret passage. All these old places were supposed to have them.
I shone my torch inside. The whisper had completely gone, making me wonder if I’d actually heard it in the first place. Maybe I’d imagined it, half asleep. But then I paused. Something had led me to this place.
