David frowned at his servant. "You heard me, Puer, and we're in a hurry."
Puer cleared his throat. "Pardon my boldness, sir, but isn't that a house of ill-repute?"
"And deadly spirits, one of which we have to exorcise, but first we need to drive there," David persisted.
Puer stretched to his full height and held his chin high. "Then I would like to request that I accompany you on this adventure."
David arched an eyebrow. "You won't be of much use in there, Puer. You're better off as our getaway driver."
Puer nodded at me. "If you'll pardon me again, sir, but Miss Combes won't be of much use in such a place, either."
I crossed my arms and glared at him. "I'm not being left behind."
Puer bowed his head. "Nor am I, Miss Combes."
David set his hand on Puer's shoulder and looked into the middle-aged man's eyes. "I need you, Puer. Nobody else would be foolish enough to drive a werewolf around town."
"And I need you, sir. No one else can sign my paycheck," Puer quipped.
David smiled and patted Puer on the shoulder. "All right, you win, but don't say I didn't warn you."
Puer bowed his head and opened the door. "I will be careful not to, sir."
We slipped into the rear seat of the limo and the car pulled away from the house. I turned to my mate and arched an eyebrow. "How far away is this house?"
He shrugged. "I'd say about an hour's drive."
I glanced at my watch. "Wouldn't that get us at the place two hours before time?"
He smiled. "Yes, but I'm sure our 'host' won't mind us arriving early, particularly since it might take us some time to find our rooms."
"So can you tell me about this mysterious house of ill-repute?" I asked him.
David glanced at the doctor. "We're comfortable, Doc, so you can tell Dakota about the house. You know more about it than me."
Ficus set his bag between his legs and sank into his cushioned seat. "Not much to tell, really. The hauntings started after the original owner's wife, a mentally unstable creature, burned half the house down. Both of them died in the fire. The place was rebuilt, but the ghosts were fixed to the land." He waved his hand. "Then there comes a string of murders, suicides, unexplained disappearances, and strange odors of decay."
I cringed. "Sounds wonderful. So what does this Doug-Phantom have in store for us?"
The doctor shrugged. "The phantom probably wishes to do away with us in the bowels of the house."
David draped his arm across my shoulders and smiled at us. "Sounds like fun, doesn't it?"
I plucked his hand off my shoulder and tossed it back at him. "Loads. So how do we survive this fun house?"
David nodded at the bag between the doctor's feet. "That is our trump card."
Ficus wagged his finger at David. "Don't go relying too much on my tricks. I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker. You'll have to rely on some of your own strengths to get us out of any physical situations."
I waved my finger between them. "So how long have you guys known each other, anyway?"
Ficus leaned back and pursed his lips. "Sometimes I think it's too long."
David chuckled. "Only a few years. The good doctor assisted me in some trouble a while back."
Ficus scoffed. "'Assisted' isn't the word I'd use. I found you half-transformed in a filthy alley with a half dozen police cars on your tail." He wagged his finger again. "You were just fortunate I had my bag with me that night, or I would have abandoned you to your folly."
"It was an honest mistake," David insisted.
"An honest mistake you had a lion's claw halfway through your arm?" Ficus retorted.
David held up his hands and smiled. "All right, Doc, you win. I was a foolish young werewolf out for a meal at the local zoo and should've known better than to tangle with a whole pride of lions."
Ficus pursed his lips. "We're all rather unfortunate it was your arm that was hurt and not your tongue."
David shrugged. "Sometimes the cat gets it, Doc, and sometimes it doesn't."
I rolled my eyes. "Kids, could we stay on the topic of our deaths and not past attempts at suicide?"
David leaned against my side and smiled. "You're in better hands than you know, my dear mate. Nothing will happen to you so long as we're around."
Those were famous last words that karma would later prove wrong.
7
The car ride led us across the Cam River and past the eastern portions of the city. We traveled into the wilderness of the bay road that wound its way through thick forests of old-growth trees. Weed-choked driveways on either side of us were shadowed by the heavy canopy of those trees and wound their way to rusted wrought-iron gates. Stately mansions overgrown with ivy and brush leaned out of the brush, silent sentinels to the glories of old families long past their prime.
I leaned forward and glanced out the window. "Cheery places."
"And our destination is the most cheerful," David spoke up.
Puer turned us onto one of those driveways. The way was little more than a wide path of weeds and dirt. The property was too overgrown to see the house from the road. Brush and tree branches scraped the side of the car. Their long, sharp dead fingers scratched at the windows, and the shadows behind their thick boughs beckoned to us. It was still afternoon, but in this dark forest night was forever.
David flinched. "There goes the paint job."
Ficus picked up his bag and set it in his lap. His lips were pursed as he stared out the window. "You won't have to worry about the car if we don't succeed."
David smiled. "Comforting, Doc. Very comforting."
He shrugged. "Just stating the plain facts. We're up against a phantom that's tasted human soul and it's not about to let us leave without a bite."
David grinned and his sharp teeth glistened in the dim overhead light. "That's okay. I have a bit of a bite myself."
The winding driveway took us to a pair of tall iron gates. On either side of rose a stone wall ten feet tall. Puer parked the car and shut off the engine. He opened the door and we stepped out.
Beyond the gates stood Fairfax House. The structure was made in the style of a large country manor. Its lofty three floors bowed under a full attic, and the exterior was a mix of wood and rounded stones. Tall, narrow windows glared down at us, and many were covered by the tattered remains of curtains. A wide gravel walk led from the gates to the inset front doors. The large wooden entrances were like a gaping mouth ready to swallow fiend and foe alike.
All the windows were dark, or so I thought. Ficus pointed at one in the west wing of the third floor. "There!"
David and I followed his finger. A flickering light shimmered through the thin glass. Then it disappeared.
David turned to we three with a smile. "It seems our arrival didn't go unnoticed."
Puer bowed his head. "I'm sorry, sir, but I didn't feel comfortable shutting the headlights off."
David raised his hand and shook his head. "It's all right, Puer, we understand. To be honest, I'd be grateful for a whole forest of torches."
Ficus dropped his carpet bag onto the ground and opened the awning mouth. He rummaged for a second before he pulled out two large flashlights. "What about the electrical kind?"
David smiled and took one of them. "Even better."
Ficus handed each of us a flashlight. I leaned forward to catch sight of what other surprises he held in that bag, but there was only darkness. He shut the bag and picked it up.
"Shall I lead the way, sir?" Puer offered.
David clicked on his flashlight and shook his head. "No. Dakota and I were especially invited, so we should lead." He turned to me and offered me his arm. "Shall we?"
I pursed my lips, but accepted his arm. "I hope you have a plan other than knocking on the door."
He chuckled. "No, but I'll think of something."
David turned away and shone it over the gates. I started back when a groan came from the ancient hinges, and the gates slowly swung i
nward to allow us passage.
"Looks like the spook doesn't mind an early visit," Ficus spoke up.
"And we shouldn't disappoint it," David added.
David led our little group up the gravel path and to the doors. Those ancient portals, too, opened of their own accord and revealed the hidden world beyond the crumbling walls. The entrance hall was a burial shroud of furniture covered in white sheets. The wooden floors were encased in a thick layer of dirt and dried leaves hardened by years of neglect. We stepped inside and found ourselves in the shadow of a mighty chandelier.
"Roomy," I spoke up. I winced when my voice echoed through the many halls of the manor.
David smiled. "It seems we didn't give our host time to clean up before our coming."
Ficus dropped his bag on the ground and knelt in front of it to rummage in its dark depths. "But you two and your yapping are giving it plenty of opportunity to greet us."
David swept his hands towards the grand staircase that curled around the rear wall of the hall. "After you, my good doctor."
Ficus pulled out a two-foot long stick with short branches on either side and a few green leaves stuck at the end of those branches. "I will if you'd give me a moment to find it," he replied as he stood.
David arched an eyebrow. "You saw the light. We should go there."
Ficus raised the stick above his head and turned in a circle. "Don't believe anything you see in here. Use your nose instead, and tell me where you smell the worst stench in this place."
David lifted his nose and took a couple of whiffs. He frowned. "It's coming from the second floor near-" Ficus jerked to a stop with the stick pointed at the right-hand wing of the house.
"-near the back of the house and at the end of the hall," Ficus finished for him.
David chuckled. "Perhaps you should be the one to lead."
Ficus picked up his bag in one hand and clutched the stick in another. "Perhaps I should. Now all of you play follow-the-leader, and stay close."
Ficus led us up the curved stairs. David and I walked side-by-side, and Puer brought up the rear.
I glanced at my mate and jerked my head towards Ficus's back. "What kind of a quack is this guy?" I whispered.
"The best at what he does," David assured me.
Ficus glanced over his shoulder and nodded. "You're darn right. Not every doctor can heal the physical and spiritual."
I arched an eyebrow. "How do you deal with the spiritual?"
He rattled his carpet bag. "With this, and this." He tapped his temple with the end of his stick.
I frowned and squinted my eyes at the stick. "I think your leaves are dying." The greenery hung limp from the branches.
Ficus held the stick in front of him and nodded. "They should. This is a branch of hawthorn. The leaves go limp in the direction of supernatural beings, and they wither when drawn close enough to them."
"Do you have anything that can help us exorcise this phantom, Doc?" David spoke up.
Ficus snorted. "If I didn't I would have received my price for the holy water and sent you on your way. As it is, I have a little experiment I'd like to try on your phantom friend."
"Care to clue us in?" David persisted.
Ficus shook his head. "Not here. The walls have ears."
We reached the landing to the second floor. A long hall stretched to the left and right. The far ends were encased in shadows so deep our flashlights couldn't penetrate the darkness. Doors stood on either side of the hall. The soiled wallpaper was covered in cobweb-draped portraits.
I glared at a particularly menacing portrait of a man in gentleman's attire from two centuries before. "They have eyes, too."
Ficus paused and frowned at a portrait of a woman close to his right. She wore a prim and proper frown of her own on her face. That was probably because of the tight, high-collar that adorned her thin, seated form. "I wouldn't be surprised at anything."
David wrapped one arm around my shoulders and moved us past Ficus and down the hall some ten feet. "Be firm, my brave companions. We have only a short hallway, a simple battle, and a damsel rescued before we leave. This should all be done in five minutes."
That's when the floor beneath me gave way.
8
The boards beneath my feet cracked and yawned, sucking me down into darkness. David's arm couldn't cling to me as hard as gravity forced me down. I let out my best terrified scream as I fell through the floor. The next one didn't break my fall, but a sharp, bony object covered in cloth finished my fun with gravity.
A dust cloud fell over me and forced air from my lungs. I choked on the ancient dirt and waved my hand in front of me to clear my vision. A loud crash and crunch beside me started me backwards into more dust. A shadowy figure emerged from the cloud and loomed over me.
"Are you okay?" David asked me.
I grasped my chest over my heart and glared at my mate who stood over me. "Did you really have to follow me down here that way?"
He knelt beside me and helped me sit up. "I thought if it was good enough for you it would be good enough for me."
"It needs some work," I quipped. I glanced around us. "Where are we, anyway?"
David mimicked my action and frowned. He swept his light over the area. I glimpsed stone walls and chink mud between them. "It looks like the basement."
"Sir!" Puer shouted.
"Should we assume you two are all right with all your jabbering?" Ficus called down to us.
"We're fine!" David called back.
I shifted and winced. "Mostly fine." I dug something sharp from my rear and held it up. My flashlight was gone, but David shone his light on what I held.
My eyes widened as I realized it was a broken human leg bone. I yelped and tossed the bone. It clattered into the darkness. David pointed his flashlight at the ground beneath me. His eyes widened and he held out his hand to me.
"You might want to get up," he advised me.
I blinked at him. "Why?"
That's when I decided to turn around. The sharp, bony, cloth-covered floor beneath me was one vast swath of skeletal bodies. They were stacked one on top of another to create a grisly game of doggy pile. I yelped and leapt into David's outstretched arm. He lifted me off the pile and pulled me to a clear spot on the floor.
"What's the matter?" Ficus yelled at us.
David pursed his lips as his eyes swept over the dozens and dozens of bones. "We seem to have hit upon a rather grisly treasure, Doc. There are skeletons down here."
"Skeletons? What kind?"
"The human kind."
"Sir!" Puer exclaimed.
Ficus's voice sounded strained. "Just stay there. We'll come to you."
Something moved in the pile. My pulse quickened as I watched a lump rise from the mix of cloth and bone. The thing was covered in the ragged remains of the clothes of the dead, and resembled a great hunchbacked figure in a filthy hood and cloak. It raised its head and a pair of gleaming red eyes glared at us.
David backed up with me firmly against his side. "Actually, Doc, we'd rather come to you."
"It'll be faster the other way!" Ficus insisted.
"Believe me, you don't want to be down here," David warned him.
The creature shambled through the bones. It stretched out its arms and revealed two bony limbs that ended in toe joints. Its arms were strung from knees, and the movement of the cloth revealed legs formed from rib bones stuck to one another to create thick limbs.
I clung to David as we backed up and the thing shambled forward. "W-what is that?"
David shook his head. "I don't know, and I don't think we want to find out." He tilted his head back and looked at the hole in the ceiling. The hole was ten feet above us, and another twenty feet to the second floor where we could see the faces of our comrades. He looked to me with a grim expression as he handed me his flashlight. "Hold on as tight as you can. This is going to be a bumpy ride."
I wrapped my arms around his neck and nodded. "Ready."
He clutched me to himself and took a deep breath. Then he ran at the creature. "What are you doing?" I screamed.
The dark eyes blazed with evil and it swung one of its deadly clawed hands. David ducked the blow and leapt onto the thing's head. A high-pitched shriek spewed from beneath its hood. David jumped upward from its head and cleared the first hole.
The creature snatched at his ankles, but missed. It raised its arms above its head and gave another high-pitched cry.
Our friends above us leaned back and their eyes widened. "What in all that is holy is that?" Puer asked us.
Ficus leaned forward over the hole and waved at David. "Quick! Up here!"
David turned us so we faced the hole and the thing inside its great mawing mouth. "What's the hurry, Doc? It can't get up here."
The creature howled again and stretched out its arms. The bones beneath its feet climbed up its body like an army of white ants and connected themselves to the arms. The extended limbs grasped the edge of the hole and pulled the rest of the body off the ground and towards the first floor. And us.
David stumbled back with me still safely in his unsafe arms.
"Sir!" Puer yelped.
Ficus shone his flashlight on the creature's red eyes. The thing screeched and shielded its eyes, but nothing stopped its terrible march. Ficus whipped his head to Puer. "Don't sit there blabbering! Shine your light on it!"
Puer swallowed and nodded. They both flashed their flashlight beams on the creature. The bones on the arms sizzled and steam rose from their white surfaces. The thing cried out and its fingers slipped a few inches off the edge.
Ficus looked to David. "Hurry!"
"Coming!" David replied.
My mate rushed up the stairs on our left just as the creature's body reached the hole. I looked over his shoulder and shuddered. Those terrible eyes glared at us with a murderous intent. It climbed out of the hole and slithered across the floor, following our footsteps as we rushed up the steps. We reached the second floor and met our friends near the hole. David set me down and glanced at his medical friend.
"What is that thing?" David asked the doc.
Ficus knelt on the ground and furiously rifled through the contents. "The bodies of those poor souls who were killed by the evil in this house."
"Shouldn't they hate the house and like us?" I pointed out.
He shook his head. "They're jealous of the living, and wish for us to join them in their torment."