The Secret of Crickley Hall

  Eventually, her parents went away and other families lived there for long intervals at a time. But none had ever noticed her, even though she had done her best to make them aware. Lili was the only person Agnes had been able to talk to and be seen by, and she was pleased finally to have a companion.

  Lili’s parents had often heard her talking to an invisible friend in her room and they questioned their daughter about it. In her innocence, Lili had told the truth. Her mother and father, however, assumed the girl wearing old-fashioned clothing was inside Lili’s own head, a figment of her lively imagination, and had left it at that, believing she would soon grow out of it. After all, lots of little children had imaginary friends, didn’t they?

  For at least six weeks the ghost of the Victorian girl continued to appear to Lili, always when she was by herself and in the same upstairs room. They played and giggled together, enjoying each other’s company, although Lili sometimes became frustrated because Agnes could never catch a ball, or use a skipping rope, or pick up a toy. Apart from that, they got along fine.

  It was only when Lili told her spectral friend about a place called Heaven that there came about a subtle change in Agnes. Lili’s daddy had told her this was where the angels lived and where good people who had died went to. Agnes’s image began to falter; she was not so clearly defined any more. Still they continued to play together, until one day, soon after she had learned about Heaven, Agnes declared she had two important questions to ask Lili: ‘Shouldn’t I be in Heaven too? Am I a bad person?’

  Lili had readily assured Agnes that she was a good person, otherwise Lili wouldn’t have liked her. And yes, probably she should go up to Heaven, although Lili would miss her terribly.

  The Victorian girl came back to Lili only once more after that and Lili could barely see her, so transparent had Agnes become. She told Lili that she kept hearing someone calling her and that she could feel herself slipping away. She implored Lili not to be sorrowful if she left because Agnes would always remember her. She said she had the same sort of feeling when Father used to tell her that they were all going on a journey; she felt happy because she knew they would travel to somewhere that was different and exciting, but sorry because she always hated leaving her lovely home. So she felt happy and sad at the same time. But she wasn’t afraid any more, not since Lili had told her about Heaven.

  The voice she heard calling her had become very strong, though oddly never loud, and she felt a presence, as if someone were waiting for her in the same house but in another room.

  At first, Lili had asked Agnes not to leave, because they were friends and she would be lonely without her. But soon she realized that Agnes wanted with all her heart to go to the place she felt sure was Heaven. Even that young, Lili knew it would be selfish of her to beg Agnes to stay and she truly wanted what was best for her friend.

  The apparition of the young girl from another era dimmed even more before Lili’s eyes, and then something wonderful happened.

  A tiny, brilliantly radiant light, round and no bigger than a marble, entered the room through the closed door. Swiftly the remnants of Agnes’s fading form became nothing but a radiant light too. The little brightly glowing ball of light that was now Agnes hovered in front of Lili for a few seconds, and then it glided towards the other light; they joined, fused together, became incandescent. For a brief moment their shine was dazzling, lighting up the whole room with their effulgence and causing Lili to blink. When her eyes opened again, the coalescent glow was gone. And curiously, although Lili would miss Agnes, she felt nothing but joy for her.

  Lili Peel had never forgotten that first experience of the supernatural. Certainly, she had seen other ghosts since then, but nothing compared to the beautiful fusion she had witnessed, or the deep sense of calming peace she had felt that day. She would never forget her friend Agnes.

  Over the years, Lili’s extrasensory capabilities revealed themselves and developed, much to her parents’ amazement and concern. How she had acquired such a gift was a mystery to them for, to their knowledge, nobody in their families’ history had ever possessed these kinds of powers.

  One night at the age of twelve she had burst into the kitchen in floods of tears, alarming her mother and father, who were having a late-night snack. Through her sobs she managed to tell them that Uncle Peter, who was abroad at the time, had just died. Nothing could console her – certainly not common sense – but in the early hours of the following morning her father received a phone call from South Africa informing him that his brother had been killed in a car accident the previous night.

  At thirteen, Lili had a talent for finding lost or forgotten household articles and for knowing the exact location of neighbourhood dogs and cats that had strayed from their homes. By fifteen, she had the weird ability to discover facts about a person merely by touching or holding inanimate objects associated with them. When she was seventeen and attending art college, she had become adept at telepathy, psychometry and clairvoyancy, and her reputation as a psychic had grown. Soon she was giving ‘readings’ not only for friends and family, but also for perfect strangers who had heard of her reputation.

  She did not often communicate with the deceased, but when she did, the results could sometimes be startling. Because the bereaved took comfort in such sessions, Lili continued with them, but limited her sittings to just once a week, for they also left her totally drained afterwards. However, if distraught parents begged her to contact their recently demised son or daughter, she would invariably oblige. Because of Agnes, Lili could never refuse to help where a spirit-child was involved.

  But all that was long before the incident. It was before she was frightened of what she might conjure when calling on the dead.

  Crickley Hall. A tomb of a place. A mausoleum. Unwelcoming, somehow hostile.

  It may have just been the chill of her sitting room, but Lili gave a little shiver. Driven raindrops tapped on the window behind her like a thousand fingernails.

  Again she asked herself why Eve Caleigh had come to her for help. Why now when Lili was still struggling to make herself immune from the past? It had been eighteen months since the incident and still she had not recovered, had not been able to close her mind to it. Why wouldn’t the woman understand that Lili no longer wanted to use her psychic powers? Why had she persisted so? And why did she have to tell her of the child spirits trapped inside Crickley Hall? For that was what they were – trapped souls that could not move on. All ghosts that lingered in places they had known when alive were just souls that had lost their way, or were tied to the earthly plane by incompleteness, or by some traumatic experience, that left them shocked, even in death.

  But Eve Caleigh was only interested in finding her missing son, a boy who had been gone for a whole year. Why did she believe her son was alive when there was no evidence to prove it? No sightings, no ransom notes, and from what Lili could gather, no suspects either. Yet she maintained that he was trying to communicate with her in some telepathic way. Could that really be so? It was not unusual for many mothers to have a special intuition where their children were concerned, there was nothing too peculiar about that. But then, even if the boy were still alive, could Lili find him?

  Perhaps if she had an article of his clothing, or a favourite toy, something – anything – he was familiar with. No! Stop it! It would be plain stupid of her to deliberately start using her extrasensory abilities again. Often it couldn’t be controlled, sometimes thoughts just entered her mind, feelings arrived unbidden, but now she knew there could be danger in just that. Opening herself to the spirit world could leave her vulnerable and she had vowed never to let that happen again. Not after last time.

  Yet there were still the other children to consider, the orphans Eve Caleigh said had drowned in Crickley Hall all those years ago. It was no wonder that the old house exuded such a negative aura, such a dreadful gloom. It was obvious to Lili that the children were bound to the house by something awful that had happened to them ther
e. That is, of course, if what Eve Caleigh had told her was true. Not that she would have lied – what would be the point? – but if she was still so distressed over the loss of her son – overwrought and close to hysteria, it seemed to Lili – then what might be going on in her imagination?

  But . . . Lili bit into the corner of her lower lip. But alive or dead, there was a child involved. And just maybe other children too, young orphans who, according to Eve Caleigh, were haunting the house. Something must be preventing them from passing over. Something about Crickley Hall was stopping them from resting in peace.

  When she had paused to look at the big house across the river two years ago she had sensed a conflict within its solid walls, for something seemed to reach out and touch her, something indefinable that called without voice but whose beckoning left her shaking with fear. She had watched Crickley Hall – yes, watched it as if it would suddenly disclose the dark secrets she knew it held – and the tension that gripped her stayed with her for days.

  Now Eve Caleigh wanted her to go back there, to return to a place that had made her tremble. But could she deny the woman her help? And if she did help her, would Lili be inviting back the horror that had manifested during her last séance? The psychic never wanted that to happen again.

  33: FIFTH NIGHT

  It had been a good day for Loren.

  Now she was tucked up in bed reading her new Philip Pullman, Cally fast asleep in the bed next to her. Loren laid the book down on her lap for a moment and smiled to herself.

  The news was all around school. The new girl had bopped Seraphina Blaney on the nose. Loren had become something of a celebrity, because nobody in their year, all eleven- and twelve-year-olds, had ever had the courage to stand up to the bully before, and certainly no one had ever punched her! A lot of the girls had chatted to Loren today, plying her with questions about the incident on the bus, which Tessa Windle had duly reported to her classmates, who had spread the word so that by the end of breaktime most years knew about it. At lunch, some of the older girls and boys even said ‘Hi’ to Loren. In truth, she had been nervous of coming in to school today, because she’d had a whole night to think about what she had done. What if Seraphina intended to get her own back? What if she were waiting for Loren on the bus when it picked her up on the way to Merrybridge? Loren wasn’t kidding herself that it was anything more than a lucky punch yesterday; Seraphina would be well over her shock by now and might be looking for revenge. Loren wasn’t sure she had the nerve to do the same thing again.

  Fortunately, something good had happened: Seraphina hadn’t turned up for school that morning. Loren had been so relieved that she’d felt light-headed for most of the day. Perhaps she’d broken the big girl’s nose. If so, would her parents complain to Mr Horkins, the headmaster, or go straight to Crickley Hall and make a fuss? Even worse, they might have gone to the police and made a complaint. Loren had half-expected a policeman to turn up at school to arrest her! As the day went by though, nothing had happened and Loren’s nerves had begun to settle. Everyone had been so nice to her, with Tessa being particularly friendly, and Loren thought she might start to like Merrymiddle.

  Yawning, Loren closed her book, first marking her page with a Post-it, then putting it aside on the bedside cabinet. Eyelids already drooping, she reached up and switched off the lamp Dad had put there, and lay flat on her back. She pulled the duvet up over her chin and around her ears, and stared at the ceiling, the only illumination coming through the half-open door from the dull landing light.

  Her weary eyes remained open for a short while as she wondered why she always felt so tired in the evenings nowadays. She even woke up tired, but was okay once she got to school and mixed with the other pupils. And she’d be fine for the rest of the day; it was only when she got home that she began to feel worn out.

  It was this house. This house made her tired, with its chill and its draughts, and its weirdness. Just thinking about how tired she was caused her to yawn once more.

  Rain lightly struck the window. She liked hearing the rain when she was all snuggled up in a warm bed. Why was Crickley Hall always cold despite the radiators and the fires Dad lit in different rooms?

  Loren turned onto her side and shut her eyes. She could hear Cally’s gentle snores.

  As she fell asleep she was thinking of Chester. She hoped he wasn’t out in the rain somewhere. She hoped someone had found him and taken him into their nice warm home. Don’t worry about Chester, Dad had said. He’s a smart cookie, he’ll have found somewhere cozy . . .

  Loren slept.

  It was long past midnight when Loren stirred. Someone was tugging at the duvet.

  ‘Cally . . . stop it . . .’ she muttered in her sleep.

  But the tugging continued. Through a half-conscious haze she realized that someone was pulling the duvet off her. Still not quite awake, she tried to draw the bedcover back over her shoulder, but it resisted. Loren suddenly became aware of being very cold, and this rapidly brought her to her senses.

  The duvet resumed its slide off her body, pausing and moving in stages. Loren felt a prickling at the back of her neck, as if the cold were causing goosebumps. The hair on her head stiffened.

  She was awake, eyes open wide. The room was dark save for the muted light coming through the doorway. She could just make out Cally’s small shape in the bed opposite.

  Loren became aware of an odd smell. It was like . . . it was like detergent, something Mummy might use cleaning the house. Or was it just strong soap? If it was, it was like no other soap she’d smelled before. It was so strong . . .

  Loren tried to lift her head from the pillow and found she couldn’t. It was as if she were paralysed. Paralysed with fear.

  For there was something at the end of the bed. She could sense its presence.

  In the periphery of her vision she could make out a shape at the foot of the bed. A hunched shape. The dark shape of a body leaning over her feet. Pulling at the duvet.

  Loren managed to open her mouth to scream, but no sound came. It was as if her voice were paralysed too. She attempted to rise, but still couldn’t move: fright held her pinned to the bed.

  Lying there on her side, she felt the cold on her bare arm, then down her side, penetrating the sleeveless cotton nightie she wore. Her flesh crept.

  The duvet slithered over her hip, down her bent legs, left leg over the right; the hem of her nightdress had risen as she slept, and now her thigh and calf were stippled with goosebumps. She fought against the fear that bound her there, desperately tried to raise her head – she needed to see what lurked at the end of the bed. Her head lifted, came off the pillow, just a little, only a bare inch; and then, Loren fighting all the way, it gained two inches, three, more. And now she endeavoured to twist her neck so that she could confront her tormentor.

  Who could it be there pulling, dragging, her bedcover? Not Cally – she was too small, so much smaller than the figure hunched over her. Besides, Cally was opposite her, fast asleep, unaware of what was happening. And not Mummy and Daddy – they wouldn’t do such a thing, they wouldn’t frighten her so! Who then? That smell, that horrible smell of nasty soap.

  Now her head moved, but her shoulders were stuck to the bed as if a heavy weight pressed them there. Her face came round to the dim light.

  And she saw the figure rising from its bent position, standing erect. It was silhouetted by the light behind so that she could see no features, nothing she could recognize. And it was raising an arm into the air, over its head. And the arm was holding something long and thin whose tip nearly touched the ceiling. It seemed to vibrate at its zenith.

  Loren heard the swish as it came down, but she didn’t hear the thwack! as it lashed her naked thigh.

  The blinding, scorching pain released her voice because it overrode all else – all fear, all confusion, all thoughts of fright.

  Loren screamed and the sound ripped through the night.

  Again the stick came down and again she was jolt
ed by excruciating pain. Now she did not even hear the swish as it swept through the air.

  She screamed each time the cruel stick, with its splayed end, cut into the flesh of her legs, marking them, the agony streaking through her whole body.

  And then, it stopped. Although the terrible pain lingered. And when, through tear-soaked eyes, through her hysteria, she looked towards the light again, the figure had gone and Cally, awakened by her sister’s tortured cries, had started screaming too.

  34: SCREAMS

  Gabe was roused from his slumber as soon as the first scream came from his daughters’ room. Eve, who had got into the bad habit of sometimes taking a Zopiclone to help her sleep at night, was slower to wake. She grabbed Gabe’s arm as he scrambled to get out of bed.

  ‘What is it?’ she asked as the last dregs of sleep were banished by alarm.

  ‘Loren,’ he said urgently, throwing back the bedclothes. ‘Something’s wrong.’ In bare feet he rushed to the bedroom door, Loren’s agonized screams almost causing his limbs to lock and freeze. He was along the landing and tearing into Loren and Cally’s room before Eve had even left their bed.

  Although consumed by fear for his daughter, he could not help but register the deep iciness of the room – it was like plunging into a mountain lake or stepping inside a freezer storage unit – and it almost stopped him dead. In sheer reaction, he flicked on the light switch by the side of the door and saw Loren lying uncovered on her bed in a foetal position, her shoulders curled inwards, her arms round her legs. As she screamed, billows of breath vapour were expelled from her open mouth.

  Cally was sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes as if just awakened, and her cries were not as forceful, nor as shrill, as her sister’s.

  Before going to Loren, Gabe quickly checked out the bedroom, looking for an intruder. It took but a second to see there was none. He ran to his daughter, Eve coming through the door behind him, and went down on one knee beside the bed.