Into the Thinnest of Air

  ‘I think we should just go back to the table and sit down,’ I said. ‘We’ve all been through a lot, and we need to preserve our strength and pace ourselves.’

  ‘Besides, discussions always go better sitting down,’ said Penny. ‘Everyone knows that.’

  Everyone liked that idea. So we all trooped back to the table, hands on shoulders, and sat down again. People took their hands away from each other with a certain reluctance, and then relaxed a little when nothing bad happened. The things we’ll put our faith in when we’re scared enough …

  ‘Personally, I’m getting just a bit tired of all this togetherness stuff,’ said Eileen. ‘I do not usually go in for all this touchy-feely crap.’

  Jimmy smiled. ‘I can remember a time when you did.’

  Eileen stared him down with magnificent scorn. ‘Some of us grew up.’

  ‘You want to feel safe, don’t you?’ said Valerie.

  ‘It’ll take more than a hand on my shoulder to make me feel safe in this shit hole,’ said Eileen.

  ‘Hey!’ said Albert.

  ‘Shut up, Albert!’ said Valerie.

  ‘Maybe we should all tie ourselves together with lengths of rope,’ said Jimmy. ‘Like mountaineers in dangerous territory. So that whatever happens we can’t be torn away from the group. Or at least not without anyone noticing.’

  ‘You really think a bit of rope would be enough to stop a demon that can open doors in space?’ said Eileen.

  ‘It must have limitations,’ Jimmy said stubbornly. ‘Or we’d all have been taken by now.’

  ‘I think being tied together could prove dangerously restrictive if we need to react quickly,’ I said. ‘It would be too easy to get tangled up with each other.’

  ‘Are you really planning on fighting a demon?’ said Eileen.

  ‘Wouldn’t be the first time,’ I said. ‘No one is taking me without a struggle. And I won’t let any of you be taken without throwing everything I’ve got in its path.’

  ‘By all means!’ said Jimmy. ‘You do that. We’ll all speak very kindly of you after you’re gone.’

  ‘We don’t need ropes,’ I said. ‘Just sitting here and keeping an eye on each other, and on our surroundings, should be enough to keep us safe.’

  ‘I don’t have any ropes, anyway,’ said Albert.

  ‘We could improvise something,’ Jimmy said stubbornly.

  ‘Let it go, Jimmy,’ said Valerie.

  Jimmy sat and sulked for a while, and then scowled at the old-fashioned clock on the opposite wall.

  ‘It’s hours till morning … How are we supposed to pass the time? Anyone got a pack of cards on them?’

  ‘Who brings cards to a restaurant?’ said Valerie. ‘Oh, sorry! I forgot who I was talking to …’

  ‘I don’t approve of gambling,’ said Eileen. ‘It destroys lives.’

  ‘Don’t be such a wet blanket, Eileen,’ said Valerie. ‘I play the lottery every week. You never know.’

  ‘Statistically speaking, you stand a better chance of being struck by lightning than winning anything worth having,’ said Eileen.

  Jimmy winced. ‘Thanks a whole bunch. Now I’ve got something else to worry about.’

  ‘I really don’t see us being struck by lightning inside an inn,’ Penny said kindly.

  ‘You sure about that?’ said Jimmy. ‘Given everything else that’s happened so far this evening?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Though I could always improvise a lightning conductor and strap it to you, if you like.’

  ‘I think I’ll pass,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘I still don’t approve of games of chance,’ said Eileen.

  ‘All right!’ said Jimmy. ‘No cards, I get it! You suggest something. And don’t suggest prayer, unless you like being struck severely about the head and shoulders. I don’t believe anyone’s listening. Except possibly the demon.’

  Eileen turned to Albert. ‘You must have something. Pubs always have a few games on hand.’

  ‘This is an upmarket themed restaurant,’ Albert said coldly. ‘Not a pub.’

  ‘And because it’s a period setting, I’m guessing you don’t have a television anywhere, or even a radio,’ said Valerie.

  ‘Exactly,’ said Albert. ‘The whole point of coming to the Castle was so people could get away from the modern world.’

  ‘Not a good thing to be pointing out right now,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘We could always play word games,’ said Penny.

  ‘Not really in the mood,’ said Valerie.

  ‘Maybe we should have some more drinks,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘Really not in the mood,’ said Eileen.

  Jimmy cocked an eyebrow at her. ‘That’s not like you.’

  She stared back at him unflinchingly. ‘You don’t know me, Jimmy. And you never did.’

  ‘Given that you married Thomas, clearly not,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘I don’t think we should drink any more,’ said Valerie. ‘I don’t like the idea of being drunk and helpless if something was to happen …’

  ‘Being sober didn’t help the others,’ said Jimmy.

  Albert looked at me. ‘And some of us, it turns out, aren’t affected by alcohol at all. Even when they drink a whole bottle.’

  ‘Oh, let it go, Albert!’ said Eileen. ‘How expensive was that plum brandy, that you’re still going on about it?’

  Albert looked away, pretending he hadn’t heard her.

  ‘I suppose we could just talk …’ said Penny.

  Everyone looked at each other. They weren’t actually opposed to the idea, but no one wanted to go first. Either because they didn’t have anything to say or because they didn’t want to say out loud what was bothering them. In the end, Valerie cleared her throat reluctantly.

  ‘I always thought I’d be stronger than this if I ever ran into something that was genuinely out of the ordinary. Braver, anyway. After all the weird stories I’ve investigated, I always thought that if I was lucky enough to become involved in a supernatural event I’d be fascinated. Intrigued. That I’d jump right in and get involved. Study what was going on and try to understand it. But instead … all I am is scared. Horribly scared. I just want it all to go away. I want my life back. My ordinary, boring, sane and sensible life.’

  ‘We’re all scared, Val,’ said Jimmy. He was trying to sound comforting, but I don’t think he’d had a lot of practice. He gave Valerie his best reassuring smile. ‘It’s only natural. We’re out of our depth and there are sharks in the water. But you can’t let it get to you. That’s what the demon wants.’

  ‘It’s playing with us,’ said Eileen. ‘Savouring our suffering.’

  Jimmy looked at her. ‘You think it’s doing all this just for the fun of it?’

  ‘Who knows why demons do anything?’ said Eileen.

  ‘It was fun when I thought they were just stories,’ said Valerie. Her gaze was far away, as though she hadn’t heard a word anyone else had said. She could just have been talking aloud. ‘I enjoyed believing in the possibility of strange and uncanny things. Unknown creatures and unnatural events. Ghosts and monsters, and all the mysteries no one can explain. It made the world seem a much larger and more interesting place. But now here I am, face to face with something out of the unknown, and it just makes me feel so small and helpless … Like when I was just a child, huddled under my bedclothes at night afraid of the dark.’

  ‘Yes …’ said Eileen. ‘The dark and what might be in it. When I was a child – and I was braver than most – I was afraid of the dark for a lot longer than anyone else I knew. Sometimes I would sit up in bed into the early hours of the morning, reading a book with a torch so my parents wouldn’t know … Waiting for it to be light enough, so I could finally get to sleep.’

  She suddenly looked tired, and beaten down by the weight of old fears she thought she’d left behind her.

  ‘I was never afraid of the dark,’ Jimmy said stoutly. ‘I always felt it should be afraid of me. If a bogeyman had crept out from under
my bed, I’d have clubbed him to death with my cricket bat. But I know what you mean. This whole supernatural thing creeps me out. Once you accept that one unnatural thing is possible, where do you draw the line? Does the existence of one bad thing mean that all of them are equally possible? Because there’s a demon, do I have to believe in ghosts and werewolves and the living dead? Where do you stop?’

  ‘Just because we don’t understand what’s going on, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a rational explanation,’ I said firmly.

  Valerie slammed a hand down on the table, hard enough to send it rocking. ‘Stop fighting it, Ishmael! Your blind refusal to believe in anything outside your usual comfort zone won’t save you!’

  ‘I’m always ready to believe,’ I said steadily. ‘I’m just not sure exactly what it is I’m supposed to believe here. The ghost of a tree? Or Tyrone’s Voices? A demon? Or an alien from some old story? I need to know what we’re up against so I can fight it. And for that, I need proof.’

  ‘The supernatural doesn’t do proof, as a rule,’ said Valerie. ‘By definition it’s outside our knowledge, beyond what we know and can hope to understand. I think that’s probably the point. You have to have faith.’

  ‘There could still be a rational explanation for everything that’s happened here tonight,’ I said.

  ‘Like what?’ said Jimmy.

  ‘I’m working on it,’ I said.

  ‘This place is cursed!’ said Albert.

  Something in his voice brought our attention back to him. He was sitting slumped in his chair, staring at nothing. His face was blank, his mouth was slack, and his gaze was empty. As if the strength he’d somehow managed to claw back after losing Olivia had finally run out, his precarious grasp on sanity shattered by the unyielding facts of his wife’s disappearance and his friend’s.

  ‘What do you mean, Albert?’ Valerie said carefully.

  ‘The Castle, this whole area … They’re just bad, no good for anyone.’ He shook his head slowly. ‘Olivia and I should never have come back from London. We should have known better. This place … it doesn’t want us here. We’re not welcome. Just more meat to the grinder. Nothing good has ever come out of the Castle.’

  He stopped talking. We waited, but he had nothing more to say.

  ‘OK …’ said Jimmy. ‘Albert’s gone again, poor bastard. There’s a part of me that envies him. I think I’d quite like to be so out of it that I don’t know how much danger I am in.’

  ‘Then have another drink,’ said Eileen.

  ‘Not funny, Eileen,’ said Valerie.

  ‘It wasn’t meant to be,’ said Eileen.

  ‘I’m worried about what will happen next,’ I said.

  Everyone turned their attention away from Albert to study me warily.

  ‘How do you mean?’ said Valerie.

  ‘Think about it,’ I said. ‘If we all stay together in one place, in the light, and refuse to be separated or distracted or tempted into going off on our own … What will the demon do next? What can it do?’

  ‘It might just give up on us as a bad job,’ said Jimmy. ‘If it can only take us when we’re on our own or out of sight and we don’t give it that opportunity … What reason would it have to stick around?’

  ‘You think it might get bored and just leave?’ said Eileen.

  ‘Nothing’s happened for quite a while,’ said Penny. ‘Because we haven’t given it a chance to do anything.’

  ‘Or maybe the demon only wanted two people,’ said Jimmy. ‘Maybe it’s not hungry any more.’

  ‘Jimmy!’ said Valerie.

  ‘No, you don’t get it,’ said Jimmy. ‘If that’s it, if the demon is full … then all of this is over.’

  ‘It doesn’t feel like the threat is over,’ I said.

  ‘It isn’t,’ said Albert.

  We all turned to look at him. His gaze was still worryingly empty, his voice flat, almost lifeless.

  ‘Can’t you feel it?’ he said. ‘We’re not alone. We’re being watched.’

  We all stared around us. There was no one else in the dining room. The light was bright and steady, everything was still and quiet, and there was nothing threatening anywhere. But Albert was right, we weren’t alone. We could all feel it.

  ‘As long as the demon is only watching us, I don’t give a shit,’ Jimmy said loudly. He didn’t sound particularly convincing.

  ‘I hate this,’ said Valerie, her voice trembling. ‘The waiting … Knowing something bad is going to happen, but not what. Or who it will happen to. I almost want something to happen, just to get it over with.’

  Jimmy put his hand on top of hers and squeezed it reassuringly. ‘No you don’t, Val. It’s just your nerves talking. Be strong. You have it in you, I know you do.’

  She smiled at him tiredly. ‘You’ve always had faith in me, Jimmy. I never know why.’

  ‘Of course you do,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘I’d say, get a room,’ said Eileen. ‘But I wouldn’t go upstairs if you put a gun to my head.’

  ‘Dear Eileen,’ said Jimmy. ‘Typical vicar’s wife. Irrelevant morality for all occasions …’

  ‘Screw you!’ said Eileen.

  ‘Why don’t you have a drink?’ said Jimmy.

  ‘Stop it, Jimmy!’ said Valerie. ‘That’s just mean.’

  ‘She started it,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘It’s been quiet for a long time now,’ said Penny, deliberately cutting across the argument before it could go anywhere really unpleasant. ‘What do you think will happen next, Ishmael?’

  ‘Some new attempt to distract us,’ I said. ‘The demon needs to do something dramatic to panic us, break us up. We’ve had the face at the window and noises from nowhere … The demon knows it won’t catch us with the same trick twice.’ I looked around the table. ‘Whatever happens … we can’t let ourselves be pressured into doing something stupid or dangerous.’

  ‘Not much else left to us,’ said Jimmy.

  I stood up and glared around me. ‘I know you’re there, demon! Watching and listening. If you want me, you’re going to have to come and get me. You’re going to have to show yourself, you cowardly piece of shit!’

  ‘Please don’t taunt the insanely powerful demon thing,’ said Jimmy. ‘Isn’t it mad enough at us already? Why would you want to see it, anyway?’

  I sat down again. ‘So I can hit it. Hard.’

  ‘Well, lots of points for courage, not to mention ambition,’ said Jimmy. ‘But I think I’ll hide behind something big and solid while you do it.’

  ‘Room for two?’ said Valerie.

  ‘Always,’ said Jimmy.

  We sat at our table for some time, stiff and tense, trying to look in all directions at once, but nothing happened. And then Albert suddenly stood up. Jimmy actually cried out with shock. One minute Albert was sitting slumped in his chair, lost to the world. The next, he was up on his feet, smiling broadly.

  ‘I’ve just thought of something!’ he said happily. ‘I can’t believe I forgot all about it.’

  ‘You nearly gave me a coronary!’ said Jimmy. ‘What’s so important?’

  ‘It’s in the kitchen,’ said Albert. ‘I just remembered. Stay where you are, I won’t be a moment.’

  He headed for the closed kitchen door. We all rose quickly to our feet, calling out for him to stop.

  ‘This really isn’t a good idea, Albert!’ said Eileen.

  ‘Don’t go off on your own,’ I said. ‘Wait a minute, I’ll come with you.’

  ‘It’s all right,’ Albert said over his shoulder, not looking back. ‘I should have thought of this before.’

  ‘You can’t go in there on your own, Albert,’ I said. ‘It’s not safe.’

  But he’d already pushed the door open. ‘This is my kitchen. I don’t need my hand held.’

  ‘At least leave the door open, so we can all see you,’ said Penny. ‘And keep talking to us!’

  By now I was on my feet and going after Albert, but he strode into the kitchen and slamme
d the door shut before I could get there. I grabbed hold of the handle, but the door was locked. I rattled the door hard. But it wouldn’t budge.

  ‘Albert!’ I said, through the door. ‘Talk to me!’

  There was no response. The others quickly caught up with me, crowding together before the closed door.

  ‘He locked it?’ said Jimmy. ‘Why would the stupid bastard lock it?’

  ‘Whatever’s in there must be really important,’ said Valerie.

  ‘What could be so important,’ said Eileen, ‘that he’d go off on his own into the room that took his wife away?’

  I hit the door with my shoulder and it sprang open, tearing the lock off the door jamb. I stood in the doorway, looking at a completely empty kitchen. The babble of voices behind me shut off. Albert was gone. I quickly looked back over my shoulder to make sure everyone else was still there, in case Albert’s disappearance was also a distraction. But they were all staring at the empty kitchen with wide, disbelieving eyes. Unable to believe they’d lost someone else so quickly and so easily.

  ‘Everyone put a hand on someone else’s shoulder,’ I said tersely. ‘Don’t argue, just do it! And don’t let go for anything.’

  They all did as they were told. Without arguing for once, because they were in shock. Penny’s hand settled on to my shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly.

  ‘Keep an eye on the dining room for me, Penny,’ I said. ‘I have to check out the kitchen, and I don’t want anyone sneaking up on any of us from behind.’

  ‘I’m on it,’ said Penny.

  ‘Albert was right,’ Valerie said quietly. ‘He and Olivia should never have come back from London. They were safe there. Now this awful place has destroyed both of them. Nothing good has ever come out of the Castle.’

  ‘At least we’re still here,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘Thomas isn’t,’ said Eileen.

  ‘Why would Albert do something so insane?’ said Valerie.

  ‘Maybe he heard Voices,’ said Jimmy. ‘Like Tyrone.’

  ‘Wouldn’t he have said something,’ said Eileen, ‘if he started hearing Voices in his head?’

  ‘Would you?’ said Jimmy.

  ‘Maybe that’s why he was quiet for so long,’ said Penny. ‘He wasn’t listening to us because he was listening to someone, or something, else.’