"Hey Gemma, give us a hand would ya" I turned ‘round as I heard Annie’s voice, and was about to walk over to her, when I saw the painting by the right hand side of the window. It showed a normal everyday scene, probably a market in a nearby town, but that wasn’t the reason why I was staring at it. The thing that caught my attention, and froze me to the spot, was what was covering it. In the next flash of lightning, I saw the same on the curtains as well. They were both stained with blood. Centuries old, dried, caked on, blood. When I heard the thunder, only seconds after the flash, I raced over to the window, and hauled Annie in.
I saw the guys below, trying to convince Rachel that she could climb the rope, and that it wasn’t so dangerous. Then the old yew tree, only a couple of meters behind them was hit by a sudden blast of pure white light. The centre of the storm had finally reached us.
Craig grabbed the rope, and hauled himself up. In no time at all, Annie and me were helping him in. James came next, and seemed to just slide all the way up, effortlessly. Annie looked out of the window when James had collapsed in a corner with Craig and me.
"What’re we gonna do with Rachel? She won’t climb up here, you know that. And it seems that even Matt’s given up on her. He’s coming up, and Rachel’s just wandering around, half hidden by the branches of that huge tree." Annie asked the room.
"I don’t know. We were about to sort something out, when that massive tree fell over." James replied.
I looked at the four of us in that room. Annie was staring out of the window, looking like she was wishing that she could levitate Rachel up here. Craig was searching his bag for a box of matches, and he already had a fag in his mouth. James was hugging me, staring out into space, and I was hiding in James’ arms, as the shock of seeing that painting had left me feeling faint.
* * *
"Look, the rain’s getting worse, you saw what happened to the tree, and anyway, everyone else is up there" Matt jabbed a finger towards the open window "I know you’re scared of heights, but could you please just try at least to climb up, otherwise you’re gonna have to stay out here all night, in the cold and wet." Matt said to Rachel, trying to persuade her to join everyone else up in the bedroom.
"You know I hate heights. I’m really scared of them, that’s why I didn’t go on that activity course at school. You don't expect me to climb all the way up there do you?" Rachel looked at Matt then the rope and the window, her eyes widening in fear and her body was shivering with the cold. Matt looked at her face, and stared at her with a quizzical look, and then suddenly his eyes lit up with an idea.
"How about you wait at the front, the ticket-lady should’ve gone by now, and when I get up there" Matt pointed to the window "I’ll go and open the front door." He suggested kindly, trying to put her mind at ease.
"O.K, but how are you going to open the door, when the whole place is locked up?" Rachel asked.
"I’m not sure. I suppose if the worst comes to the worst, I can always smash the glass in a downstairs window. That way you’d get in, and not have to climb anything." Matt replied soothingly.
"Fine then, I’ll see you in a while then" and with that, Rachel gave him a hug, and started to walk back to the front door, whilst trying to keep in the shelter of the trees and walls. When she looked back, Matt was already half way up the rope, so she hurried on around the branches of the tree.
* * *
The next flash of lightning illuminated the whole of the room and Craig took that opportunity to light his cigarette, but he dropped the match on the carpet when he saw Annie’s face. He rushed over and turned her around to face us, and we saw that her face was a deathly pale white.
"Annie, what’s wrong? Talk to me Annie." Craig said to her, slightly hysterically when she just turned round and gaped at the painting, shivering.
"Blood…blood…all over…blood…it’s everywhere." Annie replied in barely more than a whisper, pointing to the painting and the curtains, which were now nicely illuminated by the burning carpet that was slowly cutting me and James off from the other two. No matter what we did, it didn’t seem to stop it.
"Pour your drink on it…no not there, in front of where it is now…fire can’t burn through wet stuff can it." James ordered me, whilst trying to stamp out part of it to no avail. The flames gradually got hotter and higher, using up all of the oxygen in the corner where we were stuck; when I suddenly heard a voice from outside, demanding to be helped in, it took a moment to recognise through the crackle of the bright orange and yellow flames, but when I heard it again, I recognised it as Matt’s. I knew that Craig would be looking after Annie, rendering both unable to help, and as both James and I were stuck behind the fire, I knew that neither of us would be able to help him.
"Help me! I can’t hold on any longer" and with that I heard Matt’s voice slip further away. The rain from the storm must’ve made the rope too slippery to cling to. Having looked over at James I reached the conclusion that he hadn’t even heard Matt, and at that moment I realised that if no one helped Matt, he would most likely fall all the way down the four floors between this level and the grass below, so I burst through the flames and found Matt’s hands and helped him in.
"James is stuck behind the flames, we can’t put the fire out. Annie’s in shock and can barely move, Craig’s looking after her." I gabbled out, spinning round pointing at the two respective parts of the room. As an after thought I added, "Where’s Rachel gone?"
"Oh my God! How the hell did the fire start? And what happened to Annie?" Matt shouted over the noise of the flames at me, staring wild-eyed around the room, following where my eyes had gone.
"Craig dropped a lit match, and Annie noticed that the painting over there" I pointed to it "and the curtain" again I pointed "were covered in blood. I’d seen it earlier, just before pulling Annie in, but didn’t get quite as much of a shock as Annie did. Where’s Rachel gone?" I asked him again.
"Poor Annie…Rachel, yeah, she went round the front of the house. I gotta go and open the door for her. I’ll be back with her in a minute." And with that Matt ran out of the room. Our conversation had only lasted half a minute at most, but already the flames had become another three or four feet wide.
"JAMES, there’s nothing you can do to stop it. RUN THROUGH NOW," I shouted at the top of my voice "before it’s too late." I added on under my breath. Seeing no reaction, I repeated it again and again until it got through to him.
Having heard my voice, James spun around, saw what I meant, and prepared to run through the burning wall of fire. Just as he reached this side, I jerked round to see where Annie and Craig were, as I couldn’t hear Craig’s voice soothing Annie any more. They were by the door, waiting for James and me to join them. I looked over my shoulder, saw that James was safely through, only a couple of minor burns on his arm and ear I noted, pointed at us, then the doorway where Craig and Annie had just been. We ran out of that bedroom.
* * *
There should be some stairs around here somewhere, Matt thought to himself. He had just left me and the others in the blazing bedroom. Matt found the stairs after a quick search and began to descend them.
Just before he got to the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor, he heard a voice coming ever closer to him, saying,
"I must get to them before anything much worse happens to them, the poor things. They must be scared out of their wits with that fire going on".
Having hidden in a darker part of the shadows that seemed to cover the stairway like a second carpet, Matt poked his head out and around the blackened corner, to see where the person had gone too, but he couldn’t see anyone at all. With a shiver down his spine and having made sure that the hallway was clear of people, he continued on his way to find the front door and let Rachel in.
* * *
The sounds of the fire crackling in the bedroom quickly disappeared as we ran away from the blood covered, fire filled room of terror. It was all too soon replaced with the eerie silence that seemed to fill the darkest corners of the passageway. All signs of the storm raging on outside were hidden from us in the windowless passageway. It seemed to have no end to it, like a tunnel, stretching on for eternity.
"Where are we going?" Craig voiced the thought that I’d been having for the past five minutes, but no one was able to answer, no one had any idea where we were going at all. After a couple more minutes of sprinting flat out, and turning goodness knows how many more corners, all four of us collapsed in a heap in the middle of the corridor, panting, trying to catch our breath.
"Gemma, have you still got your torch with you?" James asked me.
"No, I put it back in my bag, which I left in the…the bedroom." I replied, a little shakily. I turned to look at Annie, to see how she was doing, now that she was away from the room. She still looked pale, but not so deathly white as before, and she’d stopped shivering as well, overall she looked like she was back to normal, just a bit pale. Still, there was only one way to make sure.
"Annie, how are you now?" I asked cautiously, not sure whether she would talk. Gripping Craig’s hand, she answered me.
"O.k. I suppose, but all of that dried blood freaked the hell outta me. The fire just made things worse. How did it start?" Annie asked, not shaking at all, sounding just a little tired.
"You can thank Craig for the fire show" James replied dryly, "the question I’d like to know the answer to, is ‘were do we go now?’ Personally, I think we should try to get back with Matt and Rachel."
"Yeah, it’s not good for us to be split up in this dark house." Annie said.
"Especially with that fire raging on. I vote to go and find them." Craig stated.
"Same here" I answered.
"So, we’re all decided, we’ll go and find Matt and Rachel, and as soon as this place opens up tomorrow, we’re leaving. That suit everyone?" James said, in a tone that clearly stated that even if you had a problem with it, the plan was still going to go ahead.
"Just one thing, does anyone know where they went?" Craig asked all of us.
"I do. Matt said that he was going down to the entrance to let Rachel in, so that’s where I say we head for, the entrance." I told Craig, looking around as I did to see if I could find a stairway.
* * *
Walking round a corner towards the front of the massive old house, Rachel noticed something pale and a mix of pale yellow, blue, and white flickering in one of the ground floor windows. When she turned to take another look at the light, it was flickering around what looked like an abandoned library.
"That’s strange" Rachel whispered to herself, "it looks like a middle-aged man. But it can’t be, people don’t wear clothes like that any more, and any way it’s gone nine, so no one should still be here." She completed. Whilst watching the man, she completely forgot what she was doing there. Her only purpose was to watch him.
Suddenly he turned to the window, and arched an eyebrow when he saw her face staring intently in at him. When he turned away, she thought that she saw the remnants of a smile, and if she strained her ears, she could’ve sworn that she’s heard him say "Good. Where you find one child, you’re sure to find more." At the time Rachel didn’t understand, and thought that she was imagining it all, but later it would prove a vital piece of information.
When the man left the library, Rachel turned away from the window and continued on her way to the entrance.
We wandered on further down the corridor, using Craig’s matches to burn some pieces of paper that we’d found in the depths of our now damp jackets, in a china bowl. They’d hissed and spat a bit at first because they were wet, but after a while they settled down to give off an ambient glow. I was beginning to think that there weren’t any staircases leading off of this passage, but just as I was about to say something to the others, Annie called to us to stop.
"I’ve found a stairway" at that moment the bowl of burning paper went out from a draughty window "…over here…no…to your left Craig…not that far over James…that’s right…Don’t push me, do you want me to break my neck?" Annie was saying in snatches. When we’d all grouped back together, with Annie at the front, Craig was holding on to her left shoulder, trying to re-light the paper. I was holding on to her right shoulder and James was holding onto my right shoulder. Once Craig had re-lit the paper we went on our way, down the stairs. Ahead was a well of darkness, but behind was the ever-growing fire. By now, we could just hear its crackling in the depths of the corridors behind us. We ran down the rest of the stairs, not noticing anything that we went passed.
* * *
As Rachel hurried away from the window and towards the front door, she tripped over something that didn’t seem to have been there before.
“OWW! Crud. What was that?” Rachel exclaimed, examining her ankle and foot for any signs of major injury. She looked around where she’d landed to try and find out what she’d tripped over. What she found was a rather large branch, which was about the same length as she herself is tall, and it’s diameter, was about the same as her leg. Well, there doesn’t seem to be much wrong with my ankle at the moment, Rachel thought to herself. When she tried to stand, it became a whole new problem.
“Blimmin’ heck. O.K, so that hurts. Just how am I meant to walk all the way to the reception to meet Matt, and walk up to where the others are with my ankle feelin’ like it’s been half cut off with a rusty old hacksaw and left to fester for a month of – OW!- Sundays?” Rachel cried out to herself, whilst attempting to hobble. The searing pain that came as a result of that soon put a stop to that, as she flopped down to the ground again.
Seeing that the branch wasn’t in a really bad condition, Rachel thought that it would be able to hold her weight. As she stretched her arm out to grab it, the thunder-storm decided it was being too quiet, and raised the sound it was making by about 20 decibels. When the lightning lit up the area surrounding her, Rachel scrambled over to the branch on her bum, picked it up and pushed on it so that she ended up with her good ankle away from the branch and her injured leg closest to the branch. Leaning on the branch, Rachel started moving off towards the reception again, but at about a third of her normal pace.
“Where do we go from here?” I asked Annie.
“Well, I guess that as we were running away from the fire, towards the back of the house, we’re now at the back of the house, so we want to do a 180 and walk in that direction.” Annie replied.
“But are we on the right level? We could be wandering around this place, looking for Matt and Rachel on completely the wrong level, and getting even more lost.” Craig commented.
“Considering that the stairs ended on this floor, and we seemed to have run down about four flights of stairs, and we never went up any stairs at all, I’d say we’re on the ground floor. I suppose that the only way to tell what level we’re really on, would be to find a window, and see how far above ground we still are, if we’re not already on the ground floor” James concluded.
“Yeah, that sounds about right” Craig said, looking around by the light of the burning paper in the bowl, at Annie and me nodding in agreement. Having all agreed to Annie and James’ ideas, we turned about and set off at almost a run towards what we hoped would be the front of the mansion and where we hoped to meet up with Rachel and Matt.
“Thank the Lord that those four made it down safely. I don’t know what I’d do if they’d got hurt.”
A couple of rooms away from where James, Annie Gemma and Craig were discussing what to do, a pale disembodied and ethereal light uttered the single statement.
* * *
‘Not far left to go now’, Matt thought to himself as he rounded a corner and observed the large reception area up at the other end of the corridor. As Matt ran down the corridor, towards the reception, where Rachel should be, Matt could’ve sworn that he heard some one say:
“That’s it my boy, run and tire yourself out. Tired boys make less of a struggle.”
He put it all down to the stress of having to get Rachel inside the huge mansion, find the others again, and having to do all of that whilst trying not get burnt to a crisp by the fire that was raging upstairs when he’d left the others some time ago now.
Having got to the end of the corridor in just a few seconds, Matt realised that not only was the reception door locked and bolted, but also the door to the reception was all done up with a chain and padlock, on the other side of the door.
“Oh well, there’s only one thing for it then” Matt mumbled to himself, and with that, Matt took a step back, and kicked the door right in the middle. With another kick, the door came crashing down. The sound seemed to reverberate off of all the walls around him and it continued to echo all the way to the back of the building.
The voices of the two mysterious, disembodied entities suddenly seemed like they were almost next to Matt. Then he heard the thudding footsteps of James and Craig running, a few corridors away from where he stood, and in the background were the not-quite-so-heavy footsteps of Annie and me running flat out behind the others trying just to keep them in sight.
Where’s Rachel got to? Matt thought to himself, as all of the sounds came to him in a jumbled rush. Whilst he was looking around at all the mess he’d made by smashing down the door, he was aware that the otherworldly voices weren’t talking conspiratorially as he’d first assumed, but they were arguing over something or someone, it sounded like children. Just as he was about to turn around and try to meet up with us and then come back so that we could all help him to look for Rachel, he felt the temperature get abruptly hotter. When he did turn ‘round, he saw that there were two other corridors apart from the one that he’d ran down converging on the now shattered door. From the one on the left, he could hear the unearthly voices, the corridor in the middle was where the fire was raging unmercilesly, and the last corridor, the one to his right, was the one which we were running along.
* * *
“How long until we meet Matt?” Annie panted out to the others when we’d stopped.
“Just a couple of corridors I think” James replied hastily “so lets go” and with that we were off again.
* * *
The only way out’s the main entrance now, Matt realised.
CRASH! Thunder rolled over the whole mansion now, and as soon as that happened, he saw Rachel hobbling along with her make-shift crutch. We’re all together now, and with that, the ghost-like things entered the reception area, me, James, Annie and Craig ran into the room with the fire hot on our heels, and goggled at everything.
“OVER HERE!” Matt shouted. We all joined together, and destroyed the doorway to the abominable place. Matt picked up Rachel and ran. When we’d all got together, we’d noticed a stack of gas cylinders that were in the direct line of the fire, so we knew that sooner or later, the fire would get to them and the whole place would go up in flames.
When we were about half a mile away, on the top of a surrounding hill, we heard an explosion that sounded like the whole world was being ripped apart. As if we were one, we turned around and saw the charred remains of the building. We never did find out what the other-worldly beings were fighting over, or who they really were.
None of us ever speak of it any more.