Authors: James Raven
I
t began as it did the previous night – with the voices. But this time they woke Nicole.
‘Jack, can you hear that? Wake up.’
She nudged me out of a deep sleep. My eyes flickered open and I was blinded by the overhead light.
‘Jesus,’ I said. ‘Why’d you turn the light on?’
‘I didn’t. It was on when I woke.’
My brain was still fuzzy with sleep. And my senses had yet to fully kick in. But what she said hit me like a hard slap across the face. I sprang into a sitting position, rubbed fingers into my eyes.
‘What’s happening?’ I croaked.
Nicole was sitting up with her back against the headboard, one arm curling protectively around her waist. The other was resting across my lap and I could feel it trembling.
‘Voices,’ she said. ‘Downstairs. Listen.’
I strained my ears. Heard them. Louder than the night before, but muffled. My mouth went dry and a deadbolt twisted in my stomach. I forced myself out of bed and into my jeans. Padded barefoot over to the door. The light switch was still in the OFF position as I suspected it would be. But how was that possible? I looked at the clock on the bedside table: 02:00 a.m.
‘Where’s your cell?’ I whispered.
‘Downstairs,’ Nicole said. ‘In my bag.’
For several seconds I stood there, feeling sick with fear and
apprehension
. The lights. The voices. Two nights in a row. What the fuck was happening?
‘You think it’s Michael again?’ Nicole said.
I wanted to tell her that I didn’t think it was Michael the first time. But instead I said, ‘I’ll check.’
I eased the door open. The landing light was on but that switch too was in the OFF position. In fact the whole fucking house was probably lit up like a Christmas tree even though it should have been dark and silent and asleep. I could still hear the voices, but they continued to be faint. Like the sound of a conversation behind a closed door where the people involved don’t want to be overheard.
I stepped up to Michael’s room and opened the door. I was surprised to find that the room was in darkness. I stepped up to the bed and saw that Michael was fast asleep. He was lying on his back, breathing heavily through his nose. My heart began to thud. I backed out of the room, closed the door. Nicole was waiting for me on the landing. I might have known she wouldn’t stay in the bedroom. She had slipped on her dressing gown and was hugging herself, her eyes soulful and afraid.
‘Michael’s in bed,’ I told her.
‘Oh shit,’ she said.
The air suddenly felt heavy around me. I found it hard to breathe. My thoughts were a vortex of fear and confusion. I didn’t know what to do. How to react. Whether or not to go charging down the stairs to confront the intruders.
And then Nicole said, ‘It’s gone quiet.’
I hadn’t realized, but she was right. The voices had stopped and the silence was unexpectedly profound.
But not for long. We both jumped at the sudden sound of breaking glass from downstairs.
‘Oh my God,’ Nicole cried, grabbing my arm.
An urge to vomit rolled through my stomach. I felt vulnerable and helpless and totally defenceless. Who was downstairs? How many of them were there? Why had they come back? What were they doing? My brain leapt from one bad thought to another. My body froze and my beating heart thumped loudly against my ribs.
‘I’ll get the scissors,’ Nicole said.
As she retreated to the bedroom, I steeled myself, convinced that any second one or more of the intruders would come tearing up the stairs to attack us. And I’d be unable to protect myself and my family. Our screams would go unheard because we were in the middle of nowhere.
‘Here,’ Nicole said as she emerged from the bedroom and handed the scissors to me.
A sense of déjà vu swept over me. We were re-living the events of the night before and once again I had no idea what was going to happen next. But I knew it was time to find out.
‘I’m going down,’ I said. ‘Stay here.’
‘Not on your life, Jack.’ She held up a thin, glass vase that had
decorated
the dressing table in our room. ‘We’re in this together, so let’s get on with it.’
There was no time to argue. No time to give thought to whatever other options we might have.
We descended the stairs slowly, me in front. The only sound now was our own heavy breathing. The hallway light was on – the wall switch in the OFF position. No surprise there. I pressed on towards the living room, Nicole close behind me. The door was open, yet I distinctly remembered closing it before going to bed.
I was ready to strike out at the first thing that moved. But as I stepped into the living room I saw immediately that it was empty. The overhead light was blazing and everything seemed to be in order. Nothing had been disturbed. Nothing was broken. It was just how we’d left it before we retired to bed.
But it was a different story in the kitchen.
Someone had made a mess. Most of the kitchen drawers and cupboards were open. The wine bottle that Nicole and I had emptied over dinner was in pieces on the floor.
The fruit bowl had been upended and apples, oranges and grapes were scattered across the worktop. A chair was on its side and the sink was filled to the brim with water. Nicole was speechless, her expression one of terrified disbelief. As I stared into the kitchen the hairs on my arms stood up and I could feel the pounding of panic in my head. My immediate thought was that intruders had broken into the house and had seen fit to wreak havoc. But why only the kitchen? And for what purpose? More importantly where were they now?
I left Nicole standing in the doorway and checked the rest of the ground floor, but nothing had been disturbed. I then checked all the
doors and windows. They were all locked – from the inside. There was no evidence of a break-in.
Nicole was still standing in the kitchen doorway, her eyes popping against their sockets.
‘There’s no one here,’ I said. ‘And everything is locked up.’
‘So who did this? I don’t understand.’ Her voice was high with hysteria.
‘Me neither,’ I said.
‘What about the other rooms?’
‘Untouched.’
She raked a hand through her tousled hair.
‘We should call the police, Jack.’
‘And tell them what?’
‘That we’ve been burgled.’
‘But I don’t know if anything has been taken.’
‘Then tell them that someone broke in and trashed the kitchen while we were sleeping.’
I put a hand on her shoulders, held her gaze, said, ‘Sweetheart, I don’t see how anyone could have got into the house. And there’s no way they could have got out without us knowing because all the doors and windows are locked from the inside.’
‘So what are you getting at?’
I held up my hands. ‘In all honesty I don’t know. I can’t for the life of me explain it.’
As if on cue, the lights went out, plunging the house into darkness.
Nicole grabbed my hand and I pulled her against me. Her body was rigid with fear.
‘Oh, Jack. What’s going on?’
Before I could respond the lights came on again, along with the TV. We could hear it from where we stood in the kitchen doorway. We moved as one into the living room. On the television, an old black and white movie was playing.
‘This is fucking ridiculous,’ I said.
I stamped across the room and pressed the power button on the TV, but it remained on. With a rush of anger I reached for the cable and wrenched the plug from the wall socket. That did the trick. Silence once again.
I looked at my wife in the harsh light. Her eyes were glazed and haunted. A great fit of shivering suddenly overcame her, and her teeth clattered. I took her in my arms, held her close enough to feel her heartbeat.
‘I’m scared, Jack,’ she said.
‘I know, hon. This is weird shit. If I didn’t know better I’d have to believe that what they say about this place is true.’
I felt her stiffen. ‘What are you talking about?’
I was slow to respond; a sure sign of guilt, which my wife picked up on. She wriggled out of my embrace and looked up at me.
‘What else haven’t you told me, Jack?’
I heaved a sigh. ‘Well, according to local legend King’s Manor is haunted. At least that’s what Ray Turner told me. I assumed it was bullshit for the tourists.’
She frowned. ‘Well it’s news to me. I heard all kinds of ghost stories when I lived around here, but King’s Manor was never mentioned.’
‘I’m just telling you what he said.’
‘So why didn’t you tell me before now?’
‘It slipped my mind.’
She stared at me with barely controlled fury.
‘You’re lying, Jack. You made a conscious decision not to tell me and I’m fucking pissed off.’
‘Look, let’s not get into this now.’
‘I don’t intend to,’ she said. ‘But I’m not going to—’
At that moment the phone rang, a startling burst of sound that stopped Nicole mid-flow.
I launched myself across the room. Picked up the handset.
‘Hello?’
The line was dead. No dialling tone.
I slammed the handset back in its cradle.
‘This is madness,’ I yelled.
Nicole immediately forgot that she was angry with me. She came over, gripped my arm, said, ‘We ought to get out of here, Jack. Let’s wake the kids and go to a hotel.’
‘But why should we?’
‘Because whatever’s happening, it’s out of control. And as much as
I hate to admit it I don’t have an explanation for what’s going on and that terrifies me.’
‘So now you know why I’ve been freaked out since we got here. All the stuff. The doors, the toilet cistern, the snake—’
‘OK, so you were right and I was wrong. But now is hardly the time to say I told you so.’
I broke away from Nicole and started pacing the floor, chewing my lip.
‘We should think about Tina and Michael,’ Nicole said. ‘They’re not safe here. We’re not safe. Something sinister is going on.’
I stopped pacing, dragged in ragged gulps of air.
‘It’ll be daylight in a few hours,’ I said. ‘Maybe we should wait until then. It’ll take us that long to pack.’
She shook her head. ‘We should go now. We can find somewhere to stay or even drive around in the car. Then come back later in the day for our things.’
I dropped onto the sofa. My whole body felt like it was humming with electricity.
‘We have no choice, Jack. If we hang around here then sooner or later one or more of us is going to get hurt.’
I thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. ‘You’re right. Go get the kids and I’ll start sorting things.’
Nicole went upstairs and I got up and stepped into the kitchen. I emptied the water from the sink, then started closing drawers and cupboards. I still couldn’t get my mind around what was happening. I’d watched countless episodes of those TV reality shows where a bunch of ghost hunters explore so-called haunted buildings with night-vision cameras. I’d read hundreds of ‘real-life’ stories about poltergeists and ghostly sightings. Yet I’d never been persuaded that ghosts really do exist. I’d always assumed it was wishful thinking by people who wanted to believe in life after death. But was what I’d witnessed tonight evidence of the paranormal? The lights, the drawers, the cupboards, the phone … the voices? How else could it be explained? I was still trying to grasp this disturbing notion when Nicole came bursting into the kitchen, her face a rictus of terror.
‘Tina’s not in her room, Jack,’ she gasped.
‘What?’
‘I can’t find her. I’ve looked everywhere.’
My spine went rigid. ‘You’re mistaken. You have to be. We know she isn’t down here.’
She shook her head vigorously and tears formed in her eyes. ‘I’m not mistaken. I’ve checked every part of every room and I swear to God she isn’t there.’
‘Then where is she? She can’t have just vanished.’
‘But she has, Jack. That’s the thing. Tina has disappeared.’
I
dashed past Nicole and up the stairs. Michael was on the landing, rubbing his eyes and looking confused.
‘Have you seen Tina?’ I asked him in an unintentionally sharp tone.
He gave me a puzzled look. ‘No. Mom already asked me.’
I went into Tina’s room. The bed was empty, the duvet on the floor. I checked under the bed, in the wardrobe, then the en-suite. No sign.
Her trainers were under the dressing table alongside her flip-flops. Her dressing gown was hanging from a hook on the back of the door. The denim jacket she had worn on her outing to Burley was draped over the chair. I rushed downstairs, went through every room, but there were very few places a person could hide. Nicole was in the kitchen, her face pale and gaunt.
‘I don’t get it,’ I said. ‘Where the hell could she be?’
I started shaking all over, uncertain what to do. Bile rose in my throat and I swallowed it back down. I wanted to close my eyes and find that it was all some terrible nightmare. Except that I knew it wasn’t. This was real. Tina was missing and I had no idea where she was.
‘You should look outside,’ Nicole said.
‘But I told you – everything is locked up from the inside.’
She shrank away from my raised voice. I was in too much of a panic to feel guilty about that. So I turned away from her and went to the front door. Outside, the night was dark and heavy. The air smelled of pine and damp, decaying leaves.
‘Are you out here, Tina?’ I called. ‘Can you hear me?’
Nothing.
I stepped onto the gravel driveway. In the starlight I could make out the garage block over to the left. And beyond it the wall of trees. To the
right was the Discovery and beyond that the track that eventually led to the road.
‘Tina, sweetheart. Are you there?’
I heard the hoot of an owl, the rustle of trees in the slight breeze. But my daughter did not respond. I hurried back into the house and told Nicole I needed a flashlight. We both started looking and she found one in the kitchen. Back outside, I went in search of my daughter. I walked around the house, shining the flashlight at everything. All the windows on both the ground and upper floor were closed. The garden gate was shut. There was nobody lurking behind the bushes. I went over to the garage, tried the window and door. They were both locked. Nicole was waiting for me back in front of the house, Michael beside her.
‘I’m going to check the woods and moor,’ I said.
‘Where’s Tina gone?’ Michael asked.
‘We don’t know,’ I said. ‘Are you sure you didn’t see her after we went to bed?’
‘I went straight to sleep,’ he said. ‘I only just woke up. Why is the kitchen in a mess?’
‘I’ll tell you later, sweetheart,’ Nicole said. ‘I want you to go upstairs and put some clothes on.’
‘Can I help look for Tina?’
‘It’s too dark out there. Go and get dressed. Please.’
Michael stomped off reluctantly. When he was out of earshot, Nicole said, ‘If Tina, for whatever reason, ventured out onto the moor or into the woods then she could be lost. And you could get lost too if you go out there.’
‘But what do you expect me to do?’
‘We have to call the police. They’ll find her.’
‘But I still don’t see how she’s managed to—’
She put a finger to my lips. ‘Don’t try to make sense of it, Jack. At least not yet.’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘But first I want to drive down to the road. Maybe she took off along the track.’
I was sure I had left the keys to the Discovery on the small
occasional
table in the hall. But they weren’t there. They weren’t in my jacket pocket either. Or anywhere in the kitchen.
‘They must be here somewhere,’ I said.
But after searching for them for another ten minutes we gave up.
‘The police,’ Nicole said. ‘We have to call them.’
I half expected to find that my cell phone was also missing. But fortunately it was on the kitchen table where I had left it. As I picked it up I saw that I had a text message. From Tina. I felt my chest contract as I opened it up and read the message.
Gone for a walk. Don’t worry. Back soon.
But I did worry. I worried enough to call 999.
A patrol car turned up thirty minutes later. Two uniformed officers came into the house. One was bald and in his late forties. The other was a lanky twentysomething. But talking to them proved to be a waste of time. After they read the text from Tina the bald one said, ‘So what’s the problem? She says she’ll be back soon.’
I pointed out that it was pitch black out in the forest and Tina did not know her way around. She was probably lost and might get hurt.
‘Have you tried ringing her mobile?’ the bald one asked.
‘Of course, but it’s switched off.’
‘So she doesn’t want to talk to you. Did you have an argument with her?’
‘No, not at all. If I had I would have told you.’
He shrugged. ‘Well I don’t need to tell you that teenage girls are apt to do crazy things on the spur of the moment. And I should know. I have two of my own.’
He then said that the most they were prepared to do at this stage was keep an eye out for her and if she wasn’t back by mid-morning they would consider mounting a search.
‘But that’s not good enough,’ I said. ‘My daughter is out there in bare feet and pyjamas and God only knows what might happen to her.’
‘Are you sure she didn’t put some clothes on?’
‘Well I can’t be certain,’ I admitted. ‘But all her clothes are still upstairs.’
‘So you know exactly what she packed to come here, do you?’
‘Well not really. She did it herself.’
‘So she could be wearing shoes and jeans that you didn’t know she brought with her.’
‘It’s possible, but that shouldn’t make any difference.’
‘She probably hasn’t gone very far, Mr Keaton. It’s a warm night so I’m sure she’ll be all right. Plus, there aren’t many dangerous animals in this forest.’
I then made the mistake of telling them about the other stuff that had happened. The lights, the mess in the kitchen – how Michael had dreamt about being lifted out of his bed by what he thought might have been a ghost. Even as I spoke I realized how absurd it sounded. Both officers listened, the young one making copious notes. But I could tell from their expressions that they thought I was talking nonsense.
‘So you’re saying you’ve got a poltergeist here,’ the bald one said.
‘I’m just telling you what we’ve been experiencing,’ I answered.
‘But you’re suggesting it could have something to do with why your daughter has gone walkabout in the early hours.’
I didn’t like his tone. But I kept my temper in check and said, ‘I don’t know why she’s gone out, officer. And I don’t know how she managed it, seeing as the doors are still locked on the inside. But she’s out there somewhere and it’s fucking dark and I’m fucking worried.’
‘All right, calm down, Mr Keaton. Sounds to me like you’ve all had a rough night. Are you sure that you didn’t have more than one bottle of wine before going to bed?’
I would have lost it then if Nicole hadn’t stepped between me and the bald moron.
‘Look, officer, we did not get drunk last night,’ she said. ‘And we did not imagine the things that have happened. So we expect you to take what we’re saying more seriously.’
He heaved a sigh, said, ‘I’m trying to, Mrs Keaton. I really am. And trust me if your daughter doesn’t show within a reasonable time we’ll do all we can to find her. But she’s only been gone a short time by the sound of it and she told you by text not to worry. As for the weird things that have happened – well, it’s hard to see how they’re matters for the police. Maybe you should contact a priest.’
I thought Nicole was going to hit him. And she might have done if he hadn’t said that he and his partner would have a look around the house and the grounds before leaving. I joined them outside but they merely did what I’d already done and I couldn’t persuade them to venture into the woods and onto the moor. When they drove off I went
back into the house. Michael had got dressed and was lying on the sofa, too upset to go to sleep. I sat down at the kitchen table with Nicole. She poured me a coffee. I was still trembling with fear and anger, the adrenaline swirling at the base of my spine, so badly it was making my head ache.
‘I’m sure she’ll be all right,’ Nicole said.
We might have been a family, but when it came down to it, Tina was my daughter. My flesh and blood. So I could not expect Nicole to be as strung out as I was. But then maybe I was being unfair. Maybe Nicole was as cut up inside but better able to stay composed.
I slumped back in the chair despairingly. My brain felt like it was going to explode. I tried not to imagine Tina in a vulnerable state. When I did it made things worse. Something had happened to my little girl. Something that could not be explained. I was not reassured by her text message. It wasn’t like Tina to wander off. Sure she may have
threatened
to leave home a couple of times, but that was usually after a huge argument or during one of her low moods. Earlier she had been fine. No sign of tension at all. I could not imagine what would prompt her to take off in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere.
‘As soon as the sun is up we’ll go and look for her,’ Nicole said. ‘It shouldn’t be long now. And who knows – she might even come back before then.’
I wasn’t able to find comfort in my wife’s words or in her delicate tone of optimism. Instead, I sat there feeling hollow inside, sucking air into my lungs like a drowning man waiting to be rescued.
Dawn was a long time coming.