Jake tugged the hammer free of his now mangled Prowler. “Easy,” he said. “Yours?”
“High school rugby team.” Joe smiled. “No problem.”
Anne put her head in her hands and cried. Frank shot over in a flash, pulling her onto her feet.
“What went on up there?” he screamed in her face. “The kids! Anne! Are the kids okay?”
“Frank, she’s upset,” Joe shouted. “Give her a minute.”
Still holding her up with one hand, Frank raised a fist to Joe.
“Stay the fuck out of this, McGuire!”
“Screw this,” said Jake, heading for the door. “I’m going to check on my mother while you losers keep fighting.”
“Wait,” cried Anne through her wet sniffs. “The bathroom. Don’t go in the bathroom!”
“Why not?” demanded Frank.
“I trapped one of them in the tub. They…they got in through the attic.”
Jake ran out of the room.
Frank grunted as Joe grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. With her support gone, Anne fell to the floor in a daze.
“You said that upstairs was secure,” roared Joe, gripping Frank’s shirt and pinning him against the wall. “You put us all in danger, you son of a bitch!”
“I…I forgot about the attic,” Frank choked. “Let…go…of…me!”
“I ought to kill you myself and save them the bother.”
“No,” said Anne from the floor. “Leave him, Joe. Please, just leave him.”
Joe threw him down.
“It’s nearly dawn,” she said. “We…we should repair the barricades and wait till light.”
“Fuck this,” spat Joe, kicking the wall. “I’m getting my grandmother and getting the hell out here. If you have any sense, Anne, you’ll come too and bring the kids. We’re doomed if we stay here.”
“You watch your mouth, McGuire.”
“Shut it, Frank. You’re a fucking liability!”
Jake reappeared at the door.
“Guys?”
“And we thought they were in the safest place up there…” Joe continued to rant.
“Guys!”
“What?” said Frank.
Jake swallowed. “I think we have a problem.”
10.
The bath was empty.
“But…but it was there,” Anne cried. “It was trapped, I swear!”
“We believe you,” said Joe. “But it must have escaped somehow.”
“Which means we have one running around here unchecked,” said Eleanor. She’d spent a few minutes weeping in Joe’s arms and seemed calmer now, almost back to her old self. “This is bad. It could be anywhere.”
Damn
, thought Joe.
We can’t just sit here talking about it!
“Jake, take your mother downstairs. Stay with her at all times, even if she needs the toilet or something.”
Jake nodded.
“Sure thing, Joe.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Using my name now?”
The boy shrugged his shoulders.
“You’ve been incredible tonight, Jake,” said Anne.
“I agree,” Joe added. “We really would’ve been in a mess if you weren’t around.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
He headed out of the bathroom.
“I’m starting to see a change in that young man,” said Eleanor.
“I think he’s finding an outlet for his anger,” said Joe. “Smashing Prowlers with a hammer seems to be a good form of therapy.”
Anne smiled. “He certainly has become attached to that hammer. He carries it around like it’s Excalibur.”
“That boy and his hammer saved our skins. At least we’re getting on better. If only Frank…”
“I can respect your opinion,” said Anne with a sigh, “but don’t start again.”
“I’m sorry. Just he’s such a…such a hothead…”
“I’ve spent fifteen years married to that hothead. You get used to it.”
“Where is he?” asked Eleanor.
“With the kids.”
“Well instead of chatting in a bathroom, I suggest we get moving,” said the old woman. “We have an intruder to find.” She smiled at Anne and left.
Left alone, Anne and Joe glanced around the bathroom once more, searching for the elusive Prowler.
“I’m just happy no one got hurt,” said Anne, peering up with sparkling eyes. “Not one scratch.”
“Let’s keep it that way,” said Joe.
“I’ve sealed the hatch,” said Frank from the landing. “Would you like to come and check it?” Frank poked his head into the bathroom. He glared at Joe, then his wife. “Or are you two cosy in here?”
“We were just checking if that thing was hidden in here somewhere. I hope it went back into the attic and outside,” said Anne. “Aren’t you supposed to be with the kids anyway?”
“I can see them from here and his grandmother’s with them. They’re fine, both asleep.”
“We’ve got to get them out and away,” said Anne. “Nowhere is safe around here with him and his creatures outside. What did we ever do to him? What does he want from us?”
“My grandmother has a few ideas about that,” said Joe.
11.
The search for the Prowler lasted about an hour. Jenny watched over the sleeping children upstairs, something that had caused another argument between Frank and Anne.
“I don’t want that lunatic looking after our children!”
“She is not a lunatic. She’s just been through a lot, more than most of us because she lost her son. Besides, we need to find this thing if it’s still in the house!”
Jake’s arrival in the room had ended the discussion. Frank knew they’d team up on him, and he couldn’t get his point across to a bunch of raving idiots. Hell, he’d tried all night.
Reluctantly, he’d left the kids in the fragile care of Jenny Dean while the rest of them searched the house.
They moved quietly, trying to catch the creature unawares by swinging cupboards open and pulling up furniture. With every minute that passed, Frank grew ever more confident the thing was long gone. It probably had scuttled back into the attic and gone out the way it came in. He conducted his search in a casual haze; floating through the task as if it was a dream. Frank knew he suffered from a massive hallucination. After securing the attic hatch, he’d changed into jeans and a black T-shirt. Anne had taken his Prowler-soiled clothes, shoved them in the washing machine and immediately started a cycle. The absurdity of the situation had rocked him to his foundations. The memory of Anne kneeling in Prowler bodies as she closed the machine door and added the washing powder brought on the giggles.
Anne glanced up from the sofa. One half was covered in a blanket, masking the bloodstains from Jenny earlier.
“Are you okay, Frank?”
He cleared his throat.
“Ahem…yes. Why?”
“I thought you said something.”
“No, not me…”
She cast him a concerned frown then returned her attention to her hands that nervously rubbed over each other in her lap.
I’m watching you, Missy
, Frank thought.
If he touches you…
He thought back to the kitchen, finding the Prowler about to slash through the back of McGuire’s leg.
Should’ve let it
, he thought with a smile,
cut that bastard down to size, it would! But then, that would have denied me the pleasure…
He giggled again and instantly clapped a hand over his mouth to stop the rest from escaping.
Joe looked over. He met Frank’s intense glare and returned to the peephole. Eleanor sat beside him, watching through the other.
“Anything happening out there?” asked Jake from the armchair. The boy had been crying in silence; two glistening tracks ran down his cheeks like the trails of a snail.
Joe shook his head.
“No. Nothing really. There’s been a few Prowlers go past, but not in the same size groups as before. I think we took a good chunk out of his army.”
“We sure did,” agreed Jake, stroking the handle of his hammer.
Maybe I’m not the crazy one
, thought Frank. He fought the urge to laugh, knowing it would take a while to stop.
Think about the kids. Think about them. Think about what McGuire has coming…
The smile fell from his face and he studied the carpet between his feet.
“No sign of him or his pet either,” Joe continued. “What the hell did he call it? Montgomery?”
Eleanor nodded.
“How can you call something like that Montgomery? How could you even give it a name?”
“He’s a very strange man,” said Eleanor, now moving away from the window. “A very strange and powerful man. No matter what he brings here, it’s
him
we’re up against and
him
we must concentrate on. I think it’s time for a little house meeting…” She swallowed. “…while it’s quiet. Frank? Would you like to start?”
Frank blinked, like a school child caught napping in class.
“What?”
“My goodness, Frank. Are you all right? You look very pale.”
He huffed.
“I am sick to death of people asking me if I’m okay. If I’m not okay, I’ll tell you!”
“I was just concerned that…”
“I’m fine,” Frank shouted. “I’m so fucking fine, it’s fucking unbelievable!”
The others watched his tantrum, their mouths hanging open.
Frank took a long breath in through his nose and blew out through his mouth.
Relax, don’t do it…
Don’t you fucking dare…
“I’m fine, really,” he said calmly. “Now, Eleanor. What did you want to ask me?”
“I…I just wanted to hear what you know about the man in the bowler hat,” she said, casting sideways glances to Joe. He patted her on the arm.
“I don’t know much,” he said. “He came to the house and I asked him to leave.”
“Yeah, and the rest,” said Anne quietly.
“Okay. We might have had a slight argument outside.”
“You head butted him, Frank,” said Anne. “It’s no wonder he’s angry.”
Frank shrugged his shoulders.
“That’s it, that’s all I know.”
“You haven’t had any more contact with him?” asked Eleanor.
Frank rubbed his head; another headache loomed on the horizon, an approaching breaker of pain.
“No,” he said. “No, I haven’t.”
“He said his name was Mr…erm…Blundsford,” said Jake. “We chased him on the bike for a laugh, you know. See Adam…” He swallowed and gripped the hammer tighter. “Ad liked chasing people on the bike. That’s when we knew something wasn’t right with him.”
“Go on,” said Eleanor.
“He…he got into Adam’s head, found out loads of stuff that only we knew. There was no other way he could have found out. It hurt Adam like hell, said it felt like a mental rape.”
“Yes,” said Eleanor, pointing to her forehead. “Right here. I also experienced this…
mind probing
. Frank, did you feel anything in your head during your encounter? Did he know anything he shouldn’t have?”
Frank stared at Anne.
“Go on, dear,” she said.
“No,” he said. “Nothing like that. I don’t believe a word of it! I’m now supposed to believe he’s psychic on top of everything else? This is impossible.”
“Please calm down, Frank. We’re only brainstorming here,” said Eleanor. “Going back to what Jake said, he told me his name was Elliot Hearnsworth and he was a supernatural investigator, so he’s obviously lied to each one of us. He asked if any strange events had occurred close by. What did he want at your house, Jake?”
He sighed.
“I don’t know really. You should speak to my mum. He was going to help financially I think, but he wanted something in return.”
“Did anything strange happen before that?”
“Yeah, someone locked us in the wardrobe. We thought it was you,” he said, nodding at Joe.
Joe smiled.
“What about you, Anne?” asked Eleanor. “Anything strange happen here on the run up to all this?”
Frank looked at his wife and saw she shook badly.
“I…I didn’t want to say anything, I thought I was going crazy, but…” She wiped her eyes. “The other night, in the garden, I thought I saw…that I saw Katie.”
“Anne,” Frank snapped. “Don’t you dare-”
“It was her. I know it was.” Anne started to cry.
“How dare you bring Katie into this madness!”
“Did
you
see her, Frank?” said Eleanor.
“Certainly not. And I don’t appreciate us discussing my daughter like a…like a goddamn ghost story.”
“But that is exactly what I think this is,” replied Eleanor. “A ghost story. The spirits are walking among us, Frank.”
He pointed a finger at her.
“Just the thing I’d expect from an old witch like you,” he raged. “I think you’ve spent too much time with your spell books, woman!”
Joe stepped in between them, holding his hands out.
“Just hear her out, okay?”
Anne continued to weep on the sofa while Jake, slumped in the chair, fidgeted with the hammer in silence.
Frank snorted and leaned back against the wall.
“I think we’ve all experienced something these last few days,” said Eleanor. “We’ve all felt something a little off, even before he showed up on the street. I know that I’ve seen things: my dead husband for one, and that blue fire. We all witnessed that.”
There were murmurs of agreement from all except Frank, who stood with his arms tightly crossed across his chest.
“And we all saw what was in that fire. The man in the bowler hat, this
Collector
, is after something he calls mana. He thinks we’re keeping it from him, which explains the persistent attacks. He’s trying to scare us enough to give it to him.”
“Mana?” asked Anne. “What is mana? We don’t have any here, whatever it is.”
“But you do, Anne. That’s the problem. After his visit, Joseph and I found a photograph in a book. It showed a figure with red hair, in a suit and a bowler hat, standing next to a blue fire.”
“So you think the fire is the mana? That’s what he wants?” she asked.
Eleanor sat on the sofa beside Anne, perching herself on the edge to avoid sitting back on the blanket.
“I don’t know what it is, or where it came from, but yes, I think the fire is what he’s after.”
“Then let’s give it to him,” said Frank from the back of the room. “If all this nonsense is true, let’s get it over with! Go out and give it to him.”
Joe laughed, resulting in another glare from Frank.