The House on Widows Hill Read online

  ‘The two aren’t necessarily connected,’ Penny said quickly, as she picked up the gist of the conversation.

  ‘You can’t be sure of that,’ said Arthur, backing away from the door. ‘I don’t think I want any more to do with this.’

  ‘I don’t think you have a choice,’ I said, as kindly as I could. ‘The house let you out of the other room because it has a use for you. If you upset it, you could end up trapped in that room again. Or, possibly, somewhere worse.’

  ‘Back off, Ishmael,’ said Penny. ‘Don’t press him.’ She smiled in Arthur’s general direction. ‘If the house has been using you, then this is your best chance to break its hold on you. Because whatever’s down in the cellar, Ishmael and I will stand with you when you face it, and do whatever it takes to shut it down.’

  Arthur nodded slowly. ‘OK … How are we going to get past the door? That lock looks pretty substantial. Or do you have some kind of special security lock-picks?’

  ‘Something like that,’ I said.

  I took careful aim, pivoted on one foot and unleashed a devastating kick with the other foot. My heel punched the solid steel lock right out of the door and dropped it on the other side. Penny jumped up and down, whooping loudly and applauding. Arthur’s jaw dropped. I was left standing balanced on one foot, while my other foot remained wedged in the hole in the door where the lock had been. I tugged a few times, but my foot wouldn’t budge. I looked to Penny.

  ‘If you wouldn’t mind …’

  She grasped the situation immediately and moved in close so I could take hold of her shoulder. Properly anchored, I was able to jerk my foot out of the hole and stand properly again.

  ‘Did that kick hurt, sweetie?’ said Penny.

  ‘Like you wouldn’t believe,’ I said.

  ‘Try not to limp. It would only undermine your image.’

  ‘I have an image?’

  Arthur stopped studying the ragged hole I’d made in the thick wood of the door, and gave me his full attention.

  ‘How the hell did you do that?’

  ‘I eat my spinach.’

  I pushed the door open. Light from the hallway illuminated the beginnings of a set of stone steps, falling down into darkness. My eyes pierced the gloom for some of the way, suggesting that at least this time we were dealing with a perfectly ordinary darkness. I was able to make out a single bare light bulb hanging above the steps, so I fumbled around inside the doorway until I found the switch and turned it on. Dull yellow light splashed along the rough stone walls lining the stairway.

  Arthur stepped forward, just a bit gingerly, and looked down the steps.

  ‘Something is definitely down there,’ he said quietly. ‘It feels … strange.’ He shook his head, frowning. ‘I can’t seem to get a grip on it – as though it’s too big to get my head around. I really don’t like the way it’s making me feel …’

  ‘I don’t like the way it’s been making all of us feel,’ I said. ‘In fact, I intend to have some very strong words with whatever’s down there, just to make my displeasure extremely clear.’

  I strode through Arthur and started down the steps. Penny followed right behind me, also walking through Arthur, though she didn’t know it.

  ‘I hate it when you do that!’ Arthur said loudly. ‘Just because I’m dead, it doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings! Respect my spiritual space!’

  ‘Try to keep up,’ I said, not looking back.

  ‘I’m right here,’ said Penny.

  ‘I was talking to Arthur,’ I said.

  ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘What’s he saying now?’

  I listened for a moment. ‘You really don’t want to know.’

  We were halfway down before Arthur caught up with us. I couldn’t hear his feet on the steps, but his grumpy voice was suddenly that much closer.

  ‘What do you suppose it is that’s waiting for us? Some kind of creature from outer space – all thrashing tentacles, big blobby eyes, and lots of mouths packed full of teeth …’

  ‘I saw that movie,’ I said. ‘I wasn’t convinced.’

  ‘Doesn’t mean I’m wrong,’ said Arthur. ‘This thing has been scaring the crap out of the local people for generations.’

  ‘If it’s been trapped in the cellar since 1889, it’s hardly going to be in the best of moods,’ I said.

  Arthur sniffed loudly. ‘All the more reason not to barge in where it lives, and upset it.’

  I realized Penny was glaring at me, feeling left out again. I shot her a reassuring smile, but it didn’t seem to help much.

  ‘Arthur is worried,’ I said.

  ‘Imagine my surprise,’ said Penny.

  ‘Everything’s going to be fine, Arthur,’ I said. ‘Penny and I have lots of experience when it comes to dealing with extra-terrestrials.’

  ‘You have experience?’ said Arthur. ‘What kind of experience?’

  ‘Don’t ask,’ I said.

  He sniffed again. ‘Like it would do any good.’

  Penny shook her head. ‘It’s like listening to someone talking on their phone on the train.’

  ‘And I know how much you love that,’ I said.

  ‘Am I missing anything important?’ Penny said pointedly.

  ‘Not really,’ I said.

  Penny stared down the steps. ‘How much further does this go? We must be deep under the house by now.’

  ‘I think a more interesting question might be: why did Malcolm need a cellar this far underground?’ I said.

  ‘Because he was scared of what he had incarcerated down here?’ said Penny.

  ‘Seems likely,’ I said.

  ‘And we’re heading straight for it,’ said Arthur. ‘I always knew there was a good reason why I never wanted anything to do with this house.’

  We’d almost reached the bottom of the steps when the atmosphere of dread and horror suddenly hit us again. It fell on us like a great weight, and I had to stop where I was so I could force the awful feelings back to a bearable level. Penny gripped my arm with both hands, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Arthur moaned sickly.

  ‘Why is it doing this?’ he said. ‘We’re doing what it wants, aren’t we? And how am I even able to feel this, now I’m dead?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. It took a lot of effort to speak calmly. ‘Maybe there’s more than one force operating in this house.’

  ‘More than one alien?’ said Arthur.

  ‘More than one alien?’ said Penny. She’d forced her eyes open, but I could see the terrible strain in her face.

  ‘Maybe one alien … and something else,’ I said.

  ‘You’re just full of these helpful little notions, aren’t you?’ said Arthur.

  ‘We can’t stay here, Ishmael,’ said Penny. She had to struggle just to get a few words out. ‘We have to go on.’

  ‘Of course we do,’ I said.

  It took most of my strength and resolve to get moving again. Penny came with me, still clinging on to my arm with both hands. The steps ended at another door, just as ordinary as the one up above, except this door was standing half open. The darkness beyond it swallowed up the light from the steps and stopped it dead in its tracks. As though it wasn’t welcome.

  ‘Why is this door open?’ said Arthur.

  ‘Because we’re expected?’ I said.

  ‘It could have been left that way, ever since the alien broke out,’ said Penny.

  ‘But why is it still open?’ said Arthur.

  ‘Perhaps because after it drove Malcolm and his family out, the alien discovered it couldn’t leave the house and had to come back,’ I said. ‘Because this is all it knew. The nearest thing it had to a home, in this world.’

  ‘Oh, that’s just sad,’ said Penny.

  ‘Can I ask something?’ said Arthur.

  ‘At this point, I think I’d be shocked if you didn’t,’ I said. ‘What’s on your recently deceased mind, Arthur?’

  ‘What if we’re wrong?’ he said bluntly. ‘What if it isn’t an alien? What if m
y ancestor really did make a deal with the Devil all those years ago … and what he summoned up is still here?’

  ‘I don’t believe in things like that,’ I said.

  ‘You didn’t believe in ghosts until you met me.’

  ‘The only way to find out is to go in there and face it,’ I said. ‘And then do whatever’s necessary to bring the hammer down on it.’

  ‘I wish I had your confidence,’ Arthur said wistfully. ‘It must be wonderful to be brave …’

  ‘Are you still thinking about punching the alien in the face?’ Penny said to me quietly. ‘I mean, yes, you did very well with the door at the top of the stairs, but doors aren’t renowned for their ability to fight back.’

  ‘After everything the thing in the cellar has put us through, it needs cutting down to size,’ I said. ‘And if a good punch in the brains will stop it making me feel like this, I am quite definitely up for that.’

  ‘All right,’ said Penny, her voice entirely steady. ‘You hit it from one side, and I’ll come at it from the other.’

  ‘Sounds like a plan to me,’ I said.

  ‘I’m dead, and I’m the sanest person here,’ Arthur said sadly.

  I gave the door a good hard shove, and it flew back to slam against the inner wall. Shadows jumped and then settled in a wide open room, only partially revealed by light spilling in from the stairway. I stepped cautiously into the cellar, and Penny and Arthur followed me in.

  There was nobody home. Just four stone walls, a low ceiling and an uneven stone floor. No furniture, nothing left in storage – just the gloom and the shadows. But the atmosphere of dread and horror was just as strong, filling my head with terrible half-formed thoughts.

  ‘After everything we’ve gone through to get here, we end up in an empty room?’ said Penny. ‘I was expecting a hideous monster, crouching in the remains of its cage, trailing its broken chains … But I can’t see anything to suggest there was ever anything down here.’

  ‘Something is here,’ said Arthur. ‘I can feel it. Watching and listening …’

  ‘The atmosphere is getting worse,’ said Penny, rubbing distractedly at her forehead. ‘It feels as though I’m being driven out of my mind, by thoughts that don’t make any sense. I don’t know how much longer I can stand this …’

  ‘Arthur!’ I said sharply. ‘Talk to me! What’s happening in here?’

  ‘It feels awful,’ he said miserably. ‘I didn’t feel this bad when I was alive … It’s like my head is full of insane voices shouting at each other.’

  ‘This isn’t us,’ I said, glaring about me. ‘These aren’t our feelings or thoughts; they’re being imposed on us from outside. Maybe … something left over, from when the alien was still here. A stone tape memory, being played back. The alien could be long dead, with only its memories remaining to haunt Harrow House. No … Wait. That’s strange …’

  ‘What is?’ Arthur said immediately.

  ‘What are you feeling, Ishmael?’ said Penny. She was leaning all her weight against me, as though I was the only thing holding her up.

  ‘Something is trying to talk to me,’ I said. ‘But I can’t understand anything it’s saying.’

  ‘Yes …’ said Penny. ‘My head is full of weird voices, drowning out my own thoughts.’

  I turned my head slowly back and forth, and finally pointed at the far wall. ‘It feels stronger in that direction.’

  ‘And you’re going to head straight for it, aren’t you?’ said Arthur.

  ‘Of course,’ I said. ‘It’s the only way to get to the truth.’

  ‘How is it you’re alive and I’m dead?’ said Arthur.

  I started towards the far wall and then stopped as I realized the others weren’t coming with me. When I looked back, Penny was breathing hard and making low, pained noises, just from the effort involved in holding her ground. Arthur looked as if he might break and run at any moment.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ I said.

  ‘I can’t go any closer,’ said Penny. ‘I just can’t. It feels like walking towards my own death.’

  ‘Worse than death,’ said Arthur. ‘It feels like horror and madness and the end of all things …’

  ‘We’ve reached the heart of everything that’s wrong with this house,’ I said. ‘I’m not turning back now. But I can’t do it without you, Penny.’

  I put out a hand to her, and she took hold and gripped it fiercely. Step by step she forced herself forward to join me, and then we just kept going until we were standing in front of the far wall. It was made up of different-sized stones, jammed in tight together without any need for mortar. A quick glance round confirmed the other walls had been put together in the same way. The work looked rushed, even amateurish.

  The atmosphere was really bad now. Terrible thoughts sleeted through my mind, forced in from my surroundings. I’d found what I’d been looking for, and it was like finally looking God in the eye and discovering he’s completely insane. I had to force myself to concentrate on the structure of the wall before me.

  ‘I don’t think this is the original cellar wall,’ I said. ‘It doesn’t look strong enough. This was put in later.’

  ‘Why would Malcolm do that?’ said Penny. Her voice was firmer now, but she was squeezing my hand really hard. ‘Was he trying to isolate what was in here?’

  ‘Or maybe he wanted to hide something,’ I said.

  ‘Whatever’s here is trying to drive us away,’ said Penny. ‘The voices are screaming inside my head …’

  I snatched my gaze away from the stone wall, and when I looked at Penny, I saw all the colour had drained out of her face, and she was shaking hard.

  ‘You don’t have to be here,’ I said. ‘There’s no reason why you should have to suffer this. I can handle what needs doing.’

  ‘Like hell you can,’ she said, glaring at me fiercely. ‘You need me, to watch your back. I’ll never leave you, Ishmael.’

  ‘I’ll never leave you,’ I said.

  ‘Given the chance, I’d leave both of you in a moment if I thought there was anywhere else to go,’ said Arthur. ‘But we are getting close to the truth. I can feel it.’ He laughed briefly: a harsh, determined sound. ‘I never ran away from a story in my life and I’m not about to start now I’m dead.’

  He moved jerkily forward, step by step. Fighting his way through the horrible feelings flooding the room, almost snarling with the concentration it took, until finally he was standing beside us. He shot me a triumphant look and then glared at the cellar wall.

  ‘There’s something behind these stones. The source of everything that’s wrong with Harrow House.’

  I passed this on to Penny, and she looked at me sharply.

  ‘Could it be walled-up bodies? Some kind of human sacrifice, in payment for Malcolm’s success in business?’

  ‘It’s not bodies,’ said Arthur. ‘I’d know if it was bodies. Dead speaks to dead.’

  I slowly eased my hand out of Penny’s grasp, and she clasped her hands tightly together before her, shaking all over from the effort it took just to stay with me. I ran my hands over the rough, raised stones of the cellar wall, pulling and tugging at them until I found a loose one. I hauled it out and threw it to one side. I looked into the gap I’d made, and alien technology stared back at me.

  Metal and crystal shapes, abstract almost beyond bearing, set in patterns that made no sense. Illuminated from within, they blazed in colours I didn’t even recognize, from the other side of the rainbow.

  ‘What the hell is that?’ said Arthur.

  ‘Advanced technology,’ I said. ‘And I mean seriously advanced. Even now, never mind back in Victorian times. There’s no way humanity produced this.’

  ‘And it’s still working, after all these years?’ Arthur stared, fascinated, at what I’d uncovered. ‘This has to be the biggest story ever … Alien machines, hidden away from the world.’

  ‘Malcolm’s great secret,’ said Penny. ‘Not a prisoner or treasure … But how did he get h
is hands on something like this?’

  ‘He must have found a crashed alien ship,’ I said.

  ‘Hold it,’ said Arthur. ‘That’s a thing? That’s something that actually happens?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said.

  ‘Then why doesn’t everyone know about it?’ Arthur said loudly.

  ‘Because there are very secret groups whose job it is to make sure people never know,’ I said.

  ‘I knew it!’ said Arthur. ‘But now I can’t tell anyone! Typical of my luck … Do you work for one of these groups?’

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘But I used to. Malcolm must have looted this technology from a crashed starship, thinking he could use the knowledge it contained. He used his transport business to bring it here and then built this house over it.’

  ‘But then … why did he hide his prize away, behind this wall?’ said Penny.

  ‘Because it frightened him,’ I said. ‘I think the oppressive atmosphere we’ve been feeling all along is being broadcast by this tech. And it’s been broadcast since Victorian times. Malcolm must have hoped a heavy stone wall would isolate it, but instead it just kept trying harder, until finally Malcolm and his family had no choice but to abandon the alien technology and the house.’

  The awful feeling was suddenly worse. Penny cried out, and Arthur just vanished, like a candle blown out by a strong wind.

  ‘Arthur!’ I said loudly. ‘Get back here! Don’t let it drive you away, like it did your ancestors!’

  Arthur reappeared, but I could barely make him out; it was as though he was having trouble remembering what he was supposed to look like.

  Penny had both hands pressed to her head, covering her ears. Tears streamed down her cheeks, from the sheer horror of what she was being made to feel. And I was so furious at seeing her hurt that I attacked the wall with both hands, tearing away more stones to reveal yet more alien tech. The weird lights pulsed furiously, and a mad storm of voices filled my head. I punched the tech, and it shattered and fell apart.

  The whole cellar shook. Stone after stone fell away, as though the alien technology was shrugging off what had hidden it for so long, and a whole wall of blazing metal and crystal appeared before me. Avalanches of stones were falling away everywhere, revealing alien tech on all four walls.