Angel Manor (Lucifer Falls Book 1) (26 page)

The autumn equinox was near, and it longed to deliver sweet pain and suffering. More spirits would mean a more developed consciousness for Angel Manor; it fed on their essence and turned it into its own being. The house wanted to fill its halls with more souls to punish. The master who slept demanded it. It was the bargain that had been struck.

***

Bam watched the two bodies merge, and she felt a mixture of desire and fear. She wanted to warn Freya, to tell her that her lust was feeding the house, making it stronger, but she couldn’t. Her freedom was so limited. Somewhere below her, she could sense Chuck searching for her. It took all the energy she had left to keep him at bay, but Bam knew that soon she would lose the struggle, and he would find her. When he did, Bam feared she might lose her last bit of freedom.

***

Freya didn’t notice the first spider until it was on his cheek, fat and hairy, tapping its long legs with slow impatience. Freya groaned with pleasure as Logan thrust himself inside her, her hips moving in perfect harmony, until she saw it. At that moment, her moan of pleasure turned into a scream. Logan stopped, his glassy eyes suddenly cleared, and he shook his head. Freya couldn’t stop screaming, especially when she saw the other spiders, and there were many. Dozens or more, crawling all over his naked body… and to her horror, she saw they were crawling on her too. For a second, the world seemed to stand still, then the two lovers broke loose, each scrambling to their feet and smacking the swarming creatures from their bodies.

Freya screeched and jumped around from side to side, slapping herself with such ferocity that red marks imprinted on her skin. Logan’s movements were calmer, but from the look in his eyes, Freya could tell he was freaked out too.

“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck!” Freya chanted, still slapping at the eight legged intruders. “Where did they come from?”

“The mattress.” Logan swatted a large spider from his shoulder and flicked at another on his leg. He shuddered. “They must have come out of the mattress.”

“I told you we should have gone downstairs. What were you thinking? This place is the scariest part of the house, and we have sex here?” With a yelp, she brushed a row of spiders from her breast. “Oh God, are there any on my back? Get them off, get them off!” She continued hopping about, smacking and flicking. Logan, who must have seen her need was greater than his own, moved forward and helped her.

Even when he assured her all spiders were gone, and she could see he didn’t have any on him, she could still feel their legs all over her. Her heart pounded.

“Where did they go? I can’t see a single spider now.” Logan scanned the floor, the position of his shoulders betraying the tension he felt.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. This place gives me the creeps.” Freya stepped into her pants, then fumbled with her bra, hooking up the back as fast as she could. Logan inspected his jeans then pulled them on over his boxers. He leaned over to grab his shirt and froze.

“Logan?” Her voice sounded childlike with fear. “What’s wrong?”

“You were right.” He stood, the shirt forgotten at his feet, his long muscled torso straightened to his full height.

“About what?” Freya’s lip trembled slightly and lump formed in her throat.

“Ghosts.” His hand rose with an aggravating slowness, and his finger pointed towards a dark corner of the attic.

She knew she had to turn around, even though she didn’t want to. Her head rose slowly, as slow as Logan’s finger had, and when she looked, terror gripped her.

In the dark depths of the corner, away from the window, stood at least a dozen children of different ages, all huddled together. They were near naked, dressed in old camisoles and tattered underwear, stains covering the greyish white fabric. Their hair sprung in knotted, greasy tangles from their scalps. Some were tall and some short, but they were all malnourished and gaunt.

“Oh my God.” Freya’s hand moved to her mouth. She felt frozen to the spot. “Logan, you see them too?”

He didn’t answer her, but she felt his hand wrap around her arm. She followed him slowly, her eyes still on the children. Her thoughts flashed towards her aunt, who had sat next to her in the car, to her mother who had always feared this house, and to her time as a child in the cellar. All she wanted was to get away from the dead children with their melancholy stares. The children stepped forward, moving as if someone was pulling their strings, their thin arms outstretched. They opened their mouths in unison, and the sight of the dark, wide openings was more than Freya could bear. She turned and ran, Logan right behind her. The children’s cries echoed through the attic, long wails, wordlessly pleading for rescue. Her heart pounded in her throat as she reached the stairs, and she clung on to the railing to avoid falling. Even on the floor below, she could still hear the children crying. Something inside her knew that the children didn’t want to harm her, but that didn’t lessen her fear.

“Are you okay?” Logan wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. The house went silent again, and Freya burst into tears.

“I don’t know, Logan. I really don’t know.”

Chapter 21

The boys were lively as they piled into the narrow pub. The interior was bright with its fresh, white paint and wooden tables and chairs. Terracotta tiles lined the floor, smelling faintly of spilled ale and floral cleaning products. The crowd inside was varied in age and appearance, and Terrence guessed that there were quite a few tourists mingling with the locals. He had been afraid that they would walk into a pub filled with old geezers who would stare at them and give them a right bollocking for being young and foreign… but there were plenty of other English people sitting around the tables. He even spotted a few ladies that were a bit of all right. Terrence smiled. This could be an interesting night after all.

They made their way between the scattered square tables, Mr Norris leading them with Mr McLeod bringing up the rear, until they found a nice, quiet spot near the back. It was early still, and Terrence wondered if the pub would get livelier. There were certainly a few people here, but the younger ones might move on somewhere else later. It was anyone’s guess how the evening would pan out, but Terrence felt a small pang of gratitude for being out of the house. As long as he was in the house, he felt fine, but now that he put some distance between himself and Angel Manor, he wondered if it wasn’t a good idea to go back to Edinburgh after all. There would be other projects, and he was a bit worried about his brother. He decided he’d try his brother’s mobile phone to see if he could get in touch with him.

Everyone took a seat, either on the wooden chairs or the stone bench sticking out of the wall on the other side of the table. Mr Norris got up to get everyone a pint. Terrence slipped his hands in his pockets and fished out two pounds and three fifty pence coins, scanning the room for a phone.

“Don’t worry, Terrence, drinks are on John and myself tonight. You boys deserve it.”

“Oh, thanks, Mr McLeod, but that’s not what I got the money out for. I was going to call Tyrell.”

“Oh, sure. I think I saw a phone over there.” Mr McLeod pointed in the direction of the toilets.

“Thanks.” Terrence got to his feet and slid past Gary, whose fingers fiddled with one of the cardboard coasters. “Move aside, you fat fuck.” His knee connected with Gary’s leg, and Gary made himself as small as he could, his eyes shooting daggers at Terrence. To make up for his rudeness, Terrence ruffled his friend’s hair as he walked past.

He spotted the phone from a distance, but was distracted by the lovely ladies at one of the tables he passed. There were three of them, a natural redhead, a dye-job blonde, and a girl with milk chocolate skin and bleached extensions. They wore tops that showed off their breasts, and Terrence was a man who admired female chests of all sizes, especially when they were on such lovely display. He gave the girls a smile, and to his satisfaction, they smiled back in a flirtatious way. After his phone call, he would have to see about buying these ladies a drink with the few bob he had in his pocket. His mind automatically went to Tyrell, who had always been his wing man, and he thought of what his brother had said in his nightmares.
No way are you gay, T,
Terrence thought.
You’re better at pulling birds than I am.

He picked up the black receiver and pushed the coin into the slot, waited until there was a dial tone, and pressed Tyrell’s mobile phone number. After several rings, the phone went to voicemail.

“A pleasant evening to you, ladies and gentleman,” Tyrell sounded from the other side, a hint of laughter in his voice, imitating a posh accent. “I am presently unavailable to converse with you over the telephone…” he actually snorted when he said the word ‘telephone’, “… but if you would be so kind as to leave your name and number, I shall return your call at my earliest convenience. Otherwise, I would kindly ask you to go fuck yourself, you impatient cunt.” A sharp beep interrupted his laughter, and Terrence shook his head with a smile of his own.

“Yo, T-Dog. It’s your baby brother. My mobile doesn’t work in the house and I forgot to charge it before I came out, so I’m calling you from a payphone, but if you could drop me a line, send me a text or something… I’m a bit worried about you.” His ears felt hot when he said the words, and he pictured his brother laughing at him for saying them, but it was how he felt, and he would rather Tyrell call him back to mock him than not call him back at all.

With a sigh, he hung up the receiver and placed his head against the cold plastic of the phone. He knew that the ghostly image of Tyrell was just a dream, but he’d feel so much better if he could hear his brother’s voice for real, not just through voicemail. He took a deep breath to collect himself, then managed to conjure a smile.

On his way back, he stopped by the table with the three girls. He guessed them to be his age, maybe a year or so younger, and he slid onto the stone bench next to the dye-job.

“Evening, ladies. I thought I’d come and say hello.” He offered a toothy smile and a wink, and the girls giggled.

“Just a hello?” The blonde had a thick Scottish accent. Her eyes were dark blue and stared at him from under heavily made-up lids. Thick black lines made her eyes almond shaped, and the purple eye shadow brought out the blue of her irises nicely.

“Well, I’d ask you how you like your eggs, but I reckon we need to save that question for the morning.” He winked again, and she rewarded him with a crooked smile.

“Bless ye,” she giggled. “What’s yer name then?”

“Terrence.”

“Well, Terrence, ah’m Emma, this is Lindsey,” she tapped the black girl on the arm then pointed at the redhead, “and that wee lass over there is Bonnie.”

“Are you local girls?”

“Aye, that we are. And where are you from?”

“London.”

The girls made ‘whoooo’ noise and turned to each other with meaningful glances.

“Eh, and what’s a Londoner doing on our little isle, then?” It was Lindsey who spoke, and her dark eyes gleamed at him. He liked how the red of her lipstick stood out against her beautiful skin, and he imagined running his hands through her extensions and pulling them slightly.

“Well, I’ve been living in Edinburgh for the last eight years.”

She cocked her head and gave him a wry smile. “Why come to Skye then?”

“I’m here on a job.”

“A job, eh?” Her eyebrow raised slightly, the corner of her mouth curled in an attractive manner.

“Yeah, I’m one of the construction workers in this house called Angel Manor.”

The girls stared at him.

“You mean Lucifer’s Lot?” The dark girl’s mouth twisted in an amused sneer.

“What?”

“That creepy old house on Lucifer Falls. We call that Lucifer’s Lot.”

“Have ye seen any ghosts yet?” It was Bonnie who spoke up now, her accent so thick he could hardly understand her. She had a very soft lisp, which was most apparent when she said the word ‘ghosts’. Terrence didn’t like where this conversation was going. It had taken a lot of energy to convince himself that he hadn’t seen anything supernatural, and now these three girls were telling him that maybe he had. He lost control of his thoughts for a few seconds, but then the sight of Angus snapped him back. Angus had spotted him too, and he sat down on one of the empty chairs.

“Hello then. What’s this, Terrence? Been keeping these lovely ladies all to yourself, have you?” Angus grinned at the women, who looked a little startled at first, but then broke out into smiles and giggles.

“Angus, meet Emma, Bonnie and Lindsey. Ladies, meet Angus.” They shook hands and exchanged smiles.

“What were you talking about then?”

“Ghosts.” Emma cocked her head at Angus and fluttered her eyelashes.

“Eh?”

“Angel Manor… apparently the house has another name.” Terrence raised one eyebrow and touched the side of his nose with an index finger. “And it’s a real fucking charming one too.”

“Do tell?”

“Lucifer’s Lot. You know because of Lucifer Falls.” Lindsey smiled.