Psychopathia: A Horror Suspense Novel (11 page)

The paralysis broke, and pressing her sister to her breast, she broke for the door, ran for the stairs, down through the house and out into the night, panting, racing for the garage.

‘Toby!’ she yelled, covering the child’s ears. ‘Toby, you gotta come here!’

There were lights on in Toby’s upstairs windows, so she knew he was still awake. In a moment, the garage light flicked on, and she jigged up and down, waiting for him to come to the door, turning around to stare back at the main house, but the whispering spirit could be anywhere or nowhere by now. She pressed back against the garage siding.

‘What’s wrong?’ Toby stepped out beside her.

Tully hugged Hannah closer. ‘I felt it,’ she said. ‘I went upstairs, it was in Hannah’s room, and it was whispering, I heard it and then it touched me.’ She was babbling. Toby stared at her with
shadowed eyes.

‘What?’ he said.

She sucked in a deep breath. Let it out slow. ‘Let’s go inside,’ she said. It was too dark out here. Too many places she couldn’t see properly. Toby moved beside her, but he didn’t open the garage door like she expected. Instead he walked towards the house. Tully chewed her lip and followed him, Hannah snuffling in her arms.

In the kitchen with the lights on, it was a bit better. The room looked normal. She nodded to herself and looked at her brother.

And frowned. ‘Have you lost weight?’ she asked. He shrugged, not looking at her. She sucked in another calming breath. ‘Anyway. I fell asleep on the couch, right? And I had the baby monitor beside me.’ She backtracked. ‘I fell asleep with the TV and the lights on, okay? But then I woke up, and it was dark, the television was off, and the baby monitor was lit up. Someone was in Hannah’s room. Whispering.’ She reached out and clutched at her brother’s shirt.

‘Toby? I think it followed us here.’

That got his attention. He blinked at her. Shook his head. ‘No, we left it behind.’

‘
I don’t think so.’ Tully felt her eyes fill with tears. ‘Toby? What do we do?’

He was still shaking his head. ‘No. No. It’s not here. It can’t be here. We left it behind at the
cabin. That’s why we came home. So it would stay there, so it couldn’t see me anymore.’ He didn’t stop shaking his head.

Tully was still clutching his shirt. She relaxed her hand and patted his chest instead. ‘Toby? Are you okay? It’s all right, really it is.’

He broke away from her and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, rocked there back and forth for a moment. ‘What’s real?’ he asked.

‘What?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘It’s real?’

She guessed he was talking about the spirit. ‘Yeah. I think it’s really real. It followed us home from the asylum, and now it’s followed us here.’ She hugged her sister tighter. ‘I heard it whispering.’ She shook her head. ‘I couldn’t make out what it was saying, but I heard it, I swear I did.’

Toby tugged on his hair. ‘I have to go back to my room,’ he said.

‘What? Toby, we need to talk about this. Figure out what to do.’

A crash from upstairs. Something knocked over. Tully yelped. ‘Toby, it’s back, it’s upstairs, did you hear that?’

‘I have to go back to my room.’ Toby was backing towards the door.

‘Toby! You can’t leave us in here!’ The light flickered, and Toby howled, lunged for the door, threw it open and ran outside. It flickered again, and there was another crash from upstairs.

Tully didn’t waste
any time. She ran after her brother, out the door, down the path, Hannah still in her arms, the baby grunting as she was jolted up and down. Tully didn’t comfort her, just gripped her tighter and pushed open the garage door. Toby was already inside and up the stairs to his room.

Her feet slapped against the wooden stairs and she was reaching for the door to Toby’s room before she even hit the top.

It was locked. She’d expected it to be open, not locked, thought Toby was leading her to safety, would let her in, was expecting her to follow, but the door was locked and she slammed into it.

‘Toby! Let me in!’
She knew he was in there, it wasn’t some sort of mistake, he hadn’t gone running off somewhere else, down the street or something, she’d seen him dart into the garage, had run after him.

No reply. ‘Toby!’ She hammered against the door with one hand, holding Hannah awkwardly against her. ‘Toby, let us in!’

He didn’t answer her, and there was no comforting snick of the lock as the door was opened. The door stayed resolutely shut, a barrier she couldn’t believe was there. She banged her fist against it.

‘Toby, let us in! Why won’t you let us in?’

She leaned her head against the door, waiting for him to say something, but nothing, there was nothing but silence behind the door, no footsteps. She thought for a moment she could feel him breathing, pressed up against the other side of the door, but it might have been just her own wheezing breath, her own madly thumping heart.

The door stayed closed. Tully slid down it, rump landing on the floor, Hannah still pressed against her chest. ‘Toby?’ she whispered. ‘What’s going on?’ But he didn’t answer.

Hannah fidgeted, fussed, batted little hands against Tully’s neck, and cried. Tully patted her, hushed her, but it didn’t work. The baby needed to be put back to bed. She didn’t even have a blanket around her.

Standing, Tully turned to frown at the closed door. She chewed on her lip, biting down on it as hard as she could without piercing it. What was wrong with Toby? When the door stayed closed, the room behind it silent, she turned and made her way back down the stairs.

The house was dark. Even though she’d left the kitchen light on. Probably others. It stood on the suburban street, in the middle of its neatly manicured garden and lawn, and gathered the darkness inside it.

A car pulled into the driveway, throwing its headlights over Tully. Her stepmother was out before it even came to a proper halt.

‘Hannah?’ she called. ‘Tully? Is everything all right? Is Hannah okay?’ She tugged the child from Tully’s arms and curled herself protectively around her.

‘Tully? What’s going on?’ Her father joined them and Tully licked her lips, trying to think what to say.

They’d never believe her. She stretched a smile over her face, but it felt more like a grimace. Maybe they wouldn’t notice in the dark.

‘Tully?’ Her father’s voice was sharper. She had to say something.

‘Nothing. Nothing, Dad. Everything’s fine.’

‘What were you doing out here with the baby, then?’

Her eyes went to little Hannah, deep in her mother’s arms. ‘She woke up, that’s all. I wanted to ask Toby something, and I was just on my way back inside.’

‘Nothing’s happened? It’s after midnight, you shouldn’t have Hannah outside.’

Tully swallowed, her mouth dry. ‘I know, Dad, we were going right back inside. Hannah’s been fine all night.’

Her father gave a curt nod, and followed his wife into the house. Tully stayed on the path and held her breath until the kitchen light turned on, then went reluctantly after them.

‘What were you doing wandering around a dark house with the baby?’ her father asked as soon as she stepped inside.

She looked around, peered upstairs, but whatever had crashed and broken up there, she couldn’t see it, just hoped it wasn’t something her step mother really liked. Clearing her throat, she made something up.

‘The fuse blew or something. That’s why I was outside. I got Toby to change it. But it was just the breaker, I think.’

Her father was loosening his tie. Mary had already gone upstairs to tuck the baby back into bed. Tully sidled towards the staircase. ‘I’m going to bed now. See you in the morning, Dad.’ She got a grunt in reply, and turned to dash up the stairs to her room.

There was nothing broken in the hallway. Tully hurried towards her room, but her step mother put out a hand to stop her.

‘Hannah’s lamp is broken,’ she said.

Damn. That had been kinda pretty. ‘I’m sorry,’ Tully said. ‘I knocked it over when the lights went out. I’ll buy her another one, I promise.’

‘No, no, Tully, it’s all right. As long as you weren’t hurt.’ Her gaze roamed over Tully’s face and Tully wondered what she saw there.
‘You look tired. Why don’t you get to bed?’

‘I think I will. Thanks.’ She nodded, and made it the rest of the way to her room and sagged against the closed door.

Everything in her room looked untouched. She shivered, remembering the uncanny whispering she’d heard through Hannah’s monitor earlier, but even that paled in comparison to Toby’s weird behaviour. What was wrong with him? Why had he run away and shut her out?

Tully got changed and climbed into bed. She sat there against the pillows for a long time, the be
dside lamp still on, listening for whispering, crashes, afraid to go to sleep, and afraid of what the next day would bring.

She stayed awake
for a long time.

‘Are you and Toby working today? I can never keep your schedules straight.’ Her stepmother was spooning some sort of gloop into Hannah, but it wasn’t working very well.

Tully slid onto a chair at the breakfast table and reached for a piece of toast. ‘Yeah, we’re both working today. I’m going in early. Few things to do in town.’

‘How’s Lara? We haven’t seen her for a while.’ Mary levelled her gaze at Tully. ‘Did you two have a falling out?’

Her toast only half buttered, Tully put down the knife and stared at it.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Not really. It just turned out she couldn’t stay at the cabin anyway. That’s all.’ She picked up the knife again.

There was a vague thumping from upstairs. Tully dropped her knife with a clatter and her hands whitened against the table.

‘What was that?’ her stepmother asked.

Tully relaxed with an effort. ‘Probably nothing,’ she said. ‘The house settling or something.’

Mary laughed. ‘It’s never made a noise like that when it’s settled. I must have left one of the windows open or something.’ She stood up and gave Hannah the spoon. ‘I’ll go check. Keep an eye on Hannah, will you?’

It was an effort to nod. ‘Sure,’ Tully said, then sat frozen in place while the older woman climbed the stairs, humming innocently as she went.

By the time Mary came back down, Tully’s toast was cold, but she wasn’t hungry anymore anyway. She looked at her stepmother.

‘Nope. Nothing.’ Mary laughed. ‘I don’t know what it was.’ She picked up a cloth and set to wiping the baby’s face.

Tully slid from her chair. ‘I think I’ll get a move on,’ she said, and made for the door, patting her pockets to make sure she already had keys and cards. She was outside before Mary could say anything.

She was up the stairs and outside Toby’s room in a flash. There was no way she expected him to be awake, since it was still
on the wrong side of noon for him to be up and about, but she couldn’t help leaning against the door and pressing her ear to it, listening for what, she didn’t know.

There was a vague sound of snoring, and that was all. What else had she expected? Her hand crept to the knob and twisted it. Still locked. Why was he locking his door? Worse, why was he locking her out?

‘Toby?’ she whispered. ‘Are you okay?’

He didn’t hear her, of course, and she turned away, went back down the steps and outside.
It was another beautiful day, but she didn’t even notice the blue canopy of sky, the warm wrapping of sunshine on her skin. She got into the car and headed into town.

Dunedin was a small city. One of the reasons Tully liked it. The scent of the ocean drifted in through the open car window and she breathed it in. Cleansing. Invigorating. She sat up straighter.

She took a guess on which toy shop to try, but it wasn’t much of a guess, because there were only a couple of them. Stopping by a young guy stacking Barbie dolls, she cleared her throat.

‘
Does Damien work here?’ she asked.

He straightened and looked at her. ‘Yeah, but he’s
busy.’

She nodded. ‘It’ll only take a minute. Promise.’

‘He’s near the back. With the Lego and blocks.’

‘Thanks.’ She stretched her neck to see down the aisles, and hurried to the back of the shop.

Damien didn’t look pleased to see her. She wasn’t surprised. She wasn’t all that happy about seeing him either. Even with his good looks. Although he wasn’t giving her the same lop-sided and charming smile she’d been treated to the first time they’d met.

‘What are you doing here?’ he asked before she managed to say anything.

‘We need to talk.’

He backed up a couple steps, putting a great Lego ship between them. ‘I don’t think so.’

Tully spread her hands. ‘Just for five minutes, okay? You might be able to help me.’

Damien repeated himself. ‘I don’t think so.’

There’d been little in the way of sleep last night and Tully let her impatience show. ‘Oh come on – you were willing to step up when you thought you were in for a bit of fun.’