The Lake House (35 page)

Megan smiled to herself. The copper stepped in just past her and stood still to listen. At the same time he sensed there was someone behind him she lifted her hand and thrust the knife straight into his side, under his body armour at an angle. He let out a gasp and fell to his knees. Megan stood up, wiping the blood that had seeped from the wound onto her leggings, and watched as he fell forward. His hand clutched at the knife that was now protruding from his side and he gasped for breath. She stood over him and smiled.

‘You fucking bitch. Where’s Annie?’

***

Annie blinked then tried to open her eyes. If she’d felt queasy before it was nothing compared to how she felt now. She had no idea where she was, and then the smell of damp, rotting earth assaulted her nostrils and her lungs, making it hard to breathe. The tightness in her chest, as cold fear lodged inside it, was overwhelming when she realised what had happened. She didn’t speak, too afraid to let him know she was conscious, but she could sense that he was close by. Her head was lifted and she felt him pull her close. Annie wanted to scream, but who was going to hear her? He’d done it, tricked her, and this was where it was all going to end, back in a cold damp cellar like the one where it had all begun. She tried not to cry out with revulsion when Henry started to stroke her hair.

‘After all this time we finally made it, my beautiful Annie. I have to admit I never thought I’d see the day that I’d hold you in my arms once more, but look at us. Here we are. We were meant to be together, you and I. It was our destiny. How could you deny fate? Last time you were too scared and I understand that. I truly do. But I promise it won’t take long.’

She choked back a sob as he pressed the cold, sharp blade against her neck. He lifted her head closer to his face.

‘Are you awake now? I need you to wake up so you can see me, Annie, see the joy in my eyes at being reunited with you.’

Henry didn’t notice the monster that was pulling itself out of the drain in the corner of the cellar. It cautiously put one clawed hand out of the hole and sniffed the air. It could smell blood and fear. Silently now, it pulled its whole body from the drain and stood on its two long, spindly legs. Wary of the noise its clawed feet would make on the hard, stone floor, it moved closer to the man who was holding the woman on the floor.

***

Jake hammered on the front door one last time then ran around to the back where the kitchen door was wide open. He ran in and saw Megan standing over Will. Why was Will on the floor? He looked at her blood-stained hands, then realised something was seriously wrong. Forcing himself to look away from her and at his friend, he pressed his radio. ‘Control, boss, Kav? Urgent assistance at Beckett House. Will’s bleeding, everywhere.’

Jake pulled out his taser and shouted his warning to her, but she turned and ran, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to leave Will like that. ‘Fuck.’ He bent down to press his fingers against Will’s neck, thanking God that there was a pulse, even though it was faint. It was only when he knelt down that he noticed the old woman on the floor, tied and gagged. She blinked her eyes and he nodded. Pulling every tea towel off the draining rack he pressed them against Will’s side where the blood was seeping from. He picked up Will’s limp hand and put it on top of the wound. ‘You have to hold this on as best as you can and hang on. Help is on the way. Please don’t die on me, Will.’

Then he looked up and saw Megan standing by the open cellar door. He knew she was luring him down there, but he also knew that was where Annie was. He was torn between who to help first, but the old woman began to shuffle over to Will, so Jake ran after Megan. She was grinning at him, which made his blood boil. He lurched for her, but instead of catching hold of her arm he pushed her and she teetered on the top step before falling backwards in slow motion, her arms waving around in the air as she tumbled all the way down into the blackness at the bottom. As she hit the last concrete step a loud snap echoed around the cellar and Jake knew that she was dead, but he didn’t care. It was nothing more than she deserved.

He ran down the steps into the blackness and stopped when he saw Henry crouched on the floor with a semi-conscious Annie in his arms. Jake moved and Henry lifted the knife so he could see in the muted light. He looked over at Megan whose neck was bent at a strange angle with her unblinking eyes staring at something he’d never see. Realising she was dead, Henry cried out to her, then forced himself to take control. He looked at Jake, who was frozen to the floor, staring at something that was moving behind Henry. Henry didn’t dare look away from Jake in case he made a move. Henry bent down and tenderly kissed Annie, then raised his knife ready to slit her throat.

***

Cathy parked next to the van and they both ran towards the open kitchen door. She took in the scene that greeted her and paled at the sight of Will lying there bleeding out on the floor with the old woman whose house it was tied up, but trying her best to stop the bleeding. Kav scooped Martha from the floor, sitting her down on a chair.

‘Go find Annie. I’ve got this.’

Kav nodded then turned and ran for the cellar door. Before he got there the most terrible sound he’d ever heard filled the stairs and hall and he felt his bladder loosen. There was a human scream this time, which made his feet move as he took the stairs two at a time, ready to rip Henry Smith’s head off. But as he got to the bottom he didn’t understand what he was seeing. Henry Smith was fighting with something that looked like a giant man, only it wasn’t. Its sharp claws were slashing at his body, drawing blood.

Jake snapped into action, running to scoop Annie up in his arms and pull her away from whatever it was. Kav stood next to him. ‘What is that thing?’

‘I don’t know, but I think now’s the time to leave.’ Jake ran up the stairs first as fast as he could, with Annie thrown over his back.

Kav was pushing him, screaming, ‘Go, go, go.’ As Jake reached the landing he stumbled out into the light with her. Kav was halfway up. He couldn’t move. The thing had just drawn its long, sharp claws across Henry Smith’s throat and Henry collapsed towards it, the hot, coppery smell of blood filling the air. He looked over at Megan’s body, shrugged his shoulders and ran up behind Jake in case the thing came after him. He didn’t care that Henry and Megan might not be dead. He wasn’t about to risk his life to go and check on either of them. He slammed the cellar door shut and threw all the bolts across.

Annie clung on to Jake. ‘Is it over?’

He hugged her back tightly. ‘I think so.’

Then he carried her into the kitchen where she locked eyes with the ashen figure of Will on the floor and Cathy with a mound of blood-soaked towels in her hands, trying to stem the bleeding. Annie screamed and untangled herself from Jake’s arms. Still light-headed, she tripped and fell to the floor, crawling the last few feet to Will.

‘No. Please, Will, open your eyes. Please, you have to open your eyes, Will. Don’t you leave me here on my own.’ She cradled his head in her arms while Cathy was pressing down with all her strength on the wound in his side.

‘Please God, where’s the ambulance? Tell me there’s one on its way.’

Cathy nodded at her and they heard the sirens coming closer. Jake ran out down the gravel drive to the gateway to flag it down.

Annie bent down and kissed Will’s lips. ‘Come on, Will, it’s over. We did it. Henry’s dead. Open your eyes.’

Will’s eyes fluttered open; he took one look at his wife and smiled before losing consciousness once more. The paramedics rushed in and began to work on him. Jake took hold of Annie and pulled her away.

‘Come on, let the experts do their job.’

He pulled her close and held her while she sobbed.

Kav untied Miss Beckett. ‘Are you okay? Did they hurt you?’

‘I’m fine apart from a bruised head and a cold bottom; I hope that young man is going to be okay. What on earth were they thinking? I’ve never seen anything so horrific in my life as the way that young woman stuck that knife into him as if he was nothing.’

‘I don’t know. It’s hard to say what makes people behave like that, but at least they won’t be hurting anyone else.’

‘Why, where are they now?’

‘In your cellar.’

The fear on her face told Kav that this frail old woman knew something about whatever the thing down there was, and he sat down opposite her.

‘I saw something in the cellar, but to be truthful I have no idea what it was, except that it was absolutely terrifying. Do you know anything about it?’

She nodded her head. ‘You saw it and you’re still alive to tell the tale? You are a very lucky man, officer. I don’t know what it is but it has lived in the sewers and drains under this house for a very long time. It took my little brother in 1930 and we never saw him again. Tell me, did it hurt those two evil bastards? Pardon my language.’

‘The girl fell down the steps and broke her neck, but the man…’

Kav wasn’t sure what to say. He had a feeling he shouldn’t be saying anything, but the look on her face was imploring him to speak, so he did. Jake had also seen it, and he wasn’t sure if Annie had been conscious at the time, but that was three of them.

‘The man got into a fight with it. There was a lot of blood, but I think the creature may have killed him. I don’t know about whatever it was, because the last I saw of them they had collapsed in a heap of blood and gore.’

Martha crossed herself and held her hands together to say a prayer, and then she looked at him.

‘I have spent my entire life a prisoner in this house, terrified of that cellar and the thing that lived within it, yet I couldn’t sell up and move away. I couldn’t put another family through what I’ve been through. It wasn’t right. I hope to God that it’s dead so I may finish off my days without living in complete fear.’

‘Well, we’ll find out for sure in the next couple of hours. I’m afraid it’s going to be a long night for you, Miss Beckett. We will need to bring in an armed team of response officers to secure your cellar and remove the bodies. I think you might be best going to the hospital and getting checked out. At least you’ll be well away from it.’

‘That’s very kind of you, but I have to be here. I need to know if it has come to some harm, or whether it escaped.’

There was some noise as the paramedics decided they had stabilised Will enough to take him out to the waiting ambulance and blue-light him through to the nearest hospital, where the surgical team was on standby to take him into theatre. Annie insisted on going in the back of the ambulance with Will. The paramedics had told her she should follow with Jake, but she wasn’t having any of it. ‘I promise I won’t get in the way. I can’t leave him. He’d never leave me if it was the other way around.’

Jake helped her to get inside then jumped straight back out. ‘I’ll meet you up there, Annie.’ He slammed the doors and watched as it drove away, sirens and lights flashing.

Cathy looked at him. She was covered in Will’s blood. ‘Is it over, Jake?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, it’s over. We might finally be able to start living our lives again.’

‘What about Will?’

‘He’ll be fine. He’s probably going for the sympathy card. How many times have we had to watch him fretting over Annie? He’s probably getting his own back.’

Jake winked at her. Even though his stomach was a bag of nerves, he wouldn’t let her see just how scared he was for his friend. ‘Are you coming to the hospital?’

‘Not yet. I’d better wait for the troops to come and clear up this big, bloody mess we’ve made. I can’t leave Kav on his own to deal with it all. He’ll want to go to the hospital to see how Will is as soon as he can.’

‘Thanks, boss. I don’t know what we’d have done without you.’

She laughed. ‘Probably exactly the bloody same. You lot are giving me stomach ulcers, I’m telling you now. I want a nice peaceful life after this is all over. Try and get that into Annie’s head, will you, Jake?’

Kav walked outside. He wrapped an arm around her waist.

‘Now can you wonder why I was so desperate to ship her up to you? I was hoping that she wouldn’t get into too much trouble up here. Sorry about that.’

‘You crafty old bugger. Yes, I do understand, but I’ll tell you something; there’s something about Annie we all love, including the local psychos, and if you hadn’t sent her to me I wouldn’t have found out that you might just be the man of my dreams.’

Jake clapped. ‘Aw, I love a good love story. Right, I’m off. I want to make sure Will doesn’t flake out and leave me to deal with Annie on my own for the rest of my life. I love her, but I don’t need this much stress every few months.’

He winked at them and got into his car, switching on the blue lights so he could catch up with the ambulance. In fact, he’d give the bloody thing an escort to the hospital to make sure they all got there in one piece at the same time.

31 December 1931

It had been a whole year since Joe had gone into the cellar and never come back out. Martha had grown up more in the last twelve months than any young girl her age should have to. She had been watching for the monster, but that day in June had been the last she had seen of it.

The next day in the kitchen she’d heard Mary gossiping to Lucy about someone falling into the lake. No one could find the body, even though it hadn’t been long before the alarm had been raised. Martha didn’t say anything to them, but she knew they never would find the body of whoever had been so unfortunate. The body had been dragged through the maze of tunnels and sewers to wherever the monster lived and slept. Martha hoped, no prayed, that whatever it was had gone to sleep for a very long time like Arthur had told her.

Each night she would creep down and listen at the cellar door to see if she could hear it scurrying around on the cold, limestone floor, its sharp claws clickety-clacking as it tried its best to get into the house. The first few times, Martha had heard nothing but the pounding of her heart as the blood rushed around her body; the fear had been so strong. But when she listened night after night and there was nothing but silence, no scratching and no tinkling of the jack-in-the-box, she began to feel braver. She knew that the monster thing would kill her if it got the chance, but a part of her had died the night Joe had gone anyway, and she wondered if it would be so bad. At least she would be back with Joe and they could play together again. No child should have to feel as lonely as she had done this last year.