A Death Displaced (19 page)

Juliet hated statues, the eerie way they appeared ready to spring to life. She half expected its eyes to follow her, or to blink. She forced herself not to look any longer and continued on her way.

Finding the kitchen, she located a glass and filled it with water before hurrying back to the entry hall.

Tommy turned Aldrich onto his back and then propped him into an upright position. About to pour water into his mouth, Juliet realised that he could well choke on it. A lot of things went through her mind:
Recovery position, I’ve done first aid training, call an ambulance, call the police.
But due to the circumstances she decided to just flick water on his face and give him a light slap on the cheek. It worked.

‘Unnghh,’ he groaned.

He smelt rusty, metallic. One side of his hair was dried flat with dark blood, and his curly fringe was dishevelled, partially covering the mark on his forehead from where Nick had hit him with the butt of the shotgun. Blood had stained one shoulder of his tweed jacket a mouldy brown colour.

‘We need to speak to you,’ Juliet said gently.

‘I can’t see,’ he mumbled, and then with more power, ‘
I can’t see!
’

‘We’ve blindfolded you so that you can’t get me to attack anyone.’

He wailed and fiercely shook his body, but Tommy held tight to him. Juliet’s heart sank miserably; even after the abhorrent things this man had done, she couldn’t help feel wretched seeing how pathetic he looked right now.

‘You’ve tied my hands,’ he complained. ‘It’s too tight. I’m cold.’

Tom looked around nervously, seeming afraid that someone would hear Aldrich shouting. He gestured towards the back of the manor and gave a strict nod.

‘We are going to take you outside to speak with you,’ Juliet began. ‘We will find a blanket to keep you warm. Would you like some water, I have some here.’ She spoke clearly.

‘You fucking
bitch
, you
whore
, you
slut
,
untie me!
’ he screamed, spitting through tense lips.

Nick’s face changed demeanour and he appeared ready to yell something in protest, but Juliet calmly held up a hand, gesturing him to not bother.

She said to Aldrich, ‘I’d appreciate it if you didn’t speak to me in that manner.’ Her voice was austere. ‘We came here simply to ask some questions, but you’ve attacked us repeatedly. I don’t take orders from anyone, and why would name-calling give me cause to help you? If you answer our questions, I’m certain we can come to an agreement in which we all walk away with no further harm.’

Aldrich didn’t reply. She watched his nostrils flare and his lips pull together in a resentful line. Breathing heavily out of his nose, he remained silent. Tom raised his eyebrows, showing how impressed he was at Juliet’s handling of the situation, and Nick seemed to have calmed down.

Pressing the glass to Aldrich’s lips, Juliet said, ‘Drink some water, and then we are going to stand you up and take you outside.’ He did as told and then Juliet turned to Nick and Tom. ‘Could one of you go and find a blanket for him please?’

Tom jogged up the staircase to the indoor balcony then through a doorway and out of sight. He returned with a chocolate-brown throw. Tommy pulled Aldrich to his feet, and then all of them headed down the hallway and into the kitchen. There was a back door apparently locked from the inside, so Nick searched for the key. When he had no luck, Aldrich begrudgingly gruffled, ‘The flowerpot.’

Nick found the key underneath the pot on a nearby shelf.

The ‘garden’ wasn’t exactly a garden at all. Behind Grendel Manor was a large field of land. There was a faint trodden path where it was apparent someone had regularly walked in that direction. They decided to follow it.

The sound of the sea grew louder, the force of the wind swelled stronger. Strangely, walking Aldrich out into the field made Juliet think of war films, as if they were marching their hostage to a secluded area to execute him. She felt awful.

Aldrich hummed on the way, a tune she didn’t recognise, like a secret lullaby. It gave her the creeps and the impression he knew something vital they didn’t. Then
that
reminded her of horror movies, the type where she’d sigh at characters who made infuriatingly stupid decisions. Would she be cursing herself now if this was a film she was watching? Had she made ridiculous choices? She hoped not. Those characters often died.

It was difficult for her to walk in wedge boots on the uneven ground. In hindsight, they weren’t the best choice of footwear; she stood awkwardly taller than Nick and the twins, and she’d already had to run a few times this morning. She silently decided that the next time she did a spirit’s bidding, she’d wear trainers.

After walking for over ten minutes, she turned back and saw that Grendel Manor was tiny. They were definitely far away enough to not be heard.

There was a small group of trees offering shelter from the wintry wind. They headed into them, and Tommy pushed Aldrich down against the trunk of a tree. Tom placed the throw over him.

‘I won’t tell you anything unless you take this blindfold off,’ Aldrich murmured. ‘Take it off. I need my eyes. I want to see.
Take it off, take it off!
’

Juliet couldn’t place his accent at all. It was very slight: the occasional elongation of a word, the occasional roll of the tongue.

Nothing matched up about Aldrich Grendel. When they’d first knocked on his door today, he’d been so polite … for a fraction of time. And then he’d turned pompous, showing only contempt. And now? Now he was a snivelling wreck, his voice a strangled, helpless whine.

‘Juliet. If you stay out of sight, then we can take his blindfold off,’ Nick said. ‘We should be fine.’

‘How do you know he can’t control the twins?’ she asked, as if they weren’t present.

‘Because if he could, then he would have used his ability on them earlier instead of you. Again, no offence, but look at the muscles on Tommy.’ He awkwardly laughed.

‘Okay, but be ready to cover his eyes if he tries anything,’ she suggested. She walked off through the trees and found a fallen trunk to sit on.

When she took out her mobile, she checked the time. It was 12:42 pm. She bitterly thought,
Oh how time flies when you’re having fun.
But what was the point in sulking? She chided herself mentally for being so resentful.

Although not hungry yet, she sensed inchoate emptiness in her stomach. Well, she didn’t know if it was that, or if it was just unsettled from the fear of seeing a shotgun pointed at Nick’s head. For breakfast, she’d had muesli with added fruit and low fat yoghurt. That was at about 7.30am, so maybe it
was
incipient hunger she felt.

She hadn’t thought about Samantha Crystan’s appearance since it had happened. Samantha had literally zapped in and out of this world to help save her sons.
She said she didn’t have time to stay before. How did she manage to appear again?
There was a lot Juliet didn’t know about the Spiritworld.

And then she realised they’d left the gun in the manor on the step. Was that a mistake? She didn’t know, but she couldn’t exactly go and alert them now. Not until she was sure Aldrich was blindfolded again.

All she could do was sit and wait, which she hated doing. But before much time had passed, something in front of her caught her attention: a small glimmering sphere that bobbed through the air.

Like a firefly, or a little fairy.

It swirled around the trees and branches as if to get her attention.
What is that?
she marvelled, standing up. She walked towards it, fascinated by its beauty. It trailed through the trees … guiding her, taking her down a mysterious path.       
 
 

Chapter 15

Autumn leaves covered the ground; some whipped about occasionally as the wind wended through the trees. Nick looked down at Aldrich sat against a trunk. Looking at him made his blood run. He still shook from almost having his head blown off.

Aldrich had tried to kill him repeatedly now, and Nick was certain Aldrich had played a foul hand in his mum’s disappearance. Once he found out what that hand was, he wasn’t sure how he would react.

With the blindfold still covering Aldrich’s eyes, Nick came towards him slowly, knelt down, and readied his hand to lift the blindfold. ‘If you try your trick on my brothers, I’ll blindfold you again.’ His jaw was clenched as he spoke, and he already hated the man.

He lifted the blindfold, and Tom seemed to take an instinctual step away. Tommy stood strong and glared at Aldrich. Moving back some more, Tom shouted, ‘Nick!’ He grabbed at his head. ‘I can feel him inside my mind. He’s trying to get in.’

A second later Tommy said, ‘He’s tryin’ it on me too. Cover his eyes!’

With an impatient huff, Nick yanked the blindfold back down.

‘I’m not telling you anything. Take the blindfold off.
Take it off
. I won’t answer any questions.’ Aldrich wriggled side to side, kicking at the earth.

‘Yeah, I know.’ Nick said harshly, and thought,
Bloody broken record you are.
He rose to his feet. ‘Would you two go out of sight, maybe each go to opposite ends of the manor and keep an eye out in case anyone comes?’

Tommy’s face screwed up indignantly. ‘No. I wanna hear what he says about Mum.’

‘I’d like to hear too,’ added Tom.

‘I know, but he’s not going to talk with the blindfold on. Please, just go, I’ll tell you everything he says.’ Nick felt odd talking about Aldrich as if he wasn’t there, tied up, blindfolded, bloody and bruised.

‘No, I’m stayin’. I can keep him outta my head, I bet yuh,’ Tommy said with frustrating finality.

Nick shouted, ‘Tommy, just go!’

‘What makes yuh think you’re boss of this family, Nick? Talkin’ to Dad like shit, makin’ decisions for us. I can do what I like.’ He outshouted Nick with ease.

Nick became heavy with guilt at the mention of the argument with his dad, but that was part of why he was here. He needed to know the truth, to find the closure his dad deserved, the closure that would hopefully let him move on. ‘Tommy. You saw what he did to Juliet. I don’t want to risk it. What if he managed to control you and you did something to Tom or me, or to Juliet? How guilty would you feel?’

‘Pffftt. He can’t control me,’ he replied, and gave Aldrich a scornful glare.

‘Please, Tommy.’ Nick tried a reasonable tone.

Tom spoke up then. ‘Tommy, let’s just go. Nick wouldn’t keep anything from us. It’s better not to risk it, like he said. Let’s just go keep a look out.’

Tommy relaxed his stance a bit, then said, ‘Whatever. But I wanna know
everythin’
he tells yuh.’ He stomped away without another word, and Nick nodded to Tom in thanks. His brother returned a weak smile.

Worry swam in Nick’s mind. Part of him wanted to run away, another part wanted to cry, and the rest of him just wanted Aldrich to spill the beans already, and then vanish out of existence.

He began to pace back and forth, tapping the centre of his left palm repeatedly.
I’m calm, I’m focused, I’m calm, I’m focused.

‘Are you going to take this off of me?’ Aldrich caught him by surprise, making him jump.

‘Yeah,’ he answered half-heartedly. He pulled the blindfold up to rest on Aldrich’s forehead, and it pushed his mop-ish curly fringe up like a school-boy’s gelled quiff. Nick noticed how much Aldrich’s head had swollen with bruising; it was horrifically distorted. Oddly, he felt very little guilt.

The question of his mum’s disappearance was the most important one, but he had many things he wanted to ask. Here was another person with some form of higher ability, and Nick yearned to know more about it. He wanted to know how Aldrich had gained control over his power, where it had come from, if it had taken practice, and how long he’d been able to do it. The list of things to ask gave him a frisson, mixed with worry and impatience.

‘How do you control other people’s actions?’ he asked.

‘I see their minds.’

That’s too simple.
‘Care to elaborate?’

‘A web, patterns … little pockets, shapes, colours, all sorts. I see their minds. Not tiny brains.
Their minds
. Larger than their head, seeps into their bodies, hovers around them. Intentions.’ He spoke slowly, plodding over each word.

Nick frowned, confused. ‘You’re not making sense.’

‘I can’t see yours. Not exactly. I can sense it, but I can’t penetrate it.’ He smiled sardonically.

‘Penetrate it? My mind?’

‘I see people’s minds, I see the patterns, I place my will inside of those brains, those minds, those patterns. I fiddle, immerse myself, tamper, and edit memories. All is different inside one’s mind. Time doesn’t exist, not there. All memories are there for access, for editing, for planting seeds.’

It was tiresome listening to Aldrich, and Nick resented having so much he wanted to ask. ‘Editing?’

‘It takes time. I can sift through a mind and plant intentions. Change beliefs. Destroy memories. Distort realities.’

The thought of it caused an aversion in Nick’s body. It was so immoral, invasive and just … wrong.  

‘And, what do you mean you can’t see my mind?’

‘I
can
see it, in a sense. But I can’t see the patterns. Your mind is all-encompassing; it’s connected to the fabric surrounding us, the fabric of time and space.
Your
mind is everywhere at once.’ Aldrich answered with a cryptic flash of his eyes.

Nick felt weak suddenly and took a moment to lean on a tree. He thought about the vision he’d brought upon himself earlier today, how he had made it work. He’d imagined himself as a tree, spreading outwards, entwining himself with the universe, being connected to everything. It was
that
state of being that had brought on the vision. Maybe Aldrich could sense Nick’s ability? Was that what he ‘saw’ when he looked for Nick’s mind? Is that how Nick could see the future? Because his mind was connected to the ‘fabric’ of time and space?

It annoyed him that even if that was the case, the vision he’d had earlier was inaccurate. In that one, Aldrich had been unconscious on the floor, but when they’d actually returned to the manor he was prepared and waiting with a shotgun. Maybe Nick’s ability had saved Juliet’s life the first time, but this time it had almost got them all killed. He was glad to have the ability, to be ‘special’, but he craved to gain control over it. How could he trust his visions when so far there had been major consequences?