Frozen Charlotte (4 page)

“It’s not your fault,” Uncle James replied. He glanced at me and said, “You might as well know that Lilias is scared of all bones, even the ones inside her own body. She’s been gradually improving since she started therapy but we never serve any food with bones in it and … and just as an extra precaution we keep all the kitchen knives in a locked drawer. A couple of years ago Lilias got hold of one and tried to cut out one of her collarbones. She survived, obviously – Cameron caught her in the act otherwise God knows what would have happened, and I don’t think she’d try to do it again but … we don’t want to take any chances.”

“Of course not,” I said, hardly knowing what else to say. I wondered whether that was why Lilias had been wearing a turtleneck – to hide whatever scars remained from what she’d tried to do.

Cameron and Lilias did not return to the table and their food slowly congealed and cooled on their plates. Piper, Uncle James and I finished our meals in strained silence and it was a relief when it was over
and I could finally return to my bedroom.

The smell of rotting flowers greeted me as soon as I opened the door. To my surprise, the purple butterworts by my bedside table seemed to have shrivelled up and died while I’d been downstairs. The change seemed so fast that I almost wondered whether someone could have sneaked in here and swapped the living flowers for dead ones.

As I got changed I wondered what on earth Jay would say about all this if he were here. Probably something like: “They’re all barking mad, Sophie. I’d scarper if I were you, before they turn you into a basket case too. I’ll still come and visit you in the loony bin, though – if you go off your rocker, I mean. You’ll always have me. You know that, right?”

Sometimes, I could hear his voice so clearly in my mind that it was almost like he was still here with me, like I could reach out and touch him.

“I won’t leave,” I said, talking to Jay even though I knew he wasn’t really there. “No matter how much I want to, I won’t leave until I find out the truth about what happened to you.”

The room felt muggy and warm but when I went over to the window to let in a blast of fresh sea air, I
found that it had been sealed shut with some kind of black sealing wax. The window wouldn’t budge – I couldn’t even open it a crack.

I groaned. It was so hot – perhaps those flowers had died naturally after all. I switched off the lamp, climbed into bed and tried to lie as still as possible so that I might cool down a bit.

I didn’t think I would fall asleep very easily that night but in fact I fell asleep almost as soon as I lay down, and probably would have slept soundly all the way through till morning if I hadn’t been woken up a few hours later by cold fingers wrapping themselves tightly around my ankle.

The fingers were cold as ice, so cold that they seemed to burn and blister my skin. I gasped in the dark and tried to sit up to reach for the bedside lamp, but then another cold hand grabbed my wrist and pinned it to the bed. Fingers entwined through my hair, yanking my head back down to the pillow. And suddenly there were cold hands all over me – they seemed to come straight up out of the bed, pinching and scratching and clawing at my skin, like a hundred tiny birds pecking me to death.

I opened my mouth to scream and found the hands were in my mouth as well, tiny little cold fingers far too small to be human. They were more like dolls’ hands, squeezing around my tongue, scratching at my teeth, poking the inside of my mouth and
crawling down my throat, choking me and making it impossible to breathe.

I thrashed and flailed and fought them as hard as I could, but I was helpless in the grip of so many hands and I knew that they were winning, I knew that they meant to kill me.

Then a voice whispered in my ear, and it was a warm, sweet voice, a voice I knew so well.

“Wake up, Sophie,” Jay said. “It’s only a dream. Time to wake up now.”

And I could have cried because Jay wasn’t really dead, he was right here with me and it had all just been a terrible nightmare. The knowledge gave me the strength to fight the cold hands that were trying to drag me down into the darkness. With a final burst of effort I managed to yank one of my arms free and lash out at them. My hand slapped someone hard in the dark. I felt skin tear and warm blood seep out beneath my nails.

And then that voice again: “Wake
up
, Sophie! You’re dreaming!”

Only it wasn’t Jay’s voice this time; it was Cameron’s.

I blinked in confusion, trying to work out what
was happening. The lights were on and I saw that I was in the guest bedroom at Uncle James’s house. Cameron was leaning over me, his dark hair all tousled from sleep, both hands gripping my arms. A deep scratch ran down his cheek, bleeding slightly.

“You’re dreaming,” he said again. “It’s just a nightmare – you’re safe.”

Cameron’s left hand felt warm and normal on my skin but his right felt strange – hard and rubbery, as if he was wearing some kind of glove. I looked down and gasped in shock at the sight of his right hand. Even though I’d known it was burnt, I wasn’t prepared for the sight of that shrivelled, ruined skin that completely covered his palm and reached all the way up past his wrist.

It reminded me of the waitress back at the café. I could still hear her scream ringing in my ears, could still smell that awful smell of burning hair and human flesh. I shuddered at the memory, but Cameron clearly thought it was the sight of his hand that had made me shudder. He snatched his hands away as if I’d given him an electric shock, and stepped back from the bed so fast that he stumbled slightly. His trousers didn’t have
any pockets so he put his hand behind his back instead.

“I’m sorry,” he said stiffly. “I wouldn’t have come in here like this, only I heard you cry out and I thought—” He broke off abruptly, and I got the impression that he’d suddenly changed his mind about what he’d been going to say. “I thought you might wake the whole house,” he said instead.

Despite the fact I knew it had just been a dream, I still felt the need to look around the bed, still half expecting to see hands poking up out of the mattress or curling around the pillow. Of course, there was nothing there but crumpled sheets, damp with sweat. The room was hot enough to suffocate.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It was just… I guess I was having a nightmare.”

“So it would seem,” he replied. He raised an eyebrow. “Is this going to happen every night, do you think?”

I could feel myself blushing furiously. Cameron hadn’t exactly seemed delighted to see me as it was, and waking him up in the middle of the night like this was definitely not giving a good first impression. “It’s never happened before,”
I said. Then I saw the scratch on his face and groaned aloud before I could stop myself. “Did I do that?”

“I couldn’t wake you,” he replied. Then added, “You’re stronger than you look.”

“I’m really sorry,” I said again.

He inclined his head slightly. “Forget it. It’s not the first time I’ve been slapped by a girl, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Do you think you’ll be all right now?”

“Yes,” I said, feeling embarrassed. “Sorry.”

“You don’t need to keep apologizing,” Cameron said, already turning away.

I called goodnight to him but he didn’t reply as he walked out the door, carefully moving his burnt hand in front of him so that I wouldn’t see it as he left.

I lay awake for the next few minutes feeling terrible, hating myself for reacting to Cameron’s hand like that. If I hadn’t been still half tangled up in the nightmare, as well as reminded of that burnt waitress, I would never have behaved that way. I thought about trying to explain to Cameron in the morning, but was worried that would only make an even bigger issue out of it.

When I rested back down on the pillows, I still felt nervous of the bed, half fearing that the cold hands might come back the moment I turned out the light.

I shook my head, disgusted with myself. I’d be screaming at shadows next. I reached out and firmly snapped off the light.

The moment I did so, someone downstairs started to laugh.

It wasn’t like any laughter I had ever heard before and I snapped the light back on at once.

Then the laugh came again.

God, it was a weird sound, and suddenly I was sitting bolt upright, my heart thumping in my chest. The laughter was shrill and high-pitched but it sounded all wrong, as if the person wasn’t actually amused and didn’t even understand what laughter was, but was just going through the motions of making the sound.

I made myself get out of bed and tiptoe out to the balustrades. I knew they looked over the entrance hall by the front door but, in the darkness, I couldn’t see whoever was down there. I could hear them, though, clearer than ever. And, as I stood there, the laughing stopped and the person suddenly spoke.

“
Monstrous
,” they said, quite clearly. Then, “
Monstrous, monstrous.
”

A cold horror prickled over my skin. There was something wrong with the voice, something dreadfully wrong, as if the speaker was not quite right in the head, demented somehow, or inhuman in some way. No normal person would speak like that. I couldn’t even tell if it was male or female. It was high-pitched but didn’t quite sound like either. Whoever they were, they were down there in the lobby, talking to themselves in the dark.

I thought of the awful murder scene that Lilias had been talking about at dinner, and I knew I had to wake someone up and tell them there was an intruder so that we could call the police. I wondered how long it would take for them to arrive at this lonely clifftop spot. The nearest house must be several miles away. We could all be butchered in our beds and no one would find out about it for hours and hours.

“
Never do that again
,” the high voice downstairs said. “
Never do that again. There’s blood under the rug!
”

I backed away from the balustrade, trying to remember where Uncle James’s room was but, at that moment, a door down the corridor opened and
Cameron stepped out. Despite the heat, he’d put on a dressing gown over his pyjamas, and his right hand was buried in his pocket.

I gestured to him frantically. “There’s someone down there!” I whispered as he came towards me.

“Yes, I know,” Cameron replied. “It’s Dark Tom.”

“
Monstrous
,” the voice said softly. “
Monstrous.
”

My fingers gripped the banister hard. “Who’s Dark Tom?” I whispered.

“Piper’s African Grey, of course.” Then, when I still looked blank, Cameron added, “Her pet parrot. His cage is tucked into the alcove by the front door. Didn’t she introduce you to him?”

I was so relieved that I could have hugged him. “No, she didn’t,” I said, relaxing my grip on the banister.

“I suppose you imagined that we were all about to be axed in our beds by a lunatic,” Cameron said. “I did try to warn you not to look at Lilias’s drawing.” In the dim light I couldn’t see his face clearly, but I could hear the amusement in his voice. “Are you always this nervous?” he asked.

“He just startled me,” I snapped. “That’s all. How many words can he say anyway?”

“Oh, loads. He’s got an amazing vocabulary.
We loved teaching him new words when we were kids. He’ll repeat anything if he hears it often enough. Sometimes he’ll even repeat things he’s heard only once.”

“He was talking about blood under the rug.”

“Yes. Well. Dark Tom’s heard a lot of unspeakable things in this house, I’m afraid. Don’t be offended if he starts swearing at you. His manners are appalling. He’s a horrible old thing, really. I don’t know why we put up with him.” Cameron leaned over the balustrades and said in a harsh whisper, “Tom! Be quiet! Or you’ll get no fruit for breakfast tomorrow!”

“
Blood
,” Dark Tom said sullenly, “
under the rug
.”

“I mean it, Tom!” Cameron hissed.

And the parrot finally fell silent.

“Well,” Cameron said, turning to me and raising his eyebrow slightly, “what an exciting night we seem to be having. If Tom wakes you again just tell him to pipe down. You have to be firm with him. Get Piper to introduce you in the morning. But don’t expect him to make friends with you, he pretty much hates everyone. And don’t stick your fingers into his cage, whatever you do. He’ll have them off if he gets half the chance.”

“Thanks for the advice,” I said. “And for … for earlier.”

Cameron looked at me in the dark and there was silence between us for a moment. I heard him draw breath and thought he was going to say something else but, in the end, he just said, “Well, goodnight then.”

And he went back to his room, closing the door firmly behind him.

There were no more disturbances that night and I managed to sleep until the morning. When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was the dappled light dancing on the ceiling, reflecting off the sea, and the sound of seagulls calling to each other in the distance.

I got up and went to the window, which looked out on to the garden at the back of the house, with the ocean beyond. But the thing that caught my attention straight away was the burnt tree. It was a black dead thing, with spindly branches poking up into the air like twisted fingers. It was hard to tell because everything was so black, but I thought I could make out a few rotting planks of wood nestled
among the branches, as if there’d been some kind of tree house there once.

When I looked at my watch I was startled to see that it was gone ten. I’d slept much later than I’d meant to, so I dressed quickly in a tank top and jeans and went downstairs. Now that the sun was shining through the windows, I noticed the alcove Cameron had mentioned. The parrot’s cage was tucked in the corner, almost out of sight. He was extremely handsome, with sleek grey feathers and keen intelligent eyes that watched me the entire time.

“Hello,” I said. “You gave me quite a fright last night.”

“
Fright
,” Dark Tom said, tilting his head this way and that, as if trying the new word out to see if he liked it. “
Fright. Fright. Fright!
”

Although I knew the parrot didn’t understand the word, and that he was only repeating it back at me, he seemed to say it with a kind of relish that sent a shiver down my spine.

Piper must have heard me come down because she emerged from the living room a second later.

“You naughty thing, waking Sophie up like that!” Her strawberry-blonde hair was down today,
tumbling loose over her shoulders in soft waves that made her look even more like a mermaid.

She gave me an apologetic look and said, “Cameron told me Tom gave you a scare in the night. I’m so sorry.”

“That’s OK. It’s lucky Cameron came out when he did or I might have woken your dad up over a parrot!”

“Oh, Cameron can’t stand Tom talking in the night. He’s a chronic insomniac. Cameron, that is, not Tom! It’s because he broods over things so much, that’s what I think. If he’d lighten up a bit and have some fun he’d probably sleep like a baby. Would you like some breakfast? Afterwards, perhaps we can go for a walk along the clifftop?”

“Sounds good. How’s Lilias?” I asked, as we walked into the kitchen.

“Oh, she’s all right. She’s always better after a good night’s rest. Sit down and I’ll make some toast.”

I pulled up a chair, and Shellycoat jumped straight on to my lap.

“She must like you,” Piper said, surprised. “She doesn’t normally take to strangers.”

I ate my toast with one hand and stroked Shellycoat with the other. I could see she was quite
an old cat. She only had a handful of teeth left and she was rather bony, but she purred the whole time I was stroking her.