The Haunting of Emily Stone (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Today

Pulling into the parking spot just after 4am, Doctor Robert Slocombe turned the engine off and looked back to see that Emily and Lizzie were fast asleep on the back seat, with their arms around one another.

***

“Hey,” Douglas said, catching up to him in the all-night restaurant as they waited for their food to be ready. “Where are they?”

“Sleeping in the car,” he replied wearily. “I didn't want to wake them, so I left the heating on and bought some extra burgers. I figure they'll be hungry soon.”

“Did they say much?” Douglas asked.

He shook his head.

“And are you sure this is wise, Rob? I mean, you lied to the police, and Emily's effectively on the run. Plus, you have a duty to tell them if Lizzie's -”

“Keep your voice down,” Robert whispered, as the woman behind the counter brought their orders over, including the Happy Meal he'd ordered for Lizzie. Grabbing his tray, he led Douglas over to a table by the window. “No, I
don't
know if this is wise. I don't know what the hell I'm doing, all I know is that the police would separate them and then Lizzie would probably go missing again and Emily would end up in a cell or on a psych ward. Whatever's going on, that wouldn't be a happy ending, would it? At least this way, we can help them.”

“Help them?” Douglas smiled. “In the old days, you'd be more concerned with
studying
them, not
helping
them.”

“That's what I meant,” he replied, biting into his burger. “Same thing,” he added with his mouth full.

“And how exactly do you propose to help them?”

“By working out what the hell's going on,” he continued. “I don't know, but it seems reasonable to assume that whatever's after Emily, it won't give up. I think it's also reasonable to assume that it's not tied specifically to the house, so we don't need to be there. We'll get them to the office and then we'll work out what the hell we're going to do next.”

“And you believe it all?”

Robert paused.

“Really?” Douglas added. “Are you back on the team now?”

“I can't deny what I saw tonight,” he replied. “I know the cameras cut out, but I'm sure we got some kind of reading on the sensors, and I saw it with my own eyes. We both did.”

“And what exactly was
it
?” Douglas asked. “Where did Lizzie come from? One moment she's missing and no-one knows where the hell she is, and then she shows up out of nowhere, in her bedroom.”

“From what Emily said, it sounds like she was taken to some other place and then released again, most likely through that crack or fracture or whatever the hell was in the room. It was like a door to another world.” He paused for a moment. “I saw it, Doug. I saw
through
it, something was on the other side, I was so close. There was... It was almost as if there was a whole other world through there. I
have
to find out what it means.”

“And how much is that worth to you?” Douglas asked. “What are you willing to sacrifice?”

“For the chance to see what's on the other side?” He paused again. “This scares me a little, but I don't think there's anything I wouldn't give.”

“Have you asked Lizzie yet?”

“I haven't had a chance. The poor kid's exhausted. I'm worried about how all of this is going to affect her.”

“You? Worried about a little girl?” Douglas smiled. “Jesus Christ, it's almost like the old Rob Slocombe has suddenly come back.”

“Don't get melodramatic,” Robert replied as he finished his burger and grabbed the rest of the food. “Come on, we need to get going. The sooner we can get them back to the office, the sooner we can get started.”

“And what's the plan?”

“There's no plan yet, but...” He paused for a moment. “I guess the first thing we need to do is to find out where the hell Lizzie Stone was between leaving the care home and turning up tonight.”

***

“It's okay,” Robert said a few hours later, as he sat opposite Lizzie and Emily, “there's no reason to be scared. I just need you to tell me everything you remember.”

He waited, but Lizzie simply stared at him.

“
Do
you remember anything?” he added. “You were gone for twenty-four hours, Lizzie. Is it all just a blur?”

After a moment, Lizzie looked up at her mother.

“Tell him what you remember,” Emily replied, with a faint smile. “It's okay.”

Turning back to Robert, Lizzie paused for a moment. “The woman came and got me,” she said finally, her voice faltering a little. “She came to the place I was staying and she grabbed me. She broken the door down and she pulled me into the light and through to the other side.”

“The other side of what?” he asked, glancing at the heart-rate monitor, which showed a slow but steady increase in Lizzie's pulse.

“The other side of the...” She paused. “She held onto me. We were high up, on the side of a wall, but the wall wasn't made out of bricks.”

“What
was
it made of?” Robert asked.

She stared at him for a moment. “It looked like... The insides of lots of faces, all sewn together.”

Robert looked over at Emily, who hugged her daughter tighter.

“And you were high up?” he asked, turning back to Lizzie.

She nodded.

“How high?”

“A long way. I could see people below, though. They were shouting at us, and some of them were trying to climb up after us, but for some reason they kept falling off. The woman said...” Another pause. “The woman said it had taken her years to climb up so far. She said she didn't know why, but she was a better climber than the others.”

“What did the people look like?”

“They didn't have any clothes on. Their skin was gray.”

“And the woman who was holding you...”

“She was the same.”

“What did her face look like?”

“Not like Loretta Lynn,” Emily said darkly.

He turned to her.

“I'm not that stupid,” she added. “Nice try, though.”

“Her skin was broken,” Lizzie explained, “like it was all dry and there were cracks in it. Some of it was missing, and...” She paused, before reaching up and running a hand over the front of her own face, as if she was feeling the bones beneath her flesh. “It was scary. I could see her skeleton. She held onto me, though. If she hadn't, I'd have fallen.”

“And that lasted the whole twenty-four hours?” he asked. “Until you came back?”

“It wasn't that long,” she replied. “It was more like... I don't know, just a few seconds.”

“Time passes differently on the other side,” Emily explained. “At least, that's what the voice told me when I was younger. A few seconds over there seems like a day or more for us. All of this, from when I was a girl to today, has probably just seemed like a minute or two to the woman on the other side of the wall.”

“It was really cold,” Lizzie added.

“So this woman pulled you through,” Robert continued, making a note on his pad, “and then what?”

“That's when she offered me the deal,” Emily replied.

“What deal?”

“When I went into the bedroom tonight,” she continued, “after I heard the noises, there were something in there. I heard the voice. She told me she didn't want Lizzie, that she just wanted to come through me to get back into this world. She said that if I agreed to stop resisting, she'd let Lizzie come back, that I could save Lizzie if I gave myself to her.”

“And you agreed?”

“Of course I agreed.”

“And then what happened?”

“And then the wall just seemed to...” She paused. “There was an explosion of light, and Lizzie came stumbling through. I told her to be good, to get out of there, and then a hand came through and grabbed my legs. It started pulling me into the hole, and then...”

“And then?” he asked.

“And then you showed up,” she added, with a hint of bitterness, “and saved me. You made me break the deal.”

“Do you think I made the wrong decision?”

“I think I was willing to accept the deal. I understand why you did it, but I was still willing to accept whatever she offered me, so long as she left Lizzie alone.”

“What would have happened if I hadn't been there?” he asked.

“I would have been trapped on the other side, on the wall, and the woman would have been in this world again.” She paused. “She said she just wanted to be here. She said her life was taken from her, she said she was too young and that it was unfair, and she said she wanted another chance to spend time in this world. She just wants to be a ghost, to see this place again. I don't think she's evil, I think she's just desperate.”

“And a good climber, apparently,” he muttered, making another note.

“Do you know about the wall?” Emily asked. “I mean, does this story make any sense to you at all?”

“I've read about something similar once,” he replied. “There's an old book that mentions something that might be the wall you're talking about. Doug's trying to get a copy sent to us, but it's very hard to get its custodians to let it out of their sight. What we have to focus on right now is the fact that you still might not be safe.”

“You have to let me complete the deal I made,” Emily replied. “It's the only way to stop it coming after us.”

“That might not be true.”

“It'll try again tonight,” she continued. “I have to, she said as much. She'll either take Lizzie and try to force her way through
her
soul, which she says is a harder route, or she'll take me, which she says is easier.” She paused for a moment, with tears in her eyes. “I'm willing to give up my life if it means my daughter is safe.”

“Mummy,” Lizzie whispered, “what does that mean?”

“It means everything's going to be okay,” she replied, leaning down and kissing the top of Lizzie's head before turning to Robert. “It can still reach us here, you know. The house has nothing to do with anything, it's just where we happened to be. Now we're here, and it'll still come. I know what I have to do.”

“We can still work something out,” Robert told her, before hearing voices in the next room. Glancing at the door for a moment, he realized Douglas was talking to someone. “Wait right here,” he added as he got to his feet. “I'll be back in a moment.”

Heading to the door, he slipped through into the next room and stopped as soon as he saw Jenna standing by the desk with Douglas.

“Hey,” she said, turning to him with a faint but apprehensive smile. “Sounds like you've got a lot going on here.”

***

“Of course I came back,” she continued a few minutes later, as they reached the cafeteria. “When Doug told me what had happened, I got on the first flight back.”

“And Tim wasn't annoyed?”

“His name's Tom,” she replied with a faint smile, “and... I'll make it up to him later.”

“Sorry to drag you away from the skiing season,” he added, grabbing a sandwich from the counter.

“Douglas Whale is the most level-headed,
least
hyperbolic man I've ever met in my life,” she replied. “When he called me and started describing the events of last night, I just knew I had to come and be part of whatever the hell you guys are doing. Believe me, last-minute plane tickets aren't cheap.”

“I guess the gang's back together,” he muttered, heading to the cash desk.

“Don't get ahead of yourself,” she replied. She kept quiet as they paid, preferring not to say anything more until they were out of anyone else's earshot. “You do realize that you're harboring a wanted criminal, don't you?” she continued. “Seriously, Rob, they mentioned it on the radio! How long do you think it's going to take before they put two and two together, and come after you? They're going to figure out what's happening eventually, and then
you're
going to be in trouble as well! You lied to the police!”

“I had to.”

“You always have to go to extremes, don't you?”

“Did they mention the house?” he asked, sidestepping her question.

“What about it?”

“I assume the police have looked over the place. Did they say on the news whether there was any damage after everything that happened last night?”

“No, but apparently the neighbors reported seeing two weird men with Emily,” she continued. “Does that ring any bells? Do you and Doug have any idea who the two weird men might have been?”

“Well, Doug's a little strange,” he replied, “but -”

“I'm serious!” Stepping in front of him to block his way, she paused for a moment. “I take it this means you're no longer a skeptic?”

“It means I'm...” He paused. “You should have seen it last night, Jenna. It was right there in front of us, I even saw something in there, something reaching out from some kind of...” Another pause. “I was about to describe it as a portal to another world, but frankly that'd sound ridiculous. It was a doorway to some place, though, and from Lizzie's description, it sounds very much like the land of the dead. You've read the Myrkia, right?”