Famous Last Words

I'm Just a Ghost so I Can't Hurt You Anymore

As he leaned over me, I was petrified, frozen to the spot, simply lying there unable to even scramble backwards. I could hear the guys shouting; the words weren't clear, but somehow I knew that they couldn't reach me. But they didn't need to. Deep down I knew what needed to be done, but how and more importantly – where? I had long since realised that we had to find Lucy's body and I believed it would be somewhere in the library. But where? Where could you possibly hide a body anywhere in that room where it wouldn't be discovered either by someone stumbling across it or from the smell as it decomposed? And then, as he leaned over me brandishing the knife menacingly, it came to me.

"The grate!" I yelled as loud as I could. "The fire grate in the library! Gee! You have to..."

I stopped dead as the whole house seemed to shudder violently followed by an ear-splitting cracking sound. Frederick stumbled back away from me. He seemed shocked and disorientated and for the first time I began to feel that he was afraid of me. After so long being the other way around, I could scarcely believe it.

I realised within moments that I wasn't the source of his fear. It was almost as if he couldn't see me any more and I realised that finally I could move again. Looking to my right as a shadow crossed over me, I saw it was Gerard, come to my side to help me up. As the guys gathered around we watched as another shape formed in the lobby. It was smaller than Frederick, slight and as it took shape, clearly female.

"So, Frederick," the ghostly voice echoed around the room. "After all these years, your watch is nearly at an end. You know what happens now, don't you?"
"You can't do a thing to me!" he screamed in reply, swinging the knife back and forth as she approached.

It was the woman who had appeared to me so often, either in dreams or in person but instead of being soaking wet and dressed in some sort of nightdress, she was smartly dressed in a blue suit with matching accessories as if going out for the day. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was Lucy Morgan. He had killed her, but now – well now, I felt revenge was on the cards.

The smile of deep satisfaction on her face spoke volumes. If she had been afraid of this man in life as her diary suggested, she was no more. She had the look of someone who held all the cards and slowly, as more shapes began to form, it became apparent that that was exactly the case.

"I don't need to do anything, Frederick," she smiled.

It was almost a sweet smile, but her eyes gave away the bitterness that wanted... I was going to say revenge, but as the shapes began to take form, I realised that the word I was really searching for was justice.

"You!" he pointed directly at me, he sounded terrified, his voice trembling, his hand shaking. "You can stop this!"

My eyes widened in pure shock, wondering what he was going to do next and what he was so afraid of. I had no idea what it was he wanted me to do, but I felt certain that unless he could somehow force me, I wasn't going to do it.

"What do you want me to do?"

Don't even ask me why I said that!

"He's not doing anything for you!" Gerard yelled protectively. "Whatever you're so afraid of, whatever's going to happen, you deserve it all!"
"No! You don't understand! They made me do it. I had to!" he pleaded. "It's not my fault."
"Who made you do it?" I asked.

Surely he couldn't mean Daisy and Lucy? Did he mean the family? It seemed so unlikely. Looking through Lucy's diary had made it very plain that the only person she was scared of was this man and rightly so. It was his reply that surprised me more than anything.

"It was the shadows," he mumbled, looking around sharply as if afraid to be overheard. "They're everywhere."

I heard Bob snort his derision at the announcement, but my blood ran cold. There had been all too many occasions when I had been certain that several of the shadows I had seen had been just that little bit too dark, too solid, too real. Had I seen something he could see? Was I...? No, I refused to even think it. I wasn't affected like him. Or was I? Had I tried to strangle Gerard? I had to know! Even as I turned, Gerard could see the alarm in my eyes and he was already nodding, reassuring me that everything was all right. I had no idea if he knew what I was thinking or worried about but he was putting me at ease in a situation where terror could so easily have taken hold.