THE RELIC GUILD (and other stories) Updated regularly.

CUCKOOS OVER WEST SPIRE (part 8 of 9)

Alice drove through the night. The Silence followed her from the house, as if it had infected her, embedded itself into her head, like an eerie emptiness that could not be filled no matter how loud she turned up the radio. It urged her on, forced her foot down harder on the accelerator pedal, and she did not stop – even for toilet breaks or refreshments – until she arrived at Odd Place by the Sea sometime after dawn.

She found a parking space on the seafront, close to the little station from which the steam engine ran alongside the beach. The engine was resting beside the platform. There was no one in sight. Ensuring she had a clear view of the station, Alice sat at a window table in a café on the opposite side of the street. Alone with the Silence, she sipped an espresso.

She was half-way through her third cup when a man arrived at the station. Her heart skipped a beat as she watched him climb into the steam engine's driver's compartment. The Silence flared in Alice's head as she left the café and ran across the road.

Archie, the engine driver, pulled at his neckerchief as she approached. "Hello there," he said. The expression on his round and ruddy face suggested he recognised Alice from somewhere. "What can I do for you today?"

Alice smiled anxiously. "One ticket to West Spire, please."

Archie had to wake Alice when they reached their destination. She had been dreaming of the Silence as a void of nothing that made her forget who she was. Out of the window, in the near distance, she saw the dark and pointed tower of West Spire rising from the sea.

"Come on," Archie said. "I'll take you across."

The sun was shining in a blue sky, and the sea was clear and calm as the little boat puttered towards West Spire. As soon as the vessel touched the promontory at the tower's base, Alice disembarked and headed for the entrance. She barely heard Archie saying that he would be back at midday for the return trip, and she pushed through the tower's huge double doors.

"Hello?" she called to the shadows of the hollow interior. She remembered the lack of echoes, but this time they seemed to deepen the Silence in her head. "Is anyone here?"

Alice flinched as the door to her left opened, and a figure wearing a hooded cloak emerged. Although a face was hidden by the depths of the hood, Alice judged the figure was a woman by her build and the way she walked towards her. This was proved correct when the figure reached her and said, "Can I help you?"

Alice didn't reply immediately. There was something in the woman's voice's that rang a faint bell of distant memory. The woman was a similar size to Alice, and stood surprisingly straight, even though she clearly carried some deformity that gave her two humps on her shoulders.

Realising that she was staring, Alice quickly gathered herself, saying, "I left a man here, some time ago. My husband."

"Hmm," said the woman. "What's his name?"

Alice's eyes became pensive. "Old Doug." She smiled sadly. "You can't mistake him. He doesn't shave as often as he should, and his hair always looks as if it needs a cut ... or just a good combing would do." Alice chuckled. "He's round about the waist with narrow shoulders. He looks like a pear."

"Old Doug," said the woman. "Yes, I believe I know the gentleman in question."

Alice snapped out of whatever reverie had gripped her. "Oh. Good. I need to see him. I read this book, you see. It told me what to do, but I think I made a mistake."

"I understand," said the woman.

Alice's face brightened, but then clouded. "Only ..." She bit her bottom lip. "Only there's the problem of New Doug. He's still in my house, and the Silence is driving me mad."

"Don't worry about that, madam," said the woman in her voice that was somehow so familiar. "I'll take care of him."

"Really?"

"Most certainly. I'll go to him as soon as I'm able. Now, if you'd like to follow me."

Alice was led to the room from which the woman had emerged. Alice's heart raced; just to hear the sound of Old Doug's voice again would surely overcome the Silence in her head. But when Alice entered the room, she found it utterly empty, and suddenly the woman had closed the door and locked her in.

"Hey!" Alice shouted. "What's going on?"

There was no reply. Alice tried the door, but no matter how hard she pulled and shook, it would not open. She heard the heavy thud of much bigger doors being closed, followed by the low clunk of a much bigger lock. With tears springing into her eyes, Alice realised that the woman, whoever she was, had trapped her inside West Spire, leaving her all alone. Her breath became short. Alice headed towards blind panic.

And that was the moment when the Silence was interrupted by the distant ringing of the Sound.

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