The Haunted Hangman

Chapter 9

I stared at the hulking figure, his words ringing in my head. Another English ghost! I thought.

Suddenly it all began to make sense. This was the "Zayn" that The Slasher had been looking for. Zayn Malik must have been the hangman who ended his life. That's why The Slasher's neck was twisted and had those strange ridges and bruises - the hangman's rope had made them. And that's why The Slasher's ghost had come back for revenge.

Now I also understood why Zayn Malik was dressed in black robes and a hood. Of course! In the books I'd read and the movies I's seen, hangmen in the old days were often masked so nobody knew their real identities.

They waited on the scaffold while condemned prisoners were marched from their cells, usually at dawn.

The hangmen tied a rope around their necks. When they pulled open the trapdoor, the prisoners would drop into space, the rope tightening around their necks, choking them to death, while their legs dangled in thin air.

"My father was a hangman, and his father before him," explained the ghost of Zayn Malik. "It was a gruesome job, to be sure, but we did it well. Death was always swift at our hands, which is more than some of hose devils deserved."

"But now the ghosts of all those murderers are looking for you?" asked Harry. "That's why you're hiding, isn't it?"

"They caught me once." Zayn pointed grimly to his face. "You can see what they did to me and my cat." He spat. "Never again! They will never find m again. Never again will I be at their mercy."

"Is that why you thought we were trying to trap you?" Liam asked.

"I cannot afford to take chances," Zayn said. "I cannot afford to trust anyone."

i looked up at the hangman's moonlit face and asked, "How many criminals did you hang, Mr Malik?"

"I have lost count," came his reply." At least three hundred. No, five hundred, possibly more."

"Ad their ghosts are looking for you?" asked Harry in disbelief. "All five hundred of them?"

Zayn grimaced. "As likely or not." He hesitated, casting a shewd gaze over us. "So tell me, do you all believe in justice? Do you all believe that the law should be upheld?"

It was an odd question. Without thinking, we nodded.

"Of course we do," said Niall. "Criminals should never get away with killing people."

"Criminals should always be punished," agreed Harry. "Always. Without expectation!"

The hangman's ghost beamed. "A good answer, a good answer." He fixed us with a firm look. "So I take it that a hangman is merely doing the work of justice?"

"If a judge sentenced a criminal to death, you were only doing their job," agreed Liam.

"Ahhh... " Zayn let out a sigh. "Then I know I can trust you with my life, and the life of my cat too."

"You can indeed," Niall said with a brisk nod.

"Definitely," added Liam. "Scouts honor!"

"Then if I ask you for help, you will not refuse?" the hangman probed.

"No way we'd do that. How could we?" NIall was adamant. "We were your friends, Mr Malik."

"Whatever we can do to help, we will," Liam promised. "Just name it, we'll do it!"

"Then will you take me to a place where my enemies would never think to look for me?" Zayn asked.

"Sure!" Niall said.

"You're on!" affirmed Liam.

""Excellent, excellent! Then we should leave now," the hangman's ghost advised, picking up his cat and cradling it happily under one arm.

"Err... " Liam frowned. "Mr Malik, you haven't told us where we're going."

Zayn gave him a broad smile and patted his shoulder. "Why, to your homes of course. I'll take shelter in the safety of your homes."

A/N: I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while cause my book was lost for a while and I was busy doing my stupid tuition homeworks! So.. yeah! Xx

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-Sharon

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