Refuge of Delayed Souls

Part 22 - Backlash!

Present Day

It was already dark by the time they left the wine bar and although the bar itself was pitching and heaving with people, the street outside was deserted. Linus had parked his silver Porsche 911 in the car park at the rear of the building. They decided to go in just the one car and as Linus drove off, it started to drizzle.

During the short journey, Linus explained how some of the workmen had seen shadowy figures, tools had been moved and he himself had once heard a child crying somewhere in one of the buildings. Elizabeth listened interestedly, and tried to prepare herself for whatever lay ahead.

They arrived at Staibey Nayes within minutes. Linus drove the Porsche up to the floodlit entrance and parked as close as possible to the main doors. Elizabeth was impressed by what she could see of the quality of the work carried out so far. It was a lovely, secluded spot and she was sure the finished properties would sell quickly. The previously aged and grime-stained stone had been sandblasted and once again stood proud with its honey-coloured finish and newly mounted brass plaque screaming Howell Nayes.

They both got out of the vehicle and Linus indicated that they should proceed to one of the smaller buildings, the one where he’d heard the child crying. He made his way over and Elizabeth could see he had switched the lights on inside and was waiting for her in the doorway. She signalled to him that she would join him there in a minute or two and then walked across the courtyard and stood beside a dry stone wall.

Almost immediately she began to see figures. Some were walking across the courtyard, others were looking out of the windows of the buildings; a military policeman stood where there had once been a sentry post, and there was a couple with their children under a tree in the distance.

The images appeared like little clips of video, some only a couple of seconds in length, others longer. The only ghost of Staibey Nayes was the past and it was not haunting anyone except those who had lived through it. There was definite darkness, though, and it was close by. Elizabeth tensed and made her way over to the building Linus had entered.

***

The ground floor was a vast open space with several imposing windows. The walls had been recently plastered and sanded smooth; the air was thick with dust and the floor was carpeted with a fine grey powder. At the far side was a doorway which Linus commenced walking toward once he saw Elizabeth was following him. As he went, he left a trail of footprints in the grey powder, which erupted in tiny puffs with each step he took. Looking back across the room at her, he gestured to Elizabeth and shouted across to her excitedly, “Over here!”

Linus watched Elizabeth open a couple of buttons on her coat and unzip her shoulder bag before he disappeared through the doorway.

Elizabeth entered the room and Linus found that he was feeling very eager.

“You heard a child in here? What exactly did you hear?” she asked.

“I don’t know, really. I couldn’t make out anything clearly.”

Now’s your chance

“Linus?” Elizabeth approached him.

He was now feeling very agitated. Her calm tone was annoying him. “What?” he asked under his breath.

Why don’t you show her who’s the boss

“Linus?”

Just like all the others

“How long have you been listening to the voices, Linus?”

“Shut up, you flecking bitch!” he snarled and moved towards her.

He made his move.

***

Linus looked at himself and saw that his designer shirt, jeans and hands were covered with blood. Stunned, he looked down and fresh crimson droplets splashed onto the bare wooden floorboards and merged with the grey powder to form a dirty paste. Close by, a single broken tooth was a macabre witness to the spillage.

He tried to raise his hands to his face and shield his eyes from an intense light which was suddenly blinding him. He felt a crack to his elbow followed by a bolt of pulsating pain which shot up his left arm and into his shoulder.

“Don’t so much as flinch or what is left of your balls will follow that tooth!”

He managed a strangled cry through his swollen and cracked lips. “Please don’t hurt me anymore.” The effort of speaking sent further painful spasms across his ruptured nose and swelling cheekbone.

The vicious voice continued. “Slowly -- with the hand that does not have any broken fingers -- remove your car keys from your jacket pocket and slide them across the floor to me.”

He did as instructed even though it caused him further excruciating pain. His survival instinct warned him that it would be more painful if he failed to do so, or even as much as twitched without being told to. All he wanted in life was to survive this moment. Fear was breeding inside of him. He was so filled with it he felt as though he was being consumed from within. He watched as a gloved hand reached down to the floor and picked up the car keys.

“Perhaps the child you heard crying was yourself? Who knows? I’m just glad that you’re lying there rather than another victim.”

Every word felt as though it was being ground further into his wounds like slivers of glass. Linus started to cry.

The light went out and the total darkness wrapped around him. The receding footsteps echoed across the room and then across the next one. The stirred up dust caught in his throat and Linus winced in pain as his body was racked with a string of coughs. He could hear a police siren in the distance getting closer with each second that passed.

Elizabeth returned the 4-Cell Mag-Lite and telescopic baton to her bag before opening the Porsche and fishing out a silver locket from amongst the various items secreted in the boot.

She reached her car just as the police vehicles screeched to a halt at Staibey Nayes. Large, cold, globules of rain fell like shot from the black satin sky and ricocheted off every conceivable surface. Elizabeth sat in the driver’s seat surveying the rain lashed landscape. Sometimes there was no choice but to fight darkness with darkness.

She heard laughter. At first it seemed to be coming from far away.

“Tell me... What will you use to fight me, Bess?”

She froze when she saw Grispheran sitting in the passenger seat.