Page 19 of Curse of the Stag's Eye
Either they were all in on it or they were all mad. Or they were all right and this place really was haunted by the ghost of a murdered lighthouse keeper. I wasn’t sure which option was the worst.
Nikesh rubbed Dawn’s arm. “You kept all this quiet.”
“I didn’t want to scare you away.” She managed a weak smile. “I thought you might think I was bonkers. It’s why I insisted on living in a new-build house. No ghosts around for me to… bother.”
Nikesh lowered his hood and checked his hair in the little round mirror above the fireplace. “It could still have been a bat, though, couldn’t it? I can’t stand bats.”
As much as I wanted to agree with him, I doubted very much if we could blame everything on bats.
Chapter 11
8.01 p.m. Kitchen.
Sixteen minutes behind schedule!Still! Bloody hell. We’d be here all night at this rate.
We crossed over into the little kitchen. Gaz wanted to try out the kettle but I told him they’d switched the water off long ago. He briefly considered plodding back down to the museum to get his flask but thought better of it.
The kitchen was the most noticeably curved room we’d been in so far. An ugly, functional countertop ran around the wall, almost making a full circle, broken up by the door and a battered stove with a dented tin kettle on top. Some plain cabinets hung on the walls, and a tiny sink sat beneath a narrow window.
The fog was still wispy enough that I could just make out the cliff edge and the white horses of the waves. With the weight tube taking up space in the centre, we all struggled to fit.
“If you are a medium, you could try talking to him.” I leaned against the sink. “To Howard Baines.” I was trying to sound nonchalant but I couldn’t quite mask the excitement in my voice. I’d been on hunts with supposed mediums before but they never amounted to much. A bit of chanting, a bit of wailing, and a sillyvoice when they werepossessed. But something about Dawn made me believe her.
“I don’t think I should.” Dawn lay her hands on a chair by a kidney-shaped table. “He’s already mad at me for being here, I don’t want to upset him any more.”
I nodded but didn’t give up. “Have you ever tried anything like that before?”
Dawn sighed. “There was one time when a few of us were at a friend’s house for a sleepover. She said her grandad had died in that house the night she was born. A few times she’d woken up in the middle of the night and thought she’d seen him at the end of her bed, like he was watching her sleep?”
“Sleep paralysis.” The words blurted out of Gaz, blunt and awkward. “Not uncommon. And not supernatural.”
Dawn ignored him. “He had a favourite chair, an ugly old armchair by the fireplace. There was this tatty blanket belonging to him draped over the back of it.
“Anyway, a bunch of us sat in a circle with a candle burning and we took it in turns calling out to him. Nothing happened. Until I tried it. The candle blew out almost straight away. We could still kind of see because we’d left the curtains open and it was a full moon.
“The chair — her grandad’s chair — started creaking, as if someone was getting out of it. The girl whose house it was felt a hand on her shoulder. She freaked out and ran for the door. We switched on the lights. Her grandad’s blanket was on the floor, even though none of us had been anywhere near it. We didn’t try anything like that again.”
As she talked, I scribbled notes into my little pad. “You said earlier you heard voices sometimes. Anything specific? Warnings about the future? Messages from beyond?”
Dawn rubbed her eyes. I think she was struggling to talk about this. “Only whispers, or low talking. Like people having a party in another room? I try not to pay too much attention to them.”
“Why?”
She held back tears as she spoke. “Because I might not like what they’re saying.”
My stomach clenched but I couldn’t stop myself. I pulled out a chair and sat. “Would you be up for trying it now? We’re all here with you. It’s safe.”
Dawn shook her head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
Nikesh took a seat. “Come on, babes. It’ll be fine.” His bright brown eyes had been wide as saucers all evening, full of wonder and excitement, but turned calmer when talking to her then.
Gaz slid behind the table and into the bench at the wall. I told Michael to sit next to him which he did but he pretended he wasn’t happy about it. Still, he flattened the front of his shirt with the palm of his hand. He wanted to make sure he looked nice and tidy for Gaz, I suppose. It was quite sweet really.
Reluctantly, Dawn took the last chair.
I laid my pad and pencil on the table. “Everyone hold hands.”
I took Nikesh in one hand and Gaz in the other, secretly glad that he’d had to sit next to me. He smiled, very slightly. Despite myself, I smiled back. He was really making it very difficult for me to stay professional. I reminded myself not to do anything to scupper his chances with Michael.
