Page 10 of One Last Touch

“Get back in bed,” he said again.

I folded my arms across my chest and squeezed myself tightly when he made a growly huff of irritation.

“What is it with your desire to wander about the house in the middle of the night like a bad actress in a horror movie?”

“It’s just a house,” I hissed and then shivered at the sound of his hollow laugh.

“I’ll leave as soon as you’re asleep.”

“How am I supposed to fall asleep knowing you’re in here watching me?” I folded my arms and stalked back to my bed, perching on the edge of the mattress and trying to ignore the way the sheets called to me, still warm from my body. This was a temporary set-back. Sage couldn’t watch me every night… could he? Surely he had some kind of life outside of the manor. He had to have better things to do than skulk around trying to catch me exploring the house.

“Gratefully,” he retorted and I scowled. “Seeing as I’m saving you from breaking your neck, stumbling around in the dark.”

“I’d have taken a candle,” I muttered as I pulled the covers up and over myself. The electrics were still sketchy in the house, I probably should have grabbed some torches or something so I didn’t have to keep carrying open flames around with me. My phone was too crap to even have a torch on it, it had never mattered before as I barely used it.

“Oh, you’d have a candle.” I could practically hear him rolling his eyes. “That’ll definitely prevent your inevitable death.”

“Morbid much,” I tutted, stifling a yawn.

“Promise me you’ll wait until it’s light out to go exploring. Or better yet, bring me with you so I can make sure you’re being safe.”

“Sure,” I lied, knowing that his desire to keep me in here after the sun went down would only fuel my curiosity and desire to disobey.

“Go to sleep, Georgina.”

“Fuck off, Sage,” I injected as much fake-cheer as possible into my sleepy voice and tried to ignore the tingle that ran through me at his quiet chuckle. But then a strange thought came to me and I couldn’t help but tense up beneath the heavy duvet. If Sage had been in my room the whole time, then who had been outside the door?

Chapter Six

I got my chance to explore the house the following night after I’d had dinner and made my way to my room. Sage looked weary as he headed outside to prepare for the storm he insisted was rolling in and that would distract him for a few hours. I’d spent the majority of the day trying to air out the house as much as possible, the strong scent of dust pervading every one of my senses until I felt like I was more sneeze than person. Sage had been notably absent for the majority of the day and I could only assume it was because he was worried about me confronting him properly for sneaking into my room now that I was actually awake and had more energy.

It was funny how the dark could change so much and yet so little at the same time. I waited for a while to make sure that Sage wouldn’t be back anytime soon and changed into my new fleece pyjamas, pulled on a pair of thick socks and frowned when I noticed my copy of The Fall of the House of Usher was lying open on my bedside. Had someone gone through my things while I’d been downstairs or working in the other rooms of the house? I definitely wouldn’t have left the book like that, where the spine could get all bent out of shape. I was a bit of a book snob and had constantly berated my mother for folding down the pages and breaking the spines of every book she picked up. It was the main reason I refused to lend her any of my own copies.

Once the semi-familiar sounds of the house settling seemed to be the only noise I could hear, I stepped up to my window and peeked outside. No golden light from the house washed out over the lawn, no errant sounds of chatter or life disrupted the wind, and it felt in that moment as if I could be the only person left in the world.

The rain had grown heavy and it seemed like Sage’s prediction about the storm had been right. Lightning flashed briefly in the grey sky, illuminating the trees that swayed outside. The rustle of their leaves soothed me somehow, I hadn’t even realised I’d been on edge until thunder rattled across the sky in a boom that made me jump with fright. Hopefully the storm would mask any noise I made so that Sage wouldn’t come investigating and find me breaking my promise. I didn’t owe him anything, and yet he still managed to make me feel like a misbehaving child. But I felt like I owed myself the truth and my mum a chance at peace—at justice. More than anything, I just wanted to understand. What had drawn her back here after she’d spent the majority of my life pretending that Natalia Alswell didn’t exist? What was this house, or its staff, so desperate to hide that they would forbid me to leave my room after dark? What did they know that I didn’t?

There was a long candle in a lightweight holder placed on top of the chest of drawers that sat behind my bedroom door and I blew a little dust off of it while I reached for the matches. The brief orange glow threw the room around me into sharp relief, illuminating the hulking shape of the wardrobe, before it plunged back into the near-dark my eyes had adjusted to. I lit the candle and shook the match out to extinguish it, trying not to cough at the acrid smell it left behind as I walked to my bedroom door and carefully eased it open.

My socked-feet were quiet on the wooden floor and I stepped carefully, not trusting there to not be the odd splinter where the wood needed re-treating, and tried not to wince when the odd creak rang out into the darkness, not fully muffled by the sounds of the storm.

I’d always felt that the dark had eyes, pressing down upon you, prickling the hairs on your neck, making your pulse race inexplicably. But there was a certain comfort to it too, to seeing but being unseen, to know but be unknown. This felt like bonding, for the house and me, like here in the dark we could finally get to the heart of each other, peer inside and clear out the cobwebs to see what lay beneath.

I started down toward the rest of the first floor and the large window that sat at the end of the corridor, overlooking the front garden. The moonlight washed over me and I blew the candle out, no longer needing it. I was bathed pale as I sat in the window seat and watched the rain hit the earth and the lightning fork through the clouds, briefly illuminating the grounds in a second of clarity.

For a moment, I thought I saw eyes in the darkness behind me, watching me in the glass.

I whirled around and found nothing but blackness, the air behind me empty. I could just make out the red runners on the floor and the edge of the bannister for the stairs and reached for the candle at my side to investigate further before swearing quietly when I remembered I’d blown it out. I would have to relight it.

I got to my feet, intending to walk back down the corridor to my room before I wandered the halls and peeked into bedrooms some more, but then froze as an unmistakable sound thudded from above my head.

Footsteps. It had to be.

I slowly placed the candle holder back on the floor, keeping my eyes on the ceiling above me as the sound came again—a soft thud, thud, thud, as if someone was pacing back and forth in a room up there. Of course, it could just be Sage or Ms Weathers, that made sense. But when the sound came again it seemed to be moving further away, like it wasn’t in a room but in the corridor itself. Something about it made my senses stand to attention, goosebumps racing across my skin, the darkness pulsing around me.

I took one step forward and stopped as a breeze pushed past, making me shiver. All the windows were closed, I’d triple checked them earlier after waking up so cold yesterday, but old houses like these… they always had a draft.

I moved forward another cautious step and then another, finding myself at the base of the staircase that led to the floor above as I listened out for more footsteps.

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