Vertigo spun through Saige’s head. At least, she thought it did. She couldn’t see anything in the dark. The bridesmaids were hysterical. She suspected more than one of them was sobbing frantically, and, from the loud thump on the floor, one of them had tripped or fallen from her chair. Xav swore. Aunt Prue kept telling everyone to remain calm. Jasper whispered a silent prayer, which struck Saige as odd. He was a devout atheist.
Funny time to find religion.
She gasped as bursts of chain lightning illuminated the parlour like a dysfunctional strobe light. Rain struck her, as powerful as icy bullets. The wind produced a howling effect so intense she felt it reverberate through her skull.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” a voice called.
Her father appeared with a flashlight. Poor Aunt Violet was behind him, holding a candle that she struggled to keep alight against the wind.
Derrick trained the flashlight across the room. “Everyone, the power has gone out, but we have a backup generator that should go on at any second.”
Maybe he’d spoken magic words, because right on cue, the lights switched on. Saige caught a glimpse of startled, frantic faces before another horrendous burst of lightning outside blinded her. The room was thrown into darkness again.
The backup generator. It’s failed.
Fear burned through her. She took out her phone and turned the flashlight on. Everyone followed her lead. Sporadic light shone through the suffocating darkness.
A hint of panic crept through her father’s voice. “Everyone, follow me. I’m going to lead you down to the basement.”
“Dad.” Her brother’s face appeared in the light’s beam. The hard shadows around his eyes made him look almost ghoulish. “Zoe’s missing. Dad, I have to find her. She’s somewhere in the house… probably terrified.”
Somewhere another window smashed. A door slammed upstairs. Wolvercraft Manor’s foundations were sturdy, but for a house built of stone, it groaned and rasped like a ship caught out at sea.
Derrick’s shoulders visibly tightened. “Xav, you’re not searching the house alone. I’ll go with you.” He handed the flashlight to Aunt Prue. “This storm is getting worse. Lead everyone to the basement. Now!”
No one had to be told twice. Saige’s aunt led the terrified bridesmaids down the hall to the stairs, shouting for anyone else who might have somehow failed to flee to follow.
Saige desperately wanted to pursue them, but she felt responsible for Zoe. She couldn’t leave her father and brother to search the house by themselves, especially when they had no idea what they were really facing. “I’ll help.”
Her father’s hand clutched her shoulder tight. “Saige, no. It’s too dangerous.” He turned to Jasper. “Young man, take my daughter down to the basement now.”
Saige took a moment to compute that Jasper hadn’t left with the others. If anything, he was standing even closer to Saige. “Happy to help, sir. My name is Jasper Young.”
Recognition slowly dawned across Derrick’s tense face. “You went to school with Xav, right? You’re the musician.”
“That’s me.”
“Good man. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances. Please, don’t leave Saige’s side.”
Jasper’s hand, warm and firm, clutched her fingers. “I’ve no intention of doing that, sir.”
Saige tore her hand free, ashamed that Jasper’s touch caused a spark of fireworks to dance in her belly. “For goodness’ sake,” she cried at the pair of them. “Let’s all stick together.”
She couldn’t get over Jasper’s behaviour.
Sir?
He’s acting like he’s at a job interview.
“Dad.” Xav’s voice was filled with impatience. “We should split up. We can search the house much faster.”
Derrick shot a resigned look at Saige. “No one is splitting up. If we do this, we do this together. Stay away from the windows, and don’t lose sight of each other. Let’s go.”
The four of them trod carefully down the dark hallway with only the light from their phones for comfort. Trying to navigate their way through the house was arduous. Saige had to press her lips together to prevent a scream when a portrait of a family ancestor was lit up like a grisly spectre. For a split second, she could have sworn the portrait was of a dead person, skin grey and bloated, eyes milky and waxen, staring down at her with a secret behind its smile, but then a staccato effect of lightning lit the hallway, and the image disappeared.
Just my imagination playing tricks.
But she kept her eyes firmly ahead, not willing to glance back.
She kept telling herself there was no reason to be afraid. There was strength in numbers, but she had to convince her mind of that very loudly when they ascended the stairs to the second level. The night air was impossibly cold. Many of the windows had broken. Glass shards crunched under their feet as they wandered down the passages and halls, calling out for Zoe.
“To hell with this,” Xav spat. “We’re not making progress like this.” He ran ahead into the hallway before anyone could stop him. “Zoe! Zoe! Where are you?”
“Xav, come back here,” Derrick hissed.
But Xav was like a disobedient dog on a mission. A moment later he was swallowed up by the dark, his voice drowned out by the torrential rain outside.
Derrick swore, the first time in a long time that Saige had heard such resigned anger in her father’s voice. “I knew this was a bad idea. That boy is stubborn like his mother.” He whipped around to face Saige and Jasper. “Both of you go to the basement. I’ll find Xav and bring him back.”
A frantic tug pulled inside Saige’s chest. “What about Zoe?”
Derrick exhaled an uncomfortable breath. “For all we know, Zoe could have gone to the basement. It’s madness remaining in the house. Go now.”
Before she could argue, her father ran into the dark. The faint light from his phone was enveloped by the shadows, as though it had sunk into black water.
This time when Jasper’s fingers wrapped around her hand, she didn’t pull away. The feeling that they weren’t alone returned. She could almost feel that someone, or something, was standing behind her, breathing a fraction too quietly for her to detect. She wasn’t sure if she imagined or sensed fingers stretching forward to clasp around her neck. Goose bumps rose across her skin. All the hairs along her arms went erect.
A creak echoed from somewhere deeper in the hall.
A footstep.
Cold sweat trickled down her back. “We need to get to the basement. Now!”
Jasper didn’t need to be told twice. His face was blanched white. They careered down the hall, the light from their phones too weak to show anything more than a metre ahead. Saige risked a glance behind her. She gasped. A tumble of limbs in a white dress lurched after them in the dark. Lightning struck outside. It painted the walls and windows too bright, eating up everything in the house and rendering Saige blind. She couldn’t be sure if what she’d seen had been real. Her eyes never had enough time to adjust to the disjointed changes, and with the fear eating away at her insides, every fast and sudden movement made her nearly go into a faint.
“Jasper, this isn’t the way.”
We should have been at the staircase by now.
“Of course it is. This is the way we came in.” But he didn’t sound so sure.
Saige’s tongue had trouble forming the words she wanted to use. “The stairs. They should be here.”
All that was evident in the harsh streaks of lightning ahead was the straight, narrow passage. It reminded Saige of a tunnel in a nightmare, one that seemed to grow longer and longer, never showing an end in sight.
Jasper’s voice was thick with panic. “That isn’t normal. That is most definitely not normal. ”
Saige recalled what Harriette had said the first night she’d met her. “There is something inside Wolvercraft Manor. Something that brings death. Something that doesn’t rest.”
She licked her dry lips. All the moisture in her throat had evaporated, leaving an arid sensation in her mouth. She pressed her fingers firmly into Jasper’s hand. “Okay. Let’s try and think rationally about this. We must have passed the stairs.”
But the hallway was equally dark and long behind them. She’d never wandered this part of the house. She was certain of that.
The house. It’s playing tricks.
Jasper let go of her hand.
She pivoted around to reach out for him, her phone’s light revealing empty space. He was gone.
“Jasper?”
Her heart rate soared.
No. I can’t be alone. I just… can’t be. He was right here!
“Jasper?”
Her body gave an involuntary shudder. She desperately wanted out of this hallway. She scrambled into an adjoining passage, which led her down another gloomy corridor. Every corner and bend were alien. She’d never seem them before in her life. Saige wanted to look outside the window to get her bearings, but the teeming deluge obstructed her vision.
“Saige!”
Jasper’s voice carried down the passage.
“I’m here!” She barely managed to choke out the words. “Jasper! Where are you?”
Silence.
Saige felt her heart being plucked like violin strings. “Jasper!”
She ran in the direction where she’d heard his voice.
“Saige!” Her father’s voice travelled down the hallway at her left.
“Dad?”
“Saige, answer me.” He sounded frantic.
She sprinted as fast as she could in her heels in the direction of her father.
“Dad?” She couldn’t get her voice past a croak.
Why can’t I speak any louder? Why is my throat so dry?
This time when her father called back to her, it sounded as though it was coming from upstairs.
There’s no way he’d go up to the third level. Not with the storm being this bad.
“Zoe! Saige! Dad!” Xav’s voice called from somewhere to her right.
She froze, every part of her suspended as she listened. The sound of feet clattering down stairs reached her ears, drawing closer. She prayed it was her brother. She prayed he’d found the staircase.
I’m here! Xav! I’m here!
She ran. Faster and faster. Every footstep pounded louder and louder despite the soft carpet beneath her. She sped around a corner and nearly faceplanted into a wall. It was a dead end.
What the hell?
The house… it’s a maze!
This time when she swivelled around to make her way back, someone waited for her at the end of the hall. The tiniest gasp—the only thing she could manage—worked its way out of her. Lightning rippled through the passage. Saige saw a glimpse of a blood-red flapper dress, black pearls, and long dark hair swept around an ashen face.
Zoe.
She was absorbed by the dark again.
Saige’s heart became a ticking bomb.
Her eyes… they looked….
She cringed at the image printed in her mind. The pupils and irises, faded beneath a colourless orb. The skin veined and sunken in shadow.
Thunder cracked. A split second of lightning showed Saige one horrifying revelation. She saw those horrible eyes again and knew she wasn’t looking at Zoe.
Yes, it was Zoe’s body.
But it wasn’t her inside.
Zoe was possessed.