Saige was too stunned to process Jasper’s words at first, but the more she reflected on it, the more she realised he was right. This tunnel led to Wolvercraft Manor.
But which way?
In her mind, she summoned a mental blueprint of the house. This tunnel had to be running parallel to Wolvercraft Manor right now, which meant either direction could have looped around to the house. She shone her flashlight to the left. Ugly streaks of water ran down the walls. Puddles had formed in dips along the ground. She aimed the light in the other direction. It was dank and miserable. A rat scurried along the ground and vanished into the darkness.
“Saige, are you okay?”
The concern in Jasper’s voice sent a wave of guilt through her.
She failed to keep her voice calm. “I think we should explore the tunnel. Even if only for a little way.”
She waited.
Several beats passed before she heard Jasper’s response. “I think that’s the stupidest thing you’ve said all day. I’m going to find a long branch to help pull you out of there.”
Annoyance shot up from deep in her core. “We have to know how this tunnel links to the house. In the chamber that night, that… thing in the elevator… it was going somewhere before we interrupted it. What if it was coming down here?”
“All the more reason to avoid this place and get the hell away. I’m getting that branch. Don’t move a step, Saige. I’m serious. There’s a flooded creek not twenty metres away. That means water could be in the tunnel. I don’t want you getting washed away.”
She couldn’t argue with that logic.
That’s probably the most intelligent thing he’s ever said.
But oh, how she wanted to explore. She hated unsolved puzzles. The haunting of Wolvercraft Manor was a jigsaw that needed piecing together. But she’d seen horror movies and read the books as well, and she knew it was never a good idea to wander into the darkness alone. She stayed put, using her flashlight to discern what was around her.
Come on, Jasper.
If she couldn’t explore, then he could at least find that branch quickly and get her out of there.
She rubbed at her arms, trying to secure warmth within her. When she’d been out in the rain, she’d been moving on adrenaline. It had pumped blood hot through her body. But now that she stood waiting, the cold settled in. Her teeth chattered, and she cringed at the soreness that spiked along her shoulders.
She was just about to call out to Jasper again when a noise startled her. A wet pop, like a fish splashing in and out of water. She shone her flashlight in the direction of the noise. The darkness remained empty.
Something tickled up her spine, a sensation that she wasn’t alone. She’d always sensed a presence around her, but this was different. This was the same feeling she’d had in the chamber. Evil.
Oh God! It’s here!
Her hand began to tremble. The light shakily crisscrossed left and right.
Something was waiting in the dark just beyond. This wasn’t a trick of her mind. She could see its faint outline. It appeared human-shaped, but at the same time… monstrous and unearthly, like something that had crawled out of the grave. And the smell. It was a potent, rotting odour, so overwhelming that Saige thought she could even taste it in her mouth.
A taunting cry broke from the darkness. Whatever it was, its voice greeted Saige’s ears in a trailing echo. “Wolvercraaaaaaft.”
A pale arm shot out of the dark.
Saige screamed.
The thing scuttled toward her. It was above her, beside her, behind her, always moving, always managing to skirt just beyond the flashlight. She heard its wheezy, gasping grunts, felt its sick, cold breath on the back of her neck. And then it had her by her hoodie, slamming her into the wall. Saige’s face smashed into the hard stone. She felt blood trickle out of her nostril and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to flush out the fog that clouded her head. But she wasn’t fast enough. The thing latched on to her ankle and dragged her across the wet stones. Saige didn’t think she’d screamed so loud before in her life. The pain in her ankle was fire. She kicked and thrashed, to no avail. At some point, she’d lost her flashlight. It had rolled on the ground somewhere, causing shadows to dance across the walls. For a moment, she thought she saw a face with pruned, pasty skin, the eyes drained of colour, but it scurried back into the dark before she could be certain. Whatever it was, its fingers bit into her ankle deep enough to draw blood. Saige managed to roll onto her back and lash out with her other boot, surprised when the creature let out a demonic wail. It drew back, but she sensed it was just on the outskirts of her sight, ready to pounce again.
“Jasper! Jasper!” she cried.
Something long and crooked appeared before her. It took her a painful second to realise it was a branch. She grabbed it, forcing herself onto her feet, her ankle making a horrible, cracking sound.
“Pull me up!” she demanded. “Pull me up!”
She saw Jasper above, his lips pressed together as he exerted all his strength in wrenching her out. She was about a metre from the aperture when she realised he wouldn’t be able to do it alone for much longer. Saige tugged on some of the exposed roots, grateful they were thick enough not to snap in her hand. She sensed the creature just beneath her, imagined talon-like claws scratching at the soles of her boots. It was shrieking impossible, inhuman screams.
Saige let out a cry of effort and hoisted her upper half through the opening. Jasper grabbed her jeans by the waistband and tugged her out of the sinkhole. He fell back, shock and exhaustion overwhelming his handsome face. She crawled through the mud as far away from the aperture as possible, then burst into tears. The tension inside her didn’t subside. If anything, her heart felt like it might explode in her chest.
She looked at her ankle. She expected her flesh to be a bloody, macerated mess, but it was unharmed. The pain had vanished too.
A mind trick. A frigging hallucination!
The knowledge didn’t calm her. It just made the creature a hundred times more terrifying than it already had been.
Jasper sat beside her. In her daze, she hadn’t even heard him approach. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Fear had zapped her energy. Shock had crushed her strength. She broke down in his arms. All the pair could do was hold each other in the rain.
* * *
By the time Saige and Jasper reached Wolvercraft Manor, it was nearly dark. The light slipped away in the sky, replaced with churning clouds blacker than Saige had ever seen.
This was it. The storm everyone was worried about had arrived.
It belted its fury on the earth. Wind tore across the lawn, ripping up anything that was loose, and objects that were secure too. Lightning forked in multiple directions, so blinding that Saige couldn’t tell where it struck.
But it was the house that frightened her the most. She thought of it as being alive. A living, breathing creature, the threshold its mouth, welcoming them into its stomach.
Jasper’s jaw clenched. “Are you ready for this?”
She gave a tiny nod.
It was a lie. She didn’t feel prepared at all.
They walked across the lawn. The precipitation turned icy, enormous snowflakes drifting around them. When Saige looked back at the Hauteville Woods, all she saw was a whiteout of fog. The mist seemed to roll after them, casting an impenetrable wall around the grounds.
A strange feeling fluttered in her stomach.
The house has us now. It won’t let go.
They finally reached the snow-covered driveway, Wolvercraft Manor towering before them. Icicles hung from the gables. Water sprouted from the twisted mouths of gargoyles. Wolvercraft Manor might have been Saige’s ancestral home, but it was also a mausoleum to her family. There were souls trapped inside. The manor was as much a tomb as it was a house.
Staggering to keep her balance on the snow, she opened the front door and eased her way inside. Jasper trailed after her. When Saige shut the door, it felt final. It felt like the house had already won.
* * *
“What are you doing here?”
Saige was surprised by her father’s outburst when she entered the drawing room. Jasper walked in and stood beside her, clutching at his elbows. There was snow in his hair, and the tip of his nose had gone red.
Saige paused, confused. “What do you mean?”
She listened to how quiet the house was. “Where is everyone? Are they all in the basement?”
The house seemed… empty.
But if everyone was in the basement, why was her family alone in the drawing room?
And why were the lights out?
Has the backup generator gone out again?
Derrick Wolvercraft was sitting beside his two sisters. He closed the book he’d been reading and brought his lantern forward, examining Saige’s wet clothes and mud-streaked hair. “What the hell happened to you?”
Aunt Prue bit on her fingernail. She stared at Saige with an anxious question in her eyes. Aunt Violet awkwardly sipped from her cup of tea, taking a sudden interest in the carpeted floor.
Saige’s brother was also present. Xav was sitting in an armchair, his lips strained, as though he were putting all his mental focus into fighting off a headache. His eyes shot daggers at Jasper.
Someone had started a fire. It was a welcome reprieve from the cold. Saige inched closer to the delicious warmth.
“I don’t understand.” Her eyes travelled from one person to the other. “What’s going on?”
Derrick stood up. “I sent you a text message. I told you to stay away. To seek refuge at the town hall.”
Saige checked her phone. She had no signal. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get it.”
He shook his head with indignation. “How did you get back here?”
She didn’t answer.
“Oh, Saige!” Aunt Prue cried. “You didn’t walk through the woods, did you?”
“Only a little of the way,” she admitted. She left out the part about the flooded road, the creek, and the sinkhole.
Furious colour spread through Derrick’s neck. “Saige, I am tired of you taking unnecessary risks. This has got to stop. Do you want to end up like your mother?”
She ignored the hurtful comment. “What’s going on? Why aren’t you all down in the basement?”
Derrick rubbed a frustrated hand down the side of his face. “I’ll show you why, shall I?”
He led Saige out of the drawing room and through the lower level of the house. He opened the door to the basement, took his daughter’s hand, and carefully guided her down the stairs. He stopped a few steps short of the ground and raised his lantern. The light wasn’t particularly strong, the rays shining across the basement like the distant beams from a lighthouse. “Look.”
Saige did. She drew in a sharp breath.
The basement was flooded. A foot of water gently lapped at the walls.
“It’s getting deeper,” her father confessed. “Xav and I spent all morning trying to figure out where the water was coming in, but we couldn’t find anything. People couldn’t stay here, so I had the coaches return everyone to town.”
Saige’s thoughts darted frantically. “So… everyone’s at the town hall?”
“Yes.”
“We’re alone?”
“Yes.”
She tasted an ironic laugh in the back of her throat. She and Jasper had fought so hard to return to the manor, to try and protect people from the curse, only for everyone to have left.
Derrick’s eyes flicked over her face. She knew he wasn’t really angry with her. He was just worried and afraid. He swallowed hard. “The power’s out. The generator is down. But we have food. The taps are still supplying us with water.”
“Why didn’t you all go to the town hall? Why did you stay behind?”
She was actually grateful they had remained. She didn’t like the idea of her and Jasper arriving to an empty house.
Worry lines creased around her father’s eyes. “Zoe and the bridesmaids are ill. Dr Ahmadi was one of the wedding guests and kindly offered to stay to monitor them. He doesn’t know what’s wrong with them. He’s never seen anything like it.”
Fear fluttered through Saige’s veins.
It’s the curse.
“They’re too weak to be moved. Xav refused to leave Zoe. I refused to leave him. My sisters refused to leave without the pair of us. So we’re all here. Alone.” He smiled nervously. “Come on. Let’s get out of this cold basement.”
Her father might have been putting on a brave front, but upstairs in the hallway, where the lantern was stronger, she saw his face go slack with defeat.
“Dad?”
“We’ll be all right, Saige. I’ve had the windows in the second-level bedrooms secured. We’ll all sleep in those rooms tonight. Now go have a shower and wash all the muck off you while we still have hot water.”
He walked away with uneasy steps.
Saige stood transfixed, her thoughts frantic.
Great.
We’re trapped in a haunted house.
The roads are flooded.
We have no phone signal.
We have no power.
And there’s a storm battering down.
Yeah, Dad. We’re going to be perfectly all right.