Angel Manor (Lucifer Falls Book 1) (28 page)

Something in her shifted, and the murderous thoughts were replaced by a deep inner shame.

These are not my thoughts. I don’t want to hurt anyone.
Yet she knew part of her did, now that the inhibitions of life were gone. The house egged her on, toyed with her thoughts and feelings, made demands… but she couldn’t just blame the house. That primal hatred had been inside her when she was alive, but she’d kept it at bay with kindness and logical thoughts. Now that she was dead, all of those deeply hidden emotions were beginning to surface. They were confusing and a little exciting too. In this new existence she had choices to make. Bam narrowed her eyes as the girls disappeared into the manor. She pictured them dying… screaming.

***

“I don’t think your girlfriends are coming.” Gary Feltman patted his arms. The night was nippier than before, and he was only wearing a t-shirt. “I’ve been standing here freezing my nuts off for over an hour, and still no sign of them. When did it get so cold anyway? It was positively balmy last night, and it was fine when we came out here.”

“Women are always late,” Angus retorted with false wisdom. “They could still come.”

“Were they hot?”

“What?”

“The girls, were they hot?”

“Two of them were. One was a bit pasty.” Angus wrinkled his nose to show his distaste for girls with red hair.

“I… I don’t mind pasty.” Mason Applebaum muttered, grinning in his shy way. The young men laughed in return, and Angus hooked his arm around Mason’s neck. Mason struggled, but Angus was stronger and he pulled him down, his knuckles rapping against the top of Mason’s head.

“Fuck this. I’m going back in the house,” said Terrence, who had been sitting on the lowest branch of a tree in the hope he could see further down the hill. “They’re not coming. I’m sick of this.”

“Fucking prick teases.” Angus let go of Mason, his voice dripping with disappointment. “Scary makes them horny, my arse.”

“Welcome to blue ball city.” Gary laughed at his own joke, but the other guys were too glum. They walked back to the house, none of them having spotted the red car in the bushes a little further down the hill.

***

The high ceilings, in combination with the empty walls and floors, made the South Wing intimidating, and the smell of the place was less than pleasant, like an animal had died somewhere long ago and no one had quite managed to get the scent out. Lindsey felt a slight pang of regret for coming along to this house in the dark. She wasn’t sure where she stood on the idea of ghosts, but being here alone with several young men while no one knew where they were suddenly seemed like a bad idea. They knew nothing of these guys, and the house was miles away from civilisation. If the boys were up to no good, no one would ever find them. The thought worried Lindsey, but she didn’t want to voice her concerns out loud. She had been fine with the idea when it was first suggested. In the pub, the two boys looked charming and attractive, but when these two had come to collect them, she’d lost her confidence. There was something in the way the white guy looked at her. His eyes were intense and so dark, Lindsey wondered if he was high on something. She knew there were four of them here – that’s what that cutie Terrence had said – but now four guys sounded like more than three girls could handle.

“Are ye going ta give us tha tour then?” Emma’s whisper sounded like a hiss.

“We’re going to take you to the others first. Then you can roam the house as much as you like.” Tyrell’s voice was cold and distant, and it made Lindsey’s skin crawl.

“Where are the others?” Lindsey forced her tone to be airy.

“In the basement.”

“That’s a little sinister… the basement. You’re not serial killers are you?” She laughed at the joke, but there was no mirth in her laughter. Tyrell stopped walking and turned around, his face clear in the bright moonlight shining through the windows.

“We’re in the basement so we don’t wake the owners.”

The white guy took a step behind her, standing too close for comfort. His accent was American. “You’re not afraid of going to the basement, are you?”

The basement scares the shit out of me,
Lindsay thought. She caught Emma’s eye, and pleaded silently with her. She knew how badly Emma wanted to see the house, and she knew she was being silly. Of course these guys weren’t going to harm them, they were nice guys, or so they had appeared to be in the pub. And there was supervision somewhere in this house, so they wouldn’t really try anything. She was sure of it.

“I’m not scared.” She put her hand on her hip and looked at the black guy with arrogant confidence that she really didn’t feel. “Lead the way.”

Tyrell began down the hall. There was something almost robotic in the way he moved, but Lindsey convinced herself that she was being melodramatic. They had gone to stranger places with stranger guys, she decided, and they’d been fine then too.

“This is the place, ladies.” Tyrell stopped at a heavy-looking door, different from any other doors they’d passed. It looked like metal. Any doubt that Lindsey had pushed aside came rushing back when Tyrell opened the door, revealing stairs leading down into darkness.

“I’m not going down there. That place looks crazy.” She folded her arms around her chest and planted her feet firmly on the ground. “Show us someplace else.”

“Aye, it’s too dark for my liking as well,” Emma said, staring down into the darkness. “Ah don’t want ta go down there.”

“We need you to be one of us, then you can roam the house.”

“And what the fuck does that mean? Be one of…” The words died on Lindsey’s lips. Thick dark blood oozed from Tyrell’s left temple, his eyes were sunken more than they’d been before, and the brown of his irises were covered with a film of white. “What the fuck have ye done to yer head?” Lyndsay’s words were cut short by Bonnie’s scream. The white guy’s face had started to rot, and thick, yellow maggots wriggled around the corner of his mouth.

“The house wants you ladies, and the house shall have you,” the American guy said. “The Angels are waiting.” Lindsey took another step back, her eyes fixed on Emma and Bonnie. She realised what Tyrell was about to do a second too late, and before she could warn her friends to move away, the black guy slammed the heavy door against them. Emma fell backward immediately, but Bonnie fought back, trying to push the door away. Tyrell didn’t allow her to move. He wasn’t exactly holding the door, his hand merely stretched out towards it, his fingers barely touching the metal, but Lindsey saw Bonnie struggle. The ginger girl’s eyes were round with terror; she cried and pushed with all her strength. Lindsey wanted to step forward, but a cold hand gripped her around the throat. For a moment, it looked as if Bonnie was winning the fight, then something pulled her into the darkness. The door shut with a loud clunking sound, making Lindsey’s bones and teeth shudder, and cutting off the sound of Bonnie’s screams.

Tyrell turned towards her, his hollow eyes impassive, blood drizzling from his temple, but now Lindsey noticed it wasn’t just blood, but a lumpy grey mass. She moaned, her legs giving way, but the cold hand around her throat held her up.

“I’m sorry, girl,” Tyrell said, “I have no hatred for you, but I am part of Angel Manor now, and I must do as she bids. She wants you. I’m incapable of doing you real harm, but my friend Chuck here has more strength and more drive than I do. I shall leave you in his expert hands.” Tyrell nodded at her then disappeared, leaving Lindsey with her captor. Fear pushed at her senses, yet it gave her strength and Lindsey fought with all her might. The hand let her go. Her feet hit the floor hard, and her heart threatened to burst through her chest, but she ran.

***

The stone steps collided hard with Emma’s flesh, and time appeared to slow down as she fell further into darkness. At the bottom of the stairs, she landed on concrete with a sickening crunch, hot pain surging through her arm. The wind was knocked from her lungs, and a wheezing sound escaped weakly from her lips. Blue and red stars exploded before her eyes. The distant slam of the door, followed by the sound of something heavy falling and bouncing off the stairs, brought her to an abrupt state of alertness. A heavy body landed on top of her, and pain shot up her arm again.

“Bonnie?” Her voice trembled. The body on top her moved a little and moaned. “Bonnie, get off. Ye’re hurting me.” The weight shifted.

“What just happened?” Bonnie’s voice sounded weak and afraid, and Emma wished she could see her friend better.

“Emma… did ye see that guy’s face?”

“Aye.” She had seen it; she couldn’t banish the sight of it from her mind. Bonnie’s words made it even more real because, for a moment, Emma had prayed it was just her imagination.

“Do ye think he was a ghost?”

“Aye.” Emma bit her lip and pushed herself to a sitting position. Her back, arm and head hurt, but to her relief, she found she could still move. “We need ta get out of here as fast as we can.”

“What about Lindsey?”

“We’ll get help for her.”

“What are we goin’ ta say? Ghosts got Lindsey?”

“Ah don’t care what we say, we need ta get out of here, and we need ta get help, ye daft cow.” She regretted the words as soon as they came from her mouth. “Sorry, Ah didnae mean ta be such a bitch.”

“It’s okay.”

Something to their right made a sound, as if someone was pulling a chair over the concrete.

“What tha fuck is that?” Emma could barely say the words. To her left something scuffled, and she fought a wave of nausea bubbling in her stomach.

“Emma?” Bonnie sounded near tears. “There’s something in here with us.”

Emma crawled to her feet, her head throbbing. She stumbled forward, disoriented, and looked for the stairs, but she couldn’t find them. Something slid across her eye and cheek, and she screamed, swatting it with her hand. It caught in her fingers, and realising that it was a light chord, she pulled it. A sickly yellow light filled the basement, and Emma had to close her eyes. The contrast between utter darkness and the light was too sharp, and her head was still sore. She opened her eyes slowly, her vision clearing, but before she could register what was going on around her, Bonnie screamed.

More than a dozen women, all of them naked, surrounded them in a semi-circle. The females were all different shapes and sizes, but they all wore the same expression on their faces: hunger. A sob echoed through the basement, and at first Emma thought it was Bonnie… but when the hot tears burned her cheeks, she realized it was she who was crying.

***

He was behind her. Lindsey knew he was, even if she couldn’t hear his footsteps. And that smell… it was strong here. Lindsey ran down the moonlit wing and cursed the moment that she’d set foot in Angel Manor. She had never even considered that the ghosts from the stories could be real; she’d been worried about lustful men, not rotting ones. And yet, here she was, running for her life. The house wanted her? Well the house could fuck the hell off, she decided. The wing looked bigger than it had when she’d walked through it the first time, but she was pretty sure that most of it was one straight corridor. Twice she lost her balance and fell, but she was determined. On her left, she saw a door open and she recognised the room. Her heart was singing with hope and relief when she made the sharp turn and slowed her pace. It was the room that they had entered through, and the doors were still open. As she stepped over the threshold, the doors to the outside swung shut, stopping Lindsey dead in her tracks. Then the door behind her slammed and Lindsey was trapped. In the corners, she saw movement.

“Don’t worry, baby… I’m only going to hurt you a little.” The voice behind her spoke in the familiar American drawl. “I’m just going to fuck you to death.” She turned, blood draining from her face, to see Chuck standing behind her, the fly to his jeans already open. The maggots were gone now, and he looked almost alive from where she was standing. In the corners of the room, Lindsey saw more people.

“Please help me?” She looked at an old woman who had her hands wrapped around the shoulder of a young girl. “Please?” Tears flowed down Lindsey’s cheeks, and her mouth filled with saliva.

“Don’t look at them. They’re only here to watch. No one can help you now.”

“This can’t be happening.”

He disappeared for a moment, and then reappeared, looking more solid than before. “Oh but it is.” His hand yanked at her extensions. Lindsey screamed, but Chuck was stronger than she was, and he pulled her down onto the floor. She pushed against him, her hands connecting with his chest before slipping through into nothing as if he was in between states of being.

Rough hands pulled at her skirt, pushing it up towards her thighs. She clawed at him, his face momentarily made of flesh, and managed to tear some skin off, revealing a dark glistening substance underneath.

“I thought you would appreciate me looking more human?” He smiled at her, revealing teeth blackened with the same oozing substance. “But if you would rather fuck me in my ghost form, I can oblige.” He bent forward and licked her cheek, leaving a wet trail of dark mucus.

“No, please… please.” She didn’t know what else to say, and when he pressed his lips to hers, the maggots poured into her mouth. They squirmed against her tongue and the inside of her cheeks, and Lindsey vomited against the cold wet lips. Her hands pushed against him, digging her nails into the rotting flesh, and she wriggled her knees under him, nudging against his legs. The figure pushed himself up and looked at her, his cheek still dripping with black, the skin peeled back.

“Lie still, girlie.”

She turned on her side, heaving up the maggots, and tried to slip away from his grip, but he grabbed her right arm and brought it back with so much force that Lindsey could feel her bone snap and her muscle tear. The pain screamed through her body, and in her agony, she vomited again on the floor. Her mouth was filled with the hot sour taste, and now that her arm hung loosely at her side, Chuck rolled her over with ease. He grabbed her other arm and pulled on that with the same force. With a pop, her arm dislocated itself from her shoulder, and a new wave of pain washed through her.