4. Umbra
‘They were in the pub,’ observed Harve as he stared down the street.
‘What?’ asked Ed.
‘Those two!’ Harve looked back in the direction they had come.
Ed followed his friend’s gaze down the street and saw a couple snogging. The brown-haired man was tall - a couple of inches over six feet, Ed reckoned - slender and wiry. He wore blue chinos and a distinctive lavender-coloured polo shirt. The curly-haired woman was almost a foot shorter. Her short summer dress was a plethora of pastel petals which clung closely to her curves. They were kissing.
‘Yeah, I remember that arse,’ said Ed. As he watched, the man slid his hands down the woman’s back, grabbed her bum and lifted her off the pavement.
‘Bloody hell, they’re a bit old for that, aren’t they?’ Ed said.
‘It looks like she’s desperate for it,’ groaned Harve.
‘Not as desperate as you an’ Josh,’ said Ed. ‘D’you think that they’re following us?’
‘Following us? Why would anyone want to follow us?’ Harve asked.
‘Maybe she secretly fancies you,’ suggested Ed sarcastically. ‘Although she’s got a funny way of showing it,’ he added as they continued to watch the couple.
As the two youths continued to watch, she wrapped a leg around him and began rubbing his calf. Harve cursed.
‘Christ! Now he’s really got his hands full,’ said Ed.
‘Got it,’ Josh announced, holding up the bag. ‘No problem, he didn’t even ask for my ID. What’re you two looking at?’ He followed their gaze. ‘Hey, they were in the pub.’
Ed and Harve turned to face their friend and saw the puzzled look on his face.
‘Yeah, you reckon that they’re following us, Josh?’ Harve asked eagerly.
‘You creep, Harve,’ said Ed.
‘Why should they want to follow us?’ Josh asked. ‘They’re probably looking for a cheap hotel somewhere. She’s his bit on the side, it’s obvious.’
‘Oh, yeah?’ said Ed sarcastically. ‘How, exactly, is it obvious, Josh?’
‘I was watching them, she was wiggling her bum when she walked back with their drinks, and then they were kissing and cuddling at the table. They’re both wearing wedding rings, so, they must be having an affair. If they were married to each other they wouldn’t be acting like that, would they?’ said Josh knowledgeably.
‘You’re right.’ Harve nodded ingratiatingly, and Josh looked smugly at Ed.
‘Huh,’ said Ed. He shrugged, realising that it wasn’t worth arguing.
When they reached the next junction, Ed glanced back over his shoulder.
‘That’s weird, they’re moving. They’re behind us again,’ he said.
Josh suddenly looked anxious and, the moment they were around the corner and out of sight of the couple, he ran. His two friends sprinted after him. They followed him up the street, into a smelly concrete stairwell, and down a flight of stairs. He walked along the litter-strewn concrete path; when he reached the fourth door he looked at his watch and rang the bell.
‘We’re a couple of minutes early, I hope that she won’t mind,’ said Josh.
The three young men waited, but there was no answer.
‘Maybe she’s gone out,’ suggested Ed. ‘If she really exists.’
Josh scowled and tried again. This time the door was answered almost immediately. The woman had blonde hair and wore a plain black dress, made remarkable only by its plunging neckline. She was holding a carved walking stick, Ed noticed.
‘Hello Josh,’ the woman said, giving the three youths an appraising look. ‘These must be the friends you told me about. Come in, please.’ She stepped aside, placed the stick behind the door, and ushered them inside.
‘Thanks, Anna. Are your friends here yet?’ asked Josh.
‘My friends?’ asked Anna. For a fleeting moment she looked surprised, but she recovered in an instant. ‘Not yet, they’ll be here soon.’
Neither Josh nor Harve had noticed anything; they were both staring at Anna’s cleavage, which was extremely impressive. Ed, however, was suddenly wary. At first glance, Anna seemed pleasant enough to look at, but her nose was slightly hooked and her chin was rather prominent. She was very heavily made up, too, and she reeked of perfume.
‘This way,’ Anna said. She led them along a white-walled and linoleum floored corridor into an almost empty living room. The dirty window was covered by a stained net curtain. It was difficult to see out, not that there was much to see. The view was of a brick wall, steel railings, the ankles of passing pedestrians, and the wheels of cars.
Ed looked around the room in distaste. The only furniture was a battered old brown leather sofa and a table laden with alcohol. The wallpaper was peeling from the walls, the room smelled damp, and carpet was a shabby, muddy brown.
‘I brought some booze,’ said Josh, pulling several cans from the carrier bag.
‘Thank you, Josh. Please, sit down.’ With a wave of her hand, Anna indicated the sofa. Ed was struck by how sharp her black-painted fingernails appeared. Josh and Harve grabbed a can each, opened the ring pulls, sat on the sofa and took a long drink. Ed remained standing.
‘Sit, drink,’ said Anna, addressing Ed. ‘Loosen up a bit, you’ve come here for a good time, haven’t you? I can promise you an unforgettable night.’
‘Where’s the music?’ Ed asked. ‘You can’t have a party without music.’
He looked around. There were no electrical appliances in the room at all he realised. Everyone he knew had a telly, and a games console, and a laptop – everyone, it seemed, except Anna.
‘I’ve got music on here. What you fancy, Streetlight Manifesto?’ Ed pulled out his mobile phone, but to his astonishment, the battery was flat. ‘I only took it off charged a couple of hours ago…’ he began, but he was interrupted by the doorbell.
‘Are you expecting anyone else?’ Anna asked sharply, her eyes suddenly as cold and black as iron.
‘No, but you are,’ Ed accused her. ‘Your friends are coming round, have you forgotten?’
‘Not for a while,’ Anna snapped. ‘Did you tell anyone else that you were coming here?’
‘No,’ Josh assured her.
‘But…’ Harve began.
Ed managed to glare him into silence, but it was too late.
‘But what? Harve … isn’t it?’ Anna asked, her voice was sweetly menacing.
‘There was a couple in the pub … I don’t think that they were following us…’ admitted Harve.
‘You don’t think!’ Anna screeched. ‘It’s obvious that you don’t think. Foolish children!’
The doorbell rang again.
‘Wait here, say nothing,’ snapped Anna. She strode from the room, slamming the door behind her.
‘What?’ said Harve, exchanging a worried look with Josh. Ed hurried to the door. It was an ordinary internal door, flimsy-looking and without a lock, but when he tried it, the handle wouldn’t budge. He motioned his friends to silence and pressed his ear to the door. Ed and Harve joined him.
‘Hello, you must be Josh’s friend,’ he heard a woman say. It was the woman from the pub, the woman who had followed them, he was certain of it. ‘I’m Georgina Sands, and this is my boyfriend, Andy Sawyer. Josh told us that you were having a party, an open house, he said.’
‘How does she know my name?’ Josh asked.
There were four thuds in rapid succession, and then a silence. The three boys looked worriedly at each other and stepped back from the door.
Anna raged into the room, Her skin seemed paler, her nose and chin longer, and her teeth a lot blacker than when she’d first greeted them. She was holding the carved walking stick in her right hand.
‘So,’ she screamed. ‘You told no one, eh?’
Her left hand lashed out and she raked Josh’s chest with her hand. Her black painted nails were now black iron talons. Josh screamed and fell to the floor, his t-shirt in tatters and blood flowing from four deep gashes across his torso. Harve squealed and made a dash for the open door, but Anna grabbed him and threw him onto the sofa.
‘Food,’ she said.
Ed had been starting forward to help Josh, but he stopped in amazement when Harve landed on the sofa, and was swallowed by it. He was still staring at the now empty sofa when Anna grabbed his arm and threw him onto the sofa too.
‘Food,’ he heard her say again, before the sofa swallowed him.
There was a second of claustrophobia, as he found himself within the earth and unable to breathe, but then he was falling. He landed heavily on an unyielding rock floor, bruising his hip and scraping his hands. The place was pitch dark, but he could hear sobs alongside him.
‘Harve?’ he asked.
‘Ed? Izzat you? What just happened?’ said Harve, his voice was high and panicky. He sobbed and let out a stream of expletives.
‘Hey, watch yer language, laddie, there’s a lady present,’ a Scottish voice said.
‘I’m no lady, I’m your wife,’ the woman from the pub said. The man chuckled grimly.
‘Who’s here? Is it all three of you?’ the woman asked.
‘No,’ said Ed. ‘She’s still got Josh upstairs. He’s hurt, bleeding … she … she clawed him. Who are you? Where are we? Can you help us?’
‘Damn! Are you free?’ the woman asked.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Ed, instinctively realising that “no we’re trapped underground in the dark wasn’t the answer she wanted.
‘We didnae fall all the way through.’ the man said. ‘Our hands are trapped in the rock. We’re dangling in midair, helpless.’ There was a huge amount of bitterness in his final word.
‘She’s got an earth staff, Mark,’ the woman said. ‘I wasn’t expecting that, sorry. But she doesn’t know who we are, we can still surprise her. She’ll be here soon. Let me do the talking, just back me up, agree with everything I tell her.’
‘Earth staff?’ asked Ed.
‘It’s … a brand of trapdoor,’ the woman said. ‘It’s…’
‘Noise activated.’ The man supplied.
‘Shh…’ the woman hissed and he fell silent.
There was a strange, grinding sound and the darkness gave way to a dim light.
‘I’ll explain later,’ said the woman hastily.
Ed looked around. He was in a large cave, a box roughly hewn inside the rock. The walls and floor of the cave were uneven and cracked and it was split into two halves. He and Harve - who was curled in a foetal ball and whimpering - were separated from the larger part of the room by a row of iron bars, which were set solidly into the floor and ceiling. In the large half of the room, the man and woman from the pub hung helplessly from the ceiling; their hands, and most of their forearms, were impossibly encased in the rock. He looked up; there were no trapdoors anywhere.
The woman had been lying, he realised, but all thought of that fled when he saw the cauldron, and the wall behind it. The cauldron was huge, it was large enough to fit someone inside, and it was full of water. The wall behind was shelves, but they were made from what appeared to be human bones. Ed thought that he recognised ribcages and shoulder blades. He might have dismissed it, but there was no doubt that he recognised the human skulls on the shelves, each with a different label: salt, pepper, mustard. He shivered.
The wall shimmered and Anna, or someone almost like her, stepped out from the solid rock. She was dragging a bloody Josh behind her. She had changed, almost beyond recognition. Her skin was gray and her nose was a long and with a very pronounced hook. Her chin was jutting and warty, her fingernails were black iron and she was stooped and hunchbacked. She was using the stick to walk with.
She cackled, and the noise sent a chill up Ed’s spine.
With one hand she lifted the unconscious Josh up and held him against the bars which separated Ed and Harve from the rest of the room. She touched a couple of the bars with her walking stick. Josh fell through the bars. Trying not to be sick, Ed staggered to his bloodstained friend’s side. The crone-like Anna turned to face the two who were hanging from the ceiling.
‘He said he didn’t invite you,’ Anna croaked. ‘I believe him. Who are you, and why are you here?’
Moons by Northumbrian
Chapter Endnotes: Emma (Hermione_granger4life) bet a read this for me.