One Night at a Soul Auction Read online

  Copyright 2018 Amy Cross

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, entities and places are either products of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual people, businesses, entities or events is entirely coincidental.

  Kindle edition

  First published: February 2018

  “This is no Wonderland, and you're no Alice.”

  After tumbling down a hole in her aunt's house, 8-year-old Milly finds herself trapped in a strange, distant world. And while this world would be dangerous at any time, Milly has arrived at the worst possible moment.

  Because a soul auction is in town.

  Drawing the worst of the worst from all seven worlds, the soul auction is a center for demons who want to trade the souls of mortals. Lost and alone, Milly is soon taken under the wing of a mysterious werewolf named Duncan and his enigmatic associate Matilda.

  When she's forced to choose between the pair of them, however, Milly finds herself dragged into a series of terrifying encounters as she and the others get ever nearer to the vast, once-in-a-lifetime gathering that's about to take place nearby.

  If she wants to get home, Milly must enter the soul auction and face a deadly creature. And if she wants to live, she must uncover the terrifying truth at the soul auction's heart.

  ONE NIGHT AT A SOUL AUCTION is the story of a little girl who finds herself trapped in another world, and of a werewolf's attempt to gain revenge for the death of his sister.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Epilogue

  One Night at the Soul Auction

  Prologue

  “Great Aunt Milly? Are you awake?”

  The door creaks open, and I see great-niece Judy peering through from the gloomy hallway. As soon as she sees me, she smiles and pushes the door all the way.

  “It's late,” she says. “I wasn't sure you'd be up.”

  “I heard a knock at the door,” I reply, as I take a seat in the wicker chair by the window. My hips ache terribly, but once I'm seated I take a moment to make sure that my dressing gown is properly tied. “I take it we have a visitor.”

  Glancing at the clock, I see that it's almost 10pm.

  “Someone wants to see you,” Judy explains. “I told him it's late, but -”

  “Duncan,” I say, interrupting her.

  “That's right,” she says, furrowing her brow a little. “Were you expecting him?”

  “Yes and no,” I reply. “Let's say... I had a feeling he'd call on me tonight.”

  “Oh.” She pauses, clearly confused. “Well, he was kind of insistent. He's waiting in the hall downstairs, but I can tell him to come back another time.”

  “No, that's fine,” I say. “Please, send him up.”

  “But -”

  “And stay downstairs, won't you?” I add. “Please, Judy. Send him alone.”

  She stares at me for a moment, and it's clear that she's not entirely at ease.

  “Who is he?” she asks finally.

  “An old... friend,” I explain.

  “You never mentioned him before.”

  “Well, I don't tell you everything, do I?” I force a smile, trying to fool her into thinking that nothing is wrong. “Judy, you mustn't leave him waiting down there,” I continue. “I shall explain after, but for now I want you to go downstairs and tell him to come to my room. And make sure that you stay down there and wait.”

  “You're not going to tell me what's going on, are you?”

  I shake my head.

  “Fine.” Sighing, she turns and heads back out into the corridor. “Keep your secrets.”

  “Oh, I will,” I whisper, taking a deep breath as I hear her going downstairs.

  A moment later I hear her talking to someone, followed by silence, and then...

  And then I hear slow, heavy footsteps coming up the stairs.

  My chest is tightening with fear, but I know exactly what I must do. Slowly, with a trembling hand, I reach under the wicker chair and feel for the knife that I taped there earlier. I struggle for a moment to pull the knife free, but finally I slide the knife out and take a look at the long, curved blade. This is certainly the type of knife that would cause somebody considerable damage, although I can't really imagine myself finding the strength to use such a thing in anger.

  Then again, I shall most likely have no choice.

  As the footsteps come toward the half-open door, I slide the knife down next to my leg, so that it won't be seen. Then, after taking another deep breath, I turn to look across the room just as a familiar figure appears in the doorway.

  “Ah, Duncan,” I say, with my hand still resting on the knife's handle. “Please, come in. I've been waiting a long time for this moment.”

  Chapter One

  85 years earlier

  Still clutching Lucy, I stand at the top of the stairs and look along the landing.

  He's here.

  I know he's waiting.

  Watching.

  Lurking.

  Trying to find the perfect moment to attack.

  “Milly?” a voice calls out suddenly from the hallway. It's Mummy. “Milly, where are you?”

  I don't answer. Why should I give away my position, just because Mummy wants me to run another silly errand? Wherever Johnny's hiding right now, I bet he's sniggering to himself as he contemplates some rotten plan. This entire trip to the countryside has been hell, since Johnny decided that his only source of amusement would be a campaign of torture. For five days straight now, he's had his sights set on snatching Lucy away from me. And why? Because he knows it'd make me upset.

  That's the only reason.

  My stinky, stupid brother is out to get me.

  “Milly?”

  Why can't she just -

  “There you are!”

  Startled, I turn just as a hand lands on my shoulder. Finding Mummy standing right behind me, I feel a flash of irritation that I didn't hear her coming up the stairs. I thought I was waiting here poised like a cat, but apparently I wasn't quite as aware of my surroundings as I thought.

  “What are you doing, Milly?” she asks with a sigh. “It's a nice sunny day and you're moping about in this dull old corridor. Why don't you go and find your brother in the garden?”

  “He's not in the garden,” I tell her.

  “I'm fairly sure he is, darling.”

  I shake my head. “He's hiding. He's waiting to get me.”

  “Well, I think I saw him go outside about half an hour ago.”

  “He was probably trying to trick you,” I point out. “Mummy, I know he's hiding somewhere, I know he's waiting to be rotten to me. It's only a matter of time before he leaps out and tries to steal Lucy.”

  She sighs again, and I can see that she's sad about something. I don't know why, but she gets that look in her eyes every time I mention Lucy, as if she thinks that I shouldn't still be playing with my doll. She'll probably launch in
to another of her little speeches soon, telling me how I'm too old – at ten – to be playing with my absolute most favorite toy in the whole world. I hate those speeches, and I hate the way she looks at me while she's delivering them, and I hate the way she makes me feel. Doesn't she understand that I'll stop playing with my doll when I'm good and ready? Just not yet.

  “Okay,” she says finally, “whatever. Just don't make too much noise. Aunt Alice didn't have a very good night, so she needs to rest this morning. I'd really rather you play outside if you're going to be boisterous.”

  “I'm not going to be noisy,” I tell her. “I just want to play by myself. It's Johnny you have to tell off, not me.”

  “I'm not telling anyone off.” She puts her hands on her face for a moment, which is something she always does when she's exhausted. “I'd better go and check on her soup,” she adds, before turning and heading back down the stairs. “Please, Milly, just make sure I don't have to come back up here again and tell you two to be quiet. I've got enough on my plate, and next time I'll force you both to go and play outside until lunchtime. Got it? No excuses.”

  “I don't like playing outside,” I remind her, but she's already down in the hallway and a moment later I hear her heading into the kitchen.

  I don't think she heard me.

  “I don't like playing outside!” I yell.

  No reply.

  Turning, I look along the landing again.

  “I don't like playing outside,” I say again, under my breath this time. “It's too dirty, and there are bugs and mud, and why should I play outside when I want to play inside? It's not fair.”

  I pause for a moment, before realizing that maybe I should just try to get to my room. At least if I'm in there, I can hide Lucy away in her special box, and Johnny won't be able to find her. He's far too stupid. I can also push something against the door to try to stop Johnny getting through, although he's such an oaf – like a rhinoceros – that he'll probably just try to slam his way into my room.

  “Don't worry,” I say, looking down at Lucy. “I won't let anything happen to you.”

  I pause again, and then finally I start making my way along the landing. I'm tired and bored and annoyed, and all I want to do is -

  “Gotcha!” Johnny yells suddenly, lunging at me from behind the grandfather clock. He snatches at Lucy, almost grabbing her, but I manage to pull away just in time and start running.

  Slamming against the door to my room, I turn the handle, only to find that somehow it's locked. Startled, I turn and look over my shoulder, only to see Johnny grinning at me as he stands holding a key in his right hand.

  “Looking for something?” he gloats. “I swiped it from Mummy when she wasn't looking.”

  Rushing at him, I try to grab the key.

  He steps back, laughing his face off.

  “Give that to me!” I shout.

  “Why should I?” He pauses, and then his smile broadens. “You're looking very ticklish there, Milly,” he continues with a hint of anticipation in his voice. “Maybe it's 'cause of that doll. You should probably give it to me for safekeeping.”

  I freeze, but then he starts coming for me so I turn and race along the next corridor, into the part of the house that Mummy told us to never, ever go to. I don't even know the right way to go, but I can already hear Johnny running after me and I know from experience that he's a faster runner than I'll ever be.

  “Give me that doll!” he shouts.

  “Never!”

  Scrambling around the next corner, I see nothing ahead but more closed doors. I run as fast as I can, racing along the corridor and around another corner, and then finally I spot an open door up ahead. Barely able to believe that Johnny hasn't caught me yet, I rush over to the door and run into the darkened room, and then I turn and slam the door shut just as Johnny lunges at me again.

  Miraculously, I spot a key already in the keyhole, so I give it a turn and then step back while Johnny tries furiously – and impotently – to open the door. He definitely sounds like a rhino, banging again and again against the other side of the door, but I think even Johnny isn't going to be able to get through. Somehow, by sheer luck, I've actually found a place where I can be alone.

  “Let me in!” he yells, as the door rattles in its frame. “You're such a baby, Milly! All I want is that doll! You're too old for it anyway! You'll thank me later, so just give it to me!”

  Stepping back from the door, I wait for him to give up and leave me alone, but of course he just keeps on trying to force his way through. Johnny's not the kind of person to give up easily, and I know he'll happily spend the entire day hounding me. If it was the other way around and I was making all this noise, Mummy would come up in a flash and get mad, but of course Johnny's allowed to do whatever he wants because Johnny gets a free pass on everything because Johnny's Mummy's favorite.

  “Open this door!” he shouts, still trying the handle over and over again, as if he thinks I'll feel sorry for him and decide to let him inside. Never! “Milly, I'm serious! I'm doing you a favor! You can't play with dolls forever! People already laugh at you. Did you know that? They laugh at you for being a big baby and that's only going to get worse. If you let me help you, people won't laugh at you anymore!”

  “Go away!” I yell. “Leave me alone!”

  “You're such a baby!”

  “I'm not a baby! You're a baby! Now go away!”

  “You're pathetic,” he continues. “You realize that, don't you?”

  “I'm not pathetic. You're pathetic!”

  “You're a stupid little girl and you need to let go of that doll and -”

  Suddenly his voice falls quiet and the door stops rattling. I look down at the bottom of the door, but I don't see any hint of a shadow in the gap.

  I wait, but it's almost as if Johnny has vanished into thin air.

  I'm not that stupid, of course. I know he's still out there, and that he's waiting for me to fall into his latest little trip. If I open the door now, he'll be lurking to one side, and then he'll grab me again. That's how he almost got me last month, when he so nearly snatched Lucy away from me back at our house in London. I swore then that I'd never ever let him trick me that way again, and this time I'm determined to show him that he'll never beat me. Taking a deep breath, I figure that I'll just have to wait this out, no matter how long it takes.

  “I'm not coming out!” I tell him, trying to make myself sound as determined as possible. “I'll stay in here until lunch if I have to!”

  I wait.

  Silence.

  “So you might as well go away!” I continue. “You're just wasting your time.”

  Again I wait.

  Again, silence.

  “I'm not coming out,” I mutter under my breath, turning and looking across the bare room, and seeing that there's not even any furniture. “I don't mind staying in here. At least it's clean. Not like the dirty garden with all that mud and grass.”

  The room is certainly empty. All the other rooms in this house have old antique furniture, and dusty old curtains, and all sorts of knick-knacks left over from the days when the house was actually full of people. Aunt Alice lives here alone now, and she has done for several years, so the place has rather faded a little. Mummy keeps saying that it's a waste of a nice house, but Aunt Alice apparently insists on staying here. As I step across the room and make my way to the window, however, I can't help wondering why anybody would want to live in such a dull old place.

  Peering outside, I can barely see through all the dirt and grime that's covering the glass. I wipe some away, surprised to find that it's on the inside of the pane, and finally I'm able to see the sun-dappled lawn and the trees beyond.

  I've never been an outside person, but I suppose the view is kind of beautiful.

  If you like that sort of thing.

  Which I don't, and never will. I mean, sure, you can't really see the dirt and the bugs from up here, but they're there. And bacteria, too. There's so much stuff
that's alive out there, and I don't want any of it wriggling into my mouth and ears and nose and eyes.

  I watch the garden for a moment longer, before turning and looking back across the room. I suppose I'll just have to entertain myself here for a few hours, until Mummy fetches Johnny away, but fortunately I have Lucy and -

  Stopping suddenly, I see that there's a large gap in the far corner, where part of the wall and floor have given away to create a dark hole. I suppose the hole must have been there before, although I didn't notice it. Now, stepping closer with Lucy dangling from my right hand, I can't help but feel that it's very strange for such a nice house to have such a large, ugly hole in one of its rooms. I mean, I know Aunt Alice has been struggling to maintain the place, but I really feel that she should have at least patched up a big hold hole.

  In fact, the closer I get to the hole, the bigger it seems to be. It's almost as if it's slowly growing, although I know that's not possible.

  Reaching the edge, I peer into the darkness and see that the hole seems to slant a little downward as it extends deeper into the house. I can only assume that it runs into one of the downstairs rooms, although I have no idea where exactly it might come out. I certainly can't think of any holes anywhere else in the house, but then again if I missed this hole until just now, I suppose I might well have missed another.

  And maybe Johnny has missed them too.

  Crouching down, I peer deeper into the hole. I'm trying to work out which part of the house is below this one, and whether I might be able to crawl through and escape from the room. I really don't like the idea of wriggling through a dark, narrow hole, but at the same time I'd absolutely love to play a trick on Johnny and leave him waiting outside the room for me while I sneak away.

  I lean further forward, until I have to support myself against the wall so that I don't tumble down into the hole.

  So far, I don't see any spider webs, or anything else that seems nasty. That doesn't mean there won't be some dirt down in the hole, but I'm sure it wouldn't take too long to make my way through. Besides, I'm actually starting to smile at the thought of playing a prank on my brother, and the lure is starting to become irresistible. Even though the hole looks completely dark, I know that it has to come out pretty quickly into one of the downstairs rooms, so really the only danger is that I have to make sure I can climb down at the other end.