The Haunting of the King's Head Page 21

  “I want to call my father!” I tell him. “He'll realize that I'm missing! He'll call the police!”

  “I've already let the police know not to stress,” he replies. “Tell me, how does it work? Do you feel Muriel Hyde's presence inside your body right now? Or is it subtler than that? More subliminal.” He pauses again. “Is it even possible that you weren't aware of her?”

  I shake my head, convinced that he has to be completely insane.

  “Muriel Hyde died a hundred years ago,” I say, my voice trembling with fear. “She's gone!”

  “She did die a hundred years ago,” he replies, “but she's not gone. Are you in there now, Muriel? Why not come out? Or are you only strong when you're near the pub?”

  “There's no-one inside me!” I snap. “There's no such thing as ghosts!”

  “You must have seen her,” he says. “It's impossible for you not to have seen her as she entered you.”

  “You're talking nonsense!” I tell him, but there are tears in my eyes. I don't know why, but I'm on the verge of breaking down. “Leave me alone!”

  “Think back to the first time,” Hayes replies. “Or was it the first time? I'm starting to think that you have some kind of mental block on this, young lady. Have you been traumatized by a ghost before? Is that why you don't remember?”

  “Go away!” I shout, putting my hands on the sides of my head. I feel as if my skull's about to burst.

  “Fascinating,” Hayes says. “You're repressing something, aren't you? Something that made it impossible for you to accept that you'd seen Muriel's ghost.”

  “There's no ghost!” I shout. “There never was!”

  “Let it all out,” he replies. “If Muriel wasn't the first, then who was?”

  “Ghosts aren't real!”

  “It'll feel good to be honest with yourself.”

  “There's no such thing!”

  “We all have to be honest with ourselves sometimes and -”

  “I didn't see Mum's ghost!” I scream at the top of my voice. “You're lying!”

  As soon as those words have left my mouth, I freeze. Where did that come from? Why did I mention Mum? For a moment I have no idea what's happening, but then I sink further down onto the floor as I remember the day of Mum's funeral. We got home, and I went upstairs to change. I was in my room, changing into a t-shirt and some jeans, and I glanced in the mirror on the dresser. And that's when I saw...

  Just for a second...

  Standing behind me...

  Watching me...

  “No,” I sob, as tears stream down my face, “that didn't happen.”

  But it did, and now I remember. I saw her, just for a moment, and then I fainted. When I came around, Dad was leaning over me. He was so worried, but I didn't remember why I'd fainted. I guess I blocked the memory out of my mind, and I tried to get on with my life. And that must be why I fainted those times at the pub. I must have seen Muriel Hyde's ghost, and my mind – rather than accepting the truth and remembering that I'd seen Mum – chose to have me faint instead and lose all memory of what had happened. It must have been some kind of self-defense mechanism that went a little haywire.

  “Mum,” I whimper, closing my eyes but still seeing her face in the mirror, as clearly as I saw it back then. “I'm so sorry...”

  “Well, this is a turn-up for the books,” Hayes mutters. “I didn't expect to act as your psycho-analyst this morning, but I suppose I'm glad I could be of help. Now that you understand the truth, however, I hope you'll realize that we have to get rid of Muriel Hyde once and for all. And that, in turn, is going to be rather unpleasant. For you, at least.”

  Barely even hearing a word he just said to me, I open my eyes and look down at my hands. I'm shaking with fear and shock, and I still can't quite believe that I saw Mum's ghost all those years ago. She came back after the funeral, to see that I was okay, and I reacted by collapsing. It's as if my mind simply couldn't cope with what had happened.

  “Pick her up,” Hayes says after a moment. “Everything's ready. Malmeston has been living under the shadow of that wretched Muriel Hyde woman for long enough. Today we're going to get rid of her once and for all.”

  I feel hands on my arms, and I'm suddenly hauled up from the floor.

  “No!” I shout, struggling wildly as I'm dragged out of the room. “Stop! Where are you taking me? Let me go!”

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Charley Lucas

  “You can't do this!” I scream as I'm dragged on my knees across the wet grass, toward the steep verge that marks the start of the beach. “Somebody help me!”

  Ahead, about thirty people are standing around as if they're waiting for us. They might not be dressed in robes, and they're not wearing masks, but they look like members of some cult as they stare at me with fearful expressions. I recognize a few of them from around town, and then – as I'm dropped onto the ground and held down firmly by hands that grip my shoulders – I turn and feel a crash of horror in my chest as I spot one very familiar face.

  “Jennifer!” I shout. “You have to help me!”

  She stares at me, and she looks utterly distraught, but after a moment she turns away as if she can no longer watch. There are tears in her eyes, but she makes no move to get me out of here.

  “Jennifer, what are you doing here?” I yell. “I thought you were on our side?”

  She steps toward me, and she seems absolutely terrified.

  “I'm sorry, Charley,” she says, her voice shaking with anguish, “I tried to warn you off. I told you, the brewery has all the power here. None of us can fight it.”

  “They kidnapped me!”

  “I know, but -”

  “They hurt Dad, didn't they?” I continue. “They almost killed him, and you know it, and you were just going to keep quiet!”

  “You don't know what it's like,” she says, as tears run down her face. “I was supposed to spy on you guys, to let the brewery know the best and least painful way to let you both down. I was trying to help you!”

  “By screwing us over!” I snap, trying to break free so I can knock some sense into her.

  “You're not from Malmeston,” she replies. “You don't know what it's like here.”

  “On the contrary,” I reply, “I think I'm seeing it for how it really is. I never realized it, but the ghost of Muriel Hyde was real, wasn't it? I just didn't know it, because I fainted every time I saw her, and I never remembered. And now she's inside me somehow, she's possessing me. I fainted because that's what happened when I saw my mother's ghost, after her funeral. I'm so stupid. If I'd been smarter and stronger, I could have figured this out a long time ago.”

  “Charley -”

  “Don't talk to me!” I sneer. “You disgust me!”

  “Please, I never meant to be -”

  “Leave me alone!” I shout. “I hate you!”

  She hesitates, and then she turns and steps away. As she does so, she puts a hand to her face, probably to wipe away more tears. I don't care about any of that, though. I trusted her, I even thought she and Dad could become an item, and she was lying to us and betraying us the whole time.

  Hearing movement nearby, I turn and see that several more people are arriving, carrying a figure that's sitting perched on some old-fashioned chair. The figure is silhouetted against the cold gray sky, but as it's placed down in front of me I look up at its ragged, withered face and pull back in sheer horror at the sight of Muriel Hyde's corpse.

  “It would seem,” Gary Hayes says, stepping up behind me, “that a retrial is in order.”

  “You can't be serious!” I stammer, unable to stop staring at Muriel's face. She's been propped in the chair as if she's a real person, just as she looked in those photos from the original trial. “This is sick!”

  “Muriel Hyde was a murderer,” Gary announces to the people who are gathered nearby. “That much is beyond dispute. She was an enemy of the brewery, but more importantly she was an enemy of -”

  “No!�
� I shout. “None of this is true! Muriel Hyde was killed by the brewery because she wouldn't do what they wanted! The brewery killed Jack Farnham and then they faked Muriel's suicide and now -”

  Before I can finish, a hand clamps tight over my mouth. My head is pulled back, and a gag is forced into place. As a knot is tied tight, I struggle desperately to get free and to shout out the truth, but all I can manage is a vague, helpless murmur.

  “As I was saying,” Hayes continues, “Muriel Hyde stood against everything that makes this town great. Our values. Our principles. Our founding tenets. When she died, she was put on trial and found guilty, and everyone hoped the story was over. Alas, that has turned out not to be the case. One among us rescued her body, and then first he and then his daughter Judith kept it as some kind of obscene trophy. Their actions were tolerated until recently, when it became clear that Muriel's spirit remains very much present in The King's Head.”

  I try again to cry out, to warn the others that Judith must have been murdered, but I can't get the gag out of my mouth. A moment later, my hands are forced behind my back and tied tight. I know I need to get away from these lunatics, but right now I don't know how. Still, if Jennifer has turned against us and joined the madness, then maybe there's no way to escape. Maybe the whole town really is completely loyal to the brewery.

  “The spirit of Muriel Hyde resides in the body of this young woman,” Hayes explains, causing audible gasps from several members of the crowd. “This is her final attempt to escape and to cause damage to the fabric of our lives. That is why I have brought the girl here today, so that Muriel's spirit can be torn out of her and forced back into her rotting carcass, where it shall be trapped while the bones and the flesh are burned to cinders. I ask now that Muriel's body should demonstrate its willingness to reabsorb her soul!”

  Several members of the crowd drop to their knees, as if they're starting to pray. I look over at Jennifer, but she merely has her head bowed.

  I try in vain to call out to her, but the gag stifles my voice.

  “Perhaps blood is required,” Hayes says, suddenly stepping up behind me.

  As soon as I see the knife, I pull away and try to run, but I'm held down firmly and I can't resist as Hayes places the blade against my cheek. I try again to turn, but then I wince as I feel the knife's edge slicing through my skin. Hayes cuts me from just below my right eye, all the way down to the side of my nose, and then he carefully moves the knife away. Beads of blood are bobbing on the metal as he turns and starts carrying the knife over toward Muriel Hyde's corpse.

  “Let this taste be enough to make you rise,” he says as he turns the knife and lets the blood dribble down onto Muriel's face.

  As tears run from my eyes, I try again to break free, but I'm being held down too firmly. I can only watch in horror as my own blood soaks into Muriel's dry skin, and after a moment I look at her dead eyes. This whole situation is complete madness, but more and more members of the crowd are dropping to their knees, as if they genuinely believe that this circus is going to have any actual results.

  “Be patient!” Hayes shouts to the others. “This is not the work of a moment, she will come back and reclaim her soul! Wait and watch!”

  “Stop squirming,” one of the men says, still holding my shoulders firmly.

  Hayes comes back over to me and smirks for a moment, before turning to look back at Muriel Hyde's corpse. There's been no sign of movement, of course, but I can't escape a slow feeling of dread that's starting to spread through my chest and out into the rest of my body. Still silhouetted against the gray sky, Muriel's dead face stares down roughly in my direction, and I can feel an uncontrollable, explosive, totally irrational but absolutely inescapable fear starting to rush through my every bone and muscle.

  Please, I want to beg, let me go. But even if I didn't have this gag in my mouth, I think I'd be too terrified to say a word.

  And then, slowly, I see Muriel Hyde's dead eyes start to move.

  “It's happening!” Gary Hayes announces loudly, immediately dropping to his knees and bowing his head. “Her body and her soul shall be reunited, and then both shall go to Hell where they belong!”

  I start shaking my head, and telling myself that this is all a trick of the light, but deep down I already know that it's real. Muriel's eyes are looking directly at me now, and a moment later I hear a faint cracking sound as her head tilts slightly to one side.

  Her hands are moving, too, and a moment later her entire body shifts as if she's trying to get up from the chair.

  “I shall help her!” Hayes says, rushing forward and reaching out to take one of Muriel's arms. “We've been waiting for you!” he continues, as if he's in some kind of rapture. “Your body was in that woman's home, but your soul was in The King's Head. Only when they're reunited can this nightmare end. For the sake of Malmeston, I'm begging you to finally do the right thing!”

  As he holds her arm, Muriel slowly and tentatively rises from the chair. Her entire body creaks and groans, and she seems terribly unsteady on her feet, but after a few seconds Hayes lets go of her arm, allowing her to stand freely and stare down at me.

  This can't be real.

  This has to be some kind of trick.

  “I wasn't expecting it to be like this,” says one of the men next to me, still holding me down.

  “This is the one who contains your souls,” Hayes says, pointing toward me. “She might not give it willingly, but it's in her somewhere and you must relieve her of the burden. Do so without causing pain if you can, but remember that the whole of the town is relying on you. Do whatever you must, so that this dreadful curse is lifted.”

  Muriel stares at me for a moment, before taking a very slowly, very unsteady step toward me. She looks as if she might be about to topple over, but somehow she manages to hold herself up. She hesitates, and then she takes another step forward, until she's towering above me.

  “Do it!” Hayes shouts, stepping back. “Rip your soul out of her if that's what it takes! Save us all!”

  I look down at Muriel's dried, discolored hands, and I see that they're trembling slightly. I don't know what she's about to do to me, but I can feel my heart pounding in my chest now. Not necessarily faster, but harder, as if it might be about to burst at any moment.

  “Move!”

  Suddenly something slams about Gary Hayes from the side, knocking him to the ground. I turn to see Jennifer grabbing the knife from his hand, and then she rushes toward the two men who are holding me down.

  “Let her go!” she screams.

  I feel the hands move away from my shoulders, and I stumble to my feet and take a step back.

  “Don't try anything!” Jennifer shouts, turning and waving the knife toward Hayes as he tries to sneak up behind her. “This is wrong!” she sobs, with tears running down her face. “She's just an innocent girl, she didn't do anything!”

  Hayes tries to grab the knife, but Jennifer lashes out at him, cutting the palm of his hand.

  Rushing up behind me, she cuts the rope around my wrists, then she turns and holds the knife up to keep the two thugs away.

  “Run, Charley!” she shouts. “I'll hold them off! You have to run and get help, or they'll kill all of us! Tell your father! Tell anyone who'll listen! This is for my uncle!”

  “You stupid bitch,” Hayes says, stepping past Muriel and trying again to grab Jennifer only for her to lash out at him one more time. “Would you really betray your whole town?”

  “Run, Charley!”

  Filled with panic, I turn and race out across the grass, not even stopping to look over my shoulder. The pain in my ankle is intense, but sheer terror pushes me through the pain. I can still hear Jennifer shouting at Hayes and his men to stay back, but I know they'll be after me sooner rather than later. I can see the town in the distance, but the nearest houses are at least a mile away and I don't know that I can get there in time. Even if I do, I risk getting turned straight back around and delivered to Hayes and the b
rewery.

  I stumble down a grassy ridge, and then I stop to look around. I'm at the edge of a golf course, but I have no idea which way to go and I'm pretty sure that hiding won't be enough. I look back, but no-one's coming after me just yet. I need to make a decision, but I'm running out of time.

  And then, with no warning, I hear a dog barking.

  Turning, I'm shocked to see Bonnie wagging her tail at me. For a moment, I can't even believe what I'm seeing, but then I hurry over to Bonnie and reach down to pat her on the head. I pull the gag out of my mouth, and then I realize that Bonnie's standing at the entrance to some kind of opening that seems to run down under the golf course. I scramble down to take a closer look, and that's when I realize that I've found one of the beachfront openings to the tunnel system.

  “Bonnie, you genius!” I say, turning to her as she continues to wag her tail. “How did you -”

  Before I can finish, I hear an agonized scream in the distance, ringing out across the course until suddenly cutting off dead.

  “Bonnie, we have to get away from here,” I continue, before climbing down into the tunnel and rushing into the darkness. “Come on! We have to find the way home!”

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Charley Lucas

  Without my phone, I can't see a thing as I stumble along the pitch-black tunnel. Occasionally there's a sliver of light above, and sometimes I can even see street corners or the insides of room above the tunnel, but none of them seem familiar and I have no idea where we are in relation to the town. All I can be sure of is that we're somewhere under Malmeston, and I need to get out of here and find help.

  Fortunately, I can hear Bonnie right behind me.

  “It's okay,” I whisper, keeping my voice low as I reach out and fumble through the darkness. “Home, Bonnie. Do you know that word? Can you try to take us home?”

  I bump against the wall, but I'm pretty sure that Bonnie's no Lassie. Still, I can't wander around down here forever, and I tell myself that sooner or later we have to get a stroke of luck.