The Raven Watcher (The House of Jack the Ripper Book 7) Read online

  “Then stay awhile and tell me about this creature,” the old man's voice says. “Whatever it is, I am sure we can find a way to send it back whence it came. Or at the very least, we can ensure that it never managed to spread its wings in this world. This cannot be the first time that such an entity has visited our city. Tell me what you know of this thing.”

  “I do not know where to begin,” I reply, feeling rather helpless. “So much has happened over the past few days, it is all a jumble.”

  “Then simply do your best,” the voice continues. “Once we have identified this creature, we shall find a way to ensure that it never again causes trouble. All evil can be stopped, Jack. Even the greatest evil of all. And if by chance it can't be stopped, then at least it can be delayed awhile.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Maddie

  Today

  “Wake up! I need you to wake up right now!”

  Opening my eyes, I find that I'm still on the slab in the basement. For a moment I try to remember exactly how I got here, but then I sit up and look around. Feeling a sharp pain in my chest, I look down and see that my shirt has been torn open, and that thick black stitches are running from my belly all the way up to my collarbone. That's when I remember the screams, and the sensation that I was being cut into, and the voice and...

  And the doctor.

  I saw him.

  I saw Doctor Charles Grazier, I even heard his voice. I try telling myself that he was just a hallucination, but somehow this felt a thousand times more real. Besides, the stitches definitely aren't a hallucination; reaching down, I touch a section of black wire and feel a shudder of pain. It's as if I was ripped open and then put back together, and I remember the agonizing pain I felt when I briefly woke during the operation.

  And I swear I saw him.

  Looking around, I half-expect to see a shimmering, ghostly figure. There doesn't seem to be anyone here, but that doesn't make me feel any better. He could appear at any moment, looming out of the shadows. And in the back of my mind, there's one very big question that keeps going round and round:

  Why did Jack the Ripper save my life?

  Assuming Grazier was Jack the Ripper, which seems pretty certain, why did he save me? Not just once, but twice! Maybe more times, even. He didn't save Alex or Matt, and I don't think he saved Nick. I'm not special, I'm no-one, but for some reason Charles Grazier, aka Jack the Ripper, went to great lengths to keep me alive. He told me to leave the house, too, and it was almost as if he was genuinely worried about me. He kept telling me to get out of here, and then...

  And then he said something else about me:

  “Such a charming young woman,” his voice whispers, echoing in my mind. “It's difficult to believe that you're a -”

  That I'm a what?

  He didn't finish that sentence.

  Suddenly filled with a sense of panic, I clamber off the slab and back away until I bump against one of the stone pillars. I know it makes me seem crazy, but I swear I can sense somebody down here with me. I try telling myself that it's just Doctor Grazier, but somehow I know that's not the case. Stepping around the pillar, I look toward the far end of the basement and then I turn and look the other way, but I still can't see anyone. There's a presence here, though, and somehow it's making me feel more and more terrified until -

  Hearing a key in a lock, I turn just in time to see the door opening at the bottom of the steps.

  I instinctively hurry forward, only to stop as soon as I see that Jerry has come back down.

  “You look well,” he says. “That's good. I thought he'd help you, if I just left you well enough alone. I think maybe he can be shy sometimes. Anyway, I didn't need to stay and watch. I already know who he is and why he's doing this.”

  “I want to get out of here,” I say firmly. “I want to get out of this house right now and never come back.”

  “I'm sure you do, Maddie, but there are other things to take into consideration. Things that were set in motion a very long time ago.”

  “The hell there are!” I hurry toward him, but he quickly steps back and pulls the door shut again. When I try the handle, I realize that the key has already been turned, so I bang my fists against the wood. “You have to let me out of here!” I yell. “You can't keep me in here like this! It's illegal! This is kidnapping!”

  “It won't be for much longer,” he replies from the other side of the door. “You have to be patient, Maddie. She's almost ready for you after all this time.”

  “Who is?” I ask, trying not to panic. “What are you talking about?”

  “She's waited so long,” he continues. “When you think about what she's accomplished over the past century, it's utterly astonishing. So many different elements to keep under control, so many possible problems that she was able to avoid, but she had faith that blood would see you through. And all of it in the service of a plan that was leading here, Maddie. Right here, to this place at this time, with you right where you're standing now.”

  “Me?” I stammer. “What have I got to do with anything?”

  “Everything, Maddie. It could only be you. Or someone in your line, at least.”

  “I don't know what you're talking about!” I shout, banging on the door again. “You're insane! That's it, isn't it? You're just some insane old man who's spent his life living next door and spying on this house, and now you've lost your mind! Was it when you came inside? Was that what finally pushed you over the edge?” Taking a deep breath, I step back. “Please, Jerry, you have to realize that this is wrong. If you let me out right now, I won't tell anyone. I'll even let you keep all the documents. You can spend the rest of your life going over them and you can have the run of this place, but please... I'm begging you, you have to let me go.”

  I wait, listening for any sign that he's changed his mind, but all I hear is the sound of his rapid, labored breaths on the other side of the door. He sounds ill.

  “I'm going to find a way out anyway,” I point out, as I start to feel tears in my eyes. Damn it, I really don't want to show weakness right now by crying, but I can't hold back. “I promise you,” I sob, as tears run down my face, “I'm getting out of this house. The things that have happened to me here, the things that have been done to me...”

  For a moment I think back to Nick, and the way he cut me open.

  I look down at my belly again, and I see the rows and rows of stitches that are criss-crossing one another. I've been torn apart so many times, it's beyond a miracle that I'm still alive.

  I should be dead.

  In fact, I think I was dead for a few minutes back there, before I was stitched back together. I literally had an out-of-body experience.

  “I'm not going to die here,” I continue finally. “No way, I refuse. So it doesn't matter what you say, Jerry, or what you do. I'm going to find a way out.”

  “That's funny,” he replies. “You sound just like her. You have the same sense of determination, as if you won't let anyone or anything stop you.”

  “Like who?”

  Again I wait, and again he doesn't say a word.

  “Like who, Jerry?” I ask. “You're not making any sense. Who are you talking about? Who am I like?”

  “You'll understand soon enough,” he continues. “I'm sorry, Maddie, but I can't go against her. She told me to expect you. I waited years and years, I thought maybe a generation ago you'd show up, but obviously it took even longer. I was starting to worry that it'd be another generation still, that I maybe wouldn't live long enough. But then you showed up and I realized immediately that the time had come. You might not realize it, Maddie, but we've been waiting for you all our lives. We knew you'd come, but we worried about how long it would take.”

  “You're crazy,” I whisper. “You're completely out of your mind.”

  “Rest now,” he replies. “You'll need your strength later. This is a good day, Maddie, but I imagine you'll be scared at first. There'll be a lot to take in, so for now you just need to st
ay calm and let your body heal a little.”

  With that, I hear him walking away, and then he starts making his way up the stairs.

  “No!” I yell, rushing toward the door and banging my fists once more against the wood. “Get back here! You have to let me out, Jerry! Please, I'm begging you, I'll do anything but you have to let me out! You -”

  Gasping, I suddenly turn and look over my shoulder. For a moment I swear I felt as if somebody was behind me, but I don't see anyone at all. I look over at the slab, then at the spaces between the pillars. Just as I'm starting to tell myself that I was wrong, however, I look at the door at the far end of the room. The door that I barely noticed before. The door that looks so innocuous, so unimportant.

  And in that moment, as the taste of peaches returns to my mouth, I'm filled with the sudden belief that somebody is waiting for me behind that door.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Doctor Charles Grazier”

  Sunday October 7th, 1888

  “You are right to be concerned,” the old man whispers, his voice barely rising about the sound of the Thames lapping against the nearby shore. “It sounds as if this creature was once human, but that it found a way to fight back after it died. Some humans refuse to accept death, they refuse to even accept the concept of death, and they do anything in their power to find a way back. In doing so, they have to change. This means that it has mutated from its original form, and mutations are impossible to predict. Whatever it is, then, it must be dealt with carefully.”

  “It's trapped at the moment,” I reply. “I remembered some symbols you taught me many years ago, and I applied them around the doorway and in other parts of the house. What worries me is what will happen in the long-term. Fifty years from now, or one hundred, or two hundred... I am certain that at some point the creature will be freed from that place. It is intelligent, and I fear that it has already begun to plot its escape.”

  “You are correct. It will find a way to leave.”

  “And I shall not be around to stand guard. I cannot, not forever.”

  “That is true enough. You cannot outlive this thing.”

  “So how do I ensure that it remains contained?” I ask, struggling to contain my sense of frustration. “I have considered burning the house to the ground, but -”

  “Then it would just be released.”

  “I could salt the ground!”

  “Such superstitions will not help you. This thing has fought its way back to the world. It must be strong.”

  “So what do I do? How do I hold it back?”

  I wait, but now the voice falls silent for a moment. I hear the sound of jangling bones again, perhaps coming closer, followed by a sigh. I had been hoping for a quick, easy answer, but now I realize that there will be no such thing. In our lust for knowledge, for a breakthrough, Doctor Grazier and I raced past the warning signs and unleashed something truly awful. Now, I fear, there is a price to be paid. Doctor Grazier has already paid his, which leaves only myself remaining.

  “You have been a fool,” the voice says finally. “I thought you knew the dangers of dabbling in such matters. I remember when I first came across you, Jack. You were lost and confused, and you'd stumbled down here to die. Your head was broken. I took you under my wing and taught you the ways of the world. One of the first things I told you was to never, ever get involved with dark arts. I thought you had understood that lesson.”

  “I was lured,” I reply, although I instantly know that this excuse is hopeless. “I met a man, he looked so wonderful as he killed. I watched him rip open his victims as if they were animals in a slaughterhouse. In all honesty, I had never before witnessed such power in the heart of the city. It was as if all the untapped violence of London had been distilled into the body of one man.”

  “So it goes,” the voice replies. “So it will go again.”

  “I followed him home,” I continue, “and I thought maybe I could help him.”

  “And did you?”

  “He was trying to raise his wife from the dead. In doing so, he revived her body but evidently something else filled the husk. This creature took its opportunity, but I promise you... We had no idea that this was possible!”

  “You opened a door that you must now close. A door that should never have been opened in the first place.”

  “I know,” I whisper, feeling a very deep and very genuine sense of shame. “If I do nothing else again in this world, I must ensure that my mistake does not hurt anyone else. That is all that matters now.”

  “You sound as if you understand,” the voice purrs. “That's good. You sound more collected than ever before. You understand, I hope, that you will have to make a sacrifice?”

  “What do I do?” I ask again. “If this creature gets loose, it could have a terrible impact on the world.”

  “You have placed symbols in the house,” the voice replies. “These symbols will form a cage, holding the creature within its limits. If they are properly formed, the cage can never be breached.”

  “But how do I know that the symbols are correct?”

  “You learned them from me. They are correct.”

  “But perhaps -”

  “You do remember them properly,” he adds, interrupting me. “I know that. Do not doubt yourself in this. Tell me, does the creature have allies?”

  “Allies?”

  “Has it made any kind of connection to anybody else?”

  “No. I am sure it has not.”

  “Then it cannot call for help,” he continues. “That is our one saving grace. It will try to reach out, but its options will be very limited. It has no connections in this world, although...”

  His voice trails off.

  “Although what?” I ask.

  “It has spoken to you, has it not?”

  “It has,” I reply, and now I can feel my throat becoming very dry.

  “It will try to use you, Jack.”

  “I am strong enough to withstand anything it attempts!” I say firmly. “Do not doubt me in this!”

  “You have no idea what you are facing,” he replies. “Once the symbols are all in place, they will discourage others from entering the house. They will discourage others from even thinking about the house. Indeed, the house can stand for all of time, and people will go out of their way to avoid even looking at it. They won't be conscious of this aversion, but it will be there nonetheless. The only problem, the only loose end... is you.”

  “I will leave the house and never look back.”

  “You cannot. Not now that you are so involved. While the house will repel most people, it will attract anyone who has a connection to the creature.”

  “Then what am I supposed to do?” I ask. “Can I in some manner sever this connection?”

  “It pains me to say this, Jack,” he replies, “but your life must be forfeited in order to ensure the house is sealed. The creature will find a way to use you, in order to free itself, unless you are dead.”

  “I would never succumb!”

  “It would find a way.” He sighs. “It would creep into your thoughts and change your mind. Perhaps it would take days, perhaps weeks, perhaps years, but eventually you would be persuaded to scrub the symbols away and open the door, and then the evil would break free. I am sorry, Jack, but there is nothing you can do to stop this. The creature would learn your weaknesses. Everyone has a weakness, you know. And every demon, every creature from dark places, sees a man's weakness shining bright. That is one of their greatest powers.”

  “I must die?” I reply, feeling a growing sense of fear in my chest. “Now?”

  “At the house. Do you understand? You cannot let any aspect of this creature escape, not even knowledge of its existence. If you do, it will find a way to have itself freed.”

  I hesitate for a moment, as a shudder passes through my chest.

  “Do you understand, Jack?” he asks again.

  “Yes,” I reply finally, and in that instant I realize that I have no
choice. This is the only way I can fix the mistake that Doctor Grazier and I made. “And then what?” I add. “Once I am gone, what will happen to the creature?”

  “And then, so long as you have sealed the creature in properly, it will remain down there forever.”

  Taking a deep breath, I try to come up with some other idea. I cannot comprehend ending my own life; indeed, the thought makes me want to turn and run, to keep going until I am far from these shores. Perhaps if I were to travel to the very opposite side of the globe, I would be free from the creature's influence. Then again, can I be so sure? Indeed, even now I feel I can sense something at the edge of my thoughts, picking away at my determination to end this nightmare. Perhaps I am imagining things, but I am starting to worry that the old man might be right, that I might be the one link that could allow the creature to escape.

  “What will happen to me,” I ask finally, “if I do this? What comes after this life?”

  “You don't want me to tell you that.”

  “Will I see Delilah again? My Delilah, I mean. The Delilah I loved so dearly. Or will I be damned for all eternity? I have not led a good life.”

  “He's struck again!” a man calls out suddenly, from a few streets away. “It's Jack the Ripper! He's killed another one!”

  “The hysteria in this city is getting out of hand,” I say with a sigh. “It seems now that every man and his dog wishes to be acclaimed as Jack the Ripper. It's almost as if people look up to him and want to be him. How is that possible?”

  “This will only get worse,” the voice replies. “I have seen the future, rippling in the tide at dawn. I have seen great gleaming buildings of glass rising up on either sides of the river. I have seen metal birds roar across the sky. I have heard the chattering voices of people living years and years from now. The legend of Jack the Ripper will never quite die. Indeed, there will be times when this supposed monster grips the city again. Your work with Doctor Grazier, Jack, will never be forgotten, even if your names might not become known. You have inadvertently created something that chimes with the soul of London.”