The Ghost of Shapley Hall by Amy Cross

Author:Amy Cross [Cross, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction, Horror, Ghosts, British, Religion & Spirituality, Occult, Ghosts & Haunted Houses
Amazon: B01DAEND10
Publisher: Dark Season Books
Published: 2016-03-21T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

“Did you hear that?” Rachel asked suddenly, looking over toward the door.

I glanced at her, and then at the door, but all I heard was silence. Apart from the constant scuttling of bugs behind the walls, at least, which I'd more or less managed to filter out. We'd been working for a few hours now in the room, and Rachel hadn't said a word until just a moment earlier.

“Never mind,” she muttered, turning back to the wall-panel she'd been pulling away. As she lifted one edge, a couple of beetles scurried out across her hand, but she didn't even seem to notice.

“What do you think you heard?” I asked, as I started pulling on the floorboard again.

“Nothing.”

“But -”

“Forget it,” she stammered, “it was nothing and -”

She gasped and stopped to rub her shoulder, but then she immediately got back to work and I knew there was no point even suggesting that we stop for another break.

“At least there's no sign of Edward Shapley showing up,” I pointed out. “Maybe he's stopped following us about the house.”

“Don't joke,” she said darkly.

“But if -”

“Just don't joke,” she continued, and once again she sounded irritated. “James, please, this is serious. I think we're really close. I just want to find the child.”

“Before the ghost of Edward Shapley tries to stop us?”

She muttered something under her breath, but after a moment she looked over at the door again. Her expression seemed a little different now, as if some of the hysteria had left her.

Hearing a few small pitter-patter sounds nearby, I turned and looked at the window. Sure enough, the candlelight picked out some spots of rain that were being blown against the window by a strengthening gale.

“I think we might be in for a stormy night,” I said with a smile, but when I turned to look at Rachel I saw that she was hard at work. Her lips were moving slightly, as if she was muttering to herself, but this time I figured there was no point disturbing her. She was already disturbed enough, without my help. In fact she -

Suddenly I heard a cry from outside, as if a woman had briefly screamed. By the time I looked at the window again, the sound had faded, but I paused for a moment before turning to Rachel. To my surprise, she didn't seem to have noticed the scream at all. Instead, she was still muttering away, still trying to pull one of the panels loose. I waited for her to say something, to at least react, but finally I realized she seemed far too caught up in her own world.

I got to my feet and walked stiffly across to the window. The last thing I wanted was to risk stoking Rachel's fears any further, so I kept my mouth shut and instead peered out at the darkness. For a moment, all I saw was my own reflection, lit by the candle, so I moved the candle away and finally I was able to see the dark lawn below.

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