The Wayward Girls by Amanda Mason

Author:Amanda Mason [Amanda Mason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2019-08-11T16:00:00+00:00

17

Now

Lewis works his way through his list. He’ll let Hal deal with the cameras, but he wants to check the audio as well as making notes of times and readings. He works methodically, the front bedroom first. He can hear the others downstairs in the dining room, chatting quietly as they eat, although he’s not convinced that’s a good idea. As far as he’s concerned, any detail Lucy provides about the past might influence the others’ perceptions of the house. Better by far, surely, to get through the rest of the evening before asking Lucy for her version of events; before moving on to the next phase.

Up here in the bedroom everything seems to be OK, although of course there’s no proper light here, just the one Hal fixed to the Sony. He moves carefully, trying not to block the light from the hallway. He’s reluctant to turn his back to the door; he can’t escape the feeling that someone – he’s not sure who – might think it funny to slam it shut. To leave him there in the dark. Although of course he has his torch and anyway—

He switches it on and directs the beam of light towards the landing; there’s no one there.

No one has followed him upstairs.

No one.

But still, he has the urge to speak, to communicate.

‘Hello?’ His voice is tentative, low. He makes a slow circle of the room. This was the girls’ bedroom and the starting point for all the phenomena. He lets the light from the torch sweep lazily over the walls and their palimpsest of paper. The mattress in the corner bothers him: even though he knows it wasn’t there in 1976, he could almost convince himself there’s something in it, something very still, something waiting.

He’s lost track of what he’s doing; his list, his clipboard that he never really needs anyway, seems to have vanished. He brought it upstairs, he knows he did, but he must have put it down when he was checking the batteries in the camera and now the bloody thing has vanished and if he could just find it then he’d be able to get on, to restore some order, to regain control.

The yellow-white light dances over the floorboards and he can see footprints in the dust, so many now between the five of them that he couldn’t retrace his footsteps if he tried. And then he remembers, not five, four.

A floorboard gives and he drops the torch.

‘Can you tell us about Tib?’ Nina glances up at the door, glad that Lewis is out of the way for a few minutes.

‘There’s not very much to tell.’ Lucy’s voice is even, not defensive, but not forthcoming either. Supper isn’t much, shop-bought sandwiches and crisps and bottled water, but at least it’s provided an excuse to sit down together. Nina wishes she could get rid of Hal too, she’d rather it was just her and Lucy; they’d been getting somewhere earlier, getting closer at least, and there were so many questions she wanted to ask.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.