“Grace...”

  “It was hard pretending my hand was fixed once you thought I was a ghost,” she told him, wincing as she held her right hand up and tried again to move her broken fingers. “You have no idea how much this hurts, but I don't think I showed it too much.”

  Slowly, Patrick began to shake his head.

  “So enjoy being trapped here forever,” she added, backing away toward one of the open doorways. “I have to admit, I wasn't sure the plan would work, but I gave it a go.”

  “I saw you fall!” he sneered.

  “But you didn't see someone catch me,” she told him, looking up at the doorway high above. “See the opening just below it? I told you, I had some ghostly intervention. That was the riskiest part, but I had no choice, I had to trust them.”

  “Who?” he shouted. “Who are you talking about?”

  “The other ghosts,” she said firmly, backing all the way out into the stairwell now. “I really couldn't have done any of this without them, but I'm not gonna be able to stick around to offer my thanks. I just need to pick up a few things and get out of here, and then...” She paused for a moment, watching his shocked face with a growing expression of pure hatred. “And then I won't ever be back. Enjoy rotting here, in every sense of the word. Goodbye.”

  “Come back!” he yelled, still on his hands and knees as he watched her racing away up the stairs. “Grace! You can't leave me here like this!”

  ***

  Already out of breath as she reached the top of the next flight of steps, Grace had to stop for a moment and lean back against the wall. She looked down the stairs, but to her relief there was no sign so far of her father following, so she quickly began to make her way around to the next steps. All she knew in that moment was that she had to get out, but first -

  Suddenly something bumped against her from behind. Letting out a startled cry, she tripped and fell onto her knees, feeling an immediately burst of pain as she almost fell all the way back down the stairs. She managed to grab the railing with her right hand, but she quickly gasped and pulled away as she felt fresh pain rippling through her broken fingers. She paused for a moment and then she turned and looked over her shoulder, terrified that her father might have caught up to her. Once she was that there was still no sign of him, she turned and got to her feet, racing up to the next level and then stopping as soon as she saw the black door in the corner.

  “I'm sorry,” she whispered, “I -”

  In that moment something hit her again, this time with enough force to knock the air from her lungs as she was sent slamming into the opposite wall. Slumping down, she felt her ankle twist, and she screamed as she rolled onto her back and looked up. This time she saw a shadowy figure towering over her, and after a couple of seconds the darkness reformed itself to reveal Patrick's snarling features.

  “Where do you think you're going?” he shouted. “You can't leave me here like this! Not after everything I've done for you!”

  She instinctively kicked out at him, only to find that her foot went straight through his body. Before she had another chance to react, he hauled her up off the floor and slammed her again into the wall before leaning closer and glaring straight into her eyes.

  “You ungrateful little bitch!” he sneered. “That was always your problem, wasn't it? I did so much for you, I devoted my life to making you happy, but you could never fully accept any of it!”

  “Let go of me!” she gasped.

  “Maybe I need to teach you another lesson,” he continued. “I've had to teach you a few over the years, but hopefully this will be the last one.”

  Gripping her by the throat, he began to lift her up off the floor while pressing her hard against the rough brick wall. She struggled desperately to get free before reaching up with her undamaged hand and trying to force him to let go, but she quickly realized that she was powerless to fight back.

  “Do you seriously think you can trick me?” he shouted, squeezing her throat tighter and tighter so that she couldn't breathe at all. “Sure, you might be able to get a jump on me occasionally, but I will always put you in your place. And in this particular situation, Grace, your place is apparently going to be right here with me. That body back there might not have been yours, but the next one will be. I fully expect you to sulk for a while, but you'll come round to my way of thinking. You always do. And then you'll realize that I'm always right!”

  “Please,” she gurgled, barely managing to get any words out at all. “Don't...”

  As much as she tried to fight back, she knew she was powerless to resist. She could already feel herself losing consciousness, and as she began to pass out she realized that while she'd come so close to escaping him, perhaps her fate had been sealed long ago. She tried one last time to push him away, using her broken and crippled right hand, and then she gasped as she felt his grip on her throat tightening.

  “Family dramas are always so boring,” another voice said suddenly as a shadowy figure stepped up behind Patrick. “It's one thing to be annoying when you're alive, but once you're dead -”

  Before Patrick had a chance to react, he was pulled back and his hand fell away from Grace's throat, leaving her to slump down once again onto the floor. Patrick, meanwhile, was quickly spun around until he came face-to-face with the woman who'd appeared behind him, and he could only scream as she sent him straight through one of the nearby walls.

  “Once you're dead,” Heidi continued, “it's usually the time to take stock and think about your flaws.”

  Gasping for air, Grace began to sit up.

  “Sorry I'm late,” Heidi went on, watching her with a faint smile. “Distracting your mum was kind of fun, but then at the end it took a little bit longer than expected to really get the point home. I hope you don't mind, but I think maybe I went just slightly too far. I think I actually broke her mind. Like... into lots of teeny tiny pieces. I'm not sure anyone's gonna be able to put them back together again.”

  Although she tried to reply, Grace was still only able to get out a few brief, guttural groans.

  “Some people just can't handle the truth,” Heidi suggested as she heard an anguished scream echoing through from another part of the warehouse. “Of course, it was all her own fault. If she hadn't stupidly let Bedstead Boris touch her arm like that, I would've been able to give her a light scare and then she'd have been fine. But when she went too far, I was left with no choice so I touched her and topped it up. It was either tip her over the edge, or abandon the plan entirely.” She tilted her head to one side, exposing the cut on her throat as she watched Grace still getting her breath back. “And something tells me that the plan barely worked out anyway.”

  “How did he do that?” Grace stammered, finally managing to look up at her. “How was his ghost so strong?”

  “Anger, I suppose,” Heidi replied. “But don't worry, I think he's going to be a little preoccupied for a while. He'll pull himself together eventually, though, so I'm pretty sure we need to get you out of this place sharpish. Along with everything you came with tonight.” She turned and looked over at the black door in the corner of the stairwell. “The others seem to have done a good job,” she added darkly, “but they're not a permanent solution. I'm sorry, Grace, but you need to make a decision. And you need to make it right now.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Make them go away!” Judy shouted as the paramedic finished strapping her to the stretcher. “You have to make them go away! They're after me! Why can't any of you see them?”

  “We'll load her up and take her straight to the emergency psych guys,” the other paramedic said as he turned to one of the police officers. “Then we'll try to figure out a name and address.”

  “She seems pretty far gone,” the officer pointed out, stepping aside to let some customers enter the pub.

  Rain was still falling, pattering against every surface. The worst of the bad weather hadn't quite hit yet; instead the rain had been coming and going for an hour or so, although now it seemed to be coming a lot more than going.

  “I don't think she's on anything,” the paramedic suggested. “It's like her mind has just broken completely. I don't know what happened to her tonight, but whatever it was... I'm not sure she'll ever recover.”

  “Why won't somebody make them go away?” Judy screamed, struggling again as she was slowly loaded into the back of the ambulance while a small crowd watched. “They're everywhere! Why aren't you doing anything about all the dead people?”

  ***

  Still a little short of breath, Grace stepped past the open black door and made her way into the old office. Walking around one of the desks, she approached the next door at the far end and stopped for a moment. She listened, and after a few seconds she was just about able to make out a faint gurgling sound, and she managed a sad smile as she turned the handle and pushed the door open.

  The bundle she'd carried into the warehouse earlier, the same bundle she'd managed to get all the way to London from Somerset along with her backpack, was on the floor.

  A few seconds later, as the attendant shadows withdrew from the bundle's sides, a faint gurgling sound began to break through the silence.

  “Hey,” Grace said, hurrying over and dropping to her knees, then pulling the edge of the bundle aside so that she could check on her week-old son. “Mummy's here now. You've been such a good boy, haven't you? You didn't cry once!”

  “I told you they could take care of him,” Heidi said, having followed and stopped in the doorway. “They might have mucked up their own lives, but they know how to keep a baby quiet. For a while, at least. I mean, it's really only been an hour since this all kicked off. Feels like more, huh?”

  “Look at you,” Grace continued, gently lifting the child up and holding him in her arms, then starting to rock him gently. “I'm so sorry I had to leave you in here for a while. You know I'd never have done that if I didn't have to, right? I just needed to take care of something and...”

  She looked around, and for a moment several of the shadows seemed almost to have arranged themselves in human shapes. They quickly faded away, however; now the last of the sunset was struggling to reach through a nearby window and the city was falling from the cradle of twilight into the dark of night.

  “You're so beautiful,” Grace said, smiling through the tears as she hugged her son tighter than ever – while taking care to avoid putting any pressure on her injured right hand. “And you've been through so much. I'm sorry about the journey, I know it wasn't ideal but... I had to get you away from there. From him. From all of it.”

  Hearing another angry scream, she turned and looked past Heidi, watching the office.

  “Is that him?” she stammered, getting to her feet and stepping back. “Is he coming again?”

  “Not yet,” Heidi said darkly. “When I threw him off you, I kinda scattered his mind a bit. That's something you can do to a new ghost, but he'll be back on your case soon. You need to be out of here sooner rather than later, and then you can never come back. Not unless you want to face his ghost again.”

  “Never!” Grace snarled.

  “So what are you going to do with...”

  Heidi paused for a moment, just as the boy gurgled again.

  “I can't keep him,” Grace sobbed as more and more tears streamed down her face. “It wouldn't be fair to him. I love him more than life itself. I kept my pregnancy hidden, I even kept him hidden when he was born, but I was only delaying the inevitable. I don't know where I'm going to live, so how can I look after a baby?” She kissed the child's forehead. “I've got to do what's best for him. And I also don't want him to have to know... I mean, I don't want him to have to live with the knowledge of...”

  Her voice trailed off.

  “Where are you going to take him?” Heidi asked.

  “I did some research on the train,” she explained, sniffing back tears. “There are a few options, but there's one just a few streets from here. It's not ideal, but it'll work. They seem like good people and I'm certain they'll take care of him.”

  “You know, one day you could get in touch again,” Heidi suggested. “He might like to -”

  “No, never!” Grace sneered, just as she heard Patrick's distant scream again. “If she found out about me, she'd end up finding out about him too. And I can't let that happen.” As she looked down, the baby's tiny fingers brushed against her left hand and she saw him looking up into her eyes. “I'll get by,” she added. “I can look after myself. But he needs to get the best possible start in life, and I can't give that to him. For that, he needs someone else.”

  “You need to get out of here,” Heidi said firmly, just as Patrick's cries began to echo and twist higher up in the building. “Right now. You two really can't afford to be here when he comes around and works out how to be stronger. But as long as you never come back inside this place, I promise he won't be able to reach either of you. Oh, and hey, don't forget my number one piece of advice. Join a gym before it's too late.”

  ***

  A few minutes later, with her backpack slung over her shoulder, Grace carried her son away from the warehouse and along a nearby street. Every step felt painful as she walked with a twisted ankle, and part of her mind was still trying to come up with another option, but deep down she knew that she couldn't possibly look after her son.

  In her arms, the boy let out another faint gurgle.

  “Nearly there,” she said, struggling to hold back more tears as she made her way around the next corner. She adjusted the blanket a little, to shield the child from rain that was starting to fall harder. “I think we -”

  Stopping suddenly, she saw it. As the rain continued to become stronger, Grace stared at the fairly small, discreet church on the other side of the road. She'd done lots of research and she'd discovered that the staff at St. Winifred's were known for having taken care of several babies who'd been left on the steps over the years, and she felt sure that these were the best people to look after her son and make sure that he was taken to wherever he needed to go. Leaving a child on the steps of a church felt slightly old-fashioned, but her research suggested that it would work and – besides – she worried that if she waited any longer, she might change her mind and try to look after him herself.

  And that would never be a good plan.

  Once a taxi had driven slowly past, Grace hurried across the road. Some lights were on inside the church and as she slipped past the gate she realized that she could hear somebody playing the organ inside. She approached the front step in front of a large, closed red door, and then she hesitated as she realized that the moment had finally arrived.

  “Mummy loves you so much, David,” she continued, finally using the name she'd quietly chosen for him. “You'll never know what it was like, keeping you hidden before I gave birth. The baggy clothes fooled Mum, but Dad was a tougher proposition. I really had to work hard to stay away from him, but it worked and he never knew about you. Even back at the warehouse, anytime he went through into the office, I made sure to lure him out quickly before...”

  She paused again before crouching down and gently setting the boy on the step. As he wriggled and smiled up at her, she felt more tears reaching her eyes.

  “You'll never find out where you came from,” she said firmly. “Ever. You'll never know how he used to...”

  Her voice trailed off, and after a few seconds she adjusted his blanket again as the organ music continued to play inside the building.

  “You never need to know about any of it,” she added. “We're both free of him now. Don't worry about me, I'll figure something out. I'll never forget you. I'll always be your mummy and you'll always be my boy, it's just that you stand a much better chance with other people.”

  As tears dripped from her face and landed on the blanket, she leaned down and – for what she knew would be the very last time – kissed him gently on the forehead.

  “I'll always love you,” she sobbed as her bottom lip trembled wildly. “And I know you'll have a happy and long life. There just no other way for me to do this right now.”

  Getting to her feet, she reached out, ready to knock on the red door. She hesitated, still wondering whether there might be any other way, and then she forced herself to knock loudly. She waited, but the music continued so she knocked again, much louder this time. Finally the music came to an abrupt halt inside, and a few seconds later – as soon as she'd heard footsteps making their way toward the other side of the door, and still holding her injured hand while her twisted ankle screamed with pain – Grace Schnitzler turned and limped away into the night.

  Next in this series

  9PM

  (THE HAUNTING OF LONDON BOOK 2)

  Late one night, Jane Lucas makes a surprising discovery on the steps of her local church: a newborn baby has been left wrapped in a blanket, with no note and no explanation. With heavy rain starting to fall, Jane takes the baby inside and makes arrangements to have it collected. But as the rain gets stronger and heavier, Jane starts to notice something moving in the shadows.

  Help soon arrives in the form of Roger, who's there to take the child away. But he too quickly realizes that something is very wrong inside the church. For years, there have been rumours of a ghostly figure that is only ever seen at night. Jane insists that these rumours can't possibly be based on anything real, yet even she can't deny the sense of menace that seems to be spreading slowly through the building...

  And trying to take the child.

  Jane and Roger soon find themselves trapped in a battle to save the newborn boy from a terrifying entity. They can leave the church whenever they want, but only if they let the child stay. But what kind of creature is so desperate to claim a young life? And how far will this evil force go in its efforts to get what it wants?