Chapter 17 – The Morning of Truth
The morning hit with the force of a brick and the subtly of a drunken elephant. A faint hammering of rain against the windowpane of her bedroom brought her out of the fathomless reverie that lingered in those precious few moments as one comes out of a deep sleep and drifted into the waking world. There was a weak ray of morning sunlight shining down upon the floor, but it was barely a blip upon her radar as the weight of the last few days came slamming into her.
‘How did my life change so drastically?’ Danni thought as she blinked drunkenly, slowly coming back to herself. ‘Three vampires… standing in my kitchen… now they are staying in the spare room… the house… is alive… it can talk to me… how did this become my life?’ With a deep groan, Danni turned her face and buried it deep into the pillows. Why could she stay there? What would be so bad about deciding not to get out of bed? She could just disappear into her room, lose herself in her books, pretend that nothing had changed.
No… she couldn’t do that again.
Something had changed since she had come here. She hadn’t realised it at the time but, like the toad in the slowly boiling pot, it only occurred to her long after it was too late to stop it. From the moment that Richard had picked her up from the train station, to when she had welcomed those women into her home to finding herself waking up in Joey’s bedroom, a strange new feeling had come over her. It wasn’t that the goings on of the farms she could see from that spot beyond the garden, the brightness in the eyes of those she spoke to, not even the goings on in the house that she had just discovered.
It was that everyone here seemed to like her.
Whilst she had been living in London, no one noticed her. On the streets, in school, she had disappeared into every crowd, invisible even when in plain sight. In her own house, she didn’t exist unless there was something that her parents needed to complain about. Then she couldn’t escape from the spotlight of their eyes.
But here was the complete opposite and after a lifetime of being scared to breath, coming here was like taking the first full inhale of fresh air. Instead of bracing herself in anticipation of being struck with a negative word or a glare or counting it as a good day if she was left alone to disappear, people wanted her around. The vicar had invited her into his house; he and Joey had come to her rescue when she’d run out into the street in the middle of the night, Joey had even given his bed to sleep in. How many people in the city would extend such generosity to her?
Even if she cast her mind back as far as her earliest memories, she couldn’t recall a time that her parents would welcome her into their bed. When she had been struck with nightmares of grasping hands and glowing eyes shining out of the darkness, she had never crept from her bedroom into theirs and found comfort in the space between them. Maybe there was once a time she could have reached out, but she must have found herself rebuffed. At some point, she had resorted to pulling her blankets close around her, clinging to them unless sleep came for her again.
No one would ask after her red-rimmed eyes, nurse her scraped knees, help her from the ground. But it was completely different here. She was willing to bet that if she fell on the street, she would find three hands reaching towards her, endless questions about what could be done for her, offers of comfort would pile down upon her.
It was all so different to what she had known.
At some point, she had flipped herself over onto her back and was staring at the ceiling, letting the realisation soak itself into her bones. Despite all of the strangeness, the surprises, London was seeming less and less like home. This bed, this room, all of it had made her feel all so much more welcome than the city had ever done. Pulling herself upright in bed, leaning against the headboard, cushioned by the pillows, Danni looked down at herself and felt her cheeks warm. She had completely forgotten that she was, somehow, STILL in Joey’s clothes! How long had she been wearing these now?
Feeling all the more a fool, she began to pull them off, only for something to fall from the pocket of the jeans and hit the floor with a muted thump. Looking over the side of the bed, she saw something resembling an extremely blurry stone standing out against the carpet. Placing her glasses on her nose, she refocused her eyes on the floor and discovered that that strange stone-thing one of the vampire’s had given her last night sitting there like the strangest of eggs had laid on the floor.
‘What was it that they had called this thing? An Ox… something? Be… be-something…’ She picked up the Ox something-or-other from the floor and placed it back on the bedside table, grabbing her phone in the meantime and opened her browser.
“Ox… Be… Bezoar? Is that it?” Pulling on her underwear with her free hand in a moment of practised fill, she tapped on the auto-fill suggestion and an image of a stone matching the one sitting on her bedside table.
Looking down at Joey’s clothes where they lay spread around her floor, an odd twisting in her stomach came over her. She knew she had to return them… but, at the same time, they were too comfortable. They were warm, smelled exactly like him, she didn’t want to return them. She wanted to hold onto them for as long as possible, but she knew that would sound insane.
But… maybe… just one more day wouldn’t be too bad?
No! She had to return them! That was the sane thing to do!
Pulling on her own clothes with a sense of longing, Danni brushed out her hair and let it fall around her shoulders, grabbed the Bezoar and settled down on the edge of her bed with her phone in her other hand.
“Ox bezoar… a mass found in the stomach of… what in the what? They… they thought this was a universal cure for poisons? What is… How in the world could something like cure anything? I mean, unless they decided to make someone throw up whatever was giving them food poisoning? You’re… you’re just a calcified tumour!” Laughter unlike that which she had ever felt before bubbled up from her stomach, making her whole body shake with the force of the sheer ridiculousness of all of this! How? How, after everything else, was this where she gave into laughter?
Holding it between finger and thumb, she held it above her head and just gazed it for a time.
“What a weird thing you are…” She mused, turning the stone-thing around before her eyes.
What was it that they had said this was for? Medicines? What was that about? How could something like this, an ugly little lump like this be medicinal?
Pulling on her socks, Danni folded up the clothes from the floor, tucked her the bezoar, her keys and phone into her pockets, took up her bag and paused when she saw Joey’s coat. How long could she get away with keeping this? Maybe… She could come up with some excuse. It needed to be washed… yeah! That was it! She needed to wash it, and she couldn’t risk it getting ruined in the dryer so she would just leave it on the rack. Then if she forgot about it for a few days…
Human error was allowed some grace.
Mistakes were accepted here.
Pulling the coat around herself and feeling as if she were a schoolgirl again, Danni went downstairs, pausing in her excitement just long enough to peek into the spare room. Unsurprisingly, despite how dearly she had wished it, the three coffins remained as they had done before. She toyed with the thought of testing the idea that they could not be opened if a wild rose were laid across but decided she was in too good a mood. They could be left alone for now.
Stepping into the kitchen, she glanced at the board on the fridge, and a thought occurred to her. Those vampires, Cesare, Erik and Victor… they said that they had been able to communicate with the house… that it had told them things… Couldn’t she do the same thing?
Settling herself in the middle of the room, looking around herself as if she expected something or someone to melt out of the walls, Danni groped for something to say. How did one communicate with a house? Sure, it could talk to her, but… it felt altogether too strange to try and speak into apparently empty air and wait for something to happen.
“Uhm… Hi there?” Keeping her eyes fixed on the board, she waited on tenterhooks for the response. If nothing else, this would be the proof. She decided that to herself. If absolutely nothing else could prove that all of this was real, then this would be it. The moment of acceptance. “Do you… have a…” She took a fortifying breath. “Do you have a name? Is there something I can call you? I mean, it feels a bit rude to just refer to you as ‘the house’. Is… there something else you might prefer?”
It took a moment, a second stretching onward into eternity, her faith dwindling the longer nothing changed, but eventually she watched as the pen attached to the board rose upon its string as if guided by an invisible hand and began to write.
“ Call me Poppy. As it is my name.”
Magic. She lived in a magical house… and it could talk to her. Instead of filling her with panic as something like this had before, a jolt of excited energy brought every hair on her body to attention.
“Poppy… That’s a lovely name. How did you decide upon it?” Danni asked, watching the pen move again.
‘Before, I was called Poppy Manor.’
“Poppy Manor, that’s quite the history it sounds like you have.” Danni mused, the idea intriguing her. Perhaps there were some kind of records in the vicar’s museum? Something to ask about in the future. Springing for something to say so she wouldn’t be standing in silence, Danni costed about in her mind for more to say.
“What do you think about how I’ve been talking care of you? Is there anything in particular that you like? Anything I could be doing more of?” She asked, keeping an eye on the board as she crossed the room over to the cupboard holding the bowls. She poured herself out some cereal, not being particularly in the mood for something like a fry-up after such an extended period of excitement, only to spill the box’s contents all over the counter with how hard her hand was shaking.
‘There is a cobweb up in the rafters that tickles me whenever the spider who made it catches something. Also, the salamanders want some fresh logs, they’re hungry.’
Wait… what?
“Uhm… Salamanders? Aren’t… a kind of… lizards?” Danni asked, momentarily forgetting about the mess she had been sweeping up a moment before.
‘They live in the pipes. They keep the house warm.’
If it were possible, Danni’s jaw would have detached from her face and shattered on the floor from how hard it dropped.
“But… salamanders are lizards… what are they… doing…?” She couldn’t finish, only pointing towards the floor where she assumed the creatures in question resided.
‘These are lizards made of fire; the logs keep them full. They don’t like the cold.’
That… Was… was that what kept the place so warm? How many of them were living right underneath her feet?
“I… I’ve got… fire lizards under my feet… I have vampires in my spare room… And I have a house that talks to me…” How was it that words could make so much and yet so little sense to her own ears? She chewed on these thoughts, on this new reality, working it around in her mind as she chewed on the cereal, only having barely remembered to add milk to the mixture before sitting down.
There was that old phrase ‘seeing is believing,’ she had seen a lot in the past few days. There were more unquestionably unbelievable sights that she was bound to see in this world, but could she count this as where the strangeness of her situation began? She supposed that she should… At least she could walk away from all of this at the end of the month when Tawney would return. Just as one would leave nothing but memories and kill naught by time as they drifted from place to place, she could do the same.
Cleaning up her mess, leaving the bowls to dry next to the sink and sweeping what she could of the spilled cereal back into the box and the rest into the bin, Danni resolved that whilst she’d give the salamanders that which they desired, she was determined to get a look at them. Slipping on Joey’s boots and tying his coat tighter around herself, she stepped out into the cold shower drumming against the house, slicking the driveway and leaving puddles in the garden. She stepped into the pipe shed and slowly began feeding logs down the tube, holding it just long enough to feel it be pulled out of her hands, by a hungry Salamander she had no doubt.
The first four she released without resistance, but when she felt the fifth latch onto the sizeably large log she had chosen just for the occasion, she yanked it back sharply. From the bowels of the pipe, the log came out and attached to it, was, sure enough, a lizard. About the size of a chihuahua, a stunning shade of yellowish-orange and staring up at her with all the dazed surprise of a deer in headlights, the salamander only dug its teeth, needle sharp despite their size, further into the wood, giving it a tug like a dog on a rope toy and Danni released it in her own moment of surprise. The salamander retreated at top speed back into the pipe, dragging the log with it as both disappeared out of sight. Getting down on her hands and knees, staring down the length of the pipe but seeing nothing, Danni called out. “I’m sorry! I just wanted to see if you were real!”
How was it that trying to apologise made her feel even more like a fool?
Hunched over on the cold earth, her nose filled with the smell of wet soil, a faint under layer of burning logs and smoke, her ears catching the small tapping of sharp claws on metal, Danni felt another of those strange mental jigsaw puzzle pieces fall into place. Her house was warmed by lizards that treated logs like dog toys… her house could speak to her through a white board… she had… three vampires… in her spare room. Try as she may, that was the part that always got stuck in her craw. That was the spot from where her mind refused to move…
Why, after everything, did that thought intrigue her, fascinate her, interest her so much?
Wait… she knew why. It was ridiculous that it had taken her so long to realise it. It was the whole reason that she hadn’t run out of town completely the first moment she had seen them. It was because it was too good an opportunity. It was a perfect source of inspiration that had just dropped, like a golden egg, into her lap!
That was why… because, against all of her better instincts, she knew a good story when she saw it. That was why she couldn’t order them to leave… that was why, despite everything, she had stayed.
Resigned to this fate, Danni got to her feet, brushed herself off and retrieved her bike. There were things that she needed to do, and, despite the weather, nothing appealed to her more in that moment then speeding down the hill, letting gravity take over until she saw Joey again. Seeing his shining face would make her morning complete. On her way, she could think of an excuse to give the butchers.
Crossing the border between the driveway and the road, she turned onto the pavement and, heedless of the rain sloughing down from the trees, the wheels parting puddles like Moses through the Red Sea, any trace of ice or snow now little more than a distant memory after being washed away. Three fingers hovered close to the brakes in case of an accident like yesterday, as the words of the old woman still rang like angry bees in her mind. But not even that could dampen her mood. The wind was bracing, the cold wind whipping her hair around her face, sweat or maybe it was rain wetting her forehead, her cheeks, she didn’t care. She was enjoying herself far too much.
Town appeared before her but there was something strange about it. Something was moving around outside one of the shops, though she couldn’t make out who. She hit the brakes with a squeal, dismounted and left the bike leaning against the nearest wall, running up towards the person. As she got close enough, she realised that it was Joey’s sister! But that wasn’t the truly bizarre thing. The shutters to Joey’s shop front, the ones guarding his stock from the wind and the rain were still down. But… shouldn’t they have been raised at this late hour? Checking her phone momentarily, she discovered it was past 10 in the morning. Joey should have been awake for hours by now! So… where was he?
The moment the sister set her eyes upon Danni, she let out a shrill yell. Taken aback, Danni came to a skidding stop, her foot slid on a wet spot of pavement, and it was only through a rapid windmilling of her arms and a considerable amount of wobbling that she was able to keep herself from hurtling backwards toes over teacups. In a flurry of pink, Joey’s sister could only stare at the proceedings, but a look of dawning realisation came over her face when Danni approached, walking a little more carefully this time.
“Oh! It’s you! I remember seeing you last night! Miss… uh… Did I catch your name?” She asked, not seeming to think for too long.
“I didn’t give it… I think. I’m Danni, a friend of your brothers…” Danni explained, unsure if she should reach out for a handshake since one wasn’t being offered to her.
“I’m Maggie! You gave me such a fright when you came down; I thought that you were Joey when I saw that you were wearing his coat.” She didn’t seem to register that it had been her yell that had scared Danni, but she was willing to look past that in the hopes of getting some answers.
“Have you seen him?” Danni enquired, looking around as if expecting that Joey would spring out of nowhere with a shout and give them both another shock.
“I haven’t seen him! I’ve been trying to get in but the things are down, and I don’t how to get in at his door! I think something happened to him!” Maggie replied, and it was only now that Danni registered how frazzled she looked. Her hair, having been immaculate the night before, was coming out of its elegant style and there was mud on her boots. How long had she been out here? Had she been pacing up and down the street trying to find a way in?
Remembering where Joey had shown her where his door was, Danni hastened over towards the side of the building and found the door. But, alas and alack, it was locked! For a moment, the pair of them searched around for a key or another way of entry but to no avail.
“Damn it…” Danni ground out, wishing now that Joey hadn’t been so careful. Then something occurred to her. The only question, however, was would it work when she was so far from the house?
“Hold on, let me try something. I think I know a way in.” What Cesare had shown her had jumped straight to the front of her mind, but could she use magic like that when she had never practiced nor whilst she was away from the house? “Maybe try and get his attention? Find a rock or something, throw it at the window.” If that would work, Danni had no idea, but it got Maggie away from the door whilst she did what she needed to.
Watching Maggie disappear around the corner gave all Danni was about to do not only a feeling of doing something wrong, but the potential illegality of this was settling a heavy weight in her stomach. Placing a hand on the doorknob, she whispered the word she had heard the night before.
“ Nepo…” Nothing happened.
“Damn…” She looked back around for fear that Maggie might have heard her. Trying again, she searched for something that might help, a feeling that might tell her she was doing something right. It took a few more tries, but slowly, something seemed to click.
“N-Nepo…” The handle turned, something inside clicked and the door swung open! “Yes!” She cheered to herself. “Maggie, c’mere! I got it open!”
Maggie came sprinting up to the door as Danni stepped inside, heading straight for the staircase without waiting to take her shoes off. That feeling in her stomach had intensified now into a nagging, crushing certainty of something being horribly wrong. All she could hope and pray was that Joey was not involved. The higher she climbed up the stairs, the deeper the feeling grew. The house was silent, but for the trampling of their feet on the stairs.
“Joey?!” Danni called out into the silence, cresting the top of the stairs to stand in the living room. Through one door, she could see into the bedroom, catching sight of a corner of a perfectly made bed waiting to be slept in but no Joey. Peeking around another corner, the kitchen was revealed to be clear.
“What’s through here?” Maggie asked. She had been surveying the room with a casual air whilst Danni had been looking around and was now pointing to a closed door.
“Uh… I don’t know. Probably the bathroom…” Danni hoped the choked sound of her voice was just in her imagination. She reached for a door but discovered a strange kind of lock. It was one of those that could only be locked from the inside, with little windows reading ‘vacant’ or ‘engaged’ above the circular mechanism. In this case, the words ‘engaged’ were shining bright from their little box.
Pressing her ear against the door, Danni closed her ears, listening for something, any sign. In her mind, she was conjuring a million different scenarios. Joey was just on the toilet and fallen asleep or had fallen and cracked his head on the floor, was just taking a shower, or a million more horrible scenarios. The bathroom was so full of danger! She had just never thought about it until now because it had never happened to her! Lifting a shaking hand, she knocked on the door.
“Joey? Are you in there?” She called, her heart leaping into her throat the longer the silence stretched. She tried again, speaking a little louder. Maggie was hovering behind her, shifting from foot to foot like she was waiting for the bathroom.
“I can’t hear anything inside. No running water or… we need to get in there!” She insisted. There was a strange smell leaking out from underneath the door, familiar yet unfamiliar all at once. She knew that smell but couldn’t put her finger on what it could be. Something… rusty…. Almost… coppery.
“How do we get in there?” She dug her fingers into the horizontal line on the lock, thinking she could get it to turn with her nails but to no avail. There would be no using magic with Maggie hovering so close to her… She needed another way inside…. It was then that she spotted a coin, just an ordinary two pence piece, lying discarded on the floor. What it was doing there, she had no idea and she just assumed that it had fallen from someone’s pocket when they hadn’t been looking but it was just what she needed!
“Maggie, back up. I need some space to work.” She insisted.
“What are you doing?” Maggie asked, watching her but she did as bid and stepped back.
“It’s an old trick I learned way back when.” Danni explained, conveniently leaving out the fact that she had learned this fact after being the victim of it. When she would lock herself in the bathroom, groups of vicious girls and the occasional boy would try to break into the stall by jimmying the lock with a coin!
Inserting the coin into the slot, Danni turned it, hearing the mechanism retract and the door swung open. There was a single moment of halting normality as all she could was the far wall, white with a coffee brown border lined with mismatched tiles. Then she saw the blood…
Then she registered the body.
Like a cloud of noxious gas, the smell of blood rolled over her frozen body. Before her was a scene straight from her nightmares, worse than the coffins, worse than anything she had ever read. This was real. Horrifyingly real.
Joey’s body, pale as wax, was slumped in his bathtub, his head hanging to one side. Upon his neck, something sharp had savaged the skin and all around him, the water was a river of red. Thin rivulets of bloodied water running down the sides of the tub, soaking the bathmat, staining the tile. A single arm, hanging limply, almost touching the floor, was exposed and it too had been slashed. From wrist to elbow, cut so deep, Danni could have sworn she saw a hint of bloodied bone.
“Joey…” She breathed.
Behind her, someone was screaming. It was only later, when the red and blue lights of the emergency services lit up the windows, shattering the morning calm with their sirens, did she realise that it had been Maggie.