Don Pendelberry pushed open the door to
the Victorian guest house, stepped inside, and held his breath. With
eyes screwed shut and through clenched teeth, he finally sucked in
the air. It was clean, if a little musty, with absolutely no taint of
decay and death, just as he had known it would be.
At the end of the hallway, a young
woman, dressed head-to-toe in the style of a fifties teenager, was
watching him quizzically. He could've sworn there wasn't anyone there
in the hallway when he had pushed that door open. Embarrassed to have
been caught unawares, he quickly straightened himself.
'Hi, you must be a new guest?' She said
brightly.
As she spoke, she tilted her head from
side-to-side, appraising him, her pony tail swishing around her
shoulders like the tail of an annoyed cat.
'Yes, just for the weekend. I'm sorry,
I have a slight cold, settling on my chest I think...' Don's words
faded away as he struggled to explain his behaviour in the doorway to
this curious gum-chewing girl.
Eyes sparkling, she turned on a smile
that overflowed with all the bright enthusiasm of the young.
'Better wrap up warm then. It's a bit
cold in this dump. Henry's tight with the heat. I gota rush daddio,
see ya later, alligator!
Don watched her waltz down the corridor
and vanish in a blur of white bobby socks, flared skirt and pointy
breasts.
'Hello, Mr Pendelberry is it?'
'Yes, that's me.' Don said to the
elderly man in slippers and threadbare cardigan who had shuffled into
the hallway near where the girl had left.
'Henry Winkler, owner of Tied House,
welcome, let me get your keys. You're the only guest I'm afraid, end
of season you see. Here you are, No.9, second floor. If you want a
drink, I'll open the bar, end of the hall, there.'
Later, Don lay in his bedroom and
remembered. Everything was different, yet nothing had changed; she
was still here, buried under those hallway floorboards. Why had he
come back after thirty-six years? One last night with his lost love,
to remember how things were. This house, the whole street was to be
demolished, he knew. She would be found, and he had to vanish. He
needed a drink.
In the bar, Henry Winkler poured him a
Scotch and a much larger one for himself.
'Was that your daughter, the girl I met
earlier in the hall? Into fifties music, is she?' Don asked.
'Are you trying to be funny? What do
you know about my girl? How do you know what she liked?'
Don spread his hands in surprise at the
cold anger in Henry's words. 'No, nothing, it was just that she said
hello to me, in the hallway, when I arrived.'
'Listen, I don't know what your game
is, but I'm not playing it. My daughters been dead fifteen years, I
live alone and you're the only guest. And I don't appreciate your
sense of humour, if you can call it that. Bar's closed. And I want
you out of this place tomorrow morning'
Don watched Henry stalk out of the
room, and tried to work out what had happened. The guy must be a
little nuts, he decided. Back in his room, he laid awake unable to
sleep, fully dressed on the bed in darkness. From under the door,
from the corridor outside, a shadow disturbed the light seeping into
the room. A soft knock, almost inaudible, startled him.
Padding to the door, he opened it
quickly. The girl he'd met earlier in the hallway was standing
holding a finger to her lips, whispering, 'Follow me, Mr Pendelburry,
come on, hurry!' Then she turned and all but ran down the corridor
and down the steps.
He followed, pausing at the top of the
landing as she stopped and stared back up at him. A noise behind him
made him twist around in time to see a steel club swinging towards
his head. He heard, rather than felt his skull crack under the blow.
Then he was falling, bones snapping at each impact, before crashing
through the old hallway floorboards at the bottom. He was alongside
the body of his love, her skeletal arm, disturbed by the impact,
draped across his face.
As he lay dying, he heard Henry Winkler
screaming, “Oh God! I thought you were a burgler!
The girl sat by him, watching. She
smiled and then said, 'I just knew you two had to be together. And I
knew my dad would help. His anger killed me, you see. Just because he
didn't like my boyfriends. And you killed your only love.' She turned to the woman beside her. His woman.
'Now we can all be together, forever.
Ain't that cool, daddio!'
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