The Haunting of Emily Stone (22 page)

Turning to Emily, Robert began to check for a pulse. As soon as he placed two fingers on the side of her neck and pushed a little, he realized her heart was beating hard and fast.

“She's still with us,” he replied, turning back to look at the crack of light, “she -”

Stopping suddenly, he realized a face was staring back at him. With parts of her flesh eaten away, and her skull and many of her other bones showing through, a woman was reaching out with a gnarled, rotten arm. He watched in horror as she put her hand on the back of the chair and closed her fingers around the wood, as if she was trying to anchor herself, and then slowly she began to pull herself through. Too shocked to move or react, he saw that she was reaching through with her other hand too, until finally she grabbed Emily's throat and tried to pull her back. When that didn't work, the dead woman began to emerge from the light, putting her hands on Emily's body and tugging at her.

“Don't look,” Jenna said, turning Lizzie around. “Whatever you do, don't look.”

Frozen to the spot, Robert watched as the dead woman reached down and tried to pull Emily's hands free from the handcuffs. When that failed, she told hold of Emily's wrists and paused for a moment before starting to tug as hard as she could, until finally Emily's skin began to tear and blood ran freely down the side of the chair. The skin on her hands was starting to get pulled away, exposing the raw meat below, until finally the hand became de-gloved. Pulling Emily's bloodied hand loose, with its muscles and bone exposed, the dead woman immediately moved around to start working on the other side.

“Wait!” Robert said firmly, finally managing to get past his sense of shock. “What do you want?”

“Robert, get back!” Jenna shouted.

The dead woman stared down at Emily for a moment, as if she could see even though her eyes were just empty sockets. After a few seconds, she turned to look at Robert.

“Let me help you,” he told her. “Let me study you, let me...” He paused, before reaching out and touching the dead woman's shoulder, checking that she was real. As his fingertips brushed her rotting flesh, he felt as if he'd finally made contact with something from another world. Even though she looked hideous, there was something strangely beautiful about the fact that such a thing could even exist.

“Robert!” Jenna shouted. “What the hell are you doing? Don't go too close!”

“It's okay,” he replied, while keeping his eyes fixed on the dead woman. “You don't have to take anyone,” he told her. “I'm a scientist, I can study what's happening, I can find another way to help you.”

He waited for a reply, but the dead woman simply stared at him.

“Do you understand me?” he asked. “Whatever's happening here, we can study it, we can work out the rules and then we can find a way to make sure that no-one has to suffer. Wouldn't that be better?”

He waited again, before spotting a hint of movement in the light behind the dead woman. Looking through, he realized he could see something far away, and finally he took a step closer until he was right at the edge of the crack.

“Robert!” Jenna shouted. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Wait,” he whispered, peering through the crack. For a moment, the light was too blinding, but after a moment his eyes adjusted and he realized he was high up, looking down on a vast sea of swarming, writhing bodies. Most of the people below were scrambling past one another, but a few of them were trying to climb up.

“Robert!” Jenna screamed. “Stop!”

“It's all true,” he whispered, speaking more to himself than to anyone else as he stepped closer. Looking down into the crack, he saw for himself, for the first time, the vast dead place spreading toward a distant horizon. He knew he should hold back, that he should take a cautious, academic approach, but the sheer excitement of the moment was too much and he found himself taking another step forward.

Familiar voices were shouting at him, telling him to be careful, but their voices were fading to nothing.

“Every word of it,” he continued. “The Myrkia, it's all true.” He paused, before realizing that he needed to start work at once, that he had to find a way to explore this vast new reality. Turning, he had to shield his eyes again as he looked back into the laboratory. The dead woman was watching him intently, while in the distance he could just about make out Emily slumped in the chair and Jenna watching from further back.

As he looked at Jenna, he saw that she was still holding Lizzie tight, and that she was shouting at him, screaming at him, even though he could barely hear her.

“It's real,” he said, taking a step forward before the dead woman blocked his way. Looking into her hollow eyes, he felt a sense of absolute certainty, as if he was somehow reconnecting with the version of himself who, twenty-four years ago, had believed in such things. “We can work together,” he told the dead woman, filled with a sudden rush of excitement, as if anything was possible. “We can -”

Before he could finish, she stepped toward him and put her rotting hands on his shoulders.

“Will you do that?” he asked. “We're on the edge of something extraordinary. Life after death, everything that follows, we can explore it. Please, will you work with me?”

He waited for a reply.

“Please,” he continued, as she began to push against his shoulders, “just trust me. I need you to believe in me, the way I finally believe in you. We just -”

And that was when he realized he was starting to fall back.

“No!” he shouted, reaching out and trying to grab hold of something, anything, to keep himself up. He managed to brush his hand against the dead woman, but he couldn't get a grip.

The last thing he heard was Jenna screaming his name, as he tumbled back and began to fall. The whole vast new world spun around him as he tried to turn back and take hold of something, but it was far too late and he fell down until, finally, he crashed into the sea of bodies below. Some of them stayed standing and some of them crumpled, but they broke his fall until finally he hit the muddy ground with a pained grunt. As he struggled to get back up, he realized he could hear groaning voices all around, and finally he found that he was right in the middle of the sea of bodies, with gray-skinned, rotting figures pushing past him as they desperately tried to get past.

Turning, he looked up and saw the vast gray wall of souls towering high above.

Chapter Thirty-One

Forty-nine years ago

“And what's this place?” Robert asked, pointing at a large green shape on the map.

“That's China,” his mother replied.

“And has
that
been explored?”

“I think so. Pretty much.”

“Then where
hasn't
been explored?”

“Well,” she added with a smile, “I think people have been pretty much everywhere now, but that doesn't mean there aren't still things to discover. At school tomorrow, maybe you should -”

“I want to explore somewhere that no-one's been,” he said firmly.

“You might have to settle for something a little less crazy,” she told him. “There's still so much to discover in the world.”

“I want to go somewhere new,” he replied, staring at the map with a hint of annoyance that every spot seemed to have been colored and named. “I want to be an explorer. I want to find new things.”

Today

“Get some lights in here!” Jenna shouted, racing across the laboratory as the flickering blue-and-white light shrank to nothing. By the time she reached Emily, the crack was gone and there was only moonlight in the room.

“Mummy!” Lizzie screamed, racing forward.

“Robert!” Stepping past the chair where Emily was still in a slumped position, Jenna looked around desperately, hoping to spot Robert somewhere. She'd seen him falling into the light, and then she'd lost sight of him completely. She knew he couldn't be gone, that he had to be around somewhere, but there was only one way in and out of the room and she was certain he hadn't gone that way. A moment later, all the lights flickered back on, along with the computers and monitors on the workbenches, and she saw that not only had Robert disappeared, but so too had the dead woman.

“Mummy,” Lizzie whimpered, climbing up onto her mother's lap and reaching out to put a hand on the side of her face. “Mummy, please be okay,” she added, with tears running down her face. “Please...”

“Where is he?” Douglas shouted, hurrying over to join them.

“He's gone!” Jenna replied, still turning, still hoping to spot Robert somewhere. “I saw him falling, and then...”

“Bullshit,” Douglas continued as he reached her. “He has to be here somewhere. A man can't just disappear into thin air.”

“Robert!” Jenna shouted, with tears in her eyes. “Robert, can you hear me?”

“Mummy?” Lizzie continued, nudging the side of Emily's face. “Mummy, say something.”

“Jesus Christ,” Douglas muttered, tilting Emily's head to one side and checking for a pulse. “She's alive,” he added, before looking down at her bloodied, skinless hand, “but barely. We need an ambulance. Her pulse is weak and she's lost a lot of blood.”

“Where is he?” Jenna replied, looking down at the spot where she'd last seen Robert. “Where the hell did he go?”

***

“Let me get this straight,” the police officer said with a frown as he sat with Douglas and Jenna at a table in the hospital's cafeteria, “you're claiming that -”

“We already told you everything,” Douglas replied firmly, interrupting him. “Please, don't make us go through it all again. It was hard enough the first time and our story isn't going to change.”

“Right...” The detective paused for a moment, staring at his own notepad as if he didn't believe a word he'd written down. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out; a few seconds later he tried again, but there were still no words. It was clear that he had no idea where to start. “You do realize,” he said finally, “that a man is
missing
, right? That's a serious situation, and the version of events you've given me -”

“Is what happened,” Jenna said coldly, staring at him with tear-stained eyes. “Word for word, that's exactly what happened in the lab a few hours ago.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Huh.” He paused. “I'm sure you can understand that I -”

“We have no proof,” she added.

“No, you don't.”

“You can ask us for proof until you're blue in the face,” she continued, “but we've got none to give you. No photos, no videos, no samples or substances. There's nothing.”

“All the equipment failed,” Douglas continued. “Obviously the event, whatever it was, caused some kind of...” His voice trailed off for a moment. “To be honest, I'm not sure what is caused, but on two occasions now it has been able to shut off equipment in its vicinity. Whether by accident or design, it would seem to be almost impossible to capture a visual or audio record of the phenomenon.”

“And we probably can't recreate it,” Jenna added, “because... It got what it wanted. It took the place of someone from this world.”

“And that would be Mr. Slocombe?”

She nodded.

“We need to focus on finding him,” the detective replied, “and...” He paused, eying them with suspicion. “He's one of the men who was at Emily Stone's house the other night, isn't he?”

“No idea,” Douglas replied.

“You wouldn't know anything about the bones, would you?”

“Bones?” Douglas paused. “What bones?”

“I got a call from the local station up there. Some time in the past twelve hours, a human skeleton showed up in the garden of Emily Stone's place. Seems like it came from deep down, maybe an unmarked grave. It's old, at least a couple of hundred years, and the coroner thinks it's female.”

“What will you do with it?” Jenna asked.

“It'll be examined,” he replied, “but I guess eventually it'll be given a burial. Probably at the local church.”

Jenna turned to Douglas. “Could that be her?” she asked. “Maybe that's why she wanted to come back through? Maybe she wanted someone to find her body and it was there all along, in the garden?”

“It's possible,” Douglas replied.

“Do you two want to loop me in on this?” the detective asked. “Do you have
any
proof at all to back up your version of events?”

“I already told you,” Jenna replied bitterly. “There's nothing.”

“Emily Stone can tell you what she saw,” Douglas suggested. “She was there. Lizzie too.”

“Ms. Stone has already told me that she believes your version of events,” the detective continued, “but that she remembers very little. Her daughter wasn't much use, either.”

“You won't find him,” Jenna replied, with tears in her eyes. “He's gone.”

“Gone where?”

She paused. “To whatever was on the other side of that... doorway. To whatever's out there waiting for people when they die.”

“But you said you don't believe Doctor Slocombe died?”

“He's in that place,” he continued, “but he's not necessarily dead.”

“Okay,” he continued with a faint, frustrated smile, “you're gonna have to run this past me again, because I'm getting all caught up in knots. Forget about proof for a minute, forget about trying to persuade me. Just tell me, in your own words, exactly what you think happened tonight.”

Jenna paused for a moment. “I think we lost someone we shouldn't have lost,” she said finally.

“You think he's dead?”

She paused. “No. I think the woman got exactly what she wanted. She came through and took his place, which means... I guess
he
must be where
she
was.”

***

At first he did what the others were doing. He tried desperately to climb the wall, to find a way up to a soul that might be weak, one that might let him through. He fell, of course, and finally he realized that there was no point. Even as the others all around him continued with their doomed quest, he stopped and took a step back, staring up at the wall. Finally, he turned and walked away.

“Joyce?”

Stopping suddenly, he realized that one of the figures heading toward the wall was familiar.

“Joyce!” he said again, hurrying toward her before realizing that she hadn't even noticed him. “It's me!” he added, grabbing her arm and pulling her back.

Turning to him, she stared with blank, dead eyes that seemed to have receded slightly into her skull. Her hair was loose and straggly, and the yellowy-orange nicotine stains on her lips were more noticeable now, set against gray skin.

“It's me,” he said again, keeping hold of her arm. “It's Doctor Slocombe from the university, remember?”

A flicker of recognition seemed to cross her eyes.

“Listen to me,” he continued, “we need to work together, we have to find a way to -”

Before he could finish, she turned and resumed her walk toward the wall.

“No!” he shouted, trying to keep hold of her. “Joyce!”

Turning again, she lunged at him, snarling with such ferocity that he took a step back and let go of her arm. For a moment, she seemed poised to attack him, before the anger faded as quickly as it had come.

“I have to...” She paused, before turning to look up at the wall again. “I have to get back,” she stammered. “It was too soon! I'm not ready!” Stumbling forward, she began to fight her way through the crowd.

“Joyce, wait!” he shouted, trying to keep up with her before realizing that she was already gone, lost in the sea of clamoring figures. He took a step back and watched as several men and women, in the distance, tried to climb the wall, only to fall before they could get too far. “This isn't going to work,” he whispered, struck by the hopelessness of the situation as more and more groaning figures pushed past him, heading to the wall. “There has to be another way back.”

Turning, he began to walk against the flow of the crowd, forcing his way through as everyone else hurried toward the wall, their cries ringing out like an eerie dusk chorus.

After several hours, once he'd reached the back of the crowd, he turned and watched them. More were arriving all the time, determined to climb the wall and find some way back through to the land of the living. Their cries and screams echoed through the air, and the wall continued to churn as new souls were born at the bottom and old souls rose higher and higher until they could disappear without being seen. The sight was like nothing he'd ever imagined, and he stood for some time before turning and looking out across the vast valley beyond.

The dead place, in all its glory, lay before him under a cloudy gray sky.

Drawn onward by the thought of finding some other way home, Doctor Robert Slocombe began to climb down into the depths of the valley. Eventually the mud gave way to wet grass, which dried as he got further along until he reached the bottom of the valley, where a river ran down from nearby mountains. He knelt and drank, although he no longer felt the need to fill his body at all. No hunger, no thirst, just a sense of being complete. Once he was back on his feet, he looked both ways before setting off away from the mountains, following the flow of the river as it meandered through the landscape. Occasionally he saw another soul passing, heading the other way and, no doubt, determined to reach the wall and climb up.

Eventually, the river met two others and together they began to rush toward the top of a waterfall. When he reached the edge, he looked out and saw the vastness of the land before him. It seemed impossible that such a world could exist, yet he remembered Douglas and Jenna showing him sections of the Myrkia that referenced precisely such a landscape. The world of the dead was just as vast and just as varied as the world of the living. Finding a set of steps that had been carved into the rocks, he began to make his way down the side of the waterfall until finally he reached the base, where he found to his surprise that an old man was sitting on a nearby rock, watching the water.

“Where am I?” Robert asked as he stepped closer.

Slowly, the old man turned to him.

“How do I get back?” he added.

“Back? To where?”

“I'm not...” Spotting more dead souls nearby, wandering in the direction of the valley and the wall, he realized that most people in the land of the dead were drawn to seek a way out. “I don't belong here,” he added finally, turning back to the old man. “I fell through, but this isn't where I'm supposed to be.”

“Pretty much everyone says that.”

“Feel my pulse,” he continued, holding his arm out. “It's true.”

Smiling, the old man felt for a pulse, and a flicker of surprise crossed his face as he realized that Robert wasn't lying.

“There has to be another way back,” Robert told him. “I don't care how far I have to go, but I shouldn't be here. I'm not dead! I have friends I have to see, and work I have to get done.”

“You do?”

“I do.”

“Then...” The old man paused. “Your only hope is to go back the way you came, and try to climb the wall.”

“It's madness there.”

The old man nodded.

“So what am I supposed to do?” Robert asked. “I need to go back and prove to them all that this is real!”