Page 204 of Love at First Fright

My hand closed around the bone.

Margery Darke’s finger. My only defence between myself and violent death. A witch’s finger.

Except she wasn’t a witch. Just a woman who’d been murdered and called a liar.

The shadow turned toward me.

Father Ashworth’s prayers rose to a desperate wail, Latin words tumbling over each other in incomprehensible panic.

Evelyn had stopped screaming. She huddled against the wall, arms wrapped around herself, rocking.

Bat flickered beside me, barely there. “Charlie—”

The final entry in the Handbook flashed through my mind. Rule #666: When All Else Fails, Wail. Gerald’s last piece of advice if you were about to die was to scream your fucking lungs out.

Right, then.

I thrust the finger bone skyward like a talisman.

And screamed.

“HELP!”

The word tore from my throat, raw and ragged and soaked in pure terror.

“HELP! HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE FUCKING HELP ME!”

I sucked in another breath and kept going, bellowing into the darkness, finger bone raised high like the world’s most pathetic weapon.

The basement exploded.

Light erupted from beneath the floor—white-hot and blinding. The stone cracked. Split open. Bones burst upward through the fissure, reforming mid-air with impossible speed.

Margery Darke’s skeleton assembled itself in seconds.

Then her ghost materialised around the frame. Solid. Furious. Her tattered dress billowed though no wind stirred the stagnant air. Her face once again twisted with anger.

She filled the basement with her presence—rage made manifest, injustice given form.

My jaw went slack.

Bat’s translucent form solidified slightly. “What—”

Margery’s head swivelled. Her burning gaze locked onto the shadow that had killed Harrison and Brad.

She opened her mouth and shrieked.

The sound shattered glass that wasn’t there. It clawed at my eardrums, my skull, my very bones. Ancient fury distilled into pure sonic violence.

“WOULDST THOU ALL DENY ME PEACE?” Her voice shook the foundation. “I ASKED BUT ONE THING—TO REST ETERNAL IN THE EARTH! YET STILL THOU DOST DISTURB ME! AGAIN!”

The shadow writhed. Drew back between the pillars, darkness condensing, pulling itself tight. For the first time since I’d entered this nightmare, it looked uncertain.

Then it laughed.

Low. Deep. Dripping from the void like poison.

“Margery! You won’t—” My strangled voice began. I scrambled to my feet, legs shaking. “But you won’t get peace! Not while he’s still—while your murderer walks free, continuing his reign of terror!”