It took focus, more than William thought himself capable of.
As they made it out of the door into the glare of the midday sun, William’s mind was captured by the idea that someone had been inside his home, all without him knowing. The discomfort started as an itch but quickly became a feeling that tortured him. Had they watched him sleep, hugging a glistening red coat to his chest? Between the fact they’d hurt Edward, he also felt an underlying rage that wasn’t something he was used to.
“Did you see them… this person that hurt you?” William asked as they slowly navigated around the gatehouse’s exterior, towards the direction of the car.
“Not their face,” Edward confirmed. “But whoever it was… they’ve seen us for a while now. I think they’ve been watching the manor for days.”
William wondered if Edward was right, and whoever he’d seen outside his windows at times had been someone real. But then he remembered those two, sorrowful men with grey skin and mouths without tongues.
He couldn’t help but think it had been them… the missing boys…watching.
“Are you sure they were… real?”
Edward’s mouth drew into a tight line. “I don’t know what to be sure of anymore.”
All those times William had seen the movement outside the house at night or felt that he was being watched, he blamed it on the idea of ghosts, yet perhaps everything that happened was because real people were doing it.
And yet, even if he wanted to believe that, he simply couldn’t.
There were so many questions, and he knew that finding the answers to them would be impossible.
“I just don’t know why anyone would do this,” William said, mind fixed on this turn of events, unable to think about anything else. “And to say they want me dead. I mean, it seems so–”
“Desperate?” Edward answered for him. “Crazy? I think those words barely scrape the surface of everything we’ve been through.”
He wasn’t wrong on that, because as they both limped away from the gatehouse, ready to get to the car, there was movement in William’s peripheral. He felt the blood drain from his face as he slowly turned his head back and got a glimpse at Hanbury Manor. Nothing seemed amiss at first until he caught it again; just up on the left side of the house, the outline of a person stood in the window.
“Is that?” Edward asked, following William’s line of sight.
William narrowed his eyes. He was able to make out a pale hand pressed against the window’s glass, and the soured expression set onto a man’s face – a man who’d died a long time ago.
“It’s Robert Thomas,” William said without room to pretend otherwise. “You can see him?”
“I can.”
So much for the haunting being over.
They both watched as Robert seemed to wave down at them. His mouth was open as if shouting, but the words were muffled by glass and distance. Then the movements became frantic and rushed. Robert wasn’t waving at all but slamming his hand into the glass over and over, his mouth moving quickly.
Then the glass cracked, just as another sound greeted them from behind. William couldn’t take his eyes off the phenomenon, nor did he need to. Robert was warning them because the rumble that echoed across the chilled air beyond Hanbury Manor told of a car returning.
“Shit,” Edward stammered, the little remaining colour in his cheeks draining. “They’re coming back.”
William had but a moment to make a split decision. Either they ran for the car, separated or followed the clear sign of Robert Thomas beckoning them back into Hanbury.
“We can’t drive anywhere now,” William said, snapping his gaze from Robert to the distant speck of a black shape moving along the road towards them.
“Then we hide,” Edward suggested, which was what already moved through William’s mind. “Same place… as you did before.”
I didn’t hide anywhere.“We lock the doors, call for help. Hope that help gets here as soon as bloody possible.”
William couldn’t explain what drove him to take his next action. Moving on quick feet, he half-guided and half-dragged Edward towards Hanbury. The closer they gained, Robert disappeared, a shadow fading into the darkness.
As they reached the front door, it swung open all on its own accord. Edward hesitated, but William didn’t. He barrelled forwards into the manor. There was nothing to suggest someone opened the door for them, no breeze strong enough to do it. And when they passed through, it closed by itself, slamming shut until the thin pane of glass in the middle spread in a web of cracks.
Before their eyes, the bolt was slid closed by an unseen hand. “I get the impression Robert wants us here.”
A creak sounded behind them. William turned around first, followed by Edward, who used the wall as support.
