Joseph Delaney - The Spook's Curse

‘Mr Gregory said that it was getting stronger, Mam. That soon it would be able to take on the flesh of its original shape. I saw it down in the catacombs – it had shape-shifted into the Spook and tried to trick me. So it’s obviously been getting stronger down there.’

“That’s true enough but what’s just happened will have set it back a bit. You see, the Bane will have used up a lot of energy in flying free of a place it’s been bound to for so long. So for now it will be confused and lost, probably a spirit again, not strong enough to clothe itself in flesh at all. It probably won’t be able to regain its full strength until the blood pact with Alice is completed.’

‘Can it see through Alice’s eyes?’ I asked.

The thought was terrifying. I was about to go off with Alice through the darkness. I remembered the feel of the Bane’s weight on my head and shoulders, the expectation that I was about to be pressed and that my last moment had come. Maybe it was safer to wait until daylight…

‘No, not yet, son. She gave it her blood and its freedom. In return it will have promised to obey her three times, but each time it’ll want more of her blood. After feeding it again at the Wortham burning, she’ll be weakened and finding it harder and harder to resist. If she feeds it once more, it will be able to see out of her eyes. Finally, on the last feeding, she’ll belong to it and it will have the strength to return to its true form. And there’ll be nothing anyone can do to save Alice then,’ Mam said.

‘So wherever it is it’ll be looking for Alice?’ It will, son, but for a short while, unless she calls it to her, the chances of it finding her will be very slight. Especially when she’s on the move. If she stays in one place for any length of time the Bane will have more chance of finding her. Each night it’ll get a little stronger though, especially if it chances upon some other victim. Any sort of blood would help it, animal or human. Someone alone in the dark would be easy to terrorize. Easy to bend to its will. In a while it’ll find Alice, and after that it’ll always be somewhere near to her except during daylight hours, when it’ll probably stay underground. Creatures of the dark rarely venture abroad when it’s light. But with the Bane on the loose, gaining in strength, everyone in the County should be afraid when night falls.’

‘How did it all start, Mam? Mr Gregory told me that King Heys of the Little People had to sacrifice his sons to the Bane and that somehow the last son managed to bind it.’

‘Ifs a sad and terrible story,’ Mam said. ‘What happened to the king’s sons doesn’t bear thinking about. But I think ifs better that you know so you understand just what you’re up against. The Bane lived in the long barrows at Heysham, amongst the bones of the dead. First it took the eldest son there to use him as a plaything, picking the thoughts and dreams from his mind until little remained but misery and darkest despair. And so it went on with son after son. Think how their father must have felt! He was a king and yet he could do nothing to help.’

Mam sighed sadly. ‘Not one of Heys’s sons survived much more than a month of such torment. Three threw themselves from the cliffs nearby to smash themselves to pieces on the rocks below. Two refused to eat and wasted away. The sixth swam out to sea until his strength failed and he drowned – his body was brought back to shore by the spring tides. All six are buried in the stone graves carved from the rock. A further grave holds the body of their father, who died soon after his six sons, of a broken heart. So only Naze, the last of his children, his seventh son, outlived him.

‘The king was a seventh son too, so Naze was like you and had the gift. He was small, even by the standards of his own people, and the old blood ran strongly through his veins. He managed to bind the Bane somehow but nobody knows how, not even your master. Afterwards the creature slew Naze on the spot, pressing him flat against the stones. Then, years later, because they reminded the Bane of how it had been tricked, it broke his bones into tiny pieces and pushed them through the Silver Gate so that at last Naze’s people were able to give him a proper burial. His remains are with the others in the stone graves at Heysham, which is named after the ancient king.’

We didn’t say anything for a few moments. It was a terrible tale.

“Then how can we stop it now it’s loose again, Mam?’ I asked, breaking the silence. ‘How can we kill it?’

‘Leave that to Mr Gregory, Tom. Just help him get back to Chipenden and grow fit and well again. He’ll work out what to do next. The easiest way would be to bind it again, but even then it would still be able to work its evil as it has more and more in recent years. If it was able to clothe itself in flesh before, down there in the catacombs, then it would do it again, and before long, as its strength grew, it would revert to its natural form, corrupting Priestown and the County beyond. So although we’d be safer with it bound, it’s not a final solution. Your master needs to learn how to kill it, for all our sakes.’

‘But what if he doesn’t recover?’

‘Let’s just hope that he does, for there is more to be done than perhaps you are ready to cope with yet. You see, son, wherever Alice goes, it will use her to hurt others so your master may have no choice but to put her into a pit.’

Mam looked troubled, then suddenly paused and put her hand to her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut as if she had a sudden painful headache.

‘Are you all right, Mam?’ I asked anxiously.

She nodded and smiled weakly. ‘Look, son, you sit yourself down for a while. I need to write a letter for you to take.’

‘A letter? Who for?’

‘We’ll talk more when I’ve finished.’

I sat in a chair by the fire, staring into the embers while Mam wrote at the table. I kept wondering what she was writing. When she’d finished, she sat down in her rocking chair and handed me the envelope. It was sealed and on it was written:

To my youngest son, Thomas J. Ward

I was surprised. I’d imagined it must be a letter for the Spook to read when he got better.

‘Why are you writing to me, Mam? Why not just tell me what you have to say now?’

‘Because every little thing we do changes things, son,’ Mam said, putting her hand gently on my left forearm. ‘To see the future is dangerous and to communicate what you see doubly so. Your master must follow his own path. He must find his own way. We each have free will. But there’s a darkening ahead and I have to do everything in my powers to avert the worst that might happen. Only open the letter in a time of great need when the future looks hopeless. Trust your instincts. You’ll know when this moment comes -though I pray for all your sakes that it never does. Till then, keep it safe.’

Obediently, I slipped it inside my jacket.

‘Now follow me,’ Mam said. ‘I’ve something else for you.’

From the tone of her voice and strange manner I guessed where we were heading. And I was right. Carrying the brass candlestick, she led me upstairs to her private storeroom, the locked room just below the attic. Nowadays nobody ever went in that room but Mam. Not even Dad. I’d been in with her a couple of times as a small child, although I could hardly remember it now.

Taking a key from her pocket, she unlocked the door and I followed her inside. The room was full of boxes and chests. I knew she came in here once a month. What she did I couldn’t guess.

Mam walked into the room and halted before the large trunk closest to the window. Then she stared at me hard until I felt a bit uneasy. She was my mam and I loved her but I certainly wouldn’t have liked to be her enemy.