Joseph Delaney - The Spook's Curse

I wasn’t breathing but I was calm and happy and I remember thinking that if I was dead then it was nice to be dead and I just had to get to that castle, so I ran towards the nearest of the boats, desperate to get on board. As I drew closer, the people stopped trying to launch the boat and turned their faces towards me. At that moment I knew who they were. They were small, very small, and had dark hair and brown eyes. It was the Little People! The Segantii!

They smiled in welcome, rushed towards me and began to pull me towards the boat. I’d never felt so happy in my life, so welcomed, so wanted, so accepted. All my loneliness was over. But just as I was about to climb aboard, I felt a cold hand grip my left forearm.

When I turned, there was nobody there but the pressure on my arm increased until it began to hurt. I could feel fingernails cutting into my skin. I tried to pull away and get into the boat and the Little People tried to help me but the pressure on my arm was now a burning pain. I cried out and sucked in a huge, painful breath that sobbed in my throat and made my whole body tingle then grow hotter and hotter as if I were burning inside.

I was lying on my back in the dark. It was raining very hard and I could feel the raindrops drumming on my eyelids and forehead and even falling into my mouth, which was wide open. I was too weary to open my eyes but I heard the Spook’s voice from some distance away.

‘Leave him be!’ he said. ‘Give him peace, girl. That’s all we can do for him now!’

I opened my eyes and looked up to see Alice bending over me. Behind her I could see the dark wall of the cathedral. She was gripping my left forearm, her nails very sharp against my skin. She leaned forwards and whispered into my ear.

‘You don’t get away that easily, Tom. You’re back now. Back where you belong!’

I sucked in a deep breath and the Spook came forward, his eyes filled with amazement. As he knelt at my side, Alice stood up and drew back.

‘How do you feel, lad?’ he asked gently, helping me up into a sitting position. ‘I thought you were dead. When I carried you out of the catacombs, I swear there was no breath left in your body!’

‘The Bane?’ I asked. ‘Is it dead?’

‘Aye, it is that, lad. You finished it off and nearly did for yourself in the process. But can you walk? We need to get away from here.’

Beyond the Spook I could see the guard with the empty bottles of wine by his side. He was still in a drunken sleep, but he could wake up at any moment.

With the Spook’s help I managed to get to my feet and the three of us left the cathedral grounds and made our way through the deserted streets.

At first I was weak and shaky, but as we climbed away from the rows of terraced houses and back up into the countryside, I started to feel stronger. After a while I turned and looked back towards Priestown, which was spread out below us. The clouds had lifted and the moon was out. The cathedral spire seemed to be gleaming.

‘It looks better already,’ I said, stopping to take in the view.

The Spook halted beside me and followed the direction of my gaze. ‘Most things look better from a distance,’ he said. ‘And as a matter of fact, so do most people.’

He seemed to be joking so I smiled.

‘Well,’ he sighed, ‘it should be a far better place from now on. But, that said, we won’t be coming back in a hurry.’

After an hour or so on the road we found an old abandoned barn to shelter in. It was draughty but at least it was dry and there was a bit of the yellow cheese to nibble on. Alice dropped off to sleep right away but I sat up a long time thinking about what had happened. The Spook didn’t seem tired either but just sat in silence, hugging his knees. Eventually he spoke.

‘How did you know how to kill the Bane?’ he asked.

‘I watched you,’ I answered. ‘I saw you strike for its heart…’

But suddenly I was overcome with shame at my lie and I hung my head low. ‘No, I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘That’s not true. I sneaked forward when you talked to the ghost of Naze. I heard everything you said.’

‘And so you should be sorry, lad. You took a big risk. If the Bane had managed to read your mind-’

‘I’m really sorry.’

‘And you didn’t tell me you had a silver chain,’ he said.

‘Mam gave it to me,’ I answered.

‘Well, it’s a good job that she did. Anyway, it’s in my bag and safe enough for now. Until you need it again…’ he added ominously.

There was another long silence, as if the Spook were deep in thought.

‘When I carried you up from the catacombs you seemed cold and dead,’ he said at last. ‘I’ve seen death so many times that I know I wasn’t mistaken. Then that girl grabbed your arm and you came back. I don’t know what to make of it.’

‘I was with the Little People,’ I said.

The Spook nodded. ‘Aye,’ he said, ‘they’ll all be at peace now that the Bane’s dead. Naze included. But what about you, lad? What was it like? Were you afraid?’

I shook my head. ‘I was more afraid just after I’d read Mam’s letter,’ I told him. ‘She knew what was going to happen. I felt that I had no choice. That everything was already decided. But if everything’s already decided, then what’s the point of living?’

The Spook frowned and held out his hand. ‘Give me the letter,’ he demanded.

I took it out of my pocket and passed it to him. He took a long time reading it but at last he handed it back. He didn’t speak for quite a while.

‘Your mother is a shrewd and intelligent woman,’ the Spook said at last. ‘That accounts for much of what’s written there. She’d worked out exactly what I was going to do. She’d more than enough knowledge to do that. It’s not prophecy. Life’s bad enough as it is without believing in that. You chose to go down the steps. But you had another choice. You could have walked away and then everything would have been different.’

‘But once I’d chosen, she was right. Three of us faced the Bane and only two survived. I was dead. You carried me back to the surface. How can we explain that?’

The Spook didn’t reply and the silence between us grew longer and longer. After a while I lay down and fell into a dreamless sleep. I didn’t mention the curse. I knew it was something he wouldn’t want to talk about.

A Bargain’s A Bargain It was almost midnight and a horned moon was rising above the trees. Rather than approaching his house by the most direct route the Spook brought us towards it from the east. I thought of the eastern garden ahead and the pit that lay in wait for Alice. The pit that I’d dug.

Surely he wasn’t going to put her in the pit now? Not after all she’d done to help put things right? She’d allowed him to blindfold her and seal her ears with wax. And then she’d sat there for hours in silence and darkness without complaining even once.

But then I saw the stream ahead and was filled with new hope. It was narrow but fast-flowing, the water sparkling silver in the moonlight, and there was a single stepping stone at its centre.

He was going to test Alice.

‘Right, girl,’ he said, his expression stern. ‘You lead the way. Over you go!’

When I looked at Alice’s face my heart sank. She looked terrified and I remembered how I’d had to carry her across the river near the Silver Gate. The Bane was dead now, its power over Alice broken, but was the damage already done beyond all hope of repair? Had Alice moved too close to the dark? Could she never be free? Never be able to cross running water? Was she a fully-fledged malevolent witch?

Alice hesitated at the water’s edge and began to tremble. Twice she lifted her foot to make the simple step to the flat stone at the centre of the stream. Twice she put it down again. Beads of sweat gathered on her forehead and began to roll down towards her nose and eyes.