The Secret of Crickley Hall

tired inside the house. Pyke knew she was the key to the hauntings.'

'Is that why he tried to kill her?' Eve asked numbly.

'No. It was as he said himself: Loren was the sacrifice, the one to take his place.'

Eve drew in a sharp breath, thinking how close it had been. If Gabe hadn't…

'You see,' Lili went on, 'the children gave you signs, whereas the spirit of Augustus Cribben gave you warnings. He didn't want you to interfere because he stood between Stefan and the other spirits. He refused to let go, he wanted power over all the evacuees. He considered they belonged to him in life and also in death. Ultimately, he was mad, and so was his spirit.'

Eve gave a shiver and raised her head. 'Is that possible?' she asked of Lili. 'Can a person carry insanity into the next life?'

'Some psychics assume many ghosts are either disturbed or distressed—why else would they choose to haunt the living?'

'When we talked last night,' Gabe said, 'you told us that you knew Gordon Pyke was the kid in the photograph, this Maurice Stafford, as soon as you laid eyes on him: I don't understand—Pyke was an old man, nothing like the boy.'

'There was something about Maurice that never changed. The thumbprint was the same.'

Gabe shook his head, not understanding.

'I'm sorry, it's difficult to explain—you have to be psychic yourself to understand. Let's just say that, like a thumbprint, everybody's aura is individual and although it can vary through life, depending on illnesses and emotional states, its essence remains identifiably the same. Psychics can pick up on that singularity.'

Lili solely addressed Eve. 'When you showed me the photograph of the evacuees I was immediately drawn to Maurice Stafford. A peculiar evil emanated from his image and when I saw that evil personified coming towards me… well, I panicked. I'm so sorry I ran away, Eve. It was the shock…'

'He tried to kill you, Lili. Of course I don't blame you for running. What else could you have done?'

'Something braver?'

Eve smiled. 'You did the right thing. Just by coming to us yesterday, you did the right thing. I know how reluctant you were to get involved in spiritualism again. You're probably even more reluctant after last night.'

'No. I'm not afraid any more. For almost two years I've dreaded the return of a certain spirit who wished me harm and I vowed never to use my psychic ability again because of it. Now I realize I can't turn it on and off like a tap. But this particular spirit didn't show last night when it would have had the perfect time to hurt me; now I'm sure it's finally gone, it's passed over peacefully. It's something I sense rather than can claim.'

Lili's smile took in all of them and even though there was dirt on her face and her clothes were dishevelled, her green eyes sparkled and her smile was radiant. Bright sunlight shone through the broken window over the stairs and it created a golden-halo effect around her tousled yellow hair.

She had stopped speaking and, without turning her head, her eyes looked to one side as if she were listening to something the others couldn't hear.

Then she said, a quiver in her voice, 'Oh God, they're stronger than ever.'

Gabe, Eve and Percy eyed her in surprise, and Eve with some trepidation. The hall was bright with sunlight, the shadows of the night vanquished along with the group's fear. Yet all was not quite right; there was a tension in the air compounded by a coldness that stiffened them.

'They're back,' said Lili, simply, turning to point towards the broad staircase.

They followed her direction and Eve gasped as she clung to Gabe's arm. Percy stood rigid, his lipless mouth open, his weary eyes squinting.

'Lord mercy…' he uttered.

Nine small figures were standing on the stairs, one to a step, all of them looking over the banister at the people below. Five girls, four boys, their apparitions clear, defined, as if they were of real flesh and blood. Four of the girls wore dark brown berets, the last one hatless but her hair was in two pigtails tied by tiny pink ribbons; only two of the boys wore caps. They were all dressed in outdoor clothes—overcoats and jackets—and each one carried a cardboard gas-mask box, the string across their chest. They looked as though they were going on a journey.

The nine visions were perfectly still and perfectly silent. They continued to stare.

Gabe made to take a step forward, but Eve kept her grip on his arm, holding him there. He regarded her quizzically, but her eyes were on the children and her half-smile puzzled him.

'Eve…?' he ventured.

'Wait, Gabe,' she responded softly without taking her attention off the children. 'Wait and see.' She knew something was about to happen.

Lili closed her eyes and she was smiling too. 'The children have come for them,' she said breathlessly.

Percy suddenly felt weak, as if his energy were draining away. He staggered slightly, but steadied himself through sheer force of will.

The oldest girl, the one Eve thought must be Susan Trainer, shifted her gaze from the four people to the open cellar doorway. The battered door hung by one hinge against the wall.

Lili spun round when the rest of the children looked across the hall at the dark open doorway, and she stared at it too. Her hand went to her throat as she waited.

Gabe heard the noise on the cellar steps, footfalls that were distinct over the low background rush of the river that ran beneath the house. He glanced at Eve when the grip on his arm tightened and he saw that her eyes were shining from some inner joy, while he felt nothing but apprehension. Surely nothing more could happen? He felt what was now a familiar cold prickling sensation at the back of his neck.

The footsteps grew louder. Something moved in the shadow of the cellar doorway.

'It's all right,' he heard Lili say softly and he wasn't sure who she was addressing.

They emerged from the cellar together, the young woman leading the boy by the hand.

The group of people watched in awe and stunned silence. Percy gave a little moan, a kind of whimper. Eve pressed even closer to Gabe. Lili held both hands up to her cheeks.

'Nancy…' the old gardener said under his breath.

She wasn't very tall, but her form was slim, compact. Her hair hung in shiny copper ringlets round her pale pretty face. Her clothes were no longer bedraggled, her long skirt no longer faded; the buckles on her shoes now shone with reflected light, and dark stockings covered her ankles. She still wore the woollen shawl round her shoulders, but her right hand and arm were no longer withered and twisted but smooth and as pallid as the rest of her skin. She was smiling and the fine shallow mist of her aura was luminous in its radiance.

She held the boy's hand in her own once-deformed hand, and he came shyly into the hall with her, his wide dark eyes looking about him, taking in the room and its puddle flagstone floor, flitting over the watching people so that they knew he was aware of their presence. The colour in his hair had returned and it fell darkly over his smooth forehead. Stefan and the young teacher moved across the hall and, although their hollow footsteps could be heard, the shallow pools of water they walked through went undisturbed.

Gabe felt Percy brush by him as if the old man wanted—needed—to confront the ghost of his lost sweetheart, but it was Lili who held him back.

'It's Nancy—' he began to say, but Lili gently stayed his words.

'You can't communicate with her, Percy,' she told him. 'Please don't interfere with what's happening.'

He looked uncertainly at the psychic, then back at the two figures crossing the hall. His shoulders relaxed and his eyes softened moistly. 'She's so… she looks so…' he tried to say. 'Nancy looks so lovely, as she always did.'

Lili turned to Eve, who appeared absorbed by the phantom boy. The psychic sensed Eve's thoughts.

'Your little boy has passed on, Eve,' she said quietly but firmly. 'Cam isn't in our world any more, not even in spirit, like these children.'

Eve seemed dismayed. 'How do you know?' It was almost a protest.

'Because they're telling me so.' Lili indicated the spirit children on the stairs.

'But—but they're not saying anything.'

'They don't have to speak to converse with me. Trust me, Eve. Cameron is in a better place where nothing can hurt him, not even your own grief. He hasn't forgotten you, though, nor his father and his sisters. He knows you'll all be together again some day.'

Gabe slipped his arm round Eve's shoulders and she pressed into him, comforted by his presence and Lili's