A minute later he found his wayblocked by a wooden door. It creaked eerily as Bill pushed it open. Beyond wasa small hidden room, which he examined closely. The ceiling was low and crossedwith beams and there were no windows. The walls were roughly plastered and paleochre in colour. There was a large black crucifix hanging to his right. Theonly furniture was an old wooden chair, an oil lamp set on a tall wooden tableand a bookcase filled with many leather-bound books. Bill went over to thebookcase to have a closer look.
He pulled out one of the books atrandom – a fairly small, slim volume – and opened it. It contained alithographic image that Bill found quite disturbing, depicting some poor soulstrapped to a heavy chair, with a thick metal ring around their head and a rowof long spikes pressed against their bleeding chest. He flicked over the pageand saw a pair of what looked like black iron pliers pulling out a pointedtooth from a mouth forced open by a metal trap. Bill winced at the repulsivenature of the image and closed the book. He looked at the spine and read:
On thee Nayture and Methods ofExtracting Most Holy Confessions from thy Cursed Pagan Creetures.
Bill shuddered as he put the book backand picked up another volume. This one was called:
Extinction of Life-force and theStorage of Residual Ceare.
He put it back without opening it,realising what Brimstone Manor was all about – the torture and murder ofPagans. He sat down slowly on the chair and put his head in his hands. Aterrible thought was racing through his mind. It seemed like such an anathema towhat he held to be right and proper but did his past self, the self he had norecollection of, know all about this? Was he somehow involved? Could he haveeven helped out? His memories were still a mystery so he had no idea what sortof person he was. If he was Beryl’s son and had lived at Brimstone Manor hiswhole life, then he must have known... He remembered the people he’d seen withhaloed heads and yellow eyes, being taken away somewhere by Beryl and herfriends. Contemplating these dark possibilities made him feel veryuncomfortable.
Bill decided to leave this horriblelittle room as quickly as possible. He searched with his torch until he foundanother door on the opposite wall. He grabbed the handle and turned it slowly.Pushing on the door he found it was very heavy but with a bit of an effort itbegan to swing slowly open. There was a loud creaking sound and the room wasflooded with what seemed like dazzling bright light but was in fact onlymoderate sunlight.
He stepped through, checking no onewas around, into Brimstone Manor’s library. This was a room he was veryfamiliar with – having studied here many times with Miss Spital – but he neverknew one of the bookcases was a doorway into a secret room. He pushed thebookcase back and it locked with a soft click and was sealed – he found hecouldn’t open it. He looked around the library, with its old table, brass lampsand wilting aspidistra, gazed at the familiar leather chairs and Indian rug onthe dark floor, and realised Brimstone Manor was more mausoleum than familyhome.
He went to the mantelpiece and pulleda key from a pot. This was the key to the writing bureau in the corner whereWilliam Whitebeam’s journal was kept – Beryl had often interrupted his studieswith Miss Spital by retrieved the journal and insisting he study its pages.Taking it out of the bureau, he opened it and flicked through a few pages. Itwas full of complex diagrams and obscure scientific writing so cryptic hecouldn’t begin to understand what it all meant. If this book did contain thesecret of curing the Arddhu curse then its mysteries were locked away in alanguage way beyond his comprehension. Why had Beryl shown it to him so manytimes? Why had he taken such a big risk in coming here to acquire such anonsensical book?
He tucked it under his arm and leftthe library, making his way down a passage that led to the hallway. He stoppedhalfway along and peered through the leaded windows, conscious of being visibleto anyone outside. There was the line of black and chrome motorbikes he’d seenwhen he came in and beyond that the tangle of Bogmire Wood with the lane he’dwalk down cutting a path through a clearing. He looked left and right until hewas sure there was nobody outside – he didn’t want to leave the house and runstraight into someone.
He continued through an archway thatled into the hallway. There was a heavy staircase at the far side and hungaround the walls were portraits in ornate frames of stern looking men and womanin old fashioned clothes.
Bill was about to make a dash for thefront door, but suddenly remembered why he, Arthur and Ophelia had come toUnderwood in the first place – to rescue Professor Jareth. How could he forgetabout that! She said in her note she was being taken to Brimstone Manor and heknew exactly where she was. He recalled an event from a couple of months ago,when he'd been woken up in the middle of the night by screams drifting throughthe night air... He remembered getting out of bed, lighting a candle, andwandering off to find the source of the sound. He’d gone downstairs, with thescreams getting louder by the minute, until he found himself here in thehallway. The screams came
