The Professor's thin wrinkled facebecame full of anger. “Wait until I get hold of that woman, she’s pure evil.She’ll regret what she did to me. I knew the Apostles did unspeakable things,but I never imagined... they seem to take a great deal of sick pleasure fromit.”
“They kept asking me about LordPercy,” said Lilith, “kept saying I was going to help destroy him. But he's mylove.”
“They asked me about Lord Percy too,”growled Professor Jareth. “I wanted to stop that man as much as they did. Itold them the address – Number Four, Courtyard Cottages – I confess I intendedto destroy him myself. But they sent people there and couldn’t find him, sothought I was lying. That’s when it got really nasty and they put me in thatbox.”
“I wouldn’t tell,” said Lilith, with atoothless blood soaked grin. She seemed to be much stronger and was coping withher ordeal with a strange sort of cheerfulness, which Bill found verydisconcerting.
“He’s here,” he said, “at the Manor,with a gang of cursed bikers.”
“I sensed him,” said Lilith, “andtried to reach out, but he ignored me. He has a girl companion, just some youngkid. But she’s not going to have him!”
“Foolish girl,” snapped the Professor.“You are still gripped with Amor Lepore. You must shake it off.” Sheturned to Bill. “Have you brought Vita Dantis? I am in desperate need.”
Bill once again felt foolish for notbringing it with him. “Sorry, not here. But I have your box of phials and hexbox back at the village. It's not far. Come on, I’ll take you both there now.”
“I can hear the voice Bill,” saidLilith, giving him a hungry look. “It says it wants you.”
“Be quiet girl. You must fight it,”said the Professor with furrowed brow. “You will be fine until we get to Underwood.”
They made their way very slowly out ofthe cellar, with both woman hanging onto Bill. When they got to the stairs,Bill helped the Professor climb up, pointing the torch at each step. She wasshaking badly and had great difficulty moving her legs. Eventually she got tothe top and was panting for breath and in a cold sweat. Bill went back down andhelped Lilith up, who never spoke but also never took her eyes off Bill.
When they were finally done, Billpicked up the journal. “Let me check if the coast is clear,” he said, openingthe cellar door very slowly. Outside the hall was quiet and empty, with beamsof light streaming in through the front windows.
“Looks like we’re okay,” he saidturning around and getting a terrible shock. Lilith and the Professor were sideby side, both standing up straight and looking suddenly much stronger. Theyboth looked at Bill with a sort of desperate yearning.
Lilith screamed so loudly it waspainful to hear in such a confined space. There was a loud cracking sound, likesplintering wood. She gasped and opened her mouth wide. Bill saw movementinside her mouth. As she whimpered and cried in agony, new teeth sprouted upfrom her bleeding gums, appearing from nowhere in a matter of seconds.
When it was over she quickly regainedher composure, looked at Bill and gave him a blood smeared smile. Her face waswhite and threaded with spider-web veins. Curled horns protruded from her longblack hair.
“I did it! The voice there and Iprayed to it, I begged it to help and Arddhu Og answered. It has given back mybeauty.”
Bill was so transfixed with Liliththat he didn’t notice Professor Jareth moving forward, staring at him. When shewas only inches away he noticed her closeness and jumped back.
“What the hell!”
“I’m sorry lad, really I am, but I’vemissed Vita Dantis for too long.”
“You have to fight it, both of you,you must!”
“When you pulled me out of thatcontraption I smelt your skin and... that was enough. Og must have you, you areto talk with it again...”
“Stay away from me!” said Bill,turning and fumbling desperately for the cellar door. He flung it open andstaggered out into the hallway, wondering if Lilith’s terrible scream hadalerted the bikers and Lord Percy to his presence.
“You will sleep... Sleep!” said theProfessor following him through the door, locking her gimlet eyes on his.
“No...” said Bill.
Lilith moved beside the Professor,muttering the curse and fixing her gaze on Bill.
He felt his head go muzzy, his eyelidsbecame heavy. The room began to swim. He managed to stagger over to the frontdoor and grope for the handle. Lilith and Professor Jareth move forward – theirenergies somehow replenished at the prospect of fresh young blood.
As Bill drifted off intounconsciousness he somehow managed to swing the door open. He was bathed in thelight and heat of a dazzling morning sun, shining down from above the treeline. Lilith and Professor Jareth pulled back and skulked in the shadows. Atthat moment, Bill felt his mind clear and his sleepiness vanish.
He clutched the journal as tightly ashe could and made a run for it, dodging the motorbikes and sprinting across thedrive, He ran through Bogmire Wood, down the lane that led back into Underwood,not daring to stop or even look back.
ChapterSeventeen - The Journal of William Whitebeam
Who’s a-knockin at my door?
It’s midnight and the winter wind,
does howl and bluster o’er the moor.
There only one who dares the rain,
and that’s the creature Boggleswain.
He knocks again, I feel a-fright.
The beast who ruins hopes and dreams,
has deemed to come this very night.
I could run and hide, wait ‘till day,
but Boggleswain don’t go away.
– When Boggleswain Comes A-knockin
– Old English Rhyme, 1760.
“WellI’m beat,” said Jim with a frustrated sigh. “I can’t understand a single wordof that stupid thing.”
“Me neither,” said Ophelia.
Bill sighed, got up from the table andpaced about the kitchen with a frown on his troubled face.
“What about you Arthur love?” saidDaisy. She was over at the kitchen worktop preparing vegetables for a pot ofstew. “You’ve always been good at all that sciency stuff.”
They’d been studying the Journal ofWilliam Whitebeam – which was open on the kitchen table – all afternoon. Arthurwas just as stumped as everyone else but to make is mum
