“What do we do?” asked Ashley, not wanting to get sidetracked. She could see that Rita was losing focus. “How do we stop Rose?”
Rita shook her head. “I fear you cannot, lamby. To finally give Rose rest, one would need to obtain her locket and destroy it.”
Ashley reached into her pocket and pulled out the locket. “You mean this one right here?”
Rita gasped and reached out a hand. “Give that to me! Let me see it!”
Ashley looked at Jude, unsure. Did they really want to hand over the one thing they had to a woman they barely knew? Did they trust Rita? Jude gave a subtle nod to suggest he did.
Ashley leant forward and handed over the locket. Rita took it carefully in her withered hands and stared at it like it was the world’s finest diamond. She struggled with the clasp but eventually got it open. Tears came to her eyes.
“Those were your niece and nephew?” said Jude.
Rita nodded, although she kept her focus on the photographs inside the locket. “Yes. Elizabeth and George. Oh, how I miss them. I used to teach them nursery rhymes, dozens of ’em. Nowadays, I can barely remember the words to a single one. Age is a funny thing. Gets to a point where the past is unbelievably long and the future terrifyingly small. My days left on this Earth are few, but I’m glad to have lived this long.” She looked at them and held the locket up so that it dangled from her fingers. “You must take this back and destroy it.”
Ashley raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, okay. No problem. We can just throw it on the carriageway and wait for a lorry to drive over it, or burn it or something.”
Rita shook her head. “You can’t destroy this locket so easily. It’s full of power. Not just the power that my mother and I placed inside it, but several decades of Rose’s suffering. Pain and torment, over time, can grow into something real. Rose’s hatred and anger are inside this locket. I can feel it.”
Ashley grunted. “What, then? You said destroy it, so how do we do that?”
Rita looked her in the eye, her expression weary and possibly afraid. “The magic inside this locket can be undone only in the place it was forged. You must return it… to… to its birthplace and bury it beneath wood, stone… and flesh. Nature must reclaim it.”
“What the fuck does that even mean?”
Rita wheezed and sat forward. She pointed a finger at Ashley and wagged it. “I… I told you, young lady… I…” She coughed and hacked, her frail body rattling on in the recliner. The door burst open and Peter hurried in. He went to his grandmother and started patting her on the back. Rita tried to push him away, but this time she was too weak. “S-Something is wrong,” she moaned. “I… I feel her. Rose is here!”
“What do you need, Grandma? What should I do?”
Jude stood up from the sofa and started to fret. Ashley shuffled to the edge of the sofa cushions, expecting to be dismissed now that Rita had clearly grown tired and stressed. The locket had somehow found its way onto the floor. Rita must have dropped it. Ashley leant forward to reclaim it.
Rita reached an arm past her grandson and pointed at Jude. “You must leave here. You must leave before she finds you. The locket. Take it home. Destroy it. Destroy Rose like I should have done a long time ago.”
Ashley got to her feet and stared at Jude. He’d turned as white as a sheet, and she assumed she didn’t look any better. They had come here seeking answers, but those they had received were frightening. Rose wasn’t a witch or a monster. She was a remorseless killer trapped in place for over half a century, waiting for her chance to get free, and now Ashley had something of hers.
Rose will be coming for this locket.
And a moment later, she arrived.
Chapter Seventeen
The lamps in the room turned off, leading Ashley to realise it had grown dark outside. Things fell off the walls as if there was an earthquake, except the floor did not shake. Peter moved away from his grandmother and looked around. Rita remained in her lounger, deathly silent.
Jude looked around nervously. “What’s happening?”
“She’s here,” said Rita. “She’s come for her locket, the thing that gives her life eternal. You must go. You know what to do.”
“Help us.” Jude put his hands together in prayer. “Please.”
“Go.”
Peter turned to them, his cheerful demeanour completely gone. “I understand this is to do with my grandma’s past, but she’s an old lady now. She can’t help you. You need to leave.”
Ashley grabbed Jude by the arm. “Come on, we have to go.” She moved over to the door, which had closed after Peter had rushed in. She opened it again and screamed.
Rose stood in the doorway, exactly as she had appeared in the farmhouse when Jude’s camera had flashed – snakelike black hair down to her naked hips, and mesmerisingly green eyes. Grey patches of corpse-like skin covered her body in several places, and pulsing blue veins throbbed in her cheeks. Her ruined hands had somehow healed, but despite that, she was halfway between a living woman and a rotting cadaver. She reeked of evil. Rage and violence flowed from her in waves. It made Ashley’s eyes water. She backed off, crashing up against Jude, and the two of them retreated to the edge of the small sitting room.
Peter turned to see what had startled them, and when he saw Rose, he gasped. He studied her nakedness for a split second and was clearly repulsed, then he threw up a hand and began to mutter something under his breath, some kind of chant. He obviously knew a certain amount of witchcraft himself.
But not
