Something from the Nightside

significant, though I couldn't for the moment see how. We were, after all,

in Blaiston Street. This wasn't a place where people came to live like people ...

'Have you noticed the floor?' Suzie said quietly.

'What in particular?' I said.

'It's sticky.'

'Oh, thanks a bunch,' said Joanna. 'I really didn't need to know that, thank you. The moment I get out of here I'm going to have to burn my shoes. This whole place is diseased.'

She was right back at my side again, staring almost twitchily about her. But she seemed more ... impatient, than anything else. She didn't like the house, but it was clear the setting wasn't disturbing her anywhere near as much as it was getting to Suzie and me. Which was ... curious. I assumed being this close to finding Cathy at last had driven all other thoughts aside. We stopped in the middle of the hall and looked around us. Suzie lowered her shotgun a little, having no-one to point it at.

'Looks like the last occupants of this dump did a moonlight flit, and took everything with them that wasn't actually nailed down.'

I just nodded. I didn't trust myself to say anything sane and sensible, for the moment. I was feeling increasingly jumpy. There was an overwhelming sense of being watched, by unseen, unfriendly eyes. I kept wanting to look back over my shoulder, convinced I'd find something awful crouching there, waiting to spring; but I didn't. There was no-one there. Suzie

would have known. And you don't last long in the Nightside if you can't learn to control your own instincts.

A mirror on the wall beside me caught my attention. It took me a moment to figure out what was wrong with it. The mirror wasn't showing any reflection. It was just a piece of clear glass in a wooden frame. It wasn't a mirror at all.

There were two doors to my right, leading to rooms beyond. Ordinary, unremarkable doors. I moved slowly over to the nearest, and immediately Suzie was right there with me, shotgun at the ready. Joanna hung back a little. I listened carefully at the first door, but all I could hear was my own breathing. I turned the handle slowly. It was wet in my hand, dripping moisture, like it was sweating from the heat. I wiped my palm on the side of my coat, and then pushed the door open. Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly.

The door swung easily open. The hinges didn't make a sound. The room beyond was completely dark. I stayed just inside the doorway and flashed my light around the room. The darkness seemed to suck up the light. Still no furnishings or fittings, no personal signs or touches. It looked more like a film set than anything someone might call home. I stepped back into the hall and moved down to the next door. The second room was just like the first.

'Whatever was going on here, I think we missed

it,' said Suzie. 'Someone must have told them I was coming.'

'No,' I said. 'That's not it. Something's still here. It's just hiding from us.'

I walked over to the foot of the staircase. Bare wooden boards, simple banisters. No frills or fancies. No scuff marks or traces of wear, either. It could have been old or new or anything in between. Almost as though untouched by humans hands ... I raised my voice in a carrying call.

'Hello! Anybody home?'

The close air flattened my voice, making it sound small and weak. And then from somewhere up on the next floor came the sound of a single door, slamming shut. Suzie and Joanna moved quickly over to join me at the foot of the stairs. And the door banged shut again, and again, and again. There was a horrid de-liberateness to the sound, almost taunting, an open violence that was both a threat and an invitation. Come up and see, if you dare. I put my foot on the first step, and the banging door stopped immediately. Somehow, it knew. I looked at Suzie, and then at Joanna.

'Someone's home.'

Joanna surged forward, and would have gone running blindly up the stairs, if I hadn't grabbed her by the arm and made her stop. She pulled fiercely away, fighting to be free, not even looking back at me, and I had to use all my strength to hang on to her. I said

her name over and over, increasingly loudly, until finally she spun on me, breathing hard. Her face was hot and red and angry, almost furious.

'Let go of me, you bastard! Cathy's up there! I can feel it!'

'Joanna, we don't know what's up there . ..'

'I know! I have to go to her, she needs me! Let go of my arm, you ...'

When she found she couldn't pull or twist her arm out of my grasp, Joanna went for my face with her other hand. Her fingers were like claws. Suzie interrupted the blow easily, catching Joanna's wrist in a grip so hard it had to hurt her. Joanna snarled, and fought against her. Suzie applied pressure, forcing the wrist back against itself, and Joanna gasped, and stopped struggling. She glared at Suzie, who looked coldly back at her.

'No-one gets to hit John but me, Mrs. Barrett. Now behave yourself; or you can listen to the bones in your wrist breaking, one by one.'

'Easy, Suzie,' I said. 'She's new to the Nightside. She doesn't understand the kind of dangers we could be facing.'

Except she should have known, by now.

'Then she'd better learn fast,' said Suzie. 'I won't have her putting us at risk. I'll kill her myself first.'

'Dead clients don't pay their bills,' I reminded her.

Suzie sniffed and let go of Joanna's wrist, though

she pointedly stayed where she was, ready to intervene again, if necessary. I released Joanna's arm. She scowled at both of us, rubbing sulkily at her throbbing wrist. I tried really hard to sound calm and reasonable.

'You mustn't lose it now, Joanna. Not when we're this close. You've trusted me this far; trust me now to know what I'm doing. There could be anything at all up there, apart from Cathy, just waiting for us to walk into some cleverly set trap. We do this slowly and carefully, or we don't do it at all. Understood?'

Her mourn was a sulky pout, her eyes bright and almost viciously angry. 'You don't understand what I'm feeling. You know nothing about a mother's love. She's up there. She needs me. I have to go to* her!'

'Either you control yourself, or I'll have Suzie drag you back to the front door and kick your arse out onto the street,' I said steadily. 'For your own protection. I mean it, Joanna. The way you're acting now, you're not just a liability, you're a danger to us all. I know this place is ... upsetting, but you can't let it get to you like this. This isn't like you, Joanna. You know it isn't.'

'You don't know me at all, John,' said Joanna, but her voice was markedly calmer. 'I'm sorry. I'll behave. It's just... being this close is driving me crazy. Cathy's in trouble. I can feel it. I have to go to her. Let me stay, John. I'll begood, I promise.'

That wasn't like Joanna either, but I nodded reluctantly, putting it all down to the influence the house was having on her. I was born in the Nightside, and this damned house was already playing games with my head. I made Joanna take several deep breaths, and it seemed to help her. I didn't like the effect the house was having on her. This frantic, almost out of control Joanna, wasn't at all the woman I'd come to know, and care for. She hadn't been this freaked out before, even in the Timeslip. It had to be the house.

'You shouldn't have brought her here, John,' said Suzie. 'She doesn't belong here.'

Her voice wasn't especially harsh, or unforgiving. She was speaking the truth as she saw it, just as she always did.

Joanna glared at her, her voice rising angrily again. 'You don't give a damn about what might have happened to my daughter! You're only here because I'm paying you to be here!'

'Damn right,' said Suzie, entirely unmoved. 'And you'd better be good for the money.'

They went on snarling at each other for a while, in their own hot and cold way, but I wasn't really paying attention. The house, what there was of it, baffled me. I kept thinking I was missing something. Something had called, or even summoned, Cathy to this place, and all those missing important people Walker had mentioned, but now I was here, at the heart of the mystery, there was nothing here. Except for whatever