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check it out."
But when I went to raise my gift, nothing happened. Something from outside had wrapped itself around
my head, unfelt but immovable, forcibly preventing me from opening my private eye, from seeing the
world as it really was. I struggled against it, with what strength I had left, but there was nothing there that
I could get a grip on. I swore briefly. What was going on here, that Something didn't want me to see, to
understand? Suzie scowled about her, desperate for something solid she could attack.
"What do you want to do, John? Kick in all the doors and take it room by room? Shoot anything that
moves and isn't the runaway?"
I gestured abruptly for her to be quiet, straining my ears for the sound I thought I'd caught. It was there,
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faint but definite. Not too far away, behind one of the closed doors; someone was giggling. Like a child
with a secret. I padded quickly down the corridor, Joanna and Suzie right on my heels, stopping to listen
at each door until I'd found the right one. I tried the handle, and it turned easily in my grasp, like an
invitation. I pushed the door in an inch, and then stepped back. I gestured for Joanna to stick close to
me, and then nodded to Suzie. She grinned briefly,
kicked the door in, and we all surged forward into the room beyond.
It was bare and empty like the rest of the house, except for Cathy Barrett, found at last, lying flat on her
back on a bare wooden floor on the other side of the room, covered from neck to toe by a long grubby
raincoat, tucked under her chin like a blanket. She made no move to rise as her would-be rescuers
charged in, just smiled happily at us as though she didn't have a care in the world.
"Hello," she said. "Come in. We've been expecting you."
I looked carefully about me, but there was no-one else in the room with her. I didn't discount the we,
though. The continuing sense of an unseen watching presence was stronger than ever here. The light was
brighter too, though there was still no obvious source for it. The more I studied the room, the more
disturbing it felt. The room had no window, no contents, no details. Just walls and a floor and a ceiling. A
sketch of a room. It was as though the house felt it didn't have to pretend any more, now that we'd come
this far. I put away the flashlight and took a firm hold on Joanna's arm, to make sure she stayed with me.
She didn't even seem to notice, all her attention fixed on her daughter, who hadn't even tried to raise up
on one elbow to look at us more easily. I began to wonder if she could move.
Her gaunt face smiled equally at all of us, peering
over the collar of the raincoat. I almost didn't recognise her. She'd lost a hell of a lot of weight since the
photo Joanna had shown me, back in my office, in another world. The bones of her face pressed out
against taut, grey skin, and her once golden hair hung down across her hollowed features in dark greasy
strings. She looked half-starved, her great eyes sunk right back into the sockets. In fact, she looked like
she hadn't eaten properly in months, not just the few weeks she was supposed to have been missing. I
glanced at Joanna, wondering if I should have been quite so ready to believe everything she'd told me.
But no; that wasn't it. My gift had shown me Cathy entering this house only a few days ago, and she'd
looked nothing like this then.
Suzie glared about her, the pump-action shotgun steady in her hands. "This stinks, John. Something's
very wrong here."
"I know," I said. "I can feel it. It's the house." "It's her!" said Joanna. "My Cathy. She's here!" "She's not
the only one here," I said. "Suzie, keep an eye on Joanna. Don't let her do anything silly."
I moved slowly forwards and knelt beside Cathy. The wooden floor seemed to give slightly under my
weight. Cathy smiled happily at me, as though there was nowhere else in the world she'd rather be. Up
close, she smelled bad, as though she'd been sick for weeks.
"Hello, Cathy," I said. "Your mother asked me to come and find you."
She considered this for a moment, still smiling her awful smile. "Why?"
"She was worried about you."
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"She never was before." Her voice was calm but empty, as though she was remembering something that
had happened a long time ago. "She had her business and her money and her boyfriends ... She never
needed me. I just got in the way. I'm free now. I'm happy here. I've got everything I ever wanted."
I didn't look around the empty room. "Cathy, we've come to take you out of here. Take you home."
"I am home," said Cathy, smiling her interminable smile. "And you're not taking me anywhere. The house
won't let you."
And I fell screaming to the floor as something huge and dark and ravenously hungry smashed its way into
my mind, revealing itself at last.
It hit me from all sides at once, tearing through my defences like they weren't even there. It was the
house, and it was alive. Once it had looked like something else, and might again, but for now it was a
house. And it was feeding.
Inch by inch I forced it out of my mind, my shields re-forming one by one until my thoughts were my
own again, the house was gone, and the only one in my head was me. The effort alone would probably
have killed anyone else. I came to myself again lying [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]