Chapter 11: Outside the Mansion

A Chapter by Mathew Nicolson

They had returned to the overgrown and rarely used road leading to Paul’s Mum’s house.

“We last saw the Knight here, though that does not in no means mean it will return,” Anonni said. “To be quite honest… I haven’t a clue where to find it.”

“You’re a lot of help, thanks,” Paul muttered.

“No ideas? Nothing?” Billy said, exasperatingly

“From what you’ve said, I believe it’s following the Locket,” Anonni said. “But why, I have no clue. It can’t have taken his soul; The Knight would have died. It may have survived somehow. Perhaps that’s why it’s chasing the Locket! To protect it!”

“That’ll make it a lot harder for us if it is though?” Billy wondered.

“Yes, but it makes sense!”

Anonni pulled out the small Interimo-detector again, and opened it. He mixed around the contents, and after a moment, he smiled.

“The Locket’s still in Manchester. In fact, it’s closer!” he said.

“Does it not have directions?” exclaimed Billy.

“Sadly not. However, the shade changes depending on how near we are. I say we go back to my hut and wait, and see if there’s a change.”

Billy sighed.

“Alright.”

“Don’t let him see us,” Rebecca said.

“Yes, I know!” Carrie said. “And since you’re gonna explain it a fourth time, I know the plan. We follow him to his house and observe from there.”

“I know… sorry”

They reached a road. Edward stood by the traffic lights, waiting for them to turn red and let him cross.

“If he goes down an alley at the other side, we’ve lost him,” Rebecca said. “Since we’ll have to wait for him to cross before we do.”

The lights turned red, and the cars halted. Edward strode across the road confidently, with only a two people behind him. It was the wrong time of day to hide in a crowd.

“Quick!” Rebecca shouted, as Edward indeed went down an alley. They darted into the road, as the lights turned to orange, and quickly made it to the other side, at the anger of the drivers.

Rebecca put up her hood, and snuck down the alley. Carrie wasn’t wearing a hood, so she hid behind Rebecca. Edward reached the bottom of the alley, and turned left into another street. The girls followed him, hidden as always.

They continued following and hiding, for almost another half an hour, until they reached a path going through the same forest they’d first encountered Edward the previous night. Rebecca must have missed the path the first time round. It was easy enough to hide among the trees, and slowly follow Edward.

Snap.

“Carrie!” Rebecca whispered. Carrie had stood on a large branch, causing it to make a large snapping sound. Had Edward heard them?

Edward stopped in his tracks for a second, and then turned around. Carrie and Rebecca were safely hidden behind a tree, but if he were to have a quick look, he’d easily find them…

“Show yourself!!” He barked. Carrie flinched, but fortunately stayed quiet that time. They breathed slowly, trying not to bring attention to themselves.

“Fine then, have it your way.” Edward said. He pulled out the knife he had held by his belt. “Nobody will find you here. Well, not after I hide the bodies…”

He walked slowly forward towards the trees. He couldn’t have seen them yet, he seemed unsure where to move to.

“Scared yet?” he cried sadistically. “ARE YOU SCARED?”

Carrie began panting, out of fear. She clenched her fist against her mouth, trying to stop herself panicking. Rebecca stood rooted to the spot, unable to move out of fear.

Edward moved closer, and closer. He was so near their tree… he’d kill them all…

At that moment, a dog ran out from a tree towards Edward. He looked surprised and disappointed.

“It was only you…?” Edward silenced the dog with a clean slash of his knife, and continued on his journey. Carrie burst into tears, and ran to the dead dog. She looked up at Rebecca.

“How… could he? How could he?”

Rebecca looked down at the dog. That must be very similar to how her mother had looked. But there was no time to concern herself with those thoughts, as she’d noticed something far more important.

“He wasn’t wearing the locket,” she said.

Carrie forced herself up, and said “Maybe it was in his pocket?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Rebecca answered. “I can’t explain why, but I always felt compelled to wear it.”

They followed Edward further through the forest, though keeping further back this time. Surely his house must be near now…

And it was. They reached the other end of the forest quite quickly, as the path only seemed to skim through the outer forest.

“What now?” Carrie asked. “There’s nowhere to hide.” She was right, ahead of them just laid fields, and a small hill. Edward seemed to be heading for the hill.

“He can’t live too far away,” Rebecca said. “Unless he is visiting someone… I think we should wait for him to get over the hill, then follow him and see where it takes us.”

Carrie sighed once again, but nodded. Once Edward had vanished from sight, they made their way up the hill. It was not very well kept, with weeds and moss growing everywhere, and the occasional patch of mud they had to look out for.

They reached the top of the hill after about five minutes. It wasn’t a very high hill, though still quite exhausting to climb through the bogs.

“Stay down,” Rebecca whispered, on her hands and knees crawling to the top. “He may see us.”

Carrie could have complained about how her jeans were brand new and expensive, but she thought it best not to bother, and obeyed Rebecca.

Rebecca crept to the top of the hill, and peeked out from behind a small patch of heather. They’d definitely found the right place. In front of her, separated from the rest of the world by a large wall, stood a building that to call a mansion would be an unfair representation of it’s size. It was almost a castle! There must have been at least four floors, and it covered a very large area of land. The walls were painted in cream and red, as were the equally impressive and large window frames.

“Whoa…” Carrie exclaimed, and then turned to Rebecca. “How do you suggest we get inside?”

“Um. Well, we’d…” Rebecca sat down, behind the heather. It wouldn’t be easy. She closed her eyes. The locket was definitely in there, somewhere. She could feel it… As if it were calling her. Yet… it wasn’t calling her. If it had called her before, on the cursed day she first found it, then this was different. It was almost like… it was trying not to call to her…

“Let’s move around the wall,” Rebecca said. “There might be a break in it somewhere. If not… I’ll think of something else…”

That had gone well, Edward thought. He signalled for Dominic to leave the room, and found himself alone with the safe. He reached into it and placed the locket inside. The safe was the only place he’d previously been able to keep things without his father finding them. That wasn’t from lack of trying, however. One day Edward had returned home to find it smashed up in an attempt to be opened. If he hadn’t returned until later his father would most likely have succeeded.

Only his most prised possessions stayed in the safe. Apart from the locket, he kept a picture of his ex girlfriend Camilla, a picture of his mother, the still stained knife he’d used to murder his father, the broken skeleton of a cat he’d once owned, and a bloodstained mirror.

Did he need the locket anymore? No… it was the locket that gave him the courage to take what was rightfully his. He’d keep it in the safe.

“Well this is stupid,” Paul said, after sitting around the Interimo-detector for half an hour.

“Hm… it’s fading slightly,” Anonni sighed. “It’s moving out of Manchester… What-”

Master Edward?

“-is Rebecca doing? Does she-”

I did not call for you, Dominic…

“-still have it?” Anonni wondered. Both Paul and Billy were staring at the floor.

“Billy? Paul?” Anonni asked.

But they were too busy to answer. The words flowed into their minds, as simply as they’d hear a sound. They heard nothing but silence, but were aware of what was being said nonetheless. It all felt muffled… but they could make out the words…

I, I know, milord, I…

Get on with it.

The security cameras are offline, sir.

Explain.

It’s a simple technical fault, but it’s beyond my capabilities to fix.

I’ll deal with it then. Any idea what caused the fault?

I suspect… your father, sir. Like the many flammable rooms we had to break into, that cellar full of preserved bodies, and that killer microwave, he has set up the house to become Hell for whoever killed him.

Yes, that certainly is his style.

Sir-

Why have you not gone? Go! Before I send you to the chamber…

And it ended. Billy and Paul snapped out of it, and fell off their chairs onto the floor. Anonni smiled.

“Where is the Locket?” he asked.

“We’ve gone the whole way round,” Rebecca sighed. “Edward definitely doesn’t want anyone breaking in…”

“Are you sure that was a camera you saw?” Carrie asked. “It can’t have been, it was staring right at us, and he’d have seen us.

“Perhaps he wants us to think there’s no cameras,” Rebecca suggested. “It could be a trap.”

“Out of all the people who could have stolen it…” Carrie began, but couldn’t be bothered to finish. “So, what do we do now?”

“Why do you always ask me?” Rebecca snapped.

“You’re the one that wants to find the Locket!” Carrie cried in defence. “I don’t see why you can’t just forget about it!”

“You don’t understand.”

Rebecca sat down, behind the same patch of heather she’d hidden behind earlier. Carrie did the same.

“I need the locket,” Rebecca said. “It’s weird. You know how if you have a teddy bear from when you’re young, you don’t want it anymore, but you can’t get rid of it. That’s how I feel.”

Carrie didn’t understand, but she nodded in agreement anyway.

Rebecca searched around in her backpack for a minute, and then pulled out the note she’d written earlier, and read it out to herself.

“There is hope. I note at the end, it’s cause of the picture frame. As I write this the truth is important. It means we lose our soul. How do we destroy it? The man who fights knows. The point is, who can stop this fate. The vague notion they can, having realised how to power over man, the final contact of entanglement and BLOOD.” She read.

“The man who fights must mean the Knight,” Carrie said bitterly.

“Exactly!” Rebecca cried. “We have to find him! But I think I need the locket first!”

COME AND FIND US

A safe… 5995287 … Cameras not functioning… The information flowed into Rebecca’s mind, as if she’d just had an ingenious idea.

Rebecca leapt up, and made for the gates.

“Wait, Rebecca!” Carrie cried.

“They won’t see us,” she said confidently. “The cameras are not working.”

“How do you know that!?” Carrie yelled in despair.

“It’s obvious.”

Well, it was. How could she explain something she just knew? It was like trying to explain how she knew grass is green, or why a tree is called a tree.

“Did the Locket tell you?”

“It �" NO!” Of course not. That was just silly.

Although… how else could she know? It did make sense…

“It might have…” Rebecca stuttered. “I don’t know! But the cameras are off; I know that. I have the knives… We can sneak up and take Edward by surprise.”

“What if there are guards?” Carrie said.

“I don’t think there will be,” Rebecca said. “I think we should just walk up to the front door. It’s the only door, and they’d expect a break-in somewhere else.”

“That’s a really bad idea!” Carrie shouted in defiance. She wouldn’t just blindly follow Rebecca this time!

“Stay here then,” Rebecca said, and turned for the gates.

“Rebecca, wait!”

Rebecca ignored her.

“REBEC- …” Carrie cried out in frustration, but gave up and blindly followed her into possible danger.

“So you learnt nothing of its location?” Anonni sighed. “How annoying. Sometimes you can just tell from intuition. But no-matter, it proves one thing…that Rebecca doesn’t have the locket.

“What could have happened to her?” Billy asked.

“We’ll find that out when we find the locket, but to do that we need to concentrate on what we know. The locket is within listening range of a man called Edward, who has a servant called Dominic. His father recently died, possibly killed by Edward, and he lives in a high security building.”

“That doesn’t get us very far!” Paul yelled.

“Explain how we were able to hear that.” Billy demanded.

“Nothing I know about Interimo gives me a suitable reason,” Anonni said. “But I could make a guess. You both have a connection with someone who owned the Interimo. Paul, your Dad, and Billy, obviously Rebecca had it, and may still, we don’t really know. But somehow, it may have unintentionally sent a psychic message to you both, then realised and stopped the message. Nobody truly understands how Interimo work, not even their creator was meant to have.”

“Is it possible we’ll get more of these hints telling us where it is?” Billy asked.

“It is possible, but the locket may have realised what it was doing and stopped,” Anonni answered. “It’s also possible the locket had no control over itself. I just don’t know. But its location has stayed fixed for the last few hours now, so this ‘Edward’ must be keeping it somewhere. At least we don’t need to worry about it moving some more.”

He needs an address.

Hm… Tell him to wait outside Framingham Street; I’ll meet him there.

Okay, I’ll let him know straight away!

…

How can I make this work…? There are results, but… I have so little to go on. If only-

Colour faded into their eyes, and they were back in the hut.

“Framingham Street!” Billy gasped. “I know it!”

Paul nodded, struggling to get his breath back.

“Lead me there!” Anonni commanded, picking up his sword and sheath, and attaching it to his belt. Billy and Paul regained their breath, and followed him out of the hut

“We may not have much time!” Anonni added.

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