Last Rites 2

Extracts from the Personal Diary of Dr Belinda Durham

November 2^nd 2008

Freddie and I told the others what we’d seen at David Fraser’s house, and how Brenda was now being cared for, really cared for, by the minister and his wife. I could not bring myself to go into details. What Frazer had done to his wife had left me in shock. Seeing what an apparently normal human being had done to his wife was more disturbing than if he had been a shoggoth or some other unnatural monster. I've seen the destruction wrought by unearthly monsters and gods but for one of us – a human being – to torture the woman he should have loved, cherished and respected was a visceral experience.

It affected me so deeply because Fraser had matched with cherished memories of my grandfather who had looked after my grandmother with such devotion for years after her mind had gone. The short visits to them during my childhood had been tense. I had found her strange and confusing and only realised what had happened later when I was older and she was dead. However, the one thing that held true was my grandfather's love for her and sense of loss after her death. I had seen Fraser as the same sort of man and to discover so graphically that he was the complete opposite was shocking.

I let some of the discussion of what to do next drift over me. Actually, our discovery about Frazer did not help us towards Sophie's killer. The documents we’d found in his house were not instructions about the real magic involved in Sophie’s death. Either he’d got rid of them, never had them or all the magical information came from someone else. Also, for a man with delight in torture, if he'd killed Sophie, would his ever-available wife have been sufficient – or even survived – for the next 18 years? We'd searched for information about murders in the area and found records of none. One child had fallen off a boat and drowned 25 years ago and that was it. If David Fraser had travelled away from Cliffside to a city to murder, always possible but difficult to investigate, that still did not link him with Sophie's death.

In the middle of the discussion I realised that Lucinda had set the sluagh on another man, Dr Alan Ettringer, the local GP. After realising that Lucinda was correct about David Fraser’s deception, even though there was no evidence that he had killed Sophie, I was able to accept that her second target, Dr Ettringer, was also someone the world would be better without. Emily was protesting that this respected and valued member of the community could not have been party to murder. Both his father and grandfather had been doctors and she had never sensed evil from him. His wife had left him a long time ago and his 30 year old son Toby lived with him. He was not academically gifted but very useful as the local oddjob man. We’d met both the doctor and his son yesterday and Toby had seemed genuinely distressed over discovering that Lionel’s body was no longer in his grave.

Finally, we came to agreement that we should visit Maurice Talbot, the now-retired policeman who had investigated Sophie's death. Of course that would take us back next to Fraser's house. As we approached around 3pm we heard Maurice before we saw him, admonishing Toby for moving Fraser's body and starting to clean up the house. Maurice was not pleased to see us but nevertheless invited us into his house.

It was immediately obvious that he still lived with Sophie's unfinished case. As well as criminology books and technical manuals, one wall of his parlour was stacked with boxes of evidence. Emily immediately asked him if there was a ritual aspect to the murder and he responded by showing us photographs from the autopsy. Some injuries on her battered body could be from waves throwing her body against rocks, although a gash on the side of her neck was more likely made by a knife. The medical examiner's opinion was that even though there was water in her lungs she might not have drowned because blood loss from her neck would also have killed her.

The photos also showed purple lines and squiggles over her left breast that we did not recognise but Maurice was keen to show us that they matched a diagram from the Necronomicron. He had a photocopy of a page from the British Library copy. (I was slightly surprised that the Necronomicron could be photocopied.) The text on the page said that the diagram should be 'scribed onto the body of the sacrifice with the name of the entity to be summoned below'. That name was long gone.

Maurice was certain that his investigation had been stopped by a cover-up from on high. He had always thought Lionel was involved because he owned a copy of the Necronomicron. Children were usually killed by family members and both Lionel and his son-in-law, Henry Ennis, were well connected (from being in MI13).

Even after all his police experience he'd been surprised at David Fraser's death and the discovery of his abuse of his wife. As we continued to talk with him he started to question how we knew Lionel. I managed to explain it was through my archaeology profession and that it was surprising how many people had had secret service experience in World War 2 that they had never talked about. I could see that reassured him. He accepted this but I could see that he had started to have suspicions about Freddie. We decided it was time to leave.

We went to look for Toby but there was now no sign of him. Emily wanted some clean clothes so we went to her house, and then on to the Drummond Arms (which was closed), then the museum (also closed) and finally to Dougal McInnes’ house where the family were in. His wife opened the door to us and we could hear the TV. We asked Dougal about the mines. The workings opened onto the cliff face. They were for zinc, and he told us that there were tales of knockers, spirits that led miners astray, but Dougal did not know of anyone who came to real harm as a result. It did not sound like there was any long-standing evil attached to the mines. We headed back for Drummond House, using the steps that led up the cliff.

It was now around 5 pm and starting to get dark. We had to walk past the doctor’s house (and I was very uneasy about this) where the lights were on. We did not want to call in. We continued up the steps past the house and to our surprise he was walking down them. We could not ignore him. He told us that that he’d been visiting Brenda Fraser at the Rectory and the events had taken him aback. After he continued on his way, Emily remarked that he had not the most direct route back from the Rectory. We therefore headed to it. The rector, Rev Rooke, came to the door and said that, yes, the doctor had just left, leaving sedatives. Brenda was being given a bath by Janet Rooke. All seemed fine, so we continued back to Drummond House.

Emily organised a meal from the funeral left-overs. I finally asked Lucinda how she knew which men had killed Sophie. She said that she saw it when she touched the people at the wake. Fraser had cut Sophie’s neck, and after she was dead the doctor had suggested they put her into seawater and do CPR to get water into her lungs to imitate drowning. Lucinda said that they had called something that answered them and they were so frightened that they never did it again. That explained why there were no other suspicious deaths, but not why they’d picked Sophie. Was it because she was Lionel’s granddaughter, or simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? Lucinda then left, saying that she was going to sleep but that we should call her if the phone rang.

At about quarter to seven the phone rang. It was Rev Rooke and he said that it had happened again. Toby had phoned saying that someone had killed his father. Rev Rooke said that he would not leave the Rectory because he needed to stay with Janet and Brenda. Thomas went to tell Lucinda what had happened. She was happy but also upset. She and Thomas had an argument, with him trying to dissuade her from killing anyone else. Eventually he opened the trap-door to the cellar for her and she banged on the door into the cliff. When nothing happened, she asked for a chair to sit on while she waited for her grandfather to turn up. Thomas, Freddie, Emily and myself decided that we should head for Dr Ettringer’s house to check what had happened.

I hung back as we arrived at the house, expecting that it would be as at Fraser’s house and wondering whether Toby had really escaped unharmed. The lights were on but the door was shut. Emily knocked, and Toby peered out, splattered with blood and with a gash on his arm. We went in, and even though I was prepared for horror, it still affected me.

…. dinner party. Maximillius Gaetanus, pompous as usual, insisted on explaining how he would assure the security of Etruria. I smiled, nodded, frowned and smiled again as he continued. The meal was excellent with venison from last week’s hunting. I was looking forward to tomorrow, when we’d re-stock the larder. I nodded enthusiastically as M. Gaetanus moved on to his proposal for reform of the Senate, although hardly listening to him. Then a messenger…

The headless body of the doctor was in the hall and we found the head under a tea-towel on the dinner table, between plates of food. Seeing the mundane with the horrific was the really unnerving part of it. Toby had tried to clean up his arm, and Emily and Thomas began to help. The deep scratches on his arm looked like they came from claws. I went to the surgery at the end of the hall searching for bandages and to spot anything out of place. I found bandages and medical paraphernalia but nothing was obviously occult.

As they helped him, Toby recounted what had happened. His father had returned from his visit to the Rectory and Toby had made a meal. While they were eating the doorbell went. His father went to the door and Sir Lionel burst in, threw Toby aside and the young man had hit his head as he fell and was knocked unconscious. When he came to, his father’s head was on the table and his body in the hall.

We looked round the rest of the house – a living room with two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. Emily had a quick look through Toby’s room which showed he was keen on horror with DVDs like Texas Chainsaw Massacre – as she told us quietly – but that was hardly exceptional for a young man. Toby then told us that he knew Sir Lionel was the one who was killing those who had killed Sophie. Perhaps he was not as unintelligent as people thought. I asked if he knew why the sluagh had killed his father, and he said he had found something. He went upstairs to his father’s bedroom and returned with a goat mask. He said his father had beaten him when he knew he’d seen it – but had not got rid of it. Toby said that there also used to be special clothes and a book leant by Fraser the bank manager. Thomas asked if he knew whether anyone else was involved. Toby looked shifty for a moment and then said quietly, ‘Mrs Bernadette Springer’. Emily and Thomas knew who she was, a widow in her late 60s who had moved to the village about 20 years ago after the death (by drowning) of her fisherman husband. Her family thought that she’d married beneath her but his life insurance had allowed her a good standard of living after his death. She had a nervous disposition.

Toby would not leave the house. Freddie decided to go back to Drummond House to find out where Lionel had got to while the other 3 of us headed for Maurice Talbot’s. Once we told him what had happened he immediately joined us, putting an (I’m sure illegal) gun into his pocket. We returned to where Toby was cleaning up the parlour. Maurice started to argue with him about this. He thought the police should be called and speculated that a radio on one of the boats moored in the harbour might still be working.

We were outside the house when we realised that an old, thin, woman was nearby and watching us. Thomas recognised her as Bernadette Springer. She looked very nervous and upset. Then we heard a high-pitched chittering noise that we recognised as a star vampire from our encounter with one in East Anglia. Remembering from that encounter, I yelled at Maurice to get his gun out. Bernadette was also quick to react and started to run away and we ran after her.

Just as Thomas caught up to her she screamed, ‘No, Katherine, I told them nothing …. Aargh,’ as she was lifted off the ground.

I shouted at Maurice to shoot into the air above her. He did so, but both his shots missed. Bernadette screamed as the thing attacked her in the air and we started to see a shape as the star vampire sucked her blood into itself. The result of all this on us was dramatic. Thomas threw himself to the ground, covered his head and stayed down. (I later learnt that he suffers from PTSD following a tour in Iraq, with a night-fight in a dust storm after a helicopter drop a particularly traumatic memory). Maurice took aim again, but the sight of the woman in the air and the emerging star vampire was too much and he fell to the ground unconscious. Emily ran away, screaming.

These sights had the most amazing effect on me. I could think with a speed and clarity that I had never experienced before. The idea passed through my mind that we humans were as ants to those who truly ruled the universe, and should be their servants. However, after a moment I made the decision not to join with those that I had spent years fighting. Many of the events that happened after this were told to me by the others later.

The doe was directly in front of me. I could not miss. I pressed the trigger – and was lying in a dark, foggy, cold, stony street! There was screaming, people on the ground (including me). With adrenaline from the hunt flowing through me, I looked around. I saw a gun and picked it up. It was lighter and more compact than my pistols. I was back in that other world of machines. Then I saw a monster above, and automatically fired at it. Such creatures had no right to exist in my world or this other. Flowing blood showed I had hit it. It became clearer and I knew it was a star vampire. It had a geas laid on it and could be followed back to its master, who also needed to be killed.

I followed it up the stone steps, and met a young man running down them. He stopped at the sight of it. He recognised me. I lost sight of the star vampire. Another man came up from behind, with a military bearing. He also knew me, and gestured towards a nearby house. This was not the time for questions or explanation. I followed them. We saw a ghastly revenant of a man ahead, white-faced and with claws for hands. It smashed its way into the house and we followed. Such a strange house. It went up the stairs and I was the first after it. It searched a small chamber, snarling as it did so. I stayed on the stairs as it searched other chambers and then it leapt up a second flight of stairs with increasing anger. I again followed, and the young man followed me.

We reached the top floor of the house, filled with scattered furniture but with a space in the centre. A magician in black robes, goat mask and horns was standing there in his circle of power, facing us. His books and a large casket surrounded him and the star vampire was above. With a gesture, he sent it at the revenant and the two unnatural creatures fought.

I stepped left and aimed my gun at the magician. I knew that, unlike my own pistols, these otherworldly ones did not need priming or loading. I fired and he fell to lie partly outside the inscribed circle, clutching his arm. I kept the gun aimed at him as the revenant and star vampire fought and the young man moved up to the magician. He started to pull the magician out of his circle. Then there was a horrible smell, a damp thud and a stain on the floor, all that was left of the star vampire as the revenant was victorious. The revenant advanced on the magician. I and the young man moved away as it attacked him. Not cowardice but efficiency. Then the young man moved forward again and darted past the monster to retrieve the magician’s books. The revenant lifted the magician up and pulled his head off. As the mask fell I realised the magician was a woman.

I heard feet behind us as others came up the stairs. I turned and was ready to attack. Then I recognised the man as the military one who had directed us to the house. An unnaturally pale young woman was with him, but since he did not attack her, neither did I.

The revenant placed the head in the centre of the circle. Then it turned to us and began to shrivel and distort. Its fangs and talons shrank back into something that looked increasingly like a very content, very old man. He pointed at the young man and then fell to the ground and there was the familiar smell of rotting flesh. The young woman ran to him and knelt, obviously beginning to morn his passing.

The danger was over and I relaxed. The young man began to search the attic as the woman grieved. Then I heard a man saying ‘Lady, lady, are you alright?’ and realised I was lying on the ground again but in the woodland, my pistol at my side. One of the beaters stared down at me in concern. The air smelt fresh.’

One moment I was in the street with screaming and shouting, and now I was in a musty attic that smelt of decay. My right wrist and arm ached and there was a gun in my hand. Freddie was rummaging through a trunk that was next to a chalk circle with a very realistic head in the middle. In a moment I knew the head was not realistic but real, and then I saw Lucie cradling Lionel’s corpse. It looked like she – and he – were revenged for Sophie.

Thomas joined Lucie, and we realised we needed to clear evidence that was the most difficult to explain away. That would be Lionel and the contents of the trunk. Katherine’s body could be left since there were already 2 similar ones in the village. Replacing Lionel in his grave was the obvious thing to do. As we left the house, Thomas, Lucie and myself carrying Lionel, with Freddie and Emily following with the trunk, the Rev, Rooke saw us and insisted on accompanying us. As we re-buried Lionel, he said prayers, and offered to pray or simply talk with any of us in the morning.

When we got back to Drummond House, Emily and Freddie were already talking about its contents with James Eliot and Barbara. There was a journal in it that explained what had happened. Katherine moved to Cliffside decades ago because her husband was a Satanist, a member of a group called ‘The Order of the Goat’. However, she was more enthusiastic than him and wanted real power. She persuaded the group to contact Yog-Sothoth, by sacrificing Sophie. She made a pact to learn spells and gained a glamour spell that was very useful to her. However, the manifestation shocked her and the others in the group so they never did anything like that again.

There was also a book of spells in the truck containing: Blood sacrifice, Brew space mead (to protect people crossing space on summoned creatures), Invoke shambler from the stars (i.e. space vampire), Bind Shambler from the Stars, Glamour, Invoke Yog-Sothoth.

November 3^rd 2008

The fog lifted next day and cars with several people arrived – Marmaduke, Amanda, Mr Green and a van with four Americans. They aimed to clear up after Lionel and at least muddy trails so that any lines of investigation led nowhere. Maurice Talbot was very confused about the events he’d seen. I sympathised with him because I had only the haziest memory of the fight with the Star Vampire and Katherine. The others described how I’d shot it and been very determined to chase Katherine down. Gloriana must have manifested in my body when I passed out near Dr Ettringer’s house. She was a much better shot than me.

Our task was not yet over because we still had to free Sophie’s soul. To do that we now knew we had to get a spell from Toby Higginbotham at the Wilmarth Facility and use the ‘Evocation of the Damned’ from Lionel’s library. Whether I would be able to help with this was a good question. I definitely wanted to return to my University to have rest and immerse myself in the normal world.