CHAPTER 8

            Nigel awoke slowly to the quiet voices of a man and woman near him. His years with Sydney had trained him to not show his alertness right away, but from the position of his hands and feet, and a gentle tug of each, he realized that he was bound in a lying position. God he was getting tired of being tied up, how anyone could receive enjoyment out of such a thing he could not imagine.

He kept his eyes closed and tried not to panic as the memory of what happened flooded back. He’d escaped from Cawvers, a mad woman who thought she was his mother, and had run into Professor Reardon, only to find his old teacher would not be of any help.

It was Cawver’s and Reardon’s voices he now listened to.

“It has to be done, Jules,” Reardon stated, grimly. “You were stupid to take him.”

“How can you say that? It’s what I’ve been waiting for, what I worked for!”

“Jules, Bailey is not your son. Your son died almost thirty years ago.”

“That’s not true!” she hissed. “You know it isn’t true! You promised me, Miles. You promised I would find him if I did as you asked and I have. I’ve done everything you told me to, but not this!”

There was a long pause, and then Reardon continued. “Don’t kid yourself, Jules. You agreed to do this long before Nathan was even born. You wanted revenge against those who had wronged you and for no other reason.”

“They had no right to call me a witch, to steal my land and property! No right to force those humiliations upon me! I was a baroness, not some peasant maid.”

“Yes, you were, but you see how easily things can be taken away from you. That’s why you must listen to me.”

“But Nathan…”

“You knew what the deal was when you accepted the gift. You know you can’t keep him. You’ve exposed both of us by your foolishness.”

Nigel’s heart rate increased as he wondered what the hell they were talking about. What gift, what deal? Why was Reardon involved and how could he be a son that Cawvers lost thirty years ago? It wasn’t possible!

“You got what you wanted, Miles,” she retorted. “All those boys to do what you wanted. I got them for you, I took care of them afterwards, but you can’t have Nathan.”

Nigel’s stomach clenched in horror at the unimaginable scenarios their words evoked. He knew Reardon was a pervert, but surely Cawvers wasn’t supplying him with…He swallowed hard to reduce the bile rising in his throat.

“I know you’re awake, boy,” Reardon suddenly whispered in Nigel’s ear, startling him. “Open up those gorgeous eyes of yours.”

Nigel obeyed and glared at him defiantly. “I always knew you were a rotten maggot, Professor, but I never realized how rotten.”

Reardon shrugged. “We all have to do what we must to survive.”

“And preying on young boys is how you survive, is it?”

Reardon caressed Nigel’s cheek, despite the Englishman’s attempt to flinch away. “You’re more beautiful now than you were as a boy.” He slapped Nigel’s cheek a little too hard. “Far too old for me now though.”

Nigel attempted to lunge at him, despite his bonds. “You despicable bastard!”

Cawvers appeared on the other side of the bed. “Don’t let him get to you,” she ordered. “It’s what he wants.”

Reardon laughed. “Do you really think he’s going to take advice from you, Jules, a woman who kidnapped him and professes to be his long lost mother?”

“Your words have no affect on me, Miles. I have asked you to leave, now I insist on it.”

“I can’t do that, Jules.” Reardon reached inside the collar of his shirt and pulled out a small amulet that held a large red garnet, the size of Nigel’s thumb, in the centre. The gem reminded him of the eyes of the Devil Doll they had found in an Aztec temple.

“No!” Cawvers exclaimed. “You can’t do that! Not to him!”

“He isn’t as young as the others,” Reardon mused as he pulled off the necklace and directed the amulet at Nigel. “His life force will probably only give us two, maybe three years, he has lost much of his innocence, but it will do for now.”

Nigel watched horrified as the amulet started to glow bright red and he noticed that the garnet broach at Cawvers’ throat reciprocated. She had always worn that pin, for as long as he could remember, but he never expected it to have some sort of magical powers.

“Wait,” she demanded coldly. “If you are set on this at least let me prepare him. There is no reason he has to suffer as well, is there?”

Reardon met her gaze squarely, and then decided she had finally come to her senses. He nodded and closed his hand around the amulet. “I will give you ten minutes.” He frowned at Nigel, suddenly regretful. “You really were my brightest student, Bailey. It will be a true shame to extinguish that flame.”

“Well, don’t feel you have to,” Nigel assured, quickly as the aspect of his imminent death caused him to quickly change tactics. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind if you changed your mind. After all, we’re reasonable people here you…you could just let me go and…and no one ever has to know anything about this.” He looked at Cawvers, desperately. “Really. You won’t say anything, I won’t say anything, I get to stay bright and lovely and very much alive and no one will be the wiser.”

“That isn’t possible, I’m afraid,” Reardon stated.

“Oh, but it is! Really, I mean, I’ve seen some very impossible things and you just have to…to have faith in something for it to happen, so if you believe it’s possible it surely can be…”

Reardon shook his head.

Nigel strained against his bonds. “You can’t do this! This is murder!”

“There won’t be a body to prove it, Nigel.”

Nigel paled. What the hell was going to happen to him that his body would never be found? He watched Reardon leave and turned to his last hope, Cawvers. The idea of depending on this woman, this demon from so many of his nightmares was almost as alarming as the thought of dying by some mystical power.

“Please, Miss. You can’t let him do this to me.”

The headmistress turned away to open a drawer in the desk. From it she pulled out a syringe and a small bottle of liquid.

“What’s that? What is that for?”

“It will put you to sleep,” she said, quietly. “You won’t feel anything.”

Not feeling anything was the problem. If he didn’t convince her to let him loose he would never feel anything again. He tried to stall, tried to get her talking. “What…what did he mean by your deal? What sort of deal did you make with Reardon?”

She glanced at him as she inserted the tip of the needle into the top of the bottle then lifted the bottle upwards to fill the syringe. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“It matters to me. The least you could do is tell me what this all means.” He swallowed hard and pressed on, desperately hoping that Sydney had figured out where he was and was already inside the grounds of the school. “Am I to die without even a reason? Without knowledge of the truth?”

Cawvers set the bottle down and pressed the air out of the syringe, causing a small stream of liquid to squirt from the top of the needle. “I never meant for you to die. I wanted to protect you.”

“Then protect me now! Let me go before Reardon comes back!”

She stared at the needle. “I can’t. I made a deal with him.” She moved to the bed, the syringe in her hand. “I have to do what he tells me.”

“Why?”

“Because he is my master. I made a deal with the devil over a century ago, a deal to take back what belonged to me, what was stolen from me” She shook her head. “They took everything from me, Nathan. My home, my husband. I was nothing to them. A woman, a witch.” Her face darkened in fury. “They wanted to burn me, Nathan. They wanted to tie me to a stake and burn me for a crime I had not done.”

“When…when did they do this? When did they accuse you?”

“The year was 1835.”

Nigel’s eyes widened. “How…how is that possible? That would make you…”

“One hundred and seventy two years old, last Thursday.”

Nigel fell all the moisture leave his mouth. She certainly didn’t look her age. “How…” He couldn’t even form the question.

“Miles.” Cawver’s replied. “When they finished torturing me and trying to force out a confession, he offered me a way to escape and retribution against my accusers.” She removed a small packaged alcohol swap from her pocket and tore it open. “He said that he had the power to slow the aging process, that we could live forever if needed.”

“And…the power comes at the cost of innocent lives?” Nigel demanded incredibly. “That’s still murder. You were innocent of the crime before and now…now you’ve blood on your hands.” He wondered how many were lost, how long they had been stealing the youth or life force or whatever their power was to keep themselves alive. “You’re worse than a bloody vampire!”

“It had to be young boys, they are the most pure, the most innocent. Their life-force can sustain us for years at a time…”

“But you killed them!” Nigel exclaimed, outraged. “For what? For revenge against people that died a hundred years ago?”

“It wasn’t just that, Nathan. I was trying to lead a normal life. I married and…” She smiled. “Had a child for the first time. I couldn’t ever have one before, you see. The power…well, it doesn’t allow us to have children. So I stopped. I wasn’t helping Miles anymore and I started to age, but then I met your father and we were married and…” Her expression darkened. “Then the minions started hunting for me again. All because of some boys that went missing at a school where I taught. Again I was accused of something I had no part in.”

“What happened to the boys?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I never knew anything about them. But the insects kept swarming about our home, hurling their obscenities and vulgar accusations, and the local authorities seized our possessions and followed me everywhere I went…Naturally your father left, and then you disappeared. I was sure one of those horrid people had taken you, but I had no way to find you. They finally left me in peace, but there was never any real peace. You were gone. They stole you from me.”

“So…you went back to Reardon.”

She nodded. “I needed time to find you and I was aging too quickly. By the time I started again I had already turned grey with worry and fear, but once I started the process again, my age slowed.”

What of their lives?” Nigel demanded. “The lives of the boys you and Reardon have killed for your precious elixir of youth? You stole their chance to grow up and become an important part of the world. You…you stole away their dreams and their experiences!”

“Only the bad ones,” she assured as she wiped at the underside of his left arm with the swab. “The boys who couldn’t stop breaking the rules or getting into mischief. No one misses the bad seeds…”

“They were boys!” Nigel snarled, enraged. “They’re supposed to get into mischief! That’s what boys do you stupid…”

“You never did!” she snapped back and then suddenly, her face softened again. “You were such a good boy, always obeying the rules, getting your school work finished.” She leaned in to caress his cheek, affectionately. “You had a few minor infractions, but you accepted your punishment and behaved yourself after that. They weren’t like you, Nathan. They were incorrigible and disrespectful. Horrible, greedy misfits that would have grown up into horribly, greedy adults.”

Nigel stared at her, incredulously and heard the key in the lock of the door, Reardon returning. “No,” he whispered as his attention snapped back to Cawvers and the needle that was a millimetre from his skin.

“You were always such a good boy, my pet. That’s how I knew who you really were, by the way you minded me.”

Desperate, Nigel changed tactics as his mind worked overtime from what information it had. “It was him!” he hissed. “It was him who killed those boys, the ones you were accused of then. Don’t you see? It had to be him. He’s the reason you lost your son. You were blamed for something he did and he took advantage of your fear and your vulnerability.”

Cawvers paused, startled by Nigel’s accusation. She straightened and frowned as the door rattled, Reardon’s key wasn’t working. “What?” she asked, as if dazed.

“If he was the cause of the boys disappearing, he was the reason you lost your son!”

“I haven’t lost you.” Cawvers’ face again softened into a motherly affection. “You’re right here, Nathan.”

            Out of options, Nigel had a sudden flash of brilliance. He moved on to the only card he had left to play, as much as it sickened him to do so. “It was his fault, Mama.”

Cawvers blinked and looked down at him, confused.

“Jules, this bloody key isn’t working, come let me in,” Reardon called from the other side of the door.

            “I didn’t run away from you,” Nigel insisted capturing the headmistress’ gaze and holding it, trying to express a truth that she would see. “I ran away from him.”

            “Jules, open the door!”

            “Nathan…” She paused.

 Nigel pressed on, using what he suspected of Reardon’s perverted tendencies. He made his voice smaller, younger but did not have to act to insert a shiver of fear. “He was hurting me, Mama. He…he touched me in places, made me do things to him. I ran away because of him.”

Please God, Sydney! His mind screamed. He didn’t know if this would work or not and it was horrifying to know he was putting his very life in the hands of a mad woman, a woman that he had no way of gauging what her reaction might be to such news. He might just send her all the way around the bend, but it was the only chance he had.

Reardon finally got his key to work and opened the door as Cawvers slowly straightened, the syringe tightening in her hand. Reardon paused and regarded the older woman, curiously. “Jules? What’s wrong?”

“Was it you?” she asked, quietly.

“Was what me?”

“Did you kill those boys back in Ireland ?” Her other hand dropped to caress Nigel’s arm.  “Did you hurt Nathan?”

Reardon glanced at Nigel, annoyed. “What nonsense has he been filling your head with now?”

Cawvers’ fingers tightened around the needle. “Did you put your filthy hands on my son?”

Reardon’s eyes widened at her fury. “He’s messing with your mind, Juliana. Don’t be fooled by him.”

Cawvers seemed to stumble, her expression thwart with uncertainty. She glanced down at Nigel and the Englishman realized he had only one chance left.

“Please, Mama,” he pleaded, ignoring the prickle of guilt worming its way into his consciousness, she looked so confused and distressed. Even Cawvers’ didn’t deserve this, but nor did he deserve to die. “Please, don’t let him hurt me. I want to stay with you. Don’t let him take me away again.”

“You filthy bastard!” the headmistress screamed and lunged at Reardon, the syringe aimed at his throat. He backhanded her and she tumbled over the chair by the desk.

“I’ve no time for this,” Reardon decided as bent down and ripped the pin from her collar. He held them together and aimed them towards Nigel, the garnets started to glow. “Sorry, Bailey, but this will be quite painful.”

“So will this!” a familiar voice announced and as Reardon spun around surprised, he received a hard boot to his face for his trouble.

“ Sydney !” Nigel cried, relieved at seeing his friend standing at the entrance way of the room. His relief was short lived as Reardon delivered a painful right cross that caused Sydney to lose her balance and unwilling to take the trip alone, she snatched a handful of Reardon’s shirt and took the professor with her on their tumble down the stairs. “ Sydney !”

Preston, who had been behind Sydney and had been knocked to the side, but not over the stairs, rushed into the room. “Nigel! Are you hurt?”

“Get these bloody things off me!” Nigel screamed as he strained against his bonds, his fear that Sydney had broken her neck from that fall sending a spike of panic and fear through his entire body, much worse than what had been felt previous. “Hurry up, Preston !”

Preston was trying to untie the ropes that bound his brother, but the knots were well tied and Nigel’s struggling didn’t help much. “Lay still or I’ll never get it done!”

“Get it done or I shall ring your bloody neck, you useless twit!”

“There’s no need to get nasty!” Preston retorted as he loosened the last knot and Nigel fairly jumped off the bed. He ran for the door and started down the stairs. He found Sydney and Reardon at the very bottom, having crashed through the doorway into the corridor, where several young boys now watched with growing curiosity.

“Stupid woman!” Reardon hissed as he blocked Sydney ’s punch and kicked her in the stomach. “You think you can stop me? I’m more powerful than you will ever know.”

Sydney ignored the pain that had momentarily doubled her over and straightened, almost immediately. “Blah, blah, blah, I’ve heard it all before, freak-show.” She feinted to the right and caught him crossways with her fist, bloodying his nose. “All you boys are the same, just a massive overcompensation for being such a wimp in the bedroom.” She dodged his kick, slipped under his leg and delivered a crushing blow to his groin, while her right leg spun back and up to catch him in the face.

Reardon stumbled against the wall, then caught his breath and charged her. Sydney thought she was prepared for the man’s strength, but she wasn’t prepared for his rage. He tackled her through the doors of one of the dorm rooms, luckily unoccupied. They fell onto the floor in a heap, Sydney ’s arm becoming trapped between Reardon’s leg and a bed post. He grabbed Sydney by the throat and started to choke her.

Sydney couldn’t free her arm and she couldn’t get enough leverage to buck him off of her. She started to see painful white spots at the very back of her vision as she struggled for breath.

Then, suddenly she could breathe again and when she looked up, she saw Nigel standing over Reardon with a cricket bat in his hands. She rolled Reardon off of her and accepted Nigel’s hand up.

“Syd! Are you okay?”

“I was just gonna ask you the same…”

“ Sydney !” Preston cried out as he noticed Reardon rising to his feet.

The science professor grabbed Sydney by the hair before she could turn back and he threw her with more force than was humanly possible into the adjacent wall of the corridor.

“ Sydney !” Nigel started to run towards his friend, watching the other kids scatter as Reardon charged out of the door room and backhanded Nigel so hard he fell to the floor.

“Now, we finish this,” the Professor snarled as he pulled out the amulet and broach. “It was time I was moving on anyway, I hate this damn school.”

Nigel’s eyes widened as the garnets once again began to glow. He shot a look towards Sydney who was still unconscious with Preston kneeling beside her in concern. He was out of help and there was no one left to save him. He turned back to Reardon and closed his eyes.

“Bastard!”

Nigel heard a strange humming sound after the woman’s scream and opened his eyes, shocked to see Cawvers caught in the red beams from the gems, having thrown herself in front of him. He watched her writhe against the power, shivered at the horrifying scream that rose from her throat as the layers of her skin shrivelled and shrank and pealed back from her body while her life force was sucked from her.

“Stop!” he cried, all anger for what she had done to him suddenly removed and replaced by sympathy. “Stop it! You’re killing her!”

It seemed, however, that once started the power could not be stopped. Nigel watched, horrified, as the headmistress turned towards him and held out her arms as if to embrace him. “Nat…han…M…mama loves….yoooouuuuu!” Her last word ended on what was almost an inhuman shriek as her body imploded upon itself and vanished.

Most of the boys who had been watching screamed and ran off down the corridor in terror. Two stayed behind.

“Did you see that?” One said to the other, awed. “That was bloody brilliant!”

Reardon seemed to need a moment as he absorbed what remained of Juliana Cawver’s life force, and in that moment, Nigel regained his senses and grabbed up the cricket bat again. He aimed for Reardon’s head, but the other man was faster and dodged, the bat landing on his shoulder instead.

Reardon leapt on Nigel, knocked the bat out of his hands, grabbed the Englishman’s hair and slammed his head into the hardwood floors.

Nigel’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as he started to see stars from the impact, but he fought to stay conscious, and then regretted the decision when Reardon leaned down and whispered in his ear.

Bile rose to his throat as he listened to the man’s perverted tales of what he had done to a boy named Kenny, a boy Nigel remembered from school. The boy he had tried to save from the tower.

Nigel, however, couldn’t voice his outrage, for Reardon had slammed his head against the floor two more times, accentuating the deeds. “Stop,” he pleaded weakly, sure that by now his brain was bleeding and that he would soon die. “Please…”

“Leave him alone!”

Both Nigel and Reardon turned at the sound and were equally surprised to see Preston, standing there, Sydney ’s knife in his hands.

Reardon almost laughed. “Oh please. What do you think you’re going to do with that, Preston ?”

“Whatever I must to protect my brother, you perverted monster.”

Nigel weak from the beating tried to focus on what was around him and when that failed, wildly reached out for anything nearby.

“Get away from him, Professor,” Preston warned as he moved closer with the knife, his hand shaking with fear. “I’ll do it. I will.”

Reardon, still straddling Nigel, simply lifted up the medallion and aimed it at Preston, who immediately flinched, lifted his arms to ward off the power, backed up and fell over Sydney’s legs.

Reardon laughed. “So much for bravery,” he chuckled.

 Nigel’s gaze was turned away from the scene, his eyes had found the cricket bat, but it was out of his reach. He stretched his fingers, but couldn’t quite get it, then he watched one of the two boys who had stayed behind, crawl over and push the bat closer. They shared a look and for a moment Nigel saw the frightened boy he once was, and then, at that moment, he realized the braver man that he had become.

His fingers closed around the bat and he swung with all that he had left in him, catching Reardon, who was still laughing at Preston , across the side of the head. Reardon fell off to the side, but was only momentarily stunned by the blow. He rolled back on his feet almost immediately, but it was enough time for Nigel to rise.

“You stupid…” Reardon began and the remainder of his words were thrown out of him as the bat caught him across the face, blood spattered on the floor.

“No more,” Nigel growled, still unsteady from his head wound, but knowing he had to finish this now. He swung again, caught Reardon across the back, knocking the professor to his knees. “No more innocent boys, no more nightmares, no more of you!” He landed another blow across Reardon’s back that knocked the older man to the floor and kept him there.

Nigel stared in disbelief that the man was actually staying down. He felt the bat slip from his grip as the world tilted on its axis then he gave into the pain and the dizziness and fell to his knees.

Preston caught his brother before Nigel’s head could hit the floor a forth time. “Nigel! Are you okay? Stay awake, Podge.”

“Don’t…call….me…podge.”

“Nigel then, stay awake.”

“Syd…” Nigel whispered as he watched his brother’s face edged out with the darkness that threatened to overtake him. “Help…Syd…” His eyes widened and he forced back the encroaching ebony as he saw Reardon rise and loom over Preston . “No…look…”

Preston started to turn as a growl of rage came from behind them, then suddenly Reardon was no longer in Nigel’s line of sight. Sydney Fox had awakened, and witnessing the Bailey brothers in what looked to be a death scene, she threw herself at the man who had caused it.

Sydney didn’t wait for Reardon to get to his feet, she pummelled him with all she had. She kicked punched, and then finally, she snatched the medallion and broach away from him. “Your time’s up, Professor.”

“No!” he screamed at her, horrified as she dropped them on the floor and grabbed for the cricket bat. “You can’t…!”

Sydney hit the artefacts and they exploded in a display of red light, throwing her backwards and to the floor.

Reardon screamed as the light enveloped him and within seconds, both the monster and his power were gone.

Sydney crawled over to Preston and Nigel. “Nigel? You still with us?”

Nigel was so relieved to see Sydney ’s concerned face hovering over him he almost started to cry, but again the dark edges of pain started to close out his vision. He glanced over her shoulder and for an instant, he saw Cawvers, a younger version, a happier woman with shinning eyes full of love for the son she thought she had found. She was smiling and nodding to him.

“Nigel! Nigel!”

“Yes, mum,” he whispered as the world went black.

Continued to chapter 9