Nightmare Abbey: Nightmare Series Book 1

Chapter 7: Night Moves

“Who the hell is this?” demanded Jim, jumping up from the table.

“Good question,” Denny replied, as she and Gould helped George to a chair.

By now, the stranger had recovered some composure and was staring around him with obvious curiosity. He still seemed confused and afraid, though. George allowed himself to be seated, leaning forward so that the bizarre growth on his back did not touch the back of the chair.

“Jim, I think this is Lord George Blaisdell himself,” Gould began. “But before we talk about that, let’s try and help him. Perhaps some water?”

Jim offered George a plastic bottle of spring water. The stranger stared at the container, took it gingerly, then poured a little of its contents onto his hand. Then George drank, sipping cautiously at first before greedily gulping down the entire bottle. Brie, who had been gazing in puzzlement at the newcomer, got up and offered him a candy bar. Again he seemed puzzled, and Brie had to show him how to unwrap it, and then mime taking a bite.

If he’s never seen a Snickers, Denny thought, maybe he is from a bygone age.

“What about that parasite, or whatever it is?” she asked Gould. “Will it die eventually, in our world?”

Gould looked startled at her suggestion, then frowned.

“You know, that’s a very sensible notion, based on what we know,” he said, drawing her aside and speaking in a low voice. “I’m impressed by how cool you are about all this. But if that strange organism is somehow part of his circulatory system, its death—for whatever reason—could harm him. Trying to remove it would be very risky, of course.”

Gould glanced over to where Jim and Brie were tentatively speaking to George, who was not making much sense.

“To be honest, I’ve no idea how to proceed. This seems to combine the paranormal with the medical in a grim way.”

“Guess doctors at a regular hospital would be as baffled as we are,” Denny mused. “But we can’t just leave him here. We’ve got to take him to safety!”

Gould nodded.

“The foundation has its own medical division,” he said. “I’ll call them in. It’s time they sent help anyway. Things have gone much farther than I imagined.”

“That’s quite the understatement,” murmured Denny.

While Gould stepped outside to use his phone, Denny brought the others up to speed on what had happened. Brie and Jim were both stunned to learn that Frankie had simply vanished. Denny, for her part, was amazed to learn that Marvin had gone alone to help the group.

“And Gould thinks this bloke is Blaisdell?” Jim said, staring at George, who was now sitting with a vacant expression, chin smeared with chocolate. “Really? We’re talking about time travel?”

“Gould said something about a ‘night under the hill’,” Denny recalled. “Does that mean anything?”

“Fairies,” said Brie, surprising Denny. “In the old days they said a night under the hill with the Little People was a kind of time-twisting event. A man who went away with them would return, not having aged. But he’d find his family all dead and gone, his home in ruins, and himself a forgotten man. Time just flows differently there.”

Jim was shaking his head as Brie put her theory across.

“That thing we saw was nothing like Tinkerbell,” he pointed out. “If we’re looking for fantasy creatures, the Interlopers are like demons. Or Morlocks.”

“No, I get that,” Brie said, becoming more animated. “But the Victorians prettified the way we see all our folklore! The term ‘Fairie’ once meant another world, a weird, scary place where our laws don’t apply. It was only applied to cute little people with wings much later.”

“Some medieval scholars called them ‘longaevi’,” Gould put in. “It means ‘the long-lived ones’. As Brie says, they were not originally seen as sweet-natured, but capricious and often destructive. Creatures to placate or avoid, for whom time works differently.”

Denny thought about the idea. If Gould and Brie were right, then over two centuries could pass in the human world, while much less than a human lifespan could pass in the Phantom Dimension. She tried to recall how old Blaisdell had been when he had vanished, but could only summon the vague idea that he had been middle-aged.

“George,” she said, leaning over the stranger, “can you tell me how old you are?”

The man gawped up at her, then gave a mirthless laugh.

“My dear young lady,” he said, again with a touch of aristocratic superiority, “I have not had occasion to celebrate my birthday for some time.”

Denny had to smile at that.

You may have been a reprobate, she thought, but you’ve got guts—they obviously didn’t break you.

“You’re thinking that Frankie has really only been over there for a few seconds?” Jim asked. “Weird notion. But if it’s true—”

Denny nodded.

“It means she might not have moved far from the gateway on the other side. Or been moved. If someone went through, they could grab her back. They wouldn’t be expecting that.”

Realization dawned on Jim’s face. He shook his head emphatically.

“Oh, come on,” he protested, “you’re not proposing that I actually go and look for her!”