The Twelve Chimes of Maligna Manor

New Arrivals

It was not what Sara would call a train station. A platform was probably a better description. It didn't even have a ticket booth, just a machine that seemed to be out of order. It wasn't very busy either. It had only been her and Ben that had stepped off. The rest were making their way up towards Bridlington.

Ben's hand tightened around Sara's. Sara squeezed back and gave her younger brother the most confident smile she could muster. She always liked having Ben around at a time like this. His anxiety always had the effect of calming her down. It was a sort of big sister instinct she supposed. Only one of them was allowed to be anxious, and it couldn't be her.

Sara still thought of Ben as her baby brother despite the fact that there was only four years between them. It was one of the consequences of being fourteen that someone aged eleven just seemed absurdly young. It didn't help that other people often treated them as if the age gap was wider.

Sara was quite tall for her age and was in the habit of wearing copious amounts of makeup. Ben on the other hand had always been quite small. He had yet to hit his full growth spurt, and his generally quiet demeanour made people treat him like he was still closer to eight years old.

Sara and Ben walked the length of the platform before finally exiting through the gate. It had been something of a pointless exercise. Their Aunt wasn't there, they had been able to see that from the platform, but it still felt proactive.

Sara checked her phone. Aunt Maggie's last message telling them that someone would be there to pick them up from the station stared back at her mockingly.

"Maybe you should call her?" said Ben.

Sara sighed. She had wanted to avoid that. Sara had probably said about two words to Aunt Maggie before this last summer, and now she had realised why. Everything was a drama that usually ended in tears. It had been a long day, and Sara was in no mood to deal with any of it.

But they couldn't sleep on the platform, though Sara had thoroughly considered it, so she took a deep breath and called.

"Hola, Sara," said Aunt Maggie, "Where are you?"

She didn't waste time, did she?

"There's no one here, Aunt Maggie," said Sara.

Aunt Maggie said something in Spanish which Sara suspected was a swear.

"I called a Taxi," She said, "I told them exactly when you were arriving and where you needed to go and what to say. You are definitely at Winter Green Station."

Sara looked over at the rusted sign for the hundredth time.

"Yes," she said.

"Lo Siento Carino," she said. "I will call the Taxi again. I will give them hell, don't you worry."

"Sure, you will," said Sara, "goodbye."

"Adios," said Aunt Maggie just as Sara was hanging up the phone.

Sara looked over to Ben.

"Taxi trouble," she said.

"So, Aunt Maggie isn't picking us up," said Ben.

Sara shook her head. Ben seemed disappointed which was a surprise. Somehow, he had gotten it into his head that she might have turned up to greet them which was frankly baffling.

Sara and Ben had never met their Aunt Maggie in their entire lives, and there was a good reason for that. 

She was crazy. 

Their Dad had never liked talking about his family, but on some of his worse nights, he would go on rants about his sister. She had apparently not left the house since she had left secondary school. Ben had told her that this was because she was agoraphobic, but their dad had more colourful words for it. Beyond that, she was apparently a complete neurotic that his parents had indulged to the point she had become unbearable. The smallest thing would set her off and no matter what, he had gotten the blame. Details were always sparse, but Sara got the picture that Aunt Maggie had made that house unliveable for her dad, and that was why he had left so young.