The Ghost Hunter Chronicles - A Place of Nightmares Vol 1.

A Place of Nightmares Chapter 15 Black Hannah.

After what had to have been the longest night I had ever spent, jumping at every noise and sleeping not at all, the first rays of late summer sunshine finally found their way into the living room. The O'Donnel's had eventually dosed off sometime around three am. Aide and I were wired and on alert, we remained awake.

During the wee small hours the house walked and talked, but it was only the usual settling noises of a big extremely old house. Noises made by spirits and other things had a prescentient quality to them. In the case of the most evil things a lurking sneaky atmosphere. But even the darkest of energies petered out eventually, leaving us in peace for a time while they recharged. It was anyone's guess when it would all begin again.

I stood up and stretched, knees popping and back aching. I had just turned thirty last May, and it was a painful reminder I was no longer in my twenties.

Another painful reminder was my bladder, I was bursting.

"Aide," I whispered, he jumped and looked up at me, he must have been meditating, finding some rest in that activity rather than full sleep. "I need to go to the bathroom, can you wait outside?"

He nodded and got up, also wincing. Aide was only 28, so seeing him just as stiff and cramped as I was made me feel a little less decrepit.

We cautiously stepped outside the salt circle and made the trip to the downstairs bathroom.

I went in and shut the door. After what felt like the longest pee of my life I went to the sink to wash my hands. I also decided to wash my face. I felt horrible, my eyes were scratchy and dry, my skin felt tight. I finished and stood up and felt my heart stutter in my chest. There, reflected in the mirror behind me was the bathroom. The scene it showed was not of a newly renovated bathroom all white porcelain and gleaming fixtures, no. It was a scene of utter carnage. Blood marred the walls, bodies lay strewn on the floor. I closed my eyes and looked again, this time I let out a shriek, there standing right behind me was a woman. It wasn't Mrs Tweed. This woman was also all dressed in black, but the garments were of a much older vintage. Her gray hair was a matted rat's nest of tangles, grass and twigs. Her face and mouth covered in blood, she smiled. Leacherous and leering. Her eyes bright with madness, clearly and completely insane. I knew her, as surely as my heart pounded against my chest like a frightened bird trying to escape it's cage when the cat was close. This was Black Hannah, the mad witch of Rosenthorne Hill. The old name for the property before the grand old house that now stood here was built.

I tried to unleash another scream but my breath caught in my throat. Hannah held up one bloody hand and squeezed it into a fist. I tried to suck in a lungful of air and failed. I tried to blow the last one out. Nothing. I could feel my face growing hot, and my vision blurred. I was dimly aware of Aide pounding on the door, screaming at me to open it.

Hannah started laughing and twisted her hand. My throat constricted more. Somehow she was choking me. Restricting my air ways so I couldn't breath. My heart thudded in my ears, panic also seizing me by the throat. Black dots began swimming in my vision. I was growing dizzy, the whole room tilted on it's axis. I was going down. I grasped aimlessly for the sink. My numb hands slipping uselessly against the cold porcelain.

As I hit the tiled floor hard, banging my head and watching the darkness close in, I could still hear Aide and now Martin O'Donnel throwing themselves against the door, shouting my name.

The last thing I heard before everything went black and silent was the roar of a shotgun and Black Hannah's enraged and unearthly scream.

I came to sometime later. I was still lying on the floor, my chest ached and my throat burned. Aide was leaning over me with tears in his eyes. Maggie O'Donnel was in hysterics because her cell phone wouldn't work. And Martin was on the other side of me watching Aide.

"Shania! Thank God!" He exclaimed.

For a moment I was confused, what was I doing on the bathroom floor. And why was everyone in here? Macy looked at me with wide frightened eyes from the doorway where she clung to her mother's leg.

I tried to sit up and my head swam, the room began to tilt agian. "Take it easy!" Said Aide, grabbing me and easing me back down. Maggie gave up on the phone and rushed over with a blanket yanked out of the linen closet. She placed it over me and stood back.

"What happened?" I asked Aide.

"You don't remember?"

I shook my head wincing at the pain in the back of my skull. The bright fingers of pain burning away the last of the fog. My eyes widened, the grisly images in the bathroom mirror, the terrifying old woman.

"It was her, Hannah. She tried to kill me!" I gasped.

"Honey, she did kill you." Aide sobbed, "We had to blast through the door with a salt shell. It hit her and she vanished. When we got to you there was no pulse, no breath. You were dead for a few seconds."

I looked at Maggie and Martin, she was still sobbing Martin was white.

"We had to do CPR on you. Maggie's phone wouldn't work, neither would the one in the office. We thought we lost you." Aide told me.

The stunning realization of my own mortality hit me. These things could kill. I knew they could scratch, bite and move things, but to actually kill a living being? And I had nearly been it. Nothing like this had ever befallen me before. Where were my guides? My protectors?

Perhaps she had just been too quick, too powerful even for them. My charm necklace lay beside me on the floor, Aide yanking it off to help me breathe. She shouldn't have been able to touch me.

But wait, she hadn't. It had all been telekinetic. She never laid a hand on me. Just used all her pent up murderous rage. I shuddered. What if she was too much even for the powerful magic of the Holy Order, of Jim and the Vatican Cardinals?

Never in my life had I wanted out of somewhere as much as I wanted out of this Goddamned house! What if it had been Macy? That thought brought me out of my shock, and the tears came.

Aide held me in his arms, and Maggie gathered Macy and went to brew some tea.

Martin hesitated for a minute and followed.

Finally I dried up and Aide let me sit up on my own.

He handed me a wad of toilet paper and I blotted my eyes, and blew my nose. Another migraine was pounding my head.

I looked at Aide and voiced what we were both thinking, "I'm scared to death Aide. For once I don't know what to do."

He nodded, "Me too."

He helped me shakily to my feet, and ignoring my protest swept me up and carried me to the living room couch. Maggie turned up with a steaming hot cup of tea, I had to drink carefully due to the bruising and swelling around my throat.

Macy watched me with big eyes, clutching her Teddy and a cup of hot chocolate.

Suddenly the phone rang, apparently they were working again. Everyone jumped and Martin leaped to answer it before it changed it's mind.

"Hello? Jay!" He said, "No don't come back here. When they arrive, give them the coordinates for GPS and have them rent a car. Don't say anything to Lucy but Shania was just attacked by something. Nearly killed her. No she's okay now, a doctor?" Martin looked at me. I shook my head.

"We don't need anymore hostages I'm okay." I croaked ignoring the pain in my chest and throat.

"She's okay, we don't need anyone else getting trapped. No, they'll know how to handle that." Jay must have been worrying about the priests.

"Okay, we'll come to you as soon as we're out. Okay stay put at the Inn, bye, love you Jay. Look after your sister." Martin rang off. "Kids and dog are fine. Jay's going to meet the Priests at Heathrow. Lucy is staying at the Inn, she struck up a friendship with the owner's daughter. Good thing they are pet friendly!" He said thinking of Corky.

"Anything else we can do?" Asked Maggie.

I nodded, "Don't go to the bathroom by yourself." She turned a whiter shade of pale and sipped her own cup of tea.

We settled in to wait, a very long night followed by an equally long day.

Lights flickered, things bumped. All we could do was sit, and wait for what was to come next.