Ghostfinders 03 -Ghost of a Dream

good-looking faces stretching and distorting, becoming monstrous, devilish. Benjamin and Elizabeth cried out and fell back, Benjamin putting himself between Elizabeth and what was coming for them. Happy looked at them, then looked back at the mirror; and the photo was gone. Nothing to show it had ever been there. Happy took a deep breath, to settle himself, and looked at Benjamin and Elizabeth. They were clinging to each other like small children frightened by a thunderstorm.
    “What the hell was that all about?” said Happy.
    “Nothing,” said Elizabeth. All inflection was gone from her voice, all the colour from her face. Her eyes were wide, and her whole body was stiff with shock; but she still wouldn’t give an inch. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”
    “It’s a trick,” said Benjamin. His face was empty andhis voice was flat; but he couldn’t hide the fact that he’d been hit, and hit hard.
    “It’s getting too late in the day to cling to that old line,” said Happy, as harshly as he could. “JC said all along something bad must have happened here to make this theatre a bad place. Something really bad, something you did. Because all of this only started up again when you came back. Something’s been waiting here for you, for twenty years…because of what you did. The crawling figure pointed to you, and only you. Your own faces in the photo accused you of some old crime, some old betrayal. So what did you do? I need to know!”
    “No you don’t,” said Elizabeth, flatly.
    “None of this has anything to do with us,” said Benjamin.
    And then the door behind them suddenly swung open, and they all jumped. Elizabeth shrieked and clutched at Benjamin with both hands. He let out a short, choked cry, his back pressed up against the wall. Happy was startled, but also angry at himself for not having noticed that the door had closed. He moved quickly to put himself between his two charges and the new threat because he knew that was what JC would want him to do. Even though it didn’t feel in any way natural; and he didn’t have a clue what he was going to do.
    They all relaxed, and let out their breaths in long, ragged sighs, as they recognised Old Tom, the caretaker. He stood in the open doorway with his vague smile and watery eyes, seeming even more stoop-shouldered than ever in his long brown overall and flat cap. He blinked at them bashfully.
    “Only me, lady and gents! Didn’t mean to startle anyone…Just checking that everything’s as it should be…”
    “Where the hell have you been?” said Happy, glad to have someone he could take out his frustrations on. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere!”
    Old Tom regarded him vaguely. “I thought I heard someone moving about, when we were down in the understage area. And I thought, that’s not right, there’s not supposed to be anyone else here. So I went out through the rear exit—you know, the one at the back…And I had a good look around. But there wasn’t anyone there. So I came back. But you’d all gone, and the understage area was empty. So I had a good look around there, too, made sure everything was as it should be, then I came up on stage. Except by the time I got there, you’d all gone again! You really shouldn’t all go running off on your own, you know. Not safe, on your own. The old theatre isn’t as forgiving as she once was. Anything could happen. I remember when…”
    Happy gave up on trying to get a word in edge-ways, stepped forward, and prodded Old Tom hard in the chest. His finger rebounded from the grubby overall, and Old Tom actually stopped talking, to stare at Happy reproachfully. Happy didn’t even try to explain. Old Tom might actually be there, might be physically present; but he still didn’t
feel
right. There was something…off about the old caretaker, something all his cheerful nonsense couldn’t quite cover up. So Happy braced himself and lowered his mental shields long enough to check out the figure before him. And found, to his shock andsurprise, that, as far as his telepathy was concerned…there was no-one there.
    All the calm good humour dropped out of Old Tom’s face, and suddenly he didn’t look real any more. Didn’t look human, any more. Happy stumbled backwards, shouting to Benjamin and Elizabeth to stay behind him, not looking back because he didn’t want to take his eyes off the thing that had pretended to be Old Tom, even for a moment.
    “It’s not him! That’s not Old Tom, or