I'M A DOCTOR, CHAPTER ELEVEN
Everybody was alert. Whatever had happened upstairs didn't sound good.
Robyn, tears running down her face, ran into the main room.
"It wanted me to- " She gulped.
Cal came in, staggering, clinging to the wall. Proving that food wasn't his only concern in life, Ethan ran to him.
"I've twisted my ankle running after Monkey there" he gasped.
"Monkey" looked ashamed.
"I had to run off, Cal. The voices wanted me to stab you."
"Come on, you're in luck, Cal, now you're going to see a real doctor at work."
Ethan loved his chances to be smug almost as much as he loved his food.
"I need a first-aid box" he said.
Kiera popped up. Nobody was unnerved by the twins any more so everybody just nodded at her.
"The first aid box's in the kitchen. I'll take you. That way one of the others can't do a mean trick and make the food go nasty to scare you."
The little phantom led Ethan out.
"Right, nobody goes into that whispering gallery any more" Connie ordered.
"Excuse me, you might be boss in the ED…" Dylan began.
"Just trying to help" Connie replied petulantly, "Go and listen to it and kill each other if you want."
"Come on, Connie, you're tired."
Rita held out her arms.
"What a waste" sighed Jacob, a little too loudly.
Rita hoped that Iain would say something too. That slap she'd given him in the Whispering Gallery had been meant to turn him on. He just looked through her, however. He thought he could see the way things were and it hurt him.
Halfway up the stairs, Connie and Rita jumped. Jeff was there in his flaming armchair.
"You'll be safe, it's not real fire" he said, motioning them on.
"That's what they told Joan of Arc" sniggered Jacob.
"Watch it, mate. I can get in touch with Joan and tell her where you're staying."
Jeff's merry mood soon dissolved and he said miserably:
"I wish I'd been able to save those two little kids. They're decent little spooks."
"Their uncle must have pushed them too fast for you to get to them" Jacob sighed.
"Their uncle?"
"Yeah, their Uncle Jonathan's doing time for their murder."
Jeff opened his mouth to speak. What looked like half a volcano came out of it. He vanished.
Rita was undressing in the bathroom, when Mercedes slunk in, wearing Rita's favourite panties on her head, like a shower cap.
"Give those back, bitch!"
"Oh, it's 'give those back bitch' now, is it? Two days ago it was 'please don't hurt me'. Mercedes did her imitation of Rita cringing in abject fear.
"We're getting used to you lot now."
"Wait till Friday morning. Friday's the big one. Eleven for the morgue on Friday. It was meant to be ten but Action Man had to come snooping in and spoil it."
Rita shivered and ran across to the room she shared with Connie, hurried into bed with her and buried her head in Connie's warm chest.
"SURPRISE!" bawled Iain and Jacob, emerging from under the bed. Iain stood up and ran to the door to avoid a pillow thrown by angry Rita.
But Jacob was pulled right under the bed by a huge, hairy hand.
"Where's my HONEY?" the owner of the hand bawled.
Ethan put the little stool under Cal's foot.
"Better?"
"Great now thanks, Nibblino!"
"Cal" whispered Robyn, "I am so sorry."
"Hey, you were better running than skewering me. I still love you, Robyn."
They smiled at each other. Ethan wasn't sure whether or not to give his blessing.
"Can you cook, Robyn?" he asked.
She nodded.
"She's a keeper." Ethan enthused.
Connie, Rita, Iain and Jacob came down in their bathrobes. The boys were laden with pillows and blankets.
"We'll be sleeping down here" Connie announced, trying to look grimly at everybody but relieved that Jacob's ardour had been cooled by the groping hand.
"It's just as unsafe all over the house" Dylan commented.
"Have you almost been dragged under a bed by an angry spook?" growled Jacob.
The cat prowled off, leaping on to the spikes and not even having his fur ruffled. He bounded over the snow, over the streets and finally into the Travelodge despite the receptionist's effort to throw him out again.
"So how are the set of fools?" was Harry's only greeting when the cat bounded into his room.
The cat changed and assumed the shape of what could only be a demon.
"The gay doctor and nurse are far too cheerful, the philanderer and his little girlfriend are having relationship problems but are still nauseatingly loving, the overgrown brat with hollow legs is still hungry… but the foursome are becoming very uneasy."
"Are those brats whose necks I broke still happy?"
"In their element. Helping everybody like good little lapdogs."
"They'll pay tomorrow evening. That's when I'm coming to help you collect souls."
"I want to collect freshly-dead souls. Those idiots seem to be indestructible. But I know something about the gay nurse… he has a fear of clowns."
"He's too young and fit for a coronary."
"Nobody's too young and fit not to have a fatal fall. You like causing fatal falls, Harper."
"Then tomorrow the carnival comes to Redmyres."
Dylan and Ben lay in bed, arms round each other, naked chests touching.
Zoe, in her original form before she was silly enough to get trapped in a trunk with her lover, floated across the room.
"Tomorrow's the big one" she purred.
"Big what?" snapped Lofty, who had had enough of most of the phantoms except the twins.
"Death toll. You're all on the list, Nursey."
Strangely enough it was Lofty who hugged Dylan close, not the other way round.
"And whose side are you on? Ours or whoever's causing all this?"
"We're neutral, Lenny and me. But watch Max; he can turn nasty."
Bang on cue, Max floated out of the wall.
"You broke my heart!"
"It's 2016! You should be over it by now!" pouted Zoe.
Max had an evil smirk.
"I am. And to prove it, I'm going to take one of the other ones. That little blonde fox – I'll have her."
"When you say 'have'…."
"I'm going to kill her tomorrow night and then she can be my wench for all eternity."
"Good luck getting past Connie."
"Connie can die just as easily as the rest of you" smirked Max.
"Right" Zoe decided, "Me and Lenny are going to stop you tomorrow. We'll protect Connie and Blonde Fox just to spite you, Max."
"Bloody hell, they're treating our souls like a computer game." Dylan was outraged.
" We're not protecting you or Curly Bonce. See you tomorrow night, losers."
Zoe vanished with a cackle. Max glowered and disappeared back into the wall.
"Dylan" Lofty said quietly, "I think we might die tomorrow night."
Dylan nodded gravely.
"In that case…"
He grabbed Lofty.
"Come here, you beautiful little bugger!"
Maybe because of the situation, Lofty and Dylan's love making was special that night. They even managed to sleep curled in each other's arms.
"Who's for a walk round the rooms?" Connie asked after breakfast, "Let these fools know we're not scared of them. And maybe collect a few more crosses or Bibles to put out around the main room."
"Why not? You coming, Dervs?"
Dervla wagged her tail and followed Dylan and Lofty out. Jacob, looking a little strained, followed with Iain.
"You stay here, Cal" Ethan said kindly, "Sit by the fire, eh?"
"I'll stay with you" Robyn grinned.
Cal held out his arms and said cheekily to the others:
"Well, off you go, then."
Noel was in the kitchen, mainly to try to stop Ethan getting anything else to eat for pure spite. He saw Ethan going towards the pile of cheese sandwiches that he and Jack had made for lunch, and waved his hand, hoping to turn them into something horrid. Keira floated up to him, snapped:
"Not so fast, Bum Hole" and punched him. Noel vanished, whimpering.
"Hurry up and get them in a bag, Ethan" Orlando urged, "Then me and Biffo will watch over them."
It was good to have at least three of the spooks fighting in their corner, thought Ethan, even if one of them was the unlucky Tram Man.
As they walked up the main staircase, they saw something that made them do a double-take. Jeff was out again and this time he was in a shower cubicle, having a shower of fire.
"Hi, people" he said cheerfully.
"Jeff, you're not supposed to shower on the stairs. The ladies will see your nasty todger."
Jeff giggled and wagged his finger at Kiera. Then his face crumpled.
"Why couldn't I save you?" he wept.
"It's not your fault, Jeff, it was HIM."
"Who? Who pushed you downstairs, Keira?" Connie got in quickly.
"Harry Harper. Because he was our next and nearest relative with Uncle Jonathan being locked up."
Connie's blood drained from her face.
"Harry Harper. Harry bloody Harper. He tricked us all. Tricked us into staying here… and now he can just pick us all off one by one tonight!"
And for the second time in three days, she fainted.