I'M A DOCTOR, CHAPTER TWELVE
Everybody's mood was subdued for the rest of the day but not necessarily defeatist. Dervla, to Dylan's relief, didn't seem overly disturbed, but was a little more clinging than usual. Ethan amazed everybody by slipping the dog choice little bits of his breakfast. Dylan was concerned at first but then thought "What the heck, if it's her last night, let her eat treats. If we survive this, I'll be happy to clear up any little accidents tomorrow. The couples were closer than ever; Dylan and Lofty snuggled together in a large armchair, Robyn sat on the small sofa with Cal, her head on his chest. Dixie joined Rita and Connie on the huge couch, while Iain and Jacob squatted at their feet. Kiera and Orlando kept appearing with Jeff to give words of advice and comfort, but poor Jeff burnt himself out too quickly and had to keep vanishing to regroup himself. Tess hovered near her "babies".
Poor Jack tried to get everybody interested in games, but not surprisingly, nobody was up for it.
Towards late afternoon, the other phantoms kept drifting in. Mercedes said nastily that her money was on Harper winning.
"He'll come in here as soon as it's dark and he'll kill the lot of you."
"Ah, kill!" moaned Taylorette, wringing her hands.
"Some of you he might even torture!" Mercedes persisted.
"Ah, torture!" wailed cowardly Big MacIntosh.
"And then he'll take your souls."
"Ah, souls!" wailed Taylorette.
"Yes, you lot certainly are! Except for Keira and Orlando, you've been pains in the butt" growled Cal.
"Do you want to know who's on your side and who are going to be Harry Harper's little sunbeams?" Mercedes sneered.
They nodded. Better to know.
Mercedes looked at Keira, Orlando and Jeff as if they were dirt on her shoes.
"Those three are your pathetic little fan club up to now. Biffo would join them but he's been whipped back to France to relive his death over and over. Harry never liked Biffo."
Zoe glided across the room and pulled out a handful of Mercedes' hair by the roots. Mercedes shrieked.
"I'm with the visitors" Zoe declared.
Max came over, laughing.
"I want you to lose. Because then this little blonde fox is mine and Zoe can go and do one."
He grabbed Rita by the hair. Connie, Iain and Dixie punched him. Alas, their punches went straight through Max and knocked Rita out.
"I punched a woman!" Iain almost wept.
"It was an accident, luv" Dixie assured him. She and Iain carried Rita to the bedroom, putting a cross round her neck for good measure.
Giorgio and Ricardo materialised, swords clanging.
"So which side do you take, Raynesford worm? The powerful and intelligent Harry Harper, or these losers?" Ricardo snapped.
Ethan suddenly thought how horrible it would be to be killed by somebody looking like himself. He looked anxiously at Giorgio.
"I choose the so-called losers" Giorgio cried.
"Weakling!" scoffed Ricardo.
They fought yet again, swords clashing, jumping out of each other's way. Suddenly Dervla gave a yelp. Ricardo gasped in horror.
"I have stabbed an innocent hound!" he lamented.
Dylan was by Dervla's side in a moment.
"You nicked her paw" he said crossly. Orlando vanished and reappeared seconds later with a huge roll of bandage. Dylan got to work.
"Not so grand and proud now, Ricardo Houndslayer?" sneered Giorgio.
Ricardo hung his head.
"Raynesford, for once I shall take the same side as thee in deference to this poor hound."
He bowed to Dervla, who growled at him. Then, to the amazement of his rival, he knelt next to Dervla and began to croon:
"I love thee, little hound, I shall protect thee when doom comes round."
Despite the frightening situation, Cal couldn't help laughing at the sight of his double being won over to the good side by Dervla.
"Dog Power" beamed Dylan.
"Don't be so smug. There are more of us against you than for you" Mercedes sniggered, "And the dog'll be first to go."
Lofty hugged Dylan reassuringly.
Lily stood and faced the policeman in reception, even though he was over six foot three and she was… well, she was Lily.
"So you've suddenly decided to take my call seriously?" she asked, barely keeping her temper.
"It's different now, Miss. We've been informed of strange noises at Redmyres, and coloured lights coming out of the chimney. We need to investigate the report."
"Hold the fort, Louise" Lily ordered, "Our friends are in there. I'm going back with this nice policeman."
"But- " Louise began. But Lily and Sergeant Morris Dewhurst were already out of the door. Louise looked round 'the fort' and dialled Jac Naylor's number. Connie would be furious, but this was an emergency.
"Well, Ms Chao. It seems we have a problem" Morris said, totally unnecessarily as he showed Lily the spikes and the high wall.
"Helicopter rescue?"
"Possible… there'd be plenty of space for it to land in a place like this. It all depends if my Sergeant approves."
Lily daren't tell Morris that she'd seen photos of Redmyres Grange when there were no spikes on the pavement and the wall and gate were much lower.
"Why would anybody want spikes on the main road like that?" she sighed.
"To deter the homeless from climbing the gate and kipping down in the gardens?" Morris shrugged. Then he looked at Lily, which he was finding easier to do by the minute.
"Ms Chao… you said Harry Harper was due to visit here this evening? Let's park the car away from the entrance and then observe how HE gets inside."
"Yes!" Lily agreed, eyes shining. Morris tried to concentrate on the task ahead.
Everybody was huddling together in the main room, with the phantoms who had opted to protect them standing by. Jeff made a valiant effort to join them but his chair set on fire again, scaring Dervla, and Dylan ordered him to wait in the kitchen until he was called for. The hostile ghosts had taken up their positions on the staircases.
"It must be dinnertime" Ethan said wistfully.
"Ethan, only you could think of food…" Cal was open-mouthed.
"I wouldn't mind a bit of hot soup and maybe a good strong coffee" Jack suggested.
That was Ethan's cue to march into the kitchen with Jack following him for moral support.
They ran out screaming. Ethan had taken the lid off the biggest saucepan only to see his own severed head floating around in it.
"Just coffees then" Cal said when Ethan had managed to gasp out the bad news. He went to make them, looking round almost aggressively for ghosts.
Robyn looked shy and whispered to Kiera.
The little girl smiled.
"There's a couple of downstairs toilets too, and I'll come with you" she said kindly.
The windows suddenly flew open. The cat leaped into the room, and then, with an eerie screech, changed into a clown with a mouth full of razor-like teeth. Even as Dylan pulled Lofty closer, the clown wrenched the nurse out of his lovers' arms.
"Playtime, Benjie!"
He slapped Lofty across the face with a balloon while fairground music played. Lofty tried to dodge him in vain. The slapping became more savage.
Poor Cal, entering with the tray of coffees, spilled the hot liquid on his legs and shouted in pain and shock.
Maybe he didn't like seeing his doppelganger being hurt, maybe he really did want to atone for catching Dervla's paw, but Ricardo came charging over with one of the Bibles. He threw it into the clown's face. The horrible vision vanished, screeching:
"The carnival's only just begun! There'll be more to see yet. Don't go away now, folks!"