While Winnie had been trying to figure out what the footprints meant, and if either she or Thaddeus had been spied on, the moon had gradually risen in the night sky behind her. She looked up into the star-shot sky. Thaddeus had been right; the moon was full and round and shining brightly down at her.

Stand in the moonlight, she heard him ask her, as if he was breathing in her ear. Winnie spun around at the sound of rustling beneath the trees. She peered into the darkness, but could see nothing. Guessing she was just spooking herself, she turned back to face the window and screamed. Reflected in it, and staring out of the dark from beneath the trees, were those three pale faces.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Winnie stumbled out of the pool of moonlight and back towards the house. The bucket she had dropped rolled behind her, and she fell backwards and onto the ground. Air exploded from her lungs, and she felt as if she had been punched. Without taking her eyes off the three faces staring back at her from the darkness, she dragged herself to her feet.

“You don’t have to be scared,” one of the faces whispered, its voice seeming to float on the air towards her.

On her feet again, Winnie screwed up her eyes and peered into the darkness. The face spoke again and said, “You know you don’t have to fear us. It’s Thaddeus you should be scared of.”

The voice sounded male as it floated towards Winnie.

“What do you want?” she called out, her heart in her throat.

“What we’ve always wanted,” the voice said back.

“And what’s that?” Winnie trembled, inching her way backwards towards the open front door, not daring to take her eyes away from the faces for one moment.

“For you to come with us,” the voice said again. “It’s only going to be a matter of time before he kills you, Frances. You know it to be true.”

“What did you call me?” Winnie whispered, reaching the open front door and stepping backwards through it.

“Frances, stop these games,” the voice said again, the face as bright and as white as the moon.

“I’m not Frances.” Winnie shook, her fingers curling around the frame of the front door, readying herself to close it.

“What did you say?” the voice asked, and it sounded as if it were growing angry.

“Frances is dead,” Winnie shivered, pulling back her hood.

As if what she had said had caused the face beneath the tree great anguish, it released a gut-wrenching scream, so loud that the windows rattled in their frames. Winnie threw her hands over her ears, and screwed her eyes shut. Within an instant, the screaming had stopped, and she snapped open her eyes to see the three faces were standing before her at the door. They weren’t just faces. They had bodies, too, which were clad in black clothing. Two of them were male, the other female. The first was thin and tall, with black hair that was swept back off his brow. The second male was just as tall, but thicker set, with short, cropped, black hair. The female had hair which was dark blue, and blustered about her shoulders in the wind. Just like the other two, she wore a long, black coat, tight black denims, and boots. Although Winnie was scared of them, she couldn’t help but be momentarily stunned by their striking beauty. The three of them, as they stood motionless before the door, looked immaculate. Their pale skin seemed almost translucent in the moonlight, and their crystal-clear blue eyes shone from their faces.

“What do you want?” Winnie breathed.

“Frances,” the thin one hissed, just inches from her face.

“Frances died,” Winnie mumbled.

“I don’t believe it,” he roared, his face now cast into an agonising grimace. “Tell me it’s not true!”

The other two drew closer to the male who wailed as if in pain. They looked at Winnie.

“Invite us in so we can see for ourselves” the female said, her beautiful mouth curling upwards into a smile.

“No,” Winnie snapped, closing the door.

Before it had locked, the door was forced open again, sending Winnie sprawling backwards onto her arse. She looked up and the three strangers, with their deathly white faces, crowded together just outside the doorway.

“Just invite us in so we can see if you are lying about Frances,” the female smiled. “We won’t hurt you.”

From her position on the hallway floor, it looked to Winnie as if the beautiful woman’s legs went on forever. However much the female smiled down at her, Winnie could see a cruelty in her eyes. She looked at the male, whose face was contorted with grief.

“Frances!” he screeched over and over again, tearing at his clothes as if trying to free himself from them. The other male tried to restrain him in his fit of madness. “Leave me, Claude!” the male screamed as if in agony.

“Nate, we don’t know that Frances is dead,” the female said.

“She is dead,” he screamed. “I feel it in my blood. I know it to be true. He has murdered her.” Again, he tore at his clothes with his hands, as if he were burning alive beneath them.

The female went to him, and lashing out at her, he pushed her away. “Leave me, Michelle. Don’t touch me. I am in agony!” Then he stared down into the hallway, where Winnie looked on, her heart racing inside of her. The male called Nate then screamed at her, beating his chest with his fists in anguish. “Is this how I am repaid for letting him live? Her father was a fool to have put his faith in him!”

Winnie trembled uncontrollably. She couldn’t remember feeling so scared. Her legs felt like rubber as she tried to stand, the male screeching, hissing, and spitting at her from the doorway. Holding onto the wall for support, she hobbled towards the open door. However much the male cast out his threats, she sensed that unless she invited them into the house, they could not enter, although she couldn’t figure out why. Praying she was right, she inched towards them.

“My beloved Frances is burning in Hell, and so shall he!” he screamed at her, spit flying from his lips, and his eyes bulging with tears. “You, too, will die for what has happened here. I will avenge her death. I will not stop until I have drained both of you of your blood!”

Unable to bear his threats and the screeching of his voice any longer, Winnie threw herself at the door and forced it shut. With her back against it, she slid to the floor as quickly as the tears now spilt down her face. With the sound of the male’s screams of grief burning in her ears, Winnie crawled away from the door on her hands and knees. Her body shuddered as she desperately fought to control her sobbing. The front door rattled in its frame, as the strangers outside threw themselves against it. The banging and thudding was so loud, Winnie feared it was going to explode off its hinges and into the hallway. Scrambling to her feet, and the sounds of her petrified sobs almost as loud as the door crashing in its frame, Winnie made her way into the lounge and then screamed.

The female was at the window, the one Winnie had recently cleaned. The tip of her nose was pressed against it as she screamed through the glass at Winnie. “Let us in! You must let us in!”

With her hands over her ears, Winnie made her way to the window. She quickly made sure it was locked, then pulled the curtains shut over the beautiful white face that glared in at her.

“Thaddeus!” Winnie screamed until her throat felt raw. The sound of her cries seemed to excite those outside, as they began banging on the windows.

“Let us in!” they screeched.

The lounge was now in darkness as Winnie tripped and stumbled towards the hallway. The little voice inside of her was screaming for her to get help. From where? Winnie knew she was miles from anywhere, and the only person who did know she was in the house was Thaddeus.

Do you have any family? She heard Thaddeus whisper in her ear, as she thought of their first meeting and how he had questioned her. The sudden realisation that perhaps he had somehow deceived her, made Winnie want to vomit. Doubting that she could rely on Thaddeus to come and save her, she desperately tried to think of how she was going to get away from those who screeched and banged on the windows outside. Even if Thaddeus could somehow know the danger she was now in, he was hundreds of miles away in London.

My publisher telephoned this morning...Winnie heard him say.

“Telephone!” Winnie cried out. She couldn’t remember seeing one anywhere since arriving at the house. There must be one, Winnie’s frantic mind tried to reason. She hadn’t noticed Thaddeus in possession of a mobile phone, either. There must be a phone somewhere – how did he take the call from his publisher?

In the dark, and with the sound of the strangers outside banging against the door and the windows, Winnie raced into the dining room. With her hands outstretched before her, she searched for a telephone in the dark. With her heart slamming in her chest, and fighting hard to draw breath, she went back to the hall and climbed the stairs, passing the pictures that sat silently staring at each other. Winnie staggered along the landing, trying the handle of each door that she passed. All of them were locked. Then from above she heard a scratching noise, as if those people had somehow managed to climb up the side of the house and were now scrambling across the roof. Winnie shoulder-barged into each of the locked doors until the pain in her arm became too much too bear.

With the sound of scratching and clawing from above, Winnie raced along the landing to her room. Pushing open the door, she fell onto the floor in a heap. She cried out. Then the banging came again, and she looked up to see the female, Michelle, perched on the window ledge just outside her room. With her thick, blue hair billowing out behind her like a fan, Michelle tapped on the window with a set of long, black fingernails.

“Invite me in,” she whispered against the window. “Go on, you know you want to.”

“Leave me alone!” Winnie cried out, dragging herself to her feet and pulling the curtains shut.

Even though Winnie could no longer see her, she knew the woman was still there. Winnie knew they were all out there by the sounds of their tapping against the window, and the noise of them scrambling overhead. On her hands and knees, Winnie crawled over to her bed, where she pulled herself up onto it. As if to make herself as small as possible, Winnie drew her knees up to her chest. She pulled the hood of the coat over her head, and shut her eyes. Rocking slowly back and forth, she tried to block out the sounds of those strangers with the pale faces knocking at the window, screaming to be invited in.