Gideon said, “as you can see, but even so I’m hardly young.”
She looked at her wrist. There was the tiniest crack or split in the leather strap. She pulled at it, glancing from it to Gideon.
“My days are numbered,” he went on. “And as far as I’m concerned, I’ve suffered enough.” He turned; she stopped pulling at the strap. He looked at her in silence for a moment. Had he seen? But after a moment, he blinked and went on. “You’ll find this hard to believe, I’m sure, but I bear you no malice, Dani. I’m no sadist.”
“Yeah, right.” She’d seen him in the dream, heard his titter. His jaw clenched for a moment, but then he seemed to relax.
“All that seems almost like a dream to me now,” he said. “It’s funny to look back and realise that was me. At first... at first, I just genuinely wanted to get back what was mine. Not just mine. The family’s. It was my chance, almost. My father had always considered me a disappointment. Partly because of this–” he tapped his game leg “–but also because of my character. I was somewhat, well, dissipated, was the polite term. Wine, women, song, games of chance. You know the sort of thing.”
She could hazard a guess.
Gideon’s eyes lost their focus; he wasn’t seeing her anymore. “Not the sort of thing an officer and a gentleman did. St. John, on the other hand – he was exactly what my father had in mind. But when my father died and we found out what he’d done – that part of it was absolutely true – my brother was utterly at a loss.”
Dani raised her right hand slowly and pulled on the strap. No sudden moves, just steady pressure.
“On the other hand, I wasn’t. I knew what it was like to get stabbed in the back. And I knew how to fight battles with guile and wit, rather than with my fists. So I set out to reverse what my father had done to my family.” He smiled; Dani tensed, held her breath, but Gideon kept on gazing into the past. “He would have been furious. At first I just planned to siphon off the money and run the hospital down over a few years. I hated this place. It was a monument to my father’s arrogance and vanity. Destroying it... destroying it was a kind of pleasure in itself.”
She kept pulling on the strap. She felt something give. Careful. Not too sudden. Get a hand free and you’ve a chance. But only one. Got to catch him by surprise. Time it just right.
“But the amount of money a place like Ash Fell eats over time has to be seen to be believed. And so I hit on the idea of the tours. And as I went on, thinking of newer and more ways of recouping the money he’d deprived his family of, I lost sight of everything else. And I did terrible things. I admit that.” Gideon blinked; his eyes refocused. Dani let her arm sink back. He looked down at her. “But I’ve paid for what I’ve done, Danielle. It’s been nearly forty years since Ash Fell closed down. Thirty-two of them in here, surrounded by ghosts, tormented night and day. And if I die here, I’ll be trapped in Ash Fell for eternity. And there’ll be no limit to their vengeance then. They can only do so much now, you see, without killing me. When I’m dead, my punishment doesn’t end; it just moves on to another level. And as far as I’m concerned, enough is enough. I’ve paid and paid for my sins.”
Gideon tugged something out from under his sweater; a medallion of some kind, fastened on a piece of string or cord. There was a symbol on it.
“I haven’t been idle,” he said. “My father had an interest in the occult. I retained a few of his books. I managed to find this talisman.” He tucked it back inside his sweater. “While I’m wearing this, I’m protected from the worst the dead can do to me. Not completely. I can still see them, and I still can’t leave. But it’s enough. Enough to do this.”
“What?” How much had she weakened the strap? Enough to break free with her next attempt? She’d only have one chance. She
She looked at her wrist. There was the tiniest crack or split in the leather strap. She pulled at it, glancing from it to Gideon.
“My days are numbered,” he went on. “And as far as I’m concerned, I’ve suffered enough.” He turned; she stopped pulling at the strap. He looked at her in silence for a moment. Had he seen? But after a moment, he blinked and went on. “You’ll find this hard to believe, I’m sure, but I bear you no malice, Dani. I’m no sadist.”
“Yeah, right.” She’d seen him in the dream, heard his titter. His jaw clenched for a moment, but then he seemed to relax.
“All that seems almost like a dream to me now,” he said. “It’s funny to look back and realise that was me. At first... at first, I just genuinely wanted to get back what was mine. Not just mine. The family’s. It was my chance, almost. My father had always considered me a disappointment. Partly because of this–” he tapped his game leg “–but also because of my character. I was somewhat, well, dissipated, was the polite term. Wine, women, song, games of chance. You know the sort of thing.”
She could hazard a guess.
Gideon’s eyes lost their focus; he wasn’t seeing her anymore. “Not the sort of thing an officer and a gentleman did. St. John, on the other hand – he was exactly what my father had in mind. But when my father died and we found out what he’d done – that part of it was absolutely true – my brother was utterly at a loss.”
Dani raised her right hand slowly and pulled on the strap. No sudden moves, just steady pressure.
“On the other hand, I wasn’t. I knew what it was like to get stabbed in the back. And I knew how to fight battles with guile and wit, rather than with my fists. So I set out to reverse what my father had done to my family.” He smiled; Dani tensed, held her breath, but Gideon kept on gazing into the past. “He would have been furious. At first I just planned to siphon off the money and run the hospital down over a few years. I hated this place. It was a monument to my father’s arrogance and vanity. Destroying it... destroying it was a kind of pleasure in itself.”
She kept pulling on the strap. She felt something give. Careful. Not too sudden. Get a hand free and you’ve a chance. But only one. Got to catch him by surprise. Time it just right.
“But the amount of money a place like Ash Fell eats over time has to be seen to be believed. And so I hit on the idea of the tours. And as I went on, thinking of newer and more ways of recouping the money he’d deprived his family of, I lost sight of everything else. And I did terrible things. I admit that.” Gideon blinked; his eyes refocused. Dani let her arm sink back. He looked down at her. “But I’ve paid for what I’ve done, Danielle. It’s been nearly forty years since Ash Fell closed down. Thirty-two of them in here, surrounded by ghosts, tormented night and day. And if I die here, I’ll be trapped in Ash Fell for eternity. And there’ll be no limit to their vengeance then. They can only do so much now, you see, without killing me. When I’m dead, my punishment doesn’t end; it just moves on to another level. And as far as I’m concerned, enough is enough. I’ve paid and paid for my sins.”
Gideon tugged something out from under his sweater; a medallion of some kind, fastened on a piece of string or cord. There was a symbol on it.
“I haven’t been idle,” he said. “My father had an interest in the occult. I retained a few of his books. I managed to find this talisman.” He tucked it back inside his sweater. “While I’m wearing this, I’m protected from the worst the dead can do to me. Not completely. I can still see them, and I still can’t leave. But it’s enough. Enough to do this.”
“What?” How much had she weakened the strap? Enough to break free with her next attempt? She’d only have one chance. She
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