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- Herausgeber: The O'Brien Press
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
A prickling sensation grew on the back of her neck, spreading up her scalp. It was the feeling of being watched. She whirled to face the doorway but it was empty. Raven O'Sullivan doesn't remember what happened in Hyacinth House five years ago. When her father died during a paranormal investigation there, everyone said it was an accident, but she's pretty certain it's her fault. Her brother, Archer, wasn't there that night. When asked to investigate the supposed ghost of Hyacinth House, he can't resist saying yes. Even if his sister wants nothing to do with it. Éabha McLoughlin has grown up seeing and hearing things no one else does. Now that she's starting college, she finally has the freedom to find out why. The daring Archer and his eclectic team seem like a good place to start. But everyone has their secrets, and they all lead back to Hyacinth House …
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Praise for What Walks These Halls
‘Clarkin has created a wonderfully diverse group of characters with rooted backstories that make them altogether relatable and each one of them unique. She has a real talent for building tension from one chapter to the next, making it next to impossible to put this book down.’ Irish Examiner
‘Deliciously creepy debut YA title … An eerie abandoned mansion, a malevolent spirit, family secrets, paranormal inves-tigators, secrets revealed … gorgeous, gothic & utterly gripping. If you liked Wednesday, you’ll love it!’ @TheBookaneer808
‘My goodness What Walks These Halls by @AmyClarkin is good!’ Sarah Webb, author of Be Inspired! Young Irish People Changing the World
‘There is a creeping dread in What Walks These Halls by @AmyClarkin that builds with each page, absolutely loving it, very sharp YA for your shelves.’ Lucas Maxwell, former UK SLA Librarian of the Year
‘What Walks These Halls will warm your heart while chilling you to the bone. A thoroughly gripping story, of ghosts, legacy and chosen family. I adored it.’ Deirdre Sullivan, author of Savage Her Reply
For my parents – for everything
Contents
Prologue
SHADOWS IN THE HYACINTH ESTATE often seemed to move on even the stillest of nights, so a casual observer could be forgiven for thinking the dark figure moving stealthily across the lawn was another part of the house’s long and eerie history. A closer inspection, if one were brave enough (or foolish enough, depending on who you asked) to do so, would have revealed a young man, twenty or so years of age, moving across the grounds towards the house. The observer could also be forgiven for thinking that he was talking to himself, until the light of the torch he clicked on revealed he was holding his phone in front of him and whispering enthusiastically to it.
‘Hyacinth House might sound sweet, but this is one of the most haunted places in Ireland – a place so terrifying it’s not even listed in the most-haunted guides, because it’s not somewhere they want people to go.’ He paused, clicking the screen to turn the phone’s camera to face the house looming over him as he made his way towards it. ‘It’s only forty minutes’ drive away from Dublin, near Kilcarrig in the Wicklow Mountains, but no one ever talks about it. All we know is it’s said to be cursed, haunted by a spirit known only as “The Lady”. Locals won’t pass by after dark, and five years ago someone even died investigating the legends around it. And I’m going to spend the night here, on my own, tonight. This is going to be my scariest video yet!’6
He stopped, the light of his screen just illuminating his frowning face as he lowered the camera. He raised it back up and clicked a button on the screen.
‘This is going to be the most intense investigation I’ve ever done – so make sure to like, subscribe and check out my channel tomorrow evening to find out how I get on … and if I make it out!’ He grinned, replaying the footage before taking his phone and tapping a few buttons. He raised it to his ear.
‘Hey, yeah, I’ve just uploaded the teaser now.’
He paced across the grass, then let out a delighted hoot. ‘That many? Already? That’s class! Yeah, I’m going in now. I’ll check in with you in two hours. I still think you’re being ridiculous about this …’ He cocked his head, listening to the voice on the other end of the line.
‘Yeah, OK, OK. This place really is creepy, in fairness. I’ll talk to you soon.’
He hung up and walked to the front of the house. The large oak doors were padlocked, and the windows, covered by thick boards nailed firmly into place, seemed to stare down disapprovingly at the trespasser. The argument could – and had – been made that perhaps the intention was not just to keep people out, but to keep someone, something, in. That the barricade was not a fortress, but a cage. If he had done as so many others before him had, arriving buoyed up by confidence and bravado only to feel the creeping dread that accompanied the house’s gaze, the looming malice that seemed to ooze from the bricks, and decide, actually, he suddenly had somewhere else he really needed to be that evening, the night might have ended a lot differently for him.7
But he did not.
Instead, he stepped up to a window on the left-hand side of the doorway that hadn’t quite been boarded up tightly enough. He jimmied a thick plank off and shoved his backpack in through the gap before heaving himself up onto the window ledge and squeezing through the opening, disappearing into the oily darkness that almost seemed to reach out of the house towards him.
Had the casual observer lingered until now, they would not have detected any movement through the gap he’d created in the window once the house had swallowed him.
There was only silence.
Chapter One
‘IRELAND IS A HAUNTED COUNTRY. It has seen its share of pain and upheaval, violence and trauma. These things seep into the landscape, the buildings, the people. They have a way of lingering long after the event. This creates an ideal environment for the paranormal.’
Raven’s heart lurched at the familiar voice on the radio, even though she’d known it was coming: the presenter had announced his guest before the ad break. She hadn’t turned it off. She never did.
‘The Famine, the Civil War, the Magdalene Laundries … Ireland has a history of pain leading right up to the present day.’
‘So all ghosts are miserable then?’
Raven could hear the discomfort in the presenter’s voice as he joked, trying to steer the conversation towards a safer subject. Her mother had strayed too close to the political and, even worse, the contemporary. She smirked, turning old Fiat Panda into the driveway of her apartment building. People got uncomfortable when it got too close to home. They wanted their ghosts to come from the horrors of the past so they could distance themselves from it all. Shake their heads at the atrocities of history, and feel relieved that those things would never happen now.
Gravel crunched under the tyres as she parked. On the radio the conversation had steered towards the practical matters of ghost hunting, or ‘paranormal surveyance’ as her parents had always 9called it. She swallowed, forcing the rising pain back down.
‘Your new book, Finding the Veil, talks about several cases that you haven’t discussed before,’ the interviewer was saying. ‘Was it difficult to delve back into the records from your days working with your team, which included your late husband?’ His ‘sympathetic’ tone was clearly feigned, setting Raven’s nerves screaming. It was clear where he was aiming his questions: her father, his death, the case … Her mother had never spoken publicly about it beyond the key phrases: ‘a shock, a loss,’ etc., etc. Every interviewer wanted to be the person to crack Emily Rose O’Sullivan’s composed facade.
Raven could have told him before the interview even started that he would not be the one.
‘I have many pleasant memories from those days. Our work meant a lot to Pádraig. It felt fitting to honour his memory in the book, and to write more in depth about the investigation methods we developed together.’ Her voice was cool but pleasant, ever the polite interviewee. ‘Each case includes a detailed analysis of the different scientific methods and equipment that we used in investigations, things like Electronic Voice Phenomenon sessions, and EMF readers to measure electromagnetic fields, which spirits alter when they manifest, infrared cameras, heat-sensing technology and other equipment we used to create a strict set of protocols that ruled out any possibility of trickery.’
‘And can you give listeners a hint of any particular cases they can look forward to reading about?’
Raven rolled her eyes. Not only did he not have the courage to come out and ask directly, he hadn’t even bothered to read the book before the interview. 10
‘Is there a particular case you’re thinking of?’ Emily’s tone was neutral but Raven could sense the challenge in it. She could imagine her mother perfectly: her laser gaze skewering the unfortunate interviewer, blue eyes narrowed, blond hair pulled back into a tight bun as she leaned forward, arms folded onto the desk between them. Raven reached for the key in the ignition, then hesitated. She would wait and hear how this played out.
‘Well, Hyacinth House is receiving plenty of attention since it was released back onto the market, especially after the incident with Jack Gallagher, the YouTuber who broke into the property last week,’ the interviewer said. ‘Everyone wants to know the story of what happened to you there – will this book be the time we finally get to find out?’
Raven’s breath hissed out. The media always brought it up, hungry for the gory details. There was a pause, just long enough to be uncomfortable on the radio.
‘No.’
Her mother did not embellish and Raven felt a rush of pride. She would be staring him in the eye, daring him to push further. There were few who could withstand the ferocity of her steely gaze.
‘Would you like to talk about one of the cases that will be featured?’ The presenter’s voice was forcibly jovial. Emily had rattled him. Raven loved her for it.
‘Of course. One of my personal favourites is the case of a small hotel in west Cork …’ Emily’s voice was smooth, the consummate professional. Raven turned the key in the ignition, shutting off the radio, and sat in the echoing silence. It always hurt to hear her mother’s voice. She took a deep breath, picked her bag up from the 11passenger seat and swung herself out of the car. Now was not the time to be lost in past hurts.
Red and gold from the setting sun streaked the sky, casting everything in a hazy glow as Raven trudged up the steps to the one-bedroom apartment she rented on the top floor. Her mother’s voice rang in her head as the key turned in the lock with a click. She shouldered the door open before collapsing on her small two-seater couch. Part of her wanted to message Emily, to congratulate her on shutting down the interviewer’s prying.
Of course, she’s always been great at closing conversations down, hasn’t she? a bitter voice remarked in her head.
So have you, another voice countered.
She threw her phone onto the other end of the couch, curling her legs up underneath her, savouring the joy of a rare evening off work. The apartment was small, cramped even, but she didn’t have a lot of things and, at five foot two, didn’t need a lot of space. One bedroom, a narrow bathroom and a tiny sitting room-cum-kitchen were all she had and all she needed. Besides, even renting from an old family friend who charged her a considerably lower rent than everyone else in the area, this was all she could afford.
A few obligatory photos lined the windowsill: a couple of her fellow staff members at Origin, the artfully run-down bar where she worked serving pints of craft beer and a frighteningly large variety of whiskeys to hipsters in their twenties and early thirties. Behind them stood a photo of her and her brother, arms around each other on the beach in Tramore. She was fifteen, silvery-blond hair in a plait and a big grin on her face. Beside her stood 12Archer, eighteen months younger and already four inches taller than her, freckles dappling his sun-kissed skin. It had been a rare hot summer in Ireland that year. The summer everything changed. Guilt tightened her throat. When had she last checked in with Archer? Besides the perfunctory likes or comments on Instagram under big life updates, like him celebrating finishing his Leaving Cert or showcasing how he’d redecorated his room in their family home – innocuous interactions that she could pretend constituted contact but didn’t actually investigate how he was.
She sat watching the shadows grow across the walls until her stomach rumbled. Turning the oven on to preheat, she settled on her couch and reached for the TV remote. Her phone rang shrilly, making her jump and almost send a half-drunk cup of coffee from earlier that day flying off the coffee table. Swearing, she scrambled to pick up the phone.
It was Emily.
‘Mum? Is everything OK?’
They spoke on birthdays, Christmas, important anniversaries – and emergencies. Since it wasn’t any of the first three, she jumped to the panicked conclusion that it was the last.
‘Can’t a mother check in with her daughter without there being an emergency?’ Emily’s voice was crisp.
Raven sighed, stretching one arm overhead as she leaned back in her chair. ‘A mother can. My mother generally doesn’t.’
Emily’s hmph of disapproval echoed down the phone line. Silence.
‘I heard you on the radio,’ Raven said, as a peace offering.
‘Oh, you listened?’ Emily’s surprise was evident. 13
It stung. Raven always listened. She just never told her mother she did.
‘You handled him well.’
‘Odious man.’
Raven could picture Emily rolling her eyes.
‘Fishing for the grim details. Are ghostly tragedies not interesting enough without bringing up personal ones?’
Raven stayed silent. Emily did not require an answer.
‘How is the bar work going?’ she continued.
Raven filled her in on the latest about Origin: how they’d run out of a specific craft beer everyone was currently obsessed with, meaning that she’d had to placate cranky hipsters all week, all the while wondering when her mother would address the real reason for phoning. Emily did a good job of feigning interest until Raven eventually said, ‘Why did you really call, Mum?’
‘I need your help.’
‘Did I mishear that?’ Raven winced even as the words left her mouth.
‘No. Believe it or not, I do know how to ask for help when I need it,’ Emily’s clipped voice fired back. She paused. ‘It’s your brother.’
‘Is he OK?’
‘He’s starting a business. Or, to be more accurate, restarting a business. The family business.’
Raven swore. For once her mother didn’t admonish her, something she still did constantly despite the fact that Raven was nineteen, almost twenty, and hadn’t lived with her for almost two years.
‘I agree,’ Emily said. 14
‘I’m surprised,’ Raven said. ‘I mean, you have no problem writing books and giving talks about it.’ She couldn’t stop the bitterness seeping into her voice.
‘I don’t actively investigate any more, you know that.’ She paused again. ‘Raven … I’m worried about him. He refused to even consider college. He’s determined to restart PSI. I can’t … I can’t take a repeat of five years ago.’
‘Neither can I,’ Raven said quietly. She could almost feel Emily’s worry seeping down the phone. It made her heart hurt. It was easy to blame her mother for closing up after Pádraig’s death. For joining Raven in her silence, for letting grief come between them. She was the parent, after all. But any time her mother had reached out, Raven had pushed her away. Raven was too afraid of seeing what she suspected: that at least part of Emily blamed her for what happened five years ago.
‘I want you to keep an eye on him,’ Emily said, when the silence dragged on. ‘If you can’t convince him to end this, maybe you can stop him from doing anything dangerous.’
‘What can I do, though? You know how stubborn he is.’
‘He’s more likely to listen to you than to me,’ Emily said. ‘He’s always listened to you. You’ve always been able to get through to him when no one else can.’ She paused, guilt creeping into her voice. ‘I’m going to be out of the country for three months.’
The book tour, followed by an extended visit to her sister in California. Of course.
‘I would feel better knowing that you were keeping an eye on him. If you’re involved, you could temper some of his more … impetuous traits.’ 15
Emily was worried. Though if she were truly worried, wouldn’t she stay? Even if Archer wouldn’t listen to her. Part of Raven wanted to refuse, to remind her mother that they had both created the distance between them, that she couldn’t just call her out of the blue and start to make demands. But this was Archer. The only real thread that held their family together.
‘I’ll go see him tomorrow,’ she sighed, as a heavy weight settled in the pit of her stomach.
Chapter Two
ARCHER O’SULLIVAN WAS having an existential crisis.
That was the problem with ghost hunts. Too much time to think. Though PSI – Paranormal Surveyance Ireland – preferred to call them ‘paranormal surveys’ rather than ‘ghost hunts’. Fionn still complained about that, arguing that it sounded like they were going up to spirits with a clipboard and pen, asking their preferences and opinions about the afterlife.
But that was what his parents had called it when they ran PSI, and since Archer was relaunching the family business, he wanted to stay true to that. Fionn had stopped complaining once he’d reminded him. You couldn’t really argue with ‘I’m honouring my dead dad’s legacy.’
Not that it currently felt like he was honouring it, really. This was only their third job so far and, once again, it looked like there was going to be a completely mundane reason behind the fears of paranormal activity. He knew from growing up with his parents that this was often what happened. In fact, those cases added weight to their evidence when they did find something paranormal – it was much easier to be credible when you didn’t announce ghosts at every single investigation. His parents had always managed to find good cases amongst the mundane, word of them spreading across the country and abroad too. PSI had been the go-to company for anything paranormal. 17
And here he was, perched on the branch of a sycamore tree just after dusk in late September to make sure the camera Fionn had placed there earlier that evening didn’t fall out. And the only remotely spooky thing that had happened was the crow that flew far too close to his head for his liking. He had almost fallen out of the tree, taking the camera with him, but thankfully he’d managed not to. Fionn had had to leave after setting up the equipment, so if anything happened to it, Archer wasn’t sure he’d be able to put it back again as well as Fionn had. Not to mention that Fionn wouldn’t be happy if anything happened to the state-of-the-art camera he’d saved up months for, using his employee discount at the camera shop he worked in to afford it.
Focus, Archer.
Now was not the time to get distracted, even if his instincts were shouting that this was a waste of time. He couldn’t let his attention get diverted from the survey, even if he was bored and uncomfortable. The air was warmer than it normally was at this time of year, but there was a branch digging into his back where he leaned against the tree trunk, and his legs were starting to cramp.
He missed the old days. At eighteen, was he allowed to use the phrase ‘old days’? That felt reserved for people in their forties reminiscing about college. But it felt accurate. Him and Raven, always sneaking out of whatever room they were supposed to be staying in to go and investigate. Raven pretending she was a responsible older sister while immediately agreeing to whatever mischief he suggested. Then, once their parents let them start helping out, the two of them together waiting in the darkness, 18hoping to capture some evidence that would make their parents proud. Learning how to do Electronic Voice Phenomenon, or EVP, sessions, where they recorded themselves speaking out loud and asking questions during investigations in the hope of capturing a response from a spirit as evidence, learning the difference between thermal imagery and EMF readings and which was more beneficial and when, how to structure an investigation and shadowing their parents as they talked to clients. Always, no matter what, the two of them, together.
That was before, though.
Before Dad died. Before Raven withdrew. Before she closed up, cut him out of her life completely.
Now it was just him alone in the darkness.
‘Arch?’
Not alone, he reminded himself.
‘Still up here,’ he called back. A figure came into view from the porch at the back of the B&B. Davis, the other member of his small team, strode down the steps and to the base of the tree. Archer shone his torch down at him.
‘Nothing on the infrared or EMF meter inside,’ Davis said, tilting his head and shielding his eyes.
‘Nothing but a mildly aggressive crow out here,’ Archer sighed. ‘I think this is going to be another dud.’
‘We still need an explanation,’ Davis said, brow furrowing. He paced under the tree as he thought, sinking into his science space. Davis took the meticulous protocol he learned from his lab work in UCD, where he was in his final year of a science degree, into PSI. It could be incredibly helpful or extremely frustrating, depending 19on what they were trying to achieve. But that was what Davis did: he poured cool, rational logic over everything, the foil to Archer’s emotional instincts.
‘We’re never going to find an actual case,’ Archer said, rubbing an eyebrow in frustration. No wonder his mum had pushed so hard for him to go to college after the Leaving Cert instead of setting up PSI straight away. She knew he couldn’t do it: not without her, not without his dad. And especially not without Raven.
Davis’s response was level but reassuring. ‘We will. It just takes time. You know that.’
Archer wanted to let it all spill out: how desperately he wanted this, how much he missed his family, how, deep down, he hoped Raven would come back, join the team, be herself again. How he was so afraid of failing, of spoiling everything.
Instead, he grinned, making his voice light. ‘You’re right. Just a slight moment of crisis there. Let’s go back over the facts.’
Davis enthusiastically began reeling off what they’d gleaned from the client interviews.
‘They hear shrieks at night, rattling on the windows, and scratching in the walls, like something’s trying to get in. Their dog starts barking frantically to get out but when they open the door, he stares out into the darkness, hackles up, completely frozen.’
‘It sounds like there should be a supernatural explanation, but my gut is telling me there isn’t,’ Archer said.
‘And the scientific equipment,’ Davis added drily.
There was a long scream from the bottom of the garden.
Archer swore loudly, nearly falling out of the tree again and barely managing to grip the branch in time. Davis spun around, his 20torch spreading a wide arc of light over a garden filled with thick hedges and bushes.
‘I don’t see anything,’ he said, his voice calm, the hunch of his shoulders betraying his tension.
‘The camera was pointing in that direction, the infrared too,’ Archer said, starting to climb down from the tree. ‘Fionn set it up perfectly. Hopefully one of them will have caught something.’
As Archer reached the ground there was another protracted scream, this time to the left of the garden. Another emerged from the original spot, almost in answer.
Wait.
He knew that sound.
He looked at Davis in exasperation.
‘Foxes,’ they said in unison. It wasn’t mating season, which was why they hadn’t thought of it before, but male foxes often screamed at each other to mark territory. A quick review of the infrared footage showed the figure of a fox, in the bushes. Even the outline on the screen showed the fierce, defensive way it was standing.
‘The dog must be scared of it,’ Davis said, shaking his head with a smile.
A slight rustle of movement caught their attention and the meanest fox Archer had ever seen slunk out of the bushes. It stopped for a moment, glaring at them, a slight snarl exposing its teeth, before it dipped back into the undergrowth.
‘I don’t blame him,’ Archer said.
One aspect solved. It took them just a little longer to figure out the rest. A small number of mouse droppings by a crack in 21one of the skirting boards in the house explained the scratching in the walls, while a rotten wooden frame on the outside of the downstairs window meant that even the slightest breeze made the window shake.
Their clients were grateful, if embarrassed, when they explained. Archer did his best to reassure them, leaving them laughing and promising him a glowing testimonial for PSI’s website. Archer felt a rush of joy at their delight. This was just as important as finding actual supernatural encounters, he reminded himself: the people. The living people. He was proud of his small team and the skills they each brought: he was the people person, Fionn the tech whiz, and Davis brought his keen, analytical mind to everything. They’d worked well together this evening. They were growing. That should be enough for him.
But it wasn’t.
He wanted a proper case. And he had no idea how to find one. In an ideal world, he mused, a wry half-smile crossing his face, the team would have a human ghost detector too.
Chapter Three
ÉABHA McLOUGHLIN STIFLED a yawn as she walked through the gates of Kilmainham Gaol. She cast an anxious glance at her mother, hoping she hadn’t noticed. It wouldn’t matter to her mother that it was early and that Éabha had been up late the night before reading to get a head start – at her father’s pointed suggestion – on some of her course work: yawning in public was rude, in Brigid McLoughlin’s opinion. And she did not tolerate anything but perfectly composed politeness at all times. They put on their face masks, though hardly anyone bothered these days, and dutifully sanitised their hands at the station by the door before Éabha showed the guide the tickets she had saved to her phone.
They lingered in the lobby, waiting for their tour to start, a few other people trickling in to join them. Moving to the front of the group to make sure she could hear the guide clearly, Éabha turned up the volume on her hearing aids on the app on her phone, a tight ball of nerves forming in her stomach. She’d be starting first year of Arts in UCD next week and she’d read in the course outline that she’d need to visit the gaol as part of one of her history modules. Her mother had asked to join her, a request that was more of a demand. ‘I’d like to see the kind of things we’ll be paying for you to study,’ she’d said pointedly. Éabha couldn’t say no then. Now, even as she tried to pay attention to the guide’s opening spiel, all she 23could think was, Please don’t let it happen today. Not while she’s here.
The group moved towards what the guide referred to as the West Wing, a long corridor built from thick stone. It was freezing, the walls dark and gloomy while electric lights burned overhead. Their light was harsh and stung her eyes, reflecting off the steel doors to the cells that lined the corridor.
‘Built in 1796 …’ the guide was saying, his voice echoing around the corridor. A small man with close-cropped brown hair and a big smile, his voice boomed in the confined space of the gaol. As she stood listening, Éabha felt a creeping sensation trickling across her neck and down her spine. She closed her eyes for a moment, silently entreating her brain not to let it happen.
Not now not now not now.
It was foolish of her to come. Especially with her mother. But she’d had to, and part of her had hoped that it wouldn’t happen. That maybe it was gone.
She’d wished that for years now. It hadn’t ever disappeared, but she couldn’t help hoping, all the same. She tried to focus on the guide’s voice, shutting out the escalating panic sweeping through her.
‘Victims of the famine who were caught stealing food were imprisoned here: men, women and children of all ages …’
Suddenly, Éabha was ravenous, despite the big bowl of porridge she’d eaten earlier. It was an overwhelming, agonising hunger that felt like her stomach was turning itself inside out. An aching despair crept over her, and all she wanted to do was weep. Her legs felt weak and for a moment she thought she’d pass out.
These weren’t her feelings. She knew it instinctively, a sense she 24had never understood but that had been with her since birth. She was experiencing them, but they weren’t coming from within her. They were invading her.
Swallowing hard, she trailed after the group when they stepped into one of the cells. Éabha hovered by the door, barely stepping over the threshold. She wanted to turn, to sprint down the corridor and away from the emotions – despair, isolation, fear and, above all, that desperate, painful hunger – that made her heart feel like it was being crushed in an iron fist. Instead she focused her gaze on the rough and uneven ground, on the slabs of stone lined by deep cracks, silently counting in her mind as she breathed slowly in, then out, as though focusing on her breath and her vision would build an invisible shield from whatever she was feeling right now. The shield was punctured by a thought she knew was all her own. One she had had countless times over the years.
I’m going mad, amn’t I?
Though if that was the case, she had lost her mind a long time ago.
The wave of emotion started to ebb and her breathing came more easily as she cast an anxious glance to where her mother stood at the front of the group. She hadn’t noticed anything. Éabha took a step over the threshold into the room.
Something tugged on her coat. She started, her bag hitting against the metal door with a low clang as she moved. A few of the people nearest to her cast glances at her and she smiled sheepishly at them before remembering she was wearing a face mask and shrugging apologetically instead. Her heart was pounding. She must have imagined it this time. 25
Please let her have imagined it.
Then, slowly, she felt a pressure on her right hand, as though someone was holding it. With the sensation came an overwhelming sense of fear, a craving for reassurance. It was a child. She couldn’t explain it, couldn’t understand it, but she knew. It was a child seeking comfort, and they were holding her hand, and there was no one beside her. The cell – the whole block, really – was freezing, but a sweat broke out on her forehead. She wanted to tear her hand away. She wanted to laugh and dismiss it as a flight of fancy, or her mind playing tricks. But more than anything, she could feel the childlike longing for security consuming her. She couldn’t bring herself to pull away. Squeezing her hand tentatively, she tried to convey some semblance of reassurance, even though she thought she would either pass out or throw up. The small invisible hand in hers faded.
‘AY-va.’ From the way her mother sighed her name, it wasn’t the first time she’d said it. She turned to face her mum, who had come to stand beside her and was scrutinising her as the rest of the tour group filed out. ‘You look very pale.’
‘I’m grand,’ she lied. ‘It’s probably just the terrible lighting.’
Her mother’s eyes narrowed slightly at her words and Éabha looked innocently at her over the top of her mask. She had learned long ago to hide these ‘episodes’, as her parents called them.
‘Come on, Mum. We’ll fall behind,’ she said, shaking her frozen limbs into motion as they followed the guide down the corridor.
The next part of the tour went by peacefully enough. Éabha kept sensing waves of emotion, though these were faint ones lapping 26at her edges, not the giant ones that threatened to drown her completely. She distracted herself by examining it logically. This degree of intensity was unusual: normally she needed to touch an object or surface for one of her episodes to be triggered. This was a whole new level. Her brain kept working through it: this was a place so filled with history that it seemed to have leached from the stones into the air itself. Maybe that played a part? Or, the rational part of her piped up, this is all in your head. She’d always had an active imagination, after all. That’s what her parents said. ‘Éabha loves making up stories. She’s so creative. The things she comes up with as well!’ This last sentence had often been accompanied by a disapproving set of the lips. There were strict rules about what was acceptable in her home.
She did the breathing exercises the child psychiatrist had taught her, trying to ignore the sensations flooding through her. Everything was fine until they reached the Stonebreakers’ Yard. The moment she stepped in, exhaustion overwhelmed her. Her muscles ached and she sagged under an invisible weight. Her hands throbbed and she looked down, almost expecting to see blisters forming across the soft pads at the base of her fingers. They looked the same as always – a silver ring on her right-hand ring finger, pale skin, oval nails with baby-pink shellac neatly applied.
‘The yard was used for hard labour …’ the guide was saying from the centre of the square. Éabha’s arm muscles were burning, shoulders aching as she tried to focus on the guide’s words. ‘Often it was breaking rocks, repetitive hard labour that took a great physical toll on the prisoners here.’ He led the group towards the monument at the back of the yard. ‘And here is where the leaders 27of the 1916 Rising were executed.’ He began to list their names.
Pain shot through Éabha’s chest and she dropped to the ground. The people beside her whirled around, her mother just managing to catch her before she hit the stones, lowering her gently down. Éabha clutched at her chest, her fingers finding the navy scarf looped around her neck.
‘Éabha!’ Her mother’s shrill voice cut through the guide’s speech.
The pain receded as suddenly as it had arrived and Éabha was able to open her eyes. Her mother was leaning over her, so close she felt smothered. Éabha’s chest rose and fell in deep, frantic gulps as she struggled to speak.
‘I’m OK,’ she croaked.
She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks as the tour guide hovered beside her mother, the rest of the tour group standing in a loose, anxious circle around her.
‘I must have fainted. I think I’m just a little light-headed.’ She could feel the concern, the confusion, radiating from them.
That was new.
The guide looked worried. ‘We can call you an ambulance?’
‘No!’ Éabha exclaimed. She tried to smile, struggling into an upright position. ‘I mean, thank you, but honestly I think it was just … low blood sugar.’
Her mother smiled approvingly at Éabha and pulled her to her feet, wrapping an arm around her waist. ‘We’ll go and find somewhere to sit down, and get you some food too,’ she said.
Éabha nodded. She thanked the guide again before leaving with her mother, still mortified that she had created such a fuss. Her mother hated a scene. Hopefully she wouldn’t be too angry 28with her. As they walked out of the gaol, her mother gripping her arm with an almost painfully tight grasp to support her, Éabha’s mind raced. What had happened? She had never felt pain like that before.
If Éabha didn’t know better, she would say it felt like she’d been shot.
Chapter Four
ÉABHA COULDN’T UNWIND THAT NIGHT. It had been easy to brush off the experiences in the gaol when she was with her mother, focusing on keeping up the illusion of normality. It was harder when she was alone in her room. Her parents were out having dinner with friends and the silent house was filled with her own thoughts. She put on an old, comforting episode of Gossip Girl in a bid to distract herself but gave up when, after about fifteen minutes, she realised she had lost the thread of what she was watching. Sighing, she pulled her computer towards her instead, switching into private browsing mode. It was time for her semi-regular Google search, the one she did after an episode in the hope that this time she’d find something to make it go away. Wasn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?
Though the whole ‘seeing and feeling things that aren’t there’ thing probably fell pretty firmly into that category too.
The usual results popped up, as always, and she started to scroll, skimming the page in the hope of finally spotting the thing that would make all of this OK.
There were a surprising number of paranormal investigators in Ireland. She sometimes fantasised about reaching out to them, of them explaining to her what was happening. How to control it. Reassuring her that these episodes were, in fact, what so many websites claimed they were: gifts. 30
‘It’s not real, Éabha.’ She could hear her father’s voice in her head. ‘Stop making up stories.’ The face of the child psychiatrist swam up from the depths of her memory, the one her parents had sent her to when she insisted one time too many that what she felt was real. Another memory surfaced, making her cringe. Her mother’s face, contorted not in the disbelief and concern of her father, but in disgust. Even now, remembering how her mother had snapped at her, mouth compressed in a thin line, eyes flashing with fury, made her recoil. Seven-year-old Éabha had apologised, agreeing it might have been a dream, and her mother had softened, wrapping her arms around her and kissing her on the forehead.
‘Good girl, Éabha,’ she’d said. ‘It’s wrong to lie, but apologising is the first step to forgiveness. Make sure to tell Father Benedict about this in confession.’
Éabha had done so, dutifully saying her ten Hail Marys as penance, her parents watching approvingly as she knelt on the worn leather pew, head bent.
She stopped trying to tell them after that. She learned how to – for the most part – hide her ‘episodes’, sat straight and attentive in church, got over 500 points in the Leaving, would be starting at UCD next week. She was the perfect daughter with her immaculately styled hair and perfectly polished nails, her carefully applied make-up that was never ‘too much’, the fashionable but modest clothes her mother bought her when they shopped. She was always quiet and amiable and helpful and –
It made her want to scream.
Tears slid down her cheeks, rising uncontrollably from the deep well of hollowness inside her. Brushing the tears from her eyes, she 31blinked to focus on the screen in front of her. There was a result she hadn’t seen before. She’d done this search so many times that she knew them all by heart. This was a new website, with links to social media pages, for an organisation called Paranormal Surveyance Ireland, or PSI.
It was an old family business with over twenty years’ experience in ‘paranormal surveyance’, the ‘About Us’ page explained. Previously run by Emily and Pádraig O’Sullivan, Emily had stepped back to write her bestselling books about her career. Pádraig had passed away in 2017. Their son, Archer, was relaunching the business, which was based about forty minutes outside Dublin in Kilcarrig. She read through the website, perusing all the information available. They applied strict scientific practices and protocols to investigate the paranormal and defined themselves as an evidence-based organisation. A photo of Archer smiled out at her from the ‘Meet the Team’ page. He was around her age with kind eyes. Looking at him, she felt a click in her mind like when you remember the answer to something you’d been struggling to recall. Before she could talk herself out of it, she filled in the ‘Contact Us’ form, with just her first name, her email address and a quick message. She typed and retyped it several times.
‘Hi my name is Éabha. I see and feel things other people don’t, and if I don’t get answers about whether or not I’ve lost my mind I might have a complete breakdown. Please help?’
She laughed, a bitter sound, as she re-read the message, then furiously backspaced.
‘Hi, you’re going to think I’m mad, to be honest most of the time I 32think I am, but a little part of me thinks that things I see and feel are real, things other people don’t, so if you could confirm if they are or not, that would be fab.’
She backspaced again, closing her eyes and thinking. If she wanted to convince them to help her, she would need to act like all this didn’t terrify her. That she didn’t doubt herself as much as they probably would. She had to make it worth their while.
‘Hi, my name is Éabha. I’m eighteen, and I’ve had some abilities since childhood that allow me to sense the emotions and experiences of people from old buildings they once inhabited or objects they touched. I think I could be of interest – or even helpful – to your team. I would love to meet with you to discuss this, if you’re interested. Best wishes, Éabha.’
She pressed send before she could convince herself not to. For a moment she felt relieved. She’d taken control for once. Then a sinking dread swept over her. What had she done?
She had told someone.
Taking deep breaths, she shut down her laptop and shoved it away from her. She’d only given her first name and the email address she used for newsletters and marketing emails. They’d probably just ignore her message anyway, dismissing her as some prankster. It would be fine.
When she woke up the next morning there was a response waiting in her inbox.
Chapter Five
RAVEN WALKED UP THE FAMILIAR footpath to her childhood home, past the willow tree that filled the front garden, and stopped. She looked up at the two-storey house, the walls still painted the cheerful buttery yellow of her youth, then to the sky-blue front door, and hesitated. Should she just let herself in? Or ring the doorbell? Ringing the doorbell felt too formal. This was her house too, after all, even if she didn’t live here any more. Her mum had told her Archer was using the front room as a base for PSI until they got enough business to afford a proper office, so she’d driven out to the house for the first time since last Christmas. She’d stayed only for Christmas Day, telling them she’d been assigned the St Stephen’s Day shift in Origin. She’d left out the part where she’d requested it. At one point, she’d contemplated telling them she’d tested positive for Covid-19 so she had an excuse to avoid the celebrations altogether, but that had felt like a step too far.
Taking a deep breath, Raven took out her keys, her hand hovering just in front of the lock. She hadn’t told Archer she was coming. She told herself it was to surprise him, but really it was to give herself the option of backing out at the very last minute. Tiredness dulled her brain and made her limbs heavy. What little sleep she’d gotten the night before had been perforated with dreams that felt like memories trying to push their way to the surface. Even thinking about them now was like the sensation of 34someone calling you from so far away you’re unsure whether or not you imagined it.
She shook her head to try and clear the mental fog, tendrils of hair escaping from under her grey beanie. It was mild for late September. The autumn sun shone in the bright blue sky overhead, its warmth tempered slightly by a cool breeze, but her oversized leather jacket didn’t feel warm enough. She wore it when she needed strength and today felt like an occasion when it would be called for.
It wasn’t seeing Archer she dreaded. It was the questions he was sure to ask.
She opened the front door and stepped inside, closing it softly behind her and turning to a door immediately on the left-hand side. Low voices murmured on the other side. Steeling herself, she rolled her shoulders back and inhaled deeply before knocking in the rat-a-tat pattern they’d used since childhood. She opened the door without waiting for a response. The three boys inside stopped talking immediately, spinning around in their chairs to look at her, their faces showing varying degrees of shock.
‘Hello, Little Brother,’ she said, fixing her eyes on the person with the strongest expression of surprise on his face.
‘Raven!’ Archer exclaimed, leaping out of his seat and bounding over to wrap her in a hug. He lifted her off her feet, due to his enthusiasm and the fact that, at five foot ten, he stood a good eight inches taller than her. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him back tightly. Guilt pricked at her and she stepped back from the hug, greeting the other two: Fionn, surrounded by his usual jumble of cameras and cables, his serious blue eyes, framed by 35dark-rimmed glasses, darting anxiously to Archer; Davis, tall and lean, lounging back with his long legs propped on the desk in front of him, twirling a pen in his hand. His tightly coiled black hair was tied into a bun at the nape of his neck, a sign that he was in the middle of discussing one of his academic theories.
‘Well look, it’s our first actual ghost,’ he said with a grin before getting up to give her a hug. Raven huffed as he continued. ‘To what do we owe this honour?’
‘I was in the area. Thought I’d pop in,’ she said, shrugging.
Davis raised an eyebrow.
‘I brought biscuits,’ she said, holding up a purple packet. ‘And I wanted to have a word with my baby brother.’
‘I’m only eighteen months younger than you,’ Archer said, rolling his eyes as he took the biscuits and crossed over to sit behind a desk. The armchairs had been pushed to the edges of the room to make way for the three desks clustered in the centre. Hanging in between the family photos that still lined the walls were corkboards filled with newspaper articles, lists and other things in each of the boys’ handwriting that she couldn’t quite make out from a distance.
‘Precisely,’ she paused, then looked at him seriously. ‘Mum called me.’
Davis stepped away and sat back down at his desk.
‘Oh wow, she’s really serious about this, isn’t she?’ Archer said, stretching.
‘I can see it’s really cutting you up inside.’
‘She spent our childhood training us to do this. She can’t act surprised when one of us actually wants to continue it.’
‘You’ve met our mother, right?’ 36
Archer laughed, running his hand through his blond hair. It was longer than she remembered, another reminder of how much time had passed since the last time she had seen him.
‘Can we talk? Please?’ Raven said, casting a look at Fionn and Davis. Fionn was scrutinising a camera manual on the desk in front of him, despite the fact that it was clearly upside down, while Davis was cheerfully – and blatantly – watching the exchange. She raised an eyebrow at him and he winked back.
‘Let’s go to the cafe,’ Archer said, picking up the leather jacket hanging on the back of his chair. ‘I have a shift in an hour but we can grab some coffee and pie first.’
Forest Fair, the cafe where Archer had worked part-time since transition year, was renowned for its apple pies and crumbles. The owner, Angela, guarded the spice mix recipe like precious treasure, and for good reason. Raven’s mouth watered just thinking about it.
‘See you later, guys,’ she said, smiling at Davis and Fionn. Fionn lifted a hand in farewell, still determinedly engrossed in his upside-down manual.
‘See you soon, Raven,’ Davis said. He glanced at Archer, who was stuffing his phone and keys into his pockets, before giving her a stern look.
She could practically hear his words in her head: ‘Go easy on him.’ Davis’s parents had been part of the original PSI team and the three of them had basically grown up together. Davis was essentially the third O’Sullivan sibling, a big brother to them both. They were the ones who’d supported Archer when he first came out as bi, who helped him through his first broken heart, who, whenever he got into trouble, were always right there beside him. Raven nodded, 37then followed Archer out of the office and down the stairs. The cafe was just a short walk away – everything was in this town, really. If she was going to have to talk about all the things she was dreading, at least she could do it while eating some pie.
The smell of crumble hit her the moment they stepped through the door, followed by the sight of the homemade cakes lined up in the glass display by the counter. Mismatched tables were scattered in welcoming chaos around the room, some surrounded by clusters of wooden chairs, others with deep, worn but clean and well-loved armchairs beside them. While Archer ducked behind the counter, Raven settled at a two-person table in the corner of the cafe, where they could speak openly without worrying about anyone around them overhearing. Years of being the ‘ghost girl’ had gotten Raven used to being stared at and gossiped about by curious people, but that didn’t mean she needed to make it any easier for them.
Archer set two enormous slabs of apple pie on the table, followed by two coffees. Hers was black, as always, while he had still taken the time to do an ornate latte art of a feather on his. That was Archer: he loved to bend the rules but he never cut corners.
Raven forked a big bite of pie into her mouth, closing her eyes in delight. It was the perfect temperature, the apples caramelised, the spices dancing over her tongue.
‘Oh, I’ve missed this,’ she sighed.
‘You know, if you visited more, you could have pie whenever you wanted,’ Archer said lightly.
She could feel the hurt under the words. ‘I know. I’m sorry, Arch. I’ve been pretty terrible recently, haven’t I?’ 38
‘Recently?’ Archer asked. ‘Raven, you’ve always been terrible.’
She glared over another mouthful of pie and he laughed, holding up his hands.
‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist.’
‘I’ll let it go, but just this once.’
A red-hot stab of guilt seared her stomach even as she kept her tone light. He was joking, but she’d been an awful sister to him for five years. They both knew it. Archer was just too kind to say it.
‘Fair. So, what did Mother Dearest say to get you galloping all the way down from the Big Smoke?’ Archer asked, taking a long sip of his coffee.
‘That you’re restarting PSI,’ Raven said. She dragged her fork through the remains of the pie in front of her. ‘She’s worried. As am I.’
‘Yes, so worried she’s taking off on a two-month book tour and extended holiday.’
‘You know Mum. She delegates the emotional labour. I mean, usually it’s to you, but seeing as this time you’re the problem child, I guess she had no other choice. I assume she already tried Davis?’
Archer laughed. ‘Yes. It went about as well as trying to stop Davis from doing something he has his mind set on usually goes.’
‘I wish I’d seen that.’
‘It was entertaining, to say the least.’
There was a pause, just long enough to become awkward. They both knew where this conversation was going.
‘Does this have anything to do with Hyacinth House?’ she asked softly. Archer looked down at the plate in front of him.
‘Yes and no. I’d be interested in investigating it if I had the 39opportunity, but that’s not the reason I’ve set PSI back up.’
‘Why would you want to go back there?’
‘Because no one else in this family will answer my questions, so maybe I’ll find what I need to know there.’
‘Maybe we won’t answer them because we don’t know what the answers are, Arch.’
‘I know there’s more than you’ve told me. And deep down, you know it too.’
He looked up, brown eyes tinged with ice, and she recoiled. It took a lot to make Archer angry – he was the peacekeeper, the middleman, always defusing the tension between Raven and her mother.
‘I don’t remember. You know that, Arch.’
‘You don’t want to, either.’
‘That’s not fair!’
‘Neither is leaving me in the dark, Raven. I … I should have been there. Not off in Irish college doing water sports and dancing in bloody céilís. Can you blame me for wanting answers?’ The anger had faded and now he just looked sad.
‘No. But is it worth it? Archer, Dad died in that house. And you want to go back there?’
‘It’s better than being afraid of shadows for the rest of my life.’ There was a silence, then he sighed before picking up his fork again and taking a mouthful of pie. ‘This entire conversation is probably pointless anyway. I’d have to be invited. I just wanted to get back to doing what we used to love. Don’t you miss it, Raven? Investigating?’
She did. It surprised her, but she did. She’d loved the long nights 40spent in the darkness, voice recorder in hand, Archer beside her with a camera. The approving smile her father would give when they found an EVP in analysis, the slight nod her mother gave when they made a good scientific point. But the thought of going into that house again …
‘I miss it. But not enough to go back there.’
‘Aside from Hyacinth, though. You’d be such an asset to the team. Four means we can split into teams of two, cover more ground.’
‘I don’t know …’
‘Look, will you at least think about it?’ He paused, then looked beseechingly at her. ‘I could really use your help, Raven. Please.’
Suddenly the broad-shouldered eighteen-year-old sitting opposite her was just her kid brother, reaching out his hand to her in a hotel room, asking her to go exploring with him because he didn’t want to go alone.
The brother she had abandoned the moment she’d finished school and found a job. She’d been desperate to get away from the family home, from the conversations she avoided and the things left unsaid. Even when they still lived together, after Pádraig died, she’d done everything she could to put distance between them – hiding in her room, spending long hours in the school library to avoid the house, lashing out at Archer when he tried to get close to her again. She hadn’t been able to deal with it, with not remembering what happened. The fear of what she’d find out if she did. The constant terror that she would hurt another member of her family. The knowledge that every time she pushed Archer away, she did hurt him. But she’d been protecting him, really. 41
And yourself, a little voice countered.
She wavered.
Then there was a memory of shadows creeping across a floor towards her, slowly merging to form a figure … she tried to shake the image from her brain.
‘I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,’ he said, taking the gesture as a dismissal.
‘That’s not fair,’ she said again, pleadingly this time.
‘Isn’t it?’ He stopped, then sighed. ‘I’m sorry Raven.’ Ever the peacemaker, never able to leave a conversation on an edge. ‘I’m glad you came, it means a lot. And just … think about it, OK? You don’t have to commit to investigating the house. I don’t even know if we’ll get to. But if you wanted to join us for the other investigations, that would be so great.’ He looked at his phone, checking the time. ‘My shift is due to start. I’d better get ready. I can put the rest of the pie in a box for you, if you’d like?’
That was his peace offering. He was, in so many ways, a better person than she was. She was all sharp spikes and closed doors, while he was soft edges and an open heart.
‘Thanks, Arch,’ she smiled, getting up from the table.
