The Talented Blackwoods Chapter 8

“So,” said Miriam, glancing round the large dining-room table at her assembled family. “I declare this family meeting open.”

“Seriously?” whispered Stephanie, lighting her third cigarette of the day. She offered one to Dale who sat across the table from her, but he shook his head as he released a long yawn.

“Do you let him smoke?” asked Angela.

“He’s old enough to decide for himself,” said Stephanie, whose hair currently resembled something rats might nest in.

“Well, I don’t want you blowing smoke all over Jason,” said Angela.

“I promise I won’t blow in your son’s direction,” said Stephanie.

Miriam coughed loudly. “Can we focus, please!”

“Sorry,” said Angela, turning to face her. Stephanie shrugged, seeming even more like a teenager than her son, who was slouched so low in his chair Miriam thought he might slide under the table at any moment. Why was he so quiet and tired today, she wondered. Miriam noticed David staring intently at his cousin. He was sitting with Jason on a small couch just to the side of the table.

“Go on, Mum,” said Stella, who was sitting to her right.

“Well, I was going to start by saying that I think our priority should be saving John. From what Angela told me this morning, we might be running out of time, and Laurel and Hardy, or whatever your friends are called, haven’t made any headway whatsoever.”

“I may have overestimated their abilities,” said Stella. “But it was a desperate situation, and I knew they would help if they could…and at least he’s been kept safe, and other people have been kept safe from the thing inside him…”

Miriam silenced her with a raised hand. “I just hope we haven’t wasted too much time,” she said.

“So do I,” said Angela, glancing at Jason and then, pointedly, at Stella.

“Personally,” said Stephanie, “I’d rather we focussed on the bigger picture – the fact that you think there’s an army of demons trying to take possession of anyone with the surname Blackwood. That’s the bit that worries me.”

“It’s not like you to worry about yourself first,” said Stella.

“Oh, fuck off, Pollyanna!” Stephanie took an aggressive lug on her cigarette.

“Charming,” mumbled Stella.

Miriam slammed a hand down on the table.

“Let’s talk about John, shall we? First of all, Stella, where is this place your pals have him stashed away?”

Stella hesitated.

“Stella, just tell her,” insisted Angela.

“It’s just outside Slough,” said Stella. “Not far from where your house was. It’s called Beach Drive Private Hospital. But I’ll need to warn them that you’re coming. And you’ll need to be discreet. They didn’t have to help us.”

“Discretion is my middle name,” said Miriam.

“I thought it was Loose,” said Stephanie, chuckling to herself.

“Coming from you, dear, that really isn’t funny, is it?”

Stephanie stubbed out her cigarette, blowing a cloud of smoke across the table.

“What are you going to do when you get there, Miriam?” asked Angela, dramatically flapping her hand in front of her face in an effort to disperse the cigarette smoke.

“I do have a plan,” said Miriam. “It puts me in danger, but if it saves my son and gives my grandson his father back, then I’m willing to risk it. And it involves everyone around this table. Apart from you. Angela, obviously.”

“What about me?” asked David.

“You and Jason will be needed here,” said Miriam.

David blew through his lips like a horse.

“So, what is this plan?” asked Angela.

“Well, as I see it, if there is some plot to see all members of my family possessed by demons, surely the main prize is me, as head of the family.”

Several pairs of eyebrows were raised, but Miriam pressed on.

“I will go to the hospital where John is being held, speak directly to the creature that is possessing him. Stella, you’ll need to ring ahead and tell them to stop administering whatever sedative they are giving him, or at least reduce it so that I can hold a conversation with the demon. I’ll offer it the chance to occupy my body rather than John’s.”

“Won’t a demon see through you?” asked Angela.

“I will use all my acting skills to make sure it doesn’t,” Miriam assured her.

“Jesus,” hissed Stephanie. “Looks like we’ve lost John.”

“I think Nanny Miriam has a pretty impressive portfolio of roles,” said David.

“Thank you, David,” said Miriam.

“You were excellent as the drag queen in that police drama that was on last year.”

Miriam paused. “I’ve never played a drag queen.”

“Yes, you have – the one where the police raid that club. You were wonderful.”

“I was playing a retired showgirl,” said Miriam.

“Oh,” said David.

“So, you’ll offer to let the demon enter your body…” coaxed Angela.

“Yes,” continued Miriam. “And in that way, I will draw it out of John’s body onto the lower astral plane. Of course, I’ll have to leave my body too, to make it convincing, so I’ll be vulnerable. But that is when you three, she looked at Stella, Dale and Stephanie in turn, will project from here into the hospital room and tackle the demon before it can get inside me.”

There was a short pregnant silence.

“So, your plan is to bundle the demon?” said David.

“It’s a little more complex than that,” said Miriam. “It will need precision timing, as you three won’t be able to project to the room until the demon has left John’s body, in case it senses you are close.”

“I can’t project to a hospital room 100 miles from here,” insisted Stephanie. “Not when I’ve never even been there before.”

“I’ve been there,” said Stella. “I went physically a few years ago when the guys first opened. I can help make sure we all get to the right place at the right time. We’ll just need to be ready to go. But how will we know when it’s the right time to project?”

“I’ll have to call you. The way we used to call to each other across the astral plane when you were younger. You told me John called to you a couple of times from the higher astral plane recently, and you were able to hear him and go to him.”

Stella looked unconvinced. “Communication on the higher astral plane is different, you know that, space works differently there. You pretty much just have to think of someone and say their name, and if they are on the plane too you’ll find them. It’s different on the lower plane. Distance is still an issue, and you and I haven’t tried to communicate like that for years.”

“It will be one word, Stella - ’Now!’ and I’ll think it very loudly.”

“And then you all bundle the demon,” said David, shoulders rising and falling with barely contained laughter.

“Well, I would have loved to have come up with a more sophisticated plan,” said Miriam, “But unfortunately, we don’t have time for that now. Perhaps if someone had called me a few days ago…”

“How stupid is this demon?” asked Angela. “I mean, it will have to be pretty dumb to fall for this.”

“From what you told me about the feral look in John’s eyes, I’m guessing it’s a lower order demon – basically just a conscious mass of evil intent on finding a body so that it can cause mayhem in the physical world.”

“So pretty stupid then,” said Angela.

“Let’s hope so,” said Stephanie, lighting another cigarette.

***

Beach Drive Private Hospital was set in around three acres of land, the perfectly quaffed lawn dotted with handsome beach trees. The building itself was a large 1930s detached house, with a recent extension, a clinically white rectangle that far more reflected its current use. The gravelled driveway crunched comfortingly beneath the wheels of the car as Angela pulled up outside the main entrance. Almost before she had turned off the ignition, a middle-aged man with thinning hair and thick-rimmed glasses came running from a door at the side of the building, waving his arms frantically.

“I take it this is either Stephen or Luke,” said Miriam, making it clear that either way, she was unimpressed.

The man reached the car and slapped his hands on the driver’s window, then gestured for Angela to wind it down.

“Are you Angela and Miriam?” he asked, between panting breaths.

“Yes, I’m Angela, and this is Miriam. And you are…?”

“I’m Stephen. Can you park around the side of the building and then come in through the door I just came out of? There are visitors in this afternoon. I don’t want them picking up on anything strange.”

“Thank goodness you’re acting so normally then,” said Miriam.

Stephen wiped multiple beads of sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his grey blazer.

“Nothing round here has been normal for weeks,” he said. “Whatever happens today, I’m going to have to ask you to take John with you when you leave. Luke and I have done what we can to help, but we can’t afford to lose everything just to help out a friend.”

“We’re very grateful,” said Angela, starting the engine and easing the car forward and around the side of the hospital.

“He’s a funny little man, isn’t he,” said Miriam, still eying Stephen through the mirror in her sun shield. She was also applying fresh purple lipstick.

“They have been put out quite a bit,” said Angela. “I mean, I don’t know how friendly they are with Stella, but taking care of her demonically possessed brother is going that extra mile.”

Stephen was waiting for them by the side entrance and ushered them inside, glancing around like the host of a secret party, worried the guest of honour will arrive early. The door led into a narrow corridor with whitewashed walls and a tiled floor. There were three numbered doors on the wall opposite, and Stephen led them to the one furthest from the entrance.

“Luckily, the other rooms in this section of the hospital are vacant at the moment,” said Stephen. “We’ve managed to keep John’s presence here a secret from all the staff, apart from one nurse, who we’ve known for years. She’s been very supportive.”

Angela became aware of a low moaning sound. It cut through the other noise – the beeps and humming of hospital equipment. It sounded like the warning growl of a big cat, just before it pounces.

“The sedative is wearing off,” said Stephen, pushing open the door.

“Wait!” Miriam placed her hand over Stephen’s and pulled the door closed again. Stephen flashed her an indignant glare.

“I just need to check that you understand the plan,” said Miriam. “Timing is crucial and we can’t discuss it in front of the demon.”

“Stella told me your plan, yes,” said Stephen, and the word ‘plan’ dripped with contempt. “It sounds rather shambolic, but as long as most of the mayhem takes place on the astral plane and not in my hospital, I’m happy to go along with it.”

Stephen pushed the door open again and the moaning sound grew louder, it was punctuated now with snarls and wheezes, as if the hunting animal had been wounded.

Angela had tried to prepare herself for seeing John for the first time since that horrific morning, imagined him battered and scarred like the girl in The Exorcist, face smeared with pea soup vomit. But the reality elicited an involuntary sob. He just looked like John, but gaunt. She could see every bone in the arm that rested, spasming slightly, on top of the white bed cover. And his face, usually plump and flushed, was skull-like, cheeks concave, mouth slack, lips sore and flaking. How could the thing inside him have turned him into this in just a few days? The moaning sound seemed to come from his chest rather than his mouth. His body rose and fell beneath the covers.

As she drew closer, she saw the eyes and knew for sure the creature was still inside him. They weren’t John’s eyes – his eyes were never so full of hatred. They seemed to stare past her, the pupils darting wildly from side to side, then rolling back, revealing bloodshot white.

“Good God,” whispered Miriam, staring first at her son and then at the bleeping paraphernalia around him. “Is that his heartbeat?” she asked, pointing at a monitor next to the bed.

“Yes,” said Stephen. It’s been around 130 beats per minute since he arrived. “It’s more than that now because we haven’t sedated him for a few hours – as you requested.”

A phone which sat on a small table in one corner of the room suddenly rang, causing both Angela and Miriam to jump. Stephen snatched up the receiver. “Yes.”

He listened for a moment, expression darkening. “Are you serious? I thought…Jesus!”

He slammed the receiver down and turned to face them, expression now positively thunderous.

“That was Luke. Apparently, Stella just called and says she needs you home immediately.”

“Are you sure?” asked Miriam. “Did she say why?”

“She said that someone called Lucy is outside the cottage, and asking for you.”