Mist & Whispers by C.M. Lucas Read Free Book Online Page A

had to be something up there worth hiding, something linked to the Weaver.
    They heard another click and the chandelier began to move again, and this time it started to rise.
    ‘Quick, get on!’ Anya urged the others.
    Michael jumped on first and Tim managed to climb up as it reached Stephanie’s shoulders.
    ‘Take our hands,’ Tim instructed Stephanie, while he and Anya  reached out for her.
    Stephanie hesitated, but then grabbed a hold of their hands. The chandelier had lifted her off her feet and now there was no going back. Tim and Anya pulled with all their strength and Stephanie managed to get one foot on the platform, but as she pulled up her other foot, she slipped.
    Stephanie’s screams echoed around the room sending the nesting pigeons into frantic flight, but as she fell she managed to catch a hold of the chandelier below. They were a good fifteen feet in the air and still rising.
    ‘Hold on to me!’ Anya ordered Michael and Tim as she lowered herself down to her knees.
    They both took hold of her and she reached over the side.
    ‘Take my hand!’ she shouted at her terrified boss.
    ‘I’m going to fall,’ Stephanie squealed back.
    ‘No you’re not, trust me!’ Anya looked her straight in the eye.
    The ceiling was getting closer and closer. Stephanie took a deep breath and grabbed Anya’s hand. Anya gripped her as tight as she could and with the help of the boys, she pulled her up onto the platform, narrowly missing her being severed in half between the edge of the platform and the ceiling. The platform locked back into position and they fell to the floor inside the secret attic room, trying to catch their breaths.
    Strangely, the attic room was lit. A lantern hung from a beam just across from where the Four had fallen. It was a small space, laid out as if someone used to sleep there. There were cushions and blankets stuffed at one end, and had they not been covered in dust and mice droppings, they would have looked quite welcoming.
    Tim was holding onto Stephanie, stroking her hair and trying to calm her down. He looked as terrified as she had only moments ago. Anya couldn’t take her eyes off them. She felt awful; Stephanie could have been terribly hurt and it would have been all her fault.
    Michael got straight to his feet. ‘Well, this is brilliant,’ he remarked. ‘All that and there’s nothing even up here!’
    Annoyingly, he was right. Anya looked around, but it didn’t take long to realise that, apart from themselves and a few blankets, there was nothing else up there. Stephanie and Tim’s silence gave her the impression that they were just as annoyed at her as Michael, but then, Stephanie had just escaped a twenty foot drop by a hair.
    Maybe whatever had been hidden in there was already long gone. Maybe it was time to accept the fact that Scott’s was closing, and there was nothing any of them could do about it.
    Michael took the lantern down and amazement swept his face as he stared inside it. ‘This is fascinating, look at this.’ He crouched down next to Tim and handed him the lantern. ‘It’s just a flame; no candle, no wick, no oil – nothing – just a flame.’
    ‘More peculiarly, there’s no air getting in either. Fire needs oxygen to burn. It must be an illusion some how...’ Tim said, finally letting go of Stephanie and trying to work out how the little flame could be burning.
    ‘You guys don’t think someone could be coming back here do you?’ Stephanie asked, wrapping her arms around herself.
    ‘I don’t know,’ Anya said, ‘but maybe it’s best we just get out of here. It doesn’t look like we’re going to find anything and I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.’ She gave Stephanie her best apologetic look.
    ‘Anya’s right,’ Tim said. ‘Here, take this, and Michael and I will figure out how to get out of here,’ and he handed Anya the lantern.
    She barely had a grip on it when instantly, everything changed.
    She was still holding the