Haunted: A Lockwood & Co Story

30% Alright

Here and there on the ground below the chapel, white coated officers picked over scraps of clothing, blood and fallen weapons - relics of the great fight that had taken place an hour or two before.

As Lockwood later had told it (and as reported by many of the newspapers afterwards), the battle with Winkman and his thugs had been a desperate affair. No fewer than six assailants - each armed with a club or bludgeon - had taken part in the attack. Lockwood and the three Fittes agents had been fighting for their lives. It had been cudgel against sword, weight of numbers against superior fighting skill. The battle raged up and down the chapel steps, and to begin with, the sheer ferocity of the attackers had threatened to win through. Gradually, however, the operatives's wordplay told. The tide turned. As dawn broke over the cemetery, the thugs were driven back across the camp and out among the graves. According to Lockwood, he himself had seriously wounded three of the men (Winkman included); Shaw and Godwin had accounted for two others. The sixth had thrown away his baton and fled. In the end five captives had lain helpless on the ground beside the cabins, with Kat Godwin standing guard.

Victory, however, had come at a cost. Everyone had been hurt- Godwin with little more than scratches, while Ned Shaw had suffered a broken arm. Bobby Vernon had been badly struck about the head, and could not stand. It was left to Lockwood to force entry into the nearest work cabin; then, leaving Shaw to find its phone and ring Barnes, he had sprinted into the chapel, where he found the open shaft of the catafalque. As Charlotte had expected, he had lost no time dropping into darkness, before hastening in search for her and George.

What he had not told them, was who by or when he had been shot.

When the four had come out of the chapel, Lockwood slung between George and Charlotte, Barnes had come bounding up the steps to meet them. Before listening to either Charlotte or Kipps, both of whom vied to get his attention, he had demanded the mirror; it was the only thing on his mind. Kipps, who Charlotte had given the shards of the mirror to in order to help Lockwood, presented them to Barnes. Judging by the droop of Barne's mustache, it's condition disappointed him. Nevertheless, he at once summoned medics to help them, before organizing a wider search of the catacombs. He wanted to see what else Joplin might have hidden there.
There was one artefact, however, that his officers didn't find. Charlotte had her rucksack - and, in it, the silent ghost-jar. Arguably, the skull had saved her. She would decide its fate when she got home.

After an early conversation with Barnes, Kipps had been largely ignored. For some time, he had been sitting on the chapel steps, grey faced, a dusty, haggard shadow of his usual strutting self.

On impulse, Charlotte cleared her throat. "I wanted to thank you," She said. "For what you did- in supporting me back there. And for going after George. I'm surprised actually. I wouldn't have guessed you'd have the bottle for any of that."

Kipps gave a mirthless laugh; Charlotte waited for the inevitable acid retort. Instead, after a pause, he said quietly, "it's easy to judge me now. But you don't yet know what it's like, the day your Talent starts to fade. You'll still sense ghosts - you'll know they're present. But you won't see or hear them properly any more. You'll get all the terror, without being able to do anything about it. Sometimes nerves will simply overwhelm you. But you... you were amazing. Your talent it saved us."

"I had no idea about your Talent." Charlotte admitted, eyes wide.

"I thought George would have told you."

Charlotte shook her head. "No, he didn't." Charlotte hesitated. "I'm sorry. I- We won't tell anyone."

Kipps nodded sincerely. "Thank you." He broke off then, and stood, his face hardening. Inspector Barnes was walking over to them over the sunlit grass. Charlotte had been a nervous wreck the entire time she had been sitting on the steps. Her knee had been bouncing the entire time she had been talking to Kipps and she had been wringing her hands together. All she really had been able to think of was Lockwood in the back of the van, potentially bleeding out.