frankie [episodes 1-3]

-7-

Rebecca, Jared and I hurry down the corridor in Kings College. When we burst into the chapel Carter is stood statuesque by the alter underneath one of the arches, his head bent as he reads something on its surface. He looks up as we enter. The dim light cast through the stained-glass windows bounces off the angles in his face and gives him a somewhat ethereal look. He beams.

"Perfect timing!" he says, "I was just about to call you. I've got some more information about Kerri's murder. And," he says, leaning forward in a conspiring manner, "I don't think she was the first victim." He frowns momentarily as he takes in the three of us – Rebecca still in shorts and a T-shirt and Jared wearing his tracksuit bottoms. "You look...different?"

He continues to stare as though trying to work out why then shrugs. He beckons us over.

"Jared got a job coaching football," explains Rebecca as we walk over. "To keep an eye on what's going on at the high school. We have a lead on the murder too."

Carter catches Jared's eye, "I didn't know you could play football, Jared."

Jared grunts irritably and Rebecca snorts.

"Can everyone stop fixating on that aspect? We think we know who killed Kerri. Kind of."

"It's way weirder than you'd imagine," adds Rebecca.

I think of that horrible bug thing, scuttling along the bathroom tiles and shudder. Carter leans forward, resting his hands against the alter. He raises a blonde eyebrow.

"Do tell."

As Rebecca begins to talk I glance across the surface of the alter. There are a number of missing person's reports scattered across it, all pertaining to presumed suicides of girls around my age. When she's finished the story about Mr Harrison, the weird words and the horrible demonic bug, Carter looks pensive for a moment.

"How very unusual. It must be linked. Indeed, history must be repeating itself."

He turns a couple of the papers littering the alter around to face us.

"It's what I wanted to call you about. I was looking into some missing person's reports from the UK. My contact in the coroner's office got me interested in it as a potential lead. She remembered a case from about twenty years ago. It happened in her home town, York. She thought a very similar suicide note was found. When I looked into it, it turned out to be identical. As did the notes for at least ten other suicides. Look."

He points to sections at the bottom of each of the reports. They all say the same thing.

I am ugly. I am worthless. I am nothing. I am his.

I feel sick. Rebecca's face blanches.

"This is some serious, messed up shit," she says.

Carter gives her a disapproving look but nods.

"Did anything else happen, with Mr. Harrison. Anything that could help us determine what exactly it is that we're dealing with?" he says.

No-one speaks. All I can hear are the raindrops pattering against the arched chapel windows. Rebecca shivers, it's cold and she's still in her shorts.

I try to cast my mind back to everything we heard – knowing that it's pointless. All I remember is being scared and sickened, and that horrible sound of scuttling. I wonder whether to tell them about what happened in my dream, but I don't know what more that could tell them that they don't already know. And I don't need them looking at me like I'm even more abnormal. I don't need them to know about the whispers in my mind.

Whispers.

I hear the word in my head and I'm not sure if it's a thought or a voice. My mind focuses on it. Why am I focusing on it?

I frown. Then it comes to me.

...embrace the whispers. And spread them. I need the best possible environment for those inner demons to breed, to grow, to feed.

"He said embrace the whispers," I say quietly, "And twice he said something about inner demons."

"Oh yeah," says Rebecca, "When he told us exercise was good for the inner demons."

She makes a big show of shuddering and Jared and I both give her a look. Carter however frowns. Suddenly he spins on his heel and begins to walk to a door at the back of the chapel.

"Oh dear," he says, "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear."

Jared shares a look with Rebecca and the two follow him.

I linger for a moment by the alter before Rebecca turns and raises her eyebrows, "He has a hidden reading room back here. It's full of books on demonology. Him disappearing there is Carter speak for I have an idea. Come on."

I exhale heavily then go after them. We head through the door and head down some musty, stone steps. At the bottom we emerge into a circular room. Shelves cover the walls – filled with thick, dusty books. There is a round, wooden table in the centre – papers strewn across it. The space is lit by a singular lightbulb, hanging from the low ceiling. The whole space smells old, like museums and forgotten things.

Carter hurries over to the shelves and pulls out a thick, leather bound volume. Demons of the Ages is written in gold lettering on the spine. He thumps it down in the centre of the table and begins to flick through the tracing paper thin pages.

Suddenly he stops on a page titled the Whisperer and points.

At the bottom of the page is a small drawing of a grey, bug like demonic creature. He looks up at us.

"Is that what you saw?"

We nod. Carter frowns but it doesn't reach his eyes - which look oddly excited bearing in mind the circumstances.

"Oh dear," he says, "This could get nasty. Very nasty indeed."