Red, Thick and Powerful

Prologue: London, England 1959

"Jesus fuck!" He yelled.

"Who are you?" A small transparent girl, stood in the doorway said, hollow black eyes looking up at him

"Uh well..." He said, shifting his eyes left and right "My name's August, what is yours, kid?"

"Penny, and i'm not a kid! I am 9!" Grunted the girl, arms folded in a huff

"Wow, nearly fully grown then..." August smiled "...When were you born, Penny?"

"October..." She replied

"What year?" August raised an eyebrow

"Well, 9 years ago silly, 1913!" She said, poking her tongue out at August

"Ah well, hate to break it to you kid but..." August was cut off by a large bang above his head "What was that?"

"Oh, that's my mother..." Penny said, looking down and away in sadness.

"What is your mother like?" August asked.

"She's... she's mean! She used to not let me have any dinner. One year she didn't let me eat for what felt like a month, but then I fell asleep and when I woke up I didn't need to eat any more... never found out why" She said, very quickly.

"Aw, kid..." August said with pity in his voice

"She's always bringing friends up there from outside but they don't ever seem to come down, it must be really crowded up there, don't you think mister?"

"Uh, yeah. Must be a really fun party..." He said, looking up towards the ceiling, clearly moldy from damp.

August pulled his shotgun from his back and checked that it was loaded, it was. He strolled towards the girl and the door, she didn't move.

"Where are you going?" She asked

"I'm going to say hello..." August replied "I don't want to walk through you though"

"Walk through me?" She questioned, tilting her little head

"Don't worry, just step aside please, kid"

She did as he asked and he shut the door behind him. He let out a sigh, August had seen a fair amount of ghost children in his time and it was always a tragedy when they had no idea why or even that they were dead. He also knew he would have to find her body so he could remove her spirit from this godforsaken place, but that would have to be after he dealt with mummy. He walked further down the corridor until he got to the attic door, it was open and a rickety ancient ladder was placed leading up into its opening. August sniffed the air, the fleshy odor was strong and was most certainly coming from above. He kept his shotgun in his right hand and climbed the ladder slowly. One of the rungs snapped under his boot making him struggle for grip momentarily. As his head passed into the attic, cold dead eyes looked back at him. It was the remains of a man, eyes, and mouth gaping as small yellow maggots ate what was left of the poor gentlemen's tongue and gums.

"Lovely..." Whispered August as he pulled himself fully into the gigantic attic.

The attic was enormous, you could fit four or five reasonably sized bedrooms into its floor space. There was a pillar every two or three meters, holding the roof of the building up. It would have been beautiful if it wasn't for all the dead people tied to pillars and decorating the floor. Some had clearly been here for awhile, nearly bone. Others looked fresh. August noticed that all of the dead were male, not a single woman among them, he wondered why.

"Hmmm..... Very old... Very old indeed...." A spectral voice whistled around the room, almost as if a high pitched female voice was struggling its way through a half phlegm filled throat "But young still, Old and young all in one fleshy package"