-7-

Maggie

It has been three days since June started now. We're all sat in the drawing room as she dusts the shelves. My father is watching her intensely – a small bubble of drool at the corner of his lip. My mother is watching my father. The air feels heavy – constricting.

I don't know what is up with these two, but they've been acting peculiarly since we moved here.

There's a knock at the door.

"I'll get it," I say, jumping up – more to get out of the room than anything else.

I wonder who it will be; we're about seven miles from the nearest house – no-one has visited us yet. I head out to the echoey entrance hall and open the door. A police officer stands on the porch.

"Hi, I was hoping I could ask you some questions," she says. "A missing person's report was filed a couple of days ago and this was listed as the girl's last work address. Ginny Richards, did she work here?"

I nod.

"Yeah, she did, but she left three days ago. God, missing did you say? That's terrible."

"Three days ago?"

She jots something down into her notebook.

"That was when she was last seen. Was she acting differently at all before she left? Any changes in behaviour? Temper? Did she mention any boyfriends? Girlfriends?"

I shake my head.

"No, we only knew her for a week though."

A look of understanding dawns on the officer's face.

"Of course, this is the Faustus Manor isn't it?" she says "I've read about this place. It's been empty for the past seven years."

I think about what the groundskeeper said in the orchard.

"Do you know what happened to the last family that lived here?"

She raises her eyebrows.

"You haven't heard?" she says. "It was a real mess. They presumed the husband did it but no-one knows for sure. They never found the bodies. Only the blood and the marks on the floor."

My stomach turns with revulsion. People have died in this house?

Do my parents know this?

"What?"

The police constable catches my eye – misinterpreting my question.

"Yes. There were deep scratch marks in the concrete, as though someone was being dragged across the floor. Pretty weird, huh?"

She flips her notebook closed and smiles.

"So you be careful now." she says, handing me a card, "You hear anything about Ginny you let us know. Her family are real worried." 

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