Nocturnal Academy 8: The Lonely House

Nocturnal Academy #8

The Lonely House

By

Ethan Somerville

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SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

Storm Publishing on Smashwords

Nocturnal Academy 8

Copyright © 2012/2016 by Ethan Somerville

www.stormpublishing.net

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Chapter 1

Alice Dibble stood with her father George at the end of a long queue that snaked around the gleaming foyer of the new Appleton Museum. Located next door to the Appleton Tourist Information Bureau, the museum had recently been refurbished and upgraded from a series of dusty old rooms filled with mouldy old specimens into an exciting new facility with lots of hands-on exhibits and interactive displays.

Alice remembered going to the previous museum as a small girl and being thoroughly bored by the endless old trinkets, tiny cards crammed with long-winded explanations, and creepy stuffed animals in glass enclosures with eyes that seemed to follow her around the room. Anything would have been an improvement – even a fire-bomb.

Her father smiled down at her. Are you alright, Alice? You’re looking a bit pale.

She mopped her brow. It’s just a bit hot in here, that’s all. And this line doesn’t seem to be moving at all. Perhaps we should have waited a few days for the excitement to die down.

George’s smile faded and he sighed. I’m sorry Alice, but this is my last free day. From next week I’ll be starting weekend shifts at the club.

Then when will I get so see you? Alice cried in disappointment. I’m back at school next week, and you know we’re not supposed to leave the grounds on weekdays unless it’s an emergency!

I don’t know. I tried to get out of the weekend shifts – I really did. But the boss wants me for the busiest periods. He says I’m the best chef he’s got. He laughed humourlessly. There’ll be a pretty decent pay rise, but I’m not sure it’ll be worth it if I can’t see my little girl at least every two weeks. He gave her an affectionate squeeze, and she reddened.

But a lump did rise in her throat. She really enjoyed her weekends with her father. Now he was fit and healthy they did all sorts of cool things together. During these summer holidays they had ridden bikes, gone for a long bushwalk, been swimming and skating, and even spent a weekend in Sydney. Although Marlene tried to do cool things with Alice too, she was still far more preoccupied with her new love, Harry.

He had just popped the question and they would be getting married this year in September – just after Alice’s fifteenth birthday.

Alice looked around the museum’s shining new interior. Gone were the old whitewashed walls and creaky wooden floorboards, replaced by big glass windows and a fake marble floor. Instead of smelling of dust and age, the air was clean and fresh. There was air-conditioning, but at the moment it couldn’t cope with all the visitors. Alice had taken her Luminos Sunblock, but was still sweating. Outside it was thirty seven degrees.

Alice had not changed much. A little taller, a little thinner – if that was possible – and still pale skinned despite her summer in the sun. She still wore her straight black hair long and parted in the middle, and favoured dark Gothic clothing. Today she was dressed in a black singlet top covered with stars and a lacy knee-length skirt. Her dark blue eyes looked huge in her face, but at least the dark rings she’d had for months were finally gone.

Just in time for her to go back to the Nocturnal Academy for year 9. For once she wasn’t looking forward to returning to school. Her last two terms of year 8 may have been uneventful, but that was only because fate was biding its time, planning a whole new series of adventures to throw her into.

Suddenly the line started to move. Ah, they’ve put on an extra receptionist to deal with the crowds. George squinted. "Wait a minute – is that Janice?"

Janice works here? Alice gasped as the line started to shuffle forward across the foyer.

She did tell me she had a new job, but I obviously wasn’t paying much attention! George giggled. He still liked her, although their relationship continued to be rocky. Still looking for her path in life, Janice fell in with one odd crowd after another. After the Church of the Stigmata mysteriously burnt down, Janice became involved with a dodgy pyramid selling organisation and tried to get George to join her. George refused, and for a while they didn’t see each other. Then Janice realised she had no knack for persuading people to buy things they didn’t want or need, and left the group. She tried yoga and mediation, exercising at a gym, and started one night course after another, but couldn’t seem to find anything she liked.

I sincerely hope this is the job for her, George muttered, more to himself than Alice.

Fortunately, when it was the Dibbles’ turn, Janice was the one who served them. She stared at them in surprise. You didn’t tell me you were coming here!

It was a spur of the moment decision! Alice wanted to know what we were doing on our last day together, and I suggested the museum. I’d just read an article in the Appleton Gazette about how good it is now. I’m sorry Janice, but I’d completely forgotten that you told me you had gotten a job here!

Janice Cooper was still tall and lanky with short spiky hair that refused to do anything other than stand straight up. But instead of the singlet and shorts she’d worn at the fish and chip shop, she was now dressed in a crisp white blouse and blue skirt. She had even put on some make-up, but it was nothing like the pancake stuff she used to wear. She planted her hands on her hips. Mr Hightower helped me to get this position. If I’d known you two were coming, I would have asked for guide duty instead of receptionist duty! I could have taken you around. I’ve learned everything about this place.

Any memories? asked Alice.

She sighed. No. I was hoping there would be, but not a single thing has returned. My mind really was a blank slate.

Hey lady! Stop your yammering and serve the couple already! shouted the person behind Alice and her father. Alice turned to see a very large tourist in an extremely loud shirt accompanied by his equally as overweight child. The boy was engrossed in a hand-held computer game. Alice resisted an impulse to compel the kid to put that thing away and pay attention. She had learned the hard way that even the smallest suggestion could have dire consequences.

One adult and one child then, Janice declared.

Yes, answered George, and quickly paid the fee. They headed off towards a curtained-off doorway, and Alice noticed a shiny plaque on a column nearby. It looked like some sort of dedication. She stepped off to read it, but George grabbed her by an arm and pulled her through the red velvet curtain. Come on Alice – no dawdling. There’s a lot to get through.

Alice soon forgot the brass dedication plaque as the sights and sounds of the new Appleton Museum reached the increasingly tiny part of her that was still an excited child. For three hours she forgot that she was Alice Dibble of the Nocturnal Academy, and returned to her early childhood. There were mad science experiments that looked like they had been designed by Professor Abbacus; Jacobs Ladders, Van Der Graaf generators and even a Tesla coil in a sealed room that could be controlled to blast bolts of lightning everywhere. There were life-sized models of the human body with organs that could be popped out and examined, plastic molecules that could be adjusted to make different compounds and even an enormous whale skeleton with its mouth open so people could walk right down its throat. Instead of scary stuffed animals there were animatronic beasts that moved and growled, causing squeals of delight from adults as well as children. Instead of mouldy old dioramas behind glass, there were entire rooms of exhibits that made the viewer feel like they really were there in different periods of the past. There was a room where kids could play dress-up with old costumes and have their pictures taken. There was another room full of rubber weapons where kids could beat the snot out of each other. Alice and her father had a wonderful time hitting each other over the head with swords. Like all the other kids present – except maybe the fat kid with the game console – Alice clapped her hands, shrieked with laughter, and darted from one interesting thing to the next.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had such a fun time without a care in the world.

After Alice’s awful adventures on the astral plane it had taken Madam Nocturna days to bring her out of the near catatonic fugue she had fallen into, and then weeks to get her to start appreciating life again. For those weeks Alice had been like an automaton, simply going through the motions of being a student. All mid-year exams had been cancelled after the destruction of the astral school, but Alice hardly noticed. During the midyear holidays she was quiet and withdrawn, hardly speaking to her parents or friends. Both George and Marlene started to worry about her, but she kept assuring them she was fine and didn’t need to see a counsellor.

Only during the second half of the year did Alice start to live again. She took a correspondence class to keep her brain occupied and after some initial hurdles, was now doing really well at it. Her nightmares eased, she emerged from her shell and even went on a date or two with Harley Erdman.

He was now used to his artificial golem and had managed to alter it enough so it was for all intents and purposes a human body. It had become like a familiar suit he slipped on each evening. He could run and jump and eat and do everything else a normal child of his age could, even kiss Alice without her feeling like he was trying to smother her with his lips.

But even though he was smart and witty and provided her with endless entertaining stories about what went on in the mainframe, he still wasn’t Andre.

Even after all this time she couldn’t stop thinking about how that poor boy was dragged into the Immaterium by the demon Oradhur. Whenever she closed her eyes she clearly saw him in the form of a white hawk, flying desperately away from the Omniportallis while that slimy black tentacle reared up behind him to snap closed around his body…

Alice had even asked Madam Nocturna to wipe that awful memory from her mind. It’s stopping me from going on with my life. Just let me believe he left after the portal closed, she begged tearfully.

But Madam Nocturna sadly shook her head. No Alice – I can’t alter your memories like that. It is an event from your life you must learn to accept. All I can do is help you to come to terms with it.

Alice gulped, sniffed and rubbed her eyes. Yes, of course Miss.

You seem to be having a good time! George gasped as they stumbled out of the room with the rubber weapons. And you’ve finally got some colour in your cheeks!

"I am having a good time! I don’t want this day to end! Alice cried. What’s next?"

George looked down the hall, but couldn’t see any more rooms. Just the Exit to Gift Shop sign.

"Oooh, it’s over already?" Alice protested. Let’s go back to the Mad Scientists’ room. I want to play with that Tesla coil again!

But George looked down at his watch. It’s almost five, Alice – this place shuts at five.

She sighed. Alright. Can we have KFC for dinner? I could eat four fried chickens!

He pulled a face, but agreed. Of course. But I’ll still have to eat a salad.

I’m sure one or two pieces won’t hurt you after all the running around we did today!

So Alice and her father headed out through the gift shop, where George bought her a small version of one of those human body models. It gladdened Alice’s heart to see the fat kid from the line badgering his father for another visit tomorrow. See – I didn’t have to influence him at all, she thought. This place was good enough to do it on its own. I wonder who thought all this great stuff up?

As the Dibbles headed back out into the foyer, Alice spotted the dedication plaque and hurried over to check it out. George waited while she read the simple inscription.

A sudden, icy sweat enveloped her. She had to grab onto the wall beside the plaque to steady herself. It seemed all the good work she had done was crashing down around her, taking her back to that day on the Astral Academy.

Oradhur’s tentacle lashed around in fury, flailing to grab hold of the forbidden volume. Alice curled herself around the book and hung on to it with her life. Andre flapped his wings desperately to fly away.

But the boy wasn’t quick enough. The tentacle slammed into him and whipped around him, crushing his wings close to his body. Feathers fluttered from him as he struggled. He gave a screech of terror. Alice looked up – just in time to see the pseudopod snatch Andre back through the portal.

Alice felt sick. The museum foyer spun around her. Deep breaths, she thought. Deep breaths! She forced herself to straighten up and concentrate on slowing her breathing and heart-rate.

What’s wrong Alice? asked George. You look like you’ve seen a ghost!

A ghost wouldn’t freak me out this much, Alice thought.

George read the inscription:

The Appleton Museum has been redesigned, extended and completely upgraded by a very kind donation from the Lonely House Foundation.

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Chapter 2

Alice knew such an innocuous little sign shouldn’t have sent her over the edge like that. At that strange little house on the Astral Plane she, Andre, Madam Nocturna, Lord Eldritch and Marco the Hunter had defeated demons and helped to close the mouth of a giant female gate creature so no more monsters could escape from the Immaterium.

However, at that time none of them had known the identity of the old-fashioned country cottage that had so mysteriously vanished behind them. It had been Andre, as they had been walking through the messed-up astral landscape, who’d revealed a possible identity for the building.

He thought by its description that it could have been something called the Lonely House. He had found a reference to it in a book called the Noble Grimoire, but because he had been looking for more spells he hadn’t read any further.

One thing I've learned since joining the Nocturnal Academy - things always have a habit of coming back to bite us on the bum when we're least expecting them, Alice said out loud, then clapped a hand over her mouth. She had just repeated something similar she had said to Andre on that very day.

What was that? asked George. What’s the Lonely House Foundation?

You tell me! Alice spread her hands. I’ve never heard of it!

Then why do you look so frightened?

I’m not frightened, Dad – I’m pale because I’m dehydrated. I need a drink big enough to dive into.

He accepted her explanation and bought her a juice before they left the museum. But Alice knew her nightmares were far from