Free The Haunting of Blackwood House by Darcy Coates

reached a shape on her side of the room and pulled the fabric away to expose a wardrobe. She opened the door, but the inside was empty. “We won’t press criminal charges.”
    Neil’s beam of light shook faintly as he directed it into each dark crevice and hiding spot he passed. The deep shadows were playing tricks on Mara’s eyes, so she searched slowly and methodically as they continued along the length of the building and pulled the cloths off each piece of furniture. By the time they reached the opposite wall and faced each other, Mara was shivering from the frigid air.
    “Did we miss them?” Neil mouthed.
    Mara frowned and shook her head. They’d both been thorough, she knew. Every gap a person could hide in and every cupboard had been searched. She paced back along the attic until she reached the largest hole in the roof. While the others were no bigger than her head, this gap was easily wide enough for a person to climb through. Mara pushed her torso through it, ignoring the faintly panicked noises Neil was making, and shone her torch across the roof. It was empty. She then directed her beam to the front lawn and scanned over the shrubs and trees clustering about the driveway.
    “My best guess,” Mara said, pulling back inside, “is they got out through this hole and climbed down the side of the building. Which means they wanted to avoid being caught and will move on pretty quickly.”
    “Okay.” Neil looked relieved. He turned his light across the attic a final time. “Okay, cool. I really hate this, Mara.”
    “Hah! Yeah, I know.” She turned away from the hole. “C’mon. It’d be smart to search the house before we go to sleep, but I’m pretty sure we won’t be disturbed tonight.”
    They wove towards the open trapdoor, picking their way around the boxes and discarded furniture. Mara paused beside one large cardboard carton and nudged the lid open with her shoe. Inside was a stack of VHS tapes. “Do you think this is all from the last owners?”
    “I don’t know how long they lived here, but some of this stuff looks… well, ancient.” Neil waved his torch towards a tarnished, scuffed grandfather clock. “Some of the boxes look like they’d be twenty years old, but others are almost falling apart. Maybe a series of owners left their unwanted possessions here.”
    Mara reached the exit and began climbing down the narrow stairs. Neil followed and pulled the trapdoor back in place behind them. Once they were on the second floor, she stretched. “Okay, ready to search this place? Just in case?”
    “I wouldn’t sleep otherwise.”
    “Sure. We’ll cover more ground if we split up—” Neil frowned, and Mara chuckled as she gave him a playful shove. “That was a joke. Calm down.”
    They moved through the upper floor quickly. Mara stood in the hallway, watching both the staircase up and the staircase down, while Neil went into the rooms one by one and ensured they were empty. Then they moved to the ground floor, where they repeated the motions; she guarded the stairs at the back of the foyer and the front door while he cycled through the downstairs rooms. By the time he appeared in the dining room entrance and shrugged, Mara was completely sure they were alone. She kept her smile bright and her trembling hands discreetly hidden as she went to him. “See? No one got murdered.”
    “Yeah.” Neil sighed. He seemed to be relaxing. “Hey, did you know you have a basement?”
    Mara raised her eyebrows. “I have a basement?”
    “You do. I thought it was a cupboard at first, but there’s a door that opens onto a stairwell.”
    “Damn, this is the house that just keeps on giving. Where is it?”
    Neil followed her as she darted into the kitchen. “It’s in what I’m assuming is the recreation room. I didn’t search it, though—the dust was thick enough to show no one had been down there.”
    “Well, let’s check it out now.” Mara hurried through the kitchen and into the recreation