The Screaming Staircase

Lockwood is in a dark and quiet mood the next day, and when he finally speaks in the mid-afternoon, it’s only to ask about upcoming cases. He is disappointed to hear George’s list of fairly harmless ghosts and shadows and wants to attract larger, more lucrative cases. This desire is out of character for Lockwood, and his strange behavior escalates with complaints about how Scotland Yard is angry about the fire. Moments later, they are visited by a particularly strict officer from the Department of Psychic Research and Control (DEPRAC), the organization dedicated to overseeing all ghost-hunting agencies. Inspector Barnes seems proud to deliver the news that DEPRAC refuses to support Lockwood in the recent accident and will not help them pay for the $60,000 in damages that the Hope family is demanding within four weeks’ time.

Furthermore, he tells Lockwood that going into a Type Two haunting without iron chains, proper planning, or properly trained agents was his own mistake. The inspector then insults Lockwood’s family heirlooms and accuses Lockwood and his teammates of being nothing more than children at play. He notices the ghost-jar and taps it, and when he sees a faint outline of the ghost, he jumps back in terror and accuses Lockwood of recklessness for even having it. After the inspector leaves, Lockwood admits that he doesn’t have the money to pay off the Hopes, but his optimism reigns supreme as he proclaims his confidence in their ability to gain a high-profile case and earn the money in time. He heads off to bed, and George admits to Lucy that people have begun canceling appointments after hearing about the fire. Lucy wonders why they are being punished rather than praised for their hard work.

Lucy awakes in the middle of the night, exhausted and in immense pain. She watches the ghost-lamp flicker on and off across the street and feels a strange, immaterial weight pressing down upon her. She becomes aware of the fact that she doesn’t want to move or do anything and begins to feel oddly cold; it is only then that she realizes she is in the presence of something otherworldly. She looks at her pile of clothing on the chair across the room and notices that it seems much larger than usual; indeed, there is a black shadow immersed within it. Defenseless and mostly paralyzed, she manages to roll onto the floor, and the shape hovers over the bed. Lucy hurls herself underneath the bed and out the other side, and as the shape moves toward her, she gets up and bolts out the door and down the stairs, running to Lockwood’s bedroom as the shape starts to glow with other-light. Lockwood opens the door and grabs the only thing he has nearby, a childhood mobile constructed with iron. He tells Lucy to throw a boot at George’s door to wake him, and George retrieves several bombs, salts, and other equipment to deal with the ghost. When they all go back upstairs, they find nothing, and Lucy feels nothing. George wonders if Lucy is losing her mind, and Lockwood asks if she took one of his artifacts. Lucy thinks for a moment and remembers the necklace she took from the girl at the Hope house. Suddenly, the ghost of the girl appears behind George and Lockwood, and Lucy recognizes her immediately as Annabel. She cries out in fear, and George swings his rapier as Lockwood strikes with his mobile. The ghost vanishes as a cold breeze strikes the room, and George steps on the necklace. Lucy admits to taking the necklace from the house, smiling awkwardly as George stows it safely in a silver-glass jar.

The next morning, Lucy is faced with a barrage of frustration and questions from Lockwood, who is shocked that she would be so reckless as to take the necklace, particularly without telling him. He warns her against keeping secrets about their work, and George warns her about the dangers of carrying around an unguarded Source. At first, Lucy is defiant and defensive and tries to explain her actions away, but eventually, she is subdued into silence, and Lockwood announces that he plans to have the necklace destroyed. To make matters worse, news of the fire has gone international, and the morning has been filled with cancellation calls.

Lucy asks if she can inspect the necklace, knowing that it is the girl’s last connection to the living world, and Lockwood agrees. She holds it up to the light and starts to hear the voices of a man and woman talking; then, she notices a Latin inscription on the necklace that reads “Tormentum meum Laetitia mea” (162). Suddenly, Lockwood has an idea: solving the case of the girl’s murder could be a major source of attention and clientele for the company. His sullen mood vanishes, and he looks at Lucy with pure fascination, asking her to see if she can sense anything else from the locket. When Lucy picks it up, she feels the girl’s entire relationship with her lover in an instant: a repetitive cycle of love, pain, anger, and reconnection, until the anger converges into a final surmounting terror that ends in a scream and then silence. Lucy realizes that she herself screamed and feels shaken by the experience. She is certain that Annabel was killed by her lover.

Lockwood, Lucy, and George decide to conduct further research on Annabel. Along the way, they start to feel more optimistic about their problem, and George discovers that the inscription on the necklace means “My torment, my bliss” (170). Lucy confirms that this sentiment mirrors what she felt and heard. After a train ride, they pass by the headquarters for Rotwell’s psychic investigation organization and head to the building that houses the city’s newspaper archives. George finds stacks of newspapers and gives them to the others, and as they begin reading, they are approached by a group of boys from the Fittes agency. All are wearing coordinated uniforms, and the oldest, Kipps, starts bothering Lockwood and teasing him about the fire. He tells Lucy that Lockwood is cursed and that bad things happen to everyone he knows. George points out Kipps’s terrible mortality rate for his group and notes that his fly is undone; this embarrasses Kipps, who pulls out his rapier. Lockwood engages him in a brief swordfight and finally flings Kipps’s sword straight up into the ceiling. Kipps warns Lockwood that he will soon be shut down, and he and his cohorts leave. Moments later, Lockwood finds an article on Annabel’s boyfriend. His name was Hugo Blake, and he was brought in for questioning, which revealed that he drove Annabel home the night she died. He claimed to no longer be involved with her and was soon released without charges. They decide to contact DEPRAC to tell them their findings, as well as report it to the newspapers. In a fit of excitement, Lockwood leaves to implement this plan.

A news article is published about the incident at the Hopes’ house. It covers the discovery of Annabel Ward’s body and spreads the fiction that the ghost started the fire and Lucy sought to recover the necklace in order to bring her justice. The article quotes Lockwood and his claims of the team’s skills and bravery. Lockwood is proud of the article and discusses it as the team stands in a garden waiting for a ghost to appear. George thinks that telling the press was a mistake and reports that DEPRAC has already gone to arrest Hugo Blake. The article has not brought them any new cases, and the current case is likely to be their last. In this case, a woman reported her children seeing a shadow standing in the garden near a tree with large branches, and George’s research revealed a suicide by hanging that occurred there. As they talk, the shadow of a man appears. His neck is tilted as he stares up at the tree with a rope in his hand. He flings the rope up, and George throws a salt bomb at him, causing him to writhe and vanish. Lucy asks why George attacked when the ghost wasn’t harming them. The next day, a piece of rope is found embedded in the bark of the tree, and the tree is cut down.

When they return home that night, a policeman is waiting to take them to DEPRAC. The group has no choice but to agree, and they soon find themselves at the DEPRAC headquarters. While they wait for Barnes, George shares his recent research and shows the others some photographs of Hugo and Annabel. In one photograph, Annabel is  wearing the necklace at a gala, and in another, Hugo stands alone. Barnes arrives and asks to speak with Lucy alone. He takes her down to a basement and asks her if she can communicate with ghosts, to which Lucy replies that it is more like hearing fragments of the past. Barnes takes Lucy into a small room and tells her that he would like her to look at Blake, whom he arrested earlier that day. Lucy pleads with him not to make her do this, but Barnes insists that she will be safe since she will view Blake through a one-way mirror. Lucy realizes that she has no choice but to agree, and when Barnes draws the curtain back, Hugo is revealed to her. He is old and sunken but maintains his well-dressed style despite his old age and haunting features. Lucy forces herself to look directly into his eyes to see if she can sense anything, and suddenly Hugo meets her gaze through the mirror. He smiles at her, and it seems as though he can see her through the glass. Lucy demands to stop, and Barnes reluctantly lowers the curtain.

On the way home, Lucy is in hysterics as Lockwood tries to calm her down. She is angry that his article has drawn attention to her and her abilities, and she believes that Hugo Blake read the article and knew that it was her on the other side of the glass. She worries that he will come after her if he is set free. George thinks it’s impossible that Blake could have seen Lucy, and Lockwood reminds her that Barnes is a terrible person who has no jurisdiction over their lives. He is confident that Blake will be charged and sent to prison, and his conviction calms Lucy. When they arrive home, they find the ghost-lamp broken and see a light moving around inside the house. Lockwood quickly devises a plan to corner the intruders in the office below and use whatever means necessary to get them to surrender. They search the house in utter silence before descending to the basement, where they find a man inside the trophy room examining Sources with his back turned to them. When Lockwood speaks, the man spins around and draws his rapier, as do the children. The man then begins taking jars off the shelves and tossing them forward. Angry spirits spring from each, attacking George and Lucy, and Lockwood enters into a duel that ends when Lockwood manages to stab the man in the abdomen. The intruder tries to escape, punching George on the way. He runs up the stairs and smashes through a window, and Lockwood throws a firebomb that lands too late as the intruder escapes. Lockwood worries that the necklace is gone, but Lucy reveals that she has had it around her neck the whole time.

Lucy tries to explain that she felt the need to guard the necklace in order to keep Annabel close until they could solve her case. She feels connected to Annabel after what she sensed from the necklace and feels an obligation to help her now. Lockwood finds this concerning, as Lucy is once again keeping secrets and seems to be bonding with a ghost. His mind returns to the issue of the intruder, who likely wanted to steal the necklace. They decide to inspect the necklace for more clues and discover that it opens to reveal a code: “A W H.II.2.115” (214). Lockwood decides that it should be taken to DEPRAC, as it might expose Blake somehow. Just then, the phone rings, and George announces that a new client, the Chairman of Fairfax Iron, is on his way over. The Chairman, John Fairfax, is extremely wealthy, and his company produces virtually all of the iron products for the country. He soon arrives as Lockwood’s headquarters, and the others prepare themselves to make the best possible impression. Fairfax is a well-dressed, thin man with an undeniably commanding presence. He sits down and proposes a case to Lockwood that is sure to provide a handsome reward. Lockwood lies and says that his company is in good standing, but Fairfax sees through the act and demands honesty, for he knows that the company has been struggling since the fire. He explains that one of his properties, an ancient home called Combe Carey Hall, has been repurposed several times and was haunted long before the Problem. Furthermore, whatever haunts the building is responsible for countless deaths.

Fairfax admits that even though he cannot usually sense spiritual energy, the house is rife with it. Two tales about the house’s hauntings stand out from all the rest: “the Red Room and the Screaming Staircase” (223). The Red Room is said to be so haunted that it kills all who enter, and the staircase, once the scene of a tragic death, is now said to howl on occasion. Fairfax presents a photograph of the house that seems to show a figure standing in the Red Room. He explains that the West Wing of the house is haunted and that the East Wing, guarded with iron, is not. Fairfax then reveals that the previous team, a group from the Fittes agency, was all found dead after spending a single night in the Red Room. He offers to pay for the lawsuit upon the group’s arrival at the mansion and to pay them an additional large sum if they are able to find the Source and handle it—without the use of any fire. Fairfax notes that his terms are non-negotiable, and he needs the group to start in two days. Without deliberation or time to consider, Lockwood agrees to take the case.