Sker House by C.M. Saunders

viewfinder and squeezed off a couple of shots. Then she took pictures of both the beds and the en suite door. When she checked the results, there was no problem. The photographs were all just what you would expect.
    Stranger and stranger.
    Intrigued, Lucy leaned forward to look at the photographs from the bar more closely. On closer inspection, she noted that not all were blurred, but instead ruined by wispy white trails that looked almost like cigarette smoke. There were also littered with coloured balls of different sizes. Several images in particular caught her attention. One was a close-up of Champ, lying prone on the floor. His reddened, downcast eyes looking straight at one of the wispy white trails that had seemingly wrapped itself around him, almost as if the sheer weight of it was pinning the dog to the floor. One of the protuberances had the sinewy appearance of a bare arm, and the tendrils of mist terminated in what could be splayed fingers. The fact that the dog acknowledged their presence indicated that the weird lights and trails were not the result of a technical fault, but rather some kind of physical manifestation.
    Something had been in the room with them.
    But if there had been any orbs of light or smoke-like substance floating around down there, she would surely have noticed. It would have been hard
not
to notice. She had been oblivious to them at the time, yet Champ obviously wasn't.
    She suddenly realized how tired she was and checked her watch. Not yet midnight, but it had been a taxing day. Maybe it was the long drive, the sea air, or the Baccardi Breezer she had put away with dinner. Whatever the cause, it was getting more and more difficult to keep her eyes open. She gathered all the especially weird pictures together into a separate folder and saved them onto the computer's desktop to show Dale, then ejected the memory card and changed into her pyjamas. After brushing her teeth she decided to forego the rest of her nightly pre-bed ritual, opting instead to curl up beneath the covers where she could savour the silence and tranquillity of this haven by the sea.
     
     
     
    Chapter 7:
     
    Another Round
     
     
     

 
    Only after Lucy had gone back to their room did Dale realize how weird she was acting. Even more weird than usual. He'd stopped trying to figure out what went on inside her head, or the head of any other female for that matter, a long time ago. But there was definitely something up with her tonight. Whoever said that men were from Mars and women were from Venus had a good point. He speculated that maybe it was Lucy's 'time of the month'. Or maybe it was just prior to her 'time of the month'. Or just after. Whichever the dangerous part was. Who could keep up? When you added up all the potentially sensitive times in the menstrual cycle, it didn't leave much of a safe window. Too many girls used it as an excuse to behave irrationally without fear of reprisals. It was nature's get-out clause.
    Oh, you have to let me get away with it, its not my fault, I'm having my period, you should be more sympathetic.
    Yeah, right.
    Laying aside the second empty bowl of strawberries and cream, Dale took a deep breath. He didn't think there was any more room left in his stomach for another crumb. Even if it was free. But he wasn't ready to go to bed just yet. He seriously doubted Lucy's announcement that she was hitting the sack had been any kind of invitation. Why did he need a moody girl, anyway? There was a bar and an eccentric barman that kept giving him freebies. That was more than enough to keep him occupied. As a sign of goodwill, he picked up the dirty dishes from the table and took them back to the bar where a grinning Machen waited expectantly.
    As Dale approached, he noticed Izzy working at a furious pace wiping down surfaces. She must have somewhere else to be tonight, he thought. Then again, didn't everybody have somewhere else to be when they were at work? “Any chance of another pint