The Empty Grave Quotes
"Want to hear a ghost story? That’s good. I know a few."
"What about the one of the sightless blue face, pressed against the cellar window?"
"Or the apparition of the blind man holding a cane made of children’s bones?"
"What of the milk jug that poured blood; or the empty bathtub from which choking gurgles sounded after dark?"
"They represent a typical month’s work for Lockwood & Co. during that long and desperate summer."
"Most of them were written up in our casebook by George on the mornings after the events concerned."
"Not every case is in there. There’s one that was simply too terrible to be written down at all."
"For the hidden story of murder, conspiracy, betrayal—yes, and ghosts—you need the account of one who survived it."
"My name is Lucy Joan Carlyle. I talk with the living and the dead, and it sometimes gets so I can’t tell the difference anymore."
"The day’s warmth was folded up and done. It was shortly after midnight—the time when spirits wandered and all sensible folk were tucked up safe in bed."
""Do you lot have to bend over like that?" a voice asked. "It’s making my eyes water.""
""With you in that position, I’ve seen plenty. Particularly when Cubbins comes into view. It’s like watching a beluga swimming by.""
""Typical. I went into all kinds of grim, inventive detail just for you.""
""Tell him!" I hesitated. "Don’t worry," I said. "It’s fine, really. It’s cool with it.""
""Oh, of course there’s a door," the ghost said. "Why didn’t you ask me? It’s obvious enough from up here.""
""This is pitiful," the skull said. "I saw it straight off, and I don’t have an eyeball to call my own."
""Isn’t anyone going to thank me?" The skull watched disgustedly from its jar."
""No, that’ll only be for a second, and we’ll have our defenses in place by then.""
"The room was still. Up on the wall, our lantern light quivered on the iron head of Marissa Fittes."
""We’ve worked wonders to get here, and we won’t panic now. If we’re right, there won’t be anything to worry about."
""Obviously there might be a few traps," George said."
""Usually. I sometimes think incessant bickering is the oil that lubricates our efficient machine.""
""No ghosts yet. Aside from our tame one." He tapped a large glass jar perched alongside him on the block."
""Tame?" A disembodied voice that only I could hear spoke in indignation. "Tame?! Let me out of here and I’ll show that scrawny idiot how tame I am!""
""What’s it like, falling in pitch-darkness, I wonder?""
""If you took my word in any conventional sense, you’d be sitting at home with your feet up, rotting your innards with tea and chocolate biscuits."
""Skullism," pure and simple. You’re judging me by my outward appearance."
""You doubt my word solely because I’m a skull, lurking in a jar of slime-green plasm. Admit it!""
""I don’t know what you’re so upset about. You know me," it said. "I’m excitable. Can I help it if I get caught up in the action?""
""A mask and wig," he said, laughing. "It’s fake. Everything’s just fake….Everyone okay?""
""How’s it going?" the skull said casually. "I’ve only been gone five minutes, and you’ve managed to trigger two ghosts."
""Doctors can’t help him, miss." Mr. Tufnell shook his gray head sadly. "Doctors? Medics? Pah!"
""La Belle Dame Sans Merci…" Holly breathed. "The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy…They call the ghost that?""
"We all know that the epidemic of Visitors that Britain endures is mysterious and worsening, without apparent solution."
"Such matters are beyond the wit of man or woman, and we must turn to the spirits themselves to help us."
"Dear Ezekiel is learned in matters of life and death, he understands buried secrets and the minds of mortals."
"With his help, we can transcend our baser natures, and make ourselves pure."
"This idea seems absurd, and yet surely it satisfies the evidence."
"We devoutly believe that our researches, made at the other ends of the earth, have the potential to unlock great mysteries near at hand."
"If we could get into the inner regions of Fittes House, we’d no doubt find ample proof of everything."
"This is thirty-five Portland Row. We’ve always been safe here."
"Yeah, but it’s my bloody death trap, and they’re not getting in."
"The only other chance we have is to locate another gate, and go back through that."
"That’s the thing about being dead. You lose all track of time."
"Being on the Other Side somehow stopped the blood loss."
"We’ve got to risk it. We can’t wait any longer."
"Being for all intents and purposes dead plays havoc with the armpits."
"I’ve found a row of guns. These look like industrial-strength flares to me."
"Getting Kipps to safety was the most important thing."
"It’s like you were just stabbed five minutes ago. There’s no time to lose."
"You freed him from the jar. He helped you in return. Maybe that has encouraged him to do what he should have done a century ago—which is move on."
"If people knew that the Problem was probably caused by the first psychic detection agents, there’d be anarchy. Society would fall apart."
"Dark London’s just an interim stage. You linger awhile, then move on."
"We’ve done our bit. We’ll stick to simple ghosts from now on, and not think about the Other Side or its secrets anymore."
"Getting back to my theory, I think the spirit passes through those door things—however you want to call them—and reaches yet another London, but this one’s shining with light…."
"The Problem’s still here. Another half an hour, everyone will be hiding away indoors."
"It’s about being honest. DEPRAC needs to come clean."
"We’re uniquely experienced, he said; they could use our skills."