“My God Vi I’ve killed someone!” I eyed the crumple of material lying in the middle of the road closely, somehow I knew this was no human, I did not want to see but I could not look away.

  “No Dahlia you haven’t.” I replied. She looked at me, bewilderment filling her teary eyes.

  “How can you know that from here, are…are they still breathing?” She whispered desperately. I took a deep breath trying hard to keep my voice as steady as possible, I could see the sheer terror in Dahlia’s expression and I didn’t want to frighten her any more.

  “Dahlia when I tell you this, please don’t look ahead” I tried to sound assertive but my voice was now shaking. “Whatever we just hit, it’s not a someone, it’s a something!” I saw the confusion wash like a silent wave across Dahlia’s features, her mouth opened slightly as her eyebrows crumpled and met in the middle she slowly turned her gaze towards the bundle of cloth in the middle of the road. My request of Dahlia not to look had been in vain and she now turned to face the figure who had recovered from our collision and was crouching in a defensive position like a wild animal and snarling at us.

  An awful rage that could be felt from inside the safety of the car permeated from the figure. The very sight of this inhuman being compounded our fear. It was hairless and its rubbery skin shone against the reflection of the newly rising moon. Its long sharp upward pointing ears were almost bat like and its fangs glistened threateningly under its curled black lips. The creatures red eyes were the most ominous feature it possessed, in shape they resembled a tigers I had once seen during a family trip to the zoo. The light of the one functioning headlight, reflected in its eyes, bright red with the menace of a wild predator man had instinctively known to fear for centuries. The leaves rustled a warning of danger in the wind. Dahlia began,

  “What the bloody…!?” but before the last words had time to reach her lips the angered creature flew towards the car in one spectacular movement and landed on the roof with an almighty BANG!

  Dahlia exited the car first followed closely by me, on the passenger’s side. It was only a moment of hesitation as we stood at either side of the car looking up at an enraged creature. It was a moment too long, the creature made a thrusting movement with its hand that seemed to eject a jet of red light that whooshed into the hood of the car ripping a gaping hole directly down the centre. The screech of tearing metal made my ears throb and I began to wonder whether I had fallen asleep in the car and was having a strange and terrifyingly dream. A wayward shard of metal that bit into my cheek put an end to that theory. Through the fireworks of metal sparks, I attempted to search the dark for Dahlia but the creatures gaze came upon her first. It glided down towards the driver’s side of the car and in the faltering beam of the headlight, I caught glimpses of Dahlia diving out of the way of a flash of light that hit the dry stone wall and blew cracked grey rubble into the air. Dahlia had also hit the wall and was unconscious, a single streak of blood began to trickle from an angry gash in her forehead. The creature began to round on Dahlia, it let out another terrifying shriek of anger pulling its spindly arms back, its long thin fingers and palms flat as if it was pushing against an invisible force. I had just witnessed this movement and in a moment, the creature would use the same forward thrusting motion it had used to blow apart the wall. Panicking and terrified, I reached for a large chunk of the stone wall that had landed close to my foot I pulled back my arm and released with all the force I could possibly muster. The stone flew through the air silently and landed with a THUNK on the back of the creatures hairless head. It turned it gaze to me, its tiger-eyes ablaze with rage and I knew that I had succeeded in diverting its attention from Dahlia but now it was coming for me.

  A mixture of relief and dread bubbled in my chest and I felt the adrenaline rise in my body, urging me to flee for my survival. I bounded towards the woods in order to lure the creature safely away from Dahlia. I headed off with such ferocious force that I felt my mobile wobble loose and tumble from my pocket falling to the ground with a crack, scooping it up I stuffed it back into my work jeans. The creature followed behind more rapidly than I could have imagined so I weaved away from my original course and began to follow a small but well beaten track further into the woods than I had intended to go. I could hear the bracken and branches cracking under the weight of my feet, the light of the moon reflected through the gaps in the canopy of leaves. I was acutely aware that the creature was still pursuing me gliding soundlessly over the wooden debris I left in my wake, a snarling sound escaping through it razor sharp teeth. I pressed on, running so fast that my throat became dry and began to burn. Gasping, I reached the clearing of Spider Hollow. My shock at my surroundings was quickly replaced by fear of my pursuer, I crossed the hollow as rapidly as my failing legs would allow. I leapt onto the body of the giant grassy spider and tumbled down to the opposite side. I pulled myself upright. I was now breathless and gasping in the shadow of the ramshackle belfry. The creature reached the clearing of the hollow and spied my position easily in the dark, its tiger-eyes shone like candle flames. My options were narrow I could not elude my terrifying stalker much longer, although I liked to think of myself as relatively healthy I was not in the pristine physical condition it would have taken to outrun this, this…thing. With limited options, I headed for the stone steps winding up the centre of the ruined tower.

  The structure of the tower was clearly unstable and I began to regret my hasty decision almost instantly, questioning why I had chosen to corner myself at the top of a high and dangerous structure with a ferocious and enraged creature after me? When I reached the top of the tower, where I assumed a bell had once hung, I could feel the cool night air caress my sweaty skin. There were four stone archways supporting a cone shaped stone roof that had huge cobwebs twisting into the centre. I skipped over a gap that had once had a floorboard in its place and landed a little too heavily on the opposite side cutting the palm of my left hand on a cracked floorboard. A cloud of dust erupted around me causing my already burning throat to dry even further although I did not dare to cough. I could hear the creature’s snarls at the foot of the staircase. The noise carried upwards with added clarity, reverberating an echo around the stone stairwell as it evolved from a snarl into a deep throaty chuckle. The creature knew it had me cornered and it was reveling in my terror at my fourth coming demise. All was lost and as I accepted this fact, I felt a strange sense of relief that although I was surely doomed at least while the creature had been preoccupied with me Dahlia would have had the chance to recover and make her escape. I looked toward the clearing of the hollow imagining only a short way away Dahlia was now rousing with the relative safety of the distance between her and the awful creature. Just as that thought created a tiny bubble of defiance in my mind that I would need to harbour in order to face this creature, I caught a glimpse of Dahlia as she emerged into the mouth of the clearing. Surely, she had not followed the danger in order to save me?

  “Oh no!” I whispered in despair and desperation, a sinking feeling entering my gut. Before I had time to react to the situation two strange things happened at once. Firstly, my wicker necklace began to glow like hot iron against my neck burning into the flesh beneath my work shirt. Secondly, an old wooden door began to materialise in the archway that I was facing, obscuring my view of the clearing. A cast iron circular handle hung from the heavy door, which had a sharp crack down the centre. The door steadily took full form completely blocking the arch. I swiveled on the spot to see the creature ascend into the loft; a menacing smirk took shape on its face, black gums protruding under its thin lips. A face that I did not quite understand quickly replaced the horrifying expression. The creature saw the doorway behind me and a look of shock and awe rearranged its features into a face that looked almost amusing bulging tiger-eyes and gawping fanged mouth.

  “Mistress,” it breathed to itself in a distinctly rasping voice. I took the opportunity of the creature’s momentary distraction to try to escape. I formulated the plan that I was going to try the door and if it opened, I would jump out of the arch in hope that I could land on the relatively soft grassy verge of the spider’s rump. I pulled on the handle and the door gave a long and drawn out creak. I looked back at the frozen awestruck creature and jumped.

  Chapter Two - The Tale of the Sorceress

  I DIVED DESPERATLEY out of the door, expecting to feel the downward pull of gravity as I rushed towards the ground. Instead, I felt an upward draw as if caught in a jet stream. It catapulted me so fast through the air that I found it impossible to draw any breath into my lungs. I wanted to struggle, trying to prize my arms away from my sides or wriggle my legs but I was moving with such a force that it was hopeless. I imagined myself like a speeding bullet travelling through the skies with no choice or control over its destination. Colours and sounds all blurring into one singular fluid torrent. I reasoned that I had probably died when I hit the ground or maybe the creature had caught me with its jet of red light. That would certainly explain why I couldn’t breathe. After all the dead don’t need to do they? That’s when my thoughts turned to my parents and how they would feel when they discovered that their only daughter had left the earth. My heart ached, I at least wanted the chance to say goodbye to them. I wondered if there would be any way to communicate with them when I arrived, well…wherever it was I would eventually arrive at. I began to draw hurried breaths in a panic. I hated to think that I was about to cause that kind of pain to the people I loved the most. Then it occurred to me, I was breathing, I was alive after all and I was slowing down.

  The force had now decreased to the extent that I managed to crank my head backward, I could see I was heading towards a coastline. A crumbled tower almost identical to the one I had just thrown myself from sat tentatively by the beach. There were four archways positioned at the very top of the belfry, with no bell to hold guard over the loft of the tower. It was situated on the edge of a small grass verge overlooking the sea. I was on course towards the tower, descending now, my destination was one of the towers archways. My heart thumped against my ribcage as I flew through the arch like a well-aimed arrow and landed with a thud on the floor of the belfry. A door identical to the one I had just witnessed in Spider Hollow creaked to a close and disappeared into nothingness before my eyes.

  Now that I was out of the immediate danger posed by a creature I had never encountered before throughout my entire sixteen years, and now I was not hurtling at great speed through the midnight sky, my head swam with confusion. What had just happened to me? How had I ended up here in this place? And what the bloody hell had been chasing me? The only logical conclusion that I could reach was, that Dahlia and I had been in a collision and I had to be in hospital. Obviously, I must be comatose and suffering from the effects of the drugs that are fed into your system when you suffer some kind of immense trauma. It had all felt so real, the running through the woods, the burning of the necklace and the flying through the air but then it would, wouldn’t it? The realisation that to be in a state of unconsciousness this severe must mean I was pretty badly injured, imbued me with a new sense of fear. Who would I be when I awoke, would I still be the same old me? Would I need months of therapy to recover myself? I refused to explore the possibility that I might wake up ‘locked-in’ my own body. A kind of living death that only the luckiest of people emerged from. My heart beat at a thousand pulses per minute. Fear was overtaking my body, making my whole being shiver involuntarily. ‘Come on Violet, Don’t do this to yourself’ I told myself, I had to calm down. Even in this new state of consciousness, I was weary. Was it possible to sleep when you were already unconscious? I didn’t know but my body was telling me I needed to.

  I relaxed a little and stared out of the archway at the full moon that beamed enough light into the belfry to illuminate the whole room. The stone brickwork glistened greyish blue in the moonlight and the wooden floorboards were covered in a thick layer of dust that now coated the back of my work uniform. It was working its way into and around the strands of my hair, it dispersed into the atmosphere whenever I adjusted position.

  I inhaled the salty sea air and listened to the waves gently caressing the pebbled beach. I counted the bricks for a short while before I concluded that the best course of action would be to lay still and wait for sleep to wash over me. Eight hundred and seventy one bricks later, I finally drifted off with the hope that when I did awaken I would be in a hospital bed, staring into the concerned faces of my parents and my best friend would be okay.

  The dream once again captured my mind, the smell of the damp evening grass, the tempting whispers of the breeze, the translucent silver of the brook and that same awful screech. This time the mysterious sound was not the final image of my slumberous state. Upon hearing the screech, I raised my eyes from the water and observed with terror that on the opposite bank to where I stood, the creature waited to make its move.

  The sun rose and shone through the east archway of the belfry. I opened my eyes to watch it flood the room with daylight. The same eight hundred and seventy one bricks now illuminated with light and no concerned parents in sight.

  “Oh dear,” I sighed in frustration and fear at not being able to wake from this perpetual dream. What did my future hold, would I ever truly wake?

  “SSSHHH,” warned a soft female voice from below “Did you hear that?” I couldn’t be asleep. Not even in my most vivid dreams did I ever hear the voices of others. That was with the exception of my one recurring dream, a dream that was truly an exception in its realism. No, I was transported last night, the portal of air that caught me and catapulted me into the nights sky was real. I really was lying confused and anxious in this unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar people below me, still talking in hushed voices. I did not recognise the unusual yet subtle tones of the accent and although the voices sounded friendly enough, I still felt a very real sense of danger, a primal fear of the unknown. My hands were trembling as I pushed myself onto my feet.

  “Naaaw,” a male was now speaking, the same ring to his voice.

  “Well I definitely heard something, I’m not mad don’t you know!” The female retorted somewhat defensively. The dialect seemed very unusual to me.

  “Well I never said you were did I? Came down here to look with you didn’t I? For all the thanks I’m going to get for it.” The male replied disappointedly.

  “Oh yeah and what thanks were you expecting from me then Burzel Treeclasp?” The female replied.

  With no other option, I cautiously began to ascend the deep stone stairs. Maybe these people would know where I was. If they were friend not foe, they may tell me how to get home. I noticed their voices had a distinctively Welsh ring to them. Surely, I hadn’t somehow ended up in Wales!

  “Well I don’t know do I? A tray of honey scones would go down nicely I suppose.” I could practically hear the hunger in the male’s voice with the mention of scones. My own stomach gave an approving rumble.

  I reached the last step as the male and female stepped into the entrance of the Belfry. I scanned them slightly, surprised at how small they were in stature. They couldn’t have been more than three and a half feet high, yet they were definitely adults. Their faces were wider than usual with fat rounded cheeks that made them look almost childlike, but not quite. Their mouths were wide and thin. They had stumped yet broad noses that spread across their faces and huge eyes that turned up subtly at the tips. The woman had curled dark brown hair pulled up on the top of her head by a chain of daisies’s and a scarlet smock with an apron tied round the front. The male had ruffled red hair and freckles scattered like buttercups across his cheeks. The woman’s huge eyes widened further as she noticed me.

  “GNARL!” The male yelled in alarm. As he turned and ran head-on into the door he obviously forgot he had pulled shut, he knocked himself out.

  “That’s not a Gnarl you fool,” the brown-haired woman didn’t seem to realise her companion was completely unconscious. “That’s a girl, and I’ll bet she’s the one that’s come in through the gate.”

  “I beg your pardon,” I began, instantly put at ease by these amiable looking beings. “But what gate?”

  “Merrydian’s Gate of course, how else would you have got here?” The woman spoke as if she was explaining something blatantly obvious that I should somehow be able to grasp.

  “I’m sorry” I continued, feeling painfully ignorant “But I think I hit my head or something, I’m not even sure where here is, am I in Wales?”

  The woman let out a hearty laugh for someone so small.

  “No my deary, you’re definitely not in Wales.” I took a moment to review her expression and concluded that she was telling the truth. She registered my look of confusion and her amusement at my predicament turned to sympathy. “Look, come with me I’ll take you to someone who might be able to explain all of this better than I can.” Concluding that I didn’t have much choice in the matter I nodded my head in agreement. “Come on then Burzel let’s get a move on.” The woman turned to her dazed companion, who had roused and now propped himself up on his elbows in order to get a better look at me.

  We headed up a rocky track that led away from the beach towards lush grass fields that were scattered with daisies. The man named Burzel decided to walk a few paces behind, so the brown-haired woman and me were left to advance onwards in an awkward silence. We continued along the pathway occasionally passing what looked like tiny wooden farmhouses. They reminded me of a children’s playhouse on Wickersley lane I sometimes caught a glimpse of when passing an open garden gate, only they were longer and wider as if they had extra rooms built onto them. Some had honeysuckle or clematis climbing around the structure, which added a pleasant smattering of colour to the dull grey oak they were all crafted from. Others had animals out in the pastures with what I initially thought were small children, sat on wooden stools milking cows, on closer inspection however, it became clear that these farmers and milkmaids were fully-grown adults. They were simply very small adults much the same as my present companions. After around three miles walking, we reached a large wooden signpost that stood at a crossroads in the dirt path we were following. I read it aloud more to myself than my new acquaintances who, I assumed, had been down this path countless times.

 

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