“Great. The past few days have already been like a scary movie and when it comes to scary settings we’ve just hit the jackpot.” Alex was walking while the girls rode on their horses.
“Stop complaining.” Gwen pushed her hair behind here ears. “You don’t even believe in ghosts.”
“You might become one some day. Aren’t you supposed to wear helmets?”
Gwen scoffed at the idea. “And, who’s gonna stop me? It’s not like these horses are dangerous.”
“She’s got a point.” Robin put in. She was staring at the ground with her dark eyes and her hair veiled her face. “You’ve got to take into account other factors than you and the horse.”
“But you’re not either!” Gwen objected and Robin ignored it. Alex laughed to herself about it.
“Feel lucky that we’re in a reasonably safe environment. There are no cars in the forest and we’re not in an area where there are lots of fierce animals.”
“Well…” Alex included. “There are the rumours of the Puma and the cheetah… they got an expert to look at some prints in the forest near Dinas area and in Crymych and they confirmed they were real… and then there’s the barking, mad… hehe! Get it? Barking mad? ... well… there are the barking, mad escapees.”
Robin rolled her eyes and looked at Gwen who glanced at her and said “I think it’s time to dismount.”
Alex laughed. “Cowards!”
“Hypocrite.” Gwen uttered as she put both feet on the ground and clutched the reins. The horses’ back was as high as her head.
“Why do you even bring the horses if you don’t even intend to use them?” Alex asked.
“… Because….” Robin started. “Despite what mum says, the horses need to be ridden often. She says they shouldn’t be seen by any one. So, who’s gonna be watching us at this time of night in this place?”
“No one.” Gwen even had her finger in the air and a wide smile on her face.
“I see.” Alex sighed.
It was quiet. A few owls hooted here and there and the infamous wild dog howled in the distance. The horses whinnied as they walked next to Robin and Gwen. Alex was looking around suspiciously.
The streaks of auburn in her hair were hidden in the dark. Cold pinched her cheeks and a breeze picked up the ends of her coat. Her arms were crossed over her chest, to keep the coat closed, and her gloved hands were rolled into fists. “Why is it so cold?” She said to herself. The others had walked a little far off.
Pillars stood as trees all around them. This was the less dense part of the horticulture college. It was quite untouched. There were short grasses, with long stalks for their seed heads, all around and in some places were mock fairy circles where the teenagers had been mucking around. Of course, Gwen swore that there were a couple of real ones lying around in there and that there was a ghost of some woman who’d stumbled into one and disappeared.
Quiet lay over the entire forest. The trees whispered among themselves, with the shivering of leaves in a high breeze. Some small mice scuttled around on the floor, but Alex didn’t catch a glimpse of them as they passed by.
There was a sudden rustling in the bushes at one side. “Girls.” She paced forwards quickly and the girls turned around to stare at her.
“Hey, Alex.” A very different voice whispered form behind her.
She gasped a huge lungful of air and span with her defensive stance, ready for anything. Gwynedd stared back at her but didn’t look as shocked as he should have. He was grinning but something had changed about him and she couldn’t quite put a finger on it.
Gwen walked closer to him, holding the reins of her horse in one hand. “Have you seen any horses wondering around here?” She asked.
He paused and looked at her carefully. “Err… you’re standing next to one…”
“No, I mean other than ours. We’re looking for Mr Jenkins’s horses.” She explained. Robin stood a little further behind her, with her hand on her hip. The horses seemed a little uneasy. They were shifting from side to side with what seemed to be panic. Robin stared at them with worry then the howl answered their unasked questioned. It was a little too near for comfort.
“We should get out of here. The chances are that the horses have found their own way home, they always do, and now it’s time for us to find ours, too.” Robin nudged Gwen. “You feeling masochistic, Gwynedd?” She smiled.
“What?” He looked surprised in his eyes, narrowed by the creases of his grin.
“Well… You don’t look particularly scared.” She pointed out, talking to him but she meant for the girls to notice it. She didn’t feel secure and didn’t know why, either.
“Uhuh.” He laughed.
“Shh…” Alex signalled with a hand in the air. They all stood still. Gwynedd grinned. Gwen was smiling innocently, as she always did, but there was the usual glint in her eye every time there was something remotely mysterious. Robin looked worried.
In the quiet, they heard very quiet hoof beats. Robin was certain they weren’t the ones of Mr Jenkins’s horses. They weren’t heavy plods but almost quiet gliding of the ground, more like her horses. However, they were as still as ice.
“Hear that?” Alex said again. “Maybe…” Alex was staring at the ground and hadn’t noticed anything at all.
Robin span on her heel and was the first to see him. His hat was wide brimmed. His coat was long and made of worn, brown leather. He covered the lower part of his face with a grey bandanna, which was tied under his dark hair. His grey-blue eyes settled on Robin for a second, while she studied his ride. A magnificent black horse.
Gwen turned to follow her gaze. “That… That’s like ours…”
The air grew cold, very quickly, as they watched him slowly lift a crossbow- loaded with a black tipped bolt. A glint of light glided along the shaft.
“Gwen, get behind me.” Robin grabbed her and pushed her next to Taliesin, the horse. “Stay back and close your eyes.” Alex stood next to Gwen so she was in a box of safety, while Gwynedd backed away. He stood next to a tree, his grin wiped clean from his face.
They heard the click of something falling into place and another before the unmistakeable hum of the bolt through the air. Then, there was a ping as it hit the tree and wobbled. Robin was the only one who was looking. She was the only one who saw.
Her brother’s form changed at the instant before the bolt sped through his shadow. From a great cloud of black smoke, fluttered a sheet, dark as night. It rose into the sky, limply and uneven, and gradually took a shape more like a bird. It was a huge thing, at least five times the size of a buzzard.
Gwen turned to see the bolt protruding from the grey bark. Its uneven black, tinted with blue, surface was coated with a thick crimson liquid. The moonlight sliced along the shaft with a shining line of silver. The clouds drifted apart in the sky so even more light filled the space they stood in- as if wanting to taunt her.
However, there wasn’t light for long. A sick feeling rose in her throat and the world started to spin before everything turned black.
“Shit! Robin! She’s fainted!”
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Chapter 2
“Where did all the blood come from?” Robin asked with concern.
Gwynedd was red and his skin burned from where he’d sprinted through the front garden. The sun scorched him- he’d never got so much sun burn in thirty seconds in his life but it was already going. “You’ll never believe me but a bird just attacked me!” He laughed as if it was nothing but he’d really been scared.
“So all those chicks you’ve been bothering have now come back to bother you.” Robin kidded.
“You look bad, byt. You should go put something on that.” Alex was rubbing her eyes tiredly with her index finger along her pronounced cheekbones as she kneeled on the chair, leaning over the back. Her dark hair curled around her focussing eyes. “Errr… never mind, I think it was just a trick of the light.”
“Trick-of-the-light’s one way of saying it.” Gwynedd uttered to himself. He was standing next to the front door, half facing them as they sat seemingly innocently. Whatever the girls were doing had stopped and was only going to recommence when he was too far away to hear them. He didn’t mention this but walked through the front room into the kitchen.
The white units and tops looked grey in the dark. It was a room in the house where sunlight only came in later in the evening- mostly because of Robins’ veranda. One asset of the room was that it got a “fantastic” view of the back garden.
The back garden was barely a fraction of what their family owned. Behind were many fields of barley- that was sold to the local brewery- and corn. They were both the tall varieties. He could see the scarecrow and the totem pole from the window. His mother was an artist, so there were many strange little things lying around, such as the bench that was made from an old Citroën AX that lay out there somewhere out of view.
He poured himself a drink of water form the tap and stared at the glass on the counter. There was a strange pattern of light and shadow stretching towards him. He was thirsty, but he couldn’t make himself drink the water.
He watched his hand as he picked up the glass. He observed the fragments as they protruded from between his fingers as it collapsed in his grip.
“What the…?” he didn’t know he’d gripped it that hard, or that he could in the first place. “Shit!” He realised he was bleeding and opened his palm. Shards of glass, with droplets of blood on the fell on the counter, splashed in the water that was already there. Some grains of glass were embedded in his torn skin and he could see them sparkle amongst the blood.
With his hand uncomfortably held in front of him, he searched for a towel or something. Before he could think, he was already licking his wounds despite the danger of pricking his tongue. It tasted good. It wasn’t as usually blood could taste good, but it quenched his thirst and gave him a buzz.
“Gwynedd?” Robin walked through the hallway as Gwen and Alex headed into Gwen’s bedroom. Her hairs stood on end on the pale skin of her arms. “Gwynedd? Have you got the fans on or something?” She approached his door. It was ajar and slamming shut and opening and slamming shut again in a rhythmic motion.
A cold breeze seeped through the gap and reached through the entire corridor as if sucking all of the heat from the room. The white walls hemmed her in. She felt ill at ease as she reached out to the handle. The breeze was like cold hands grabbing hers and pulling them towards the opening.
Slowly, she pushed the door fully open, her heart beating the front of her rib cage and her breath, slow and stuttered. The hinges creaked quietly.
It was empty. The green walls were shelved up with books. His bed was unkempt and there were random papers and items of clothes over the floor. She didn’t take much notice of her surroundings. She respected his privacy.
A sudden movement on one side of the room made her jump. The blue curtains flapped in the air and waved around like a fish struggling to get back into a river. She sighed with relief and went to close the window.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Robin, you’re sister has big tits!” Alex caught the pillow Gwen threw only an inch before her eyes. They giggled and both stared up at Robin with a little surprise at the look on her face.
“What is it, Robin?” Gwen was the one who asked. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”
“You’re one to talk, Miss paranormal!” Robin laughed. “Nah, it’s nothing. I was just looking for Gwyn to take a pic’ to put on my blog. I’ll title it “Girls get their own back on man-whore”.
“And? What do the cuts look like? Are they like nail marks?” Alex grinned maliciously.
“Nah, I couldn’t find him. He wasn’t in his room but we didn’t see him leave the house and he isn’t around.”
“Maybe he’s hiding.” Alex kidded.
“How could he leave the house without us seeing him?”
“I think he used his bedroom window.” Robin offered.
“That’s absurd. We’ve already trained him up on how to open doors and he’s still using the window?”
“Stop mucking around, Al.” Robin laughed.
“Hey! If you’re gonna start picking on every little thing and turn it into some kind of ghost story then get this. Have you been hearing that eerie howling every night?”
“Look, Al, it’s just some stray dog or something. The RSPCA centre already announced that there was a lock malfunction and thirty or so dogs got loose-…”
“-Yeah! … and that could be related!” Alex hushed them with a hand sign. “I reckon, that we should go’n’ check it out next full moon! ‘Course it’s absurd, but we’ve heaps of spare time on our hands!”
“Alright, but we already know we’re not gonna find anything.”
“Aha.” Alex nodded like a child, when in fact she was eighteen.
“Alright, so it’s not just me who’s superstitious?” Gwen looked pleased.
“We’re not superstitious, we’re just-…” Robin paused. “Is that the doorbell?”
“Huh? Yeah… I’ll answer it.” Gwen offered.
“Not if I get there first!”
Robin had an unfair head start, being half in the corridor at the time, so she reached the front door long before Gwen or Alex had even started scaling the stairs.
“Yeah?” She swung the door open suddenly and half expected the person on the step to be scared out of their wits, which would be good if they were the door-to-door man.
The man who stood there was about six feet, wore a long, worn leather, trench coat styled jacket and a wide brimmed ‘cowboy’ hat. He had a white bandanna or something tied around his neck. The sun was low behind him and the world was tinted orange and black.
She coughed and tilted her head, leaning against the door frame. “Yeah?” She repeated.
“I’m here because there were reported disturbances.”
She cocked a brow at him. “Serious?”
He stepped aside and she was suspicious. She could then fully see the sun, it was still there with a few streaks of cloud here and there. He sighed, as if he’d expected her to suddenly come out with something. “Have you had any break-ins? Any attacks from animals?”
“Animals?”
“Yes.”
“You mean the dogs that escaped the pound, right? I don’t see how that corresponds with break-ins but we have been hearing them howl in the night and that’s about it. I think they’re mostly concentrated around Cardigan area, not here.”
“I see.” He turned a little red. Where’s Cardigan? “Well…”
A smirk came across her lips and her eyes narrowed. “I hope that was of help, sir. Come again if you need anything… like maps or advice on where to go.”
“Is it that obvious I’m not from around here?”
“Subtly evident.” She nodded slyly.
“Well, thank you for your help Miss…”
“Vaughan.”
“If anything does happen, Miss Vaughan, I’ll be right round.”
“Alright.” Her voice was mockingly soft.
She closed the door and turned to see Gwen was holding onto the banister for dear life as she’d just tumbled down the last three steps of the stairs. Robin was impressed and Alex was giggling from the top of the stairs.
“I hate city people; traipsing around as if they know so much about every where and as if we normal people are just thick!”
“Oh.” Was all Alex could say.
“He was alright looking though.” Robin grinned.
The door rang again. She sighed with frustration and span on her heal - slamming the door open. “Yeah?”
The man outside jumped out of his skin and stared at her with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.
“Should I come back another time, Miss Robin?” Mr Jenkins waved at Gwen and Alex through the door. Gwen let go of the banister and gave up trying to save her own neck. There was a thud as she fell, sprawled half across the floor and half on the stairs at the same time with someone’s shoes under her head.
“Hello, Sir! By the way, I got my results today and I had an A* in English language, but only an A in English lit’… so pretty disappointing there.” Obviously she hadn’t noticed that most people weren’t accustomed to speaking towards the ground to a girl who was lying on top of her sisters’ discarded boots, especially if they were wearing a skirt no matter how respectable their underwear was.
“Nah. It’s an alright time. Out of interest, did you get visited by the man with the hat, yet?”
“Which man ‘with the hat’ are you talking about?”
“The man who just left our house about ten seconds before you arrived?”
“I didn’t see any one; perhaps it was longer than ten seconds.”
A chill ran down Robins’ spine and trailed through her shoulders. “Perhaps.” She agreed. “So why is it you’re here?”
“Firstly, to ask about my best pupils’ exam results.”
“There’s always a secondly when there’s a firstly.” Gwen stated from the ground where her legs were starting to fold over her head.“Indeed. Secondly, to ask a favour of you. You girls are good with horses and one of ours has managed to free himself and is running rampage through the play park and the woods.”
Gwynedd was red and his skin burned from where he’d sprinted through the front garden. The sun scorched him- he’d never got so much sun burn in thirty seconds in his life but it was already going. “You’ll never believe me but a bird just attacked me!” He laughed as if it was nothing but he’d really been scared.
“So all those chicks you’ve been bothering have now come back to bother you.” Robin kidded.
“You look bad, byt. You should go put something on that.” Alex was rubbing her eyes tiredly with her index finger along her pronounced cheekbones as she kneeled on the chair, leaning over the back. Her dark hair curled around her focussing eyes. “Errr… never mind, I think it was just a trick of the light.”
“Trick-of-the-light’s one way of saying it.” Gwynedd uttered to himself. He was standing next to the front door, half facing them as they sat seemingly innocently. Whatever the girls were doing had stopped and was only going to recommence when he was too far away to hear them. He didn’t mention this but walked through the front room into the kitchen.
The white units and tops looked grey in the dark. It was a room in the house where sunlight only came in later in the evening- mostly because of Robins’ veranda. One asset of the room was that it got a “fantastic” view of the back garden.
The back garden was barely a fraction of what their family owned. Behind were many fields of barley- that was sold to the local brewery- and corn. They were both the tall varieties. He could see the scarecrow and the totem pole from the window. His mother was an artist, so there were many strange little things lying around, such as the bench that was made from an old Citroën AX that lay out there somewhere out of view.
He poured himself a drink of water form the tap and stared at the glass on the counter. There was a strange pattern of light and shadow stretching towards him. He was thirsty, but he couldn’t make himself drink the water.
He watched his hand as he picked up the glass. He observed the fragments as they protruded from between his fingers as it collapsed in his grip.
“What the…?” he didn’t know he’d gripped it that hard, or that he could in the first place. “Shit!” He realised he was bleeding and opened his palm. Shards of glass, with droplets of blood on the fell on the counter, splashed in the water that was already there. Some grains of glass were embedded in his torn skin and he could see them sparkle amongst the blood.
With his hand uncomfortably held in front of him, he searched for a towel or something. Before he could think, he was already licking his wounds despite the danger of pricking his tongue. It tasted good. It wasn’t as usually blood could taste good, but it quenched his thirst and gave him a buzz.
“Gwynedd?” Robin walked through the hallway as Gwen and Alex headed into Gwen’s bedroom. Her hairs stood on end on the pale skin of her arms. “Gwynedd? Have you got the fans on or something?” She approached his door. It was ajar and slamming shut and opening and slamming shut again in a rhythmic motion.
A cold breeze seeped through the gap and reached through the entire corridor as if sucking all of the heat from the room. The white walls hemmed her in. She felt ill at ease as she reached out to the handle. The breeze was like cold hands grabbing hers and pulling them towards the opening.
Slowly, she pushed the door fully open, her heart beating the front of her rib cage and her breath, slow and stuttered. The hinges creaked quietly.
It was empty. The green walls were shelved up with books. His bed was unkempt and there were random papers and items of clothes over the floor. She didn’t take much notice of her surroundings. She respected his privacy.
A sudden movement on one side of the room made her jump. The blue curtains flapped in the air and waved around like a fish struggling to get back into a river. She sighed with relief and went to close the window.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Robin, you’re sister has big tits!” Alex caught the pillow Gwen threw only an inch before her eyes. They giggled and both stared up at Robin with a little surprise at the look on her face.
“What is it, Robin?” Gwen was the one who asked. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”
“You’re one to talk, Miss paranormal!” Robin laughed. “Nah, it’s nothing. I was just looking for Gwyn to take a pic’ to put on my blog. I’ll title it “Girls get their own back on man-whore”.
“And? What do the cuts look like? Are they like nail marks?” Alex grinned maliciously.
“Nah, I couldn’t find him. He wasn’t in his room but we didn’t see him leave the house and he isn’t around.”
“Maybe he’s hiding.” Alex kidded.
“How could he leave the house without us seeing him?”
“I think he used his bedroom window.” Robin offered.
“That’s absurd. We’ve already trained him up on how to open doors and he’s still using the window?”
“Stop mucking around, Al.” Robin laughed.
“Hey! If you’re gonna start picking on every little thing and turn it into some kind of ghost story then get this. Have you been hearing that eerie howling every night?”
“Look, Al, it’s just some stray dog or something. The RSPCA centre already announced that there was a lock malfunction and thirty or so dogs got loose-…”
“-Yeah! … and that could be related!” Alex hushed them with a hand sign. “I reckon, that we should go’n’ check it out next full moon! ‘Course it’s absurd, but we’ve heaps of spare time on our hands!”
“Alright, but we already know we’re not gonna find anything.”
“Aha.” Alex nodded like a child, when in fact she was eighteen.
“Alright, so it’s not just me who’s superstitious?” Gwen looked pleased.
“We’re not superstitious, we’re just-…” Robin paused. “Is that the doorbell?”
“Huh? Yeah… I’ll answer it.” Gwen offered.
“Not if I get there first!”
Robin had an unfair head start, being half in the corridor at the time, so she reached the front door long before Gwen or Alex had even started scaling the stairs.
“Yeah?” She swung the door open suddenly and half expected the person on the step to be scared out of their wits, which would be good if they were the door-to-door man.
The man who stood there was about six feet, wore a long, worn leather, trench coat styled jacket and a wide brimmed ‘cowboy’ hat. He had a white bandanna or something tied around his neck. The sun was low behind him and the world was tinted orange and black.
She coughed and tilted her head, leaning against the door frame. “Yeah?” She repeated.
“I’m here because there were reported disturbances.”
She cocked a brow at him. “Serious?”
He stepped aside and she was suspicious. She could then fully see the sun, it was still there with a few streaks of cloud here and there. He sighed, as if he’d expected her to suddenly come out with something. “Have you had any break-ins? Any attacks from animals?”
“Animals?”
“Yes.”
“You mean the dogs that escaped the pound, right? I don’t see how that corresponds with break-ins but we have been hearing them howl in the night and that’s about it. I think they’re mostly concentrated around Cardigan area, not here.”
“I see.” He turned a little red. Where’s Cardigan? “Well…”
A smirk came across her lips and her eyes narrowed. “I hope that was of help, sir. Come again if you need anything… like maps or advice on where to go.”
“Is it that obvious I’m not from around here?”
“Subtly evident.” She nodded slyly.
“Well, thank you for your help Miss…”
“Vaughan.”
“If anything does happen, Miss Vaughan, I’ll be right round.”
“Alright.” Her voice was mockingly soft.
She closed the door and turned to see Gwen was holding onto the banister for dear life as she’d just tumbled down the last three steps of the stairs. Robin was impressed and Alex was giggling from the top of the stairs.
“I hate city people; traipsing around as if they know so much about every where and as if we normal people are just thick!”
“Oh.” Was all Alex could say.
“He was alright looking though.” Robin grinned.
The door rang again. She sighed with frustration and span on her heal - slamming the door open. “Yeah?”
The man outside jumped out of his skin and stared at her with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.
“Should I come back another time, Miss Robin?” Mr Jenkins waved at Gwen and Alex through the door. Gwen let go of the banister and gave up trying to save her own neck. There was a thud as she fell, sprawled half across the floor and half on the stairs at the same time with someone’s shoes under her head.
“Hello, Sir! By the way, I got my results today and I had an A* in English language, but only an A in English lit’… so pretty disappointing there.” Obviously she hadn’t noticed that most people weren’t accustomed to speaking towards the ground to a girl who was lying on top of her sisters’ discarded boots, especially if they were wearing a skirt no matter how respectable their underwear was.
“Nah. It’s an alright time. Out of interest, did you get visited by the man with the hat, yet?”
“Which man ‘with the hat’ are you talking about?”
“The man who just left our house about ten seconds before you arrived?”
“I didn’t see any one; perhaps it was longer than ten seconds.”
A chill ran down Robins’ spine and trailed through her shoulders. “Perhaps.” She agreed. “So why is it you’re here?”
“Firstly, to ask about my best pupils’ exam results.”
“There’s always a secondly when there’s a firstly.” Gwen stated from the ground where her legs were starting to fold over her head.“Indeed. Secondly, to ask a favour of you. You girls are good with horses and one of ours has managed to free himself and is running rampage through the play park and the woods.”
Chapter 1- The Highwayman!
Gwynedd, the twenty-two year old man, was still living with his mother since there was no point in getting a new house for him self. He was living in the small cottage next door that she owned, so he had his own privacy, and he had everything he need and was close to college so the point of getting his own house away from everyone was non existent.
It was a record braking, hot July in 2027. Global warming was beginning to slow down due to the massive efforts produced by the British public and not government policy. The sun was dazzling the country side where he lived near Narberth. The road was a darker shade of grey, where the sheer heat had melted it into a thick, gloop on the top.
His blue eyes were the mark of his mother, and his light brown hair were a memory of his father. His sister Robin seamed to inherit little but lightening wit and a tendency to fight for what she believes. He didn’t like Robin, naturally. They had different fathers, just like the entire lot of them. His father had died when he was just two, then came Robin’s father came into the picture when he was three and that was when Robin was born. He was a jerk and Gwynedd remembered very little of him.
Then came Gwen’s father who was said to be a really nice guy, he Gwyn couldn’t even remember meeting him at all. The relationship wasn’t meant to be so Rhiannon, his mother, ended it not long before Gwen was born and told Gwen’s father that he had to get on with his own life and not worry about them. Gwen was an angelic girl; her revenges were slow but long lived and brought much more pain than Gwyn or Robin could put anyone through. But Gwen would never use her revenge unless it was truly deserved; they always said that she was wise beyond her years. She was measured and fair, and that she’d make a very good judge one day. She was very articulate and cunning but still needed help from friends or siblings to get out of sticky situations.
He was about six when his mother brought her home, he didn’t even remember Rhiannon going to hospital or being pregnant. It was around about the same time as they moved into the house, the two things just drifted into their life as if unimportant. She was now a sixteen year old girl with bright blue eyes and golden blond hair in sleek sheets. Everyone loved her. She was the innocent one, as far as everyone knew, but she was picked on in school like most other girls her age.
It was Robin’s last day at school, Alex had left the year before, and Gwen was there for another two years yet but it was the summer holidays now. Alex lived over the road and had been Robin’s first best friend and stayed that way ever since, Gwen didn’t favour any of her friends, but she was more alike to Alex than any other.
Any minute now they’d be coming back from school on the hydro powered bus. Contemplating this, he decided he’d better start looking busy, as he was supposed to be fixing some tiles up there and hadn’t been doing anything but drinking beer and staring out at the patchwork of fields and forest, lined with roads, dappled with bright sunshine and the speckled glaze of pink and orange summer flowers.
He picked up the paint brush and started to do a rough job over where he’d missed, it would hide the fact that he’d been lazing all day. He glimpsed a sparkle on the line of the horizon before he started, and knew that he wouldn’t get much done before they arrived back. Quickly it turned into a thin, white snake with a steamy trail rising to the sky.
It turned and stopped here and there, leaving a few extra puffs wherever it rested. Slowly, it made it’s way up to near his house and a dozen kids got off. Seven of whom- who came from a foster family- started to head down the drive next to the house.
Alex, Gwen and Robin stepped off and crossed the lawn. “Tra Franko!” They called back to the bus driver, who waved back before putting the vehicle into gear again and driving away. Gwen was wearing her dark blue Doc Martins with the red laces and her short, pleated skirt. Her long jacket overlapped the skirt and flowed around her like a gown.
The other two were dressed in jeans and T-shirts. Their wavy dark hair could make them look almost identical but Robin had much lighter hair and a long face whereas Alex had red streaks in her almost black hair. Gwynedd didn’t care for his sister, Robin, he’d never liked her. Her father was never nice to him as a child and she shared some of his traits- the sarcasm and self worth.
Gwen was the innocent that everyone adored. Gwynedd treasured her. She had golden blond hair and cobalt blue eyes. She was intelligent, not physically capable of anything special but she knew her facts and her fictions well enough to tell you where you were going wrong.
The three of them entered the house through the front door, which was not far below him. They’d barely looked up; at least they hadn’t suspected he wasn’t doing anything. There was no point for him to stay up there as he’d finished.
He heard something move in the bushes and stared over at the scrub that crowded the wall that he would have to climb down and thought he saw something very dark. There was something sleek and long, perched under a branch… upside down. It was very still and he knew it was staring at him as he gazed at it.
He laughed at himself and shook his head. He couldn’t blink as he watched the sheer black of the object. It was still, dead still. There was quiet all around him, or maybe it was that he couldn’t hear anything while transfixed by this shadow.
“Gwynedd!!” He leapt out of his skin. His sister was calling from below.
“I’m coming!” He replied and turned to climb across to the edge of the roof. There was a ladder against the wall. It led almost through the bushes so he’d have a difficult time climbing down. Leaves and twigs flicked his face and he had the sudden impulse to pause.
The bushes were moving behind him, parting around him. As soon as he turned he was pinned against the brick wall by talons and felt something dig deep into his neck. He thought it would puncture an artery. He opened his eyes and thought he saw a face for a second, but all that was there was black. He couldn’t breath and the pain in his neck reached the bone.
In the moment he found strength to move he lifted his arms and pushed whatever it was away from himself. A trickle of something warm ran from his neck to his chest and he leapt the rest of the distance to the floor.
For a moment, he couldn’t see a thing and he thought it had attacked him again but it was just temporary blindness. In front of him was the trunk of the tree and the branches separated into twigs and leaves. It was all green; there were no shadows but the one he stood in. Whatever it was, it had gone. He felt his neck and there was nothing there but sweat and dry blood, which was also over his shirt. He looked at himself, pitifully trembling, with blurred vision.
It was a record braking, hot July in 2027. Global warming was beginning to slow down due to the massive efforts produced by the British public and not government policy. The sun was dazzling the country side where he lived near Narberth. The road was a darker shade of grey, where the sheer heat had melted it into a thick, gloop on the top.
His blue eyes were the mark of his mother, and his light brown hair were a memory of his father. His sister Robin seamed to inherit little but lightening wit and a tendency to fight for what she believes. He didn’t like Robin, naturally. They had different fathers, just like the entire lot of them. His father had died when he was just two, then came Robin’s father came into the picture when he was three and that was when Robin was born. He was a jerk and Gwynedd remembered very little of him.
Then came Gwen’s father who was said to be a really nice guy, he Gwyn couldn’t even remember meeting him at all. The relationship wasn’t meant to be so Rhiannon, his mother, ended it not long before Gwen was born and told Gwen’s father that he had to get on with his own life and not worry about them. Gwen was an angelic girl; her revenges were slow but long lived and brought much more pain than Gwyn or Robin could put anyone through. But Gwen would never use her revenge unless it was truly deserved; they always said that she was wise beyond her years. She was measured and fair, and that she’d make a very good judge one day. She was very articulate and cunning but still needed help from friends or siblings to get out of sticky situations.
He was about six when his mother brought her home, he didn’t even remember Rhiannon going to hospital or being pregnant. It was around about the same time as they moved into the house, the two things just drifted into their life as if unimportant. She was now a sixteen year old girl with bright blue eyes and golden blond hair in sleek sheets. Everyone loved her. She was the innocent one, as far as everyone knew, but she was picked on in school like most other girls her age.
It was Robin’s last day at school, Alex had left the year before, and Gwen was there for another two years yet but it was the summer holidays now. Alex lived over the road and had been Robin’s first best friend and stayed that way ever since, Gwen didn’t favour any of her friends, but she was more alike to Alex than any other.
Any minute now they’d be coming back from school on the hydro powered bus. Contemplating this, he decided he’d better start looking busy, as he was supposed to be fixing some tiles up there and hadn’t been doing anything but drinking beer and staring out at the patchwork of fields and forest, lined with roads, dappled with bright sunshine and the speckled glaze of pink and orange summer flowers.
He picked up the paint brush and started to do a rough job over where he’d missed, it would hide the fact that he’d been lazing all day. He glimpsed a sparkle on the line of the horizon before he started, and knew that he wouldn’t get much done before they arrived back. Quickly it turned into a thin, white snake with a steamy trail rising to the sky.
It turned and stopped here and there, leaving a few extra puffs wherever it rested. Slowly, it made it’s way up to near his house and a dozen kids got off. Seven of whom- who came from a foster family- started to head down the drive next to the house.
Alex, Gwen and Robin stepped off and crossed the lawn. “Tra Franko!” They called back to the bus driver, who waved back before putting the vehicle into gear again and driving away. Gwen was wearing her dark blue Doc Martins with the red laces and her short, pleated skirt. Her long jacket overlapped the skirt and flowed around her like a gown.
The other two were dressed in jeans and T-shirts. Their wavy dark hair could make them look almost identical but Robin had much lighter hair and a long face whereas Alex had red streaks in her almost black hair. Gwynedd didn’t care for his sister, Robin, he’d never liked her. Her father was never nice to him as a child and she shared some of his traits- the sarcasm and self worth.
Gwen was the innocent that everyone adored. Gwynedd treasured her. She had golden blond hair and cobalt blue eyes. She was intelligent, not physically capable of anything special but she knew her facts and her fictions well enough to tell you where you were going wrong.
The three of them entered the house through the front door, which was not far below him. They’d barely looked up; at least they hadn’t suspected he wasn’t doing anything. There was no point for him to stay up there as he’d finished.
He heard something move in the bushes and stared over at the scrub that crowded the wall that he would have to climb down and thought he saw something very dark. There was something sleek and long, perched under a branch… upside down. It was very still and he knew it was staring at him as he gazed at it.
He laughed at himself and shook his head. He couldn’t blink as he watched the sheer black of the object. It was still, dead still. There was quiet all around him, or maybe it was that he couldn’t hear anything while transfixed by this shadow.
“Gwynedd!!” He leapt out of his skin. His sister was calling from below.
“I’m coming!” He replied and turned to climb across to the edge of the roof. There was a ladder against the wall. It led almost through the bushes so he’d have a difficult time climbing down. Leaves and twigs flicked his face and he had the sudden impulse to pause.
The bushes were moving behind him, parting around him. As soon as he turned he was pinned against the brick wall by talons and felt something dig deep into his neck. He thought it would puncture an artery. He opened his eyes and thought he saw a face for a second, but all that was there was black. He couldn’t breath and the pain in his neck reached the bone.
In the moment he found strength to move he lifted his arms and pushed whatever it was away from himself. A trickle of something warm ran from his neck to his chest and he leapt the rest of the distance to the floor.
For a moment, he couldn’t see a thing and he thought it had attacked him again but it was just temporary blindness. In front of him was the trunk of the tree and the branches separated into twigs and leaves. It was all green; there were no shadows but the one he stood in. Whatever it was, it had gone. He felt his neck and there was nothing there but sweat and dry blood, which was also over his shirt. He looked at himself, pitifully trembling, with blurred vision.
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