Chapter 5

When Gwen woke up again, Alex and the other person had gone. Robin was sitting in front of the computer, reading something she’d found on the internet.
“Hey.” Gwen murmured. “Are you going through my faves or something?”
“Hm?” Robin was startled and looked towards her sister, tiredly. “I just want to know what this whole occult thing is about. It’s not half as scary as they make it sound… all these prosperity spells and all that.”
“Most of those are a bunch of crap.” Gwen mumbled. “It’s stuff on ghosts, demons and all that that gets me interested.”
“Oh… so it really is as scary as it sounds… well, don’t sacrifice me to a heathen God or something in a hurry, since I’m not a virgin.”
“Blatantly.” Gwen scoffed. “Why the sudden interest?”
“I don’t know.”
Did Robin also sense something about that doctor? Did she also feel the intensity of his presence? A presence that seemed to wash away the severity of what had happened the night before with something that seemed a million time more menacing.
“What was that doctors’ name.”
“Doctor Roberts. He lives not far from here and that’s how he arrived so quickly.” Robin answered, while she combed through another horoscope site and found that she really liked the Libra she was supposed to be.
“Hmmm…”
Robin spun suddenly on the chair and looked at Gwen with a wide smile and thankfully less intense brown eyes. “He was really hot, wasn’t he?”
“No. He wasn’t.” Gwen answered simply. There was no argument behind it. He was frightening.
“Normally that kind of guy is the one that takes your breath away, Gwen. You must be ill. Mysterious, confident, handsome Goth… usually on the slightly creepy side of life.”
He did take my breath away. She thought, quietly, but didn’t utter a word until she managed to ask. “What happened, Bobby?”
“Last night? Gwynedd… He… I can only think that he’s dead but it doesn’t make sense to me. Why? How? What the hell is going on?”
“The… Highwayman.” Gwen whispered. “He shot our brother.”
“Highwayman?” Robin was already thinking of ghosts and ghoulies when such an old figure was being mentioned. The highwayman would steal from people as they rode their carriages along unguarded forest paths. Often, they were the subject of romantic novels and poetry.
“I don’t know what we’re dealing with.” Gwen had turned to ignore-everything-else-I’m-going-occult-mode and there was no stopping her. “Damn whatever made our mum cut her holiday by three days!”


Alex walked slowly down the driveway. Out of the three girls, she was the one who’d had the easiest time. She’d been able to sleep that night but she was still thinking about all of it. Nothing seemed to add up.
Today, she was a babysitter yet again. Jasmine Thomas, the daughter of one of the local richies, was supposed to be babysitting for her parents, who were away. However, she wanted a day off so Alex was getting paid 7 pounds an hour to baby-sit and an extra tenner to keep her mouth shut about it.
The house, mansion, was surrounded by a thick would which seemed to occupy all of the area that the long driveway took. Usually, for such a distance Alex would use her bike but she’d forgotten where she’d left it before she’d dropped by Robins’. Everything was so confusing. She felt as if she could be taking the day off for emotional trauma but nothing felt real. In fact, she could even laugh at it in her mind. What was that about?
It was strangely quiet that day. Sasha, the dog, wasn’t barking so loud and the geese weren’t anywhere to be seen. She felt like the character in the films that’s walking into a trap and, even if the sings were around her, she’s still walking into it, making you scream ‘turn back!’ at the screen all the time, but there was just nothing.
She reached the huge white house, despite the ghouls that should have been lurking around behind her as she quietly stepped through the gate. No one was there to greet her, not even the children.
The front door was wide open, and loud music was pouring out from within.
Suddenly, and not at all comfortingly, she heard the barking of Jasmines’ dog. Damnit. I’m the one who dies because she didn’t hear people on the other side of the screen. Damnit. Where are the stupid cameras?
From behind the huge clump of Rhododendrons came the sound of whining. She wondered what had got into Sasha now, hoping that she hadn’t snagged her collar on something because she was definitely not going to check this one out. It would be like wondering voluntarily into the jaws of premature, painful and rather gruesome death.
Suddenly a stranger dog sped out from under cover and ran towards her. She had no time to react before the sleek, black animals had leapt on her and she was on the floor having her face licked thoroughly. Its’ paws weighed down on her shoulders so heavily that he must have been carrying someone on him or something. She lifted her hands and stroked his neck the way Sasha liked it.
When he suddenly turned and ran away, panting and wagging his tail, she assumed she’d given him his satisfaction.
She lifted herself from the floor and rubbed her face with her hands. When she opened her eyes again she was startled to see there was someone standing in front of her.
“Have you seen a black dog go by here by any chance?”
He was tall, slim, with enough muscle but not too much, dark haired, green eyed and barely clothed. His face was an image of innocence, even if he was wearing just jeans, a strange choker styled like a dog collar and no shirt at all.
“Err… He pounced on me and ran off.” She answered.
“I wouldn’t have run off if I’d had the chance to pounce on you.”
Woah… He’s skipped pretty much everything including introduction.
“Err… sorry.” He pulled an apologetic face. “I’m Siôn. I’m the new dog handler. And… flirting without thinking is just a habit of mine when I’m around a pretty girl.”
She didn’t expect him to apologise for the second time. Don’t pretend you’re not having fun. “I’m Alex. I’m the baby sitter. Has Jasmine already gone?”
“Yeah… the boys are on the wiis so I think it won’t do any harm to leave them for a bit.”
He was half excusing staying outside as if she was the one who’d suggested it, even if it hadn’t even been suggested yet. “Hmmm…” She had no idea what to say. “I’d better make sure that they’re ok. They’ll probably fight if I just leave them there.”
She headed into the house, through the wide open front door, and walked the long corridor that led to the living room. She knew that he was following her, probably for lack of else to do.
The boys weren’t fighting. In fact, it seemed like they’d formed a truce. There was a Tally chart hanging above the TV with messy hand writing reading:
“How many times we’ve one against each other on MarioCart
Tom Bryn
II IIII

”
She sighed with surprise but also the pressure of having to turn back to Siôn, who seemed happy to see her.
“Don’t you have to keep Sasha entertained or something?”
“Sasha’ll be fine on her own. She’s chasing chickens.” He answered fairly.
Alex wasn’t sure what to do with him. She didn’t feel awkward around him. She could cope with having a half naked man follow her around easily but she didn’t know how to keep him entertained- which was practically her job, only with children.
“Mmm…” She thought hard but nothing came to mind.
“Wanna watch DVDs in the next room?” He offered and she felt relieved to hear him break the silence.
“Ok.”

Half way through Sleepy hollow, while it was starting to turn into evening and Jasmine had already called to say she wasn’t coming back in the morning, the electricity cut out. The TV switched off with a tiny pop noise and Alex was half glad that the boys were asleep, since it was nine o’clock. Of course, that’s a late evening but it was still reasonably light. Dark enough, however, to give her the creeps.
“Siôn?” She called out. He’d gone to get snacks, since there would probably be an abundance of bits in the kitchen, when the power cut had occurred.
“Are you afraid of the dark?” He appeared in the doorway and this time he was wearing a shirt.
“I was starting to think you didn’t own any clothes.” She laughed.
“Well, are you?” He asked again.
“No… I was just…” Maybe she was scared after all. Since she’d had a pretty strange couple of days it might have started to affect her. “What makes you think I am?”
“The fact that you called out the name of someone you only met today once the lights went out.” He pointed out.
“Maybe I just wanted to check you weren’t afraid of the dark somewhere… treading on your own feet in the shadows or something.”
He half smiled with a cunning look in his eye. “Alright, then I’ll go and check what’s going on and you stay here.”
“N-…” She, despite herself, reached out to stop him when he turned.
“Are you afraid of the dark?” He smiled at her.
“Y… Just a bit.” She’d never been before but maybe it was all a bit much for her.
“Fine.” He stepped back, towards her, and put his arm around her waist.
“He-“
“If you stay next to me then I’ll make sure nothing can hurt you.” The seriousness of his voice took her by surprise. Unfortunately, his face slowly betrayed him and he chuckled quietly. “Sorry, it’s just the way you looked at me…”
She shook her head and rolled her eyes.
“Come on then. It might be the fuses. The fridge is still on so it must be the lights and the living room socket circuit.” He pulled her along with him through the corridor.
When they reached the front door, they halted. It was something they’d both decided after watching horror movies all day and then looking out into a dimly lit forest, with rustling trees and a lack of colour that only came at around nightfall- a bit like a black and white film.“We could just wait until it gets light again.” He suggested. Looking down at her and widening his hand out like a fan so more of his heat radiated into her.

Chapter 4

Gwen looked up in a daze, unsure what was a dream or not. Above her was a massive sea of purple that seemed to be pulsating with waves. Maybe not. A breeze brushed over her skin with a cool touch but she was burning through herself. A lump was starting to rise in her throat but between that, the heavy breathlessness and the heat through her body she couldn’t see anything that made sense or hear anything that wasn’t the audible equivalent of a visible blur.
It all grew dark and she didn’t think she could care.

There was a lot of grey, of few gradients. Then, it grew very dark very quickly. There were misty swirls that looked a bit like galaxies and danced around in front of her as if in a stirring bowl and then it all started to arrange its self and somehow white and white made green and red and yellow… Colours were emerging and scenes started to form and some a little more sensible was starting to take shape.
Alex was standing in front of her and there was a sleek black dog next to her, lurking like smoke next to her knees. Her black and red hair was stroking her pale white cheeks. Her eyes weren’t the same light blue they’d been before. They were a vivid red, the colour of blood.
Behind her was the full moon set in a sheet of starless black sky.
The scene stirred again and scrambled into misty blurs and then reformed. Gwynedd was there but all she felt was fright. There was a look in his eyes, the eyes that could not possibly be Gwynedd’s at all. His blond hair was like curtains over his face and his expression was one of shock. There was a dagger in his chest where his heart should be but no poppy of blood flared from the wound. The shaft was shining in dim white light. The smooth blade glittered in her hand so brightly… her hand.
The image blurred in a more frantic fashion as if perturbed by her distress. There was her sister, and her face was beaded intricately with glistening tears over red cheeks underneath her sorrowful eyes. Her hair stuck to her cheeks with what could be rain or sweat.
The image blurred again until all the colours turned to pastel lilac in the same pulsy sea she’d seen before and she realised her eyes were open. The duvet over her was heavy and under it she could barely breathe.

“You’re awake?” Her mothers’ voice quietly asked; such a soothing tone. There was someone else in the room but Gwen couldn’t lift her head to look. There were three other people in the room, three shadows that loomed over her, apart from her mother who was more of a pink and yellow cloud. Who were they?
“No.” She murmured in response. “At least I hope not.” She tried to open her eyes.
“I called the doctor.” Bethan, her mother explained. “Alex and Robin stayed up all night until I got back from Brittany to make sure you were OK.”
“I…”
“Mum.” Robin cut in.
Gwen knew that saying something about Gwynedd when she was completely uncertain was probably going to be a mistake.
“Do you need to unpack? I think Gwen will be fine if I watched her and if the doctor left and Alex went to work then nobody would be wasting their time on something like this. She’ll be OK with me.”
“Don’t make me so suspicious.” Her mother laughed. “Alright, then you sort her out and I’ll make sure Steve and I have finished unpacking. The doctor sais it was a panic attack, Gwen. Ok?”
“Mhm.” Gwen didn’t open her mouth for the answer; in fact she’d barely opened her eyes.
When the door closed behind her mother she suddenly remembered how she needed to hear the truth about what happened. With a giant gasp she sat up quickly and the people around her backed away a little with shock.
“Robin!” She whispered urgently as if the matter could wait no more time.
In only the time it took to breath to start asking questions and questions and questions to realise there was a stranger at the end of her bed and Alex was still stood to her left.
“Gwen, this is the doctor mum called.”
He looked at her rather amused. “I take it you feel a little better.” His smooth voice reached towards her in some unnatural way that made her shiver.
She was utterly stunned. Was this guy a doctor? His eyes were heavily kohlled up in contrast to his fair skin and making his pale, pale blue irises stand out with darker rings of blue surrounding the tantalisingly light shade. He was sitting on her computer chair, backwards, and facing her hugging the back of the chair to his chest. His long hair was blacker than night and didn’t reflect light as if it was just a window into some kind of abyss.
She didn’t feel like answering his question. Instead, her gaze turned to Robin who was to her right.
“I had a dream.”
“No… don’t talk about it.”
“It wasn’t that!” she tried to explain. “That… It was something else… There was a dog… and you were crying… and I’d…” killed my childhood friend, she thought… “There was so much blood. Alex was there, but she’d changed and her eyes were… they were bright red. It wasn’t a dream. I could smell the blood. I could feel the cold. It was so, so real.”
“Tell me that’s normal, doctor, please.” Robin asked, not desperately but politely.
“You had a panic attack. Often you’ll have nightmares about anything related to the cause. Have you ever suffered from haemaphobia?”
“Hee… what-a-phobia?” Alex stumbled over her own tongue.
“Haem means blood, Al.” Gwen said, quietly. “No… I don’t. I’ve never. I think.” What was it about this person that made her not want to look at him but yet not be able to tear her gaze away.
“Oh… there’s miss supernatural being miss science at the same time.” Alex mumbled. Obviously, she hated when she didn’t know something but it, unfortunately, happened often.
“Supernatural?” The doctor lifted his arm and put his elbow on the top of the chair with his fist against his jaw.
“Yeah, she’s a proper occultist.” Alex was being unusually talkative about Gwen.
“I… think it’s interesting, even if half of it is not likely to be the truth.” She was not going to tell Alex that the occult wasn’t exactly supernatural, filtering out ghost hunting Americans and teens with Ouija boards and no idea what they’re doing.
“Hmmm…” He mused and his eyes grew intent on her with a gaze she felt could see through her. “Who knows?” His quiet voice was an unusually clear sound.
Alex and Robin were speaking to each other and she had a feeling they were speaking at her as well but all she was aware of was how wide her eyes were becoming as she stared at his. She could see eternity in his pupils and she could feel her thoughts emptying into that hole. She was completely unable to think or listen but she could definitely taste his breath filtering through her ajar mouth and see the tiny ripples that tendrils of fog made as they crawled over his bottom lip.
As soon as whatever that had tied her, helplessly, to his gaze had broken she fell back on the bed and quickly covered her head in the duvet.
“Eh?” Alex gave out an alarmed yelp. “Gwen? Are you OK?”
“Not… not…” What was she trying to say? Possible? Real? Human? Being polite was not obviously on her agenda. “Not now.” She managed to mumble and didn’t even know what she meant, herself, in the end.
Robin and Alex both glanced over at the doctor who looked innocently worried. He climbed off the chair and the girls noticed he had a trilby hat in his left hand, that he didn’t let go of even when he approached Gwen’s bed.
She could feel someone’s weight next to her hips, making a large dent in the mattress. A hand peeled away the duvet and when she saw his face she covered her eyes with her hand immediately.
“How are you feeling?” He said in the quiet but clear way that people connected with doctors but she didn’t believe that impersonation for more than a second. She felt his hand on her forehead, a light weight. It covered the entire surface but what struck her was the cold.
She froze with surprise instantly. “Di-dizzy.”
“Ok… I’m sure that’ll pass. You don’t seem to have a temperature.” Nor do you! “So, I’ll leave you now. Ok? Go back to sleep.”