by Paul Simpson
Chapter 2
Present day
It was early morning of the summer solstice, June 21st, eight months after the facility incident. A little classic VW Beetle drove through the country roads, basking in the heat of the morning sun with Ffion at the wheel the windows wound down and the wind blowing through her hair. The car’s metallic yellow paint shimmered in the sun, even sparkling as the rays of light fired through leafy branches of the roadside trees, and danced upon the passing metal body with it’s silver pumpkin heart decal on the rear engine hood below the window.
As the car pulled itself over the hillside, Ffion’s destination came into view. She had travelled back home to the village. It had been nearly five years since she had been back, which left her feeling excited to see home again, but nervous at the same time.
As the car hit the edge of the village Ffion slowed, if only to look around. She passed the rundown watermill which her father ran when she was a child, the big wheel ripped off in the storm the night she met Jack. Upon the hill was the empty ground where Jack’s mansion once stood tall, bearing down over the rest of the village. As she reached the centre of the village she turned at the road junction and parked up at the deserted square. The whole place was a ghost town.
As she turned off the engine, the whole place fell into an eerie silence. As the click of the door echoed open, the sight of a yellow Doc Martin boot showed beneath the door frame, followed by a pink boot of the same design with stripy black and white socks one was still up, and the other had slipped down toward her ankle, rolling up slightly. The door shut to reveal her black shorts and dipped hem white shirt over a tank top, partly buttoned due to the increasing heat of the day.
She adjusted her headband, which seemed to split her hair into two colours. Her purple fringe was striking against her pale skin, with her dark red dyed hair at the back catching the sun in wisps of crimson as a gentle breeze blew past. Looking around, everywhere was shut up and deserted, no living soul still seemed to live here anymore. Ffion smiled to herself in her own thoughts as she couldn’t blame anyone after what had gone on. Regaining her sense of direction she turned to the Witch Stones and began to make her way toward the hillside where they stood.
As she walked up the road there came a rustle from a nearby hedge. Ffion could sense the movement but there was nothing to be seen upon quick inspection so on she walked. Just a minute later there came another noise. This time she knew she was being followed and stopped to take a better look around. From the nearby bush and the long grass surrounding it, the culprit slowly moved in on its prey from behind. Step after step, the hunter moved in, ready to pounce. Jumping with all his strength, George flew out of the hiding place.
“GOTCHA!” he cried as he landed in an empty road. Confused, George wondered what had just happened, “Oh great, I’ve been here alone so long that I’m starting to hallucinate, Oh fur balls!”
Just as he was about to walk away there came another shadow toward him.
“BOO! Come here you big ball of fluff!” shouted Ffion from her hiding place. George screamed a girly meow in surprise as he jumped up into the air. His tail puffed out like a feather duster. With his heart racing he looked over to see the silhouette of a person looking down at him with a big smile on their face.
“Ffion, is it really you?”
Ffion moved to the side of the sun’s light so George could see properly, holding her arms out toward him.
“Come here you big tubster and give me a hug!” George smiled and began to purr louder than he had ever done before as he ran to her arms and jumped into them. Ffion snuggled into him as the pair enjoyed their happy reunion.
“I’ve missed you my dear friend,” she said as her eyes welled up slightly. “I wasn’t even sure you would still be here.”
George rubbed his head against her chin.
“I was beginning to wonder if you would ever return. Why haven’t you come back until now?” he asked. Ffion placed him down on to the floor.
“My mother gave me a task to do that night, you remember? We had just said bye when I made my way back to the stones as she had asked me to do once Jack had been put back. Turns out I was on bodyguard duty for another girl, who let’s just say turned out to be in the family circle. After that I made my way home, staying in the library buildings each night for shelter, which gave me access to all the books and records I needed.
Knowing more about this village after my encounter at the facility became of interest to me, so I began to look though all the history books to find out more, until one night I found a report that caught my attention. There was a travelling exhibition of reportedly supernatural object’s, one of them came from here. It took a while to catch up with it but I eventually found it all packed away in a museum’s storage, ready for the next city’s delivery.”
George listened carefully, intrigued by her story.
“So what did you find?”
“This,” she replied, as she unfastened an antique pendant from around her neck. It had an ornate fastening resembling a curled flower stem to hold the necklace, while the rest was in the shape of bluebell petals. Hanging from within them was a large clear water droplet-shaped crystal.
Unclipping it carefully, Ffion untangled it from the pumpkin heart necklace she wore from her mother. “This is the screaming pendant. It is said to contain the ghost of a woman and on some nights you can hear the scream of her long lost soul over the centuries, but it dates back to the 1960’s. I thought if I borrowed it, -ahem- then mother might be able to do something with it, or even know what it’s for.”
George smiled up at his friend. “Borrowed, eh! Yeah well you can tell me about that another time.”
Ffion laughed back. “So, I’m hungry for breakfast. What do we have?” she asked, as George thought about where to go.
“We can try the house on the corner. They only left recently and like the others I expect they’ll send a van for the rest, so it’s a good chance they might have left some food behind?” The two began to walk to the house as Ffion took in the full extent of the deserted village.
“Has everyone left now?”
George nodded. “Yes, that was the last of them where we’re going now. A few months ago even Arnie’s family left. It wasn’t easy saying goodbye to that big dog. It’s just been me really. Sometimes I’d see the ghost of your mother and we’d talk well, I’d talk and she’d look all spooky and glowing but at least it was company. Except for the other thing that it…”
“Other thing,” interrupted Ffion. “As in what exactly?”
‘”Don’t know,” replied George. “Not really sure what it is. A floaty ball thing that hovers about like a bee and glows all around. A bit annoying sometimes to be fair and appears at random but it does no harm and also makes a great night light.”
Ffion listened to George as he rambled on down the street while they went in search of breakfast and to catch up on what had happened over the years, before heading up to the stones to reunite with her mother.