by John Booth
My Mum is pregnant. She told me as soon as I got home from the hospital. Naturally, it’s going to be a girl as that will keep the female line going into the future. It must have been frustrating for her to prevent herself having another child for so long. The Sisterhood couldn’t risk it, as it might have given me the opportunity to meet girls through her and become impure before the battle. I have been a pawn to be used against the spirits from the day I was conceived.
That’s why all my friends left the village and why there are no people my age living nearby. The Sisterhood planned this from the start with me in the role of hero come patsy. Mrs. Kelly, from what I’ve learnt, was one of the few people in the village who didn’t know of the plan, as she would never have approved of it. The Sisterhood meant to end the threat of the spirits returning forever.
I don’t think the Sisterhood planned on Kylie becoming involved, because it was a surprise to them when she and Jen turned out to be the descendants of the missing female line. But that doesn’t let the Goddess off the hook. Never trust a being that lives forever and comes from another plane of existence. That has become one of my new mottos along with ‘never trust your parents’.
Kylie and I didn’t see a lot of each other in the weeks after the battle. For a start, we had exams and needed to revise, but I think we also needed to get some distance from each other so we could think about what had happened. Kylie and I are bonded. I can’t imagine life without her at my side, and I know she feels the same way. I’ve come to love and depend on her. Those sorts of feelings are difficult to cope with when you’re seventeen and so the exams were a blessing, as they gave us an excuse to step away from it for a while.
When we meet at the school bus there is no longer an ‘us and them’ thing with the usual suspects and we all chat together. The usual suspects are nice kids when you get to know them, and provided I give Sally and Jane a quick hug of greeting when I first get there, they don’t pester or tease me anymore. I’ve found I have lots of things in common with the kids and I suddenly have an ambition to learn to drive so Kylie and I can take them to the movies and football matches. They deserve a better life than I had, because they were as much pawns in the Sisterhood’s game as I was.
It isn’t entirely true that Sally and Jane have stopped pestering me in all matters, as they are adamant I will physically punish them severely on their sixteenth birthdays for all the bad things they have done. I’ve repeatedly told them ‘no way’ but they ignore me and keep saying I will, whatever I say.
Kylie is no help as she says it might be good for them, provided she is present to make sure that it goes no further than punishment. I’ll get her to explain what she means by that sometime soon, as I must admit, I don’t have a clue. But it isn’t going to happen despite what they think, so they can just forget it.
After the exams, we decided there was one thing left to do. Kylie and Jen had eaten dinner with my family and it was eight o’clock on a beautiful warm evening. Jen has become a regular fixture at our house since she became a member of the Sisterhood and she went off with my Mum to be trained in whatever those women train in. Frankly I don’t want to know.
Kylie and I told them we were going out for a walk and we soon found ourselves besides the Post Office wall looking with some sadness at the Old Man of Fell.
“It’s time he was set free,” Kylie said, and I nodded in agreement. We owed our lives to this man and he’d suffered for far too long. Kylie held my left hand in her right and placed her left fist into the left hand cup of the ‘Old Man’.
I paused for a few seconds to get my thoughts together and then put my right fist into the other cup. At first, I thought nothing was going to happen because the power built up so slowly. The granite began to glow and Lord Bron hands reached out from inside the granite and grasped tightly onto our hands. Then we pulled him out of the monument.
I was pleased to find that the ‘Old Man of Fell’ looked unchanged. What we didn’t need right now was yet another strange story in the village to excite the national press and television.
Bron looked just as he did when we last saw him, except in much better condition. He appeared to be only a couple of years older than me, despite his millennia of captivity.
“Thank you, brave heroes and forever my friends. It hasn’t been pleasant with my father, who has gone insane since Mother died. It is fortunate for this world that he is trapped in a place he can never escape.”
He kissed Kylie on the cheek and hugged me. As we parted, he noticed his clothes were very different from mine. He made a gesture and was instantly wearing identical clothes to mine except that his were colored a much cooler black.
“What will you do and where will you go?” Kylie asked as she appraised his new look. I could see she approved and I wondered where I could get some black clothing.
“I once knew every rock and tree in this world. It has changed beyond my imagining, so I think I will reacquaint myself with it, my Lady.” I didn’t know you could capitalize ‘lady’ when you spoke, but he somehow managed it.
“Will you return here?” I asked, curious to know if he felt drawn to the Fell.
“No, it has far too many black memories. Unless you call me. I will come if you call because there is a bond between us that will remain forever.”
Bron breathed in fresh air and smiled, “It is good to be free of royal duties and to be myself. Farewell, my friends.”
He vanished, he was there one second and gone the next. It was then I noticed that we weren’t alone and Mr. Kelly stood watching us from a few feet away.
“That was very well done, you two. I’ve always thought the Goddess cruel to imprison Bron with his parents.”
“Does everyone in this village know the whole damned story?” I asked.
“I would say pretty much all of us older villagers do. You can’t live all your life by the Fell without acquiring a little knowledge and the odd talent.” Mr. Kelly pulled out his pipe and lit it with the tip of his finger which was momentarily a flame. You could have knocked me over with a feather, as I thought only the Sisterhood could perform magic.
“I’m sorry about your mother,” Kylie said, looking down at her feet.
“It was the way she would have wanted to go, fighting evil with her last breath,” Mr. Kelly said reflectively. “We had to keep the plan secret from her. She didn’t understand that times are changing and the old ways are dying. We had to sort out those three while we were still able.”
“What about what your conspiracy did to me?” I asked, as it still rankled with me that I’d been created as a tool.
Mr. Kelly shrugged, “Seems to me you’ve turned into a fine young man and you have a beautiful girl at your side. Many men would be satisfied in life with that.”
I had no answer to that, so I kept quiet. We walked across the street to the Fell and leaned on the railings, looking down at this fast running mountain stream that was the cornerstone of a million universes.
That is the end of this journal.
When did Kylie and I finally have sex and remove the snakes from our body?
It seems to me it’s none of your business.
The End