by Helen Slavin
The Inn car park was packed and so Anna rolled up the side street beneath the castle walls and parked in her own space, outside her own house. Darkness was seeping over town, the streetlights winking on as she got out of the car. Usually, if she used the space she did not look at the house. She looked up the street, at the gardens opposite, anywhere except towards her house, but tonight Anna turned her head. The gate was peeling a little and the number 3 had worked loose. Weeds grew around it, but Anna pushed the gate open anyway, the weeds tearing themselves out of the paving stones.
It would only take a couple of steps backwards and she would be alright. Only a couple of steps. Anna could not take them. She was not alright.
* * *
Charlie unfolded an Ordnance Survey map across the kitchen worktop.
“Show me?” Charlie asked, pulling a troublesome fold and finding that the map tore slightly causing a protest from Emz. Charlie’s gaze scanned the map, the places she knew bursting into visual images in her head. She couldn’t find the stones anywhere on the paper. No. Worse than that, she couldn’t find them in her head.
“I can’t find The Sisters on this map Emz, where did you say it was?”
“The foot of Horse Hill, if you come up through…” Emz began to trace the route she’d taken with Winn through the plantation. At the spot where The Sisters should have been marked there was nothing.
“Oh.” Emz stared hard at the thin blue contour lines, the green shading.
“Well. Not surprising that they aren’t marked… you said Winn told you her dad had put the stones there.” As Charlie spoke Emz continued to trace her finger back to the backpacker’s hut.
“It’s feasible for the perv though isn’t it? He’s not that far away, what is it from the hut?” Charlie looked at the map, but her mind was already en route, walking the way. “Not far at all. A fifteen, maybe twenty-minute walk…”
“Doesn’t have to walk… he can drive his monster truck up and down any of the firebreak roads…” Charlie traced her finger over and across the map, her mind swapped and showed the roads as they came into her head and flagged up alternative routes “… Links him in to Leap Woods… over into this edge of Havoc.” Charlie was enjoying the childish sensation of following the lines, of the pictures it was bringing into her head. Map reading. So relaxing. She remembered how this had felt, how could she have forgotten this? The sisters contemplated the map in front of them.
“Who are the Wicker lot Winn mentioned do you think?” Emz asked. Charlie shrugged.
“Wicker? Isn’t that to do with baskets or chairs? Woven, beachy gardeny chairs…?”
Emz was already on her phone Googling the word ‘wicker’. As she scrolled through the images and information the landline rang out. Charlie moved to answer it.
“Let me guess Mum, you’re splitting the atom tonig… oh… sorry, Lell… I thought…” Charlie was suddenly listening very hard. Emz looked up from her phone.
“I don’t know Lella. No. No. Okay. Will do.” She hung up, her face set hard as it always did when she was thinking.
“What?”
“That was Lella. Anna didn’t turn up for work.” The sisters exchanged a look. “Her mobile’s going straight to voicemail…”
There was a long silence.
“You don’t think she went back to Cob Cottage, do you? Maybe confronted the perv?” Emz suggested. Charlie’s mind scrolled down its lists of possibilities.
* * *
There were no cars at Cob Cottage and no sign of Anna or Seren Lake.
“Her phone could have died,” Emz offered and they both nodded. But then there was a further creeping silence.
“Do you think she went home?” They were driving back towards town, Charlie pushing panic out of her mind because there was no need to panic yet.
“Home? No. She’d have called us from the landline… let us know.” Except Emz was shaking her head.
“No Charlie… I meant ‘home’.”
* * *
The house, No. 3 Keep Rows, sat at the foot of the curtain wall of the Castle. It was the end house of a small terrace of white-walled ancient cottages. Charlie and Emz were well aware that their sister had not been back there at all in recent weeks, ever since their grandmother had died in fact, and before that their grandmother had shared the fact that Anna had stayed more often at Cob Cottage since last October than she had gone ‘home’.
“Her car’s here.” Emz was opening their own car door even before Charlie had pulled up. The house wasn’t home to anyone now. It was small and shuttered and dead-looking as the sisters turned in at the gate.
The front garden was looking distinctly overgrown, clematis and ivy and brambles were running wild so that very soon the house would be buried beneath.
“Hey.” The voice came from the right side of the garden where the buttress wall of the castle swooped down and made a boundary. Anna was leaning against the wall. Charlie and Emz moved through the knee-deep grass towards her. She stood up straight at once, her hands up in protest.
“I’m late for work.” She gave a wan little smile, her lips wobbling at one edge so that Emz was compelled to reach for her arm. Anna leaned into her sister.
“You’re not.” Charlie said and took her other arm. Anna laughed, a small, thin, horrible sound. Their arms linked around each other, a triangle of elbows and hands and, the moment they did so, where Anna had felt she was falling, now she felt caught and safe. She took in a deep breath. There was an Autumnal scent to the air, the crisped edge of cold hinting at frost and her memory spooled differently, through Havoc Wood, through the garden at Cob Cottage.
“I am late for work.”
“You’re not going.” Charlie was certain as they hitched the gate shut behind them. “You need a night off.”
“What would I do with a night off?”
“You could come out with us.” Emz suggested.
“Where to?”
They were getting into the car. As they did so Charlie glanced at the back seat, a bottle of water, a leftover sandwich, a hairbrush, one stray trainer and a scarf had arranged themselves into an image of a slightly irregular circle of stones.
“How about a trip over to The Sisters?” Charlie suggested. Emz looked at her.
“The Sisters?” Anna asked.
“It’s a long story… and it involves the perv…” Emz said and began to explain.
* * *
“No… it’s W,I,C,C,A…” Anna clarified as hiked their way up through Leap Wood, they had strayed slightly from the path that Emz followed with Winn and were sort of lost, “… not wicker. Wicca is witchcraft. That must be what Winn meant.”
“It’s not Winn that’s naked in the woods is it?”
“What do you think?”
“I think we’re lost,” said Emz as Anna halted, listening hard.
“Can you hear that?” she whispered. The three stood for a moment and the wind blew through the trees so that all they could hear for several moments was branches creaking and the last leaves of summer being blown down. In the far distance a truck horn sounded.
“I can’t hear any—” Charlie whispered back and as she did so they all heard the chanting.
“I can hear that,” they all spoke at once and began to try and orientate themselves to where the sound was coming from. Charlie felt a distinct mental tug, a feeling that she was uncertain of and yet, it seemed familiar, comfortable even. The chanting drifted once more.
“Which way, Charlie?” Anna asked. Charlie looked at her for a moment in surprise. “You know, don’t you?” Anna asked. Charlie nodded, felt about eight again, like pulling on roller skates and knowing exactly how fast you could go.
They followed Charlie through the wood, closing in on the chanting. At last they could glimpse lights through the trees and, looming out from the shafts of light, the stony slabs that formed The Sisters.
“It looks lovely,” Emz whispered. The Ways watched for a moment. The figures within the st
ones were hard to make out at first, they were wearing dark clothing. Charlie, Emz and Anna picked their way closer.
“Any sign of Perv?” Charlie whispered, her eyes grazing over the landscape. Emz shook her head.
“Split up.” Anna pointed in two different directions and the sisters headed off. Anna stood sentinel where she was, turned herself in a circle, her gaze falling across the landscape, looking for anything that jarred or was odd. The wood seemed perfect. Stars. Sky. The moon. Trees.
“… Spirit goddess… teach and guide us… shed our skins… nothing hides us.” Anna turned at the soft shushing sound. It was as if the women were suddenly brought into high-definition, where there had been shadows and uncertainty, there was now light bouncing off white skin.
“… Spirit goddess… we will our womanly wisdom…”
Instead of shadowy edges of stones there were curves and arcs of bodies in motion around the stones as each woman found her own dance step, arms waving or trailing. Without warning a dark shadow towered across the biggest stone, arms waving, Anna gasped and took a step back.
“HEY! WICCA WOMEN OF THE WOOD!” Charlie’s voice boomed out and as she barged herself into the stone circle she cast a deep shadow across the halted women. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?”
Anna stepped forwards for backup just as Emz darted in from her corner. It was an uncomfortable moment. The group of women did not scream or get upset, instead they looked very, very angry and the one in the centre of the proceedings turned on Charlie.
“What do you think YOU are doing?” This, Anna thought, must be the chief of them. They were all wearing twiggy tiaras, decorated with feathers and leaves, but this woman was wearing what could only be described as a twiggy crown. Charlie was unfazed.
“You might be in danger. We’re here to warn you…”
“Anna?” The voice that interrupted was familiar. Anna turned to see Mari was part of the circle. All eyes shifted from Crown woman and Charlie towards Anna.
“Anna Way?” The crown woman turned her steely gaze on Anna. Anna gave an awkward wave.
“Greetings.” Anna stretched her face into something resembling a smile.
“She’s here… you invited her, and she’s been brought here. It’s a sign, Roz…” Mari was breathless-sounding, looked up with a brightly gleeful expression to the Crown woman who Anna now pegged as Roz Woodhill. She had a moment of clarity.
“Ohhh… this is your Craft Club?” Anna looked around the circle of women, a few waved, others regarded her with slightly standoffish interest.
“Yes. This is a sign, Anna… The Spirit Goddess brought you here, Her intentions are clear…” Mari was working up into a little speech but Roz Woodhill put a stop to it.
“You’ve spoiled our energising ritual,” she intoned, the words ringing off the stones. It was clear to Anna that Roz Woodhill probably came up here in daylight to practice. That said, the woman had an air of authority and Anna was finding it hard not to be distracted by the intricacy of the twiggy crown. It was filled with little bird’s eggs, speckled and beautiful, twined with feathers and what looked like sloughed off adder skin. And what was that, nestled deep into the… was that a bird skull?
“Well sorry about that but we came here to warn you…” Charlie stepped away from the stone but the light from another picked her up and her shadow was cast tall against the next stone and there were two more of her on other stones.
“You came here to judge and mock as all do…” Roz had a way of not blinking as she looked at you and it was making Anna feel a little bit angry, she unblinked back in an intense and subtle staring competition.
“No. Seriously… there’s a man been spotted hanging around the woods.”
The reactions around the circle were not what the Ways might have expected. No one panicked or grabbed for their clothing, instead arms folded, tuts were voiced, others gave deep blowing breaths of annoyance and Anna was sure she heard a ‘duh!’ in there somewhere. No one seemed bothered about the man lurking in the woods.
“We are the Mistresses here. We heed no man. We need no warning.” Roz took her chance to look away from Anna and give Charlie and Emz an arrogant glare.
“You’re a load of nudey women in a wood and…” Charlie said
“Skyclad.” Mari put her hand up as if she was at school.
“What?” Charlie barked.
“Skyclad. We’re not naked, we’re skyclad. This is a ritual.” Mari gave a cheery little shrug.
“Skyclad, tits up, whatever… this pervert with a camera doesn’t care about the semantics of it…” Charlie’s voice rose higher. “Don’t you think you ought to watch out for yourselves?” Charlie was getting cross, her shadows were dancing all over, agitated and alarming.
“He’s been hanging round with binoculars and he’s not watching the birds.” Emz’s words seemed very small and the general bored chit-chat that was filtering around the group hushed it almost out of existence.
“You’re going to end up victims if you don’t take care…” Charlie was moving round the circle.
“He might be our victim. We are many, he is but one.” Roz Woodhill said, and a small round of applause rippled around the Craft Club.
“That might be a plan when you’re here in a group, together, doing your ‘ritual’ but what about when you head home? Hmm? What if the horny git followed one of you?” Anna warned. Once again there was a rumble of annoyance, as if the Way sisters were spoiling the fun. Charlie took in a deep, angry breath.
“Don’t you get it?” Charlie asked. “He’s a lech… a perv basically… he’s taking pics for his own personal wankbank ladies… are you happy with that?”
“Let him. We take photos.” One of the women stepped forward. Another chipped in.
“I’ve got a blog and the Craft Club has Instagram…” There were little agreeing noises chirruping around the circle with a sound like escaped parakeets.
“This man is attracted by our power and purpose.” Roz smirked. There was another moment of stand-off between them. Anna’s gut confirmed that it did not like Roz but there was nothing she could do about her. Charlie was about to explode but Anna stepped forward.
“Okay. Okay. We tried,” Anna said, holding her hands up in surrender. “I give up.” Roz Woodhill stepped forward, leaned down to reach for her robe.
“That’s why you are where you are in life.” The words from Roz’s mouth, cold little pebbles that battered at Anna’s skin.
“What did you just say?” Emz, who had heard the comment, spoke up, her voice spitty and metallic as she sprang to Anna’s side. Pushing herself between Roz and Anna, she was protective and not a little aggressive, her face leaning up too close into Roz’s face. Emz’s arm twitched as if she was going to grab Roz but Anna’s hand reached out and stopped her. The touch of her little sister’s arm in hers filled Anna with strength. Charlie grabbed her other hand. At once the three sisters felt charged and capable, and a deeper and darker silence seethed around the group. The wind scuttered and caught at Roz’s robe, blew it up so that in the darkness it appeared to make deeper, darker wings above her as if it might rip her out of the landscape and into the sky. Mari, standing closest, took in a panicked little gasp and stepped back, Roz was stilled, her eyes lifted skyward.
“You need to get over yourself.” Charlie’s voice spat into Roz’s face, her body tense with anger. The breeze dropped suddenly, and the robe was just polycotton velvet once again.
“You know The Sisters aren’t even old stones? They were put here by…” Emz began but Roz cut her off.
“The Sisters are an ancient stone circle, placed here by our ancestors as a marker to the Portal…” Roz was making her voice boom slightly but Emz lifted her voice easily over the top of it.
“NO. IT ISN’T…IT WAS PUT HERE BY LIEUTENANT COLONEL ST JOHN HARTLEY-HARTFIELD IN 1922 AND THEY’RE NOT EVEN PROPER STONE, THEY’RE CONCRETE…” Emz’s words rang around the stones like a musical note and was followed by a d
istinctly concretey silence. After a moment or two, Roz gathered herself and raised her hands once more in a sweeping gesture which ended in her finger pointing into Anna’s face.
“You have destroyed the night designate, you who are not of the Sisterhood…” Her arms circled dramatically before Roz held up her hand to Anna, palm out, obstructive.
“Your Way is Barred…” She took a pushing step forward, but Anna stood her ground, Roz’s palm almost touching her face. Anna’s head lifted a little, strong and defiant.
“I banish you…” Roz made the ‘sh’ harsh and snakelike, glaring into Anna’s face and, to drive her point home, Roz lifted her other hand, palm out. There was a tense moment between them until Anna lifted her own hand and high-fived Roz.
“Bye then,” she said with a cheery and confident wave.
Charlie and Emz were dumbfounded for a moment and then moved quickly to catch up with Anna’s disappearing figure.
As the Ways moved off Charlie said, “I don’t know about you but I think maybe we should have warned the perv.”
* * *
It was an hour later, and the Way sisters had scouted Leap Woods and found no sign of the perv. They had been wired, all three of them, the night’s events giving a charge to the air.
“We should split up…” Charlie had suggested “…cover more ground that way…” and as she spoke the sisters were turning in different directions. Anna strode into the trees, bracing herself against the downward incline. Emz had felt like running, just for the energy of it and headed back, dodging, deer-like, through the trees towards the pond. It was Charlie who ranged farther than any of them, heading uphill at a steady trudge to sweep the skyline. They gathered together at the bottom of the ridge, all, by now, a little breathless.
“No sign. We should head back.”
They all nodded and were making their way back to the car when Emz spoke up.