by Helen Slavin
“No one there.” Charlie stepped back inside the cottage and she and Anna shoved the door shut against the now howling wind.
“Er… Ahem,” Emz coughed, clearing her throat frantically. Anna and Charlie turned. The young woman was standing beside the table. She was small and thin with long, dank-looking ice blonde hair. She was breathing hard as if she’d run a long way.
“Terrible out tonight,” she said. She put a damp bundle down on the table where it rolled slightly back and forth for a moment. It leached brownish liquid onto Emz’s essay. The woman saw at once and reached for the bundle and made a spirited effort to tidy Emz’s papers.
“Oh sorry… sorry about that…”
“Oh that’s fine… that’s okay… don’t… don’t worry.” Emz did not like this woman’s real face, it was staring out at her, making no pretence to hide. Stark. Skeletal. Raw.
“Can we help you?” Charlie was business-like. Charlie had considered the role of Gamekeeper quite a lot during the last week and she was beginning to see how the whole ‘holiday cottage’ idea had fallen down so badly. A Gamekeeper was a police officer of sorts, a guard, a security measure. That point had begun to trouble her. She was determined to take charge, and, after all, no one had mentioned whether they had to be friendly or not.
“Are you the Ways?” the woman asked, holding tight to her bundle. None of the sisters wanted to own up to the title, but Anna felt compelled to speak.
“Yes. Have you come far?”
The woman looked at them, hard, her gaze shifting like a beam from Anna to Charlie and lastly to Emz.
“Far enough,” the woman blurted after a moment’s pause. This woman was setting them on edge. No one said anything, and the silence seemed to burst at Charlie.
“Which way did you come?” Charlie was tired of hanging about. The woman’s face twisted into an expression both edgy and exhausted.
“The long way.”
She tossed the bundle onto the table once again, this time the wrapper working loose, the bundle rolled and rolled before it dropped off the edge.
The man’s head landed at Charlie’s feet.
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