Ivy began to turn away from the river and out of the corner of her eye, saw something glint on the water’s edge. It was just beneath the surface. Half exposed, and mostly covered in silt, the brightness shone through the dark water.
Ivy put her hand in the water and pulled it out. They were Martyn’s keys to the Police Station. That wasn’t a good sign. He had been here, but there were no signs now. She walked back to Father Philip who was looking around the bushes while shouting ‘Martyn!’
’Look at this Father, I have found Martyn’s keys,’ Ivy said, showing him what was in her hand.
’Where were those?’ Father Philip asked.
‘Just in the water over there with a lot of other footprints that carry on into the water,’ Ivy said.
‘What do you think?’ Father Philip asked.
Ivy thought about the keys, where they had been found and the people who had just tried to grab her. The fact was that poor, trusting, punctual Martyn had still not turned up. Ivy shook her head, her eyes filled with tears. She could not vocalise what she thought, but Father Philip knew.
They sadly walked back to the car, checking up the road before they came out of the Park. There were no villagers left.
Once Father Philip and Ivy were both seated in the car, they put on their seat belts. Father Philip thought it was best to keep busy – to take Ivy’s mind off what had so clearly happened.
‘Wee Renee, then?’ Father Philip asked.
‘Yes,’ Ivy replied.
They began their journey to Moorston. When they were at the edge of the Friarmere boundary, the car headlights picked up the crowd of villagers who were walking in the middle of the road. They drifted apart so that Father Philip’s car could pass. Ivy rolled down the window to see them better in the fog.
As they drove slowly past, Ivy could see that the villagers eyes were glazed, their mouths open. They did not speak or communicate with one another. The whole group were just drawn as if they were on a long thread. Drawn by something, that must need them in Moorston. Ivy realised that she had jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
Michael pulled up outside the old farmhouse. The Fellus was inside, waiting for Michael’s report. He had instructed this boy to come up with Michael. Just in case there was a small remnant of consciousness left, he didn’t tell the boy what was going to happen to him when he got here
Callum looked at The Fellus, unimpressed. An ugly glowing demon, with a squid in his eye. This didn’t seem to faze him. Perhaps this squid masked The Fellus’s other abnormalities or Callum only saw him as a fellow parasite carrier and nothing else.
’It was terrific down there,’ Michael said. ‘All your soldiers were just waiting, hanging around for your instructions. Very impressive’.
’I can see, you know,’ The Fellus said, pointing at the squid in his eye. ‘I can see everything through this. They were waiting there because I told them to. I’ve sent them off somewhere else now.’ Michael didn’t ask where. He wasn’t bothered. Michael had one thing on his mind.
’What are you going to do now with him?’ Michael asked, pointing to Callum.
’It’s over to you now,’ The Fellus said. ‘I want to collect a few more specimens. I’ve brought your bucket back to take them home in again if that’s all right. I’ll go and do that, as I know you’re not that fond of it. I’ll be around for the next five minutes if there is … resistance.’ The Fellus walked out, which left them alone.
Callum stood rigid, not speaking and looking into thin air. Michael didn’t say anything to him. He hoped the boy wouldn’t cause a fuss, or that there wouldn’t be a lot of mess for him to clean up afterwards.
Michael walked to the bedroom door, unlocking it.
‘My darling,’ he whispered, into the dark. ‘I’ve got something for you. Come out of the darkness sweetheart.’
Michael put his hand into the dark room, and she took it. He led Diane out to meet her young visitor.
’This is Diane,’ Michael said.
Callum knew he was being addressed. A small part of him realised he should be running out the door, but he couldn’t. Diane was pale, and she had a slash down the centre of her face, her nose split into two. Three pink bulldog clips held it together. Some primordial survival instinct communicated that this wasn’t a good situation to be in. This instinct began to override the control of The Fellus and the parasite. It became easier to speak. Next, he would try to move.
‘Why is she slobbering?’ Callum asked, without thinking.
’Oh, she’s just imagining how delicious you will taste,’ Michael said. ‘That’s all.’
Callum thought about what his friends, Bob and Adam had had to fight in the Winter. Vampires - many of them. His friends didn’t know that their fight wasn’t over.
’Dinnertime,’ Michael said, letting go of Diane’s hand as she leapt on top of Callum.
36 Below
Carefully, Graham, Tony and Gary walked around the back of the house that stood above Moorston. This was the house where there had been many grisly finds in the strange basement. The one with scratches up the walls. The place that their friend Laura had been killed. The house now covered in Werewolf blood.
It was an epicentre for ghostly activity. They didn’t intend going inside the building tonight, some parts of the house were too dangerous to walk in. Apart from that, there was no need as Graham had said that he had seen the body buried behind some rocks, at the back of the house.
The three men kept tripping over, as they walked around the side of the house. There was so much debris and rubbish here, along with the complete darkness. Gary had his torch, but it only gave light to the person that used it, the rest were blind. The night here seemed to eat the light up. Gary was sure that somehow the beam was much weaker than usual.
Tony knew that Sue wouldn’t have allowed him to go back here in these conditions if she had been with them. She would have been right too. Any of them could fall on a metal pipe or glass and be fatally injured. They needed more light to see, but they weren’t going to get any.
Finally, they were through the worst of it. Around the back, the fog swirled like smoke.
’Now try to imagine that dream that you had. Where do you think it is?’ Gary asked.
Graham shut his eyes and painfully relived his unforgettable dream. He opened them again and walked forward looking at the rocks, the soil, the edge of the Moors.
’You don’t understand. I know we are in the right place but it’s hard. It doesn’t look the same lads,’ Graham said.
’Of course, it doesn’t. It was hundreds of years ago,’ Tony said. ‘Just do your best.’ Graham shut his eyes again.
’I think it’s here,’ Graham said. Gary shone his torch at the area. Graham had pointed out an area that was close to but not quite in the corner of the house boundaries. In front, it was piled high with lots of rocks. The first step was shifting these.
‘Wait,’ Graham said, closing his eyes, trying to imagine what the earth looked like before the rocks were placed before it. ‘This is where he was put. That’s if he’s still here.’
’Now you tell us. Let’s hope he is, for your sake,’ Tony said, ‘Come on.’
Father Philip and Ivy raced over the hills to Moorston in Father Phillip’s little car. They jiggled along in silence. Ivy kept looking down at her cleavage, wishing that she had chosen the Mother Theresa outfit.
The fog was so thick over the tops, but Father Philip drove as fast as he could. Luckily for everyone, no one else wanted to be out on the roads tonight. Not only were the couple racing towards help but racing away from what followed behind them.
Some of the rocks took two people to shift but most could be handled by one. Tony and Gary were fitter than Graham and between the three of them, they made quick progress. Soon the rocks were removed entirely, revealing a solid wall of earth.
‘Ordinarily, I would have a spade with me,’ Gary said, who was a handyman. ‘But I had to empty the Land Rover
because of all the passengers and my crocodile.’
’Well it’s going to have to be hands, that’s all there is to it,’ Tony said. ‘Sue will kill me. I’ll be filthy. This Harry Potter costume will be ruined.’
They started to burrow away at the earth, where Graham had indicated. The three of them knelt down and dug away. Graham remembered that the victim was only about two feet in and right on the floor level when he had been buried. What had happened to his body since, with the way that the Moors shifted, he didn’t know.
They dug away, the peaty sandy soil falling on top of them. As rocks had protected this area, it was quite crumbly and not very compacted at all. Hundreds of Summers and Winters had passed while he had been here, it was quite staggering to think about.
Graham wondered whether the body would even be there. It might have been eaten by the worms, or just turned into soil itself. Making it indistinguishable from its surroundings, unless you took it into a laboratory.
But the sheer amount of peat in the Moors had preserved it because soon Gary’s fingers touched on something hard.
‘I’ve got a solid object here,’ Gary said. ‘Don’t get too excited Graham, it might be a rock.’
They all concentrated on the area that Gary was digging in. It soon became apparent that it wasn’t a rock. It was angular and had little stubby pegs attached. It was a jawbone.
’I’ve got you,’ Graham said, holding it in his hands. ‘I’ve got you.’
The Wedding Reception continued in Moorston. They happily danced away, celebrating the marriage of their friends.
Elvis danced with Dorothy. Cleopatra was with Chucky. Margaret Thatcher danced with Keith Lemon who were nearly the same age. As was Madonna who danced with Spike. Barbra Streisand, Lady Diana, Marilyn Monroe and Jo Brand danced in a circle around their handbags.
Most of Tammy and Miles’s family had slowly drifted off. Only Tammy’s two bitchy cousins remained, Sam and Natalie, who Tammy didn’t like, but had to invite as she did like her Auntie Prue. The rest of the in-laws, although they had enjoyed it, felt a bit like they were in a room full of circus freaks. The two cousins, Sam and Natalie, remained because of that.
Spiderman, Ronnie Barker and Danny Zuko from Grease stood looking out of the big window at the end of the Bandroom, watching for any strange happenings. They were watching the river, on alert for any supernatural creatures.
The fog thinned a little just up ahead of the Bandroom. Rick noticed that there was a small group of people underneath a tree, looking towards the river. He wondered when they had got there as he hadn’t seen them arrive and he had been looking out the window for a while?
Having noticed them, Rick now checked for more. He saw them down alleys, hidden in the dark doorway of a terraced house, behind the bay window of a shop, looking through the glass. They all stared in the same direction.
Rick located Wee Renee on the dancefloor. He tapped her on the shoulder. The group of women were dancing very enthusiastically to Agadoo. Wee Renee followed Rick to the window laughing until he pointed out what he had discovered.
‘Oh, for the love of Mike,’ Wee Renee muttered.
‘I think these are real people,’ Rick said. ‘All looking that way.’ He pointed towards the river.
‘Yes, they are. I’ve witnessed similar to this in Friarmere, as you know. Look at the one closest, standing behind that van. He has the same vacant expression. I only saw children. Once you’ve seen it, there is no mistaking it,’ Wee Renee said.
‘We didn’t account for this, did we?’ Rick asked.
‘No lad, we didn’t. Of course, I knew there was spawn over here, Agnes had told me, but I didn’t think it had gone as far as that here. This is exactly the way Father Philip described those families,’ Wee Renee sadly admitted.
She quickly looked around and seeing that none of Fred and Wilma’s family were here anymore, she could be as open as she liked. Wee Renee made her way over to Jason through the revellers. By the way that she walked and the look on her face, he immediately knew it was important to switch the music off.
’Sorry everyone,’ Wee Renee said. ‘I’m sorry Tammy and Miles, but we’ve got trouble. It’s time to go.’ It was at this point, with the music suddenly going off, that Tammy’s cousins, Sam and Natalie came out of the toilets. The door squeaked shut and everyone turned around to look who it was. Ah well, Wee Renee thought, it’s too late to put this one back in its box.
Martyn had been pulled down with great force into the river and very quickly through the crack in the riverbed. He wasn’t falling, he was travelling at a high velocity.
The many-tentacled Leviathan wasn’t the only creature with him, Kelpies swam at the side of it. Martyn noticed when they swam, that their feet moved forwards and backwards in the ankle socket, on a complete pivot. Their heads turned upwards, checking that they were not being followed.
Martyn looked down at what was wrapped around his waist. It was a giant fat tentacle, like a limb. He imagined that it was some relation to the spawn but didn’t know for sure. He knew he would lose consciousness soon, after that he would drown and die. Martyn surprised himself at how calm he was. It must be because he could do nothing about it. One of the tentacles wrapped around his leg ended in a barb. Martyn realised he had been stung, but in the cold water, he had hardly felt it. The barb pumped another shot into him. This one he welcomed. The venom or poison must have a strong calming effect. Sea morphine.
He looked about him, once he was through the crack, there was a strange green light underneath. Martyn felt like he was coming down from the sky, into an area of great cities. Horse Kelpies swam with passengers. The front half was a horse and the back half was a powerful tail, which propelled them along. They looked silver in the light here. Weird unbelievable sea creatures observed this new addition to their habitat, their eyes blinking at him. Strange phosphorus lights danced.
Martyn wondered what he was doing here. What did they want him for? It must have been nearly two minutes since he had been under the water. Happily, he still felt calm, he was quite enjoying the experience. No one had ever seen these sights. He laughed; a giant bubble escaped out of his mouth. Martyn felt honoured in a way.
They seemed to be travelling to a large pinnacle where the Monster was going to deposit him. Martyn’s body needed air; his lungs needed it so badly. Martyn’s brain still didn’t care. He started to shake.
The female Kelpie who swam beside him smiled and nodded. She knew what was going on. Martyn waved at her. She kept pace with his propulsion by the creature. He could see something red and pulsing in the centre of the pinnacle. If he didn’t know that he was underwater, he would think that he was being thrown into a volcano.
37 Naiad
‘What are we going to do now?’ Gary asked.
’We probably need to bring the Police up here. It is a murder scene after all,’ Tony said.
’Remember it was 250 years ago. They can’t manage to catch murderers that are at it right under their noses, never mind be able to solve this. I have even seen the murderer’s face. I could ID him. What difference is that going to make now?’ Graham asked.
’What do you suggest?’ Tony asked.
’In here,’ Graham said, putting his fist against his chest and thumping it. ‘I know that once his bones come out of there and are buried in the Churchyard, he’ll be at rest. I think it’s not as important to get him in the Churchyard, as it is to take him away from here. I will promise I will do that after tonight for him. For now, could you help me get the poor fellow out of there?’ Graham asked.
The two other men looked at one another. It was something they really didn’t want to do, but they had agreed to this and didn’t want to leave Graham and this spirit, in the lurch.
’Let’s get it over with,’ Gary said. Gary had a roll of bin bags in the glove compartment of his Land Rover he went to get them, and they started to pull out the bones one by one, putting them in the bags.
’There
are a lot of bones here,’ Tony said. ‘Are you sure it’s just one person?’
’There are probably others around here, but I don’t think there’s more than one that we are pulling out,’ Graham said.
’No, you’re right Graham,’ Gary said. ‘Surprisingly we do have a lot of bones in general, but they are not doubling up.’
‘Makes you realise how many you have to break in your own body when you see them like this,’ Tony remarked grimly.
When the last bone was removed Graham felt a rush through his body and although not very visible, he saw a shade of the Gamekeeper standing in front of them. Graham solemnly waited to see what would happen.
Hell And High Water Page 25