| Billy Part 26 - Silver |
2008
The light of the full moon formed an eerie silver shadow across the desolate landscape. The five roughly hewn stones, known locally as witch stones, appeared almost to stand as guardians upon the hillside. The barguest lay peacefully beside the farthest one watching Elizabeth and Grispheran patiently.
Elizabeth gazed almost spellbound as she surveyed the wild landscape, every inch of it called out to her. She was overcome by an intense desire to run across it and continue running as far and as long as she possibly could.
And what was now
Floats by forgotten
“Washed away softly, by the call of the soul.”
“What? What did you say?” Grispheran’s spoken words had broken into Elizabeth’s thoughts and carried her back down to earth.
“I quoted from a poem, the name of the poet escapes me for the moment,” Grispheran materialised behind her and placed a hand on each of her shoulders.
On a night like this
When the moon fires silver
Every rush of breath
Coats the mind with frost
And what was now
Floats by forgotten
Washed away softly
By the call of the soul
As cloaks of iced whispers
Rush through the darkness
Every rustle of leaf
Traces desire upon stone
And what was now
Forfeits forever
Burned to a cinder
By the call of the soul
“Thought I’d find you here,” said a voice behind them. “Worked it out fer yer’sels, then?”
Elizabeth spun round. “Hughie! Worked what out? We’ve only just got here!”
“I think yer’ll find you’ve been ‘ere quite a while,“ Hughie said, glancing pointedly at Grispheran. Grispheran shot back a look of thunder in return.
Hughie cleared his throat. “That Ed Lord fellow dug up one of those holey stones. Somehow it made its way to that Howell fella and his crony Davie Blade.”
“Holey stone?” repeated Elizabeth, perplexed.
Grispheran walked over to the largest of the witch stones and directed his conversation for Elizabeth’s benefit. “Each of these stones has a hole ceremoniously carved into it for a purpose. This large one,” he pointed to the stone where he was standing, “was used to cure. The Living would pass a sick child through it three times, an adult would crawl backwards through it nine times.”
“Did it work?” Elizabeth asked sceptically.
“It worked alrite!” answered Hughie enthusiastically. “People forget the old ways, but the magic’s still there if yer believe in it.”
Grispheran gave the pair of them a look of exasperation before continuing. “In any case, these are not the holey stones. A holey stone is the part of the standing stone which has been removed. It is powerful and can do much harm in the wrong hands.”
Grispheran leaned against the large stone he was standing beside. “The holey stone from this one can cause sickness and pestilence.”
“And the others?” Elizabeth asked anxiously. “What are they capable of and how do we know which one has been taken?” Elizabeth’s worried gaze darted between Grispheran and Hughie.
“Luckily, I’ve seen it! It’s about this big,” replied Hughie, forming a fist. “Don’t know what it can do, mind you. Suspect they’ve managed to turn back time somehow? Up until a few hours ago they’d no idea what they’d done or what the heck they were dealing with!”
“They do now,” Grispheran announced calmly.
There was only one stone it could be. The three of them looked over to where the barguest was now standing.
“What was that one used for?” Elizabeth asked Grispheran with trepidation.
Hughie lowered his eyes and kept them fixed on the ground. Sweeping his foot side to side, he flattened the short coarse grass. “They says if one of the Living looks through that ‘un during a full moon they can see t’otherworld, fairies, ghosts and t’future.”
“And so the holey stone does what?” Elizabeth asked Grispheran with an added sense of urgency.
“Unravels time and permits the keeper to dictate how events proceed.”
Something in Grispheran’s manner alarmed Elizabeth greatly. “Why don’t you just go and demand it back?” she asked outright. “I’m sure they wouldn’t be able to resist your powers of persuasion!”
Grispheran and Hughie both laughed.
“Shouldn’t imagine it’s as easy as that, lass.” Hughie said with only half a smile. “Yon man’ll be able to tell us more though,” he nodded in Grispheran’s direction.
“The battle cannot be fought here,” said Grispheran gravely. He had moved away from them and was looking across the hilltop towards the town. “We will have to accompany the barguest back through the stone opposite the one they have taken and we shall have to go tonight while the moon is full.”
“We?” said Elizabeth and Hughie simultaneously.
“You don’t think you’re going anywhere without us do you, Lizzie?” asked Gemma, descending onto the hilltop alongside Paul and Tashriel.
Elizabeth, initially startled, now rolled her eyes -- as if they didn’t have enough problems!
Prev
Labels: 2008, Elizabeth, Refuge of Delayed Souls, Web Fiction |
posted by Miladysa @ 21:30  |
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| Billy Part 25 - Dark Shadows |
2008
Hughie waited in the courtyard of Staibey Nayes. He watched from the encroaching darkness as the workmen switched off the lights inside the building they were working in and made their way home. The smallest of the three buildings, although still dimly lit, was surrounded by such darkness that Hughie was reluctant to get any closer.
He had seen the two men -- the ones Elizabeth had asked him to keep his an eye on -- enter the building earlier. He needed to discover what the mysterious object was that they had in their possession. Hughie gathered all his courage together and entered the building.
The dark shadows completely filled the barren interior, hissing as Hughie passed by. Several flew through him, screeching horribly. Their continued screaming echoed within him, as if some of their particles had somehow lodged themselves within his presence. He pushed on. He wasn’t going to let Elizabeth or the Living down; they needed him.
After what seemed like hours, Hughie broke through the darkness into the room where Davie Blade and Linus Howell were located. Both men were whispering excitedly, encouraged furiously, unbeknown to them, by the dark shadows. Hughie watched as they peered into a small metal urn on the workbench before them.
Valiantly, Hughie continued past the screeching gargoyles and moved into the centre of the room to take a look over the hunched shoulders of the two men. He didn’t know what to expect, but he was genuinely surprised to discover that all the fuss was over a simple pebble. Then something clicked and he remembered exactly what it was he was looking at!
PrevLabels: 2008, Hughie, Refuge of Delayed Souls, Web Fiction |
| posted by Miladysa @ 16:00 |
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| Billy Part 24 - Under Control |
2008
“You can hold my hand if you want, Bess,” Grispheran offered.
Elizabeth was infuriated with his butter-wouldn’t-melt attitude. “No, thank you very much!” She replied tersely, struggling to place one foot firmly over the over on the boggy landscape they were attempting to walk over. Her maglite had no problem picking out the trail, but the fact was, there wasn’t much of a trail to begin with.
“No? Well, I am surprised! Would you prefer to hold something else instead?” he asked flirtatiously, turning his back on her and carried on walking a few paces ahead.
Enraged, she stopped dead in her tracks and glared at his back. “I wouldn’t touch you with a flaming barge pole!” she blazed, her hair and pearl earrings positively bouncing in the cold dark air. “You are a conceited, chauvinistic, immoral --”
Grispheran spun around and placed himself right in front of her. “Agreed! Handsome, too -- even if I do say so myself!” He leaned in close, as near as practically touching her.
Elizabeth pulled her face and upper torso away from his. “Fuck you!” she spat.
He laughed and shrugged his shoulders casually. “Well, if you insist...”
“Don’t. Say. Another. Word!” Elizabeth fought hard to keep her temper under control and adopt a professional manner. “Look. I have no idea why Stanley thought it would be a good idea to send us two out here but, he did. I, for one, think that we should just get on with it and...” she paused for breath, “get it over with as quickly as possible!”
“Agreed!” Grispheran adjusted the lace cuffs of his shirt and casually brushed a lapel of his malachite velvet coat. He raised his head slowly and ran his fingers through his long wavy hair almost lethargically. For a split second, Elizabeth noticed how very long his eyelashes were.
“You flatter yourself, madam. I offered to hold your hand in order that I might comfortably transport the pair of us to Heyleigh Stones in comfort. If you had accepted graciously -- not that such a thing is in your nature, mind you -- we could have already been there by now and possibly be on our way back!”
Elizabeth now felt rather foolish in the face of Grispheran’s matter-of-fact manner. Though she sometimes was certain that he was just manipulating her, this time she decided she had probably overreacted and read something more into it then was intended.
“My thoughts exactly, Madam!” Grispheran answered, holding his open left hand out to her. His long masculine fingers gave the impression of marble in the darkness and Elizabeth was surprised when she placed her hand in his and received a sensual thrill from his warm flesh encasing hers.
He pulled her closer to him gently and then casually slipped his arm around her waist. As Elizabeth felt her feet rise off the ground she instinctively placed her arm across his lower back. A breeze gently brushed Elizabeth’s hair and then they were standing on the top of Hades Hill within the avenue of Heyleigh Stones.
Elizabeth unconsciously contemplated Grispheran’s face as he delicately removed his arm from around her waist, making her feel as though she was a little china doll in the process. Her eyes traced their way across his full lips and upwards to lock with his alluring deep basalt eyes.
“Let go of me,” he ordered abruptly.
Elizabeth jolted into action and moved herself a short distance away from him.
“I...I’m sorry! I --”
Feeling her cheeks burn, Elizabeth put further distance between them and tripped over a stone.
“Damn!” she cried angrily and spotted the flame red eyes of the barguest watching them both from the cover of one of the upright stones.
PrevLabels: 2008, Elizabeth, Refuge of Delayed Souls, Web Fiction |
| posted by Miladysa @ 11:00 |
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| Billy Part 23 - Choices |
1940
Peg and Hughie stood between the edge of the dell and the sloped gardens of Heyleigh Hall looking up towards the grand stone facade of the present day Georgian building.
“What does she want with me?” Peg whispered just in case there was anyone or anything loitering in the dell behind them.
“I’ve no idea Peg. I wouldn’t like to disappoint her, though -– she’s rather used to getting her own way,” replied Hughie, moving on in the direction of the hall.
Peg followed. “Is she now? Well we’ll just have to see about that! I’ve had enough of being pushed around all my life -– I’ll be damned if it’s going to continue now!”
Hughie threw his head back and let loose a great big belly laugh. “That’s the way to go, lass! Up and at ‘em! Mind you, she’s best handled with a bit of tact is our Lady Mabel. I’ve known her for years, ever since I knocked around in the grounds of the Hall as a kid. She’s frightened the living daylights out of me umpteen times. There’s far worse about than her, though!”
Peg shuddered. “Like the figure at the fire station?”
“Aye,” Hughie replied solemnly, looking behind her into the dell.
“What was it?”
“Hard to explain, lass. And if I’m honest, I don’t fully know m’self. You know how the Living shimmer to us?”
Peg nodded.
“Well them things are attracted to that light -– the energy of the Living -– whether it’s human or not. They preyed on us when we were alive too, only we didn’t know ought about it at the time. All those negative thoughts you had over the years and the wrong paths you went down? It were partly their doing. Some of it, mind you -– not all. Can’t blame them for all our own bad choices. They were there though, whispering and nagging -– I’ve watched ‘em at it while I’ve been hanging around like. Seen them at your Billy last night when you...er...”
“Died?”
“Delayed. Aye. That’s not all, either.”
“What else?”
“Those of the Living who have, what you might call, a foot in both camps -– thems that are familiar with both the Living and the Delayed?”
Peg gulped. “Go on,” she encouraged, though with a touch of apprehension.
“Well, you could say they’re a bit like a beef steak to a lion. Those things hang around them all the time -– never give up like.”
“Good grief!”
“Yer can say that again! Mind you...they look out for them at RoYds. Lady Mabel and her like. If she meant any harm, she wouldn’t have sent me along to meet you when you passed over would she? Shows how caring she can be at times.”
“But what about all those stories about her being a devil worshipper, selling her kids’ souls, and one from each generation of her descendants being...cursed? Why would people make up stories like that? There’s no smoke without fire, my mother always said.”
“Aye, mine too. I’m sure you’ll be able to see the good in her if anyone can, Peg. Perhaps that’s why we’re here? So, coming?” They had arrived at the grand entrance to the hall. Hughie placed his foot onto the first of three stone steps leading up to the front door and held out to his hand to her.
Peg laughed. “Just let anyone try and stop me!” she grinned, taking the offered hand and leaping into the hall beside him.
PrevLabels: 1940s, Hughie, Peg, Refuge of Delayed Souls, Web Fiction |
| posted by Miladysa @ 14:00 |
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| Billy Part 22 - Hades Hill |
1887
“Mind you stay together, you lot! Make sure you’re back before it gets dark and don’t go far! You hear?”
“Yes, Mam,” echoed the trio of children huddled around the door of the small terraced house before setting off down the street and making their way to the lane leading up to Sky Pond, their tongues wagging and jam jars clanging when their clogs made contact with the cobblestones.
Half way up the lane, the mood changed as the rules for the afternoon were laid down. “We don’t want any whinging from you, our Gracie!” the tallest boy snapped, pointing a bony finger into the chest of the frail-looking girl in front of him. His other arm lay limply by his side. “If me and our Bunny find a docker and want to share it, we will. If you go telling our mam, we’ll have yer guts fer garters!”
“I know better than to tell me mam, Alan,” Gracie snapped back at him. “I’ve still got the bruises from last time!”
“Right then. Don’t say I haven’t warned yer.“
“Don’t think Gracie should be going up Hades on her own. It might rain,” the younger boy quipped hesitantly.
“It might rain? It might bloody rain? Listen, soft lad, it might rain every blinking day! Like our dad says, if it ain’t raining it’s just about to!”
The face of the younger brother flashed as red as his hair and Gracie came to his aid. “Don’t worry about me, Bunny. I’ll be fine. I only want to go up t’stones and dance with the fairies fer a few minutes. I’ll be straight back down,” she bent down to his level and gave him a reassuring smile. Bunny gave her a reluctant one in return.
“Yer can come with me, if yer want?” Gracie added, wide-eyed.
“He not going chasing fairies,” proclaimed Alan sarcastically. “He’ll turn into one -– he’s already half way there! He’s coming with me -– I need him ter help me catch the taddies.”
Bunny’s face crumpled when he heard Alan’s words. He wiped his nose across the sleeve of his threadbare jumper several times and then hitched up his short patched trousers.
“Right, make yersel’ scarce, Gracie,” ordered Alan, walking on and dragging Bunny by his clean sleeve. “Up ter top, five minutes and straight back down to meet us by t’pond.”
“Righty ho,” said Gracie, breaking away from them and giving Bunny a wave.
“An’ don’t be late!” shouted Alan. “Or I’ll...”
“Have me guts fer garters!” shouted Gracie, pulling a funny face that only Bunny caught sight of. She started running, laughing with excitement as she did so and occasionally turned around to watch the minute figures of Alan and Bunny trotting off in the opposite direction towards the deep black sparkle of Sky Pond.
Part way up, Gracie lost sight of her brothers and sat down on the gorse and heather-clad hillside and surveyed the mill town at its foot. The crowd of smoking giant chimneys of the cotton mills below reminded her of the dragon that St. George must have fought in the pace egg play. She shuddered. It was no secret how hard it was in those mills.
Her older sister Katie had aged years since she’d started work there. And now that Gracie was ten, she only had a couple of months to go before she would join her, as Alan’s gammy arm had prevented him from taking his turn first.
She wished she could be like Miss Annabella Templeton and go to school until she was grown up, or be a doll like Lady Caroline Theawicke! Mind you, she didn’t want the curse that Lady Caroline had to live with, no way! She would rather be friends with fairies than devils!
Perhaps Ma Crabtree was right when she’d read her mam’s tea leaves last week. “There will be no mill for Gracie!” Maybe she would be lucky and fall for a job as a servant instead?
A dark cloud passed overhead and Gracie looked up. Bunny was right, it looked like rain. She smiled when she noticed the full moon in the afternoon light -– there would be fairies today -– definitely! She ran on gaily.
***
Panic swept the whole street. Men stood on the corners talking earnestly, women sobbed silently so as to not scare the children. They were all scared though. Every last one of them. Young Grace Regan had gone missing up on Hades Hill and her brothers claimed she was away with the fairies!
Ma Crabtree believed them, as did many of the older members of the community, such as Fanny Parkinson who had gone through the tor ring backwards when she had failed to conceive after eight years of marriage. Ma had told her what to do and her belly had been full within the year. Fanny’s child had the ability to see things others couldn’t, too, just like Ma.
Ma waited for the knock at the door -– she knew they would come. When the hilltop had been searched and no body had been discovered, they would seek her out and she would tell them what they already knew but didn’t want to believe -– not yet. After a while, she knew they would want to believe it for anything would be better than thinking the child was dead.
Mind you, she had seen it in the cups and had told the mother that there would be no mill for Gracie! The mother had taken it that another occupation would call instead, but Ma had a good idea at the time that it had something to do with the stones. She hadn’t expected them to take the child away though, it had been a long time since that had happened. Since before her time.
The knock came, just as she knew it would. She put the kettle on and answered the door. They already knew where Gracie had gone, but they had to hear it from someone else, someone who knew about these things.
PrevLabels: 1880s, Gracie, Refuge of Delayed Souls, Web Fiction |
| posted by Miladysa @ 18:45 |
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| Billy Part 21 - Angel |
1967
Elizabeth ran down Market Street and turned into Cotton Row. She needed to be quick -– super quick. Her mother knew exactly how long it should take her to do the errand. Even if there was a queue in the Co-op it should not take more than twenty minutes, any longer and she would be straight after her.
She looked up at the grey stone building. All the previous times she had passed it she had never paid it much attention. Funny that, because the building looked just like something out of a fairytale. It was so easy to imagine Rapunzel sitting at the turreted window.
From where Elizabeth stood, she could clearly see two entrances. She much preferred the grand entrance with the door that looked as though it belonged to a castle, but her granddad had specifically said that she should go in the side one.
Elizabeth was fascinated by the stained glass in the window of the side entrance door. She could make out angels, flowers and animals. She wished she had the time to look at it in more detail but she didn’t have a second to spare. Breathless she rushed inside.
Elizabeth stared hard. The man standing before her looked like a real live angel! He even sounded like tiny chimes; she was positive that the vague tinkling she could hear was coming from him. She studied him closely. His long blond hair fell loosely to his shoulders, like Prince Charming in her storybooks at home. This must be the “Tash fellow” her granddad had told her she might see. She continued to stare wide eyed and panic started to rise in her. There was no way she was going to get the words out in time, make it to the shop, and make it back home again. There was no way!
“Don’t be frightened,” Tashriel said, walking towards her. I don’t bite. He smiled and Elizabeth continued to stare. She felt him touch her on the shoulder.
“Is that better?”
“Yes, thank you,” she heard herself say, gasping for breath. “I’ll have to be quick, I’ve only got ten minutes to tell you and I have got to get to the shop and back home. I think I’ve used nine minutes already! My mum will go mad if I’m late back and...,” she stopped for breath as he raised his hand.
“No need to worry, Elizabeth, there is plenty of time. I promise you that you will be home with minutes to spare.”
Elizabeth blinked several times and continued staring. He really was very pretty.
“So, now that we know why you are here, and...”
“But I haven’t told you yet!” Elizabeth interrupted. “I’ve got a message for you from me granddad and...”
“Yes I know,” Tashriel replied softly. “I knew what your message was as soon as you came in and I asked a friend of mine to go and fetch your granddad and meet us both here. We’ve been searching for your granddad for a long time and now he has found us again. He’s waiting for us with my friend Stanley in another room. Come with me.” He held his hand out to her and Elizabeth placed her small one within it. “Let’s go and join them and have some tea.”
***
Lady Mabel Theawicke watched as the child and Tashriel left the red reception room at RoYds.
“It will be for the best if you stay away from Elizabeth from now on,” she remarked, looking sternly at the man sitting in front of the fireplace with Stanley.
Billy nodded. He could still feel the weight of the child on his lap where she had been sitting earlier. It was almost like she had left a little imprint on his presence. He sighed. He liked the kid, she had done him a big favour, but he didn’t need her any more. Besides, he had to go back before midnight. That was the bargain with Annwn and he had no choice but to stick with it.
“So, you have no idea what happened to your body, only that it’s somewhere in the dell?” Stanley asked, passing Billy a cigarette and lighting it for him.
Billy inhaled deeply.
By heck that’s grand
“Should imagine so,” replied Billy offhandedly looking off into space and then back at Stanley. “I’m not mithered, you know. It makes no difference to me. Unless some fucking hopper’s running about in it! I shouldn’t imagine it though? You would have heard about that by now if they was, wouldn’t you?”
Stanley nodded.
“Well then, best it stays where it is. It’s obviously well hidden. I’ve no need for it either. I suspect after all these years the earth has already reclaimed it. Best thing all round if you ask me.”
“So,” Stanley said, sitting forward in his seat. “This Gorgeous George bloke knocked you on the side of the head with some kind of object and that was it? No light, eh? And the next thing you know you are wandering around the dell twenty years later?”
“That’s about it,” Billy answered, taking a final drag on his cigarette and throwing it into the fire.
“He died in an accident if I remember correctly,” Lady Mabel looked across to Stanley for confirmation.
“Yes, he did. Car crash I think... Obviously, we took a great deal of interest in that outfit after your disappearance, Billy. We knew something had happened to you and that the answers lay with the Living. Never able to get to the bottom of it, mind you. The conclusion was that you had gone directly into the light.”
“Aye, well who knows! Probably would have done, given half the chance! Anything would have been a damned site better than that place I ended up in!” Billy shivered and gazed blankly at his knees. Stanley reached out and patted his shoulder.
“I remember he married Cora Woods and they had quite a handful of children. They seemed to be a good match as far as I could,” announced Lady Mabel as much to herself as anyone else.
“Well, thankfully all that’s over now and a new dawn has begun.” quipped Stanley cheerfully.
Billy looked up and directed his question at Lady Mabel. “Elizabeth told me that...my...Anne died in 1952?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” replied the Lady Mabel, walking over to him, her long grey skirts rustling.
“Did she...did she ever marry again?”
The mask of Lady Mabel’s normally emotionless face cracked a little and her cornflower blue eyes held those of Billy’s firmly. “No. Anne never loved any man but you, Billy.”
Billy wiped away budding tear drops from his own eyes with the back of his hand.
“Aye. I loved her and all that,” he sobbed and then faded away.
PrevLabels: 1960s, Billy, Elizabeth, Refuge of Delayed Souls, Web Fiction |
| posted by Miladysa @ 15:40 |
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| Billy Part 20 - Worms |
1967
Billy watched idly as the little old woman continued to laboriously bend and pick up the few dry birch twigs that were scattered around the clearing. Each stoop seemed to require twice as much effort than the last. So far, her daily foraging did not look to have been very successful. He looked up to the sky; the morning was quickly drawing in, he doubted that she would have the quantity of firewood she required to see her comfortably through the next day. Billy looked towards his own pile. It had taken a strapping bloke like him half the night to come up with a bounty like that. She had no chance!
Billy watched as she struggled to tie her small bundle together. Her hands were chapped, the fingers knotted with age. He tensed as the bushes around him rustled and a little white terrier with one red ear emerged from the undergrowth and padded up to him. He bent down to pat it and delighted with the dog’s enthusiastic response, continued to make a fuss of it.
“Calm down now, lad,” he said playfully, and stood up fully again. The dog reminded him of his own dog, Monty. He hadn’t seen Monty since...he couldn’t remember when.
He looked over to where the old woman had been scavenging. She had moved on a bit, although her bundle of twigs had not grown any larger. Billy had seen the old woman on many occasions but he had never seen the dog before.
“Best get gone now,” he ordered the dog. The dog splayed out on his belly and wagged his tail. Billy smiled despite himself. “What’s up with you? Eh...soft lad,” he said, unable to resist bending down and making another fuss of it.
The old woman had turned around and was catching up the distance between them. Billy noticed a dejected air about her and sighed. Grabbing a large amount of his own prized firewood, he ran over to her, the dog following behind.
“Here,” he said, cheerfully thrusting the wood in the old woman’s direction. “Yer may as well ‘ave this lot as well!”
***
“See that tree?”
Elizabeth looked over to where her mother was pointing and squinting through the sunshine, and peered closely at the very boring tree situated in the tiny garden beyond the graveyard they were standing in. Elizabeth nodded.
My dad planted that tree when I was not much bigger than you are now. In fact, I might have been even younger. He took the pip from an apple I had eaten and planted it in the garden.
“‘One day,’ he’d said, ‘There’ll be a tree here even bigger than the house.’ And we both laughed. Every time I see that tree I think of my dad. Some people believe that as long as a person is remembered, they never die.” Margaret smiled down at Elizabeth and ruffled her hair.
Elizabeth looked at the colourful flowers carefully arranged in the vase beside the black marble headstone and the names carved upon it. 1952, that was in the olden days! Her mother must have been very young when her mum had died. Elizabeth felt sad thinking about it.
“We’ll call in there and have a nice cup of tea with Mrs Bibby, shall we? See how she is?” Margaret said encouragingly to Elizabeth. “If you’re a good girl, we can call and have a toasted teacake for tea at the Myna Bird Cafe!”
Elizabeth smiled brightly and skipped along the cobbled rake leading down from the graveyard and into the town square.
***
Elizabeth concentrated on not staring at the grey whiskers on Mrs Bibby’s chin. It would be such a disaster if she missed out on a visit to see the Myna bird. “Why don’t you go and play outside, dearie? It’s such a lovely day and plenty of juicy apples have fallen off that tree today. Have a look and see if any of them are worth taking home with you!”
“Yes, Mrs Bibby,” she said in her best voice and skipped out of the tiny kitchen into the garden beyond.
Most of the apples had tiny worms in them. Elizabeth giggled to herself; the worms always looked so funny wriggling about. Her dad always told her it was because apples were used to make cider and the worms were drunk. The warmer the day, the drunker the worms! These ones were steaming.
Nobody likes me Everybody hates me
“I think I’ll go and eat worms!” Elizabeth sang out.
Big fat juicy ones Eensie weensy squeensy ones
“See how they wiggle and squirm!” Elizabeth giggled.
“What’s your name?”
“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers!” Elizabeth pouted at the man sitting on the grass beside her.
“I’m not really a stranger.”
Elizabeth tilted her head to one side. “Well, in that case, if you’re not a stranger, you tell me my name!” she said cheekily.
The man laughed.
“You got me there! Is that your mum in there? I think that’s your mum in there because that’s my girl -– that’s my little girl...Maggie.” He answered looking through the kitchen widow and gazing into the room beyond.
“Not so!” Elizabeth said standing up and putting her hands on her hips. “That’s my mummy and her name’s Margaret, NOT Maggie!” She stuck her tongue out at him and then screwed up her face. “So there!”
The stranger also got up onto his feet. “Margaret is her Sunday name but she was always my Maggie. See this tree here?”
Elizabeth nodded wide eyed.
“Well, I planted this tree when it were a little tiny seed like this one here,” he said, picking up another apple and plucking the seed from it. “If you want, we can plant this seed over here and when you grow up it will be bigger than this house!” He walked over to the far corner of the garden and waited for her to join him.
“My name is Elizabeth,” she announced gaily. “What’s yours?”
“Billy. You can call me granddad if you want.”
Elizabeth smiled and nodded.
“Elizabeth’s a Sunday name. How about I call you our Bess?”
PrevLabels: 1960s, Elizabeth, Refuge of Delayed Souls, Web Fiction |
| posted by Miladysa @ 09:35 |
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| Billy Part 19 - Supply & Demand |
1946
“Staibey Nayes?”
“That’s right. They’ve moved out lock, stock and barrel. Heard say now the war is over there’s other places more suited to what they need. Heard they didn’t much like it anyways, spooked by the dell. Its inhabitants more like -- after all those scare-stories we’ve been spreading round!”
Raucous laughter spread throughout the pub like wildfire. Billy looked at his cards. He could win this round. Switch, the twenty stone King of Crime, was in a good mood for a change. Billy put out his cigarette and took a sip of his pint.
“It’ll work out well for storage and also be a good place to hang out when the heat’s on. That swine Allen’s still got a face like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle despite all the readies we’re bunging him. Heard he has quite a grudge against you, Billy -– been shagging his wife or summat?” Blade asked, throwing a ten shilling note into the pot of coins and notes already on the table.
The infectious laughter echoed around the room and Billy joined in. He didn’t mind being the brunt of it, not tonight anyway. Not when he was on a winning streak. He placed his aces on the table. “Not yet!” he said coolly and lit a fresh cigarette.
Switch studied him keenly and then burst out laughing. “Not yet! Not bloody yet! I like his style!” He pushed the money in the pot over to Billy and then continued in a more serious tone, “What’s he got against you, Billy? Apart from the fact that you are a lying, cheating little shit.” Switch leaned in and held Billy’s gaze a fraction longer than necessary. “But then again -– aren’t we all?” he quipped, leaning back and pulling his braces forward.
The room exploded once more.
Billy casually collected his winnings off the table and put them in his inside jacket pocket. He made a mental note to give Ann a bob or two of it to spend on herself and the kiddies. That was if he had any left after he had finished paying his dues and put aside what he needed for his fags, beers and bets next week. He drained his glass and passed it to the vivacious Cora who, as usual, was hovering enticingly nearby.
“A few year back I gave his mother one,” replied Billy in a deadpan manner, inhaling deeply on his cigarette and blowing a smoke circle into the room. Switch actually looked like he believed him. “I’ve no idea,” he added quickly with half a smile. “He’s just a nasty piece of work.”
“You can say that again,” said Gorgeous George from where he stood, leaning against the bar leering at Cora as she walked past with her hands full of dirty glasses. Billy ogled Cora too.
Been there
“Right, gentleman! Time to say good night and thanks for donating to the House of Lawrence. Same time, same place, tomorrow.” Billy kicked his chair back and stood up.
“Not tomorrow,” Switch looked up at him. “I want you to deliver that last load down to the Nayes. Have it there for 10:00 p.m. Mark my words now, lad.”
Billy nodded and walked away, stopping briefly on his way out to have a quiet word and squeeze with Cora at the bar. The opportunity to mark his territory was too tempting for Billy to resist.
***
The road leading down to Staibey Nayes was accessed from the far side of town. It was tree lined, had no street lights and was wide enough for only a single vehicle to manoeuvre at any one time. The road continued for about three-quarters of a mile and to a stranger would seem to come to an end in a wood which appeared on the horizon beyond. A local, however, knew that just before the end of the road was reached, it branched off to the right and opened onto a building complex.
During the war, the entrance to the complex had been barred by a gated sentry box which had been manned by two fully armed security guards at any one time. Tonight, though, the gate was open and the chain and padlock were tossed to the side of the road.
The buildings had existed centuries before the war. For a period of time before war broke out, they had served as a depot for the engines which carried the stone through the dell from the quarries above. Prior to that, they were warehouses for the cloth made in the cotton mills close by and before that still, a local wool merchant had built his mansion here. Ever since records began, there had been buildings in the location of Staibey Nayes. Billy had learned that at school when they had been taught about the Doomsday Book.
Billy expected to get a good cut from tonight’s load. He had no compunction about fuelling the black market. After all, they were only supplying a demand and someone had to do it. If it wasn’t them it would be someone else.
Billy had expected to see other vehicles in the empty quadrant. He pulled up and parked the stolen lorry, and then checked his watch: 21:55. There was still time for a cigarette. He opened the cab door of the lorry and stepped outside into the cold night air. After transferring his cigarettes and matches into his trouser pocket, he threw his jacket and scarf back inside the cab despite the chill.
The wind blew up and whistled through the trees, carrying the sweet scent of night blossoms and the call of an owl. Billy tried to decipher which part of the dell the sound had come from. The silhouette of the leafless trees against the raw black and twinkling night sky caught his attention and he leaned his head back and tried to decipher his favourite constellation, the Plough. The moment was spoilt when the door of the building to his right was opened and Gorgeous George waved him over.
Both men worked up a sweat carrying the cargo from the lorry into the building where Gorgeous had been waiting. Billy also worked up quite a temper. He was raging that no one else had been there to help them. He wasn’t anyone’s fucking monkey! Switch should know better than to waste his time and sweat on shifting this crap.
Eventually, the job was done and Billy followed Gorgeous back into the building to collect his earnings for the night’s hard work. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on that wad of cash!
Gorgeous walked through the former office where they had stacked the goods and into the one beyond, where Billy could see a black holdall resting on a makeshift desk. Billy lit himself a well-deserved cigarette and as he waited for Gorgeous to get the money together, he walked over to the window to continue his earlier aborted search for the Plough.
Fuck
He threw his cigarette on the floor and stomped it out viciously. Standing against a dry stone wall near to the parked lorry below was a young woman in a red coat, looking up at him. Shocked, he watched dumbfounded as she turned and seemed to be intent on something that was happening in the dell beyond. Billy turned to let Gorgeous know about their unexpected visitor and felt the impact of a heavy metal object. Billy fell to the ground and into a vicious kick from the boot of Gorgeous George.
“Not so fucking handsome now, are you, Billy Boy?”
***
Billy was in the water, Charlie was crying out in the distance. Billy swam out to meet him.
again and again
Peg stood between Billy and Michael, her eyes wide and pleading. Billy lifted his rifle and pulled the trigger.
again and again
Cora moaned softly into Billy’s ear, her breasts pressed tightly against his chest. Anne walked in and caught them.
again and again
Billy treaded water as the incendiaries came down and screams echoed around him.
You’re going to Hell, Lawrence
“I’m already fucking there!” He screamed.
PrevLabels: 1940s, Billy, Refuge of Delayed Souls, Web Fiction |
| posted by Miladysa @ 12:25 |
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| Billy Part 18 - Time |
2008
“Linus Howell,” announced Stanley perplexed.
“I would recognise him anywhere,” said Elizabeth with an involuntary shudder.
It was the first time they had all been together in one place for as long as Elizabeth could remember. Stanley had gathered together his war cabinet. The group of them were crowded around a large circular table in the red reception room at RoYds. Wilfred was busying stacking coals on the already roaring fire behind them.
“Kelly Crabtree is sitting in a classroom up at the college and all of his other victims are walking around as large as...life,” added Paul. “It’s as if his crimes never happened! Of course we know differently, but somehow Howell, or someone...something else, has managed to bewitch the Living into believing otherwise.”
Elizabeth noted the concerned looks around the room before shifting her attention towards Gemma who had placed herself in between Tashriel and Grispheran. Much to Elizabeth’s annoyance, the latter was sitting sideways against the table his own attention also focussed firmly upon Gemma who was flirting with him outlandishly.
“Then there is only one explanation I can offer,” said Stanley, lighting a cigar. “Whatever Ed Lord uncovered up at Heyleigh Stones has magical properties. It would appear that we need to recover it and return it to where it belongs without further delay.
“Agreed,” said Tashriel almost as if he was speaking for all of them.
Lady Mabel leaned forward, placed her elbows on the table and the palms of her hands together as if in prayer. When she had everyone’s attention, including Gemma and Grispheran’s, she spoke with authority. “The last time something like this happened...”
“Was in 1946 when we first lost poor Mr Lawrence,” interrupted Wilfred standing up from the fireplace and walking towards them.
“Ah, Wilfred,” said Stanley twisting in his chair and looking over his shoulder to get a view of him. “Would you like to join us?” he nodded towards the empty chair beside Paul.
The coal dust disappeared from Wilfred’s hands as he joined them at the table and produced a delicious looking display of cakes upon a silver platter.
“Mr Lawrence?” asked Elizabeth quizzically. “Billy Lawrence?”
“The very one, Miss,” confirmed Wilfred. “I did have a soft spot for Mr Lawrence, Miss. Dare say he reminded me of myself in some ways...”
“Quite,” said Stanley in an attempt to bring them back on track again. “We can’t talk about that little episode now -– we haven’t got time. By the way, has anyone actually noticed the time by any chance?”
All eyes focussed on the Edwardian clock ticking merrily upon the black marble mantelpiece.
“What about it?” asked Gemma. “The clock looks to be working fine to me.”
“Always does, Miss,” replied Wilfred reassuringly.
“Then what are we looking at?” questioned Paul.
“11 a.m.,” announced Archie solemnly. “And totally dark outside!”
PrevLabels: 2008, Elizabeth, Refuge of Delayed Souls, Web Fiction |
| posted by Miladysa @ 08:20 |
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