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  Hurriedly, she continued along to the store. Cecily opened the door and flicked on the light. She scanned the room in order to locate the serviettes and she noticed that the boxes were in the far corner of the store on the uppermost shelving. The kitchen staff were always moving things around, so she knew she would have to check each box until she found what she was looking for. Leaving the door ajar, she grabbed the step ladders and carried them over to the shelves. She climbed steadily up the ladder, trying not to put too much pressure on her now sore shin. By this point, Cecily had scared herself half to death with her spectral fancies. She wildly searched through the boxes, looking for one containing the much sought after serviettes. As she went, she muttered the contents of each box out loud to herself. “Disposable gloves, candles, paper plates, plastic forks… ahh, here we are!” She had finally located the serviettes.

  Cecily secured the box under her arm and carefully began to make her way down the ladder. She had only taken one step when the light began to flicker on and off. Afraid of having to grope her way through the dusty, cobwebbed room in the dark, Cecily was determined to get out of the store as fast as she could. It was only when she looked down to gauge her footing that she saw them, closing in out of the corner of her eye. She did not register them at first; the flickering light acted as a strobe, making their approach seem as if it were in slow motion. Cecily blinked uncontrollably as she refused to believe what she was seeing. The floor beneath her was rippling in a motion similar to a sea on a calm day, only there was nothing calming about this movement. It was the shadows and they were coming together to form one dark black mass. Cecily’s heart was beating violently and as a result, she felt the blood being pumped furiously around her body. As the black mass reached the bottom of the ladder, she heard a bloodcurdling snarl like that of a rabid dog, accompanied by ear piercing shrieks that got louder and louder the closer they came. Somewhere in the distance, she heard the door of the store slam shut. Beneath her she saw the flash of a jaw snap at her heels, a gaping orifice loaded with sharp yellowing teeth, dripping hungrily in saliva. Then the dark stench of evil reached her nostrils, overpowering Cecily.

  That was the last thing she remembered.

  Chapter Five

  When Cecily came to, the first thing she noticed through the fog was the small crowd of staff that had gathered about her. This gathering included Justin Short, one of the kitchen porters, Joan and a frantic Acantha, who was fanning Cecily’s face with yesterday’s newspaper.

  “Oh, she’s awake! Thank the Lord, she’s awake!” cried an emotional Acantha.

  “Yes, we can see that,” commented Joan somewhat dryly. “How are you, Cecily? Do you feel OK?”

  It took Cecily a few moments to gather her thoughts. She was confused. She had been in the store, up the ladder, yet now she was lying on the kitchen floor… the memory of the incident came flooding back and she almost fainted again.

  “Cecily, you are awfully pale,” said Joan, cradling Cecily’s forehead with the palm of her hand. “What happened in there?”

  Cecily did not quite know what to tell them. She was not sure what had happened herself and she certainly was not about to blurt out that she had been terrorised by her imaginary shadow monsters.

  “I’m not sure. How did I get out here?” she enquired, deftly changing the subject.

  “I carried you out!” said Justin proudly, puffing out his chest. “I offered to come in early today as the head chef needed some of the stock in the store rotating. A blooming good job I did, if you ask me!”

  “Yes, well we didn’t ask you,” said Joan rather curtly, butting in on his tale of heroics. “Now what happened?”

  Justin continued with his story, obviously disgruntled at Joan’s impatience.

  “Well,” he sniffed, “I had just arrived when I heard the door of the store slam shut. I was a bit puzzled as to what could have made it slam with such a force. None of the doors and windows in the kitchen were open and even if they were, there is not even a breeze out today. Fine weather we are having…”

  “Get on with it,” said Joan through gritted teeth.

  “OK!” continued a now afraid Justin. “I was just getting there! As I reached the door to the store, I thought I heard growling. It was like the growl of one of those big, vicious dogs, you know, like the ones they use as guard dogs.”

  As Justin spoke, Cecily’s heart began to pound once more. Surely not! Her mind was racing.

  Justin continued. “Anyway, I thought to myself that can’t be right, there is no such animal at Bramble Hall, so I tried the door to get in and investigate, only it was stuck.”

  “So what did you do?” probed Joan, in an attempt to be more patient.

  “Well, as you can see, I broke it down.”

  The small crowd automatically turned their heads to the door of the store and sure enough, the damage caused by Justin was evident. The wood on the frame of the door was split and hanging off where the lock had bust open. At six feet and three inches, Justin was as wide as he was tall. The damage could have been a lot worse.

  “But that would have meant the door was locked,” pointed out Joan. “Cecily, why did you lock the door behind you?”

  “I didn’t!” cried Cecily. “I left the door ajar. I mean … I’m not sure… no… I definitely left the door open!”

  “The restless spirits of Bramble Hall have been up to their old tricks again,” declared an ever dramatic Acantha.

  “Don’t be so ridiculous, Acantha!” snapped Joan. “Carry on, Justin, if you would.”

  “Once I got through the door, I saw Cecily wavering at the top of the ladder. She gave me quite a fright, as I wasn’t expecting to see her. I was expecting the big dogs. I shouted out, but she didn’t seem to hear me. She was white as a sheet, a look of sheer terror on her face and she was staring at the floor. Then she passed out. I ran over to her as fast as I could and caught her just before she hit the floor. She was out cold. I carried her out here to the kitchen and lay her on the floor. I then called the Dairy for you.”

  “Can you remember what happened, Cecily?” asked Joan, gently. “What scared you?”

  “I… I don’t remember,” said Cecily, quietly. Cecily was aware that she was stammering, but she was still trying to understand what had happened herself, without having to explain it to others.

  “It was probably the spirits!” sang Acantha rather loudly. “Was it the spirits, Cecily dear?”

  “Erm… I don’t think so.” Why can’t they just leave me alone, she thought to herself. I need to get out of here, now. I need time to think.

  As if reading her mind, Joan said, “Well, I think that’s enough questions for today. You obviously have no external injuries, Cecily. Why don’t you go home and make an appointment to see the doctor in the morning? Maybe he can get to the bottom of what caused the fainting.”

  “That still doesn’t explain the growling dogs or the locked door,” puzzled a dissatisfied Justin. He thought he deserved more praise for his brave deed.

  “There are the lost souls of many animals roaming Bramble Hall, Justin,” said Acantha in an authoritative tone. “However, I feel that their energy has now passed. We must not be afraid.” Acantha then turned to Cecily. “Cecily dear, you gave us quite a fright there. I’m so glad that you are OK. When you are ready, I am here to share your ‘experience’.” Acantha thought it proper to make quotation marks in the air with her fingers upon speaking the word ‘experience’. “Anyway, I must go,” she continued importantly. “I have a meeting with Lord Bramble. I shall inform him of your accident, Cecily. Joan, please could you call maintenance and have them fix the door? Very well done, Justin! I’ll be sure to mention your service to the head chef. Good day to you all!” With her salutation hanging in the air, Acantha turned on her navy-blue court shoes and trotted off.

  “Yes, well done,” said Joan to Justin. “I wonder if she would also like me to call a priest and have him perform an animal exorcism?” Cecily no
ticed that Joan looked at Justin sceptically out of the corner of her eye.

  ***

  A short sit down and two glasses of water later, Cecily was feeling decidedly better, at least physically. Millicent Poole had offered her a lift home, but Cecily was quite resigned to the fact that she would like to walk.

  Out once again in the beautiful spring weather, Cecily’s problems seemed to temporarily melt away. She closed her eyes, just for a moment and allowed her very being to be revitalised by the warm sunshine. But that was all she allowed herself, one moment. Then the disturbing events of the afternoon crept back into her mind’s eye. As she walked through the wood on her way home, she replayed the incident in the store over and over in her head. What on earth had happened? In the light of day, surrounded by the beauty and tranquillity of the wood so familiar to her, she felt ridiculous. What she thought she had experienced, the impending shadows that she felt wanted to in some way harm her, seemed so unreal. Things like that just did not exist, despite what Acantha thought. But then she heard their vicious snarling, saw their hungry rotten jaws and smelt their rancid breath. And so she was back at the scene of the mental showdown. Her only comfort was that Justin had heard the growling too. If these things, these shadows, were real, what did they want with Cecily? How were they connected to her dreams?

  The more she thought about it, the less mad she felt, although she was not certain that other people would feel the same way. Cecily immediately thought of Kaden. Should she tell him? Cecily had some decisions to make. She did not feel that the doctor was an option. The dreams were becoming more and more vivid by the day and now the stuff of those nightmares, the monsters that terrified her, were at her place of work. No doctor could help her with that. They would simply commit her. She had to work out what she was going to do next, not only for her sanity, but so she could sleep peacefully once more. How could she sleep? What if they came for her again while she slept? She needed to find out what they were and more importantly, what they wanted.

  Cecily was so engrossed in her thoughts that she was not aware she was home until she was walking up the garden path. Glancing at her watch, she realised that Kaden would be calling for her very soon. Cecily groaned. The last thing she felt like doing was socialising. She did not mind Kaden, but she was not sure she was up to facing the others. She silently placed her key in the lock of the front door to the cottage, praying that her mother was still out as she had promised earlier. Indeed, she was another person Cecily did not feel like facing in her current state of turmoil. Cecily did a quick scan of the front room and dining room. No mother. She kicked off her trainers and padded down the passageway, checking the kitchen, the bathroom, her mother’s bedroom and finally the back garden. She was alone. Cecily breathed a sharp sigh of relief. It was not that she did not love her mother, she did. It was just that growing up, her father was the one who had always been there for her.

  Cecily’s mother was an author of romantic novels and she’d had success with them when Cecily was a child. But Cecily always found that her mother was consumed by her writing. She thought her mother self-obsessed. Her father, too, had been a writer, but he was a scholar, an academic. He worked alongside universities and pioneered research in mythology and folklore, his specialty being comparative mythology, in which he would compare myths from different cultures. He was an authority in his field and he used to give lectures on the subject all over the world. It did not seem to matter how much research he had to do or when the next deadline was, he always had time for Cecily. When she felt she needed to be close to him, she would take his books up to her room and read about the gods and superheroes of old. His words reached out to Cecily and as she read them to herself, it was almost as if her father was reading to her, like he did when she was a child.

  Since his death, her mother had become more and more distant. She had enrolled herself in ridiculous night classes at the local college and joined clubs such as the Women’s Institute. She was barely home and Cecily assumed this was her way of coping. Her mother, Purdey, was in a constant state of writer’s block. As a result, she had lost her publisher and although they had some of her father’s life insurance money, it was still not enough to make ends meet; hence, why Cecily worked at the Dairy, to bridge the gap. By the time she had contributed to the household, she hardly had anything left for herself. Every now and then, her mother had what can only be described as surges of guilt, because at these times, she tried to over-compensate for the times she was distant by smothering Cecily. It never lasted long though.

  Since she had turned eighteen, Cecily had begun to question her life and the point that there must be more to it than working in a tea room every day, handing her earnings over to a mother who did nothing. What would she do if her friends decided to go to university and move away? She would be stuck in Bramblegate with Purdey forever, working at the Dairy. What was that saying? Carpe Diem; ‘Seize the day’. Cecily had so many decisions to make, only at the moment, the ones concerning her mother and her career were not at the top of her list.

  Cecily had time to wash her face and get changed before Kaden was due, so she belted up the stairs to her bedroom and started the proceedings in her en suite. After she had made herself presentable once more, she settled into her grandmother’s old chair and rocked herself gently, while looking out of the window for Kaden. Cecily could not see the horizon from her window for the trees.

  She lived down in the dell, which was the woodland area below Bramblegate village. If she walked for a mile in one direction, she reached Bramblegate. A mile in the other direction took her to Bramble Hall. The dell was very peaceful, too peaceful sometimes. Growing up here, she would have been bored had it not been for Kaden. Being an only child, Kaden was like her brother. Cecily and Kaden had loved being children in the dell. They’d had many adventures exploring their surrounding wilderness.

  There were three cottages in the dell: one belonging to the Stalks, one belonging to Kaden’s family, the Quinns and one belonging to the Fanes, a sweet elderly couple who never seemed to change. They had been old for as long as Cecily could remember. Even though the cottages were in close proximity to each other, they were also secluded, due to the dense woodland surrounding them. The cottages were serviced by a gravel track that wound down the one mile from the main road that ran through Bramblegate. The cottages were old and Cecily’s, in particular, had needed some modernisation over the years, which had included the addition of the dormer space in the roof of the cottage, now Cecily’s bedroom. The cottages used to be owned by Bramble Hall and once upon a time, they were given to workers of the house, that is, before they were privatised and sold off. So it seemed quite apt that Cecily and Kaden should live in the cottages, both being members of staff at Bramble Hall. Even old Mr Fane had been a gardener there before he retired. Cecily loved the cottage. It was the only home she had known and she had many good memories of it, although the past three years, starting with the death of her father, had tainted those memories somewhat and now they were bittersweet.

  Cecily got bored of looking out for Kaden and so she let her eyes drift from the treetops and the woodland below to the furthermost corner of her room and the shadows which lay there, caused by the setting sun. She stared at the shadows for a while, wondering what truly lay there, waiting for their animation in the form of a movement or snarl, to creep towards her and engulf her, taking her to God knows where. Staring at the shadows, she realised that things would never be the same again. Even in her own house, her own bedroom, she did not feel safe. The boundaries between the light and dark, between her dreams and her consciousness were blurred. She did not understand anymore. Things had changed. The dark was coming for her.

  Cecily was awoken from her trance by a loud rap at the door. Kaden was late.

  Chapter Six

  Cecily greeted Kaden at the door with a look of disapproval on her face at his lateness. However, Kaden did not appear to notice. He seemed a little on edge and as he waited for
Cecily to gather her effects, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, eager to be on their way. As they strolled up the gravel track to Bramblegate village, Kaden chatted non-stop about a number of inane topics. About how busy it had been at the Dairy that day, about the revision plan for his exams, even about Lady Bramble’s new hairdo. Cecily knew instinctively that he was worried about something. She knew him well and he was definitely over-compensating. She would just have to wait until he spat it out, although she could guess the content of the eventual conversation. However, she nodded her head and made appropriate noises where necessary, but her mind was a million miles away. As the trees started to thin a little on the way up hill, Cecily noticed that the sun was already setting on this day. Through the haze of the twilight sunshine, she saw that the sky had a red and orange hue. Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight, she thought to herself. Tomorrow was going to be another lovely day. As they neared the top of the track, Cecily wondered if Kaden was ever going to ask her about the afternoon’s events. He definitely knew something, she could tell by his behaviour. And this was Bramblegate; news, or rather gossip, travelled fast. But he did not mention it. He simply continued to chatter all the way to the High Street.