XIX - Paige
“Let go
of him!” Paige shouted, taking another couple of steps towards the young woman
holding Charlie captive, “let go of him now!”
“Or
what?” the woman – girl, really – asked.
“You’re not really in any position to be making threats. You know that, right?”
“Who are
you?” Henry asked, stepping forward to rejoin Paige.
“Sorry,
old man, but we don’t have time for introductions. You’re wanted inside; after all, you’re the
guests of honour!”
“For
what?” Paige asked, feeling the numbness of shock starting to set in.
“For the
birth of course! It’s a joyous occasion
and you get to help make it happen. You
should feel very privileged.”
“So it
really is happening,” Henry said, sounding older and more tired than ever
before and yet also resigned, like after years of running he was finally
letting the truth catch up to him.
“You’re
the minister aren’t you?” the girl asked, a hint of amused curiosity in her
voice. “The way I hear it your family
has a lot to answer for, but the way you’ve been acting lately you might as
well be one of us. The heretic hounds
haven’t been barking so loud in recent years!”
She laughed, then yanked Charlie’s arm upwards until the boy yelped. “We’ve chatted enough,” she said, “you want
the boy unharmed? Then get inside. Now!”
Charlie
yelped again as the girl dragged him around towards a side door of the kirk
and, as Paige watched on feeling utterly helpless, the twitching, almost-human
monsters began to shuffle around behind them, forming a circle from which there
could be no escape.
“What do
we do?” she whispered to Henry beside her, “What on Earth can we do?”
“There’s
only one thing to do,” the old man replied with a sigh, “we go in.”
It's New Year's Day and as one of many resolutions (and many writing resolutions) I have resolved to finish this story. I do have an ending in mind and have planned a few mores scenes out, so there is hope yet.
ReplyDeleteToday's update is largely a token one, to say that we're into 2013 and I shall start as I mean to go on, but I'm not sure what shape regular updates will take from now on. Three times a week, alone with Shadow, has proven too much, particularly with the way work has been in the run up to Christmas and the winter sales.
These are all poor excuses for not continuing a story in some respects and if I have any loyal readers (if so, please comment - I do not like writing in a vacuum), I hope you can forgive me and will be patient to see the end of this tale come to fruition.