Banshee Angel Of Judgement (11 page)

As she waited she thought
of the joy she had felt on the night she had sought her revenge on
the laird so many years ago. He had thought he was safe from her,
hiding in his mansion.

It had been a
cold damp miserable night.
He’d made sure the servants had secured all the doors and
windows with shouts of abuse, “Get a move on you bunch of tottering
hedge-born measle’s.”

She spied from
the cover of the nearby trees,
hiding in the branches listening to his vulgar mouth. She
wondered if he’d speak so rudely to her, she hoped he
would.

“
God damn you
fucking
bunch of miscreant sons of sows.”

At last
ever
y window was check as well
as all the doors for the umpteenth time that evening. At that the
fear was gone for how could anything get to him now. He relaxed at
last ordering food to be brought to his room with the same foul
mouth; after all he’d always told himself it was the only way to
deal with these inferior beings, though his father had always
frowned on him for doing so.

She waited
till it was late and he was sure to be safely tucked up in his bed
before sh
e moved to do her
terrible deed; to fulfil her need for vengeance and so to hopefully
find the peace she believed it would hold.

Sailing into
the air
from her perch she
drifted to his window she tapped lightly at one of the small square
panes of glass. When no sound came from inside she started to tap
harder then scratch her talons down the small windowpane to the
frame holding the glass in place. Finally she heard his gruff voice
cursing at the disturbance to his peace.

She sailed
higher above the window as he pulled the heavy drapes aside then
opened the wooden shutters to gaze out into the darkness. When he
saw nothing he pulled the curtains together nervously leaving the
casement open to the night, no sooner back in his bed than the
noise began again. Each time she began to softly tap, the tapping
getting louder whilst listening for his approach towards the window
to see if he could find the damnable culprit that was interfering
with his nights sleep.

After several
repeated return journeys to the window with no joy he decided to
wait behind the curtain for the noise to return. She
could feel his presence hiding,
waiting. The fear ebbed and flowed up through the building filling
her with excitement, as a feeling of shear exuberating evil grew
inside.

The power she
had drawn from her other victims had strengthened her but now she
felt all powerful, stronger than she had ever been aware of
or could be possible before. The fact
that now her revenge would soon be complete, made her feel even
greater malevolence towards the weak snivelling cowered trying to
hide inside and with her final revenge she would be free from the
curse she had invoked, free to finally find the rest she felt would
be rightly hers.

After what
seemed an age the young man
standing in his night dress could stand the cold drafts
that played about his legs no longer. He crossed the large high
ceiling room to the heat of the cracking fire to warm himself. As
he did so she pushed her way through the glass following the laird
silently till he turned to stare into her white cold
eyes.

He took a step back as her
gaze held his, the heat pushed him back. As he moved forward he
found to his growing dread he could not stop as he moved ever
closer to the leering grotesque form that stood a couple of feet
away from him.

As he came
closer she broke her gaze
as
if suddenly disinterested, floated slowly over to his dresser with
its wig on its pedestal and other finery for beautifying himself
with. She looked down waiting for his reaction hoping to make this
moment last, to savour every last second which, as she looked back
she realized was her mistake.

He retreated
from the fire to his bed and the
pot cabinet on top of which sat the bible he had taken to
keeping there. He snatched the book from where it sat feeling less
fearful with it in his hands.

“
What do you want with me?” He asked as the apparition
continued to look over his possessions on his large dresser
and he drew courage from the object
in his hands.

After a moment
she looked slowly round at the being of her anger with a cold
deliberate fascination as she sensed his fear had subsided. “Don’t
you know? Am I so different? Maybe if I looked like this you would
know,” she said as she changed to appear as she had in
life.

His eyes
widened in recognition, “You,” he had suspected
, yet feared to truly believe, in a futile hope
that by not believing it would make it go away.

“
Yes, me the
one you plotted and condemned and for what?” the venom she felt
toward the man spilled into her voice, “my mothers small bit of
land.”

“
That your
mother
obtained from my father through witchcraft,” he sounded defiant
feeling a renewed confidence from the book now clutched firmly
against his chest.

“
Witchcraft,”
She mocked.

“
Yes,” he said
less sure of himself.

“
Oh, dear
brother how wrong you are,” she watched as the words slammed into
his mind.

“
Brother! I’m
no brother of yours!” He exclaimed indignantly.

“
Oh, but you
are. Why else do you think you’re father was so generous to my
mother?” She cackled as the reality revealed, stung the
laird.

“
She put a
spell on him that’s how,” he tried to deny what he now saw to be
true as he remember how when this young woman had visited the manor
his father had always been keen to speak to her before she left
after delivering her errands. He also remembered how his mother
always hated the girl as if she were some sort of
threat.

“
A spell, is
that what you call love, lust,” she smiled maliciously.

“
No, it can
not be. You were condemned as a witch and the proof now stands
before me but I cast you out by the power of our risen lord,” he
stood fire in his eyes demanding her to be vanquished by his
words.

Her anger
reach to the point she could no longer contain it,
transforming her back to the
distorted creature of the night that sought out the souls of those
that had wronged her. And before her stood the last of these, her
own half brother who had not known she was his flesh and blood. The
one behind all that had befallen her.

She rose as
she could no longer contain the rage within, having to release some
of it before she lost all control. Her mouth open emitting her soul
chilling scream as she darted forward, talons reaching for his
succulent juicy soul.

His
eye
s widened as fear once
again filled his being. He gripped the bible tighter as the
grasping form darted for him. Her hand crashed against the book as
her face came, screaming, within inches of his. She howled her
disgust and pain as she was thrown across the room.

Again she
tried to have her revenge but to no avail as the book protected the
now white haired man. His grip growing tighter, knuckles white with
the exertion his eyes wide almost with madness
as his fear filled the air; as she screamed her
fury before leaving, retreating to her lair.

Her screeching
cry brought the servants to their ungrateful master’s room to find
the laird babbling demanding the make hast his coach. They had to
calm him, though they were shocked by his appearance, enough to
wait till morning before leaving never to return to his accursed
castle mansion.

And with his
leaving so she became trapped in her existence to haunt the wood
bringing fear
to those who
wandered the forest after dark.

C
hapter 15

Micky pushed
the car downward toward the centre of the ride with the other men
so Charlie and Chippy could put
the locking bolt in place. The men strained against the
pressure of the hydraulic piston contained in the arm that pushed
the cars out so they leaned at an astute angle when the ride was in
operation.

“
A bit more,” Charlie egged the men on for an extra inch
which they gave him. “Hold it there,” he said as he
push
ed the final bolt in to
the hole then struck it with a large rubber hammer to drive it
through to the other side.

Chippie
quickly
put the locking nut on
and began tightening it up as the men holding the car relaxed glad
that it was the last of the cars.

“
Is that the
last of them?” Andy asked from the side lines as there had been no
space for him to help.

“
Yeah, that’s
it,” Charlie said as he came round the car, “what have you got left
to do?”

“
We’ve just
got that over there to brush,” Micky pointed to the area that he
and Andy had been just about to brush half an hour before. He
noticed the sun had gone for another day as a mist began to form in
the rapidly cooling air.

“
Well you better
get
cracking as here comes Sandra,” Charlie said as Micky’s boss turned
the corner heading to where Micky was.

“
Yeah, the
sooner it’s done the sooner I get home,” Micky stated before
trudging to get his brush with Andy close behind.

“
How’s it going?” Sandra
asked as Micky came closer.

“
Just got this
little bit to do. We would have been finished but Charlie needed us
for a hand with the last of the cars,” Micky explained as Andy
stood besides him.

“
That’s fine,
so you should finish that before you leave then?” She asked but
didn’t expect an answer.

“
Yeah,” Micky
replied anyway.

“
Good, good
right I’ll just have a word with Charlie as you both finish up
before the last of the light goes then,” she said then left the two
men to get on with their task.

Micky brushed as before
whilst Andy used his shovel to break up the dried mud. They worked
quickly with an urgency that they hadn’t had all day under the
watchful eye of their boss. The night was coming on fast and the
fog grew more substantial as the work progress to its
end.

“
Well that
looks like it,” Micky said feeling satisfied as he brushed the last
of the soil from the path.

“
Thank god,” Andy
felt
tired from the day’s exertion.

“
I’ll just let Sandra
know that’s us for the day and we’ll get off,” Micky said
then turned heading towards where his boss stood chatting with the
head of the maintenance.

Micky waited till there
was a gap in the conversation before speaking, “that’s us finished
so we’ll be going now.”

“
Oh, that’s
great,” she said looking round to see for herself, “okay I’ll see
you tomorrow at quarter to eleven then and thanks for all the
work.”

“
Quarter to
eleven,” he repeated, “no problem, see you all in the morning
then.” At that he turned happy to finally be on his way.

As he left Charlie called
after him, “hey, Micky remember not to go into the woods tonight or
the ghosty might bite your arse,” with a hoot of laughter from all
the other workmen.

“
I’ll just tell it you’ll give her
a big kiss as that would scare anybody,” Micky laughed
back at the maintenance man. Everyone joined him in his
glee.

“
We’re not
really going through the woods are we?” Andy didn’t like the idea
but knew it was the fastest way home saving them at least twenty
minutes.

“
Why? You
don’t really believe all that shit about ghosts and stuff, do you?”
Micky mocked his younger companion.

“
No, not
really but I don’t want to find out I’m wrong,” Andy said trying to
shrug off his apprehension.

“
Well if you
are wrong just slide home on my shit,” Micky joked as they passed
through the side gate.

“
Slide home
on your shit? I’ll be sliding home on my own never mind yours,”
Andy sound more jovial than he felt.

“
Well I’ll let you take the lead then,” Micky found this
hilarious, laughing all the way into the cabin to collect their
things. With their bags over their shoulders they left the cabin
then turned
left towards the
woods and for home as Micky’s jollity subsided.

“
I’ll be glad
to have a lie in tomorrow,” Andy said once Micky’s mirth died
away.

“
Just don’t
sleep to long ‘cause you’ve got work in the morning,” Micky still
smiling reminded his friend.

“
Yeah, yeah I
know but I still get a bit longer to snooze,” Andy relaxed
forgetting about the local legend.

“
What you on
tomorrow anyway?” Micky asked changing the subject.

“
I’m not sure
I think it’s the Amazon Barrel Roll,” Andy said
thoughtfully.