The Plague Stones by James Brodgen

Author:James Brodgen [Brodgen, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07GMVZQ2N
Publisher: Titan Books
Published: 2019-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

22

REVELATION

‘SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO THE PEOPLE OF Haleswell committed a terrible crime, and our village has been cursed ever since,’ said the reverend. She stood by the large picture window in Stone Cottage’s living room, looking out at the parish stone in the garden. It was late afternoon and the light was dimming. Nash and Esme Barlow flanked her, sitting in armchairs while the Feenans sat in a tight, protective knot on the sofa. Toby’s hand was heavily bandaged; he’d been given three stitches, a tetanus booster and a week’s prescription of amoxicillin to guard against infection.

‘Historical records are sketchy so we don’t know the exact circumstances,’ Rev. Dobson continued, ‘only that one of the victims was a girl named Hester Attlowe whose undying rage causes Her to haunt the outskirts of the ancient parish boundary. In a sense the why is academic – what She wants is very simple: vengeance on the leaders of Haleswell. Which is to say you, me, and every other member of the Trust.’

‘But we haven’t done anything!’ protested Toby.

Nash gave a hollow laugh.

‘She doesn’t care,’ said Joyce. ‘It’s not what we’ve done or not done that matters to Her, it’s who we are. We represent everything She despises, so we must be punished.’

‘That’s not fair!’

‘You say that like it means something,’ Nash muttered.

‘Shh,’ said Trish, stroking Toby’s hair. ‘Let her finish.’ She turned back to Dobson. ‘You say the records are sketchy. So how do you know any of this?’

‘Towards the end of the nineteenth century there was a surge of interest in occult phenomena – clairvoyance, mediumship, reincarnation – anything esoteric was tremendously fashionable. Secret societies and churches like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn attracted respectable intellectuals like Yeats and less respectable ones like Aleister Crowley. Even Arthur Conan Doyle was fooled by two girls who had faked photographs of fairies at the bottom of their garden. Séances became very popular, and most were debunked as fakes, but since the Trustees knew that they were the targets of a malicious entity that was very real, it made sense to try to contact that spirit to find out what it wanted, maybe even to placate it or come to an accommodation. It was a terrible, tragic mistake.

‘What happened was recorded by a clerk of the Trust, who was committed to an asylum shortly afterwards. The medium, a man by the name of Joseph Beely, was imprisoned and later hanged for the murders of the six Trustees who were in the room at the time. Since the séance had been conducted in secret they had only the clerk’s testimony about who was there, because what Hester did to them – using Beely’s body and only the furniture in the room – made it impossible to identify specific individuals.’

‘But how did that work if She wasn’t invited in through the barrier or anything?’ asked Toby.

‘But that’s exactly what the séance was,’ explained the reverend. ‘An invitation.’

‘Oh my God,’ said Trish.

‘Since then there has been no further attempt to make contact with Hester.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.