Dark Sayings by Tormod Cockburn

Author:Tormod Cockburn [Cockburn, Tormod]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mys.Scot Media
Published: 2024-05-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Gill spent a lazy Sunday morning with Salina. She’d woken feeling unwell, blaming a dodgy prawn in the previous night’s paella, so they lounged around in bed for a few hours. By late morning her queasiness had gone, and she decided she was ravenous. Walking into Broughty Ferry to grab some brunch they decided to try a high-ceilinged café, recently refurbished from an old pub. She chatted about her last week’s trip to the Isle of Wight, and he talked about finding the Culbin farmhouse with its eerie music baiting his curiosity. They returned, walking hand in hand along the esplanade and were arriving back at the cottage when a text dropped in from Fiona.

‘You’ll never guess what happened to me yesterday afternoon?’

Rather than sit and ping messages back and forth, he decided to call her.

‘I take back everything I ever said about ghosts,’ were her opening words.

‘Are you messing with me?’

‘No way!’ she said, and over the next ten minutes, Fiona recounted being chased by a white wraith as far as the open sea. ‘You actually saw this thing face to face?’

‘Aye. And it was horrible. One moment it was coming at me from the side. The next it was behind. And it reeked of death. I can’t see anyway that thing was natural.’

Gill gripped the phone. Fi’s encounter tallied with the other Culbin reports they’d had from the forest.

‘Thing is, Gill. Once I was in the shallow water, with all that mist, I didn’t know where the hell I was.’

Gill knew how fast the tide could advance on these wide expanses of coastal sand. Adding the perils of submerged banks and quicksand, they could be a death trap. ‘Oh, Fi. I should never have left you.’

‘Don’t worry about it. I would have hated you seeing me freaked out like that. Then, I almost stepped on a seal and I literally went to pieces. If a good Samaritan hadn’t come for me, I might have drowned.’

‘Who rescued you?’

‘A dog walker. Woman of about my own age, but you know, a yummy mummy rather than a heavy lifter like me. She heard me screaming and literally came wading out to get me. She was wearing these lovely boots and jeans. They must have been ruined.’

‘She actually entered the water to save you?’

‘Aye. Found me in the mist and had to calm me down. She’d come straight from the trees so she knew where the beach was. Took my arm and guided me to safety. Even helped me carry my tools to the van.’

‘That was so sweet of her,’ said Gill. ‘What’s her name? I’d like to print a thank you in the magazine.’

Fiona laughed nervously. ‘You know, I was so shaken up, I didn’t even think to ask her. She walked me to my van and made sure I was safe to drive. She was local, I’m guessing that much because she waved me off.’

‘I take it you didn’t see the wraith again?’

‘No,’ said Fiona with a shudder. ‘But I’ll tell you what.

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