(Kay: Part 13) 18 October 2019
Falaro stepped back from the huge plate glass window set into the side
of the circular tower.
‘Interesting’ he commented ‘those two children are cleverer than we
imagined. They have almost reached the solution to the problem.’
‘Well, let us hope so,’ said his companion, Vestis, ‘we cannot wait much
longer, the Master is getting impatient. If we cannot reach a conclusion
soon, all will be lost, and so-called Captain Jackson will be in possession of
the secret of eternal life.’
Falaro frowned, his dark eyebrows almost meeting across his broad white
forehead. Vestis could detect the working of his not inconsiderable intellect
behind his sea green eyes. She waited for his next pronouncement.
‘That cannot be allowed to happen. He is already too powerful and his
intentions are evil. If he is allowed to gain the secret hidden in Logan’s rock
he will use it for his own ends, and the rest of mankind will only suffer.
Immortality allows bad people to prosper. They can never be brought to account.
But he is already powerful, and he can only be defeated by innocents. Those
children are ideal for the purpose.’
‘But Falaro, they will have to remain innocent. I detect some lessening
in that characteristic, particularly in the boy.’
‘We cannot intervene Vestis, it is not allowed. We can only watch and
wait, and hope that the Fiery Horse can lead them to the answer before it is
too late.’
With that, they both returned to the window, from where they could see
the whole of the small area of coastline which housed the two cottages.
Although the sea mist had crept in, pearling the hedgerows and fields, they
were able to
discern the two
children crouching down behind the rock. They concentrated on willing the
children to do the right thing. The next few hours would be crucial
(Rani:
Part 14) 28 October 2019
Beth pressed the glass key to Logan’s rock. Silence, suspension,
then a slowly falling backwards through glass, a sharp severing of life
followed by a gentle floating, warm like blood, a pulsing of light and life, a
dazzling dissolving metamorphosis of form and shape.
Beth and Jeremy stood, or rather stumbled, before an imposing
figure sat upon a golden throne. He was swathed form head to toe in purple, his
face shrouded by a mask of gold. He looked like a god and perhaps he was one.
Jeremy was never lost for words and now was no exception. Wow, his
mates would be really impressed by this adventure!
“Hey dude, who are you?” he asked.
“I am unknowable” replied the figure “virtually unknowable.”
“Well, Mr Virtually Unknowable, can you grant wishes, like the
genii?”
Here the figure raised a hand and bid the children each make a
wish. Both children wished hard.
Jeremy found himself holding a giant cone of candy floss flavoured
ice cream. He took a lick but it tasted vile.
Beth watched horrified as her wish charged into the room, all
flashing purple eyes and rainbow hair, his unicorn horn lowered towards the
children. This was not the cute fluffy creature of her dreams.
Laughing Mr. Unknowable waved a hand and the wishes vanished.
“Now children, what do you really wish to find?”
“Our missing friend Jane.” said Beth.
“Wild women, Vodka, endless wealth and immortality!” said Jeremy.
“As you wish so may it be!” intoned the purple god “Anthony will
find Jane, he looks after lost property and young man Jude will see to you, he
deals with lost causes!”
With that a door opened and the children found themselves alone in
a city made of dreams.
(Morag: Part 15) 3 November 2019
‘I want to go home,’ Beth said, as she followed her brother along
the dimly lit street. ‘I don’t like this place.’ She glanced up at the
shuttered windows, sure they were being watched, by someone or something, she
wasn’t sure.
‘We can’t go home yet,’ Jeremy said. ‘We’ve only just got here,
and look, there’s a light on up ahead. See, in that shop over there.’
Beth was heartened to see it was a toyshop. She gazed into the
brightly lit window. A lone train was trundling round a track that was
surrounded with cuddly toys, dolls, teddies, jigsaws and cars.
‘There’s a horse like our fire horse,’ she said, pointing
excitedly. ‘See how it glows.’
But Jeremy wasn’t listening. He was staring at the woman in the
doorway of the building opposite. She had hair like a wild mane of straw and
she was brandishing a bottle of vodka at him, beckoning him with her finger.
‘Let’s go in,’ Beth said, tugging at his sleeve.
‘What?’ Jeremy glanced at his sister, then back at the doorway.
The woman had gone.
‘The toyshop. Let’s go in.’
The bell above the door tinkled as Beth pushed it open.
An elderly man rose from a wicker chair by the counter and peered
at them over the top of his gold rimmed glasses. He had ruddy red cheeks and a
thick white beard.
‘Welcome, children,’ he said, smiling.’ I’ve been expecting you.’
(Gerry: Part 16) 22 November 2019
“Oh, terrific,” Jeremy muttered.
“We’ve landed in Santa’s workshop!”
If the shopkeeper heard the jibe, he
made no sign of it. He ushered the
children through the doorway: “Come in, come in – make yourselves at home. I’ll rustle up some food: you must be
starving.”
He disappeared into a back room,
leaving the children alone in the toyshop.
While Jeremy inspected the model railway, Beth wandered between the
shelves, peering closely at the merchandise.
“What did he mean, he was expecting us?”
she wondered.
In the far wall, she spotted a door,
half-hidden by a curtain. Putting her
ear to the woodwork, she heard a distant sound of scraping and tapping.
She glanced around, but nobody was
looking. After a moment’s hesitation,
she turned the door handle and stepped through.
On the other side, she found herself in
a passageway, lit by oil lamps. As she
cautiously made her way down the passage, the scraping and tapping she’d heard
grew louder. She came to an archway and
ducked through.
She gaped.
She was standing on a metal gantry,
twenty feet above the earthen floor of a huge basement room. In the centre lay a huge stone sculpture of
the Flame Horse, on which scores of children were working, chipping away at the
stone with hammers and chisels.
As if sensing she was being watched,
one of the children glanced up towards her.
Beth gasped: “Jane!”
She started forward, but just then she
heard a sound behind her. There stood
the shopkeeper, holding Jeremy struggling in his arms. Beside him were two grim-looking men with
clubs.
“So you’ve found your friend,” the
shopkeeper said, softly. “A pity you’ll
never get to tell anyone about it ...”
Beth could hear the panic in her brother's voice as
he cried out to her. She realised that their quest had changed into something
else. It was no longer an exciting adventure but a terrible experience that
they could not understand. She wished that she had never seen the horse or found
the key.
Jane approached her. She seemed different somehow,
older and more confident.
"I'm sorry that your search to
find me has brought you here," said Jane. "I really need you both to
help me now."
Captain Jackson appeared on the gantry. He shouted
orders to everyone around him and his attention fixed on Jane. He spoke to her
in such a way that Beth and Jeremy were frozen in fear.
"Inanna," he said,
''betrayal will cost you everything. You could have shared in the secret; you
could have been immortal."
"My loyalty belongs to
another," she said, ''my heart also. The thing that you seek is not ours
to possess. It will bring pain and suffering upon us all."
Beth called out to Jeremy as he fought to free
himself. As they looked at each other they thought about their friendship with
Jane and they wanted more than anything to protect her. They thought about
their mother and of all the things that they shared together. They thought
about their unbreakable bond and in that moment love overwhelmed them.
The Captain was ageing before their eyes and he was
losing his power. Jeremy was able to break free from his captors.
Inanna ran towards the captain and stood over him.
"As foretold," she said, ''the pure hearts of the innocents will
defeat you."
As she spoke they heard the pounding of horses
hooves approaching.
(Liz: Part 18)
The flame
horse bore down on them with savage beauty, its physical strength and movement
causing a vortex in which everyone was caught up. The children were flung to
the perimeter of the swirling mass and what they saw terrified them.
Twisting,
rearing, nostrils flared, teeth tearing, the flame horse was mercilessly
attacking Captain Jackson and his company. A crashing blow to a man's skull
with iron shod hooves saw a body drop broken and dead in the wake of the
horse's onslaught.
The wind
decreased and the light flowing from the flame horse began to recede yet the
children saw the captain and his company had been smashed like broken discarded
toys. The flame horse saw the children and walked towards them, it bowed and on
raising its magnificent head held the children in its gaze before turning to
walk away.
Beth
gasped as she saw the fatal wounds on the animal's flank. She wanted to run to
the horse but she was rooted to the spot unable to move, the spot was the beach
near to their house.
Tears
began to flow from the children's eyes as the horse began to walk away. Was it
the tears that made the outline of the horse appear to quiver? The horse's
outline became translucent and then it gradually disappeared from sight, so too
did the dead bodies. There was no trace of the battle nothing was left even the
sand was undisturbed. Utter sadness gripped the children. The flame horse had
taken its last walk on the Earth and was now lost for all time.
Also lost
was the children's memory of what had happened, although they never spoke about
it both had a sense of experiencing something so traumatic that they were
compelled to act but, as yet, they did not know how. Mother too had no
recollection of Captain Jackson and events relating to him.
Looking down from his tower Falaro
and his companions were taken aback at what they had witnessed. They were
unsure how the Master would take the news but it was relayed to him factually.
It was a
few minutes before the Master responded explaining the news was only partially
good. He was satisfied that Captain Jackson had not learnt the secret of
eternal life and the subsequent result that mankind may suffer less. The demise
of the flame horse was tragic news. He warned Falaro and his companions that
they must remain patient and vigilant to see if any other human children in the
generations to come would ever come close to the discovery of eternal life.
Without the flame horse this would be very difficult to do.
He
concluded by saying he felt the children were of pure hearts and had the
strength to bring about a change to improve the quality of life for all and for
the Earth. That quality of life was more valuable to all than eternal
existence.
The
end!!!!!!
