FILE 013: ASHES
I've contemplated it. I really have. Contemplated going back to Little Ashbury. I know that I'd be relatively safe with Stark, but that would be going backwards. I need to move forwards. So that's why I'm currently parked up near Viking Wood again. Yep, Viking Wood. I figure it's the last place they'd think to look for me.
So, the vicarage...
I'd made my way outside the building. It had been raining and I slipped on the wet doorstep, falling flat on my face, but I didn't stop moving. I scrambled along the floor for a few metres until I felt far enough away to take a breather. Turning around I looked up to see the dark silhouette of the building against the dimly lit streetlights. The silence was palpable. I wasn't sure what to do. Stark had entered that room clearly ready to do battle with whatever had attacked me, but now there came no sound whatsoever.
And then the door swung open and out stepped Eleanor. Her face was covered in ash and soot. Her once-friendly face fixed into a ferocious frown. Her hair was wet and hung lankly either side of her face and her arms hung limply at her side, the fingers on both of her hands bent and curved into claws.
I whispered her name into the rain, but the thing that was wearing my daughters face didn't respond. It continued to walk slowly towards me. When I shouted out for Stark, the Eleanor-thing twisted her face into a sneer. The streetlights winked out leaving us both in total darkness. I caught a little flash of the figure as she advanced on me, but it wasn't Eleanor anymore. It was the taller female form again. I caught a glimpse of silver hair and the blue dress. Later I'd realise that the figure was the same silver-haired, blue-dressed woman I'd see on the Hell video. But right now I didn't give a fuck. I just wanted to get out of there.
I turned to run. There came an unearthly, hollow shriek from behind me and something grabbed my ankle. I twisted out of its gripped, turned back and saw the shape of the woman divide in two. The only way I can describe it is that her body suddenly turned to ash, exploded in a cloud and then reformed into two separate figures. Visibility was shit in the dark, but in the occasional bit of natural light provided by the sky I could see that they were faceless. Grey and tall and thin. They walked like something that didn't belong in this world. Like their legs weren't working quite right.
Fear took over and I got to my feet and ran. I made it across the graveyard when I turned to look at them. They were moving slowly but they were still coming. Fucking hell. It was probably the most terrified I'd been in my life after Eleanor had gone missing. I was about to turn and keep running past the church and into the village - into civilisation - when two shots rang out. Two actual sodding shots from a gun. I covered my ears and when I looked back the two figures had exploded, particles of them hanging in the air, swirling and churning around almost as if they were waiting for orders on whether to reconvene again.
I turned to see Stark standing next to her verger, Miss Johnston. Miss Johnston was holding a shotgun. Stark was covered in the same soot that had been smeared across the things face. She muttered some words under her breath, held up the cross and the two clouds of ash merged as one and then spun off into the night sky like some kind of hurricane from the depths of Hell.
And that's when I finally demanded some answers from the Reverend Joan Stark.
END REPORT
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