Legend Has It

When Chris and Simon stay over at the house, we tell each other horror stories. There are only two rules.

1)     The story must take place in our home town of Phalscam.

2)     The story must begin, 'Legend has it'.

Over the years, I heard a lot of good horror stories. Chris was the best at telling them. There was the flesh-eating sea hag that found its way into the lake; the sand monster that still lurked in the bunker at our local golf course; the snaggle-toothed nymphs that crept into the bouquets of Phalscam hospital patients and bit them to death in their sleep.

These were all fantastic tales, but I suspect he only had the edge over Simon because he practised. I know for a fact that Chris's brother got to hear them first and give his opinion. As for Si... well, his monsters were just never very scary.

All except for one.

He didn't wait until the sleepover to tell me this one. Instead, he approached me in the school canteen and sat opposite me. His face was worryingly blank.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Legend has it..." he began.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Oh?" I said, putting down my sandwich.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Legend has it that a woman can be seen wandering around in the Cockshutt in Phalscam."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Cockshutt was a path through the woods, frequented by dog-walkers and kids taking a shortcut back from school. I sat up straighter in my chair.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"What's her name?" I asked.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Simon shook his head. "She doesn't have a name," he said. "It's not really a legend; I don't know if anyone else has even seen her. Paul and I did, though."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Paul from the library?"

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Yeah." His glasses caught the light. "We were there last night looking for his cat. It was really dark, because there are no lights up there. But we could hear his cat moving around, so we went in after it. I think for a while, we realised we'd been following a bird and lost track of the cat. Paul said we should turn back, but..."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">I nodded. "You got lost."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Yeah. We got lost."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">This was a good story. He'd put some thought into this one.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"We wandered around," he said. "I thought if we found that wooden set of stairs leading up the hill, we might see the lights from the houses, and then we could head in that direction. So, that's what we did. It took about half an hour, but we found the wooden stairs. We got to the top..." He pulled his fringe back and took a breath.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Yeah? Then what?"

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"And there was a woman standing at the top," said Simon. He looked me in the eyes. "She was... really tall, and really beautiful. I don't know how to describe her..."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Well, have a go."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"I can't. I only looked at her a few seconds, and I felt stunned. Like, she was just so beautiful, and delicate, and..."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Simon put his head on the table and gave a sob. The girl sitting next to me gave us a strange look, and I nudged Simon.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Hey," I said, "come on, Si..."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">After a moment, he pulled himself together and looked at me again.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Sorry," he said. "I was... Yeah. This woman. I looked at her for a few seconds, and then I got this pain in my chest, sort of here... and then everything started to blur."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"What do you mean?"

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"I mean, my vision started to go weird, but only what I was seeing through my glasses. Around my glasses, I was actually starting to see better. That's never happened to me. Never. And I just... I turned around and ran back down the stairs. When I got to the bottom, I could see again. But Paul was still up there. He was still watching this woman, and no matter how much I shouted, he wouldn't come with me. So I left. I left Paul there."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Then Simon lowered his head, and poked his thumb through the hole in his jumper cuff.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"That's the end of the story?" I asked.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He nodded.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Have you seen Paul today?"

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For a moment, I thought he was going to start sobbing again. But he didn't. He just shrugged at me and said, "He's not in the library."

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Normally, I would never believe one of these 'Legend has it' stories. But something about it fascinated me. Simon seemed to believe in it. I didn't see Paul for the rest of the day. It was really good and I wanted to take it to the next level. Go to the top of the staircase and spook myself out a bit.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It's not the best story I've ever heard. For one thing, Simon didn't tell me what the woman's deal was. Did she have teeth? Claws? Did she attack Paul and decorate the trees with his guts? He wouldn't say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">So going up to the wooden hill in the Cockshutt would solve a few mysteries.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">I'm starting up the path. It is dark, but there's still the streetlamp behind me, and I've got the light from this phone.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">(Sent from my mobile)

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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">OK, getting seriously dark, now. I'm having to lean against a tree to type this out. Could wait until I get home I suppose, but it's slightly more reassuring to do this. Who know, I might never come baaaaaack...

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">(Sent from my mobile)

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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">I can hear rustling in the trees. Might be Paul's cat.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">(Sent from my mobile)

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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Now I'm at the bottom of the stairs. For some reason I'm seeing Simon in my head, telling me the story. I can remember the glasses catching the light. Maybe it was a good thing he was wearing them. Maybe I should have asked to borrow them.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">(Sent from my mobile)

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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">I'm at the top of the wooden stairs. No sign of the woman but I'll stay for about half an hour. Any longer and my brother at home will have to come and get me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">(Sent from my mobile)

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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">She's here. I think time is moving more slowly, or maybe I'm typing quicker than I've ever typed before. She is beautiful. She's wearing nothing but I'm looking at her face. Her eyes are deep blue. They're so deep. My chest hurts. It feels hollow. She's beautiful and pale and deep but I don't care. There's a shadow coming from behind me and it has claws. I don't care. It's got my shoulder. I don't care.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">(Sent from my mobile)

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