Darkly Wood

by Power, Max

  It had been a long time since anything sinister had occurred up in the Wood. There had not been a new tale to add to the old for quite some time. In such circumstances and with the passing of enough time, people tended or perhaps tried to forget what might lay up there in that Wood. Truth get’s mixed up with fable. The tales sometimes fade unless they get an injection of new blood every now and again. Honey’s death was certainly that and so, the stories began again as though they had never gone away.

  As always happened when some tragedy was visited upon Cranby, the event itself quickly became wrapped up in a fresh retelling of all that had gone before. There were it seemed, stories from as far back as back could go, each one more mysterious than the other, each one concerning the dead and the missing. Every story carried the same common themes, death, sadness, and mystery and always at the heart of each one was the place itself, Darkly Wood.

  CHAPTER TWO – DAISY

  Daisy May Coppertop stood in her new attic bedroom, staring out from its singular, old and narrow wooden window. Cranby was so different from her old home and she felt it would take quite a lot to convert her to its charms. Her mother and father had recently divorced and it had been a noisy awful time to which Daisy had generally switched off. It was the only way she could cope with the whole messy affair.

  She loved her father Archie so much; it hurt her terribly to be parted from him for even a day. They had moved a long distance away from where he now lived and Daisy knew how much she would miss him and how he would miss her in return. So she played a game in her head. In Daisy’s game, her father would be home very soon and she would just have to divert her thoughts elsewhere until each reunion day arrived. He was generally the only person to call her by her full name. Most people simply called her Daisy. Although she introduced herself that way, she quite liked the way her dad always called her Daisy May, no matter what.

  Her mother Isabel was flame haired and flame tempered which suited their family name very well indeed, but she loved her no less for it. Daisy hated the name Coppertop. It was a stupid name. Long before they ever moved into their new home, in what Daisy considered a boring backwater town, Isabel had worked hard to convert her daughter to its appeal. For weeks ahead of the move, she spoke of nothing else and always in the most glowing terms. Daisy just knew that no place could live up to the reputation being created by her mother. Nonetheless Isabel knew that recent events had been traumatic for Daisy, so she tried her best.

  Daisy never paid her mother’s thoughts or opinions on the new town, much attention. It was very deliberate. She didn’t want to hear about the change. Isabel told her that change was good and Archie tried to convince her that everything, would be alright in the long run. She knew that somewhere in what they both had to say, there was a possibility of some truth, but even so Daisy just wanted things to stay the same.

  Unfortunately for her, she realised the significance of unpacking her things and putting them away in her brand new room. Things had indeed changed. There was no denying that now. No going back. So, she did what she did best and diverted her mind to other things. Daisy was good at ignoring the bad stuff. No matter what happened and for as long as anyone could remember, Daisy had always been a survivor. She had her own peculiar way of dealing with the obstacles that life threw her way. Archie secretly admired her strength and encouraged her to travel her own road and to always be herself. School would not start for another couple of weeks and that newness held even more fear for Daisy, terror even. It was yet another thing for her not to think about. There were so many things she had to ignore. It was hard work.

  “One thing would surely follow another” her dad used to say, by which he meant that the world stood still for no one. Archie had a saying for almost all occasions. She had to deal with whatever life threw at her so, fearful or not, Daisy would deal with the new school, but just not yet. Daisy crossed bridges when she came to them and when she came to them, she crossed them with gusto.

  Looking out through her window, she surveyed what she could see from her vantage point, the village of Cranby. There was basically one rolling, twisting street in the village as such, behind which the rest of the village hid. Their house was smack dab in the middle of the main street. The street outside, rose away off to the left and the old road led up towards a Wood which stretched across the horizon in the distance, directly in front of the main street. The Wood dominated the landscape. She guessed that it was about a half a mile away from the village, except to the west where the hill rolled down and the forest followed it down part of the way. But the bulk of Darkly Wood sat on the hill, more or less parallel to the village’s main street. From Daisy’s perspective, looking up at it from Cranby, it seemed enormous.

  The houses were all on one side of the street facing towards the Wood with a couple of exceptions at either end of the town. There, a few houses had been built backing onto the field that led to the Wood. There was a small stream that ran along the other side of the road, opposite the houses on the main street and this veered away at either end of Cranby, facilitating the building of the few houses that were situated there. To her right, the town continued in the same fashion, bending forward in an arcing curve and near the end, Daisy had noticed that there seemed to be some sort of market or town square. Behind the main street, there were several lanes and side streets that she could eventually explore.

  It was an undeniably pretty place, with old stone houses and flowers outside virtually every one. There was an occasional car parked in the narrow street, but for the most part, people seemed to keep their cars out of sight around by the lanes that ran at the back of each house. In fairness there was little room to pass where cars parked on the road, though there was little traffic except that which was local. Cranby had long since been bypassed. Directly in front of her house leading uphill to the Wood, there was nothing but open pasture land. Locals simply referred to it as ’the meadow.’ Cattle grazed there and an occasional sheep. The Wood that began off to the left carried on uphill along the rise of the pasture land framing the horizon, before curving away and running back over the hill east and to the right of their new home.

  There was an old stately house at the far side of the Wood, or so her mother had told her, but from her window she could see no such structure. They planned to go exploring at the weekend when Isabel had some time off work. Daisy thought that the town would bore her to death and quickly got tired of the view. She turned and looked around surveying her new bedroom. There was a lot of stuff to sort out, but she couldn’t really face it. Like most teenage girls, Daisy May Coppertop did not like housework.

  The room was nice. Nicer than her old room in their last house. It certainly was bigger, although being an attic room, the angle of the roof made the room quite low in places. The small window made it quite dark, but in an odd way, she quite liked that. Daisy gently kicked some of the paper that she had earlier removed from one of the packing chests and sighed. There was so much work to be done. The very thought of all that needed to be done was daunting. She would much rather be doing something else. Daisy sneezed.

  “Great!” she exclaimed aloud.

  “What’s that?” her mother shouted up the stairs.

  “Nothing Mum, I just sneezed.” Daisy answered, thinking her mother must have supersensitive hearing. Maybe it was just the way sound echoed in the house. They had nothing on the floor except bare wood for the moment and it was very echoey.

  “Where’s your inhaler?” her mother shouted up to her, then “It’s probably all the dust!”

  Daisy knew very well it was all the dust. She was asthmatic and although it had been a long time since she had a bad attack, it sometimes played on her mind.

  “It’s in my pocket!” she shouted down and picked her inhaler up from the locker beside the bed. She tucked it into her jeans pocket.

  “Maybe I should go outside away from the dust?” she tried hopefully.

  “Just as soon as you have put away your stuff!” Isab
el knew how dust affected her daughter but she had already cleaned her room as best she could before letting her unpack. The dust problem was not that significant. She knew Daisy was trying to pull a fast one. Daisy sighed and plonked herself down on her bed.

  Something passed by her bedroom door very quickly and the movement startled her. The stairs and her mother’s bedroom were to the left of her room as she looked out. Whatever it was passed her door, as though coming from the direction of the stairs towards the only remaining room to the right of her bedroom. That was the bathroom. For a moment she completely froze. Could her eyes have been playing tricks on her? It took her a few moments to compose herself. She was being silly. There was no one else upstairs.

  Daisy stood up, tentatively stepped toward the open door and poked her head out, looking left and right. There was no one there. She could hear her mother talking with the movers at the door. They seemed to having trouble getting their rather large couch through the narrow front entrance of the old house.

  Daisy looked to her right. Perhaps it was one of the movers going to use the bathroom. But the bathroom door was open and she could hear no sound from inside and besides, there was a toilet downstairs. She stepped out into the hallway and slowly, very slowly she walked towards the bathroom. Every floorboard seemed to creak under foot and she tried to recall hearing that creaking sound a few moments earlier. She hadn’t. Surely if there was someone up here with her, she would have heard the floor creak. It had to be her imagination.

  On reaching the bathroom door Daisy stood perfectly still for another moment. She was listening intently for any sound from inside. The door was only half-open and although she could partially see inside; Daisy couldn’t see the whole room from where she stood. Taking her deepest breath, she grabbed hold of her courage and pushed the door wide open. Her fear was irrational, it had to be. Daisy stepped into the bathroom as quickly as possible. It was empty. She exhaled loudly.

  It was just as she had expected of course. Daisy’s mind was definitely playing tricks on her. Moving house was stressful. Everyone knew that. Being in a new house brought an extra sense of nervousness. It would take time to adjust and grow comfortable with her surroundings. Every house had its own quirky creaks and moans. Daisy walked the short distance to the bathroom window. She pushed open the small window which was slightly ajar anyway and looked out to the street below. There was nothing unusual to be seen. Why should there be?

  Her heart still raced from the fright and she took another deep breath. She exhaled slowly, calming herself and turned to leave. When she did, Daisy almost tripped over a small leather bound book on the floor. She hadn’t noticed it on her way into the bathroom. Daisy picked it up and turned it over in her hands. At that very moment there was a distant shout from outside that sounded like someone calling her name. She was not sure, but nonetheless, Daisy couldn’t help but be drawn back to the window to check it out. The window was old and had a strange mechanism for opening. It was hinged in the middle on both sides and could flip open by pulling the top down, thus forcing the bottom outwards. She pushed on it a little harder to open it even wider and to get a better view.

  Daisy had to stretch her neck to get a more bird’s eye view of the street than she had earlier. At first she noticed nothing unusual, just like before. The movers had disappeared inside with the couch. She started to pull her head back in, but as she did Daisy noticed a young boy standing in the field up towards the Wood. He was some distance away, but he stood quite still and appeared to be starring directly at her. The boy seemed too young to be alone and even from a distance she could see that his clothes looked quite ragged. Strangest of all, although she couldn’t tell for sure, he appeared to be barefoot. The boy looked like an innocent, lost and alone and he had a wild shock of fair hair on his head that was very striking indeed. He reminded her of Oliver Twist. There was something about him that made her feel very uncomfortable, yet there was something familiar about him at the same time.

  Then quite out of the blue, the boy slowly raised his left arm and pointed in Daisy‘s direction. It sent a shiver down her spine and she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Quite purposefully, he turned and pointed over his shoulder towards the Wood. To Daisy, it looked like he was trying to show her something.

  She felt another shiver and pulled her head in. This was weird! She needed to get a grip. It was just a boy. Daisy leaned forward to look again but the boy was gone. Left and right she looked, scouring the field with her eyes, but it was hopeless. He had vanished. He couldn’t possibly have moved that quickly. Daisy could not believe it. The sharp sound of her mother’s voice calling her to come downstairs to come and help her shook Daisy from her trance. She was startled and dropped the book on the floor again. This time it landed face up and as Daisy picked it up, she read the title. In gold inlay were the words

  “Tales of Darkly Wood” by J.S. Toner

  CHAPTER THREE- BENJAMIN BLOOD

  By the time they had finished finding homes for the bulk of their furniture, Daisy was tired and hungry. There were still lots of chores to be done, all the clothes, bed linen, kitchenware, knick-knacks etc. but Rome wasn’t built in a day, as Archie might say. Daisy was getting on Isabel’s nerves so she suggested that she should have a wander through the town to see if there was any where they might get a take-out. Finding time to cook was hard enough, but heaven knew where the kitchen utensils were. Isabel needed a break from Daisy’s ‘help’ and Daisy didn’t need to be asked twice.

  She scuttled out through the front door, tenner in hand before she was asked to do anything else and slammed straight into a slim young man literally on her door step. He went flying into the road landing heavily on his left arm and shoulder. He let out an ear piercing screech. Daisy was startled and immediately embarrassed.

  “Sorry…I’m sooo sorry...” she offered reaching down awkwardly to help him up. His face was contorted with pain but Daisy hesitated, almost drawing her hand back when he looked at her, but not quite. The young man was not much older than Daisy and strikingly handsome. He was more than that. He was gorgeous. Even lying in a heap on the ground, grimacing in pain, hair tussled and wearing cheap clothes, she couldn’t but help notice that he was...well…beautiful really, absolutely beautiful. It was really the only word that could adequately describe him. He stopped grimacing and smiled, reaching up to accept her offer of help. Hard though it was too imagine improving on his looks, his smile only made him more attractive. Daisy reached for him with more assurance, to help him back to his feet.

  “Benjamin” was the first word he spoke as he stood up, still holding onto her hand.

  “Pardon?” Daisy asked, letting go.

  “Benjamin. My name is Benjamin. Benjamin Blood.”

  Benjamin stood up straight and he was a good five or six inches taller than Daisy. She blushed despite herself. They stood looking at each other in an awkward silence for a few moments, although in truth the awkwardness was primarily one-sided. Benjamin smiled again and his smile immediately put her at ease for some reason that Daisy failed to understand. It was a delightful smile and she couldn’t help but return it.

  “Are you alright?” she ventured, “I mean I’m sorry.”

  “You said that already.” Benjamin replied, “There’s no need to worry, I’m unbreakable.”

  Daisy laughed louder and longer than the remark deserved and again blushed at her own actions. It was crazy. She really didn’t know why she was acting so strange. She felt, silly, awkward. It was stupid really. A horrible thought flashed across her mind and she glanced over her shoulder. But the door had closed behind her. There were no prying motherly eyes to witness her discomfort.

  “Better not delay you,” he offered, “you seem in a hurry?”

  “Sorry?” Daisy’s question suggested that she didn’t know what he meant so Benjamin elaborated.

  “Well you came thundering out of that door like the house was on fire!”

  Again Daisy apologised, “sorry�
�� and when he gave her a look that said please don’t apologise again, she apologised for saying sorry with, “sorry,” and then she laughed at the very idea. They both laughed.

  “What’s your name?” Benjamin asked when they finished laughing.

  “I’m Daisy May.” She answered simply. For some reason unknown to her in that moment, she introduced herself with her full title. She never did that, never.

  “What a fantastic name!” Benjamin beamed as he spoke.

  “Where are you off to Daisy May?”

  His reaction to her name surprised and pleased her all at once.

  “I…” she had to think for a moment. “I’m not sure really, I was looking for somewhere to get some take-out really. Do you know a good place?”

  “There is a chip-shop just around the corner”

  He pointed to his left and looked back at Daisy. He hesitated and Daisy just stood there looking at him.

  “Come on, I will show you.”

  “OK, thanks” was all that Daisy could think of to say and she let Benjamin lead the way.

  They walked down the street and the evening started to close in around them. A street lamp lit-up as they reached the corner, as though it had been pre-planned and timed to do so at just the right moment. They both looked up and then Daisy sneaked a look at Benjamin’s silhouette in the lamp light. His face was pale with a striking bone structure. Daisy didn’t think she had ever seen a boy so handsome and she felt a little strange. She looked away before he could catch her. They carried on and Benjamin led her, turning right and up a narrow little street. She was surprised just how much more there was to the village. Immediately she could see the sign for the chip-shop about thirty yards further on but she didn’t say a word. Neither of them spoke. They simply walked in silence until they reached their destination. When they finally arrived at the shop, Benjamin turned to face her.