The Secret Burial Grounds of Knocknakil

by Gregg Holt

  “Arrgh!” Graham screamed, unable to contain himself any longer.

  The intruder, visibly shocked, fell backwards and a familiar voice shouted.

  “Ow, my toe!” It was his Uncle.

  Relieved, Graham shouted. “What are you doing Dan?”

  “I heard a noise and came to check you were OK,” he said, now noticeably holding his toe and starting to move towards the bedroom door.

  Suddenly a large crash was heard, this time it came from outside.

  Lorna, now awake with the goings on, jumped out of bed and swiped open the curtains.

  They could just make out the image of the strange creature in a cloak jumping over the rear wall and off towards the old cemetery.

  Lorna said: “That’s him again, do you get the impression we are being watched?”

  “Yeah, someone has a lot of interest in us,” Graham replied, regaining his composure.

  “Come on, let’s go and find out what he wants,” Lorna suggested.

  “Maybe we should go and look tomorrow; it's the middle of the night,” Graham quickly replied, satisfied he did not need any more excitement for the remainder of the night.

  Lorna agreed, having second thoughts about going out. They both turned round to get back into bed when they noticed the image of Dan hopping past their bedroom door holding his foot.

  After eventually falling asleep, Graham was woken by the succulent smell of freshly cooking sausages, immediately tantalising his taste buds. He jumped out of bed and moved quickly into the kitchen, noticing everybody else was up and eating breakfast.

  “Morning,” he said, pulling a chair up to the table, his hair dishevelled and his eyes heavy.

  “Afternoon,” replied Lorna, grinning broadly.

  Graham’s mother passed him some sausage, bread and a cup of tea.

  “Shall we head over to the abbey and cemeteries after breakfast?” Lorna asked, not allowing Graham to start his breakfast.

  “Hmm,” replied Graham, stuffing his mouth with a juicy Irish sausage and nodding his head.

  Following a satisfying breakfast they headed out onto the country lane and into the warm morning sunshine. The sounds of the country filled the air; the cows were braying and the swallows chattered gleefully as they flew dangerously close to the ground, occasionally changing direction suddenly in mid-air to catch a fly.

  They passed the local shop and the old abbey came into view.

  “What will we do if we see the cloaked fiend?” Graham asked guardedly.

  “I will punch him on the nose!” replied Lorna defiantly.

  “Yeah, did you see his nose last time?”

  “Well no,” replied Lorna, now starting to think about the implications.

  Bobbing up and down on the top of some ruins, several crows cackled mischievously as they passed.

  “What is this place Graham?” Lorna asked as they approached the entrance.

  “They call it the Glebe; it was built sometime in the eighteenth century. The priest arrived from somewhere in America, one day he just disappeared. Some of the locals think he returned home but no one really knows what happened to him.

  “The church was left and it gradually decayed over time.”

  They progressed down the footpath towards the old abbey, passing a man motionless with his head bowed by a gravestone. The proud abbey was now a shadow of its former glory, slabs of stone appeared white, perished by the ravages of time. Some of the solid walls had disintegrated over time and what remained was smothered by layers of thick suffocating Ivy. Some of the stones had fallen or been removed from the wall only to be used as gravestones years later.

  There was ivy covering one complete side of the abbey and you could make out some arches from old doorways or windows just protruding from the ground. Just over the stone wall a few feet away you could see mounds in the field with grass grown over. These must have been even older structures which nature had reclaimed in time and there was a large circle of rocks like those at the bottomless lake.

  Reaching the old abbey, they noticed a small entrance under one of the old arches. Somebody had placed a metal gate on it to prevent access to the inside of the structure. However, the gate was slightly ajar and a broken lock lay on the ground.

  Without hesitation Lorna was on her hands and knees, the entrance was very low and access was gained by crouching right down. Lorna pushed the gate and it opened with a laboured noise as if it had been neglected for years.

  She crawled, resting on the crunching gravel, which left several dimples in her skin. Disappearing out of sight, Graham decided to quickly follow, breathing deeply with great anticipation as he entered the old ruins.

  Inside the ruins, the blue sky could be seen above as if looking up from the bottom of a large chimney breast; there were rocks strewn on the ground amongst the loose gravel. The ivy was growing on the inside of the rocks, reaching into every crevice, swallowing large areas of the walls. Inside the structure it was peaceful, in fact it was deadly silent, and no sound seemed to penetrate inside.

  “You two should not be in here,” said a deep and frightening voice.

  They quickly looked round and blocking the entrance was a dark-haired man.

  Standing six feet tall, his shoulders were enormous. His face looked as though it had seen battle many times before and had a large scar on his right cheek which reached from his beard to his ear. Haunting, motionless brown eyes were set deep into their sockets spaced evenly apart. A well-maintained black beard covered his rigid jaw line resembling Graham’s old ‘Action Man’. He wore dark creepy clothing; his black shirt had silver holes in it, where a small silver chain was laced through pulling the two sides of his shirt together. His jacket was black and about three-quarters the length of his body and they noticed a flash of something underneath as he moved his hand slightly. Sharp pointed spikes protruded dangerously from his leather wrist bands, designed to cause maximum damage.

  “What are you doing in here?” he demanded in a chilling tone.

  “L... L... looking around,” Lorna stuttered, her arms straight down by her sides with her fingers pointing rigidly.

  Graham started to edge around the monstrosity to see if the entrance was totally blocked. His heart started to thump faster as he realised they were trapped inside.

  “You two could help me with a little problem I have, would you like to help me?” The air turned cold every time he spoke and chills ran down their spine. He pulled his coat back and there shining in the light was a sword.

  “WELL YOU TWO, ARE YOU GOING TO HELP ME?” he said, shouting angrily and staring intently at them.

  “Yes,” Graham replied hesitantly. Slowly his eyes moved up and down the reinforced shaft until they came to rest on the handle. Rounded at the top it resembled the joint on a human bone. Shuddering with realisation, Graham’s conclusion was it had been no doubt ripped from one of his victims and painstakingly polished. The fiend’s fingers tapped menacingly on the handle to ensure attention was drawn to its origin.

  “I have not seen a good friend, for what must be a century; it would be really good to see him again.” Lorna noticed his teeth, they were black all around the edges, faded and decayed through years of neglect, or was he telling the truth about his age?

  “He calls himself Carragah, do you know him?”

  Graham and Lorna quickly glanced at each other; this man was bad and they had sensed that immediately.

  “No, not heard of him,” they replied, staring at this beast and there was silence.

  He moved his mouth to reveal his rotten teeth and whispered “I think you know where he is”. He took a step to the side to reveal someone else entering the ruins.

  Moving towards them a figure started to edge into the ruins from the entrance. At first there wasn’t much to see but a dark cloak but as he stood they noticed it was the masked faceless image which had been stalking them over the past two days.

  Standing a few feet away they could not distinguish any
facial features, just a dark empty image. Graham noticed his feet; they had three large toes or more like claws. Feeling very intimidated, they felt as if they were on a movie set resembling medieval times.

  “Sucillian has been watching you, he is a good friend of mine.” At this, the faceless being just bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement.

  “I told you we don’t know a Carragah!” Graham shrieked, panic stricken.

  “You’re lying to me. I know you met him yesterday and he informed you of the location of something precious to me!” he replied as he edged closer to Graham.

  Lorna grabbed her friend’s arm and they edged further back, crashing onto the cold stone wall. They were trapped with no where to go.

  “LEAVE THEM ALONE!”

  Appearing from nowhere, Lepy moved through the doorway towards the children, his boots crunching the loose gravel; he gave them a reassuring glance as he stood next to them. Although Graham and Lorna were relieved to see Lepy, his small stature against these monsters did little to alleviate their fears.

  “Be gone with you, this is not your concern leprechaun,” shouted the large intruder, moving his coat back revealing his sword and placing his hand on it provocatively.

  Lepy was not deterred; he nodded slightly still trying to reassure Graham and Lorna in their visibly petrified state.

  “I warn you leprechaun, leave us now or your fate will the same as your clans!” he demanded chillingly.

  In response, Lepy pulled out a small glass ball and held it in his hand. The monster laughed and slowly started to draw his long, cold, steel sword, which scraped menacingly against its sheath.

  Instantly, Lepy’s glass ball exploded, intense sunlight blinded the threatening creatures; they flinched and covered their eyes, startled.

  There was a pull on Lorna’s arm and she followed instinctively, her eyes were blurred with a ball of bright white light imprinted on her retina. Suddenly everything went dark and Lorna landed heavily on her backside.

  “What happened?” she screamed.

  “It’s OK,” Lepy replied, reassuringly touching her shoulder as she lay on the ground. “We fell through a trap door and into the secret passageway.”

  Just behind where Graham landed, a light appeared. He looked round to see Lepy holding up his light ball and they could see again.

  “Did you see that Graham?” Lorna exclaimed, excitedly.

  “Lepy dazzled those things and then opened the secret passage, pushed us down and then closed it. Good move Lepy; you’re a pretty cool leprechaun.”

  “Right you two follow me, we need to keep moving, it won’t take Iroquois long to realise what happened.”

  Quickly walking off, Lepy looked back and indicated for them to hurry and follow.

  Without hesitation they quickly started to follow, crouching down in the restricted passage, with the exception of Lepy, occasionally crawling through small gaps where the ceiling had started to collapse. It was dark, cold and the air was stale, reminding Lorna of the sewers back home, fortunately without the rats.

  After a silent few minutes they noticed a small glimpse of light which steadily grew as they drew nearer. Lepy stopped just as they reached the exit. Graham noticed it was a doorway which was three-quarters blocked and only the top quarter was open. Lepy climbed through without any problems. Lorna managed to squeeze through tightly and then it was Graham’s turn. He put his head through and his shoulders just managed to get through. With quite a lot of huffing and breathing in heavily, Graham tried to pull his waist and tummy through. Lorna stood towering above, reaching down she grabbed his hands and he was free. Climbing to his feet and scanning the surroundings, Graham declared,

  “I know where we are. Uncle Jim showed me this place before, it is a secret passageway from the old abbey. It was built to protect the old monks from the Viking raids, never thought I would have used it for real.”

  Chapter 9

  Heroic Actions

  “Come, we must move quickly,” demanded Lepy, “it won’t belong before Iroquois and Sucillian realise what happened back there. Sucillian has probably been watching you since your arrival in Ireland and almost certainly knows you have been visiting Knocknakil. Carragah will be waiting for us, we must hurry!”

  Lepy quickly paced away, turning briefly “Come on hurry we don’t have much time”.

  He led them down by the farmhouse where Kathleen was busy working away in the garden, so busy she never noticed them passing by following a leprechaun. Lorna chuckled, watching Lepy ducking behind the odd obstacle and moving so quickly his legs could hardly support his body. What made it even more amusing was the fact nobody could see him anyway.

  Lepy’s pace was relentless, considering his stature, moving extremely quickly leaving the children struggling to keep up.

  They progressed past the chicken sheds where Graham noticed something on the floor.

  “Stop, wait there!” he demanded and quickly ran back towards the shed.

  As he approached the shed his heart started pounding robustly. Slowly opening the door he lost his breath slightly, just there on the floor in front of him was a dead chicken, bloody feathers scattered all over. Graham noticed that something had killed the chicken and partly eaten its chest. There were several chickens sat quietly on their nests. Under normal circumstances these chickens would have stampeded out when he entered the shed.

  “What's up?” Lorna asked as she approached Graham, looking over his shoulder and noticing the gory carcass.

  Gasping, she raised her hand to her mouth feeling like she was about to vomit and quickly turned away. After a few seconds she regained her composure,

  “Bloody hell, what’s happened here Graham, was it a fox?”

  Lepy entered and responded. “No that’s no fox that’s done this; a fox would have attacked the others as well. Whatever did this has only eaten part of the chicken the fox would have taken all of it. I think we have trouble, we must move.” And Lepy pushed Graham and Lorna quickly out of the shed.

  “Why, what was it Lepy?” Graham shouted, quickly trying to catch up with Lepy who had already started to pull away.

  “I can’t be sure, probably a Shrake, which is bad news because they have come out from below the ground. We really must hurry, come on!”

  Lepy was now moving again at pace and edging away from the youngsters.

  Noticing some hefty thick bushes along a stone ridge he said “Ah just what we need”. They were prickly Blackthorn shrubs with spindly branches that appeared to be exploding in all directions.

  Quickly approaching them, Lepy pulled two branches apart and jumped right into the middle trying his best to avoid the sharp spines. Pulling and snapping at the sharp pointed branches he resurfaced a minute later.

  “There you go,” he announced, holding aloft the result of his toil, two thick sticks.

  He handed one to Lorna and the other to Graham.

  Lorna looked at Graham, “Walking sticks?” Graham just nodded, not really sure what to make of it.

  “When the time comes you will know what to do with them,” Lepy replied, setting off quickly again.

  The sticks were black, with a small tilt where they had been snapped off, which conveniently worked as a handle, and small sharp notches protruding dangerously down the shaft.

  “Get down now! “ Lepy shouted in a sharp voice.

  They dived to the floor taking cover. “What is it Lepy?” Lorna whispered.

  “Sch... look over there near the stream.” They both lifted their heads slightly and their hearts sank as they noticed three Shrakes stalking around the stream close to where the swallow hole was.

  Their pointed ears were erect and their penetrating red eyes were menacingly searching the surroundings.

  “What are they doing?” Graham whispered.

  “Searching.” Lepy replied. Reluctantly Graham continued swallowing hard,

  “What are they searching for?”

  “Us,” Lorna whispered, realisi
ng the extreme danger they were in, her eyes glazed and fixed watching them quickly scouring the terrain.

  Then a scream penetrated across the farm land, shrieking, announcing an unearthly presence had arrived. Graham instantly recognised the noise as that he had heard the night his Uncle Jim had passed away.

  They looked to the direction of the scream. Just appearing over the hill in the distance emerged Sucillian; he was floating slightly above the ground so the rough landscape did not hinder his progress.

  “Lepy look!” Graham shouted pointing in the direction of the distant hill, to the fast approaching Sucillian.

  Lepy immediately reacted. “Graham and Lorna listen, I want you to do exactly what I say.” His animated hand signals and the pitch of his voice left Graham and Lorna in no doubt the danger they were in.

  They listened intently to his instructions. “When I give you the sign, go, and don't look back.” Lepy jumped up and ran down the right hand side of the hill and jumped onto the stone wall a short distance away.

  Crouching down on the wall he slowly crawled forward in the direction of the stream, looking up every few seconds.

  Just on the bank of the stream one of the Shrakes stopped in its tracks and lifted its nose, the black wet nostrils retracted smelling something in the air. Another scream penetrated the summer air as Sucillian passed over the first hill.

  Graham looked at Lorna shaking his head. “We’re trapped Lorna, why did I listen to you this morning!” he continued, in a derisive manner. “Let’s go find the cloaked man,” he continued sarcastically, his fears starting to get the better of him.

  “Yeah, sorry about that Graham, not the best idea I have ever had,” she replied, her hands expressing her thoughts.