At first, she couldn’t see anything, but she calmed her mind, closed her eyes and began to look around at everything. Within two minutes she had found some fur. This looked exactly like the fur she had found on the Moors. Wee Renee was happy to see that this was in a better and drier condition.
She picked it up with the tweezers and put it into a bag. Then she decided to walk along the length of the wall, as far as she could either way. She did not know exactly where the creature had been.
Wee Renee got lucky and found another dropping. This one looked human too, like the one on the Moors. This was no fox or badger. Besides that, she didn’t think that they would make the bushes rustle so far up.
She considered whether she should take some of the droppings to look at under the microscope and then realised that she couldn’t stomach that and wouldn’t know what she was looking for in it anyway.
Now it was time to leave. Avoiding the dropping, she pushed her way out of the trees, through the same gap in the trees, until she got back on the donkey path.
This place was quite close to Pat’s house, so she thought she would go over to there and update her. Just as she got onto the main road, Pat and Jackie were coming in the opposite direction.
’Are you off out?’ Wee Renee asked. ‘I was just going to come and call.’
’We thought, seeing as though it’s Friday, plus Jackie’s a bit down, we would go to the pub and have a spot of lunch, do you want to come?’ Pat asked.
’Oh aye, I will. I have got some stuff to tell you anyway,’ Wee Renee said.
‘Rene, you’re covered in bits of twig and cobweb. And you have two red rings around your eyes. Where have you been?’ Pat asked.
‘That’s what I need to tell you. Tidy me up a bit Pat, for heaven’s sake. I’ll tell you when we are comfy,’ Wee Renee said. Pat took off what bits she could see, including four leaves and a spider in Wee Renee’s hood.
The three ladies continued on their way to the pub. Lauren was on duty when they got there, and as it was a Friday, the beginning of the weekend rush, there were a couple of other barmaids on duty. They ordered their food, and Wee Renee whispered to Lauren that if she had a minute, she could come over and find out some gossip.
’Yes, I’m on my break in a minute, Wee Renee. I tell you what, I’ll have my break when your foods ready. I’ll get something myself, and sit with you,’ Lauren told her quietly.
Jackie had decided on half a pint of Guinness. Pat grumpily had ordered a lemonade as she was on antibiotics for an ear infection. Wee Renee had ordered a fresh orange juice as she wanted to keep a clear head, she said.
While waiting for Lauren to arrive with their food, they started to talk about Jackie.
That morning, Jackie had received a letter from the hospital confirming the date of her hysterectomy, and although she knew she was getting one, it still was a bit of a shock. This was why Pat had taken her out as a distraction.
They were talking to Wee Renee about this operation, who said that plenty of people who had it said it was the making of them, which picked Jackie up no end.
Lauren brought over the meals. Jackie had ordered the mixed grill, Pat had steak pie and chips and Wee Renee, a prawn salad. Lauren sat down with them. She had her lunch too. She had made herself a ketchup sandwich and was eating a packet of crisps with it.
’That looks nice,’ Wee Renee said, unconvincingly.
’I have it loads,’ Lauren said and began to eat it without hesitation, her eyes shining with enjoyment. ‘What’s been going on?’
’Yesterday, Bob thought he saw something outside the School premises in a thicket, and I went to investigate this morning. At first, I couldn’t find anything, and it was a bit of a job getting in and out of there. Then I found some fur, which I’m sure is the same as the ones on the Moors. I have bought a microscope, so I am going to have a go at it this afternoon. See if I can work the blasted thing anyway. I am sure it’s the same beast because the biggest evidence was that there was a dropping on the leaves. Just the same as on the Moors,’ Wee Renee said mysteriously.
Lauren wrinkled her nose. Jackie was just eating a sausage, pronged on a fork and raised her eyebrows. Pat was frowning at Wee Renee.
‘The first thing I want to say is, what if that bloody monster had still been there, snagged by its fur, and angry? You’d have walked in there like a Scottish Happy Meal delivery. That bugger would have been hopping mad and could have bitten your head right off! Or even worse, he could have fancied a bit with you! Rene honestly!’ Pat said.
‘That wouldn’t have happened, I would have seen it when I got into the thicket, even with the swimming goggles on. And the second thing?’ Wee Renee asked.
’Secondly, it could have been some tramp or hobo. They will drop a clinker anywhere, Rene,’ Pat said. Lauren laughed behind her sandwich. Pat had no filter.
’No Pat, I don’t believe that. Against the wall? It wasn’t sheltered at all inside that thicket. There are plenty of better places to be than that. When have you seen a hobo walking around Friarmere or the donkey path on a Friday afternoon? Besides it was fresh and combined with the fur I think we have another exciting mystery to solve,’ Wee Renee said. She seemed convinced Pat thought, so would go with it.
’Wait a minute, something’s just dawned on me. What are you saying? That it was out in the daylight on a Thursday afternoon at Friarmere Secondary?’ Lauren asked.
’Yes, exactly. Not exactly roaming free around the Village. I do have to think that this confirms, however, that it is not a strictly nocturnal creature. It can come out in the daylight,’ Wee Renee stated.
’I wonder what it was doing there,’ Jackie said.
’I suppose they could have got trapped there. Maybe it was wandering around in the dark, and it got light and had nowhere to go?’ Lauren said.
’That is an idea,’ Wee Renee said. ‘That’s definitely plausible. It might not have had a purpose to be there, in fact, I hope it didn’t. We don’t want to think of it making off with teenagers, do we?’ Wee Renee said.
’What’s the next step after this?’ Jackie asked. ‘What if you confirm that it is the same fur?’ Wee Renee was taking the first bite of her prawn salad and so didn’t answer for a moment, but her eyes rolled upwards as she considered Jackie’s question.
‘If we don’t have another appearance or sighting, we might have to have a little patrol up on the Moors. The problem is, now we know it is also down here, it’s not guaranteed that will see it up there,’ Wee Renee said.
’That’s true,’ Lauren said.
’We’ll just have to see,’ Wee Renee said, and the four ladies ate their lunch without further conversation.
Later on, that afternoon Wee Renee had read the instructions for the microscope over and over again until she was sure about what she was doing. She tested it on a strand of her hair and some tiny fibres from her carpet to get the hang of it, before she got into the proper stuff.
After a few minutes, staring down the lenses, she already felt ‘boggle-eyed’ and had to keep rubbing them to get them back to normality.
She got out her sample of the fur from the Moors and put it between two glass slides. It took her a while to focus, and she knew that she was a little bit nervous, as this was the real work.
Wee Renee made a note of the specific things that she saw about the fur and then she made up a new slide of the fur that has been found by Friarmere Secondary School. The microscope confirmed that they were identical.
Now she fired up her Computer. Wee Renee spent several hours looking at pictures of various fur, close up.
She checked on every natural creature in the British Isles, even from the past. She looked at wolves and warthogs, badgers, horses, many types of cat and dog. Anything that could have fur that long.
Wee Renee toiled for hours, but there was nothing. No fur anywhere near it. This fur was very strange in composition. At one point she thought she might have a semi-match. There was some long brow
n fur on a particular breed of cow that had some basic similarities. In the end, she had to conclude that it definitely was not the same.
She also had to consider, how easily a cow could perambulate around the two areas. She supposed that it was a possibility on the Moors. She had not seen any cows, ever, but it was a free roaming area. The fact remained that it was definitely not a possibility by the School. That ruled that out, plus everyone knew what a cow’s droppings were like. They were nothing whatsoever like the one up at the Moors and now by the School.
She decided to telephone the two boys with this information. Sue and Tony were out, picking up some shopping in the car. Wee Renee could see that their car was gone. The two boys were inside, playing on the games console.
’Hello Bob, it’s Wee Renee,’ she said.
‘Hi Wee Renee, did you go down to the School?’ Bob asked.
’Yes, I did. And I found some more fur and droppings. I think you’re right Bob, it was the same creature,’ Wee Renee said. ‘You know what Bob? I had loads of fun with that microscope. You must love your Biology lessons, I would. What a hoot,’ Wee Renee said.
’It’s different in School Wee Renee. Boring. Anyway, back to the other matter. What do you think it was doing there?’ Bob asked.
’Bugger only knows,’ Wee Renee said. ‘We’ll probably find out in time. But back to what I was saying. This afternoon I have managed to use my microscope, and I found something else out.’
’What?’ Bob asked.
’That the fur belongs to no natural British creature. It’s definitely something strange and unexplained that we’re dealing with. Which means we can have free reign with it really,’ Wee Renee said.
’What are you going to do now?’ Bob asked.
’Well what I would really like to do is blow up a map of this area and start pinning out what we know. That is quite a distance to come from the top of the Moors to the School. As time goes on, there might be other places that we pick evidence up from so I would like a bigger map for my wall. I don’t really know how to do that though Bob. Do you know how to do it?’ Wee Renee asked.
’Yes, me and Adam can sort that out for you. We’ll come over,’ Bob said.
Within five minutes the two boys were in Wee Renee’s living room. She had the computer on and showed them the area that she wanted to concentrate on, and Adam saved it on his pen drive.
As it was now 4.30, the boys said that they would quickly run down to the printers and get it printed off nice and big for Wee Renee. She gave them some money and said whatever change was left afterwards, they could spend on sweets, which they were very pleased about.
The two boys rushed down to get the map printed out and were just in time before the place shut. The man there rolled it up and then put another piece of paper around it with some tape. Afterwards, the two boys went to the shop with the change. Both of them had a couple of chocolate bars and a can of Coke.
When they got it back to Wee Renee’s house, she laid it out on her table.
They ate their chocolate and drank their coke while they watched her put two pencil marks on the map. There was a lot of distance between those two points. There were many places of interest in between, where the creature could have visited. Places they weren’t aware of yet.
Wee Renee actually pointed them out. The Grange, the Primary School, Wee Renee’s house, Bob’s house, Suzanne and Tommy’s house, Gary’s and finally Ernie’s. Before going towards the School on the donkey path. Wee Renee said there were lots of places it could have gone, literally hundreds of houses between the Moors and the Secondary School. She had found two sites. There could be many more. It could be anywhere. Its lair could be anywhere too.
Bob hoped that it had definitely gone back up on the Moors and it stayed there because tonight they needed to have Friarmere to themselves.
8. The Creature Itself
Now that the beast had discovered it had its three necessary items close to hand, it started to prepare for the actual event. This was important and doing these preparations tonight actually meant it didn’t have much more to do, only get the three items, one by one. However, it had to adhere to the process very carefully.
On the edge of the Moors, there was a little clearing. Inside that clearing were several stones that had been there a while. They had been placed in a rough circle, and no-one knew how long they had been there.
The stone circle was not large, only about twelve feet wide. There were lots of tales about what they actually were. One was that they were a circle of witches that had been struck down. The tales of what the stones in the circle represented varied greatly but the fact was that no-one knew for sure. They were also not grand enough for a scientist to come along and x-ray or carbon date them.
There was only one entrance and exit to this clearing. One way in and out. As far as anyone could see, that was. The collection of brambles and thick spiky branches that rose in a pile at the other end of the clearing formed a wall. A wall to nothing and it was firmly round the clearing making a semi-circle.
They had also been there for a very long time. Only a fool went near that place because they knew they would get torn to ribbons. This was very good for the creature who lived behind that wall. The branches kept it safe.
The creature knew where to step. This was the only home it had ever had. It didn’t see the branches as sharp or cumbersome. It could quite quickly climb over the biggest of them and over into safety. Some of these large spiky trees had been here over a hundred years, and they kept the world out. The few people over the years that had seen them had never wondered where they had come from. They weren’t from the Moors, that was for sure.
They had grown in such a way that they matched the way the top of the Moors rose. From the stone circle, the wall looked about twenty feet high. After climbing all of them, the creature had to drop down only a little bit to get to its nest, following the rise of the hill.
Branches were canopied over the top of this sacred place. This could never be seen by plane and no living human ever been inside. Inside the lair, there were many more rocks that the general public did not know about.
Three more stone circles were here. However, there was one set of stones, that was set out like a stone table. In the centre of the table was a hollow. This stone table was where the creature was going to perform its ritual tonight.
This area was sacred to the creature. It wouldn’t ever eat at this table. It was only allowed to do specific actions at this table. All of them crucial to furthering its line. Tonight, it was for one purpose only.
The creature had been taking a piece of each person it had killed. This was an essential part of the ritual, even though the main two components weren’t there, which was the outside and the inside. It needed something else to get the outside. The inside would be provided by the match.
Now the ritual had to be done. If it didn’t, the loosening and finally, the marvellous joining would not work.
The creature had enough parts. It needed two hands, two feet and a head. It carefully put them in precisely the same place where they would be on a person. It had a special knife. Only that knife could be used, and that was kept somewhere else. Everything had to be done in order. It would have to take the knife back later.
It slit its own palm deeply with the knife. Putting the knife down now, it squeezed its palm over the hands, feet, and head on its ritual table. Systematically going from each piece, it ran the blood until it poured over each body part and ran towards the hollow of the table. Each line had to reach the centre. The mix of its blood and parts, transformed the precious red liquid from normal blood to something very special.
It knew it had worked when smoke began to come from the hollow of the table. Then each body part smoked. The smoke moved together to form one single flume. The creature watched, it never expected that it wouldn’t work.
The universe was prepared.
Wee Renee received an unexpected phone call at about 6 pm. The person
on the other end of the line was Alan, the conductor of Friarmere Band.
He had heard rumours, which he never thought were true, how could they be? He had recently moved into the area, from just outside Halifax.
Alan wanted a serious conversation with Wee Renee. He hadn’t known her for that long, but she seemed liked and well-respected, in fact, the leader. When she spoke, people listened. In his experience, she was quiet in Band and just got on with her cornet playing. However, a little bird had told him that she was the person he needed to talk to.
’Hello Wee Renee, it’s Alan. I want to talk to you for a moment. Do you have some time for me?’ Alan asked.
’Yes. Do you want to do it over the phone, or would you like to come around?’ Wee Renee asked.
’The phone is fine,’ Alan said. ‘The fact is that I have been told something and I’ve contacted you, as you are supposed to be well I don’t know what I would call you - the ringleader?’
’Ringleader?’ Wee Renee asked. ‘Are you saying that I’m causing some kind of trouble and I have started it? Because if you are, I don’t even know what you’re talking about Alan.’
’I’m not saying that at all. I’m having trouble actually putting what I want to say into words,’ Alan said. ‘I’ll tell you the truth. Ann has come to me with a tale that Brenda told her in the kitchen the other night at Band, and I want to know if it is true. I’ve had it on my mind since then.’ The penny was beginning to drop now with Wee Renee.
‘I’ve heard tales that sounds similar to this, and now we are both hearing them very close to home. So, I thought I would get it straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak,’ Alan said.
’Ah now I think I know what you’re talking about,’ Wee Renee said.
’Let’s just say the story ends where we acquire the Bandroom,’ Alan said. He felt a fool even saying the words that preceded the Bandroom acquisition, so didn’t.
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