Circle Of Stones
On All Hallows Eve when the moon is full,
Black Magic stirs in the wind.
The wolves will howl,
and the crows will circle,
as the stroke of Midnight rings.
Fire, Silver, Blood and Wine,
the Circle yearns them all.
To weave a web of Evil, pure,
Dance the Spirits, more.
Seven Souls to take in turn,
light to time Divide.
One will come, but none may leave,
the Spirits sing inside.
‘‘Well I think dares are stupid’’ said Chloe Masters, in a matter of fact tone. Danny sighed, exasperated, ‘‘What are you doing here, then?’
‘‘This,’’ she said, pointing to the damp grass, ‘‘is for charity’’. She flicked her long, brown, wavy hair over her shoulder, and crossed her arms.
Danny lunged for her, pushed her on the ground, and with much squealing they began to fight, again.
There were seven of them up on the common, but Danny and Chloe were definitely the loudest. It was still quite light when they had set up camp, but now it was getting dark. Ash was suppose to be setting up the fire in the middle of the stones that they had set camp up next to, but she was having much more fun watching Chloe and Danny argue.
There was a sound of poles unfolding themselves and strings whipping loose as Chloe pushed Danny into Vic’s tent. It wasn’t pretty.
‘‘What do you think you’re doing!! It took me ages to get that tent up, and now I’ll have to start all over again, and yes, you can help me too,’’ she looked at them pointedly.
‘‘If you were a Scout, like me and Scott,’’ Danny started as he dutifully began repairing a pole, ‘‘instead of spending your time worrying about boys and make-up, you’d know how to put up a tent in the first place’’. Vic didn’t bother to answer, she just poked her tongue out.
‘‘Is the fire ready yet?’’, Liza Hallenwell cried as she came out of a large tent, her arms full of marshmallows and goodies to cook on the fire. She was followed by her twin sister Riley, who was carrying more sensible items like tined baked beans, bread, and pots to cook them in.
‘‘Nearly’’, said Ash, throwing some more twigs into the flames then blowing on them.
‘‘Good’’, replied Liza, ‘‘`cause I’m starving’’. She promptly fell over her own feet and dropped the bags of marshmallows and crumpets on the floor. Riley laughed. Her sister was always falling over and knocking into things. She sat down next to the fire and pulled out a green sequinned scrunchie from her pocket. She wrapped it round her short red hair, then singled out one of the wider blond highlights, pulled it, and left it hanging down her face to her shoulder. Liza began shoving the food she had dropped in amongst Riley’s neat pile. Finished, she to sat down and started to sort out her own shoulder-length hair. She brushed it over to one side and platted it so that it hung close to the side of her head and down behind her ear.
By the time Vic, Chloe, and Danny had finished putting the tent back up it was pitch black. They sat down around the fire, where Scott had already joined the three girls. Danny squeezed in-between Liza and Ash, and gave Liza a kiss on the cheek. He had brought over a bottle of wine that his parents had let him bring, he took the top off to let it breathe.
Vic sat down next to Riley, she threw some twigs on the fire, picked up a stick with a marshmallow on, a started to toast it. She sighed. Camping wasn’t really her thing, she would have much rather been at home lying in a hot bath, but this was for charity, and it made her look cool.
Ash stared into the fire, lost in her own thoughts. She couldn’t understand what was suppose to be so scary about this place, it was meant to be haunted, or something, but it just seemed like a good camping spot to her. She glanced over to Scott, why did he never pay any attention to her? Maybe sleeping under the stars would help. She just wanted to talk to him.
She was a pretty girl, mid-teens, quite tall, and had a sort of tom-boy look about her. She had short, black hair that flopped about all over the place. She also had highlights like Riley, but hers were a subtle blue and green, green to match her eyes.
She brushed her hands against her combat trousers to get the dirt off and popped an un-toasted marshmallow in her mouth. A sharp breeze ruffled her hair and danced with the fire. She stood up and started to look at the stones. They were twelve of them in a perfect circle, they were flat, almost a foot high and about a metre from one side to the other. One of them was nearly completely covered in a type of moss, it was the one nearest the forest and also had a bush growing all around it. Ash walked over to it and started to push the leaves around a bit. Did something just flash? She ripped a portion of the moss off and found some sapphire-blue writing. Real sapphire embedded in the rock. She pulled the rest of the moss off, it was a poem! Or maybe some sort of riddle.
She began to read, it was quite old but the sapphire hadn’t eroded at all. All Hallows Eve, wasn’t that the old name for Hallowe’en?
Danny and Chloe were arguing again, this time it was over the Charts. “Why should the Spice Girls split up?” shrieked Chloe, “And they’re not crap. Their Girl Power image is just a loud way of saying that both sexes are equal”.
“What ever you say”, replied Danny in a patronising voice. Chloe through a hand full of popcorn at him.
“That’s a waste, isn’t it?” said Vic from the other side of the fire. She was taking all her jewellery off and putting it into a wooden box, she had a necklace, two bangles, a bracelet, two sets of earrings, plus one for the top of her ear, one ring and one toe ring.
“Why are you taking all that stuff off”, Scott asked in his thick Southern Irish accent, “sure now, you’ve only just put it on”.
“I haven’t just put it on, I don’t want it to get damaged. And anyway, half this stuff is solid silver”.
“Come and look what I’ve found!” Ash’s voice rang out across still of the night, “I think it’s some sort of riddle”. They left the fire to go see, Liza knocking a glass of wine over in the process. “It’s a poem in the rock, and it’s made out of sapphire”.
“It sounds quite old, don’t you think?” asked Scott.
“I’d say about three hundred years old,” said Ash “All Hallows Eve was the original name for Hallowe’en it just gradually changed over the years.
“What time is it?” Liza asked, she had just a hint of worry in her voice. Riley looked at her watch,
“23:49, why?”
“It’s just, well, there’s seven of us, it’s Hallowe’en, there’s a full moon,…”
“O come on you don’t really believe that, do you? All that stuff about Spirits and possession?” Danny sniggered, “There aren’t any wolves or crows, and you need all those things. And what’s the chance of all that happening on the stroke of midnight?”. She didn’t look convinced. “All right then, what if I take my wine out of the circle, it won’t work if every things not there, not that I’m saying it would if it was though.” Liza sighed,
“All right then”, she made her way back over to the fire, picked up the wine bottle plus the two remaining wine glasses, and took them out of the circle herself. Danny smiled, shook his head and followed. So did the rest of the group, except Ash who carried on looking at the writing. She checked her own watch; 4 minutes to midnight, nothing would happen, would it? She bit her lower lip.
“Come on then, what’s for dinner?” asked Vic as they surrounded the fire again. Scott picked up a packet of crumpets, threw them at her and raised his eyebrow.
Ash joined them, they may not want to admit it, she thought, but there’re freaked out too.
Her breathing was a bit more rapid than usual. She tried to reason with her self; there’s no wine, no silver, no blood, and there’s no wolves or crows, ones that she could see anyway. She looked at her watch again, two minutes to go.
There’s no such thing as Black Magic anyway, witches are a load of rubbish. Ghost Stories, that’s all, nothing to worry about.
One minute to go.
No one’s going to cut themselves in sixty seconds, she thought, not even Liza.
Thirty seconds. What if it meant blood in general? What if it just needed a living creature? Warm flowing blood?
“Um, I think it might be a good idea if we got out of the circle, now,” she said getting up and starting to edge away.
“OK” said Riley, not disagreeing, “fine.” The others got up to, started to run. Ten seconds. Liza was desperately trying not to fall. Five seconds. She was running hard, Danny just in front. Three, two, one, she fell, landed on the pots and pans, and sliced her hand on a knife.
She froze, unable to move as she watched her blood drip to the ground. The hour began to strike. Ash ran in and hauled Liza out of the circle. The 8th chime. She ran back in, was there any blood on the ground?, she couldn’t see any.
The 12th chime. A deafening howl broke the silence, a flock of crows took flight.
There was a blinding light, the fire exploded into black flames. A shape of something was developing. It was enormous, easily two and a half metres tall. A Wraith, blue with red eyes. It floated in the air, hung, and then started moving steadily towards Ash. Closer, closer. It loomed over her, piercing Its eyes into hers. Then engulfed her. It was like plunging into cold water, icy fingers squeezing her bones. It needed a body, and It had chosen her.
Then, she was no longer there. Watching, helpless from somewhere. But she could hear Its thoughts, read Its mind. The riddle. The riddle explained it all, ‘light to time divide.’ The black flames were a gateway, through which they would be taken, taken to… she needed control, she wouldn’t let it happen. It could survive alone in there, and she couldn’t, together they would perish. She would take It in with her, let It feel what It had done to so many others before. She made herself take a step, It tried to resist, made her eyes burn, but she kept going, kept going. Stepped into the flames.
She couldn’t see, she couldn’t hear, she could only feel. Her insides were burning, melting. She could here a thousand voices screaming, the ones before. Never again. She could feel it fighting her, trying to escape, she had to hang on just a little bit longer, it had to die. There was a strange sensation, she went cold, and felt as if her skin was being pulled off, though it didn’t hurt. The terrible screams were being replaced with desperate cries.
“Ash! Ash!” She was lying on cold embers. Daylight. Six hours had disappeared, and so had the flames, light to time divide. White faces looked down on her as she pushed her self up with not even a scratch. She dusted her self off, the others were the same, unharmed, even Liza’s cut had gone.
They had defied the riddle.
By eight o’clock they had packed up their camp and were heading home. They all agreed it would be a long time till they went camping again, and Ash decided she wouldn’t go anywhere near a fire for a few months at least.
As they were walking down the hill, Scott came and put his arm around Ash.
“You were really brave, you know?”
“Thank you” she said, and he finally kissed her. Smiling, she felt normal. She put her arm around his waist and kissed him again. She felt a hot surge, so broke away. Looking into his eyes they flashed a vivid shade of red.