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Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror PROLOGUE
PROLOGUERight now:They were waiting for her on Dundooan Road.Sally turned the corner and there they were—an older woman and a young boy, who looked very much alike. They were obviously mother and son. Neither of them noticed Sally, they simply stared straight ahead with glazed eyes.The mother was short and thickset, wearing a woollen hat, a long raincoat and carrying an old cloth shopping bag. The son was about twelve years old, skinny and pale with black hair. He wore a hoodie, jeans and trainers.There was no expression on their faces, their jaws were slack and their mouths hung open. The son was standing a few steps behind his mother, his right arm swung backwards and forwards in a shallow arc. The mother was swaying slightly, as if the shopping bag was about to overbalance her. There was nothing going on behind their eyes, no mental faculties of any sort. They were completely soulless, everyone in Dunballan was. Everyone except for Sally.She walked over to the mother and
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 1Eight days ago:The butcher shop’s door had an old fashioned bell, which rang every time a customer entered. The butcher looked up as Sally came in, and greeted her with a warm smile that had a worrying proprietary edge. Sally avoided his light brown eyes, but couldn’t help noticing the freckles on his nose and his thick wet lips.“And what can I be doing for you?” he asked, modifying his brogue, because Sally was an off-comer.“I’d like some steak,” Sally said. “The best you have.”The butcher’s smile broadened.“Romance is in the air tonight,” he said. “It’s the big man’s lucky night, is it?” Sally demurred and looked down at the black and white tiles of the floor. “As it happens you’re in luck,” he said. “I have a nice piece of dry hung tenderloin for you. How thick would you like it cut?”“An inch or so, I guess.”“An inch and a half is best, keeps it nice and tender on the inside, just like me,” he said with a wink.“Okay.”“And how many will you be wanting?”
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 2Sally opened her back gate and stepped into the garden. She glanced at all the unplanted rows she and David had dug when they planned to make an allotment.The beans she’d planted had begun to sprout. The warm weather was good for them. The little row of canes was half-finished, and the rest of the trench was empty. Sally was sorry now that they hadn’t completed it. Like so many things in their relationship, it was left unfinished.A sudden wind sprang up from the west. It bent the trees in the fields next to the cottage, but it was neither hot nor cold. It ruffled the grass, rattled the hedges, and lifted Sally’s hair and skirt, but she couldn’t feel it on her skin, nor could she smell any of the scents that a wind such as this usually carried. It was almost entirely bodiless, you could see and experience its effects, but you couldn’t feel them.The leaves in the hedgerow made a dry, scratchy noise as they scuttled about in its wake. The hedgerow itself rustled, as if fi
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 3Sally dropped leaves and berries into an old stone mortar. She’d collected them in the dark places Hettie had shown her in the forest on the hill that overlooked the cottage.Sally pounded the mixture into a dense green pulp with a pestle, and laid out the steaks on the kitchen counter. She scooped out the pulp and massaged it into each of the steaks as though she were seasoning them, preparing a meal for the Beast, just as Hettie had instructed her.It never felt like Sally was in the real world whenever she spoke with Hettie. It was as if someone had drawn back a curtain and given her a little glimpse of a world beyond her everyday existence, one that, for the sake of her sanity, she could only visit for a short time.When she first heard Hettie speak, a few weeks ago, Sally realised she’d been picking up bits of her voice for quite a while. It wasn’t anything she could put her finger on, merely a pattern in the noises she’d heard in the hedgerows around the cottage.T
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 4Three weeks ago:Sally had popped into the library to cheer herself up. A coffee-morning at the community centre had emptied the place of pensioners and Jane was all by herself behind the desk. She waved Sally over when she saw her come in.“I have something for you,” Jane said.Sally wasn’t too sure about this, she didn’t feel like chatting with Jane, but she was excited to see what Jane might have picked out for her, it might be an Audrey Niffenegger or a new Jennifer Egan she hadn’t read. Jane nipped into the back room and appeared a moment later with a thick, green pamphlet.“I think you might find this very interesting,” she said, handing it to Sally.Sally found it hard to mask her disappointment. “Oh,” was all she could say looking at the battered green cover. It had an old woodcut on the front, showing a hare by a riverside, looking up at a smiling moon. The title, printed in crude block letters, was Highways, Havens and Highlands by James Hendry.“It’s by a lo
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 5Before Dunballan:Distance had always been a feature of Sally and David’s relationship, both physically and emotionally. In the ten years they’d been together they’d never lived in the same property, not until they moved to Dunballan. When they were in London they lived in separate flats in totally different parts of the city, at least half an hour’s bus ride from one another.They weren’t the sort of people who made connections easily and neither of them had a large circle of friends. Sally had only had two other lovers and David assured her he hadn’t had many more. He refused to be more specific than that, and Sally had learned not to press him.They were comfortable with their remoteness, neither of them wanting to cling to the other or make any demands. Sally had been fiercely independent since she was a child, and she hated to be dependent on anyone or have anyone depend on her. Several days could go by without Sally or David contacting the other, and it wouldn’t wor
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 6First weeks in Dunballan:David had no problem selling his apartment, it was snapped up after only a few viewings. He sold most of his other possessions and was ready to move in a matter of months.Sally did not have it so easy. She found a buyer, but got caught up in a property chain that dragged on interminably and seemed like it would never be resolved. She would have pulled out and put her flat back on the market, but the buyer was offering her so much over the asking price that she didn’t want to lose him.She gave notice at the primary school where she worked as a teacher, but there wasn’t time to find a similar position in or around Dunballan.“I’ve no idea what I’m going to do for an income,” she said to David over the phone, soon after he’d left for Dunballan. “Maybe I should wait a bit before coming up, at least until I’ve sold my flat.”“No, don’t do that.” There was a hint of alarm in David’s voice that wasn’t like him, nor was the needy undertone. “I’ve got
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 7The first time the Beast came:David saw the Beast first. He always did. It was like he was attuned to it, connected on some deep hereditary level.It took Sally a little while to realise that he was looking at something. They would usually be outside, near the house or the forest, and David would go quiet all of a sudden and stare into the distance. Sally would spot the change in his mood—since moving in with him she’d become acutely aware of the shifts in David’s temperament.She let it go the first few times, presuming he’d paused for thought and, if he wanted to share what he was thinking, he would. She didn’t like to pry, and she knew David still needed his own space. She’d come to expect a certain level of intimacy with him since moving in. She knew he had his own interior life and she respected that, but she didn’t want to be left out entirely. She began to scrutinise him when his gaze wandered, and she realised he was looking at something specific.“What have you
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Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror EPILOGUE
EPILOGUERight now:Sally stood at the sink, staring at the butcher, with a cup of water in her hands. She was frozen into inaction by the sheer weight of her memories and tiredness. She didn’t have the energy to move.She knew she should bring the water to the boy on the sofa, maybe find more blankets and some paracetamol for his fever. He would die soon, like his mother, if she didn’t help him, but then so would most of the townsfolk.Sally was exhausted. She had been worn out just looking after David, but now she had a whole town to look after. More than two thousand people, all of them in the same state as David. She fretted constantly about David—she had to leave him alone for considerable lengths of time, and she worried about his safety. She felt guilty for abandoning him so much, but she couldn’t abandon everyone else in Dunballan either, not after what she’d done to them.Sometimes Sally fantasised about having help, a friend to share her duties or even a small group of v
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 21Sally smelled the glade before she actually stepped into it. Its scents were lush, primal, and sharp. There were deep mossy undertones, like the bark of the seven ancient elm trees whose thick trunks encircled the glade. There were high fragrant notes, like the pollen and the wild flowers that grew all across the clearing. There were plants here that had flourished for millennia, plants that couldn’t be found anywhere else on the planet.Sally couldn’t help but catch her breath when she entered. The rest of the forest was often noisy, filled with a plethora of sounds. There were the raucous bird calls, the grunts and howls of the creatures that fought and foraged on the forest floor. There was the sound of the wind in the branches and the occasional rain on the leaves, and there were the thousand other unexplained noises that haunt such a wild and untamed territory.The glade was a different matter altogether. There was hardly any noise here at all. It was as if all sound
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 20Eight days ago:Sally was more certain now. Certain where she was going and certain she was doing the right thing.This certainty didn’t come from Hettie, Sally was sure of that. Hettie was nowhere to be seen or heard. This certainty came from her love for David. She’d gone to extraordinary lengths for him, but she was going to have him back. She was going to free him from the Beast. Sally had forsaken all her doubt. As strange as all this might seem, she knew why she was doing it.She was deep in the forest where it was darker and cooler. The light was much dimmer as Sally stepped out of the undergrowth and approached the stream. The stream would take her to the glade where she was ultimately going.Sally lingered by the undergrowth for a moment. There was one little thing that was playing on her mind, something she had to clear up before she could go through with everything she and Hettie had planned.She stopped and turned back to look at the thicket of shrub. The d
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 19Sally looked up from the journal. Her eyes were tired from staring at so much closely written handwriting, and her back ached from being curled up in the same position too long.She had been reading the journal for hours without a break. The fire in the grate was nothing but embers. She stretched her legs and back, and blinked her eyes. Everything in the room looked suddenly strange and unreal. She’d been so engrossed in Matthew’s account of his out-of-body experience, it was as if she was there with him. Putting down the journal and coming back to earth was disconcerting. It took her a moment to readjust.If she’d read the journal before coming to Dunballan, Sally would have considered it either pure fantasy or deluded ravings, but after everything she’d seen, she was more inclined to believe it. It certainly answered a lot of her questions, but it threw up just as many. The current volume was the last of the journals, but there were a few more entries. Perhaps the answe
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 18Ten days ago:Sally felt furious and betrayed, but she was also eaten up with curiosity. She’d been kept in the dark far too long—she needed some answers.The last few months she’d been living through a situation that seemed ludicrous, impossible even, if you spent a few minutes thinking rationally about it. It was as though she’d fallen into some waking dream where all natural logic had been suspended.Sally wasn’t certain why she’d simply accepted everything and then learned to cope with it. The remoteness of Dunballan probably had a lot to do with it, as did the isolation she felt. Sally had no one with whom she could discuss what was happening. She had no friends in Dunballan and had lost touch with her friends in London. She hardly spoke to anyone in her family, and she doubted any of them would help even if she reached out to them.There was only David, and David had closed himself off. He was too embarrassed by what he was going through and possibly a little guil
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 17Eight days ago:Sally had only been this deep into the forest once before. That was yesterday. She’d had David with her then, or rather his mindless body.Hettie had shown her the way that time. Whispering to her from the coppice, bending the undergrowth to point her in the right direction. She had to find her own way now, retracing the path from memory. That became harder the farther she got into the woods, especially as the sun was going down and evening was creeping in.A rotting moss covered log blocked her way—she didn’t recognise it. Had she taken a wrong turn? Sally looked around the forest for any landmarks she might recognise.The silver birches were giving way to pines, which grew closer together, and the temperature in this part of the forest dropped. The cool air brought a sudden flash of lucidity. Sally thought about what she was doing here in the middle of the forest, and it suddenly seemed insane.Was she really going to save David this way, or was she p
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 16Two weeks ago:David couldn’t keep her out for long. It was after the third time the Beast took him that Sally read the pamphlet Jane had given her.After the section on Hettie of the Hedgerow, Sally flipped forward in the pamphlet to the next chapter where she found the section on the ‘Curse of the McCavendish family.’ The chapter was on Phantom Black Dogs of the Highlands and the Gaelic mythological hound Cù-Sith in particular. It was the last section of this chapter that opened her eyes to the complicity of everyone who lived in Dunballan, including Jane. It was here that she learned something of the dark burden of David’s family:Perhaps the most unique variation on the legend of the Black Dog isn’t actually a dog, but a giant black cat, of strange appearance, more commonly known as the Beast of Dunballan. Dunballan is one of the remotest and least visited towns in the Highlands. It’s also home to some of the strangest folklore of that area.Possibly the strangest t
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 15After the second time the Beast left:It was a warm night, but they decided to light the fire anyway and make it an occasion with a good bottle of Merlot. Sally had cooked lamb shanks, and they were feeling nicely full and a little tipsy.“I don’t know what’s up with this weather,” she mused. “One minute it’s pouring down, the next it’s bright sunshine. It’s been that way all week. Still it’s good for the wildflowers in the forest. There’ll be a carpet of them next week, I expect.”“It’s different in the heart of the forest,” David said. Then he paused, and a brief frown passed across his face. Sally and he had never gone into the heart of the forest, which covered nearly 4,000 hectares. They’d only explored the periphery.Sally sensed an opportunity and reached out to him. “Is it much darker there? In the middle of the forest, I mean.”“It’s more primal and untouched. Very few people have ever gone all the way into it, possibly a handful in living memory. There are pa
Queit Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 14After the first time the Beast left:Sally was bringing David his breakfast when it happened. He was still in bed and she wanted to do something nice for him, to reach out and bridge the gap that had opened up between them. She’d made kippers, mushrooms, and fried tomatoes, with wholemeal toast and hot tea.As she carried the steaming food up the old wooden stairs on a tray, Sally began to think about why she was reaching out to him and what had come between them. She wondered why she was always the one who tried to make peace and why David never met her halfway. She was the one who had to put up with him and look after him, the least he could do was let her in on what was going on.By the time she got to the bedroom she was livid. Her arms were vibrating, and her anger was like a white hot light—its glare washed out every detail of the room. Without saying a word she lifted the tray and flung it at David’s head.Luckily, her aim was poor, and the kippers, the tea and t
