Sanguine Malediction

Chapter 1

Wind whooshed through the eerie cemetery as I stood motionless, staring at the gravestone of my grandparents. I had been standing here for almost half an hour, holding a bouquet of pale pink and white carnations by my side and silently saying my goodbyes in my mind. My Grandparents were missed so much, I always aimed to visit monthly with a fresh bouquet of flowers. My grandfather was Irish, from Wexford. He passed away before I was born and I have always wished to meet him, though my mum has done a good job at keeping his memory alive by telling me many stories about him. My grandmother was Welsh and passed away six months ago to lung disease, she was the life of the family.

The cemetery they're buried in is Coedwig cemetery, meaning forest cemetery. The name had been given because it's on a steep hill surrounded by forestry behind the houses on the main road. Coedwig cemetery was the second biggest cemetery in Harbour Cove with around 300 graves here dating from the mid-1800s to present. The biggest cemetery in Harbour Cove had around 500 graves. Harbour Cove has never had a high population.

I made my way back through the cemetery, towards the tall iron gates at the bottom. I would be starting my work shift soon in the main streets of Harbour Cove. I work in a pub called The Captains Inn, a historical pub that has been here in Harbour Cove since the 1800s. It began to drizzle as I strolled down the hill and onto the main road, I had been expecting some form of rain to make an appearance soon. It always rained here in Wales, the sun was always tucked away behind the grey clouds from us. During Spring, we see peeks of the sun here and there, but it doesn't usually stick around. Though in June and July, we have days where the sun sticks around for a week if we're lucky. Until those months, we just have to endure the cold, wet weather but that's okay because the people of Harbour Cove are used to it.

Every evening, as I journey through my hometown, I examine everything that highlights Harbour Cove. The unique harbour that consists of two sides : the left one that has a beach and the Lifeboat station, and the other which has a more popular beach, a café and the lighthouse. Down the middle is a path to whichever side you choose to go to, with tall lamp posts either side. The top of the lamp posts have decorative lights that string across the path above, hung from lamp post to lamp post, highlighting the path into the harbour at night. At the near bottom of Stepney road is the memorial gardens for the fallen soldiers of World War Two, it has cut out metal silhouettes of soldiers scattered around the gardens making it truly unmissable.

Opposite the gardens is the Amelia Earhart monument. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928, she gave Harbour Cove worldwide attention when she visited here and stayed in The Two King's Hotel. Unfortunately, when she attempted to do a worldwide flight, she ran low on fuel and disappeared. Her plane has never been found and the town had put up monuments to honour Amelia. Harbour Cove was a town where visitors would either call it boring or peaceful. There hadn't been a murder here in nearly one hundred years, so the people of Harbour Cove say that 'nothing bad ever happens here'.

The Captains Inn is my dad's - Arnold Richards, favourite pub. He comes here in the afternoons on the weekends but my shift starts at 6pm and ends at 11pm on weeknights. I had the choice to work a shift from morning to afternoon but I prefer having free time during the day rather than the night. Even though I don't usually do anything during the day. The Captains Inn is a fairly popular pub, mostly with middle-aged adults, although we do get young adults in here sometimes. It has always been both a hotel and pub, though we don't get a lot of guests staying here. It has had its fair share of names since then : The Apple Tree, The White Knight, The Captains Ship, The Lighthouse and now - The Captains inn. I pulled my phone out from my pocket to check the time and as it just turned 6pm, I walked through The Captains Inn door and was immediately greeted by Thea.

"Hello there Alice in Little-land, we meet again." She joked from behind the bar counter.

Thea Peterson is my lifelong best friend and working partner. Not many people are fortunate enough to work alongside their best friend, she was already working here when I asked if they had any positions available. The manager, Margo, comes from Ireland. She has a very strong Irish accent that me and Thea love, we always talk to her so we can constantly hear her accent. Margo knows my father Arnold, personally. Well, most of Harbour cove does as he used to play football in his younger years. He was also a taxi driver for over twenty years and he plays snooker, which he has also done for a very long time. I have grown up with older people constantly approaching me on the streets around Carmarthenshire, telling me that they know my dad and how they know him. Some of the stories I have heard about how one had met my dad are actually quite funny.