To Break a Curse

Chapter 1

Hi everyone :) Hope you like this chapter - I would love to hear any feedback you have in the comments. Also, I will now be updating every Tuesday and Friday: twice a week - yay!! Have lovely weekends all of you x

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Rose watched Tom's retreating back for a second, biting her lip and wondering if she shouldn't go and help him, but as he had almost disappeared from view, she turned back to do battle with her cow.

She managed to get it back to the cowshed without much difficulty and put it back into its stall. She knew she should have gone straight back out to help Tom as he had yet to appear but, being soaked to the skin from the rain, she couldn't resist basking in the warmth of the cow shed for a few moments.

Just as she was about to leave again, Will, Oliver and Will's older brother, Andrew clattered in, all of them shivering, with two cows in tow.

'H-how many did you find?' Will tried to stop his teeth chattering.

'Well, two, so Tom and I decided to take one each but he hasn't appeared yet. I was just on my way to find him.'

'I'll come,' Will turned to Oliver. 'You don't have to come, just put these two back in their stalls and then you can go home.'

Oliver shook his head, 'I don't mind coming - the more people the better, right?'

Andrew took an old towel from a bale of silage and tried to dry himself off, 'you go, I don't mind sorting these two out,' he indicated the cows they had just brought back in.

Will groaned inwardly but nodded his thanks to his brother, saying, 'alright then, let's go.'

After about ten minutes of searching the woods in the wind and rain, Will judged Oliver to be safely out of earshot. He turned to Rose; 'I hope you know what you're doing.'

He had seen the way that Rose's face had lit up when she had seen Oliver appear.

Rose shone her torch vaguely in various directions, hoping for a glimpse of Tom or the cow, 'what do you mean?'

'You might like him now, but soon he'll be going off to University and then what will you do? Don't be stupid, Rosie.'

It's quite a good job looks can't kill, he thought to himself as he watched Rose wheel around and give him the full Glare with a side portion of Hands On Hips.

'It's none of your business, William Fletcher, and I don't like him like that, anyway,' she added.

She stormed ahead into the rain. Will ran to catch her up - he knew her well enough to know that her temper rarely lasted for long.

'Look, I'm sorry, Rose, I just...' he gave up. She'd work it out and he'd be there if it all went pear-shaped.

Rose nudged him affectionately with her elbow, 'I didn't mean to snap, soz.'

Will rolled his eyes, 'don't say "soz", it is the worst word ever invented.'

'I know,' said Rose happily. 'That's why I use it to annoy you!'

A shout from Oliver interrupted them. They ran over to him and found him standing with Tom who was staring at a circle of tall stones, transfixed.

'He won't move,' Oliver tried to pull Tom away but was shaken off.

Will didn't think it was possible, but the rain became even heavier and thunder growled in the sky. He shouted at Tom as he ran nearer; 'it's just a stone circle - it's been there for as long as anyone can remember.' He paused, then added, 'and it's freezing - come on!'

Rose and Will reached them just as Tom began to walk towards the circle, still staring at it almost in a dream-like state.

There was a flash of lightning. Oliver looked up at the mass of trees overhead. Will was obviously thinking the same thing because he said, 'we need to get out of the woods, now.'

'I don't think anything's going to catch fire in this rain,' Oliver had to shout to make himself heard over the rolling thunder.

Will grabbed Tom's arm, 'yeah? Well, let's not stick around to find out, shall we?'

'The stones,' Tom muttered. He glanced at Will, 'can you feel it too?'

'Feel what?' Will looked at the stones - they were battered by the weather, grey, about seven feet tall and arranged standing in a circle about five meters in diameter. No one seemed to know why they were there and they didn't look particularly special to Will.

'I need to go to them,' Tom said insistently. He was almost inside the circle now.

'Have you hit your head or something?' Will had had enough; he was cold, wet and tired. A crash of thunder and a flash of lightning made him let go of Tom and look up at the sky again.

A shriek from Rose brought his attention back and he whirled around to face her but saw she was staring at the stone circle, which, he realised, Tom was now inside.

He gasped at what he saw: the stones were giving off a strange silver glow, illuminating Tom, who was standing in the middle of the stones, gazing at them.

Oliver noted that Tom did not seem at all fazed by the fact; he looked more interested than anything else.

Rose tried to enter the circle to get Tom, but Will took hold of her arm:

'Don't - it could be dangerous.'

Oliver reasoned that Tom looked fine and that the only way of finding out if there was anything dangerous about the lights or stones would be to go into the circle to see what would happen. With this sorted out, he darted in.

Nothing happened.

He shrugged and called to Rose and Oliver, 'it's fine - nothing's happening.'

They both entered the circle cautiously, Will poised to grab them both and run if anything should happen.

'Tom, what's happening?' Rose had to shout over the storm. She was not in the mood for ghosts to make an appearance but she had to admit, there didn't seem to be anything ghostly about the silver lights. It looked more... magical.

He shouted back, 'I don't know, but it feels...' he trailed off. He couldn't explain how it felt, just that he felt this is where he should be, where the stones wanted him to be.

Tom noticed that the silver lights had started to glow more strongly. Lights began to fly off the stones; they looked like sparks, only softer, somehow. Just as he reached out to touch one of the lights, Rose, Oliver and Will all grabbed at him.

For a second, nothing happened, but then they all had the sensation of being swept off the ground and spun away.