THE WOODS (A Bury Farm Wolf Tale)

2: Gossip

Wet and windy, the storm had come from nowhere, a rumbling of rolling black clouds swamping clear blue skies within a matter of seconds.A walk to see what there was to see in the countryside, when the wind began to roar it appeared to make the trees angry and when the rain began to pour there was nowhere else for them to go.Isolated, the converted barn looked abandoned.'They'd hoped it wasn't.'

"There was a door banging shut and swinging open, as we approached we could barely see where we were going, the dishevelled property was so dimly lit it looked like there was no one there.I never felt so cold, the rain fell so thick and heavy any vision was minimum, but I most definitely saw someone.She, he, whoever? Whatever I saw startled me, I thought maybe it was a doll, one of those old Aunt Sally types used at the fairground.What was I supposed to think? Who in their right mind would be sat motionless watching a swinging door? Who would sit watching the rain forming puddles on the rough uneven ground? Who would sit so still they looked unreal? Who would sit alone and remain silent in the dead of night? Who could sit freezing in the draughts of an old shed covered by nothing but a tiny wool shawl? Who would sit staring with eyes so wide they appeared dead? Tate said I was imagining things, he said it had been a shadow or perhaps a trick of the light, because when he looked and I looked back, all that remained was the high back wicker rocking chair, rocking in the wind and creaking on the old rotting boards of the floor as the unlocked door blew open before swinging shut time and time again. We felt sure there was a hurricane hovering"

"A girl?"The locals of Green Hill village had never heard of a girl living or being at Bury Farm. Grandparents, parents and two sons, no one mentioned a girl.

"A sister?"Maybe; could be? If so, why had the family kept her hidden?'Why keep her secret?'No girls had gone missing from Green Hill,'Not recently.'But people, other people; boys and girls from other places went missing all of the time.'What should they do?'What could the local's of such a tiny village do?'Take flamed torches & run blind into who knew what?'Take the law into their own hands.'Legend & terrifying stories told how others had tried.'How could they destroy what was Bury Farm and those to have taken up residence, when no one was sure who or what they were? Easier to sit back and allow whatever was happening to happen, easier to continue to leave the Wood family be, allowing them to keep themselves to themselves.'They tried to keep themselves to themselves.'Being left alone was what they wanted.

Local's had, had their suspicions for years, ever since the present day Wood family moved into the derelict barn, ignoring the grand farmhouse mansion occupied by previous generations and abandoning the stable blocks which in turn led to the closure of many a business to have provided employment for those in the local area. 'What did farmers do to earn a living, if they allowed what was thriving, to stand idol?'Suspecting something was wrong, from the day they arrived, the new Wood family kept themselves to themselves, venturing out only rarely.Each spoke only when spoken to and never invited people over, declining all invitations to join what was the friendly, healthy and thriving community of Green Hill village.'Neighbours.'Arriving as a mature family of four, those calling themselves Wood, were now thought to have become a family of six.Parents, grandparents and two sons, questions had been asked; but answers were few.

Two years on from the day the strangers arrived, numerous passersby reported on the lack of actual farming being done.Despite being the owners of hundreds of acres, the Wood family never ploughed the fields or sold at market.Doing very little and purchasing only the minimum of supplies for themselves and the place they called home, many wondered how the present day family of Bury Farm Estate made it through the day. 'Many more worried that their neighbours were the type which would make it impossible for everyone to make it through a moon filled night.'