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Short Fat Stubby Finger Stories PRESENTS:

Episode 29

“Damn!”   Martin cursed. “That didn’t go to plan.   I can’t see a thing … I think that I am bleeding … and I am sore all over.   What happened … and why is it so damn dark in here?”

   Joseph, who was now feeling the warmth of his own blood trickling down his face and both of his hands, had no answer.   “No idea,”   He began, but before he could continue with his response Rosetta called out in a quivering, obviously worried, voice.

   “Joseph, Martin … Where are you?   Are you both alright?   What was that noise?    It scared the life out of me.   There are some huge clouds covering the sun and now I can hardly even see where it was that I last saw you … and I really am not comfortable walking down there in the dark with all of those monsters waiting to pounce on me.

   “Well that explains one thing.   At least we know why it’s dark.   Are there lots of clouds, or just a few?”   Joseph called out with his fingers crossed for luck.

   “There are only a few big clouds.  They should disappear soon.   Are you two alright?  

   “Yes, I think so.   We’ll know better when the cloud lifts.”

   “What happened?   What was that loud noise?”

   “We don’t know that yet either, I am afraid … the same problem with the lack of light.   We crashed into something in the dark.   We will just have to wait until the sun comes back to have a good look around and see what it was.   It’s still too dangerous to move around up here at the moment … it’s far too dark.    It wasn’t all that good when we had good light, for that matter.   Stay where you are and we will be down as soon as it’s safe to move.”

   “Joseph … You will take care, won’t you?”

   “Yes, Rosetta, I will.”

   “Hey… what about me … don’t I count?   I am possibly losing most of my blood supply at the moment … but don’t you worry about me.”   Martin complained in a miffed tone.

   “Sorry, Martin … you take care, too.   Oh, I wish the sun would come out of the clouds.   I so want to come down to where you both are.”  Rosetta replied, but her attempted atonement only received a low muffled growl in response.

   As Rosetta was doing her best to get back on Martin’s good side, Joseph was pressing down on the floorboards in an attempt to push himself up when his fingers came in contact with something cold and sharp.   Gingerly, he ran his fingers over the top of the object and gently grasped it between outstretched fingers and continued in his attempt to get back on his feet using only the heel of the hand that was holding the mysterious object.

   Successful on his first attempt, Joseph temporarily forgot about his own discomfort as the light suddenly burst into the room as the last of the huge clouds passed over the sun, and once his eyes adjusted to the new conditions he immediately began to examine the object that he had recovered from the floor.   In the bright light that now dominated the environment that surrounded him in his upright position Joseph got a shock when he saw his own bloodied face reflected in his hand.   “My God,   “He exclaimed loudly as looked back to where he had been lying and confirmed the thought that had sprung into his mind,   “It’s a mirror!   There had been someone there alright, only they were on the other side of it.   We tried to jump a reflection.”

   “Well, I’ll be damned.   So where is he now?”  Martin asked in disbelief. 

   A sudden sound of footsteps somewhere below them caught their attention.   They both swung around in the direction the sound was coming from, but were disappointed to find it was only Rosetta noisily making her way towards them, while constantly ducking and weaving between cobwebs.   Joseph had spun around too fast, not realising how close he was to the unguarded edge, and almost toppled over causing Rosetta to let forth with a loud scream, partly because she though he was going to fall, mainly at the sight of his bloodied face.

   Regaining his balance Joseph placed a finger to his mouth to stop Rosetta screaming and was successful, but even in the quite stillness of the barn they didn’t hear the sound of a door shutting somewhere in the barn.              

   “He’s still here somewhere.  There’s no other way out,” Martin exclaimed, quickly setting off for the stairs, while Joseph decided to continue looking around where he was.

   Halfway down the stairs Martin sensed that Joseph was not with him. “Are you coming?” he cried out.

   “You go ahead.   I want to check something here.”   Joseph called back, “Besides, I don’t think that you will catch him.”

   “Watch me.”   And with that Martin took off and was at the bottom of the stairs and halfway into the shadows before he realised that he had no idea where to start looking.   He was on the ground level, it was a big barn, and half of it was still in total darkness.  Frustrated, he stopped moving and began scratching his head as he  desperately tried to force his mind to make a decision on where to start looking.

   Meantime, Rosetta, at the sight of Joseph’s bloodied face, had momentarily overcome her fear of spider’s webs and the darkness that held so many fears for her, and had rushed to the stairs, nearly knocking Martin over as she ran up them.

   But for the moment Joseph was more interested in something he had seen while he had been getting himself upright that he was certain had not been just a piece of broken glass shining on the floor, and now he was having trouble trying to locate it again.   Ignoring the cuts, and the blood that was already starting to clot, he crouched down on his knees and tried to acclimatise his eyes to the variations of light that existed on the floor behind so many objects littering the side of the loft.   Ever so cautious of the shattered glass, he carefully used his fingers to comb over the area where he thought that he had seen the object of his desire.    Several near misses with extremely sharp and jagged fragments occurred before he finally achieved success.   With due respect to the shattered glass surrounding it, Joseph gently picked up the object and took it to a better-lit area to exam it just as Rosetta arrived and wrapped her arms around him so tightly he nearly dropped it.

   “Careful,” he gently admonished.

   “Sorry, Joseph – what happened?  You are bleeding. Are you alright?”

   “Yes. I’m fine, thank you.”   He replied gently, inspired by her obviously genuine concern,   “We saw something and tackled it, but it turned out to be only a reflection, and we ended up breaking a mirror. Seven years bad luck I suppose.   Or perhaps we share it in this type of situation.   Three and a half years each with a bit of luck.   That is if we have any good luck left, of course.”

   Joseph had only been making light of the situation to ease her concern, but she completely ignored his little joke. “Oh, you poor dear, let’s get you outside into the good light so we can check you over.”

   Not seeing any reason to remain in the semi-darkness of the loft Joseph agreed, and as they headed for the stairs Rosetta put her arm around his waist as if to give him physical support.   Although making no attempt to move her arm away, Joseph quietly commented that it was only a few scratches that he was suffering, not a broken leg.   “You can never be too careful in these situations,” she replied, “you could suffer from loss of blood or something, and suddenly pass out.   And besides, it makes me feel safer.”   “I can’t argue with that logic,” Joseph replied and put his arm around her waist, attempting his best not to splash blood on her dress – and in doing so Rosetta did the impossible and moved even closer to his side as they made their way down the stairs and to the front door.

********

   Martin had decided that he was not going to find anyone in the barn.   It was too big, had too many dark spots to check properly, and he had no idea where to start in the first place.   So when he saw Joseph and Rosetta leaving the barn he decided to do the same thing and get cleaned up as best he could.   When he arrived at the door he found Joseph examining something shiny, and as he drew closer he saw that it was a silver pendant on a chain.

   “What is it Joseph?”

   “Some kind of amulet I think. It has a design on it that I can’t quite make out.   It looks like a monkey looking at something.   There are some symbols, and there is some writing on the back, but it is not in English.   I found it where whoever we saw in the mirror had been hiding.”

   He passed it over to Martin who examined it before handing it back, agreeing that it would need an expert to interpret it.

   Rosetta was becoming impatient with them both, mainly because she was again becoming nervous about the barn and its spiders and accidents.   “Come on, Joseph. I want to clean you up … and you as well, Martin.   You both look an absolute mess.  You look like a couple of naughty little schoolboys who have been wagging school and playing in a coal mine.”

   Joseph, Martin and Rosetta set off back towards the-farm house completely unaware of a pair of sleep-denied, blood red eyes that followed their every move.

  Nor were they aware of the hi-powered binoculars trained on them.

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Go to Episode 30 Part 1