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Short Fat Stubby Finger Stories PRESENTS:

Episode 30   Part 2

  Instinct warned Mary to move away quickly, and she just managed to get back to the end of the barn when a disheveled figure scrambled out from under the floorboards in the very spot she had been standing in only seconds earlier.   Mary felt a bit panicky because she was certain in her mind that whoever it was, they would head her way, and she had no idea why the woman had screamed.   What was worrying her the most was that they may try to steal the car.   If they ran up to where she was hiding they couldn’t help but notice the little green Mini, all bright and sparkly after its wash and, unlike in the movies, she doubted that she would get it unlocked, started and on the road before they arrived at her door.    Unlike more modern cars, Mary’s car still relied on a physical key to unlock it and start it … and it was so small and light if there were several men present they could pick the car up and place it on its side.   However, fortunately for her, the strange figure was alone, and he began running as fast as he could towards the farmhouse before settling on a position behind an old upturned cart that lay beside the driveway where he couldn’t be seen from the bottom.

   Mary was uncertain as to what she should do.   She had not expected this situation to eventuate.   She tried to make out some features on the man, which she presumed the figure to be, but he was too far away to be certain.   She remembered that there were some binoculars in the Mini.   With the sleekness of a cat, Mary ran to the car, extracted the glasses, and returned to her position just in time to see Joseph and Rosetta come out of the barn.

   Training the binoculars on them she could hardly believe the sight that confronted her.   ‘Oh, my god,’ Mary exclaimed in disgust at the attention Joseph was receiving from Rosetta.   ‘It looks like I will have my work cut out.    My God … he’s bleeding.   I wonder what happened?   I hope that he is alright.’   Mary, surprising herself, found herself resisting a sudden impulse to run down to comfort him.   Feeling slightly frustrated at both the sight she was witnessing, and her self-embarrassment at her own thoughts, she continued to watch as Martin joined them, and had to adjust the glasses to get a better view of the pendant that Joseph handed to him.

   ‘That’s an interesting piece of jewellery’, she thought to herself as Martin handed it back to Joseph, and then, almost immediately, the three of them began walking towards the house.

   As soon as the farmhouse door had shut behind them, Mary swung the glasses in the direction of the fugitive from the barn who was still hiding behind the fallen cart, refocusing the binoculars for the change in distance as she moved them.    Her efforts were rewarded with a crystal clear image of the man.   A crystal clear image that made Mary’s blood curl as it revealed the image of a man displaying signs bordering on the edge of madness … his eyes blood shot, his hair and beard matted, his clothes dirty and torn …and he was looking straight back at her.

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