THE AFTERMATH

The cold air drifts through the half open window and ruffles his hair, he groans and turns over in bed, then a banging sound becomes apparent from the direction of the door, he is still ignoring it, he stumbles forward out of bed and answers the door,
“Ye, want do you want?”
“Captain, you are needed at the battle”
“My head is spinning can’t they do without me”
“I’m afraid sir it’s over; they want us to help clear up”
“Who won?”
“We did sir”
“That’s ok then, let’s go”
The lieutenant fetched the armour and their weapons, just in case, saddled the horses and they rode towards the battle fields.
They stayed sitting on their horses and surveyed the scene before them.
“What a mess and we have to clear up?”
“Yes sir”
“I think even without a hangover this would be difficult”
His head had changed from an ache, now it was thumping, and he was seeing double.
In the battle ground he noticed some horrible deaths, one person had been slit in two, and another person had an axe embedded in the back of his skull. The creatures they fighting were hideous enough before they were hacked to pieces, he was now feeling quite sick.
Not only did the scene of all the dead bodies make him feel sick, but the smell was intolerable, he couldn’t cope, he calmly walked back to his horse and rode to get some fresh air in his lungs. In the distance he could see his lieutenant walking towards him, he looked to his left and saw some huts; he wondered whether they had been checked,
“Lieutenant have those huts over there been checked?”
“I don’t think so sir, why do you think some of those creatures could be hiding there?”
“Instead of fighting, I don’t doubt it, we didn’t fight either”
They armed themselves and walked towards the huts.
Inside the first one there was nothing, inside the second one there were two of them eating flesh from bones, in a dark corner. They killed them, one bullet to the head each.
Behind the last small hut, on the top of the hill was a big meeting building, they went inside. It stank of rotting flesh they knew they were here. The creatures were known as cyats, they were an evolved species, a cross between coyotes and tigers with big teeth and bad breath. Despite the fact he didn’t get to kill any in the battle he felt he needed to do his duty, to kill as many as possible.
He moved forward slowly, his vision was better but his head still ached, he could just about cope with it. Then a shadow moved in the darkness, he flinched but kept moving forward his hand not letting go of his gun in it’s holster.
In the distance he heard BANG BANG he jumped and flattened his back against a nearby wall staring every which way his could in the blackness, it was quite, a little too quite for his liking, all of a sudden a hairy claw came at him from the side, he struggled to get his gun, the cyat got him too the ground, he managed to grab his gun and shot the beast once in the head, the cyat was heavy on top of him, it took time to get from underneath it, he took a deep sigh of relief. He then wondered what had happened to his lieutenant, he picked up his gun and started walking again. After awhile he got the impression his lieutenant was now dead, his foot hit something on the floor, he didn’t have to look down to know what he had just hit, he looked anyway, just to make sure, such an awful loss, his eyes were lifeless and blood was pouring out of a rather large bite to the neck.
By now the captain was angry, not many people that knew him had ever seen him angry. His wife had once but that was along time ago, back before the battles started and chaos reigned. Although he was now thinking, where were the cyats hiding, up against the walls or down by his feet, he really didn’t know, cautiously he stepped forward his gun ready, he felt something else by his feet, looking down it was a cyat with two shots in the body, the one his lieutenant had shot at. He could see shadows moving by the windows, he raised his gun toward it, then he froze, he could smell rotting flesh very close and something dripping down the back of his neck, he turned quickly and shot in point blank range, then another one and another one, coming from all angles, bullets shooting through windows but most were hitting their targets. Then no more came, he heaved a huge sigh of relief sweat pouring down his face, then the door disappeared and the light was blinding, his headache had come back with a vengeance.
“Sir, sir, we have been looking everywhere for you, we thought you were dead”
“Almost private, almost”
“Impressive tally sir, especially in the dark”
“And a hangover that just won’t go away”
He strode out into the sunshine and smelt the fresh air and enjoyed the wind in his face. Relieved it was over he wondered over to his horse and trotted back to base, but as he approached he saw that the fences had been pulled and huge holes had appeared with blood coating the metal. Something had gone very wrong. He dismounted and ran inside to find dead bodies everywhere and cyats enjoying their spoils, tearing at flesh. His first thought was to run and hide, but they could run faster than him.
He was standing completely still watching, then a thought came over him, he ever so quietly tip toed past the scene and up the stairs to the armoury, he was thinking maybe he could gas them, a new chemical they had recently found useful may just work, nothing to lose, he got to the door and unlocked it. Inside was every weapon you could possibly think of guns, swords, knifes, bombs, poison, and hidden in a sealed cupboard was a bottle of the new chemical, after a few deep breaths and new found courage he found himself a gas mask and started the pumping process, He ran from the room to the gallery over looking where the cyats were, it was working, they gagged and chocked, then their bodies became lifeless, dead every one of them dead.

THE DEVILS STREAM
Hugh was out walking , it was mid august and a lovely bright sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, and the insects were scurrying into hedgerows to get out of the heat of the noon day sun.
He had just moved to a small village called Kerry to do some work away from the rat race of a city, it was peaceful and he could write his book and be undisturbed by family and friends, it was a small village with only two shops a well disguised library and two pubs, in the middle of Wales.
It was a big change for Hugh as he had just moved from Cambridge, and Kerry was very quiet and small in comparison . But he reckoned he was going to like here.
Hugh was originally from Wales but moved away when he was very young, a mere 4 or 5.
He walked over the road through the gates to the church and through to the graveyard , then the cemetery, he wondered how a small village like this needed two graveyards surely there are less people living here than this, and if so the entire village would be buried here.
He read a few of the gravestones as he walked by, there were some very random welsh names . Looking at some of them was sad there were quite a few children’s some of them died quite young.
He then walked down through a country lane where the stinging nettles were taller than him (he thought ‘day of the triffids’). He then jumped over the sty that lead through to a field, there he saw a rickety old wooden bridge up ahead with bright blue water catching in the sun light underneath it, the stream flowed towards a deep watering hole round to his right which was almost black. The stream glistened in the sunlight and as he got closer the water wasn’t blue, but crystal clear, with thousands of little blue fishes no bigger than pebbles, he went to put his hand in the water and the fish scattered in frenzy.
Although the sun was out the sky was getting dark some clouds were starting to form, so he decided to head for home.
The next day Hugh revisited the stream and decided to follow it’s path as it flowed, he turned a corner and saw a massive tree had toppled over the streams path with big branches ,and a lot of moss on the big thick heavy trunk, Hugh climbed down the bank towards it, the water under it was nearly black, it looked extremely deep, and he did not want to fall in.
He climbed on to the tree’s great big heavy trunk to get a better view of the area, he looked down into the water and saw no little blue fish but great big red fish with razor sharp teeth they looked like angry piranhas, he thought.
Hugh had enough of looking at fish and decided to fall asleep against a very thick branch ever so close to the water; he was just falling off to sleep when he heard a voice from behind him
‘ You ought to be careful, you don’t want to fall in do you?’ (The voice said)
‘ Who said that?’ Who are you?’ (Replied Hugh)
‘My name is Rosie, I live around here, and do you know how many people have died from falling in this river?’ (Rosie said)
‘How many?’ (Asked Hugh, interested)
‘ a lot of people were stupid enough the believe in a local myth, and killed themselves’
‘Do you believe’ (Rosie said with a smile on her face, very sarcastically)
‘ believe in what ?’ (Hugh said back, curious)
She didn’t say anything, she just smiled. He moved on still curious, but also suspicious of her motives.
‘ What kind of fish are they? (Hugh asked)
‘ We call them devil piranhas, and up stream you will find the angel fish, they are blue and haven’t got big teeth’ (said Rosie)
Hugh stared down at the big red piranhas and gulped.
Rosie started advancing towards him; Hugh was slightly terrified as to what she was going to do when she got to him,
When Rosie was close enough she said
‘ Don’t be so curious , just believe’ (she said with no emotion in her voice and piercing dull lifeless eyes), then with out warning she pushed him feet first in to the almost black pit, as he was being mauled by the fish he noticed Rosie had vanished into thin air. Then the pain got the better of him and he scrambled to get out of the water.
When he got out he looked back and noticed the water he had just left was empty, nothing was there even the water was clearer, he could almost see the sparkling pebbles on the bottom. Despite that the pain was bad and his clothes were ripped and bite marks were visible. Hugh decided going home was probably a good idea; it was starting to rain so he ran home through the cemetery and onward round the side of the graveyard and over the road.
The next morning Hugh awoke with a headache but no bite marks; he wondered why, and then gave up, he thought now that it could have all been his imagination.
He decided to investigate the village and stay clear of the water for the time being, he decided to take a walk towards the library that looked like an ordinary old brick house, but inside it had high pillars and lots of old looking books,
‘ Can I help you dear’ (said a woman, although Hugh wasn’t sure where the voice was coming from)
‘ Hi, I’m looking for books on local history’ (asked Hugh randomly to thin air)
‘ In the back corner’ (she said popping up from a stack of old newspapers and pointing to the back far right corner)
Hugh started looking and found that over a hundred years ago there was a girl called Rosie that had died from what the villagers called ‘devils piranhas’ when she fell into the local ‘nook’ whilst playing. That was around the time that Kerry was shut off from the rest of the neighbouring villages for acquiring a few people that were believed to be ‘crazy’. Quite a few of the locals thought that the devil had come to earth and disturbed the fish, making half of them good and half evil, nearly all the villagers killed themselves believing that by throwing themselves to the evil piranhas it would satisfy some random pagan god that they believed was a version of the devil. They also believed their bodies and souls would go to different places to be free from one another. Only the ‘crazy’ people and some children survived and rebuilt the village. Now it is said that if you ever see the fish in the stream you are going to die by the curse of the devil and his piranhas, Hugh gulped just thinking about it. He put the book down and went in search of alcohol.
After that revelation he went to the local pub to drown his sorrows and to try and forget what he just read. The next morning he awoke expecting a hangover from all the beer the night before, but he seemed to be fine. He did some work and then went for a walk down a different lane, away from the ‘nook’, he walked past a farm and ended up by a small lake and sat on the bank, and basked in the mid-day sun on the dewy green grass, listening to the birds. After
awhile he woke to find the birds had stopped singing and everything was deathly still, and creepy. All of a sudden the water in the lake started bubbling up like it was boiling and things were rising from underneath the ripples, it took him awhile to work out was was happening, he was staring constantly at the water , not moving, until the reality of the moment kicked in, and he realised that the burnt and bitten people were coming towards him were getting closer, he attempted to run but was frozen to the spot, their heat engulfed him and sharp teeth sank into his flesh, more and more joined them and his body went limp and finally gave up, then it sank to the ground, he was then carried into the lake. It was like he was never there, the waters had stopped bubbling and even the birds started chirping again.
The sun was shining down on the affectionately named ‘nook’, the fish were enjoying the heat from the sun the angel fish schooled together, an extra one had joined them. And in the almost black pit there was an extra ‘ devil piranha’ .

THE CAVE MONSTER
The airport was particularly busy today, of all days. Emma stared at the floor at the departure lounge, it felt like she had been there forever, she glanced at her watch, it said 10pm, she was supposed to be there 2 hours ago.
There, was Scotland, east Scotland University; her sister is studying natural history, good for her, Emma couldn’t think of anywhere more bleak to study natural history, why couldn’t she be closer to civilisation?.
Jean, Emma’s sister had written to her a number of times inviting her up there to sea the landscape she had described as beautiful and untouched by human hands, or at least most of it was.
Emma got on the plane when it finally arrived and just stared out of the window wondering if the landscape was going to be how she imagined, beautiful but stark.
After 2 hours flying Emma finally got there to be greeted by Jean, they caught a taxi and went to Jeans hall of residence to get some sleep, it was 12.30 by the time Emma slept on nice crisp sheets, and closed her eyes to sleep.
The next day Jean had classes for the majority of the day so she told Emma where to go and see a local beauty spot.
When Emma got there it was more than how she imagined and looked in awe at the gleaning sea and crashing waves on the sandy beach, the blue sky , beautiful enormous limestone cliffs and the seagulls were screeching, nothings perfect. looking. Looking down from where she was standing she could see People in boats in the distance on the waves, it was beautiful and serene. She climbed down the craggy path in the limestone cliff to the beach below where she skimmed stones for awhile on the crystal clear waters, after awhile Emma became bored so she started to walk along the beach,she found some rock pools and started to heave big rocks to see if there was anything interesting underneath, it was disappointing there wasn’t much to look at. Then looking around she noticed caves in the cliff faces, she counted 4 of them, before deciding to explore, she felt very adventurous, thinking Lara croft or Indiana Jones, more Lara croft she hoped, although she wished she had a body like that.
Emma started walking into one of the bigger caves watching where she was treading and holding onto the caves walls for support on the jiggered rocky surface, as she walked further and further in to the cave. This place was like a labyrinth, every way she turned looked the same. It felt like she had been going for miles. She thought she could see things moving in the shadows, and hearing far off noises that made her feel sick to her stomach. She turned another corner and she lost her footing, with one almighty crash she feel into a deep pit in complete darkness and past out. When she awoke she could feel what felt like bones beneath her, all slimy and wet smooth and yet splintered ends. She imagined she had fallen on top of a load of chicken carcasses, except it was much worse, Emma had a LED torch attached to her keys so she shone it on the floor, then wished she hadn’t, the whole floor was covered in bones, mostly human by the size of them, she retched a bit then composed herself. Shining the light above her she could see a way back up to the tunnels, she carefully climbed up, trying not to slip, she didn’t fancy joining the skeletons below her. She got back to the cave of tunnels and tried turning around and going back out the way she came, but it was hopeless, it all looked the same, until she found an opening a huge cave where sunlight was pouring through, she immediately went to stand in the light and bask in the warm sunlight when she heard something, something close, she tried no to turn around but she couldn’t resist. Standing to the entrance to the cave was a monster, it was at least 7 foot tall, covered in hair with two horns on it’s head, one was broken, it had an angry looking face, big teeth and big blue eyes, if it wasn’t so terrifying it could be rather cute, it was the eyes, they seemed almost human.
Emma didn’t stick around to find out whether it was harmful or not, she just climbed through the hole in the cave wall where the sun was coming from and legged it back to the top of the cliff.
From there she took some gulps of blustery wind and let it blow through her hair and clothes to try and get the stench of death beasts out of her. After some deep breaths she walked calmly back to her sisters dorm, where she eating her later than usual lunch.
‘ Hey, you’ve been gone for hours , been having fun?’
‘Not quite, the scenery is lush, but the contents of those caves down by the beach have a lot to be desired’
‘ Oh, I should have warned you about them, there are local superstitions about those caves, some say that there is a group of Minotaur living down there, apparently the Greeks were trying to get rid of them back in the day and the ship crashed on the rocks next to that cliff, some locals have gone down there over the years to prove or disprove it but none of them have come back, they say originally only one Minotaur was on that ship that crashed, don’t worry it’s just myth’
‘That’s a creepy tale, who would believe it?’
‘Exactly, now, would you like some food’
Emma was glad to be amongst friends in the bustling canteen and eating chips, but she couldn’t help wondering whose big blue eyes she looked into in that cave, or who it used to be.