Chapter One: The Rewrite

[James]

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Mud splattered across wood and leather as the man walked through the deserted farmer’s field, only the moonlight offering safe passage through the swampy sludge. His smooth willow staff had become useless in the muddy conditions, sticking itself deep within the surface with each step.

“Another lovely English winter,” he grumbled, placing the staff under his arm.

He was a tall slender man; a trait of his unusual heritage. His unusual heritage that hardly anyone knew about, mainly because hardly anyone knew he existed. Not even his own family knew about him, only the Wolaeth and the rest of his kind knew him.

And the Phantoms.

A shiver moved through his body at the thought of them. He had been fighting them for fifty years and still they terrified him. He didn’t want to run into any of them during this outing but there was always a chance of meeting a Phantom in the middle of the night, especially because they were the reason for him trudging to an inhospitable farm in the first place. How on earth did Benjamin survive in this place? Perhaps a more prudent question would be why on earth would he want to survive in this place? With those thoughts dancing through the man’s mind, a light erupted out of the field and into the sky, a ball of brightness suspended in the air illuminating the soggy land and its secret to the world.

“About time Colin,” a voice called out.

Colin could only stumble slightly and cover his eyes as the light roughly pulled him from the darkness, blinding him. His mane of tangled hair was now revealed in the brightness, the odd dash of grey mixing in with the black and a large scarred hand vainly tried to save his blinking brown eyes. A further moment passed before he could finally take in his surroundings, the ruined crops matched by his ruined jeans and boots. His shirt and coat were at least still clean even if they offered no real protection, but he always attempted to dress normally.

The same could not be said for the new arrival that was striding out to meet him. There was a long trench coat billowing out behind the young man as he walked to meet Colin, flickers of mud covering the trailing fabric. Beneath it glinted leather that clad his figure from shoulder to toes, a type of leather that Colin didn’t even want to guess.

“Come on Colin, there’s no point standing out there like one o’clock half-struck.”

“Well if you don’t blind me perhaps I wouldn’t, Anthony,” Colin grumbled, taking in Anthony’s face. It was young, untouched by the stress that would eventually claim his youth. His brown hair that curled around his face would eventually turn to balding grey and those youthful blue globes of life would lose their spark to the dull horrors of blood and death.

“For God’s sake, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Tony,” Anthony barked, pulling up short of embracing Colin.

“Your mother named you Anthony, that’s your name,” Colin coolly replied, pushing past the youngster and marching toward the silhouette of the farmhouse, which was now visible. “And get rid of that blasted light unless you want company.”

Colin could hear Anthony fumbling for a moment before the light vanished, leaving the field once more under a blanket of darkness. Wet footsteps flittered through the air as Anthony appeared beside Colin, a small thin stick of wood clutched in his right hand.

“Best to enter prepared, we don’t know what’s still there,” Anthony explained as Colin eyed the wand with caution knowing how quick Anthony was to resort to magic.

“I suppose and should probably have a little light too then,” Colin agreed, his staff sliding from beneath his arm to come clutched in his left hand, a ball of light balancing upon the top of it. Meanwhile a small but powerful spec of light now shone from the end of Anthony’s wand. “Now remember, low profile this time Anthony, no fireworks tonight,” Colin mumbled as the farmhouse came into view.

It was a horrendous sight. The storms that had wrecked through western England had been the house’s one saving grace, dousing the flames that had clearly licked across the structure. What was left was a ruin, smouldering wood met with damaged brick as Colin marched up the creaking steps and through the empty doorframe. He could just about see the door at the other end of the long hallway, splintered in half.

“Are we safe to go in?” Anthony muttered, Colin catching him eyeing a large hole in the wall upon the second story.

“Don’t know, probably not, but we have to so stay quiet,” Colin replied briskly, walking into the hallway with his staff raised high in front of him. Paper was strewn across the floor, crumpled, singed and mingled with debris from all across the hallway. A cabinet laid overturn blocking any passage up the stairs that looked ready to collapse at any time. Something just didn’t seem right. How could they have possibly found Benjamin out here?

“What’s wrong?” Anthony whispered, appearing at his side once more.

“Nothing,” Colin answered quickly, deciding not to trouble the young man. “Now we need to move this cabinet i…”

Colin’s voice faded away as a loud creak echoed through the house causing Colin and Anthony to send their balls of lights spiralling back out of the front door. The sound had come from upstairs in the landing directly above them. Colin waited in silence and darkness, praying that the sound was just the house straining on its ruined legs. He was about to creep forward when the creak echoed again, the unmistakable sound of a foot stepping on an informant floorboard. Something was upstairs.

“What do we do?” Anthony muttered, coming to the same conclusion that Colin had.

“We go upstairs,” Colin answered slowly, swirling his staff around his body. A light gust of wind slipped past the two men, sliding underneath the cabinet that was blocking the stairs and lifting it off of them, glass dripping onto the floor. With a gentle flick of his staff, the cabinet was placed on the floor with only a whispering of a sound. Another creak, this time from the bedroom, told Colin that they had not disturbed whatever was above them.

“Be ready for anything,” Colin muttered placing a tentative foot upon the first step, the wood creaking dangerously under the pressure. It was just like sneaking downstairs to get into the fridge as a kid.

The landing was in even worse condition than the hall, shattered glass glinting all across the burnt and bloodstained carpet. The bathroom’s door was off its hinges resting against the basin of the sink meanwhile all that remained of the door to the bedroom was a gaping unruly hole. Blood dripped from the roof like rain from the clouds and slowly seeped across the walls, red contrasting against the dirty white. There was so much blood. But no sign of what was in the house with them. Colin was already dreading what he might see as he turned the corner into the bedroom, his staff ready in defence.

“What on earth happened here?” Anthony breathed, lowering his wand in shock.

“Well it’s not a Harry Potter story, that’s much for sure,” Colin answered grimly, taking in the sight of the carnage.

Furniture was strewn everywhere, bedding scattered across the floor and within the middle of the room laid the body of Benjamin Milner. What was left of it anyway. The body hardly bore any resemblance to Benjamin, the face slashed and bloodied, hair torn from the scalp and what remained of his entrails slopping out of the large gash within his stomach. Parts of him had been eaten. The stench was nearly too much for Colin as he moved toward the body catching sight of the broken staff that lay scattered by the corpse. Colin’s stomach tightened as a wave of burning grief washed over him at the sight of his friend’s remains.

“Colin!”

Colin heard the growl and hissing before Anthony had called out his name, turning to see the beast within the shadowed corner of the room. At first he thought it might have been a wolf, a large haunting wolf right out of hell, but then he took in its leaner form, its black mane and its long sharp claws. It was some hideously deformed big cat, a monster from a child’s nightmare.

“What is it?” Anthony muttered, moving over to Colin cautiously, wand drawn.

“I don’t know, but it’s going to be quick.”

Colin stood and waited, watching the creature as it stood hissing and scratching its claws against the damaged wooden floor. Why wasn’t it attacking? It was a feral beast that had killed and feasted on Benjamin and yet here it was showing self-restraint. Colin could tell that it wanted to attack them by its hissing and growling but something was holding it back. Something had stumped it. But what?

“Why is its not attacking us?” Colin asked to Anthony, his eyes still fixed upon the creature, completely lost at the behaviour of the monster.

“Attack first then,” Anthony said quickly, raising his wand into the air.

Colin tried to snatch Anthony’s arm from the air but he couldn’t reach him, blazing red fire erupting from the tip of the wand and flying at the beast. The cat reacted instantly darting to the right and leaping toward the duo, claws outstretched. Colin swung his staff around in a wide arch, a wall of magic erupting from its wooden surface, creating a barrier between the beast and himself. The creature collapsed against the magic, wheeling away from it as if it burned at its insides. Colin watched it hiss and spit at the barrier as he struggled to maintain the magic, his strength quickly leaving his body.

“Let it down,” Anthony said, his wand calmly pointing at the creature.

Colin grunted as the magic fell to the floor as Anthony stepped forward, his wand jabbed in the direction of the cat. Another large gust of wind swept into the room, this time lifting the beast from the ground and hurling it into the wall. Before the cat could even raise itself back up Colin was upon it, his staff slashing through the air in a violent motion. The creature gave a cry of anguish as a gaping cut emerged across its back as it struggled to its feet.

Anthony took another step towards the cat as it managed to regain its footing, blood dripping off its body. His wand pointed at the shattered glass beneath where the window once was and then with a flourished, flicked the thin piece of wood at the creature. Shards of glass shot up from the ground and sped like a bullet at the cat, embedding themselves down the entire of its right hand side. The cat took a step forward before it slumped to the ground, moaning in pain.

Not wasting a second Colin strode toward the creature with his staff held lofted above his head. The wood began to shimmer and gleam as he placed the tip of the staff down upon the creature’s body. There was a moment of silence before the cat began to scream and moan, its body shaking and jolting as if it was being shock. Colin bit his lip, like he always did when he had to take a life, before he withdrew his staff leaving the creature as nothing else but a bloodied corpse.

“Once again I ask what was that?” Anthony wheezed, Colin knew that the younger man seemed more easily drain by the use of magic, still learning how to control it.

“Looks like something got out of the zoo, got found by some Phantoms and they decided it would be fun to infuse it with magic,” Colin answered, cautiously nudging the cat with his staff. “It’s no faerie though and that’s a relief.”

“Guess it could have just wandered towards the nearest sign of civilisation, right?” Anthony questioned, coming over to stare at the cat as well.

“No, it doesn’t,” Colin said, turning away from the cat to look back at the body of Benjamin. “It’s too much of a coincidence that it would have just found Benjamin, after he’s gone into hiding. No, someone brought this beast here to help kill Benjamin, but why?” And why he had to come to a place like this, Colin thought bitterly. Isolated and unprotected, what was he thinking?

“So, Phantom arrives,” Anthony began, a theory escaping his lips. “With this cat-thing. Why? I don’t know, perhaps it’s a particular Phantom with a grudge against Ben, it’s happened before like with Vinny. Anyway, he brings the cat with him because he knows he can’t handle Ben alone, and together they kill him. Mission accomplished, he disappears and leave the cat to kill anybody who snoops around after him.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Colin muttered, looking sadly at the fear still etched in Benjamin’s eyes. Something had made him afraid. Was it the creature they had just killed? Surely Benjamin could have dealt with such a beast, Colin thought. “Sounds completely reasonable, but I don’t think we’re on the right track.”

“Well alright, what’s wrong with the theory?” Anthony quizzed.

“It only provides an explanation for why Benjamin was killed, not for the mess downstairs with the paper strewn everywhere,” Colin explained. “Someone has clearly searched the building for something; the cat was probably a way of distracting Benjamin long enough for them to undertake that search.”

“So what were they looking for?” Anthony asked.

Colin cast another glance over the ruin of the room before he suddenly realised what the Phantom could have been looking for and the consequences of finding it as well. Harvey Logan had died in southern France two months ago, murdered and his house ruined and two weeks later, his young child disappeared from sight. He also happened to be the last person to speak to Benjamin before he went into hiding. Now Benjamin was dead and his house also apparently searched through. Were the Phantoms looking for their next target?

“Anthony, search the room. Look for any traces of magic, I need to check downstairs,” Colin ordered, already sliding through the door and moving back toward the stairs.

“Where you going?” Anthony called after him.

Colin didn’t reply though, the stairs creaking as he took them two at a time. If the Phantom had found out about Robert, then, well the thought hit Colin like a punch in the stomach. They couldn’t have found out about him. Benjamin would have kept any evidence of him hidden. And Colin knew where Benjamin kept items hidden.

Kitchen.

Colin wheeled into the kitchen to find it in the same state as most of the house. Food was scattered across the floor, tiles shattered and the microwave laid in pieces across the counter. Colin desperately looked around the kitchen trying to guess where Benjamin would hide something. Benjamin said he never hid something without a clue. What was the clue? There was nothing behind the thrown over fridge or the upturned table. The intruder had checked even the cupboard under the sink. Perhaps the Phantom had found it? Just as despair and desperation was beginning to tighten around his throat, Colin realised that the old coal-powered cooker was not connected to its vent.

Crouching down, Colin reached for coal compartment door and yanked it open. There was no explosion of dust to greet Colin even though it was clear that the cooker hadn’t been used in a long time. There was only a small pile of coal. Smiling, Colin reached into the compartment and began to feel around, moving pieces of coal to reach every corner. It took only seconds to feel the smooth metal that Colin was hoping for and he quickly yanked the box out of the cooker.

It was nothing more than a smooth black metal safe, the size and shape of a toolbox. It looked exactly the same as it had six years ago; the last time Colin had seen the box. It was locked and while it wouldn’t be a challenge to break into, the fact that it was still closed was a comforting thought to Colin. The Phantoms hadn’t found out about Robert.

“Colin! Colin! Ah, you, you might want to come and see this,” Anthony’s voice filtered through into the kitchen, a hint of fear in his voice.

Lifting the box with a sigh, Colin moved slowly back through the house watching his step carefully this time. Benjamin was dead and his heart grieved, but at least his heart would not have to grieve further.

“What is it, Anthony?” Colin asked, stepping back into the bedroom.

Anthony didn’t reply but merely pointed up at the ceiling, Colin’s eyes following Anthony’s outstretch arm toward the heavens.

And then he saw it.

Upon the roof, drawn in blood, was the symbol of a triangle, an arrow pointing downwards inside it.