DMFW opened this issue on Sep 05, 2002 ยท 78 posts
DMFW posted Thu, 05 September 2002 at 3:16 PM
The Wind Over The Border
The metallic blue of a late October afternoon was hardening to twilight over the Northumbrian moor. Only the crumbling stone of an old pele tower stood against the bleak skyline. A raw northern wind, a Scottish wind, bit fiercely through the sere brown grasses, despising the thin yellow light that came to life in an upper window. For an hour the light shone in defiance of the oncoming night before the hills were left to darkness and wind.
"Help me! Please help me!" It was a womans voice, faint but fervid, making Claires heart thump. Shed thought herself quite alone in the only habitable room in the ruin but now a low unnatural candlelight illuminated everything.
"Help me!" the cry came again
Her feet were icy on the bare flagstones as she responded without waking. She stumbled over a chair that didnt match the pattern of her dream and a shock of adrenalin brought full consciousness.
The tower was dark and the only sound was the wind. It was more than just cold making her tremble as she returned to her duvet.
"But Ive never been sleepwalking before!" Claire protested to Lucy.
"Its stress", her friend pronounced. "Youve split with Mark, and that tower is creepy. Why you took that temporary wardens job Ill never know! The place isnt exactly a tourist trap is it?"
"Its shut in winter. Another week and Ill be in America."
"That holiday will do you good", Lucy said.
Old Thomas Mason from the village had a set of keys. The tourist board paid him a small sum to assist her.
"Is the tower haunted?" Claire asked.
"Theres a story about an old reiver - a cattle raider; lived and died violently. They say he took an English mistress and threw his Scottish wife in the dungeons where she starved to death. Your bedroom was his."
He seemed uncomfortable.
"Its just the wind over the border. It can make strange noises. Best to ignore them."
"Todays the 31st. Ill be gone tomorrow", Claire said. "Halloween", she remembered.
The cry was anguished, impossible to ignore. In the dream light of ghost candles the fifteenth century was visible again. Behind a rough stone Claires sleepwalking fingers sprang the catch for a concealed entrance to dungeon depths of which her conscious mind was ignorant. She only saw the ghost for an instant. The reivers wife smiled.
"Whore! Share my husbands bed and share my fate!"
The Scottish wind slammed the secret door and Claire woke naked in damp underground darkness. Her frantic fingertips were bleeding on the unyielding granite long before she began to scream.
Thomas returned to his car. The young student was gone. On a plane already, most likely. Hed cleaned her room and now the old pele tower would be deserted until April. He almost heard a womans voice.
"Help me!"
"The wind over the border", he thought with a superstitious shudder. "Best to ignore it". He started the engine.