Horror House Presents

Sunrise on the Fields of Ypres

May 15th, 1915

My dear George,

It may only be days since we last laid in bed together, the first night as a married couple but it seems so long ago. I never thought I would be married at 21, but I never thought the love of my life would be ripped apart from me and thrown into some war that we are not a part of. I despise and hate our king for doing this to us, to our future family. He's no King of mine. This is no country of mine.... I wish we ran away, I wish you ignored the call, but I know you couldn't. I couldn't live with myself for you been shamed in public like sweet Annie May's husband, no you had to go. My selfishness wasn't worth your name been destroyed. You are no coward, I know that and so do you. They wouldn't have made you Captain if that was true. No, you are a brave man my George, a brave man, I just wish you make it through it, you and our friend Lee. You look after him now, you know he's not as brave or smart as you but he's a good man. My sister hopes to marry him one day so bring him back alive, you come back alive.

Today I went down to the school on Trent Avenue, the one where you told me three of the male teachers are fighting in your company. Well, I asked for the job as you said, explained that I am qualified in English and maths and I thought they were going to laugh at me. The headteacher is an old man, maybe 70 years old and very stern. He invited me into his office, a large room with a basic desk with an old typewriter on top. In his hand, he had a cane, the type they used to beat us with when we were in school. It made me nervous thinking back to that day when I got accused of stealing three lumps of chalk from the classroom when I didn't, it was my cousin Sue. Well, I got me five lashes on my behind. I couldn't sit down for a week, a whole week! Well, I think he sensed it made me nervous as he flexed it in his hands. I'm not sure if he was trying to scare me, or if it's just because he is used to looking after children all day, but he did scare me. His eyes were cold and small, even from looking through his small spectacles they looked small, and his face was withered with age, but he had a large scar down his cheek. I later learned he thought in the Boar war and took a bullet to the face. Broke his jaw and left him with permanent speech problems, not that I could tell.

He got me to sit down while he walked slowly around the room. He asked about you since he noticed my name had changed and where were you and why you weren't looking after me. If you were there then it should have been you getting the job, being a fellow of Old Kings College. I was polite and explained that you just finished your officer training and would be on your way to France before you knew it. That's when his face changed, like the near mention of war gave him flashbacks. It was then I noticed his eyes fixed on the wall behind me and it was then I saw a group of soldiers in Africa, none of them were smiling. I noticed the headteacher, Henry Watson because he had the same hair upon his head, but only thinner and the same bushy moustache. When I turned back, he was itching his scare, as the shire thought of war made the old wound burn, burn and ache like it did the day he was shot. But if that was true then I don't know why he would keep such a picture in his office.

I later found out though from my father why he kept the picture so close to him. He was the men's Major, in charge of scouting ahead for the whole regiment. They were deep in Boar country one day, walking through a thick jungle when the small band of eight men were ambushed. Three men went down before Mr Watson even knew of them being there, all with a large spear in their chests. He ordered the rest of his men to retreat, not knowing how many of them were out there, but it was no good. Another went down, then another, he panicked and didn't know what to do. He pulled out his revolver and started shooting into the thick undergrowth. He doesn't know if he hit any of them, but he kept firing until he ran out of bullets. The rest of the men still alive fired as well, their clumsy rifles taking longer to reload but it didn't stop them. But there were too many of them, and soon Mr Watson went down. He woke up and his head was on fire, burning as someone had pushed into a raging fire. His ears were ringing too, but soon the ringing stopped and he could hear the dying cries of his men, howling like animals, some calling for their mothers. He could hear men running around him and when he managed to open his blood-soaked eyes, he saw a Boar, a strong black man holding an iron-tipped spear. His yellow teeth shaped to sharp points, almost like the shark teeth we saw in the British Museum.