Heir of Darkness

Chapter One

There's a forbidden forest behind my house.

I've heard rumours that evil people live in there and that their houses are made from thorns and their gardens are full of poisonous fruit. I've heard that the place is full of beasts and creatures that lurk around every tree and sleep on a bed of bones. And that there are men with knives for fingers who sleep in the ground.

The Child Snatchers.

When I was younger they were the characters in my bed time stories. They were evil men who waited at the misty edge of the forest for little children to wander too close and snatch them away. Some of the other children said they fed the little boys to the beasts and they ate the girls themselves.

If a child behaved out of line their parents threatened to make them stand at the forests edge and let the Child Snatchers take them away.

As I grew up I grew out of the stories of the Child Snatchers, no longer truly believing that men lived out in the forbidden forest, waiting in the darkness for small children to wander in before gobbling them up whole.

I never believed it until my brother was taken.

He was only six and I was thirteen when one day, out of sight of all the adults, he wandered to close to the large oak tree at the edge of our garden. I saw him wobbling over to the trees, his eyes wide with fascination. Screaming his name I dropped my book on the floor and pushed my legs as fast as they could go and chased after him. But I was too late.

My mother, father and other villagers came running from the town centre when they heard my screams. I was about to break through the line of trees at the edge of the forest when my father grabbed the collar of my dress, hauling me away from danger. I fell to the floor, sobbing.

They hadn't seen it but I had. The silvery sharp fingers that seeped out of the forest, cutting my brothers back as they pulled him into the depths of danger. His little screams died out as the Child Snatchers drew him further into the forest and out of sight. And then he was gone.

That was the day I knew the Child Snatchers were real.

What else in the forest was?

It was a Wednesday morning when the old man appeared to me.

It had been three years since my brother was taken but I was still cautious around the forest, especially when in the garden.

I was out back when my long time best friend Parker came around to speak to me. I was in the flower bed, soil all over my pretty red dress and elbow deep in a swarm of daisies and dandelions when he came up behind me, silently, his shoes deathly quiet against the damp grass.

"Boo!" He yelled, his hands thrusting on my shoulders. I jumped forwards in fear, memories of old Child Snatcher stories coming to mind, and I fell amongst the flowers, crushing them under my body.

Turning to look upon Parker's cheery face I glowered and snarled, "Parker! You fool! Why must you always do that?"

"I was only playing with you Ebony! Don't get all grumpy!"

I only gave him a look of irritation before I pulled myself from the flowerbed, dusting the petals from my knees and bottom. I stood up and glared at him with anger and annoyance.

"Well then," Parker started, leaning against the wooden fence that surrounded the garden. The flowerbed I was in was near to main gate. "If you are going to be all grumpy then I won't invite you to watch the performance in town with me."

"What performance?" my head snapped up with interest and a large smirk grew on Parker's face, "But you are in a mood with me! You surely wouldn't want to go with me."