A Summer of Discovery

Chapter Five

2004

One week had passed since the incident with Lilly and not once had it been mentioned, mostly because we hadn't really seen each other more than a quick wave from our bedroom windows. They had been busy unpacking and meeting the locals in town and I had been at my Pops garage all week, working hard. I had heard Lilly and her mom fighting through my bedroom window the last few nights and I knew something was wrong. On the third night they got louder and louder until I heard a door slam. I sat up from my bed and watched Lilly stalk off into the darkness of the street, her mom shouted after her but she didn't come back. I grabbed my denim jacket and ran down to the door, luckily pops was at poker. I caught sight of Lilly rounding the corner onto Main Street and without hesitation I followed her, I knew she shouldn't be out there on her own, bad things happened at night, at least they did in the movies.

Lilly was far enough she couldn't see me yet I could still make out her shadow ahead, I followed her down Main Street and off into Forrester close. It was an old dusty track road leading to a plantation and fifteen acres of land, still maintained by the Forrester family as far as I knew. Word in town was very limited on the Forrester family as it seemed no one really saw them come and go. Only the older lady, the only daughter of the Forrester family, now named Mrs's Clayton was ever seen as she came and went to get her hair done at the salon. Claire the local stylist was quick to tell every one of her visits but there was never any gossip to go with it. How could there be? She was just an old lady living in a huge house. I knew from my Pop that the Forrester's had been one of the founding families of Fairview, they were rich beyond measure and always well respected, he told me when his dad was a boy there were a lot of them in town. I guessed over the years the family didn't grow and it sort of just died out.

It was always said that the manor and plantation were haunted, all the kids at school dared each other to come here on Halloween but only the bravest would try and make it, and never did they succeed.

Why would she be going down here?

She disappeared ahead of me from the track, through a hedge row. I ran as quickly as I could to the area she had disappeared. I climbed through the hedge moaning as it scraped the back of my legs. I picked bits of green out of my hair as I appeared through the other side and noted the old Manor house sitting in the shadows of the land around it. It was haunting to look at let alone actually being haunted.

I looked through squinted eyes over the gardens and I couldn't see her. My skin pricked with goose bumps as I stood in the dark, I never ventured out at night and especially not alone. My Pop would kill me.

Voices began to carry over the vast grounds, I turned to see where it was coming from. It was Lilly, she was talking to someone in a raised voice. I caught sight of a light flickering in the decaying gazebo next to the Manor, a cigarette being lit. The smell of tobacco wafted through the air. Who is that?

I watched as a man's shadow leant down to kiss her. My stomach turned. Lilly pushed him away hard but he wouldn't let her go, she began to shout at him but he wouldn't let go of her arms as he forced himself forwards pinning them behind her. I felt the adrenaline kick in and ran towards the gazebo at a fast pace jumping obstacles on the lawn to get their quicker. I could run faster than anyone in Fairview or as my track record currently stood, in the state.

"Let go of her" I screamed. It echoed like a siren over the grounds around us as I came bolting towards them, jumping down into the gazebo and at Lilly's side.

A deep laugh came from the man in the shadows. "Who the hell are you?" He said letting her go and walking towards me. Lilly desperately grabbed at him to pull him back. "Leave her alone Brad. Look at me Brad look at me" she begged.