The Darkness of the Knight

By Tom Goymour

He who plays with fire usually burns, bringing forth destruction unto himself and to those all around.

A face familiar to some returns to an English village to visit an old friend. Suspicion becomes rife among many of the residents when they hear he emerged out of the darkness from across the marsh.

Something is going to happen in the village tonight, but nobody is saying what. Nobody, that is, except Vincent Carruthers who takes the visitor by the hand, and between them they resolve to uncover a sinister plot based on a false prophecy. But is it truly false? 

What has happened to The Reverend’s daughter? And what part does Old Glennie and the practice of witchcraft play on this, the darkest of nights as it threatens to repeat the horror of something that happened twelve years earlier?

This mystery is set in England in1975. The dark suspense will keep you guessing. This is the penultimate short story in the series ‘Second Chance’. It can also hold its place as a stand alone story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tom Goymour
• Release date: Dec 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386805144

Book preview

Table of Contents

The Darkness | of the | Knight

The Darkness

of the

Knight

––––––––

By

TOM GOYMOUR

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Published 2017

© Tom Goymour 2017

The right of Tom Goymour to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical  copying, recording or otherwise without prior permission from the Publishers.

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The Darkness of The Knight

I pull my collar tighter around my neck as I walk briskly along the single lane road that leads into the village. The early winter sun, now long gone from the sky has left ahead of it a clear, cold evening. The street lights ahead provide some illumination and as the road curves slightly, I remember from when I visited Johnny before, I can take a short cut across the marshes to my left. I could be with him by 7.00pm if I get a move on.

I haven’t seen Johnny for a while, I’ve had all sorts of other stuff going on. It was good that he invited me round tonight. I’d been thinking about looking him up for a while now, then, out of the blue I get the call confirming tonight’s the night! I’m keen. I want to see what he’s got, I mean, he’s been boasting about it for long enough. Everyone reckons they’ve got the best hi-fi system on the planet these days; I want to see where Johnny’s pitches in. I’d like to hear it for myself, and see his vinyl too. He’s got some recent classic L.P.s. and I should be able to persuade him to do me some deal or other, perhaps with a Led Zeppelin, or one of his Pink Floyd albums? I stop where I am and I look up at the moon emerging through the thickening clouds. The Dark side of the Moon, that’s the album they brought out a couple of years back. It would be cool to get my hands on that one.

Don’t want to get my feet wet I think to myself looking down at my boots as I contemplate crossing the marshy expanse that lies to my left. After eyeing it carefully I reckon I am safe, so, picking my spot, I stumble down the shallow bank to the edge of the flat, boggy landscape. It looks kind of eerie now I’m looking out onto it from a low level. There is just enough light to now and again catch glimpses of reflections in the random patches of water that lay throughout, faintly flashing across the marsh like a weak, distant torchlight. I’m sure they put boards down in the wettest places so it should be okay to cross.

I’m about twenty yards in when I decide this is a bad idea. My feet have wobbled on the first board and I change my mind about crossing it altogether, so I turn to head back to the road. Then, I hear it – heavy breathing. Someone is coming towards me. It sounds like a woman, or a girl? From behind a clump of reeds and one of the few bushes that adorn the landscape, she suddenly appears. I look back, and her eyes meet mine. She is about twenty yards to my left. She screams, and I freeze. Then, she disappears behind the bush, and the sound of her screaming pierces the cold night air as it carries up to the road where I figure she is probably now heading. I can’t see her, I don’t know if she has slipped and fallen or quite what has happened, but I’ve decided I’ve got to get out of this place.