Be Still My Banshee Heart

Epilogue

Lilly fingers gripped her quilt tightly, she wasn't sure what had woken her, the creak of a floor board, a noise outside.

Blinking, her eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, it was either very early or very late depending on how you looked at it.

Slowly pulling the cover back Lilly pulled herself from her childhood bed, crept quietly over to the door.

Peering out all appeared quiet, no noise, no movement. Feeling slightly braver Lilly stepped out onto the landing, her bare toes sinking into the soft lush carpet her mother had recently had fitted.

Lilly hated being in this house on her own, always had since she was a child, her sisters had long flew the family nest and her mother was currently touring parts of Europe.

The house itself was an old converted chapel stood within a very secluded two acres of woodland and to make matters worse a small cemetery sat to one side. Lets just say Lilly's mother was quite unique, sure as a child the cemetery had provided hours of fun for her and her two sisters many adventures.

Once night fell it was quite a different story, Lilly's attic bedroom overlooked the cemetery, she would watch from her window as the trees cast imaginary monsters over the graves.

The stairs creaked beneath her feet as she slowly descended, the cold stone of the hall floor startled her as she stepped from the last stair.

Fumbling through the dark she reached for the hall light and flicked the switch, nothing happened. Flick, Flick, she tried again, still no light.

Cursing Lilly made her way towards the kitchen, a cold draft blew at her from beneath the front door. Lilly shivered, wrapped her arms around herself trying to retain some heat.

Pushing open the old wood kitchen door the draft grew stronger against her back.

Lilly turned back towards the hall, peered through the dark and found that a dark shape was watching her back.

"Oh shit," Lilly gasped, turning to flee only to fall flat over one of the many potted plants her mother had left lying around.

Deep, masculine, cruel laughter came from behind as she felt sharp claws lightly graze down her back. Now tense and on high alert her arms clawed at the ground, she pulled herself to her knees, tried to escape to the kitchen.

The cruel laughter came again as a cold hand wrapped around her ankle pulling her down once more to the stone floor, then proceeded to drag her back towards the stairs.

"No, no," she pleaded, "please stop, let me go."

They stopped abruptly at the foot of the stairs, a thin slither of moonlight shone through the hall window as the dark shape turned to face her.

A cruel smile filled with rows of sharp teeth twisted his handsome face.

"I have only just found you," he sneered, "after such a long search, I have only just found you, I will never let you go, little witch."

Lilly screamed out in pure terror as she was lifted and thrown across his shoulder. As he proceeded to climb the stairs, she realized that it didn't matter that she had run, something truly awful had still followed her from Ireland.