Blind Faith (Book 1)

Prologue

Liana

The pale winter sun fell behind the wall of trees, extinguishing its fire and instantly smothering the forest road in darkness. The car lights burst into life and the shadows retreated, leaving a low-lying mist clinging to the undergrowth along the edge of the road.

"Where are we again Mummy?" asked Liana, as she stared out the window into the surrounding blackness.

"The New Forest, dear, in Hampshire. The town we just left was called Brockenhurst," mummy replied, her voice trembling with emotion.

The dim lighting in the car hid her mother's tears, but not from Liana. Mummy hadn't stopped crying since she burst out of the old dirty stoned church with daddy, a small child cradled in each of their arms. Both distressed and escaping from something inside the building.

Liana bit her bottom lip, she wanted to hug mummy, she had never seen her cry before and for daddy not to say anything, only confused her. Especially because he always said that only babies cry.

"Yes...I understand...no they are both asleep," said daddy, continuing his conversation on his earpiece connected to his phone.

"Sorry David, can I phone you back, I'm just about to leave the road for the drop-off point. It appears your tracker has worked...yes, yes, I will phone you back."

He pressed his earpiece and smiled up at Liana through the rear-view mirror, his deep blue eyes twinkling merrily, even in the darkness of the car.

"Hold on to your hair, this is going to get a little bumpy, you keep your brother and sister close Liana and try not to wake them," he said, winking at her, then glanced at mummy.

"Here honey? Now?" he asked, she nodded and he slammed on the brakes and snatched the steering wheel to the left, forcing the car off the tarmac and into the darkness of the trees. Liana grabbed hold of her new siblings, closing her eyes in terror, listening to daddy shift gears and press and release the pedals with his feet.

She tensed and flinched at every bang and scrape, wanting the scary noises to stop. Sneaking a look through the windscreen, she quickly clenched her eyes shut again - a huge tree appeared out of the mist, the car's headlights jumping and flickering on its enormous pale trunk.

"Woohoo...where did you come from," exclaimed daddy in surprise, the excitement vibrating in his voice.

"Shhh - settle down Richard-dear, the children please," scolded mummy.

Liana plucked up the courage and opened her eyes again, the dense woods suddenly peeling away, to reveal a small clearing among the trees. She spun around to peer out the back, only to find a wall of swirling grey mist quickly falling in to shroud their tracks.

The engine eased to a low grumble as the car slowed and veered away towards a large crumbling stone building looming up out of the night, overgrown with small bushes and long leafy weeds. The mist swirled in and around the ruin, like long tendrils of a grey monster, drowning the ancient stones in an icy grey flood. The car pulled up abruptly next to the rubble, the mist, retreating away in fear to linger in the shadows.

"Yes...this is very interesting, the tracker on the phone is indicating it is here darling," said mummy in surprise, leaning towards daddy, showing something on the screen, the glow lit up mummy's face briefly to reveal a red puffiness around her eyes.

"I told you to trust me, Liz...to be honest, there really is nowhere else we could go," he replied, pulling up the hand brake, and peering out of his side window.

"Richard... this close to it, I can feel the energy, I can sense the power from it. We don't need David's tracker anymore."

"That is good news, but at least we know David's device is picking up the transmitter clearly. It is in there somewhere," he said pointing towards the ruin.