Halloween Vault 2020 3D

The Harbinger: Corpse Candle

"Eat, Tom," said Mrs. Evans. "You've got so thin."

Tom sipped chicken soup. His stomach knotted "Sorry, Mam. More than broth turns my stomach."

"Aren't the pills Dr. Mary gave you helping?

"Not much. I'll see her when she's back. I'll have a supplement drink."

Mrs. Evans looked in the pantry. "We're out of supplements."

"I'll drive to the grocery."

Tom got in the check-out lane of the village grocery with cans of nutritional supplements, the only thing that saved him from starvation.

The man ahead of him turned and looked him up and down critically "How are you, lad? You've lost so much weight."

"Alwyn. Yes, it's so."

Alwyn Jones looked smug. "Nutritional supplements. Are they helping?"

"I hope to be well soon."

Tom paid and left, thinking of Mary as he drove to his farm. He thought her beautiful, with her dark hair and brown eyes. She moved to Cylfach y Cym two years ago, after the death of her husband. She'd been courted by several of the village's most eligible bachelors, until Alwyn Jones got her to himself. Tom hadn't joined her group of swains. He was no match for them, although he owned a small farm and a smallholding, and had a very comfortable income. He'd hidden his love till Mary examined him one day.

"Tom."

"Yes, Mary?" Her name was music on his Welsh tongue.

"I told Alwyn I wouldn't date him anymore."

"He can't be happy, Mary."

"I've fallen in love with another man." She glowed.

"I hope he's worthy of you."

She looked up at him. "Will you take me to the Harvest Dinner and Dance next week?"

"Ah, no, Mary."

"Why not? I thought you liked me."

'I do, Mary. More than...Ask the man you love. He's worse than a fool to say no."

She stared at him for a long minute. "Then you are a fool, Tom Evans."

His pulse hammered. "Mary? Is it me you fancy?"

"More than fancy, my dear fool."

They'd been a couple since then, accepted with good grace by the men she refused. Except for Alwyn, who was sneeringly polite when Tom met him. When they announced their engagement several weeks ago, people said he cursed Tom and swore to get Mary back.

That was about the time Tom started to lose weight. In seven weeks he lost three stone. Neither Mary nor the doctors in Cardiff could find a reason why.

Tom parked in the farmyard. He was walking to his cottage when he saw a ball of blue light float towards his barn. His blood ran cold.

The light vanished through the barn door, and the animals inside cried. He tiptoed to the barn and looked inside. No blue corpse candle. The animals were quiet. He went to the cottage.

"Tom, you're pale as a sheet. Are you ill?"

"No, Mam." He poured a cup of tea with shaking hands.

"Something's happened. Tell me." His mother waited.

"I saw my corpse light."

"You didn't see the Canwyllau Cyrff!"

"I saw a blue light go in the barn. When I looked in, the light was gone. Your nan taught you about the old ways." He continued, "The candle was almost full-size. Two, three days, maybe. Tell Mary I loved her true."

"Show me, Tom. Maybe it's a harbinger and we can stop it."

The blue light appeared as they walked to the barn. It vanished through the door.

They found the light hovering in an empty stall. Mrs. Evans touched it. She looked at something only she could see.

"I've read it, Tom. You've been cursed, and the light is almost full." She didn't need to tell him the light would turn red when he died. "I hope we can break the curse."

"How, Mam?

"Something of yours has been taken and cursed to make you waste away."

"Maybe it's my missing pocket knife."

"We must trace the light to its source, where the curse is hidden. Then we can try to cleanse it."

The next night Tom and his mother waited. They found the light, almost full size and with pink flashes, hovering in the pasture and marked the spot. The next morning they searched but could not find the cursed item.

Mary returned to Cylfach y Cym the next morning. Tom told her about the corpse candle he'd seen, leaving out that today was probably his last day. Mary managed to hide her disbelief, but insisted on joining the search. "Six eyes are better than four," she said.

That night Tom, Mary, and Mrs. Evans waited in the pasture. The corpse candle appeared, flickering more red than blue. Mary gasped at the sight. It floated into the barn. They found it hovering in the same stall as the day before.

"The light comes from its grave to find Tom," said Mrs. Evans.

"Maybe the pasture is not the...grave," said Mary. "What's the candle doing here in the barn?"

Tom and his mother looked at each other. Mrs. Evans scratched straw away from the stall. A spot had been dug up and covered with straw.

Tom dug till he hit something hard. He pulled out his missing knife. Dots for eyes were painted on, and two strings were tied around it. One was knotted around the waist and one around the throat.

"That's it, Tom. The strings are bindings that keep you from eating proper. Give it to me, and give me your new knife," said Mrs. Evans.

Mrs. Evans used the new knife to cut the strings, saying she was cutting the curse. She rubbed the eyes off and said a prayer. "Now's it's just a dirty knife. God help us."

The corpse candle flickered brightly, the red turned to blue, the blue to yellow, then white and flickered out, leaving a stench.

"The curse is gone, my boy. How do you feel."

Tom thought hard. "Starving, Mam. Are there any lamb chops left?"