The Dead Shall Walk Again (Chapter 5)

Chapter 5 (Television Memories)

Roxy was face down in the dirt, the hand still clasping around her throat. But it didn’t feel like it was trying to strangle her. It felt like it was trying to grasp. To find it’s way out.

The Doctor was there in an instant. He looked like Batman with his coat billowing out as he leapt onto the grave and twisted the hand away from Roxy.

She fell onto her back and the Doctor grabbed her around the shoulders, dragging her back and away from the grave.

She finally sat up and watched as the earth was slowly pushed up and out of the way as the hand and arm slowly reached out, following by a torso and head. Roxy had expected to see a rotted corpse, but instead saw a perfectly normal, middle-aged man, slightly dirty, but definitely not rotted away. He looked confused and scared as he looked around, half out of the grave in an almost comical fashion.

“Hello,” said the Doctor, crouching down to his level and extending his arm. “I’m the Doctor. Allow me to help you up.”

The man looked at him with fear. He opened his mouth and a croak came out.

The Doctor nodded, waving his device over the man. “This is fascinating.”

By now Holly and Lilly had heard the commotion and had run over. Holly stood, her hand on her mouth as she watched the man flail and try to escape the confines of the grave.

“What the hell?” she said, helping Roxy to her feet.

“This is amazing,” said Lilly. “We’ve never come this close to seeing one break out before.” She almost looked too excited.

“Are you alright?” said Holly, noticing the fear on Roxy’s face.

“Apart from being grabbed by a zombie, yeah I’m fine,” said Roxy. But she was still visibly shaken.

“There not zombies. Any readings?” said Lilly, diving across to the Doctor and kneeling next to him.

“Yes,” said the Doctor, looking at the device in his hands. His eyes quivered with excitement. “It’s actually regenerating as we speak.”

“Regenerating?” said Lilly, eyes wide.

“No, no, no. Not like that,” said the Doctor. “Regenerating as in just simply re-growing parts of it’s body. Becoming whole again. Un-rotting away. It’s fascinating.”

“You two,” said Holly.

The two turned around and looked at Holly and Roxy.

“Are you going to help the poor guy or sit discussing him?”

“Oh, of course,” said the Doctor, grabbing one arm whilst Lilly grabbed the other. On a count of three they hefted him out of the mud and he collapsed down next to them, trying to scramble away.

“Wait, wait, wait,” said the Doctor, getting onto his stomach and looking the man right in the eyes. “Can you speak? Can you tell me anything about yourself?”

“What…?” croaked the man.

“Yes?” said the Doctor, his hand motioning for him to continue.

“What…is happening….?”

“You’re dead,” smiled Lilly.

The man howled. “No…not my world. It’s not…my…world….” And then he stopped dead, his face down in the dirt.

“No,” said the Doctor, checking for a pulse but finding nothing.

“That’s the first time. The first time,” said Lilly, looking at Holly and Roxy with glee in her eyes.

“For what?” said Roxy.

“That one spoke.”

Holly held a finger up and walked over to the graveside. “Can I just point something out to you? You know this poor man has just died, yes?”

“He’s been dead seven years,” said the Doctor, pointing to the date on the gravestone.

“You need to re-bury him,” said Roxy, now sat with her legs crossed, “before any of us get into trouble. Then we can discuss the morality of all of this.”

“Not only that,” said Lilly, “but we have an energy spike in sector seven. I never checked this last night because it hadn’t given me any readings until now.” She held up the complicated device the Doctor had shown them earlier. “There’s energy spikes right now.”

“Get digging folks!” said the Doctor, clapping his hands together and jumping to his feet.




It was when Richard had started to convulse violently that Cheryl had called for an ambulance. She didn’t know what was up with her husband. It was like he was the same person, but completely different at the same time and it scared her.

When the ambulance arrived Richard had passed out and was lying on the kitchen floor. The paramedics tried to wake him, but he was out cold so they loaded him into the ambulance, watched by curious onlookers that lived down the street.

Cheryl was too upset to notice them as she clambered into the back of the ambulance to join her husband.

She took one more look at their house as the doors closed and she wished right now that she could get back to her normal, ordinary, boring life.

It seemed so far away.




The Doctor was already leading the way out of the cemetery as Holly, Lilly and Roxy brushed themselves down.

The Doctor was staring intently at the device that Lilly had handed him and almost ran straight into a stern looking man in a suit. He had a high forehead and receding hairline, but looked quite handsome on his never-cracked-a-smile-before face. It was the same man Lilly had seen the previous night.

“I’m so sorry,” said the Doctor, smiling up at the man.

“What are you doing?” said the man, noticing the dirt-covered hands of the quartet. He noticed Lilly. “You were hanging around last night.”

“Looking for-”

“We planted some flowers,” said Holly quickly.

“In the ground?” said the man.

“Yep,” said Holly.

“There are plant pots for that,” said the man, still standing stock still and unmoving.

“We don’t believe in plant pots,” said Holly with a wave of her hand.

The man’s eyebrow arched.

“Do you work here?” said Lilly, trying to brush more of the dirt off her clothes.

“Why?” said the man.

“Because you should really lock these gates.”

He frowned and looked at the gates and then back to the group. “And why ever would I do that?”

“You lock them at night, don’t you?” said the Doctor.

“Of course. To keep people out.”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, nodding sagely. “Well, you might want to lock them now to keep people in.”

The man frowned as the Doctor guided them away from him and up the path to the leafy avenue that led up to the south side of the cemetery.

“What’s the plan then?” said Holly, eagerness in her voice.

“Lilly, I want you and Roxy to follow that energy spike. It’s moving, by the way.”

“Can’t I stay with you?” said Roxy.

“No. I don’t do big groups. It gets too confusing. You all look the same after a while.”

“Charming,” said Lilly.

“What about me?” said Holly, hoping she hadn’t been forgotten.

“You and I are going to perform a little experiment.”

Holly smiled and then looked at Roxy. Roxy clearly looked frustrated with the situation, but Holly gave her a weak smile and then realised that the Doctor had already started heading towards the main road.

“Come on,” said Lilly, marching on ahead of Roxy.

“See ya later,” Holly shouted back.




The Doctor led Holly across the main road and towards a large, pale, stone building. It was five stories high with box-like window bays looking over a playing field, nestled amongst trees.

“Why are we going to the YMCA?” said Holly, frowning.

“Just a storage space for me, really,” said the Doctor. “Well, not for me. For my…equipment.”

“Oh yes,” said Holly, “do you also rent a room out here?”

“Not at all,” he said, as they rounded the corner. Holly began heading for the entrance when the Doctor put his hands on her shoulders and guided her past the doors and to the side of the building.

“Not inside?” she queried.

“Round the outside,” he smiled, going in his pocket and pulling out a silver Yale-lock key. He turned the corner and then popped his head back around. “Maybe you should wait here.” He winked and disappeared around the corner.

Holly leant on the wall and watched the trees blowing in the wind. It was quite chilly this morning and the sun looked very pale and cold. After a while she started to wonder where the Doctor had gone and glanced around the corner.

Sat a few metres away was a large, blue box with the words “POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX” written at the top. It looked to be made of some kind of wood and it had a light on the top.

She stepped a few paces towards it when the door burst open and the Doctor emerged with a collection of items and cables wrapped around his shoulders like some kind of technological scarf.

“Is that a shed or something?” said Holly. “I didn‘t think you were the police. Do you work with them?”

“Not exactly,” smiled the Doctor, handing her a collection of items.

“Not exactly what? Not exactly a shed or not exactly working with the police?”

“Not exactly both,” he said.

Holly frowned but smiled. She was obviously not going to get any straight answers out of this guy. She’d keep trying though. “So what experiment are we trying?”

“I want to try and open your senses. Open your mind.”

“Okay…” Holly suddenly felt a little worried. “And how are you going to do that? More to the point, why?”

“Why? Because I have an ever-so-slight bit of a theory of what might be going on here. How? Well, you’re just going to have to trust me.”

“If you say drugs-”

“Not drugs,” said the Doctor. “Not at all. But your friend, Roxy, saw something when she collapsed. I think if we open up your mind wide enough, you might also see it.”

“Then why not just try Roxy?”

“Your friend is a little…feisty.”

Holly smiled. “That’s Roxy for you. Go for anything that moves.”

“In what way?”

Holly laughed. He really was quite naive. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll keep her way from you.”

The Doctor frowned. “We need to find a TV.”

“There are plenty of TV’s in the YM,” said Holly, nodding towards the building.

“No,” said the Doctor. “Too hard to explain. Do you have a house?”

“I do,” said Holly. “Well, it’s my parents house at least.”

“Can we use your TV?” asked the Doctor, as Holly began to lead the way out of the car park and onto the avenue that led from the YMCA.

“Yeah, I mean my parents will be at work. My sisters at school. So, yeah, it’ll be fine.”

“You have a sister?” said the Doctor as they made their way down the avenue.

“Yeah. You’ll like her. Cute kid.”




Agatha stood with her arms folded and her eyes narrowed. The Doctor had been there for only five minutes, but already he had scared the cat, smashed a mug and managed to stop her Sky+ from recording one of her favourite TV programmes.

He was annoying her.

“What?” said Holly, as the Doctor pulled out the TV and scattered a load of stacked DVD’s.

“Who is he again?” said Agatha, eyeing him up and down. “Is he that new boyfriend I heard you talking to?”

“What?” said Holly, looking all flustered, “no of course not.”

“I was gonna say…”

“Say what?” said Holly, instinctively checking her phone for any messages from Alfie.

“Well, he’s a bit too old for you, isn’t he?”

Holly frowned at her sister. Okay, so he was older than her, but maybe only by about ten years. He didn’t look that old. He looked dashing and handsome and…and he wasn’t her boyfriend.

Snap out of it, said Holly to herself. Snap Agatha out of it.

“Haven’t you got homework to do?” said Holly.

“Nope,” said Agatha, sitting down on the armchair, arms still folded. “I’ve got DVD’s to watch.”

Holly sighed. “Why aren’t you at school?”

“Teacher training day,” said Agatha with a smile.

“I used to be a teacher once,” said the Doctor, looking up from behind the TV and looking wistful. “Several times in fact. I was a caretaker too. Several times in fact.”

“Look,” said Holly, grabbing her sisters arm and hauling her to her feet. “Go and put the kettle on. Mr…?” She looked at the Doctor.

“Doctor,” he said.

“Doctor…what?” she said.

“Smith. Doctor John Smith.” He gave her the campest wave she’d ever seen and then dived back behind the TV.

“Doctor Smith is very thirsty.”

“I’m 13 years old, Hols, not seven. I can tell there’s something not right about him.”

Holly sighed and then guided Agatha out of the door and into the hallway. She sat down on the stairs and Agatha remained standing in front of her, defiantly.

“Listen,” said Holly, “there are some strange things going on around the town.”

Agatha rolled her eyes. “Not the spooky club again. I thought you’d grown out of that.”

“No, not the spooky club,” said Holly, her voice a whisper, “but Roxy and I saw some weird stuff out by the cemetery.”

“Granddads cemetery?” said Agatha.

“Don’t call it that,” said Holly, the memory of her granddads passing still raw. “But, yes, that cemetery.”

“Well what?”

“Just…weird things.”

“Like devil worshippers or witch craft or something.”

“No,” said Holly. “I saw a…body climb out of a grave.”

“Oh, don’t be stupid,” said Agatha, walking off with a shake of her head. “I’m off to make the tea.”

“Finally!” said Holly with a smile.

When she returned to the living room, the Doctor was kneeled in front of the TV, two wires hooked up to the back of the set and connected to a brass head-band-like device with two antennae sticking out of the top. It looked like some weird, comedy alien head-dress and she stifled a laugh.

“I’m going to need you to sit down for this, Holly,” he said with a slightly worried smile.




Lilly and Roxy stood outside the terraced house. The morning sun had decided to hide behind the dark clouds that had been gathering from the east and it was starting to spit with rain.

“Brings back memories,” said Lilly glumly.

“Memories?” said Roxy, not really sure why she was hanging around with this moody Scottish girl she didn’t even know.

“Of my childhood.” She checked her device. “Well, this is where the signal originated, but it’s faded now. Or rather it’s moved.”

“Moved where?” said Roxy.

“I don’t quite know. This thing only pinpoints when the signal started. If it’s still going on or finished then it’s not going to pinpoint the spike, or the start.”

“So what now?”

“You okay loves?” came the voice of an elderly man.

“We’re just looking for the owners of this house,” said Lilly, walking up to the old man and flashing him a rare smile.

“Well that’ll be a difficult, sweetheart,” said the man. “They live in Spain.”

“Oh,” frowned Lilly.

“It’s rented, love,” said the old man.

“Ah,” said Roxy. “And where are the tenants?”

“The Hicks? It’s a bit of a shocker really. About an hour ago I saw them loading him into the back of an ambulance. Poor old Richard.”

“And they haven’t returned yet?” said Lilly.

“Nope. Reckon he had some sort of seizure.”

Roxy’s eyes widened.

They thanked the man and then made their way in the direction of the hospital.




Simon had tried to get a nap that morning. He hadn’t slept well that night and had spent all night watching the shopping channels and flicking back to music channels. He was laid in bed staring at the ceiling and thinking about his mum and the strange goings on from the previous day, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head.

The pain was a sharp, piercing feeling - like an ice-cream headache - and it made him sit bolt upright and clutch at his temples. It got stronger and stronger and he screamed out in agony.

And then flopped down onto the bed, still and unmoving.

Lifeless.

To be continued...

The Dead Shall Walk Again (Chapter 4)

Chapter 4 (Not My World)


Holly was up bright and early. She had met Roxy - who was looking decidedly better - at the corner of Fothering St, and they had both made their way into town.

“What are you expecting from this meeting?” said Roxy.

“No idea really. Some answers maybe. I’m surprised you’re not as eager.”

“Oh, I’m eager,” said Roxy. “Anything to brighten the dull monotony of life, but you’re not even connected to this. Simon is. I am cause of that weird seizure -”

“You should still go to the doctors about it,” interrupted Holly.

“He’s a doctor, isn’t he?” said Roxy with a smile. “Plus he’s cute. Weird, but cute.”

Holly rolled her eyes.

“So why are you doing this?”

“I’m doing it because of you and because of Simon. You’re my friends. I want to help the both of you.”

Roxy smiled, put her arm around Holly and gave her a big kiss on the cheek. “Ah, you old softie.”

“Easy,” said Holly, pushing her way with a laugh.

The Doctor and Lilly were waiting by the fountain in the main square when Holly and Roxy turned the corner.

“Just you,” said the Doctor. He nodded to Roxy. “What’s she here for.”

“Nice to see you again too, sweetheart,” said Roxy.

“She’s here because of what happened to her last night,” said Holly. “I think you need to hear about this.”

They made their way into a café near to the square and sat down at a table in the corner. After ordering four full English breakfasts, Lilly returned to the table.

“I’m starving,” said Roxy.

“About ten minutes,” said Lilly with a forced smile.

“Right,” said the Doctor, bringing his notepad out again, his pen nib close to the pad. “So what happened to this young lady?”

“I had a seizure,” said Roxy.

“A tumour, perhaps,” said the Doctor.

“Nah,” said Roxy, shaking her head.

“How can you be so sure?” said the Doctor.

“Because I’m pretty sure brain tumours don’t make you see flashes of different worlds.”

The Doctor wrote in his pad furiously and then looked up at Roxy, excitement in his eyes. “Tell me more, Miss…?”

“Just called me Roxy. Or I’ll let you call me Roxanne if you behave.” She winked at him.

“Come on, Roxy, be serious,” said Holly. “She had a seizure and saw flashes of a destroyed world. Buildings and flames and things like that.”

The Doctor threw his pen down as the breakfasts arrived and looked away. “Another missing link.”

“You’ll be fine,” said Lilly, touching his shoulder. “We’ll get to the bottom of it.”

“Why don’t you tell us all you’ve seen so far and maybe we can help,” said Holly hopefully

The Doctor looked at Holly and then Roxy and sighed. “We detected some kind of…energy reading a few weeks ago so came to investigate. The signal doesn’t have a source though. It’s all around. Like it’s something in the air.”

“There are spikes though and, if we’re lucky, we catch them. We picked up one spike in a graveyard on the outskirts of town and went to investigate it,” continued Lilly.

“We found a lady in her 50’s wandering around, disorientated. She wasn’t able to communicate with us properly so we took her back to our TA-”

“Home,” interrupted Lilly. “We’re…scientists. We have a lab at home. Anyway the lady didn’t last long. She soon passed away so we put her back in the ground.”

“But it kept happening and happening,” said the Doctor. “Every time we found a spike we’d find a person, but the person would soon die again and we’d have to rebury them.” He pulled out a device with a handle and two prongs on the head. On the front was a screen with a wavy, green line. “The signal is getting stronger though.”

“What about Simons mum?” asked Holly.

“Mrs Fox has expired again. She’s been kept in cold storage. She’s a really interesting one. The coroners report at the time said she was extremely badly burned, yet her body looks as fresh as anything…more or less. Very strange.”

“Then there’s Roxy here,” said Holly. “Isn’t that weird?”

“Yes. Again, another missing link.” The Doctor leaned in and looked at Roxy, their eyes looking into each others. “There’s just no connection at all.”




Cheryl wasn’t really sure what she should have done with her husband. After she had put their kids to bed she had come back down to find him staring out of the bay window, his eyes full of wonder as he surveyed the street beyond.

She had guided him back to the sofa and had called the out of hours GP Unit at the hospital. The nurse had advised her to make him comfortable and for him to get a good nights sleep, and if he was still the same in the morning then she was to take him to the doctors.

Cheryl had made him a cup of hot chocolate and it hadn’t taken long for him to fall asleep. It was like he was exhausted. He hadn’t been able to say much more to her. He had continued to mumble about the world being different.

As she lay there in bed, turned on her side watching him breath deeply she began to cry. What had happened to Richard? Had he had an injury at work. He hadn’t mentioned anything. Then she wondered if he had had a stroke or something. None of it made sense.

When the morning came her eyes opened with a start to find Richard stood by the bedroom window gazing out into the street again.

He turned to her and smiled, but he still looked confused. “I’m sorry…?” he indicated with his hand.

“Cheryl,” she said.

He nodded quickly. “Yeah, Cheryl. I don’t know…I don’t quite know what’s happening to me, Cheryl, but something is very wrong.”

“You’re telling me,” she said. She had slept in her clothes last night. He looked like her husband, but at the same time he felt like a stranger. “Did you hurt yourself or something?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Well, not recently.”

“Tell me what you remember?” she said, guiding him back to the bed to sit him down.

He swallowed. “I remember the world not being like this. I remember fire and carnage and death. Since being a teenager. The world used to be like this, but then it changed.”

“But none of that happened,” said Cheryl. “Look,” she said, pointing towards the window. “The world isn’t like that.”

“My world is,” he said.

Cheryl’s friend, Anna, had collected their children and taken them to school that day. Cheryl had made Richard some toast and cereal and he had eaten like he hadn’t had a decent bit of grub in weeks. He guzzled down three mugs of coffee and then asked for more.

After his eighth round of toast he finally leaned back in his chair and smiled. “That was good.”

“I need to take you to the doctors,” said Cheryl.

Richard nodded. “I understand, but there’s nothing wrong with me. It’s this world that’s wrong. Or right.”

Cheryl sighed. “What do you remember about me?”

Richard frowned.

“Cheryl Noone. Remember? You knew me at school you said?”

“Yeah,” said Richard, nodding and smiling. “But you died.”

“I can’t have,” laughed Cheryl. “I’m here. Right here.”

Richard shook his head. “You were killed in the first wave.”

“Wave?”

“When they came.” He looked scared.

“Who are ‘they’” said Cheryl, exasperated.

“The Riders. The aliens.”




The Doctor, Lilly, Holly and Roxy stood by the entrance to the cemetery. It was another misty morning and it was cold. For a moment Holly wondered what she was doing standing here with two strangers and a girl who had had a seizure the night before. She had bunked off work and felt like a naughty schoolgirl and was hoping that none of her co-workers would see her.

Holly pulled her coat tighter around her and shivered, zipping the front right up to the bottom of her chin.

The Doctor turned to Lilly. “Take Holly to the east side of the cemetery. Roxy can come with me.”

Roxy smiled. “No funny business, Doctor.”

“No promises,” winked the Doctor.

Lilly shook her head. “Stop playing with her, old man.”

“Let’s go, Roxanne,” said the Doctor, hands deep in his jean pockets as he marched through the gate and to the west side of the cemetery.

Holly and Lilly walked in silence for a little while as they made their way under the archway of the small chapel that sat in the middle of the entrance road. They turned to their right and walked past the stone angels and continued up until they reached the newer part of the cemetery, next to the fence where they had gotten in the night before.

“So,” said Holly, breaking the silence, “here’s my theory.”

“Go on,” said Lilly.

“I reckon there’s someone out there controlling the zombies. Bringing them to life.”

“Okay,” said Lilly, slowly. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” said Holly, kicking a small pile of stones. “Maybe because they can.”

“Well, as much as I’d like to believe that the dead can come back to life, I seriously doubt they have been brought back by some mad scientist.”

“Okay then,” said Holly with a smile, “what’s your theory.”

“I don’t have one,” said Lilly blankly. “I have absolutely no idea. No clue. Zip.”

Holly frowned. Not once did she meet her gaze. She looked bored. “You’re from Scotland aren’t you?”

“In a round about sort of way,” said Lilly.

“Have you known the Doctor long?”

“A fair while. We’re good friends.”

“How did you meet?”

“How did you wind up tagging along with us?” said Lilly, shooting her a glare.

“Okay, okay,” said Holly, “I was just asking.”

“Don’t bother,” said Lilly. “The Doctor likes to have people tag along with him. He likes to surround himself with idiots so he can make himself look clever.”

“Number one: I’m not an idiot. Number two: that’s a nice way to talk about your friend.”

“You don’t always have to say just nice things about your friends, you know,” said Lilly, stopping and crouching down beside a grave.

Holly folded her arms and sat down on a nearby bench. This Doctor seemed alright, but so far Lilly had come across as a right frosty cow.

Across the other side of the cemetery Roxy was trotting alongside the Doctor, her hands behind her back as he flitted from gravestone to gravestone, a small, metal device with a glowing orange bulb at the end in his hands. He kept waving it over the more recent graves.

“So,” said Roxy, “where do you come from? You sound Scottish.”

“I might sound Scottish, but it doesn’t mean that I am,” said the Doctor, leaping over some upturned ground, crouching and running the device along it. “No…not here.”

She knelt down beside him. “I visited Scotland once. It was…nice.”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, leaping to his feet and heading further up the gently sloping cemetery.

Roxy sighed and followed him. “You and that Lilly - are you seeing each other?”

“I see her every day,” said the Doctor.

“You know what I mean.”

“Do I?” He turned to face her and frowned.

“Are you…seeing her. I mean she’s a little young for you. What is she? Nineteen? Twenty? You look in your mid-30’s.”

The Doctor frowned, and then his eyes widened before he burst into a huge belly laugh that echoed around the cemetery.

“What?” frowned Roxy. She wasn’t normally caught off her guard, but she felt like it this time.

“I assure you, Roxanne, that Lilly and I are nothing more than travelling companions. She needed help. I was there to help her.”

“Oh good,” smiled Roxy.

The Doctor leaned in closer to Roxy, their noses almost touching. “You’re a lovely young woman.”

“Thank you,” said Roxy, feeling a little flustered.

“But I have business to attend to.” He flitted away again, waving the metal device.

Roxy breathed out and closed her eyes. She stood for a moment beside on of the graves. It was then that she heard the sound. The squelching, shifting sound from somewhere near the ground. She leaned in to take a closer look at one of the graves.

And then a hand burst out of the ground, grabbing her around the throat.

Roxy screamed.

To be continued...

The Dead Shall Walk Again (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3 (Zombie)

The man stood there grinning like an idiot with the torch illuminating his face. He looked like he’d just climbed out of Hell to do the devils bidding.

It was too much for Simon. “That’s it, I’m off,” he said with a wave of the hand, turning back the other way.

“Wait, Simon!” said Roxy. She turned back to Holly. “I’ll go after him,” and she disappeared into the night after Simon. A few moments later she was back, her finger held up to the man with the torch. “She knows karate, Doctor Strange. You touch her and you’ll never touch anything ever again.”

Holly smiled. “I’m fine, Rox. You go.” She didn’t know karate.

Roxy nodded, pointed at the Doctor again and then disappeared into the night.

Holly looked at the Doctor who had now stopped grinning and was looking intently at her.

“I saw you this morning at the graveyard near the factory.”

“Yes, I recognised you from the funeral you had attended,” he said. He extended a hand. “Your name?”

“Holly Dangerfield,” she said, cautiously taking his hand and shaking it.

“A fantastic name, Miss Dangerfield,” he said, shaking her hand vigorously, “but it’s way too dangerous for your to be out here. No pun intended of course.”

“What’s going on?” she said, realising that, although this guy was a stranger, this was her opportunity for answers. “What’s happened to Simons mum? You said you were hunting the dead.”

“Maybe best if you don’t know,” said the Doctor with a weak smile. “What you don’t know can’t kill you.” He chuckled to himself.

She frowned. “Simon used to be a friend of mine. I think I have the right.”

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak when there came a scream from somewhere over the fence and into the depths of the darkened cemetery.

“Lilly!” said the Doctor, frantically looking over and trying to shine the light. The beam only illuminated the fence in front of them.

“The blonde girl?” said Holly. “Is she your friend?”

“Yes,” said the Doctor. “She went around to the other side to check the gates. She must have gone in for some reason.” He looked down. “It’ll take me another 10 minutes to work my way around to get inside.”

“There’s a gap in the fence,” said Holly. She pointed her torch towards the broken slats. “You can get in that way.”

“Thank you, Holly Dangerfield,” he said, shaking her hand and jumping into the ditch.

“I’m coming with you,” said Holly, clambering down to join him.

“No, you go home. Follow your friends. It’s too dangerous.”

“Dangerfield’s my name, danger’s my nature,” she said with a smile, and then suddenly realised how cheesy that sounded.

He held out a finger. “Go back.”

“You’re not the police, are you?”

He frowned. “No, of course not.”

“Then you have no right. Come on, let’s get in.” She held out her hand in a defensive gesture. “I know karate, remember?”

He sighed, shook his head and then made for the loose slats.




Roxy found Simon walking along the pathway beside the motorway, intent on getting back home. She finally managed to catch up with him and grabbed his arm.

“Just go back to Holly,” said Simon.

“She can take care of herself. It’s you I’m worried about,” she said, trotting alongside of him.

“I’m just not ready for anything like this. It’s why I left the group all those years ago. I wanted to settle and live a normal life.”

“Nothing’s normal about a loved one coming back from the dead.”

“Exactly,” said Simon, stopping and removing his glasses. “I just want normal back.”

“Have you thought that maybe your mother needs you?”

“It can’t be mum. Mum burned to death in our house. It just can’t be.”

Roxy touched his arm and smiled at him. His eyes were wet and he’d obviously been crying. She opened her mouth to say something when she suddenly felt a searing pain across the top of her head. It felt like someone had pushed a hot poker into her temple - a rusty one - and had pulled it out the other side.

She fell to her knees, her eyes quivering in their sockets.

“Roxy!” said Simon, kneeling down in front of her. “Roxy! Roxanne! What’s wrong?”

She was trying to mumble something, her lips trembling. “Car…car….carnage.”

And then she passed out.




The Doctor and Holly had made their way into the cemetery, the Doctor flashing the torch around, frantically trying to find any sign of his friend, Lilly. Since the first scream they had heard nothing else and this obviously concerned the Doctor.

Holly could barely keep up with him as he raced between the gravestones, illuminating names of the long, gone dead and eroded angels faces as they loomed over them in what Holly was sure wasn’t meant to be a menacing fashion.

“I’m all disorientated,” said the Doctor, scratching his chin and shaking his head.

“You said she went to the other gates?” said Holly. “Which ones? There are three entrances to this place, not including the hole in the fence.”

“She went right around the other side.”

“Right, in that case it’s the Saxby Road entrance, which is over there towards the Victorian area.”

“Thank you. Come on!”

They made their way down a pathway under the tall trees and past the graves of the people killed during both World Wars. Holly wasn’t sure if this felt right, but she was feeling quite excited. The adrenaline rush had taken over. Then she grabbed a hold of herself. She remembered that someone was out here and in possible danger.

She thought she saw something moving in the shadows, but didn’t stop moving. She already knew something odd was going on here, no matter how strange it was. She certainly didn’t want to lose sight of this Doctor. He seemed to know what was going on, even if he was keeping quiet about it.

“Lilly!” cried the Doctor as his torch shone down on the girls prone form, lying down on the ground, a cut to the side of her head.

“Is she okay?” said Holly, crouching down beside him as he checked her over.

“She’s just unconscious,” he said. He got up and paced around on the spot, clicking his fingers, his eyes closed. “Come on. Come on. What am I missing here?”

“A zombie must have attacked her?” suggested Holly, realising how daft that sounded.

“They’re not zombies,” said the Doctor, crouching back beside Lilly. She was starting to stir.

“But if the dead are walking -”

“They’re not zombies,” said the Doctor again. “A zombie would eat Lilly. Well most zombie’s would eat Lilly. Not all zombies. In fact that‘s a myth.”

“True,” said Holly, remembering watching numerous zombie films back when she was at college.

“Doctor…” groaned Lilly, her head turning side to side, her eyes fluttering open.

“How do you feel?” said the Doctor. “Can you stand?”

“Give her a chance,” said Holly.

“We don’t have the time,” said the Doctor. He helped Lilly to sit up. “What did you see?”

She put a hand to the side of her head and winced in pain. “It was a man. Dressed in a suit and covered in dirt. Looked to be in his 50’s. I came around to check the gates when I saw him staggering around. I know I shouldn’t have, but I went to see if I could help or gather some more info.”

“And he attacked you?” said the Doctor.

“Yeah,” she drew her knees up to her chest, her eyes staring ahead, remembering. “He was scared though. He lashed out and everything went black.” Lilly got to her feet with a wobble, assisted by the Doctor. “What are we missing here?”

“I don’t know.”

Holly felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. It was Roxy. She answered it. “Roxy, are you alright? How’s Simon?” She frowned. “What? Where are you now?” She nodded. “I’m on my way, Simon.”

“Problems?” said the Doctor, scratching his chin.

“It was Simon. Roxy took a funny turn. He’s managed to get her home, but she’s asking for me.”

“You better go,” said the Doctor.

She turned to leave, stopped and then turned back. “What about you two?”

“Forget about us.”

“No,” said Holly. “I want some answers. If you don’t tell me I’ll go to the police.”

“Holly…”

“Please.” She was genuinely pleading with him. She couldn’t let this go now.

The Doctor tapped on his chin and then turned to face her. “Meet you at 9am tomorrow at the fountain down the road.”

Holly smiled and nodded. “Disco 2000?”

The Doctor looked completely lost.

“Never mind,” said Holly with a shake of her head. “See you tomorrow.”

Lilly watched Holly disappear through the open gates and onto Saxby Road. She turned to the Doctor.

“Okay, Miss Galloway?”

“Forget about me,” she said. “Do you really think we should be involving her?”

“I don’t see why not. She’s got an inquisitive mind.” He smiled. “She may be of some use.”

“She may be of some use,” said Lilly, “but I can’t see her becoming one of us.”




When Holly found her way to Roxy’s flat in the centre of town she felt her stomach rumbling - she was getting hungry. She passed a fish and chip shop, but resisted the urge to go inside. She needed to check on Roxy.

She knocked on the door and Simon answered, leading her up the stairs to her flat above the corner shop on Westfield and Critchen Street.

The flat was quite sparsely decorated in cream and red and Roxy had very little furniture.

She was lying on a sofa in the living room, a cold, wet flannel pressed onto her forehead.

“What happened?” said Holly.

Simon shook his head. “She was fine one moment, then she started mumbling something about ‘carnage’ and then collapsed.”

“Carnage?” frowned Holly.

“That’s all she said. I carried her for a bit and then she woke up and helped me to get her back here. My arms are killing me,” he said, rubbing his forearms.

“Hey!” said Roxy. “I’m not that heavy.”

Holly knelt down beside the sofa and Roxy turned to look at her friend.

“What happened?”

“What happened?” said Roxy. She shook her head. “I can tell you what happened, but it doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“Go on then,” said Holly.

“I felt like I was having a seizure or something. I saw flashes of things - images - in my mind.”

“What kind of images?”

“Flashes of a dead world. That’s the only way I can describe it. Flames and buildings crumbling. I felt so frightened.”

“What about now?” said Simon. “How are you feeling now?”

“Oh, Foxy,” smiled Roxy, “don’t worry about me, sweetheart. I’m fine now. I don’t know what it was.”

Holly turned and sat on the floor, her back against the bottom of the sofa. “This day just gets weirder and weirder.”

“Why?” said Holly, forcing herself to sit up and slide down the sofa next to Holly, “what happened out there?”

“The blonde girl and the Doctor - she was knocked unconscious.” She turned to Roxy. “Something very odd is going on, Roxy, and we need to get to the bottom of it.”




Richard Hicks was a normal enough bloke. He worked on the fruit and veg stall on the market, went home every night, saw his kids and wife, maybe watched a bit of TV. Then he’d go to bed, get up the next morning, and it’d start all over again.

It was a pretty monotonous life, but he enjoyed it. The days and days of things being the same were interspersed with the occasional trip to the pub with his wife or friends, or a day out to the beach with his kids.

He was sat on the sofa watching EastEnders whilst his kids - Molly, 6 and Liam, 8 - were upstairs playing. His wife was in the kitchen doing the dishes and he was sat with a beer in his hand.

Normally he would only drink at the weekend, but as it was him and his wife’s seven-year anniversary, Cheryl had forced a bottle into his hand. They didn’t really have enough money to go out celebrating, but this was all he needed. The love of his wife, his kids and a nice, stable home.

Today hadn’t been entirely normal though. Since leaving work he’d been getting a mild headache in his forehead. It hadn’t bothered him though, and he had taken an paracetemol to make him feel better. But now it had returned and he found himself squinting at the TV screen.

“You alright, love?” asked Cheryl as she walked into the room with a cup of tea.

“Just a bit of a pain in the head,” said Richard.

“Have you taken anything for it?”

“Yeah,” he said, turning the volume down on the TV, “took a tablet when I came home.”

“Maybe you should lie down.”

“No,” he said, getting up and crossing over to her and guiding her to sit on the sofa, “this is our night. I don’t want to ruin it.”

He leaned in to kiss her and then recoiled in pain, his balled up fists to his head.

“Richard!” yelled Cheryl, dropping her tea and leaping to her feet.

Richard screamed out in agony and then suddenly stopped. His eyes opened and he looked from left to right and then at Cheryl, confusion on his face,

“Richard, are you okay?”

He didn’t respond. He just continued to stare at her. And then he looked around the room. He looked scared and worried.

“I’m calling an ambulance,” said Cheryl.

“Who are you?” said Richard, just as she grabbed the phone.

“What do you mean? It’s me. Cheryl.”

“Cheryl who?”

“Your wife. Cheryl Hicks. We met when we were at school, remember? It’s our anniversary.”

Richard shook his head. “The only Cheryl I remember from school died years ago. Cheryl Noone.”

“That was me. My maiden name before we married. But I’m not dead, Richard, I’m here.”

Richard shook his head again. “But the world isn’t like this any more. Not for a long time.”




Lilly found the Doctor sat on the curb of the road, behind him was the dark park. He had his knees drawn to his chest and he was counting on his fingers, mumbling to himself and writing in a small notepad in his other hand.

“You know it’s nearly midnight, yeah?” said Lilly, sitting down beside him.

“And?”

“And you really need to get some sleep,” she said. “And it’s bloody cold out here.”

“You go inside then,” he said, jotting something else down. He shook his head. “We’re missing something. We’re missing something. It’s so frustrating!”

“What are we missing?”

“Something. Something.”

Lilly smiled. “Okay, old man,” she said, taking the notepad off him, much to his annoyance, “we’re getting you inside. You can have a nice nap and then we’ll meet that Holly girl in the morning and we can have a nice, English breakfast and discuss this. Although why you need her, I’ll never know.”

“Because,” said the Doctor, getting to his feet, “she has an inquisitive side to her.”

“You already said that, but we shouldn’t be letting her get involved,” said Lilly. “You know what happened last time.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” said the Doctor, as he wandered off into the darkened trees.

“Again,” exhaled Lilly under her breath.

To be continued...

The Dead Shall Walk Again (Chapter 2)

Chapter 2 (Life)

Holly had always had a strange attraction towards graveyards and cemeteries. She didn’t know exactly what it was. Maybe it was the silence of it all. One particular graveyard - or rather cemetery - the one her granddad had been buried in was located in a quieter part of town.

She used to follow the line of the old railway until it headed out of town and past the woods. There a pathway would lead across a field to a road which led into the crematorium and the cemetery.

When she was 13 her and Roxanne had snuck out of the house late one night and, armed with a couple of torches, made their way down the tracks to the cemetery. They found an entrance around the back, accessed by a field and a hole in the fence. They had to cross a ditch and Holly had fallen in, landing in water that came up to her ankles.

The two girls had laughed as Roxanne had dragged her out. They’d wandered amongst the gravestones illuminated by the silver moonlight until they had headed deeper and deeper into the cemetery to the old, Victorian area.

Here stone angels loomed over them. Angels were meant to be comforting, but these ones looked quite sinister, their cracked and disfigured faces eroded by decades of acid rain.

They had found a bench near the small chapel that served as the entrance archway from the main road to the cemetery. They had taken flasks with hot tea and had told ghost stories. Holly had always been scared, but scared in a good way. Scared in a way that made you want to carry on.

But now Holly was unsure if she ever wanted to visit a cemetery again. After her experiences earlier in the day at the small churchyard, she could think of nothing else.

Eventually the working day came to an end again and Holly found herself walking home the longer way just to avoid the small church. Something odd was going on there and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be involved in it.

When she got home there was nobody in. It’d be another hour or so before Agatha finished school and her parents were both still at work. Her father was a dentist and her mother a recruitment consultant. They were both paid fairly well, but it was most definitely not the type of job she wanted to go into. Up until a few months ago she had been enjoying her job at the library. She was sad it had come to an end.

She sat down in the living room, her hands in her lap. She stared straight ahead at the net curtains and sighed.

She was bored.

It was then that her phone beeped. She looked at the text message.




YOU BUSY? COME TO THE DEN? GOT SOMETHING TO TELL YOU. ROXY.




She frowned. What was Roxanne doing in the Den at this time? She didn’t usually go there until later in the evening.

Oh well, she thought, something to kill the boredom at last!

She jumped up, pulled on her coat, hat and scarf, and made her way outside.




The Den was located deep into the woods on the edge of town. Before you got to the actual line of trees that led to the woods, there was a children’s play area, although at this time of the year it was quiet. A large, sloping hill led up towards the tree line.

Holly glanced up at the sky, the sun was beginning to set and it’d be dark in about thirty minutes. Luckily she’d brought her torch with her. She was used to being up in the woods at night anyway, it’s where the gang always met.

She’d met Roxanne when they were at school together and they had both gone on to study photography at college. Roxy had always been a bit of a wild card. Whilst Holly tended to get herself in all sorts of scrapes when she was out and about mainly by accident, Roxy was the sort of girl who would deliberately go looking for trouble.

Holly and Roxy had made quite a nice group of friends at college, and when they all left they stayed in touch. They used to go drinking in the woods late at night in the Den and they were all interested in the paranormal and supernatural.

Roxy had claimed that when she was 11 years old she had seen a woman in white walk across her hallway. Since then she had been interested in all sorts of spooky goings on. Holly herself had always had a recurring nightmare of a headless woman in a long, flowing ball gown that used to walk down the passageway behind her house. They didn’t do anything serious with the gang, but it was fun. It was a laugh.

These days, though, they didn’t tend to meet up at the Den as much. Most of them had moved on in life, only once in a blue moon heading up there.

Holly reached the tree line and muddy pathway that wound around the woods and into the denser area of trees. Although there was still some light, the trees obscured most of the sky so she turned her torch on.

The Den was located in a dense circle of trees which was itself set in a circular clearing. She could already see the gentle glow from the fire amongst the trees.

As she made her way across the clearing and towards the trees Roxy appeared at the edge. She had long, curly brown hair, glasses and a small collection of freckles around her nose. She was wearing a blue bobble hat and smiled when she saw Holly.

“Hey, Roxy,” said Holly.

They embraced warmly. They hadn’t seen each other for a while now.

“Hey, yourself, Dangerfield.”

“How you been?”

“Oh, you know,” said Roxy, “between jobs at the moment. I lost the job at the ice rink.”

“What?” said Holly, as Roxy guided her into the trees. “I thought you were alright there.”

“I was until I went in there late one night after arguing with Brian and spray painted “ROXY WAS HERE” on the ice.”

Roxy had been going out with the manager of the ice rink, Brian, for the past year or so. They had been getting on well, but Roxy wasn’t the sort of person to want to settle down.

“So he sacked you?”

“Not exactly,” said Roxy. “The owners gave Brian a choice - either I left or they sacked him.”

“So you thought with your heart then?”

“Yes,” said Roxy, rolling her eyes. “We split up, but I couldn’t let him lose his job cos of me. I might do daft things sometimes, but I’m not about to let someone lose their job over it.”

“So what’s this all about?” said Holly. She wasn’t ready to tell yet another person that her granddad had recently passed away.

“You’ll see. I’ve got Foxy here.”

“Simon Fox?” said Holly. He was one of the first to leave the group back in the day. They hadn’t seen him for years since he’d gotten a job at a law firm in town. They used to joke that Foxy and Roxy would end up together one day.

They didn’t.

“Yep,” said Roxy. “It was a bit of a bolt out of the blue. He called my house phone. He was gibbering on about something he’d seen in his garden.”

“Jesus, it must have been weird for him to have called on you. Foxy was the biggest unbeliever of them all.” She smiled. “No offence, of course.”

“None taken, sweetheart,” said Roxy with a chuckle.

“So what was it?”

“I’ll let him tell you himself.”

The Den was a large, wooden shelter-like hut. It was about 5 foot high and could fit about six people in it. It was missing the front wall, but a ragged sheet had been fixed to the frame to give them some shelter. Simon Fox was sat beside the fire, picking at his nails. He looked up as the two women entered.

“Hey, Foxy,” smiled Holly.

“Wow, Holly. You’re looking good.”

They hugged each other. Simon had left them when they were only 17. She’d been a goofy, gangly teenager back then. She’d definitely grown into herself as she had gotten older.

“Looking sharp, yourself,” smiled Holly, nodding at his blazer, shirt and tie.

“Too smart for this place,” said Roxy, sitting beside Simon and poking a stick at the dying fire.

“So what’s it all about?” said Holly, sitting down next to Simon and looking at him with interest.

“Don’t laugh,” said Simon, “but this morning I saw my dead mother.”




The Scottish girl stepped up to the gates. They were padlocked and she shook them. Nothing was going to get them open. At least not in a hurry. She sighed and looked around. It was dark now, just the car park lights from the crematorium casting a dull orange glow across the nearby buildings.

A man exited the crematorium and looked over to her. “Can I help you, miss?” he called from across the car park.

“Thought I could cut through,” lied the girl.

“Gates get locked at dusk,” he said. He continued to stare at her and then went back inside.

She took her phone out of her jeans pocket and put it to her ears. “It’s me,” she said. She rolled her eyes. “Who do you think, daft head? It’s Lilly.”

There was a noise just beyond the gates. The cracking of twigs.

“Yes, it’s all secure. No I haven’t checked the other side yet. Do you know how long it’d take me to walk around there?” She shook her head. “Too dark to go through now, even if I did unlock it. Did you deal with the woman?” She smiled. “Good. This is getting a bit dodgy now.”

There was another sound. Another twig, but this time further away.

“Look, I’ve changed my mind. I’m off to check the other gates. If I see anything I’ll call. See you later.”

She put her phone back into her jeans and quickly made her way down the road.

The girl - Lilly - wasn’t aware that eyes were watching her from the other side of the gate, shrouded in darkness.




Simon had finished telling Holly about his encounter in the back garden with his dead mother.

“And you just left her?” said Holly.

“No,” said Simon. “I didn’t know what to say to her, and then this bloke and a blonde girl barged through the back gate and threw a bag over her head.”

Holly’s eyes narrowed. Those two again!

“They told me not to say anything and that it was a trick of the light and dragged mum out of the garden and disappeared down the alleyway.”

“What did you do?” said Holly.

“I called the police. They fobbed me off and said someone would come round. They still haven’t been.”

“Fox Mulder’s planes not landed yet,” said Roxy with a smile.

“I didn’t go into work. I waited for the mist to lift and had a look round but there was nothing. So I called Roxanne instead. It’s the stuff we used to talk about, yeah?”

“That’s right partner,” said Roxy slapping Simon on the back. “Roxy and Foxy back in business.”

“What do you think?” said Simon to Holly. “You don’t seem too surprised.”

“Well, it’s weird, yeah,” said Holly, nodding slowly, “and I’d find it hard to believe, if I hadn’t seen the two people you described this morning myself, tackling some old guy to the ground.”

“Was he a dead person?” said Simon.

“How should I know?” said Holly. “He just looked…old.”

“What a minute, Hols. You saw a dead person too?” said Roxy, getting in closer. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“To be honest I’m still trying to process it all,” said Holly, scratching her head. “Where they both Scottish? The man and girl?”

“Yep,” said Simon, nodding. “I mean, my mum’s long gone.”

Holly nodded. She had remembered reading it in the paper. His mum had died in a house fire five years ago. Simon’s Dad had walked out on the family when he was only seven and he had been an only child. He had been brought up by his mum and it had affected him badly when she had died.

“Hang on,” said Holly. “I don’t want to sound insensitive or anything, but how did your mum look?”

“Like the same old mum,” said Simon sadly.

“Not…burnt or anything?”

“Holly!” said Roxy, astonished.

“I’m sorry, Simon,” said Holly, “but I’ve gotta ask.”

Simon shook his head. “No. Just the same as she’d always looked. Pale, but…beautiful.”

Holly looked at Roxy, got to her feet and then guided her towards the trees out of earshot of Foxy. “Janelle Fox was burnt to death, remember? As absurd as it sounds, if her body really had climbed out of the grave and gone to see Simon, why didn’t it look like she’d done two rounds with the Human Torch?”

Roxy nodded. “True. But then how do you explain it?”

“You can’t explain it,” said Simon, getting up and brushing his trousers down. “You just can’t.”

“I vote we take a trip to the cemetery,” said Roxy, grabbing her rucksack.

“Why? It’s too dark anyway,” said Simon.

“That never stopped us,” said Roxy.

“It’s not like it’s late or anything,” said Holly. “It’s just dark. There’s still that hole in the side of the fence over the ditch. We can get in that way.”

“Will you two listen to yourselves?” said Simon. “We’re adults now, not college kids. I work for a law firm.”

Holly nodded. “Yeah, normally I would have accepted that and backed down, however, this is not a normal, adult situation. The dead are wandering the town.”

“You don’t know that,” said Simon.

“Then maybe you imagined your mother,” said Roxy. “Simon, I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s the only way. I don’t know how it’s happened, but, darling, this town has a case of zombies.”




The two young women weren’t sure how they had done it, but somehow they had managed to convince Simon to go with them. Holly and Roxy were dressed for the trip, but Simon looked out of place in his blazer, jumper and shiny black shoes. He looked worried and frustrated, but he knew he needed answers.

They had trekked through the woods to the dark-track that led across a field. The track then crossed over a farmers flyover that stretched across the main road that had been built on top of the old railway. They then followed a path until they reached the field that ran along the side of the cemetery. A ditch ran along the fence but it had been long since drained of water.

Holly shone her torch along the metal fence. It was around here somewhere. The same place Holly had fallen in all those years ago.

There it was!

Holly pointed. There were a couple of slats which looked like they could be easily swung aside.

“Nice one, Dangerfield,” said Roxy. “Nice of the council to not bother fixing it.”

They were about to make their way into the dry ditch when there came a voice.

“Good evening.”

The three of them turned around in unison. Standing there with a torch light shining under his chin was a man with brown hair and stubble. The same man Holly and Simon had seen earlier in the day.

“Can I help you?” he said with a smile. He had a warm and gentle voice.

“Who are you?” said Holly, the only one managing to find her voice.

“My name’s the Doctor. I’m hunting the dead, and I suspect you are too”

To be continued...

The Dead Shall Walk Again (Chapter 1)

Chapter 1 (Death)

Holly Dangerfield stood beside the bay window, gazing out at the rain-lashed street outside. She found it odd to think that on a day like today everybody else was going about their normal business. Driving to and from work. Doing their shopping. Picking their kids up from school. Just all the normal things you’d expect to be doing on a Wednesday.

And Wednesdays…she hated Wednesday. People at work would say it was the “middle finger” to the rest of the working week. She just hated them full stop. Today she had even more cause to hate the day.

As she stood there in her all-black dress holding a small bunch of white lilies, she forced herself to stop crying. She was determined to not end up at the cemetery in a state.

She had been at work as usual when her Mum had called her with the news.

She had always been close to her granddad when she was small, but felt guilty because she hadn’t seen much of him in the last few years. She had made an effort to go every few weeks, but it had been a good few years since her grandma had died and somehow it never felt the same with him on his own. He had just become gloomier and gloomier without her near. He missed her.

Her father had said that he had died of old age. Holly believed, however stupid it sounded, that he had died of a broken heart.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head a little to her right. She could smell her dads aftershave.

“You okay love?”

His voice was warm and reassuring.. She should have been asking if he was okay, not the other way around. It was, after all, his own father who had died.

“I’m good. I’m fine,” said Holly with a weak smile.

“Why don’t you come and sit down?”

She shook her head. “I just wanna watch the rain.” She liked watching the rain. It made her think. Sometimes she felt hypnotised watching those tiny droplets of water race each other down the window pane and merge into a small puddle at the bottom.

“Granddad wouldn’t want you to be unhappy, love,” he said.

She frowned. “Granddad wouldn’t want me to forget him.”

“You’re not forgetting him, sweetheart. We have to try and be happy. It’s what he would have wanted.”

She felt angry. She felt frustrated that it was her granddad that had been taken away. She turned and looked at him angrily. “Well it doesn’t matter what he wants now because he’s not here, is he?”

She put the lilies on the table and walked into the kitchen where her little sister, Agatha, was sat with her granddads dog, her eyes puffy and red.

“You shouldn’t shout at Dad,” said Agatha.

“You heard, did you?” said Holly, sitting down on the floor next to her sister and joining in stroking the old Labrador.

“I think everyone heard you.”

Holly shook her head. Her sister was only 13 and ten years younger than her, but she had her head screwed on and was a bright kid. She hadn’t been as close to her grandparents as Holly was, but that was because she was younger and had spent less time with them.

“I’m just upset, Aggie,” said Holly, staring at a tiny crack above the skirting board. “Granddad meant a lot to me.”

“I know he did,” said Agatha, “but you can’t just get angry with Dad. It’s not his fault.”

“I know,” she said, nodding. “I’ll apologise. I promise.”

Agatha smiled at her. “Anyone would think that I was the big sister.”

Holly laughed. “No chance, squirt.”

Agatha playfully smacked her sisters arm and the two girls laughed.

Holly’s Dad appeared in the doorway and looked at each of the two girls.

Holly smiled sadly and got to her feet. “I’m sorry, Dad,” she said, giving him a big hug.

He tried to hold back his tears. “Hey, not to worry, sweetheart. I’m your Dad. I can take a knock.” He laughed. “Human punch bag, you know?”




By the time they had left the house for the crematorium, the rain had eased off. A large, angry, grey cloud still loomed ominously in the sky, but Holly was thankful that it was getting dry now.

The procession of cars wound their way down the tree-lined road that led past nice-looking detached houses, a school and an allotment, before finally coming to a stop at the gates to the cemetery, the tall trees looming over them and swaying wildly in the wind.

Holly didn’t remember much about the service. She remembered trying to hold it in for as long as possible, before seeing Agatha crying, which set her off. Then she remembered gazing up at the stained glass window at the front of the building and seeing the sun peek through the clouds and shine a few rays of light through the coloured glass and onto granddads coffin.

Holly closed her eyes and tried to block everything out around her, but every time she did she saw her granddads face smiling at her. In some ways she found it comforting, but every time she felt comfortable, it made her think again of how much she missed him and it made her feel even worse.




She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but, after they had sung ‘Edelwiess’ - granddads favourite song - the procession had moved outside. He had always wanted a burial, even more so after her grandma had been buried as well.

Her grandma’s grave had been reopened and Holly peered a little over the edge. She could see the dirt-stained coffin far down in the ground and her thoughts went to her grandma lying there still and lifeless. She back up a little and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think those thoughts.

Slowly the coffin was lowered into the ground, and for a moment Holly was momentarily distracted by something in the corner of her eye.

To her right, a few gravestones away, was a man - older than her - with dark, unkempt hair, piercing blue eyes and an unshaven jaw line. He was attractive and wore a long, grey coat with a high collar and a pair of dark blue jeans. He was stood at a side to her, but his head had turned to look at her way.

She frowned.

He frowned back.

And then a small, blonde girl appeared at his side. He turned to her and smiled. She was rather pretty, but she looked frustrated, she looked as if she had a permanent frown etched onto her face. Her eyes flicked to Holly’s and Holly looked away quickly.

The two were talking, but Holly couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“Ashes to ashes…dust to dust,” said the vicar, drawing her back into the sadness in front of her.

She watched as members of the family threw in handfuls of dirt and then moved away one by one. She grabbed a handful, looked at Agatha, and then threw it down to the coffin.

“Goodbye Granddad,” she said with a sniff, took Agatha’s hand, and then walked away from the graveside.

As she walked away she glanced around her, but the man and the young girl were nowhere to be seen.




A few weeks passed. Life returned to normal.




It was on a Monday morning when things took a slightly more…odder turn.

Holly had been working at a frozen food factory for the past few months. She’d recently lost her job at the library due to cutbacks, and she saw this job as just something to tide her over until she found something better.

At the age of 23 she was definitely not old enough to go into something new, but she enjoyed working with books and libraries and she was hoping to get a job at the local shopping centre’s Waterstones. She was just waiting for them to get back to her with her interview time.

On the whole working on a production line packing fish was a largely boring experience, but it paid her way and let her continue her hobbies. Her mind was always racing with things so she never felt too bored. She’d simply switch off and find herself in her own little world.

At school Holly had been a little bit of an outcast. Whilst all the other kids were into playing games and showing off their new toys, Holly had been into books and adventure. She and her friend, Roxanne, used to have all sorts of adventures on the old, disused railway line near her family home. She’d often return home with a bit of fabric tied around the top of her head for a bandana, a wooden stick used for a staff and her face smeared with mud.

Her parents used to get frustrated with their “Little Princess”, who most certainly wasn’t acting like a princess, but they knew they couldn’t break her out of her ways.

She sighed as she pulled off her hairnet and went to her locker to get changed into her shoes and coat. She made her way out of the building and into the crisp, Autumn afternoon. It had stayed particularly dry for the last few weeks after the funeral and this made her happy. Autumn was her favourite time of the year, but she detested the rain. She liked the cold and dark nights and the dead leaves, but the atmosphere was always ruined by the rain.

She unlocked her bike and began cycling home. As she made her way home she cycled past one of the smaller churches on her route where she noticed an ambulance and police car parked up outside the small, ancient graveyard.

She frowned. Someone must have collapsed or maybe there had been an accident. She put it out of her head, and then she saw him. The same man she had seen a few weeks ago in the cemetery at her granddads funeral. Sure enough he was standing there with the girl who still looked slightly pissed off. They were stood a little way from the ambulance, but were clearly staring at something in the small graveyard.

The man noticed Holly cycling past and his blue eyes flicked to her again. There was a moment of recognition and he smiled at her.

The blonde girl noticed he was looking and tugged on his arm. When he looked at her quizzically, she jabbed her finger towards one of the graves.

Holly followed their gaze and could see one of the graves, the earth overturned in it. She momentarily lost concentration on what she was doing until a car horn beeped at her. She’d veered to the other side of the road and she had to swerve to get out of the way of an oncoming car.

She skidded to a halt, mounted the pavement and took a few deep breaths.

“Get a grip,” she said to herself. She looked back one more time, but the man and girl were walking away, his hands deep in his pockets, her hands busy writing in a scruffy-looking notepad. She considered going back to see what all the fuss was about, but she just wanted to get home. She was tired and needed a bath.




That night she was unable to sleep. She lay in her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She turned to face the clock. It was 11pm and she knew she had to be up in five hours to set off for work again. She could hear Agatha’s TV coming from down the hall. If she didn’t turn it down, her mum would be in to tell her off.

Holly made a mental note to consider getting her own little place. She loved living with her family, but sometimes she just craved the peace and quiet.

Eventually…eventually…she drifted off.

The next thing she knew her eyes were wide open and the alarm was going off.

She groaned as she threw back the covers. She had a shower, made a cup of coffee and then made her way back outside.

The air was crisp again and there was a layer of frost of the grass in the back garden. She got on her bike and her heart sank when she realised that she had a puncture. How had I not noticed that yesterday? she thought to herself.

She grabbed her MP3 player, wrapped a scarf around her, unlocked the back gate and began the long walk to the factory.

It was about 25 minutes into the walk when she passed the small church and the graveyard she had cycled past the other day. There was a thin layer of mist that had covered the ground and the headstones looked scary, peeking out from the spooky mist.

She noticed that a police cordon had been put around the grave that had been overturned. She frowned, took a look around her, and let her curiosity get the better of her.

She climbed over the small wall and up the gentle incline to the grave, feeling her old adventurous self rear its head again. She couldn’t really see what the problem was and why it had been cordoned off and was about to turn and carry on to work when she heard a shuffling sound a few graves away.

It made her jump and she turned. Standing there with his back to her was an old man in a black suit.

Holly didn’t know what to say. He looked completely out of place. What was an old man doing wandering the streets at this time in the morning, let alone wandering a graveyard?

“Are you okay?” said Holly, jumping at the sound of her own voice in the silence.

The old man turned his head slowly to face her. He looked confused and his eyes were dark and sunken in. His skin was pale and stretched over his face. If it hadn’t been for the skin he could have looked just like a skeleton.

“Are you lost?” said Holly.

The old man frowned and turned the rest of his body to face her. But he didn’t move. He just kept staring at her.

“Do you need help?” asked Holly.

The old man opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead he reached up an arm towards her and slowly began shuffling forward. At first slowly, but it soon turned into a stumbling walk, always threatening to trip over his own feet.

“I think I better go,” said Holly.

The old man was almost on top of her when suddenly the unshaven man she had seen yesterday leapt out from the mist and grabbed the old man, both arms wrapped tightly around him.

He was followed by the young girl, dressed in a red bobble hat and dark coat. She was carrying an old brown bag and threw it over the old man’s head.

The man turned to face Holly, clearly struggling to hold the writhing old man. “Just go,” he said.

She frowned. “What the hell…?”

“You heard the man,” said the young girl. She had a Scottish accent. Come to think of it, so did he. “Just get out of here. You don’t wanna get involved.”

“Involved in what?” said Holly.

“That would be telling,” said the man, as he suddenly stumbled to the floor, the old man toppling on top of him.

The girl threw a rucksack to the ground and pulled out some rope. She leapt on top of the old man and began tying his hands behind his back. She turned back to Holly. “He said go!”

The man winked. “I’d do as she says,” he smiled.

Holly didn’t need to be told another time. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but it looked like some kind of kidnapping. It wasn’t something she wanted to get involved in. She stumbled backwards, clambered over the wall and walked as fast as she could towards the factory.




Simon Fox opened the curtains and groaned at the freezing cold mist that had descended - and seemed to be getting thicker - in his garden. He shook his head, switched on the kettle, and then settled down at the kitchen table with the newspaper and cup of hot, black coffee.

He took a few sips and glanced momentarily out of the window. He did a double take when he realised what he had seen.

He couldn’t be quite sure, but he was certain he had seen a person wandering around through the fog. He put on his glasses and peered closer out of the window.

There it was again. It was definitely a person, wandering aimlessly near the back fence.

With an angry grunt he put on his shoes and wrapped his dressing gown tighter around him. He unlocked the backdoor and marched into the garden. He wasn’t sure what he was going to find, but he certainly knew he didn’t want an intruder back there.

He grabbed a garden cane as he marched confidently towards the back fence.

“Hey!” he said, his breath in the fog. “Hey! What the hell are you doing back there?”

He was almost on top of the person now as it turned to face him.

“I’m giving you a chance here,” said Simon, “or I’ll whack you with this thing.” Simon wasn’t a violent person. In fact he had never even whacked a fly with a rolled up newspaper. It was all a show.

He was right in front of the person.

“Turn around!” said Simon.

The figure turned around. It was a woman with long, blonde hair, ruby-red lips and a yellow, flowery dress.

Simon frowned. “Mum?”

Simon would normally have been happy to see his Mum. Except his Mum had been dead for five years.

To be continued...