A boy gets dragged into an unfortunate situation due to his friends fooling around.

Note: I've written a bit of the dialogue in this is dialect, I hope it doesn't get too distracting but if it does apologies in advance.

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The boy drove west like a kid possessed. Not that he thought of himself as a boy any longer, at 17 he felt he was a man, a point on which his parents sadly disagreed. Nor was he possessed, although at the moment he would have gladly swapped that predicament for the one he faced, after all he reasoned a priest might be able to deal with that kind of problem.

The sun was getting low in the sky now, maybe an hour or two before sunset, he thought, he needed to be in Lancaster by then, he didn’t want to be out alone in the dark. IT liked the dark. He increased his speed. His mam’s old Micra began to vibrate as it hit 90mph, it didn’t concern him as he hurtled along the A66. A downhill section allowed him to use gravity to nudge 100 and take the momentum into the climb that followed it. He felt a momentary pang of pride, he’d only passed his test a couple of months ago and he could already drive like a pro. It soon vanished as he crested the hill and was blinded by the low sun; he threw a hand up to cover his eyes in the process knocking the wheel. Time didn’t slow, although his heart nearly stopped as he fought to keep the car on the road and away from a snow pole.

A few moments later he exhaled as he slowed the car down to a more realistic speed and pulled the sun visor down. The sudden burst of shacking that engulfed him made him look for somewhere to stop the car, squinting he saw that a layby was coming up.

With the engine off he sat and calmed his nerves, it took a couple of minutes before the shacking stopped. Checking his reflection in the rear view mirror, he looked pale but didn’t look as haggard as he felt. Recognising that he’d need a couple more minutes no matter the deadline he decided to get out and get some air. He exited the car giving it a bit of a contemptuous look, what had his Mam been thinking when she went for pink? His dad had been right, they’d never been able to resell it, so now they were lumbered with the aging monstrosity.

Being the end of November it was cold, but the air up here was wonderfully fresh and crisp. Looking at his clothes he realised he wasn’t really dressed for the weather. At that moment as if to drive the point home a gust of north wind came out of nowhere to cut straight through him. He didn’t get back in though, instead shifting a strand of long blond hair that had been blown in front of his eyes he gazed at the Pennines as he rested on the cars bonnet. They were beautiful in the afternoon light in a brown green desolate sort of way and set him pondering. He guiltily realised his parents would soon notice he wasn’t back from Karen’s which would cause them to start worrying; they seemed to do nothing but worry these days. Still this was his only hope, he had to speak to the professor he’d found, and she would only be at the university today. Although he supposed there was an alternative. A car pulling in broke his train of thought as it headed towards that unthinkable option. He stared morosely back off over the valley looking at the shadows cast by the clouds on the heath. Another gust sent goose bumps up on his exposed skin; it was then that he heard her giggle. He shivered, as that meant that IT was probably lurking somewhere in the shadows. Not that IT was really his main problem; he supposed really it was the girl.

“Are you ok pet?”

He screamed and fell off the bonnet.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just thought, well you looked upset and then, just now, you went all white, so I thought I’d check to see if you were ok.”

Looking up at the middle aged woman that had caused him to embarrass himself he nodded as he dragged himself off the deck. “Erm, yeah I’m fine, sorry about that, and um thanks I suppose.” He stood up blushing slightly and dusted off his backside and legs.

“You sure? You looked quite down.”

“Hi, well, I’ve just got a couple of things on my mind. Look thanks for asking but I should really be on my way.”

“Would you like to talk about it? It might help. You don’t have to tell me anything personal. I really wouldn’t mind if you want to get what’s bothering you off your chest. Besides all I’ve had out of him for the past half hour is the occasional grunt as he listens to the football, I’d welcome some intelligent company” she said indicating to the other car and the man sitting in it who at that moment seemed to have a fit.

“Looks like they’ve scored”, the boy observed.

“Apparently”, she answered with a touch of disdain in her voice.

“Mustn’t be a footy fan” he thought to himself, adding a “weird” as an afterthought.

“So you want to tell me what’s on your mind then?”

“Er no, sorry, anyway you wouldn’t believe me”, he flatly stated and then as he checked the sun and seeing her about to interject added “besides I’m already late. Look thanks for asking, but I’ve really got to go.” At that he headed round the car, and opened the door to get in.

“Oh well, at least you’re not frowning any more, I’d hate to see you get frown lines” she added with a smile.

He gave her a weak smiled back and after another thanks was on his way.

The rest of the drive to the M6 was uneventful, although his mobile did go mad as his parents tried to constantly contact him. That problem was solved when he pulled over and switched it off. He felt awful about that and so he’d sent a quick text to his mam saying everything was ok and he just had something he had to sort out. He couldn’t speak to them; they’d just be angry and wouldn’t understand. How could they? Only he and his mates could understand what was really going on, he supposed that he could make them understand, the gear he had with him in the boot would do that, but that could be risky. Still, he rationalised, surely he had nothing to feel guilty about? After all they used to give him far more leeway, now he had to live by a virtual timetable, although a less belligerent portion of him understood their reasoning. “I should have told them I was sleeping over” he realised.

The M6 was quiet and he made good time, he was glad to know that he would get there before dark, especially after he’d seen IT moving in the shadows of the mountains beside the road as he drove past. The Lancaster exit soon delivered him to the outskirts of the city and then into the traditional traffic jam, he cursed how could such a small place have such bad traffic?

Silently fuming as he slowly edged through the jam he saw the shadows getting longer and could feels ITs presence lurking just out of sight. After 20 minutes he finally made it through and soon reached the university. Parking the car he suddenly had second doubts, she wouldn’t believe him, no one else had believed them. It didn’t matter what she studied, meeting someone who actually claimed they had evidence of the supernatural, especially given the weird nature of the tale, would be hard to accept. Maybe he should go home and face the music? It would all be over soon anyway.

IT lurking in the shadows of a nearby building convinced him against bottling it. He could almost smell IT from here, not that he was actually sure if it had a real smell, but he was convinced IT had a nasty putrid tang to IT. He scurried from the car and quickly retrieved “his” rucksack. The bag was disturbing but he needed something to carry and hide his evidence in. He headed off.

The campus was quite quiet what with it being the weekend and all, but he soon found the lecture theatre the professor was speaking in and quietly snook in. As he listened he became more concerned, sure she knew about the history of demons, ghosts and so forth but she seemed to believe they were mystical. Well he supposed he had to! But the way the presentation was advertised had made him think that she might be different. What was he supposed to think after reading; “Demons, ghosts and imps and the people who’ve met them through the ages: A history of the occult from the Middle Ages to the Modern World”?

This was pointless he thought and got up to leave. Passing through the double doors into the foyer he stopped short, he could see IT lurking by the door. He wouldn’t be able to get passed IT. Cursing the cheap arsed university and their lack of proper lighting, he headed back in to hear the professor finish, and then he could leave with the crowd at the end. IT was a coward; IT would never attack when people that didn’t know about IT were around. The professor was finishing off now; she really didn’t believe in this stuff, he felt like he was going to cry. Instead he sat morosely as she dealt with questions from the audience. Soon it was over and he stood to leave with the others. He supposed it was too dark to head to the car by himself now, maybe he could offer someone a lift into town? Then he’d have to find some place to stay, “Oh Christ, I’m screwed!” he thought as he collapsed back into his seat, bursting into soft sobs.

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Charlotte felt the lecture went quite well, she seemed to keep almost everyone’s rapt attention, there was none of the restless shuffling in their seats that many of her colleagues drew when they presented, although she’d noticed that she hadn’t kept everyone happy with one late arrival departing near the end. Of course it generally helped that the stories and subject matter was fascinating, but then again that’s why she had given her working life over to the subject. She’d also freely admit that researching folk law and stories of the occult was also her most favourite hobby, and through that hobby she’d made friends with Paul who’d invited her to present this evening to the society he headed. Seeing him standing to one side, she extracted herself from her conversation with two rather keen but strident boys and walked over to him.

“So what now?”

“The society’s booked a table at a Chinese in town for 8, but it’s a bit early for that yet.” She nodded at that “We could always head off to one of the bars for now? What were Nigel and Dave badgering you about by the way?”

“Bar sounds good. Oh those two, they were just keen on my take on the Pendle Witches.”

“Well you’ll have plenty of time to discuss that over dinner, they’re a couple of the other members coming.” He quickly added seeing the look on her face “They’re not always that insistent I’m sure they’ll calm down by dinnertime.”

“I hope so it wasn’t so much me answering their questions, as them lecturing to me.”

“Well given the subject matter we do attract a few true believers, but really they are quite fun when you get to know them.”

“I’ll take your word on that”, she chuckled, “ok let’s head to the bar.”

They headed towards the doors, but as she passed the final row of seats she thought she saw something. Taking a second look she saw there was something, well someone there, a teenage girl hunched up and apparently sobbing. Glancing at Paul she went down the row and crouched down beside her, the girl didn’t pay her any attention; she seemed immersed in her misery. Looking at her Charlotte wondered why she was dressed in a skirt and t-shirt best suited for the summer, she wasn’t even wearing tights; it was awfully cold out today. She felt her heart go out to her, her looks reminded Charlotte a lot of her daughter. She placed her hand gently on the girls shoulder; the girl flinched and then turned her head up to look at her all blue eyes from red rims and tear streaked make up.