Anthony Hedger

“Well father, you know that overly big man who thinks he is a photographer?”

She reached out with a long bony hand and gently grabbed my shirt and pulled me towards her….

The flame from the candle flickered and small demon shadows danced across the damp walls.

Maybe I have maybe I have always been dead?

The doctor stared at David; behind his glasses was a slight trace of fear.

‘Look David, I have to tell them what I believe.’

The words on the tombstone were faded from years of neglect and changeable weather and I couldn’t quite make them out apart from the date and the name…

Billy looked to see if anyone was watching him but there was no one insight; it was getting late and the park was due to close.

‘I’ll get even with you for this.’ He called after her. ‘I’ll see you cut down to size one day.’

“Hello Sandy.” He said still smiling. “How are you today, I hear you haven’t been all that well lately?”

"Jewel please, you must promise me you won’t go near there, the cars on that road go much too fast,

He staggered over to her and placed his hands onto her shoulders. She immediately smelt the drink on his breath and the smoke and perfume clinging to his clothes.

“Don’t call me Abbie.” she shouted after him going red in the face. “Use my full name the one I have been christened with or none at all.”

Well I looked at the faces looking back at me including Thunder Clap who seem to be feeling sorry for me by now,

“We should take him to see a doctor.” Tina said stamping her little feet. “The sun is shining too brightly and he feels very cold, he may have a fever or something much worse.”

She felt like ripping it from the wall, opening the window and throwing it to the elements to see if the rain would shut the damn thing up.

“When are you going to grow up and realise that Santa is just a myth and Christmas is just a huge con to get people like us to part with money we haven’t got?”

He started to get worried now and thought he might be having one of those ‘out of body thingies’ he’d heard about.

Ian trained his torch around the area; its powerful beam came to rest upon five weird faces staring back at them which were sticking out of the water.