The Gabriel Shrine
by
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I COULD SENSE AN AURA THAT HINTED OF PRIMEVAL CEREMONIES AND GATHERINGS. THE TREES BEING CLOSE ON ALL SIDES WERE DISORIENTATING, PRODUCING AN UNSETTLING EFFECT, LIKE A MENTAL DIZZINESS, THAT MADE ONE'S JUDGEMENT SUSPECT. I WAS AWARE OF A MIXTURE OF NATURE AND RITUAL COMING TOGETHER TO CONCOCT A BRAND NEW ENTITY WHICH WAS ALMOST PALPABLE. MY HEAD WAS BEGINING TO SWIM WITH THESE THOUGHTS. WHEN THE SCREAM CAME ALL HEADS TURNED TO WHERE MRS. WARE WAS RUNNING OUT OF THE TREES HER HANDS WAVING IN THE AIR. MR. WARE WAS FOLLOWING HER LOOKING PALE AND ANGRY.............. .......................................................................................................................................................... I BECAME AWARE OF THAT TINGLING THAT STARTS AT THE NAPE OF THE NECK AND SPREADS DOWN THE ARMS,STANDING THE HAIRS ON EDGE. I WAS BEING WATCHED. IT MIGHT BE JUST SOME ANIMAL WATCHING ME. I TOOK A DEEP BREATH AND TURNED AS THOUGH ADMIRING MY ENVIRONMENT. OFF TO THE RIGHT, JUST OUT OF THE CORNER OF MY EYE A MOVEMENT AND A FLASH OF WHITE. I TURNED BUT IT WAS GONE. WITHOUT GIVING MYSELF A SECOND TO THINK I WENT AFTER IT. I LEFT THE 'SACRED SPACE' AND PLUNGED INTO THE TREES TOWARDS WHERE I THOUGHT THE MOVEMENT HAD COME FROM.IMEDIATELY BRANCHES AND DEADWOOD IMPEDED MY WAY. I STOPPED TO LISTEN AND SURE ENOUGH, STRAIGHT AHEAD WAS THE UNMISTAKABLE SOUND OF SOMETHING ELSE STRUGGLING THROUGH THE UNDERGROWTH. THE TREES WERE GETTING THICKER, THUS IT WAS A SHADE DARKER AS I TRAIPSED INTO THE OLD, OVERGROWN FOREST. EVERY NOW AND THEN I WOULD SPOT A FLASH OF WHITE UP AHEAD, JUST ENOUGH TO KEEP ME FOLLOWING. IF I DIDN'T KNOW BETTER I WOULD SAY I WAS BEING DELIBERATELY LURED INTO THIS CHASE, BUT CURIOSITY DEFINITELY HAD THE BETTER OF ME AND, WISELY OR NO, I CONTINUED THE PURSUIT. THE FLASHES OF WHITE WERE CLOSER, CLOSE ENOUGH TO KNOW IT WASN'T AN ANIMAL I WAS HUNTING. THE WHITE HAD THE FLUID QUALITY OF CLOTH ABOUT IT. WHO ON EARTH TRAMPS THROUGH A DAMP AND DIRTY WOOD IN A WHITE DRESS? I WAS JUST FIGHTING MY WAY THROUGH TWO HUGE OAKS WHEN I TRIPPED OVER A FALLEN TRUNK. IT WAS OLD, ROTTEN AND SMELLED OF DECAY. I WAS PULLING MYSELF UP WHEN I REALISED MY QUARRY STOOD BEFORE ME, ALBEIT ABOUT THIRTY METRES AWAY THROUGH THE TREES. A WOMAN IN WHITE WITH LONG, RAGGY, DARK HAIR. HER RAIMENT WAS IN SOME DISTRESS AFTER HER STRUGGLE THROUGH THE UNDERGROWTH BUT THAT WAS NOT WHAT WAS MAKING MY HEART RACE AND MY THROAT CONSTRICT SO THAT I COULDN'T BREATHE. HER FACE WAS ONE OF A TORTURED SOUL. I MERCIFULLY COULDN'T SEE DETAILS. SHE HAD SOME SORT OF WREATH AROUND HER HEAD. SHE RAISED HER RIGHT HAND AND BECKONED ME TO FOLLOW SO NATURALLY I RAN AS FAST AS I COULD IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. I DID NOT LOOK BACK AS THE ADRENALIN ADDED VIGOUR TO MY NORMAL STAMINA. THE SOUND OF AN UNEARTHLY SCREECH REACHED MY EARS, A TORTURED SCREAM.I WAS FIGHTING THE URGE TO LOOK BACK. WAS SHE FOLLOWING? THE SOUND OF HER SCREAM HAD STOPPED. I COULDN'T RESIST IT, I HAD TO KNOW........................
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About the Book
A young, independent woman enters a strange world with the intention of relaxing for a couple of weeks before making a quick profit and leaving. She is surreptitiously seduced into accepting her bizare environment which has been brooding for over five hundred years. Exploring all possibilities which occur at alarming speed, her perception finally transcends the norm and she begins to accept the impossible. Tilda learns how to do magic incorporating a natural acumen that she has always had but, until now, has never thought significant. She finds 'treasure', spiritual, physical and traditional within her grasp, but is persued by those who want what she has inherited. Tilda has allies, the neighbour that aided her late Aunt, a flamboyant friend whom she cannot 'read' the way she can most people, and even an unlikely Grandfather who attempts to protect her from what he calls 'unsavoury practices', not all of whom are quite what they seem! Rumours of murder, arson and the manipulation of others by onorthodox and mysterious means manifest themselves. This is a tale involving witchcraft, fear, love, comedy and premature death culminating in sheer horror which appears to precipitate an end to strife. A tale for those who can suspend belief and do not demand a 'happy ever after' finale, for life does not end when one achieves one's heart's desire!
About the Author
My career has mostly been in the field of Horticulture. After graduating from Askham Bryon College in York, England, I persued a career in practical Horticulture and design. I subsequently trained as an Aromatherapist but have never been in general practice. My main interests include holistic therapies, general horticulture, traditional wiccan practices, the English language and its derivations, Celtic art and the Pre-Raphaelites as well as Greek mythology and mystery fiction in general. I am also fascinated by the relations between the old and new religions and the correlations between the two. The Gabriel Shrine gave me the opportunity to indulge several of my passions and to explore the darker side of what might be considered 'ordinary', a shadow which is never very far away!