The Horseman, The Well Dwelller and other stories, Part 2
Okay Carol, don't get yer doobries in a twist!
After the incident with the Horseman I seemed to become quite the focus of activity of unusual activity within the Inn. Not only was there the ghost of an elderly gentleman who had yet to die haunting the place (he had been born there and intended to die there...) but also victims of the fire and the various (and apparently numerous) acts of violence that abounded in its history. (including a typical White Lady) There were even ghost TREES that could be seen on it's grounds by a few people (myself included at this point). The inn site is well within the ancient boundry of the infamous Wytchwood (immortalised as Ryhope Wood in Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood stories) and it seems the wood doesn't give up its territory...
Anyway one night I was awoken by a flickering light in the corner of my room, looking up from my pillow I saw flames licking up the walls. This shocked me that I sat bolt upright and wide awake, but my call of alarm was silenced, before it had begun, by what I saw. Crouched within the flames, actually seeming to be the source of them, was another skeletal figure; it's arms wrapped around it's legs and it's knees at it's chin. As I sat upright it turned and
grinned at me, pure malice radiating out from it. I sat there paralysed with fear, eyes locked with it's gaping sockets for several minutes (and I tell you the memory is sending shivers down my spine even now) before having enough wits to hunker down beneath my covers and hope that I was having a nightmare for the first time in a decade. As I lay there, the light from the flames flickering through the duvet, I realised that I could feel no heat radiating from it, only hatred and, well,
EVIL. I don't know how long this continued, hours mayby, but eventually I drifted back off to sleep (the movie Aliens scares me to sleep also). When I awoke the following morning I search the room where I had seen it the following night but no sign of it nor of any burning.
I asked Danu about it that morning and she told me that it, Burning Bones, had been seen previously by residents but only infrequently. It had always been restricted to another room, where a seance had revealed that it had been summoned and bound there by the [Rosicrucians] I mentioned in my previous post. My room shared a wall with it's prior home and this had been the wall which it had appeared beside. Danu also told be that it wasn't a ghost, as such, but more of an elemental force. Danu revealed that I was strongly associated with Elemental Water (with three of my names being associted with water, this may not be too surprising). The implication that there may be a supernatural animosity between it (being Fire) and me. Danu's suggestion was for me to bring huge buckets of water up from the spring to water the plants in beer garden, to help me form "a stronger bond between [me] and [my] natural element"...
Burning Bones appeared to me twice more, in exactly the same situation, but on the third appearance I focused on forcing it back through the wall and it never returned to bother
me at least. Not that it mattered, a few weeks later I was moved to another room where I had problems with another summoned entity.
During this time I tricked the Horseman onto entering the field and I was thus able to lead it through to its final rest.
The former occupants had been a couple. He was a relativly accomplished new-age artist and she a bundle of neurosies (exactly the sort of people the Inn attracts). They had redecorated the room and he had painted, on one wall, a clown to cheer and "protect" them. Well when I moved in I had instant troubles. His natural talents and bound some sort of Guardian Spirit into the image of the clown. Lacking any kind of intellect it only recognised that I wasn't one of the people it had to protect, nor one of their friends, so it wanted me out. Now I did get nightmares, dreams of being pursued by this sinister clown figure. The couple wouldn't belive that "a painting" could be a problem and Danu told me to sort out my own problems. So I did. I got some paint and blinded the image by painting out it's eyes. I then painted "mind control" circuits with silver paint all over it's face before repainting the eyes with the same paint. Now it saw only what I wanted it to see and acted only in ways I wanted it. It's thoughts were now mine. To top it off I moved the wardrobe in front of it (so I wouldn't have to look at it's ugly mug) and left it there.
Time passed and I let some loverly young ladies, up for a banquet, spend the night in the room (not telling them about the clown) while I was away for the weekend. They thanked me, but said that they felt very self-concious while they were there, like someone was watching them. Sometime later, while I was away being interviewed for my university place, Danu had her Wiccan friends around again and they took the opportunity of a favourable planetary conjunction to get rid of the Well Dweller as well as any malign spirits. I think Burning Bones remained but the poor clown (and another entity I was blamed for) were kicked out.
I hindsight it perhaps was not the best time of my life, but certainly the most interesting. Upon returning for the first time after university a favoured item, a bronze glazed ceramic tankard in a leather cup mysteriously detached itself from my belt and smashed on the road outside... The Inn was not pleased to see me (and if I'm going back again after telling you all this, I want some backup...)
So there you go, the whole sordid tale, well the key bits anyway. I'll answer you questions later, I need a drink...
Niles "Neck Romancer" Calder,
Finding interesting uses for ESP since 1995...
