Chapter 1: The Forest Pool

During the year of 2012, the summer after Evannah turned twenty, Gloam Hollow saw the hottest summer in over a decade. The soil cracked from lack of water, and the stream that ran through the village had now become just a trickle, revealing the blue stone pebbles that the area was known for. Evannah was ankle deep in what water was left. A few feet away, her friends Lydia and Imogen sat on a wall, dangling their legs off the side under the shade of a large oak tree.

    The water was a welcome reprieve from the baking heat, but still, Evannah wished she could submerge herself in it, if only it were deeper… She pushed the little blue stones around with her toes under the trickling waters and let the coldness run between them. A sound made her and the others look up, and she stopped what she was doing to watch a gang of boys cross over the nearby bridge.

   Her cousin Seth barely acknowledged her as he passed, but his best friend Rory… Rory stared at her with evident pain, tugging at her heartstrings as he went by, but Evannah looked away. She felt the air become tense.

   ‘You know he’s still pining for you,’ said Lydia.

   ‘We’ve been through this,’ groaned Imogen. ‘You two have only just made up.’

   ‘Exactly, so can we drop it?’ said Evannah over her shoulder. ‘He’ll get over me soon.’

   The situation was still delicate. Rory was Lydia’s older brother by five minutes and, up until two weeks ago, had been Evannah’s boyfriend of a year. Only, Evannah had fallen out of love with him and so she had given him the usual spiel, the spark is gone, I just don’t feel the same any more, it’s not you it’s me, blah blah blah, and she had ended it. She had tried to let him down gently, but inevitably it had not gone the way she hoped. Rory was heartbroken and Lydia was livid, especially since she had warned against the relationship in the first place. It had taken two weeks of Imogen being a go-between to even get them in the same room, where they had talked it out, and eventually Lydia had half forgiven her for breaking her twin brother’s heart.

   ‘Anyway, you wanted to enjoy the sun, so enjoy it,’ she called over her shoulder.

   ‘I meant we should go for a walk or an ice cream or something,’ replied Lydia, dropping the subject.

   ‘Or a swim,’ added Imogen.

   ‘Aren’t we a little old for that now?’ asked Lydia.

Evannah turned around and picked her way back. ‘Swimming in a forest pool?’ she grinned. ‘Never!’

Imogen beamed. ‘Just checking.’

   ‘Alright, you win!’ Lydia threw her arms up in mock defeat, though Evannah saw a look she knew, she was secretly overjoyed that Imogen had suggested it.

   ‘Yes!’ Imogen bounced up onto her feet and turned to help Lydia up. They linked arms as they strode out through the main road of Gloam Hollow.

   The tourist season was in full swing in Gloam Hollow, the teashop, the outdoor shop and even Whitman’s Gifts and Curiosities was doing well. The only curio shop in Gloam Hollow yet its owner, Mr Whitman, still managed to make it work. In fact, all the shops were making a killing, and at Wild Hearts Riding School, all the treks were booked up, and as a result, so was the Blue Stone Lodge.

   Wild Hearts Riding School was where she truly belonged. This was also where she and Lydia worked, leading treks and teaching riding lessons. Even this place had its own saying. Evannah had been pointed in its direction by her aunt Delphi when she had told her that Wild Hearts Riding School was a place for lost souls. Evannah had truly been a lost soul when she first arrived in Gloam Hollow five years ago. With no direction and no aspirations for her future, the riding school had been her salvation.

   Walkers and hikers were milling about in the central hub of the village, and Evannah saw one of her colleagues, Mindy, riding towards her with a line of trekkers behind her. Evannah and the others returned her wave.

Tomorrow she would be back at work, leading a trek herself.

   As they neared the edge of the village, Evannah saw the mysterious Mr Whitman himself. He was standing in the doorway of his shop and appeared to be enjoying the sun. Evannah didn’t know him very well beyond the times she passed him on the road or saw him in the local pub, the Druid’s Staff. He was a total enigma, another of Gloam Hollow’s mysteries. She smiled at him as they passed him, but he barely smiled back. She shrugged it off. How was it her fault if the man was a complete oddity? She smiled and was polite to him, it wasn’t her fault if he wasn’t in return.

Soon they came to the wooden stile and path that led off into the woods. The forest pool was a favourite haunt of theirs ever since Evannah had discovered it. When she finally dared to venture a little further into the forest. The deep inner forest was fenced off by a simple wire and post fence, but every few feet there were warning signs, warning of the many pitfalls that lay inside. It was these pitfalls that earned the forest its nickname of Pitfall Forest.

   The forest pool was by no means in the heart of the forest, but it was not far off. That was the only place in Gloam Hollow that Evannah hadn’t been and for some reason didn’t dare to.

   The forest pool was a wide and deep pool with a waterfall pouring into it and during the height of summer its waters were warm and inviting and in the winter it would completely freeze over with the waterfall making a spectacular ice sculpture cascading over the edge. Though at present, the waterfall was not quite as impressive as it usually was and the pool not as deep, but still deep enough.

   Evannah dipped one foot in and then began to move further in. The three of them had no problem going in fully clothed in their shorts and t-shirts. Evannah and Imogen left their sandals on, but Lydia was wearing trainers, so she sat on a nearby rock to take them off.

   ‘This is what you need when it’s this hot,’ said Imogen, happily swimming out on her back.

   Lydia slid off her rock and joined them. Imogen splashed Evannah with some water. Evannah grinned. ‘Do you really want to start something?’

Lydia frowned as she swam over to them. ‘Wait, are we too old for water fights?’ she grinned.

Evannah and Imogen exchanged glances and shouted in unison. ‘Never!’ as they flicked handfuls of water at Lydia.

   ‘Wait, two against one isn’t fair!’

They laughed and screamed as they swam after Lydia. ‘I surrender, you win!’ she laughed as she climbed up on a rock. Evannah felt a tingle run up her spine and stopped dead. Lydia’s face fell when she saw that she had stopped smiling.

   ‘What is it?’

Evannah looked around. ‘Just a weird feeling…’

   ‘What?’ Imogen exclaimed as she tried to tread water quietly.

The tingle became a strange prickling sensation at the nape of her neck. She slapped a hand over it. There was nothing there, yet the sensation continued. A sense of foreboding washed over her.

  ‘Get out of the water Imy,’ she said evenly, and when Imogen hesitated, she shouted. ‘NOW! Get out! Get out!’

   Imogen screamed a true scream of terror and began to kick towards the shore. Lydia hopped from one rock to the next while Evannah followed behind Imogen. Under the water, something brushed her leg. She couldn’t stifle the scream that tore out of her throat.

   ‘Evannah! What is it?!’ Imogen was screaming over her shoulder. The two girls staggered out of the pool and turned around to look at the surface of the water. Their breaths ripped out in rags as they shook uncontrollably with hysteria. The ripples slowly dissipated until only the ripples caused by the waterfall remained, yet something moved just below the surface, and bubbles broke to the top.

   ‘What the…? Is there something in there?’ Imogen’s voice was wavering.

   ‘Get back, get away from the water,’ said Evannah, pulling them back. The prickling sensation on the nape of her neck was still there.

   ‘Can you see anything?’ Lydia breathed. They watched with bated breath, and Evannah realised there was not a sound to be heard, only the sound of the waterfall. Gone were the birds and the bird song, even the ambient sound of life had disappeared.

   ‘We should go,’ said Evannah.

   ‘No, wait!’ hissed Lydia, grabbing her arm.

They waited and watched, but nothing else moved in the water.

   They waited another moment and then Imogen burst out laughing quickly followed by Evannah and Lydia. Evannah didn’t know why they were laughing, but it seemed like the appropriate thing to do.

   ‘We should go now!’ howled Evannah. ‘I’m not going back in there!’

   ‘What did we just freak out over?!’ Imogen cried with laughter.

   ‘You mean, what did Evannah just freak out over?!’ Lydia nudged Imogen’s arm and they fell about in a fit of laughter.

   Imogen wiped her eyes as the laughter abated as they quickly retrieved Lydia’s trainers from the rock and made their way back the way they had come. They went instead to another of their haunts perched high on some limestone rocks overlooking the wide open fields and let the sun dry them.

Later in the evening, they went to the Druid’s Staff for a cold drink. Her aunt Delphi waved at them from behind the bar and set about making their drinks. Delphi had inherited the pub from her mum and now ran it with her husband, Piers, whenever he bothered to make an appearance. Evannah hesitated when she saw Rory in the corner. He looked as though he was clenching his jaw tightly. He was sitting with a larger group of people, many of whom Evannah knew from the stables, and they all looked to be having a good time. Lydia and Imogen had already gone over to them, but she hung back.

Imogen, on realising she was no longer with them, turned around.

   ‘I think I’m gonna go…’ said Evannah as quietly as she could.

   ‘No, come and sit with us, they’re your friends too,’ said Imogen, but Evannah shook her head.

   ‘It’s going to be awkward; I don’t want to ruin it,’ she was already backing away.

‘But where will you go?’ Imogen looked crestfallen.

Evannah shrugged. ‘For a walk…’

Imogen gave her a look, but Evannah was already moving away. ‘I’ll see you later.’ She turned and hurried to the door. She heard Imogen plaintively calling her name, but as she got to the door, she nearly crashed headlong into Mr Whitman.

Mr Whitman was surprisingly tall, and Evannah forced herself to look up and into his piercing blue eyes. She realised she had never been this close to him to actually notice the colour of his eyes. There was a mischievous quality to them, a sparkle, a wildness. His long grey hair was equally wild. He stared down at her with an expression that Evannah could think of no name for. She felt her face grow hot under his intense gaze.

She muttered a quick apology.

   ‘It’s alright…’ Mr Whitman replied quickly, stepping aside to let her pass. Once she was outside again, she drew a breath and realised she had been holding it. Mr Whitman truly was a mystery.

   She headed out across the road towards the wooden stile that led into the field beyond. The sun was still shining brightly, but the temperature had dropped a little. She made her way across the field until she came to the tree line, and a dirt track led into the wood. She couldn’t shake her encounter with Whitman. What was it about him? The way he had looked at her…she couldn’t put her finger on it.

    Whitman had been in Gloam Hollow at least as long as she had been there, but beyond that she knew nothing else apart from the fact that he owned the Gift and Curio shop and had a very large Alaskan Malamute that was always overjoyed to see her. She picked her way down the path, passing the occasional group of walkers on their way to one of the three pubs that Gloam Hollow had to offer.

   Eventually, she came out of the tree line on the other side, where before her stood the giant Guardian Stones. The two stones were huge. They were set side by side, and each had deep swirls carved into them. Evannah liked the standing stones of Gloam Hollow. Each one was different, and occasionally she enjoyed sitting in their company, especially lately.

   It annoyed her that she felt she couldn’t sit with her own friends, but Rory was making things too uncomfortable. It didn’t need to be that way…did it? Evannah jerked her head irritably as she threw herself down to sit at the foot of one of the Guardian Stones with a loud sigh. Seth had also warned her against starting a relationship with Rory, but she knew he was only worried about his cousin dating his best friend…or had he seen this coming? Had Lydia seen it coming? She sighed again and leaned her head back against the stone. She felt a familiar tingle as her back touched the warm stone. She was reminded of what had happened at the forest pool…though this sensation from the stone was different from the one she had felt in the pool.

   Something had definitely touched her leg under the water. She shuddered to think about it. What was it? Perhaps it was better not knowing…

   Nestled deep in the Yorkshire Dales, Gloam Hollow was surrounded by a vast moor where purple heather grew in abundance, luscious patchwork fields stitched together with limestone walls, it was like something from a fairy tale with its hidden forest pool and standing stones…and the many mysteries that went with it.