After another hundred yards he knew the apparition had gone The old man could sense the change, but it would take another hundred yards of travel towards home before Patrick could bring himself to turn his head to look back.

The wind still howled tempest-like, the McKenna house still projected its malignant presence to the road side.  In the distance, atop the hill, and at the end of the lane the old beech tree persisted in its struggle against the raging storm whilst down below, under the green umbrella of the old tree and its myriad of leaves and branches, seemly safe within the walls of their cottage two young girls slept, blissfully unaware of the drama that had unfolded but a short time before.

Patrick continued along the road home pondering over in his mind the incident, wondering did it really happen or did the porter he drank that evening somehow affect his mind.

“No” he thought.  “I did see that apparition, but I can’t help thinking that somehow I should have known who it was that was haunting me.”

The next morning as Patrick sat at his kitchen table drinking a cup of tea he was startled by a loud knocking on his front door.  Upon opening the door Patrick was confronted by a very distressed neighbour man.  The neighbour was the bearer of terrible news. The news was that sometime in the early hours of the morning the old beech tree on the hill beside Annie’s cottage had blown down on top of the cottage, killing the two girls asleep inside.

.. ultimate to follow ...