Gerard Kelly

Shadow in the Woods Gerard Kelly

The sky was barely coloured by a purple moon that had risen behind the thin streaked clouds. From under a dense Yew bush a ghostly figure arose in a tumble of dried leaves that spiralled upwards to form his sinister shape. Twice he lifted the heavy iron ring on the church door and let it fall on the ancient oak. His knock reverberated through the nave on into the whole of the church. A single light came on in the chancel that slowly drifted down the aisle illuminating the complete nave. Beneath the heavy stones a spectre assembly conferred: not this time, not sometime, not ever! Outside he waited hoping his call would finally be answered, he was innocent of any crime he had been wrongly executed, but his plea fell on deaf ears. Reluctantly, glancing back only once to see if his request had not been in vain, he returned to his repose beyond the consecrated ground. There was a violent storm one night, which blew down an ancient tree deep in the woods of Uther. The discovery of a ruby ring among the shattered remains of a Jackdaws nest set two modern day teenagers upon a quest to finally prove Nathaniel's innocence, if only the other ghost haunting in the shadow of the woods would allow it to happen.