The Magic Field

Ireland is a place I have always wanted to see, it is filled with lore and legends dating back centuries and finally I got the chance to see it. On arriving at my destination I immediately noticed the beautiful countryside that adds a lovely aesthetic to the place. The people were very friendly to me, despite my long drawn out American accent which I was told was very irritating to the Irish people but not to the ones of County Sligo who seemed to greet me with a smile on their face; albeit I didn't know what most said to me but the smile was welcoming enough. I wanted to see the old traditional way of Ireland and along the west was recommended to me by a friend. So a day or so here and then move along the coast was my plan.

My love for local legends has been a part of me as long as I can remember, there's just something about it that both fascinates me and excites me, which is hard to do i'm naturally a guy that gets bored quickly but not when it comes to hearing stories based upon peoples experiences, real or not. While searching for some local stories I ventured into a bar, or a pub as they call it here - "O'Mahony's" it was called. I drank a pint of Guinness for the first time which was alright, an acquired taste I would imagine. While searching the stack of leaflets on the wall for tourists like myself, I came across one that read " The Magic Field" which instantly took my interest. The description was that if you enter this field then you will never come back out, I just had to check this out.

To get to the field I had to cross some side country roads that were more like bogs and walk a good distance further more until I reached numerous small hills which I walked/climbed over. Once that was done there was a road up ahead with a sign on it - "The Magic Road", how original were these names I thought to myself. The road was thought to have some sort of magic spell attached to it so if you drove on it and stopped then the car would start going uphill by itself, I was walking so couldn't test this out unfortunately. I did walk up it and stop just because , well why not? But nothing happened of course, just over that road was what I came here for; The Magic Field  with a sign on it saying "Trespassers will be prosecuted". Very dramatic I thought.

I opened the gate slowly and edged my way in skeptically, it all looked so normal just like your average field. The trees set the perimeter of which I walked around, it was quiet here you could hear a pin drop, dead silence. After exploring the field I was set to leave, disappointed with what I had come across but as I went to the gate I came in I couldn't find it, it had vanished. I was caught between a mixture of bewilderness and excitement at the idea that maybe the legend is true and how awesome this would be, but then it dawned on me - what if the legend is actually true, am I trapped here?

Turning around I noticed small flickering lights coming out of the trees that were bending in an overhanging motion, the lights floated over to me and the closer I got I realized that these weren't just lights , they were actually people with glowing wings like some Tinkerbell fairies. They gathered around me and before I knew it I was walking without any knowledge of doing so, must of been some kind of force-field they had on me. My legs walking without my consent was the strangest feeling I had ever felt as I glided towards the middle of the field. The fairies dispersed in a matter of seconds and the ground started to tremor. A large swamp magically appeared up from the ground and with it came something that I had never seen before.

A tall green slimy like creature emerged from the swamp, it had webbed hands and feet and also was covered in gooey like seaweed. Drooling out of its mouth it came closer to me ; I was still somehow stuck to the spot, "Merrow Merrow" it kept shouting this at me. I heard this before and recalled that on the plane journey over I read up on Irish Mythology and that the Merrow was a creature made from the swamps to serve its only purpose of drowning its victim by slowly dragging it into the depths of where it came from. Drowning was my biggest fear but I couldn't move, I wish I read that part about those darn fairies.

The creature was right in front of me, sticking out its long scaly tongue and horridly licking up and down my face, the smell off its breath was sickening but the least of my worries at this point. It grabbed me by my legs and tossed me to the ground, slowly then it was dragging me back to its swamp. At this point I was terrified. Its amazing that rush you get knowing you don't have long left, the fear response in my brain was going ninety but at the same time everything slows down to the point where I could see every blade of grass my head was being dragged over and have time to get acquainted with them. As I reached he swamp I could see a beaming light up overhead, I started thinking "Is this what people mean when they say they seen the light when on the verge of death?".

Strangely there was loads of colors, not just one, and it was in an arch shape. Then little small red bearded men started waddling out mumbling words, well more like noises but it was consistent. "Are these actual Leprechauns" I thought to myself, The Merrow seemed scared by these miniature beings and let go of me.The Leprechauns chased it back to he swamp where it disappeared into it and as did the swamp into the ground. I couldn't believe what I just witnessed, the small green dressed men then somehow broke the spell that the fairies put on me and I was able to use my own legs again. They continued to mumble and started to point to the multi-coloured light thing they wandered out from, I presumed it was a rainbow but under it was a box, a very gold and shiny box. It flipped open and in it was a key, they all nodded yes at the key so I presumed this key would get me out of here. I grabbed it and everything went black.                   

The next thing I knew I was lying on the side of the pavement of the town I was in, checked my pockets but my wallet was gone, all that was left from it was my passport. I was quite drowsy and cold, to my left a group of men stood outside that pub I was in earlier and were all laughing at me. One of them shouted over "Hey yank i'll give you a lesson for next time, when in Ireland don't leave your pint down"..........

Juliet

Along the streets of The Hague, Holland there was a well know woman that helped out the homeless people, gave them food daily and warm clothing. After months of dedicating her time walking the streets helping out of her own generosity, she was offered a job working in a shelter that looked after kids that had no home to go to, which she accepted. Juliet was a pillar of the community, everyone liked her and knew her for the wonderful acts of kindness she did. She couldn't walk down any street in this area without saying hello after hello, a duty she did not mind.

A month into her new job and she had received some bad news that her mother had passed away, the years of heavy smoking had finally caught up with her, forty Marlboro a day since she was fifteen done the trick. Juliet was very close with her mother and took the news very badly, she became very withdrawn in herself and very jumpy, her kindness towards those that were in need of it had faded and all she wanted to do was be alone.

She found a new hobby that she took up at home, she collected old dolls that looked freaky as hell but found solace in them, often confiding her feelings with the creepy plastic porcelain figures. As her obsession grew so did her social isolation, her work had switched her from the day shift to the night as part of a new split shift renovation, Juliet didn't like this as every evening at 6.p.m till 10.p.m was her time to be alone with her dolls.  On her way to work one night, driving in the misty rain, a car clipped her back wheel and sent the car spinning into a street pole, Juliet banged her head up pretty badly.

On release from hospital the next day, she drove straight home to what she called her "babies" telling them that "Mammy is home and everything will be alright from now on". That night she went walking the streets in search of collectibles for her babies. The people she once called her friends - the homeless, were now her victims. At the dark hours of the morning she would go out and kill these people, cutting and taking the hair from their heads and putting it on her dolls.

Her medical report read that she was unable to work due to her accident, so she was let go. Her nightly murders of the homeless continued for some time, everyday there would be a body found, it had turned into a serial killer investigation. Every newspaper had it in it and every channel that was on the television had to mention it. After one of her nights on the kill she dropped a bracelet that had on it " Homelessness is not always a choice", this made her prime candidate for the murders as everyone knew of her carrying that bracelet. One day later the police knocked on her door and arrested her.

After they gained enough evidence against her which included the DNA results from the hair found on her dolls, she was sentenced to life in prison but because of her mental instability she was sent to a psychiatric unit. The charitable, kind woman who everyone in this town had loved for years was no more, numerous bad life events and the crash that left her mentally disturbed had taken the sweetheart out of her and replaced it with a thirst to kill. Her brain got so mixed up from the accident that it replaced the love it had for the homeless with a hatred and a need to rid the town of them.

Five months later on a cold but sunny Thursday morning one of the nurses opened Juliet's door to find her dead on the ground with all her hair ripped out. The exact cause of how she died is unknown to this day, multiple autopsies have been done and yet they still cannot identify the reason the former town treasure had passed away. Maybe her "Babies" had more power than anyone thought...

Akecheta's Journey - The Children of the Sun

Akecheta's search for the wendigo brought him from town to town as he looked for evidence of where the creature had gone to. In this one small village where the occupancy wasn't any more than fifty people he went into a diner style restaurant to grab something to eat. The diner had a very unwelcoming and cold feeling to the place, he was looked at strangely as if he had committed a nasty crime that everyone knew about, but this didn't deter him from ordering his food.

The waitress grunted as he ordered which Akecheta found amusing, he was finding this whole experience funny at how narrow minded these village people were. Hiding his weapons in his backpack, the food was brought down to him, he noticed a man sitting directly across from him staring straight at him without blinking. He ignored this and started to tuck away at his long awaited meal. He looked up a few moments later and the man was sitting right opposite him in the booth, "Hi there, can I help you" asked Akecheta, "I know what brings you here and what you have in the bag, go home they aren't around these parts anymore, it's gone" replied the stranger. Akecheta asked more questions about what the man meant by "They aren't here" and "It's gone", but the man didn't reply and left in a hurry as if he got spooked.

Wondering what that was all about Akecheta finished up his food and when about to leave the snarly waitress shouted over "Think ya dropped something...WANDERER!!!" He looked down under the table and there was a piece of paper that read " North, beware of the sun people". He left the diner with the piece of paper and decided to go North, he didn't have anything else to go bye only this cryptic note so he walked the long road out of this village and headed in the North direction.

Days later, and after a combination of walking for miles and thumbing lifts he ended up in the North part of the Kodiak Island where humans were scarce and all that was around him was silence. He looked for any strange but similar death maulings that killed his father , he found a few animal killings that had the same torn apart ways of the killings and he used these to try and track what had killed them. The deeper he went into this part of the island he noticed that the killings were more prominent but not only that, there was a a load of footsteps left behind, as if a gang of twenty or so people had been going on a leisurely stroll through the carcass filled dirt forest like part of the island.

Up ahead there was a light shining and he could hear people doing some sort of chanting but couldn't make out what it was, the closer he got the louder it got when suddenly an arrow was shot at him which narrowly missed him and stuck into the tree. A group of small younger people surrounded him in a matter of seconds, they couldn't have been more than fifteen years old any of them, all armed with weaponry carved out of whatever they found. They gathered around him, slowly enclosing while the chanting continued before jumping at him, attacking him in the process. Akecheta fought off a few but was vastly outnumbered before being subdued and brought a few yards up to a plot of land that was where they stayed, built from tree parts in a hunter gatherer fashion they brought the beaten Akecheta up to the top of their land where they shackled him up next to another man who he recognized, it was the man whom he met at the diner, battered and bloody, barely conscious.

This group calls themselves The Children of the Sun, they live out in the forest areas of the Island and when this part of the world doesn't see sun for a period of time they come out and capture people as they believe that the sun is to be worshiped as some sort of prophet or messiah that sends them a message that when the sun goes then human sacrifices need to be made to please their higher belief.

Akecheta looked down over these savage kids, in his agony he noticed them lighting a large straw fire at the base of the his and the diner mans feet. His memory of his father dying and why he was out here started to overwhelm him, this wasn't how he hoped his life would end, but it was starting to look that way.........

The Bandage Man

There was once said to be a very talented logger named Henry Reed, who was a rugged looking man that grew his intimidating beard purely out of personal preference rather than to ward people from interacting with him as he was actually a very nice, warm and welcoming individual. One day while out working he had a horrific accident in which he subsequently died from, he had lost control of the chainsaw he was using and while he jumped with the fright he ended up tangling himself up somehow and the chainsaw worked its way through his body like a knife through butter causing multiple limbs to be sawn away. He was found a short time after and was brought to hospital but by this time the damage had already been done and he was pronounced dead.

Down on Cannon beach, which for those who don't know where it is, its located in northwest Oregon and is a small coastal city which is best known for its long sandy shores and beaches, but is a spot for teenagers to come and do what teenagers do, especially at night. It has a bad reputation for underage drinking and drug taking but in reality it's just a few beach parties that got a bit out of hand that give the place that reputation, in fact compared to a lot of areas around this part of Oregon it has the lowest crime rate. It is more of a place the boys and girls go to kiss under the romantic moonlight that shines down upon the water at certain points.

A group of overly excited girls decided one night to drive down to the lane way just beside the beach and have a good high pitched gossip about what's going on in each others lives, this lane is known as the place where if you didn't want to be seen by anyone then drive down here and disappear from view. As the night progressed one of the girls had to pee so got out of the car and over behind a tree she went to relieve herself. As she unzipped her trousers and hovered over the ground she could here strong rustling and mucky footsteps coming from behind her, she turned her head at a 45 degree angle and ears pointed up the way in an attempt to try and hear the noise again, the noise didn't let her down.

Walking out of the dark was a man like figure that was wrapped in blood stained bandages similar to that of a mummy, he slowly plodded towards the frightened girl who was stuck with the shock but as he got close to her he was blinded by the lights of the car that the girls were in. This gave the girl who was peeing the chance to jump into the car and they started to drive away as fast as they could. When they got onto the main road they could hear a bang on the roof of the car while also there was this strong foul stench of rotten flesh, the girls wondering what this was decided to keep driving but one of them noticed in the mirror that there was that bandaged up man again latching on to the back of the car.

Boom boom boom! He banged repeatedly on the back window causing the girls to scream and swerve on the road, just about avoiding crashing down a steep slope on the side. The man seemed to be stuck to the car, banging repeatedly before he started to remove a bandage on his abdomen to reveal his scars while he laughed as though the removal of the bandage caused a tickle. The girls who were terrified drove towards the smallest town to try and get help, they sped into the town trying to ignore the noises coming from creepy stranger, as they reached the town center the banging had stopped and the man had disappeared. The girls got out and hysterically went to the police station to tell the story of what happened.

This had not been the first time that the police from this town had heard this story, exactly the same way each time it had been told - man wrapped up in bandages stalks people down in Cannon beach, follows them in their car before disappearing when they get to the town. The local legend has it that this person is Henry Reed back in some sort of ghost/mummy form to scare teenagers for whatever reason, he isn't thought to have ever killed anyone, only relishing at the chance of terrifying the youths. 

Down the quiet lane besides the beach you can at the right moment see the bandaged figure , he will first come to your attention by the sound of his slow footsteps which is normally followed by his strong flesh smell before eventually revealing himself to you. When he does reveal himself to you, this means he likes you and has chosen you to be the next victim for his night of terror, he will follow you endlessly and the only way to get rid of him is to drive into the town as he cannot cross a point in the road that leads to the town entrance. He is now known as the Bandage Man of Cannon Beach.

The Treatment

"Positive. Absolutely positive. That little green man will be gone in no time."

"And his pitchfork? Will it scratch my mind ever again?"

"You'll be your old self within days. You'll be bagging potatoes. No scratch that. Forget about bagging vegetables, you'll be running Cung Brothers Merchants in no time Larry!"

"Enough of the sweet talk. You need to work your magic before he returns."

"In the presence of a witch, no elf would dare to show his face I'll have you know." The five-foot eleven apprentice-witch combed the fingers of his left hand through his messy hair and fondled through a dusty drawer of potions with his right until, "Qwah Dep!" He exclaimed in Old Scorchish, "Here we go."

Larry Cung, the easily led middle son of Krzysztof Cung a local business man clenched his bony hands into fists. His wiry body was strapped onto a long wooden table as he awaited the cure. He stared up at the basement ceiling. Candles created eerie shadows around the room. The tension was building and he began breathing heavily.

"If half the town were witches, I'd like to think you'd be coming to me anyway Larry"

"Sure, of course." Larry began to realise that Bert was in complete control and quieted down.

"Brace yourself! This is gonna be a bumpy ride my friend!" Bert raised a vile of red cloudy liquid into the air with exuberance, lowering it to sneeze over his shoulder and turning back to watch his patient who grew anxious as the time for treatment came closer.

"Ok open wide Larry and think of happy thoughts. Think of your family, your future, your girlfriend-" "-she left me last year Bert!"

"Oh, well then don't think about her so."

The liquid spilled from the vile into the mouth of the patient as Bert chanted, "bwee chang ung...com zang nong...ba oi!…ba day."

The candles in the basement all flickered as a swirling gale picked up in the room, though all windows were sealed. Larry's eyes remained open, but had a glossed over look to them and his narrow body convulsed repeatedly as if being electrocuted. The dust of his old suit was sucked into the wind and his shoes clapped together with each convulsion.

Bert paced around the table three times, keeping his eye on the patient. He began to feel light-headed and fell across Larry's chest, the two bodies creating an ‘X’. The room fell silent. No wind, no chanting, no convulsing. Silence.

"Uhhh-heeeeh". Larry spluttered back to life.

"Bert are you okay?" The apprentice-witch lay slumped over his patient. "Bert? Say something old friend."

Helplessly trying to free himself, Larry began to question why he came down here.

Just before panic set in, "Oh, yeah. Grand. All that spell-casting really takes it out of you.” Larry hopped onto his feet. “At least it's Friday. I've only got Mrs Winkercheif in the morning and then I can relax 'til Monday."A smile came across Larry's face. Bert was back to himself.

"So, I'll leave you sleep in the spare bed and we'll do some measurements and tests in the morning."

"Bert-" "No need to thank me, I was born like this." The apprentice-witch turned towards the stairs.

"Bert!" He shouted. Larry looked back at the strapped-in patient. "Untie me."

"Oh right. Of course. You're wouldn't have been the first one to spend the night down here strapped in. Have I told you about the time I left Councillor Krinkle in here overnight? She came in because of some visions she had about giving those giraffe- necked gogglebiddies the vote.”

"You hadn't told me."

“Well you don't know, okay?”

Larry was set free from the table and with each step he felt the soaring effects of what took place. He followed the chatty Bert up to the ground floor where they toasted to a successful treatment over a few glasses of gecko wine. The basement sat in darkness waiting for a new patient to enter its confines. The howling winds that had rushed through the room had dispersed.

 But they would return.

Side Note ; This story was written by the returning Gerard Gilroy who was off travelling for a while. I hope to have more from him soon while he is back in Ireland