The Twins E-Book

Christine Munroe

• Herausgeber: neobooks
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Deutsch

Seitenzahl: 44

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

On a rainy afternoon Reverend Carmichael tells his grandchildren the story of the twins, tragic and heartbreaking, that he witnessed firsthand. Thirteen year old Willow discovers that she had a twin sister who has suddenly come back to haunt her and the entire parish, spreading anguish and fear. Will Willow perish under the mental pressure her twin is exerting or will the people involved in the tragedy right the wrong that has been done and save Willow and the village?

Leseprobe

Christine Munroe

The Twins

Dieses ebook wurde erstellt bei

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Titel

PREFACE

The Twins

Impressum neobooks

PREFACE

PREFACE

Stories of the supernatural aren't my typical genre.

I remember having to write one as a test in high school. It was a topic I dreaded, despite having written fantasy stories all my life. I couldn't come up with a good idea for that darned test. So I did what every good student does: I cheated.

I rummaged around on my various packed bookshelves and found a book with ghost stories. Perfect. I picked one story, read it about 500 times, changed some minor things here and there and simply reproduced it on the test.

I was scared shitless that my teacher would know the story but I was lucky. I wasn't particularly proud of myself for having cheated, either, but I was truly at a loss.

Afterwards I stayed clear of ghost stories. Until I began my undergraduate studies at university where one of my subjects was „Scottish literature of the Supernatural“.

I had to hand in a short story of my own and this time I DIDN'T cheat.

I wrote the original story at the end of October 1999.

Recently, while digging through some old materials, I came across this long forgotten narration and decided to rewrite and pimp it a bit but to retain the core idea.

Tyndrum in the council area of Stirling really exists. There may even be a Caervrackie Castle somwhere in Scotland, but I wouldn't know. If so, it's certainly not anywhere near Tyndrum.

The names describing the landscape are also my invention.

To protect the people involved in this story, the names were changed. But the events that unfolded were true.

The Twins

THE TWINS

Reverend Steven Carmichael was sitting in his rocking chair near the fire, a woollen blanket draped over his knees, his feet covered by a hot water bottle. His old and tired bones hurt less when he kept warm. He had given up smoking long ago but he liked fiddling around with his pipe, twirling it between his fingers and occasionally catching himself sucking it. Old habits died hard.

He had continued to live in this parish even after he had retired and his wife had passed away. It was his home and he could not imagine living anywhere else.

Despite his advanced age of ninety-two years he still knew everyone and had an excellent grasp of what was going on around him. He knew all the gossip and enjoyed discussing it and passing it on. It spiced up his day. He had always been a gossip by heart.

In addition to gossip he was also a wonderful source of historic anecdotes. Scholars from all over Scotland often came to talk with him about famous families who used to live in his parish or to obtain data about births and deaths and to see the local graveyard.

Reverend Carmichael had become somewhat famous over the years because of his extensive knowledge.

What children liked best about him was his storytelling, though. No one ever really knew whether what he said was based on facts and therefore the truth or whether it was fabricated.

„You've promised us the Twins!“ Alasdair reminded his great-grandpa now.

It was the perfect day for a story as it was pouring down outside so you could not even see your hand in front of your eyes, and the wind was howling around the house, making it shudder underneath its onslaught.

His two great-grandchildren, Alasdair and Keira, and one of their friends, Ailsa, were sitting on the floor in front of him, cradling cups of hot cocoa and staring at him expectantly.

It was true, he had promised them the Twins, and he did not even understand why he had suggested this particular story in the first place, seeing as he normally did his utmost best to forget it. It was one of those that filled him with profound sadness.

Perhaps it was that on the day he made the promise he had been out by the loch and seen the storm brewing in the distance. Or perhaps it was that he could hear little Violet's voice calling out like it was yesterday.

His heart had grown heavy and Keira, attentive as always, had taken hold of his hand to comfort him. That was when it slipped out.

Maybe it was a good thing. When he died, the memory of Violet would die, too. But little Violet should be remembered; this community owed her that.

He took a deep breath and sighed.

„It pains me to talk about it,“ he admitted.

„So the story is true?“ asked Ailsa, to which he nodded.

„I was new to Tyndrum. Back then it was very different. Even smaller than now, of course, and Caervrackie Castle was still in the possession of the Garvoult family.“

Everyone knew Caervrackie Castle. It was unravaged by time, massive, intimidating and at the same time reassuring. A benign presence in the life of the villagers.

While the Garvoult family was living there they regularly invited the villagers to festivities like Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving, and provided them with food and shelter in times of need.