THE VILLAGE OF THE SHADOW PEOPLE

The Village of the Shadow People

by Gregory Barone

Based on the stories of Brigadoon and Germelhausen

One day in February 1957, in the woodlands of Scotland, two travellers found themselves in a field of tall wet grass. They were trudging through the grass, the mist rolling over the land. Two good friends from New York were finally on a trip to Scotland, hunting pheasant. They are wearing the standard clothing you would wear for hunting in the Scottish fields: fedora hats, khakis, suit coats, long sleeve shirts, with hiking packs.

Breaking the silence, Jeff spoke with a heavy Brooklyn accent, "How's it coming' Tommy. Ya' know where we are yet?" he commented with a smirk. "I'm wet to the knees here." Jeff is about a little over a foot taller than Tom with blond hair, green eyes, an athletic build to him holding a small rifle with both hands.

"Oh, knock it off, will ya? And stop calling me Tommy… I ain't ya' kid brother," Tom said belatedly. Tom is short but stocky, with a map with a compass he's holding, looking to see where they are.

"I haven't shot anything here for a week here and our food and water are running low," said Jeff.

"I know I know… quit ya' belly aching," Tom with a flinched brow.

"I hate to believe we could die out here with no food or water. Makes ya' wonder if we should have stayed back in the States. At least back in Brooklyn, we could have gotten some pizza or something. And to think we got lost with you the top boy scout and all," Jeff said with a tone of regret.

"At least we ain't in a desert somewhere… and that mouth of yours can shoot more birds than that pea-shooter ya' have there," Tom said with an annoyed tone to his voice.

They had been in Scotland for three weeks hunting; to them, it was going to be an adventure. They hiked around without incident going from valley to valley, camping out under the stars at night, finding a small town here and there till today, for this moment they are hopelessly lost.

Some time had passed as they walked through the field; all around them were lush green meadows surrounded by rolling hills and craggy mountains far off in the distance. Tom had wished he'd brought his camera to take a photograph to capture the rugged landscape of the region, the sun shining high, its warm light raining down on them.

"There's gonna be a full moon tonight… you could get some good night hunting if you want," said Tom.

"Really…? That'd be fun," Jeff countered sarcastically, cocking his head to the side.

As they walked through the tall grass, the warm sun broke through the clouds to dry the morning dew. The warm sun caused the mist and the dew to disappear. A limitless meadow stretched out before them, hilly and richly green. They walked some till the afternoon they found a dirt path.

"Hey look, Tom. A path. We can walk on that for a bit to let our pants dry out," remarked Jeff eagerly.

"It's not on the map that I can see," said Tom as he looked at the map.

"Why would there be any on that map that only shows the roads and towns?" exclaimed Jeff kicking a bush.

The path leads them to a bridge over a small stream. They stopped on the bridge to rest for a bit. The bridge was made of stone and rock, old and weathered from time. One couldn't tell the bridge from the moss that grew on it.

"I should've taken up fishing," Jeff said. "What kind of fish do you think that's in these streams, Tom?"

"Nothing but guppies and crawdads if you want to know," Tom said with a smirk. He wasn't sure if there was any, he was just being a smart aleck.

"Ah-ha! Ha! Very funny wise guy," Jeff said. Tom stops looking at his map and sees a town down in the low valley among the trees.

With a surprised look, Tom yelled to Jeff, "Hey, Jeff. Look. A town."

"What do you mean by town?" Jeff yelled back.

"Come here and have a look Jeff," exclaimed Tom.

Jeff came to Tom's side of the bridge and saw the town. "So, it is a town… what do you know," Jeff excitedly, put a hand on Tom's shoulder and rocked it. Tom was a little annoyed by this and gave Jeff some side-eye.

"But that's the thing, Jeff… I looked at the map and I can't find a town anywhere," Tom said, unfolding the map on the bridge.

"Ya' know, Tom, sometimes they don't always put small towns on a map," Jeff said in a wise tone.

"Like the heck they don't, and in what way Jeff?" Tom scolded in an angered tone.

"Like it's hard to tell New York from Jersey at times," Jeff said grinning.

"Come on, Tom. Let's see if they have a place to sleep and food to eat," said Jeff as he patted Tom's shoulder.

They started across the bridge and went on the path through the trees. The sun began to set on this long day. As they walked, Tom noticed an eerie calm among the trees; no wind blew through the leaves. There wasn't even the sound of birds singing or flying through the trees, not even a small animal running on the ground, not even a rabbit. What looked like a small brook or stream with water in it, there wasn't the sound of the water flowing in it. The only sound there was to hear was the sound of the crush of leaves under their feet.

As they walked into town they saw a man in a traditional Scottish tartan kilt, long leggings and old brown brogue smoking a long white pipe. The man saw them and said, "Why good day to ya' sirs and just what ye doin' in these parts"

"We're on a hunting adventure," said Tom.

"Say, do you know where we can stay and eat somewhere?" asked Jeff with his hand on his stomach.

The man puffed a few puffs on his pipe and said, "If ye go down there's a way ye see a sign for The Ox Pub, owned by Mr. McLundie, he will set ye up a good room and food for the both of ya's," He said with a toothy smile.

Both Tom and Jeff conveyed their thanks to the man and went further down the road. As they went, they started to see more of the townspeople coming from their homes greeting them. Tom found it odd that all the townspeople were grinning at them. He noticed an old cart from the 1700s next to a house. And the building looked old as well, with stone walls, small windows, and thatched roofs. Occasionally an occupants of the many houses would grin and greet them as they walked by. The road was now paved with slate rock with moss and some grass growing between the slate rock. They passed a small fountain in the town square and they saw the sign for the pub. The sun was setting now as they got to the pub, sounds of people talking could be heard through the door. They went in. The pub was dimly lit by lanterns and candles, some on the walls and tables. It was ratty, old and smoky. The wooden plank floor was stained by years of spilled ale and creaked and groaned as Tom and Jeff stepped on some of the wood planks. It had some patrons in it drinking beer and ale. They all stopped and look at the newcomers. Both Tom and Jeff had an eerie feeling as the patrons stared at them. They saw an old man with white hair behind the bar. The old man asked, "What can I do for ya' dis fine day, gentlemen?"

"Would you be Mr. McLundie?" Tom asked.

The old man nodded, "Aye, that be me. And what can I do for ya'?"

"We need a room with two beds, and some food," Jeff said boldly.

Mr. McLundie looked at them as to not take them seriously. And then he called out, "Fiona!!!!" and a petite young woman in a pale-yellow dress came out from a dark hallway. She was just as tall as Tom with deep rusty-red colored hair and eyes of the deepest blue.

"Fiona, show these gentlemen to room five," Mr. McLundie said to Fiona.

"This way, please," Fiona whispered in a sweet tone.

"What about payment," asked Tom.

"Worry about payment in the mornin' and have a bit of ale and something to eat tonight," Mr. McLundie said.

Tom looked at Jeff and gave him a look with shrugged shoulders as to say I won't argue with that.

They were about to go up the stairs in the back of the pub to their room, keeping in step with Fiona, when Tom noticed a big old book on the counter of the pub. Tom stopped to see it and found it to be a big old ledger for the pub. It was leather-bound and the pages were made of thick paper. The pages had writings of how much the pub had made and then he saw the date 1754. Tom couldn't believe the date that was on the top of the page finally and elegantly written. Jeff yelled for Tom to come along.

As they went up the stairs, the steps creaked and groaned. The walls were made of plaster, cracked with age and use. Tom looked at her small gentle hand on the wood side rail of the stairwell, her dress was long enough so she wouldn't step on it and fall on the stairs. Her dress made a faint rustling sound with each step she made. Tom noted the smell of her, like the aroma of heather in the fields they were in earlier that day. Their shadows danced as the flame of the candle moved with each step Fiona made. As they continued up the stairwell, Tom tripped on the stairs, "Geez Tom, be careful!" yelled Jeff. Tom blushed a little as he looked up to see the look on Fiona's face looking down at him with the glow of the candle on her. The look of surprise on her face is what Tom noticed; the glow of the candle in her big eyes shined like stars as she looked down at Tom. "Come on Tom, get up!" Jeff blurted. Tom got back up and they went up and through the hall.

She showed them into the room and there inside were two beds and a window with a lit candle on the windowsill. Both Tom and Jeff walked in and put their stuff on the beds, and she left them in the room. And yet with the warm glow of the candle it the room, Tom felt an eerie chill. As they started to go down the hall to the pub, Tom heard something and saw Fiona going down the back stairwell. He quickly ran to talk to her and stopped her in the stairwell.

"Say, miss… I mean… Fiona… I… is it possible to-" Before he could continue Fiona grasps her left hand on his arm and in a serious tone said, "You must leave… eat some food and leave." She released his arm, Tom with a perplexed look on him and was about to say something to Fiona when a shout of "TOM" stopped him and he looked back to see Jeff on the other side of the hallway. "Come on Tom, I'm starving here, ya' can talk to her later." He looked back and saw her disappear into the darkness of the back stairwell, with the creaking sound of the wood steps. Tom, with disappointment, joined Jeff downstairs in the pub.

As they drank their ale at the bar, a man walked up to them and said, "And where do you gents hail from?" They both turned to see a hiker in the pub, with a moustache and dressed in modern clothes. They realized that this man was an Englishmen.

"We're from the states," Jeff said.

"Oh really? What brings you two Americans out this way?" He asked.

"Hunting adventure," Tom said.

"Oh really? I'm doing a bit of hunting myself as well as fishing. I have all my things up in my room. My name is Nigel Thorn. I come from a small shire just north of Westchester," Nigel said, boasting with one hand behind his back and the other in front, his thumb rubbing on his first finger, his chest puffed out and up a little.

Tom said, "I'm Tom, he's Jeff, and we come from a suburb in Brooklyn."

"Well, I hope to do some hunting with you gents tomorrow, but now I have to see if anyone here knows a good drinking song and a fine night to see some stars too. Won't you gents join me later?"

"Sure, that would be great," said Jeff.

"Jolly good then. See you both in the morning," Nigel said and left with a wave.

Nigel walked away to start a chanty with the men in the pub. He started a song among the men in the pub, his baritone voice echoing throughout the pub.

"A real thorn in the side huh?" Jeff said and they both laughed as they drank their ale.

Tom went to ask Mr. McLundie if he knew where he could relieve himself and Mr. McLundie showed him to an outhouse out back.

As he came back to the pub, he met Mr. McLundie in the hall. "Hey, Mr. McLundie. What's the name of the-" Before he could finish, McLundie grabbed him by the shirt and pushed him to the wall. Fiona came out of the kitchen after hearing the sounds in the hallway.

"You must go," he said angrily.

"Yes, you must go." Fiona's sweet voice echoed with a pleading look on her face as she stood right behind him.

"But what do you mean leave?" said Tom, puzzled by this.

Mr. McLundie gripped Tom's shirt with his fists, "There's a curse upon the town."

"This town's filled with great evil," Fiona said pleadingly.

Mr. McLundie takes a deep breath and said, "A long time ago, a local farmer; a dear friend of mine by the name of McDonnell was ploughing his fields with his oxen in the spring, 'Oh, how I wish I had all eternity to plough this field,' till one day, as he was going with his plough he disturbed the tomb of a long-forgotten sorcerer. 'Who dares to disturb my peaceful slumber?'And in his rage and fury, he put an evil curse on the village and inhabited by dark and evil forces that only desired to harm all in the village. Some of the local dogs died, cattle and livestock went mad, children were tormented, 'Mama, Mama!' And all the people went pale from lack of sleep, 'How long can this go? It's been twelve days with no sleep.' And after suffering for many days; there was an agreement made between the people and the sorcerer. 'Oh great and powerful sir, what will stop this misery that you have brought upon us?' And the sorcerer said from that time on the village must remain unchanged and invisible to the outside world except for one special day every hundred years when it could be seen and even visited by outsiders, ready to draw the unwary traveller into its curse. At the sound of the church bell, all the townspeople will change and attack the outsider and consume their soul. None of the villagers are ever allowed to leave the village; and if anyone did, the village and all its inhabitants would vanish forever into the highland mists.'"

"Get ya' friend and go, now!" Mr. McLundie groaned, grinding his teeth.

Mr. McLundie let go of Tom's shirt and Tom walked back into the pub. Both McLundie and Fiona stared at him as he went.

Tom looked at the people in the pub grinning, their eyes beginning to glow. "My God, they were right." It was the thought that went through his mind at that moment. Tom came up next to Jeff and leant to him and whispered in his ear, "Jeff, you're not going to believe what I'm going to tell you. But we need to leave here, now."

"What do you mean leave tonight? We just got here!"

"Jeff, I was in the hallway to go out the back and meet Mr. McLundie and Fiona. They told me that the town is a curse, and we need to leave now. There's something not right with the people here and I just saw their eyes start to glow red."

"Tom, just how much of that ale did you have or did the heat of the sun fry your brain?"

"Jeff, I'm telling you the truth. If you don't believe me just have a look around."

Jeff looked at the people in the pub and saw their eyes glowing. Unnerved by this, he whispered to Tom, "I think we should get the hell out of here Tom."

"Let's do that, Jeff." They both quietly and carefully left the pub and went up the stairs and grabbed their stuff from the room and left out from the back hoped to meet the Englishmen out in front of the pub and warn him, if possible.

As they were about to go around the corner of the pub, a single ring of a bell rang out from the church in the night. Nearly a moment later, there was a loud sound from the pub and both Tom and Jeff looked around the corner of the pub to see what it was.

The Englishman ran out of the pub with a look of fear and shock into the light of the full moon glowing upon him. He ran a bit till he saw in front of him the silhouettes of six men with glowing red eyes and with white teeth showing in the glow of the moon. He moved to the right and saw four other men. He looked to the left and saw five more men. He turned back and saw a group of them staring at him with eyes red and teeth showing.

"Oh, bloody hell!" Nigel yells loudly.

A few of the shadow men lunged at him with arms outstretched and teeth showing.

With a piercing shrill, "Aah, noo someone help me aaaaaahhhhhhh!" It was the last words that came from the Englishman's mouth as the shadow men made a dark misty cloud around him.

The cloud disappeared and he slumped to the ground with his eyes glowing red, all kinds of choking and hacking sounds coming from his mouth. As the foam made its way out of him, he fell over to the ground on his side, the red glow faded from his eyes as the foam flowed from his mouth. Some of the shadow men stood over him and more of them suddenly appeared from the shadows and they looked at each other hissing and with grinning teeth like a wolf's over a fresh kill.

As Tom and Jeff looked on helplessly, Jeff broke the silence whispering, "Come on let's get out of here before we end up like that guy." They went back towards the back of the pub and started to run out of the town. As they did, suddenly they ran into Fiona and Mr. McLundie, a faded silhouette of themselves standing on a pathway with their eyes glowing white, and they both looked at Tom as if they were saying, 'We told you so.'

"Come on!" Jeff said as he grabbed Tom's arm, pulling him along.

A little further along they saw a single shadow man standing a way off from them. Jeff aimed and fired his rifle at the shadow man but after the smoke cleared the shadow man remained standing after the shots. Surprised by this, Jeff aimed and fired again, aiming right at the head of the shadow man. Smoke and the sulphur smell of gun powder filled the air, stinging their noses and lungs. The shadow man was still coming at them. Jeff shot again and ran out of ammo.

Tom pushed Jeff, "Stop that Jeff, you'll just attract more of them." Then suddenly the shadow man charges at them with its teeth showing, and they split just in time before the shadow man got to them. They both fell to the ground. The shadow man targeted Tom and jumped at Tom with Tom dodging just before the shadow man touched him and Tom cried out to Jeff for help.

"Jeff…!Jeff…!Jeff….! For heaven's sake, help!" Tom had his back to a stone wall and looked at the shadow man, who was ready to jump on him, with eyes glowing red like hot coals and teeth showing in the moonlight. 'How painful would it be if this thing attacked me?' was the only thought going through Tom's mind at that moment. Just as the shadow man was about to jump, "THWACK!" Jeff knocked the shadow man out with the butt of his rifle and the shadow man fell and disappeared.

Jeff helped Tom and they began to run out of the town on the pathway that brought them here. They ran with all they had in them, neither of them slowing down. They looked back to see if any of the shadow men were following them. And, to their shock, they saw a large group of them coming right after them with their eyes aglow and their teeth showing in the darkness of the shadows, hunting them like wolves.

They began to run a little faster with their hearts pounding at their chests, their legs burning under the stress of their running, and the thudding of their feet on the ground. As they ran their ears could hear them, like the sounds of an evil chorus, "Raaaaa… Raaaa."

As they ran, they could almost feel that the very shadows were reaching up to them to grab at them and tear at their clothes.

The sound of the shadow men began to fade, as they started to see the open field of tall grass and the bridge over the steam.

As they got over the bridge both Tom and Jeff were standing by it with their packs on their backs and breathing heavily with their faces red and sweaty. Their breath could be seen slightly. With each gasp of air they took in the coldness of the night and their shirts were damp with sweat. Right then and there they could feel their hearts were about to burst forth from their chest due to how fast their hearts were beating. A rolling foggy mist could be seen from the bright moonlight. Tom turned to look back at the town. He saw the light of the candles in the windows. And the town started to fade slowly away with one ring of the bell ringing in the night then showed nothing but trees and mist.

"Do you think the town is still there?" Tom gasped.

Jeff came to Tom's side and said, "Let's never speak of this," gasping as well.

"Agreed," said Tom.

They began to walk the path with the moon shining bright high in the sky; they both looked up at the moon. They will never see the moon the same way for the rest of their lives. The two figures slowly faded into the mist.

THE END