The Spook's Bestiary - By Joseph Delaney Page 0,46

terror, it would eventually have forced people to worship it in great numbers. It would have become a god once more. It was destroyed by my apprentice, Tom Ward, just in time. —John Gregory

2No doubt the reduced danger was in part due to that, but we must not discount the recent arrival of these elementals through the portal. After reaching our world, denizens of the dark always need time to achieve their full strength. —John Gregory

3This proved to be the case when we were in Greece and encountered fire elementals. One of the asteri was cut in two by my staff’s blade, but it was not the end of the elemental. It began to re-form, and we had to leave the location quickly. —John Gregory

4During our encounter with the Ordeen, a tremendous amount of water had fallen into the Ord, and this made some of the fire elementals less dangerous. —Tom Ward

5In a cave in the Pindhos Mountains, fleeing from maenads, Alice and I heard tappers all around us. They brought the roof down, and we only just escaped with our lives. —Tom Ward

6The predicted deaths do not always occur, leading me to suspect that coincidence may be involved, or that people simply die of fear, thereby fulfilling the prophecy. —John Gregory

7They are not to be confused with the Celtic witches (also known as banshee witches). Those mimic the action of a banshee but actually bring about the death of their chosen victim. These witches worship the Old Goddess known as the Morrigan, who often appears in the shape of a crow. —John Gregory

The Cawley Stone Crawler

Mysterious Deaths in the County

Spooks catalog the creatures of the dark. Bit by bit, year by year, we learn more about the threats posed by the dark and develop ways in which to thwart or limit its effects. But there are still entities out there that defy our attempts to take their measure. In the County there have been many mysterious deaths that so far have not been explained.

THE BLOATED BODY OF EMILY JANE HUDSON

Emily Jane Hudson had lived in Ormskirk all her life but had taken to her sick bed two years before her plight was brought to my notice. Doctors had visited her regularly, attempting unsuccessfully to deal with her strange affliction.

Emily was still alive when I first saw her. I had been called to her bedside by Dr. Gill, with whom I’d worked many times in the past; he was a liberal and intelligent man who understood the part played in the County by the servants of the dark and routinely sought my advice.

At first I thought I was dealing with a woman who was extremely obese, but when the doctor lit a candle and pulled back the bedclothes slightly, I was astonished by the sight of poor Emily. Her face, shoulders, and neck were terribly swollen, but there was not an ounce of visible fat on her. The bright red skin was stretched tight by the blood beneath it. It was as if someone or something had forced blood into the space between skin and flesh. To support that theory, there were two large puncture marks on her neck, and the same on each shoulder.

There are many cases in the County where blood has been removed from a living body. Witches who use blood magic do so routinely. Sometimes they drain their victim completely; at other times they draw blood in small amounts over days or even weeks. But never had I encountered a case where blood had been added rather than subtracted.

I was unable to help, and within two hours poor Emily was dead. Fortunately the local priest allowed her to be buried within the churchyard, which was of some consolation to her family.

Thus I was forced to record one more mysterious death in the County. I can only suppose that some unknown type of witch or dark entity was using her body as a place to store blood for some future ritual. But although I watched over her grave for weeks, they never returned to take it.

THE CAWLEY STONE CRAWLER

There have been many mysterious deaths near the outcrop of rock known as the Cawley Stone. At first it was animals being killed: sheep, rabbits, stoats, and squirrels. But twice I have been called to the area to investigate human deaths. The first was that of a hermit who lived in the woods nearby; the second time I traveled to view the remains of a shepherd who had pursued