Simply Spooky - Hag Stone By S. K. Gregory

HAG STONECopyright © 2024 S. K. Gregory

1 
Is it wrong to despise you own grandmother?
It was something I had been grappling with a lot since I arrived in Elk Cove three days ago. I barely knew the woman, but after she took a bad spill out of the shower and injured her hip, it was decided that I should look after her.
I tried to protest, but my mother insisted. She was busy with the trial and I had finished up college so I had some free time. She didn't seem to understand that I needed to use that free time to try and find a job. I didn’t have time to look after an old woman who hated my guts. Something she didn’t even try to hide.
In a bid to escape her, I made my way down to the beach about half a mile from her home. I’d been coming here a lot just so I could breathe and get some peace and quiet.
It was a chilly day despite the time of year, so there weren’t many people on the beach. Moving as close to the water as I could get, I stared out at the horizon wondering how long it would take for her to get better. How long before I could escape her?
Don’t let her get to you. She’s just a bitter old woman.
This morning I made her breakfast - tea and toast - but apparently, I didn’t do it right. There wasn’t enough butter on the toast and too much sugar in the tea. She had a criticism for everything I did.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and tried to push all thoughts of her from my mind. This was my time. The short window while she took a nap and I could escape and do what I wanted.
Opening my eyes, I tried to enjoy the scenery. I used to come here as a child when my mother would visit and I would explore the beach. It used to be so much fun collecting seashells, looking for crabs and building sandcastles. Definitely the best part about coming here.
I needed to try and recreate that. Slipping off my shoes, I dug my toes into the sand, enjoying the feel of it under my feet. So many of my friends had gone off on trips around the world, but I didn’t have the money to go with them.
This would have to be my vacation so I was going to make the most of it. Carrying my shoes in one hand, I made my way down the beach, stopping every now and again to pick up some seashells. I put them into the pocket of my windbreaker to keep for later.
I wondered if the coffee place was still open at the other end of the beach. They used to do a really nice hot chocolate and I could do with a treat.
Plus it meant being away from the house longer. I had already tidied up and had Gran’s pills ready for her when she woke up. Beyond that there wasn’t much I could do.
An old man walked by on the path above me. I raised my hand to give him a wave, trying to be friendly, but he just glared at me and kept walking.
Rude.
Were all the old people in this town like that? It was home to a large retirement community so there were very few people my age here. So far, I’d only met a couple of Gran’s friends and they seemed just as mean as her.
I hoped I wasn’t going to end up like that when I got old.
Hiking up toward the path, my foot came down on something hard. Looking down, I find a smooth round pebble under my foot, with a hole in the middle.
I picked it up and turned it over in my hand. I’d heard of these before. Was it called a hag stone or something? The memory of an old fairy story came back to me that my uncle used to tell me. About how if you looked through a hag stone you could see into another world. I used to love those stories when I was younger.
Raising it up to my eye, I looked up and down the beach. It all looked the same. Shame. Escaping into another world sounded like a good idea right now.
As I turned my head, I caught sight of the old man who was just up ahead. My breath caught in my throat as he turned to look back at me.
Through the stone he no longer looked human. His skin had taken on a leathery look, his eyes were black and two horns protruded from his head.
Quickly pulling the stone away from my eye, I saw the image change and he went back to looking like an old man. He scowled at me for a moment and then walked on.
What the hell did I just see?
 
2 
Still shaken by what I saw on the beach, I decided to give the hot chocolate a miss and head back to the house. I still had the hag stone in my pocket.
 What on earth did I see?
It had to have been my imagination. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night especially with Gran banging on the wall every five minutes with her cane. First she wanted water, and then a snack, and then of course she needed my help to get to the bathroom. In the end, I kept jumping awake at every little noise thinking it was her.
That had to be it. My mind was playing tricks on me. Deciding not to mention it to anyone, I arrived back at the house to find that not only was Gran up but she wasn’t happy to find me gone.
 “Where the hell of you been?” she snarled the second I walked in the door.
“I’m sorry I just took a quick walk. I thought you would be asleep longer.”
 She scowled at me from her armchair. “Well, you thought wrong. Now where are my pills?”
 With a sigh, I picked up the pill dispenser from the table that was right in front of her and handed them to her.
 “Do you expect me to swallow them dry?”
 Fighting back a retort, I smiled and offered to get her glass of water. As I made my way into the kitchen I thought of a thousand different things I could have said to her but wouldn’t dare. If I said anything she would speak to my mother and my mother would get at me and it just wasn’t worth the bother
 A few more weeks and I’ll be out of here. I just have to learn to ignore her.
“Where is that water, Claire?”
 “Coming,” I called.
 Carrying the glass back into her, she practically snatched it out of my hand. Staring at me she popped one pill into her mouth and took a drink of water. She continued to stare at me as she took all the eight of them.
Uncomfortable, I tried not to meet her gaze. She had been acting so weird these last couple of years. Worse than usual. Mom thought that she might be in the early stages of dementia but I doubted it. She seemed as sharp as ever, just nasty.
 When she was done with the water, she thrust the glass back into my hand.
“I have some friends coming over soon for backgammon. Set it up for me on the table.”
“Of course,” I said.
There was never a please or thank you, it was always just do this, do that. She was really getting on my nerves.
 I did as she asked setting up the board on the table across the room. Her two friends, Ethel and Linda, came over a few times a week to play.
They used backgammon as an excuse to gossip and drink gin. Technically Gran wasn’t allowed any alcohol at the moment but she didn’t listen to me. She drank whatever she wanted and if I argued with her, well there wasn’t really any point in arguing with her.
 After I helped Gran to the bathroom, I helped her get dressed before settling her at the table.
 “Bring me my drink.”
 With a sigh, I grabbed a glass and poured her a measure of gin.
“More,” she demanded.
 “Gran…”
 “I said more.”
She brought her cane down hard on my foot and I yelped yanking it away. Ignoring the throbbing in my toes, I poured a little more gin into the glass. Then decided to just leave the bottle. It would be empty before the day was over.
 When the doorbell rang, I answered it to Ethel and Linda. Ethel was a tiny woman with grey curly hair and large glasses. Linda was tall and wiry with a pointy nose.
“Good morning, ladies. Gran is ready for you.”
 Ethel muttered something under her breath as she passed me, while Linda stared at me like a huge bird.
When they were set up at the table, I grabbed my sketch pad and went on to the porch. It was better to stay out of the way, but close by in case they needed something.
The window was open and I could hear them talking amongst themselves. Every now and again, Ethel would let out a loud laugh, usually because one of the others had insulted someone. They really had a lot to say about their neighbors and what they were up to. It seemed so depressing. Living your life that way, so full of hatred and vitriol.
 Trying to tune them out, I opened my sketch pad to a fresh sheet and started drawing. It was a good spot to sit as I could see the cliffs in the distance, so I decided to draw them.
 I loved drawing ever since I was a kid. I even considered becoming an artist but Mom talked me out of it. He said I needed to learn something that would make me some money, so in the end I went into business and finance. I found it incredibly boring, but Mom insisted that it would pay off in the long run.
She was a hot shot attorney so she expected me to follow suit and get a good job. I had given up trying to get her to listen to me years ago.
 That was why I was having such a hard time in finding a job. None of them appealed to me at all. While I had sent off a few resumes, I actually hoped that I didn’t hear back.
 If I had the money I would have gone off with my friends, travelled for a while and given myself a chance to really think about the future.
 But instead I was here looking after an old biddy who hated my guts.
 Setting the sketchpad to one side, I pulled the hag stone from my pocket. Nervously, I raised it to my eye and looked out toward the coast. It all looked perfectly normal.
 Of course it did. I just imagined what I saw earlier.
 Scanning the horizon, I looked for a person just to be sure but there was nobody about.
 Another laugh came from behind me. Twisting in my seat, I looked through the window with the hag stone at the old ladies at the table. My heart nearly leaped out of my chest.
 All three of them no longer looked human. They looked like monsters. Ethel had horns, while Linda’s eyes were three times the size they normally were and her nose was curved into a hook. But Gran was the worst of all. Her eyes burned a deep red, and spikes protruded from her skull.
“Claire!” Gran’s voice cut through the air and I dropped the stone.
Oh God, what are they?

3 
It took everything I had to force myself to walk back inside. Gran glared at me.
“Get us some snacks,” she demanded.
“Of course,” I said heading for the kitchen.
My heart was threatening to beat out of my chest. They all look normal now. So what the hell was going on with that hag stone? Why did people look different in it?
It has to be some kind of trick or hallucination or something.
With shaking hands, I poured some nuts into a bowl and brought them back to the table.
When no further demands came, I headed outside to the porch again. I desperately wanted to forget what I had seen and pretend it didn’t happen, but I needed to be sure that it was just my imagination.
Where’s the stone?
I remember that I had dropped it. Getting down to my hands and knees, I searched for it under the chair. It was lying at the back behind the leg.
Snatching it up, I got to my feet. The stone just looked like a normal stone. There was no obvious trickery and it couldn’t create an illusion like that, could it?
I knew the old stories about how you could see into another world but I thought that meant like some kind of fairy world. Unless…the fairy realm was hidden from the real world, what if that’s what it did? It somehow revealed things that were hidden. If that were the case then that would mean Gran and her friends weren’t…human? Well that was insane.
Lowering myself back into the chair, I peeked in through the window at them. They all looked completely normal as they hunched over the board.
Just to try and prove myself wrong, I raised the stone in a trembling hand. The second I brought it to my eye, the three women changed into those monsters again. I even tried my other eye just to see if it made a difference but they look the same.
What the hell?
This was insane. I mean that was my grandmother in there. Wasn’t it? Unless something had replaced her. What about those old movies about aliens and body snatchers? With the doubles running around of people and nobody knew any different? That couldn’t be the case here. All of that stuff was fake.
I wondered if there was anybody who could give me some answers. There was no way they were going to believe me and I had no desire to be locked away for spouting nonsense about monsters disguising themselves as old women. But I needed answers.
Picking up my sketchbook, I raised the stone with my free hand and started to draw the women. Or what they look like through the stone.
I tried to stay low so they wouldn’t see me. Something told me if what I was seeing was real then they wouldn’t take too kindly to being spied upon.
When I was done, I studied the image trying to work out what they were. Demons possibly, aliens, something else that I’ve never even heard of. But were they just disguising themselves? Or had they always been that way? Was Gran dead? Or worse was she my actual grandmother?
The thought terrified me. I wasn’t one of those things. But just to be sure I raised the headstone and looked at my own hands and arms to try and see if there was anything amiss. I was relieved to find that I looked perfectly normal.
I needed to speak to someone about this to try and get some answers, but who? Maybe I could find something at the local library. Some books or something.
Getting to my feet, I put the stone into my pocket and then tore the sheet of paper from the sketch pad. Folding it up, I put it in my pocket too.
Moving to the door I called, “Gran, I’m just going to grab some dinner from town.”
She waved the dismissive hand at me.
Leaving them to it, I walked a mile into town. The library was located just past the school. That was another place I liked to visit when I used to come here as a child.
Heading inside, I stopped at the desk not knowing where to start. The woman behind it give me a smile.
“Can I help you, dear?”
“Yes, I’m actually looking for some books on local history.”
“Of course I can show you where those are. Is it for a paper?”
“Yeah, I’m studying history.”
That sounded perfectly reasonable.
“Well if that’s the case you might want to try talking to Malcolm.”
“Who’s Malcolm?”
She pointed to a man in his late thirties who was seated across the room, his head bent over a book.
“He teaches at the high school and history is his subject. He knows all about Elk Cove.”
“Thanks, I’ll ask him.”
I started to walk across the room and then stopped. What if he was like Gran and the others? I couldn’t take that chance.
Taking the hag stone out of my pocket, I checked that no one was looking and then raised it to my eye. I breathed a sigh of relief when Malcolm remained normal. Just to be on the safe side, I scanned the rest of the people in the room as well.
All normal.
So it was only some people and not everybody. It made me feel a little bit better.
Heading up to the table, I cleared my throat. It took a moment for Malcolm to look up, he seemed absorbed in his book.
“Can I help you?”
“I hope so. I’m sorry to bother you but I’m actually doing a little bit of research on the area and I wanted to ask couple questions. The lady behind the desk said that you were the one to ask.”
“Yes, of course, please sit.”
He moved some papers out of the way and motioned to the chair across from him. I took a seat feeling nervous. I couldn’t come right out and say what I wanted to know he would only think I was crazy.
“What is your paper on?”
“Well, I was looking into local myths and legends actually, anything strange that’s happened in town.”
He stared at me, waiting for me to go on.
“For example, do you know what this is?” I held up the hag stone.
His brow furrowed. “I believe it’s a stone.”
“Well yes, but it’s called a hag stone.”
He took it from me and turned it over in his hands.
“Yes, I believe you can find quite a few of them at the beach, the water wears the stone away. But in the olden days they did believe that hag stones were used by people to view the Fae realm. It’s an old wives tale of course.”
“Of course,” I said, taking the stone back from him. “But it made me think about other myths and legends in the area about people who weren’t what they seem, who looked one way but underneath they were different?”
I could tell I was losing him. I sounded like a lunatic.
“Do you mean like changelings?”
“What’s a changeling?”
“Well it’s another story about the Fae, where a Fae child was left in the place of a human child. The child would then start acting strangely but as far as the parents knew it was their child.”
Interesting. Kind of similar to what was happening with Gran but he was talking about children.
“And are there any stories like that around here, any legends?”
“I’m sure most places have their legends like that, unfortunately, I deal with actual history. The only thing that springs to mind was a story about a cave somewhere near the town that was said to lead to another world.”
“Another world?”
“Yes, one filled with demons.”

4 
“Demons?”
Malcolm nodded. “Yes, but of course it’s just a legend. What college are you in?”
“Huh?” I was still trying to come to terms with the word demon. “Oh. Uh, the local one. I have to go.”
Getting to my feet, I headed for the door before he could ask anymore questions. It was only as I left the building that I realized there was no local college. Whatever. I had a lot to deal with.
While I didn’t want to go back to the house, I had nowhere else to go. But the idea of staying there terrified me. True, I’d been there a few days already and nothing had happened, but that could change.
I need to figure out what they are and why they’re pretending to be old ladies.
What if they were eating local children or something equally horrible? Why would you pretend to be an old lady if you could look like anyone? It made no sense.
Or I’m just crazy.
Maybe. But I needed to be sure. I actually hoped I was crazy. Because the alternative was that monsters were walking around Elk Cove as pensioners.
Wait. All the monsters so far had been pensioners. Was that a coincidence?
Moving down the street, I looked at the people passing me. It would be too suspicious standing with the stone out here. I needed somewhere to go where I wouldn’t be noticed.
Moving to the promenade, I watched people passing by. When there was a lull, I raised the stone to check them out.
A woman passed by and I quickly lowered my hand, trying to look normal. This was dumb. What must I looked like?
I need to know.
Raising the stone, I looked at each person as they passed by. They all looked normal. But then again, they were all young. Kids or people my age. I needed to find an old person.
About ten minutes later, an old woman walked by on a walker, accompanied by her husband. I looked at her through the stone. Normal.
“Come on,” the husband growled, walking ahead of her.
I looked at him. He was a monster too. Damn. How many were there?
Dropping my hand, I knew that this wasn’t a hallucination. It couldn’t be. I was really seeing something that I wasn’t meant to see.
But does that make them evil?
Nasty, certainly. But so far they weren’t attacking people. I just wished I could talk to someone about it.
Feeling very alone, I made my way back to the house. When I reached the street, I spotted Ethel, Linda and Gran outside the house. They must be leaving. I hung back, not willing to have another run in with them.
A kid was riding about in the street on his bike. He kept squealing as he rode around. I saw Gran glare at him.
He whooshed by them, almost clipping Linda.
“Stop that, you little jerk,” Linda snarled.
The kid glanced back, looking startled, then he laughed. Turning the bike around, he headed past them again, whooping loudly.
The three women all faced him, and I saw them join hands, their eyes fixed on the boy.
All of a sudden, he started wobbling wildly on the bike. I saw him try to brake, but nothing happened. In fact, he seemed to pick up speed.
“Hey!” he cried.
A car pulled out of a driveway in front of him and the boy struck the back of the car with a thump. He cried out before he hit the ground.
The driver jumped out to check on him. I looked back at Gran and the others. They looked happy at what happened.
Did they make that happen?
I knew they weren’t human, but I didn’t think for a moment that they might have magic. Because that was what I just saw. Right?
I have to get out.

 
5 
While I would have loved to have hidden in my room, I knew that I had to come out at some point. I emerged after Ethel and Linda had gone home and headed straight to the kitchen to start dinner.
Gran was in her chair staring at the TV. She was usually quiet around this time so maybe she’d leave me alone.
Pulling some ingredients out of the refrigerator, I decided to make something simple like a soup and salad. Gran didn’t really had much of an appetite anyway.
At least as far as I’ve seen.
Every little noise made me jump and I expected Gran to leap out at me and attack me. She hadn’t yet maybe she wouldn’t. If I hadn’t found the stone, I never would have seen what she was anyway.
“Where’s my food?” she growled in the living room.
“Be right there,” I called.
I needed to watch her, try and figure out what she was up to. But more than that I needed to try and figure out a way to get out of taking care of her for the next few weeks. There was no way I would be able to sleep soundly under the same roof as her.
When the food was made, I brought it to her. She grumbled about it taking too long but took the tray and started eating.
I wanted to rub back to my room, but I needed to know more and above all else, act normal. If she suspected I knew something, she might do something to me.
“So Gran, how was your time with Ethel and Linda?” I asked, tidying up around the living room.
“Fine,” she grunted.
They were all monsters, so there had to be something they had in common. What about the cave Malcolm mentioned? Could they have visited it?
“Do you ever do anything else together? I mean obviously before you hurt your hip. Do you ever go for walks on the beach or explore?”
She looked up at me like I was insane. “Do I look like I’m traipsing all over town? Who has time for that? I’ll tell you who. Lazy little brats who need to get a job.”
My cheeks burned at her words. “Right. Well, I’ll leave you to your dinner.”
There was no way I was going to risk making her even more angry.
Hurrying back to the kitchen I grabbed some food for myself and took it into the bedroom to eat. She really was so nasty. They all seemed to be. Was that because of what they were or did they just think they could get away with it because they were old?
My mind swirled with a million questions but the only one I cared about was how the hell am I going to get away from this house?
Mom wasn’t available to take over for me not with her court case, and no one else lived close enough to come. Not that I wanted to risk their lives anyway.
The only alternative was some kind of service but could I do that? Invite someone to the house knowing what she was?
It seemed like a horrible thing to do but if someone was here from an agency, then people would know they were here and if anything happened it would only draw attention. So surely Gran wouldn’t do anything to them.
Who am I kidding? I just don’t want to be alone in this house with her.
Picking up my phone, I scrolled through local agencies to see if anyone was available. I found a number and called it.
“Hello, I was wondering if there would be anyone available to take care of my grandmother? She fell recently and broke her hip. I’ve been taking care of her for a while and unfortunately I’m not able to do it any longer.”
The woman on the other end of the phone took some details from me and said that she would get back to me soon.
Hanging up, I put my head in my hands. It felt like I was passing the buck.
I heard a creak outside the door. Getting up, I opened it to find Gran on the other side.
“Gran. How long have you been there?”
“Long enough,” she snarled. “You ungrateful little wretch. Try to palm me off to someone else?”
I backed up, terrified she was going to hit me. I held up my hands.
“No, no, of course not. I was just trying to see if there’s anybody available for when I go home because I have to go home eventually,” I babbled.
She swung her cane out and cracked me in the kneecap with it.
“I knew it. You’re evil to the core, girl. I'll be telling your mother about this.”
She turned and hobbled back into the living room. Sagging against the wall, I felt my legs shake.
What the hell? She was calling me evil given what she was?
What is she up to?
 
6I came into the room about twenty minutes later hoping that she had calmed down. She was back in her chair staring at the TV.
“Gran?”
She didn’t even look up at me.
“Gran, please I…”
“I don’t want to hear it. You say you don’t want to work, you don’t want to look after me, what do you want to do?”
“It’s not that I just…” But I had nothing to say. What could I say? I couldn’t exactly admit that I knew what she was or her friends.
“I’m going to go for a walk,” I said. “Give you some space.”
“You do that.”
Maybe I had made a mistake. She seemed hurt by what I did. Surely a monster wouldn’t act that way.
As I reached the door, I heard something smash close to my head. Jumping back, I saw the soup bowl in pieces on the ground. She had thrown it at me.
I wiped some soup off my cheek. That was too close for comfort.
 Too scared to confront her, I hurried outside, heading for the beach.
None of this made any sense. Apart from the fact that she was horrible, Gran seemed genuinely upset about the fact that I didn’t want to take care of her. Just like a normal woman would. But then she nearly took my head off with that bowl. Was she faking it? Keeping up appearances? Or did she want me around for another reason?
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the hag stone. This was where all the trouble started. If I had never found it I wouldn’t be any the wiser. Maybe I should just toss it into the sea and forget about it. Do my time here and then head home.
I stared out at the water, the stone clutched in my hand. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. Right now it was the only thing that helped me identify one of those creatures. Assuming I wasn’t just insane.
So I would hold onto it for now. But I would definitely be staying out of Gran’s way and locking my door at night.
I walked the length of the beach, hoping she would have calmed down by the time I returned.
Throwing the bowl was a step too far. She could have hit me. Did she intend to hit me? What if she did something while I was asleep?
Of course I had already been in the house a few days and nothing that happened.
God this is all such a mess.
I wanted nothing more than to get on a bus and head right back out of town. But I couldn’t.
The weather was starting to turn and I could see storm clouds moving in, I had to go back.
Pulling my jacket around me tighter, I headed back up the sand toward the house.
When I got closer, I saw a car outside. One I didn’t recognise. Did Gran have a visitor?
Curious I moved up onto the porch and peeked in the window. Ethel and Linda were there but neither of them drove a car.
What were they doing? They seem to be gathered in the middle of the living room looking at something on the floor.
When Gran moved to the side, I saw what they were looking at. Ducking back, I slapped the hand over my mouth. There was a body on the floor. An old man.
Oh God what are they doing to him?
Bracing myself, I chanced a look. He seemed to be unconscious. No, wait he was moving. His body started to shake as if he was having some kind of seizure.
Why are they just standing there?
If he had fallen then they should be getting him help. I reached for my phone to call for an ambulance, but then he stopped shaking and sat up. The women smiled at him.
Ignoring the phone, I reached for the hag stone instead. Sure enough, he was one of them.
So is that it? These creatures are taking over the real bodies?
It would explain why people hadn’t found bodies lying around the town.
He got to his feet, a stern look on his face. They were talking but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Finally, he gave a nod and headed for the door.
I quickly ducked around the side of the house to hide. The man came out, paused on the doorstep, and then got into his car and drove away as if nothing had happened.
How can I stay here now?
I didn’t want that happening to me. What if they took over the entire town?
Moving back around the porch, I decided to just run for it. But I couldn’t. My purse was inside. I’d need money to get the bus.
“Shit,” I whispered.
Okay, I could sneak in the back, grab the purse and go.
Moving around back, I prayed the back door was unlocked. Closing my hand around the knob, I eased it open. Pausing, I could hear them talking in the living room.
I stepped inside, closing the door behind me as quietly as possible. Where did I leave my purse? It was likely in my room. Anywhere else and I could forget it.
Before I got very far the kitchen door opened. I turned to see Linda in the doorway.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I turned to run but a hand clamped down on my shoulder. I was dragged backward through the house.
“Get off me,” I cried.
“I don’t think so. We’ve got you now.”
 
7 
I fought against Linda’s grip but she was impossibly strong for an old woman. The other two were waiting for me.
Linda tossed me to the floor in front of them.
“Look what I found.”
“I knew she was up to something,” Gran said. “I could smell the fear on her.”
“I’m not up to anything, I don’t know you’re talking about.”
 Ethel laughed. “She’s a terrible liar.”
“Isn’t she just,” Gran said.
She grabbed me by the hair and yanked me up. The frail little woman I had been looking after last few days seemed to be gone.
“What do you know?”
“I don’t know anything, please let me go.”
“She’s lying,” Ethel hissed. “We can’t take any chances.”
I struggled to get free, dropping the stone in the process. It hit the floor with a thump, drawing their attention.
“What’s that?” Gran asked.
Linda scooped it up, holding it up to the light. She looked confused for a moment, then seemed to realize what it was.
“She’s been spying on us.”
Gran’s fingers dug into my arm. “Who have you spoken to?”
“No one, I swear.”
“We can’t trust her. Let’s beat the truth out of her,” Linda said with a sneer.
They were going to kill me. I had to get away. I tried to claw at Gran’s hand, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“We’ll interrogate her. Put her in the basement for now.”
Linda and Ethel descended on me, each grabbing an arm. They dragged me across the floor, as I kicked and fought against them.
“Help me!” I screamed.
Gran snatched up the remote and turned the TV on. She raised the volume to block out my screams.
We reached the basement and they took me down. I was never going to leave here.
“Please, I’ll do anything. Don’t do this,” I sobbed.
“Shut up,” Linda said. “Grab that chair,” she said to Ethel.
They shoved me into it and tied me up with some rope. Linda grabbed an old rag and shoved it into my mouth making me gag.
“You can sit down here with the rats for a while. And when we come back, you better tell us everything we want to know.”
I tried to scream against the gag but no sound really come out.. the two women made their way up the stairs and closed the door behind them. Heard the log click into place.
 Sitting in the dark I tried to think of a way out of this. I was alone in a house full of monsters.
 They’re going to kill me.
 
8  
I sat in the dark for hours, trying desperately to get free of the ropes. Why did I come back inside? I should have run when I had the chance.
Will anyone even miss me?
Mom was busy, it could be days or weeks before she checked in. If Gran told her I had left, she’d probably believe her. I’d complained about being here often enough.
She might think I just ran away. They might never find me.
 I heard the lock click above me and froze in fear. Was this it? Were they coming to finish me off?
 The door opened and Gran appeared. or what used to be Gran, I assumed.
 She made her way slowly down the steps. I tugged on  the ropes harder, trying to escape.
 When she reached the bottom of the steps, she crossed her arms and looked at me. There was no sign of any hip injury. Did she really hurt her hip? If not why call me here? Was this her plan all along?
With a heavy sigh, she reached out and snatched the cloth from my mouth.  I spat on the floor trying to rid myself of the taste of whatever was on that cloth.
 “What are you going to do with me?”
 “That depends on you. who have you told about us?”
 “No one,” I said.
And then I realized that might not be the best answer. If she believed me there was reason to keep me around.
 “Really? So you saw our true forms through the stone and you total no one?”
 “Who would believe me?”
 “You could have shown the proof.”
 She had a point. Why didn’t I do that? But I guess I was worried that if I did they wouldn’t see what I saw, and I find myself locked up.
 “What are you?”
 Gran smiled me, the first smile I had seen on her face and it looked malicious.
“We are the old ones, we walked the earth long before you. We want it back.”
 “And my Gran? Where is she?”
 Gran cocked her head to the side. “Gone. Poor dear slipped in the shower. I was going to take her then and there but someone found her and called an ambulance. So I waited until she came home.”
 That was why I got called, we found out while she was still in hospital.
 “How many have you taken over?”
 She walked back and forth from the front of me.
“Ethel was the first up. but we quickly spread. She went wandering in the cave.”
 “Can you just take over any bodies or how does it work?”
 I could feel the rope start to give on one of my hands. I needed to keep moving it but I need to keep her talking. And if she did kill me, I wanted to know why.
 “Yes. We push them out and take their place. Bit by bit the body becomes more ours. to the world we look like the person we took over, but you managed to see through that.”
“Why her? Why an old lady?”
 She laughed at that. “Why not an old lady? Who would suspect us?”
There was something in the way she said it that made me wonder if she was lying. Maybe they could only take over old people. Maybe they put up less of a fight.
“What are you going to do with me? My mother’s is going to notice I’m missing. She’ll call the police and they’ll lock you away.”
 Gran threw her head back and laughed. “Really? If the police came do you really think they would suspect little old me?”
 No, they wouldn’t. Why would they? She was an old lady with a bum hip, and I was her wayward granddaughter who didn’t want to be here in the first place.
 “Are you going to kill me?” I had to know.
 Gran arched an eyebrow. “It’s yet to be decided. I’ll see what the others say when they get back.”
 The door bang shut above us.
 “Speak of the devil.”
 Linda and Ethel clattered down the stairs together.
 “Well?” Gran asked.
 “We’ve been speaking to a few people and according to them she went into the library. She spoke to some man.”
 Gran looked over at me. “Care to explain?”
 What was I going to tell them? I didn’t want to send them after some innocent guy who was just trying to help me.
 “I was just…I just asked about hag stones, that’s all. I didn’t tell him anything else.”
 They looked at each other probably trying to decide whether I was telling the truth or not.
Gran motioned to the stairs and they made their way back up. No doubt to decide what happened to me.
 Shut away again in the dark, I started to cry.
 
9  
I could hear the muted voices of the woman upstairs as they discussed what to do with me. I had to get out.
Pulling harder on the rope, I managed to cut into my skin but I didn’t care. What they would do to me was worse.
 Finally, I yanked my hand free, taking off a layer of skin in the process. Hissing in pain, I cradled my hand to my chest for a moment. Then I started to untie the rope on my other hand. Once I was free, I made my way up the stairs.
 They locked the door. How was I going to get out? There was no other way out of the basement.
I would have to wait until one of them came in and then try and make a run for it. But they were so strong. If they got hold of me…
Heading back down the stairs quietly as possible, I looked for some kind of weapon. Granted didn’t have much in the basement. I found a gardening trowel, a few plant pots and a watering can.
 The trowel would have to do. Taking hold of it, I headed back up the stairs to wait. There was a space to the right of the door. If I hid there in the shadows I might just get a hit off.
The trowel clutched tightly in my hand, I tried to think where to go if I did escape. I couldn’t go to the cops they wouldn’t believe me. What if I tried that Malcolm guy again? Or just left home as fast as possible?
 I have to get out first.
 The sound of footsteps filled the air as one of them headed toward the door. My heart beat loudly in my chest. This was it. If I screwed this up, I was never getting out.
 Pressing myself back into the darkness as far as I could possibly go, I waited.
 The door unlocked.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Linda said.
 She opened the door and took a step inside, her attention on the room behind her.
 Seeing that she was distracted, I launched forward swinging that trowel as hard as I could into her neck. I missed and hit her on the shoulder instead, but it went in, drawing blood.
 She shrieked in pain. I shoved her as hard as I could and ran for the door.
 The other two grabbed at me but they missed. I got outside and just started running with no destination in mind.
 Before I knew it, I was on the beach, where this nightmare started.
 If I could reach the end I’d hit town and then I could try and get to the bus station.
 It was a cold and wet night and there was nobody about. No one to help me.
 Glancing back, I screamed in fright when I realized that the three of them were chasing me. Not only that but they were gaining on me. How were they so fast?
 Throwing everything I had into it, I kept running, head down arms pumping.
Please don’t let him catch me.
 The end of the beach was in sight. Just a few hundred yards more and I’d be free.
 Then they hit me from behind and I went down.
 Twisting in their grasp, I tried to get away, but all three of them piled on me, pressing me into the sand.
 “Help me,” I screamed.
 Ethel slapped her hand over my mouth.
 “What do we do?” she asked.
 “We don’t have a choice. Let’s use your body.”
 “It won’t work. We already know that the young ones don’t take as well. Most of them die.”
 Gran shrugged. “So what? We might as well try then.”
“No,” I said from behind Ethel’s hand. They couldn’t do this. Someone had to be around.
I kicked out, trying to get free.
 Linda held me down as Gran started to chant, raising her hands in the air. A rumble of thunder came from the distance.
Please someone help me.
 Black smoke appeared above me. It circled me slowly and I knew this was it.
Ethel moved back, removing her hand.
 “Please don’t do this,” I sobbed.
 The black smoke launched at me, rushing into my mouth, filling my body. And then I was gone.
 
10  
I opened my eyes to find the others standing over me. Sitting up, my hands went to my chest, feeling my new heart beat.
“It worked,” I breathed.
“This is promising. Now we can take the young too,” Linda said.
Getting to my feet, I tested out my new body. It felt strange, but also good. These mortals didn’t know how good they had it, walking in this world while we had been banished to another realm. We had been trying for years to get a foothold, but now we had more options.
“We need more,” I said.
The voice was strange, but powerful.
“Of course. But we need to be careful. We can’t draw attention to ourselves. This body will be useful in drawing the young,” Ethel said.
“Come, let’s get back to the house.”
We made our way across the beach, while I scanned the horizon, checking that no one had seen us. If they had, I could claim I fainted and my kindly grandmother and her friends were helping me. Humans were so gullible. They bought whatever you told them.
Back at the house, I surveyed the room. These old people lived in such squalor. Well, that would soon change. When our numbers grew, we would take over this pitiful town and then beyond.
Moving to the mirror on the wall, I studied the girl’s face. Innocent looking. No one would suspect her, just like the old people. It made luring them so much easier. Some fought back and we had to be careful until we had the numbers.
The others came into the room behind me.
“How many?” I asked.
“So far we have fourteen in place.”
I hissed. “No. That’s not enough. We need to increase that quickly.”
Linda stepped forward. “We have a couple lined up, but we advise caution. This world…some of the humans notice the change. We don’t want to alert them.”
I spun to face them. Her caution made her weak. We were the superior species.
“The humans are stupid. Even if some of them noticed, no one would believe them. I want a dozen new bodies by morning.”
Linda backed off, but I saw Ethel balk.
“Something to say?” I asked.
Ethel cleared her throat. “We have been working on this plan for months, you can’t come in here and…”
I threw out my hand toward her and Ethel stopped talking. She started to choke, clawing at her throat. The other two quickly backed away.
“Does anyone else want to question me?” I asked.
They shook their heads. I released Ethel and she fell to her knees.
“If we increased numbers, we can take this town in days, not months. Especially now we know we can take the young bodies too.”
“What if they start dying though? She might be a fluke.”
I smirked at her.
“That’s too bad. The humans have had this place long enough. We will take control. Let’s get to work.”

USA Today Bestselling Author S. K. Gregory writes urban fantasy, paranormal romance and horror stories. Rarely seen without a pen in her hand, she loves writing about supernatural worlds and the creatures that live within them.
An avid reader and chocoholic, she has been creating fantasy worlds since she was a child. When she isn’t writing, S. K. enjoys binge-watching her favorite shows and hanging out with family and friends.
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CHILLS & THRILLS VOL 2