Episode 2 - Chapter 64

“Don't worry,” chirps Rose, “It's odourless. Wont do any damage at all.”

“Nevertheless,” counters Mary, “I'd rather be consulted before you start setting fires in my home.”

“I am sorry,” says Rose. “But I will do whatever I must in your home to restore the balance. That lot of rubbish was playing merry hell with the readings.”

“Does that mean you know what to do?” Fiona asks.

“Yes. Yes it does. But I'm going to have to get a second opinion. Stick to protocol and all that. He should be here soon.”

Episode 2 - Chapter 63

“What was that?” asks Mary.

“I'm not sure. A cave of some sorts.” she replies. “I'd rather we keep it between ourselves.”

“It is...” “...a doorway...” say the cats, together “...to the Weave.”

“Well we're definitely keeping this to ourselves.”

Downstairs, she finds Rose putting the artefacts into the biscuit tin. Producing a vial from her pocket, she soaks everything in a green liquid, before sprinkling over a little powder from an ornate snuff box. As the power hits, the artefacts incinerate.

“Hey” shouts Mary, following her. “Take that smoke outside!”

Episode 2 - Chapter 62

Fiona reels backwards with dizziness, as if blasted by a harsh gust of wind. The sing-song voice dances in her head, returning just as abruptly as it had departed the very moment she opened the door. She staggers a little before recovering her balance.

“No, not at all,” she says, pushing back the hanging coats. Behind the coats, she reveals the walls of a cave, illuminated by a Victorian gas street light.

Quickly, she closes the door and turns to Mary. “We can't...”

“...tell Rose.” Mary finishes her sentence.

Quietly they steel themselves, and prepare to head back downstairs.

Episode 2 - Chapter 61

She stands in the childhood bedroom of her husband, the room where she was born. In her hand, the block of wood, its grain shifting and turning to form an arrow that points at the antique wardrobe.

“What does it mean?” Mary asks her.

“I don't know,” she replies, “but there's only one way to find out.” With that, she reaches out and opens the door, stepping back quickly.

Inside, the contents of an old wardrobe hang innocently: coats that haven't seen daylight for years, shoes no longer in fashion or favour.

“Oh,” says Mary. “That's disappointing.”

Episode 2 - Chapter 60

...how do you free a place that's not there...

...a girl from two worlds can't hear the voice

met thorny stranger with difficult choice

now silence torments her, a slippery slope

yet the girl from two worlds might still find hope...

...if a place is not there then who's left to care...

...fractures appear in played out charade

truths held back from spotlight's parade

mysteries kept by every player

secrets and lies, layer by layer...

...indeed who could care for a place that's not there...

...a house filled with questions, riddled with fear

searching for answers as danger draws near...

Episode 2 - Chapter 59

The four of us entered the back bedroom together, the cats becoming human as we did.

The air in there felt different, alive with possibility. Otherwise, the room looked exactly as it always did: bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“Well?” I asked the cats. “What's there to see?”

Before they could answer, Fiona gasped, startled. “What the...?” she asked, reaching into her jacket pocket, producing Raven's block of wood.

“Oh my,” she said, showing it to me. The grain of wood was moving, forming an arrow that pointed to the wardrobe.

Episode 2 - Chapter 58

When she looked at me, my blood ran cold and dread filled me. I hadn't liked him, but Raven had at least tried to be human, to give us some comfort. Looking into Rose's eyes, I saw something else entirely, and it wasn't human. I realised Mum was right, she didn't care about what had happened to us.

Dad picked up on it too, I think, suddenly looking nervous and edgy. “If you're finished in here,” he said to her “I'll show you the study.”

As they left the kitchen I wondered what we were going to do.

Episode 2 - Chapter 57

“So this residual energy that remains, how do you get rid of it?” I asked.

“Well first,” Rose replied, “I have to find where it's strongest.” She went back to examining the kitchen and tutting.

“But what happens when you've done that?” Robert asked, touching her arm.

She froze at his touch, staring at his hand with a withering glare. He quickly removed it.

Her gaze moved to his face. “Not sure yet. As I said, this is new. Don't worry, I'll think of something. The balance will be restored and the Warp will be safe!”

Episode 2 - Chapter 56

At the top of the stairs, I found Fiona whispering with the cats.

“What are you three doing, skulking up here?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

The cats circled each other, and Fiona, weaving through her legs, brushing her calves.

“It's okay,” she whispered, softly stroking their heads. “You can trust Mary.”

“Something...” “...in there,” shooting glances towards the back bedroom, “...bad lady...” “...not to see.”

“Bad lady?” I asked.

“They mean Rose,” Fiona replied.

“That's Robert's old bedroom,” I said.

Fiona smiled with a hint of sadness. “And the room where I was born.”

Episode 2 - Chapter 55

“Can you tell us what's going on?” I asked as I walked into the kitchen. “Why is the house rippled with the Weave.”

Rose stopped and sighed pointedly.

“Please,” I pleaded, “This is confusing for us.” I nodded at Dad.

“We might be able to help if we knew more,” he added.

She sighed again, but relented. “This place hasn't just been touched by the Weave, its been to the very heart of it. The house absorbed that energy like a sponge, and that energy remained when the house was returned to the Warp.”

Episode 2 - Chapter 54

“I'm done down here,” Rose said. “Shall we move on to the kitchen?”

I followed her up the stairs into the kitchen, where she began tutting and poking once more.

“This compass,” I said, “How does it work?”

“What?” She was annoyed that I was asking, but she stopped for a moment. “Do you know what a geiger counter is?”

I nodded.

“The energy of the Weave, the imagination, is like radiation vibrating. The compass picks up on those vibrations, shows me where they are strongest.”

As she finished speaking, Robert walked in.

Episode 2 - Chapter 53

This Rose was bothering me. Raven had made me feel he'd come to help us, as a family, because we'd been attacked. I didn't get the same sense from Rose. She certainly lacked his charm.

“Where's Fiona,” I asked, when I realised she'd left the room.

“Bathroom,” my son replied.

“I think I might have a little word. Stay here,” I said, “And try and keep Rose distracted.”

“But...” he began to reply before I touched his arm and met his eye.

“Please, for me. Just for a minute or two.”

I headed upstairs.

Episode 2 - Chapter 52

Dad was downstairs with Rose while the three of us remained in the living room. Mum was clearly upset, while Fiona looked shifty.

Abruptly, she stood up. “Just nipping to the bathroom,” she said, and left the room.

Mum grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I don't like this Rose character,” she said, “She's not like Raven.”

“She's here to help, mum,” I tried to reassure her.

“No” she hissed in reply, “Raven came to help. To her, it's something different. She thinks we're part of the problem. I don't trust her, not at all.”

Episode 2 - Chapter 51

I led Rose downstairs to the cellar.

“It's a bit of a mess, I'm afraid” I said, moving boxes of kid's toys and redundant kitchen gadgets. “I keep meaning to have a clear out, but you know how it is.”

“Not really, no” she replied, totally disinterested. “But don't worry about me.”

So I stood by, useless, while she huffed and tutted her way round the boxes and old furniture, tapping the clock from time to time.

“How does the watch help?” I asked.

“It's not a clock, it's a compass of the unreal.”

Episode 2 - Chapter 50

...if a place that is no place is some place after all...

...a house in two places is nowhere at all

a bridge between truth and tales oh so tall

there's little comfort with this help at hand

to aid shattered kin, this family unmanned...

...then who can say where this place might be...

...where once there was conflict now there is calm

a bridge between dreams riddled with harm

its woes far from over, its peace not yet met

fate hangs in the balance of shadow and debt...

...when plans are afoot to set this place free...

...suspicions abound for a family ne'er lost

still its unclear just who'll count the cost...

Episode 2 - Chapter 49

He stops at that. “That can't be right, I was elsewhere before I was here.”

Whispered hisses surround him, getting louder, phrases that he can't quite hear coming from every direction.

Something brushes against his skin, cold as the grave. He turns, and turns again, becoming disorientated.

A final turn and it's before him, long fangs glint.

He gasps, staggering backwards. The creature is upon him, foul breath suffocating him. He knows he's done for, when a whip cracks above his head and the creature vanishes.

“Well now tinkerer, how did you get lost in a recurring dream?”

Episode 2 - Chapter 48

“What happens if I stop?”

“The creature can see you.”

“And that's bad, is it?”

“Yes, sir. If it can see you, it'll try and eat you.”

“Ah, I see. And what is this creature?”

“It's my Dad, sir. Back from the war.”

“Which war would that be?”

“The Great War, sir.”

“Can you be more specific? There have been many 'great' wars.”

“The war against the darkness.”

“I see. Tell me, do you know where this corridor leads?”

“Leads, sir? Doesn't lead anywhere. There's only the corridor.”

Episode 2 - Chapter 47

A child's whistle, to be exact, slightly breathy and out of tune. He stops to listen closer, but the whistling stops too.

“Hello?” There's no reply, but all around him whispers hiss in the dark. He knows there's something there, even if he can't see it.

He sets off walking again with the same steady pace. Moments later, the whistling returns.

“Hello? Can you hear me?” He keeps walking.

The whistling stops. A child's voice replies. “Yes, sir.”

He's about to stop when the voice comes again, panicked. “Don't stop, sir. You have to keep walking.”

Episode 2 - Chapter 46

As is the door he just came through.

“Bugger this,” he says to himself, starting to look for a way out. It's only then that he realises there are no doors, just an endless corridor. He pulls back a curtain, but there are no windows, only more wood panels.

Something whispers in his ear, a phrase he can't quite hear. He knows as he turns there will be nothing to see.

“Right then,” he says, “If that's the game.” He sets off walking in one direction at a steady, even pace.

After a while, he hears whistling.

Episode 2 - Chapter 45

“Here we go again,” he mumbles to himself before taking a deep breath and pushing his way through the door....

….into a dark hallway extending endlessly before him. The walls are lined with mahogany panels, portraits of imperious men look down upon him. The floorboards creak as he walks down the hall, curtains flap in a breeze, shadows loom. He has the feeling of absolute certainty that he is being watched.

“Hello?” he calls out. “Anybody there? I'm not here to hurt you.”

Behind him, something hisses and slithers, but is gone when he turns.

Episode 2 - Chapter 44

“We've tried that before, more than once. You do remember the Nazarene carpenter, or that funny little painter from Austria.”

“We want to help them. Their dreams grow so dark.”

“That's what you do to them. With you, they dream bigger dreams, those dreams become machines and wars. They destroy their home, and ours. If you want to help them, leave them be!”

“Fine then, have it your way. Go see more of the wonders.”

The thin man disappears, his surroundings dissolve away to white nothingness, leaving only him, the chair he sits on, and a door.

Episode 2 - Chapter 43

He sighs, for this is not the first time this conversation has occurred. “It is war,” he agrees, “but not one born of hate or greed. It is a war for survival, the survival of the Warp.”

“But we in the Weave mean the Warp no harm. Nor to the Forest.”

“It's not what you mean that counts. It's what you do.”

“What is it that the Weave does? We speak to their dreams!”

“What you do is change the natural order!”

“Then how do we help them. The Forest could show us!”

Episode 2 - Chapter 42

The water ripples and swirls, giving way to the image of his previous self, clad in a toga.

“Make no mistake,” he hears himself speak, “We are at war here, only total victory can save us.”

The thin man snaps his fingers, and the bowl disappears. “See? War. We have studied war. War is born of greed and hate. Is the Forest greedy for the Weave?”

“Don't be so ridiculous!”

“Which leaves us with hate!” The thin man beams, like a child that's just won a penny at the Fair. “Your own words prove it true.”

Episode 2 - Chapter 41

He looks up from his coffee, letting the question hang in the air. He smiles. “Is it that time already?”

Sitting opposite is a remarkably thin but unexpectedly tall gentleman in a 1920's suit and bowler hat. “When will you answer my question? Why does the Forest hate us?”

“This again, is it? The Forest does not hate, but it must oppose you.”

“But you yourself have called it a war, have you not?”

“Not that I remember”

The thin man places a bowl on the table, fills it with water and sprinkles it with dust.

  

Episode 2 - Chapter 40

...a place that is no place has been no place too long...

...somewhere so ancient reborn every day

the wisest of counsel might still loose their way

enemies meet like never before

civilized chit chat replacing cold war...

...begging the question how does no place become some place...

...where swirling tales and lies so bold

meet cold hard fact and truth be told

who can find agreement then

when common term's beyond their ken...

...or a place that is no place be no place at all...

...there can surely be no answers here

where all can talk while none can hear...