Third Interlude - Part Four

Fox picks up another notebook, pausing for a moment to study the child's apparent indifference to its departure. She looks at the page, compares it with the first and frowns.

“Not good,” she says.

“What's not good? Are you from Ofsted?” Ms Firnley asks as Fox walks away from her, towards the children sat at computers.

“Look, you can't just walk in here...”

“Shush,” says Fox in a commanding voice, coming to a sudden halt. She returns to the children scribbling away on bare table, sliding their notebooks back under moving pens. “We can't be too careful,” she whispers.

Third Interlude - Part Three

 “Who the blazes are you?” Ms Firnley demands, turning to face a tall thin woman in her early thirties with mesmerizingly long red hair and green eyes.

“Sorry. Did I startle you? I was just on my way in when I heard the furore.”

“And you are?”

“Oh yes, sorry. Call me Fox.” She extends her hand. “Head office should have told you I was coming? For the inspection? And by your face I can see that they didn't. Never mind, let's pretend you were expecting me.”

She takes the child's notebook from Ms Firnley's hands with ease. “Now, what's all this then?” Her eyes dart across the page. “Ooh, tricky.”

Third Interlude - Part Two

Deciding to take control of the situation, Ms Firnley taps her pen on the desk.

“Listen to me , children” she says loudly. “I want you all to stop what you're doing and listen to me.”

The children continue their scribbling and tapping, seemingly oblivious to her words. She tries again. “Stop what you're doing and pay attention!”

No response. Irritated by their studiousness, she picks up a book and slams it down, but to no effect.

“What are you all writing?” she mutters, exasperated, picking up one of the children's jotters. The child doesn't notice, continuing scribbling on the desk.

Examining the page, Ms Firnley sees unfamiliar hieroglyphics, arranged in patterns.

“That looks interesting,” says a woman's voice over her shoulder.

Third Interlude - Part One

It's 9.45 on a beautiful spring morning and Ms Firnley is not happy. It's bad enough that her new teaching assistant, Mrs Riley, has inexplicably failed to arrive at work, leaving her to supervise thirty eight children. But what's worse is Ms Firnley cannot help but feel there is something wrong with the children. First day back at school is usually more of an exercise in crowd control than education, but on this morning the children are quiet, studious, scribbling away.

Her consternation is further compounded when playtime comes and goes without a peep from them: no shouting or clamouring for attention, they just continue scribbling while four of their number tap away at the schools computers.

Episode 3 - Chapter 100

So now a rescue is on its way, to rescue the rescue that's rescued today.

Oh what a pickle, a fine mucky sickle, a trail of woes and sticky black toes and who's got the nose for the future's prose?

As if you'd expect this place to make sense, some folk choose action, others the fence, and for those in the middle it's going to get tense.

Trouble is coming, it's not far away, make ready for war and a roll in the hay...

...and then there'll be me, the end of the day.

Episode 3 - Chapter 99

They are almost identical in every way.

One of them steps forward and bows. “Larry Johann,” all three of them say together.

He's quickly followed by a second, “Curly Baptist,” bowing even lower, before the last of them curtsies, “Mo Strauss.” Each time all three mouths speak the words, but only one voice.

Despite everything, Fiona cannot help but giggle.

“I am most pleased to meet you all,” she tells them through chuckles.

“Quickly now,” says Larry, “We must be away.”

“And how do we get out?”

“Through the secret door at the back of the closet, the one monsters use to enter children's rooms.”

Looking into the wardrobe, Fiona sees a door.

Episode 3 - Chapter 98

“Okay, and you?”

“We are Johann Baptiste Strauss, we accompanied you at the market.”

“No, he was a tall thin guy, not three short guys.”

In a single, fluid movement the elevated dwarf moves to stand on just one of his companions, while the third lithely climbs up the other two to take position at the top.  He produces a hat from nowhere which flows and grows, becoming the long coat and hood.  In an instant, Strauss stands before her.

Before she can speak, the hat's coming off again and before she knows it, three little men stand before her once more.

Episode 3 - Chapter 97

Her hands are covering her eyes before she actually realises she can move again.

Sitting up, she uncovers her eyes. In front of her, by the light switch, one dwarf stands on the shoulders of two others.

“What the devil,” she says, before she can think.

“We must be quick.” All three speak in one voice, the voice of Strauss. “They will come soon.”

“Who are you?” Fiona asks, still not sure what she's looking at. “And how come I can move.”

“This is a form of dream prison. It is broken when something happens.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 96

It takes an age for the door to open, the darkness inside expanding as it does. Once the door is fully open, the darkness from the wardrobe begins to fill the room. She can hear movement too, but she can't turn to look. But there is something with more than two feet moving around the room.

She hears a clump, like something had jumped, followed by deep breaths and groans, like an old man lifting a heavy bag.

Without warning there's a click and light floods the room, blinding her.

“Ah, m'lady, we have found you” says the voice of Strauss.

Episode 3 - Chapter 95

The quiet returns. She's sure there's something in the wardrobe, something awful and there's something else, something at the corner of her eye, something here with her and she doesn't know which one will get her first, but they're there and it's only a matter of time because she can't move a muscle and these things can take their time she isn't going anywhere they can get her when they get her because she'll still be there...

...The handle on the wardrobe begins to turn, creaking as it does. A louder creak and the door slowly begins to open.

Episode 3 - Chapter 94

Her eyes fix on the wardrobe, staring, probing it with her vision, waiting for whatever is going to happen next.

There's another crack, quieter than the first, followed by a tearing sound like thick cardboard, and finally the rustling of hangers and clothes. There is definitely something moving in the wardrobe, and that frightens her, but she's shocked to realise she's less frightened than moments before.

Still unable to move, she keeps her eyes locked on the wardrobe door.

There's more noise, the rustling and rummaging of clothes and maybe shoes. She's sure she sees the wardrobe wobble ever so slightly.

Episode 3 - Chapter 93

Her eyes are racing now, not looking at anything while looking at everything. Her breathing gets faster, she'd scream if she could but unable to move she lies there waiting for it to get her. It's going to get her and there's nothing she can do to stop it because its right there, in the room with her, and why would it be there if it hadn't come to get her. Her mind is reeling and her heart racing and she wants to scream and cry and get as far away from here as she can....

….when a loud crack from the wardrobe focuses her attention.

Episode 3 - Chapter 92

If she could turn her head, even a little, she'd be able to see it better. But she knows it's there.

Casting her eyes round the room, she can make out more detail. Ghostly toys are stuffed onto shelves, long shadows point to an open draw, a sock maybe spilling out. The octopus turns out to be a mobile and something has flopped over the top of the wardrobe.

Fiona tries to get her bearings while she tries to turn her head because she knows it's there, right there, in the room with her. She can't see it or hear it or smell it but that's how she knows it's there.

Episode 3 - Chapter 91

The first thing Fiona knows when she regains consciousness is that she can't move except to open her eyes. The room she's in is dark so it's hard to make out any details, but she thinks she may be in a bed, with covers pulled as far as her neck. She tells herself not to panic, taking deep breaths as her eyes adjust to the gloom.

Slowly the darkness gives way to a palette of grey shadows. She begins to make out shapes: a wardrobe, chest of drawers, bookcase, a shadow octopus hangs from the ceiling.

And there's something else. Something at the corner of her eye.

Episode 3 - Chapter 90

 “Surprise me? Yes, and I'd call it a lie.”

“It's true.”

“The Weave never stops, it just keeps coming.”

“But the ancient fears decreed, the Warp is to be left alone. None in the Weave would defy them. What you've dealt with isn't us, but the thinning of the borders between reality and fantasy.”

“Then the Weave remains wild and untamed, despite your best efforts.”

“Sadly, that would seem to be the case.”

“Why have you brought me here?”

“Patience now Corvus, the others will be here soon. Then all will be revealed.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 89

“There is much you'll need to know,” Oak told me, “And little time to tell it. I'm afraid this wont be pleasant.” He placed a bowl in my hands, then his hands on my forehead.

Oak coughed gently, and the bottom fell out of my world. For a second I felt I was plummeting through space before jolting back into my seat. Nausea flooded through my body and I vomited into the bowl.

“Just rest a moment,” he said, taking the bowl from me. “It'll pass soon enough.”

After a moment he spoke again. “Close your eyes and imagine yourself in a meadow.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 88

“Why do you think that?” Oak asked my son.

“I have the strongest emotions for her, which might help,” Robert replied. “And if I get lost, my bond with mum and dad might help me find my way back. Just like Raven used my feelings to bring Fiona back.”

“I'm really not sure that's what happened,” Oak told him, “But your thinking makes sense.” He paused again, thinking, before coming to his decision.

“Very well,” he said. “I will give you until sunrise, though time is different in the Weave. Now sit in that chair and relax.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 87

Oak paused then, considering the idea.

“Please,” I said, taking his hand. “This is our family, what have we got to lose? At least let us try to rescue her and put things right.”

“If two of you were lost in there,” Oak told me, “I'd have no choice but to take the severest measures to close the rift.”

“I understand that,” I replied, “but you have to let us try.”

“Which of you would go?”

I was about to volunteer myself when Robert spoke up.

“I think it makes most sense if I go,” he said.

Episode 3 - Chapter 86

“Then somebody'll have to go and get her,” Dad said.

“Don't be so preposterous,” Oak admonished, “Things have gotten complicated enough.”

“Why not?” I asked. “Summon another agent, get them to bring her back.”

“There are strict limits and protocols when it comes to agents of the Forest entering the Weave, and no way to apply them to this scenario.”

“In what way?” inquired Dad.

“An agent must be invited, which is not the case here, or renounce allegiance to the Forest.”

“Then let one of us go,” Mum suggested.

Episode 3 - Chapter 85

Upstairs I made quick work of clearing out the wardrobe. To be honest, I was glad to be given a simple task and just not think about all that mess for a while. As I pulled out hats and shoes that I'd not seen for decades, never mind years, I couldn't help but laugh.

“We could have a bloody good bonfire,” I said to no one but myself. I left it all neatly piled on the bed.

Back in the living room, everyone was quiet. “What did I miss?” I asked.

“Mister Oak was telling us Fiona may not come back.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 84

Oak wasted no time, dashing upstairs and returning moments later, Fiona in his arms. He laid her body gently on the sofa. “That wardrobe will have to be destroyed,” he said. “Do you want to empty it first?”

“I'll do it,” said Edward, walking towards the stairs.

“Mister Oak,” I started, pausing when I saw the look in his eye. Taking a deep breath I tried again. “Mister Oak, we didn't mean to cause trouble. How can we bring her back.”

“We can't! She comes back when she chooses, if she's able to make a choice.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 83

“A rift?” I asked.

“A permanent tear in reality.”

“What would happen then?”

“There would be no choice, the whole area would have to be cauterised.”

“You mean burned?” Dad was shocked.

“Fire, maybe, as a last resort. Fire's messy, though. Unpredictable. More likely an earthquake or landslide. I'd have to check the geography. Where's the body?”

“What body?” I asked.

“Your wife's body,” he replied.

“We told you, she's in the Weave!”

“The Weave's not a place, lad, it's a state of mind. Her body's still here, somewhere.”

“Upstairs,” Mum told him. “Upstairs in the wardrobe.”

Episode 3 - Chapter 82

“Maybe he has,” my wife said, “But not to us.”

“You know nothing of the struggle that is waged, the measures we must take to keep the balance. In doing this, the girl risks everything. Everything!”

He began pacing again, which was annoying. He was clearly angry, but his aggression had abated.

“I don't see what the problem is,” Robert said.

Oak snapped to halt at that, turning toward him. “The problem,” he said, “Is that she may be unable to return. Which, given her connection to this place, would mean a permanent rift.”