Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Wednesday evening

Dear Eliza Rainie,

This letter should have made its way to you after my death. I hope it arrived sealed. I have sent you this because something happened when you were four. You may have forgotten about it. In any case we never spoke about it after it happened. I feel you need to know what happened, even if it was a long time ago. I have kept this secret to protect you from them. Now that I’m gone revealing the truth is all the protection I can give you in case you ever were to meet one of them again. If this letter should reach you before I’m dead, then something has gone seriously wrong and I can only apologise. I have let you down. I wasn’t vigilant enough. In that case you better hide baby girl.

When you were four you met a mysterious girl in the woods near your home. Dheera was her name and she was probably a little older than you are. Age is different where she is from, so it was hard to tell. In any case she was still young. She befriended you, however it wasn’t a real friendship as she needed something from you. At first she managed to get you into lots of mischief, mostly involving midnight ‘adventures’ (your words). You would often climb out of your bedroom window to take night time strolls in the wood and meet up with Dheera. Your parents caught you a few times before going into the woods or upon your return, you could never remember a thing about it and so your parents blamed the nighttime escapes on sleepwalking. I suspected differently.  They moved your bedroom to the attic. As you couldn’t reach the Velux windows, you stayed safely indoors. Well that’s what your parents thought. One night, after your grandmother Rose had taken a turn for the worse I spent a few nights at your parents’ house. The hospital had to be able to reach me and you know my aversion to telephones and mod cons. I watched you, as much as I could and found you often wandering outside. I have no idea how you escaped your bedroom, but it was definitely not by walking through your bedroom door and down the stairs. I followed you and that’s when I met your imaginary friend Dheera. She wasn’t imaginary at all. I could see her clearly, everything except for her feet. I thought she had spotted me, but she never acknowledged my presence that night. She was quite bossy with you and she gave you various dares. Innocent ones at first. Almost as if she was testing you. You seemed to trust her utterly and completely and didn’t have a clue that the things she made you do were increasingly dangerous.

After that night I moved into the spare room permanently so to keep a better eye on you and Dheera. I didn’t trust the girl, she reminded me of someone I used to know. It wasn’t long after that when you started talking about seeing some Standing stones. I suspected Dheera had put you up to it and tried to convince your parents not to take you. Your parents relented, because they already had to cancel their holiday plans because of Rose’s illness and took you and Toby to Coldrum Longbarrow. You had packed a little rucksack. I sneaked a peak and saw it contained an exquisitely decorated blue egg and your plastic spade. The moment we arrived at the carpark nearest to the stones and you were helped out of your car seat you ran off. Your father ran after you, but you were too quick. It was unreal how quickly you got away and I have never seen you run so fast since.  When we arrived at the stones, you were sitting quietly on the mound near a tree and said you had saved us a good spot for the picnic. There was no sign of your rucksack and when I asked you about it, you said so convincingly that you had not taken the bag with you, that I believed you left it in the car, too keen to see the stones. After lunch you and Toby explored the area and then your parents got the kites and you all went flying. I don’t know how it happened, but I dozed off. When I woke up your parents were frantic. You had disappeared. Another visitor thought he had seen you had gone inside the stone circle, but when your father looked there was no trace of you or anyone else for that matter. Police were called and the fire brigade. They arrived the moment the stones, which had been standing upright for five thousand years, toppled over. Just like that. It wasn’t even windy. Everyone was evacuated from the site. Your mother refused to go, she wasn’t going to leave you behind. She fought tooth and nail to stay on site. The police had to escort her back to the car. We followed and when we arrived you were already there.  You couldn’t explain how you got there or how long you’d already been there. Your parents were so relieved to have you back safe and sound they didn’t question you much.

The next morning you announced you no longer wanted to be called Eliza. Instead we were to use your middle name, Rainie.  Your parents were indulgent enough to accept it and go through with it. But that was not the strangest thing. When I wondered out loud during breakfast what had toppled the stones over I just got blank stares from everyone. When I reminded them it had happened while you were lost they asked me if I was alright. Honestly! I am still cross about it after all this time. It was as if their memories were wiped, even Toby’s, but not yours. I could tell you remembered everything and were hiding your secret well. I questioned you privately, but never got to the bottom of it. After a few months you seemed to have forgotten all about it too.

Beware of mysterious people in the woods Eliza. Do not trust them. Do not engage with them. Stay clear and run home as fast as you can. 

Your loving Grandfather, George.

Rainie was feeling lots of emotions at the same time. Stunned and in disbelief. Surely this never happened. Her parents would never have forgotten such an important event. It was just ridiculous. The emotions of losing a child would be stronger than any memory manipulation. Right? If not, Dheera had some answers to give. On the other hand, George had been full of anger, almost venomous towards Dheera. She also felt a deep sadness for the loss George was still feeling, although surprised he would blame an imaginary, or not so imaginary friend. She decided to go down and talk to George.

George had been tidying up and cleaning frantically while Rainie had been up in her room, he always did when he was angry or nervous. He had never spoken to anyone but Rose about his brother Harry and wasn’t sure if he could talk about it now with Rainie. Or even wanted too. My little brother disappeared at Stonehenge many years ago. He too wanted to see the stones and he too had an imaginary friend. The three of us used to played together for a while, but I didn’t like her very much. Dheera reminded me of her. I’m certain she caused the trouble at the Stones. His parents had never believed it had been Harry’s friend behind it all. Would Rainie react differently, or were his parents right. Was he just delusional, an old fool. He hadn’t heard Rainie come down, or enter the kitchen and her sudden appearance had given him a fright. She wasn’t very happy though, George could tell.

“What do you want me to do with this?” Rainie waved the letter above her head, her voice raised.

“This cannot have happened, we would all have remembered and mum would never have let me out of her sight again!”

George paced the room, holding his hands to stop them from shaking. “You have to believe me. Please Rainie.” He begged. “Promise me not to seek out Dheera. Promise me you will not talk to her.” Rainie couldn’t believe what she heard. “Grandpa what is really going on here?” Rainie said in despair.

“She is dangerous. She will kill you” George replied with passion. Had George lost her mind completely? Without saying a word, Rainie turned around and went back to her room.