The young girls eyes fluttered, then opened. At first glazed, they began to clear as she sat up and scanned the unfamiliar room. It was cool and dark, the only light seeped in around the edges of a heavy curtain that hung in the one large window, the white walls seemed to softly glow in the strange half-light. She looked down at herself and the bed she had woken in, it seemed a little like her old cot, only the bed was much longer and the sides were much lower. She lifted her hand to brush the dark, tangled hair from her eyes and was surprised to find her arm covered in scratches and partially bandaged, her entire body ached and she lay back and closed her eyes.
When she awoke again there was a young woman standing beside her bed, she was a tall woman with long blonde hair, her pale blue uniform accentuated her summery tan. The smiling stranger identified herself as nurse Emeline and asked her name. She sat silently, studying the nurses face, her large brown eyes peering up into nurse Emeline's kind blue ones.
"Are you hungry, sweetheart?" Emeline asked, pushing a tray toward her with one hand and removing the lid with the other. The food didn't look very good but it smelled nice and she was a little hungry. She pushed the peas around the plate with her fork for a minute before picking up a piece of bread and tearing a corner off to dip in the gravy that covered the small piece of unknown meat on the plate. She hesitantly raised the bread to her lips and looked up at the nurse whose eyes had not for a second left the small girls face. Smiling her kind smile, she gently nodded to the girl, encouraging her to try the food. Her tiny pink tongue poked partially out between her lips and tasted the tiniest bit of gravy before she daintily put the morsel into her mouth, she chewed and swallowed, the gravy tasted quite good... wonderful actually, and she realised that was not just a little hungry, she was, in fact, starving! She began by devouring the peas and mashed potato, then moved on to the meat and gravy, none of it was very warm but she really didn't care. Once the plate of food was empty she moved onto the small container of jelly and fruit that sat beside it, it was delicious, just like the ones she sometimes took to pre-school with her. She looked cautiously up at nurse Emeline, still standing beside the bed, hand folded in front of her, smiling down at the ravenous little girl. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could a man enetered the room.

They walked on through the marketplace. People began to stare and whisper, some tried asking sergeant Johnson what was going on but he shrugged them aside, for no conscious reason adopting the girls silence. A few of the onlookers began to tag along. They reached the other side of the marketplacewithout event and she continued on, after another two blocks she veered off to the right and began to climb a hill, at the top of the hill was the small town cemetery. Now beginning to fear the girl could be in some kind of shock, the old sergeant called to her again, again there was no response. He quickened his pace and placed a hand on her shoulder as Clancy had done, still nothing. The hill was quite steep and the sergeant was becoming out of breath as he kept up with the girl, "I'm too old for this." he thought for the first time as he plodded along beside her. In one last ditch effort, he bent down and scooped her up into his large arms. As soon as her feet left the ground she began to scream, a horrible piercing scream that sent shivers down his spine. Her face twisted in a mask of terror and she beat against him furiously with tiny hands and feet. Fearing this new state to be worse that the previous one he set her back on her feet. As instantly as she had started, she stopped screaming and resumed walking, her face blank and unreadable. By this time she had gathered a small crowd of curious and concerned town folk (although the sergeant thought it was probably more of the former than the latter) All of them whispering among themselves, speculating the young girls case.

The cemetery caretaker was sitting in the shade of a large tree, sipping from a thermos of coffee and enjoying his packed lunch when the strange procession came marching through the old cemetery gates. First the girl, with her tattered and dirty night shirt and blood smeared face, then the sergeant, now red faced and out of breath, and lastly the towns folk, all whispering and craning to see what was happening. She followed perfectly the winding paths of the old cemetery until, at the very back, she stopped in front of a grave with a large angel statue, dropped to her knees and then lie down... within minutes she was softly snoring.

Chapter 1

Two elderly ladies sat in their garden enjoying their morning tea in the early autumn sunshine when they saw the young girl with her wet, dirty nightshirt clinging all around and blood seeping from the countless scratches and wounds on her arms, legs and feet, staring blindly and treading steadily along the main road leading into the small town of Tawry. At first simply concerned for the childs safety, they called for her to come off the road.She did not answer, didn't pause for a second. Fearing she may be lost one of the women hurried to follow her while the other went inside to call the police. Upon catching up to the walking girl, she gently placed a hand on her shoulder, without so much as a flinch the girl walked on. The woman stepped in front of her and opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again as her eyes met the blank glazed eyes of the young child. shuddering she stepped aside again as her friend called to her from the veranda.

"The police are on their way Clancy.... Clancy? Are you okay?" She felt a sinking feeling in her middle as she registered the look of horror on her best friends face.

By the time Sergeant Johnson found the girl there had been two more reports and she had walked half way across town and was nearing the marketplace. The old sergeant, afraid of losing her in the crowd if she made it into the marketplace, wound his window down and pulled up beside her.

"Are you lost?" He asked, "Do you need any help?" Failing to attract her attention, he got out of the car and began to follow her. It was easy to keep up with her steady pace and he knew the area well. As he walked he pondered the silent child, could she be blind? Deaf? Intellectually disabled? He studied the scratches that covered her bare limbs and wondered how far she had walked, surely someone, somewhere was missing her. Why hadn't they reported it? And those eyes... Alien, and yet somehow so familiar.

Intro

A small, pale child walks along an overgrown path wearing nothing but her white cotton nightshirt. Her wide eyes search blindly in the darkness while her tiny outstretched arms feel her way through the undergrowth. Branches whip and grab at her soft, bare skin and she leaves behind a small trail of footprint smeared with blood.

Breaking out of the trees on the edge of the forest, she finds herself in a large open field. Without looking around her direction shifts slightly and she continues on, her footsteps beating a steady rhythm on the frosty grass. She steps over rocks and around fallen branches without so much as a glance, almost as though an unseen force guides her through the darkness.

On and on she walks. Around her the darkness gives way to dawn, the fog begins to lift, the rough path ahead of her becomes visible and still she stares blindly as if in total darkness.