Monster by C.J. Skuse Page B

Apothecary, didn’t you?’
    We nodded.
    ‘I heard the screams. Farmers round here been moanin’ about the bloody thing for generations, but nothing gets done. Cos it’s not very often, you see. Only every now and again it’ll turn up. Took them two on the moors in the summer, and that walker last winter. Loads more gone missing. Visitors. Tourists. But you can set your watch by it coming at Christmas. He goes for the turkeys, cos there’s so many of ‘em about.’
    ‘Could it be a fox?’ Charlie suggested, putting the last of Dianna’s own goods, including shaving foam, in a carrier bag and asking her for the £26.48 she owed him.
    ‘A fox can’t bite a turkey in half, my love.’
    ‘It bit a turkey in half?’ said Dianna.
    Mrs Renfield shook her head. ‘Not just one. Dozens. Don’t you get talkin’ to my old Henry about no foxes. My Henry saw that evil thing with his own two eyes not five winters past. Hasn’t slept a full night ever since.’
    ‘What did it look like?’ Regan persisted. ‘Was it black? Is it as big as they say? Did it have evil red eyes?’
    ‘Bigger. And blacker,’ said Mrs Renfield. ‘They say the eyes are as red as cherries.’
    I had a bad taste in my mouth. She was wrong. I wanted to argue. Its eyes weren’t red; they were yellow. Golden yellow. Quite beautiful. But I said nothing.
    ‘It starts when you don’t hear the birds any more,’ Mrs Renfield continued. ‘Then there’ll be the footprints in the snow. Then they’ll go missing, one by one.’
    I felt sick. ‘Oh my God.’ I held on to the counter and put my basket on top so Charlie could start ringing my and Maggie’s stuff through.
    ‘Who will go missing?’ asked Regan, in a state of near desperation by this point.
    Charlie totted up Regan’s shopping, bagged it up and held it out for her, but she didn’t take it from him—too busy salivating over every detail. ‘Here you go.’
    ‘I’ve found things,’ she told the old woman. ‘Up at the school, in the woods. I think they’re signs the Beast is around.’
    ‘What sort of things you found then?’ the old woman croaked.
    ‘Severed limbs and animal entrails. I’ve found three now—a spine, a sheep’s carcass and some innards.’
    Dianna frowned, changing her heavy-looking carrier bag between her hands. ‘What were you doing up in the Landscape Gardens, Regan? They’re out of bounds at the moment. You were there in Prayers when Mrs Saul-Hudson said.’
    ‘It is weird though,’ said Charlie. ‘We’ve had a couple of carcasses go missing from the bins out the back. Not just taken either, ripped from bin bags. Normally we’d blame badgers or something but …’
    ‘… but you think it could be the Beast?’ said Dianna.
    Charlie shrugged. ‘It’s possible.’
    ‘Why would it take carcasses all the way from here up to Bathory Woods? It’s miles away,’ said Dianna. ‘Why not just eat them here? That doesn’t make any sense.’
    ‘Because his lair’s up there!’ Regan shouted. ‘I know it is!’
    ‘Oh calm down, Regan,’ said Dianna. ‘You’re acting like a baby. The Beast of Bathory is a myth. Even the Pups and the Tenderfoots don’t believe in all that guff.’
    Regan got right up in Dianna’s face. She said, very slowly, ‘There is something in those woods. Something living. I’ve heard it. I’ve found things.’
    ‘For goodness’ sake …’
    ‘I’m going to find it, Dianna.’
    ‘Oh yes, Regan, I’m sure you are.’
    I could have told everyone I’d seen it too, backed her up. Regan knew it and I knew it.
    She was standing her ground pretty well though. ‘I will find it and I’ll show all of you. Even if I have to camp out in those woods I’ll find it. I’ll show you.’
    Dianna glared at her. ‘You’re not camping in those woods. Mrs Saul-Hudson said that whole area is out of bounds over Christmas. Nash has put the signs up.’
    ‘I will if I have to.’ Regan shrugged.
    ‘You’re not, Regan. I’m warning