Calabella – Part 5

Forgetting all about the strange thing at the window, Calabella had fallen deep into a dream and, at first, it was a happy dream of she and her father and her mother all living joyfully together in their big new house with the bright summer sun shining outside and the sound of the pretty birds singing in the trees.

But then, all of a sudden, every window in that house started to turn black like bottled ink and, instead of the sound of birds there was only the sound of baying wolves and the howling wind and then her smiling mother and father were nowhere to be seen but there was an old woman; the same frightening woman whom Calabella had seen at her father’s funeral, dressed from head to foot in black with that same burning hatred in her eyes and a wicked, ice-cold grin upon her lips. Then Calabella felt the old woman seize hold of her arm and she screamed while, infront of her, two demon children dressed like little aristocrats danced round and round, giggling fiendishly.

“Wake up, Calabella”, said her father, standing over her bed.

Calabella opened her eyes and saw the ghost in the white suit that she had seen earlier in the graveyard but now the rose in his lapel was made of glistening gold and she wasn’t afraid of him.

“Wake up”, he said again, “My wife and her monstrous children will be coming soon. Riding upon the wind but don’t worry. I am here to protect you”.