ONE NIGHT



He was just sitting quietly reading in his study, when suddenly they came. Voices. Layer upon layer. They said 'go downstairs, to the cellar.' 'Hurry!' they whispered urgently, 'and pull up the rug and the floor boards underneath.' Hundreds of soft feathery voices urging him on. 'Find the box, take out the leaf , then run into the woods.' Scrambling down the stairs, into the cellar he went. Up came the rug and the boards. A small wooden box with a coppery green clasp he found, and inside a small red leaf. 'Run, run'. Their words pressing gently onto his ears like hundreds of tiny cushions. 'Put the leaf into your mouth and run to the woods.' He ran. 'They are waiting for you, they are waiting.'

He was never found.