The fiend issues a further incantation and the man is suddenly flexed into a star shape, his eyes remain devoted lovers, tainted with apprehension. She draws the talon down the underside of his fore arm to the elbow, she then draws his arm down and inflicts a further etching to the top of the fore arm mirroring that on the underside.
Another incantation is issued from those too perfect lips with another glyph drawn on air, the skin on the arm peals itself back in slow motion, revealing muscles and tendons below. The man wails in pain and fear, as the ruined skin hangs like a torn shirt cuff at the elbow and seeps blood to the floor below.
I feel the revulsion gain momentum and flee from this replay, vaulting in horror back to my shell.
I become aware again, my disjointed body reflexes in a series of staccato reconnections to each every day sense, as I catch myself before I piss my trousers in fear, I shrink into a foetal crouch on the floor in a pool of night light.
For long moments I huddle there, never have I felt such malignant hate, my bile rises and I am only just able to control the sickness being issued to the floor. I gag for moments, sucking in gasps of air, as my body reflexes with in sheen of cold sweat.
I rise slowly and scan about myself, checking if any one or thing has come back with me, I ground myself quickly and leave the house, hustling along the streets in a quick skittish walk, constantly looking around for signs that the daemon has returned to take me.

New chapter

I closed the latch on the ancient farm door, moving quickly towards the centre of the kitchen area in this big old farm and sat with a heavy abandon causing the chair to voice a reproach at me where it jostled on the worn tiled floor. My hands are clasped and rest heavily on the table in my slouched pose, as I consider my actions.

“ Is that you Gavin, there’s some tea on the stove.” The voice of Lydia calls through the hall way ahead of her.
“ Oh Christ, what has happened.” Lydia retorts as she enters and sees the state I’m in.
“ I went to the Grant’s house to have a poke around, something terrible happened there!” I mutter, looking up to meet Lydia’s eyes.
“Geoff come in here will you, Gavin’s in a right state!” Lydia calls Geoff to our aid.

Geoff came through the same hallway, just squeezing his hulking farm hand frame through the diminutive corridor in a stoop and righted himself as he cleared into the huge kitchen area.
“ What have you been up to now Sparrow?” Geoff asked me, using the nickname he’d applied all those years ago.
“ He went to the Grant house, something’s really shaken him, do you know what you look like Gavin!” Lydia mothered me, as Geoff retrieved three cups of tea from the pot already made on the old range stove.
“ Here you go old son, get some of that down you, you look like a bloody wax work dummy!” Geoff offered me a mug and pulled a chair clear of the table to sit before me.
Lydia lifted her mug and sat on the opposite side of the table forming a triangle of bodies to one end of the ten seater wooden table, her eyes watched mine over the top of her steaming tea.
Both friends left me for a moment to sip the hot sweet brew and gather my thoughts together.

“ I was walking past the Grant house and something felt odd, I got a ‘prime’ to look, some one told me to go in and look, but I wasn’t open, I swear. I didn’t intend to do it alone, I was just following a call on the spur of the moment.”
“ You should have come home first Gavin, then we could have come with you. The Grant house has had a bad aura over it since Mr Grant was blown up by the ball lightning.” Geoff berated me in a concerned manner.
“ I know, I just reacted, thinking it would be a normal communication, his spirit needing help to move on or something. But it wasn’t normal, Geoff he wasn’t killed by lightning, something came across and killed him!” I replied, my eyes meeting Geoff and Lydia’s as my hands drew warmth from the mug of tea.
“ Christ Gavin, what the hell have you been doing?” Geoff asked stoically.
“ I went into the bathroom where he died and the evidence there didn’t add up, so I opened up to see if anyone was present and saw a replay of the night Mr Grant died, it’s imprinted really strongly in the room!” I explained to them both.
“ Go on…” Lydia prompted.

An hour passed as I detailed what had unfolded in the Grant’s bathroom, Geoff and Lydia regularly stopped me to go over a few of the details, until they were both satisfied with my account.
“ You did close yourself down properly didn’t you Gavin?” Lydia checked.
“ I thinks so, but I was pretty shaken up!” I replied.
“ Then we’ll all do it again now, there might be a chance you’ve lead something here!” Geoff stated more in concern than annoyance.
The three of us became quiet, as we all looked inwardly and began to reinforce our shields to the ethereal plains. Some half-hour later we were all still sitting silently, with half drunk mugs of cooling tea sitting on the table still, both Geoff and Lydia had a hand resting on either of my arms…
“ You should have come home Gavin and reported the impulse to go there, we could have sent a team to the house to review the calling.” Lydia lightly berated me, I knew she was right too…
“ Well it’s done now, so lets concentrate on going forward, we need to get the circle together tonight to review the barriers around the farm and to let them all know what has happened, I’ll go and make the calls.” Geoff rationalised for the three of us and rose to make the phone calls.
“ Gavin, you’d best stay here until they all come, in case there’s a response to your ferreting into the Grant house.” Lydia offered.

Lydia was the type of woman who could look plain and at ease in most circles and at her whim be able to transform her appearance in to an almost stunning beauty. Her facial bone structure gave her a haunting beauty, with large green eyes that seemed to take in the whole world, her frame was of a curvy womanly stature, one that she did little to display unless there was a special occasion and then you remembered her for ever.
Lydia had auburn hair, which she kept at shoulder length, and I held a love for her that would never be more than a bench mark for any woman I would ever be attracted to. Lydia was ten years older than I was, but looked my age, Geoff looked younger than his years, but not to the extent that Lydia did.
Lydia and Geoff her partner were my close friends and they knew that I felt this way, something that I had been uncomfortable with admitting to them both, but it had been received in a way that gave me some dignity and had made our bond stronger I suppose.
I guess I would always be like the younger brother to Lydia and Geoff and at times I did feel that gulf between us in life experience and awareness.

“ Lydia, what have I started?” I asked.
“ Gavin, your development in the circle has been meteoric, but your awareness of the big picture has been restricted to what you can handle. There’s a hell of a lot more out there than just messages to receive from those who’ve passed over.” She explained.
“ I know, I know about the rescue circle and all that, but this was something else!” I replied.
“ There are levels of experience and skill, some which are well beyond our development circle and some we won’t go near. What you saw was a daemon to your eyes, it may have been a spirit twisted by pain and frustration, but it may also have been a daemon!” Lydia admitted.
“ But there’s no such…
“ …Thing as daemons!” Lydia finished for me.
“ Gavin, some spirits have been around a long time, some have remained deliberately in the void and have changed beyond all recognition. These souls are invigorated by the psychic energy all living things have, some are drawn to negative energy and some are drawn to the positive energies.
I’ve been told we gave those extreme spirits the title of daemon a long long ago.” Lydia explained
“ How do we deal with this, has any one in the circle dealt with anything like this? I asked.
“ No, no one here has the experience to handle this type of thing, Geoff will have made a call to old George Clay over in Hooley. He’s seen a few things in his time and might be able to give us some direction.” Lydia offered.

“ All the calls have been made, they’ll all be here at about eight tonight, old man Clay will be here about six, as he’s got nothing on for today.” Geoff notified us both.
“ The three of us should rest now, get some sleep before the others arrive, it will be a long one.” Geoff commits us all.
“ You should stay here Gavin, its safer here than back at your flat and you’ll have longer to sleep. You can use one of the spare rooms…” Lydia insists, returning to the stove and refills the kettle for boiling.
“ Okay, I will, thanks. Can I take a shower I’m covered in a cold sweat!”
“ Yeah sure, you know where the towels are and I’ll drop you off some of Geoff’s tighter tops.” Lydia states with a smile.
“ Ta, I’ll still be swamped by them!” I grin lop-sidedly.
“ Geoff would look worse trying to fit in your clothes!” Lydia giggled back, giving life to an image in my mind of Geoff struggling to pull on my jeans and way too short jumper.
“ Get your shower now and I’ll leave the top outside the bath room door, when you get back, I’ll have made some camomile tea to settle down with.” Lydia explained.

After drinking the camomile, I settled down in the small third bedroom, really a box room with just enough room for the queen sized bed and a night side cabinet.
I lay there in my boxers and one of Geoff’s tee shirts that would have swamped Moby Dick, staring up at the old world rough plaster ceiling trying to settle myself in a meditative state, before finally drifting off.
I came too with the sound of voices creeping down the narrow corridor to my door, there were several new voices that I didn’t recognise when I finally managed to fully gain consciousness.
Sitting up and throwing my legs over the bedside I yawned and rose to struggle into my jeans, letting Geoff’s tee shirt drape down loosely to my knees, I looked like some reject skater kid without the big trainers over my bare feet.

Entering into the kitchen I identified the new comers by face, both were new to me and I had no idea what their names were…
“ Ah Gav’, you’re up, this is George Clay and he’s brought a friend called Albert Mayhew with him. Albert has worked with George for a long time and might be able to help us work out what you found.” Lydia introduced them both.
“ Hi, I’m Gavin, Gav’ Keel, sorry to drag you into this mess.” I apologised instinctively.
“ Gavin, you need to talk to people before you go off messing with things, you could have got hurt!” George Clay chastised me by way of his greeting, I nodded solemnly my acceptance of the rebuke.
“ Hello Gavin, don’t mind George, he’s not as gruff as he comes across, let’s see what we can do about this problem when the others arrive.” Albert smiled lightly patting my shoulder.
Geoff passed me a cup of coffee with a tot of brandy in it, smirking at my baggy appearance.
“ You’ll have to eat more Gavin, or the wind will take you off in that shirt!” he grinned, placing an arm over my shoulders and leading me to the big farm table.
I sat where I was coaxed to sit by Geoff’s guidance and sipped at the warmer in my hands, I wasn’t one to drink brandy on its own, but with the coffee it warmed me nicely.
The clock said it was twenty past six in the evening, soon the others would begin to arrive and the table would be full of the members of the development circle who used Lydia and Geoff’s farm as their gathering sanctuary.

By ten past seven there were eleven of us, including two more new faces I’d never met, two old spinsters who lived together up past the stables. Sally and Jessie were their names, both were pleasant enough, if they seemed a little dotty in their out look to the world, I guessed their age gave them the right to be a little eccentric and kooky.
I began to wonder what level of urgency Geoff had issued to the group to gather them here tonight, as it seemed people were popping out of the woodwork and more seats would be needed to accommodate any other arrivals.
At half past seven, the number had risen to thirteen and still there was several of my normal group who had not shown up. I had thought the experience I’d had was bad, but the numbers showing up probably meant that things were worse than I had thought!
Albert must have sensed the increase in my trepidation and rallied my spirits a little…
“ Don’t get too skittish Gavin, there’s plenty hear to deal with this, don’t go getting all withdrawn on us, we need you to explain what you saw and try to open up to the guide us back to where you went.” Albert informed me.
“ What, you want me to go back there!” I replied before I’d even realised I spoken.
“ Yes, Gavin, I’m afraid so. We need to try and review the whole replay and find out as much as we can. We don’t know what we’re dealing with yet.” Claire Meegan, one of our regular senior circle members explained.
“ Try not to worry Gav’, we’ve got a full circle tonight and some very powerful support to make sure we’re fully protected.” Lydia soothed me.
Around the table were friendly faces, all sipped the brandy and coffee concoction that Lydia had set up as a kick off warmer. She rose and ignited several gentle incense sticks to lighten the room and relax every one, in the middle of the table were three large part melted candles sitting ready to be used when the circle was kicked off.