Read The Blood Line for Free Online

brown hair was even messier.
     
    After perhaps an hour of tossing and turning in the hay Sam sat up again and put his eye to the thin crack between the boards. It was dark now. The night was cloudless and the moon, somewhere out of sight, gave the long grass that covered the rolling hills a silvery shimmery quality. The plains were featureless, unbroken as far as his eye could see. Then, suddenly, movement caught his attention in the far distance. Great humped shapes which he hadn’t seen at first emerged from a small fold in the landscape, moving on top of a low rise. They were quite some way away and Sam could see little detail through the narrow crack. Half a dozen shapes lumbered slowly into view, following each other in a line like a family of elephants might. Sam held his breath even though, whatever they were, were far away and had no chance of realising he was there. The last in the line, the smallest, seemed to stop and stretch a long neck and small head towards the sky for a moment, before moving on again. There was a sudden puff of flame and in the strobe of light Sam saw then that the beasts were followed by other much smaller shapes scurrying around their feet. Within a few moments the strange group had shifted out of sight and Sam let out the breath he was holding. No doubt about it, Mu was not a place to spend the night outdoors.
    With the appearance of the lines such strangeness had occasionally been able to find its way back into what Sam thought of as the real world, his own world, although in truth the worlds were one and the same place, merely separated by unknowable years. Sam had learned that countless unexplained phenomena, strange beasts and paranormal events were simply a product of these other-worldly visitors finding their way back in time. In his rucksack he still kept his grandfather’s journal which detailed many of them. Sam’s world was full of mystery, myth, legend and conspiracy theory. Now he knew that many of these stories had an element of truth. Sam lay down again and eventually managed to fall asleep.
     
    He woke suddenly. It took a moment to remember where he was. The barn seemed darker than before. Perhaps the moon had set whilst he had slept, yet still a little light filtered in. He lay still for a moment, letting whatever had been hammering in his head during sleep ebb away. It was as though the inside of his brain had been shouting at itself and the echoes still sounded, although indistinct and unintelligible. Then, there came a noise from below the loft.
    Sam froze, his whole body tensing. His breath suddenly held in his nose. Very carefully and slowly he moved to the edge of the balcony, very grateful that he had had the foresight to pull the ladder up with him. He slowly and silently moved to where he could look down into the barn. There, with its eyes fixed on him, sat a garoul, one of the deadly man-wolf like beasts which had entered Sam’s world as the legend of the werewolf. It was staring directly at him, sitting to attention. Its eyes reflected a little of the light. It didn’t move, or make a sound; it just stared right at Sam.
    Sam slid quickly back into the loft, away from the edge. He had fought the garoul before. But never alone and never when he couldn’t rely on being able to use his power of presence. How high could they jump? Was it about to land up here with him?
    He would have to try presence to see if he could scare it off. He took a deep breath and moved quickly back to the edge, ready to blast it. But the ground below was empty. There was nothing there. Sam looked about, checking and double-checking the darker corners of the barn. He was alone. He shook his head and rubbed at his eyes, stifling a small sob. Had it even been there? He was so tired. He couldn’t tell when he was awake or asleep. Maybe it was just paranoia. He looked again, cautiously. There was no sign that anything had been there.
    Sam slept no further that night. When the first blush