The Shadowed Figure
By the 2019 best author award winner Ben Fortescue
It was a cold winter’s day when I decided to go for a stroll through the local countryside. Leaving the last houses behind me, I turned left along a narrow path that led away from the village that I called home. The sun was low in the sky and it was beginning to rain, but I decided to go further than I normally go to reach to the top of the hill for a view across the surrounding lands.
As I was climbing the hill, something caught my eye. It was a distant building, perhaps a mile away. It looked old and yet I could have sworn that I had never seen it before. The building was unusual and isolated from civilization. The building had some rotten fences surrounding the building. The outside of the structure was overgrown with long grass and wheats.
At first, I was not really bothered until I noticed a dark figure standing behind a window half shattered. The figure looked like a shadow but wasn't. The amorphous creature really disturbed me in an indescribable way. It started to heavily rain, so I needed some shelter, but the only shelter for five miles was that sombre, forbidden and creepy structure. I eventually ran to the structure after being soaked for a minute deciding whether I should go or not. As I got nearer the sky was sucked into the dark clouds. The land went rotten and dull like a desert when I neared the building. There were old rotten wood fences surrounding the building with long grass inside the fences up until the building apart from the path leading to the daunting door. As I reached the door of this daunting structure my heart started beating hard like a drum. There was an old rusty sign that said Cherry Trees Orphanage. Then the door begrudgingly creaked open. I was petrified when I looked inside with walls scratched and blood dripping from the ceiling. As I slowly and quietly moved through the house I came across some damaged stairs that a climbed up slowly. At the top of these stairs directly in front of me was a window that was again shattered. When I peeked out of the window, I saw a grave in what looked to be the garden. I took one last look through the window and in the faint reflection I saw a sinister looking woman behind me but, when I looked behind, she vanished like a grain of sand in the ocean.
Then I remembered my granny telling me about the orphanage that Fred went missing from and apparently the orphanage is haunted. I kept saying to myself out loud where is Fred. Then I remembered again he was found in Scotland and starting a family of his own. I started thinking that maybe that woman was the matron, and she is the ghost that my granny was telling me about. I knew something was wrong. The woman has not left the orphanage because she’s angry that she failed by Fred going missing.
I must tell the woman he is alive and well. Then she can go to heaven. I kept thinking how I would get her attention but, then the idea struck me. I would pretend I was Fred. I shouted, “Hello it’s me Fred, anyone here.” No respond. I tried once more “Hello it's me Fred”. I gave up and just about to leave when I heard “Wait”. It was the ghost. I told her Fred was fine and is in Scotland living with his family. She then said, “Thank you so much, I have done my job I will be leaving now” and just like that she vanished, on her way to heaven.
This book has won the 2020 global book of the year award