Sanctuary Fighting back the darkness with style.

This Journal is the
Property of:

Nora Holmes

June 5, 2005

I love him like crazy, but James should not be
allowed to drive. We did arrive in one piece though. Lake Kamarrowak
is beautiful. We will be staying in cabins by the lake tonight before we hike out
to the dig site tomorrow.

Professor Rawlins is a very sweet man.
He’s the stereotype of the absent-minded professor. He had his nose buried in a
book and almost walked off the end of the dock and into the lake before dinner.
He would have gone in if Karen hadn’t been there to stop him.

We are all anxious to get started,
though I’m dreading the four mile hike into the woods. It’s been a long time
since I’ve been camping, it should be fun.

June
6, 2005

My feet are so sore, but the hike was
worth it. The dig site is gorgeous. The mound is just as the professor
described it, low and grassy with stone lintels. It does look very much like
pictures I’ve seen of Celtic mounds in the British Isles.
We have stopped for a bite of lunch, and we will start setting up the tents and
grid off the area. We can’t excavate the actual mound yet because Professor
Rawlins is still waiting for some permits from the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
and a representative from the local tribe to arrive, but we can start surveying
and documenting. We can also start to dig 100 feet from the mound, we just
can’t touch the mound itself till all the ‘I’s have been dotted and the ‘t’s
crossed.

There’s an odd sort of tension in the
air that is at odds with the pastoral beauty of this place. The trees seem to
crowd in close, but there are none within yards of the mound itself. The mound
is in a grassy clearing, dotted with wildflowers, but though I saw numerous
butterflies on the hike in, there are none here. It’s a low rise about thirty yards
in diameter, maybe fifteen feet tall at its crown. The whole thing is covered
with grass, and if it weren’t for the three stones on the eastern side you
would never know that it was man made.

The two uprights are maybe four feet
tall and are topped by a third slab like a lintel. They are of native stone,
and very weathered and mossy. With the grass growing close around and between
them they are easy to miss if you don’t know what you are looking for.
Professor Rawlins pointed them out to us as soon as we arrived. He says they
are very unusual, not like any other Native American mound he has ever
encountered. When I pointed out their similarity to Celtic burial mounds he was
dismissive, raising a skeptical eyebrow with a snort. As if to say that I couldn’t
possibly know what I was talking about because I’m not an archaeology student.
But I am an ancient history major, and European bronze and iron age culture and
folklore is my specialty. I know a dolmen when I see one.

The longer I am here, the less charming
this place seems. But then, maybe I’m just out of sorts because of the
professor’s rude dismissal of my opinion.

June
7, 2005

The tents went up easily last night,
most of the other students have plenty of experience in the field. We spent a
pleasant evening cooking over the campfire and sharing the usual campfire
stories. Archaeologists and history majors know all the best ghost stories and
scary tales.

There are twelve of us altogether.
James introduced me to most everyone the first day. Alicia and I hit it off
especially well. She is a second year student, and this is her first summer
dig. She’s very excited and anxious to get started.

James is just glad to be out of the
city for a while. He grew up in the country and he misses it quite a bit. It
was very nice to snuggle up with him in our sleeping bags last night, but the
tents were far too close together to do more than just snuggle without everyone
knowing what was going on. Maybe we can find some excuse to slip away from camp
this evening.

Most of the day today was taken up
with photographing and sketching the site. Professor Rawlins had out some
surveying equipment, and with the help of Josiah, whom I don’t really like, he
measured the mound and made a precise map of the area. Josiah is such a toad. I
don’t understand why such a sweet man as Professor Rawlins puts up with him. It
can’t be because he’s flattered by the brown-nosing. Most of the time the
professor seems oblivious to Josiah’s toadying, other times he seems more
annoyed at finding the boy constantly underfoot. The Prof is hard to figure out
though, and I think he’s aware of far more than he lets on.

It feels like it’s going to be a
little cooler tonight than it was last night. It’s June, and the lightning bugs
should be out in full force, but I have yet to see even one.

June
8, 2005

I was awakened in the middle of the
night by an odd sound last night. It sounded much like baying hounds in the
distance. James said I was imagining it because he couldn’t hear anything, but
I’m sure I heard them. It’s probably someone coon hunting out of season. I’ll
have to mention it to the Park Service Ranger when he comes through to check on
us.

More drawing and mapping today. We
also laid out stakes and string to grid off the area where we will be digging.
The Professor wants to get started excavating the area around the mound to see
if we can find any evidence that might put the mound in context. We still can’t
touch the mound itself. It could be most of the week before the permits arrive.
The Prof doesn’t seem even the slightest bit worried that they might be denied.
James is pretty concerned though, this dig could make a big difference in his
grades this semester. I’m just along for fun, but this is very serious for him.

I’ve got a bad feeling nesting in my
gut, but I can’t figure out why. Something about that mound makes me feel
uneasy. I’m sure I’m just picking up on James’ nervousness, though.

June
9, 2005

Day 3, and we finally get to do some
digging. We broke ground near the treeline in a spot the professor picked for
some unfathomable reason. He was very certain that this was the place to start,
but he gave us no explanation. James grumbled about that for most of the day –
how are we supposed to learn if he doesn’t explain why we are doing what we are
doing.

Josiah is being an insufferable pain,
more so than usual anyway. The Prof
seems very distracted today, and he’s been passing messages to us through
Josiah, so of course the toadying prick is lording it over the rest of us. As
if the Prof wouldn’t have picked whoever was handy to do the job. Josiah just
happened to be the closest at hand because he’s always shadowing the poor man.

The digging is hard, exacting work. We
have to remove small amounts with trowels and sift through each scoop for
pottery shards or beads or anything else that might be man made or a sign of
habitation. It’s slow going, and the summer sun is beating down on us without
pity. I’m glad we were so close to the trees so there was shade for at least
part of the day. I’m also a little grumpy because my sleep was interrupted
again by those hounds baying in the distance. James still didn’t hear them, but
Alicia said she heard them, too, so I know I wasn’t dreaming them.

James wanted to get a closer look at
the stones in the mound, so he talked me into walking over to them when we
broke for lunch. I should have been excited to get a look at them, but for some
reason I really didn’t feel like going. As we got closer to them the bad
feeling in my stomach got worse and I started feeling restless. I didn’t want
to be near them for any longer than I had to. There is something wrong here,
but I have no idea what it could be.

After lunch Steve and Josiah got into
a yelling match. I’m not sure what they were fighting about, but the heat seems
to be making tempers short because everyone seemed a little out of sorts this
afternoon. Josiah retreated to his tent and didn’t make an appearance again
until nearly dinner time. He avoided Steve for the rest of the evening.

James wanted to slip away into the
woods after dinner, but that uneasy feeling came back to me at the thought of
going into the woods after dark, so I begged off, claiming that I was too sore
after digging all day. I hate the look of disappointment on his face, but I
just can’t bring myself to go into the darkness between those trees. The very
thought makes the hairs on my neck stand on end.

June
10, 2005

I tossed and turned all night. Those
hounds were closer to camp than they were before, and louder. James still
doesn’t hear them, but Alicia had dark circles under her eyes as well. The Park
Ranger should be coming through today, so I’ll ask him about them.

No one had seen Josiah today, but
Alicia assures me that he’s something of a diva, and it’s not unusual for him
to disappear for hours after someone has hurt his feelings. It’s only
lunchtime, so he’ll probably turn up before the end of the day. If he doesn’t –
well, it’s no big loss. He was really starting to get on everyone’s nerves.
Steve say’s he probably hiked back into town in a fit of pique.

PS
– When the Ranger came I asked him about the dogs. He says there are legends
about ghostly hounds in this area. People have been hearing them for years, but
no one has ever found any sign of illegal hunting in the park.

Josiah
didn’t turn up for dinner, either. The professor used his satellite phone to
call and leave a message on Josiah’s cell phone, incase he just decided to go
back to the cabins, but all his gear is still here. If he doesn’t turn up by morning
the Prof will have to call the Park Service and report him missing.

June
11, 2005

Josiah was still missing this morning.
Professor Rawlins called the Park Service, and the ranger is going to come back
out and take a look around. If his car is still at the cabin then they will
have to organize a search. Even as annoying as the man was, I shudder to think
of what might have happened to him out in the woods alone for over a day.

The Ranger said that none of us were
to leave camp to go searching for him. There are no trails in this area, and
they don’t want more of us to end up lost. We should hear more by lunchtime,
but in the mean time the Prof wants us to keep digging. That seems a little
heartless, but I suppose it’s the best thing to keep our minds off of Josiah.

James wants to take another look at
the dolmen, but I really don’t want to get close to it.

Same
Day – Just before lunch James managed to drag me over to take a look at the
stones again. He examined them pretty closely, even running his fingers over
them. To his credit, I think he did find something. There is a pattern of hatch
marks across the lintel. They were definitely carved there on purpose, they are
too regular to be an accident of nature. But they don’t look like decoration –
they look like Ogham writing. I’ve made a rubbing of them, and, thought they
are very worn and hard to see, I’ve copied them the best I can here. My Gaelic
isn’t very good, but I’m going to take a shot at translating it. If this really
is Celtic Ogham then I was right about the dolmen. And we are in the area that
Prince Madoc supposedly traveled through in the legends about him. Most
historians write the stories about him off as hogwash and wishful thinking, but
this might just be evidence that he really did settle in the New
World. And I also noticed that there was a fresh hole in the earth
between the uprights, right in the center of the ‘doorway’ formed by the
stones. It looked as though someone had taken a core sample out of the mound.

Oh, and the Ranger says that Josiah’s car is
still parked at the cabins, so they are bringing out more men to search for
him. We are all kind of worried, and Steve feels guilty because he argued with
the man. As much as he grated on everyone’s nerves, no one wanted to see him
lost in the woods.

June
11, 2005

The camp is now two camps. A second
camp of Park Rangers and rescue people has sprung up next to ours. Alicia went
missing last night.

We have given up any pretext of
digging, or pretending that Josiah is ok. There are two people missing now, and
we are all searching for them. Alicia is well liked, she’s a sweet girl, and no
one is going to stay in camp and just let others do all the looking. Professor
Rawlins is the only one who seems undisturbed by all the commotion. I can see
him now with his nose in a book, glancing between it and the carvings on the
stones of the mound. I’m sure he’s found the Ogham as well and is trying to
translate it. I’m going out with James and the others to help find Alicia and
Josiah, but I think I’ll take a crack at translating the Ogham as soon as we
get back to camp. I pray we bring Alicia and Josiah back with us, safe and
sound.

Later – I’m exhausted. We all are. We roamed all
over the woods, but there is no sign of Alicia or Josiah. The Rangers are going
back out in the morning, and we will go with them again. I have been working on
translating the runes James found. My Gaelic is pretty spotty, but I can make
out a word here and there. It does seem to be a Welsh dialect, so my earlier
suspicions about Prince Madoc seem even more likely.

I can’t explain why it seems so
important to figure out what the Ogham says, but it does. It’s like the feeling
I had about the stones, and the dread in my gut about this whole trip ever
since we arrived here. I don’t know how I know, but I KNOW that this
inscription holds the key to why two people have gone missing. Here’s what I’ve
gotten from the Ogham so far:

(something) entombed here (something)
King. (something) ride. The Death that rides the winds (something) foolishly
sought to tame (something) death of us all.

I can’t help but feel that the hounds
I’ve been hearing at night are somehow connected to this. I wish I could get
online and do a little research. Maybe I can. I don’t believe I’m seriously
thinking of doing this.

June
12, 2005

Ok, it is my fervent hope that the
police never read this journal, because I’m about to incriminate myself in a
minor crime. I snuck into the Prof’s tent last night and stole – well, borrowed
– his satellite phone. I got hold of Dr. Cooper back at the University. I
explained the situation here and he was very anxious to hear about the
inscription, and very upset to hear about the baying hounds I described. He
translated the words I was unable to get. He says that we are dealing with the
Wild Hunt, and that more people will continue to disappear until it is bound
again. What he said sounds crazy, but it fits with the story the Ranger told me
about the ghost hounds, and the fact that two people are missing with no
explanantion. Dr. Cooper is coming out here, and he said he’s bringing a friend.
He told me I should keep something iron with me at all times, so I’m glad I
brought my walking staff. It’s shod with iron at both ends, and I think I’ll
keep it close. If we are dealing with a purely human evil here it will be handy
for cracking skulls if nothing else.

Fairies. I’m Wiccan. I believe in
magic and Goddesses and all manner of things that most folks dismiss as wild
tales, so why do I have so much trouble believing that we could truly be
dealing with malevolent fairies? I’m wracking my brain for everything I can
remember about the Wild Hunt, and I’m surprised at how much lore I’ve got
stuffed away in this head of mine.

The Wild Hunt, also called the Fairy
Raid, is said to roam the night at certain times of year, riding on the wind.
The legends vary, some say that the hunt will chase down and kill any mortal
that crossed its path unless they agree to join the hunt, others say that the
Raid only hunts down those with evil in their hearts. I can’t believe that
Alicia had anything evil in her, but I could certainly believe that of Josiah.
There is a lot more lore about it, but that’s all I can remember – except I
read somewhere that it’s lead by Herne,
the Celtic god of the hunt, or by a being called the Erlking. Both of which are
portrayed as having antlers like a stag.

I just realized that it’s getting
close to Mid-Summer. I wonder if that is significant?

June
13, 2005

I was so tired when I got back to camp
last night I didn’t have the energy to add anything to this journal. Another
student went missing during the night, and I could barely sleep, despite my
exhaustion, because of the sound of the hounds baying. James still doesn’t hear
them, but I don’t see how he can not. It sounded like they came right past the
edge of the camp last night.

Dr. Cooper and his mysterious friend should be
here sometime this afternoon. I hope he can stop this madness.

We are going out searching again, but I’m certain
we will find nothing, just as we have the past two days. I’m keeping my staff
near me at all times, but I can’t convince James to carry something iron. I
tried to explain what Dr. Cooper told me, but he thinks I’m losing my mind.

Later – We found nothing today. Three people have
vanished with no trace. Professor Rawlins does nothing but stare at the old
dolmen in the mound. He mutters something under his breath, but I don’t want to
get close enough to try to hear what he’s saying.

I can see Dr. Cooper coming up the trail now. His
friend behind him doesn’t look like the scholarly sort. In fact, if I had to
sum him up in one word, I would say he looks dangerous.

June 14, 2005

It’s 6 am, and I can’t find James anywhere. The
hounds woke me last night, but he still couldn’t hear them. He left the tent to
relieve himself. I begged him to take my staff with him but he just told me to
go to sleep. The hounds got louder after he left, and I haven’t seen him since.
There is just no trace.

I searched for him for two hours before I woke
Dr. Cooper and his friend, who’s name is Jacob. Jacob carries himself with a
military bearing, and his eyes are constantly in motion. I can see the pistol
he keeps tucked under his shirt. He makes the other students nervous, but
having him here makes me feel safer. He doesn’t talk much, but he was very
interested in the dolmen and the inscription. He disappeared into the woods not
long after they arrived yesterday evening and was gone for a long time.

Dr. Cooper confirmed what I remembered about the
Wild Hunt. He gave the full translation of the inscription:

Do
not disturb the evil entombed here. Do not waken the Hunter King. Beware the
Fairy Ride - The Death that rides the winds. Modoc foolishly sought to tame the
power for his own, but we have trapped it here lest it be the death of us all.

SO I was right, but it brings me no
comfort. Prince Madoc really did bring a group of settlers to the new world,
there really were blue-eyed, white skinned Indians of Welsh decent, and they
brought the magic of the Old World with them.
They brought the monsters, and now James has paid the price for Madoc’s
arrogance in thinking he could control the power of the Wild Hunt.

Jacob is putting up a ring of iron
around the camp. He says that as long as we stay within its bounds at night no
one else will be taken. He and Dr. Cooper are going over some old books that
they brought. Dr. Cooper says that they have to find a way to re-bind the hunt
to the mound, that whoever bored into it to take the core sample released the
hunt, broke whatever spell held it there. He says that there is a chance that
we could get back the ones who have been taken, but that I shouldn’t get my
hopes up.

I’m not even bothering to go out with
the search parties today. I know they will do no good. Whatever chance James
and Alicia and the others have is right here in camp with Dr. Cooper and his
enigmatic friend.

Afternoon – Dr. Cooper, Jacob and I
have been combing through books all day. Jacob has tied Professor Rawlins in
his tent. He says that it was the professor who unleashed the hunt, and that
the old man knew exactly what he was doing. He had been chanting a spell to try
to harness the power of the hunt – that’s what he was doing by the dolmen.

I guess you really can’t tell about
people. He seemed like such a nice old fellow.

Jacob has a plan. We found some information
that we think can help and we are going to lure the hunt back to the mound and
re-seal it. Unfortunately, I’m the bait. The Hunt is drawn to two types of
people, those with evil in them, who become the prey, and those who are
sensitive to it, who are forced to join the hunt. Alicia and I were the only
two in camp who could hear the hounds baying, so we were the only two
sensitives. Josiah I can believe had evil in him, and I didn’t know the other
fellow well enough to say, but why James? Was he hiding some evil inside him?
Or was he just lying about not being able to hear them?

But the fact that I could hear them
means that they will come for me, and if I’m standing in fount of the mound
without any iron to drive them away they WILL come. That will give Jacob the
chance to recite the spell that we believe will bind the Ride back into the
mound. Then Dr. Cooper will seal the hole with iron to make sure they can’t get
back out that way.

I am afraid. I’m so scared that I’m
surprised I’m not shaking. My stomach feels like water sloshing around my
insides, and I’m cold despite the warmth of the afternoon. Jacob says I don’t
have to do this, but I know I do. Who else would the Hunt be guaranteed to come
for? If I run from this I would never forgive myself.

If I don’t make it out of this, I know
that whoever finds this journal will probably think I’m insane, but I’m not. I
know what I’ve heard, what I’ve been feeling since I got here. I know that
there are four missing people, and no other explanation for what happened to
them. I know in my gut that there are scary things out there in the dark, that
people have denied their existence for centuries because it’s too frightening
to admit that they are real. Here and now is where I’ll make my stand against
that darkness.

June
15, 2005

It’s over. I can’t believe I’m still
alive.

I thought I knew what I was getting
into, I thought I understood, but I didn’t. There was no way I could have
understood the sheer scope of what I was volunteering to do until I saw it,
felt it, lived it for myself. There are no words that can convey the sheer raw
power, the awe, the fear… The Hunt is a force of nature, not a rabid dog to be
put down. We could not have destroyed it, I don’t think it can be destroyed.
It’s as eternal as the drive to hunt and eat. The best we could do was to
contain it and hope that it never finds its way out again.

Before it came, while we waited there
in the dark, I had a chance to talk to Jacob. He told me about what he does,
about the war he fights. He told me about the other things out there in the
night that hunt and prey on the innocent. If I’m going to make a stand, then it
looks like my journey is going to be a long one, but how can I walk away from
it, knowing what I know now?

Alicia came back. She was left lying
naked on the ground before the dolmen as the Hunt rushed back into its prison.
The others are gone for good. I had been planning to marry James. Why did the
hunt target him? Did it save me from some evil in his heart? Would he have turned
out to be an abuser? A killer? I’ll never know. All I can do is mourn the good
man I knew and loved and try not to dwell on the “what ifs”.

The Park Rangers and police are
staying to keep looking, and so are the other students. Professor Rawlins has
mysteriously vanished as well, and they are considering him another victim of
whoever took the others. I’ll be leaving with Dr. Cooper and Jacob, though.
We’re taking Alicia into town to the hospital. Her mind isn’t right after what
happened to her, but I hope she can find her way back to being the happy, sweet
girl I met and was coming to like.

I was planning to go back to school
and get a graduate degree, but I guess I’ll have to make due with my Bachelors.
I can’t go back to studying legends from books when I know that the real thing
is out there. I wonder if Jacob would be willing to take a student?