For many people the festive season is a romantic time of year. White Christmas wedding, couples sharing their first meal at Christmas together and of course the unconditional love that brings a family closer together.
It was here that Darryl Boyd would experience a Christmas romance that he will never forget. Though often shy and soft spoken, Darryl finally managed to ask out his school crush Izzie. Her feelings were mutual and they arranged to have a date.
They would meet at the festive market and take part in all the activities you can do such as:
- Eating cakes and drinking hot chocolate
- Ice Skating on the winter wonderland ice rink
And finally sharing their first kiss under the mistletoe. It was a perfectly wrapped date with a festive bow on top.
Darryl was staring at his phone. Anxious with nerves and anticipation. Watching the minutes go by as he wonders whether or not Izzie is going to turn up.
“Darryl” said in the most angelically soft tone he had ever heard. He turned to find Izzie blushingly smiling at him.
“Hey Izzie” said Darryl. “I was beginning to think you weren’t gonna show up”
“Oh no I wouldn’t want to miss this.” said Izzie. A warmth between them was beginning to grow, they were ready to start their first date….When suddenly.
“DARRYL! HOW’S IT GOING MAN?!” shouted Fuggy at the top of the walkway leading out of the market. Fuggy (or Declan as his parents named him) was the school miscreant. Though despite being the complete opposite to Darryl, Fuggy to an unusual friendship to him. Darryl tries his best to hide himself, linking arms with Izzie.
“Oh no. Not him” Said Izzie. In a tone that can only be described as finding out bad news one after another.
“You’re not friends with him are you?” asked Izzie
“Oh no. No of course not…” nervously stating, “…He thinks we’re friends. Maybe if we walk fast enough, he won’t spot us”.
“Good idea!” exclaims Izzie.
As they begin to power walk and charge their way through the crowds of the festive market, it’s no good. Fuggy catches up to them in a flash.
“Woo! That was close. Almost lost you there” says Fuggy as he catches his breath on a poorly made rolled up cigarette made from one of the papers of his jotters.
“So what you up to?”
“Nothing” said Darryl through his teeth in frustration. “We were just about to-”
“Hold on!” Fuggy interrupts. “Is this a date?!” He looks at Darryl and Izzie’s arms linked around each other. Their shared silence answers the question.
“AWW HA HA THAT’S AMAZING!” said Fuggy making the situation more awkward.
“Well it’s been fun but we’ve got to go” said Darryl trying his best to get away from Fuggy and kindle what he has starting with Izzie.
“Yeah it’s been great but we have a lot we want to do so…” Said Izzie.
“Well it’s funny cos..I’ve got a date as well!”
Izzie and Darryl looked at each other in a state of shock, then back to Fuggy. “Seriously?” They both asked together in their first shared experience.
“Yeah yeah I’m meeting Natalie Miller!” said Fuggy.
Another shared shock between Darryl and Izzie’s face. Because effectively, Natalie was the female version of Fuggy.
“Here she comes now!”
Out of the corner of there eyes, in a bright pink fluorescent anorak and orange high tops that matched the colour of her face. Pink bobble in jet black hair was Natalie.
“HIYA!” Screeched Natalie through her high-pitched nasal voice.
“What a totes amazing night to have a date. Am I right?”Her nasal voice cutting through Darryl and Izzie like a hot knife through butter.
“It’s not just us that’s dating” Fuggy says building up to a surprise. “Darryl and Izzie are on a date too!”
“Oh my god. This should be a double date!”
The shock that was shared on the faces of the young couple now became faces of pure horror as natalie shrieks the worst idea ever. This was not a day for the 4 of them. This was a day just for new couple. Darryl and Izzie. They had to think of any excuse they could to get out of this situation.
“Well that sounds great guys but we’re on a time limit” saying Darryl hoping they’ll take the bait.
“Yeah it’s already pretty busy tonight and we want to get a lot of stuff done” said Izzie. A second share experience. A collaborative lie. They’re a match made in heaven.
“Who needs money when love is priceless?” says Fuggy. Darryl is convinced he stole that from a card in clintons.
“Yeah i mean £12 for ice skating? I don’t think so!” implies Natalie agree with Fuggy.
“But it’s winter wonderland. It’s the most magical experience you can ask for” said Darryl.
“Yeah and it’s playing playing music as you go round the rink. It’s amazing” says Izzie
“ Oh please. More like an over crowded, overrtated gimmick. Tell you what would be a better ice rink experience” Fuggy eagerly sharing his amazing idea.
“We should go skating…on the Noir Loch!” Fuggy Shouts enthusiastically. Nearly everyone gets excited about this idea. Except Darryl, who takes the idea with a sense of dread.
For history has told stories that the Noir Loch was the location of the witch trials of victorian times. But it was also the resting place for a lot of unnecessary deaths of the wrongly accused women.
However back in 1860 it was the execution grounds for the Belizare sisters.
The Belizare sisters were 3 girls who fled from Provence, France to Dunning to practice witchcraft and black magic.
After the disappearance of the reverend’s children which resulted in their bodies being found in the means of sacrifice for everlasting youth, beauty and life at the boarding house the sisters stayed at, they were put on trial and sentenced to death. They accepted the sentence with glee.
On December 18th 1860 the Belizare sisters were strapped to bags of lead and iron. Each of them pushed in to the deep of the loch. “May God have mercy on your souls” was the last words the reverend said before giving the order for them to die.
But all that was done was to plant a seed of evil to claim the water. Ducks would no longer rest on it, rain wouldn’t overflow it and after the disappearance of 3 small children and a family dog, the council put a restricted warning and out of bounds to the locals. They called it the black water or to the name the legacy gave “The Noir Loch”.
To Darryl the urban myths were too much for him to want to visit. Though Fuggy was far too eager to want to go.
“Think about it. No people, all free. An entire ice rink all to ourselves” says Fuggy as he proposes more and more to want to go to the loch.
“I think it’s a great idea, well have our own personal ice rink” says Natalie who is impressing Fuggy more and more.
“Belizare…My grandmother used to tell me stories about them when I was little. I thought it was made up” said Izzie in a sense of wonder and fright.
“Yeah well this city is a dark place and we shouldn’t really mess with dark stuff” says Darryl who is still very uncomfortable with the suggestion of going to the haunted lake.
“Don’t be scared man. It will be fun!” Fuggy encourages Darryl not to wind him up, but to genuinely have this double date.
“Can’t we just have the date that we planned?” Darryl begs just to avoid the haunted lake but to his and everyone else’s surprise, Izzie wants to go.
“Darryl I would like to go. I wanna see what my grandmother was talking about. Every time I saw her she always told me about the 3 witch sisters.”
“Well there you go. 3 to 1 Darryl.” Natalie having to add more to the situation, reluctantly Darryll agrees and the double daters make their way to the noir loch.
On the way there Darryl walked hand in hand with Izzie, while Fuggy was blaring his loud music from his phone through the dead winter trees that even the birds weren’t resting in. Natalie was singing out of tune with the songs. Darryl began to wander what is was that attracted Izzie to the noir loch.
She was never the type of person he would expect to be into witches and the dead and all things grim. Maybe it was the opportunity to be away from everyone else of the busy festival market. Either way in some bizarre circumstance the date was going to plan.
“There it is!” shouted Fuggy. The couples stood on top of the hill looking down on the noir loch. From the top they can see a quiet pristine lake. Frozen over from the cold in the wind and the snow making a perfect layer of ice.
The full moon and the stars reflecting on the ice, almost like glass on the water. Around the lake are banks of snow covered tree stumps, broken down and withered with age.
Guarding the river is a fence of industrial jagged metal with a bright yellow sign, written on it are bold black words stating to everyone “DO NOT ENTER!”. The gate is also wrapped in chains and padlocks that were impossible to open.
“This is magic” saying Fuggy wrapping his arms around Natalie. Natalie’s eyes are lost in the rather beautiful sight. Darryl shudders, as though someone was walking over his grave.
“You ok?” Izzie asked concerned.
“Yeah just cold.” Darryl lies to hide his fear of the loch. Izzie pulls him closer to warm him up.
“He’s right, standing here is freezing” said Fuggy. “Lets get down there and get our skate on!”
Fuggy and Natalie then charge their way down the hill and reach the gate looking for access to the lake. Fuggy then pulls out a swiss army knife and begins to jam the small blade into the lock. In a situation like this most girls would hear alarm bells go off when a boy pulls out a knife, but Natalie was none the wiser and Fuggy could barely butter toast let alone do anything dangerous.
Fuggy somehow manages to pick the locks on the padlocks and open the gate. “Wow” said Natalie impressed. “Where did you learn to do that? Detention?”.
“Nah, grand theft auto. It was a side quest” said Fuggy.
The gate opens up with a loud screeching creak that cuts through everyone worse than Natalie’s nasal toneless singing voice. Fuggy, Natalie and Izzie make there way inside with a flash. Except Darryl who gingerly makes his way inside, looking over both shoulders as he walks.
He gets a fright of his light when he notices something appear in front of his face, only to realise it was his breath getting caught in the winter air. Fuggy props his phone on top of the dead tree stump and pushes play on his playlist which is just called “Christmas”. And out of his phone was christmas carols and pop songs.
“Right. Let’s test this” said Fuggy. He places his foot onto the ice. As gently as he could. No cracks or creaks in the ice. Then after the pressure was tested he put his other foot onto the ice and as if by magic, the ice doesn’t break!.
“Amazing! The ice is perfect!” Fuggy even attempts to jump on it, but slips and falls on the ice. Rather than caring for his own safety, he just stands back up and smiles.
“See?. It’s still not broken” Natalie excitedly follows next to go onto the ice. As they begin to stumbly slip around on the ice attempting to ice skate, Izzie then looks to Darryl who is in a state of nerves, grips his hand and walks onto the ice.
“Hey don’t worry. “I’m here” Izzie says’s reassuring Darryl. He smiles as he holds her hand. “How are you still warm when it’s freezing cold right now?” Darryl asks.
“I don’t know. I think I’m used to the cold”
As they begin to dance together on the ice, Natalie catches a glimpse of something in the water. “Are the fish still awake in the water?” Natalie asks.
“Yeah but we’ve got to bother them” Fuggy reassures.
“I think we’ve woke them up” says natalie still staring into the ice like looking into a window.
“Their really big aren’t they?” asked Natalie.
Everyone on the ice stops and stares down into the ice to see the something circling underneath the young couples. It wasn’t fish. It was 3 swirling white figures like fabric in water, giving off an ominous bluish glow.
“Oh my god” says Izzie. She crouches down to have a closer look. As she stops the figures underneath the ice stop swimming and begin to look up. As the figures stare up to everyone on the ice, they are shocked to see 3 pale ghostly bodies, with blacked out eyes, long flowing white hair and chains attached to the ankles which reach all the way down to the bottom of the water. Low and behold 220 years later, it was the belizare sisters.
They smile angelically towards everyone. Darryl is shaking in fear and in the cold. “It’s not a myth…It’s not a myth” he says to himself. All 3 of the sisters then gather round to where izzie is standing all giving the same angelic expression.
“They seem to be drawn to you Izzie” says Natalie with jealousy, as if being the focus of the witch’s attention was something special
“I always thought witches hated water. They did in that movie” says Fuggy.
“Ok. I think we should get off the ice now. We don’t want to do anything to upset them” Darryl instructs hoping that they would listen. But Izzie reaches down to the ice and puts her hand to the ice.
The witch puts her hand to the top of the ice as if there hands were connecting. Izzie suddenly begins to glow as the witches glow through ice.
“Wow. This is amazing”
Darryl is blown away by the glow coming off Izzie “Yeah you look amazing”
“Ok stop hogging it. Let someone else have a shot!” Natalie then pushes Izzie hard and she flies across the ice.
“Whoa Natalie what the hell are you doing?” Darryl shouts.
“Like what’s the big deal? It’s her fault she wasn’t sharing” says Natalie.
The witches angelic face suddenly drops as the expression changes from angelic to anger. Natalie puts her hand on the ice only for the witch to grab it from underneath without breaking it.
Natalie screams in shock as Darryl and Fuggy stand in fright. The witch lets out a mighty shriek which carries throughout the woods. The witches soft angelic face becomes skeletal and demonic and demented.
The gates closes itself and locks back up. Fuggy’s phone stops playing and dies in the middle of the song white christmas. Izzie tries to get herself back up but the branches next to the river tie her to the riverbank.
Darryl tries to run to her aid. “Izzie”. His feet get frozen to the ice. Natalie starts pulling on her wrist with her other arm.
“Help guys I’m stuck. Help me please I’m stuck” Natalie cries. Fuggy pulls out his swiss army knife and runs to Natalie. He kneels down on the ice and starts stabbing into the ice to break Natalie out.
“It’s not working” Fuggy shouts. This only angers the witches more as they burst their way out of the ice. Large shards of ice land around Darryl and Izzie. Like large pieces of broken glass sticking out of the ground.
Fuggy gets flung from the ice, landing in front of the gate. The witch holding Natalie underneath the ice is now holding her in the air. Another witch turns the ice into water. Darryl falls in, though he is freezing cold he musters his strength to swim to the side of the river bank to Izzie and try and break her out He pushes himself onto the bank and starts breaking the branches.
Natalie is looking down at the water. A chain coils up from the water like a snake. It was the same chain from the water weights that drowned the witches long ago. It wraps itself around Natalie’s leg and pulls her down into the depths of the water.
As soon as she’s submerged into the deep water, the river turns back into ice. Fuggy with his swiss army knife is trying to pick the lock like he did before. But the witches circle around him.
“Stay back!” screams Fuggy. “I know how to use this!”. The witches then began to move in a circle around him faster and faster. So fast that they eventually became a blur. Fuggy couldn’t keep his eyes on them. He sees snow appear from underneath him, reaching higher and higher with each passing witch. Until eventually he is covered in snow.
The witches stop spinning and wind blows away the snow that covered Fuggy, and he was now frozen solid. One witch grabs his head, the other grabs his chest and arms and the final witch grabs his waist.
The witches began to pull more and more at Fuggy’s frozen body and then they pull him to pieces. The witches fly up really high and drop their pieces of Fuggy, they all fall to the ground and smash. Obliterating them into pieces.
Finally the witches make their way over to Darryl and Izzie, who are standing on the bank in fear. They approach them closer and closer. Darryl trips on the root sticking out of the ground and lands on his back.
The witches kept approaching Izzie. As Darryl gets up to help Izzie, a witch snaps her fingers and from the ground the root wraps around Darryl holding him strapped into the ground. He struggles to break free.
He screams to the witches: “Leave her alone!”. Darryl who was once soft spoken, has now found his voice and speaking hard. “Leave her alone and deal with me”
The witches turn to Darryl and make their way towards him, ready to accept his fate Darryl closes his eyes…
“Arretez!”. Are the witches talking to him? He opens his eyes and finds Izzie standing right in front of him. Blocking the witches from getting to him. So the witches stop, their faces go back to normal, but they were surprised. In a hollow voice that echoes like a voice in a hallway a witch asks:
“Vous êtes l’un de nous?”
“Oui” replies Izzie.
“What’s happening? What’s going on?” Darryl asks.
“Its ok Darryl. They just asked if I was one of them” says Izzie.
“What did you say?”. Izzie turns to face Darryl. “Yes”. Her eyes are glowing blue. Almost as if her eyes have rolled to the back of her head. She raises her hand. The root that held Darryl to the ground lets him go.
The witches now smiling pick Darry up, dry him off and clean him up. As they lower him back to the ground. As they lower him back to the ground, they open the gate back up and let them out.
As Izzie and Darryl leave holding hands, while still somewhat entranced Izzie turns for the last time to the witches.
“Au Revoir” says Izzie.
“Au Revoir et Joyeux Noel” says the witches. As they fade away and head back into the noir loch. Just as the witches disappear, Izzie’s eyes go back to normal.
“What happened?” asks Izzie. As though the whole thing was a blur. Maybe she was entranced by something after all.
“Izzie what do you mean what just happened?” asks Darryl shocked.
“Well the witches in the water, they just killed Fuggy and Natalie…”
“And you stopped them!” Darryl interrupts.
“How?” Izzie’s memory has proven that the last 5 minutes didn’t happen to her.
“You spoke french, your eyes lit up and you…you done magic” even Darryl is having a hard time believing what he is saying. Izzie’s face is stunned at what she has just heard.
“Oh my god”
“Since when could you speak French? Because we both met in German class” asks Darryl.
“Well my grandmother is French. She taught me and my mum the basics but that’s pretty much it” says Izzie.
“What’s your grandmother’s last name?” Darryl asks.
A silence fills the air. As Izzie responds to break the quiet “…Belizare. And her birthday is the…18th of December.”
The young couple stand in horror as they realize that Izzie is a descendant of the witches from the noir loch.
“Maybe they work up something when we connected on the ice” Says Izzie. Unbelievable. Darryl’s first date results in murder and his crush is a witch. And he was nervous that he would mess up.
“You probably don’t wanna date me anymore huh?” Izzie asks with a tinge of sadness.
“Well… I witnessed Natalie Miller get dragged into a river and sealed over with ice. Then I saw Fuggy get frozen solid and smashed into smithereens” says Darryl. As Izzie hangs her head in silence and sadness.
“Then I saw myself stand up for you and you stopped the witches by showing how magic you really are”. Izzie raises her head in surprise.
“This has been the scariest night of my life. But that stopped when you showed up.”
“You really mean that?” Izzie asks.
“Yeah. I mean if i can handle witches your parents don’t seem so scary anymore” says Darryl. They share a laugh. And in that moment Darryl and Izzie share their first kiss. The witches leave the loch once more.
Just to light the sky a light purple and clear the winter clouds. A shooting star flies above their heads. They pull apart and gaze into each others eyes.
“Merry Christmas” Says Izzie
“Joyeux Noel” Says Darryl.