The Legend of Loxley Bottom 2

A new diary entry on hellsborough.com is coming soon:

Also known as "The Gabbleratchets of Sophie Hinchcliffe", this is a work in progress based on research that I have undertaken into the recent modern age of the history of Hellsborough under the rule of the nascenti. A local girl and simple shop worker, Sophie Hinchcliffe, who -- inexplicably -- becomes the first CEO of the DPDC -- that is the first Chief Executive Officer (the original boss, if you will) of the Dark Peak District Council, the local government that administers Hellsborough and The Dark Peak for the nascenti overlords.

Sophie is a major character in the forthcoming sequel to "Dark Peak -- Hellsborough Chronicles book one", so it is only right that I do the research to uncover her backstory, most of which I have gleaned from the local library in Hellsborough -- an awesome resource for research, because, as you would expect, those nascenti overlords want the populace here and hereabouts to understand the importance of local characters that have helped to define their rule.

It will be serialised here, as well on on Twitter/X in short form.

Read Chapter one here.

Chapter two: Naval.

They dumped her body in the Loxley pond. She was pecked and bitten, her eyes rendered to sockets, her body stripped.

These man headed beasts, the flying dogs known as the gabbleratchets -- gabriel ratchets, angels of evil -- did heinous things to what was left of Sophie.

They are the most bitter of all Dunlockslyn's creatures: Bloody scars on the faces of the great one, the deity: D'divi.

Those Gabblratchets sucked her soul right out through them empty stares.

Naval was just a boy, as Sophie was just a girl. They were both fourteen. That is the age of consent in Hellsborough -- does that seem weird? It's the same in Italy, or so I'm told, anyway.

Ordinarily, Sophie would have been home and in Naval's arms a few hours ago.

Naval was an impatient young man. He paced about, wondering where is girlfriend might be -- who she was with.

To be fair to her, this was unusual, but Naval was nothing if not the jealous type. All sorts of scenarios flooded through his immature mind. But never in a million years could he imagine the real truth of what had happened.

Livid with rage and with the passion of the green-eyed monster that he was, he set out from their home in Winn Gardens, heading back through the murk and drizzle down the Middlewood road towards Hellsborough centre.

All the way, he ranted.

How he would punish Sophie when he found her in the company of her friends, enjoying herself an laughing at him behind his back. He wanted to punish her, he was angry.

He went into the park, knowing that his mood was vile and he needed to chill himself down for a while.

He sat on a bench and inhaled deeply on a vape-pipe, muddling his brain with intoxicating fumes and letting the bliss reach him, if only for a short while.

It dispelled his anger, temporarily at least.

Again he was filled with a sense on concern for his late and missing girlfriend, and he let this drive him now, allowed his concern to displace the jealousy that raged within him -- but if he did find her in the company of others, and she hadn't let him know, then D'divi forgive him, he didn't know how he'd react.

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hits:: 347196 // [this]2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:9b7a:1422:bb2a [loc::hellsborough//middlewood_road//73]__ // now:: 79.rain-rooter.4.14.19.3.5

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Pffft, nowt wrong with my mental health! Naval left the bench and park behind, heading towards the nearest bar on the Middlewood Road.

Sophie wasn't there. He asked the bar keep, not being able to help his passive-aggressiveness, but the bar keep hadn't seen her she said.

He had a beer anyway. He liked his beer. This place had a very pleasant sour on offer, which caught him in the gills.

He asked more folk -- customers -- whether they had seen Sophie. They hadn't, but they knew her, they knew who he was talking about. She was the lovely little lass that worked in Farantees supermarket. Many of them would make a bee-line for her checkout, she was such a pleasant lass, they said -- always ready with her lovely smile -- and she had a wicked sense of humour too!

Pleased on the outside, but his jealousy raging on the inside, Naval crossed across the Middlewood road to the next bar along.

He asked the same question to the bar keep and received the same answer. He drank more beer. He asked the other customers the same questions he had asked in the first bar, and got the same fondness for Sophie that he had found before. They loved his Sophie. They all knew her from Farantees supermarket.

Naval fumed into his beer. And so this theme continued as he visited each and ever bar on the Middlewood road. The same on Bradfield road. The same on Langsett. In each bar another beer.

Then, full of ale, he moved on to shorts -- knocking back rhum like it was going out of fashion. He started to forget why he was here. He started to enjoy himself, but something inside of him knew that that wasn't the point -- that wasn't why he was here at all.

#### HMM::IN('Hexikid! Hexikid! Hexikid!')

hits:: 196 // [this]2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:9b7a:1422:bb2a [loc::hellsborough//middlewood_road//73]__ // now:: 79.rain-rooter.4.14.23.13.19

Hexikid! Hexikid! Hexikid! Hexikid!

The hexikid street cleaner ploughed along the road, siphoning dirt and grease, spraying detergent into the gutterways. Gorging itself on detritus, cleansing the street with its bulk.

Naval watched as it passed, mesmerised by its impeccable sanitation.

Then, maybe, he was too far gone. But he kept asking his questions. He was like a rabbid grizzler with a dyapnid in its jaws. He was like a crazed ashpeep singing the song for all to hear, over and over and over.

But the answer everywhere was the same.

They all knew Sophie. They all loved Sophie.

Many of them knew Naval as well, he was no stranger here and hereabouts, so that made him feel better, but his jealousy raged within him, just as his concern for his girlfriend grew more intense.

The time approached midmurk.

Did you know the gabbleratchets were abroad tonight? Someone said.

In other news, Hellsborough Chronicles book one “Dark Peak” is now available on Kindle and paperback.

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Cheers, until next time,

Pip :)

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