Part II

(NB.. moving straight on.. Part 2 is our first poem from the viewpoint of Michelle, our seemingly friendly ghost taking Andy on a tunnel leading to the next stage of their journey)

Part 2

Collapsing footsteps

Into the mud

She looked

Behind them once

Just before they got

To the doors

Of the project,

Thinking back

To what had happened

In the train station

To them

Only a short time before,

And the way he’d pushed

The shooter

Over the edge

Saving likely

At least

Dozens of people

If not hundreds

Surprising her with

His reckless courage,

Amazed they had got this far.

Part I

(NB. Welcome again guys to Ghost Story III. Loads to say which will appear as we go along but enjoy the first part which is a scene setter you could say for what is going to happen in this storyline and who knows maybe beyond..)

Part 1

The press were still reporting

About the slaughter at the station

For days after.

Lacing into the carnage

With every angle imaginable

From the young girl

At W H Smiths

Who thought she saw a ghost

And the policeman

Who nearly died

For the following two weeks

In the hospital

Almost convinced that God

Sent him a angel

To guide him

Into the afterlife,

Interlinking human interest stories

With the just plain daft

And melodramatic

From schoolboys shielding

Their pet dogs,

To a train driver

Who slept through everything

In his carriage,

Bleeding out every ounce

Of possible news

They could

Before they would move

Onto the football

Just up the road,

Totally not realising

This was just the beginning

Of the end.

Prologue 5

(NB. Last of our prequels returns to the nameless and formless threat from the end of Ghost Story II which may make a reappearance in Part III. Join us, won't us next week)

Following the Post Office

Railway tunnel

From Platform 13

Shut for decades

They followed the pair of them

A few yards behind

Jutting in broken darkness

Dredged in pelting mud

Splashed across ink swirls

Shepherds in death

Choking revenge

With each breath. 

Prologue 4

(NB. Features our main characters from Ghost Story I and Ghost Story II on a road to whose nows where. (All shall be revealed in April of course). 

Flicking away in the light

Congealing in the wind

It seemed like

We walked for days

When in reality

It was maybe a few hours

Shutting out the events

From that shooter

At the station

Into loitered memories

Plunged through

Dissonaned bled tunnels

Unclear where we were going

But leaving me feeling

Like I was writing notes

For my own funeral

With each step

I took. 

Prologue 3

(NB. What is this in Prologue 3? All shall be revealed soon I promise)

Plodding back

To where it came from

Wet in hushed anger

Wrought in clawed fingers

Cradling threads from

Almost forgotten myths

Carved once upon a time

On silvered stone

In broken tongues

It waited

Sloping nearer

And near slightly

Swallowing its rage

For just a few minutes more. 

Prologue 2

(NB. Moving on about half a mile away, this second chapter is sat on St Anne's Square building more and more hints about this threat) 

On most days

You wouldn’t see her

Sat outside

The exchange

Looking to space

Reddening her tears

In the sunset

Of the thickened air

Drawing nearer

And near until dusk

Rising with emotion

Furrowed deep with fear

That stripped away

With the clock

Wondering whether

It would be her turn

That night. 

Prologue 1

(NB. Prologue 1 is the first part focusing on some rough sleepers near what maybe Manchester Victoria Train Station) 

Shaping movements

On most nights

You would see four of them

Huddled together

Just out of sight

In the boarded up old station

Shaking like tiny mammals

In the heart of winter

As the snow

Never ceased tapping

On the boards

Like postmen

Trying to get inside

To join them

Away from the nightmare

Lingering all

Over the streets above

Hidden in plain sight.