Conor Dillon – Beginnings Excerpt 1 – Malcolm Marsh

Conor Dillon – Beginnings Excerpt 1

The boy woke sobbing, as if from a bad dream. Then as consciousness returned he realised that the noises that had frightened him were emanating from the courtyard below his window. The sound of galloping horses and shouting men, he hurried to the window and peered out. Through the darkness he could just about distinguish the shapes of about a dozen riders, all wearing cloaks and led by a giant of a man holding a pistol.

Conor, for that was the boys name, wondered what business these men might have with his father. And why they had come in the dead of night and all of them armed. The boy shivered in fear, they must mean us harm was his only thought.

He decided to investigate, he quickly dressed and ran down the stairs. He was just starting to descend the second flight when someone started banging on the front door. His Father opened the door and asked for the reason for the intrusion, as soon as the door was open wide enough for his Father to be clearly silhouetted against the interior lights, the giant who appeared to be leading the horseman aimed the pistol and shot his Father at point blank range.

The boy knew something terrible had happened, something unforeseen, but something that would change the course of his life totally and irrevocably. He ran, jumped and slid down the remaining stairs in his eagerness to see what had happened to his Father, if anything?

As he moved around the door, the sight that met his eyes horrified him. His Father lay mortally wounded, cradled in his Mother’s arms. His Mother was weeping unconsolably, the boy ran to her and tried to comfort her, trying his best to be strong, whilst holding back his own tears.

The horseman had gone as swiftly as they had appeared, they had wreaked havoc, as was obviously their intention, and now they were gone. Claimed back by the darkness, from whence they came. But one thing about then Conor would never forget, the giant who led them. He made an unspoken vow that one day he would kill that man and avenge his Father!