Johan – Netherlands

Maddie/Madeline – Canada

"Tell me one of your scary stories." She said softly.

"One of my scary stories?" Johan asked as he tried to find the candles he kept in the closet in case of emergency.

"We all have them." Madeline stated, while she listened to him moving things around.

"I don't have a lot of them though."

For a second, Madeline was blinded by a sudden light she had not expected. Then she saw Johan standing in front of her with a lit candle and a box of extra candles on the table. He motioned for her to make some room and sat down besides her on the couch. "This power failure could last a while, not exactly what I had in mind for your visit here."

Maddie smiled gently at him as she sat closer to him and Johan put his arm around her. "It's alright. Just tell me a story." She answered while she fixed the throw around them.

The man gave her a glance, before sighing and giving in to her. Johan would never understand how others could forget about her or see his Maddie as a shy and timid girl. He had only ever seen her as a strong, determined woman.

"Sailors used to say that a ship that had left but neither reached its destination or ever returned to its home haven, must either have sunk or still be sailing out there somewhere." He began. "I'll tell you about a ship, or the remnants of a ship that sometimes dooms up out of the fog that covers the waters. Sometimes a great, black bird is seen circling around the masts."

"I love the way you enjoy telling the story of the Flying Dutchman." She murmured.

He stared at her, almost offended.

"What's wrong?" she quickly inquired.

"Different story, different ship." He informed her. "For one, the ships sailed out from different harbours." She couldn't be sure in the light of the candle, but she thought he might be sulking.

Before she could ask him to continue his story, her other half already moved on.

"Another story then. I once had this small island, before the construction of the Afsluitdijk and turning the Zuiderzee into the Ijsselmeer, that had this story. On a specific spot on that island was a place where witches and warlocks gathered. On evenings like that the people of the island would stay inside. These nights, when clouds would pass in front of the full moon, a ship would sail through the sky above Schokland and the people of the islands knew that somewhere-"

"Another ship, Johan?" Madeline asked.

"This one sailed through the sky, it's different." He argued.

"You're just obsessed with ships, darling." She whispered in return.

"They're a part of my past, my golden age. Not even England had a merchant fleet as large as mine."

"I know."

"He only had around a 180 ships."

"Not a lot?" It must have been for the time.

"I had some 2500 merchant ships at the time." He stated proudly.

"You are and were obsessed." The Canadian woman said smiling bright. She loved it when this man besides here gave himself so completely to something.

"Maybe." Johan conceded.

Leaning against him, Maddie listend to Johan as he softly told her the story about a stone.

"…and in that lane, you can find the Bloedsteen."

"What is so special about that stone?"

"Like the name says, it's bleeds."

"It does what?"

Johan shrugged his shoulders. "It bleeds, but only during full moon and you have to stab it with a needle."

"A bloodstone?"

"Yes, stab it and blood comes flowing from the, well, the wound." He leaned forward to lit another candle and blow out the dying one. Sitting back he continued. "It's a relatively modern story."

"Our people will always come up with new stories."

"I'm just curious why they chose to focus on the stone. They could have made a ghost story about the burial mount beneath the maze at the end of the lane."

Maddie stared at him incredulously.

"The name of that lane is Doolhoflaan for a reason." He simply provided at the look she gave him.

Doolhof – maze

Laan - lane