The room fell silent after Kit's statement. No one knew what to say or think. Each of them realised that they didn't know as much about the young man as they thought they did and all were curious as to why someone would want him dead. Kit had never spoken of any enemies or friends for that matter. It was highly feasible that drifting for so long and meeting so many different people would generate some enemies along the way or rivals but no one that would want to go as far as to kill him.
"There was a boy once," Kit began breaking the silence, "I think he was eleven years old at the time. He'd been given a food package by the local refuge wherever local was at the time. They couldn't give him a bed so they gave him food instead which was more welcome. Even though he was starving he didn't eat the food right away and thanking the man that gave him the food went off to the valleys near the town. I don't recall the name of the town but it was in the south east and had valleys all around it with a big cliff face at the bottom of which was a ravine.
He walked along a valley which was lined with a small thicket and he was about to eat his food when these six people came out from the trees. He later learnt from experience that they were the Shadows." Kit stopped to make sure everyone was following him and was pleased to see that they were all listening attentively.
"Go on." Bessie requested.
Nodding Kit continued, "The people surrounded him. There was nowhere for him to run and they demanded that he give them his food. This kid was literally five days if not less from starving to death and he refused. One of the six wouldn't take no for an answer and he broke from the circle and ambled towards this kid. This guy was twenty three stone easily and was as wide as he was tall. He tried to grab the kid but the kid weaved round him. None of the others did anything; they just watched and got out of the way when the fat guy came close to them.
The kid managed to weave around this guy for quite some time and was holding onto his food package as tightly as he could. At one point the kid weaved the wrong way and ended up close to the edge of the ravine and would have fallen over the edge if he hadn't have thrown his food package between the big guy's legs and crawled after it. The big guy was too slow to react to this and stumbled and fell over the edge.
He must have fallen a foot or maybe less before he managed to grab hold of the cliff. The kid saw him fall and went to help him. He told the big guy to grab his hand and he'd pull him up. This starving eleven year old kid was going to try to pull up a twenty three stone man on his own."
Robyn put her hand on Kit's shoulder. Kit was obviously distressed recounting this part of the story.
Placing his hand on Robyn's and taking a deep breath Kit pressed on with his story, "The big guy grabbed the kid's hand and he was screaming. The big guy was screaming for the kid to help him. The kid tried pulling this guy up but he was too heavy, he kept trying but it wasn't working. He shouted at the others to help him but they just stood and watched.
The kid was still struggling to pull the big guy up and things started to get worse. The big guy's hands were getting sweaty and the kid couldn't grip them. He tried and tried to get his grip but he couldn't. Suddenly the kid couldn't grip anymore and the big guy fell.
He bounced down the cliff where rocks jutted out and hit the ground. He was lying on the ground with a big red puddle round his head like a halo and his eyes were staring up at the sky. They were staring up to where he'd fallen from and the kid stared back.
Before the kid could move he was picked up by the scruff of the neck and then thrown to the ground a little way off from the edge of the cliff. The others started kicking, stamping on and punching this kid. The kid kept crying out to tell them to stop, that it wasn't his fault and that they were hurting him but they didn't stop.
What seemed like ages later they stopped kicking the kid and tossed him in a bush leaving him for dead." Kit finished his story and wiped the tears from his eyes.
Everyone had shed tears while the story was being told and a silence filled with reflection followed at its conclusion. Robyn hugged Kit tightly and he hugged back pain filling him from head to foot.
"You were the kid weren't you?" Robyn asked tenderly knowing the answer already.
Kit looked up at Robyn with tear filled eyes and nodded. Everyone saw the nod and their sorrow increased knowing that the poor creature in the story was in fact their friend. The story had been bad enough but knowing who it was that had been beaten so badly and had struggled against the odds to pull up a man twice his weight made it worse.
They all knew that Kit would have faced hardships in his fifteen years of drifting but none had imagined anything like what they'd been told.
Taking in a deep breath to still his shattered emotions Kit spoke with unusual evenness for someone in such turmoil, "If I hadn't have been found by a hiker I'd have either frozen to death or starved. I was taken straight to a hospital and had to go through ten hours of emergency surgery. They had to put everything back where it had to go and had to pump loads of blood into me. I shouldn't have survived the trip to the hospital or the surgery but against all odds I made it through both.
I was hooked up to very machine possible and was put on numerous drips and things. I was on twenty four hour watch and all that kind of stuff. When I regained consciousness something like three days later I heard a Doctor say to a nurse, 'Don't expect this kid to live. He should've died already. Just keep your eye on him and do what you have to do when it happens.' The Doctor was wrong, obviously. I'm still here today and disgustingly healthy but that may not last very long.
The reason the Shadows are after me is that I didn't die that day. They attacked me that day with the full intention of killing me. For a while I didn't know why but it hit me that they wanted to kill the big guy themselves but I did the job for them.
Three years after I'd left the hospital they saw me and recognised me. They've been hounding me ever since. I had no idea they'd find me here, for ages I've always been one or two steps ahead of them. There were rumours circulating about my early demise which I thought might have thrown them off the scent but it appears not. Someone must have seen me here and told them that the rumours were well and truly false.
The Shadows won't leave until they get what they want." Kit's explanation of events told everyone what they wanted to know.
Snatch could be heard prowling around outside and he often growled at the door challenging the occupants of the house to come out. They were being held under siege by a dog and at any other time the situation would have been almost comical. No one knew what was going to happen next and how they'd get out of this situation. No one blamed Kit for what had happened, how could they?
A sharp whistle shot through the darkness like an arrow and Snatch barked in response before running off to rejoin the person who had whistled to him. Kit got up from his chair and looked out of the window. Despite the darkness he could see a woman with close cut short hair and a long dark coat watching him. The woman smiled flashing white teeth at all that looked at her. She pointed at Kit and then drew a finger across her throat before laughing and walking away with Snatch following closely behind.
"Who was that?" Sportacus asked confused.
"Aurora." Kit replied simply, "The matriarch of the Shadows and the sister of the big guy. Not someone you want to play with."
Silence fell over the room once again. Fear filled the atmosphere and no one wanted to leave the house. The chances were that if they did none would survive this night.