3.

On a warm afternoon in early July 2006 six-year-old Anna Mitchell is out the back garden when she sees her own shadow stretch out unnaturally before her. She does not know that this is something unnatural, supernatural or anything else of the likes. She does not know that this is something more than just her own shadow. She only accepts it for what it is. The shadow stretches out onto a wall then comes off that wall, stepping forwards towards the child.

An entity, a dark shadowy mass is moving towards the young girl. She does not fear it, she is not surprised by it, this is no everyday occurrence and yeah, she knows no better. From inside the house mum Kay hears her daughter speak individual words. She hears yeah, alright and an uh-huh.

'Who were you speaking to?' mum inquires when Anna comes back inside.

'Just a man ...' is the reply.

'A man?'

'Yeah, the shadow man, he came to visit. He's gone now.'

Mum is taken aback by this. She stands absolutely still for a moment, considering how she should feel and react to this. Up to right now things have been well and as well as well can be, maybe a time has come for mum to up her level of worry. Her phone rings and she considers not answering. The caller ID is enough to inform her that this is a call she must take. Anna seems perfectly fine and unharmed; she seems in no way afraid of whatever moment she has just had so mum reluctantly answers her incoming call.

The call lasts less than a minute and when it does come to an end, home seems exceptionally quiet. It ordinarily is rather quiet just more so now in this moment than what it normally would. It, of course, is only mum and daughter living in this unadorned place and Anna has always been a pleasant child, so noise was never something usually associated with being here.

Anna has come to be sitting quietly at the kitchen table and when mum sees this, she finds it more than a little unsettling. Her six-year-old child is just sitting at the kitchen table. She is not eating, not playing, not drawing or anything else of the likes.

It may be time for a conversation, and one may come whether mum wants it or not and whether she initiates it or not. She takes a seat opposite her daughter and considers for a moment or two as to what she should or could say. It doesn't matter really for daughter breaks the uncomfortable silence first.

'Mum, where is dad?'

'We spoke about this before honey, dad is in heaven and he has been there since you were very small.'

'What if he isn't ... in heaven I mean, what if he is somewhere else?'

'Of course, he is in heaven, honey. There isn't anywhere else he could be ...'

'Yes there is ... he could be below us ... you know ... where fire burns and stuff.'

'Why would you think that baby girl?'

'Because there are other dads down there too, and with what my dad done ...'

'Where are you getting all this from? Who have you been talking to?'

'The shadow man, he was in the garden earlier.'

'A shadow man? What did he tell you?'

'He says dad done a bad thing and that is why he is down there, with all that fire and all.'

'Listen honey, your father done nothing wrong, he was a good man, a great man and he loved you very much.'

'But he is not really my father, is he?'

'Of course, he is, hey Anna, what has gotten into you today?'

'That shadow man, he said he is my father ...'

Kay Mitchell is completely gob smacked. This certainly is not the kind of conversation she ever expected to have with her daughter, especially while she is still just six years old. Yeah, she expected conversations to come up about Darren but not one like this and not one so soon. Mum gets up out of her chair and moves to be by Anna's side, she would like to say something profound, something motherly but with tears welling in her eyes she is too overcome to continue the conversation. She just steps back and watches Anna for a moment or two. Anna appears to be momentarily lost in a world of her own.

If Kay thought that things were going somewhere, improving up to something that feels normal, like along the lines of life becoming somewhat bearable then this is one heck of a setback. What a conversation that was. A few things stand out. One thing that Kay cannot shake is what did Anna mean by there are other dads down there too? She had spoken as if she had been there in an otherworldly place. This all is rather ... disturbing.

Night comes and that conversation must be playing on Kay's mind for she is dreaming the most disturbing of dreams. She is standing in the living room wearing only her nightgown and the house all around her is on fire as if it has become a hell all onto itself. She takes this as not being a dream but as being a reality and, in this dream, this reality her thoughts turn to her daughter.

Anna, where is Anna?

Yeah, this is more than a dream. It feels real and Kay cannot know that as she sleeps and dreams, she is sweating profusely within her own bed. A mother's instinct kicks in, she needs to find Anna. Calling out for Anna, Kay can hear the response. Mommy ... Kay can hear the voice clearly call over and over and she cannot determine as to where it may be coming from. Frantically she dodges fire and falling objects and goes searching for her child.

Mommy ... 'I'm coming baby, mommy is coming.'

Room to room, up the stairs, Kay cannot find Anna. She is no nearer to the call of mommy than what she was moments ago. With panic at its worst and hope fading away with every second Kay wakes from her nightmare. In her own bed she really is burning up.

'Mommy ...'

Anna is in the room. Mum sits up.

'Come over here baby.'

Kay holds Anna tightly, maybe a little too tightly.

'Are you alright mum?' Anna manages to ask when mum eventually loosens her grip.

'I am now ... just had a bad dream is all. Look at me ... I'm a right mess. It should be me looking after you if you were ever to have a bad dream, not the other way round. You are such a special young lady; do you know that? ... I love you honey.'

'Love you too mum.'

There is a moving shadow going unnoticed within the room. When next Kay gets a chance to visit her husband's grave, she discovers that his tombstone is severely cracked. It had been unharmed, no degradation at all the last time she had been to it which was not so long prior to this moment. No other tombstone in the immediate vicinity has been desecrated.