London

London

The stories of magic and mystery

  

By Maria Jørgensen and Camilla GUldager

2014

The stories take place in a world where nothing is what is seems.         

             You’ve heard these stories being told over and over again, but have you ever heard like this?

You’ll get caught in these stories, so it you dare turning the page and read further, you’re on your own.

God can’t help you from now on.

Good luck.

The entrance to magic and mystery

Do you believe in magic, or in another world, a better place to be, with a bit of danger? Go to the place where you walk every day, but go at night, and look for the things you see every day, but never notice. 

That’s the place you want to be.

Did you find it?                                                                                                                                  

It’s the gate to another world, inside this gate is where all the magic happens. No wands are waving here, if that’s what you’re looking for, then don’t open the gate, and don’t cross the line.    

Here you’ll find the real magic, everything here is alive.

But watch out, not everything here is good. 

Cause with good, comes evil.                                                        

Do you know who to trust?                                                           

Curious? Do you want to step inside?                                                                                             Do it.                                                                                                                                             

You go to the gate, but it’s locked. You knock on the bars. One of the gate doors opens ajar. Light is shining out, like you’ve never seen light shine before. A man sticks his head out. “What do you want?”                                                           

Tell him that you’re sorry you’re late, but you’re here now.                     

“I’m sorry I’m late, but I’m here now,” you say carefully.                                                          

The gate doors get opened, in there it isn’t night, in here it’s light, even though there are no lights, as far as you can see. You have to go a long way through a tunnel, before getting there. “Next time, be on time, thank you,” the man says annoyed. The man looks old, and is very short; he has a cane in his hand. He looks at you and starts to walk into the tunnel.         

You’ve come this far, why don’t you follow him?                                                                                  You take careful steps, going inside the gate, you are in.                                                                   But don’t stop, keep walking.                                                                                                                 

You’re a little behind the small, old man, but it’s easy to catch up to him, he isn’t walking that fast. There’s other ways, in the tunnel, leading to, who knows where. A lot of people are walking in the other tunnels, but you and the old man is the only people walking in this one.                                                                                                      

The people look a little different than normal, but remember don’t stop, don’t stop and look at them.                                                                                 

You get further into the tunnel, you can again go to the left, right or straight ahead, the old man walks straight, there’s more different looking people here. You really want to get a better look at them, so this time you anciently stop, without thinking. The old man doesn’t notices and he keeps walking.                                                                

You look to your left, they all stop what they are doing and look at you, they start to move towards you, all in the same pace. Look to your right, they are coming at you too. You start to panic, but you can’t move, you can’t continue. These people aren’t people you finally notice!                                       

There were boxes with clowns in them, jumping towards you. 3 meters tall guys, living toys, walking, jumping, and running towards you. They looked like at scary circus.                                        

I told you not to stop.                                                                                                                               

They get closer, you don’t know want to do. They are saying things, but you can’t understand them, they are whispering so low, that you can’t hear them. Out of nowhere the old man stands in front of you.                

“I told you not to stop. These are people who stopped, do you want to become one of them?” he says. If you’re lucky, he will give you another chance, but if not, you’ll stand in front of the gate, and you’ll never come back. He grabs your arm, now you can move again.                                          

So start walking.        

Never get to curious.                                                                                                                             There’s so many times you can walk to the right and left, but you keep going straight, and you don’t stop. You come to a dead end, the old man looks at you.        

“Do you believe in magic?” he asks you                                                                                   

“Yes”                                                                                                                       

In a blink of an eye, the wall is gone, out of nowhere it’s not a dead end anymore. You walk out to the streets of magic and mystery.  

Hardys

The stories about this place are endless, some say it’s the portal to another world, others say the people in there, aren’t humans, and some goes in, but they don’t come out.                                                                                                             

What place am I talking about, you ask?                                                  

Well, you have to go deep into the streets, the place nobody goes, but everybody wants to see. The place of mystery and magic, the place where it’s not just the people there are alive.            On this street, lies the indecent candy-store Hardys, ever heard of it?                                  

No? Well, then you’re in for a treat!                                             

On the outside, it looks like the candy-store next door, the one you go to, when you need your Friday candy.                                                                                                                                

The windows are covered with sweet sugar, so you can’t see what’s going on inside.                                                                                                    

The sign makes you think, that when you get inside, all the candy will be stacked, it might look like the typical candy-store, you’ll be waiting for the old sweet lady to come out in her apron, and ask what she can help you with, and that’s when you say – show me the magic. And the magic appears, but that’s all just another story, isn’t it?                                                                                 

The red walls give you the feeling that it is that boring Friday candy-store, but there’s something more happening here. Don’t be confused, this is the place, if you are ever lucky enough to find this place.                                                                                                

So why don’t you step inside and see what you find?                                                      

You take a small careful step, into the classic candy-store, the rows of endless candy in glass mugs behind the counter, there’s nothing here you can’t find.           

Small whispers behind you capture your attention, but as you turn around, nothings there, but the whispers continue, you walk closer to the shelves with hard candy and licorice inside glass mugs, and look closely.  “Why are you looking at us?!” you hear. But you can’t put a face to the voice. “Who’s there?” you ask, but no reply.                                                                                                                                            

The cashier comes out, as you turn around. It’s that sweet, old lady you’ve heard from the stories, which makes you wonder if it’s true.                                                            

Dare to ask?                             

“What can I help you with, my dear?” she asks.                                                                        

“Show me the magic,” you say, which makes her smile. At that moment, everything comes to life.                                                                                     

The gumball machine to your right turns on, out of nowhere; it’s spitting the gum out, and hits the glass mugs behind the counter. The candy in the glasses starts to shake, like they’re going to explode, and off comes the lid, the candy starts to go everywhere.                                                   You bend down a little, so you won’t get hit, but it goes all around you, not one little piece hits you, but as you look at the ground, there’s no pieces, not one single piece. The candy is flying all around the store.                                                                                   

You turn around, cause the whispers starts again, you turn to see small people come out from the shelves, but as you look closer, it’s not people, its candy, its small pieces of candy, they’re coming out from their hiding places. Careful steps, one at the time, cause they aren’t sure, if they should come out, but they do it anyway.                                                                                              

They take a licorice stick, out of a glass; do so they can crawl up the shelves, till they’re standing at the top. 

“What now?” you ask. They go to the edge. And they jump! You want to catch them, till you see, gummy butterflies, already did your job. They circle all around you; you follow them with your eyes, spinning around in circles, getting dizzy. 

The magic is everywhere. 

You look in a corner cause you hear croaking sounds, chocolate frogs are jumping around, up and down the shelves, talking to each other, gummy worms are sliding on the floor, you couldn’t find a thing that weren’t moving. You smile from ear to ear, never wanting to get out of here.                                                                                                                                                                          

“Had enough, my dear?” The old lady asked.                                                                                           

“How could you ever have enough?!”                                                                              

“Want to see more?” She walks to the door, she came out of, opens it and walks down the stairs. You follow.

If you weren’t a believer going in, you are defiantly a believer coming out.  

Magic is everywhere; you just have to look for it.

 Goodwin killer

Never walk alone at Goodwin’s court, they all say. At day it looks nice, it looks like a place you want to take your sweetheart’s hand and walk slowly through the ally, and talk about everything between heaven and earth. 

Maybe you should do it at night time; I bet you’re thinking, it’s more romantic, you’re thinking that too, right?                                                                                   

I’m right aren’t I?                                                         

Well, a word of advice, don’t.                                                                                                                                                                                                              

It may look like the place you want to be at in the evening or at night, thinking the street lights, will get turned on and maybe a light from the end of the ally and one from the beginning of the ally would be, oh so romantic, well, let me tell you the story of the Goodwin Killer, and that thought will disappear.

Dark night’s hard work, cold streets, cars stopping, people jumping in and out, laughs, cries, joy, music, danger, yelling, loud noises.                                              

You walk fast to your car, cause you feel scared, you don’t know why, cause you’ve walked here a lot of times, but there’s something different about tonight. You search your bag for your keys, but when you’re afraid and shaky, it’s hard to find things, but you manage to find them.  

You jump into the car and try to start it, but it won’t start. Your phone is dead, so you can’t call for help, you have to walk. 

You feel the cold through your whole body, sounds behind, makes you stop and look back, but nobodies there.                 

Walk faster, you think to yourself.                                                                                            

You decide to take the shortcut through Goodwin’s Court; you’ve never liked this place, you tonight the lights in the ally are on, so it’s not that scary right now, which makes you relax a little.                                    

You stop, cause you hear someone behind you again, you feel a wind in your neck, like someone’s breathing right behind you. Looking back, no one’s there. Not even the girls lying on the ground notices anything.

But you don’t blame them, drinking, bottles around them, big pupils, small eyes, not much clothes, but they don’t look like to be freezing. Walk away now! At the end of the ally is your car, you don’t questing it, you walk in and drive home.                                                                                                      

Early morning’s regrets starts, walk of shame, hurt, sorrows, kisses, quiet, peaceful, silence. All that gets interrupted by a scream, this ain’t your normal – was he that ugly scream, or the God Dang it, again!  

Scream, no, this is the scream of fear, the scream of all hope is lost, and all happiness has disappeared from the world scream. 

Ever heard that scream?                                                                                               

You wouldn’t wish to.                                                                                                                                But if you ever do, don’t run to help, run to vanish. Cause if you go there, you’ll see death. Not just some old grandma lying in bed, no, this is brutal, ripped open, blood all over the place, killed, murdered, slaughtered death.  

Scared yet?                               

You’ll come to Goodwin’s court, the place where the easy in, and fast out, but you’ll have to pay first girls hangs out, where you where yesterday.

They usually aren’t there at day time, but today they still are. You walk in to the ally; it suddenly doesn’t seem so nice now.

The windows now look like bars, the dark walls have surrounded the ally, and not a light is coming in. The flowers hanging from pots, that blossomed so beautifully yesterday, it now wilted, hanging down the wall. The light sprung, some of the glass in the windows is broken.

This isn’t the place you want to be! But you’re there now, no turning back.                          

“What happened here?” you’ll ask scared. 

They look at you with the most terrifying look you’ll ever see in your entire life.

“It’s the Goodwin Killer,” one of them will say.                   

“Who?”                                                                                                                             

“The man you have to fear the most, we don’t know who it is, but this is his fourth kill.

He takes his victims in the car, get them to a hotel room, and he rips out their hearts with a knife, other parts of the inside is missing too, he must take them with him. Then he takes them back to here without anyone seeing it, and the next morning, well you’re here, it looks like this.”                                      

You think back to yesterday, this could have been you, not that you would get into his car, but this could have been you. As you get home, wanting to look into this case, you get a bill from a hotel. 

Since when where you at a hotel?

Did someone steal your credit card?

No, you still have it.                                   

Why don’t you remember being at a hotel last night?                    

Where were you yesterday? 

Don’t remember? 

Turn on the radio, the police got a new lead on the case, they are describing you…           What’s the last thing you remember? 

Think back?!                    

You remember being at Hardys, but didn’t you leave from there?

You don’t remember more, than going down in the basement of Hardys.

Who do you remember talking to last?

You go find that person.                  

“What did you do to me?” you ask.                                                                        

But all you get is a smile.                      

“You trusted evil.” And with the blink of an eye, they’re gone.  

 Lightning trees

You won’t find a person, who hasn’t seen the lightning trees. Go back to 1800 and they’ve been there, go back to the 1000’s and they’ve been there, go back before Christ, and they been there. Ask someone if they’ve heard about them and they’ll say yes, ask someone if they’ve seen them and they’ll say no. The lightning trees only get seen by the believers.

The believers of magic.         

Have you seen them?                                                                                                                         You want to?                                                                                    

Great, but first you have to go down a road, a road that nobody wants to go down. The street is dirty, and feels scary. The people are intrusive, they won’t let go of you till you’ve look them in the eyes, but don’t look them in the eyes. 

Who knows what happens to you?               

Can’t tell you either, cause nobody ever came out again to tell the story.   

So my best advice is don’t.                                            

Continue walking, but only if you dare, you’ll meet more people and they won’t stop, you’ll even get lost once or twice even though you’re walking straight, but with all there’s going on, you won’t see what’s left and what’s right. But at the end you’ll get there.                                                 In the end of the street lies a little garden, some sees a waste of space, an empty lot , some sees a park with a bench or two. 

But then there’s you, you don’t see that, do you?                                                

In the middle you see two trees, the trees are glowing in green light. These are the lighting trees. Lightning strikes the trees every minute to keep the light going, so they won’t miss their glow.                                                             

Wait a minute, and it’ll happen.                                                                                                

It’s done this for as long as people can remember. 

You can’t get hit, they can’t be touched, they can get heard, and you can see. See the slow lighting sliding down the sky, and into the trees, all the way down to the roots.        

 Touch the trees when the lightning strikes, and with luck you can get a wish, wish for anything you want to. But if you aren’t lucky, you get the opposite of what you wish for.               

Do you dare to make a wish?

Well, I guess since you’ve crossed the entrance, seen the magic, trusted evil, so this wouldn’t be a problem for you, would it?

So what do you say?

Yes?

Great, got your wish now?                                                                                    

Go touch the trees. 

Close your eyes, now it comes. Wish!                                           

“I wish for…”