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The House By The Loch

As a bolt of lightning flashed across the ink black sky, Hamish felt the car suddenly swerve. All Hamish could see were the sheets of rain hitting the windscreen and the faint beams of light given off by the headlights. It seemed like James too had been shocked by the sudden flash of light as he tried, and failed, to regain control of the car. One minute they were on tarmac the next they were bumping down a slope.
Airbags burst into their faces as they plunged down the bank. However, rather than crashing into hard ground at the bottom as he had expected, they began to slowly sink. The rapid deceleration causing them to both grunt in pain as their seatbelts dug into their chests.
“Shit, shit, shit.” Hamish exclaimed, as he quickly realised what they must have landed in. “We need to get out of here quick. We’re in a peat bog.”
Peat bogs were the Highland’s equivalent to quicksand. They were omnivorous, silently devouring their catch for eternity,
Whether James was reacting to Hamish’s shouts of warnings, or if he was acting our of pure self preservation, Hamish didn’t know but they were both scrambling to get out of the car before the bog took them.
It was with annoyance that Hamish noticed James seemed to be moving a lot quicker than he was. Another thing to add to the list of things James was better at than him, he thought bitterly, before pushing that to the back of his mind. This was definitely not the time to be thinking that.
Guided only by the faint torches on their phones they managed to reach the safety of the slope and panting heavily, could only watch as the bog claimed the car. With a final bubble of the car was gone, leaving no trace that it had ever been there.
A quick examination of themselves revealed they have both gotten off extremely lightly. James had a slight bump to the head and a few scratches on his arms and face. Hamish had a tender nose and a twister ankle, that was beginning to throb.
“Whit are we going to do noo?” He moaned as he rubbed his ankle. “I told ye we should hae waited until tomorrow.”
“Lets no’ start that again.” James replied sharply.
It had been James’ idea to travel up to Sutherland, the night before the eve of the highland games. Hamish knowing a storm was on its way had tried to persuade him to go up in the morning but as usual he had lost. They both looked alike, with their flaming red hair and muscled bodies, although Hamish thought his bright green eyes were better than James’ dull brown. Their physical appearances however was where their similarities ended, Hamish was quiet and reserved, James loud and rash.
“Weel whit are we going to do?” Hamish repeated himself.
“Well we cannae stay here. James said looking around in the darkness, his leg up on a rock, Hamish knew he was trying to look like a modern Braveheart. “We shae try and get back to the road and hope we can find a village, there must be one near by we can take shelter in.”
Hamish nodded in agreement, it did seem like the most sensible plan but thought to himself ‘I should have thought of that, i’m meant to be the intelligent one. Must be shock.’
They began their slow ascent up the bank, the rain making it twice as difficult. BY the time they had managed to reach the top Hamish’s ankle felt like it was on fire an standing on it was becoming difficult, sweeping their torches out in front of them they made their way along the road…