Chapter One: The Farm.......................................1Chapter Two: The Gardens....................................14Chapter Three: Evil in the Meadows..........................38Chapter Four: Going into Town...............................47Chapter Five: Back at the Farm..............................71Chapter Six: Evil Rises from the Sludge.....................85Chapter Seven: Face to Face with Evil.......................98Chapter Eight: The New Day..................................110

Chapter One

The Farm

In a small town named Laurel, outside the big city of Hazelton, lived a young girl. That would be me. My full name is Olivia Anne Maitland, and I am all grown up now, but I was only ten years old in the story I am about to tell you. I have had many story adventures since I was ten, but this first story was a special one.

It was the beginning of when I learned the truth about who I was and who I would become. I would learn the truth about my family and the farm on which I still live today. I would learn what it means to be a Chosen One. I would be the next generation. However, I do not want to get ahead of my story, so let us start at the very beginning.

I had green eyes, red hair that hung down my back just like my mother's, and as I said, I was only ten years old. I had across my nose and cheeks a spray of soft freckles that I tried to scrub off whenever I washed my face. I really did not much care for them. Funny thing was, the harder I scrubbed my face, the faster they seemed to populate.

I was born the third daughter, of a third daughter, on the third day, of the third month, on this very farm. My mother did not make it to the hospital to have me as she did with my twin sisters. My mother would tell me the story of my birth before bed. She would always start the story with, "Only unique little girls were born at home with such perfect dates for their birthday." Each time she told the story, I loved it even more.

The Big Woods that surrounded us went on for miles. It also surrounded part of the town. Nearly everyone in Laurel was afraid of the Big Woods. They believed evil lived there because of the time, many years earlier, when a young boy named Kevin Tyler wandered into the Woods and became lost. People searched and searched but could not find a single clue to his whereabouts. Then a few weeks later, he turned up in town, all by himself. He talked of strange things that had happened to him. He told of how some wood creatures had taught him different skills to keep himself safe from anything bad that might occur. When the wood creatures felt they had finished teaching Kevin everything he needed to learn, they helped him find his way back to town.

After that incident, the people of Laurel never dared to go into the Woods or even near them for fear that they, too, would end up "not right in the head" like Kevin. My parents as well as the parents of every other child in Laurel told that story so we would stay away from the Woods.

I always felt really sorry for Kevin when they spoke of his stories because it must have been awful when nobody, not even your parents, believed what you tried to explain to them: the things that you saw and the things that happened to you in the Woods.

It was the biggest story to ever come out of Laurel which was why every time we went to town, there were always one or two old-timers who would stop my mother or father to warn them to keep their daughters well away from the Woods, to keep them safe. My mother and father always smiled and answered politely that they were very much aware of the Woods and the stories about the Woods. The whole story about Kevin Tyler gave me the creeps because I was the same age as Kevin Tyler was when it happened to him.

The family farm, as it was called, had been handed down from generation to generation on my mother's side. Our stone house was built from stones taken right from the fields on the property. Looking at the front of the house, the first things you would notice were the beautiful white carved shutters on either side of the two big windows. The carvings were very unusual, and yet the design was very familiar to me. It looked like a skeleton leaf: a leaf you would find in the fall with no green or brown on it, just the stem with the veins. Or maybe the carving was of a feather. Whatever it was, it had what looked like a funny-shaped stem.

I would stare at the shutters when I sat on the big bench out front. The bench was one of many spots where I would sit alone to figure things out. Sometimes I would just sit and try to imagine what the person saw when they carved the shutters. I loved sitting on the bench when I needed time to myself.

Inside the house was a large kitchen where the family usually gathered. A big table with a bench on each side and an additional chair at each end was placed in the center of the room. Smaller stones gathered from the property made up the beautiful floor of the kitchen. They must have spent a lot of time choosing only the prettiest stones because the stones sparkled so brightly when my mother washed the floor. My sisters and I liked lying on the benches and pointing out our favorite ones. It was hard to choose just one favorite because they all were so beautiful.

Sweet flowers and herbs hung drying from the large beams on the ceiling. Another small table was pushed against the wall in the corner where often you could find my mother working on boxing and stringing her herbs and flowers to sell. Next to the herb table was the doorway that led to the dining room and the staircase to the three bedrooms upstairs. At the top of the stairs was the biggest room, and it belonged to my parents. Next to my parents' bedroom was the twins', Sydney and Sarah's, room. Across the hall and next to the bathroom was my room. I used to be scared in my bedroom all alone, but by this time, I was just glad that I did not have to share a room with my bratty sisters.

Outside, the chickens would run around in the yard chasing bugs all day, and there would be birds, bees, butterflies, and rabbits. Many sweet-smelling flowers, bushes, and herbs filled the side yard, all in perfect rows. My mother was what you would call an herbalist, so her flowerbeds were her life, and she was very meticulous in caring for her beds. My mother was beautiful with long wavy red hair that was especially lovely when a small breeze tossed it about in the sunlight of the flowerbeds. She had a beautiful singing voice too, and sometimes you could hear her softly singing from among the flowers.

Behind the house there was a big red barn with a couple of smaller outbuildings near it. Further back, next to the big red barn, was a large meadow where the cows grazed, feasting on the lush grasses of an early summer. An early summer that would be full of adventure.

I, Olivia Anne Maitland, woke up to the smell of bacon cooking in the big kitchen downstairs beneath my bedroom. I could hear the murmur of voices laughing. I thought it somewhat strange that my sisters had not come in to wake me and help me get dressed on a Monday morning. During the school year, it was Sydney and Sarah's job to make sure I got up and washed, and was ready for school on time. Their methods at times were a little cruel, like a pillow abruptly landing on my head or the time in the winter, when they pulled my...

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Datenschutz und Sicherheit

We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of personal data. This policy tells you how we will collect and use your personal data, and what you should expect in respect of the personal information about you that we have collected.

We are PBShop.co.uk Limited (registered in England & Wales with Company No: 9366362). Our registered office is at Swatton Barn, Badbury, Swindon, SN4 0EU, United Kingdom.

The person with responsibility for our data protection compliance is the Managing Director and they can be contacted via email at help@pbshop.store.

We are the data controller of the personal data that we keep and use, and we are therefore responsible for making sure that our systems, processes and people comply with the relevant data protection laws in respect of that personal data.

We will act in respect of personal data to comply with the six principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which are:

Lawfulness, fairness and transparency;
Purpose limitation;
Data minimisation;
Accuracy;
Storage limitation;
Integrity and confidentiality.
You have rights in respect of how your personal data can be processed; these include the right to request:

a copy of your personal data;
that inaccurate data is rectified; and
that your personal data is, in certain circumstances, erased or restricted.
You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner, which you can do by contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) directly. Full contact details, including a helpline number, can be found on the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk). This website also has useful information on your rights and our obligations. However, please raise any concerns or issues with us first so that we may deal with this as quickly as possible for you.

COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL DATA
We collect and process data for the following reasons:

personal data collected and created in relation to our selling books and other items; and
personal data relating to our people (which means those people working for our company, or providing services to us, or potentially working or providing services to us, including employees, consultants, temporary or casual workers and contractors).
All of our people are required to abide by our Privacy Policy when handling personal data, and are provided with appropriate data protection training. Any breach of data protection will be taken seriously, and may result in disciplinary action.

Selling books and other items
COLLECTION:
We will collect personal information which may include names, addresses and other information for our customers. This will be done for the management of the commercial relationship with our customers.

We may collect this personal data from you directly, and also from third parties, including publicly available third party sources. Additional personal data will be collected as it is created by or supplied to us in the course of anything we do for you.

USE:
We will use the personal data in the course of making sales and to comply with requirements that we are required to undertake.

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

in performance of a contract (the agreement to sell books and other items); and/or
compliance with a legal obligation; and/or
vital interests of the data subject; and/or
where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
We may also use your personal data in the following situations, which are likely to be far less common:

where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests);
where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.
DISCLOSURE:
We may share personal data with third parties as is necessary in the sale of books and other items, including to third party providers who deliver services to support the operation of our company.

In respect of all disclosures of personal data, we will only share the personal information which is necessary for the particular purpose for which it is provided, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so, and we will ensure that the personal data is appropriately protected.

RETENTION PERIOD:
We will keep personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. Normally, our retention period for personal data collected for this purpose is a minimum of 6 years after the end of the period that we are selling books and other items.

Our people
COLLECTION:
We will collect names, addresses, contact details, education and employment history, identity and other background checks (which may include appropriate criminal and financial checks and confirmation of the right to work in the UK), marital status and information on next of kin and dependents, financial information (such as bank details and NI numbers), date of birth, gender, a copy of your passport and driving licence, performance information and compensation history, recruitment information (including references), salary, benefits, pension and annual leave information, disciplinary and grievance information, photographs, information about your use of our information and communications systems and CCTV footage or other information obtained through electronic means.

We may collect and use special categories of personal data as required in the carrying out of obligations and exercising specific rights of us or the data subject in the field of employment. This may include information relating to matters such as health, racial origin, religious belief and offences or alleged offences.

Personal data may be collected from you during the selection process (for example via your application form and CV) and during your employment (including holiday forms, expense claims, performance reviews, any disciplinary or grievance processes), or from third parties, including referees, health service providers, background check providers.

USE:
Personal data of our people will be used for HR administration and management, both in respect of the selection of people to work for us (including suitability, eligibility and/or fitness to work), and those who do work for us, to include learning and development, disciplinary and security (of people, offices and data) requirements, providing and liaising with benefits providers, business management and planning (including accounting and auditing), paying you and dealing with tax and NI deductions, assessing and deciding on salary reviews and compensation, conducting performance reviews and managing performance, dealing with legal disputes involving you or others, preventing fraud, monitoring your use of our information and communications systems, ensuring compliance with our policies, and equal opportunities monitoring.

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

In performance of a contract with you; and/or
compliance with a legal obligation; and/or
vital interests of the data subject; and/or
where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
We may also use your personal data in the following situations, which are likely to be less common:

where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests);
where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.
In respect of all disclosures of personal data, we will only share the personal information which is necessary for the particular purpose for which it is provided, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so, and we will ensure that the personal data is appropriately protected.

In respect of special categories of personal data, we may process this in the following circumstances:

in limited circumstances with your explicit written consent; and/or
where we need to carry out our legal obligations and in line with our policies; and/or
where it is needed in the public interest (such as for equal opportunities monitoring or in relation to our occupational pension scheme), and in line with our policies; and/or
where it is needed to assess your working capacity on health grounds, subject to appropriate confidentiality safeguards.
Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your (or someone else’s) interests and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public. We may also process such information about our people (or former people) in the course of our legitimate business activities with the appropriate safeguards.

The special categories of personal data may be used in the following ways:

in relation to leaves of absence, to comply with employment and other laws;
in relation to your physical or mental health, or disability status, to ensure your health and safety in the workplace and to assess your fitness to work, to monitor, manage and administer benefits and absences;
in relation to your race, national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.
DISCLOSURE:
Personal data may be transferred to service providers who support the operation of our business (such as payroll service providers), to other third parties reasonably necessary in the conduct of our business (including insurers, professional advisors, regulators). These third parties may be acting as processor, or controller of personal data in their own right.

RETENTION PERIOD:
We will keep personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. We will normally keep personal data of applicants who we do not employ for six months after we receive it.

We will keep personal data of employees throughout your employment and normally for a minimum of six years after your employment ends.

Changes to your personal data
It is very important that the personal information that we hold about you is accurate and current. Please tell us if your personal information changes during your relationship with us.

Data Security
We have put in place measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those of our people and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and the ICO of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Where we store your personal data
We principally store data, both electronically and on file, at our office.

Personal data may be transferred outside of the EEA by processors acting on our behalf. For transfers to countries not considered adequate by the EC, we will ensure that personal data is adequately protected, as required by the GDPR. This would include by use of the Standard Contractual Clauses adopted by the EC to protect personal data.

Your rights
Under certain circumstances, you have the right by law to request:

access to your personal data. This enables you to ask to receive a copy of the personal data that we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
correction of the personal data that we hold about you.
erasure of your personal data.
object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on our legitimate interest and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
restriction of processing of your personal data.
transfer of your personal data to another party.
Links from our website
Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of third parties that we permit to make such links. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We recommend that you check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on our website, so please ensure that you are viewing the correct version.

Please contact us if you have any questions, comments or requests regarding this Privacy Policy.

Last amended May 2021.

The Skeleton Leaf Stories

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