Hello, gentle listener, and welcome to Nocturnal Transmissions, the fortnightly podcast that brings you dark tales, both old and new, performed by your humble narrator, Kristen Holland.

Before we begin, in light of the international listenership we have been blessed with here

at Nocturnal Transmissions, I think a little word of explanation might be

useful as a preface to this episode's tale. Conquers, what is it? Well, Conquers is the name of a British children's game involving chess nuts,

also called Conkers, threaded to strings. Holding their strings, players thwack each

other's nuts until one of them breaks, or is knocked to the ground.

Oh, the nuts in question are, of course, they're chestnuts.

Yes, quite.

So, now that we've established that,

Nocturnal Transmissions is proud to present.

Conquers by Mike Lee. Robert didn't know exactly what time of day it was.

His watch, useless and broken, the arms of Mickey Mouse,

stuttering back and forth between the hours of ten and eleven. The watch,

a painful reminder of the beating and subsequent humiliation, dished out by the fists of Liam

Carey, that same morning in the schoolyard. But even if Mickey could tell the time, or if Robert could

guess what part of the day it was by the position of the sun in the sky, it would have done him

no good. The trees this deep in the woods were thick and gnarled, angry with their isolation.

They strangled what little light came through.

Despite the darkness, Robert was excited.

The murky and bleak surroundings seemed the perfect place to find something special and hidden.

To him the lack of light was small penance,

for the absence of sunshine also meant there was little chance he would bump into other

...