Chapter 3: Time to Leave!

Running home from the attack Owen finds an unexpected visitor waiting.

Owen galloped home, like hooves his feet raced through the remaining fields. He needed to get home; get to safety. Through the estate was the only choice. The estate was a stark contrast to the green hell of the fields. He needed to get to the sanctuary of his home and quick!

 

Pounding the pavement he raced, legions of identikit houses passed by. His estate was no different - humiliatingly uniform. Every house had exactly the same drive way, same windows, same doors. It was as if the estate knew what people thought of it so made the houses easier to spot.

 

Owen crossed the long stretch of road which was littered with sleeping policemen. They lay sedentary on their tarmac carpet, as if to keep watch on Owen’s house which lay on the other side of the road.

 

People hated his estate, they’d whisper its name in conversation, avoid going through it in their cars. The moment he had written down his address on the school admission form it rang out he was ‘from their’, but it was the best his mum could get after his dad left. That was when Owen’s problems started.

 

Owen pressed his key into his front door. The door pushed back without the need to unlock it. Someone was inside.

 

The hallway met him. Gauges of plaster lay on the floor, the mish mash of sixties decor wrenched bitterly from the walls. Shredded wallpaper flapped ditheringly against the remaining wall. Owen walked further into the hallway. There was an awful creak underfoot, but it wasn’t that noise that scared Owen. Something rattled. It wasn’t Owen; something was still in the house. Owen crept further down the hallway; towards the noise.  The carpet was ripped up, floorboards cut through, rupturing the carpet like the rib cage of a starved horse.

 

Owen jumped. Bare wires sparked devilishly from the ceiling; fizzing, hissing like the tentacles of a sea monster.

 

Owen again stepped forward. There was a crash in the kitchen; clumsy clatter of a kitchen chair against the tiled floor. Owen froze.

They were still here! Whatever it was, it was behind the kitchen door!

 

Owen pressed his ear against the door. The noise dulled for a moment, then stopped. Was it listening? Had it heard Owen?

 

 “Where is she? Your Mum Owen where is she!” The kitchen door flung open as Riley grabbed Owen, dragging him inside.

 

“I don’t know! What’s going on …” Owen was cut off mid sentence, blood was all over the floor.

“Then we don’t have much time! They must have taken her! Quick gather a few things we must get out of here, and now!”

 

Owen pelted up the stairs, leaping two or three steps in one stride. The banister was shredded and black. The charred, burnt embers were woven through the fabric of the carpet. Oily and lack; Owen had seen this before " The monster in the field! Whose blood was that in the kitchen? Was it his mum? Was she hurt?

 

“Hurry up! There’s no time to waste, we must go!” Riley shouted up towards Owen

 

Owen fumbled desperately; fear had taken his coordination hostage. There was nothing for him to Owen to take. His room had been destroyed! Every possession lay strewn across the floor awash with black ash. Burned and wrecked:  his clothes, books, everything lay seeped in dust.

 

“They’re coming Owen we must leave!” Riley yelled.

 

Owen looked at the walls. Like mould, the walls began to turn a grim, all too familiar black tar.  Frantically he left his bedroom; the very air seemed to be on fire.

 

Owen jumped desperately down the staircase, stumbling and tripping as he tried to clear two or three stairs at a time, trying to escape. Riley was just in eyeshot.

 

Owen sprinted for the kitchen. A thunderous explosion knocked him to the floor as the front door was blown apart! Panels from the door fell like spears in Owen’s direction, barring his escape.  He needed to get up. He needed to get to Riley!

 

The beast was getting closer.

Scrabbling desperately Owen squirmed, trying to get back onto his feet. Splinters of fragmented door rained down like hail on Owen cutting and slicing his flesh, pinning him to the floor.

 

All the while the beast got closer.

 

The creature loomed above Owen casting him into a pit of shadow. The entire mass of the creature towered above Owen.

 

Dark as if the sun itself was a mere imagination it stood smouldering. The figure seemed to consume Owen. The beast laughed with a deep chuckle of satisfaction that he had completed his task. Owen was going to die.

 

Riley lurched forward, grabbing Owen by his collar, dragging him back towards the Kitchen. The creature roared with a sickening dissatisfaction and thundered forward. Riley held Owen up, slamming the kitchen door behind him in a futile attempt to barricade them in from the oncoming rage of fire.

 

“When I say we need to go... We need to go!” Riley said. Owen nodded.

 

Riley’s eyes were spotlights searching for any escape. To the far end of the kitchen was the back door leading to the cobbled yard. Quickly without explanation he ushered Owen towards the exit.

 

Muttering and chanting Riley held the wooden door.  The door trembled, shining a bright iridescent blue, splitting the dark that had almost engulfed the kitchen. The creature roared!

 

Riley grabbed Owen, pushing him through the door; they had escaped.

 

Owen stared in amazement unsure of where exactly they had escaped to. He certainly wasn’t on his estate anymore.

 

“I told you things aren’t always what they seem.” Riley grinned.

Author's Note

This is the final chapter of the submission I am sending to publishers. If you can help in any way at all I'd really appreciate your feedback. My page on facebook is www.facebook.com/cgguest