Chapter 1

Supernatural tale

Prolouge

 

I groaned as I heard the sound of the telly being turned up to full volume.  I tried to turn over and put the pillow over my head to block out the sound. I groaned again as I glanced at the the clock.  My mind filled with murderous thoughts but I still refused to get out of my warm bed. After about ten minutes I gave up, with an effort, got out of bed. I pulled a white T.-shirt on and went straight to the kitchen.  I made myself a cup of coffee whilst still trying to shrug off the sleepiness.

 

I sighed as I walked through into the living room finding the source of my annoyance.  He was lounging in the sofa with his feet on the table. Littered over the sofa within his reach sat a McDonalds carton, a bag of doughnuts and coca cola bottles. I looked at the small occupant of the sofa; his dark black hair was stuck up in messy spikes, and to further fuel my annoyance I noticed he had on my leather jacket. His one eye was open but the other one lazily closed. He didn't look up as I entered the room, I walked over to the sofa kicking his legs off the table, ignoring his wince of pain, and lent over turning off the TV.

 

"Hey I was watching that," his voice sounding sleepy.

 

"Your sat two inches from the telly yet you need the volume up full, its 3 in the morning, for Christ sake. I work.  I get off my ***** in the day, so that you can eat doughnuts at 3 in the morning." I shouted at him.  He looked up at me clearly unconcerned at my ranting which just annoyed me further.

 

"Thing is, I wanted to ask you something," he said not looking the slightest bit repentant.

 

"It couldn't have waited until I woke up?"  I snapped.

 

"Well yeah, I guess, but I didn't want to."

 

I picked up the mess of cartons that were on the sofa, glaring at him as I did it, and pushed them out of the way so I could sit down.  He picked up the bag of doughnuts and took one out, as an afterthought he offered it in my direction. I shook my hand at him so he carried on eating.

 

"So what's so important that you needed to wake me up?  It better not be stupid," I saw a look across his face as I spoke.

 

"I don’t know if you're going to be grumpy about it."  His tone sulky.

 

"Ask"

 

"Well I was watching that movie that you turned off.  It was about vampires," his voice was unusually quiet.

 

"Hang on," I interrupted him annoyed "Your telling me you woke me up to ask about movie trivia?"

 

"Don't you think that vampire thing is a bit odd?"

 

"Preacher, how many times have I told you it’s not real, its actors, how many times have we done this conversation?  Your telling me you've woke me up at stupid O' clock cos you’re scared of vampires?  I'm going to have to ban you from the TV soon."

 

"I'm not scared of vampires," he snapped

 

"I don't believe you sometimes."  I shook my head at him now amused as I saw the indignant expression cross his face.

 

"I wasn't scared, it’s just, and where do vampires come from?"

 

I sighed, I could see from the look on his face this was going to be a long conversation, and it was way too early in the morning.

 

"They don't come from anywhere they aren't real," I said "I don’t know, a woman invented them in a book years ago and then Hollywood kept making movies about them."  I slumped back into my seat, clutching my coffee and glaring at him.  Unfortunately this had no effect on him at all.  He just stared at me waiting for my answer whilst still shoveling the last bit of his doughnut into his mouth.  I wondered why he was so interested in the subject, even after all these years of knowing him, he had the habit of surprising me with the way he thought. Sometimes I’d forget he was different, but he was so different in so many ways, and I prayed this wasn't going to turn into an obsession. From the look on his face my reply wasn't what he was hoping for.  I settled back in my chair and waited for his reply.

 

"So it’s not an urban myth?"

 

"Do you even know what an urban myth is?"  I asked him quickly and he shook his head at me.

 

"What’s the interest in them anyway?"

 

"Well don'tcha think we have a lot in common," I looked at him.  A thought about him attempting to drink blood, my blood, flashed through my head.

 

"You’re having an urge to drink blood and look pale?" I asked looking at him strangely”We are not going to have a repeat of the whole War of the Worlds episode."

 

"No," he grinned "besides Tom Cruise is far more disturbing than aliens nowadays."

 

"You've lost me.  Not getting what you've got in common with vampires."

 

He turned to look at me, sitting up properly, as he leaned closer to me as he spoke.  For the first time he seemed alert his eyes wide open.

 

"They are outsiders, separate from society, and alone."  He dropped his voice to a whisper.

 

"You woke me up at 3am cos you felt a bit lonely but you can dosen't that make

a bit of a mockery of the whole alone bit,  huh?"  I said sarcastically.

 

"I don't mean it in that way."

 

"I know," I  wondered what was going on with him, and not sure if it was just because of the hour but he seemed edgy.

 

"I had a dream."

 

"I didn’t even think you slept." I stared at him

 

"But I did."

 

"How?"

 

"I closed my eyes."

 

"I didn't mean it like that," I interrupted him quickly.

 

"Oh," he looked apologetically at me "It just happened," he shrugged his shoulders as he spoke.

 

"Maybe you sleep once every decade or something?"  This was the first thought that come into my head.

 

"No."

 

"What happened in the dream?" I asked him, too tired to argue with him further, but I was now curious as to why he was so freaked out.

 

 "It was the end of the world," he replied dramatically.

 

I stared at my companion looking for a smile; any sign of a practical joke, but saw nothing on the stone cold features. The atmosphere in the flat seems to change and the air sucked away, if this was a joke any minute now he was going to start laughing.  I turned the words over in my mind, I'd never seem him actually sleep, rest his eyes often but not actually sleep.  I'd wondered from time to time why not but I’d dismissed it as my imagination. There were a lot of things and allot of questions I’d never asked. Was I so afraid of finding out the answers? Preacher was now staring at me oddly.

 

"If the wind changes your face will stay like that," I grinned at him.

 

He turned his look away from me staring back at the blank TV screen. I closed my eyes hoping things would get back to normal. I now wished I’d stayed in bed and simply hidden under the pillow. Not since the first time I had met him had I felt this uneasy in his presence. Wondering why I had just accepted his strangeness?  Wondering why I hadn't asked the question before?

 

"End of the world, that's a little bit dramatic isn't it?" I broke the silence "You couldn't start small with your first dream, like I don’t know the end of Bridgend?"

 

"You don't think it’s a bit odd?  Now I start sleeping." His voice had a hint of fear but by now I could have been imaging things that were not there.

   

"Why? its normal isn't it?"  I asked.

 

"Not for me."

 

"Look you had a bad dream, that’s all."  Trying to soothe him, “Every kid has one you know."

"I'm not a kid."

 

What are you then?  The voice in my head screamed out to me to ask.  A part of me didn't want to know so instead I shook my head. "You know what I mean."

 

"It burned.  Everything burned."  His voice cut through my thoughts ”I heard the screams of agony.  Whilst I stood and watched. It burned so bright, Jack, so bright.  Then the darkness came and swallowed their screams, it swallowed everything until there nothing but silence.  Then it was just me. I was alone."

 

"It was just a dream"

 

"No.  It didn't feel like it, I swear, I could feel the heat on my skin.  I smelt the choking fumes.  I was there.  I felt the cold when there was just darkness.  It was like it was happening"

 

I saw her face in my head again, my dream, almost real, I pushed it back out as quickly as it came.  He stared at me.

 

"You had one too?"  He asked

 

"No" I said quickly

 

"You sure?"

 

"Yes, it was just a dream"  I said quickly looking away from him.

 

I was greeted with silence, and then I thought about something, as I glanced at the cartons I shoved aside to sit down.

 

"You had no money, how?" I snapped pointing at the cartons.

 

He looked away guilty before he spoke "Found money."

 

"Where," I snapped again.

 

"In your wallet," he said quietly.

 

 Maybe it was the hour, or being woken up, or just maybe my patience had finally snapped but all of a sudden I felt my anger exploding.

 

"You don't find money in my wallet.  It’s in my wallet so it’s away from you. It’s called stealing."

 

"I was hungry."

 

"There's food in the cupboard, that's not food, its junk, don't you ever think I get fed up with you."

 

"You’re just irritable because I woke you up," he glanced up at me

 

 "Its 3 in the morning what do you expect?"

 

"You want me to go?" his voice held no hint of emotion.  I looked at him trying to work out what he was thinking.  If he was hurt, he showed no sign of it; I let his calmness flow over me before I let out a sigh. I thought about it, as much as he annoyed me, the thought of endless nights of just the TV for company was worse.

 

"I want you to stop waking me up, stop stealing from me and stop being such a bloody slob," I glared at the strewn cartons.

 

"Sorry."

 

"That's I'm sorry I'm going to stop stealing from me or just a sorry," I glared at him.

 

He shrugged his shoulders in a non- committal gesture; I glared at him again, glanced at the clock and groaned as it flicked to 3.30.

 

Author's Note

Any comments welcomed

Reviews

[Leon C]

Hello,

I really liked this, it gripped me a couple of sentences in and held me to the end.

I think I can only echo some of the other reviews.

A little bit more description inbetween the dialogue would be good. Without it it begins to feel a bit like a screenplay.

I too was unclear about the relationship between the two characters but I assuming father and son.

There is no reference to age but I think that should come through the dialogue or description.

If father and son then there is no reference to a Mother - just a bit confusing.

I guess you have sorted these things out as the piece is 4 years old now.

[snopadelic]

Cheers for the input and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to comment it appreciated.

[Francesca]

You describe the characters' thoughts and emotions really well, like when he was frustrated being woken up, and when he got mad at Preacher for stealing his money. There was a second where I thought Preacher was going to turn into a vampire and attack the other guy! lol. I think this is an interesting start to a story. I have a few words of advice. One, you can try to add descriptions and setting through the dialogue. Like maybe while one of them is talking, you could say "It was just a dream," I said, running a hand through my shaggy black hair. It gives more description to the character, and prevents the story from being a whole stream of dialogue. Second, I noticed that at least at the beginning of the Prologue, a lot of sentences started with I. E.g. I went to the store. I bought milk. I went home. It had a little bit of that feel. Also, maybe you could explain their relationship to each other more, and give a name to the character with PoV. Maybe I missed the name while reading.
Otherwise, I really like the story so far (vampires yay), and I'll be reading more :)

[Molly Violet]

This is my first review so bear with me. As for the story beginning I like it.
I have always had an interest in vampires. There is some humor in your chapter but it seems to me , dark humor. The boy seems quite disturbed and the father? is it?
I do think he had a dream also of the end of the world.
I plan to read more time permitting.
I am to rate this ? I like it so I will rate it 99 as perhaps it is not perfect, nothing ever really is .
Thank you for reviewing my story.

[Vanessa Rico]

I am sorry it took me so long to read this! It was brilliantly well-written and quite humorous! The pace moved right along and I thoroughly enjoyed your dialogue and descriptions! I will be adding this book to my reading list!

[Blue Moon Ice Cream]

This was a humorous chapter. It will be interesting to see where the story goes from here...sounds like something about the world ending.

[Willow]

I knew you were British from the first sentence (obviously). I've always adored the cadence of European writing, though I'm Canadian myself. This chapter was a bit hard to follow, but only because you start pose so many questions to readers. I don't quite understand the relationship between your two characters, but that's no big deal, seeing as it's the prologue. I didn't like the font and spacing either. Still, this is fairly interesting, and I believe I shall read on.