#1 INTO THE DARK SERIES: Part 1

Chapter 5

                                                                                    5

When I reached number 19 Stubbs Lane off the Abingdon Road, I realised the cheerful semi-detached house was empty.

I secured my bike, which I’d christened Bertha all those years ago and went up to my room.  Looking out of the window, I pulled on my grey t-shirt and jogging bottoms whilst munching on an apple. 

What was Ben doing?  I wished he was with me so that I could talk to him.  He was no doubt already surrounded by new friends.

Settling down, I began to make notes on the chapter titled The Origins of Critical Thinking.  Next, I ate two bananas as I read about Descartes in the 17th Century.  Finishing off a pear, I learned how in Dualism the mind and body are seen as two separate entities that interact to form the human experience.

Lying back on my bed, I looked around my room and let my mind wander.  Sure enough, I was being spoilt and not having a typical undergrad experience.  The thought of horrible cramped and damp student flats made me shiver. 

I’d looked around some.  Uncle Spencer, in a bout of tough love had thought it ‘educational’ for me to research the alternative housing options.  This was so that I’d appreciate what other students had to put up with.  I hugged myself at the depressing thought.

As one of the lucky ones, I wasn’t burying myself in student debt or renting out dodgy overpriced digs.  Uncle Spencer was there to keep an eye on me and give me a limited amount of spending money. 

As long as I behaved and achieved my usual straight A s, he’d pick up the tab on my modest lifestyle.  Fine by me.   Anything was better than working shifts at the local take-away.

No wild student parties in Uncle Spencer’s house, with me fornicating with some boy on the stairs.  No.  The fact that I could still do unspeakable things with a fellow student at a party in someone else’s house hadn’t really occurred to him. 

I laughed at this.  Then without warning, I was gone.  Back into the dark.

“Follow me.  Quickly,” said the boy with the metal crossbow.

I ran after him.  He wasn’t going to leave me behind.  Not in this place.  I became aware of the dirty stone floor beneath my bare feet.  This wasn’t the cave where we’d last met.  This was a different world.  We were in a castle.  It was freezing cold.  When we stopped, I hugged my body to keep warm.

There was a horrible smell that I couldn’t quite place.  Sickly.  Cloying.  Metallic.   He stepped through a solid wall to our right and dragged me after him.   I gasped.

“Where are we?  How did you do that?”  I asked. 

We were alone in the dim, quiet room.  He was the same dark-haired boy with the same crossbow, but in a new universe.   And very much alive.   I grinned despite myself.

He shrugged.  Then bent down to pick up dirt off the floor.

“How many are there?”  I strained to hear footsteps.  There were none.  We were safe from the Misery-Makers, for a while anyway.

“Don’t know,” he said as he spat on his hands and smeared the muck onto his face.  His pale skin was soon covered making his brown eyes appear darker.

I raised an eyebrow.  “You don’t know much, do you?”

His venomous glare silenced me.  “Here.  Put this on your face and neck.   Camouflage.”  He held out his fingers covered in sticky goo.  It smelled of animals.