Countdown

Prologue

     “We just need one more! One more for it to be complete… One more for it to work! You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment. How many years passed waiting, just waiting, and now, I’ve found her.”

     “Who have you found?”

    “The key! The one that completes it all!”

     “We can’t do it again. People have started to notice things, they could figure out what we’re doing….”

     “Silence! It’s one last time. Just one. Then we can leave.”

    “Fine. This “key” where does she live?”

     “She lives on 72 Edgewood. It’s the last house on the road, no neighbours for at least a mile. I’ve already dealt with the parents so they won’t get in your way. Now go, bring her back by midnight… dead or alive.”

9:00 pm

     It’s Friday night. I’m sitting up in my room.  It’s so quiet. Only an hour ago there were cars driving down the road, birds chirping, and dogs barking. Now, there’s absolutely nothing. It’s silent. This old house is usually freaking me out because of all the creaking and noises it makes, but tonight its freaking me out for a different reason. There are no noises. I can hear a car drive along the road and I look out to see if it’s Mom and Dad. Nope. I can’t even see the car. Suddenly, I hear footsteps in my house. There are whispers outside my room.

     Maybe it was Mom and Dad after all!

     But wait…. I didn’t hear the door to the house open or the key unlock the door. The whispers get louder.

     “Noooraaah….” Someone says in a quiet malicious voice. 

     Then a bit louder someone else says “Nooooraaaaah…. We’ve come to take you Nooraah.”

     It sends a chill down my spine. I sit very still in my bed so as not to make a sound and let them know I’m here.

     “Noooraaah…. We know you’re in there, Nooooraaah…” says the first guy. “Come out now Norah and we promise not to hurt you.”

     I’m paralysed. There’s no possible way I am getting up out of this bed to let them take me to…..wherever it is they want to take me.  I look around.

      Where’s my phone? It was just on the floor a second ago… I really could use a phone right now.

      “Don’t bother looking for your phone Norah.” says the second guy. “We have it.”

      Whoa, whoa, whoa… How do they have it? And how did they know I was looking for it….

     “Come on Noooraaah. Get out of bed.” the first guy says.

     Suddenly I’m moving. I’m not making myself do this. In fact I’d much prefer staying in bed. My body feels disconnected. I’m in it but I’m not the one moving it. I get up out of bed, or actually my body gets out of bed. It starts moving towards the door and my mind puts on the brakes.

      Hey! I think. No way am I going out that door!

     My body starts slowing down. It’s as if my mind is fighting against my body.

      Suddenly one of the guys outside says “Noooraaah, don’t fight it. You won’t win in the end. ” He laughs sinisterly. “….They never do.”