memory

Chapter five

When we got to the train station it was midday. I bought two train tickets to Cwmbran. "How much money did you save up? We had a hotel room for two nights and now two train tickets!" Amelia asked.

"Oh, about six hundred pounds." I replied.

"What? What were you saving up for, a second hand car?"

"Of course not, that would be silly. I was saving up for Disneyland."

"Why? You wouldn't be able to go without an adult and we don't exactly have parents." we went to the platform. The train was late as usual and we arrived at Cwmbran at 12:32 p.m. at the station in Cwmbran there were posters planted over all the walls. One read "don't do it! Call 116 123 for help". Another read "crack is whack" and "say nope to dope". A final one read "drugs are retarded so don't get started"

we walked outside and was greeted by the smell of smoke. There was a fire in an apartment building, the flames were roaring and the smoke was billowing. The firefighters were at the scene but there hoses weren't doing much to stop the fire. As I looked more closely, I could see there were people still inside. There was a teenage girl, an adult man and a woman in the second floor. The first floor held the worst of the fire, probably where it started. Suddenly someone ran out of the fire. Said person was a young woman, she was immediately ushered away by paramedics and police. "What do you think is going on?" asked Amelia.

"Someone started a fire on the first floor, most people escaped but there are a few still trapped. The firemen's futile efforts to put out the flames only seem to make things worse and they are talking about letting it burn out." I replied.

"How do you know all of this?" asked Amelia, dumbfounded.

"It's simple really, the first floor is the most burned, suggesting the fire was their the longest. The firemen have stopped using their hoses,suggesting they have realized the fire will not be put out so easily. Finally, there are a lot of people outside the building talking to the police."

"Show off." she replied. I didn't respond.

"Anyway, what do you think this staff does?" she asked, I had forgotten she was carrying it. "I don't know, maybe it changes the weather so we put out the fire with rain?" I said hopefully.

"Probably not." she said. "Maybe I swing it?" She swung it, nothing happened. "Maybe you say a spell or something."

She swung the staff and said "wingardium levioser." nothing happened.

"It's leviosa, not levioser." I said with a smirk. (you may think I'm making this up but she really did this) "okay then. wingardium leviosa." she swung the staff, nothing happened "well, that was embarrass-" suddenly a loose stone on the road lifted into the air. "Well, oof. I wasn't expecting that." I said. "Do you think you have to say spells? Could you say another spell, see if that works?"

"alakazam!" she exclaimed. A jet of water burst from the tip of the staff like a power hose. The water seemed to multiply and was attracted towards the fire. The fire was put out immediately. "What the hell was that?" I asked, bewildered.

"That my friend was the power of the staff."

"But how much momentum did the water have? We are like 100 metres away. Also how did it multiply? Water doesn't do that. And how was it attracted to the fire and - why has no one noticed?" I looked around, everyone was as still as statues. As I looked closer, I noticed all the clocks in the area weren't ticking, they were all stopped at 1:08 p.m. It was as if time had stopped. I had a nagging thought in the back of my head look inside the building. So that was what I did. I walked in and saw support beams sagging and doors in mid swing. I didn't know what I was looking for so I looked for anything out of the ordinary. (do you know how hard it is to look for things out of the ordinary in a burnt building? The answer is very) on the second floor I spotted something very strange. It was a message engraved in the wall. It read "I'm waiting bridge of 7." Well, that is interesting I thought. I had deduced that it was the Severn bridge the writing was talking about. I walked back outside, everything was still frozen. Why is everything frozen and how do I stop it? I thought. That's when I saw, a little glitch flash across the sky, like the glitch on a computer when it is broken. It was only for a split second, but I saw it nonetheless. Then everything started again, the firemen looked bewildered, the crowd that had formed looked shocked, the people still in the building came streaming out in a hurried fashion and the people who were already out cried out in relief. I rushed back to where Amelia stood. When she saw me her jaw dropped open like a badly cooked souffle.

"How, how, what?" she stammered, I laughed. I explained what happened, apart from the glitch in the sky. "Well, why did we come here then? Jikken obviously wasn't here very long." she said.

"Maybe some... homosexueller is making it up as she's goes along." I joked.

"What do you mean?" Asked Amelia.

"It was a joke."

"It wasn't funny, it didn't make sense."

"It made sense in my head."

"Everything makes sense in your head." Amelia rolled her eyes at that point. I decided to change the subject. "So, why do you think we never get to see it for more than a few seconds?" I asked.

"Maybe it wants a chase." she replied.

"Maybe, but why? Why would it want a chase?"

"Because it wants to lead us somewhere?" she asked.

"That could be it. Should we go to the severn bridge then? It will probably be a trap."

"We have no choice we have two days before they destroy the planet." She replied.

"I have a question about that. Wouldn't they have figured out that we are not harboring him because we helped tsu? So aren't we safe from a literal deadline?"

"Why do you have to read too much into things?"

"I just need to know what's going on, that's all." I looked at the time. "Oh, it's 1:26 p.m." I said.

"Why is that important?" Asked Amelia.

"Everything is important to someone, it is important to us however because we need to get a move on if we're going to the severn bridge."

"Fine. How are we going to get there?"

"Train of course!"

We walked back into the train station. The person at the reception looked at us as we walked in. "didn't you just get here not an hour ago?"

"We realized we didn't like it here." I replied.

"Well where would you like to go now?" the receptionist asked.

"Where is closest to the severn bridge?" asked Amelia. The receptionist tapped away at his keyboard. "There is a train going to Chepstow in 20 minutes." he said. I bought two tickets to Chepstow. Whilst we were waiting on the platform, I decided to practice with my new found powers.

I saw a little pebble on the floor, I looked at it and thought of it rising in the air. Nothing happened. I did the same thing again but this time I thought of how I felt when I did it the first time, the fear, the anger at this creature just coming out of nowhere but most importantly the confusion from the night before of why he went to Newport. This time it went into the air, just a centimetre so no one would notice. I then thought of the pebble flying onto the tracks, it complied. I did this with anything small enough to slip away unnoticed and by the time our train arrived the floor was litter free.

Nothing eventful happened on the train journey other than the train drove past a school where a class of boys were playing football in the rain but one child just sat there in the middle of the pitch. We got off the train, when we got out of the train station we looked at a map. We were shocked that it was still three point five miles to the bridge. We decided to rent bikes to get there. (yes you can rent bikes, I was as shocked as you are.) It only took us thirteen minutes to get there and as soon as we did all I wanted to do was turn around and pedal as fast as I could.