Chapter 2

Supernatural tale

Chapter 1

 

A Few Years Earlier

 

I looked out of my window, the sun had only just started to rise, and I glanced at the time.  I swore to myself at the realization, it was only five in the morning.  The street below was suitably empty for the time, even the birds were still asleep.   

 

The part of town I live in is named Pillgwenny, but it’s just known as Pill.  Now I’m sure every town, in every country has a Pill.  As soon as you tell anyone where you are from they get that look of sympathy in their eyes.  “Years ago,” they’d say,” it was a lovely place to live, everyone knew each other and you could leave your door open.”  Now the only people that inhabit Pill are drug addicts, drug dealers and immigrants.  I’m none of these, and all my neighbors are white.  So what do people know?      

 

My eyes were drawn to the ladies bike resting against the side of the garage. I guessed that the brakes would be rusted and useless. The paint had started to peel and one of the tires was flat.

 

“You can get a matching one we can go on rides together, it will be fun.” I remembered her telling me. I’m sure I agreed, but never really meaning to do it. I never had enough time or enough energy. Now, I would bike around Europe if it meant she would come back.  That was never going to happen, but I couldn’t bring myself to part with it. A few kids came over from time to time asking to buy it, but I always refused.  She was never going to come back.  I’d always known that, I just never wanted to admit it. I didn’t want to deal with the pain or my anger. I looked at the bike, broken and useless, just as I felt.

 

My et=yes fell on the bike again, just for a second, it looked brand new and shining. I blinked, and it was still rusting in the corner. “It must have been the light.” I thought to myself.  The sun had almost come up now, it was spring, and I stayed by the window enjoying the first rays of heat on my skin. Then, I saw her, and I was transfixed.  How could this be?  My head screamed out. I wanted to call out the window to her, but I stopped myself. I just wanted to watch her. I’d forgotten how good it was just to see her. She looked beautiful, as gorgeous as the day we first met. I remembered now.  It was Sunday, she was always going on about getting a picnic together and going riding.  Spending quality time together, but I never went. Was it Sunday?  Confusion was ringing around my head.

 

I stared at her, I blinked, and instantly regretted it.  I glanced and saw the bike had returned to its rusted status.  My heart sank, my eyes instantly searching for her again  To my instant relief, she was still there.  I called out to her, terrified she would vanish from me again. She turned her head upwards.  I think my heart actually stopped beating, as the sickening sight of her decaying face met my stare. Her skin tone the palest white, her eyes sunken and lifeless.  Blood dripping from marks running down the veins of her arm.

 

“No.” I screamed, my lungs practically bursting.

 

I shot bolt upright, absolutely terrified, my eyes struggling to focus. A few seconds ticked by before reality set in.  “A dream.” I realized. “Christ that was freaky.”   The sun was still set, and my room was covered in darkness.  I shivered, feeling the cold wind sneaking in through the opened window.

 

I couldn’t stay in bed,  it was just making me feel more depressed. I’d felt her presence, if only for a few minutes, and I wanted to cling onto that image.  However, that thing she had turned into, was still etched into my mind.  I wanted coffee. I wanted proper coffee.  I went into my kitchen and clicked on the kettle to boil.  I’d never had a dream, well nightmare, which felt like that.  I poured out my coffee. I started to wish I could go back to sleep, just to see her again, even if it was just for a few more minutes. I need to move on, but every time I tried it seemed like something pulled me back. “God I miss you.”

 

I stayed in my kitchen. I pulled out a chair, and rested my elbows on my table. My eyes caught sight of a pocket watch sitting on the cabinet top. It was the only thing that looked out of place in my otherwise immaculate kitchen.  I’d found it in a second hand shop, the other day, and thought it may be worth more than the twenty pound asking price. 

“They only ever made one of these.”  The shop owner assured me. 

I looked at it properly the brass didn’t look that old, but it was still a nice watch.  I opened it up looking at the watch face, I checked the time on the kitchen clock, pleased it was perfect timing.  As I held it the metal seemed to warm to my touch, getting a prickly sensation.  I dropped it back down on the surface. “Ok, this is getting ridiculous. I’m get spooked by a bleeding watch.”

 

I literally jumped as I heard a bang coming from outside. I waited, thinking it was maybe a stray cat knocking over a bin.  Another bang echoed the first.  I got out of the chair, and moved the short distance to the window.  I pushed the blind to peek outside. The streetlamp lit directly onto the side of the garage, and my eyes immediately sought out the bike. I relaxed slightly, it was still in its decrepit state, but my eyes narrowed as I saw a shadow move. I jumped a second time as a figure dived out from the garage, and banged loudly on my window.

 

“*****” I swore out loud, and instinctively moved back from the window.

 

The figure echoed my movement on the other side of the window.  He caught the light, and I could see what I was dealing with. His features were adorned with the biggest, and maddest smile I’d ever seen. He was short, slightly built, and messy black hair stuck up in all directions completing the nutter look. What caught my attention, though, were his eyes. They were like nothing I’ve seen before, shining out of the darkness like beacons. I blinked, his iris seemed to be swirling, flicking through the colors of the rainbow.  I blinked again, and it was gone. He started blinking too, mimicking my actions, which started to unnerve me.

 

I told myself to pull myself together again.  Now the initial shock had worn off, I was left with slightly annoyed. The stranger simply stood there, just staring through the window at me.

 

“Get lost or I’ll call the police.” I mouthed at him through the window. He looked blankly at me, and moved towards the glass. Once he was stood directly in front of it, he unexpectedly banged on the glass.

 

“Oi, don’t do that for Christ sake.” I yelled at him.  I didn’t want a bill to replace a kitchen window. He stopped, the grin disappeared and a frown replaced it.  I was hoping he’d got bored, and would leave of his own accord.  I knew how to take care of myself.  He didn’t look particularly imposing, but to be honest I didn’t really want the effort of removing him. He stepped back from the window which pleased me, but then I noticed the silly grin had reappeared. I waited, he made a pointing movement with his hand. I assumed he wanted me to open the door, but that was the last thing I planned to do. I grabbed my phone, and held it up to him to show that I was about to call the police. He held his fingers up to his own face as if he was going to answer an imaginary phone call. That was it.   I’d lost the little patience I had. I slammed the phone down, walking to the door to move him on his way.

 

I walked out with my John Wayne stance ready to send him on his way, unfortunately when I got out he wasn’t there.

 

“Oi, stop mucking about, otherwise I’ll be calling the police” I shouted. I waited a few more minutes, but there was no sign of the stranger. The bike leaning on the wall caught my attention.  I went over to it,  and reached out to touch it. I’m not even sure what I was looking for, but all I felt back was cold metal as I ran my fingers over the handle bars. I felt a surge of anger, I kicked the bike tire in frustration, the bike gave way clattering to the floor. I swung around as I heard another loud bang. I saw another shadow, and readied myself. There was not even the sound of a car driving up the road. I listened hard for sounds of footsteps, but there were none. I stood still, the darkness seemed to creep around me, threatening to swallow me whole. Then, there was a second bang.  I swung around the other way, but again no owner.

 

“What the hell.”  The bike, that I had sent clattering to the floor, was now leaning back against the garage wall as if I’d never touched it. 

“Where the hell are you? I’m not playing stupid games,” no reply was forth coming. I felt ridiculous. I checked once more, seeing no one, I gave up looking.  I moved to walk back in the house, but almost went flying to the floor as a tomcat stepped across my path.  “A cat?  Bloody hell." I thought.  I looked at it in a mad moment wondering whether it could pick up bikes. I held my hands up “Nope, that’s ludicrous, no disposable thumbs, innit.” I spoke to the cat, but it didn’t answer back.

 

“Oi, some of us have to work in the morning.” I spun around to see my not very friendly, and very large next door neighbour. He was half undressed, and looking extremely annoyed.

 

“Ah, I didn’t wake you did I? I was chasing off some lunatic.” I tried to explain.

 

The look on his face told me that the explanation wasn’t a very good one. He’d now started to go red in the face, and with his already annoyed expression it wasn’t looking good.

 

“The only lunatic around here is you, kicking bloody bikes at this hour.  If you don’t knock it off.  I’ll come over and knock you out, understand?”  His face was now practically scarlet.

 

“You didn’t see anyone else?” I asked. Instead of replying he moved towards me which I decided was not a good thing to happen.  “I’m sorry, I’ll be disappearing now.”  I spluttered out quickly, as I made a dash to get in my house. Once safely inside, I closed my eyes,  and rested against the door.  I prayed he’d decided to go back to bed, rather than try and pound me through the door.

 

Unfortunately as I opened my eyes things had started to get worse. The lunatic from outside, was now inside my house, and to be more precise, half inside my fridge.  Slightly taken aback from the cheek, as much as wondering how he got in without me noticing. I was slightly speechless for a few minutes, which, however, didn’t last very long.

 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing.” I shouted at him, but he didn’t turn around just talked from inside the fridge.

 

“Hungry.” He gave me a one word answer, now the shock of the cheekiness had worn off slightly, and I was left with just furious.

 

“Get out of my fridge.” I yelled a second time, which made no more impact than the first.

 

“Hungry,” came the identical reply.

 

That was it, now I was really annoyed.  I walked up to him grabbing the back of his jacket, and physically pulled his head out of the fridge. He had the cheek to look annoyed at me. He turned, so he was fully facing me. He was good deal shorter than me, and physically no match.

 

“Your having a laugth, mate. I don’t care if you’re about to die of starvation, that’s my fridge, now get out of my house.” I walked up to the thief, imposing my height on him. He looked up at me and squared up to me.  Then, all of a sudden, unexpently broke out into a laugh.

 

“Hurt, Hurt.” He raised his hand ups. I bit back a slight gasp, as I saw the state of his palm. The skin looked like it had been burnt off. I grimaced slightly, it was red and swollen.  It looked like it only recently happened, and I could see how painful it looked.

 

“How did you do that?”  I asked, but he didn’t reply. “That looks really painful.”  I wondered if his weird behavior was the result of shock from the injury.

 

“Hurt.”  He still held his palm upwards to me, as if he was waiting for me to heal it.

 

I looked at him thinking, maybe he was foreign, and couldn’t speak English. Maybe that’s why he didn’t get his hand looked at.   “You want me to take you to the hospital?” I asked.

 

“Hurt.”  Again, one word, I sighed.  He looked at me as I sighed. I felt slightly guilty, he was obviously in pain, and couldn’t speak English. So being British, I decided to do the obvious. I spoke slower, louder, and in shorter sentences seeing if I could get him to understand.

 

“Hospital, no hurt, I take you.” I shouted.  Slowly, and loudly pointing at him when I said you.  My desperae attempts at trying to communicate were getting nowhere. He seemed to understand the no hurt bit though, as he started nodding and smiling.

 

“No hurt.” He grinned, apparently agreeing.

 

I picked up my car keys and pointed to the door making a moving gesture.  I don’t think he’d be any good at charades. As soon as I turned my back, he made a dive for the fridge.

 

“Oi.” I pulled him physically back out again, for the second time, “No hurt.”

 

The annoyance of being pulled out of the fridge quickly changed as he heard the word no hurt. He enthusiastically held up his palm to me.  I didn’t feel like dragging him out to my car, so I tried the next best thing.  I grabbed his hand, he didn’t try to stop me, and moved him over to the sink.  Whilst turning on the cold tap with my free hand. I’d watched casualty enough times to know to put cold water on burns, but I wasn’t sure if it was such a good idea with such a deep one. Unfortunately I didn’t seem to have much choice

“Will sting at first, understand?” I spoke slowly.

 

He didn’t nod or agree just stood there waiting, as if I was some kind of magic healer who was going to take away his pain. I pulled his hand under the tap.

 

“Will make it no hurt.” I told him softly.

 

“No hurt.” He spoke, pain clearly showing on his face, after a few minutes though, the pain must have subsided, and he relaxed.  “No hurt.”  He gave me a big grin, and I couldn’t help smiling back.

 

“Good, um, I think I have some bandages or something to put around it, will stop infection.” I looked through my drawers thinking somewhere I must have a bandage, and eventually found one. I turned around, noticing he wasn’t standing where I’d left him by the sink. I knew exactly where to look.  I turned around to my fridge, and his head was back inside.

 

“One last time, get your head out of my fridge.”

 

“Hungry,” he was back to his single word answers.  To his credit this time, he did it without me having to pull it out. He turned around, looked at me, and held his palm out. I smiled at him, he seemed harmless enough, so I put the bandage around his hand.

 

“Um I think that’s ok, I’m not great at medical stuff, but I think it’s ok When did you last eat?”

 

“Hungry”

 

“Ok, I get the message since I’ve played doctor to you I might as well feed you as well, I suppose.”  He seemed to be understanding a bit more, as I said feed his eyes practically lit up.

 

“What would you like?” I wondered why I even bothered to ask since his vocabulary seemed to exist of only two words.  I made him a large sandwich of ham and cheese.  I pushed the plate towards him, he practically leapt on it, and I closed my eyes as I watch him practically shovel the food in his mouth.

 

“Nobody taught you table manners, huh.” I said to him, regreting it as soon as the words came out of my mouth.

 

“Hungry,” he replied with half the sandwich in his mouth, crumbs and bits of ham flew everywhere. I had a fear of germs and this was not helping.

 

“I can see.” I winced “You’re supposed to chew before you digest.”

 

He looked up at me with a big grin on his face. He seemed to be enjoying his meal, although I was getting a bit worried about him eating the plate as well.

 

Then he paused, stopped chewing completely, and his body language changed completely. I wondered what it was that caused it. I glanced towards where he was looking, and saw immediately what he had seen. The pocket watch was still on the table top where I had dropped it. He was staring at it, his face seemed to lose all color, and the smile vanished from his features. He moved back from where he was standing, almost bumping into me. I’d forgotten about the nightmare, and the watch since he had arrived. I remembered the strange vibe I got from it.

 

“It's just a watch.” I shrugged.  He looked at me, and then back to the watch.

 

He stood there staring at me,now I was getting even tenser.  I couldn’t understand why he was getting so worked up over a watch.  He started to fumble in his pockets.  I stepped back, wondering if this was the worst mistake of my life.  I could see him taking an object out of his pocket and he held out his hand. I noticed his hand was shaking..  I didn’t move, momentarily surprised by what I could see.  I reached out to take the object from him, keeping my eyes on him, just in case he changed his mind.

 

I looked down at the identical watch that I now held in my hand.  I had to admit to turning around to check if my watch was still on the table.  I stared at the watch, turning it over in my hand, which I noticed didn’t feel anything like my watch.  I had to admit it was identical, down to every little mark except for a big difference.  His watch was a lot older, the metal was dulled even after attempts to polish it.  I opened the face and was struck my again the similarities.  The watch had stopped at exactly 9.30. There was a big crack running through the glass face,  I moved to pick up my watch from the counter.  I could see him move sharply back as I did this, as if he expected something to happen. There was a mark of dirt on both timepieces, identical shape, and identical places. His whole body was now physically shaking. I stared at him, and he stared at me.  I couldn’t understand what would make him look so scared.

 

“Do you realize what this means?” I asked him.  He shook his head, still shaking. ”It means that bloke seen me coming. I bet they made hundreds of these.”  He didn’t look convinced, and shook his head at me. “That’s different, see.” I pointed randomly at the watch.

 

His hand still noticeably trembling, he tentatively reached out taking my watch to examine it closer.  As soon as he touched it, my night got that much weirder.  As soon as his fingertips touched the metal, he stopped, and I mean stopped. He stopped breathing, it was as if invisible strings had held him up, had been cut, and he collapsed face first to the ground. I just managed to grab him before he hit the floor. I held him up, shuffling him backwards into the chair, and sat him down. His fist was still tightly curled around the watch, as if he was holding on for dear life. I panicked slightly, having no idea what the hell I was going to do. I turned around to the sink and pulled out a tumbler. Pouring cold water into it, and quickly returned to him.

 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quickly enough as the chair was now vacant.  My late night visitor had made a very quick and quiet disappearing act.  I supposed I should be grateful, at least, it was only a watch he took.  Although I couldn’t help but wonder about the reaction to the watch.

 

“D****t,” I swore. I now realized that he had made off with both watches.  “Maybe people do know after all.”  I thought.

 

 

Reviews

[Francesca]

Wow! The dream at the beginning was very creative and realistic. I like the way you describe things. Such as the empty street in the morning and the name of the street meaning so much.
I love the bike and how it shows so many of Jack's feelings.
There's a lot of places that do with either: a period/comma instead of a comma/period, or that could be cut into two sentences, or where there are too many or too little commas. Message me if you want me to go over each of them, since it's difficult to pick out things like that from your own writing.
Also, you describe all of his actions very well, but I'd like to see a bit more of his thoughts and perceptions of others come up, together with the actions and dialogue.
I laughed aloud at this sentence: He looked up at me with a big grin on his face; he seemed to be enjoying his meal, although I was getting a bit worried about him eating the plate as well.
And you have a lot of interesting surprises, including the bike and the identical watches, that I'm sure will make a very interesting story later on.
The end was suspenseful (good) but also confusing. But that'll probably be explained later. I'm looking forward to reading the next chapter :)

[Blue Moon Ice Cream]

Most of this chapter was confusing to me, but I'm sure it will make sense as I keep reading. The interaction between the characters is realistic.