The Fifth: Darkness series

by K. D Rawlingson

  I was crawling back towards Thomas's room when I heard the front door bang. Someone was trying to get in, it banged again and I heard the wood creak. The door wouldn't hold for long. I rushed into Thomas's room and told him to get in the wardrobe.

  “Stay here, if anybody open the doors you spray your potion straight in their face and run ok but do not leave this room otherwise no matter what you hear ok darling.” I gave him a big kiss and shut the doors. “Bert stay here look after him do you hear me!”

  Grabbing my so-called weapons, I creeped out his room shut his door and went into my room. The front door creaked one final time and then came open with a shuddering bang as it smashed into the wall

  “Come out, come out wherever you are, I know you are in here!”

  Oh, fucking shit he'd definitely seen me then! There was no hiding and hoping he would go away and if I did they might find Thomas first. No fucking way was I going to let happen, taking a deep breath and stealing my nerves I felt for the knives I was carrying. I put the one up my sleeve under my pillow and turned the gas on the weed killer to the highest setting it would go. I place it on my side of the bed. The way the room was set out you wouldn't be able to see it as you opened the door. All I would need to do was press the ignite button and it would light. The good thing about it was until I pressed the button to ignite it no gas would come out; it was a safety feature but it meant no one would know it was there until it was too late.

  Knowing there was no point in creeping about anymore I walked out my bedroom to the top of the stairs I could see the smashed up-front door from where I was but no one was there which meant they were in the front room or the kitchen. I started to walk down the stairs, my heart was beating so fast I thought it was going to fly out my chest or I was going to have a heart attack. I got about halfway down when the man with the bandana on came out the front room and stared straight at me.

  “Hey Johnny I found her, and she's a looker. I think I wanna have a go first, this time.”

  Something bubbled inside like never before, I wasn’t sure if it was his words that invoked them or something I did but before I knew what was happening I had grabbed the knife from behind my back, jumped over the banister and aimed straight for his heart. He was looking me right in the face a picture of shock and horror. I had been too fast, he hadn't seen it coming. I hit my target spot on, straight in heart and with the force of me on top the knife went straight through him and his flesh. He jerked underneath me then fell dead lifeless.

  Mask man appeared in the kitchen doorway, I turned a snarl on my face. I could only see his eyes, but now I was this close they looked like some scary fucking eyes. I could have sworn they had a reddish glow to them but then maybe he was high on drugs or something and they were just so bloodshot it made them look like they were glowing, whatever the case he looked like he could have killed me by just staring at me

  "YOU! You bear the mark!" He shouted at me.

  What the fuck! My face must have change to that of a snarl to one of utter bewilderment, what was that supposed to mean? The stare off ended and I had only seconds to react as he lunged for me, quick as lightning I spun round, off of the dead man under me grabbing the smaller knife in my boots and chucked it at him. I had aimed for his eye, hoping it would throw him off balance but I think he moved or my aim was off and it hit him in the shoulder or arm. I couldn't see which just heard the squeal of pain, as soon as I let go of the knife I turned and ran up the stairs to my bedroom. I had nearly got to the bed but mask man was right behind me, I went to grab the weed killer - hopefully bad guy killer but he landed on top of me before I could grab it. I screamed for him to get off, to let go but he grabbed my hair and yanked me backwards bending over me like he wanted to fuck me. He placed something in the spine of my back.

  I knew it was a gun and didn't know how but knew before he killed me he would torture me, he would find Thomas and do unspeakable things to him, the feeling was so strong in my gut it made me want to wretch. I had only one weapon left and prayed it was enough, sliding my hand under my pillow I grabbed the knife and spun around so quick he didn't see it coming. I stab him as hard as I could straight into one of those evil red eyes of his, my aim hit true, he screamed but didn't die as I'd hoped. At least he'd let go of me so, I reached for the weed killer and pressed the button. The flame fired out like one of those blow touches you use for welding. Aiming for his face he screamed, he was saying something but between the weed killer flame, the mask muffling his voice and my own heart I couldn't hear what it was. He wasn't dying the flame was hurting him for sure and keeping him back but it wasn't enough so, with my other hand leaning forward I grabbed the knife out of his shoulder, unfortunately for me as I did, he punched me straight in the face. I fell back, nearly let go of the button keeping the flame alight. My eye was throbbing but at least I had another weapon again. The masked man tried to take the mask off but between the knife, in his eye and the flames, the rubber mask was really starting to melt to his face now.

  He lunged for me again but keeping the flame high and as close to the face as possible I kicked him as hard as I could, mask man went flying into the wall, across the room. As he hit it he slid down the wall as if he was out cold. I stayed fix where I was for a second surprised at my strength. Not taking any chances, I took a deep breath, focused and aimed my remaining knife for his throat. it was exposed as the mask had melted. I launched the knife in the air and prayed it would hit its mark, a split second later it did, I let go of the button on the blow touch and stared at the man, he gurgled blood but still tried to speak. I heard him say something like “They would find me…” I went over to him to ask what he meant but he died before I got there.

  I looked about the room, what the fucking hell had just happened and how the hell had I done that shit? Oh my god I had just killed two men! Thomas came to mind, I left the man where he was and rushed into Thomas's room to check on him as I open the door I heard Bert growl he was stood in front of the wardrobe keeping guard of Thomas as I’d asked: "Shhh boy it's only me." Bert came over sniffed my hand and whined and then laid on his back. I gave him a scratch on his belly with one hand while I opened the door to Thomas with the other, I must have looked a complete mess but Thomas jumped out the cupboard with his sword "Did you get them mum did you get the bad guys?"

  “I did little man but there are more so we are going to take the treasure to grandma's house it will be safer there.” I didn't know when I had decided to go there but I knew there was at least 2 more men outside and they were going to realise that their friends were missing soon enough. I was about to grab him and leave when I thought of the dead bodies. Thomas's might be brave at seeing me a bit banged up but no way was I letting him see dead bodies if I could help it.

  "Stay here for one-second baby I need to grab something." Shutting his bedroom door again I went downstairs to move the first man I'd killed. Fucking hell, I'd just killed two people! How? What? My head was spinning “Focus Sadie one problem at a time.”

  I needed to move the bodies out the way from Thomas seeing them if I could get away with only moving one all the better and quicker, the guy by the front room was the one in the way. As I got halfway down the stairs I noticed the body was not there.

  WHAT THE FUCK! I had seen him die, hadn't I? but it was gone and, in its place, there was some black gooey stuff on the floor but definitely no body? I looked about panicked what if I hadn't seen him die it all? It went pretty fast I still didn't know how I'd done what I had. I now crept down the rest of the stairs worried somebody was going to come out at me and I had no weapons left, I stepped over the gooey stuff, when I was on the other side of it I knelt down to see what it was. There was a disgusting smell coming off it, it brought back memories of my mother I rather were left where they were. Sealed off in a secret box never to be opened with my father's box sitting right next to it.

  Shaking away the path these thoughts were taking me down I left the goo and went to get the knives I had
stashed in the front room. Placing one in my boot like before and the other behind my back. It felt weird but somehow right having these weapons on me. I felt a calmness in me. How fucked up was I?

  Realising there was nobody downstairs I went to check on mask man’s body, as I walked into the room my mouth dropped, no fucking body! Just the same gooey stuff all over the floor but on my wall above my bed was the same sign I’d seen mask man paint on the door across the road, only this looked like it was in done in blood. Now I was really fucking scared if I'd thought I was scared before when I had seen all those motorbikes riding around in the street this was a whole other level of shitting myself. What the hell was happening? How had that got on the wall? And where were the fucking bodies? Starting to freak out I paced the room, I had to stop thinking about what I didn't know and start thinking about what I did.

  One: I did know there was at least two more guys out there.

  Two: I had two weapons on me and needed to get more looking around the room for the gun the mask man had, I found it on the floor by the bed forgotten about when I stab him in the eye. So, scrap that I now had three weapons and a dog. I was betting Bert could be pretty fierce if he had to be.

  Three: I had a place to head to and I could get Thomas to the car without him seeing anything.

  With a calmer head, I put all other things to one side and concentrated on the three things I did have. I peeked out the curtain and didn't see anybody, this was my chance, I raced back to Thomas.

  “Come on little man the coast is clear come on Bert.” I grabbed his bag picked up Thomas and shot out his room and down the stairs. I grabbed the keys from the hook on the wall and looked out the smashed door. The way was still clear so, I raced to the car and opened the door with key rather than the button as the button made a noise. I put Thomas on the passenger seat and got Bert to jump over into the back.

  "Put your seatbelt on darling, mummy might have to do some fast driving." I jumped in and started the engine I was out of there in seconds even so I kept looking in my mirror to see if anybody was following me but thankfully didn't see anyone.

  It wasn't until then that I realised I’d been holding my breath. I let it go but still didn't slow down, it would take us about half an hour to get to Susanne and Eric's house I had more than enough petrol so I put my foot on the gas and kept going.

  Chapter 5:

  Driving to Susanne and Eric's had been an eye opener I tried to stick to mostly country roads but I still had to go through a few villages’. I didn't know what to think when I drove through these places, there were abandon cars in the road, shit was everywhere, it was like a riot had happened, doors had been boarded up, most had the same symbol that was somehow painted on my bedroom wall on them. Windows were the same all boarded up or had been smashed, nobody was about. I hadn't seen anybody since leaving the house, it was like I was driving through an Episode of the twilight show, what the fuck was happening? What did this fork symbol mean? and why was it painted everywhere?

  I was pretty sure it had only been six days since Ryan had died and it was Thursday, there were a few days in my grieving where hours and days had seemed to blend together so I could of easily lost a day or two. Assuming it was Thursday, how had thing got this bad this quick, in less than a week. I must be missing a massive piece of this puzzle because I was stumped. I didn't understand how sink holes could cause this much... Well I didn't know what this was? Had all those fanatics screaming about the end of days been right? Was this the beginning of the end? It sure looked like it and this was only a small part of the country. For over one hundred miles we were classed as a rural countryside area, not like town and city areas, where you live on top of each other. We had gardens, with fields at the back of them, with more fields behind that. We had farm shops and boot sales where if a hundred-people turned up it felt like the whole village was there.

  Ashbane was the closest thing we had to a big town it was growing but, still was consider fairly small compared to places like London or Manchester. If things were this bad in this rural area fuck going into any town. I was trying to think what our little village of Applewood had looked like as I'd driven away, my street housed about 40 houses and none looked like what I was seeing here. After I turned left at the end of my road all I can remember is speeding away and frantically checking my mirror to see if I was being chased, it wasn't until I had driven halfway through the next village named Cherry Tree about 8 miles from the edge of Applewood that I really started noticing all the destruction.

  All the village’s for about 50 miles or so had been used for farming or orchards in the past, each village and town had been named after what they had produced thus giving us names such as Cherry Tree and Applewood.

  I realised no one was following us and slowed down. My mind was racing in a million different directions I felt like I had so many questions but not a single answer. How had I known to do what I had at the house? It was like I had jumped out my body and was watching myself or that I was being lead, yeah that was more like it, it had felt like I was being guided, I had reacted on instinct but it had felt like more. I had never taken a martial-arts or self-defence class but I had known that I had needed to protect myself, known to place the knife under the pillow and hide the weed killer so it couldn't be seen.

  How had I jumped over the banister like a gymnast? How had I just killed two people and not thought twice about it? I'd not had a moment of second thoughts. I had known it was me and Thomas or them.

  Was that all it was, mother bear instincts or what? Where had their bodies disappeared too? What was the gooey looking black stuff? And what the fuck did mask man mean when he had said “YOU, you bear the mark? Did he know me? What mark? My birthmark? I was wearing a top that it was easily seen.

  What was with his creepy eyes? Were they really glowing? As I replayed in my mind what had happened in the bedroom, the way I had kicked him and the way he had fell against the wall, I had looked straight into those eyes just before I had let the knife go, I knew with certainty that they had been glowing, but I was pretty sure the other man’s eyes hadn't been. I'd seen him die right in front of me been sitting on top of him, there had been no glow in his eyes-only shock.

  These were just the start of my questions but with no way of answering them yet I tried to focus on what I could answer

  “How you doing there darling?”

  Thomas had been awfully quiet since leaving I was imagining that he had a fair amount of question he'd like answered too.

  “I know you might be a little bit scared honey but I want you to know that everything will be ok. We are nearly at grandma and grandpa's house.” I kept the thought to myself that they would probably have lots of supplies and they had big gates to keep people out.

  “We can bake some cookies, ring uncle Sol and then later if you are a good boy I will let you sneak into grandma's fancy shower the one with all the fancy buttons and heads and you can press any button you want how's about that?”

  “Won't grandma be mad mummy she hates people using her shower?”

  “Na darling, she won't be mad at you using it she just says it all the time round grandpa because she hates him using it, he farts in the shower and stinks it out for grandma”

  I heard a giggle come from Thomas at my remark and it was the most wonderful noise in the world. I loved to hear him laugh and since losing Ryan I had yet to hear it properly. I tried to keep Thomas occupied by telling him the story he'd heard me tell a thousand times before but always made him laugh.

  "It was the night before we were due to go home, you and I had been staying at grandma and grandpa's house because Grandma had broken her leg at your birthday party and we needed to help look after her while grandpa was working away. After a few weeks, Grandmas' leg was getting better and grandpa was back from work which meant we would be going back home to our house soon. To say thank you and goodbye grandma had arranged for the cooks to do a fancy meal, she had phoned daddy and asked him come over,r />
  We were all supposed to come in a fancy dress or suit, grandma had invited a few of her posh friends to join us you know what's she's like, so in all there were about ten of us we had all just sat down to dinner grandma had chimed her glass for a toast and to welcome us when grandpa done the loudest fart I had ever heard.”

  Blowing raspberries on my arm, I heard Thomas laughing away next to me.

  “What happened next mum?” knowing full well how it ended.

  "Well you know what happened next grandma was mortified she went so red you would have thought it was her that had just blown off in front of a dining room full of guests, not grandpa, but what was even funnier was you, Thomas"

  “What did I do?” he asked with a glint in his eye and a full-on smile

  “You were only three but you turned around and said as clear as day oh grandma pardon you! Everyone had known it was Grandpa but because of what you'd said everyone turned to look at grandma she was so embarrassed so red, everybody started laughing we all had a good night but grandma wouldn’t talk about it and still gets cross at Grandpa whenever he mentions it, for a long time after me and daddy would blow raspberries when she wasn't looking.”