by Cavan Scott
Mum wouldn’t.
Mum would let him cuddle up with her on the sofa and watch the soaps. Not for long, mind. Just enough to make him feel sleepy.
But Mum wasn’t here.
He turned over again, facing the wall as tears soaked his pillow. It wasn’t fair. Why would Mum leave like that? Running out into the night, leaving her phone behind.
He was sure it was because of what he’d done, him and Frankie, sneaking out of school.
‘Don’t be so soft, Noah-love,’ Nan had said, but he knew it was all his fault. Masie did too. He could tell the way she looked at him, from the blame in her eyes.
‘Peanut?’
The voice made him jump. He twisted around, his duvet now one big knot. He couldn’t see who had called out, but there was no mistaking the voice.
‘Mum?’
‘Peanut, I need you. I’m trapped.’
‘Mum!’
Noah clawed the duvet away from his face. She was there, standing by the window, in the same clothes she’d been wearing the day she never came home. Her uniform from the Mercian Bank, a smart blouse and skirt, but even in the pale glow of his nightlight he could see they were dirty. The blouse was plastered with mud, like she’d been out playing rugby, her skirt ripped, rucked up over scabbed knees. Her hair was matted, leaves caught up in the curls he loved to twirl around his fingers, and her face was streaked, tears rolling down grimy cheeks.
‘Noah, please … Can’t get out.’
Noah kicked his duvet away, calling for his sister as another figure appeared behind Mum. It was tall, too tall, with long lank hair. And its face … It was completely blank, until it opened eyes that hadn’t been there a second before, and light blazed across the room.
Noah couldn’t move. It wasn’t the duvet this time. His legs and arms just weren’t working. He could only watch as the Shining Man wrapped its spindly arms around his mum and dragged her into a gaping hole in the floor. Sammy screamed and threw out an arm, reaching desperately for Noah, calling his name.
‘Peanut, please! You’ve got to find us! Get us out of here!’
And then they were gone. Mum, the Shining Man, even the hole in the floor.
Noah finally found his voice, crying out as he tumbled from the bed, hitting the floor.
‘Noah?’
The door of his bedroom flew open and Masie rushed in. She dropped beside him, scooping him up into her arms and forgetting for a moment that her role in life was to be on his case.
He hugged her back, holding her close. ‘It was Mum. Masie, she was here. The Shining Man.’
‘Shhh,’ she said, stroking his tangled hair. ‘It was just a bad dream.’
Now Nan appeared at the door. ‘What’s all the racket?
‘Noah had a nightmare,’ Masie told her. ‘That’s all.’
Noah pushed his sister away. Why did she keep saying that? ‘It wasn’t a dream! She was here, by the window! A Shining Man got her. He dragged her into the floor!’
Masie looked where he was pointing, but Nan was having none of it.
‘Enough of this now,’ she said, smoothing out the crumpled duvet. ‘I don’t want to hear any more about Shining Men.’
‘But …’
She turned on him, angrily. ‘But nothing. If you hadn’t filled your mum’s head with all this Shining Man nonsense—’
Nan stopped herself, but it was too late.
‘She would never have gone out,’ Noah barked, his eyes brimming with fresh tears.
Nan sagged against the bed, her face greyer than ever. ‘I didn’t mean—’
The phone rang in the hall. Nan went to go and then stopped herself, caught between the need to make peace with her grandson and to rush downstairs.
‘I’ll tuck him in, Nan,’ Masie said. ‘Don’t worry.’
‘Thanks, love,’ the old woman said, flashing Noah a look full of regret before disappearing out of the door.
The two of them listened to the stairs creak as she hurried down to the phone. There was a clatter and then a beep, followed by an eager ‘Hello?’
Then came a pause, and a disappointed sigh. ‘Oh hello, Barbara. No, still nothing.’
Masie got up and closed Noah’s door.
He bristled where he sat on the floor, hugging his knees. ‘I knew she blamed me.’
‘She doesn’t,’ Masie said, listening through the door.
‘And you’re just going to tell me I imagined it. But it wasn’t a dream, or a nightmare, or anything. Mum was here!’
‘By the window,’ Masie said.
Noah wiped his nose on his onesie sleeve. ‘She said she needed me; that she was trapped.’
Masie flicked the light switch, the big light coming on. Both turned to the window, the curtains moving slightly from the breeze. There was a crack in the double-glazing. Mum always said she would get it fixed.
Masie crept forward, stopping next to Noah’s desk. He shuffled over to where she was looking.
Mum had put a new carpet down the last time Noah’s room was decorated; a light tan colour. Nan had told her she was mad.
‘A colour like that in a boy’s room? It’ll be filthy in no time.’
Now, both Noah and Masie were glad that Mum hadn’t listened to her.
There was a muddy footprint on the carpet beneath the draughty window, too large for Noah.
A woman’s footprint. Mum’s footprint.
There was something else as well. A leaf, brown and brittle, its edges curled up with age.
‘Mum had leaves in her hair,’ Noah told Masie as she bent down and prodded it carefully, as if worried it would burst into flames.
‘What tree’s it from?’ Masie asked, kneeling beside Noah.
‘I don’t know. An oak maybe?’ He’d made a large collage of leaves in year three, labelling each type in turn. ‘But you know what this means, don’t you?’
‘Mum was here,’ Masie said, staring at the footprint. ‘It wasn’t just a dream.’
Noah sniffed again. Without thinking, Masie reached up to his desk and pulled a tissue from a box, passing it to him. He blew his nose noisily.
‘So what do we do?’ he said, chucking the screwed-up rag at the Star Wars bin beneath the table. It fell to the floor instead.
Masie’s voice wobbled as she answered, although Noah could tell she was trying to sound brave. ‘We wait for Nan to go to sleep, and then we go down to the woods.’
Noah’s eyes went wide. ‘In the dark?’
Masie shrugged. ‘Where else are we going to find an oak tree? If that’s where Mum is …’
Noah wanted to crawl back into bed, pull the duvet over his head and pretend none of this was happening, but the memory of Mum and the Shining Man was just too fresh. Too painful.
Peanut, I need you. I’m trapped. You’ve got to find me. Get me out of here.
Noah got up and opened his desk drawer, pulling out the toy torches Mum had given him last time they went camping. One was shaped like a lightsaber; the other had Superman flying up its handle.
He passed the Man of Steel to his sister. Superman wouldn’t be scared. Superman would save his mum.
‘You’re right,’ he told Masie, testing the battery on the lightsaber. ‘Let’s go and find her.’
Chapter 4
Into the Woods
Masie and Noah had played in Boggle Woods since they were little; first with Dad, when he was still at home, and then later with Mum. They could find the place blindfolded. Just walk to the end of their street, Bugs Close, cross Brownie Hill and tramp across the field where Masie played football every Sunday morning. Simple.
They came here all year round: in spring, when the ground was a carpet of swaying bluebells; in autumn, when leaves buried what little paths there were; and in winter, when the trees were bare, empty branches stretching out like witch’s fingers.
Just this last summer, Mum had started to let them go to the woods on their own. There were rules, of course, strict rules. They had to be
careful crossing the road. They were to keep out of the brook that ran along the bottom of the trees.
And, most importantly, under no circumstances were they to venture into the woods after dark.
It was dark now.
Very dark.
Noah had almost chickened out when Masie had opened the front door. He was convinced that Nan was going to hear them. She was only in the living room, after all, sleeping on the sofa bed.
But she had kept on snoring, even when Masie had accidentally dropped her keys.
The door clicked shut behind them. There was no going back now.
‘We’re going to be in so much trouble,’ Noah whispered as they hurried along the road, parkas and wellies over their onesies.
‘Not if we bring Mum home,’ Masie told him.
The world seemed weird in the middle of the night.
There was hardly any traffic on the roads and the street lamps had turned themselves off to conserve power. Noah wanted to switch on his torch, but Masie said no.
‘Not until we’re away from the houses. You know how nosey the neighbours are.’
‘You sound like Nan. Besides, won’t they be asleep by now?’
‘We don’t want to risk it.’
Sure enough, the curtains at number fifteen were drawn back, a light on in the lounge, but the large widescreen telly was playing to an empty room.
‘They must have gone to the loo,’ Masie said, grabbing Noah’s hand. ‘Come on.’
Looking both ways they ran across Brownie Hill, and headed for the gate to the playing field.
It swung on its hinges next to the building site where a large detached house was being built. The place was barely more than a shell, just walls and a roof, the windows and doors gaping holes that were covered by thick plastic sheets that flapped in the wind.
Now the torches went on, their beams stretching weakly across the field as the children ran for the line of forbidding trees. Maybe the batteries hadn’t been as strong as he thought. Perhaps they should go back.
Noah felt a splash on his cheek. ‘It’s going to rain,’ he moaned.
‘Then put up your hood,’ Masie replied. Like he was going to do what she said. She wasn’t the grown-up here, no matter how old she thought she was, but, as the clouds broke high above them, he had little choice. The rain came, the hood went up and they plunged into the wood.
‘It’ll be dry in the trees,’ Maisie promised.
It wasn’t. Most of the trees had already shed their leaves. There wasn’t nearly enough to stop the rain.
‘Which ones are oaks?’ Noah asked, sweeping his torch around in a circle. They couldn’t see the playing field any more, as if the trees had crept up behind them when they weren’t looking to block the way.
‘How am I supposed to know?’ Masie replied. ‘You’re the expert.’
He looked up, tracing the line of lower branches with his lightsaber torch. They were mostly bare, hardly any leaves at all.
‘That’s a birch,’ he said excitedly, spotted a spindly leaf in the shape of a club, still hanging on to a twig.
‘See! You should be on Autumnwatch!’ She put on a voice, a silly impression of that bloke on the telly Mum pretended not to fancy, Chris something-or-other. ‘“Look at the leaves, Michaela. Just look at them.”’
Noah laughed, stopping abruptly when there was a sharp crack from behind. He spun around, shining his lightsaber the way they’d been. ‘What was that?’
Masie didn’t reply, listening intently. The woods were quiet, save for the relentless drumming of the rain against the ground.
‘Ma-sie …’ Noah whimpered, moving closer to her.
‘S’nothing,’ she said, a little too quickly. ‘Just an animal.’
‘What kind of animal?’
‘A badger. Maybe a fox?’
That was it. The thought of coming face-to-face with a snarling fox was too much. ‘I want to go home,’ he demanded.
Masie shone the Superman torch in his face. ‘We can’t! Not until we’ve found Mum!’
He screwed up his eyes, looking away from the light. ‘But what if it really was a dream?’
‘A dream that leaves footprints?’
There wasn’t an answer to that.
Masie squeezed his arm. ‘She needs us, Noah. We’ve got to go on.’ She swung the torch onto the ground, illuminating the carpet of rotting leaves beneath their boots. ‘Any of these look like oak leaves?’
Hoping that Masie would think they were rain, Noah wiped tears from his eyes. ‘I-I don’t think so.’
‘But what about that old tree down by the brook, the one with the rope?’
‘Mum said we shouldn’t go down there.’
‘She said we shouldn’t go in the brook. That’s different.’
She’d already broken that rule anyway. Masie had discovered a makeshift swing hung from the large tree during the school holidays. Noah had been too short to even reach the rope, but she had managed a few tentative swings across the bubbling water before dropping in with a splash.
The path down to the brook was treacherous enough in daylight. You had to skid down a steep slope, hoping you didn’t end up sitting in the stream. Noah wasn’t sure that he could make it in the middle of the night, and said so.
‘Then go back,’ Masie told him sharply, losing her patience. ‘But if there’s even a chance that’s where Mum is, I’m going to look.’
She turned and marched purposely into the trees, the beam from the Superman torch bobbing between the thick trunks.
Noah glanced behind him, trying to work out if he could find his way home. Even if he could, he’d seen enough episodes of Mystery Inc. to know that bad things happen when the Scooby Gang split up.
‘Masie, wait for me!’ he called out, crashing after his sister.
It didn’t take him too long to catch up. They trudged on in silence, until Masie stopped without warning. She just stood there, breathing heavily.
‘What is it?’ Noah asked.
‘Didn’t you hear that?’
He looked around, peering into the darkness. ‘Hear what?’
‘Something moved. Something big.’
Noah’s bottom lip started to wobble. ‘You said it was a fox.’
Masie reached out and slipped her gloved fingers into his. ‘Maybe it’s a deer?’
Ahead of them, two lights appeared between the trees.
‘Or maybe not.’
Noah took a step back, pulling at his sister’s hand. ‘It’s one of them. A Shining Man.’
Masie didn’t budge. It was like she was rooted to the spot.
‘Masie!’
The lights blinked off. Masie brought her torch up.
There was nothing there.
Noah squeezed her fingers. ‘Masie, I don’t like it.’
‘Neither do I,’ she admitted as the lights reappeared to their left.
The children spun around to face them. They were closer now. Much closer.
Masie backed away, pulling Noah with her, until they vanished again. ‘Run,’ she said and they turned, only to skid to a halt.
The lights were in front now, glaring bright. And they were moving, rushing towards them, a blood-curdling cry echoing through the trees.
This time Masie didn’t tell him to run. She didn’t have to. The children turned and fled deeper into the wood.
They didn’t know which way they were running. They just knew they had to get away. The Shining Man was right behind them. They could hear its feet pounding the wet leaves, branches splintering as it crashed after them.
Their shadows stretched out in front of them, lit by the light of the Shining Man’s eyes. Masie raced ahead, Noah calling after her.
And then something snatched at his jacket and he fell, screaming all the way.
Chapter 5
Pull to Open
Charlotte Sadler was glad she’d packed her waterproof phone case. The rain was coming down hard, the trees creaking ominously in the
wind. She was soaked, she was cold, but boy, was she happy.
This was brilliant. Talk about atmosphere. She couldn’t have planned it better. Finding the right spot, she held the phone in front of her and adjusted the monopod so she was in shot. Checking that the night vision filter was on, she cleared her throat and hit record.
‘Welcome to Boggle Woods,’ Charlotte began in a stage whisper, a lapel mic clipped discretely to her dark bomber jacket. ‘It is quite literally a dark and stormy night. No one in their right mind would be out here in these conditions, but hey, you’re watching Cryptogal-UK. What do you expect?’
As introductions go, it was a bit corny, but she’d go with it for now. She could always edit in something new. Keeping her eyes on the camera, Charlotte took a tentative step forwards, walking the path she’d scoped out earlier.
‘This is going to be my best video yet, I guarantee it. I’m in Shining Man country. Yes, you’ve seen the videos, you’ve seen the photos, coming in from all over Britain … from all over the world … But nowhere have there been more sightings than here – Huckensall, near Manchester. This is Ground Zero, people, where it all began.’
She slipped, nearly losing her footing. She grabbed a branch, stopping herself from falling. That would play out well on screen, ramping up the tension.
‘Sorry about that. As you can see; it’s a little slippy underfoot.’ She showed the camera the wet leaves on the floor. ‘And, before you ask, I’m not talking about creeps in cosplay, but the real deal. Actual Shining Men, looming out of the dark.’
That was bordering on melodramatic, but her fans liked it when she went a bit Hammer Horror; the geekier ones, at least.
With the camera back on her face, she adjusted the head torch on her trademark beanie and wiped water from her eyes before continuing.
‘I’m going to take you right into the heart of the wood.’ She made a show of glancing over her shoulder, as if she’d heard something. She looked back to camera and gave her best nervous smile. ‘I have to admit; I don’t like it out here. It’s a spooky place at the best of times and, as you can see by the weather, this definitely isn’t the best of times. But that’s fine. I know you’re all with me in spirit, so let’s go.’