CHAPTER 3
Darkness
I was lying down and there was someone pressed up against me.
“Who’s there?” I asked nervously.
“It’s me, Mel… Where are we?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know!”
We took a couple of moments to catch our breath. I could feel Mel’s body pressed up against mine and I tried to wriggle back to make some space between us, but I couldn’t move. “Hang on,” I said. “I’ve got my mobile here…”
Wriggling around a little, I managed to pull my phone from my pocket and turn it on. The glow from the screen was enough to illuminate the tiny space around us. We were surrounded by soft, white silk – like the inside of a coffin.
Oh no!
I could feel Mel begin to panic. “No!” she breathed. “This can’t be happening.”
“Look, just calm down…”
“Calm down?” she cried. “We’ve been buried alive. Together!” She began to hammer on the lid of the coffin with her fists. “Help! HELP!”
“No one’s going to hear us!” I snapped. “We’re two metres underground!”
“But how?” asked Mel, her voice cracking. “Why?”
I sighed. No point keeping it a secret any more. So I told her what I’d done. I told her about Nick and how I’d nominated her dad on his contract.
“You idiot, Toby!” Mel screamed. “You’ve killed us both!”
“I didn’t know this was going to happen, did I?”
“No – but you were happy enough when it was my dad in here!”
“Better him than my mum!”
We fell silent for a moment, both trying to catch our breath. It was getting stuffy and I realised with horror that we were running out of air. I didn’t mention the fact, as I doubted it would have helped to lighten Mel’s mood.
“Your mobile!” she cried. “We can call for help!”
“Brilliant!” I still had the phone in my hand, so I switched it on again and stared at the almost blinding light of the screen. Please, please, please…
My heart sank. “No signal,” I said.
“There must be!”
“There isn’t!”
“Keep trying!”
“I am! Where’s your phone?”
“In my handbag, in the pub.”
I stared in dismay at the two tiny words at the top of the screen: ‘No service’. I got bad enough reception around here to begin with, so how I expected to get a signal underground was anybody’s guess.
“Dial 999!” said Mel suddenly.
“I’ve told you, I haven’t got a signal.”
“You don’t need one!” said Mel. “Emergency calls link directly to the police network, or another company’s phone network – at least, I think they do. It’s so you can get help wherever you are.”
“I’ve never heard that,” I admitted.
“It’s got to be worth a try…”
She was right. With trembling fingers I began to dial. 9… 9… 9…
It started to ring!
“It’s working!”
Mel grabbed my free hand and squeezed it tightly. “Yes!”
“Emergency, which service do you require?”
“Police!” I said. “My cousin and I are – ”
The coffin fell dark. The light from the phone was gone.
“No! No, no, no!” I stabbed at the power button again and again. “NO!”
“What’s wrong?” demanded Mel.
I fought back the urge to cry. “The battery’s dead.”
“You didn’t charge it?”
“As much as I dared, yes. This is the model with the dodgy battery, remember.”
We lay together in silence for a while, our breathing becoming increasingly laboured. I’m not sure how much time passed – I stopped wearing a watch ages ago and checked the time on my mobile if I needed to.
“They’ll never find us, will they?” said Mel eventually.
“Of course they will,” I said as reassuringly as possible, but I wasn’t sure I believed my own words. “They’ll be looking for us right now.”
“Not if they think we’re dead.”
“They don’t think that.”
“I did, when you swapped your mum for my dad.”
“That was different,” I insisted.
“How?”
“I nominated your dad,” I said, a pang of guilt gnawing at my stomach. “What happened to us was some sort of accident because we were fighting over the contract.”
“Either way, they think we’re dead,” sighed Mel.
“They can’t do!” I insisted. “They wouldn’t bury both of us in the same coffin, for a start!”
“That’s true!” said Mel. “You might be right – this wasn’t meant to happen. Where’s the contract?”
“In my pocket, I think. Why?”
“Take it out.”
“What for? We won’t be able to read it.”
“Just do it!”
Wriggling around, I managed to get my hand into my other trouser pocket and pull out the sheet of paper. “Careful,” I said to Mel as I handed it over. “It’s starting to tear.”
“I know,” she said. “That’s the bit I’m interested in.”
I frowned in the darkness. “Why?”
“This only happened when we both grabbed the contract and it ripped.”
“When you grabbed it!” I corrected her.
“All right, whatever! Either way – it might be the rip that caused this.”
“So?”
“If we can fix the rip, maybe this will all reverse itself.”
I thought about this for a moment. “That will mean your dad will be back in here instead of us.”
“Not if you pull out of the contract. Get that bloke to cancel it.”
“Then my mum will be in here.”
Mel took a deep breath. “I know it’s hard to accept, Toby – but your mum is dead. She had cancer for a long time, and now she’s gone.”
“No, she isn’t,” I spat. “We both saw her in the pub just before this happened.”
“But she wasn’t supposed to be there! You brought her back by messing around with this stuff – and look where that has got us…”
“OK,” I said eventually. “So, what do we do?”
“I’ve already told you,” said Mel. “We fix the contract.”
“How?” I asked. “It may surprise you to hear this, but I left my roll of sticky tape and my stapler back in the pocket of my coat!”
“No need to be sarcastic!” said Mel. “Here… take this.” She forced a small object into the palm of my hand.
“What is it?”
“Chewing gum,” came the reply. “My last piece.”
“Where did you get it?”
“There’s a pocket in my dress.”
“You’ve got a pocket in your dress and you don’t keep your mobile phone in it?”
“Just shut up and chew, will you?!”
So I slid the piece of gum into my mouth and started chewing.
“Do you have to do it so noisily?” Mel demanded. “It sounds like you’re marching across a swamp.”
“Stop moaning!” I barked. “I’m doing the best I can, it’s just that – GLARK!”
“What’s wrong?”
“I almost swallowed it.”
“DON’T DO THAT! WE NEED IT!”
“I KNOW!”
I continued chewing for what seemed an age, but was probably only three or four minutes. The air was now incredibly stuffy and I was starting to feel drowsy. I didn’t need my biology teacher to tell me that we were starting to feel the effects of carbon dioxide poisoning. If we stayed in this confined space for much longer, we’d both fall asleep and never wake up again.
“There!” I said, spitting the gum out into my hand. “Done.”
“OK,” said Mel. “Hand it over…”
I forced my
hand down my side to hers and passed the lump of wet goo across.
“Yuck!” she moaned. “OK, I’m pressing it against the back of the contract and smoothing down the torn part so that the edges touch…”
The world shuddered again and we jumped as a neon-blue arc of lightning shot down from the sky and hit the black earth beside us with a deafening CRACK!
Mel and I slowly climbed to our feet and examined our surroundings. We were in some sort of desolate landscape in the midst of a storm. Ice-cold rain poured down over us, washing the dirt from the piles of bones and skulls that littered the ground at our feet. I stuffed the hastily repaired contract back into my pocket.
Then came the roar. Louder than the rain and sharper than the bolts of lightning that continued to pound the earth. We clamped our hands over our ears and watched in horror as what looked like a demon rose up from the soil, eyes blazing and gravestone-sized teeth gnashing together.
It stomped towards us, hooves smashing the discarded bones into a fine, white powder that clung to the creature’s leathery, red skin.
The demon considered us for a moment, then smiled.
It was then that I recognised the beast. I’d seen that smile before – only on a more human face.
This was Nick.
CHAPTER 4
Eternity
“Let us go!” Mel demanded. “We’re here by mistake!”
Nick threw his head back and laughed. It sounded like the ground itself tearing apart. “Mistake?” he bellowed. “MISTAKE?! I don’t make mistakes!”
“Maybe not,” I said, trying to sound as brave as Mel had done. “But I did. I shouldn’t have signed your stupid contract in the first place!”
Nick stooped to glare at me, fire dancing behind the dark pupils of his eyes. “And what do you expect me to do about that?” he thundered.
I shrugged. “Let us go?”
The demon rose up to its full height and laughed again. “You entertain me!” he roared. “Perhaps I shall keep you here to be my fool for all eternity!”
“Never!” I yelled.
Nick pointed a long-nailed finger in my direction. More blue lightning shot from the digit, hitting me in the chest and sending me flying back a few metres. Mel hurried over to check on me.
“Are you OK?” she asked, examining the scorch mark on my shirt.
“Never felt better,” I grunted as she helped me to my feet. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got him worried now.”
Taking a deep breath, I tried to summon up some courage – then I strode back over the carpet of human bones to face Nick again. “Very well!” I said. “I’ll stay and entertain you – but I want you to let Mel go.”
“No!” Mel cried, stumbling across a pile of skulls to stand beside me. She took hold of my hand and squeezed it tightly. “If Toby stays, then I stay too!”
Nick laughed again. “Two fools!” he cried. “Even better!”
“That’s not the deal!” I shouted. Another bolt of blue electricity sent me sprawling.
Mel was beside me again in seconds. This time the burn mark was on the skin of my chest. “What are you doing?” she hissed. “You’re making him angry!”
“That’s the plan!”
“What?!”
“Just trust me!”
I staggered to my feet. “Nice shot!” I cried, staggering back towards the demon. “You should have a go at Mad Cats – you’d get the high score in no time!” I pulled my dead mobile phone from my pocket and held it up to the monster.
“Mad Cats?” spat the demon. “What nonsense is this?”
“It’s not nonsense at all!” I insisted. “Mad Cats is the best-selling game for mobile phones ever. You see, these naughty dogs steal the cats’ fish…”
“Silence!” Nick aimed another finger of lightning pain in my direction but, this time, I made sure my mobile phone was in the way. The blast of electricity surged into the device, instantly turning the phone red hot. I felt it burning my skin, but refused to let go.
“Hide!” I shouted to Mel.
“What?”
“Find somewhere to hide!”
Mel ducked behind a large, blackened boulder and watched as Nick’s powerful lightning poured into my phone.
I gritted my teeth against the pain in my hand.
“You have to be careful, though!” I yelled. “You see, my dad doesn’t know much about technology. He accidentally bought me the phone that was all over the news at the time due to a battery problem. Charge them too much and people found that they might… just… go… bang!”
I felt the phone begin to vibrate crazily in my hand and hurled it at Nick’s feet. The mobile exploded, blasting up a shower of broken bones and rocks. The monster fell, clawing at its eyes with twisted fingers and screaming in agony.
The explosion threw me backwards. I hit the ground hard and risked a glance at my damaged hand. It was bleeding badly – just what I needed.
I pulled the demon’s contract from my pocket and grabbed a shard of broken bone from the ground. Dipping the point in the blood from my palm, I scratched out the names I’d written on the piece of paper and replaced them with others – just as Nick clambered back to his cloven feet and stomped in my direction.
I stood and thrust the piece of paper out towards him. “You’re too late!” I yelled.
Then the world shook one final time.
CHAPTER 5
Awake
I’ve been in the coffin – alone – for almost nine years now. And I’ve been awake for all that time. Turns out the drowsiness I’d felt when I was in here with Mel wasn’t a lack of oxygen – just tiredness after a long and particularly rubbish day. No, I’m awake down here, all right. Properly awake. I occasionally fall into a restless sleep, but the dreams of being back up there don’t last very long, and I do my best to ignore them.
And all because I’d signed my name on the wrong dotted line as Nick had pounded across the blackened, bone-strewn earth towards me. I didn’t mean to; I’d planned to put everything back exactly the way it was before I’d had the fight with Uncle Gary – but I guess I panicked. I wrote the wrong name in the wrong place and accidentally condemned myself to – well, not death. This is much, much worse than death.
The good news is I’m able to move a bit more now that Mel’s not crammed in here with me. Not that there’s anything to do, of course.
I hear them come to visit from time to time – my mum and dad, my brother and sister, sometimes even Mel and Aunt Anna. Uncle Gary has yet to appear. At first, I screamed for help every time I realised someone was up there, leaving flowers – but no one ever seemed to hear me.
I’m glad – in a weird sort of way. I don’t want to scare them – not after all they’ve been through (or, rather, think they’ve been through). To them, I’ve taken on my mum’s story. I’m the one who suffered through the lengthy cancer treatment. I’m the one who lost my battle with the disease. They remember sitting around my hospital bed as the monitor readings began to fall. They remember holding my hands as I took that final, gasping breath.
I hope Uncle Gary didn’t upset my mum at the get-together after my funeral.
Now and again, I wonder if Mel ever remembers the truth – even for a second or two. If she does, she never lets on when she visits on my birthday (I’m nearly twenty-four now!). Shame, really, as I have a favour to ask her. Nothing much – I just want to ask if she can find a way to get me a mobile phone down here.
I could really go for a game of Mad Cats to pass the time.
THE END
Dead Scared ISBN 978-1-78464-198-6
Text © Tommy Donbavand 2014
Complete work © Badger Publishing Limited 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
The right of Tommy Donbavand to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by him in accor
dance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Publisher: Susan Ross
Senior Editor: Danny Pearson
Publishing Assistant: Claire Morgan
Copyeditor: Cheryl Lanyon
Designer: Bigtop Design Ltd
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Titles in Teen Reads:
Copy Cat
TOMMY DONBAVAND
Dead Scared
TOMMY DONBAVAND
Just Bite
TOMMY DONBAVAND
Home
TOMMY DONBAVAND
Kidnap
TOMMY DONBAVAND
Ward 13
TOMMY DONBAVAND
Deadly Mission
MARK WRIGHT
Ghost Bell
MARK WRIGHT
The Corridor
MARK WRIGHT
Death Road
JON MAYHEW
Fair Game
ALAN DURANT
Jigsaw Lady
TONY LEE
Mister Scratch
TONY LEE
Stalker
TONY LEE
Dawn of the Daves
TIM COLLINS
Joke Shop
TIM COLLINS
The Locals
TIM COLLINS
Troll
TIM COLLINS
Insectoids
ROGER HURN
Billy Button
CAVAN SCOTT
Mama Barkfingers
CAVAN SCOTT
Pest Control
CAVAN SCOTT
The Hunted
CAVAN SCOTT
The Changeling
CAVAN SCOTT
Nightmare
ANN EVANS
Sitting Target
JOHN TOWNSEND
Snow White,
Black Heart
JACQUELINE RAYNER
The Wishing Doll
BEVERLY SANFORD
Underworld
SIMON CHESHIRE
World
Without Words
JONNY ZUCKER
Badger Publishing Limited, Oldmedow Road, Hardwick Industrial Estate, King’s Lynn PE30 4JJ
Telephone: 01438 791037
www.badgerlearning.co.uk
Dead Scared Page 2