Visitors So Far
Fiction
Out There In The Darkness
By Jonny Horrocks & David Nolan 1994
A Mist swirled it’s way into the city creeping over the hills blowing a slight breeze. No sheep made a sound, lights in cottages were out, no dogs barked and not a single vehicle made a sound.
Two boys watched out of the window of a house near the city limits. Their names were Jonathan Horrocks and David Nolan and they were both 12 years of age.
` Jonathan had hair like a brown birds nest up in a high old Oak tree, his eyes looked like two bluey-brown marbles in his head, his mouth like an elastic band and his nose like a ski that you see on the television. On his face you could see hundreds of freckles looking like speckles of brown paint. He walked like a flamingo, with long legs and short steps and his arms swinging slowly like swaying string.
David had hair like a sea of gold making waves in the breeze and he had eyes like a canvas with a neat green circle in the middle and a splat if black right in the centre. His lips were shaped like a protractor, straight at the bottom and rounded at the top and his nose was as straight as a pencil from his eye line and his ears looked like the inside of a cavern with a dark, dark, dark tunnel going out of it. He ran like a mouse, but walked like a cheetah, slowly, quickly and steadily.
As they watched the mist from the house they saw a pair of red eyes glowing and throbbing out there on the hills in the darkness. A bolt of lightning seemed to break the sky in two; creating a silhouette of what resembled a deformed creature of the night looking as if it was half-rodent and half-wolf. The beast let out a blood-curdling howl as it disappeared back into the rolling and sweeping mists making them jump back in disbelief.
Two hours later the clock struck twelve midnight….Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong!
The mist was now sweeping across the city. David and Jonathan had recovered and ate popcorn while watching Red Dwarf videos when all of a sudden the power went.
“Oh man!” Jonathan exclaimed.
“And right in the middle of the video!!” David added on.
When David glanced out of the back window he saw all the lights of the city were out.
“Look!” said David,
“That’s weird” Jonathan said as he looked out with him, “The whole city’s power has gone out. There must be some problem down at the plant!”
Suddenly there was the sound of glass shattering.
“What was that?” asked David quietly.
“I don’t know and I don’t intend to find out!” Jonathan whispered, “Hide under the floorboards using those loose ones in the corner.”
As they clambered into their hiding place. Creaks and crashes were heard from downstairs and David’s dog Tanon was barking.
“Go get him Tanon!” David whispered partially to himself willing the dog on. There was some growling then a roar followed by a yipping sound and then silence.
“What’s happen’n down there?” Jonathan wondered quietly.
There was another long silence.
Then there was the familiar Creak, Creak, Creak that the floorboards made and footsteps coming slowly up the stairs; coming closer and closer. The footsteps came down the landing accompanied by heavy breathing that seemed like lead to the air.
There was a crash as the door was kicked in by beast and David peeped through a crack at it roaming around the dark room.
The rain came down outside like the city was within a shower cubicle. The beast started sniffling at the floor; it had picked up their scent.
The Thing had thin hair covering the whole of it’s body like felt. Its teeth were like a rat’s but stained blood red and it had a snout that stuck out like a tube from some paper towels. You could see the same red glowing throbbing eye’s like the beast’s from out on the hills. It had a scar down the left hand side of its face and a chest with muscles covering it like it was made from only that.
It’s tail thrashed onto the floorboard like it had a mind of it’s own. As it knelt down on the floor it’s powerful leg muscles contracted and expanded, contracted and expanded as if it was the heart of the creature.
Claws shot out of it’s fingertips as if they were swords loaded into a zip gun. Fresh blood dripped from the beast from where the claws had torn through. The blood trickled through the floorboards dripping on Jonathan’s feet. Then all of a sudden the monster slashed through the floorboards slicing through Jonathan’s shoe and the whole floor caved in on top of them.
Jonathan shouted something and then it all went black.
David woke up to see light streaming through the rubble as he dug himself out and helped Jonathan up. He turned and ran down the stairs to where Tanon had been. Blood covered the walls but there was no sign of either the beast or the dog.
“Nooooo!” he cried out distraught as Jonathan came down to survey the now wrecked house. He headed towards the front door and opened it. Outside was nearly silent apart from the odd piece of rubble falling from wrecked buildings, the wind blowing through practically empty streets. Cars lay at the side of the road smashed and burning. The occasional piece of trash or newspaper blew round the street…
The city was deserted.