Forbidden Entity: The Key ('The Key')

by Pia Philip

  She heard the guys laughed at her but she just pouted. Josh put an arm around her neck.

  “Sure, but I won’t put it past your own clumsiness,” Josh said, “But the important question is really. Are you able to play Saturday?”

  “Of course, what you take me for,” she replied as she rolled her eyes, “I just fell; I didn’t go to the hospital you know.”

  “Okay, just wondering,” He said as he put his hands up, “Anyway, we’re having a meeting to discuss final tactics at my place today after school at 6.”

  “I’ll be there,” she said, but then she spotted Emma at the bench at the other side of the pitches, “I’m not playing today, I need to go make amendments for Sam’s stupidity.” She ran over to Emma, trying to think of what to say to her.

  “Hey,” she said, deciding to stay with the simple norm.

  “So how is it?” Emma asked, “Being the attention of the boys again.”

  “What are you on about?” she asked completely bewildered.

  “Oh, you know what I’m talking about, that little stunt,” Emma hissed with disbelief in her eyes, “and then trying to say it was a supernatural force when I saw you staring at Max.”

  “Don’t be stupid, I wouldn’t do that on purpose, the match is Saturday, and now the nurse and a few guys don’t know if I’m fit enough to play with them,” Alex said defensively “and so that I make it clear to you, I hate Max, I actually despise the boy with a passion. For god’s sake, he didn’t even know me and the first thing he did was accuse me of playing football just for the sake of attention, OHH!”

  She was getting all worked up as she clenched her fist; she had to take a few breaths to relax myself.

  “Okay there? Sheesh, seriously, you should get over yourself, he’ a really nice guy, if you give him the-” Emma stopped when she saw her face, “Or not then.”

  “You may like him, but I’m not a big fan.” She announced her chin up. The boy gave her the creeps, the way he constantly stared at her. Obsessive bells kept ringing in her head.

  18:05

  Alex ran down the street towards Josh’s house, seeing as she’d only been at his place twice, her memory wasn’t that great of the way there but she did manage to find it in the end, although she was five minutes late. She knocked on the door and waited patiently. her hair was such a mess, she didn’t have time to stick it up in her normal pony, what with the argument she had had with her mum over her phone. She had to bring up the fact that she had fainted to make her stop going on about her two left feet, which totally wasn’t true, because if it was then she wouldn’t be able to play football the way she did, nope her mum was the one with the two left feet.

  “About time you got here, we were going to call you, but then we remembered your broken phone,” Josh said as he opened the door. She stuck her tongue out at him before entering. She took the hood down and shook her hair out before groaning at the state of it.

  “Anyone got a hairband?” she asked but all she got was weird stares.

  “Don’t be stupid, why would we? Do any of us seem like cross-dressers?” Max asked.

  “We’ll,” she joked as she climbed over the sofa and sat down in the empty sofa chair. “I could name a few if you wanted.”

  “Shut up,” Kieran said, “anyway we have come up with a few ideas that we think could help us win on Saturday.”

  “Let’s hear it then,” she said as she bent forward to see what they were doing, almost falling in the process. There tactics were a complete mess. She ran her fingers through her burnt rosette hair leaving it lying untamed down to her waist and sighed.

  “That’s absolute rubbish.” she said bluntly, “It’ll crash and burn, I mean seriously, who puts two defenders on one side so that they could try and defend if the midfielder loses the ball. I mean seriously, what if it gets caught midway through pass; the whole left field will be open, because, what- you put Josh back- right which dipshit came up with this piece of cow dung.”

  “That’s a bit harsh but I think you might be right.” Kieran said as he put a big red cross through the plan. “What do you think we should do?” They asked, so she told them of the strategy they should take. Alex loved creating strategies almost as much as she loved playing the sport.

  “You know, I think we should make you our manager instead of a midfielder,” Lewis said. She didn’t like the boy at times because he was a dirty minded little idiot at times, especially at parties.

  “Ha, no way, me and my organization skills, we’d lose every game,” she laughed, “When does the tournament finish by the way?”

  “It starts at 8:30 am and finishes at 3:45 pm,” Kieran said, “Why you going somewhere?”

  “Yeah, sorry, could you make a sub for me for the final game, I need to leave at three,” she said apologetically.

  “Yeah me too,” Sam said, “We need to go, or we’re dead, well more likely Alex is dead.”

  “We’ll thanks for the support,” she muttered as her body slumped back on the chair.

  “Well I guess it is okay seeing as it’s the final game, but you better not slack off,” Josh said.

  “Course not, I’ll give it 110%,” she smiled as she got up and pulled her hoodie back on, “Now I have to go get a new phone.”

  “Okay, see you tomorrow then,” Sam said, “Or should I come with you?” She knew what the question meant but she wasn’t going to take up all of Sam’s free time. She turned to the door but couldn’t see anything. She opened it and the crawling sensation came back. He was watching her, her body stiffened. The kid seemed to be getting closer,

  “No, it is okay,” she said in her best fake cheerful voice, she took a deep breath and began to run in the direction of her house. The streets were empty and quiet like the abandoned mall park in a movie she had seen the night before. Just great, she thought grimly to herself. I could get kidnapped and no one would see a thing. The darkness began closing in on her and the air seemed to get heavier. She looked up and stopped dead in her tracks. Fifty yards in front of her, the kid stood with a grin on his face. It was terrifying, displaying all its razor sharp teeth. It would make the wildest of beast run the other way. She inwardly groaned to herself. She should’ve got Sam to go with her. She took a few nervous steps backwards before turning and bolting down the street, she had never run so fast in her life, and she guessed that before the whole thing was over she could probably run and win in the Olympics. Alex didn’t even bother to look where she was going so it wasn’t a surprise when she crashed into someone.

  “Sorry, sorry,” she repeated numbly as she searched the area behind me.

  “Alex!”

  Her head snapped back around and saw that she had crashed into Sam.

  “I knew something was up the moment you ran out the door.” Sam said, “You should’ve told me.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t want to take all your spare time,” she mumbled quietly.

  “What’s more important, my spare time, or your life? Yeah I thought so,” Sam said, exasperation evident in his voice. When was she going to learn, she had never got her priories right, “I don’t think you should come into school tomorrow?”

  “What why?” Alex asked alarmed at his sudden declaration.

  “What if we have another episode of today?” he asked as he arched an eyebrow in his know-it-all attitude, “Your mums off tomorrow right get her to let you stay off, okay?”

  “Fine then, but if anyone mistakes it for an ailment I swear I’ll blame you if they don’t let me play.” she warned attempting at humor.

  Sam gave her a lopsided grin at her attempt before depositing her at the front of her home and being forced into promising to make sure that the boys didn’t take her off the team.

  CHAPTER 3

  17:36

  The moment Alex walked in through the door, her mum pounced on her. She gave Alex multiple checks and sent her to bed with a mug of hot chocolate, telling her- no forcing her- to sleep as late as she wanted because she wasn’t
letting her go back to school until she was certain that she was fit enough. Alex didn’t complain because she didn’t have to lie again. She hated lying to her mother, because they were so close and although she doesn’t tell her all the time, she was not only Alex’s mum but her best friend too.

  The next day seemed to breeze through, there was hardly any sign of the kid, though Alex still felt tense, she could see no danger but she felt it. Her mum was constantly by her side so there was no chance that she would be left in a position where the kid could attack. By four O’clock Alex had finally managed to convince her mum that she was fine enough to go to the game on Saturday. Saturday, that brought up the subject of Paddington in her mind and she tried to find a way to approach the subject.

  “Eh, mum?” Alex asked as she sat down at the kitchen table, “Do you think I could go to Paddington tomorrow after the game? I’ll be back Sunday night probably.”

  “You want to go to Paddington for the weekend?” her mum asked, surprise poorly hidden in her voice. Alex had always been one who hated leaving home, she got terrible home sickness, but this was life or death, quite literally.

  “Yeah,” she said in what she hoped was a come-on-mum kind of voice that seemed to be natural to every other teen but her, “I am 15 you know.”

  Just then there was a knock on the door, she jumped up to get it. It was Sam, just the help she needed.

  “Hey, thought I’d drop in to see how you were doing,” He said as he followed her into the sitting room. “So how are you doing?”

  “I’m fine, no sight of him at all, though I really didn’t get a chance to see anyone but my mums face all day.” Alex said cautiously, she knew her mum was eaves dropping from the way her body was positioned at the workstation, “I was just asking my mum about letting me go to Paddington with you, for the weekend I think I was winning.”

  As she predicted, her mum walked into the sitting room a minute later.

  “So, Sam, do you know of this trip Alex is planning?” her mum asked even though they knew she knew he did.

  “Eh, yeah, I’m also going, we had planned this when the tournament council had first refused to allow Alex to play just because she was a girl. I had thought it would help cheer her up,” Sam lied. Alex was kind of impressed at his straight face as he told the bluff. He was so good at this it kind of scared her. “I had already saved up for it, and paid for the retreat, so why let it go to waste I thought.”

  “Is it just you two?” Her mum asked. What was this some kind of interrogation? Talk about over-protective, obsessive nosy mum Alex thought as she rolled her eyes but felt guilty straight after. She knew her mum was only trying to protect her.

  “We were going to get Emma to come too, what with her terrible relationship record, but some of us are not in speaking terms,” Sam said. It was half true. Alex didn’t think Emma has forgiven him yet, though she hadn’t told her that what he told her was true because Alex was certain that she would absolutely crack, and who knew where that would end.

  “Well I trust you Sam only on the Bases that you and Alex have been friends for 7 years now and your mum is my best friend,” Her mum said as she got up, “But if you come home and my daughter is pregnant, make sure to flee the country as fast as you can, because I will hunt you down.”

  Then her mum flounced out the room with purpose, leaving them feeling awkward for about a second.

  “At least I know, never to try and make a move on you,” Sam said as he lay on the sofa in his normal lazy demeanor trying to brush the awkwardness by making a joke of it. “Not that I could without getting killed.”

  “Yeah, then I’ll bring you back to life and let her kill you again,” She Laughed. Her phone went off then. It was a message from Emma. Correction they were several messages from Emma.

  ‘Where were you today?”

  ‘Are you okay, did something happen, are you ill?!!’

  ‘OMG, Max just asked me to go with him to the party after the tournament?’

  ‘Are you going somewhere? I just got told your leaving early at the tournament?’

  ‘Answer me!’

  Alex put her phone down and groaned. If Emma thought she was ill then so must the boys. She sent Sam a death glare.

  “What?” he asked innocently before grabbing her phone and reading the messages. “Oh, I told them your mum wouldn’t let you go to school until she thought you were fit.”

  “You better have, you know exactly what this tournament means to me,” Alex said before lying down on the sofa opposite him.

  “Yes, I know, you’ve told me a million times already,” He muttered. She stuck her tongue out before throwing a plush cushion at him.

  Saturday 08:00

  Everyone was waiting for the coach to take them to the field. It was somewhere in the south of London, where there were several fields.

  “We are so going to be late,” Josh moaned as he sat down on the curb in front of Alex.

  “We’ve got a reliable bus driver Dan, I think we’ll make it,” Sam said as he hoisted his rucksack with his clothes on to his shoulder. Alex took out the new phone Sam had chosen for her purely on the basis that I she broke every other phone she had got in like a month. Thankfully however it also looked decent.

  “That your new phone?” Kieran asked as he grabbed it out of her hands and started pressing random buttons, checking out all its gadgets. She groaned as the rest of the team decided to use her phone for entertainment. She should’ve just brought her broken phone Alex thought bitterly. It could still receive texts even if that was all it could do; it would still have been enough, because she was almost certain that she would not need to use it for anything but receiving texts from her over protective mother.

  There was a loud honk and a bright blue and red coach came into view. They all cheered and clambered into the back. They reached the field 20 minutes later; the games were just being announced. Their first team was Ordan high school. She was playing the first two games and the fourth game, so was Sam. Alex was so pumped she could barely keep still while the team got into position. The demon was put to the back burner of her mind for the first time in a while. They played game after game, constantly swapping people in the games to get rest. The first game they won by one point, the second game they tied by a stupid penalty the referee had given due to a supposed foul by Josh. During the third game, Alex sat in and watched the final ten minutes. Her stomach began to feel funny as it twisted in knots and she groaned in pain.

  “You okay?” Sam asked. She considered bluffing but thought better of it and shook her head before pointing to her belly. “Did you have anything to eat today?”

  The thought had never crossed her mind, she was way too excited to think about her stomach and now she was paying the price.

  “It’s okay, I’ll get you something on the train,” he smiled.

  “Thanks’,” She said gratefully. The third game they lost due to severe favoritism by the referee because he was supposedly ‘looking away’ when the other school started hacking, but on the fourth they managed to win by 3:1. Alex and Sam didn’t even wait for the celebration or goodbyes. They were already running late. They ran to the nearest bus stop and were just able to reach the train station for the final calling. Sam quickly paid for the tickets while Alex went and reserved their seats. He ran on literally 30 seconds before the doors closed. He crashed down in the seat beside her. Alex felt uneasy on the train. She could feel everyone giving them weird looks, like they haven’t seen a couple of kids in muddy football clothes before, though to be fair, they probably hadn’t seen a girl wearing boys football kit covered in mud.

  “I think we should get changed,” Alex said as she got up, Sam swiftly following. Thankfully there were two cubicles though they were on the other side of the train. She pulled out her whitewashed denim shorts and her favorite I <3 NYC t-shirt. She was pulling it over her head when she heard the lights fizzle then go out .Alex yanked her T-shirt down before clicking the lights on and off. Th
e lights wouldn’t come on. Quickly she packed her bags, well, as fast she could in the dark and pulled at the door but it was locked. She tried the lock but it wouldn’t budge. Then, she heard it.

  Alison...Alexis…Alison…Alexis…come… you are mine….

  The hoarse voice made her spin around in a full 360 circle looking for the speaker. Almost instantly her eyes fell on red eyes. There seemed to be no body, just eyes but it was just frightened her more thinking that it could be shapeless. She urgently started pulling at the doors but they wouldn’t budge. Alex could feel him getting closer, and closer. She felt her body start to tremble. She saw his body begin to materialize and her eyes widened in fear. Pressing her body as far into the door as she could, she started mumbling a prayer, never once taking her eyes off the red one’s that seemed to get nearer. The kid fully materialized in front of her and put out his hand to grab hers. Alex couldn’t even fight back. She was half paralyzed half mesmerized by the eyes. Now that she looked closely at them, they were not just purely red. They had thin black slits down the middle and some sort of writing that kept going up and down in the outer part of the eye. It seemed so familiar. The kid stretched out his hand and grabbed her arm. She winced in pain. Alex could feel the heat surging up her arm. She started whimpering, it felt like the skin on her arm was getting ripped apart.

  Just then there was a click and the door flung open and Alex tumbled backwards out of the suppressing dark and into someone’s legs. Sam’s legs.

  “Alex! Are you okay?” Sam asked alarmed as he bent down and took her arm to help her up. She could barely walk. She opened her mouth then shut it again, no sound came out. Sam nodded his head in understanding and guided her towards their seats. He parked their bags down on her seat, sat down on his and pulled her onto his lap.

  “You don’t need to say anything just nod,” Sam said, “Did you see him again?” she nodded.

  “Was he with you?” she nodded again.

  “Did he touch you?” This time Alex hesitated wondering whether to tell him. In the end she shook her head, just to give him peace. The announcement for their stop came into so they got ready to leave. Finding the house wasn’t as hard as she had originally thought it would be. It was five minutes down from the train station. Alex was still unable to fully walk so Sam had to half carry her all the way.