The Sleep Taker

by Darren O'Sullivan

  Spike had done as he was asked and had picked up Jack with one arm to carry him to some shade from the burning sun, and N.J had brought the spinach and bananas which Jorge fed to Jack in his delirious state. All the team could do now was wait to see if Jack was going wake up, all they could do was hope they found him in time...

  Chapter 8

  Jack was lost in a deep daydream and in it he was under the tree Spike had placed him, right in the middle of Horse Shoe Close, but he was all on his own. Fearing the worst Jack ran to the school, he passed his house and thought about running in to see his mum. Jack needed his mum more than anything but what if The Sleep Taker had gotten to her, she would march him into school and the fight for freedom would be over, although it looked as if it already was over. So Jack didn’t stop at home he kept going. As he neared the school he could hear that sound, that fateful sound he had heard when this all began.

  ‘Scrape, scrape’

  “The Sleep Taker!”

  Jacks initial reaction was to run but he knew that with the whole of Horse Shoe Close beaten The Sleep Taker’s strength would be so great running wouldn’t help him. So Jack just stood there waiting for the end to come. He didn’t want it to but fear took over and he closed his eyes.

  The world was black but Jack could hear The Sleep Taker approaching, he was coming fast and he hit Jack with such a force it took him clean off of his feet and he crashed to the ground knocking the wind out of him.

  A sudden burst of courage entered Jack and if it was going to end like this he wanted to look into the lifeless eyes of the person who would soon own his soul, but when he did open his eyes he saw something that was wonderful.

  “Mars, oh Mars I’m so glad to see you!”

  Mars was happy to see Jack but he also had sadness in his eyes, a sadness Jack instantly understood.

  “Mars, where is N.J?”

  Even though Mars could not talk Jack knew where N.J was, he knew where everyone was, The Sleep Taker had won, everyone was in school. Jack knew he had to have confirmation; he needed to see with his own eyes what he already knew in his heart. So off he went, with Mars following sheepishly behind him to the school.

  When Jack and Mars made it to school, slowly so no one inside could see him, Jack raised his head and peaked into the window, it strangely reminded him of the first time he had seen The Sleep Taker.

  Everyone looked so tired, it seems even when the children of Horse Shoe Close caved in to The Sleep Taker’s demands he still hasn’t returned them a full night sleep, ‘maybe he needs to keep them weak’ thought Jack ‘so they cannot get enough strength to beat him.’

  When Jack saw N.J he almost cried, N.J was sat with her head in her hands, staring at the white board where some new teacher was stood that Jack had never seen before, all of her energy was gone.

  Jack opened the window he was looking through ever so slightly so he could get her attention, it was dangerous but it was N.J, she was worth the risk.

  “N.J” whispered Jack, “N.J”

  “N.J, wake up you lazy head, get your bum out of your bed!”

  N.J, remembering the rhyme, that she had created in another life slowly looked up and came eye to eye with Jack, she stared at him for what seemed like forever until she realised it was him. She smiled a tired small smile then N.J began to write something on a piece of paper, when she had finished she held it up so Jack could see. It simply said one word in capital letters, it said

  ‘RUN!’

  Jack had no intention of doing that; he was not leaving without her. Again N.J held up the sign telling Jack to run but this time she was shaking, she looked terrified, and she was looking over his shoulder.

  Jack felt someone stood behind him, he could hear heavy breathing, he could see the fear in N.J’s eyes, and he knew he was in trouble. He knew that The Sleep Taker was directly behind him.

  “I’ve been keeping an eye on you Jack” said The Sleep Taker in an evil whispery voice. “From the spiral tree, in the forest. I’ve known exactly where you have gone and what you have been doing, and now you’re mine! Do you hear me Jack, do you hear me?”

  Chapter 9

  “Do you hear me Jack, do you hear me?”

  Jack’s eyes began to regain focus as he came out of his day dream, and his foggy vision began to return to normal to see N.J looking directly at him, at first frowning deeply but it soon turned into a wide beaming smile.

  “Do you hear me Jack?”

  “N.J?”

  “Oh! Jack we were so worried!”

  N.J grabbed and squeezed Jack so hard he could barely breathe, “Jack I thought you were not going to wake up! I’m so happy.”

  Immediately after, N.J let go of Jack and turned around, she had a tear in her eye that no one could see.

  “Jack, we believe you!” said Jorge.

  “Did he get to you?” asked Jack, propping himself against the tree as his strength slowly returned to him. N.J, Jorge and Spike, simply nodded their head in unison.

  “Yes Jack” said Jorge “you see he came to both N.J and I, as you said our sleep was taken, but it gets worse.”

  “Worse how?” asked Jack.

  “He didn’t come to me!” said Spike who until now had not said a word.

  Jack was confused by this, “surely that’s good news Spike?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why not?”

  “Jack, I still did not sleep!”

  “What?” said Jack getting to his feet.

  “He took it from me without being anywhere near me!”

  “Yes Jack, it looks like he is getting stronger!” said Jorge “I still don’t know how he is doing it, he’s taking our sleep without even trying!”

  “Jack, what are we going to do?!” asked N.J.

  Jack was in shock. Was it really possible that The Sleep Taker could take sleep without even seeing Spike? If he controlled the sleep of all children in Horse Shoe Close he would not need to leave, he could take over the next Close, and the next, and no one would know how or why? This was bad, really bad and they were no closer to stopping him.

  “Jack!” N.J. shouted, snapping him out of his thoughts. “What are we going to do?”

  “Just then, when I was day dreaming, or whatever it was, I saw Horse Shoe Close after it had been taken over, the streets were empty and everyone was in school, still very tired. He caught me and he said ‘I’ve been watching you Jack’.

  “That must have been awful” said Jorge.

  “It was, but then he told me where he had been hiding to spy on me!”

  “Where?” asked Spike.

  “There” said Jack, pointing into the middle of the forest, towards the spiral tree, “and we are going to beat him to it!”

  Chapter 10

  Stood at the bottom of the spiral tree Jack, N.J, Mars, Jorge and Spike, looked up to see the giant twisting limbs of the ancient tree stretch into the sky. The next thing on their list to do, step 6; work out a way to spy on him (like James Bond) and it seemed that Jack’s daydream had shown the way. They were going to build a tree house at the top of the spiral tree. There was a problem though; no one had ever been able to make a tree house in the spiral tree. People had tried in the past and failed. You see the spiral tree was so tall and so twisted, climbing it was hard enough but making a floor, walls and ceiling in it had proven to be impossible. There are stories about kids coming close to doing it but failing. One story Jack had heard of was of a boy call Johnny that came so close to finishing building his tree house only for it to be caught in a storm and blown away, with him in it! They say he was found in Cherry Grove Close, a place far far away. Another story talks of two boys, Russ and Richard who climbed the giant tree, Russ (who was said to be the silly one) led the way up in front of Richard and when they were close to the top Russ slip
ped (due to pretending to be a monkey) and fell, taking Richard with him. They fell all the way to the bottom and were lucky not to be hurt.

  History told that anyone who has tried to build a tree house in the spiral tree has never succeeded. It had been said to be impossible and when Jack first announced that they were going to do it everyone laughed. But he was serious and with a team as strong as theirs he thought they might just be able to do it. They had to do it; everything depended on them being able to spy on The Sleep Taker and complete the mission.

  Seeing Jack was serious they all walked to the base of the giant tree.

  “OK Where do we even start?” asked N.J.

  “We need a picture, we need to know what we are going to actually do and how we will do it as well as what tools” replied Jorge.

  “Alright so we draw a picture” said Jack.

  With the group happy with the picture Jorge created, they had the task of finding the materials. Knowing soon it would be lunch and that meant they would have to stop, they had to work fast. So off they went, in their own directions to get everything on the list.

  N.J. had the hardest thing to get on the list, the bamboo poles. You see N.J’s mum and dad loved gardening and had loads of plants and flowers everywhere, most of which still had their supporting bamboo poles attached to them. The group needed 10 poles and N.J had to get all of them without being seen, if she was seen her parents will ground her and that would mean for her Operation Sleep Taker would be over. Of course N.J was not alone on this, Mars was keeping guard by the back door, if her parents came into the kitchen (which looked into the back garden) he would bark and N.J could hide.

  So off she went, carefully pulling the poles out of the soil around her parent’s plants, she collected the first 1, then 2, then 3, she started feeling pleased with herself. 7, 8...

  “Woof woof” Mars barked, “Woof woof woof.”

  ‘Oh no,’ thought N.J ‘They’re close!’

  N.J dropped the poles behind a big conifer tree in her garden and hid under it, looking and waiting.

  N.J’s mum came into the garden, wondering why Mars was back. She looked around to see if she could see her daughter. “Nicola Jane?” called her mum, “Nicola Jane?”

  N.J held her breath, not even wanting to blink in case it made a noise.

  ‘She must still be at Jack’s?’ thought N.J’s mum, “you must be hungry Mars” and with that she walked back into the house, re-emerging with a bowl of food for Mars and then went back into the living room.

  Only then did N.J let her breath out again, crawling from under the tree she scooped up her eight poles and ran to Mars petting him and calling him a good boy for his help!

  N.J quickly grabbed the final two poles and the pair ran out of the garden back towards the forest of Horse Shoe Close.

  They had only just left the garden when Mars stopped, turned around and ran back.

  “Mars, what are you doing?” said N.J in a panic. “Mars?”

  Mars ran back from the garden and in his mouth was his doggy bed. In the panic N.J had forgotten she needed to get the dog bed too, she was so glad Mars hadn’t and she gave him a big sloppy kiss and wondered what she would do without him by her side. Both N.J and Mars were the first to return to the base of the spiral tree, now all they could do was wait for the others to get back.

  He looked to his right, and then to his left, then Spike dashed across the road behind his mum’s car. Spike’s job was to find the old door because he was the only one who could carry it and he knew exactly where to find one, unfortunately it was in his garage so Spike had to be careful not to bump into his mum!

  Quietly he lifted the garage door, just enough for him to squeeze under and then he lowered it behind him.

  Inside his garage was complete darkness nothing could be seen or heard. Only his beating heart broke the silence. The darkness didn’t scare Spike, in fact this was the first time in ages he smiled to himself because for the first time in a very long time Spike was having fun and more importantly he felt like he had friends!

  Fumbling in the dark Spike grabbed the old kitchen door that had been in his garage so long it was covered in dust and cobwebs and began to move to the exit, everything was going to plan but just as Spike opened the garage door his mum came into the garage from the kitchen.

  “Spike?” said his mum “Spike, what are you doing?”

  “Just building a den.”

  “With who?”

  “My friends”

  Spike’s mum broke into a smile hearing those words.

  “Jack and N.J.” he finished.

  Spike’s mum was so happy to hear him say he was out playing she actually helped him to open the garage door.

  “Well, have fun honey, make sure you bring the door back when you’re done.” she said whilst leaning in to give Spike a kiss

  “Oh mum!” Spike said wiping the kiss from his cheek. (Although secretly he loved it when his mum gave him a kiss) He then waved her goodbye and ran back to the forest of Horse Shoe Close with his dusty heavy door to meet N.J. and Mars.

  Jack walked into his house and saw his dad was stood in the doorway, “What are you doing in?” he asked.

  “Ummm, I’m just, going to the toilet!” said Jack.

  Seeing Jack was behaving oddly and looking tired dad pressed, “Are you sure? You look a little tired, how are you feeling? Are you coming down with something?” dad reached over and touched his son’s forehead to check his temperature. “You don’t feel warm, are you sure you’re alright?”

  “I’m fine dad, really I am, just been running around a lot that’s all. Dad, me and my friends are building a den and we need some cushions to make it work, can I borrow the cushions from the summer chairs?”

  “Yeah sure, why not” replied dad.

  To Jack’s amazement his dad then got up and went to collect the cushions for him “make sure you bring them back later ok?”

  “Ok, thanks dad” Jack replied giving his dad a kiss.

  “Who are you spying on then?”

  Jack suddenly wondered if his dad knew about The Sleep Taker. Maybe The Sleep Taker has the adults controlled too? Jack had to think fast.

  “You know Jack, when I was a kid we made dens too, and we used to spy on the neighbours, working out all the secrets, so who you spying on?”

  “Well N.J and I are building our den to spy on Jorge because he is a mad inventor trying to take over the world!”

  “Oh I see,” said dad laughing. “Well have fun.”

  With that said Jack’s dad returned to his desk to work.

  As Jack left the house with his cushions he wondered for the first time what exactly his dad was working on. He had a horrible feeling in his belly that his dad was working on taking over the world with The Sleep Taker. How else would he know Jack was planning to spy? This was really bad now; even the mums and dads could not be trusted anymore! Running as fast as he could Jack made his way back to the spiral tree to tell all of this latest twist to the operation.

  “Hello” said Jorge as he walked into his house.

  “Hello Jorge, are you ok?”

  “I’m fine mum; I need some materials for a project.”

  Jorge’s mum was used to his weird and wonderful inventions and demands for materials

  “Ok honey, what is it you need?”

  “Just a bed sheet, washing line and some pegs.”

  “Is that all honey? Well you know where they all are.”

  Jorge never had a problem getting things and just like that his part of the operation was complete. He scooped up the items he needed and began to head out again when his mum stopped him and asked him to take his little sister Maria.

  Maria is a lot younger than Jorge, she was not even 6 and she was annoying. Whilst Jorge had al
l the brains she was the cute pretty one with little pig tails that all the grownups loved. He worried that she was too young and would ruin Operation Sleep Taker. You see Maria was a gigglier and she did exactly that whenever she could, most of the time when things weren’t even funny and her giggle was not exactly quiet. The grownups of Horse Shoe Close loved her infectious giggle but Jorge doubted The Sleep Taker would share that feeling.

  Regardless of how he felt about his little sister coming along he had no choice, she was now the newest, most useless member of Operation Sleep Taker. Dragging her by the hand Jorge made his way back to the forest.

  When Jorge and Maria arrived at the base of the spiral tree Jorge explained why his baby sister was with him, halfway through this his voice tapered off, for he had spotted the group had a look of dread on their faces. Jorge asked what was wrong and Jack told him about his encounter with his dad, how he knew they were spying and that he thought his dad had been taken over by The Sleep Taker.

  Jorge, like the others in the group did not want to believe what Jack was saying. It couldn’t be possible that The Sleep Taker had control of the parents now; however Jack was right before, so he had to be right again. Jorge having his little sister with him now seemed not to be a problem and quietly he introduced her to the rest of the group.

  Quickly and quietly, the group began to build their tree house from the plan N.J, being so brave, was the last to stay up there to complete the finishing touches and all seemed to be going well. The base was down; the support poles were in place, even the protective sheet was up, all that there was to do was to put the dog bed in. Then suddenly one of the support poles that held up the protective sheet broke, and N.J was leaning on it! The pole fell from the very top of the spiral tree and smashed into the lowest branch, snapping the branch in half. That low branch was the only way up and now it was broken on the floor.

  N.J toppled off of the platform and now she was hanging off of a small thin limb which bent from her weight, one false move and she would fall.