There was a small creature standing near the edge of the aisle. It looked like one of those ceramic garden gnomes but it was dressed in rags and had pale gray, hairless skin. Its body was squat and had very long, thin arms dangling by its sides while its legs were shaped like small tree trunks that ended in a pair of very large feet and even bigger toes. It gave me a grimacing smile and showed its jagged front teeth just below its hooked nose and yellowish eyes while growling at me.
The fear in me was so palpable that I could almost grab onto it and it made me just stand there like a stone statue. For a few endless seconds we both just stared at each other. My mouth was wide open and my eyes were now as big as dinner plates. Then all of a sudden the creature snarled as it placed a protective hand over its eyes before it scampered away into the darkness once more. It was all too much for me so I instantly turned and ran out of the shop as quickly as I could.
As I caught my breath while standing in the middle of the fog-filled street I turned and noticed that the creature did not follow me out into the fading daylight. Sticking close to the pavement, I once more started to make my way towards the other end of the avenue.
I had thought about calling out to see if anyone would hear me but I decided against it lest I attracted unwanted attention. The fear of being alone was slowly grinding itself down into my very soul and I was really starting to get nervous now. Was I the only one left alive in the entire city? Surely there must have been others who’d survived and were still here, right?
Night had begun to fall as I walked past a few more avenues before finally turning into the street where Ray lived. As I got closer to his house I noticed that his dad’s car was just sitting on the street. Running over to it, I saw that it had been gutted by fire; its windscreen was caved in and the stack of burnt boxes was sticking out from the open boot. Thankfully I didn’t see any corpses in it but the mere thought that it hadn’t even made it out of the street filled me with such intense dread that I had to spend a few minutes just standing there in order to catch my breath.
As I got to the front door of my best mate’s house I noticed that it too was slightly ajar so I peeked in. That’s when I saw a dozen of the small creatures scurrying about. They looked very similar to the gnome-like thing I encountered in the corner shop’s interior only they seemed to be hard at work scrubbing the floors and making the place clean. My eyebrows arched in confusion. Why would they be doing that?
An idea suddenly occurred to me, and I cupped my hands to make a funnel over my mouth.
“Ray, are you in there?” I shouted, hoping that my best mate would hear and call out to me.
The creatures instantly reacted, snarling and howling at me while shaking their tiny little fists. I placed my hands up in a gesture of peace as I backed away from the door. A few more shrieks came from the group before three of them climbed on top of one another to gain some height. The three elevated creatures moved behind the door and pushed it closed and I heard the audible click of the bolt being locked in place.
As I stood dumfounded out in the street I saw the creatures drawing up all the window blinds until the whole house could no longer be observed. I just shook my head. Just what the bloody hell was that all about?
Right then. So it looked like staying in Ray’s house was now out of the question so what was I supposed to do next? As I just stood there thinking I remembered Ray’s last call to me. He had said his own neighborhood was under attack and he was heading towards the park. So that was it then. I turned around and started to walk towards Victoria Park.
As I walked towards the nearby commons I passed by Finchley Central train station. The small building looked deserted and I couldn’t see past a few feet into the darkened entrance. With all the horrors I had encountered so far I figured there might be worse things lurking along the tracks if I made my way there using the platforms so I decided against it and kept on moving. Even though I kept walking I kept to the center of the road because I began imagining things that might be lurking nearby and using the very shrubs and trees that I was using as a means to ambush me instead.
The fact that the city’s automated illumination systems were still active filled me with some hope as I used the faintly yellowish streetlights to navigate my way as I walked into the commons. Victoria Park was one of the smaller parks around the neighborhood but I practically grew up in it; my parents used to take me here almost every weekend to play. Although the park was normally closed after dusk I slowly made my way around the manicured trees to see if I could find Ray. I noticed some movement near the playground and so I crouched down beside one of the bigger tree trunks and tried to observe it.
While trying to scrutinize what was in the playground I hadn’t realized that something was creeping up behind me until a pair of hands came up in front of my face and I was thrown backwards to the ground. As I yelled and tried to get up someone placed a knee on my chest and I could feel two hands choking my throat. As I pulled out the torch from my hoodie and tried to hit my assailant with it I accidentally flicked the power switch and the light shone on his face.
It was my sister’s boyfriend who was on top of me. “Mark, stop!” I cried.
Mark instantly recognized my voice and he let go of my throat and stood up. “Steve? Is that you?”
“It bloody well is,” I said as he helped me up. “You nearly killed me, you tosser!”
“Sorry about that,” Mark said sheepishly.
Amy came running across the playground. “Steve! Oh my God! It is you!”
I ran over to her and we hugged each other. For the first time today I actually felt somewhat relieved.
My sister started to tear up. “Oh Steve, thank God you’re alive. Where are Mum and Dad?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I was in the house and they were in the transports when the Fomorians attacked. I hid in the house and when I went back out they were gone.”
Mark scratched his head. “Fomorians? What the bloody hell are Fomorians?”
“Those creatures, you knobhead,” I said to him before looking back at Amy. “Mum and Dad might still be alive; I didn’t see their bodies on the street so they must still be alive. I know it!”
Amy placed a reassuring hand on my cheek. “It’s okay, Steve. I believe you. It’s good that you’re with me now so that we can go find them.”
I nodded. At least my sister was alive. This was the best feeling I’d had all day. “What happened to you? We were waiting for you back at the house all morning.”
Amy looked away and stared at Mark. “I ended up spending the whole night over at Mark’s place,” she said. “When we woke up it was almost midday and those things you mentioned attacked that part of the neighborhood too just as I was in the toilet.”
I giggled a little. “You were in the loo when it happened?”
Amy sighed. “I shouldn’t have told you that part but I’m sure you would have kept asking for more details anyway. Mark and I made a run for it and we were able to hide while those things just kept taking people and then killed them. It was horrible.”
I looked at Mark. “So what made you go here?”
Mark looked down at the twilit grass. “I had one of my stashes in the park and so I thought if I could hide those things over here then why not us.”
I nodded. “One of your drug stashes? Right.”
Mark’s face got flushed. “Oy, watch your mouth, you little—”
Amy waved him off. “It’s okay, Mark. He gets a little annoying sometimes.”
Mark looked away as he crossed his arms. “Now what do we do? It’s getting colder by the minute.”
I squeezed Amy’s arm very gently. “Have any of you seen Ray? The last time we spoke on the mobile he said he was nearby.”
Mark shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Steve. We haven’t seen him,” Amy said softly.
I looked up into the gloomy night. “I hope he’s okay. He’s my best mate.”
“You’re both quit
e resourceful,” Amy said. “If you survived then I’m sure he’s probably around somewhere.”
“Look, there are some people over there!” Mark exclaimed, pointing at the opposite end of the park.
As the three of us stared at the misty copse of trees less than a hundred yards away, we made out what seemed to be a small crowd of people that were silently standing there. Since we figured it must be either more survivors or a rescue party we started walking towards them as Mark shouted aloud to get their attention.
While getting closer however, I began to sense something was wrong as their bodies seemed to be too pale, as if they were part of the mist that surrounded them. I quickly ran up to Mark, who was ahead of us, and grabbed his elbow to stop him from going any closer. He turned and looked at me as if I was mental or something.
“I don’t think they’re human,” I said softly to him just as Amy walked up and stood beside us.
When we looked at the group of people again, they finally turned to face us. Their bodies seemed to be part of the fog swirling back and forth around them. These people also seemed to be dressed in strange, ancient attire that was clearly not from our century and their eyes were glowing like embers in the night.
Amy shrieked while Mark let out a curse.
I quickly turned around and grabbed both of them by the arm and started moving away from the ghostly horde. “Run!”
The three of us ran for our lives towards the other side of the park without looking back. Mark was the fastest sprinter but he took Amy by her hand and got her to run faster while I was right behind them. The only time we turned around was when we got to the outskirts of the park and stopped to catch our breath.
Amy’s long auburn hair was blowing in the wind as she placed her hands over her knees as she gulped lungfuls of air. “Oh my God, what were those people?”
Mark kept staring back from where we had come. “B-blimey. T-they looked like ghosts. Like spirits and such. Bloody hell.”
I was still breathing rapidly myself. “I don’t think we can stay here.”
Mark kept looking around, expecting trouble to come in from all sides. “Where do we bloody go then?”
I took out my mobile phone and searched the inbox. “Hang on, give me a minute.”
“What are you searching for there, Steve? We already tried our phones earlier and we didn’t get any signal,” Amy said.
“Be quiet for a minute,” I said as I looked for Ray’s text from yesterday. “Aha, there it is!”
Amy stood closer to me while Mark remained on the lookout for us. “What’s that?” she said.
I started checking the address with the offline map on my phone. “The house of a certain Amicus Tarr, an exiled wizard who just happens to live not far from here,” I said smugly. “His house is just over in Highgate.”
Mark snorted. “A wizard? What do you think this is, a bloody fantasy movie?”
“Have you got a better idea then?”
“Well, no,” he said softly.
“Alright then!” I said to him before looking at Amy. “Ray talked about him just a few days back. He put up a website that predicted everything so I think he’s our best chance to get to safety.”
“I don’t know, it all sounds dodgy,” Amy said. “Are you sure about this, Steve?”
I sighed. “If you’ve a better idea then I’d sure like to bloody well hear it.”
Neither of them answered.
“Right then, follow me,” I said to them as I started to walk towards the avenue over to my left.
Chapter 5
Following my instructions, all three of us kept our heads low as we ran from one piece of cover to the next as we slowly made our way across the city. Highgate was just to the south of us as we skirted along Falloden Way, taking care to stay close to the trees and the fenced shrubs that lined the pavement. The going was slow and we had to skirt around Waterlow Park because we noticed another group of ghostly figures like those we encountered previously that seemed to float around the trees as if they were doing some sort of strange, supernatural dance.
Although it took us nearly two hours because of the constant issue of hiding behind cover after each short dash we eventually made it to the edge of Highgate Cemetery. As I checked my mobile phone for the exact location once more I soon realized that the house was just over in the next street.
“We’re almost there,” I said to the two of them as we crouched behind a pair of wheelie bins just a few hundred meters from the cemetery entrance. The massive park of Hampstead Heath stood just to the other side of us.
“You better be bloody sure about this, mate,” Mark whispered to me. “If you muck this up I’m going to kill you.”
I grinned at him. “You’ll have to get through my sister first.”
After another half an hour of weaving, sprinting and taking cover, we at last made it to the front of an old mansion. The rusty iron gate was open and we walked up and faced the massive oak doors on its facade. The ancient stone walls looked like they were crumbling and an overgrowth of withered vines had surrounded the edifice. The building must have been at least a hundred years old.
“I don’t like this,” Amy whispered as the three of us just stood there side by side. “Let’s just leave.”
“There’s nowhere else to go,” I said softly.
Mark sighed. “Alright, how do we get in then?”
I pointed to the old rusted door knocker that had a stylized skull carved on its base. “Just go ahead and use that.”
Mark took a step back. “I’m not touching it, it looks cursed.”
“Oh for God’s sake,” I said as I took hold of the rust-colored metal ring and swung it onto the flat base of the knocker. A loud thump reverberated through the tense silence but there was no answer. I tried it again. A few minutes later, still no answer.
“My guess is that there’s nobody home,” Mark said.
I took out my torch and shone it around the building. “Let’s look around, maybe there’s a rear entrance or something.”
“Why not try breaking through the windows,” Mark said.
Amy walked over to one of the large windows at the front. “There are bars on it and it looks like it’s been boarded up.”
“Let me take a look,” Mark said as he walked over beside her and examined the window.
I moved over to where they were. “Well?”
“Just as I thought,” Mark said as he took out a screwdriver from beneath his jacket. “It’s an old shuttered window. There’s a gap in between the wooden shutters that I can push this through.” With that he started to shim the small slit until the screwdriver caught the latch and then he just lifted it up.
With a slight creak, the shutters flew open and all that separated us from the inside was the old glass in the window panes. Mark took out a small metal paperclip from his pocket and unbent it until it was almost straight. Then he used the screwdriver as a base to bend the tip of the paperclip into an L-shaped angle. Once he had the tool finished he placed it into the lock on the window and began twisting it ever so slightly until he heard a click. Mark smiled as he placed the bits back in his jacket pockets then used both hands to pull the window panes outward. Although the window still had bars on it I was small enough to squeeze through them without any difficulty.
I was quite impressed. “Which dodgy school did you learn that from?”
Mark turned back to me. Even though it was mostly dark I could see him wink at me. “From the school of hard knocks. Now shut it and just get in there so you can open the front door from the inside and let us in, yeah?”
I quickly shifted my body sideways and pulled myself through in between the bars. My nose nearly got smashed but I was able to get inside with very little difficulty. The ground level was dark and the whole place looked deserted but as I made my way to the front door I noticed that there was a light coming from the grand hall beside the staircase. I quickly moved over to the foyer and unlocked the front door and pushed o
n it. The door opened with a slight creak and Mark and Amy slipped inside before I closed it once more.
Amy pointed at the light coming from the passage and said in a low whisper, “Is there someone in there?”
Mark tapped me on the shoulder. “Now what do we do?”
I stood up straight and started walking into the corridor leading to the hall. “We make an entrance, of course.”
As I made my way into the passage, Mark and Amy followed close behind. I had thought about taking out my knife to keep it ready but decided against it; I was the intruder in someone else’s house and the last thing I wanted was to get into a confrontation.
The hallway doors were made of solid brown wood and were as thick as the entrance doors. They were partly open and I could see a pale sliver of yellowish light shining through. I placed my hand on the door and pushed it open. It gave way with a slight creaking noise and I stepped inside. The great hall had a massively tall ceiling that stretched up to the second story. All along the walls were lacquered wooden shelves filled with old leathery hardbound books. Several sheaves of parchments were wedged in between these old tomes as if the owner had run out of space to store them. Antique lamps hung overhead and provided pale illumination across the room.
Standing in the center of the room was an old man. He was wearing a black gown and he was bent over an old wooden table with intricate carvings on its sides. As I looked on he seemed to be examining a black disk of some sort.
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