Chapter 1

I wake dazed and in a cold sweat, another nightmare. I look around the moon lit room then glance at my alarm clock. 3:00 am the green light display reads. I pull the sheets off my bed and clumsily stumble to the door. I open the door and the moon light pours into the once dark hallway. I close my door behind me and start down the once again dark hallway to the kitchen. I open the fridge and the bright light stings my eyes for a second. I get out the milk and pour myself a tall glass. It's cool and refreshing. I walk to the double glass doors. Peering out there's not much happening. It's a humid night and all is still outside. I turn, put my now empty glass in the sink and start towards my room again. I get back into bed and try to sleep but I can't seem to lye still for more than seconds at a time. I sit up. I look around my seemingly empty room. I don't know what I'm looking for, but nothing immediately grabs my attention. I glance at my alarm clock again briefly. Only 3:10 am. I have to be awake in another 3 and a half hours and just lying here awake is not a possibility.

I try to sleep again but still I don't even get close. At this stage I remember my dad sometimes can't sleep and has some sleeping pills in the medicine cabernet. Again I get out of bed and cross the quiet hallway to the bathroom. The mirror is opposite the window. I open the mirror and instantly spot the pills. As I close the door something catches my eye in the mirror, from outside. I spin quickly alarmed, but whatever was once there is gone now. I decide not to take the sleeping pills. The recent events have unsettled me so I go back to bed and begin to read my book via torch light. Then I hear a slight rumbling at the window at the end of the hallway. I tell myself it's probably the possums that have taken up residence in the tree above our house, but the rattling continues, and then ends abruptly. Again I convince myself its nothing and try to focus on my novel. Suddenly the all familiar squeak from my backdoor nearly gives me a heart attack and has me jumping out of my bed. It can't be possums now. I quietly tip toe to my door and turn the door knob slowly as not to make any noise.

I open the door slightly and pear out. I see a dark figure. I can't make out any features. It appears to be a man by the way its standing and its build. I try to look more closely but then he turns and I think he spots me. I shut my door quickly, and stick my desk chair against it. I hear footsteps coming ever closer to my door. I panic. What do I do?
I look around my room again. I run to the window, and open it. Then slowly climb out. I touch down softly and close my window from the outside. It's at this point I hear the door rattling quietly. I'm not game enough to stay and find out whether the intruder gets in. I start to run as fast as I can down the old battered path at the side of my house. I reach the gate and its surrounding over grown grass and weeds.

I open it hurriedly but still making sure not to make a noise. I start to run down my street. I haven't decided where I'm going or how I'm going to get there. After running for about five to ten minutes decide to sit down. I sit with my legs crossed looking up and down the street I'm in. There are three working street lights which seems unusual for a street that appears to be quite long. I notice a bench of sorts under one of the street lights. It looks as though someone already occupies it though. I look harder at it appears to be a man, an older man with longish but thin grey hair. He is holding a news paper over himself to keep warm. Then my focus returns to my current situation. I have to find someone to tell. I walk to the end of the street where a street sign can be read. I know where I am now, and I now know where I'm going. I get my bearings in order and try to figure out how far it is to the local police station. If I'm right it should be four or five blocks. I start with a run but as I grow closer to the police station my energy seems to disappear and I am now doing a slow jog. I spot the lights from some distance away and when I finally enter the newly refurbished police station the officer behind the desk looks somewhat surprised to see me. I want to tell him everything the instant I see him but, have to sit down to try to regain my breath and put my thoughts in order. He calls out to someone else and another two officers appear from a door to his left. One comes over to me and gives me a concerned look for what felt like eternity there is dead silence. Then the officer closest to me breaks the silence by saying,

"What brings you hear, especially at this time in the morning?"

I try to talk but my throat is dry. I clear my throat and swallow. I begin by telling them my name and where I live,

"My name is Nathan. I live on Everd Street."
"But why are you here?"
"There was a man, a strange man in my house. Or at least I think it was a man."

The police officer asks if I'm sure it couldn't have been one of my parents or an older sibling. I simply reply by saying I'm the only child and both my parents were in bed shortly after I was.
No one talks for a little while as if everyone is thinking hard.

Then the phone rings and the man behind the desk answers it. As he listens his attention slowly turns to me, he calls one of the other officers over and whispers something into his ear. Then the officer asks me what street I live on again.
"I live on Everd Street" I reply, wondering what this has to do with anything. The officer signals for the other two to do something. They go into the back room and come out again in their full uniform. I watch them leave. They get into one of the police cars out the front of the station, turn their sirens on and drive hurriedly off into the dark of the night. The remaining officer puts his hand on my shoulder and simply says in what appears to be a deep and apologetic voice,

"Look, someone has called in from your street reporting a fire and smoke."
He pauses briefly and then continues,

"We don't know for sure, which house it was."
From then on everything is eerie, I can't hear him talking or the soft hum of the lights overhead, all I can hear is my mind racing a thousand miles a minute.

I'm sitting in the passenger seat of a police car, driving speedily towards my once quiet street. We arrive at the streets corner and even from here I can see the huge orange and red flames that look as though they are leaping from the roof of my house. We get closer, and then the car comes to an abrupt stop in front of my house. The officer that was driving turns to me and gives me a frown and jumps out of the car to talk to some other people that are standing outside. For a moment I'm paralyzed. My eyes set in a fixed glassy stare at the ever growing smoke growing above my once in tact house. I slowly reach down and unbuckle my seat belt. I open the door and with what feels like an Olympic effort pull myself out of the car to a standing position. I notice the fire fighters, three on the left and two on the right, holding hoses trying to get the raging fire under control. I turn slowly. There are now some police officers near a group of people, mostly neighbours and other people that live in the street. They too seem fixed on the events unfolding before their very eyes. Then it hits me. My parents were still inside when I left. My heart sinks and I begin to look around franticly, searching for any sign of my parents. Up ahead at the other end of the street more sirens draw ever closer. I can make out that it is an ambulance. It stops and the driver gets out and walks over to one of the police officers. The police officer shakes his head in reply to whatever the ambulance officer said. Then the officer looks at me and continues talking. The ambulance officer just nods and puts the first aid kit he was carrying down near his feet and looks at the blaze and giant tower of smoke. I walk to the edge of the street and sit just above the gutter with my head hung down. I can't comprehend what's happening, I keep hoping that at any moment I will wake up and have breakfast like I do every morning, but I don't. I just sit there for what feels like an eternity to me. I look at my hands and my knuckles are a pale white, I didn't even realise I was making a fist. I relax my hands.

"Have you got any relatives you can stay with for the moment?"

I look up and see one of the officers standing over me. I nod slowly and he helps me to my feet. He pulls his phone from his belt.
"What's their number? You can stay with them until things are sorted out here."
I think hard before giving him my grandparent's number.

"9475 6879." I reply.
He walks a couple of meters away and starts talking into the phone. He looks at me briefly then returns his gaze to the blaze. He hangs up and says that he will drop me off. I climb into the police cars passenger seat. The car spins around but my eyes stay fixed on the house through the side mirror as we drive further and further away.

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