"Out of bed Caleb, last day of school." His mum called from downstairs.
"Urgh." Caleb Hagen grunted face down in the pillow, dribbling saliva. He peeled his cheek off the pillow and somehow found the will to drag himself out of bed.
With eyes half-closed, he staggered into the bathroom. He filled the sink and splashed the water over his face, recoiling at the cold.
"Oi good boy, I said get a move on!" Shouted his Mother again.
"ALRIGHT I HEARD YOU FIRST TIME." He yelled back.
He scratched his behind and went back into the bedroom. He dragged on his uniform and stared at the scruffy awkward 15 year old teenager with blond streaked brown hair. He left his shirt untucked and set off down the stairs.
His mother had left him a bowl out, even though there was almost nothing to fill it with. He searched the cupboards but found nothing.
"Mam, where's my cereal gone?" Caleb shouted.
"It was out of date, so I threw it out." The reply came.
"Aww."
He searched some more until he found some bread and made toast.
In the living room, his mother was sitting under a blanket on the sofa watching the news while his older sister, Charlotte, sat at the table. She was nibbling some fruit and doing her homework.
"What took so long?" Charlotte sneered.
"Why do you care?" Caleb muttered. He sat down and gnawed his toast.
"You're going to make us late, I have a Literature assessment today and if I stuff it up because of you, you're dead." She snarled.
"Sorry miss perfect, I'll go a little faster next time."
"Just because you're an underachiever, does not mean everyone has to be."
Suddenly their mother butts in.
"CHARLOTTE, DO NOT SPEAK TO YOUR BROTHER LIKE THAT."
"Sorry mam, but I'm just stating the obvious." Charlotte said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
But the damage was done. Caleb had always been put down by Charlotte. And recently he'd worked out the reason why. He put it down to her being embarrassed that she came from a family with not much money and without a father. Her friends all came from rich families. Caleb bet that if Charlotte treated him like her inferior then maybe she could prove herself equal to her peers.
Caleb finished his breakfast and disappeared back upstairs to get ready for one more tiring day before the holiday. One swift tooth clean later and he was sitting on his bed watching videos on his phone.
Moments later, his mother called from the bottom step.
"Caleb, Charlotte the bus is here."
"Coming." The children chorused.
Caleb pushed past his sister at the top of the stairs, resulting in a spray of foul language. He kissed his mum on the way out and got on the bus sat outside his house. He found a seat and flopped down. His sister got on and shot him a dirty look as she sat next to her girlfriends. The bus pulled away and Caleb waved goodbye to his mother. But as he did so he noticed something standing next to her. A blurred mass of yellow with what looked like red glowing eyes. It was a man. It was there for one second then there was a flash and it was gone.