"Stood before me was one of the people that came on in the intervals, one of those that sold stuff and wore those blue hoods. Then, it dropped its hood and mask and I saw…"
"What," Steve probed, eager looks of anticipation on his face. "What did it look like?"
"Well, it was looked like Frankenstein's monster, only more stitched up and it had great big, huge, green eyes that glowed. It was freaky. Its mouth was just like a giant gash and I think it had no teeth, but I was so scared that I just pegged it."
"God Darren," Steve teased, shoving me. "You're such a wuss."
I grinned weakly and gathered myself together, just glad to see that Steve had broken from his sulk. Since that night at the show, something, well, just didn't seem quite right about him. He seemed kinda, withdrawn, you know? He was still at school most of the time and he still played with me and Alan and the group, but he didn't quite seem the same. The others didn't quite seem to notice, but I did, Steve being my best friend in the whole world.
"What about you, Steve? What happened after the show?"
"Oh, uh, nothing really. I saw some friend of Mum's and went to go say hello."
I nodded, feeling oddly certain that wasn't what he actually did. We walked down the road together and after Steve got to his house I just carried on alone. It's not that my house was all that far from Steve's. On the contrary it was quite close, but I was walking really slowly, just taking up every little bit of scenery. I wasn't sure why I was doing it – it just felt like the right thing to do.
When I got home, Annie was sat in my room, playing with that little doll that I'd brought her for her last Birthday and Mum was downstairs, probably making tea or something. Dad wasn't home, so I guessed he was still at work. I shooed Annie from my room for a few minutes whilst a got changed. Sitting on my bed, just pulling my t-shirt over my head, I grinned at the pile of horror comics in the corner. It was quite some collection now. I had something of every type of horror story – I had Frankenstein comics, Mummy as in the Egyptian kind, not the Mother kind comics, Zombie comics and , best of all, Vampire comics. They were always my favourites. Something about the stories, maybe it was the blood-lust, the hunger, the sadness or the fear, just drew me to read them. I always felt kinda sorry for them, you know? As if they weren't really as bad as everyone makes them out.
There was a knock at the door and Annie came in, clearing me from my train of thought. I grinned at her, scooped her up and tickled her on the bed. She giggled, her arms flailing uselessly. I let her go after a few seconds and tried to tickle me back, but I picked her up and put her on the floor again, so she could return to playing with her doll.
"Darren, Annie, food's ready," Mum called from downstairs.
I grinned and grabbed Annie and, whilst she was still wriggling, carried her down the stairs, hearing nothing but her giddy laughter all the way down.
"Oh stop it Darren," Mum laughed. "You're going to make her all giddy just before dinner."
"OK, OK," I breathed. "I'll just go and wash my hands."
Quickly, I went into the small toilet room and gave my hands a good wash before dinner. I smelled … chips! Yeah! We'd not had chips in ages. With even more haste than before, I grabbed the towel to dry my hands with. As I pulled it free, the rail it was on came loose of the wall and clattered to the floor. The noise pierced my skull and I heard a voice that I shouldn't be hearing.
"Steve…OK Steve?"
"Is…he… dead?"
"Of course not…chest…"
An image of Steve, strewn across the floor burst violently in my head. There was an enormous spider perched on one side of the room and Annie quivering in the other. I was stood close to Steve, trying to rouse him from his sleep. The still, limpness of his body looked like only one thing to me – death. But, he seemed to be still breathing. What had happened? When did this happen? How could I remember it all?
"Steve…I'm going…help you…"
Suddenly, I heard Mum.
"Darren?"
Pictures of Steve faded from my mind. Instead, I found myself stood in the bathroom, clutching a towel, staring at the towel rack on the floor. Hurriedly, I re-connected it to the wall and scurried off into the dining room.
"Where've you been Darren, you're food is going cold."
I looked down at the plate and realized that I no longer felt particularly hungry. "Sorry Mum," I said quietly, almost whispered. I took my place and began to eat the food, cheering up a little bit, the image of Steve still burned into my mind. I don't ever remember being in a situation like that, yet the scenario seemed all too familiar. Had it happened and I just forgot? No, impossible – I've never seen such an enormous spider before.
But what a spider. It was beautiful. Its long legs, its coloured body and its graceful movement – they all seemed so familiar to me. Madame Octa. Huh? Where had that name come from? But it seemed right. The spider felt like it was called Madame Octa. It's like when you visit some long distant branch of family and don't know anyone's name because you haven't seen these people but when they tell you, it seems familiar, it seems right. I'm not saying I have a member of family who calls herself Madame Octa. The spider isn't a distant member of family either!
"Darren," a voice called, once more snapping me from my day-dream. It was Mum, again. "Come on, love, eat some of your food. You need all of your energy after all that football you play."
I grinned. She got that right. It was my dream to become a footballer. Me and Tommy – yeah that would be so cool. I could be the top striker and he would be the top keeper. He was pretty unstoppable, and I wasn't half bad up front. We were a pretty great combination.
I shovelled a few more chips and a bit of chicken into my mouth, feeling a little better. The image of Steve may still have been haunting me, but it was just a day-dream after all. Nothing particularly important, just a figment of my imagination.
Yet that small, ever-present voice in my head was screaming, insisting, knowing that it was nothing of the sort.
OK, so it's a bit presumptious, but I like the idea. Although this is nothing like the life the current Darren Shan lives, I'm sure, it gave me tonnes of ideas and stuff! Chapter 2 is in progress, should be up sometime soon... :)