~~Natasha~~

I gazed with dismay at my algebra homework, the figures blurring before my eyes as they glazed over with boredom. I tapped my pencil impatiently against the wooden desk, before dropping it with a clatter, since all it seemed to accomplish was to irritate me further. I pushed my chair back from the desk and twisted round to glance at the digital clock that sat on my bedside table. It read: 5:30PM.

I sighed heavily. By now everyone would be meeting up at Carmen's house for her birthday sleepover. She'd been planning it for weeks in advance and it seemed to be the only thing she ever talked about, in school and out, which never failed to get on everyone's nerves, especially mine.

Despite this, everyone seemed to be fairly excited about it. And now the day had finally arrived and instead of being at Carmen's house with my friends I was stuck in my own home with this stupid homework. I scowled at the sheet of paper on my desk, as if it was at fault for everything. Truthfully though, I had no one to blame but myself.

I had received the homework a week ago, giving me plenty of time to do it. But since I'm 'irresponsible' and 'incompetent' (my Mom's words, not mine) and kept putting it off I didn't deserve to go to Carmen's sleepover.

In all fairness, if I had just done the damn homework, instead of losing my cool and screaming back at my Mom, she probably would've let me go...eventually. But no, because I couldn't keep my big mouth shut, I was stuck here on my own.

I sighed heavily and stood up abruptly, crossing my room to the window and pulling back the curtains to see outside. Darkness had started to fall and a few snowflakes were drifting down from the heavy sky, threatening to turn into a blizzard. I scowled at the small specks of white cascading down outside my window. I hated the cold weather, especially when it snowed...

My cell phone rang suddenly, the noise impossibly loud in the quiet room; causing me to nearly jump out of my skin. I wandered over to the desk where I had left my phone and picked it up. The small screen displayed a picture of a grinning Carmen. I clenched my jaw in irritation before answering the call.

"I've already told you Carmen!" I hissed, "I'm grounded! I'm not allowed to go to your house anymore! So stop asking!"

There was silence on the other line, which only annoyed me further. I was about to disconnect the call, when I heard something that stopped me.

Carmen was...crying.

"A-Are you alright?" I asked, "Carmen? What's wrong?"

"...N-Nat...Something's happened..." she stammered, her voice barely audible.

"What do you mean?"

"I-I don't know how to explain it to you...b-but my family have just...t-they've va-"

Her voice cut off abruptly. I felt a cold shiver go up my spine.

"Carmen?" I whispered. I pressed the phone to my ear, trying desperately to hear something, anything that would reassure me Carmen was ok. I opened my mouth to try and say something but my mouth was impossibly dry. I swallowed and tried again.

"C-Carmen?" I said, my voice rising with hysteria.

There was no reply.

Just silence.

Then, without warning there was an ear-splitting scream from the other line. I jumped about a foot in the air, the mobile slipping from my grasp and dropping with a loud clatter to the floor. I bent down and picked it back up with clumsy, trembling fingers.

"Carmen!" I cried. I got no answer. The only thing I could hear now was the dialling tone.

Something had happened to my friend. Something awful.

And I intended to find out what.

I crammed my mobile into my pocket and raced out of my room, thundering down the stairs two at a time. I plucked my shoes up off the floor, trying to shove them on my feet, which was proving more difficult than I had anticipated since I was shaking uncontrollably.

"Natasha!"

I jumped with fright, dropping the shoe I had been holding and spun round to see my Mom standing in the door way of the living room; her arms folded, a stern expression fixed on her face.

"And just where do you think you're going?" she demanded. I opened my mouth trying to pull together an explanation but the words stuck in my throat.

"I...I-I was..." my voice trailed off. Her eyes narrowed.

"In case you've forgotten Natasha, you're grounded. Remember? That means no leaving the house; not even for friend's birthdays."

"S-Something's happened to Carmen. S-She just called me and-"

"She called you?" my Mom repeated, disbelieving. "Didn't I take your cell phone?"

"I...uhh..." I wasn't about to admit to rooting through her room when she had left the house to take my mobile back...It wasn't going to help my cause. In fact, I was wasting time standing here doing nothing. I had to get to Carmen; even if it was just to make sure she was ok. I managed to cram my foot into my other shoe and headed for the front door.

My Mom's voice developed a hard edge as she finally lost her patience with me. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I'm just going to Carmen's. I promise I'll be back in five." I yanked the door open, letting a blast of icy air into the house. I heard her rapid footsteps behind me.

"Natasha, you dare leave this house and I swear I'll-"

That was the last I heard from her. I bolted out of the door, down the steps and navigated round the cars parked in the driveway. I glanced over my shoulder only once to see the silhouette of my Mom standing in the doorway, still calling my name. I could deal with her yelling at me later, right now there were more important things to worry about. I had to get to Carmen's house; luckily it was only a block or two away from my own home.

I raced down the street, the sound of my feet slamming against the pavement the only noise. It was deadly quiet. Too quiet for my own liking. As I ran, the snowflakes whirled around me, slowing my progress slightly. I darted round the corner, coming into Carmen's street and skidding to a halt. I could see her house in the centre of the street.

But...something wasn't right.

The building was shrouded in darkness. No light emitted from any of the windows. In fact, it was the same with every single house on the street. There were no lights in any of the windows. It was an eerie sight. The only light came from the streetlamps, set at intervals along the pavements on either side.

I paused, puzzled, at the end of the street, surveying the scene around me; my gaze fixed mainly on my friend's house. Carmen was supposed to be having her sleepover. She should have been home right now. Why were all her lights off? Unless...this was all some sort of prank? Some sick practical joke her and the girls had pulled off, just to scare me senseless?

No...my friends could be idiots sometimes, but I didn't think they would have gone that far just to get some cheap laughs. They were my friends...they wouldn't do something like that...would they?

It was while these thoughts crossed my mind that it happened.

The moment everything started going wrong.

A flicker of movement caught my eye and my gaze snapped to the pair of lampposts at the very end of the street. They flickered simultaneously, before going out completely in the very same instant. I squinted, feeling even more perplexed. Suddenly the next pair of lampposts flickered out.

Then the ones next to those.

And the ones next to those.

If I had had any doubts that something was horribly wrong, they vanished in that second. I felt the threat of a panic attack building rapidly as yet another pair of lampposts flickered out. I wanted desperately to run, but my feet felt frozen to the pavement. Where the lampposts had flickered out, everything else around it, the houses, the surrounding street had vanished into blackness, as if it were never there.

It was terrifying.

Another pair of lampposts flickered out, their lights extinguished, causing more of the street to fade into the darkness. There was only two sets of lampposts between me and the wave of blackness. My body felt completely numb, but somehow, I managed to find my feet.

I spun around and ran like hell, completely gripped by panic. I didn't dare glance over my shoulder, not even for a second; I was too afraid by what I might see. Heart pounding, lungs burning, I raced into my own street; my gaze falling upon my own house. As it was in Carmen's block, every single building was dark. The only light I could see was spilling out of my front door which was still hanging open, the doorway empty, my Mom gone. Ahead of me, further down the street, yet more lampposts were flickering out, enveloped by the darkness.
I sped towards the open door, desperately trying to outrun whatever thing was after me. I reached the end of my driveway as the lamppost above my head winked out. I was only fifteen feet away from my front door.

Ten feet.

Five.

I raced up the stairs and paused momentarily at the doorway; daring to risk a glance over my shoulder. There was only blackness behind me. It was as if my entire street had been completely wiped from existence. I tore my gaze away from the dark and turned to the only source of light that was coming from the my door which was still ajar. Just as I reached the doorway the light from inside flickered out.
Caught off guard, I stumbled on the threshold of my house, toppling to the ground. I put out my hands to catch myself, waiting for the moment when I would collide with the floor.

But it never came.

I just continued to fall.

I opened my mouth to scream but my voice had completely deserted me. I couldn't make a sound and even if I could there would have been no way I could've heard it over the rush of blood in my ears, that made me deaf to any other noise. Just as it felt like my sanity was slipping away from me, I was virtually blinded by a sudden flash of light and I was caught unawares as I suddenly slammed hard into the ground. I opened my eyes to see the floor inches in front of my nose.

I sat up cautiously, shaking uncontrollably and gazed with astonishment at my surroundings.

Wherever I was...it certainly wasn't home...

~~Carmen~~

I yanked back the curtain, peering out of my bedroom window which overlooked the street outside of the front of my house. Even though it was technically still pretty early, it was already pitch black outside; the street illuminated by the streetlamps shining overhead. There was still no sign that any of my friends were arriving. Maybe I was being a bit overdramatic...after all, it was only a few minutes past the agreed time...but still...they should've been here by now!

I turned away from the window, leaving a small chink in the curtains and crossed my room to the door, turning the corner and stomping down the stairs. I paused in the hallway, hearing the television in the living room to my left blaring away.

I heard the muffled roar of a car engine coming from outside. My heart soared. Maybe one of my friends was arriving! I raced to the front door and yanked it open, just in time to see a jeep rolling past my house, and out of sight.

Maybe not then...

I felt disappointment hit me then and I slammed the door shut, with more force than was strictly necessary. Going back into the hall, I turned to the living room door and shoved it open.

"Hey Mom? D'you know if-" I started to say, but then stopped. The room was devoid of any people. The television was still on, the programme on some shopping network; blaring away at seemingly full volume. There was a gossip magazine lying open on the sofa and one of my Dad's beer cans had fallen to the floor, spilling its contents.

But there was no sign of either of them.

It was as if they had both just suddenly vanished off the face of the earth.

Unsettled by this thought, I backed out of the living room and across the hallway to the kitchen. Neither of them were in there either. I reluctantly made my way to the back door and pulled it open gazing out into the darkness of my garden.

"Mom?" I called out nervously, "Dad?"

The sound of my echo was the only reply I could hear. It was eerie, to say in the least. I slammed the back door shut and hurried across to the hallway, pausing at the open living room door to peer inside; hoping against hope that my parents had someone magically re-appeared.

They hadn't.

Panic was starting to grip me as I suddenly remembered my younger sister, Abigail. She was upstairs in her bed, sleeping supposedly.

'If Mom and Dad have suddenly just...then does that mean...Abigail has...'

The second the thought crossed my mind I felt overcome by terror.

"Abigail!" I cried, my voice shrill. I charged upstairs and across the hall to my sister's room, barging in and snapping on the light. The room was just the same as it was when I had last seen it. The floor was littered all over by her various dolls, her childish scribbles taped to the walls.

But...her bed was empty.

I threw back the covers, even going as far as to check under the bed and in her wardrobe before finally realising it was worthless. My little sister was nowhere to be found. I could feel my breath coming out in ragged gasps as I backed out of the room. I turned and headed across the hallway, trying desperately to fight down the panic that was building up inside me.

I shoved the door to my room open, my gaze darting round the room and coming to a rest on my cell phone. I stared at it for a second before snatching it up, feeling the weight of it in my hand. I needed to hear someone else's voice; the silence was ringing in my ears and it terrified me. I punched in the first number I could think of and pressed it to my ear. The distinct ringing of the phone was abruptly interrupted by a click and then a irritated voice flooded my ears.

"I've already told you Carmen!" Natasha's voice hissed, ""I'm grounded! I'm not allowed to go to your house anymore! So stop asking!"

I opened my mouth to reply but I couldn't seem to find any words. I didn't even realise that I was crying until I felt the hot tears streaming down my cheeks and a sob tore its way out of my mouth.

"A-Are you alright?" Natasha's voice had lost its angry edge, "Carmen? What's wrong?"

I tried extremely hard to swallow the lump that had appeared in my throat and to find my voice.

"...N-Nat..." I stammered in a hushed voice, "S-Something's happened..." My voice was barely audible, even to me.

"What do you mean?" she questioned.

"I-I don't know how to explain it to you..." I said, "B-But my family...they've just...just...t-they've va-"

My voice was cut off in that single moment when there was a soft click and the light in my room suddenly snapped off, plunging me into darkness. I couldn't have uttered a single word if my life depended on it.

"Carmen?" I faintly heard Natasha's voice through the ringing in my ears. My hand was trembling so much it cause the cell phone to slip from my fingers and clatter to the floor. There was only so much I could take before being pushed over the edge.

I was so consumed by terror, I could no longer contain it and I opened my mouth and screamed at the top of my lungs. I was hit with the sudden urge to get out. I had to escape from this place. It wasn't my home. Not anymore. A home were supposed to be a safe place. A sanctuary. Not this one.

There was something so horribly wrong with this place. Something I couldn't explain rationally. I just knew I had to get out. Right now!

I spun and ran, bolting out of my bedroom and down the stairs, nearly losing my footing on more than one occasion in my haste to escape. I slid on the polished wooden floor and slammed into the ground, smacking my head pretty hard.

Fighting the sudden wave of pain I struggled back to my feet and lunged at the door, grabbing the handle and tugging at it viciously.

But...it wouldn't open!

I pulled at it desperately, but the handle was firmly stuck. Another sob tore its way out of my lungs as I quickly became hysterically, twisting my wrist painfully in my efforts to get the door open.

I could feel another scream building up in my lungs but before I could let it out something even worse happened. One second I was standing pressed up against the door, still tugging at the handle, hot tears running freely down my face.

The next moment...the earth seemed to open up and swallow me whole.

It was as if the solid floor under my feet had just vanished in an instant, causing me to plummet down into oblivion. I tried to keep a hold on the door handle but it slipped out of my grasp as I fell. The scream that I had been trying to hold in suddenly erupted from my mouth, ringing loudly in my ears. I struggled to assemble my panicked thoughts while they whirled round my head in incomprehensible fragments; as I continued to plunge into the impenetrable darkness.

My fall came to an abrupt halt, however when my vision was flooded with bright light. I screwed my eyes shut against the glare as my feet suddenly slammed into something hard, the impact sending waves of pain up my legs and causing me to lose my balance. I toppled to the ground.

My head smacked against wooden floorboards, my ears ringing loudly. I glanced up, disoriented, my sight blurry and tried to take in my surroundings. I had a brief hope that maybe when I had fallen and hit my head that I had knocked myself out. That nothing out of the ordinary had happened...that I was still safe at home.

But as my head cleared and my surroundings became more comprehensible, that hope evaporated as quickly as it had appeared...

~~Diane~~

I stood up as the doorbell went for the third time, ringing repeatedly as the person outside seemingly lost patience. Sighing, I thundered downstairs, heading for the door as the bell continued to ring insistently.

"Don't worry Mom, I'll get it." I called, my words laced with sarcasm. I glanced in the direction of the open living room door where the television was blaring away, before crossing the hall to yank open the front door.

"Hey, Diane!" my friend Riley shrieked loudly in my face, bursting through the door before I could even get it properly open.

"Yeah, hi Riley." I replied, "I just need to go upstairs and get my things. D'you think you'd be able to wait an extra five seconds?"

Riley shook her head vigorously and I sighed before turning my back and bounding back up the stairs and into the room I shared with my younger brother. His crap was, as usual, littered all over the place. If I had had the time I would've probably tidied the place up, but Riley would be bouncing off the walls by now, even though I'd only been gone about a minute.

I grabbed my bag that was crammed full of my things for the sleepover, swinging it over my shoulder and heading back downstairs. I ignored Riley, who was babbling on excitedly about the sleepover behind me and, as I reached the front door, turned and called out:

"Bye Mom! See you tomorrow!" before slamming the door shut behind me. The cold air stung at my face as soon as we were outside, and I shivered, regretting not bringing my coat. A car horn, blaring repeatedly, brought me out of my thoughts, and I glanced up ahead to see a car parked in the middle of the road, headlights piercing the dark.

"C'mon Diane!" Riley said, tugging my hand to hurry me along. We both hurried to the car as snowflakes suddenly started to cascade down from the thunderous sky. I climbed into the vehicle, dropping my bags on to the floor as Riley clambered in on the other side. We both shut our doors as the car roared to life and shot forward down the road.

"Um...thanks for giving me a ride, Dave." I said to the driver, Riley's Dad.

"Diane, don't feel you have to speak to the chauffer." Riley told me, grinning cheekily. Her Dad scowled, turning the wheel in his hands as we swung around the corner.

"You keep speaking to me like that, and you can get out and walk." He snapped, without taking his eyes of the road.

"You wouldn't do that to me." Riley replied, confident.

"And why not?"

"Cause you love me."

He snorted loudly as the car grinded to a halt at a pair of traffic lights. I turned to gaze out of the window at the streets outside. The snow had started to fall harder, threatening to turn into a blizzard. There were very few people wandering about outside at this time, especially since it was so icy cold. I was grateful for being inside the car, where the central heating was turned up full. The traffic lights changed to green and the vehicle propelled forward, spinning round a corner into a quiet suburban street, which I could vaguely recognize as Carmen's neighbourhood.

We drove on, passing a few blocks of almost identical houses before we came into Carmen's street. I snapped out of my daze as I suddenly saw her house coming up on the left hand side. The door was flung open and I saw my friend in the doorway, silhouetted against the light from behind her.

Typical Carmen...Impatient, as always...

I reached to undo my seatbelt, but froze when the car kept on driving, passing Carmen's house and continuing on down the street.

"Dad! You've missed our stop!" Riley protested, "What're you-"

Her voice faded away and I whirled round to look at her, seeing a horrified expression on her face. I followed her gaze and saw what had got her so afraid.

The front seat of the car was empty.

My eyes widened. I was seeing things. I had to be. This wasn't happening. Was not possible. No one...No one, could just simply vanish into thin air. Wasn't even imaginable.
And yet...the seat remained empty.

And the car continued to roll forward, seemingly undeterred by the fact that there was no one driving it. I wasn't entirely sure which one of us started screaming first. All I could remember at that second was being so fearful, thinking that at any second we were going to collide with another vehicle and I was certainly not looking forward to the moment of impact.

At any rate, we did slam into another car. But not a moving one.

There was a jarring thud that almost threw both Riley and I out of our seats; a loud screech of metal on metal as we came to a sudden stop. I stayed completely still, feeling cold all over, gasping for air.

"Dad? Dad! W-Where are you? What's going on?" Riley cried out, undoing her seatbelt and leaning over into the front part of the car, her eyes desperately scanning over every inch of the interior, despite the fact that it was painfully obvious he was gone.

"Diane! What's happening?" she said hysterically, her voice shrill as she turned to me. Looking to me for answers. Like I was supposed to know. I was as clueless as she was. I couldn't give her any better answer than a slight shake of my head.

I felt a sudden intense need for air, the car was too claustrophobic, even the icy air from outside would do. I reached over, took off my seatbelt and opened the car door, letting the chill in. I breathed deeply, trying to get my heart rate to return to normal, to clear my head.

But something wasn't right.

It was dark outside. Really dark. Too dark. Far too dark for a suburban street that was supposed to be dotted with lampposts and lights from the surrounding houses. I couldn't see anything in the void of blackness that seemingly surrounded the car. It was silent too. There were no voices, no people coming to help us, like I had been expecting. It seemed strange to me; we had just been in a car crash after all, even if it was a pretty minor one.

I leaned out as far as I dared, clinging on to the seat just in case. I couldn't even see the tarmac a few feet below me, and the silence was getting unbearable. I heard Riley clambering over the seats behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see her shoving the car door open, still calling hysterically for her Dad. She swung her legs out of the vehicle and jumped out.

I felt intensely uneasy about this. Something seemed just so wrong...and I couldn't understand why. One thing was for sure. There was no way in hell I was getting out of the car. I didn't want to risk it.

Riley on the other hand...

I crawled over the seats to her side, leaning cautiously out, the icy air stinging my face. I couldn't see my friend anywhere.

"Riley?" I called nervously, my voice trembling with fright. For a few seconds, the heavy silence was the only reply I received. Then there was a thud from the front of the car. I turned and glanced at the space between the front seats to see Riley standing with a hand on the bonnet of the car, her back to me as she gazed out at the darkness in front of her. I felt a pang of sympathy for how vulnerable she looked out there.

She whirled round to face me, narrowing her eyes in the glare of the headlights of the car. She wrapped her arms around herself as she was shivering from the cold.

"W-What's going on, Diane?" she asked anxiously. Her eyes were glittering with unshed tears and I could tell she was barely able to hold them back.

I wanted badly to say something, anything, to comfort her, but before I could think of anything, Riley vanished.

It was so fast. I blinked and I missed it. She had disappeared without the slightest noise, just like her Dad minutes earlier.

There one second.

Gone the next.

I stared, disbelieving, at the place where she had been standing moments before, feeling sick with terror. This wasn't possible. People didn't just disappear with no explanation like this.

There was a loud click as the headlights of the car suddenly flickered out, leaving the vehicle completely surrounded by darkness. The only lights I had now were the ones embedded in the ceiling, illuminating the interior. I felt my breathing coming out in gasps as I was gripped by panic.
It was coming for me.

Whatever it was that had happened, whatever got Riley and her Dad...it was going to get me now.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

I felt horribly exposed sitting in the back seat of the car, both doors on either side of me wide open. I leaned over and slammed both shut as fast as I could, my hands shaking so badly it was hard to get a hold of the handles.

Just as I had done that, there was a slight buzzing sound above my head. I glanced up at the interior lights overhead as they flickered and were suddenly extinguished. I reached up with clumsy, trembling fingers and fumbled for the switch, turning it on and off, praying for the light to come back on.

It didn't.

I was still sitting there, struggling to hold back my hysteria, when the world around me disintegrated. It happened almost to quickly for me to notice. The seat underneath me suddenly disappeared and there was a horrible few seconds that I spent plummeting through utter darkness. But before I could even register what was going on, before I could get enough breath back to scream, the darkness was obliterated by a sudden explosion of bright light. I screwed my eyes shut against the light as I suddenly slammed hard into the ground. I lay there, gasping for air, breathing in the strong scent of earth, trying to get my bearings.

I glanced up, when my head had finally stopped spinning to look at my surroundings, my eyes widening in disbelief at what I saw.

Of one thing I was absolutely certain...normal had just crashed and burned...

~~Melissa~~

I stole a hurried glance around my bedroom as I plucked my rucksack up off the floor. Satisfied that I didn't have anything else to take with me, I spun around and left the room, walking down the hallway and thundering downstairs, dropping my bag to the floor and tugging my coat off the peg attached to the wall. I wound a scarf round my neck and pulled on my coat, before wandering through the living room and into the kitchen, my eyes scanning over the room before coming to a rest on the house keys, which were sitting on the table.

Just as I reached to pick them up, I heard a loud thumping noise as someone hammered on the front door loudly, making me jump. I quickly snatched the keys off the table, cramming them into my pocket, and headed for the door. I tugged it open to see an energetic Julia bouncing up and down on my doorstep, a manic grin on her face.

"Oh, heeeey Mel!" she said brightly.

"Yeah, hi." I replied, not nearly as enthusiastically.

"So...your parents home?"

"No...They're out..."

"Oh, good. We can have us some sexy time!" she said, winking seductively.

I pulled the door shut behind me and locked it.

"I thought we were gonna wait till we got to Carmen's house?" I said, laughing.

"No, I want sex now!" she shouted, jumping on me with almost enough force to knock me over.

"Ok, seriously , stop that. You're starting to creep me out." I said, shoving her off me. Julia sniffed, feigning sadness.

"Why are you so afraid of loving me?" she asked mournfully.

"Shut up!"

I turned on my heel and made my way down my driveway, closely followed by Julia. I held open the gate for her and froze suddenly. I gazed down the street as the feeling of unease grew.

Something just didn't feel right...

The icy air bit at my cheeks and I shivered. The discomfort had only increased now that I was outside...it could just be the cold...but I couldn't shake my instinct that something was wrong here...

Trying to shake of the feeling, I headed into the lane adjacent to my house, Julia trailing behind me.

We wandered down the wide pavement, snow starting to drift down from the sky. The path on either side was lined with fences from the back of the surrounding houses. The way was dimly lit by lampposts set at regular intervals on the left side. I tried to stick to that side, reassured by the presence of the lights.

That is...until they started going out.

I froze, my foot sticking to the ground as the lamps started simultaneously flickering above me. Beside me, Julia came to a standstill, staring overhead, her eyes wide, an expression of confusion on her face.

"Wow...it's like something from a horror movie." She said, quietly. Giving a nervous laugh, she added. "I'm just waiting for when the guy wearing the Scream mask jumps out and tries to murder us..."

"Don't say that!" I hissed.

She gave me a mischievous grin, but before she could say anything else my attention was immediately drawn to another flicker of light as the lamppost at the very end of the street suddenly blinked out.

Then the next one.

And the next one.

"Oh shit." Julia said. Every instinct in my body was screaming at me to get away, to run. But I couldn't have moved even if my had life depended on it.

Another light flickered out.

And another.

"Okay...I'm ready to wake up now." Julia said, without the slightest trace of insincerity.

Yet another lamp was extinguished.

Only one remained now, and it flickered dangerously.

Julia gave a frightened shriek and moved with sudden speed, careering into me and abruptly knocking me out of my daze. I stumbled slightly, before turning and sprinting in the opposite direction, Julia right behind me.

I reached the gate boarding my yard, fumbling with the catch; flinging the gate open, darting to the front door, struggling desperately with the handle, wasting valuable seconds before remembering I had locked it. I dug my hand in my pocket, pulling the key out, trying to insert it in the lock which was proving extremely difficult, considering my hands were shaking uncontrollably.

Julia was hovering behind me; I could hear her shrieking hysterically as she shoved at my back, trying to hurry me up. The porch light that was attached to the wall above our heads, flickered dangerously, a reminder of the oncoming darkness. I flinched and the key slipped through my fingers. I cried out as it fell, bouncing of the front step and disappearing in the darkness.

I had a last desperate attempt to open the door, tugging viciously at the handle, but it wouldn't budge. Behind me, I heard Julia scream suddenly, a sound so awful it made my blood freeze in my veins. I whirled round just as the porch light above me was extinguished, plunging me into utter darkness.

I stood on the front step of my house, surrounded by a wall of impenetrable blackness. I couldn't see anything, let alone my friend. It was as if the world around me had just blinked out of existence.

A second later, the ground underneath me vanished, and I was free-falling, completely blind to my surroundings. All the air was ripped out of my lungs as I plummeted, but before I could get any oxygen back into my lungs to scream, my terrifying ordeal came to a sudden halt.

My sight was abruptly overwhelmed by light; so vividly bright, it blinded me. I screwed up my eyes as I slammed into the floor, the impact knocking me off balance, causing me to topple over.

I hurriedly glanced up, my head still ringing painfully, trying to get to grips with the situation in which I found myself. As my head cleared and I regained focus I quickly came to the realisation that whatever had happened...wherever I was now...it was definitely not home...