Camping Holiday '14

A/N: This is the sequel to Scared Now, though some chapters are prequels. I really hope you enjoy this one as much as the last. To get in the really scary mood, read this after dark…

When Larua got his planned sacrifice failed, he wasn't really the sort to give up. He was over two thousand years old. In fact, he wasn't too sure how old he was. Or even if he had a gender. What he did know was that one little girl still had a connection to him and he wanted to get her. Until he got another person looking at the reels or she died, she would be connected in some way to him.

Anyway, Larua had one part of his life – if you could say deities had lives – that he really didn't like. His children could get unbearably noisy. True, he'd had two millennia of noisy children, but seriously, twentieth and twenty-first century children were the limit.

He looked over in his dimension at the current children. BB was sitting down, reciting this children's programme theme tune. Jacob and Mark were arguing what was better, Beatles or Rolling Stones. Milly was styling Fall's hair and Hank, the oldest child, who'd arrived in 2008, was simply lying on the floor, arms behind head, looking at the ceiling.

Larua had a few tricks up his sleeves. Tricks he hadn't used since…was it seventh or eighth century Italy; he wasn't sure about time.

He turned to the children. "Children!" like soldiers, they all stood for attention. "I'm going back to Elmtree now. They've moved building so I'll probably get something. It activated a power I haven't used for a really long time."

He looked at Hank. "Make sure they're not going to mess anything up while I'm away." As he disappeared, Hank frowned. "Why do I have to babysit them?" he groaned.

At Ashdene Ridge, Rick was sitting on the sofa, watching TV. Floss was by him, talking to Geoff. Aside from Faith, who was upstairs, everyone else was looking with May-Li at a selection of camping holiday suggestions at a travel agency.

He just couldn't get what had happened two months ago out of his head. Larua. The residents had barely escaped with their lives. Elektra had been moved to Harrison Orphanage, well, what it was now. Gina had been so shocked by what had happened, she'd had to leave. She said she was really sad to leave the residents, but she didn't feel too safe. And they'd had to move to another building just before Christmas.

But now Rick just tried hard to get on with his life. He didn't notice Larua was standing right behind him. Well, he wouldn't, Larua was in another dimension. But he could still see Rick. That boy was trouble. And Floss, his little Floss, sitting right by him.

Floss said, "Rick, I feel cold." He turned to her. "The heating's on." "No, my head feels chilly." He groaned, taking her hand. "Come on, let's go upstairs."

As they left, Floss looked behind her. She swore she'd seen something there. No, possibly her imagination.

When Faith was in her room, just listening to music, she laid her head down on the pillow. She was just thinking. She hoped the camping holiday would be good.

She didn't see what was also there. She didn't feel the cold breeze by her. In fact, she was so sleepy she didn't see anything.

What was there was Hank. And he was very bored.

He'd decided to take the kids for a walk. Going through the dimension wasn't too long to get to the house. He'd just tried to see what else there was. And now, he'd found some girl's room.

"Right kids," he said, "wrong room. I think the kitchen's downstairs." Milly argued, "But we cannae eat anything; it's solid." "Evaporation?" Mark suggested. Milly rolled her eyes.

Hank then looked round. "Well, maybe not just yet." He smiled, going over to Faith. He smiled evilly to himself. "Well, there's a hot one if I've ever seen one." Fall made a face. Mark argued, "Hank, she's older than you." "Technically," Hank said back, "I'm nineteen so I'm older than her."

Jacob just said, "Listen Hank, we're all frozen at our age. Seriously, fifty years in the dimension? I've seen a lot and that girl's only good when you're blitzed." Hank frowned back at him. "Jacob, I know in your day I wouldn't be seen dead near the girl, but times change. And anyway, she's smoking hot."

He began walking his fingers down her waist before smiling. "Kitchen?" Milly demanded, making Hank roll his eyes before they began vanishing downstairs.

Faith stirred. She frowned as she let the music drift her to sleep. It was like she'd heard a boy talking. And he'd called her 'hot'. She'd never really had anyone fancy her before but seriously, she was loopy.

***Rick went to Floss' room, where she sat down on her bed. "Rick," she said, "I'm getting weird dreams." He frowned and asked, "What type of dream?" "Well, sometimes I dream that there's a man in a cloak talking to me. I can't really see his face but he's always there. He's got some other kids round him as well."

Rick felt a chill go down his spine, kneeling down to Floss' height. "Can you see them?" "Of course; there's a boy in white pyjamas, a girl in a red dress, another boy in pyjamas, a girl my age in gardening clothes, little coat and gloves, a boy your age in swimming trunks and a boy in a ghost costume. He's sometimes got an axe with him."

Rick licked his lip and then said, "Floss, if you ever get that dream again, tell me." She nodded as he left. He panicked. Was Larua really gone?

In the kitchen, he went to the cookie jar and tried opening it. When he did, he swore he saw a cupboard door open by itself. He paused, watching it, before turning to the cookies. Funny, he swore there was another one in there.

Jacob looked up at Rick, as he held a double chocolate cookie. It was weird, how the boy looked like a chick, wearing bright colours. Then again, fashion had changed a lot since his time. In his room at the orphanage, he'd played with a teddy and a toy fort. Yeah, he had to share them with everyone else, but these days, kids just wanted electric toys. Pity, his toys were so much fun.

He rarely thought about his time alive. All he knew was when he was 'alive' girls had more skirts and brought records. He remembered that when one of the older girls celebrated her fifteenth birthday, just two and a half months before he'd killed them, she'd played a new record. Jacob guessed that song would now be on radios in the nostalgia section. God, he felt old.

Rick picked up a cranberry cookie and walked out, just as everyone was coming back from looking at holiday options. He heard Lilly groaning, "I said the one in Wales was a good option!" "Only because your dad's there." "No, it wasn't! it's because there's a lake to swim!"

May-Li argued, "Lilly, it's too expensive. We're going to the one in Kent. The apartment's nice, it's cheaper than some of the other options and it has a nice view. We're going at half-term so stop moaning."

Rick barely listened as he began walking upstairs. May-Li asked him, "Rick, do you want to know where we're going?" he turned and looked. "Yeah." "It's called Haven Camp in Kent. There are a few rooms at a large house in Kent offering out for the half-term. It's only fifteen minutes from the wood and ten from the sea. Walking, so you actually look at the sea from the window. It's great." She smiled.

Rick nodded. "OK." "Rick?" she asked, as he walked upstairs. "Is something wrong?" Rick paused. He didn't know if she knew about the situation which caused them to leave Elmtree House. "Floss had a nightmare." "Well, it's nice you're concerned but I'm starting to think there's something else." She said.

Rick tapped his fingers on the bannister. "Well, do you know what happened at Bonfire Night?" she nodded. "Mike told me. And it was in the newspapers anyway. Psycho tried killing a bunch of orphans and abducting a six-year-old girl, course it was headlines. Didn't say your names, obviously, but when Mike told me it was you lot I was surprised. You all seem so happy. But don't worry. I'm sure they're not coming back."

Rick told May-Li, "It's just that there was evidence it went back to the sixties." May-Li nodded. "I know. They suspected that two orphanage murders in 1964 and 1999 may be related. They also think that the murders at Harrison Orphanage could be related. But Rick, if anyone wanted to kill orphans, I severely doubt they'd try us again. And in such a short space of time."

Rick seemed to look unsettled, she thought, as he went upstairs. May-Li remembered reading the case last November, and again after Mike told her. She remembered looking at the front page of a national newspaper and seeing a black-and-white photo of a smiley boy and a photo of a little girl grinning at the camera and the headline in huge letters; COULD THESE BE RELATED TO ORPHANAGE KILLER?

In fact, May-Li remembered reading about Juniper Tree when it happened, though her mum thought she was too young to be reading. May-Li had remembered how awful it had been to read about a bunch of orphans being murdered.

But now, she just settled at the computer. Maybe it was something about the whole of them going to the beach but she remembered reading something. Going online, she typed in and found it.

She clicked on a video and it had a reporter at a beach somewhere with police tape. "A horrifying murder has taken place here at the beach by Freathy, Cornwall. Two members of staff and three children from an orphanage nearby went to this beach at 10.45am on Thursday morning. At 9.30pm last night, a porter from a local hotel was walking by the Cliffside and saw a beach umbrella floating in high tide; he called police and coastguard and they found the five bodies. Missing is Hank Worthy, 13," at this point a picture of the boy came up, "and police say foul play is suspected since the victims were found tied up with tape. Back to you in the studio. I'm out."

May-Li wondered. The police said this was suspected but not as strongly as the others since it could have been an opportunist. The fact it was an orphanage could be coincidence. As far as she knew, Hank hadn't been found. Some said he could have drowned and his body washed up while the others stayed, some said the killer had chosen the boy for a sick purpose and murdered the others.

She looked further down the page, where a memorial was. A large stone, erected at a church near their orphanage, and one small one at the entrance to the beach. She read it. In memory of Jeffery Middlestone, Erica Parsons, Reba Herrin, Dakota Redtree and Bambi ToLudez, and there was a small memorial next to it Five Years On: Hank Orchid-Cherries, November 6th 1994 – We will never forget you.

It made her feel funny inside. People were missing these children and they were out there somewhere.

But she didn't know how close they were to her that instant.

A/N: Is it as good as the last one? By the way, here's some vocabulary from the 1960s.

Blitzed – drunk

Chick – Do I need to say?