Sean opened his eyes and saw nothing. Absolutely nothing. He tried to close an open his eyes again, but the world stayed black. Starting to shiver, the boy brought his hands to his eyes. Had they been cut out? Jack had once told him a story about an evil scarecrow that ripped out people's eyes. But it wasn't Halloween, and mummy had said that the story was not true anyway.
No, his eyes were still there. Sean's breathing got calmer as he felt his eyelids closing under his fingers. It must be the room around him that was dark.
Only now he realized that he was not sure where he was. He should be home, shouldn't he?
Sean closed his eyes tightly – he always did so when he was trying to remember something really difficult. And right now it was very difficult to remember what had happened so far. He had gone to school with Jack, and it had rained in the break. He had given half his sandwich to Michelle Adams because her mother was sick and couldn't always make lunch for her.
At the thought of the sandwich, Sean's stomach started to grumble. How long was he in here? And where was "in there"?
"Hello?" Sean coughed at the word. His throat was very dry, and he was very thirsty. This and the nagging emptiness in his stomach turned his thoughts away from what had happened. More important was, what was going to happen now? Did mummy and daddy already know that he was… somewhere else? Were they already searching for him? They better were, Sean realized as panic rushed over him. They better were here and getting him out very, very soon. He was thirsty, he was hungry, and he had to pee. He wanted to go home now!
"Hello? I'm in here!" Maybe someone he was in school, and someone had locked him in without noticing. Next to the gym there was a small room for mats and baseballs and stuff. He had been in here today. Maybe… slowly Sean started crawling towards what he believed to be the ball lockers. He couldn't cry now, he was too big for that. Jack always called him a crybaby, but he wasn't.
Suddenly a door opened, sending a thin ray of light inside. Sean jumped up. "I'm in here!"
Two figures stepped in sight, casting long shadows. "I hoped so" one of them said coldly.
Sean stumbled back. "Will you bring me home? Please?"
The figure laughed. It stepped closer and now Sean saw it was a very tall woman. She was looking just as evil as she sounded, and Sean quickly looked around to see if he could hide. But this wasn't the gym stuff room. This was… somewhere else.
The strangeness of the place made him turn to the cold woman again, and then to the Person behind it. It was a man, and he was still leaning at the door. "Please can you bring me home? I didn't do anything. Please."