I don't own Quatermass.
Please let me know what you think.
The Haunting of Hobb's Lane.
The kids were playing football in the streets in the area of Hobb's lane, kicking the ball gently from one player to the next while they tried to avoid kicking any of the cars or house windows; some of the owners were strict, and the kids knew better than to push their luck where they were concerned.
A car horn went off, making Tom Mullins and the others leap out of the way while the driver impatiently waved at them before driving off.
Nick Collier looked at the darkening sky, and he shivered. "I think we should stop for now. It's getting dark. We don't wanna miss our suppers," he added, but the pointed way he had said to all of the kids out playing seemed to have a magical effect on all of them.
They stopped playing at once.
"Yeah, you're right, it is getting late," one of the boys, Dennis, replied looking around and shivering.
"Same time tomorrow?" Another boy asked.
"Yeah, sounds good."
The kids were about to leave and go home, but they soon quickly heard the sound of the football being kicked gently around so they turned around, and they saw the sight of the new kid in the neighbourhood gently kicking the ball around. The boy was tall, rail-thin but lean with developing muscles with shoulder-length reddish brown hair.
"Angus, it's time to go home," Tom said pointedly, the other kids were worrying.
"Why?" The boy asked with a strong and proud Scottish accent, still kicking the ball.
Dennis sighed. Angus had moved down with his family from Scotland, and they had chosen this corner of London to move into, and they lived quite close to Hobb's Lane, but Dennis had expected the dreams to have happened by now. All the locals around here experienced them at some point, some dreamt them each night, some just dreamt them occasionally, it depended on their susceptibility and they often saw things, ghosts in the corner of the eye or right in front of them. Again it depended on the susceptibility.
Clearly, Angus hadn't experienced anything yet.
"Angus, trust us, you don't want to be out here at night, and be careful when you sleep," Dennis said.
Angus jeered. "Ah, you're not talking about those silly superstitions, are you? Yeah, my parents were told 'bout them, but we haven't heard anything and we haven't seen anything."
"Yet," Lucy, one of the girls who hung out with the boys interrupted. "Trust us, nobody in these parts lives here long enough without experiencing a dream or a vision. You haven't lived here long enough to actually see it, but one day everyone living here sees a vision of something that turns our blood cold or makes you feel like you're trapped in your own head, and you won't know it until the morning if you have come out it or not"
"Vision?" Angus scoffed, gazing at them all in contempt, although he was slightly chilled by the explanation.
"That's enough," Tom could tell that Angus was never going to listen to them, not anymore but at the same time he had seen or he had thought he had seen a look of fear on Angus's face; it looked like the Scots boy was just chilled by the description rather than totally believe them. "He doesn't believe us. But he will, sooner or later."
With that, he turned around and walked away. The other kids watched him go before they followed suit. Soon Angus was on his own and he was left in the darkening street, still kicking the ball until the fog set in and he was nearly hit by a car that only just managed to stop in time before it killed him. Angus waved his fists angrily, shouting a plethora of Scottish threats, words forming colourful and vicious curses before the car disappeared. Finally taking stock of the weather and the darkening sky, he headed for home, deciding not to tell his mother about what almost happened to him.
X
The intelligence buried deep underneath the soil of Hobb's Lane was stretching forth its influence. It had sensed there were people here who didn't have the gene many of the primitives living here possessed, the same gene that had spread throughout the planet's population by now thanks to the aeons of time since its arrival on this world to spread the gene, but it would exert its influence to let it become free.
Soon, it would be free.
At last.
Soon it would be free, and its purpose would be fulfilled.
X
Angus and his family shovelled the food into their mouths as if there was no tomorrow. The family had been quite poor before their move to London from Glasgow. Angus and his brother and sister's father had worked in the Glasgow docks once, and they had lived in a house where their prospects weren't quite high, and then their father managed to open up a shop in this part of London from the sale of the house, and greengrocery was a good business after his wife opened a newspaper which told them how easy it was and how it could work and how they could make it work if they bought a business that was already successful, and they also planned to use the profits to help them buy a few properties to let. At least that was the long-term plan of the couple.
Angus's parents had gotten extra work in shops, so they could gain the necessary experience needed to know how to work with stock and customers, and it worked out over the last few years despite the hell caused by the last war. But some habits didn't die out.
When he went to bed, Angus settled himself until he fell asleep. Under the covers, he could hear the sounds of his siblings as they got to bed, and pretty soon their house was silent.
But it wouldn't be for long.
X
All night Angus and his family were locked in a sudden dream. It was like their minds had fallen down a howling hurricane, and the further they fell down into the depths, the more tortured they became by the images and the maelstrom of sounds that would have split a building apart, and all the time they had to contend with the images of creatures like ghosts, goblins and trolls, hunting them down through dark, shattered streets with the howl of wolves mixing with the howl of the air raid sirens used to warn people of the air raids. Angus and his family were terrified because the 'air raid' wasn't caused by planes, but by dragons and giant vicious birds.
Angus screamed in his own dream as he ran away from the things as they swooped down, roaring and screeching, but he didn't run very far as the goblins came out of the shadows, cackling as they started to tear him to shreds…..
X
…..And then suddenly he was hanging upside down. Disorientated because of the blood rushing to his brain, Angus looked around and he saw his family, hanging upside down just like he was. Suddenly they screamed in fear as black shapeless wraiths appeared out of nowhere and started to cut them all up as they were being cut up, like pigs or lambs in the abattoir.
X
Angus was running, but he wasn't sure what he was running from. He could feel something cold, something like a wraith following him at incredible speed, and although he couldn't see it whenever he looked over his shoulder, he knew it was there. He could also hear a rattling in the air, and a clicking sound that speed up as the creature or the thing behind him came closer and closer.
He knew if it caught him, he would likely die.
X
In the morning as the kids were going to school, they saw the state Angus was in. His hair was messy, his clothes were sloppily put on like he had spent ten minutes donning a shirt, only to find he'd put it on back to front or upside down, the same with the rest of his clothes.
Lucy sighed and turned to her friends. "It looks like he finally believes us."
"I don't remember it being that bad before. I wonder what he saw in his nightmare?" Tom commented.
