7
Where do the children go
Between the bright nights and darkest day?
Where do the children go?
And who's that deadly piper who leads them away?
(Eric Bazalian/Rob Hyman)
Stan was up and dressed for school before his alarm clock went off the next morning. He hurried downstairs and wolfed down the waffles and bacon his mother had made for breakfast, rushing away from the table as soon as he'd answered her questions about how he was feeling.
Two minutes later he was hurrying up the street, going over in his mind what he was going to say to Kyle.
Kyle, I have to talk to you. Something terrible is going to happen tomorrow unless we prevent it. Your mom and Ike are going to be killed in an accident while she's taking him to school. It happens a mile from here…if we can just stall them so they leave five minutes later everything will be okay.
It seemed like a foolproof plan: Perhaps Kyle could hide his mother's keys and then pretend to 'find' them after enough time had gone by.
He turned the corner onto Kyle's street and stopped. It was another gorgeous winter morning. The sun was just rising in a clear blue sky, and fresh snow glistened in the orange light. Stan took a deep breath, enjoying a moment of peaceful solitude. Life was great again, and it was only going to keep getting better. He was already having an easier time talking to his mom and Shelly, and he knew that after spending more time with his other friends, behaving normally around them would start to get easier as well.
He took a step and staggered as he felt the earth move under his feet. What? We're having an earthquake here? He looked around anxiously, and was struck with terror as suddenly everything began to go horribly wrong.
All the color was slowly draining from the world: The snow, the sky, the houses… everything was fading to a lifeless monochrome gray. It was as though the sun was going out, and soon everything would be in darkness.
He shouted "No!" and started running toward Kyle's house. He didn't get more than a dozen steps before the world went completely dark, all the strength left his legs and he stumbled forward and
000
A/N So, there's a cliffhanger; next chapter is chapter 12 :)
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