LITMIR.BIZ

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his ear and he screamed and turned, fists flailing. He felt his right hand connect solidly with something and adrenaline roared in his veins, then froze.

      On the ground in front of him was a girl, about his own age, holding her nose. A thin stream of blood was running on to her lip, and he saw her tongue flick out and lick it away.

      “Oh God,” Jamie said. “I’m so, so sorry. Are you OK?”

      “You dick,” the girl sniffled from behind her hand. “What did you do that for?”

      “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “Why did you creep up on me?”

      “I was just trying to scare you,” she said, sulkily.

      “Why?”

      “For fun. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

      Something else was rattling around Jamie’s mind, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

      “Well, you did scare me. So, congratulations, I guess.”

      “Thanks,” snorted the girl. She held out her hand. “Help me up?”

      “Oh, sorry, of course,” Jamie replied, and reached down and pulled her to her feet. She brushed herself down, wiped her nose with the back of her hand, and stood in front of him.

      Jamie looked at her. She was very, very pretty, dark hair tumbling down her shoulders, pale skin and dark brown eyes. She saw him looking and smiled, and he blushed.

      “See anything you like?” she asked.

      “Sorry, I wasn’t staring, I was just, er…”

      “Yes you were. It’s OK. I’m Larissa.”

      “I’m…”

      Tumblers fell into place in Jamie’s mind and fear overwhelmed him.

      “You used my name,” he said, taking a step backwards. “How did you know my name?”

      “It doesn’t matter, Jamie,” she said, and then her beautiful brown eyes turned a dark, terrible red. “It doesn’t matter any more.”

      She moved like liquid, covering the distance between them in an instant. She took his face in her hands, with a grip that felt horribly, immovably strong.

      “Nothing matters any more,” she whispered, and he looked into her red eyes and was lost.

      Chapter 3

       ATTACK ON SUBURBIA

      “I can’t do it.”

      The voice sounded like it was coming from a hundred miles away. Jamie struggled to open his eyes. He was lying on the grass, the girl called Larissa sitting next to him. He tried to crawl away but couldn’t move. His limbs ached, and his head was full of cotton wool.

      “Damn it, I just can’t,” she said, apparently to herself. “What’s wrong with me?”

      He forced his eyes open, and looked at her. Her eyes were brown again, and she was looking down at him, a gentle expression on her face.

      “Who… are… you?” he managed. “What did you do to me?”

      She lowered her head.

      “You were supposed to be mine,” she said. “He said so. But I couldn’t do it.”

      “Your… what?”

      “Mine. In every way.”

      With a huge effort Jamie forced himself up to a sitting position.

      “I don’t understand,” he said.

      “It doesn’t matter.” She looked up at the sky. “You should go,” she said, looking back at him with sadness in her face. “They’ll be there by now.”

      A tidal wave of adrenaline crashed into Jamie’s system. “Who? Where?” he demanded.

      “My friends. You know where.”

      Jamie leapt to his feet and looked down at Larissa.

      “I’ve seen you before, haven’t I?” he asked, his voice trembling. In his mind’s eye he saw a face at a window.

      She nodded her head.

      Jamie turned and sprinted out of the park, running as though his life depended on it.

       Please not my mum. Please don’t let them hurt my mum.

      When Jamie reached the end of his road his heart was pounding so loudly in his chest he though it might explode. His vision was greying, the muscles in his legs screaming, but he pushed through the pain and sprinted the last fifty metres to his house and pulled himself round the gate post and towards the front door.

      It was wide open.

      He ran into the hallway. “Mum!” he yelled. “Are you here? Mum!”

      No answer.

      He ran into the living room. Empty. Through into the kitchen. Empty.

      No sign of her.

      He ran up the stairs and pushed open the door to her bedroom. The window above her bed was open to the dark sky, the curtains fluttering in the evening breeze. Jamie ran across the room and put his head out of the window.

      “Mum!” he screamed into the inky blackness. His right hand slipped on something on the ledge and he looked down and pulled it away. Red liquid dripped down his wrist.

      He looked at the windowsill. There were two small pools of blood on the white surface, and more smeared across the glass of the open window.

      Jamie stared in horror at his hand, then something came loose in his head as he realised that his mother was gone, and he put back his head and wailed at the sky.

      And miles away, high in the dark clouds, something heard his cry and turned back.

      Time passed. Jamie had no idea how long.

      He couldn’t stay in his mother’s room, couldn’t look at the blood, horribly bright against the white paint and the clear glass. Somehow he made it downstairs to the living room. He was sitting on the couch, staring blankly at the wall, when he heard something come through the front door and close it softly behind them.

      He was beyond fear now. He was numb. So he just watched as the tall, thin man in the grey suit walked into the room and smiled at him with teeth like razorblades, his dark red eyes shining in the gloom.

      “Jamie Carpenter,” the man said. His voice was like treacle. “It is a supreme pleasure to finally meet you.”

      The man bared his teeth and took a step towards Jamie, and then the front door exploded into sawdust and an enormous figure, holding what looked like a huge pipe, stepped into the living room doorway.

      “Get away from him, Alexandru,” the massive newcomer said, in a voice that shook the entire house.

      The thing in the grey suit hissed, and arched its back. “This is not your concern, monster,” it spat. “There is unfinished business here.”

      “It will stay unfinished,” the figure replied, then pulled the trigger hanging below the pipe. There was an enormous bang, like a giant balloon being burst, and something sharp exploded out of the weapon and flew across the room so fast it was a blur, trailing a metal cord behind it. Alexandru leapt into the air, impossibly quickly. The projectile smashed a hole in the wall of the living room, before retracting as rapidly as it had been fired, spiralling back into the end of the pipe.

      The creature in the grey suit hung in the air, its eyes blazing with anger. It snarled at the figure in the doorway, then smashed through the big window at the front of the house and accelerated into the sky.

      Jamie hadn’t moved.

      The giant darted to the window and craned its enormous neck in the direction the thing called Alexandru had disappeared.

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