Tales of the Extraordinary Page 6

unusual variety called Blood and Bones that she guessed were made especially for Halloween, Ali popped a few of them into her mouth.

  “Yuk!” she cried out, spitting the crisps onto the floor. “There are awful!”

  Laura and Paul laughed as Ali rushed into the kitchen to get another glassful of Fizzing Fruit Juice drink, to wash the terrible, clingy taste from out of her mouth. “That’s better,” she said, enjoying the wonderful drink.

  Looking at the unusual bottle (it was greenish gold in colour) Ali wondered where her mother had purchased such a wonderful drink. It tasted of chocolate, mango and vanilla. There was no label upon it, only the name of the drink and a palm tree logo in front of a rising sun moulded into the bottle. After refilling her glass with the wonderful drink, Ali returned to her television viewing.

  Laura and Paul were still laughing when Ali returned to the sitting room. Homer Simpson had landed himself in an embarrassing and sticky situation involving glue and feathers. Sinking into her comfortable armchair, enjoying her drink, Ali forgot about the knock on the door.

  Ten minutes later, another loud knock interrupted Ali’s relaxation. KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. “Grrr!” she complained as she pulled herself up from the chair. “I will crucify them, so I will!” Opening the door, Ali once again saw no one standing outside.

  Looking left and then right, Ali wondered if whoever was playing the annoying prank upon her was hiding somewhere. She walked to the gate, thinking they might be hiding outside it, but she saw no one.

  “When I get my hands on them – whoever they are – they won’t know what hit them,” Ali hissed, stepping into the hall, closing the front door behind her.

  Sitting on her armchair, Ali tried to get back into the Simpsons, but she found it so difficult to relax, to forget her annoyance. It took the Halloween Special # eight – her favourite – before she finally forgot about the mysterious person knocking the door.

  KNOCK. KNOCK, KNOCK,

  “I will kill them!” Ai screamed. “I will absolutely kill them!” she shouted, running to the door. She opened it. Ali opened the door so forcefully it almost came off its hinges. This time, however, there was somebody there. Standing outside, his clothes soaked, dripping water onto the ground, there was a pale-skinned man wearing a black suit.

  “I am so sorry to be disturbing you,” the foreign accented man apologised, “but my car has broken down.”

  Staring past him, out onto the street, Ali looked for a car. There was no car, broken down or otherwise, “Where is it?” she asked.

  “It is up the road,” he replied, pointing. “That is why I am so wet, from having to walk so far in the pouring rain…”

  “But, it isn’t raining,” she muttered in reply.

  “It is, where my car broke down,” the man insisted.

  “May I possibly use your telephone,” he asked, “to call the garage?”

  “Don’t you have a mobile phone?” Ali replied, surprised that so well dressed a person might go out without one.

  “No,” he answered. “Where I come from, in my county, we don’t have such luxuries.”

  Taken aback by his unusual explanation, Ali offered him the use of their telephone.

  Stepping into the hallway, the man said, “Where are on earth are my manners?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I have not introduced myself,” he said. “Please allow me to introduce myself… My name is T Nuoc Alucard.”

  “The telephone is there, Mr Alucard,” said Ali, pointing to the telephone table in the hallway.

  “Thank you, thank you very much,” he replied, picking up the handset.

  Returning to the suiting room, Ali told Laura and Paul not to be worried, that it was only someone who wanted to use their telephone. Being so young, her brother and sister thought nothing more of it, returning their full attention to the Simpsons. Ali, however, listened to the man speaking on the telephone. However, despite her best efforts to hear what he was saying, all that she heard were faint mumblings. After a while the mumblings stopped, leaving Ali wondering if he had left without bothering to thank her for the hospitability.

  By the time the Simpsons’ Halloween special # eight had finished, Laura and Paul were blissfully asleep on the couch. Outside, in the hallway, the foreign man (if he was still actually there) stood in total silence.

  Her ear stuck hard against the door, trying to work out if he was still there, Ali whispered, “What is he doing?” Hearing nothing, she decided to go investigate…

  Taking a deep breath Ali opened the sitting room door. Gasping with relief, she found the hallway empty of men, foreign speaking or otherwise. Opening the front door, thinking she might see the mysterious man walking away from the house, she saw nothing of him.

  Closing the door, grumbling about how ungrateful some people can be, Ali rambled into the kitchen to get another glass of Fizzing Fruit juice drink.

  “There’s only a small bit left,” she said, “so I might as well drink it.”

  The greenish gold bottle was still in her hand when Ali heard something moving in the hallway. Frightened, yet trying to be brave, she held the bottle ever so tightly around the neck, creeping out from the kitchen to investigate…

  Creeping on tippy-toes, Ali searched the hallway, the bedrooms, bathroom and the linen closet, but she was unable to find anything or anyone, there. Breathing a huge sigh of relief, she was just about to take a swig from out of the bottle of juice when she heard a noise in the sitting room, a noise like a muffled cry for help.

  “Hold on!” Ali screamed, dashing down the hallway. “Hold on, I’m coming!” she shouted, bursting her way through the sitting room door, with bottle at the ready to brain the unwelcome intruder. However, the room was empty. Laura and Paul were gone.

  Panicking, screaming her disquiet, Ali searched the entire house for her brother and sister. She looked everywhere, she looked in the wardrobes, her parents en suite, under the beds and inside the toy boxes in Laura and Paul bedrooms, but her brother and sister were not there, not anywhere. Shrieking, fearing for the safety of Laura and Paul, thinking the foreign accented man must have taken them; Ali opened the front door, dashed down the garden path, through the front gate, and onto the street. Catching her toe on the curb, she fell hard to the ground...

  Everything outside the house suddenly vanished; there was no garden, no path, and no light – nothing. Suddenly finding herself falling through utter and total blackness, Ali screamed and screamed and screamed ….

  Landing softly, Ali looked around to see where she had landed. She had fallen out of bed. The gentle breeze blowing in through window was playing a wonderful tune on the wind chimes, her wind chimes, and she smiled. Ali smiled with delight, because the horrible things that had happened must have been part of a bad dream. There was no foreign man, no gaping hole of blackness outside the front door – everything was okay, everything was just perfect.

  Climbing into bed, Ali looked at her digital clock radio to see what time it was. It was five in the morning. Rolling onto her side, she fell soundly asleep.

  She was asleep; Ali was blissfully asleep when a noise woke her up, a noise in the kitchen. “What was that?” she said, surprised that anyone would be up so early. She listened. “Perhaps it’s just something slipping off a shelf,” she said. “Yes, that must be it; something falling off a shelf. Sure, mum is always over packing them.”

  CLUMP.

  “There it is again,” Ali whispered ever so quietly.

  CLUMP.

  “And again,” she said even quieter.

  CLUMP.

  Donning her dressing gown, Ali groaned, “This is ridiculous.”

  Opening the bedroom door, stepping into the dark hallway, Ali set off to investigate.

  “Mum and dad are fast asleep, as per usual,” she said, peeking into their bed.

  Leaving her parents at rest, Ali glanced through the cracks in Paul and Laura’s bedroom doors. “Both of them sleeping li
ke babies,” she whispered. Feeling the cold, she pulled her dressing gown tighter around her.

  CLUMP.

  “Now what can that be?” she whispered, turning the kitchen door handle.

  The door creaked slowly open.

  Smiling with relief, Ali saw the cause of the noise. Duke, their ever so friendly Labrador dog was in the kitchen. “Did mum leave you in?” she asked, approaching him.

  It snarled, Duke snarled at Ali.

  “Why are you doing that, why are you snarling at me?” she asked. “It’s only me, you know?”

  The dog snarled even louder, saliva dripping from its sharp fangs.

  Seeing the patio door open, Ali said, “How did that get open? Duke, did you open it?”

  In reply, the dog snarled even more ferociously than before, its eyes glowing madly, red saliva dripping freely from its sharp pointy fangs.

  “Red saliva?” Ali screamed. “That can only mean one thing – blood.” Turning round, Duke bolted for the exit, disappearing into the darkness of the garden.

  “Mum! Dad!” Ali cried out, dashing down the hallway, bursting into their bedroom, “Duke! Duke!” she said. “He’s dripping blood.”

  No one heard what she said, because nobody was there. “Mum! Dad!” she called out.”Where are you?

  Bursting into Paul’s room, Ali screamed, “Paul!” However, he was also is missing.

  “Laura!” Ali screamed even louder than before, bursting into her sister’s room. Laura’s room was also empty.

  Where is everyone?” Ali asked. “WHERE IS EVERYONE?”

  Suddenly remembering