New life in Raynerbrook - 3. Strange town, Strange things - Part three - End

The car stopped and Theo was awakened from his thoughts.

They had already passed through the town without Theo being aware, he was too busy shrugging off the strange feeling that he had, and wondering why he had felt it.

They had parked outside the gate of a house, it looked old, but seemed to be in quite good condition, nothing seemed to be broken at least, the walls weren't falling down and the roof hadn't caved in, as long as it was intact it was OK in Theo's eyes.

'-please, Theo' said Karen, his mother
Theo realised his mother had been talking, crap, he hadn't been paying attention
'Sorry, what did you say? I wasn't paying attention' if anything, Theo was honest
She turned around to look at him and sighed, he was always zoning out like that

'I said, would you get out and open the gate for us please, Theo' she put a lot of emphasis on the word 'Said', as if saying it for a second time was a great effort.

''She must be tired'' thought Theo, ''I suppose we all are''
'Sure, sorry' Theo answered, offering her a small smile

Theo took off his seatbelt, opened the door and climbed out of the car, there was a nice autumn breeze blowing in his face, and blowing leaves down the street. Theo took the oppurtunity to stretch, it had been a long journey, they had been in the car for around 8 hours, stopping only once at a gas station to fill up the car and get some drinks.

After a long (and extremely satisfying) stretch, Theo walked to the front of the car and opened the gate. He expected the gate of such an old looking house would probably be heavy, but it was surprisingly light, the previous owners of the house had probably replaced the gate at one point, Theo was glad for small favours.

As the car headed up the driveway, Theo had time to take a look around. the street was pretty average, though the houses all looked old, some in not quite as good condition as the house they were moving into, there was some cars, some trees and a lot of leaves. Theo was glad for a bit of normality after the strange things he had been feeling.

He heard the car come to a stop, and the doors opening. he turned and headed up the driveway as his mother opened the boot of the car and grabbed a suitcase. Theo picked up 2 of the cases and walked towards the house as his mother opened the door, she stepped inside and Theo followed, Megan behind him, pulling along one of the smaller cases which had wheels, Theo had picked up the other 2 of her cases, she was only 12 and probably would have struggled with them.

Megan was feeling positive, she had finally gotten out of the car and stretched, she liked the look of the new house, and her 17 year old brother was carrying her stuff for her, it was a good day. She smiled absentmindedly as she walked into the house.

The 3 of them stood there in the hallway, looking around.
They hadn't needed to turn on the lights, the room was illuminated by the light from 2 large windows on either side of the door, their possessions from the old house were packed in boxes which were arranged around the corners of the room, ahead of them, across from where the door was, there was a staircase heading upstairs, it was the sort that stopped halfway onto a flat area with a window, and then went upstairs the other way.

To the right of the front door was the living room, it was large and had another great window, it opened up into a kitchen which was also fairly large, and had an average sized window which looked out onto the back garden, Theo looked out and saw a swingset, a HUGE tree in the corner which covered the majority of the garden in shade, and a large clump of bushes on the side.

Theo backed away from the window and walked through the kitchen which connected onto a small room with a door leading out into the back garden. He would explore it later he thought, and headed back towards the hallway where he went back outside and picked up his suitcases from the car, he closed the boot and headed back inside.

He walked upstairs, looking briefly out of the window as he went up them, he saw the back garden again, and then headed up onto the upstairs hallway. there were 5 doors up here, 2 to the left and 2 to the right both going off down seperate small corridors. Straight ahead was another door.

He started checking the rooms one by one, starting with the left. The first door he came too was a bedroom, the wallpaper was pink with flowers on it. Theo decided that was DEFINITELY not going to be his room, he retreated hastily and checked the room on the other side, this was a bigger one, and it looked exactly like the room his mother had back at their old house, so he figured she could have that one.

Theo walked across the hallway and opened the door to his right, it was a rather spacious bathroom, with a large shower, a large mirror was on the wall to his right over the sink. he backed out of the room and opened the door across from him.

From the moment he saw it, he knew this was going to be his room. it was quite large, slightly bigger than the room he had at the old house and the walls were painted a light grey, straight ahead was a window which looked out over the street, the curtains were shut, so Theo opened them and looked out at the dead leaves being blown around by the wind. He smiled, he was going to enjoy it here.

After many hours, they had finally managed to unpack, and Theo's room (he had called dibs on it, Megan was less than impressed, but she seemed to like her new room) was now looking like his old room, he was pleased. It was now late, they had eaten some easy to cook food and then decided to go to bed, it had been an exhausting day.

He practically threw off his clothes and climbed into bed, savouring the relief he felt as he did so, within minutes he had fallen asleep, for what should have been a restful night.

The nightmare began with a bright light, and then images began to flash before Theo.

A box, wrapped in chains and covered with spiderwebs.
Grey eyes, peering out from the darkness.
Water, as if he was drowning
Fur and teeth
Frost spreading over a window
A ventriloquists dummy, it's hollow eyes somehow staring

And then a symbol. a symbol which Theo recognised, but didn't at the same time. He felt for sure that he simply HAD to remember that symbol, as if it was life or death, it was like his mind grasped for it, trying to grab hold of it, but he missed.

He awoke sweating, feeling that he had not slept at all. He remembered the entire nightmore, except for that symbol.

That night, he finally managed to get to sleep, and awoke the next morning feeling at least somewhat refreshed. But he still remembered the nightmare, it was burned into his memory.

At one point that morning, he heard a voice in his head, it was his own voice, but it sounded.. detatched somehow, and it sounded confident, and perhaps a little bit afraid.

''It's starting.'' said the voice in his head, and Theo didn't doubt that voice at all.