He finally reached a clearing and saw his car parked a short distance away. He ran towards it, panting so hard he thought he was going to have a heart attack, unlocked the driver's door and jumped in. He looked back at the track he ran down, he could see something in the distance, something pulsing, getting closer, followed by that same ethereal half-mechanical growl that sent shivers through his entire body, not just down his spine. He turned the key, started the engine and took off as quickly as he could back towards the city. He took long deep breaths as he checked his rear-view mirror to see if it was following him. He couldn't see anything and breathed a huge sigh of relief. He still had no idea what was happening, and kept praying that he would wake up, but he never did. He put his foot on the pedal to go faster, the only way he would feel safe would be to get as far away from here as he could. He had another quick glance in his rear-view mirror and his heart tried to jump free from his body. There in the back seat of his car was something pulsing, something blue, something swirling. As he took another deep nervous breath, he saw the blue ripples looking back at him with what looked like two eyes, but they were actually more like cracks in reality, to the void that this creature came from. Just as quickly as he had glanced in his rear-view mirror he glanced back at the road and there in front of him was some kind of swirling mass eating up the road ahead of him.
He had little time to think, he was heading towards a swirling vortex and he had the eyes from an endless void staring at him from behind. He instinctively swerved away from the path of the vortex, seemingly the only option, and the car left the road, toppling down an embankment. It reached the bottom and collided with two trees, branches crashing through the windscreen hitting James straight on. He took a few final breaths, blood dripping down from his chest where one of the branches had struck him. As he closed his eyes, he saw the blue pulses emerging from the 'eyes to the void' in his rear-view mirror, and then they slowly engulfed him. The car was sat at the bottom of the embankment, on its side, as the vortex from the road quickly and mercilessly swallowed the car, and with what appeared to be a blink of an eye, the car vanished. The road glitched from side to side and then switched back to how it was before, the area swallowed by the vortex completely back to normal. The embankment was clear of any obstruction as if nothing had ever happened. Back at the campsite the ground shook and pulsated blue before the tents and their belongings flickered like a flame and then dissolved away leaving the forest floor undisturbed.
Chapter 3 – Shadows Arise
SATURDAY
The alarm clock thundered to life, frightening Danny almost to death and making him leap up from his mattress as if he was being pulled up by a puppeteer's strings. He reached for it quickly as its incessant horn sound made his head seem to vibrate. With a huge sigh of relief, he managed to find the off switch. This was the first time he had set his alarm for years, but it seemed to be necessary as he couldn't trust his body clock to naturally rouse him anymore. He was still reeling about everything; he hadn't slept well at all. His addled brain went around and around in circles in the dead of night, trying to convince him that everything was okay. Except it wasn't, he was having false memories, memories that were realer than reality. He went to the bathroom and followed his usual routine; washed his face, used the toilet and brushed his teeth, before returning to his bedroom to get dressed. That was odd. He looked at the clock and it was a clear ten minutes later than it should have been. He'd only been in the bathroom five minutes, yet his alarm clock was telling him fifteen minutes had passed. He approached his wardrobe, deeply troubled by this. It was yet another thing that was happening, what was he doing in these missing moments? Going into a trance? He didn't understand.
He got dressed and went downstairs to get his breakfast and put on a pot of coffee. He scrolled through his messages on his phone while he spooned the cereal into his mouth. There was one from Monique that had been sent about an hour earlier and she wanted him to phone her. Her message sounded quite urgent, which seemed strange as Danny wasn't her go-to person when things were getting tough and she needed someone to talk to, it was usually Mike. He finished off his cereal and sipped his coffee, staring out the window at the blue sky overhead. He should call her if it's urgent he figured and so promptly dialled her number. She answered within one ring, as if she had been sat there waiting for Danny to call.
“Hi Danny, I'm so pleased you called” she said.
“What's up?” Danny asked.
“I'm not sure, can you meet me somewhere? I could do with talking to someone” She said with what sounded like slight angst.
“Yeah no problem, can you give me an hour I've just woken up” he replied to which she obliged, “Where do you want to meet?”
“What about at the Sycamore Stop?”
