A Life Beyond by Mark Church (ebook reader web TXT) 📕

297

A Life Beyond

By

M.L CHURCH

Chapter One

The Beginning

STOP THE BELLS FROM FALLING, COMPLETE THE CIRCLE, COME HOME come home!!!!.

The husky voice carried across the empty plains, winding and twisting across the land like a leaf caught on the tail of the wind, it's path leading up to the sight of a lonely figure standing on top of a hill looking out into the distance, seemingly searching for something, lost in his own thoughts, despair etched across his face, sadness filling his soul.

The figure was of a tall man, a soldier of some kind, long dark hair tied up at the back, a long flowing cape flapping in the wind behind him, his face was a blur of dark colours with pain showing through, his hunched stance seemed to tell a story of how this person seemed to be struggling to find what he was searching for.

'My boy.....Come ho....' his sentenced ended before it began as he vanished into the darkness.

With a start Daniel woke up and sat bolt upright, stretching his arms wide and yawned the biggest yawn ever. Daniel was a twelve year old boy, striking blond hair and the most beautiful blues eyes you had ever seen with a face that had that look which you knew could get you into trouble without even trying. He was born with a birthmark on his left forearm too which was shaped like a shield with some sort of winged bird behind it, it was a birthmark that Daniel covered up sometimes as he felt it was embarrassing.

'Yawn.....' Daniel felt his body loosen up,

'Woah, it's that dream again' He said to himself as he tried to process what had gone on. 'That’s the same dream I’ve been having for the past week now, I wonder if it means anything'.

So Daniel took out his 'Dream Journal' as he called it and started writing down all the details of what had been inside his head, his journal was an old and tatty looking diary given to him on his tenth birthday by his mum, it was leather bound and smelt like a pair of old shoes and he kept it locked with the smallest padlock and key ever seen which Daniel was forever misplacing.

The diary also had a symbol on the front which largely looked like the morning sun rising behind the flat of the land, his poor diary was getting a bit ragged around the edges as he was forever dropping it and kicking it across the floor like a football, it was also full of colourful drawings and a lot of nonsense too but it did contain the dreams he was having especially in the last year or so.

So Daniel sat down on the edge of the bed half ready for school with his trousers dangling off one leg as he noted down in his diary the latest dream he'd had, about how he'd heard the same words said in the same way over and over again and how he had seen this tall lonely figure standing alone on the hill,

Daniel's mind was racing with all sorts of explanations for it, and why it was the same one he was having night after night.

'Maybe it’s just nothing' Daniel sighed and closed his battered diary up.

Then all of a sudden the bedroom door flung burst open, which nearly took it clean off its hinges, and before Daniel had a chance to see who or what it was his face was met by what can only be described as a 'giant furball', the smell of damp dog filled Daniel's nose, his face was being licked so clean that you could eat your dinner off it.

'Bucksy!!' groaned Daniel as he managed to push the giant furball off him so he could see his face.

Bucksy was Daniel's most loyal companion, a Labrador with a coat as black as space and with eyes that weren’t like any other dogs eyes, one of them a dark blue like the deepest part of the ocean and the other as green as the grass in a field, but he was just as mad as any Labrador, in fact any dog breed could be, he got up to the usual dog stuff like chasing his tail, barking at the postman when he whistled his way up the path in the morning, lying upside down on the sofa dreaming of whatever it is dogs dream about, normally chasing other dogs and the usual sniffing of every tree or lamp post.

Bucksy was the kind of companion who was never more than a few feet away from Daniel whenever he was around, he would follow him everywhere and would only settle when he knew he was safe from 'harm', it was like a King having a guard by his side 24 hours a day, that's how much Bucksy thought of his master, they were inseparable and were often getting into mischief, whether it was play fighting in the house and knocking things over or Daniel hiding in the neighbours garden and Bucksy sniffing him out and causing the local cat population to scarper and cause the kind of commotion that normally ended with Daniel’s mum finding out and waiting for them to come back ready to lecture Daniel on keeping out of the neighbours gardens and hedges as they were getting damaged by the constant games of hide and sniff!!.

So that morning had seemed as normal as any other really, Bucksy was his usual clumsy self and doing his best to annoy Daniel, which he kind of enjoyed apart from when he was in the shower and an inquisitive wet and cold nose would find its way into the shower and press itself against Daniel's leg causing him to recoil in terror.

Daniel was starting his usual daily routine of getting ready for school which he really didn't like but Bucksy wouldn’t leave him alone as usual.

'Bucksy!!!, get off me please' pleaded Daniel as he struggled to put on his trousers which were stuck under Bucksy's bottom.

'I need to get ready for school you big lump, and you are so not helping!!, seriously move please' said Daniel as he finally pushed his dog off of his trousers,

Bucksy moved to another part of the bed and sat in front of Daniel pawing at his arm as Daniel finally relented and grabbed Bucksy by the head and started to tickle him behind his ears, then something strange happened as Daniel felt himself falling under some kind of hypnotic gaze, Bucksy's eyes seemed to turn a deathly black and there seemed to be some kind of weird connection between the two which had never been there before.

Daniel started seeing blurry images deep inside his dog’s eyes and through his own thoughts also but he couldn't make them out, a voice called out to him through the haze,

'Follow….' then all of a sudden Daniel lurched back onto the bed.

'Woah, what the blooming heck was all that about?' Daniel said as he sat back on his bed, not knowing what to make of what had just happened between him and his dog.

'That was really strange, I’ve never felt anything like that before, Whose voice was that?, The dog's eyes…. it's as if he's trying to tell me som......',

His sentence was cut off as he could hear strange noises coming from down the hall which took his attention away from what had just happened,

So he got dressed and sat there just looking at his dog who was now lying upside down on the floor with one of Daniel's socks hanging out of his mouth which he quickly dropped so he could go investigate the next bit of clothing which happened to be a pair of pyjama bottoms left on the floor.

'I mean surely it was just nothing, just look at him now' laughed Daniel as Bucksy now had his head stuck at the end of Daniel's pyjama bottoms with only this big black wet nose poking its way out of the end of the leg hole, still sniffing for the next thing to investigate.

So Daniel made his way across his bedroom seemingly forgetting about the strange event that had just happened as if his memory had been wiped, he had to jump over his sea of toys and clothes scattered around his room, past Bucksy who was frantically trying
to paw the bottoms off his face without any luck,

Daniel looked back and laughed as he watched his dog run head first into the leg of the bed and letting out a yelp as the bottoms were proving to be a worthy opponent.

Over the sound of the growling and yelping from Daniel's room came the still muffled noise that had distracted Daniel earlier, as he moved further down the landing he realised that it was the sound of someone 'singing' quite loudly and badly along to music in their bedroom.

'LILLIE, PLEASE STOP THAT SCREECHING!! I CAN'T STAND IT ANY MORE' shouted Daniel as the music and singing got louder and more screechier the closer he got to the door,

'WHY DO YOU HAVE TO DO THIS EVERY MORNING, YOU'RE SO ANNOYING'.

Daniel was still moaning as he made his way to the bathroom to finish getting ready for school, the only place he didn't really like going, only for him to stop off at his sister’s bedroom door where he then barged in to be met by his sister, Lillie, singing into a can of hairspray like it was a microphone.

Lillie was Daniel's older sister; she was thirteen years old, tall for her age and the kind of child who excelled at most things she put her mind to, she had beautiful long dark brown hair and stunning green eyes which gave off a sort of sparkle every time the sunlight caught them, she was a very sociable girl unlike Daniel who was content with having few real friends, she was always seen as the centre of attention and everyone wanted to be her friend.

Her relationship with Daniel was your typical love/hate relationship, (she loved winding him up and Daniel hated it) but she would always fiercely defend her little brother if any trouble came his way as she felt a sense of duty to look out for him, even if they didn't get on that well, she felt it was her sense of duty to keep him safe just as Bucksy seemed to do whenever Daniel was around.

So Daniel went on to tell Lillie about what had happened between him and Bucksy in the bedroom and how it was the weirdest thing he had ever felt.

'Wow Daniel....' remarked Lillie 'Just when I thought you couldn't get any weirder, then you come out with some stupid story like that!!, do you think that’s funny wasting my time like this??, now please get out of my room so I can get ready too!!' she barked as Daniel, looking slightly upset, replied,

'I knew you wouldn’t believe me, you are so annoying, I can’t wait until I can move out of here!!, I’ve had enough, I’m going downstairs'.

And with that Daniel went to storm out of his sister's room but instead he ended up in a heap on the floor as he tripped over a big pile of clothes that Lillie had left on the floor,

Lillie fell about laughing as she watched Daniel struggling to get up and leave her room, he managed to get to his feet looking rather embarrassed,

Lillie still laughing at Daniel as he went to leave said 'Shut the door carefully on the way out and DON'T slam i........'

She hadn't even finished the sentence when Daniel slammed her bedroom door so hard that her shelves fell off the wall covering the floor in all her perfume bottles and her big collection of books that were carefully placed in alphabetical