The Night One's by Lea Wilson (reading books for 5 year olds TXT) 📕

the tunnel. I made quite a few turns and I made it to what seemed like a really crappy version of a dungeon. There was what seemed like jail cells, the only thing separating them were the bars. I slowly made my way along the edge of cells peering in curiously.
The very last cell was the end of the tunnel and I almost turned back if I hadn’t heard my name.
“Lucy?” It was hoarse sounding, like someone with a parched throat. I went down to the end and looked into the cell. There sat Tom alone in a huge barred cell. I would have shouted but thought better it.
“Tom? Is that really you?” I walked up to the bars. He was dirty, his black hair all tousled and his green eyes dull.
“Yea,” he tried to say. He cleared his throat. “Lucy are you crazy, are you trying to get yourself killed? You shouldn’t be here,” he said in a rush. I was so happy he was alive.
“I’m going to get you out of here, but right now have to get home it’s probably almost dark,” I told him.
“Lucy, don’t you’ll get caught...” he stopped, because he had a hug coughing fit.
“No I am going to come back. Hey where are Mina and Dave?” I asked.
“They’re dead,” he replied. I felt my breath catch. They were dead, my best friend and the man she loved. I shook my head; I couldn’t worry about what I couldn’t change.
“I’ll be back tomorrow. I love you,” I told him.
“I love you too,” he whispered, the energy clearly drained out of him. I turned and went back the way I came carefully making my way back through the crowd. I noticed that a lot of them had changed positions, and it made me wonder if they were finally awake just waiting until I wouldn’t notice so they could attack. I rushed out as fast as I could making sure I didn’t touch anyone of them.
Just as I made it out of the tunnel I slipped and fell cutting my elbow.
“Shit,” I gasped, as blood gushed out. I heard movement from inside the tunnel and I glanced up. I saw a Night One inside the safe protection of the shadows staring at me. Just seeing its glowing black eyes sent shivers down my spine. I slowly backed up crossing over the border into my land. Then I bolted home, boarding everything up and praying to God they would never find a way in, because they would kill me if they got the chance.
I ran to my closet got in, locked the door and went to sleep. The next morning I got up earlier, and left the house when it was still a little dark. As I walked out the door I could see the Night Ones walking across the border into their sleeping domain. I went through the back of my house to get to where the air vent was in the wall. I had left the ladder there and I took the air vent off.
A husky breathing sound caused me to stop on my way down the ladder. I turned and saw a lone Night One standing at the end of the hallway, hunched over and just staring at me. I watched its’ shoulders move up and down as it breathed. I took another step down the ladder, slowly to see what it would do. It took a giant step towards me, and I stopped again. This Night One might very well have been the one that stared at me the day before. My breathing started coming in faster. Keep calm Lucy, I told myself. I finished coming down the ladder, the Night One didn’t move. Well it was in my way of going out, so I had to figure something out.
“Do you think you can move out of my way?” I asked it calmly. It was really stupid, but it was either that or make a lot of noise shooting it. However it apparently wanted to get shot, because instead of answering it started running towards me. I took out the gun that was attached to my side and with a single shot, shot the Night One in the head. It was not even a foot away, when dropped to the floor. I didn’t wait to see if it was dead, I ran from the tunnel and ran towards the gat. Maybe Tom was right maybe I was crazy for doing this. Surely that Night One would have told the others I had been in their domain, and surely they had heard the shot.
But I couldn’t think of that now. I reached the tunnel I had taken the day before and turned on the flashlight. I made my way through what seemed like more Night Ones in the tunnel. I made the same turns and twists, recounting my steps to where Tom’s cell was. When I finally reached it and looked in Tom was all bruised and bloodied.
“Tom?” Slowly he raised his head up. His beautiful green eyes now surrounded by a black bruise. I took out my lock picking tools and began picking the lock. Thankfully it didn’t take very long and the cell door swung open. I rushed inside and knelt next to Tom.
“Come on sweetheart. Just lean on me, we have time,” I told him. He got to his feet and put most of his weight on me. I staggered a couple steps, but soon got the hang of it. When we got to the main tunnel, I noticed there were even more Night Ones.
“Tom, do you think you can crawl?” I asked. It was the only way to get through so many of them. He nodded and I put him gently on the ground. “Just follow me.” I started crawling through the throngs of disgusting creatures, holding the flashlight in my mouth. Finally I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. We crawled right out and I picked Tom back up and we started for the wall.
Slow moving but with hope in my heart I got to where the air vent was. The Night One I had shot was still there. A glistening pool of dark red blood around the gunshot wound. I reached the ladder and stopped.
“Tom you’re going to have to climb up the ladder and crawl through the vent,” I told him. He stared at me for a minute, then started up the ladder. I could only hope that it was a straight through shot and the vent contained no turns; otherwise we would never make it out. Once Tom was through the vent I started up the ladder and climbed into the hole.
After what seemed like forever Tom finally came to a halt.
“What is it? Did you reach the other side?” I asked.
“Yea, but there is another vent here what do I do?” he asked, trying to look back at me.
“Well, try to see if you can shove it open,” I told him. After about five minutes he got the vent open. Now all he had to do was not kill himself climbing out. He shoved himself out the whole and I heard him grunt, then groan. I threw myself out the hole, and landed on my butt.
“Ouch,” I said rubbing my behind. I looked at Tom who was now lying down in the dirt. We couldn’t wait around for it to get dark.
“Tom we really have to get moving. We have to get to the next town before dark.” I took his hand and pulled him to his feet and we started forward.
It didn’t take very long for it to get dark, and we were only halfway to the next town and I was starting to get worried. Very faint and in the distance I could make out the Noise coming from within our town. I knew they would be coming for us soon and we needed someplace to hide. We found a large hole in the mountains, and we looked for a place to camp out and hide. Fortunately there was a small crawl space that could fit the two of us and we crouched low and huddled in the darkness. The Noise got louder as they came closer, but suddenly stopped, as if they could sense us nearby. We kept very quiet and still.
I didn’t know if we would make it through the night, or if we would make it at all, but I knew we had to try. I was so tired of being afraid and hiding. It was getting later and I knew we should get some sleep for the next morning. I thought about how much I missed Mina and how much she must have loved Dave to do what she did. Life is such a precious gift and a lot of people don’t know what to do with it. But you have to take the time that is given to you and make the most of it. I was going to try to keep Tom and I alive as long as I could. We just needed to keep faith in each other and hope…hope to God we didn’t fail.
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Publication Date: 12-20-2009

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