False Alarm

Andy shot upright. This was the third time this week the alarm had decided to go off unexpectedly. He lay back down in bed, glancing at his alarm clock as he did so; it was 4:30 am. What a way to ruin the day's plans. He lamented to himself, there was no chance he was going to get anymore shuteye before the Belfry lads would arrive. They were the nephews of the owner of the local dairy, and early every Wednesday morning they would go clamouring 'round the village noisily depositing milk bottles as they went. It wasn’t that they didn’t have pride in their jobs, but they didn’t believe that they should be the only people up at such inappropriate early hours in the morning.

The alarm was still ringing, but soon enough Andy heard his Dad scramble out of bed from the next room and climb downstairs to investigate the disturbance. They were going to need a new alarm. If it was going to go off several times without reason, how was it going to alert them if there actually was an intruder in the house! Especially at this time in the morning when he should be catching up on sleep from previous nights the alarm had rang out its high pitched tune. If that wasn’t enough, they were probably annoying the neighbours too. Old Mrs. Marcy next door would not appreciate all this noise, even with her hearing aid left out on her dressing table. Andy heard a few doors bang and the angry grumble of his Dad’s voice as he reset the alarm. Must have been a false alarm. Andy sighed. Woken up for nothing. As his Dad’s slippers stumbled over the stairs, he rolled over prepared to sleep.

But it wasn’t to be. Suddenly there was a thump on the stairs and Andy could hear his Dad moaning, those oversized slippers weren’t doing him any good. Andy clambered out of his bed to see what his old man had done to himself and why there was a commotion outside on the landing. He jumped towards the door, which met him headfirst, there must have been someone on the other side. He landed cold on the floor. The last vivid memory was the big white door, which stayed fixated in his mind, as his eyes closed and he slid into a state of unconsciousness.