Red Lights

Aunty Jade is so gonna' kill me for this if she finds out; hopefully she won't find out; hopefully if I do get killed it is by her for doing this. Hopefully Magi doesn't tell; hopefully someone will hear me scream, though who I don't know; hopefully, hopefully everything turns out alright, unlikely but still possible. 0.001 percent probable, the odds are against me, damn.

I'm hoping for a lot of things right now.

When is now you ask? Now is the year 2044.

Things have changed alot in the last 3 decades apparently, not that I would know I'm only 16 after all.

And you want to know who I am? I'm  Kathy Grail, I am tall with brown hair, blue-grey eyes, pale skin and a death sentence in the waiting for even thinking of accepting this dare. My cousin Grace dared me to do it, of course, so full blame lies with her for my death, I'm not dead yet, obviously, just waiting for my time and trying to accept it. It's really my fault for accepting this dare but I never back down when Grace and I argue.

Ok so now for the million dollar question.

What am I doing? You ask to many questions you know! I don't like questions, I'm a person of few words and even fewer questions.

Yes I know I'm just trying to prevent myself from actually doing this, well too late for that now.

What I am doing is the stupidest thing I have ever done, the most insane, the most dangerous, and...

Yeah I know, get to the point. Fine, I am going to spend the night in the graveyard. Whats so scary about that right, well like I said things have changed in the past 3 decades, apparently.

See the problem is that graveyards these days, or nights, well they're not just places where corpses and piles of bones lie in wooden boxes, no, there's much more to it than that. I don't know whether it was the same 3 decades ago or 3 centuries ago, half the things they teach us in school are pure lies to make us like the Scurle. The Scurle are a council that now officially rule the majority of the Earth, just about every citizen hates them and those who don't tend to end up dead or missing. Yeah it's a cruel world, it's been this way since the Scurle took over.

I suppose you want me to explain about the graveyards too? The thing is, the Scurle have this amazing technology right, where they can actually enable skeletons to get up and walk around. I know, seems like something out of a horror movie right. I don't even know why they do it, the things are just evil, all they do is kill people who enter the graveyard at night, which is why I'm screwed.

Anyway it's almost 2:00 AM, 1:48 AM to be precise, 12 more minutes 'til i leave. Aunty Jade is a light sleeper but the doors are thick so she shouldn't hear me leave.

My brother Angus is another matter entirely, for all i know he could still be up listening to his E.A.T., an E.A.T. is an electronic audio transmitter, basically, you say the song you want to hear, a list comes up with the songs and the artists and you touch which one it is, or think it is anyway. I just hope he has it up loud enough not to hear me if he is still up. If he is still up and not listening to it, a very rare thing, he has that thing on 24/7 just about, then I'm done for. He has brilliant hearing and would tell Aunty Jade straight away.

My sister Magi already knows that I'm doing this. She was watching the whole fight and when I accepted the dare, she stopped laughing and stared at me with her hazel eyes like I was going mad, I'm not sure I wasn't.

6 minutes left now, I may as well get up and get ready to leave. My excuse if someone catches me going downstairs is to get a drink of water, if someone catches me leaving the house is another problem. I still haven't figured the answer to that one out, and if I tell the truth Grace and I are both done for. So really the only option is to get out without being caught, shouldn't be to difficult.

3:00 AM now, time to leave, I slowly walk past my Aunty Jade's bedroom. The floorboards creak but I can't hear anything from inside the room. Now the real problem, Angus, his door is still open and there's no light, so he must be downstairs. Luckily I don't have to go past

Magi's bedroom, she's a light sleeper and said she would tell Aunty Jade if I woke her up.

And now down the stairs, they creak but not as much as the floorboards near Aunty Jade's room. Past the kitchen, I can see a light up the hall coming from the lounge room, must be Angus watching TV, hopefully he has his E.A.T. in. I'm up to the door now, a quick look to see if he's listening to his E.A.T., he's not in there, weird, he wasn't in the kitchen or his bedroom. He could be in the study on his computer, unlikely but still possible, oh well, all the better for me. Now the coast is clear atleast.

The outside air of the city is full of smoke, steam and gases as always, not exactly the best air for breathing.

I can't see anyone down either side of Allen St - my street. The graveyard is about 4 blocks from here so about a 10 minute walk providing that I don't get waylaid by a stranger in the darkness. Grace said she would meet me at the cornor of Allen and Marice St which is about a block away from the graveyard.

2 blocks down and nothing has happened so far, good, just another block 'til I meet Grace. Wait, I see something by the edge of the streetlight. It looks like a person, could be Grace walking up to meet me. I can see something shining, looks like...a knife...in the hands of someone, something is...dripping off it, something...crimson. Oh god, I shuddered, he's looking my way, can he see me? Nope I'm not near a street lamp, unless...he has night-vision. Shit, he's coming towards me.

Blink...where is he? He's gone, but? How? I quickly checked behind me, nope not there, he just...disappeared.

Grace was supposed to meet me down there! I broke into a run. I stared down at the familiar form, Grace. I stared at her, then I screamed, as her eyes opened.

"Grace", I said softly, I knelt down beside her, she looked at me with her green eyes and smiled faintly, I didn't feel the tears rolling down my cheeks as I stared at her. Her eyes started clouding over and I knew she was dying.

"Go", she said, and then she closed her eyes for the final time.

I got up, I may as well do the dare, in honor of Grace's memory.

So, down to the end of Allen St, the corner where it meets Aphis St, there's the graveyard.

I'm at the front gate now, it's locked of course, I have to climb over, the iron fence is high but it has bars going crossways so i just have to use these as footholds.

I stared at the bars wondering whether I should do this or not.

Then someone ran around the corner which made my decision for me.

I quickly scrambled up the bars and jumped over.




This was originally a short story, but I think I might make this the prologue for a a novel, please tell me your thoughts and leave a review :)