As Danny goes to put his hand on his mums’ shoulders, he notices that she is on edge. This makes Danny reluctant to touch her but as his hand touches her shoulder, she pulls him towards her.
“Hey, son.”
“Mother! You’re alright? thank God!!” Danny’s grin was glowing so bright that there was no need for a light.
“Of course, son. I’ll be fine… what happened anyway?”
“You fainted, mum.”
Elizbeth was shocked, she remembered that her back was hurting, and she felt weak but fainting, surly not, she thought. Elizbeth looked Danny up and down, “why’re your clothes so dirty, what have you been up to?”
“You wouldn’t believe me. But I can’t keep it from you.” Danny was reluctant to tell his mum, “it was when you fainted, dad said to board the outside windows and we did but as dad stepped outside, a swarm of bats flew towards him. It was so crazy!”
“You were right. I’ll go ask your dad.” She started walking towards her husband.
Danny stood in front of his mum, “I’m telling you the truth, dad will say the same thing but that isn’t the concern no more.”
“Well, what is the concern then?” Elizbeth was getting frustrated, “come on Danny, spit it out.”
“I saw a man kill a dog!”
Elizbeth face dropped, “what is it with you? You’re coming up with all these manic stories. I’m going to wake your dad up.” She pushes Danny to the side and walks to the playroom. As she enters the playroom, Kiran is sleeping in the chair, Elizbeth shakes Kiran, “wake up! Your son needs you.”
Kiran opens his eyes to see his wife, “oh, thank fuck. Didn’t expect you to be awake. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, just my back that hurts.” Elizbeth said, “why is Danny speaking about bats and dog murderers, what’s going on with this house?”
Kiran felt anxiety, he himself didn’t want to believe what happened last night, especially how he treated his son, “Danny’s not going crazy, I can tell you that. We were chased by bats, if you can believe that.”
“On the streets?” Elizbeth was confused.
“Yes! I promise you, something weird is going on, you are right, we need to take things seriously.” Kiran was speaking sense, “But the dog murderer, I have no clue.”
Danny rushed in the playroom, “well, you weren’t there, dad.” Danny was extremely annoyed with his dad, “I’m telling the truth, some strange guy killed a dog. You must believe me because we need to leave right now.”
Elizbeth said hysterically, “ha-ha, you guys nearly had me there. No need to carry it on now, I know it’s a prank.”
Both Danny and Kiran stood up as fast as the time goes when you get older and shouted. “Hey, we aren’t lying.”
Elizbeth laughed and started to walk outside the playroom.
“Hey! I can prove the bats exist!” Kiran shouted, “look in the kitchen, you’re see them.”
“You didn’t pick them up?”
“No son.” Kiran laughed, “I’m glad I didn’t, it’ll be helpful if your mums on the same page as us.”
Elizbeth headed for the kitchen. “I don’t see anything.” As she turned her head towards the storage cupboard, “what the hell, a fucking bat, no! Three bats. You guys wasn’t lying” she turned back to run to them both, “why didn’t you wake me up, I could have helped you.” She was befuddled. She looked at them both, “Was it that bad?”
Kiran explained that they almost died to the bats, but she wasn’t having none of it. “This is no excuse to not wake me up though.”
“We couldn’t, babe. You were unconscious and out for the count. What was we to do?”
Elizbeth was shaken, “well, I feel completely fine now, my back is the only thing that hurts.” She just wanted to forget what had happened to her and her family. “Right then, who’s hungry?”
“Are you sure?” Kiran was shocked she had the energy. “If you’re sure about it because I am quite hungry, what you are saying son?”
Danny did not answer his dad. Elizbeth noticed and said, “Danny why are you ignoring your dad?” With no answer, Elizbeth was concerned, “answer me, son. What happened?”
“As you’re not saying anything, Danny. I will tell her.” Kiran prepared for a scolding and told her what happened with him and Danny. “Right, after me and Danny had killed the bats and said goodnight to you. Danny didn’t want to go to bed which was fair enough, but I needed the time alone and he needed his sleep.”
“Right, carry on.” She said concerningly.
“Yeah, well, I reacted awfully.”
Danny scoffed, “awfully is putting it mildly.”
Kiran knew he was right, “you’re spot on, I treated him like shit, babe. All he wanted to do was sit up and watch over you while you were unconscious, and I said no.” Kiran put his head down and expected Elizbeth to shout at him, but she didn’t, she didn’t even speak to him.
Elizbeth grabbed Danny and walked to the kitchen, ignoring Kiran on the way.
“Why’re you not angry with me?” Kiran questioned. “Hey! Don’t treat me like a beggar.”
Elizbeth turned and faced him, “I’m angry at you but as you said, something serious is playing out, we need to stop fighting, and start taking things seriously, we can start by making some food. We likely have an unpredictable day on our hands.” She began to make food.
Elizbeth and Danny were cooking a full English breakfast with crispy bacon, pitch perfect eggs, golden hashbrowns, pitch- dark black pudding, runny beans that made Danny and Kiran wince. Danny cracked a few eggs which reminded him of the bats that attacked him, “are you okay, son?” Danny looked at the ground with no response. His mother kneeled next to him and grabbed his hand. “Look at me. Whatever happened yesterday doesn’t matter, you hear me.” Elizbeth spoke unctuously, “you and your dad survived and that’s what matters, I love you so much son. Listen, you need to be strong because this nightmare is not ending.”
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Danny understood but was still shaken by the strange guy who killed the dog. “What happens if dog murderer comes back here?”
Elizbeth wasn’t even sure if she believed that he seen a dog get murdered, but she didn’t want to take any chances, “if he comes back, we will be prepared, son.” Elizbeth was serious so she went to the storage cupboard.
“Where are you going, mum?”
“I’ll be back!”
The mother strolled to the cupboard and grabbed a knife and baseball bat. “we’ll be ready if anyone comes, son.” The mother was half joking but wanted to make Danny feel safe. “Now that’s been delt with, can we get on with cooking this fry-up please?”
Meanwhile, Kiran is trying to fix the tv. “Damn! The tv was fine yesterday.” Kiran thought it could have been something to do with the people that was blowing cell towers up, “Maybe they found a television broadcast station.” As he was smacking the tv, he remembered the radio in the attic. Kiran walked out the living room and headed towards the stairs, and as he got to the attic, he opened the hatch, grabbed the CB radio (citizens band radio.) which operates in the 27 MHz range. He couldn’t even wait. Kiran sat in the dusty attic and turned the radio on. The CB radio can transmit to warehouses, yachts, motor transport, so Kiran’s thought was that if they get into contact with someone, they might send help. The desperate came out of Kiran as he was trying to speak to anyone. He didn’t know if it was the fact of speaking to someone different or trying to get rescued. Either way, he wasn’t ignoring his impulse to converse with someone, however, the radio was not conversing with him. Kiran thought about yesterday, he thought what a prick he was for treating Danny that way, “my own son, treating him like a dog, what a human being am I?” As he was about to give up on the radio, someone spoke through it.
“Hello, is anyone there?”
Kiran replied rashly, “Yes! I am.”
“You must be close to my location; do you need any assistance?”
“Yes, we need your help, but do you know what’s going on?”
The radio man said eerily, “This is the end to finish all ends, my friend.”
Kiran was confused, “what does that even mean?”
“Sorry, I’ve got to go, good luck my friend.”
“No! please… just wait!” The radio went silent, Kiran wished he’d given him answers but nothing. “Just a weird ass conspiracy theorist who was spouting shit.”
Back downstairs, they both are nearly done with food, “Kiran, breakfast is nearly done, hurry up!” Elizbeth shouted. “What is he doing?” Elizbeth was growing impatient with Kiran; she was struggling to cope with him these last two weeks due to her feeling trapped inside with him, the only silver lining was that she got to spend a lot of time with Danny. She’d always thought that Kiran was an awful dad, and she should of chose a better father for her child but if she did, Danny would not exist. Elizbeth loved Danny from the first time she looked in his eyes, she thought of it as a gift from God. Every time she looked in her son’s eyes, it would bring back memories of her being an alcoholic. Elizbeth was such a young alcoholic. She never knew when to backdown, she was explosive, one day from losing everything, no…one hour away. But one day she would fall pregnant, and everything changed, her perspective, her health, and her eagerness to become a better person. Just by having a baby boy, she was on journey to becoming a great mum. Danny would agree, he knew she sacrificed everything for him, her social life, a career and a life of her own, where she could point to something and say she did that, but she didn’t see it like that. When she was younger, she’d always wanted to be a mother. She was born for it. Elizbeth was just happy to even have a son.
“I think the toast is done.”
Elizbeth came out of her daydream, “yes…yes… you’re right, they look done.”
“Dad should be down soon.”
“Hopefully, don’t want his food to get cold.” She said with confusion, “what’s he doing, do you know?”
Danny laughed, “I don’t know what he’s up to. He’s crazy when in his crazy construction mood, I hate it.”
Back in the attic, Kiran was still trying to contact the man on the radio. “Why do I have to stay in this piece of shit, that’s why I work so I can get out of this house; this sure is a hell of a nightmare.”
The radio began to speak again, “hello, do you read me?”
“Hello, thank God you are alright.”
“of course, nothing fazes me.”
Kiran admired his bravery, “Do you know what’s going on?”
He spoke in a calm voice, “sit down if you’re standing because you might not believe me. Right, it’s some kind of riot in places I’ve seen.”
Kiran spoke in shock, “you mean to say that you’ve been outside?”
“Roger. Why? haven’t you?” “Well anyway, the worst things I’ve seen is definitely another person drinking another person’s blood, it’s crazy out there; it’s for the best that you don’t go out there.”
“Seriously? Then you mean that my son has seen someone kill a dog with his teeth?”
“Oh, I don’t doubt he’s seen that, much preternatural things that’re out there, trust me on that.”
Kiran reality was crumbling away, he thought he’d just left the matrix, or he was in the matrix. His last hope was that everyone was turning crazy and not the world.
“What is your twenty?”
Kiran was confused, “what do you mean?”
“Location?”
Kiran gave the man his location, “you hear all that? When you’re on the street, there’s a bright blue door, it’s the only one that’s blue. And we’ve boarder our windows.”
“Roger that.”
Elizbeth buttered the toast, put two slices of toast on each plate. “Done.”
“Smells beautiful, I love when you cook a fry-up.” Danny loved his mums cooking, she said she was taught from her grandma, Danny could see the similarities with their food, but he was glad that was where the resemblance stopped.
Elizbeth put the plates of lovely food on the dining table. After this, she went to call Kiran down for breakfast.
Danny continued to think about his mother and great grandma. He always loved his grandma, although, he’d never understood her abnormal behaviour. The weirdest thing he seen his grandma do, was dipping bread into what she claimed was blood, and he would be stupid to not believe her, is what he thought.
“Kiran! Kiran!!” The noiseless upstairs landing continued. Elizbeth was beginning to get annoyed. “Kiran, hurry up, your breakfast will get cold.” Still no answer, “what is he doing?” She said to herself. She started to walk up the stairs and as she did, Kiran came down the attic stairs.
“I’m coming, babe.” Kiran’s face looked like he’d been in the mine shafts.
“Why are you in the attic? I thought you had a family to protect?”
“it’s not like I was hiding in the attic, I was trying to contact some help over the radio.”
Elizbeth had an imbecilically look about her, “if we need help, we can just ask a neighbour, didn’t you think of that.”
“The neighbours? Danny fucked that up, everyone in the neighbourhood hates us, have you forgotten already?
Elizbeth conceded that one, “do you really think we need help?”
Kiran didn’t know whether to tell her what the man on the radio said, “I’ll tell you later, like you said, our breakfast will get cold.”
The Ambrose family sat down for breakfast. As they did Kiran noticed his bacon was perfect, crispy as a burnt body, so much fat you’d think his life goal was to be a type two diabetic, but he also noticed that Danny wouldn’t even look at him. “How’s your breakfast, son?”
Danny didn’t reply, he was surprised his dad even tried considering he’d treated Danny so awfully. However, Danny wasn’t surprised that his dad did treat him like that, Kiran was always temperamental when it came to Danny. Danny felt like his dad always regretted having him.
“Boy! I’m talking to you.” Kiran couldn’t be bothered with stress, “look, son. I won’t bother you, but I will say this one thing.” Kiran sat up like a Spanish question mark and said, “you were brave last night, if I was your age and I’d seen them bats… well let’s just say I wouldn’t have saved my dad in that situation. I would have cried and accepted his death. You didn’t though. You saved me. And I’m so proud of you for that and thankful, I truly am.” Kiran could see that his son was not reacting to how he would have thought but continued speaking, “the way I treated you after what I did was terrible, and I’ll never forgive myself son.
Danny continued looking at the floor, thinking about a time where he and his mum was alone and away from his dad.
“Okay boys, shall we eat.”
As the family was tucking into their food, a bang at the front door, “who’s that?” Elizbeth asked.
The banging continued, though this time it was followed up by a voice, “help me please!” The stranger sounded in panic, “open up, something is chasing me!”
The family was concerned to who it was, especially considering the streets had been silent for the past two weeks.
Danny asks, “shall we let him in?”
Elizbeth asks, “what do you think, babe?”
Kiran looks gone out, “I… I don’t... I don’t know!”