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CHAPTER ONE:
Three children were making their way across a busy, packed Leeds
high street. They walked huddled together; other people bustling them from side
to side. It was a major holiday in England and one of them, Starr, had thought
it would be a clever idea to go out shopping on that day and drag her two
friends along with her. As she inched along the street Starr solely regretted
her idea now. Both Reuben and Melanie were giving her glares at either side of
her and it wasn’t like she could hide from them; there was literally no way
through all of the people that were around them. She gave a little glance
towards Reuben and could see that he had a little cheeky smile protruding from
his mouth which meant he wasn’t all that angry at her. Starr felt a little
relief in that knowledge.
Reuben had been the
main one to back up Starr’s idea. Even though he knew there would be plenty of
people around he didn’t really mind that. He wanted to get out of his house
that he had been cooped up in for a few days. Needless to say he was growing
bored stiff. Another minute in the living room with his parents and he would
actually consider running away to live with his friends. He always liked to
have a sense of adventure and having to wade through a lot of people on a
Saturday afternoon was a lot more fun than he had been having all week as sad
as that sounded. Reuben looks over at his other friend Melanie with his eyebrow
quirked upwards in a questioning manner.
It wasn’t as if Mel
was angry at her or anything; she was just annoyed. Going around Leeds when it
was this busy wasn’t her idea of fun. She sees Reuben looking at her with a
questioning look and she knows that he doesn’t want her to be too harsh on
Starr. It’s hard though; just because Starr’s got some condition that will make
her make rash decisions and get them into situations such as this one it
doesn’t mean that it can be easy for Mel to just not get annoyed with her when
things don’t go according to plan. Mel ignores Reuben’s glance and instead
looks around for a gap of some kind so that they are able to figure out exactly
where they are. Mel spots an opening when two people part and there is a direct
route to a sign post. Mel turns back and prods Starr to get her attention.
Starr feels something
on her stomach area but just thinks it’s somebody in the crowd and ignores the
feeling. It’s not until she feels the same sensation again that she turns her
head to where the feeling is coming from and she sees Mel pointing somewhere.
When Starr follows to where she’s pointing she sees a signpost and nods and
gets Reuben’s attention. When all three of them are aware of their destination
they wait until an opening has been made again since the last one has closed
because of the time it took for them all to become aware of the signpost. After
a couple of minutes of waiting they all see an opening being made inbetween the
crowd of people. Without thinking too much all three of them race forward to
it.
The three of them get
to the opening but then something happens that makes them split up from one
another. When they are just about to get out of the crowd a swarm of people
intersect them and they have to think quickly on their feet. Starr pulls back
from the group and runs to the right where she can see a gap. Just as Starr is
making this manoeuvre Reuben is experiencing the same situation but has chosen
gap on the left of the group. It’s only Mel that keeps to the original plan.
Both Starr and Reuben think that if they just keep heading straight than they
will all find each other.
However, when all
three of them keep on running and have not seen any of their group they become
rather anxious and stop. All three of them are in dingy, dark alleyways and are
confused at how they got from here after being in a crowded city centre. Obviously
they weren’t thinking when they were navigating themselves and this was the
consequence of that.
They all look around
their alleyways to try and gain some sense of where they are. Both Reuben and
Mel deem themselves to know Leeds pretty well since they’ve lived there their
whole lives. Starr, however, is a little uncertain of the whereabouts of where
everything is in Leeds. Even though she has also been to Leeds quite a lot
during the time that she’s been friends with Rueben and Mel she hasn’t lived
here and she can be terrible with directions. She’s only ever confident when
she knows a place back to front after spending years there. When she doesn’t
know somewhere she can start to have anxiety attacks. As she looks around the
alley and has no recognition of it in her memory she feels the steady feeling
of dread that was spreading through her body. All she needed to do was try and
stay calm but that was easier said than done when you didn’t know where you
were or where your best friends had gone.
For a while all three
of them where looking around the alleys and they also looked behind them
thinking that they would recognise the street that they had come off from. No
luck; all three of the streets looked unrecognisable to all three of them. Even
Reuben and Mel couldn’t make them out; the streets seemed to be like the alley
that they were currently in. Like they were extended alleys or something.
Just when all three
of them thought they couldn’t get even more confused they noticed that there
seemed to be a sort of shimmering barrier that was a little further ahead of
them. It seemed to be like a water consistency and blue colour that came off it
when the light hit it at certain angles. There were different reactions off all
three of them to this barrier.
Reuben was the first
to step forward to examine it. Although he had a sense of adventure this trait
did make him reckless on occasions. He had the urge to go up and touch it but
there was something holding him back. He seemed to be having Mel’s voice in his
head telling him:
‘Don’t be so stupid
Reuben. You don’t know what that thing could do to you. You should turn back
now. Find Starr and I.’
In an act of
rebellion towards Mel and her rules Reuben decides to go head first into the
barrier void.
Mel does not react
how Reuben has imagined her to react to this barrier, however. She is cautious
of it and she wants to be as far away from it as possible. The only thing that
is keeping her from running the other direction is the notion that this barrier
may lead her to her friends and let them be reunited. She knows there is a very
slim chance of this happening to them but this is an act of desperation that
she’s never had to decide on before. Deciding on something that would make
Reuben shocked at her actions Mel backs up and starts running and takes a leap
once there is enough distance for her to safely land wherever this barrier
would lead her.
Starr takes a little
more encouraging to take the jump into the barrier. Her anxiety is increasing
by the second and she can’t seem to calm herself down. While she is currently
trying to do so she doesn’t hear the footsteps that are coming up beside her until
they are a couple of paces away. Starr pays attention to them when she finally
hears them and turns quickly to see who it is. Who she finds is someone she
wishes is not near her. A man is leering at her with what looks like a beer can
in his right hand.
‘Hello little girl.’
Is all Starr hears and needs to hear for her to suddenly launch into a sprint
and tear down the alley and straight into the path of the barrier.
When she reaches the
barrier the man that hasn’t moved from the spot that he had been in looks at it
in astonishment. He was sure there had been a girl there a minute ago. Now,
however, nothing remained. There was no sign of a girl anywhere. The man shakes
his head to try and remove the bizarre memory from his mind and mutters ‘I need
to stop drinking so much.’ He takes a swig from his beer can and throws it to
the floor and makes his way back to the crowded city centre.
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This is just the set up obviously but I did want an actiony scene. After this chapter I go into first person view points so I may showcase some of those chapters in the future. I'm on Chapter Seventeen if you're wondering where I am with the novel. Hope you enjoyed reading it.
Hope you have a great writing day,
Rachel x
