The One You Shouldn't Let In [2/9]
Our teenage hero ropes his friend in to help investigate the menacing entity
Previously Jay was startled awake at 3 am, his curiosity drew him onto a dark street in search of the origin of a very real menacing sensation
In the school refectory, the clatter of lunchtime was loud. Alex and J slid their trays onto a table in the middle of the room. As they sat, J cast his eyes around looking for Laurie, before locating him sitting alone.
“Look at him,” J nodded in Laurie’s direction.
Alex turned his head, but did not stop chewing macaroni cheese.
“What about him? Why the big interest in Laurie?” Alex continued shovelling the pasta into his mouth.
“Well he’s a popular guy sitting alone, for one,” J counted off on his fingers. “He’s not eating… and he looks like a zombie today!”
This caught Alex’s attention. He turned to stare at Laurie.
“He does look odd, now you mention it … like ….. I dunno, like he’s zoned out.”
J picked at his baguette and studied Laurie. He couldn’t shake the idea that his behaviour today had a connection with what he had dreamed last night.
All through the school day J puzzled over the mystery of what might be wrong with Laurie, and whether his dream had any bearing on it. As he and Alex trudged home from school, he decided to confide in his friend. Describing the dream made him feel the dread chill again, as cold and threatening as it had been last night. Alex was agog, but equally confused by what it could mean.
They parted ways at Alex’s house, agreeing to discuss things more tomorrow at school.
However, Jay did not get through the night without incident.

It was pitch black, the clock read 3.03 am and he jolted awake with the same bad feeling. In the gloom he listened, but heard nothing. J cast his mind back, as he had the previous night. What about the dream had woken him?
In this dream, J ‘found’ himself in a garden. A curved path glowed faintly silver in the moonlight, and he followed it towards a house. He wasn’t sure whose home it was, although it seemed familiar. As he got closer he saw that the glazed back door was slightly open and something made the hairs at the back of his neck begin to prickle. At the door he listened to the silence of the house… but it wasn’t silent. He heard faint sounds of crying.
Despite badly wanting to run away, J stepped over the threshold into the kitchen. Moving cautiously into the room, the sobbing noise continued, but seemed closer. Looking round the kitchen, which was lit by the glow from the oven’s digital clock combined with moonlight, he could discern a hunched figure in the corner — a pale nightdress and long dark hair.
Drawing a little closer he put his hand out to touch the girl’s shoulder — and found he remembered her. Katie Thomson. They had become friends at primary school, encouraged by J’s Mum and hers who’d befriended one another at spin class. He didn’t see Katie much around school, only in art class, but it explained why the house was familiar.
As his fingers brushed her back, she whipped round, cheeks streaked with tears and a fearful expression.
“Did you see him?”
“Who?” J looked over his shoulder with dread.
Katie was distraught, clutching his arm so her fingers dug in painfully.
“Him — he was here.” Her eyes scanned the shadowy room.
“There’s no one here but us. “
J wanted to reassure her, but she went to the back door. Shutting it, she turned the key in the lock, leaning with her back against it she held the key tightly.
“They let him in,” she said, her whole body shaking with silent sobs.
The bright daylight hurt his eyes. Having opened the blind, his dad headed downstairs, calling:
“Breakfast is on the table. We’re running late.”
J could hardly grasp that his vivid encounter with Katie, so real one moment, was gone the next, part of a dream. He scrambled through his morning routine, eager to see Alex and share his experiences.
His friend picked up on his urgency. Grabbing his rucksack he was out of the house in moments. When they fell into step, Alex turned to look at J.
“Spill. I can tell you’ve had an idea.”
“Not an idea, another dream,” J replied.
“About Laurie? Did you see the creep he was talking about?”
“No, not Laurie. This time about a girl — do you know Katie Thompson?”
Alex shook his head, she had not hit his ‘radar’. “Is she fit?”
“Fit? I dunno. I’ve known her since infant school, I don’t think of her that way. I was at her house — in the dream I mean.”
J paused for a moment, wary of 2 boys in red blazers waiting at the kerb. Once they’d passed a glossy laurel hedge and walked out of earshot, he resumed the story.
“Katie was crying and really upset. She said the same sort of thing as Laurie — that he had been there, that someone had let him in.”
“Did she say who?”
“No — she wasn’t clear on that. But she looked absolutely terrified — and that creeped me out.”
“So we’re no nearer to working out who they’ve seen.” Alex was puzzled, “Why d’you keep dreaming about it? Ever had dreams like this before?”
“No, never.”
The boys were nearly at the bottom of the hill, where Tower Lane intersected with the High Street. They turned in through the school side gate. Agreeing to talk later, each headed off in a separate direction, Alex straight for the gym. J took the path to the Science block, passing kids he barely knew. Snatches of conversation swirled around him, and that’s when he heard something that made his blood run cold. A redhead, whose name he didn’t know, had a nasal voice that reached him quite clearly.
“I can’t believe her, stuck-up cow! Walked straight past me. Don’t I always wait for her at the corner of Gladstone Road? “
Her friend nodded.
“ She sailed straight past me like the flipping queen — never looked at me. I thought it was a joke at first, right? Thought Katie would turn round and tell me to ‘keep up’ or something. But no — miss fancy pants kept right on walking to school, didn’t look back once. Well, she can stick it! I ain’t being made to look stupid.”
“Shhh,” the redhead’s companion obviously didn’t want the tirade overheard.
“I won’t shush. She’s a moody piece of work that Katie Thompson.”
The redhead radiated fury as she marched off, still talking.
“I bet it’s because I bought the same bag as her — I told her I wouldn’t use it for school, but she has to be different.”
She made the quotes gesture with her index fingers then flicked her hair back defiantly. Her quieter friend hurried them towards class.
Now J had a strong urge to see Katie for himself. He peered into the glass circle of each classroom door that he passed, hoping to locate her. No sightings, she wasn’t on this corridor. All he achieved was getting himself marked late on the register by Miss Read.