Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #18 September 2015 | Page 79

feel the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. Surely
she couldn’t have missed that. There was something
strange going on.
The other kids didn’t seem bothered by the
dirty old tunnel, torches swaying, shouting and laughing, they all followed Joe, except Pete, he always
stood lookout. Jayne reluctantly fell in behind the
others. She’d done her bit, but curiosity pulled her forward, and Pete was mean. No way was she staying on
her own with him. The tunnel, that hadn’t been there,
was quite big, there was plenty of room for everyone.
The brick floor, even and free from obstacles, led to an
open, vault-like space. It felt big even in the dark. The
other kids quietened; no one seemed to know what to
do next.
Dotted around thearea were several piles of
boxes, separated by small, wooden partitions. In front
of the boxes was a small man. He was smoking a
long-stemmed, old-fashioned pipe. He had long grey
hair and looked shabby. The old green coat he was
wearing had a frayed hem that splayed around him,
a pool of tattered jade, as he sat cross-legged in the
centre of the room.

“Rules? There are no rules. We are taking the
boxes, and that’s all there is to it,” scoffed Joe. “You
stay sat, and we don’t have a problem.” Joe nodded to
Kane and Dave. They moved forward to start gathering the little boxes.
But they didn’t get far. They seemed to hit an
invisible wall. Jayne almost laughed as she watched
the two big boys fumbling around, feeling at some
unseen barrier, looking for gaps. For a moment, they
reminded Jayne of that mime artist she’d watched in
town last summer, the freaky one with the white face.
The old man never said a word.
“Oi! What’s going on here?” demanded Joe, an
angry frown appearing between his eyes.
The other kids had started getting agitated.
This was weird; they didn’t like it. A couple of the
kids had already legged it back up the passage. Sharon
had moved back to stand beside Jayne and was being
quiet for once. Kane looked at Joe, shrugged, and
pulled Dave back to the group. There was safety in
numbers.

Jayne looked around at the silent kids. They
were all staring at the little old man, not sure yet how
to react to finding someone here, maybe even having
second thoughts about being here. As one they all
looked to Steve, waiting for his reaction. Steve stared
at the old man, chewing the inside of his lip, a habit
Jayne had noticed before ݡ