Lightning
Emily Steele
(Polesworth)
Chapter 1 – The Girl
The dim light poured through the window onto Ridley’s scarred face. Mist liked this always reminded her of the awful day.
Her cat, Loop, was brushing his tail around her ankles, yowling as loudly as he could. The drizzle became torrential in a second and it hammered against the window. A flash of lightning struck the lawn leaving a patch of sloppy brown mud. It would not be long before it hit the house.
But who was that in the garden? It was happening again. A girl with long black hair draped over her face reaching out for Ridley. She ran downstairs, through the French doors and out onto the lawn. The rain stopped instantly and the girl had vanished.
“Ridley!” shouted Dannika, Ridley’s older sister. “Get in now for dinner.”
“Coming,” Ridley spat through the rain.
Chapter 2 – The Bright Idea
After a long wide-eyed night, Ridley got up. She was tired and stressed. Her hair was knotted. Bags had formed under her stormy grey eyes and her stomach hurt.
Dannika’s friend Thomas was in France on an exchange so Dannika had to spend time with a boy named Jerome Montapanasse. When Thomas was assigned to leave, he asked Dannika to make Jerome feel welcome in England. Jerome was a strange boy with diminutive square glasses and cracked lips that were always pursed. Jerome always stared at Ridley, it was probably her scars.
Thunder and lightning was scheduled for the following nights in the week and Ridley kept seeing the girl in the garden, but she was getting closer. The thing was, it was always at 5.45pm that she came. Ridley decided to stay outside until she came.
Chapter 3 – The Monster
At 5.40pm, she was ready and before she knew it lightning struck and the girl appeared. Ridley lunged for her, but fell straight through her. When Ridley turned back to the girl she was a different person, a monster. Once black eyes were now glowing red and yellow knives now inhabited her mouth. Her fingernails were razor-sharp talons.
After a long rumble of thunder and a crash of lightning, Ridley’s world went black.
Chapter 4 – The Infirmary
Ridley woke up in a bright white room. She soon made out the figures scuttling around with bandages and plasters in hand. Sitting up, Ridley realised a boy her age was standing at the end of her bed. He uttered the words: “I am sure glad that you are alive.”
Ridley recognised Jerome and he explained that she had been found shivering in the pitch black garden and muttering about monsters. Ridley had a new scar on her face, but had no recollection of the events of that night until the following week when the mist returned…