Sunday, 16 November 2014

NaNoWriMo 2014 - Week 3


This week saw me attempt something silly. Remember last week, when I said I'd have to catch up with my word deficit this weekend, due to working last weekend? Yeah, me too. I mean, how hard could it be? It's not like I'd be tired during the week and that word count would slip further, is it. Is it? Oh boy, did it. I woke up yesterday morning in the knowledge that to get back on track I had to complete over 8,000 words over this two days (I managed just over 3,000 on my first weekend).

Did I do it? Hell, yeah. Can I feel my fingers? What fingers?

Alfie is well and truly coming to life for me now, but so is everybody else. The world is getting richer, there are some funny moments and some sad moments. I really hope you are all still with me and wanting to see what the world has in store for Alfie when I've finished this challenge, but regardless, Alfie has a fan in me and I'm itching to see what he's going to do.

Here's the third scene, which follows on from the second scene, last week. And here's the first, in case you missed it. Trust me, this is only the beginning...


Clearing the site

The next few minutes were a blur. Looking back on it afterwards, Alfie realised that what he’d experienced was not what everybody else had experienced, but whichever way you saw it was both terrifying and awe-inspiring.
The old man had stood up and to Alfie’s eyes he had seemed to grow. It was almost as if the man had breathed in, but instead of just his chest expanding his entire body had filled up. He got bigger. He got taller. Alfie thought that if his father had stood right next to him at that point they would have been about the same size.
The world slowed again.
The old man closed his eyes and whispered one word ‘Ve-or-do.’ The ground reverberated with the word and it echoed long after it had left his lips.
All the pillars of Stonehenge lit up with the same green light that Alfie had seen before, a fine network of filaments emanating from the centre of each stone, but this time they had a purpose. The spider-webs of light crawled to the top of the stones and started to drip upwards, as if gravity had been reversed and the light was a fluid under it’s control.
The man opened his eyes and looked down at Alfie, a knowing smile on his lips.
Distantly, Alfie could sense his father’s grip tightening on his hand, slowly building to what could eventually become painful, showing him that his father was aware of something happening, on some level. The reaction was so very slow, though, that Alfie knew he was seeing things that would be over in the blink of an eye from his father’s perspective.
Behind the old man the upward flow of the light increased until rivers of it were streaming from each pillar, falling away into the sky. A sudden strong gust of wind whipped the old man’s cap off, his white hair flailing around his head, and continued in and around the stones, bringing the streams of light together into a single torrent.
The warm, cloudless sky went dark and foreboding as it suddenly bubbled with energy. A bolt of lightning crashed from nowhere, the thunder rolling over and under it, and huge ferocious clouds boiled into existence where the green light met the colder air high above the monument, hiding the sun.
‘Who else is here, with you?’ The old man’s words were right next to Alfie’s ear, even though neither of them had moved.
‘My mum and my sister,’ Alfie said, wondering how he was able to move his mouth or talk when everybody else was still moving so slowly, or why he wasn’t more scared of what was going on.
The man’s eyes flicked up and Alfie knew that he was registering his mother and his sister standing close by. The old man knew they were the ones and Alfie was aware of this knowledge, and aware of his own certainty that the old man knew it - it wasn’t guess-work, it was an unquestioning reality that was as obvious to him as his own name.
The old man sighed. ‘Of course.’
Time fell back into it’s regular rhythm and Alfie winced as his father’s hand crushed his.
The spectacular light show winked out and the old man was back to his normal size as the heavens opened and raindrops the size of pebbles suddenly hammered down from the dark clouds, drenching everyone and everything.
Somebody screamed as another lightning strike lit up the area, followed almost immediately by an enormous crash of thunder.
People began running towards the exit, trying to seek shelter.
Alfie’s father pulled him around and took his face in one huge hand, looking into his eyes, oblivious to the weather. ‘Are you ok?’ he said, concern etched on his face. Alfie nodded.
Alfie’s father hauled himself and Alfie up from the grass in one movement, looking round for his wife and daughter. They were being jostled by the people running to find cover and Polly was whimpering into her mother’s neck.
‘Laura,’ said Alfie’s father, holding out his hand to her, ‘let’s go.’
‘Yes, let’s get you somewhere dry,’ said the old man, moving up behind them. His hair was plastered to his head and the water was running into his eyes.
Alfie’s mother frowned at him, her eyes signalling her distrust. ‘Well, I don’t think-’ she began, when a huge bang exploded around them and the world lit up once again. ‘Or actually, that’s a brilliant idea. After you,’ she finished, pulling Polly tighter to her.
‘Right, follow me,’ he said, spinning on his heel and lifting the rope, gesturing to them to move under it.
‘What? You’re mad,’ said Alfie’s dad, ‘we need to get out of the rain, away from the storm.’
‘I assure you, this is the quickest way to getting dry,’ said the man. ‘I’ve been here a while and I know all the shortcuts.’
Alfie could see his father hesitating, unsure, when his mother nudged him in the back. ‘Just go, Nicholas.’
Grabbing Alfie’s hand, Nicholas Bird ducked under the rope and took it from the old man to allow his wife underneath while the man led the way.
Wiping the rain from his face, feeling it seeping into his trainers and even through his jeans as they followed, Alfie looked around at the last stragglers as the skies emptied onto them. Not a single one of them appeared to have noticed that there were a bunch of people heading into the monument, between the stones, they were all too concerned with their own wetness. This is a very strange day, he thought. 
Little did he know, the strangeness was only just beginning.


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