Creep Street (11 page)

rom somewhere deep in your memory you recall a piece of advice about dogs. It's . . . what is it? Yes, now you remember. ‘Play dead!' you yell at your mother. ‘Lie down and play dead. They won't be interested in you then.'

She looks a bit doubtful but the dogs are almost on top of you and there isn't much choice. You both quickly throw yourselves on the ground and shut your eyes. An instant later you can feel the hot breath of the dogs on your face. One of them seems to be about a centimetre from you. You give yourself up, but nothing seems to be happening. Then you hear Stacey say to her mother: ‘Come on, we might as well go back. We can safely leave them to the dogs.'

You hear their footsteps as they walk off. You still don't dare open your eyes, though. Over to your left you hear some funny scuffling noises. To your right your mother whispers, ‘What's happening?'

‘Shh,' you say, ‘don't move, whatever you do.'

After about three minutes something strange happens. You feel the dog's hot breath again. You lie doggo . . . sorry, you lie still. Then, to your amazement, the dog picks you up in its giant jaws. Wow, are these dogs ever strong. Lucky you didn't try to fight them. You'd have had no chance. But brains outwit brawn every time, that's what you tell yourself. The dog's dragging you over some rough ground. Then it drops you. You fall about two metres, which is further than you expected. Very strange, this. Suddenly dirt starts showering on your face. Now at last you open your eyes. And now at last you realise what's happening. There's one important fact about dogs that you completely forgot. Oh oh. Big mistake that. Big big mistake.

Yes, the one important fact that you forgot is that dogs like to bury fresh meat for a week or two before they eat it. Whoops. Was that ever a big mistake!

rantically you start dancing on the spiders, stomping them with your Docs. Stomp stomp stomp. You're inventing a new dance, but it's getting messy. The faster you do it the faster they keep coming at you. Soon the floor is slippery with the squished black bodies and the pools of spider blood. It's getting harder to keep your balance. A couple of times you nearly go over, skidding on the slimy crushed arachnids. And then suddenly you're down. Your arms are flailing wildly, but there's no hope. Before you know it you're lying on the cold marble floor. You banged your head when you fell, so you're slightly concussed. You lie there, unable to move. You hear Stacey's maniacal laughter. Then you feel the spiders starting to crawl all over you. There's one in your earhole and dozens swarming onto your arms and legs, then one coming up each nostril. You try to blow your nose but it's too late for that. You roll around trying to dislodge them but it's too late for that too. You can feel the ones inside your nose starting to eat into your head. They're all over your face and somehow a couple of them get into your mouth. There's more pain, red-hot pain, as they start taking chunks out of your tongue. You try to scream but there's just a gurgling noise. Then you see Stacey standing over you. ‘Help me, Stacey,' you want to say, but your tongue's half-eaten. She leans forward. Her face has turned evil, dark, frightening. She hisses at you: ‘I sentence you,' she says, ‘to suffer these torments for ETERNITY.' You feel yourself spinning through a horrifying sickening vacuum. The spiders are still biting you, eating you, devouring you. You keep spinning through the vacuum. After a few hours of that you realise you'll keep spinning through it forever.

Eternity is a long long time.

ith Stacey and her father hot on your heels you grab the rope and start wriggling up it like your shoes are on fire. As you do so you hear a bell ringing. It's immensely loud and it's coming from right above your head. In fact it feels like it's ringing right in your head. Either this is the biggest headache you've ever had or else there's a big bell that's very very close to you.

Then you realise what's happening. It's the church bell you hear and you're ringing it by climbing the rope! Hot diggity! The whole district must be hearing this! In fact even through these thick walls you can hear dogs barking. You're not going to be popular with the neighbours! But then you realise that this might work for you. It might scare away Stacey and her dad.

The rope is shaking violently. You look down. About two metres below your feet is Stacey. About two metres below her is her father. They're climbing fast. The sight of them gives you a lot of motivation. You start climbing twice as fast. It's hard to hang on, the way this rope is swinging backwards and forwards. The noise of the bell is deafening. You've heard of people getting ringing noises in their heads; now you know what they mean. Your arms are so tired and sore. You look down again. Stacey is just as close as she was before, but her father looks a little tired. You get a glimpse of his face, red and sweaty. Your own hands are sweaty too. The rope starts to slip through your fingers. Oh no! You thought you were in trouble before! Now things are really getting serious! If you fall from this height you're a dead duck. Can you hang on or not?

or a second, nothing happens. In fact Stacey starts turning around, saying, ‘Come on, get a move . . .'

But that's all she has time to say because, at that moment, the entire bridge collapses under them. The whole thing just drops, without the slightest warning. One moment they're standing there, the next moment they're both in the water, splashing and spluttering and shouting. For the first time you notice that the water is smelly and stagnant, a kind of repellent green colour, like vomit that's a few weeks old. It's not very nice.

You and your mum think it's quite nice, though. You stand there laughing and having a little chat about their swimming styles. You leave them in there for about ten minutes. When they're totally exhausted, sinking for the third and last time, you kindly drag them out, tie them up, then send for the police. The police are very glad to see them. It turns out they're wanted in four different countries for crimes ranging from kidnapping to theft, to parking in a disabled zone without a permit.

By the time you and your mum pick up all the rewards from all the different countries, you can afford to move to a better house!