*****
Death's house can be a lonely one
So be sure to bring your friends
So be sure to bring your friends
I presume you're not aware of the reason that children are afraid of the dark? The being scared in itself is not my subject here, but more the reason for being scared.
It is the Changelings. They are the reason that children are afraid of the dark. You yourself will have met one once - everyone has - but you will never be able to remember them. Changelings; an apt name, since they change something about every child they meet. The weak children, the Changelings kill - you've heard of the mysterious child deaths, haven't you? The strong ones, you, sicne you are alive to read this, will be given a gift. The gift can be cruel though, and is not always a good thing. A Changeling can give you a wonderful singing voice, but they can send you mad as well.
Changelings are messengers of Death - that is their sole reason for being on Earth; to invite the recently departed to Death's house. They are mean and heartless though, and visit young children at night to tell them of their deaths - that is what scares them. Of course, if too many adults knew about this, they could follow the Changelings back to Death's house. Death cares not for the living, dislikes them even, so a spell was cast to make us forget. Children know that they are scared of the dark, but can remember nothing more than writhing shapes in the darkness, and a tiny voice that whispers to them not to talk. And sicne Changelings are winged creatures, they aren't the monsters under your bed. They're the ones that climb in through your window and hang off your ceiling.
The Changelings are not the only creatures of Death's house; among others are the Yaghs, that howl in pain when the wind blows, and the Vanishers, which hide your things when you aren't looking, and feed off your sanity.
The Changelings, however, are the most common, since they are sent on errands for Death. And for a while now - fourteen years in fact - the Changelings had been on a rather long, arduous one. Watching a girl.
Ruby Cole was, though a little eccentric, a mostly normal person. Heart-shaped face, slightly wavy black hair, a slight frame and large grey eyes as clear and cold as ice.
On one particular morning - a Wednesday, if you're interested - Ruby was on her way to school. It was mid May, and therefore Science GCSE time, so Ruby's mind was halfway between the cars and sodium chloride as she dashed across the roads.
As distracted as she was, and though she didn't immediately think of it as unusual, Ruby still saw the two black shapes whizz past her as she began to cross the last main road before school. The black shapes exploded against the windscreen of a car in a puff of black smoke the driver didn't see. Behind the driver, the two black shapes re-emerged, hovering on the car's back seats. As the driver sped along, an odd, tentacle-like thing sprouted from each, and they wrapped themselves around the driver's neck.
It all happened very fast then.
Ruby had just reached the exact middle of the road when a tiny voice told her to turn. In that split second she saw several things: the driver's eyes, bulging out of his head, mouth open wide in a silent scream. Something around his neck . . . a ring of smoke? Ruby didn't have time to react. The car slammed into her bare legs, sending her flying backwards over the car. She landed with a dull thud, and a loud cracking noise as her head hit the tarmac.
In a haze of pain, Ruby lay still as people stopped and began to get out of their cars. A black thing floated above her. It seemed now, almost human-shaped, with a tiny body and a huge head. Ruby felt the ground vibrate as several people rushed over.
"Call an ambulance!" someone cried. The black shape drifted down, closer.
"Can you hear me? Hello?" Ruby was oblivious to the person talking, oblivious to the shooting pain, almost. It could have been some kind of reaction produced by shock, as the scientific part of her wondered, but all Ruby cared about at that moment was the shape. But tiny hovering people didn't really exist, did they? Ruby blinked, trying to clear her vision.
"She's alive!" someone yelled. Ruby looked up again. It was still there. As she watched, paralysed, it floated down until it was right in front of her, nose to nose. The thing was like nothing Ruby had ever seen. It had a football-sized head, taken up entirely by bat-like pointed ears, huge yellow eyes like a cat's, and an enormous mouth the shape of a watermelon slice, filled with large, triangular pointed teeth.
Though she supposed most normal people would be, Ruby was not afraid of it. In fact, she got a strange sense of deja-vu. It leaned in close and whispered to her.
"Def sez she wanz yew a huh pless." The voice was high-pitched, like that of a toddler, but in a way, unnerving and wrong. Like the bad wolf dressed as a puppy. Ruby shivered. The thing winked at her, and giggled. Why had nobody noticed it? Ruby was sure that someone must have seen it, someone in the crowd surrounding her. Then, in the distance, she heard sirens. Was it getting dark? A woman in a luminous yellow paramedic coat appeared above her. But they looked so small . . . small? Ruby realised; darkness was not falling - she was being pulled into the ground! It seemed though, as Ruby began to panic, that though her insides were leaving, her body was staying behind. Ruby could see her eyelids, like small windows, shrinking in the distance as she was pulled down, down,
down,
down,
down ....
It is the Changelings. They are the reason that children are afraid of the dark. You yourself will have met one once - everyone has - but you will never be able to remember them. Changelings; an apt name, since they change something about every child they meet. The weak children, the Changelings kill - you've heard of the mysterious child deaths, haven't you? The strong ones, you, sicne you are alive to read this, will be given a gift. The gift can be cruel though, and is not always a good thing. A Changeling can give you a wonderful singing voice, but they can send you mad as well.
Changelings are messengers of Death - that is their sole reason for being on Earth; to invite the recently departed to Death's house. They are mean and heartless though, and visit young children at night to tell them of their deaths - that is what scares them. Of course, if too many adults knew about this, they could follow the Changelings back to Death's house. Death cares not for the living, dislikes them even, so a spell was cast to make us forget. Children know that they are scared of the dark, but can remember nothing more than writhing shapes in the darkness, and a tiny voice that whispers to them not to talk. And sicne Changelings are winged creatures, they aren't the monsters under your bed. They're the ones that climb in through your window and hang off your ceiling.
The Changelings are not the only creatures of Death's house; among others are the Yaghs, that howl in pain when the wind blows, and the Vanishers, which hide your things when you aren't looking, and feed off your sanity.
The Changelings, however, are the most common, since they are sent on errands for Death. And for a while now - fourteen years in fact - the Changelings had been on a rather long, arduous one. Watching a girl.
Ruby Cole was, though a little eccentric, a mostly normal person. Heart-shaped face, slightly wavy black hair, a slight frame and large grey eyes as clear and cold as ice.
On one particular morning - a Wednesday, if you're interested - Ruby was on her way to school. It was mid May, and therefore Science GCSE time, so Ruby's mind was halfway between the cars and sodium chloride as she dashed across the roads.
As distracted as she was, and though she didn't immediately think of it as unusual, Ruby still saw the two black shapes whizz past her as she began to cross the last main road before school. The black shapes exploded against the windscreen of a car in a puff of black smoke the driver didn't see. Behind the driver, the two black shapes re-emerged, hovering on the car's back seats. As the driver sped along, an odd, tentacle-like thing sprouted from each, and they wrapped themselves around the driver's neck.
It all happened very fast then.
Ruby had just reached the exact middle of the road when a tiny voice told her to turn. In that split second she saw several things: the driver's eyes, bulging out of his head, mouth open wide in a silent scream. Something around his neck . . . a ring of smoke? Ruby didn't have time to react. The car slammed into her bare legs, sending her flying backwards over the car. She landed with a dull thud, and a loud cracking noise as her head hit the tarmac.
In a haze of pain, Ruby lay still as people stopped and began to get out of their cars. A black thing floated above her. It seemed now, almost human-shaped, with a tiny body and a huge head. Ruby felt the ground vibrate as several people rushed over.
"Call an ambulance!" someone cried. The black shape drifted down, closer.
"Can you hear me? Hello?" Ruby was oblivious to the person talking, oblivious to the shooting pain, almost. It could have been some kind of reaction produced by shock, as the scientific part of her wondered, but all Ruby cared about at that moment was the shape. But tiny hovering people didn't really exist, did they? Ruby blinked, trying to clear her vision.
"She's alive!" someone yelled. Ruby looked up again. It was still there. As she watched, paralysed, it floated down until it was right in front of her, nose to nose. The thing was like nothing Ruby had ever seen. It had a football-sized head, taken up entirely by bat-like pointed ears, huge yellow eyes like a cat's, and an enormous mouth the shape of a watermelon slice, filled with large, triangular pointed teeth.
Though she supposed most normal people would be, Ruby was not afraid of it. In fact, she got a strange sense of deja-vu. It leaned in close and whispered to her.
"Def sez she wanz yew a huh pless." The voice was high-pitched, like that of a toddler, but in a way, unnerving and wrong. Like the bad wolf dressed as a puppy. Ruby shivered. The thing winked at her, and giggled. Why had nobody noticed it? Ruby was sure that someone must have seen it, someone in the crowd surrounding her. Then, in the distance, she heard sirens. Was it getting dark? A woman in a luminous yellow paramedic coat appeared above her. But they looked so small . . . small? Ruby realised; darkness was not falling - she was being pulled into the ground! It seemed though, as Ruby began to panic, that though her insides were leaving, her body was staying behind. Ruby could see her eyelids, like small windows, shrinking in the distance as she was pulled down, down,
down,
down,
down ....
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