Duck

Penny was eating duck. Crispy Peking Duck, from the Chinese just around the corner. Her mum had run out to get it a few minutes ago, but it had still only got to her at nine. It wasn't very good, but Penny was so hungry that she was wolfing it down.

"You'll get indigestion" warned her sister, Meg. Penny looked up at her older sister, but there was no sign of her eyes moving away from their small  TV, which was showing a rather fuzzy X Factor. She laughed at the man on the screen, who was murdering ...Baby One More Time. "Don't you just love the auditions?"

Personally Penny preferred the live shows. It was then when you saw the real talent, and not just a load of attention seekers who were tone deaf. Penny finished her duck and brushed the last crumbs off her lap. Their house was full of clutter; magazines, left over food, empty bottles. She scanned the living room and found her make-up bag. She began the long process of re-doing her make up, applying some foundation here, a little lip gloss there.

Meg looked up at her. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Yeah, me and Chrissie are going to the club downtown." she replied."I heard that Oscar's going to be there!" Oscar was the one. Penny was sure of it. She just needed him to work it out and it would be all good.

"Well are you going to tell mum?" Damn it. Penny had hoped her parents wouldn't notice. But that wouldn't be a problem if Megan ratted her out.

"Wait, Meg don't..." Too late. Her older sister had leapt up and ran out the room to find their mother. The TV screen flickered as Dermot O'Leary congratulated an exceptionally good performer. But Penny wasn't even looking at their tiny TV set as their mother was pushed into the room by Meg.

"I think Penny's going out tonight. Had she told you? What are you going to do about it?" Meg's voice was strong and demanding, but at the same time quiet and soft, like she was talking to a small child. And in a way their mother wasn't much better.

" Oh it's okay Pen, you can go out if you want. What does it matter to me?" Meg let out a sigh of desperation, but their mother spoke in the same depressed tone as always. It was very likely that she really didn't care.

The doorbell rang. Penny could see her best friend Christina stood outside, looking amazing as usual. She grabbed her coat.

"Ooh, I'll go tell your father you're going out."

"No, mum, you don't have to..." Meg began but their mother had already left. Penny darted out into the hall and through the front door, hoping to escape the fireworks. When she looked back she saw Meg give her look of disappointment and Penny hated herself for leaving her sister behind.

"Let's get out of here" she said to Christina as soon as she was on the drive. Penny knew Christina was always nervous when she came to this neighbourhood. Behind her the shouting had begun; loud but incoherent . A bottle flew through the open door before Penny had time to close it and smashed above her head. She brushed the glass out of her hair and quietly closed the door. That was the thing when your mother suffered from depression and your father was always drunk. You had to know when to duck. 

The Dreamstealer

This is my first post, and my first short story. Please leave comments to show me what you think and to tell me if there was anything you think could be better.

I didn't dream last night. Or the night before. Or the one before that. Now for most people, that's not a worry, they just get up in the morning and hurry on with their lives. But not me. I lie there in bed staring at the ceiling wondering why everything has changed. Because you see, I used to dream a lot, every night in fact. I would have all sorts of odd dreams with everything from purple pen monsters to failing exams. They were the most weird and wonderful dreams about things that the ordinary person cannot even imagine. And now they're gone. And I think it might have something to do with the last dream I ever had.

I was walking down a long corridor. I knew there was danger just through the door at the end, but for reasons unknown I could not turn around. I just kept walking down the corridor with its cold dank walls and that smell, the smell that always reminds you of death. I was moving unwillingly, desperately trying to turn around but my feet somehow put themselves in front of each other as I was pulled closer to the dark metal door at the end, the door behind which there was doom, death and destruction.

And suddenly I was there.

The door creaked open all by itself and I crept through, my eyes closed so that I wouldn't have to see the room at the end of all things. What came was worse than any sight that can be seen by human eyes. A pair of ice cold hands grabbed my throat, their grip as strong as iron. I opened my eyes in shock but only saw a blur of grey stone and metal, bright white lights and deep black shadows, as I was thrown across the room. I landed hard in a cold metal chair, a bit like the one at the dentist's, only this was much scary than any filling I'd ever had. Bands of hard cold steel wrapped themselves around me and I just sat there trying to breath.

I found myself in a room full of metal instruments, the purpose of which I had no idea. The walls were made of a smooth dark grey stone that was dripping cold fetid water and smelled of mould. I could hear something moving around out of sight, in one of the shadows. Everything was black and white, like I had fallen into an old horror movie. My heart was racing with fear and I was breathing hard. But the scariest part was the pain. I thought dreams weren't supposed to hurt? Yet I hurt so much, the pain in my back from hitting the chair and the steel bands were tight, digging into me. The pain made it feel real. It made it impossible.

The thing in the corner moved. To my surprise, a man stood up and walked over to me. He wore a black lab coat and had dark hair but very pale white skin, black on white again. He looked almost normal, nearly safe. But something wasn't right. He didn't seem... human.

"Don't worry child, you're only here to help me with a little task, and then you can go" he said. His voice was reassuring but I was even more scared. What was this mysterious task? I had a horrible feeling it wasn't going to be fun.

Then my world was filled with light. Not the good warm light that reminds you of bonfires and sunny summers. It was the cold harsh light that everyone sees at some time in their life. Just before they die. The room, the smell, even the pain vanished. All that was left was the blinding light that I couldn't blink away and his cold sinister voice.

"You see I cannot survive on the solid diet you humans crave. I eat something a little more... interesting." Then it began. The horrible, heart wrenching pain. If I could have screamed I would have.  It felt like a part of me was being ripped away. Being eaten. The last thing I heard was a whisper, but it was all around me.

"And you're such a good dreamer..."

And then I woke up. Now I look back it's not really that scary. It was only a dream. And what can a dream do to me?

But I didn't dream last night.