A Promise of Fire

Albert stirred in he and his siblings cramped bed. He couldn’t sleep, and he groaned as his big brother spun around, stealing the blankets from him. Their parents had said that come next year, if all goes well, they’d be able to leave their current dingey apartment and move to a big house in the city proper, and that each of them would have their own bedrooms and their own beds. It all sounded wonderful, thought Albert; they’d finally leave the slums, and they wouldn’t need to huddle in after dark due to all those creepy ruffians who hung around late at night.

As Albert lay in his cramped bed, staring up at the ceiling as his brother’s raucous snoring rang in his ears, he heard the smallest tap at his window. It wasn’t too strange, thought Albert; birds and rats did occasionally pick away at their window, and they’d be gone soon enough, but the tapping was more rhythmic.

He poked his head up and saw his friend Elliot outside his window, gesturing for him to open it. Albert shook his head; if he got up, his brother and sisters would wake and tattle on him, but Elliot was awfully persistent and continued to rattle on the window.

Why would he come by so late, he thought? What did he want? Albert felt his brother shuffle around ever so slightly, and it gave him just enough room to creep out of bed. The dingey old floorboards creaked, but Albert knew where to step to keep those creaks from echoing throughout the apartment.

Once at the window, he opened it just a crack and whispered, “What are you doing?”

“C’mon! C’mon!” Elliot began to hop away down the street, not even waiting for Albert’s response.

The little boy would’ve been lying to himself if he said he wasn’t intrigued. Elliot often got him into trouble, but they always had fun together, and he always showed him the strangest things. He slowly opened the window just enough to allow him to crawl through, and then followed Elliot down the street, but the further he ran, the more Albert realized something odd about Elliot.

His eyes weren’t quite right, and the way his legs moved was strange. It was almost as if he didn’t look real; like he was a dream. Was he dreaming?

Elliot turned and ran down a dark alley. All he said was, “C’mon! C’mon!”

“Elliot, where are you—” Something was wrong. Albert’s words felt like they were caught in his throat. Then he heard a strange skittering. Out of the corner of his eye, Albert thought he saw a dog rush by.

A cold chill ran up Albert’s spine; he couldn’t move. What was going on? He tried to turn around, but it was as if something had wrapped itself around his legs. It yanked him to the ground.

He fell hard, cracking his chin on the cold stone street. His vision blurred, and Albert could taste a bit of blood in his mouth. He heard Elliot start to laugh, but it wasn’t a normal laugh, it sounded like three separate voices all laughing at once. Albert tried to scream, but just like before, it was muffled by something. He was surrounded by fog.

As Albert tried to crawl back home, he felt something grab hold of his other leg and drag him away. The last thing Albert remembered was the fog consuming everything around him, and that horrible, malicious laughter.