Just A Rainy Day

This post was inspired by - Muhammad Memon

His face was smeared in white paint, probably to conceal his identity, and he had a twisted moustache which made him look like a victorian killer. He had a torn, long leather jacket (buttoned up) with a discoloured teal scarf. The jacket he wore draped behind him as if it were a cape and flapped around with the howling wind. I scrambled up again but then out of nowhere, he grabbed a chainsaw, concealed in his coat, and (whilst revving it up) stabbed me in the chest! It felt like shards of ice being plunged into my flesh. My blood rushed to the wound and started spurting out, it felt like molten lava oozing out all over my body…

It was just supposed to be a normal Friday (just how it’s always been these days) and I had opened up my laptop to check for any new emails from school. The rain had been storming the area for some time now making everybody’s life miserable, preventing them from going to the beaches. “One hundred and seventeen emails! What in the world!” I whispered to myself in protest, “How am I supposed to finish all that. I… sometimes… end up doing work last minute before bed! Oh well..”. I checked the daily news to see for any new interesting articles and one that caught my eye was that of which a serial killer had escaped prison which led to the conclusion of cautioning people to not come out at late hours because of the incident i.e. an evening curfew. “Probably just some bogus wanna-be news program tryna attract attention..” I said and on I went with my work.

Later that day, sometime around 5 pm, I received a message from a friend, “Oh. It’s Muhammad from school,” I said, “finally someone to talk to!”. The rain had dispersed, the clouds had parted and the sun now barged in, conquering the sky with its hot rays.

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CHAT HISTORY:

MUHAMMAD: YO, WHAT U DOING

BARRY: NOT MUCH TO BE HONEST. JUST CATCHING UP WITH SCHOOL WORK

BARRY: WHAT ABOUT U?

MUHAMMAD: YE I WAS JUST SAYIN IF WE COULD JUST MEET UP TO GO TO FAIRLOP WATERS INNIT. 😃

BARRY: WHAT TIME?

MUHAMMAD: UMMM

MUHAMMAD: MAYBE 19:00?

BARRY: I DON’T KNOW, LEMME CHECK WITH MY PARENTS

BARRY: ONE SEC

5 MINS LATER

MUHAMMAD: … 😐

MUHAMMAD: ???

1 MIN LATER

BARRY: OH SORRY ABOUT THAT

BARRY: YEAAA, MY PARENTS SAID I CAN GO! 😄

MUHAMMAD: K DEN. IMMA START GETTING READY

MUHAMMAD: BYE

BARRY: BYE

BARRY: WWWAAAAAITT

BARRY: WHERE DO WE MEET AT?

MUHAMMAD: SAINSBURY’S?

BARRY: K THEN BYE

MUHAMMAD: BYE

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And so it was decided to go and meet at 7 pm. I dashed to my bedroom to put some proper clothes on (I was wearing my pyjamas) and ran to my laptop again. I knew that it would take him another hour to get here knowing that he lived further away from my house. And so I waited and waited and… waited -whilst being productive of course- until I thought he might’ve been in the area. It was now 7 pm and so I made sure all my work was saved and shut my laptop down. “Why is Barry leaving at the time of the appointment?” you’re probably asking. Well, it’s because my house ain’t that far from Sainsbury’s!

And so I left for the store. When I arrived, Muhammad was still nowhere to be found! I decided to walk into the store in the meantime and bought some yummy, scrummy chocolate doughnuts. I came out and saw Muhammad, standing with his bike, reenacting what I did before. I walked towards him, “Sup dude, long time, no see! Here, have some doughnuts.” I handed the bag over to him.

“Su-, oh thanks!” he said with gratitude. From there we cycled to Fairlop Waters. On our way out of the parking lot, we noticed a car following us… we knew it was following us because it had been 5 minutes and it was still ‘going the same way we were’. As soon as we realised this fact, we started pedalling as fast as our

legs could take us! “Maybe it was the serial killer everybody’s talking about… there was a pop-up on my laptop this morning. I don’t know man. It can’t be!” I thought to myself. However, I didn’t share my thoughts with Muhammad not wanting him to think I was a scaredy-cat.

We continued cycling for 5 miles on a sandy pathway until we reached the main part of Fairlop Waters. As soon as we reached the main centre of the park that most people knew about, we noticed that there weren’t as many people as there would usually be. We flabbergasted by the view. The sea which surrounded the land was like a flat pane of glass making the mood calm and tranquil and there was finally activity as we were in the part of Fairlop Waters that many people knew about. However, there weren’t as many as there usually was. The slight emptiness of the park felt depressing. Climbing rocks were deserted and zip lines that were for kids (the short rides on tires that are near to the ground) were empty. Empty chocolate and crisp wrappers/packets were blowing away in the wind as if it were a dead bush, rolling around in the desert. The roundabout was starting to rust from the lack of use and was turning on its own, with a haunting screech, in the subtle wind, as if it were carrying the ghosts of children that were there before. “Maybe the evening curfew is real because it seems that many people have listened to the warning?” I thought to myself in distress. All of the people were all rushing towards the exit! “Ummm. What’s going on!” I shouted to Muhammad.

“There seems to be something going on over there!” He screamed over the dramatic increase in noise whilst pointing over to the pathway we just came from. “It looks like the guy in the car who was following us!”

OR GO TO 'VOTE TODAY - make your idea become a story' POST AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

“Who do you think this dude is?!”I replied. I didn’t get an answer. I turned around to see where Muhammad was. I saw that he was already pedalling. “W-wait!!” I stuttered. I was calling for him repetitively. There were too many people in one place and were constantly pushing me which aggravated me a lot. I decided to go on foot.

He turned around after he had finally heard me, “ Barry, why are you all the way there! RUN!!”

“I don’t know I thought you were right next to me and I was talking to you!” I shouted back. I started running. The sun was setting, the sky red as if it were trying to make the situation much more intimidating. It ripped apart the clouds, slashing its red light across the ground like a crime scene with blotches of blood across the area. We ran for our lives once again.

Just at the worst time, when I needed it least, my asthma started kicking in! I was starting to wheeze a lot to the point my chest started to get tight making breathing even worse. My stamina dropped instantly and was now staggering, almost about to lose balance anytime. We kept running. It was dark. No one was in the park now except for us. There inconveniently was a twig on the floor, which I didn’t see, and was thick enough to make me trip over… and that’s exactly what had happened. I turned around. Nobody was there. Where was this guy? The clouds were black filled with rain, pouring over the expanse whilst raging with thunder. My fingers were rooted deep into the earth, the soil damp and cold. Its fingernails filled with dirt and dust. I knew that it was now or never to save my life. I leapt up and turned around to run again. I shouted, “MUHAMMAD!”. “MUHAMMAD!” I repeated. I noticed that the park was now empty, it’s playgrounds deserted. The wind softly blew at the swings causing them to swing, replacing what would have been the children. “MUHAM-!” out of nowhere the man pushed me putting me in shock of his sudden appearance. I was on the floor once again.

“Where do you think you’re going young man?” he said with an austere face. Everything seemed to go slow-motion. He wore a tarnished, emerald green cowboy vintage hat with a small feather stuck to the side (which had some small marks of blood). His crazed eyes, or should I say his eye, was dark brown, his pupils minuscule thus suggesting a mental craziness. The other was a glass eye with its lifeless light green colour as if he had ripped it out of a corpse of a zombie. His face was smeared in white paint, probably to conceal his identity, and he had a twisted moustache which made him look like a victorian killer. His torn, long leather jacket, buttoned up, with a discoloured grey scarf. The jacket he wore draped behind him as if it were a cape and flapped around with the howling wind. I scrambled up again but then out of nowhere, he grabbed a chainsaw, concealed in his coat, and (whilst revving it up) stabbed me in the chest! It felt like shards of ice being plunged into my flesh. My blood rushing to the wound and spurting out, it felt like molten lava oozing out over all my body. I screamed in agony not being able to comprehend what had happened. “This HAS to be a dream! NO WAY. I’m a dead man. I am a dead man… Not like this. Please no!” I gasped. I tried to regain my strength as fast as I could. ‘Why is he just standing there like he’s confident he’s gonna get me! I guess I am wounded.’ I tried running again for my life and started calling for Muhammad again. That’s when he came to save the day, pedalling towards me. When he reached me he said, “I was just hiding over there looking for the right time to come and get you.”

“You could’ve come sooner,” I grunted.

“Sorry, let’s take you to the hospital… you’re badly hurt,” he said quickly keeping in mind the man was relentlessly still chasing us. I went and sat on the seat whilst he was standing and pedalling at the same time.

“Soooo who do you think that guy was?” I asked.

“Uhhh. I think that was the serial killer they talked about on the news,” he replied hastily.

“Of course you knew. You always no everything! To be honest, I thought so too, I just didn’t want to believe it,” I said whilst trying to gulp in all the pain.

“Stop talking Barry! You’re wasting your energy which might make you die for goodness sake!” Muhammad exclaimed.

“Okay, okay! Take a chill pill man,” I laughed. We finally arrived at the hospital and waved goodbye when he couldn’t see me any more. ‘I am safe,’ I thought, ‘I am safe, I am safe, I am safe’ I repeated. A nurse entered the room with a clipboard covering their face as if they were reading it. “Hi! What’s your name?” they said.

“My name is Barry,” I said

“ Hello Barry!” they said whilst writing my name down. “What a lovely name. Would you like me to call your family?” they said. I thought about it for some time.

“Y-yes please,” I said as firmly as I could.

“Anything else?” they said.

“No. Thanks anyway,” I replied

“You’re moooossst welcome!” they said. That was strange. Why did they say it like that? The ‘nurse’ looked up from the clipboard with a big, wicked smile. “AHAHAHAAHA! AAAHHAHAHAAAHAAAA!” the ‘nurse’ cackled… it was the serial killer.

“OH GOD PLEASE NO, NO, NOOOOOO. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!”...