Written for  Pancreatic Cancer UK – , raising awareness and fundraising after losing my dad to this terrible illness, November 2020.

Part 4 of 5

Joseph

After seeing all his friends leave, Joseph knew he had to do something.  They had been lulled into believing in a better place.   The shadow man was a Peter Pan figure taking them away to the Neverland.  He had to do something, he couldn’t tell a grown up or his friends will get hurt. He needed to make the conscious act of going with the shadow man and somehow bring his friend’s home.  Thinking of Hannah, he knew he should tell her, but realised that she would want to go instead of him.  His sister was brave, but this needed to be him, not her.

Sitting up in bed he waited for his night-time visitor, as the clock hits midnight the Shadow man always comes. Watching the hands as time ticks on, he feels nervous, scared that he wouldn’t be able to get home.  Knowing that he needs to focus on his mission he felt sick as the shadow descended.

Asking the man to take him to the ‘better place’ he took his hand.  Feeling a clammy sensation, the world around him changed, seeing all his friends a surge of excitement filled him.  They were all happy, all smiling, he knew he must bring them home but how? The world around him was beautiful but there appeared to be a tracing paper thick film around it.  He could see his garden, see his home in darkness.  Could he just walk through the tracing paper screen to home?

The better place

Feeling a sense of calm he observed his friends, they were talking and eating.  There was no sense of missing home or families.   Rosie and Billy were looking at him and pointing.  The shadow man was now a sturdy thick set character.  In this world he is more man than shadow.

“Joe, you made it, come and join us”.

“Rosie, what is this place?”

“Follow me.’

Walking away from the group, the land became grimmer. There were children sat along the path, no longer laughing.

“We need to be away from the shadow.” She said quietly, “he is dangerous”.

The Cave

Reaching a steep ravine, we climbed down slowly.  At the bottom the rocky landscape opened up to a large cave.

“He doesn’t come here, and we need to talk.  Things were meant to be good here, but they aren’t.  Billy asked to go home, he got angry with him.  The Shadow has a plan, all of us are trapped here.  This cave is the best place I’ve found to be away from him. “

“When I arrived, I could see my home through a strange film.  Can’t I just walk back through it?”

“Joe, I haven’t seen anything like that.  I just see this place. Why did you come?

“I came to rescue everyone.”

“So, you didn’t come to stay at the better place like I did.”

“No, I need to get home and so does every child here.  All the parents are devastated.”

A need for a plan

Rosie thought for a moment.

“Every child here wants to leave, but we need to stop the Shadow from crossing back to our world and bringing others over.  How can we stop him?”

“He’s not human, is he?”

“He seems to be here, can we overpower him?”

Joe thought for a moment, the Shadow is a thickset man.  This is going to need a well put together plan to either disable or kill him.

“Are we the oldest here?”

“Yan is the oldest, he is fifteen.”

“How big is Yan?”

“He is my mum’s height, he might have more chance of bringing him down.”

“Rosie, what I’m wondering is, if we all joined hands, would I be able to walk everyone back home? We need to stop the Shadow.  As we are all children and the youngest maybe toddlers, we need a well thought out plan.”

“We need to talk to Yan.  He might have friends here who can help.  We also need to make sure that we rescue every child.”

“We could poison him, leave him here and no one will find his body as they can’t cross over.”

“Rosie where actually are we?”

“I think it’s a parallel world, all designed by the Shadow.”

“Okay, we are only eleven, but we are going to get home, we have to!”

Written for A story a day for Pancreatic Cancer UK

Here is my fundraising page, if you would like to donate.  Any size donation is appreciated.