3
Sabre
“You coming to the shops, Jas?” Caleb asked Jason as they allowed the buzzing throng of students to push them out of the school gate. Caleb was talking about the multi-storey shopping complex across the road from the school. It consisted of a range of clothes stores, book shops, a news agency, a hardware store, some toy stores, a jewellers, the only grocery store for miles, eight cinemas and a food court as well as a separate Mc Donald’s next door.
“Can’t, I’m grounded,” Jason told him.
“What did you do this time?” Caleb laughed.
Jason shrugged. “To be honest, I can’t even remember.”
“Well, see ya,”
“Bye,” Jason said as Caleb, Tristan, Scot and Phillip crossed the road to the shops.
Jason set off on his half hour walk home through twisting streets that, at every corner you turned, revealed the glare of the setting sun. When he finally ambled down his drive way he heard his mother, Emma, and her boyfriend, Richard, arguing in the living room so he snuck around to the back door, not wanting to get caught up in the conflict. The back door led straight on into the kitchen, which joined onto the living room so Jason didn’t make a sound as he tiptoed through the kitchen towards the stairs.
Richard was yelling something about how Emma was always protecting someone or something… whatever it was, Jason didn’t care. They were always fighting about something and Jason was sick of it. He heard Richard slap Emma then silence overcame the tense atmosphere, broken only by Emma’s sobs. Jason didn’t dare look back as he put his foot on the first step of the stairs, his heart racing a million miles an hour.
“Jason,” Jason froze at the sound of his name then slowly turned around.
“Yes?” he croaked, barely able to talk because his heart had risen to his throat.
“You’re late, Mitchells already home and he walks the same distance as you,” Richard barked.
“Mitchell’s fitter than me. Mitchell has money for the bus. Mitchell was probably wagging today anyway. Why you think you can hit my mum then start on me, I don’t know, but you better get the hell out of my house before I- before I-”
“Jason,” Emma sobbed, she was shaking her head. Richard was smiling evilly. Then it clicked in Jason’s head and Richard confirmed his theory. “I’ll have you know that I pay the rent for this house so get your skinny backside up to your room before I boot it there myself.”
Jason stomped up the stairs and ran into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. He couldn’t wait until he was big enough to bash Richard but for now he was only a small twelve year old boy that couldn’t do anything about it. South Pine Village was in a tropical zone so the walk home was enough to sap Jason’s strength and leave him in a sweaty heap. He headed straight to the shower thinking of all the ways he could make Richard pay.
Compared to other women Emma was quite short; even Jason was taller than her by a few inches. Emma looked good for forty-two. She was just your average South Pine villager with tanned skin and brown hair but she had a uniquely friendly, plump face that seemed kind and motherly. Although he claimed he loved his X-box the most, Jason loved his mum more than anything in the world. This wasn’t the first time Richard had hit her, but it would be the last. Jason would make sure of that.
The shower was refreshing after the long, boring day at school and Jason relished the five minutes he could let the cool water run over him. When he stepped out of the shower he wrapped a towel around his waist then looked at his reflection in the mirror.
Despite his large appetite Jason was sort of skinny and average height for his age but he could pack a punch like hell. Last year he was the toughest kid in school. But that was primary school. Now he was at high school there was loads of guys who could beat the crap out of him if they wanted to. The hard part was getting them to not want to beat the crap out of him. Jason was a likable guy but sometimes he couldn’t resist having a go and people.
Jason retreated to his room where he got dressed then lay in bed for a while. He only closed his eyes for a moment then…
Jason was standing in front of a dead tree on a grass carpeted hill. The black sky spewed rain that felt as cold as ice on Jason’s face as did the wind that lashed around his body. This was the place he’d visited in his strange dream the previous night. The same voice called out to him. “Shiro, your path is chosen.” Jason felt a falling sensation and…
Jason jerked awake, beads of sweat running down his bare chest. He looked at his alarm clock to discover it was only six pm and he’d been asleep for more than three hours yet he felt even more tired than before. He heard his dog, Sabre, barking from the backyard. That was probably what woke Jason up.
Sabre barked continuously with the kind of aggression that Jason rarely heard in him. This gave Jason a feeling that there was something terribly wrong. He went down stairs. Ollie was on the couch watching the Simpsons. Jason could hear Mitchell talking on the phone to his girlfriend upstairs.
“Where’s mum?” Jason asked as the bad feeling in his gut grew.
“Out to dinner with Richard,” Ollie said without taking his eyes off the TV.
“Weren’t they fighting?”
“I dunno. Aren’t they always fighting?”
Jason opened his mouth to speak but Ollie cut him off. “That’s a rhetorical question, by the way. It means you don’t have to answer it.”
Jason scowled. “I know what a rhetorical question is, I’m not stupid.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“Git,” Jason muttered. He looked around at the eerily empty house; Ollie must be telling the truth. He headed outside to find Sabre, whose barks echoed through the open window.
The back yard was dark and the air was chilly. Jason went back in and grabbed a torch from the kitchen draw. He shone the beam of light onto the grass and searched for Sabre, whose black fur blended in with the darkness.
There he was, right by the barb-wire fence bordering the forest. On the other side of the fence was a danvere with its teeth bared and hackles up. It was pacing back and forth by the fence, its eyes on Sabre. Jason jumped out of his skin as the danvere leaped at the fence and let out a terrifying roar.
“Sabre,” Jason called shakily. “Come here, boy.” Sabre came to Jason’s side and bore his teeth at the danvere, giving it a low, throaty growl. Jason picked up a shovel that leant against the shed at the bottom of the garden and flung it at the fence. The danvere was not hurt or scared by it but it backed away into a bush so only the orange glow of its eyes could be seen.
Jason went back inside with Sabre. “Didn’t you hear Sabre barking?” he asked Ollie agitatedly.
“Yeah, so?”
“He was barking at this bloody huge danvere at the fence.”
“Really? Cool,” Ollie said, his eyes still on the TV.
“Cool?” Jason said, alarmed at his brother’s offhand attitude. “Ollie, have you ever seen one of those things?”
“Only on TV and in books and stuff. Why? Did it scare you?”
“That mother effer was big enough to jump the fence. You know what effect that would have on the world... well, the island?”
“It would eat a bunch of people, so what? The guys at the ACU would take care of it.”
“It would eat a bunch of people meaning us. And since when are the guys at the Animal Control Unit equipped to take down a danvere?”
“Why are you pestering me about this? Piss off.”
“Fine,” Jason went upstairs and played on his x-box while Sabre curled up on his bed. But he still had a bad feeling. What if Richard had taken Emma out to kill her or something? No, don’t think that. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. If he did, I’d kill him.
“Crap!” Jason yelled as he misjudged a corner and his Lamborghini slammed into a building. It was a corner that he always stuffed up and, quite irritated; he pegged the x-box remote at the wall. “Stupid poxy game!” Jason shut the game console off.
Jason grabbed his mobile phone off his bedroom floor. It would hurt giving his mum a call just to see if she’s alright. He dialled her number and it began ringing. Jason could hear singing; “I’m walking on sunshine, whoaaa. I’m walking on sunshine, whoaaa.” It was Emma’s ringtone.
He followed the tune to her and Richards’s room. Her phone was in her handbag that was on her bed. Her purse was also in the handbag and Richards wallet was on the bedside table. How could Emma go to dinner with a black eye, a split lip, no money and no mobile phone?
Jason began to panic. He thought about calling Richards mobile but he didn’t have his number. He picked up his mums phone and looked through the contacts. There it was. He dialled the number and Richard picked up.
“Talk,” Richard said.
“Richard, its Jason. Can I talk to my mum?”
“We’re in the middle of dinner, can’t you talk later?”
“Well I don’t see how she’s out to dinner, her handbag, phone and purse are right here.”
“What do you mean? Right where? Are you in my room?” Richard said angrily.
Crap. “No,” Jason said hastily, “I… er, can I just talk to her? It’s important!”
“Hello, Jason, honey?” it was Emma, thank god.
“Oh, hi mum. Just seeing if everything’s alright…?”
“Yeah, fine.”
“Are you sure?” Jason prompted.
“Yes, of course, why wouldn’t it be?” Emma said, but Jason could tell by the sound of her voice that he knew why he was asking.
“Where are you?” asked Jason.
“A small Italian place down the road from Pizza hut.”
“Is the food nice?”
“Yes, lovely.”
“Ok, have fun,” Jason said, confident that Emma wasn’t about to be knocked out with a shovel and buried somewhere in the desert like in all the movies.
“Ok, bye.”
“Bye.”
Reassured by his mother’s voice, Jason returned to his room. Lights out was at nine o’clock but Emma and Richard were out so that now stretched to whatever time Jason felt like. Usually that would have been way past midnight but tonight Jason was tired and fell asleep around ten o’clock with Sabre at his feet. Normally Sabre wouldn’t be allowed to sleep inside but Jason figured it was too dangerous outside what with the danvere and all and nobody had to find out.
