The Baying of Blood

2014

2014

I wake up feeling refreshed, the sun is coming in through my window and a gentle breeze is coming to meet me. I look outside and watch birds circle and dive playfully.

I get dressed quickly and head down for breakfast, my mother is sitting at the dining table crying, she has been crying a lot since dad died, in a fatal car crash. Mum looks up and sees me.

"Hi Cameron, toast is on the kitchen bench," Mum sniffled at me. "And the jam is in the pantry."

"Thanks mum." I say and swing past the pantry on the way to the kitchen.

I sit down at the table and don't talk to my mum while I eat. When I have finished I stand up and take my plate to the kitchen and do the washing up. I then go up stairs and clean my teeth. I run out the front door whispering under my breath.
"New school, new start,"

School passed mostly uneventfully. No one really payed me much attention. Well, apart from a blonde, wind-swept haired boy who sat next to me in all my classes, he said his name was Hugo. I only noticed as the end of school bell went and we all got up to leave that he had first of all a picture of a soldier in his hand and secondly and piece of glass stuck in his right shoulder.

That was it, the kid was strange, but he had something going on. His presence made the room seem to drop ten degrees, people didn't seem to notice him much and he was frightfully pale.

"Hey, Hugo," I yell after him, he turns. " Do you walk home?"
"Yeah, why," Hugo appears almost scared.
"Oh, just wondering if I could join you," I say, there really is only one road to take in this tiny town, so me walking home would see me meeting Hugo anyway.
"Sure," Hugo resumes his bright happy self.

As we walk home we talk mostly about school, but my curiosity soon overpowers me.
"Hugo, where did you get that shard "of glass from?" I ask, foolish I know.
"Oh, I had an accident, that's all," Hugo shrugs the question off, then replies with something even stranger.
"Cameron, can I trust you with a secret?"
My skin went cold, I have known this guy a day and he wants to tell a secret
"Sure," I manage.
"I-I... You are the only friend I have ever had, so I am going not to lie and just say it," Now this blonde-haired boy was scaring me like only some of my deepest, darkest fears.
"As you see me, I am 14, but that is not true, I was 14 in 1974,"
My blood froze, my breath caught in my throat and I wanted to run for a mile if my legs would have allowed it.
Hugo continued.
"In 1974, Cyclone Tracey hit this town. My mother had asked me to come and join her and my sister in the basement. But I couldn't-" He breaks down, hitting his hand into the pavement, and crying a sea.
"Hugo, please Hugo, you can stop there if you want," I sit down beside him and put a reassuring hand on him, not sure why my finger don't slip through him.

"No," Hugo says and stands up, brushing the dirt off him and continuing, making run to catch up.
"I couldn't leave my father." Hugo gestures to the photo in his hand.
"He was a great man, so I went and grabbed the photo of him, but my red kelpie, Blood, had followed me. When I saw my bedroom wall pulling off, I pushed Blood out the door and closed it, all I remember from then on was the photograph clasped to me chest, and the baying of Blood,"

"Oh," I say, taken aback. "So where do you live?"
"Number 16 up this street," Hugo says.
"I live in number 14, but 16 is just an empty lot, it hasn't had a building there since Cyclone Tracey I think, oh right,"

Hugo nods. "My pets and family were all safe, but because my sister was having nightmares, the house was sold and demolished soon afterwards,"

"Come over to my place," I say. "I want you to meet my mother,"

We started to jog up the street, but as we reached the door a growl came from behind us, we spun around to see an Alsatian growling at us, as if threatening us to move aside, but before we do it lets out a howl, the howl echoes for what seems like forever and then a second howl starts, then a third and so on, the baying is clear, they are baying for blood