Alan’s staff hovered over the now stationary body of the rodent, still trapped between the door and frame. From within the room ragged breathing mixed with quiet, wracking sobs. Laying a hand on Alan’s arm and urging him to move aside, Carry stepped forward. Casting a nervous glance at the deflated mound of monster, she leaned close to the gap in the doorway.

  “You can unblock the door, it’s dead, you’re safe now.”

  Take… take… take it away, please!” A trembling male voice from within pleaded. “I can’t… I… I…”

  Carry turned to Alan and Matt, gesturing for them to move back from the door. Leaning close, she whispered to them both.

  “He’s in shock, but there are others in there with him, who may be the same, or need medical attention. I need to get them to let us in, get them talking, introduce some normality into what must have been a horrific night for them.”

  She glanced over her shoulder before continuing. “Matt, can you get rid of that thing please? Drag it outside if you can, but most important we need it out of their sight. Alan, I don’t know how they will react when we get into that room, but be ready in case they…. don’t see us as friendly. Shock can do strange things to the mind.”

  Alan nodded, as Matt readied himself to drag the corpse away. Carry moved back to the doorway.

  “We will get rid of it straight-away. We just need you to loosen whatever is against the door so we can pull it out.”

  “No!” The voice rang out, the panicked tone obvious. “If I do that it can get through and attack us, bite us!”

  Carry’s voice was calm and soothing. “It is dead, it can’t hurt you anymore. We’re going to take it far away, so you won’t have to see it. We have food and water for you as well. Please let us take it away.”

  “You’re sure? I think it just moved!”

  “It is definitely dead. We can see it isn’t breathing, but bodies do settle for quite a while after death, so there are usually small movements – perfectly natural.” Carry maintained a gentle tone, doing everything she could to calm the frayed nerves of the room’s occupants.

  “I… I… okay, we’re going to let you in.” There were inaudible whispers within the room and what sounded like a child’s tearful refusal. Seconds later, the door eased inwards just a few inches, before banging into something hard and unyielding.

  Matt leant his staff in the corner of the landing, grabbed the rear legs of the rat and leaned backward to pull it out of the doorway. The fur and skin felt tough, with prominent tendons tangible to the touch. The weight wasn’t overly burdening, and the thick fur slid over the wooden flooring with relative ease. He swiftly dragged it to the top of the stairs, before reversing positions and letting it slide down the stairs slowly, bracing his feet on each step to avoid too much noisy jostling.

  At the bottom of the stairs, he stopped. His mind once again saw the kitchen scene from the previous night, replaying the physical sensations. The blood trickling down his body, the bone-deep weariness threatening to spiral into oblivion as he dragged the blood-slick body out of the door.

  Dropping the rat’s limbs, he raced out the front door, just clearing the porch before his stomach rebelled and vomit sprayed onto the grass of the garden. He struggled to slow his breathing, focusing on the light that had likely saved his live, the steady, comforting glow with no logical explanation.

  Wiping flecks of vomit from his lips and spitting remnants onto the grass, Matt steadied himself and slowly rose from his crouch, turning back toward the house. Steeling his nerves, he moved back into the house, grabbed the hind legs again and yanked the cooling corpse through the door and into the front yard. Hastily dropping the unnatural limbs, he turned quickly back into the house and away from the graphic reminder of recent trauma.

  Upstairs, Carry continued to speak soothingly to the people within the room. Pushing a bottle of water through the gap followed by a bar of chocolate, after a few minutes she was rewarded with the scrape of furniture and the door ever-so-slowly creaked open.

  Motioning for Alan to follow her, she moved into the room, the stench of urine and faeces strong in the small space. Against the far wall, a man and women huddled fearfully by a child’s bed, arms clasped around a young boy, his eyes screwed tightly closed as if fearing the end. The half-finished water lay on its side, dribbling slowly into the carpet, while the empty chocolate wrapper had been ripped open and the contents devoured. Stains on the floor and on their bedclothes told a story of a deeply unpleasant night.

  Slowly, the fear lessened on the two adults’ faces, and their frozen position relaxed slightly. Carry and Alan looked around, noses wrinkling slightly at the smell before they schooled their expressions into more sympathetic looks. A small desk was wedged behind the door, the dents in both it and the door’s surface ample evidence of the struggle that had likely gone on through most of the night.

  Crouching down and pulling Alan down with her, Carry reached a hand slowly toward the woman. She flinched at the touch but settled quickly as no further danger materialised. Her body shook in silent sobs as emotion overtook her. The man raised his eyes and spoke haltingly.

  “Thank you. Thank you. I don’t… we didn’t know if anyone could help. If anyone was left! We heard the screams, saw those things outside. One of them looked right at me in the window and I panicked.” His voice grew steadier as he took a deep breath.

  “We heard it break through the door and tried to barricade ourselves in, but it almost got through the door before we could close it. We’ve sat here all night, bracing ourselves against the door to stop it getting in, hearing the screams, the terrible noises. All the while that… thing screeching at us… so close… so close…”

  He broke down into tears once more, clutching his family tight. As Alan laid a hand on his shoulder to steady him, they noticed that the young boy’s eyes were open, an exhausted squint, but steady and tear-free. He looked up at them with a questioning expression.

  “Is the bad thing gone?”

  Carry smiled. “Yes, it is. You’re safe now.”

  “I don’t think so. I heard lots more last night, like they were everywhere. I heard people crying. I needed to wee so much, I tried to hold it in! But the bad thing was scary. If Mum and Dad are scared, I know it’s a bad thing.”

  Alan spoke up, in an uncharacteristically soft voice. “You’re right littl’un, but it looks to me like you’ve been very brave, which will have helped your Mum and Dad to keep you safe.”

  He leaned down closer. “Can you keep a secret?” He said, in a conspiratorial whisper. The young boy nodded eagerly.

  “It was a scary night, I might have wee’d myself a bit as well!” Alan admitted with a wide grin on his face.

  Carry smirked, and even the parents let out choked chuckles. The boy looked disbelieving for a few seconds, then burst out laughing. The tension in the room relaxed, as his parents wiped their eyes, straightening themselves out, before standing. The boy bounced up to Alan, running a hand down his staff.

  “Where did you find this stick? It’s very shiny. It feels weird.”

  “Alex, don’t be rude! These people just saved us.” The Mother looked embarrassed, as only parents can when their child has come out with something totally unexpected and inappropriate. “I’m sorry, where are my manners. I’m Sarah Peters, my husband is Scott. This little joker is Alex. Thank you… thank you so much. We were so tired, I don’t know how much longer we could have held the door closed on it.”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “It’s fine.” Carry said. “I’m very glad we got here in time. We’ve been around most of the road, and haven’t seen any more of those things, but you will need to get your front door either fixed or replaced, and think about how to barricade the house, or a safe place inside it, in case….”

  In case those things come back.” Sarah said, with a shudder. “What were they? It looked like a huge rat, but I’ve never heard of anything like them before.”

  “We don’t know either.” Alan replied, raising and lowering his staff horizontally with a giggling Alex dangling off it like a tree branch. “There were a bunch of them. Things have been weird ever since the… whatever yesterday afternoon.”

  “We were wondering about that as well. We were watching a movie, thought the floor had given way or something. We woke up a while later and could hear some of the neighbours outside. You think it’s connected to the rat-thing?” Scott had recovered his composure and looked both scared and interested.

  “All I know is that there is a bunch of weird stuff going on, and it all started with everyone getting knocked out yesterday afternoon. That reminds me, if you were holding anything when it hit, check those things out. We found that there were some cool things happened to the things we were holding onto. My stick has helped me beat a few of those things, my lady’s first aid kit did some proper magical fixing up on our mate downstairs, who got torn up by one of the rats. Their kid got a magic book.”

  “A magic book? Like a book of spells from Harry Potter?” Alex asked, wide-eyed. Matt caught the question as he entered the room.

  “Nah mate, but she hasn’t complained about the Wi-Fi not working once – that sounds pretty damn magical to me!”

  They shared another laugh, before Sarah looked uncomfortably at them.

  “I don’t mean to be rude to our saviours, but if you don’t mind, we need to get cleaned up and see about getting ourselves ready. It’s quite… fragrant in here, as I’m sure you can understand.”

  “Of course.” Carry said with a small smile. “I should have thought of that myself.”

  Matt nodded to the family. “I checked around downstairs, there isn’t anything else dangerous down there. Your garden shed door looks pretty sturdy - you should be able to use that as a placeholder for a proper front door.”

  Scott nodded. “I can do that; I’ve got the tools and…”

  He was interrupted by the sound of rushing wind, suddenly drowned out by an ear-piercing shriek, far louder than any human throat could produce. It was reminiscent of the cries of the local red kite population but magnified many times over.

  They huddled together in the room, as outside there was a loud thump, then the air cracked, and the sound of enormous beating wings could be heard fading away skyward. Nobody uttered a sound, waiting until the noises had faded completely. They cautiously peered over the windowsill, but nothing could be seen.

  “We’ve got to get back, now!” Matt whispered, before rising and moving swiftly down to the front door. As Alan and Carry bid a swift goodbye, promising to check back in, he moved to the front door. Carefully looking around, the ground and skies were clear, but stepping outside, the corpse of the rat was nowhere to be seen.

  Something with wings had carried off the beast - weighing as much as some adults - without much effort. The red kites so common to the area were scavengers, picking at roadkill, occasionally even taking a small cat – but not even the largest vulture or golden eagle could have carried off the rat’s corpse.

  Sarah followed the Brands downstairs, catching the group by the splintered front door.

  “Thanks so much again.” She said gratefully. “Please let me know if there is anything we can do for you – I don’t know how we can repay you for your rescue. I’m not sure secretarial or accounting skills are going to be very useful right now, but however we can help, we will.”

  “I’m glad we could get to you in time.” Carry said with a bright smile. “For now, keep your eyes open and let us know if you see anything else strange.”

  They moved out through the doorand as Alan and Carry joined him on the front yard, Matt turned to them.

  “I think we’ve got bigger problems than the rats.”

  “No shit Sherlock, that sounded massive. Did you see it at all?” Alan was watching the sky nervously, rolling his staff around in his hands.

  “Not a thing. But if the rats have grown to the size we’ve seen, imagine what a kite with six-foot wingspan is going to look like now. Let’s get back to the house and into shelter. We’re going to have to check the sky whenever we go outside from now on.

  They ran down the road, not stopping to check the other properties. They felt exposed, all to aware of the new threat from above. Strangely, the skies were clear – usually anywhere from three to fifteen or so of the kites could be seen wheeling gracefully high in the air. But now, there was nothing. No smaller garden birds, the ever-present pigeons, and the air above the raven nesting grounds to the East was empty as well.

  They reached the Brands’ house, looking around nervously as Carry opened the door and they hurried inside, breathing sighs of relief as the door closed behind them. They were greeted by a statue-like Nala, who graced them with a lazy blink before turning and disappearing into the kitchen. Matt felt strangely comforted to know that the property was – apparently – being protected by a group of kittens that had gone through the most prolific growth spurts that nature had never intended.

  What would have been somewhere between terrifying and seriously disturbing, now seemed to be just another symptom of what he had mentally labelled “the weirdness”. None of it made the slightest sense according to any laws of physics or nature that he knew, and he shivered as he considered all the things they had no idea how to deal with. All the things they did not know about the new reality they were starting to experience.

  Carry and Alan moved through to the kitchen, chatting about what to have for lunch. Matt moved upstairs and found his wife and daughter where he had left them, complete with two large felines, sleeping contentedly. Kira was on her front, head buried in her book, while absentmindedly stroking Oli’s head as she read. Arlee was sat against the headboard of the bed, reading one of the historical fictions that she and Carry shared a common passion for. Looking up, her smile of relief brightened a face which had radiated anxiety and fear for the last day, and Matt mentally thanked whoever was listening that she was coping with recent events better.

  Matt silently watched his ladies for a few seconds, thankful that they had come through the violence of the first night intact, mentally and physically. He was still coming to grips with the miraculous nature of his recovery, used to sporting injuries sometimes lasting for months. The discovery of seemingly magical power opened up an infinity of possibilities, which his fantasy-loving brain was itching to explore.

  As he stood there lost in thought, Arlee looked up and noticed his presence.

  “Thank goodness you’re back Matt, are you all ok? Did you find anyone?” Matt nodded. “Were they…?” She left her sentence hanging, looking over at Kira worriedly.

  She needn’t have worried, as their daughter was thoroughly absorbed by her book, barely noticing as Matt leaned down to stroke an errant lock of hair back from her face.

  “Plenty of empty houses, or ones which no one answered from. Lots of signs of bad things, but no bodies. We found one family down the end – the Peters? I’ve seen them before but never spoken to them. They had managed to trap and half-kill a rat, but trapped themselves in the process. They had an awful night, but Alan got rid of the rat and Carry got them calmed down and thinking about making their home safe.”

  “But we heard something else. I dragged the dead rat outside and something big with wings came down, grabbed it and flew off. It sounded enormous, you must have heard the shriek it made. If what happened to the kittens and rats is also happening to other animals, it might have been a red kite. We’re going to have to keep our eyes peeled all the time.”

  She held him close to her for a few seconds, taking in everything he had said. He could feel how tense she was as she asked her next question in a quiet voice.

  “What about Mum and Dad? They’re so far away – how do we get to them?” Arlee’s parents lived in a semi-independent care home about an hours’ drive away and the Tappers visited regularly. With no phones, cars or computers, there was no way to find out if they were okay, and the feeling of helplessness was palpable between them.

  Matt’s parents had passed away some years ago, peacefully in their sleep within a few days of each other. He still felt the loss, but his practical nature made it much easier to focus on all the positive impacts of their lives, rather than the trauma of their passing. He wasn't sure whether he should feel grateful that they never had to face these times.

  “I’m sorry love, I don’t know that we can anytime soon. We can try the car tomorrow, but if electrics are out then it’s likely dead. We can’t take the bikes that far. We’ll have to see if we can find some way to get in touch, or if there is any transport still working.”

  She nodded sadly and swung her legs down to the floor to stand up. The movement caused Lion to twitch as the bed shifted, and Oli’s head came up, as if noticing Matt for the first time. The cat’s inscrutable gaze made him feel as if he was being regarded as a possible threat, but the bright yellow eyes closed once more and Oli settled back into a relaxed repose.

  The movement also served to break Kira’s focus on her book, and she looked up in surprise. “Dad! You’re back! You’re not going to believe this – it’s incredible! Uncle Al was right! It’s all here in….”

  “Woah, slow down Ticklish. Take a breath – what was Alan right about? It doesn’t happen often, so we need to treasure this moment.”

  “I heard that, you muppet!” Came the shout from downstairs. “I’ll have you know that…mmph mmmph.” Alan’s voice was cut off, probably by Carry as she giggled at whatever trick she had pulled.

  Kira had sat up, holding the book in front of her, open on a page, covered with blurry text, symbols and diagrams. She triumphantly pointed to a section of the information.

  “He was right – you are a wizard!”