The Nightmare Man (7 page)

‘Together, we stop the aliens!’ said Clyde.

‘We stop the nightmares!’ continued Rani. They pulled away from the open doors and ran towards Luke. The three of them looked up at the Nightmare Man. They weren’t scared or even nervous. They were confident.

Luke took Rani’s hand. The Nightmare Man gasped in pain.

‘Because, when we’re together…’ said Luke.

He took Clyde’s hand. And the Nightmare Man gasped again.

‘We’re not scared,’ Luke continued. ‘So you’ve no hold over us now.’

The three of them began to advance on the Nightmare Man, forcing him back towards the open doors.

Clyde grinned. ‘We’re brilliant when we’re together.’

The Nightmare Man was gasping in pain. ‘
Get away from me! Get away!
’

Rani blew him a kiss. ‘No. You can’t stop us. We’re not scared.’

Luke grinned at her. ‘So there we go. The boy made by aliens to destroy the world, saves the world yet again.’

The Nightmare Man screamed as he found himself being sucked in through one of the doors. ‘
No, please! Mercy!
’

But before anyone could do anything, he was sucked into the darkness and the door slammed shut behind him.

‘Oh, hello love!’

The Nightmare Man turned and jumped back in horror. He was in Clyde’s burger bar and there, sitting in her scooter, was the wizened old form of Sarah Jane. The clock above them tick-tocked merrily down at him.

He turned back but the door had gone. He was trapped!

In the corridor, Luke, Clyde and Rani were still holding hands as they watched the light fade behind the door.

Rani looked at Luke. ‘You did it!’

He shook his head. ‘We did it.’ Then he took a deep breath and grinned. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

Clyde nodded. ‘Yeah, time to wake up!’

The three of them looked at each other.

‘How are we going to do that?’ asked Rani. ‘How do we wake up?’

Luke reached out and pinched Clyde’s arm. Clyde yelped and Rani laughed and…

The corridor was empty.

The Nightmare Man was pacing up and down in the burger bar. ‘
No! I can’t be trapped here! This can’t happen to me!
’

Like Clyde before him, he ran to the main doors and tried to open them. He shook them so hard, but they didn’t move. ‘
Let me out! Children of Earth, I demand you sleep and you dream and you fear! You will fear me!
’

Sarah Jane just smiled at him. ‘Oh come on, come and sit down. And I’ll tell you all about my brilliant son.’

The Nightmare Man turned and looked at her with disgust. ‘No,’ he gasped.

But Sarah Jane continued. ‘His name’s Luke Smith. And he’s going to live happily ever after.’

And the Nightmare Man started to scream.

Sarah Jane was trying to repair K-9. Once the Nightmare Man had left her, she’d forced herself not to give up. She’d managed to get Mr Smith working and now she was attempting to fix K-9. He was only a robot dog, but he was her robot dog and, for many years, he’d been the closest thing she’d had to a real friend. She sat there, in silence, working on him. Once K-9 was up and working, then the three of them would start again. They’d find a way to rescue Luke. She wouldn’t stop until they had.

‘How is the –’ Mr Smith began, before stopping. In a gentler tone, he continued. ‘How is he?’

Sarah Jane just shook her head. ‘K-9? Can you hear me?’

There was no answer. The attic was silent. She looked over at Luke. Nothing.

‘What am I going to do?’ she asked Mr Smith in a quiet voice.

‘Mistress?’ said K-9 as he suddenly started to power up.

‘Oh, K-9! You’re going to be okay!’ And she gave him a big hug.

And then, another voice sounded behind her. ‘And what about me?’

She let go of K-9, stood up and turned around. Her son was awake. Luke was awake and he was starting to stand up. She ran over to him and hugged him so hard he could barely breathe!

‘Oh, thank God! I thought I’d lost you! Oh…’ She started to cry.

‘You’re never, ever going to lose me,’ Luke replied, with a smile. Then he pulled away from her, so grown up and confident. ‘I’m going to check on the others.’

He ran out of the attic. Sarah Jane went to the window and saw that the sun was rising. The night was over. She turned to K-9 and smiled.

‘I’m going to miss you.’

‘Master Luke will be back at Christmas,’ he replied.

Sarah Jane went over and sat down next to him. She rested her head on his. ‘I meant you.’

‘Mistress?’

‘For years, you were pretty much all I had. A metal dog, looking after me,’ she paused and fought back the tears. ‘But you see, he’s my son. And he’s going off on a big new adventure and…so are you.’

K-9 understood. ‘I will look after him.’

‘Good dog,’ said Sarah Jane. ‘Good dog.’

Chapter Seventeen

A new day

‘Luke, my darling! How are you?’

Luke grinned. Rani’s mum, Gita, was always guaranteed to put a smile on your face. She was lovely, but also completely bonkers.

‘Rani!’ She called upstairs. ‘Rani, Luke’s here!’ She turned back to him. ‘You’ll never guess what happened last night!’

He didn’t get a chance to guess.

‘Me and Haresh, we both had nightmares! Both of us! And I was talking to that Mrs Griffin down the road – you know the one with the eye – and she was saying she’d had nightmares as well! All of us! We all had nightmares! Did you?’

Luke shrugged. ‘I don’t really remember.’

‘Rani!’ Gita shouted again before continuing. ‘Mine was about the toaster. It was broken, so I got a man in. Haresh is no good at technical things like that. So this man comes in, and he turns out to be a lizard! And he was chasing me right round the house! I didn’t know what to do. It was quite terrifying. How are you anyway, my darling? Ready to go?’

Luke nodded. Then squeaked, as suddenly Gita wrapped her arms around him in a huge hug. ‘Oh, you look after yourself, Luke. You’re such a lovely boy. And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’

She pulled back and gave him a wink. Luke suspected that there wasn’t much Gita Chandra hadn’t done. He looked up to see Rani coming down the stairs.

‘Laters, mum,’ she said, pushing past Gita and joining Luke outside.

‘Laters, my darling,’ Gita replied, closing the door.

Rani and Luke walked to the end of her driveway, then she linked her arm with his.

‘You all set then?’ she asked.

‘Yeah,’ he replied.

They looked both ways and crossed the road. Luke’s bright yellow car was parked in the driveway. There were suitcases strapped to the roof rack, and more bags on the back seat.

‘Rani,’ said Luke, as they stopped outside the front door.

‘Yeah?’

‘In my nightmares,’ he said. ‘I think you were jealous of me.’

He looked at her and waited for her to deny it. There was a pause. Then she took a deep breath.

‘I am.’

Luke looked shocked. ‘What?’

‘Of course I’m jealous. You’re doing everything I want to do, but don’t for one minute think I’m not pleased for you.’ Suddenly she hugged him. ‘I couldn’t be happier.’

And Luke hugged her back.

Upstairs, in the attic, two other friends were saying goodbye to each other. Well, they denied being friends, but everyone knew the truth, really.

‘Goodbye, Mr Smith,’ said K-9.

‘Goodbye, K-9,’ said Mr Smith.

There was a pause before K-9 continued. ‘You were adequate company.’

K-9 then turned to leave. He trundled towards the door.

‘K-9,’ said Mr Smith, suddenly.

K-9 stopped. ‘Yes, Mr Smith?’

‘You could always contact me. If you need to.’

If K-9 could smile, he would have had the biggest grin in the world on his face. ‘I knew you would miss me,’ he replied.

K-9 trundled out of the room.

‘Stupid dog,’ said Mr Smith. He would miss K-9 really, though.

Outside the attic, K-9 paused then, quietly, said to himself, ‘I will miss you too, Mr Smith.’

Luke was standing next to the car. Clyde was standing a few metres away. They were looking at each other.

‘You’re going to call me, yeah?’ said Clyde. ‘When you get there?’

‘Of course I will,’ Luke replied.

‘And you’ll drive safely. And…’ Clyde trailed off. He was no longer able to hide how he was feeling. It was obvious that he was really upset.

‘I’m going to be fine,’ said Luke, also fighting back tears.

‘Just don’t forget me, will you?’ said Clyde. ‘Whatever you go and do, don’t forget me. I’m your best mate. Always.’

Luke grinned. ‘Super alien brain, remember.’ He tapped the side of his head. ‘I don’t forget anything.’

The two boys hugged as Sarah Jane came outside. She was carrying K-9. Rani also came out and she helped Sarah Jane put K-9 in the car. They wrapped a seatbelt around him and left the window open. Then they moved round to join Clyde and Luke. Clyde moved back and then, noticing a nod from Rani, moved further back still. Sarah Jane and Luke looked at each other.

‘This is it, then,’ she said. ‘Start of a brand new life. New friends, new adventures, new everything.’

‘Yeah,’ said Luke. ‘I can’t believe it’s happening. Today.’

She hugged him. ‘I love you.’

Then she let him go and Luke got into his car. He wound the window down.

‘Bye, everyone!’ said Luke, starting the engine.

They all followed the car as he drove out onto the road. Luke turned to K-9. ‘You ready, K-9?’

‘Affirmative, Master,’ the metal dog replied.

Luke took a deep breath, grinned and turned to face the road. ‘Let’s see what’s out there!’

And he turned right, onto Bannerman Road and then onto the road out of Ealing.

Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde didn’t stop waving until he was out of sight. Then, both happy and sad at the same time, they turned to go back into 13, Bannerman Road – ready for whatever adventures were still to come.

Epilogue

Somewhere else…

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

The Nightmare Man stared up at the clock. He’d already tried to break it, but it was indestructible. The sinister, elderly Sarah Jane Smith had just giggled at his frustration. She was talking about Luke. She’d been talking about Luke ever since those kids had trapped him in there. It was driving him mad!

‘Because the thing about my Luke is that he never gave up. Never. He was always so brave. He found school difficult but he still went and he managed to turn it into something he loved. He was so upset when Maria Jackson left, but he moved on. They stayed in touch.’ Sarah Jane took the Nightmare Man’s hand again. ‘Because family and friendship, it never ends. No matter where you are.’

He pulled his hand away and started hammering on the doors again.

‘Of course, a creature like you, you’d never understand that, would you? You’re always so alone. It’s your own fault for being a bully, of course.’

‘
I will find a way out of here!
’ the Nightmare Man shouted. Again.

Sarah Jane shook her head. ‘You only got out before because of Luke. Because he was made by aliens and he’d never had nightmares before. His dreams were so powerful, they released you.’

The Nightmare Man started pacing around the burger bar. ‘
It doesn’t matter. One day, another child will have nightmares. They will have nightmares so terrifying that they will release me!’
He started to laugh.
‘And I will be free and I will be real!
’

‘Luke was brave,’ replied Sarah Jane. ‘Other children will be as well.’

‘
No, no, no,
’ the Nightmare Man said. ‘
One day, there will be one who won’t be brave and through them I will escape this world. Now be quiet, I need to listen.
’

The Nightmare Man stood perfectly still. ‘
One night, a child will be so, so scared by their dreams. I just need to listen,
’ he smiled evilly. ‘
I need to listen out for their screams.
’

And he listened. And he waited. And he kept on waiting. Listening as the nightmare world’s clock kept ticking…

Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock.