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THE PSYCHIC SEEKERS: BOOK ONE

‘THE FLATS’The Psychic Seekers: Book One

First published in 2012 by Dark Prints Darklings, an imprint of Dark Prints Press, Australia

also available as an eBook

DARK PRINTS DARKLINGSwww.darklings.com.au

Copyright © Craig Bezant, 2012

The right of Craig Bezant to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. The setting in this novel is fictitious. All characters in this book are fictitious. References are made to existing places, mythology and legends with a creative lens – no disrespect is intended.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Author: Bezant, Craig. Title: The flats / by Craig Bezant ; illustration by Courtney Bernard.ISBN: 9780987197689 (pbk.) Series: Bezant, Craig. Psychic seekers ; Book one.Target Audience: For primary school age.Subjects: Mystery Secrets--Juvenile fiction.Other Authors/Contributors: Bernard, Courtney. Dewey Number: A823.4

Cover image and internal illustration is the work of the amazing artist Courtney Bernard (http://cbernardillustration.com/)Typesetting by Dark Prints Press; set in Palatino

Printed and bound in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

Dedicated to my daughter, Caitlin, who helped me recapture the sense of adventure adulthood

sometimes tries to steal from you.

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CHAPTER ONE

Ash Grayson heard the annoying tone of his alarm clock, but tried hard to ignore it. The noise hadn’t woken him – he’d barely slept all night – but still, he wasn’t getting out of bed.

Not today.There was a light knock on his door. Ash

grabbed the end of his thin blanket and brought it over his head, twisting his body to sink deeper into his springy mattress. The alarm clock finally gave up, ceasing its incessant tune. Through the silence, Ash heard the creaking turn of his door handle, the soft padding of footsteps on the room’s floorboards. He could feel the dark shadow of the intruder looming over his bed.

It’s Dracula, Ash thought, come to take me away from all of this.

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There was something pleasant to that thought.

Ash turned, lay on his back. The blanket started pulling down over his face.

‘Up,’ the shadowy creature beckoned. Then sunlight streamed through the bedroom window, revealing the creature’s feminine features.

‘Mum?’ Ash groaned.‘Who were you expecting?’ his mother

said, tussling his hair. ‘Now, as I said, mister, it’s time to get up. Don’t give me trouble this morning. This morning, of all mornings.’

Ash tried, unsuccessfully, to grab his blanket back. ‘There’s nothing special about this morning,’ he grumbled.

His mother stood tall, hands on her hips. ‘It’s your first day of high school. How can you say that’s not special?’

Because it’s no different from last year, Ash answered inwardly. Because this town is so small it’s the same class year after year. We all just move to another building. Same people, same problems.

Ash sighed and sat up in bed, pushing his blanket away.

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‘Do I get a special breakfast, then?’ he asked, feigning enthusiasm.

‘Have to eat and run, I’m afraid. I’ve been called in to work early, so I’m dropping you off pretty soon.’

‘I’ll walk.’‘Oh no, you won’t. I can still drive you. I’ll

see you step into that building and I’ll smile and wave and blow you kisses.’

‘Mum!’‘Too embarrassing? Then I’ll just stare into

space until you’ve gone, then cry and think about how much my little man has grown up.’

‘Psst. Not likely.’‘Just get up and shower.’ His mother

turned and hurried out of the bedroom. ‘You’ve got ten minutes,’ she called from the hallway.

The shower was warm and relaxing and Ash didn’t want to leave it. Who cared about water restrictions – it was more harmful to finish and go to school, at least where his own health was concerned.

Ash sighed.

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Jaden Nema could have changed over the holidays. Maybe he was nice now, maturing with the step into high school. Maybe he wouldn’t pick on anyone any more. Maybe Ash wouldn’t be the constant focal subject of his nasty tricks.

Ash reluctantly turned off the shower taps, waiting until the last trickle of water snaked through his dark-brown hair.

A shudder down his spine finally prompt-ed him to move; his body snapped around, slapping the shower curtain aside. He was kidding himself. Jaden Nema wouldn’t have changed, and it was silly to hope otherwise.

He stepped out of the shower, roughly dried his body, then returned to his room and began to dress.

At least high school meant no uniforms – such identity meant little in a town where getting students to frequently attend class was enough of a struggle. Ash put on his favourite black shirt, which featured an iron-on transfer of Tim Burton’s ‘Mummy Boy’. He stepped into some dark denim jeans and cringed as he saw a tear on one of the knees – it wasn’t there to look cool. His other pair of jeans was in the wash though,

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and he wasn’t wearing shorts or light-coloured clothing like everyone else in town. People indigenous to Africa often wore dark clothes, and their sun was just as bad – so he’d read. He hopped into his pre-laced tan boots and peered at the mirror on his cupboard door, jostling his overgrown hair until it no longer looked like a dark-brown mop. Yeah, his reflection looked good enough; not that it mattered.

‘Ten minutes are up,’ his mother said, knocking on his door.

‘Coming.’Ash grabbed his dark-blue backpack, the

same one from the previous year, its edges only slightly frayed. He scanned his room for last-minute items and found his eyes lingering on the thirteen-volume set of books resting atop his clothes drawer. He loved his encyclopaedic collection on the paranormal. Maybe he could just stay at home and read one of those? He’d exhausted the section on Vampires, but maybe he could peruse UFOs? His father would like that. That’s why he had left Ash the set of books, before he’d moved away.

‘Hurry up, Ash!’‘I said I’m coming!’

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Ash grabbed a smaller book from the floor instead, an old paperback – Richard Matheson’s ‘I Am Legend’. Not the movie version but the original. He slipped it into his backpack. That would keep him from facing reality for a while.

‘I’m locking the front door,’ his mother called out.

Ash groaned as loudly as possible. He fought with the zipper on his backpack, then ran through the house, stopping in the kitchen to grab a slice of cold toast. He made it to the front door just as it was being closed.

‘Fine, I’ll stay at home then,’ he joked. ‘But I really wanted to go to school.’

The door flew open.‘Nice try, mister.’His mother feigned a smile, but she

couldn’t hide the tiredness in her eyes; couldn’t hide the hours of overtime she worked almost every day. Ash tried to smile back and followed her to the car. There was really no need for a lift, since the high school was only a ten minute walk from their house. The ride was just another step to ensure he maintained a perfect streak of attendance. His mother couldn’t afford to have that ruined.

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She loved him, but she just didn’t understand his situation at school. She seemed to think he could avoid Jaden Nema, or become his best friend after a nice little chat.

Ash sighed at the thought.Soon they were driving down the street,

crawling through their small town. Onslow was a strange place. Artificial. It had stolen its namesake from another Onslow at the top end of Western Australia even though it was more to the State’s centre, red dirt on every border. Like the original Onslow, it had once been a ghost town, but a new council had converted it into a designer community that had no regard for its location. Identical, white-rendered houses and fluorescent-green, artificial-turf lawns battled against the clay desert beneath.

It was all done for Onsgrain, of course – the town’s economic hub. Onsgrain had pro-vided so much for people who could have had nothing, or so Ash’s mother always implied. But now...

‘Will you look at that,’ Ash’s mother suddenly cried.

She pointed to a streak of FOR SALE signs jutting out of rows of manicured lawns, like steel

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scarecrows warding off passers-by; although, at least half of the signs had SOLD stickers across their width.

‘See, Mum,’ Ash said, ‘lots of people are selling up. It’s obvious now’s a great time for us to put our house on the market.’

His mother grunted. Of course, they would never leave town.

‘I didn’t see the Walton’s house for sale last week,’ she mumbled. ‘Now they’re gone, like that?’ Before Ash could wonder why, his mother added, ‘Well, look, not everyone wants to escape this town. Those people just moved in.’

She pointed to a removalist truck in a driveway further down the street.

As their car drew closer to the truck, Ash saw two burly men back out of it, carrying a large wooden chest. A girl was watching them from the too-green lawn. She appeared to be around Ash’s height; perhaps age, too.

Ash gasped.Bandages were wrapped around part of

the girl’s face, covering her eyes. Yet she was already turning and walking to the house,

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jumping over a small stretch of landscaped rocks as if she could clearly see where she was going.

As the car passed the house, Ash had the bizarre thought he’d just seen the offspring of a Egyptian mummy and non-decayed human. He had plenty of information on mummies in his father’s left-behind volumes. And rather than worry about such a creature’s potential existence, he suddenly looked forward to meeting the neighbourhood’s newest arrivals.

He just had to make it through the school day.

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CHAPTER TWO

High school was entirely how Ash had feared – exactly the same as primary school. Same pupils, the classes mixed up slightly; some blended with other years to make the numbers. Same style of buildings, tin sheds just moved across the land. Same expectations. Same groups of friends, reluctant to take on newcomers.

Same bully. Same tall, overweight, spiky-haired, hoarse-voiced bully.

Jaden Nema was already waiting for Ash when the bell rang for recess.

It wasn’t a particularly nasty prank, in comparison. Jaden just spun Ash around and pulled his jeans down, exposing Ash to a line of chuckling cohorts. Then he kicked Ash’s

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buttocks and made him walk away with his jeans around his ankles.

The laughter hurt the most.The exposing air made things worse.When Ash was a reasonable distance from

everyone he burst into tears. He pulled his jeans up, thinking it was time he saved for a belt. It wasn’t a priority though – the years of bullying had dampened most feelings of shame, had stored them in a reserved space in Ash’s heart. That was why he hadn’t hurriedly pulled his jeans up the instant they were dropped.

Besides, that would have given Jaden even more satisfaction, and the bully probably would have just pulled them down again. And again. And again.

Ash began to walk to a demountable build-ing to his right. At times like this he liked to hide behind such places. He wouldn’t receive further torment there – Jaden usually liked the crowds.

He reached the building, rounded it and wondered whether this would be his new hang-out, just like the one at his primary school. There was always the library, too.

He stopped. Froze.Someone else was already in his spot.

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‘Hello there,’ she said. ‘I’ve seen you today already – driving past my house, right?’ Her voice was rough yet angelic. Safe.

‘Yeah, I...’ Ash gulped. He held his gaze at the girl before him. She had an olive complexion which matched nicely with her beige shorts and green tank top. Her hair was black but seemed streaked with a myriad of colours – red, blonde, white. It was clear she maintained an active lifestyle, unlike many kids in town – her body was thin. Maybe a little too thin. This wasn’t really Ash’s main concern, though. His focus was mostly on her eyes. They were still partially covered by bandages, just like they’d been when he had seen her beside the removalist truck. Only now they were also covered with thick black glasses. A mummy offspring with style.

‘Are you okay?’ she asked. ‘Or just naturally quiet?’

‘How did you see me? Especially with... with...’

‘These?’ She stroked the bandages. ‘Well, they’re only thin gauze.’

‘Okay...’ Ash ran his fingers through his hair, trying to think of the best thing to say,

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trying to draw his attention from the bandages. ‘My name’s Ash, anyway.’

‘Don’t stand all the way over there. I won’t bite, you know.’

‘But – ’‘I might look like an X-Men Academy

reject, but lasers don’t shoot out my eyes.’‘Okay, then. If you’re not going to fry me.’Ash walked over to the girl and

stopped beside her, leaning on the wall of the demountable.

‘So, Ash, don’t you want to know my name?’

‘Yeah, I...’ Ash coughed away an absent tickle ‘...sorry, what’s your name? My name’s... Oh yeah, Ash. I told you.’

The girl chuckled.‘My name’s Emily. I’d like to think my

mother named me after Emily Bronte, but I don’t know my mother, so...’

‘Oh, is she...?’‘She died giving birth to me. It’s cool, we

can talk about it. Clear the air of mystique.’‘Then the bandages?’‘Very direct. But fine. You really want to

know what’s beneath them?’

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Ash tugged his shirt and ran his fingers through his hair again. Nobody had ever been this relaxed with him, especially a girl. Was she lulling him into a false sense of security? Was she going to bully him, too?

Emily removed her dark glasses.‘Tell me about yourself, Ash. You have

both parents?’She began to pull at the bandage.‘Dad left a long time ago,’ Ash replied. ‘I

assume he’s alive – I used to get the monthly phone call, then it was just for the holiday seasons or my birthday, along with a card. Haven’t heard from him for two years, though. My mum works as a...’ He paused as Emily lifted the gauze, exposing dark rings around the base of her eyes ‘You know, you don’t have to show me – ’

Emily lifted the bandage high enough to reveal her eyes.

They appeared normal. Ash stated so, but with regret – he was partly expecting them to be glowing, or missing.

‘It’s not what they look like,’ Emily explained. ‘It’s what they can do.’

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‘Like what?’ Ash was staring at her irises. Were they... violet?

‘Well, the doctors say I have emotion-colour synaesthesia. My dad and I know it’s something more, though.’

‘Is it a disease?’Emily chuckled. ‘I’ve read a fair-few

definitions about it, all slightly different. None of them say it’s a disease, though. It’s a condition that lets me see colours around people, or attach colours to their name or memory. But really I can see their aura, their emotions. I don’t have to know them. I can even see auras around some objects, even though most people say that can’t happen. That’s the simplest way to put it, I guess.’

‘Their aura? So does that hurt or some-thing? I mean, with the bandages...’

Emily playfully slapped Ash’s arm. ‘No, silly. It’s just... my eyes became a bit too sensitive to the light. Happens a few times a year. Drawback to the weird power, if you could call it a power.’

‘Right. So what colour’s around me?’ Ash joked, not taking Emily too seriously.

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‘Well, psychics say there’s about seven layers to your aura...’

‘Yeah. And?’Emily sighed. ‘I can usually just see the

most intense one. So you’re a muddled green, ‘cause you were humiliated by that fat giant. Don’t worry, it’s not your fault. And in another few years, life’ll ridicule him for his obesity.’

‘A few years is too long to wait.’‘What if you’ve got me to watch out

for you?’‘You’re not serious? Me?’‘There are other colours I see in you. You’re

a good person. Since we’re being direct, I need someone like you to be my friend, to talk to, to make it less sucky before my dad moves us again. It’s no fun being on my own all the time.’

Before Ash could faint from such words, the school bell rang. He wanted to say some-thing else to Emily, return the compliment, but she had already gone. He turned, smiling, and for once he didn’t mind returning to class.

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CHAPTER THREE

A strange man awaited Ash’s class after recess. Although most adults in the school were strange, given they were yet to teach Ash and earn a casual familiarity, this one possessed a different air about him; one that said he didn’t belong. He wore a dark-green suit, his hair black and slicked back, his mouth framed by an obscenely thin goatee. His smile was locked on as if he were repeating a joke in his mind. He seemed all business; Ash almost expected his teeth to sparkle.

‘Hi there, kids,’ he finally said, waving everyone to their seat.

‘We’re not kids,’ someone yelled out. ‘You want the primary school.’

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Ash noticed a slight pulse around the man’s eyes, a brief flash of anger quickly contained. He instantly wished he hadn’t picked a desk at the front row. Why had he? He should have pretended he was cool now and sought the shadows at the back.

‘Okay, people-who-aren’t-adults-but-aren’t- kids-either...’ The man’s smile faltered ‘...I just want to say it’s an honour that your History teacher, Ms Fraser, has agreed to let me come in and give you all some exciting news.’

Ash glanced across the class to see the woman who was apparently one of his regular teachers. She was leaning against a window pane, her head buried in a large pictorial text about Broome.

‘I work for Onsgrain,’ the man continued.‘The factory?’ someone near the back of

the class called out.‘The same. I bet you’ve all heard of

Onsgrain. Whose parents work there?’Most of the students raised their hand,

Ash included. His mother worked on the factory floor.

‘Well, we’re not only Onslow’s main source of capital, we’re climbing up the ladder

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to becoming one of the biggest grain processing companies in Australia.’

‘Are you recruiting us already?’‘In due time,’ the man scoffed. ‘For now,

Onsgrain would like me to tell you what they’re doing to your town. They’re expanding, you see. They’ve already bought out a large portion of the town. Some of your friends would have moved in the holidays. Some of this acquired area has already been cleared for the future.’

‘You mean at The Flats?’The man nodded. The Flats was the local

nickname for the land on the opposite side of town that had been cleared of housing and vegetation. The land was literally flat. But unlike the naturally flat land around it, the area had been fenced off, assorted machinery always doing something within the perimeter.

‘Your parents will be offered a generous amount for their house. They will be given work elsewhere, in one of Ongrain’s subsidiary companies. Who knows, you might even get to go to one of our big city factories.’

Ash cheered but quickly stopped, realis-ing he was the only one to react in such a way.

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The man laughed heartily. ‘I see at least one of you likes that idea.’

‘Excuse me...’ Ms Fraser had broken her gaze from her book to glare at Onsgrain’s representative ‘...but ninety-two percent of this town’s population works for your company. Are you telling me Onsgrain is buying ninety-two percent of the houses in Onslow and shipping all those people elsewhere?’

‘We have a lot of land to clear. And a big factory to build – the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.’

‘So what happens to Onslow?’‘Onslow was nothing before Onsgrain

stepped in.’‘But the townsfolk – ’‘We’ll build housing units attached to the

new factory. With a completion date set at three to five years, most employees will be invited back. If not them, their offspring. You young-sters could soon be working in a factory of the future.’

‘Who approved this?’ Ms Fraser stepped away from the window, her voice laced with anger.

‘I don’t know what you – ’

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‘When did council pass this? Who allowed the destruction of our town?’

‘Destruction? We’re making it better.’‘When was the public supposed to get a

say in this?’‘A say? All Onsgrain employees are being

paid huge amounts to move. Nobody has refused so far.’

‘Nobody?’‘Well, everyone eventually comes around.’Ms Fraser slapped her desk. ‘Get out.’‘Your school allowed me to be here. This

was supposed to be exciting – ’‘Out!’The man nodded. He flashed a smile to the

students and then quickly left the room.Ms Fraser was resting against her desk.

She seemed focused on controlling her breath-ing, like an asthmatic struggling to regain that precious flow of air. Everyone sat uncomfort-ably, waiting for her to speak. When she did it was with a forced smile, not unlike the Onsgrain representative’s.

‘I’m sorry about that, guys. What an introduction to my class, hey? An exciting

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precursor to the units we will be covering this year. I think we’ll use today to start on the Resources section of our curriculum.’ Ms Fraser picked up a whiteboard marker but hesitated by the large class board. ‘If you were in a mining town, for example, mining gold, and the gold ran out, well, there’d be nothing left to keep the town going. It becomes a ghost town. This happened all around Australia during the gold rush era. Who’s heard about this before? Probably in Year Five or Six. Good.’

She wrote the words ‘Onslow’, ‘Onsgrain’ and ‘Ghost Town’ on the whiteboard, then joined them with arrows.

‘Well, Mister Company Man didn’t want to say, but if his company has its way then for a while this place might become a ghost town, because it won’t have the economic input to sustain it. Not with ninety-two percent of its people gone. That’s happened here already, you know. Onslow was already a ghost town.’ Ms Fraser put the whiteboard marker down and leant heavily against her desk, as if she were about to pass out. ‘Doesn’t this make you angry? It makes me very angry. Get out your notebooks and write two pages on why people

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shouldn’t be moved out of this town. You can discuss it with the people around you first, if you’d like.’

She sat back in a creaky, wooden chair.‘Start now.’Ash picked up a pencil and watched as the

rest of the class cracked open notebook spines and scribbled away. He continued staring quizzically at his teacher, wondering if she was serious. The thought of Onsgrain buying every house in town did not make him angry at all. It meant his mother’s house would be included. It meant they might finally leave Onslow, after all. Then there would be no more Jaden Nema; no more red dirt and artificial houses; and no more feeling like the odd one out.

Such thoughts made Ash beam with happiness.

His day just seemed to be getting better and better.

He put his pencil down and waited for the end of class.

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CHAPTER FOUR

Unfortunately, Ash had been so happy since meeting Emily that he’d pushed aside the event preceding it.

The school day ended quickly. Ash had floated through each class in a daze. When the final bell rang it took twenty minutes for all students to be picked up or start walking home, the surrounding streets immediately void of life. All students, except Ash – he was still waiting for his mother’s ride.

Teachers’ cars remained in the parking lot, but many were rusty relics of time long passed. Distant scorched trees looked like skeletal remains of mighty beasts. Ash felt like the sole survivor of an apocalyptic event.

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The worse part of this situation, he thought, other than his mother being absent, was that Emily had disappeared too, seemingly wiped from the earth. How could she do this when she’d promised she would watch out for him?

The school’s large metal ‘Welcome’ sign creaked on an unfelt gust of wind. Shadows edged across the ground. This wasn’t right. School was becoming a nightmare again. Soon it would be dark and zombies who apparently opposed the sun would crawl from their hiding spots to eat him.

Ash felt a tap on his shoulder.He spun, thinking it might be Emily, then

shuddered.‘Hi, rake boy.’It was worse than a zombie; a different

kind of nightmare. It was Jaden Nema.‘I’m calling you rake boy cause you’re as

thin as a rake.’‘You used to call me stick boy,’ Ash

mumbled. ‘It’s basically the same thing.’Jaden struck Ash on the shoulder, pushing

him backwards.

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‘Heard that. Stick, rake, whatever – let’s see if you’ll snap.’

Ash turned and sprinted back towards the school buildings, hoping to God a teacher was still cleaning their class or marking assignments or stealing stationery or –

Footsteps immediately clunked behind him, echoing off the concrete footpath.

Where were the other kids? Why did it have to be Jaden who’d stayed around? And why had he stayed around? There were no witnesses now, no audience – something new for Jaden. New for high school.

A hard shove sent Ash tumbling forward.He struck the concrete, scraping the skin

on his palms, elbows and chin.‘Think you can run from me?’ Jaden taunted.How could someone so obese run so fast?Ash turned to look up at Jaden, who

quickly grabbed his shirt and pulled him across the ground. Jaden dragged him down the footpath and they reached the gymnasium in no time. They paused at its double-doors. Ash’s body burned from the friction of skin on concrete, his flesh on fire. As he squirmed to dull the pain, he saw someone in the distance,

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far back on the school oval. He cried out for help. Jaden let him, laughing. The figure stood and stared, but did not budge. It looked like Ben James. He would have known what Jaden was doing. He would have known this wasn’t a friendly game.

‘Ben!’ Ash tried to stand, but Jaden started dragging him inside the gym. ‘Ben, please help me!’

But Ben still wouldn’t move. His gangly frame just watched, transfixed.

And then time suddenly rocketed forward and Ash was standing in the middle of the gym-nasium’s modest male shower block, soaking wet and modest himself, in nothing but boxer shorts. His bag and the rest of his clothes had been taken, thrown on high beams he could never reach.

Thankfully, Jaden was long gone, all laughed out.

It was a long walk home. Ash shivered the entire journey, and didn’t know if it was a result of humiliation, rage, or lack of clothes.

He couldn’t help bitter thoughts about his mother. Why couldn’t she work a normal job? One that didn’t have extended hours. She was

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just one of many – it wasn’t like the factory floor would shut down without her. Then she’d have been there to pick him up like she was supposed to and none of this would have happened.

Emily too – she’d disappeared when she’d said she would watch out for him. That meant they were supposed to stick together. Sticking together meant you weren’t apart, meant you weren’t alone.

But as Ash stepped inside his house, he knew he was alone. Probably better now – this way, no one else would be privy to what had happened.

Ash took a warm shower and, afterwards, dressed in several layers of clothes, trying his best to stem any flu-like symptoms that could have resulted from the breezy walk.

As night fell, Ash completed his home-work, reheated an old plate of lasagne, and then edged in front of the television. TV would help his mind drift from his own life. TV was often a great escape, second only to books, which he would peruse later. Anything to keep from thinking about the shower block; about Jaden Nema.

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There was an old black-and-white movie on. It featured a poorly-costumed wolfman who simply sported a fuzzy beard, afro-like hair and plastic fangs. The creature howled against music that crackled the television’s speakers. The sight of it made Ash smile a little, and soon he was thinking about the entire volume on werewolves awaiting in his bedroom. He couldn’t leave the couch to get it, though, his body simply too exhausted. His eyelids began to close as a lady in the movie clutched her white dress and shrieked unconvincingly.

He was awakened by the doorbell.Ash stretched his body. It ached, locked in

an awkward position for hours even though it only felt like seconds. He was perspiring, so he quickly took off his layers of clothing until he only had on his dirty grey jeans and a black Mad Hatter shirt.

The doorbell rang again, reminding him someone was waiting.

Emily.Had to be. Come to apologise for forget-

ting to stick together.

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Ash shuffled to the front door. He noticed on the way that the time was 7:05 AM. He’d slept almost ten hours!

He reached the door and opened it, putting on his best angry face. But as the door opened wide he jumped back, for it certainly wasn’t Emily. Two policemen towered over him, blocking all the gaps in the doorway.

‘Hello, son. Ash Grayson, right?’Ash started trembling uncontrollably, his

mind racing ahead, telling him this was one of those moments he’d witnessed on television, one of those tense moments of drama where it was revealed a loved one had passed away. Since Ash only had one loved one… This wasn’t compulsive viewing. Ash wanted to turn and run and hide and avoid answering questions that led to the revelation.

He nodded instead.‘Ash, you know a Master Jaden Nema,

correct?’Ash twitched. This was a joke, right? What

devilish prank was next? False imprisonment?‘Yes. He goes to my school.’

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‘When was the last time you saw him, son?’

‘At school. Yesterday. First day back.’The policemen regarded each other. ‘And

what time was that?’‘After school. I waited around a bit. Three…

thirty. Four… I don’t know. Why?’The policemen whispered to each other.

One of them nodded, a stern gaze plastered on his face. ‘A fellow student of yours saw you enter the school gymnasium with Master Nema at three-forty. That moment marks his last known whereabouts.’

‘You mean – ’‘He didn’t return home last night. His

mother is quite distressed. We think he may have – ’ The other officer knocked his partner on the shoulder, silencing him.

‘You don’t need the details. This isn’t an official case yet. What we need to know, son, is what happened in that gymnasium, and what occurred afterward.’

Ash glanced into the house. Where was his mother? Why hadn’t she ventured to the door to help him?

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‘Um, I…’ Was he a suspect? Did he really have to tell them what had happened? Ash sighed. The expression on each officer’s face told him he did. ‘Okay. Jaden dragged me in there and beat me up. Satisfied? That’s all that happened. It’s hardly new, just a bit worse yesterday. He stole most of my clothes and pushed me into the showers. But I wouldn’t want anything major to happen to him for that.’

Which was a lie, because Ash had wished the bully would drop dead.

‘That’s really what happened?’‘Yes.’‘And you didn’t see him after that?’‘He left me soaked in the shower block,

without clothes. He threw them up on the gym rafters.’

‘That’s your version of events? Your story?’‘It’s not a – Yes.’‘Well, thank you for your time, then.’ The

officer nodded to his partner again. They both tipped their hats and began to walk away.

‘We’ll be back if more develops,’ one of them yelled out as they reached their vehicle. ‘And to record an official story if we need it.’

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Ash closed the door, trying not to slam it as he would have liked.

‘Mum?’He dropped to the floor, closing his eyes,

trying to think.‘Mum? You here?’Usually his mother came home and left a

note if her shifts at work were going to be back-to-back. Ash opened his eyes, stood, and decided to search the usual spots for such a note.

After five minutes, he’d had no luck.Ash returned to the front door and looked

outside. The policemen had gone. There were no sounds along the street. Just awful silence, the same awful silence he’d experienced at the end of school the previous day. It was now clear that bullies and authorities survived the apocalypse, but what about everyone else? Where had they disappeared to? And why?

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CHAPTER FIVE

By noon, Ash decided he wasn’t going to wait for everyone to reappear. He would find them. The first and easiest choice was to walk to Emily’s house, since it was less than a few hundred metres from his. His mother would return soon, he was sure. After her double shift. And Jaden, well… the police would probably find him picking on some other innocent soul.

Ash passed the first FOR SALE sign on his street. Soon there would be one on their fake lawn. He saw no reason they couldn’t leave, couldn’t pack what meagre possessions they had and travel to a better place. Somewhere with more people to blend with. Passing the second and third FOR SALE signs only strengthened this conviction, and by the time Ash neared

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Emily’s house he was ready to run home and start the packing himself.

But it was more pressing to convince himself Emily still existed.

He reached her house; knocked on her door; waited with held breath.

No one answered.He walked to the nearest window and

leant against the pane, peering inside. Darkness concealed most of the interior, but from what he could see it was lacking in furnishings. In fact, there only seemed to be a large wooden chest inside. It was in the centre of the room and looked like the one he’d seen the removalists carrying. It was a strange piece of furniture, not quite a seat or table and too large to merely be decoration. It was angled at the edges, bevelled. In fact, if Ash didn’t know better he would say it looked like a –

‘Help you?’The voice made Ash jump back from

the glass.He turned to see an extremely tall man

leaning out of the front doorway. The man was bony and pale. His face was covered in a long beard, the kind Ash usually saw on bikers. He

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was furiously scratching his forearm, as if a rash was about to spring forth at any moment and he desperately needed to stop it.

‘Yeah, um…’ Ash straightened, trying not to gaze for too long at the man and his scratching ‘…I’m looking for Emily. She’s my friend, from school. We were supposed to walk home yesterday but I didn’t see her and – ’

‘Emily was picked up yesterday. She had an urgent errand to run for me.’

‘Oh.’‘I’m her father.’Ash extended a hand to shake, tensing as

the man gripped him with ferocity.‘Emily is at school today. Shouldn’t you be?’‘Yes. I mean, no. I’m rather sick.’ It was the

only lie that came to Ash.‘Then what are you doing outside? You

should be resting in bed.’‘Not fun being cooped up for so long. I,

um, kind of wondered if Emily had caught a bug, too.’

‘Emily is fine. She rarely catches a cold. Now, I suggest you return home.’

‘Okay. Thanks, Mister…’‘Goodbye.’

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Emily’s father slammed the front door, leaving Ash to walk away slightly less puzzled. At least there were still other people left in the world. And thankfully Emily was amongst them – now she could explain why she’d already let him down.

Five minutes later, Ash was checking his own house again for signs of his mother, trying to forget the bizarre encounter. When he’d had no success, he walked up to his bedroom, part of him trying to remember where he had stashed a jar of loose change. He could use it to catch a bus to his mother’s work. That, or he could just ring the company – except there was always a gruff lady who answered and his mother got in trouble for personal calls. There was always his bike, or feet, he guessed. Or maybe –

Ash stopped at his bedroom door. Was that...? Yes, that was definitely a clatter he’d heard within. Was that where his mother had been? Was she putting away his clean clothes? No – she wouldn’t have closed the door behind her. Ash momentarily froze at the thought of someone else being inside. Then an untapped sense of rage, resentment towards someone’s

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ill-timed intrusion, made him push his door open with as much force as possible.

He stomped inside to see the intruder retreat to the far corner of his room, ducking in to the space between his bed and the far wall, curling their body to resemble a slater bug in a feeble attempt to hide.

‘You!’ Ash shouted, though instantly regretting his force and clasping his mouth for silence.

The intruder unravelled and looked up in wide-eyed fear.

Looking nothing like his former self.Nothing like Jaden Nema.

http://www.darklings.com.au

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Craig Bezant hails from Perth, Western Australia – teacher by day, author, editor and publisher by night. His short fiction for adults has appeared in numerous magazines and online publications. He was the Associate Editor for HorrorScope, reviewing books by the boxful, and used this experience as a judge for the 2009 and 2010 Australian Shadows Awards. He created and edited the award-nominated online magazine, Eclecticism E-zine, for five magnificent years, before turning this experience into the foundation for a new Australian independent publisher, Dark Prints Press. Since then he has edited and published the work of some of the world’s best horror and crime writers.

The Psychic Seekers series played out in Craig’s mind for a long time; it wasn’t until he attended the Melbourne Writers Festival and was inspired by others, and some free time, that he sat down and committed The Flats to paper. After years of researching, writing, editing, and testing, he hopes you enjoy the result.

More can be found about the author and this series at:www.darklings.com.au