"The Shadow Man" (part 20). Five x 5 minute freewrites

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Maynia is over…

...but ...I ground to a halt…so I’m going to try to finish the story…I began… and catch up with the freewrite (and Maynia) prompts…

Here are five x five minute freewrites...

The Shadow Man

_{_{If you want you can find the previous “chapters”: _{One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Ninteen}}}
…

Day 945
Maynia prompt: Steel Fortress @freewritehouse/maynia-day-twenty-four-only-a-week-to-go

Heather wondered if she would get into trouble for slipping through, onto the pier without paying. Even though she did have a ticket.

Well technically, anyway.

She stood still, the sea wind blowing through her hair and her breath held within her chest, watching the man. He didn't turn back to look at her and he didn't seem to be looking for anyone to tell on her, either. She decided it was safe to carry on up the pier.

She chose to walk through the arcade, rather than round it. She told herself this was because it was quicker. It wasn't because she enjoyed the lights, the noise and the games people were playing. She tried not to stop to watch a young boy - may be slightly older than her - playing a game called Steel Fortress. She pulled herself away. It wouldn't be quicker if she hung around in the games arcade.

As she reached the other side of the building she heard someone shout, "That's her!" she turned around and saw the disapproving man standing with a man in uniform.

The man was pointing at her.
…

Day 946, the prompts were:
Maynia prompt: overgrown grass
@freewritehouse/maynia-day-twenty-five-6-days-left
The Daily Freewrite prompt: gout
@mariannewest/day-946-5-minute-freewrite-sunday-prompt-gout
Heather ran. She pushed the glass door of the arcade open and thumped along the pier. She risked a glance over her shoulder and saw the uniformed man chasing her. The uniform looked official but she didn't think he was a policeman. Heather hoped not. She didn't want to go to jail. Up ahead, she could see the theatre and the ghost train.

"Stop!"

Heather didn't think that was wise. She needed to find Billy. He would know what to do. Walking towards her were two women. One was really tall and thin with pale yellow hair that stuck up on her head. She reminded Heather of overgrown grass. She laughed despite herself. The other woman was short and fat - although Mummy told Heather not use that word because it wasn't very nice - and was wearing a black t-shirt with the words, "Gout!- the final tour!" on it. By the style of the writing on the t-shirt Heather assumed Gout! was a heavy metal band. They stepped aside and Heather ran past them.

…
Day 947, the prompts were:
Maynia prompt: unkempt
@freewritehouse/maynia-day-twenty-six-5-days-left
The Daily Freewrite prompt: the new normal
@mariannewest/day-947-5-minute-freewrite-monday-prompt-the-new-normal

Heather could hear the thump thump thump of boots shaking the wooden boards of the pier behind her. She was being chased. Heather was good at running sometimes she even beat Billy in a race to the end of the road and back, although she suspected Billy let her win. But she also knew she wasn't as fast as a grown-up. Not one who looked like the man in uniform anyway. She could see the entrance to the Ghost Train ahead. She might be able to make it but she wasn't sure.

Suddenly as she ran past a booth, that sold candyfloss, a man stepped out. He was unkempt and to Heather's bewilderment she realised it was either the homeless man she had left on the main road or, perhaps, his twin.

"I'll protect you!" he shouted at Heather as she ran past him. "I am the new normal!" Heather carried on running, not daring to look back.

"Out of my way!" she heard a man shout.

"You get out of my way!" the homeless-twin-man shouted.

Heather kept running and risked a quick look over her shoulder. The homeless man was standing in front of the man in the uniform
…
Day 948, the prompts were:
Maynia prompt: fields of fire
@freewritehouse/maynia-day-twenty-seven-the-end-looms-ahead
The Daily Freewrite prompt: scar
@mariannewest/day-948-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday-prompt-scar
"Run!" the homeless man shouted at Heather again. "Run! Before the fields of fire consume you!" Heather didn't know what that meant, but she didn't need telling again.

She could see the door to the Ghost Train was ajar, swinging slightly in the sea breeze. As she neared - her breath heavy, and her lungs aching from the effort - she began to feel a tingling.

It was her scar, she realised.

The one that the horrible man had given her with his nasty knife. The closer she got to the Ghost Train entrance the hotter the scar felt. She heard the sound of someone falling to the floor behind her, and she turned and saw that the homeless man had fallen to the floor, his arms wrapped around the legs of the man in uniform. The Ghost Train entrance door swung open as she reached it, almost as though it had been waiting for her.

"Come on in," the darkness seemed to say. "We've been waiting for you."

Heather stopped.
…

Day 949, the prompts were:
Maynia prompt: banana chaser
@freewritehouse/maynia-day-twenty-eight-only-a-few-days-left
The Daily Freewrite prompt: beeper
@mariannewest/day-949-5-minute-freewrite-wednesday-prompt-beeper

It was silly to be afraid of the dark.

She hadn't been afraid of the dark since she was a little girl. When she used to think that there was a monster called Beeper who hid under her bed.

But Billy had told her that monsters didn't exist. And even if they did, he said, they wouldn't hide under her bed. There were better places for monsters to live, Billy said.

Heather thought Billy was half right. She had met a monster. So she knew they did exist. And he lived here, in the Ghost Train.

"Come on," she said to herself. "There is nothing to be scared of."

"Isn't there?" a voice said. It sounded a bit like Billy's voice. Only older, somehow.

"Billy?"

"It ain't Billy, no more, little banana chaser."

Heather didn't know what a banana chaser was.

"What's a banana chaser?" she asked the shadows from within the Ghost Train.

"Come on in and I'll show you."

"I want Billy."

"Billy is in here," the voice said. "We're keeping him nice and warm for you."

There was a chuckle. Or rather, there were lots of chuckles. It sounded to Heather like the shadows were laughing at her.

And there were a lot of them.