I thought I would share another of my published short stories. Not a cheery tale by any means, so be prepared if you decide to continue…

The I Scream Man

Summers had always been Edward’s favourite. Long hazy days, playing in the fields and park and spending all day with his best friend Doyle. They would be back to school soon so were enjoying the long days of holidays to the fullest.

Early evening time would come and the sound of their regular favourite, the Ice Cream Van would begin from afar. Playing that melodious droning repetitive song, they could never be sure if had always sounded so broken, or it was just dying a slow death. Like an old gramophone wobbling and creaking round and round.

But as soon as the faint music started, it would be a race to see who could make it first. Jostling for first place. The Ice cream man would give an extra flake to whoever was the winner. One morning though near to the end of the holidays, Edward called on Doyle as they had arranged but he wasn’t there. His mother answered the door and looked tired and drawn in the face. She almost looked as though she smiled when she saw him, but that faded from her face quickly.

“Edward, it’s you. I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen Doyle since yesterday. Do you know where he is? Was he with when he went to the shops?”

A policeman appeared behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Please ma’am, we’ll ask the boy the questions”.

And with that Mrs Matherly was manoeuvred into the back of the house by someone he had never seen before.

“Now son, is it ok is we ask you a few questions? Is your mother at home so we can just check with her if that’s ok as well?”

His heart was racing, he didn’t know what they would want to ask about. Had they done something wrong? Why couldn’t anyone find Doyle, why would he be missing? All of these questions started to make Edwards brain race as fast as his heart. Where was his best friend?

The policeman took him back to his house, it was only a few doors down and round the corner but it seemed like a mile. At first his mother’s face was furious.

“You’ve been out of the house for five minutes and already you’ve got up to mischief?”

But as she finished the sentence, she looked at the policeman’s face and could see there was a tired tenseness and this wasn’t to do with her boy at all.

“Sorry ma’am. I didn’t mean to cause alarm but we need to ask Edward some questions. His friend Doyle Matherly hasn’t been seen since yesterday”.

Edward couldn’t imagine what they needed to ask him, had he seen Doyle, no. It was that simple in his head. But it wasn’t that simple, there were so many questions. Did they have a hiding place? Was I keeping any secrets for him? Had he ever talked about running away? He was starting to feel stressed out by the questions, everything he could think of kept drawing up a blank. He didn’t know where he was and the reality of that thought hit him like a ton of bricks. The tears started welling up in his face.

“Am I ever going to see my friend again?”

The words game as garbled noises through his tears. He wanted this to end right now, they were starting school in a couple of weeks and were meant to be out playing. Still trying to cling to the sense of normality that had been there yesterday. How can you say goodbye to your friend yesterday and today they have disappeared he thought, how does that happen?

The town took on a sombre tone that day. Reporters and police, volunteers and family all bustling around trying to find Doyle. Search teams and interviewers all doing their thing in the hope of bringing this nightmare to a happy conclusion, but the longer it went on, the more unlikely it seemed. It was all everyone was talking about but no-one wanted to.

Over the coming days it got worse. Still Doyle hadn’t been found, and the more the news coverage went on it seemed to reveal that a number of other children had also gone missing over the last few years from the surrounding areas. They also had never been found. Edward didn’t read the papers and his mother kept the news to a minimum around him. He tried not to think the worst but it was hard. What if his friend had fallen down and hurt himself or what if he got lost in the woods and couldn’t find his way out? These were the worries that wouldn’t leave him alone. He wanted to go and search himself, but his mum didn’t want to let him out of her sight. The worry was clear on all the adults faces, but they were careful not to discuss it in front of Edward, but he had noticed.

Then the next day, the tone changed again. Suddenly there was lots of commotion around town. A body had been found. Most of the town had gathered around the streets where the boys lived, waiting for more news. People wanted to hear it as it happened, not second hand from the television or newspaper. Edward didn’t want to hear any of it. He hid away in his room as soon as he had heard. In a strange way wishing it wasn’t his friend in the hope that he might still be alive somewhere. Until they found him, there was still a chance.

But this was destined to be somebody’s grief, although Edward got half his wish for now. It was the body of a child, but not Doyle. The mystery deepened with it being one of the children from about 20 miles away, who had been missing for around 3 years. They were found in the search area for Doyle, which at that time hadn’t been searched. But from the whispers going round, it wouldn’t have been found then either if they had.

It was perfectly preserved, hadn’t aged a day they said. All the previous cases were re-opened and the mystery only deepened. Edward found it hard to fathom how it all fit together, wondering where the other child had been all this time. He had never really thought about people going missing before, nothing like this had happened in his short lifetime of nearly nine years. But now it was all he thought about. Where was Doyle? How do children just disappear? It didn’t matter how he thought about it, it didn’t make sense.

As the days went on he slept less and less, dark dreams of evil forests and monsters stealing and swallowing children. When he would fall asleep he would wake up sweating and gasping for air, as if the dark forest had taken him as well. A forest full of time holes, where you fall in from your time and disappear, then reappear dead in another time. Such strange thoughts and dreams, he couldn’t remember what it was like to not think about them. He knew he wouldn’t be going to the forest ever again.

To try and cheer him up, his mum gave him a pound to get an ice-cream next time the truck came round. Next day when the music started in the distance, he almost got excited, remembering for a moment what used to happen. It faded as the music got closer, but still he tried to perk himself up and went outside to the van.

“What can I get for you today young man?”

Edward didn’t actually know what he wanted, he hadn’t really thought about it until asked. In previous years the older boys always jumped up to look through the window and see. He was tall enough this year and suddenly felt brave enough.

“Not sure, I’ll have a look”.

And with that he quickly jumped up with his arms on the counted and glanced into the van to see what he wanted. Just as he did, the ice-cream man grabbed his arms and pushed him down away form the counted rather hurriedly.

“Not allowed to do that no more, heath and safety. Now what do you want, I gotta get on”.

His whole demeanour changed and where he had been friendly before, was no equally unfriendly. Edward apologised and feeling quite downhearted just asked for an orange lolly. He didn’t even think he would eat it. He said thanks without even looking back at the man and slowly walked back to his house with his head down. Once back in the house, he put the lolly in the freezer and gave his mum back the change for it. Without Doyle everything had lost its magic. How could he enjoy anything again he wondered.

That night was a very fitful sleep. The dreams were replaying in his mind over and over. Monstrous trees trying to eat him and Doyle, they were trying to run through the forest. Falling and tripping over tree roots emanating from the ground to grab them. Huge holes opening up ahead of them ready to drop them as a corpse into a different time. Half the time he was looking for Doyle, alone in the forest and scared he wouldn’t find him. The other half was with Doyle, desperate not to lose him and to save him from whatever fate lay ahead for him.  Edward felt so powerless and scared, that by itself was terrifying enough. A new feeling of genuine fear he hadn’t felt before but he was sure would not stay with him forever.

Something was different in this dream though, it felt more real and something else lurked in the darkness. He could feel it getting closer. He turned to grab Doyles hand to make sure he was still with him. He wasn’t. The awful feeling of losing him happened all over again. The turning round in circles seeing where he went, screaming his name and hoping this time you get a response. Nothing.

But there was a noise, really faint at first, just starting to creep through. Edward tried to ignore it as he was shouting and crying into the dark forest. It grew louder though, pushing into his psyche and demanding attention.  It was the ice-cream trucks dying melody starting to approach. It made Edwards blood run cold, in fact his whole body felt cold and he started to shiver. The truck got closer, but this one had no driver, just steering itself through the trees making it’s way towards Edward.

It slowly came to halt in front of him. His heart was beating so fast he could hear it thumping in his head and his chest. He didn’t want to go to the counter or look inside, but he knew he must. It didn’t look anything else in the dream at all. This looked exactly as it did earlier in real life, just without the man. He took a deep breath and stepped up to the counter, realising he was going to have to jump up again. He hesitated. Suddenly thinking something could grab him or pull him in. Another deep breath to get himself together and he pulled himself up and looked. He looked around inside the truck and weirdly it all looked normal and as it had this afternoon, even his pound was on the counter. As his eyes went over it a second time he remembered he was trying to see what there was in the freezer when he was told off. Maybe now he could look and see what it was. The coldness he felt hadn’t gone away and he even thought for a moment maybe he was being turned into an ice-cream in his dream.

But this didn’t feel like a dream anymore, this felt different. As he looked into the freezer he could see cornetto’s, ice-pops, zooms and a hand. A whole hand with fingers and everything just there in with all the ice-creams. In fact, not just a hand, but what looked like a sleeve as well showing just the edge of a jumper. Doyles jumper!

He screamed himself awake and jumped out of bed. What had he just seen? Did he see that earlier? Was his brain imagining things? He wanted to pretend it didn’t happen, he didn’t see it, it was a dream and even at nearly nine years old, you could still go mad. But the more he thought back to earlier, he realised he did see it. He was surprised at being turfed off the counter and his brain didn’t register it at the time, but now it was. And Edward meant to do something about it, his scream had already woken his mother and he told her everything from the beginning, knowing that she would listen and not tell him was being silly. And even if she did, he knew he wasn’t.

She didn’t say he was silly at all. Quite the opposite, she told him it was important and that they should tell the policeman right away. He sat on the edge of his bed while his mother made the call, the nervous excitement of telling her what he knew was now replaced with an empty sadness. Because now he knew what had happened to Doyle. Knew they wouldn’t ever play together again, wouldn’t go to big school together and he wouldn’t get to laugh with his best friend ever again.

After he had given a statement to the police, it only took a couple of days for it to be big news. The killer had been caught. The link between the communities and the previous missing children that had never been found was revealed. No-one talked about it much after, you didn’t need to, it would always be remembered as a local tragedy.

(c) K Wicks