Adam Brodie and the monster from the dark planet

Prologue

Prologue

Adam Brodie woke from a nightmare.

He had dreamt of a figure clad in gleaming steel and whose blazing red eyes glared with hate at Adam.

Adam Brodie, four years old, opened his eyes with a start and stared around the gloomy room, lit by his night light, and saw nothing but the dark form of his toys and small furniture here and there about him. He lay perfectly still, caught in that space between sleep and wakefulness, not knowing if his dream had been real or not.

It had been very vivid.

Looking up he saw the night light casting weird crooked shadows across the ceiling and heard the slight sounds of the night as the wood beams of the house groaned, cooling from the day's heat and shrinking, but he was used to such sounds.

Then he heard another noise and this was a noise he had never heard before. Adam willed himself to look and saw, in the night light glow, long silvered fingers rising from the edge of his bed.

Adam froze. He could not move. He held his breath and watched as the fingers rose and became a steel claw glittering in the night light radiance. The claw stopped and seemed to hang motionless but then it struck, darting out to grab Adam.

He screamed and leapt from the bed.

The door was flung open and light from the landing blazed into the room. Adam's father charged in and behind him came Adam's mother. Pushing past his father she scooped Adam up and rushed him outside into the landing. Adam's elder brother Jake was about to go in when Adam's father kicked the door shut.

"It's only a nightmare," cooed his mother.

There was a dazzling flash of light from within the room, burning around the edges of the door. The light seared into Adam's eyes through his tears. It was an intense, bluish white light.

But Adam knew it had all been too real.