BAD MOON RISING

Chapter One

1

Timeline: 03:36, Saturday, 21st April 2007

School House, Bamptonville

Tom Silvers cautiously raised himself upright in bed, taking care to avoid making the slightest sound likely to disturb the other four seniors sleeping in the dormitory; intently listening with his eyes closed for the slightest indication of their wakefulness.

"At last," he whispered, assured that all were asleep after an annoyingly prolonged conversation by two of them lasting into the early hours of the morning put him behind schedule for his own purpose. Slowly and silently he slipped out of bed to dress, tying his trainers around his neck before tiptoeing out of the dormitory.

The moon came out from behind a cloud, shining through the large rear window and bathing the staircase in a milky glow. Silvers froze into a shadow against the wall, impatiently gnawing his lower lip, waiting for the staircase to again be cast into darkness before continuing his descent: his ears cocked for the slightest sound warning him of the presence of another person.

With the stealth of a wraith, he reached the bottom of the stairs undetected and sat on the bottom step to don his trainers. Satisfied he was still alone he moved swiftly into the shadows of the corner beside the main entrance doorway, pressing himself against the door of the janitor's room on the adjacent wall. Slowly he turned the handle and pushed against the door with gradually increasing force, careful to avoid applying too much pressure and creating a noise. With gritted teeth he applied more pressure until he felt the door yield and break free of its jamb with a barely audible creak.

Silvers took a deep breath and continued pushing on the door, until a sufficient gap appeared for him to slip through like a ghost, and gently closed the heavy wooden door behind him.

The stress of detection came off him once inside the room and he stood still for a few moments, adjusting his eyes to the darkness. Once he clearly discerned the pale glow lighting the window onto the street outside, he skirted the walls towards it.

Silvers pulled himself up onto the window ledge to peer outside, looking for people abroad on Makepeace. "Yes," he whispered with pleasure on seeing nobody outside, lowering himself back onto the ground.

He took a clasp knife from his pocket and skilfully prised open the window latches. The window was never ordinarily opened, however, the latches slid open freely under minimum pressure from the blade due to Silvers' previous exits by this route.

A glance at the luminous face of his watch told the boy he was running dangerously late. He had to conclude his business and be back in the dormitory before daybreak. Curbing his impatience, he slid open the window and in one practised motion, leaped onto the ledge and rolled out of the window, dropping into a crouched position on the sidewalk below. The boy squatted low to the ground for several seconds until he ascertained his exit had passed unnoticed, and nobody else was abroad on Makepeace. With care he lowered the window into its closed position, congratulating himself on his earlier foresight of sanding and oiling the window runners so they closed easily and silently. After checking the window would easily open again from the outside, he set off at a fast lope for the Melody Inn: keeping as much into the shadows as possible and freezing whenever the moon shone through its cloud cover to illuminate the street, resuming his journey only when the street fell into darkness again.

A/N: The story continues directly in the next chapter. I will be grateful for your feedback to help develop the story and for your votes. Thanks.