The Fire

Chapter Seven

Present

The drive home was silent. We were all too busy asking ourselves so many unanswerable questions. Who was The Hooded Man? Who was that woman? Why had he come back? What did he want with me? The silence was broken when Josh received a message from his mum saying he needed to go home to babysit his little sister, Elizabeth, so we made our way to his to drop him off before Millie and I headed off to the police station.

As we pulled up on Josh's drive, his mum ran out the door.

"Where have you been so early on a Sunday morning?" She said with a concerned expression on her face.

"Sorry mum, we just...went out to meet some friends."

We all gave an assuring smile in Josh's mum's direction, hoping to convince her of our excuse of a story.

"Well, next time, tell me before you go in case I need you, like I do now," Josh's mum said inspecting the three of us, "now come on you, I'm leaving soon." She summoned Josh through the front door and waved us off. I briefly saw Elizabeth run around the corner and jump into Josh's arms, huge smiles on both their faces as he span her round and round.

Oh to have a family as happy as his.

Millie took the wheel and pulled out of Josh's drive.

My fingers couldn't stop tapping on my leg. I'd never been so nervous; the police station had become my second home over the last couple of years, and nearly all the officers knew me, so I didn't know what I was anxious about.

"Stop fidgeting," Millie said accusingly, "you're making me feel nervous."

"Sorry," I mumbled, concentrating on nothing but the still movement of my hand.

Beep. Beep.

The sound came from my pocket and made both me and Millie tense up. I hadn't received a message since the last one from... 'him'.

"Are you going to get that? It's probably just Josh," Millie whispered, somehow trying to convince herself of her own statement.

"Um, yeah," I said as I reached into my coat pocket, almost hoping it wasn't there.

I gulped when I saw the name on my notification panel: UNKNOWN, it definitely wasn't Josh.

I almost dropped my phone as I turned the screen towards Millie, my hand shaking with fear.

"What should I do?"

"You have to open it; it will be more evidence for the police."

"Right, yeah, I suppose..."

I clicked on the notification and had to stop myself from crying out loud.

If you go to the police, you might find there will be one less of you in that car – The Hooded Man

Stuttering, I read the message aloud to Millie. Whoever this man was, was threatening not just my life, but my friend's life too. He wasn't messing around.

And then it hit me.

He must know where we are, he must have been watching us. All morning.

"Millie, you need to turn back," I warned.

"It will be fine, what's he going to do?"

"I don't know, but if you go to the station, you're putting both our lives at risk." As I said that, my phone pinged again.

10

I looked down and frowned; what was he doing?

And then another.

9

He was counting down.

Whatever he was planning on doing, he was going to do it, unless we turned around.

"Please, Millie!"

8

"Just trust me, everything will be fine."

7

"No, it won't, just turn around!"

6

"He can't hurt us if we are in a moving vehicle."

5

"Well, he has obviously found a way that he can, and he is going to do it, we don't have much time!"

4

"Millie, it's not difficult, just turn around!"

3

"Okay, okay!"

2

Millie forced the steering wheel to the right to pull into a turning and then slammed on the brakes, making us both jolt forwards in our seats.

The flow of messages stopped, my head fell back against the seat as I let out a sigh of relief.

"What was all that about?" Millie said slowly. I handed my phone over while I still looked straight ahead. "Oh," was all she said, and I turned to see a guilty expression creep onto her face, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sure you're right Mils, I don't know what he could have done to us, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

Millie drove herself home before I did so myself. I messaged Josh to ask if I could come over later to tell him about what happened and get his opinion on what to do next...because we didn't know. It seemed The Hooded Man liked his anonymity.

I went to Josh's at around 4.30 once his mum got home so we could be alone without Elizabeth running around and interfering. We sat in the kitchen and shut the doors that led into the living room just in case his mum or sister overheard us. I explained to him about the first message and the countdown that followed Millie's refusal to turn around.

"So, what do we do?"

"I don't know," Josh said whilst shaking his head in disbelief, "but whoever he is obviously isn't worried about anyone's life, but I don't know how he could have possibly killed you if you were in that car.

"Yeah, me neither."

We were silent for a few moments before the dreaded sound of my phone filled the room. I took a deep breath and crossed my fingers in the hope it wasn't him. But it was.

If you tell anyone else about me, they're dead – The Hooded Man

Now I had no choice, I couldn't tell anyone, otherwise, he would kill them.