Before The Night Falls

By SV Macdonald

What happens when you die? Callie is about to find out...

On the morning of an ordinary day, Callie and her family go about their lives as usual. But they are in the middle of a war. Caught in the fallout from a bombing raid, Callie and her children wake up to find themselves in the eerie place where the recently dead have only one day to make their way to the gates of the next life. And they are not together.

Struggling to understand what has happened, Callie must find her children before the darkness comes and their souls are harvested by the creatures of the night. But first she has to overcome the memories of her previous life, and the love of her husband that threatens to hold her back as the day moves slowly towards nightfall and the creatures of the night close in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Suzi Macdonald
• Release date: Sep 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301308613

Book preview

Before The Night Falls

By SV Macdonald

(previously writing as Suzi Macdonald)

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2011 Suzi Macdonald

All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction and therefore any resemblance to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

CHAPTER 1

Wednesday Morning, 7:15am

It's 7:15am, Wednesday, and they have twenty minutes to leave the house.

The little girl is eight years old, and is playing her Nintendo. She is only half-dressed, her hair is unbrushed and her schoolbag is MIA. This is Mira.

The boy is four years old, and is watching Ben 10. He is refusing any breakfast except the Thomas the Tank Engine yoghurts which were binned last night as being too far beyond the expiry date to be safely eaten. This is Charlie.

Callie, their mother, is of indeterminate age, and she is multi-tasking. Because she has the school run this morning, she is checking e-mails on her laptop and making toast for Charlie, while looking for a missing hairbrush and a clean, uncreased school skirt for Mira.

Jake, her husband, has left the television on a news channel, and the latest war report runs on the wide screen in the background, listing details of troop movements and possibly strategies. The war is a hard bubble inside her which never disappears.

Charlie knocks over his apple juice and gleefully slaps both hands into the puddle, soaking his tee-shirt and trousers.

His sister looks up briefly from her game.

Mum, he's spilled his juice, she says. Unnecessarily, Callie feels. Now that she has done her part, Mira goes back to her game.

Mira, could you please get dressed? Callie asks nicely, whilst stripping Charlie and avoiding the apple juice herself. She is ignored. A princess is apparently on the top of a cliff. Or tree. Or is in some other virtual danger that means her rescue has become top priority for Mira.

Mira, if you don't put that down and get dressed I will take it away for the rest of the day! Callie knows this is probably not good parenting, but it is effective... Mira makes a face, but puts the game down. She picks up a Barbie instead.

Can I take her to school...?

Dressed!

Mira scowls, but takes off her pyjamas.

Mum, she says, "You have remembered that I’ve got a school trip today? I need a packed lunch."

Callie’s laptop pings and she feels the weight of unanswered mail piling on her shoulders. She remembers the note from school, and writing the school trip on the family planner in the kitchen. But that was weeks ago, and in the rush to get ready, she had forgotten that the trip was this morning.

This trip is to the local naval base, and Callie is not at all sure that she approves. But Mira and her friends have been talking about it for days. Callie raids the fridge for cheese, mayonnaise and yoghurt, and puts together a reasonably healthy lunch for Mira. In the background she hears the children begin to squabble over the Nintendo.

Charlie! Leave Mira to get dressed! she calls out. The kitchen clock chimes the half-hour, and she runs upstairs to find clean clothes for Charlie. Hearing her steps on the stairs, he comes skipping after her.

Mummy, I come upstairs! He announces, and she hears the slow thuds on the stairs as he climbs on all fours.

Please don't, Charlie, Mummy's really in a hurry now!

I’m coming up! I come! he insists. I bounce on my bed!

No, Sweetie, no time today!

But I want to!

He runs to the bed and pulls himself up before she can catch him. She turns for a moment to pick up the missing hairbrush (how did it get under the bed?) and in that moment he falls with a sickening thud on to the wooden floor. She has turned and scooped him up almost before her brain has registered the blood on his little face. He is totally silent, in shock, and she can clearly see the cut on his lower lip and the scarlet bruise blossoming on his forehead.

Then his little mouth opens and the wailing begins. He is inconsolable, and tears mix with the blood spilling down his chin. Her hands tremble as she tries to wipe the blood and see if there is any other damage. Arms, legs, hands, all seem to move as they should though he fights her, pulling his limbs back against his body when she tries to flex them. The blood on her hands scares him and he bats them away, crying even louder, mouth wide open and bloody. Callie peers into his mouth. No teeth missing...

"Mum! Mum! What's happened? Mira’s worried voice rises from the bottom of the stairs. What's he done?"

He fell off the bed, but he's OK, Callie tells her. Just you finish getting ready for school. We'll be down in a minute."

But Mira is already at the top of the stairs, and her wide blue-green eyes grow huge as she looks at her little brother. She hurries to hug him as he cowers in their mother’s arms, and although he pushes her away, she persists until they are all three sitting on the floor as close as they can be. Callie notices Mira’s school polo shirt is splashed with blood, and so is her own blouse. But Charlie has stopped crying except for the sobs he can't help, catching in his throat and in his mother’s heart every time he breathes.

Ever practical, Mira gets up to fetch a wet cloth from the bathroom and gives it to her mother to clean up Charlie. He's not keen, but soon they are done, and in a few minutes more, somehow, they are all changed, dressed and ready to go.

Mira finds her schoolbag (also under the bed), and although there is homework she forgot to mention, Callie lets it go and they hurry downstairs.

Both children sit quietly while Callie switches off and packs up the laptop, ignoring her e-mails. They get their coats when asked, and they have somehow managed to be only ten minutes late when they drive off. The bruise on Charlie's head is still livid, but he will be OK. Mira smiles when Callie catches her eye in the mirror.