The Sleep Taker: The Adventures of Horse Shoe Close

By Darren O'Sullivan

The Sleep taker is a supernatural adventure novel for age’s eight to twelve set in the idyllic community of Horse Shoe Close where magic; mystery and evil are trying to win over good. The adventure tells of how good can overcome evil but will Jack defeat evil before evil defeats Horse Shoe Close ?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AUK Authors
• Release date: Jun 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781783331178

Book preview

Darren

Day One

Chapter 1

The school holidays had just begun and Jack could not be happier. The summer was here and Jack lay awake thinking of all the adventures he and his friends would go on during the summer before he would go back to school and into year 6. Manhunt, bulldog, tig, tag, hide and seek, building dens were just a few things Jack had planned with his friends. However, what he didn’t know is that before he could play all of his great games he would have to go on the biggest adventure of his life! Before he could play manhunt and bulldog, before he could play tig and tag and hide and seek. Even before he could begin to think about building any dens, Jack would have to save the world from an evil force so strong that it would take all the sleep from him and his friends to help with its evil plan to control the planet!

When I say ‘the planet’ I really mean Horse Shoe Close.

Horse Shoe Close is where Jack lives with all of his best friends.

This is Horse Shoe Close from a bird’s eye view (but do not ask me which bird for I do not know).

Normally Horse Shoe Close is so quiet at night you can hear a mouse sneeze, which of course is perfect for Jack because he loved to sleep soundly and deeply dreaming of sweets, funfairs, and birthday presents. But all things normal were about to change.

Little did he know on the very day when Jack was at school for the last time before the summer holidays, an old man moved into Horse Shoe Close with an evil plan.

Jack was just beginning to fall asleep thinking of his great games when he heard an unfamiliar noise, one that he had never heard before and it startled him. It was a strange, slow dragging noise

Scrape, scrape and this noise made Jack feel wide awake again.

Slowly he slipped out of bed and tiptoed to his window to find out what it was. Taking a deep breath he carefully pulled back the curtain to see outside.

On the footpath, directly outside Jack’s house was an old man, staring back at him. This old man was wearing a flat cap and he had a walking stick, which he dragged as he moved. He was short and wearing a long coat, even in the dark Jack could see the white hair sprouting from his ears and nose. To start with Jack just stood there, frozen in complete shock, wondering how the old man knew he was there. Jack was so shocked he almost didn’t see the old dog with the old man, who was also staring at him. After shock is panic and panic he did. Jack ran from his window and dived into his bed so fast that if he was to compete in the Olympics running that quick he would surely be the youngest gold medal winner ever. Pulling the covers over his head to protect himself (for we all know that underneath the bed cover is the safest place to hide from ghosts and monsters and grandmas) he laid there hoping the strange old man was gone.

10 minutes passed and Jack slowly, looking around first to make sure the old man hadn’t somehow got into his bedroom, removed the protective shield that was his blanket. Again, he tiptoed to his window and slowly pulled the curtain back. His heart was beating so hard he could hear it and his palms were clammy through sweat, his nerves were on edge, and when he finally pulled the curtain far enough back to see onto the street the old man had vanished. He had gone, almost as if he had completely disappeared into the night.

Jack climbed back into his bed, his heart was returning to its normal, steady beat. The thoughts of the fun games he was going to play with his friends were completely gone. All he could think of was the old man. Jack had so many questions.

All of his thoughts and questions were jumbled up, so I have written them down for your benefit.

The questions look something like this:

Question 1) Who is he?

Question 2) Why is he here?

Question 3) How did he know I was at my window?

Question 4) Why is he out walking his dog in the middle of the night, when the whole world is asleep?

Question 5) What is he up to?

Question 6) Where did he come from?

Question 7) WHY CAN’T I SLEEP??

The last question would be the one that would keep poor Jack awake all night.

Seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into hours until finally Jack could hear the morning song of the birds. Throughout the whole night the same question was playing heavily on his mind.

Why can’t I sleep?

Finally, Jack figured it out and then he was too terrified to do anything but wait for mid morning and help to arrive.

Chapter 2

Jack

Jack

JACK!

Jack was startled to the sound of his name almost being screamed from outside his window. At first, he thought it was the old man, but he soon dismissed that because it was now daylight. It was a little after 11 in the morning in the morning and he had not slept all night.

Jack, wake up you lazy head, get your bum out of your bed!

That, thought Jack can only be one person. His best friend in the entire universe N.J.

N.J, short for Nicola-Jane (but if you ever called her that she would give you the biggest wedgey in the world!) was 9 years old, the same age as Jack and had shocking bright red hair, so shocking that if she did not always wear her hat on her head you would need sunglasses! Jack knew it was N.J outside his window without even seeing her because although she was small for her age she had the loudest voice Jack had ever heard. Loud enough to wake a bear from its winter hibernation in Canada and Canada is thousands of miles away!

This is a scale of loudness just for you and as you can clearly see N.J is at the top.

Not only did she have the loudest voice in the whole of Horse Shoe Close she was also brilliant at impersonating people’s voices. Once she pretended to be her mum shouting at her dad to give N.J more pocket money, Dad really thought N.J was mum and handed over Five Pounds! N.J was the best at mimicking others voices in the whole of Horse Shoe Close. There was no-one who she couldn’t copy.

Jack got to his front door and as he opened it he was pounced upon by Mars. Mars was N.J’s dog who had dark brown and caramel coloured coat. He was called Mars because when he was a tiny puppy he looked just