© mywriter 2010

“Forty-eight hours of torrential rain” – that’s what the news had said. That’s what had
been broadcast on the morning of the 15th of April. More like forty-eight hours of hell –
forty-eight hours that turned my life around forever.

These thoughts rushed through my head as I stood, staring straight into Karlos
Crefert’s demon-like eyes. I had been on the verge of success but then all my great
plans had come crashing down on me and I was now faced with a choice I never want
to make again. After this, I wasn’t sure I’d have another choice to make anyway…I was
just moments from death…

April 15th 2010

00.00

I woke up to the growl of thunder. It was fierce, almost human. I sat up, sweating
like mad, trying to collect my thoughts together. I’d had a nightmare, I realised,
brushing the salty beads of water from my forehead. Something about a creature
attacking me, I tried to remember but the past hour’s events had slipped away from
my mind already and I fell back onto the pillow, relieved that I had finally woken up
from the nightmare. Little did I know, I’d just woken up into a nightmare far greater
than anything I could have dreamed up. My problems were only just beginning.

I glanced over at the bedside table and was happy to see it was now midnight.
“Happy birthday,” I whispered to myself, smiling at the coincidence of waking up
bang on twelve.

I rolled over, realising I needed to get some sleep if I was going to be full of energy
for my house party the next day. I was really looking forward to my 16 th birthday
party but I couldn’t help feeling that things were going to go wrong somehow.

After twisting and turning under the blankets for several more minutes I decided it
was too hot to sleep and I got up to open a window. The bedroom was quite large,
but even so, it had been a warm night; I was surprised it was raining considering

© mywriter 2010
how dry it had been the day before. The weather forecast had predicted dry weather
the whole of that week.

What I saw as I pulled the curtains open took me in awe. Hazy pink light shed
through the window glass onto my face like someone was shining a bright coloured
torch through the clouds towards me. Every cloud was actually outlined with the
same pinky glow.

The rain that fell was as it should be but it fell in such great quantities, I could hear it
as it thundered down onto the pavement and the roof of the house. I wasn’t so sure I
wanted to open the window anymore.

I checked the radiator – it was on – and decided that I would head downstairs to
switch off the heating so the room could cool for a bit. After standing completely still
for a moment, I concluded that my parents and sister Charlotte had gone to bed so I
knew I’d have to go quietly.

Slowly, I tiptoed across the hallway and down the stairs, holding my breath as I
reached the bottom step. My parents wouldn’t exactly be able to hear anything over
the sounds of the rain though so I guess it didn’t matter about the creaking and
squeaking of the floorboards under my feet.

The kitchen tiles felt cold against my skin and once I’d flicked on the light, I virtually
danced my way over to the boiler unit with the controls on it. I knew what I had to
do and reached for the right switch – I’d done it a million times before.

As I flicked it, the phone rang. I didn’t hear it at first; the rain was getting stronger by
the minute and the sound of thunder was tremendous. As I turned to make my way
back across the kitchen, I saw the flashing light on the phone and, unsure what to
expect, picked it up. My breathing was fast but heavy and I fumbled for the answer
button as I brought the phone to my ear.

“Hello…” I breathed down the line.

“Jamie – is that you?”

© mywriter 2010
I frowned but suddenly it clicked and I gave a sigh of relief. “Hi grandma. Is there
something wrong?”

“Yes,” she snapped on the other end.

“Huh?” I asked, trying to hear her over the crashing thunder.

“Look outside. It’s happening. Where’s your mum?”

“What’s happening?” I said, trying to connect what she was saying to the pink cloud
and light I’d seen five minutes earlier. “Grandma, what’s happening?”

But the line went dead. It wasn’t just the phone though…the lights had flickered out
too. I was almost completely shrouded in darkness except for one thing – the light
shining through the curtains from outside. The strange, pink light.

I assumed that we had had some sort of power cut and glanced down at my watch. It
was now almost quarter past midnight. Some birthday this was turning out to be, I
thought bitterly to myself. Grandma didn’t even say Happy Birthday.

Moving towards the curtain, I replayed the conversation over in my mind trying to
figure out what was going on. My hands shook like there was an earthquake as I
reached out to pull the curtain open. I wasn’t sure whether I’d see the same thing
again or something else but I was about to find out.

As the curtains were drawn, the light that spilled in had turned tomato orange
colour and it almost blinded me. I held up my hand like a sunshade and peered out
to get a better look at the clouds. They were covering the whole sky but glowed like
one big sun. It was like a layer of light had surrounded the Earth. And rain was still
falling.

Suddenly, almost as quickly as my dream had faded, so too did the light. The oranges
and pinks were no-more and the clouds were a dull dark grey once again. I blinked
to see if I was imagining things, but I definitely wasn’t. It was all real. The lights
hadn’t come back on and it was so dark, I struggled round the kitchen trying to get

© mywriter 2010
back upstairs. I was desperate to turn on the TV or go on the computer to find out
what had happened but the powercut had made that impossible. I thought about
checking to see if I could fix the power but on second thoughts I decided I could just
help sort it out in the morning.

No sooner had my head hit the pillow though than I had an idea; quite an ingenious
one too. I had received a wind up radio as a present last year – it worked brilliantly. I
got out of bed again and grabbed it from under a stack of papers in one of my
cupboards. I started winding.

Three minutes of winding passed before I felt it was ready to be turned on and
played. Like I said, it worked brilliantly. I tuned into the right channel and listened
for the news report. And then it came…

“Good Evening to everyone. This is Brookman Storle bringing you some breaking
news. The past 15 minutes have become a natural phenomenon all over the world.
In every single city, town, hamlet, it started raining at exactly twelve am. An unusual
and unconfirmed light shone across the whole world for the full time and has only
just disappeared, Scientists and astrologers have set to work right away trying to
figure out what happened and why the rain is still continuing. The rain has been
confirmed as not harmful but still, people should take caution until further updates
have been provi…”

The wind up radio had run out of power and I groaned. I wanted to hear more but I
couldn’t be bothered to wind it up again. I thought that maybe I should make a call
on my mobile but who too? Lisa – my girlfriend? She’d probably be in bed sleeping
now as would about every other person I was friends with.

My phone was under a pile of books and it took me a good few minutes to find it in
the dark. I pressed a button and the screen light came on, illuminating the area
around me with an eerie yellow glow.

© mywriter 2010
No signal. I always had signal though, I recalled. It wasn’t even connected to a
network anymore and I shook my head in amazement as I put it back on the
desktop.

I couldn’t think of anything else to do so I lay in bed again, the blankets off so I could
cool down a bit. The rain was strong against the windowpanes and I listened as the
weather worsened as time passed. What a way to start my birthday!

Nearby, trouble was brewing. Or rather, it had already brewed. The man known as
Karlos stood in the downpour in the deserted park. Another had approached him
cautiously, keeping at a safe distance.

“How long?” the second man asked, gazing up into the dark clouds.

“47 hours like this. 47, Teef.”

“The floods will kill hundreds of thousands,” Teef remarked, making the quick
calculations.

“Indeed. And many more will die afterwards.” Karlos sneered and turned to Teef,
eyes glowing like fire. “The plan has already taken off and by the time anyone else
works out what’s happening, it’ll be too late. No-one will find out.”

“Where will we be?”

“Safe,” Karlos replied curtly. “That’s all you need to know.”

Teef was only partially satisfied – he wanted to know more. He wasn’t sure if Karlos
would double cross him at the last minute or even if the plan would succeed. All he
knew was that the plan would have dire consequences for the whole planet.

“In just over forty seven hours,” Karlos continued, “the whole world will be begging
at my feet. I will hold complete control of the future of the Earth.”

“But…”

© mywriter 2010
“No-one will stop me. I’ll be invincible. A threat to every single human on the planet
and all they can do is obey me or everyone of them will suffer. I will have total
control!”

Karlos gave one final laugh and turned to leave the park, all set to head to a safe
place where he could watch the next forty-seven hours slowly drift by. After so
many years of planning, his time had come…his chance to shine…

© mywriter 2010