The Map and The Stone #samplesunday

An excerpt from Ch 9. #samplesunday Bogged down

The Map and The Stone #samplesunday

[image error]A short excerpt from my children's book, The Map and The Stone, which was written for my10 year old after he sulked because I wouldn't let him read my other work. I gave him a copy for Christmas and he still hasn't read it….

Later that evening a vampire with white face and blood dripping fangs swirled his long black cloak in the cold night air and breathed clouds of steam as he giggled along the road.

"You shouldn't be able to do that," the werewolf beside him said with a growl. Hairy, clawed hands poked from torn sleeves and fur spilled from rips in a tattered shirt under a fake leather jacket. Dark trousers bore the marks of an apparently recent feast, vivid red splashed down one leg. "Vampires are undead, they don't breathe."

[image error]"So?" Rhys scowled. "I'm not really dead and I'm not really a vampire and I like making smoke. Maybe I should have been a demon instead and then smoke would have been right." He kicked at the pavement and a stone flew from his foot into a hedge and something small and dark with glittering eyes ran out, stopped and froze at the sight of them and then ran back in.

"What was that?" Craig stared. "It was too small for a cat and too big for a mouse. A rat maybe?"

"Nah, it didn't have a tail." Rhys crouched down, cape spilling across the pavement behind him, and peered under the hedge. "I can't see it."

Just then a car drove past and its headlights lit up the hedge for a moment and both boys were on their knees peering under the hedge. "I can't see anything either." Craig got back to his feet. "Whatever it was it's gone now." He glanced at his watch. "Come on, it's almost six." They gave up and ran the rest of the way to Tom and Cam's house, arriving so out of breath that their chests heaved and the breathed steamed from their gaping mouths.

"Vampires are the undead; you shouldn't be getting out of breath." Cam's dad was the same height as his mum with unruly curly dark hair and a smile that wrinkled his eyes and made them sparkle. He wasn't dressed up but he did have a short, dark jacket on and he had a torch in one hand. "Does anyone need the toilet before we go? Has everyone got something to carry sweeties in? Because if you haven't, then I get them all," he teased and Cam pushed him as they all held up bags for collecting their treats. Jack moved to the back door, which was now strewn with skeletons and a large bat, and there was a carved pumpkin on either side of the step, candles flickering in each one. "Kate?" he called. "Rhys and Craig are here, we're off out. I'll make sure they get home before I bring Tom and Cam back."

Kate called something indistinct from the kitchen and then stuck her head out of the door. "Do I get hugs from my two monsters or is that very uncool?" Tom and Cam grinned and hugged her close and she pushed them away towards Jack waiting with Rhys and Craig on the drive. Tom had his face painted green and his torn shirt and painted on scars matched the over-sized boots that meant he was Frankenstein's monster. Cam wore a scarlet cape over a black shirt and trousers with red horns and he carried a trident spear. His face wasn't painted but his dark hair had been allowed to grow so it fell almost into his eyes and that helped with the demon-monster look. All four boys carried small cloth bags decorated with stars, moons, witches and bats, ready to be filled with whatever treats they managed to collect along the way.