Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-24946232-20140519105202/@comment-24946232-20140519152828

heres the second entry in the blog. Let me know what you think. If it doesnt work ill consider present tense:

24/05/2013

So Friday came and I headed home with Ben afterschool with an overnight bag. His mum apologized for being so accusing the week before, I told her it was fine. Ben and his parents all looked very tired and there was a weird atmosphere in the house.

Me and Ben took the dog out. The suburbs in George are very different to the ones I’m used to in the UK. Here its big houses all spaced out. Not a semidetached in sight. It’s similar to the houses you see on American TV programs. The dog seemed really pissed off, when I tried to pet it, it growled at me. The days were getting shorter now as winter was coming in: the seasons are switched on the southern hemisphere (just a reminder). The sun was setting when we got home.

After the dog walk we had a braai (South African barbeque) and Ben, to his mother’s dismay, began teaching me all the Afrikaans swear words: Poes, Kak, Fok etc. After a while the bad mood seemed to disappear and we had a really nice evening.

At 11, Ben’s parents went to bed and we stayed downstairs. We discussed what could have happened with the Bibles on the previous nights. Ben said that they had called the police but that there had been no sign of forced entry. Why would someone do it anyway? I asked him if any of the family had ever sleepwalked and he said they’d been discussing it and none of them had ever done it before. We settled on a plan:  placing all five of the water damaged Bibles on the coffee table in the living room and waiting. Ben fetched his pellet gun to keep by his side.

We watched TV and drank coffee to pass the time. Getting progressively nervous as the hours passed. I told him that if something happened it would only happen really early in the morning, maybe at 3 or 4.

Once it was passed 1 we started to get paranoid. I felt really vulnerable and like I was being watched. I could tell from the look on Ben’s face that he felt the same. We decided that it would be a good idea to go outside and light a fire in the braai area and we stole some of Ben’s dad’s whiskey and mixed it with coke. After the whiskey we took some vodka and little bits of whatever alcohol we felt we could away with without Ben’s parents noticing. Soon we were a bit tipsy and began joking about what we would do to the crazy person who was messing with the Bibles. The whole situation was beginning to seem more and more unreal and soon we changed the subject and began talking about other things; movies, games, sex.

I took out my phone and saw that it was three o’ clock. I told Ben that I didn’t think anything was going to happen. He agreed but said we were going to stay up all night anyway. We decided that the best way to stay sharp and waken ourselves up would be to take a dip in the pool. It was pretty cold outside and the pool was freezing but we stripped into our boxers and jumped in.

Then the dog started growling. It didn’t bark, it just growled. We looked up from the side of the pool into the house. The porch light was on, but the lights in the living room had turned off. Ben’s dog was standing on the lawn separating us from the house with the hair on its back standing up. A sense of dread filled my stomach, but I continued staring into the dark of the living room. Ben and I had left the sliding door open, if someone had been braking in we had made it a whole lot easier.

It seemed we stayed in the same position for ages, not daring to get out. We silently treaded water with our arms on the side of the pool: just staring. In a whisper Ben said that his dad may have come down and switched the light off or maybe that a fuse had gone. It was clear that he was trying to avoid thinking about a stranger lurking in the darkness of his own home. I told him that I thought we should get out. We agreed in hushed voices that we wouldn’t go into the house and that we should get a phone from our crumpled clothes and call the police.

We silently put our plan into action, we got out of the pool and I fumbled for my phone. Then Ben grabbed my arm and pulled me and we began running towards the street. We ran down the road past three houses and stopped under the beam of a street light. Ben said that he had seen movement in the dark room. I took my phone and dialled 10111 for the police. After the lady on the other side of the line said police would be there in 5 to 10 minutes, Ben took my phone off me and began frantically dialling his parents. After a tense few seconds his dad answered the call. Ben told him there was someone in the house and that the police where on the way. He also said we were waiting on the street (he didn’t mention that we were there in only our underwear). He handed me my phone and then began praying while I stood shivering, looking down the empty street, waiting for the headlights of a police vehicle.

After what seemed like hours (probably only five minutes) a police pickup truck arrived (that’s what they drive here). The two policemen gave us funny looks but became more serious when they saw how scared we were. We led them to the house and let them walk in front of us when we came to the front gate. In whispers, Ben guided them to the back of the house were the open sliding door was. The policemen walked into the dark with their guns drawn and seconds later the light was on. Ben’s dad came downstairs with a concerned look on his face. A crackling, popping sound made me turn around. And there in the braai: five Bibles were burning.

The next day I went home. I’m not going to tell my dad what happened because he’d freak out (he’s very neurotic). Over whatsapp, Ben told me that his parents were planning on upping the security: getting a better alarm system and a gun.

I’m in two minds about going to his house again. It was bloody terrifying but I want to find out what the fuck is going on…