Don't Fear The Reaper Read Online Free Page A

being asked of him, though
no words of guidance were exchanged. There was no need. The understanding was
given to him from another entity from another plane beyond the realm of earth. 
   
    Then he woke for the second time… and rose from the bed.
     
    *
     
    He
descended the stairs vigilantly, mindful to his mother’s whereabouts. Halfway
down the stairs his body relaxed at the sound of Aida’s snoring. She’d passed
out in her Laz-Y-Boy in front of the TV, the remote still in her gnarled grasp.
The world could have been tottering on the edge of the black hole and she
wouldn’t have known anything about it.
    Roland reached the foot of the stairs and, without making a sound,
slipped on his Addidas trainers, checked he’d brought his car and house keys
with him and kept glancing back and forth from the front door to his mother. He
didn’t relish abandoning her at five minutes to eleven on a Saturday night. If
she woke and went to his bedroom she’d panic at his sudden disappearance. If he
left a message, what would he say? He couldn’t fathom what he was going to do
himself. What he knew though was that he had no choice but to do it.
    The tricky part of this would be getting out of the house without causing
his mother to stir awake. Fortunately, she sounded fast asleep. Dead to the
world . He eased the front door open and closed it, cringing at the sound of
the latch clicking shut. Then he waited for a few moments on the doorstep. If
his mother had heard the door closing she’d wake and come and see what had
happened. Roland prepared himself for that. He’d tell her he was standing
outside, needing to get some air. Instead a minute passed uneventfully.
    Wasting no further time, Roland headed to the Ford Mondeo, removed the
handbrake and let the car roll down the rutted path. He applied the handbrake
again when the front end protruded the kerb into the road.
    Now that he felt at a safe distance, Roland turned the headlights on and
drove away, turning onto the main road, glancing in the rear-view mirror. Guilt
knocked incessantly in his conscience. In the back of his mind all he could
think about was his overprotective, frail mother, searching their home for her
son. He floored the accelerator on the quiet suburban roads on his way to the
Brecon Beacons to perform his deed. Having no knowledge of what this deed would
entail didn’t perturb him in the slightest. All would be revealed upon the time
of arrival, and no matter what it was he daren’t refuse. His life and soul
depended on it.
     
    *
     
    The
absence of streetlights and other vehicles on the steep mountain road shrouded
the car in pitch darkness. Even with the headlights on full beam, the darkness
insisted. A sense of foreboding filled the interior of the Ford, but still
Roland drove onwards. The road hugged the side of the precipice, meandering up
and around. Roland had to slow down vastly as the road careened to the right,
merely a yard or two from a black hole that ended after two thousand feet. One
minor miscalculation and that gorge would suck him into the night. Probably be
dead before the car exploded and a fireball erupted.
    Ascending the mountain on a glorious summer day was often arduous. The
narrow road permitted vehicles to travel past one another in opposite
directions but was barely wide enough for one car. At night with only the
headlights illuminating the road ahead, everything else on either side
disappeared. The power steering and 1.6 engine aided him. God help him if he’d
still had the transit van.
    Roland could feel the fingers of death coil around his jackhammer heart.
The road seemed steeper still at night. He might as well have been trying to
drive up a wall. He leapt on the brake pedal when the road turned sharply and
gasped. He didn’t even see the hairpin bend until the last second. Any later
and at this moment he’d been flying through the air, not even capable of
bracing himself for the fatal impact.
    By the time he got