$ffa|1-Late Realisation



$aff                 A first horror story by Zebedee of TFL
$ffa
NOTICE:   I  must  apologise  if this story seems to change roles in the
middle but I started writing this as a story through the eyes of a kid -
me  when I was little.  But I changed my mind and decided to write it as
I look back and remember things!

Hi.  First, let me tell you a little about my two friends and myself.

My  name's  Paul.   I'm  22 years old and as long as I can remember I've
always  had a deep rooted fascination of UFOs, ghosts and the unknown in
general.  I was never one of those people what always had friends around
them  in  the school playground.  I was in fact a very shy and quiet lad
who stuck to a small select few friends.

Out  of  my small circle of friends there were two friends in particular
who  I  used to hang out with.  These two friends are Adam and Alastair.
Now  Adam  was  a  small  kid,  but never frightened to fend for himself
against  the playground bullies, whereas Alastair was quite the opposite
and  similar  to  myself.  He was very scared of the playground bullies,
even  more  scared  than  me, but he was bigger than Adam and myself and
shared my fascination of the unknown.

This is a true story of two events that actually happened.  All details,
names and places are true as much as I can remember.  The only name that
has been changed is mine.  Let's begin...

It  was the summer of 1985.  School wasn't much fun because of the heat.
Being  kept  in  the  classroom in the heat was too much.  Even with the
windows  and doors wide open it was still too hot.  We all couldn't wait
until hometime when we packed up all our belongings and went home.

This day was no different apart from the fact that my mother was working
late  at the Esso garage so I had to walk down and stay with my Grandma.
I  used to enjoy staying with my Grandma in the summer because she lived
near  the forest.  I'd call for a couple friends and we'd disappear into
the  forest for hours, getting up to the sort of mischief young kids get
up to.

Just  before  school ended, I arranged it with Adam and Alastair to meet
up  after  school.   They  agreed and we waited.  At last it was time to
leave  and  we  all  vacated  the  building.   It was a short walk to my
Grandma's house, across the school playing field, down an embankment and
along the road to her house.

When  I  arrived  I  had my tea and told my Grandma I was going out with
Adam  and  Alastair  again.  I left the house and started walking to our
meeting point.  This meeting point was near the main road into town, but
it  was  as close to being equally placed between our three houses as we
could.

I  remember  walking  up  to our meeting point, seeing Adam and Alastair
already  there,  waiting  for me.  Alastair seemed to be more happy than
usual,  and  when  I asked him why, he told me.  He said that instead of
going to the forest, lets try somewhere new, somewhere exciting.

Hey,  of  course I was interested.  I asked Alastair where, and he said,
"Let's  go  to  `Dust  Towers'.  Its supposed to be really spooky there.
Its  a  large  disused  factory that used to make chemicals for gardens.
Its  all  empty now.  All that remains is the towers, the lake and piles
of dust."

After  Alastair  told  us  more  about  the place, we decided to go.  We
walked  across town to the lane that went down to the bridge that had to
be  crossed  before  we could get there.  The only way to go by crossing
the bridge was into Dust Towers.

The bridge looked real old.  It was large enough for a car to cross over
it, but it didn't look as it would be strong enough to carry our weight,
so Adam and myself crossed slowly, while Alastair ran across, jumping up
and down as he did, shouting, "COME ON!"

The  bridge  crossed  a small river that took water from the lake to the
sea,  or  at least that was what I was told, and that when the tide came
in  at the sea the river flowed backwards, filling the lake up making it
deeper.

When  Dust  Towers  came  into view I was amazed!  I'd not seen anywhere
like  it!   To  my left I had the lake, directly in front of me were the
towers, and to my right was what looked like an aircraft hangar.

The  lake  looked  more  like a giant pond, because of all the reeds and
mud, and the towers looked like a derelict mining village.  Large towers
standing  out of the ground, connected with walkways and conveyer belts.
Between  the  lake  and  towers  stood  a  small white building, like an
office, but it didn't have any windows.

When we played around the lake in amidst the reeds we'd come across wild
orchids.   I  remember them looking really beautiful, like no flower I'd
ever  seen.   To this day the only flowers that looked better than those
were  to  be seen on TV.  Alastair said that the orchids grew wild there
and there were only a few people who knew they were there, and that they
had an agreement not to pick them.

The  hangar was nothing special, just a plot of land covered with half a
pipe.   I remember standing inside it and thinking that must be the same
view  an  insect  gets  when  they're inside a piece of guttering that's
upside down on the ground, and it made me feel really small.

But the towers themselves were completely different.  We were completely
oblivious  to  any dangers that existed.  We were too content on playing
around  in  the dust, climbing the towers and running along the walkways
and  conveyer belts.  The dust inside the towers was like talcum powder,
but grey.  Inside the towers the dust was about a foot thick.  Loose and
easy to disturb on the top getting thicker underneath.

Over  the  next  couple  years Alastair and myself seemed to drift apart
from Adam, and we ended up going to Dust Towers by ourselves.  Plus time
saw  the removal of the bridge.  I remember one time Alastair and myself
wanted to go to Dust Towers we couldn't go the way we usually go because
of  the absence of the bridge.  All that was left was a pipe the size of
scaffolding  leaving  the  side  we were on and entering the bank of the
other side.

There  was about a six foot drop from the side of the bank we were stood
on  to  the water.  Once when we went down we spent all our time playing
on  the bank, pulling up reeds and whacking the against trees and making
the  air  fill  with fluffy stuff - the seeds.  When the tide turned and
the lake started to fill up, we laid on our stomachs with only our heads
over the edge, looking into the water.

As  time  progressed  the water flowed really fast, but the level of the
lake  didn't seem to change.  This was because of the amount of land the
reeds  were  growing  on  had  to be covered before the water level rose
enough to notice it, and there were a lot of reeds.

Alastair  was  able  to  cross  using the pipe, but I was too scared and
wouldn't  do  it.  This was because the where the river was coming from,
the lake, looked so horrible because we could see the entire lake.  Just
a  large  mass  of water which seemed to slowly transform into reeds.  I
remember  having  the  thought  that if I were to fall in, I wouldn't be
able to get out again.

It  was  a  good  job  Alastair  knew  of another way of getting to Dust
Towers, but this time we had to cross a river on a small bridge that was
only  just  wide  enough  for  one person.  It had planks along at waist
height  to  hold on to, but whether the tide was in or out I didn't like
crossing  it.   When  the  tide was in the water was murky and slow, and
when the tide was out there was no water - only mud.

Eleven  years  after  this  all happened, I still look back and remember
those  times and realise I had some real fun times at the age of eleven.
Its  funny  that  when  you're  young,  nothing  else  seems  to  matter
apart  from  having fun.  Its only when you're older and wiser, that you
look  back  and realise how dangerous the things you did back then were.
Looking back I can remember the number of times I could have easily been
killed.

Every  time  we played amongst the reeds we risked our lives.  The reeds
grew  in  the thick mud and if one of us fell in, we would most probably
get  stuck fast and secure.  That mud is like super glue once somethings
in it because of the suction.

Every  time  we  crossed  the river using the small bridge we risked our
lives.   When  the  tide  came in it came in much quicker than where the
large bridge used to be.

Every  time  we  played in Dust Towers we risked our lives.  Because the
buildings  were derelict and old they were in a bad state of decay.  one
of  the  walkways  or floors could have given way at any time.  We could
easily  have fallen down a chute into a pile of dust, and these piles of
dust  averaged  at around six or seven feet deep.  If we were to fall in
there was no getting out without adult help.

So  you  see, the main frightening factor about this story is that these
events actually took place in Newton Abbot, Devon.  I'm not sure whether
Dust Towers really exists, but one things for sure, no-one apart from us
kids  used  to visit the place, so if we had an accident, the chances of
getting help were pretty slim!

Look  back  into your own past at the things you did, when you were very
young.  Frighteningly dangerous things, eh?
$fff
End.