"Nick!" shouted the frantic little boy

"Who?"

"NICK! er the Darkness...WHATEVER....just stop fighting and LOOK!" Figgy continued to shout as he desperately grabbed Buzz by his ears to try and get his attention

Even those who were grappling on the ground stopped to look up at the eruption of silent light consuming everything in its path in the vast distance and then they realized what Figgy was so terrifyingly trying to tell them, the Darkness light was rapidly advancing right towards them

"He's gonna drag everyone into the slumber world, he is going to destroy us all cos he in going to turn us into them" Figgy said pointing to the horrid creature Sky and Buzz were trying to keep down

However, even the creature had stopped to look, he had stopped struggling as he too was enthralled by the spectacle in the sky. Buzz let go and stood up in a shocked daze. "Oh no no no no no” he said shaking his head in disbelief “it's heading this way....run Figgy...RUN!!!"


Chapter 1: Bedtime

1 week earlier

It was ten o’clock on a Wednesday night when Miss Broadbottom was awoken yet again by all of the children in her street who were awakening with a scream from the horrific nightmares they had been having. Just as suddenly a loud familiar voice boomed through the wall behind Miss Broadbottoms big fat head.

“Is that Figaro making all of that horrible racket?” the loud voice shouted

“No!” she barked back

“he hasn’t come back yet”

“You WHAT!?”

“He hasn’t come back yet!”

“You what!!!”

“HE HASN’T C…..” Miss Broadbottoms repeated sentence was abruptly halted by the big bang her door made when it was slammed open by Mr. Geoffery who was a very small man with a big nose above a even bigger moustache that looked like he had a black cat shoved up each nostril .

“Figaro hasn’t come back! He is ten years old, he should have been back hours and hours ago, why on earth didn’t you tell me you silly woman?”

“I was too busy sorting out all of the rooms and it completely slipped my mind”

“The rooms, the rooms! Figaro is our only guest, he sleeps in a little bed, in a little empty room and he never ever makes a mess, you were probably too glad that he hadn’t turned up so that you could eat his dinner you wicked lady”

“But…”

“No buts, now get ya self outta bed now and come help me find him. Gawd I hope the wee lad is okay…” Mr Geoffery said while walking out of the room with one had on his oily head and the other hand waving one stumpy finger angrily at Miss Broadbottom “Because if he isn’t we’ve lost our only paying guest and I’ll have to sell the hotel and you’ll be back testing dog food at Barkies”

Eventually the pair got on their shoes and thick coats and ventured out into the dark cold night, shouting out Figaro’s name and trying to see past the thick blizzard that was pouring down around them.

“Could he be at one of his friends house?” asked Mr. Geoffery

“He hasn’t got any friends!” Miss Broadbent snapped

Had either of the pair thought about looking in Figaro’s room they would of seen the small boy sat on the end of his bed tightly clutching his teddy bear lucky who was getting increasingly wet with the tears that were rolling off of Figaro’s face and drumming on his head.

Figaro was a very small boy, even for ten, he hardly ever spoke, just the occasional yes or no and he often went unnoticed by everyone. Figaro collapsed back onto his bed and rolled over to look at a postcard on the bare brick wall beside him. The postcard was one of those new picture ones and on the front were a picture of his Mom and Dad in between Mickey Mouse and Goofy at Disney Land Orlando. On the back it enthusiastically stated

HAVING A GREAT TIME. LUV MAM AND POPS

Figaro, or Figgy as he prefers to be called, had slipped in around the normal time at the hotel he had been living at for as long as he could remember. He had a Mom and Dad and knew what they looked like but only by the postcards he had always got once a month, or two at Christmas. As hard as he tried he could never remember ever having met them in person. Once he got a phone call from a lady who said it was his ‘Mam’ but she had to hang up quickly because the casino machines were making too much noise as she had just won the jackpot. Anyway, Figgy has slipped in because he has a big nasty black eye, given to him by Nick the school bully and he knew if Mr Geoffery saw he would have to endure another night of being taught how to box by Mr Geoffery punching him in the arms. Mr Geoffery always seemed to be nice to him, he would greet Figgy most nights by asking him how his day had been but as soon as Figgy would begin to give an answer he could see Mr Geofferys eyes glaze over as if he wasn’t the least bit interested. Even at 10 Figgy had figured out that Mr Geoffery was just being nice to the only guest he had, one that was keeping his dirty little hotel next to a stinky dump yard in business. When Figgy wasn’t in the room and Mr Geoffery thought he couldn’t hear, Figgy would hear the grayish old man tell the big flabby Miss Broadbottom what a miserable little snotty boy he was and how he had to endure listening to him drone on about how the bullies were making his life hell, oh was an inconvenience Figgys anguish was for him to listen to for all of 30 seconds. You would think Figgy would stop talking to him knowing how he secretly felt and though sometimes he did refuse to speak to him it was true what Miss Broadbottom had said, Figgy had no friends and just to remind himself that he could talk he did like to answer Mr Geofferys half hearted questions even if his replies went unheard.

Figgy had not been asleep, not only was he being bullied by Nick at and out of school but lately it had seemed he was being bullied in his sleep too by the lumpy headed rotter. Figgy was afraid to close his eyes, he was afraid because if he went to sleep he would endure more nightmares but worse still sleep would bring the next day hurtling forwards and before he knew it he would be back in the school yard be hit with sticks and stones and being called all sorts of nasty names. Figgy tried to stay awake but eventually his heavy eyes fell further and further down until he was sound asleep.