Death Day

EPILOGUE

The boy was frightened. Not only of the church but of what his mother would say when he got home. He looked at his watch and saw that it was approaching eleven p.m. God, she'd skin him alive when he got in. She'd warned him before about hanging around with those Kelly boys. They were always in trouble with the law, she'd told him. The boy knew she was right but he also knew that if he ducked out of this prank, he'd be a laughing stock at school next day. That fear overshadowed anything his mother would say. So now, he stood in the ruined church staring around him, his body coated in a light film of perspiration. But this was part of the initiation ceremony. The Kelly brothers had told him so. Enter the church and bring something out to prove that you've been in there. All the other gang members had done it at one time or another.

The boy was sixteen, his imagination vivid. He had heard the stories of the giant rats nesting in the ruins and that thought was strong in his mind as he rooted amongst the' rubble, shining his torch before him as he tried to find a likely prize.

The beam alighted on something golden lying at his feet. He bent to pick it up.

It looked like a medallion of some sort and there were funny signs on it. This would do perfectly. The boy snatched it up, anxious to be out of the church. It was only as he lifted it that he felt the heat.

It intensified until he dropped the gold circlet. He rubbed his palm against the seat of his dirty jeans and picked it up again, more cautiously this time. No trouble. No heat. He dropped it into his pocket and ran out.

The Kelly brothers accepted him as a member of the gang and that pleased the boy. He kept the medallion in his pocket, careful to hide it from his mother when he finally did get home. She shouted at him just as he'd expected and so did his father. The boy ignored them and went to bed.

He sat up for a long time looking at the medallion, but finally he switched off his bedside lamp, surprised at how much the light hurt his eyes.

Besides, he had a terrible headache.