Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Also by Pete Johnson
Copyright
EYES OF THE ALIEN
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 446 49879 8
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Penguin Random House Company
This ebook edition published 2011
Copyright © Pete Johnson, 2011
Illustrations copyright © David Wyatt, 2011
First Published in Great Britain
Yearling 9780440863908 2011
The right of Pete Johnson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S PUBLISHERS UK
61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA
www.randomhousechildrens.co.uk
www.totallyrandombooks.co.uk
www.randomhouse.co.uk
Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at: www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm
THE RANDOM HOUSE GROUP Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
THE GHOST DOG
MY FRIEND’S A WEREWOLF
THE PHANTOM THIEF
Huge dark eyes with no pupils . . .
Sam and Freddie, both fostered with the same family, are best friends. Sam even laughs at Freddie’s jokes! But after Sam has an accident and knocks herself unconscious, she begins to have weird nightmares about a sinister figure with huge eyes – alien eyes. Freddie, who thinks he knows everything there is to know about extra-terrestrials, jokes that aliens must be after Sam – trying to contact her. But it’s just his imagination, isn’t it?
Until they see the spaceship . . .
This is the most amazing story you will ever read. And we didn’t want to miss out a single detail. So that’s why two of us are telling you the story.
IT ALL STARTED the afternoon I fell off my bike and knocked myself out.
I was having a bike race with Freddie in Bray Wood – I was right out in the lead too – when I hit something.
Freddie found me lying ‘horribly still’ and charged off to get help.
The next thing I remember is trying to open my eyes, only they stung, because some dust had got into them. So everything was blurred. No-one was about, yet I sensed someone was nearby. Then I saw this figure a little way from me.
I could only see this figure very dimly. But it was a man and he was wearing a dark suit and a large hat. He didn’t move any closer. He just stood there looking at me. I wondered who he was. He was dressed very strangely for a walk in the woods. He looked like a kind of businessman. Then I had this mad idea he was an undertaker waiting for his next customer: me.
He just made me feel so uneasy, especially the way he seemed to be observing me, as if I were a rare animal he’d just discovered.
Then, to my great relief someone else swam into view: Miss West, who’s both my teacher and my Aunt Margaret. She was the first person Freddie had found. And when he told her about the accident he said she rushed off to help me faster than the wind. That made me feel a bit ashamed as earlier that day she and I had had a massive row.
My aunt had lived abroad for years and I only met up with her recently. Now she was moving away and wanted me to go with her, while I wanted to stay with my foster parents (Uncle Tony and Auntie Judy). She made such a fuss about it. I remember her face turned scalding red. I think I must have really upset her.
Anyway, I was so relieved to see her I passed out again. The next time I looked up there was a small crowd around me, including Aunt Margaret and Freddie. (He said my eyes were rolling about in my head and I looked extremely weird, still, he would.)
But the man had gone. And afterwards when I asked Aunt Margaret about him she denied he’d ever existed. She insisted no man had been there when she arrived. But she was wrong. She’d stood right next to him.
I thought that was so odd and told Freddie. We talked about it for ages. But then I might have forgotten the whole thing if I hadn’t seen the man again in the most horrible way.
It was a week later. I was at home, still convalescing. I’d felt tired that afternoon (even though I hadn’t really done anything) so I went to bed and had a nap. I’d hardly closed my eyes when I was back at the scene of the accident. I was lying on the ground like before. And he was there again. Now I could see him a little more clearly. His dark grey suit had wide lapels and looked very old-fashioned and his hat was pulled right down over his face.
But this time he raised his head and I glimpsed his eyes: huge eyes that were so black they hid everything. You could never see inside those eyes. And what was really weird: his eyes didn’t seem to have any pupils.
Then he whispered my name. ‘Samantha.’ That gave me the shock of my life. How did he know who I was?
He said my name again: ‘Samantha.’
I didn’t answer, didn’t move. I was terrified. How can you tell someone is an enemy when they’ve only said one word? You just know, don’t you? A kind of intuition I suppose. And right then I knew he was to be feared, always.
‘Leave me alone,’ I cried.
Next moment I was back at home again. I nearly cried with relief. I hardly ever get nightmares and afterwards I can only remember little pieces of them. But this nightmare (or afternoonmare) was different. I couldn’t seem to come out of it. It kept racing through my head.
Perhaps if I could talk to someone the dream would fade away. I called out to Auntie Judy. But she wasn’t back from the shops yet. I looked at my watch. Just gone half past three. Freddie would be home from school soon. How I wished he was here now. Everything was too still and quiet.
The only noise was the rain hissing against the window. It seemed to be softly whispering my name . . . Sam, Sam, Sam.
Then came another sound.
Someone was pounding on the front door.
I shot up in bed. ‘Who is it?’ I quavered.
Silence again.
Slowly, fearfully, I began to creep downstairs. Half-way down the stairs you can see the front door. We’ve got this pebbled glass, so it’s like looking through one of those distorting mirrors you get at fairgrounds. But at least it gives you some idea who’s there.
Someone was there now all right.
I edged down a couple more steps. The face seemed to be right up against the glass. I couldn’t see it very clearly. But I recognized those huge black eyes staring in at me.
Then I screamed.
I JUST LAUGHED at first.
I was only fooling about. We’d been looking at space travel and aliens in Miss West’s class – the first interesting lesson we’d ever had with her – then she asked me, as I knew a lot about aliens, if I’d dress up as one the day after tomorrow, and then the class could ask me questions.
So, after school, I bought this cheap little mask. You know the kind: light-bulb head, huge wrapabout eyes, slit for a mouth, light grey skin. Mine also had a silver bolt through its neck. A kind of Frankenstein alien. But it was still a bit plain. I’d have liked it to have had some warts, at least. It was too tame to be scary, in daylight anyhow.
I was walking home in the mask when I met Auntie Judy. She was fumbling about for her key. So I rapped on the door, peered in to see where Sam was, and she screamed the house down.
No, I’m exaggerating a bit now. It was just one scream. Still, it was pretty loud, and Sam was dead embarrassed afterwards.
Auntie Judy tried to make it better by saying, ‘Seeing that mask through pebbled glass would be enough to scare anyone.’ But she was just making Sam feel worse. I could tell.
‘It wasn’t the mask,’ explained Sam. ‘It was just the man I saw when I had that accident turned up in my dream a few minutes ago and he had these huge black eyes without any pupils.’
‘Alien eyes,’ I said.
‘And he was looking at me in this really menacing way; he even knew my name. Then I woke up and went downstairs and saw those same eyes staring in at me . . . ’
‘Just an unfortunate coincidence then,’ said Auntie Judy. ‘It’s such a shame you had the bad dream when you were on your own. It takes longer to snap back into real life then, doesn’t it?’
Sam nodded. I was sure that dream was still running through her head.
Then Miss West came round. Since the accident she’s turned up every day to check on Sam. And every day she’ll have a cup of tea and one digestive biscuit. It was starting to really bug me.
‘Miss West,’ I said, ‘why don’t you let your hair down today and have a custard cream instead?’
Miss West gave me one of her spray-on smiles, and took one digestive biscuit.
By the way, she thinks I’m a complete cod. Still, I’m not exactly her biggest fan either. I wouldn’t say she’s a bad teacher: she certainly knows a lot and she loves explaining things in her high, sing-song voice. But she’s deadly serious all the time. You can never have a laugh with her, and she’s very strict. If you do one thing wrong she gives you this really evil stare. No-one likes her.
Sam started telling Miss West about her nightmare. Auntie Judy was getting a bit concerned. I think she was worried about Sam upsetting herself again. But Miss West seemed surprisingly interested until Sam said the man was ‘someone quite bad and scary’. Then she clicked her tongue with irritation.
I thought that was a bit cheeky. So I chipped in, ‘Actually, Miss West, the man in Sam’s dream is just like the one she saw straight after her accident. The one who was standing right next to you. The one you don’t remember now.’
‘I don’t remember him, Freddie,’ replied Miss West in her slow, patronizing voice, ‘because no man of that description was ever there.’ Auntie Judy gave me a warning glance: rudeness was something she wouldn’t allow. So I fled upstairs to my room.
I felt sorry for Sam. It was bad enough having Miss West for a teacher, I’d go crazy if she was my aunt. What’s worse, she’s the only relation Sam’s got. Her parents died in a car accident shortly after Sam was born. She can hardly remember either of them. She’s got this picture of them on her dressing-table. They look really nice: nothing like Miss West.
She hardly saw Miss West until she was fostered by Auntie Judy and Uncle Tony in January, six months ago now. Then Miss West turned up. Talk about bad timing.
Actually, Sam had quite a hard time when she joined my class. It was partly because of Miss West being her aunt. But also because Sam was very quiet, very brainy (she comes top in just about everything), and a bit too keen, if you know what I mean.
First one girl began picking on Sam, then they all joined in. One day, I remember, these girls were talking about their mums and dads, then one of them said to Sam: ‘Oh, sorry, you don’t know what we’re talking about, do you?’
Sam’s eyes filled with tears. Big mistake, as I told her afterwards.
I explained: they think you’re a loser because you haven’t got any parents so you’ve got to show them that you’re not. And the first rule, never let them see when they’ve got to you.
I know what I’m talking about. I used to get picked on because my parents weren’t around and also, because when I was six, all my hair fell out.
What happened was, I was staying with this couple and I didn’t get on with them at all. I was always in the wrong and one day it just got to me. So I decided I was going to run away and make myself a tree-house and live up there for ever. I was only six, remember.
I climbed up really high as well, until I lost my balance and tumbled to the ground, face first. I wasn’t too badly hurt but I’d damaged this nerve on my lip. I wasn’t very bothered about that, until a few days later I woke up to find my pillow covered in hair.
I thought that someone must have crept in and scalped me in the night. But no, my hair had all fallen out just like that. And it seems there’s not much chance of it growing back, ever. Still, think of all the money I’m saving on shampoos.
For a while I wore hats all the time. Now I don’t bother. Of course I still get the jokes: I’ll be walking down the street, minding my own business, when someone will call out ‘Hello baldilocks’. I mean, how original. But as I say, you must never get mad, just laugh it off and say something like ‘Yeah, I knew I shouldn’t have washed my hair in acid rain’.
You’re probably wondering what happened to my mum and dad. It’s all right, you can ask. My mum’s still around somewhere. She was already married when she had me ‘by accident’. And afterwards she went back to her family again. I suppose you can’t blame her. She had five children already, so she probably needed another one like a hole in the head.
My dad did try and look after me for a while. But it was too much for him. So I went into care and stayed with different foster parents. He still popped up from time to time. The last time was nearly six years ago. He bought me this Arsenal coat. I’ve still got it. I remember, we went on a bus into town and I pretended the bus was a spacecraft (sad but true). I haven’t seen him since. He left this country in search of work. He sends me the odd card and present. But that’s all.