LitBit #1: The Overcomer

The challenge: to write a story in less than 500 words.

The rules: It must be less than 500 words, it must be complete and it must be clean. 

Why not write your own LitBit? Email info@alderway.com with your story.

Our first LitBit comes from Alderway author M.P.Hedley. 497 words. Enjoy!

THE OVERCOMER

Tick, tock, and the baying of hounds will creep and dismay. Yes, I’ve heard it all before and no, I didn’t believe it either. Until tonight. I know what you’re thinking - it’s only a fairytale, told to scare children into obedience and the safety of their beds: the spectral dog that scours the city at night, desperate to quench its thirst for troubled souls, drawn to the scent of a child’s tantrum.

Yesterday I would have agreed with you.  I’d have been the first to shout down such nonsense. But now ... now I know.  

I heard it, you see. Outside my window, just like my mum always said I would hear it if I ever made trouble at night. A wailing in the distance, getting nearer until I could swear I heard its breath against the glass.

I hid in the darkness, huddled under my blankets, but how do you hide from something that only sees anger and fear, only hears despair and torment? But what else could I do? I did what the story always says you must do. I lay perfectly still and closed my eyes, pretending to be asleep. I forced my happiest memory into my mind - the day I finally succeeded in climbing the rope at school all the way to the top (I know, it’s stupid, but there you have it) - and I did my very best to overcome the evil outside with the good within me. But it was not enough. I could hear the danger rattling at the window. The hound was threatening to enter.

If I was to defeat this peril I needed something more. It was a terrible battle of souls but failure was not an option. Everything was on the line and I knew it. And that’s when it happened. I can’t explain it, but as I laid there, my eyes scrunched tight, paralysed beneath the blankets, everything changed. And I knew ... the story was only half right. Yes, I must rely on the goodness within me, but I must also step forward to exercise this goodness. I knew what I had to do. I opened my eyes and sat up. It felt like madness to do it but I was determined. I threw the blankets aside and climbed out of the bed. I walked to the window. I won’t lie - doubt gripped me as I grasped the curtain, but I wasn’t turning back now. I threw back the curtain and I saw ...

Nothing.

There was nothing, except a tree scraping against the window pane; nothing, except the silence; nothing, except the blackness of night. And then for the final flourish of victory I reached for the light and flicked the switch. Now even the darkness was banished, along with my foe.

I never saw the hound but I know it was there. And now I know something else: with goodness and boldness and light, I am the more powerful.

M. P. Hedley

M. P. Hedley's debut novel The Lost Story: The Scroll of Remembrance is published by Alderway and can be purchased here for Amazon Kindle in the UK, and here for Amazon in the US. 

Follow M. P. Hedley on Twitter (@freddyhedley)

Read M. P. Hedley's blog here.