Well its that time of the week again!!I think I have made you wait a little bit longer this time , but here it is my new chapter for the book. Don't forget to leave a comment either here or on my FB page or on twitter, or on the top of a lovely chocolate cake ;) And tell all of your friends to come along and have a read too, its free. And lets face it you don't get much for free nowadays. 

Till next time

Take care 

lots of love

marie xx

Chapter Three

Tom looked across at his wife as she lay sleeping in the early morning light, her eyelashes rested on her face softly and her cheeks were slightly flushed. Gently brushing back a strand of her hair he smiled god she was beautiful.

Last night he had made it to the restaurant with enough time to not be too much of an embarrassment to her but he had spent until the early hours making it up to her in the way they knew best. There lovemaking had been soft and tender as always but there had been an unspoken need from her that he tried to fulfil. An urgency in her that he had not felt for many months.

Slipping from the bed Tom walked across the familiar bedroom without switching the light on and quietly closed the bathroom door behind him. Looking in the mirror he considered his appearance for a minute, for his age he was looking good. A slight shadow of a beard across his cheeks and a few grey hairs littered his brown hair but his eyes were still bright even if they were now surrounded with fine aging lines that gave his face a friendly, lived in feel. Stepping into the shower he was finished and back in front of the mirror just as Lara walked into the bathroom, her hair was tousled and she was wrapped in Tom’s dressing gown. She greeted her husband warmly admiring his naked form, fresh from the shower.

“Hey honey, checking to see if you are still gorgeous?” she laughed as he turned to face her. “You don’t need too, you will always be perfection to me” kissing him tenderly she walked back through into the darkened bedroom “even if you can’t ever get anywhere on time” he heard her laughing as she left there room and went to wake the children.

She was right, he had always been one of those guys who left everything till the last minute, trying to change over the years had just resulted in him getting frustrated so he had learned to accept it, luckily so had Lara. Mostly.

After dressing for the day, Tom went downstairs and entered the family kitchen that was too loud, too untidy and definitely a welcome distraction to a nagging thought Tom had in his mind since waking. Last night’s events on the motorway had been playing over and over since he had awoken and he couldn’t forget the look on the policeman’s face. Grabbing toast from a piled high plate he walked through into the living room and turned on the TV. Throwing open the curtains, he looked down on to the valley that stretched away from his home. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day.

The TV had began to churn out the day’s news and Tom sat down in front of the screen, the toast in his hand forgotten as he looked at the report that declared BREAKING NEWS in the yellow banner across the bottom.

The woman on the screen was the usual anchor for the morning but she had a puzzled look across her face as she read the news.

“.. And if you have just joined us here on news channel7 we have been receiving reports in all morning of strange incidents across the capital. These incidents have not been confirmed as connected but according to a police source they are related. The events seem to have started to the south of the city but reports are spreading along with the incidents. It would seem some kind of attack is under way that causes people to hallucinate and attack people and in some cases themselves violently. Anti terrorism police have said that there is no indication at this time that this is an organised terrorist attack and is urging people to remain calm.

Earlier professor Kendal Trevallis from The University of Sheffield spoke of the phenomenon of mass hysteria  ....” the screen flicked to an elderly man who began to speak animatedly.

Tom felt Lara sit next to him and turned to take the steaming cup of coffee from her

“What’s happening?” her face looked worried and she pulled his dressing gown around her as if cold

“Reports of attacks across the city, they’re not being too specific but I wonder if this was what happened last night on the motorway? That policeman saw something that scared him, whatever it was he didn’t want anyone else to see it.” He sipped at the hot aromatic coffee and continued to stare at the screen in front of him. Lara sat with him for a few minutes and then returned to the kitchen and the children who screamed in delight at something. The professor was finished talking and the female anchor began to speak again, Tom tuned out the sound of his children, his concentration drawn to the television

“... Now we can return to our presenter Fran who is at the scene of one of the attacks. Hello Fran what can you tell us?” the screen split again and another woman appeared, she was stood in front of police tape on a normal residential street. A lone police officer stood guard outside of a house; his face was stern and the street was empty of anyone else.

“Hello yes this is the location of one of the incidents that occurred this morning and to join me I have David who is a local resident and saw what happened. David what did you see?” The microphone was stuck into the face of a pale looking teenager who began to speak, his voice shaking

“I was just going up the pool club to meet my mates when I saw this man walking backwards out of this house, he was staring up the drive but I couldn’t see anything. He was quiet at first but then he starting shouting stay away from me! Get away from me! like all crazy like. He ran up the road a little bit but then he fell, that’s when he began banging his own head against the floor! I ain’t ever seen anything like that before he was just screaming the whole time. You’re dead! You’re dead! Then the cops turned up and we were told to move away, seriously that was some crazy shit.” The screen was filled with the presenter at the scene and she began to speak again

“Police have confirmed that a 53 year old man was removed from the property and taken to Greenbridge emergency hospital but was pronounced dead there not long after, enquiries are still continuing and we are expecting a police conference at eleven o’clock this morning. Back to the studio” Tom couldn’t believe what he was hearing, why on earth would someone kill there selves and in such a violent and strange way?

The telephone rang and he heard Lara pick up the phone, Tom continued to stare at the news as they reported other cases sweeping the city. It was like the whole place was going mad, but why? What would make people behave like that? Tom felt a sense of dread as Lara came into the room.

“Tom it’s your mum on the phone, she sounds really strange, I think you should come and talk to her” Lara’s face was white as she held out the phone to him.

“Tom, she says your dad is back from the dead and is sitting in his chair”

Tom looked down at the phone as he listened to the news continuing to break on the television across the living room.

“Mum...” he said into the phone...

But all Tom could hear in the distance was the sound of the TV, tuned to the soaps that his mum loved.