Worlds Explode. Shane Hegarty

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      Mrs Bright wasn’t home.

      They knocked on her door, rang the doorbell, but she did not come out to reclaim her teeth.

      “He likes Chocky-Flakes,” said Emmie, leaning against the wall of the house.

      “Who likes Chocky-Flakes?” asked Finn.

      “The Assessor. He loves that cereal. Ate about three bowls of it last night and another three this morning. He went for a walk and came back with an ice cream and a giant grin on his face. Then he just disappeared to his room where he said he had to file his report.”

      Finn tried to peer through the net curtains behind Mrs Bright’s barred front window. “She’s not home,” he said, but knocked one last time anyway.

      “And he talks in his sleep. I could hear him through the bedroom door. ‘Snuggles,’ he said. ‘Come here, Snuggles.’”

      “Snuggles?” wondered Finn.

      “Snuggles,” Emmie confirmed. “I’d say it’s his cuddly toy.”

      From the house neighbouring Mrs Bright’s, there came the sound of locks and chains being undone. Clank. Rattle. Clunk. The door opened and a man popped his head out to greet Finn with a lukewarm, “Oh, it’s you.”

      “Have you seen Mrs Bright?” Finn asked.

      “No. Saw her yesterday with that dog of hers. Not since then. She’s probably walking. She likes walking. Well, she does a lot of it anyway. It’s hard to tell if she actually likes it. Hard to tell if she likes anything at all really.”

      Finn considered handing the teeth to the neighbour and asking him to hold on to them, then decided that troubling him with another person’s well-worn dentures probably wasn’t the right thing to do.

      “If you do see Mrs Bright,” Finn said, “please let her know I have something that belongs to her.”

      “What is it?” the neighbour asked.

      “I think she’ll guess. She can find me at—”

      “She’ll know where to find you. Everyone does. Speaking of which, any sign of your father yet?”

      “Not yet, but he should be back any time soon.”

      The neighbour raised an eyebrow at that. “I’m Maurice Noble by the way,” he said. “I went to school with your father as it happened. I wasn’t at your house.”

      “Excuse me?” asked Finn, confused.

      “That night the monsters invaded. I didn’t protest at your house with all those other people. I didn’t agree with it. There are still a lot of us here who would prefer to have you lot around to protect us.”

      “Thank you.”

      “Although it’s true that there have been no monsters since your father disappeared.”

      “Well—”

      “Not a single one.”

      “That’s right, but—”

      “And I’m not sure what to make of that. No one is.”

      Finn stuttered again, but Maurice Noble ignored that and glanced at Emmie instead, who was hanging back on the edge of the footpath. “Still, better the devil you know, I suppose. We could do with getting him back.”

      “We all could,” said Finn.

      “I’ll be honest, I was hoping for something a bit more positive than that. By the way, you have a leg sticking out of your schoolbag.” He disappeared back into his house, followed by the sound of locks slamming shut.

       Clunk. Rattle. Clank.

      Finn turned round so that Emmie could shove the leg armour of his fighting suit back into the backpack. The other leg popped out instead.