Sonia lay awake in her bed, eyes wide open, listening to the rain falling hard outside. Pit-pat-pit-pat. Is that the sound rain makes?  The wind howled, thrashed, twisted and turned and battered everything it could touch.  Nature could be so vicious sometimes.

It was times like this Sonia let her mind run wild.   Characters, plots and locations would swirl like crazy.  She wanted to be a writer.  And these last few nights one particular story had stuck like mud and it was slowly growing.  Children, powers, evil, fire, hope...  This could be it, she thought, this could be the idea that could get her famous someday.

Thunder boomed outside and Sonia shivered and hugged her knees.  Was it her or had the house just dipped ten Celsius?   She watched the shadow of the oak tree outside dance on her wall.  Perhaps the children in her story gained their powers through a thunderstorm?

An almighty crash tore Sonia away from her daydream.  Something had fallen in the apartment.  A plate or glass had smashed. Sonia groaned, she forgot Jasmine was scared of thunderstorms.

Climbing out of bed, Sonia slipped on her slippers and made her way downstairs. She could hear more noises coming from the kitchen, or was it the lounge room?

'It's okay Jasmine! I'm coming!'

The noises stopped. Sonia stepped into the kitchen and saw that nothing was out of place; confused Sonia backed away and made her way to the lounge room.

'Jasmine?' she called out.

Sonia stepped into the lounge room, turned on the light and gasped.

That boy, Eric, the one she had met at the bookstore was standing in the middle of the room brandishing a knife. He was soaked through from head to toe, his clothes were torn and he had a cut on his forehead, the blood trickling down his face. The lounge room window was wide-open, rain and wind battered the curtains and soaked the carpet.  

'What the hell are you doing here?' yelled Sonia. A black and white ball of hair sprinted out from behind the couch and bolted to her room, ears back and tail between its legs.

'Jasmine!' Sonia called. It was no use, the dog was petrified, but of the storm or the boy?

Eric continued to jab, swipe and fight the air with the ridiculously long knife.  It looked as though he was fighting the air.  He yelled, grunted and twisted his body every now and then to mimic dodging lethal blows. This boy was insane. Clearly high on drugs or alcohol. Her dad wasn't in the house, he was in London, she was completely alone. She had to call the police now. All of a sudden Eric stopped and stared at Sonia, he just realised someone else was standing in the room also.

'Quick!' he yelled. 'I need a pen, pencil, whatever, now!' Sonia was speechless. This boy was out of his mind.

All of a sudden something, the wind, shoved Eric backwards and his body slammed against the wall. Something had him pinned. He groaned under the pressure, sweat dripping down his face and slammed the knife into the air in front of him, pretending it was a person's stomach. The pressure lifted and Eric looked at her again.

'I said now!'

Sonia jumped and ran to the chest of drawers on the other wall and yanked open one of the draw. She would be an idiot to ignore a crazy armed boy's demands.  The draw was her dad's draw of 'stuff'. Batteries, screws, receipts ... and pens! She grabbed a Sharpie and threw it at Eric. The boy caught it with one hand, yanked the cap off with his teeth and spat it out.  He turned to the wall and started to write on it.

This boy was insane, thought Sonia. Her pyjamas was drenched by the rain flying in through the open window. She slowly took a step backwards and reached for the telephone when Eric screamed and flung himself backwards onto the floor. Was he having a seizure? No, it looked as though he was having a one on one fight with an invisible man. Eric still held the kitchen knife in his hand, although it was no use since his wrist looked as though it was thoroughly pinned to the floor.

'Quick!' screamed Eric. 'Write something!' Sonia let her hand drop by her side. She had to do what the crazy boy with the knife told her to do. She stepped forward and picked up the fallen black Sharpie. She read what Eric had already written.

Once upon a time, in a world far far away lived...

'Write what?' asked Sonia.

'Anything!' squealed Eric. It sounded as though the wind was now strangling him.

Sonia thought furiously. Her heart was racing. What could she write? She leaned forward and put the tip to the wall and winced as she did so.  Her father would have a heart attack after all the hard work he put into painting this wall himself just a few weeks ago.

... two cousins named Alex and Glen. It was winter and their village was covered in a blanket of snow. Icicles hung from gutters, robins flew from branch to branch and it was time for the biggest snowfight Glenhue had ever seen.

'Stop! Read it to me!' yelled Eric.  Sonia nodded. She recited the short passage as quickly as she could. She turned around and saw that Eric had a few new cuts around his face. He groaned and thrust his knee upwards.  Immediately the invisible pressure on his body loosened. Eric jumped to his feet and kicked air in front of him. Sonia screamed as something hit the bookcase and tumbled to the ground.  

It was something black, shining and dripping with blood.  It had appeared for only a brief second until it turned invisible again.  Books fell off the bookcase and bounced off where that creature had been lying.  There was definitely something unnatural in this rooom! 

She turned to Eric who was now standing with a limp. He had hurt his foot. He took her hand and clasped it tight.  He started to recite the passage on the wall.

'Once upon a time, in a world far far away lived two cousins named Alex and Glen. It was winter and their village was covered in a blanket of snow-'

Snowflakes flew into the lounge room and Alex stared in amazement. It was now snowing? The few snowflakes quickly turned into a blizzard and now the living room was white. Sonia shivered and went to withdraw her hand from Eric's hold but he tightened his grip.

'-Icicles hung from gutters-'

The blizzard was so bad now that Sonia could no longer see in front of her. The snow had reached her knees.

'-robins flew from branch to branch-'

Was that something orange that just flew by?

'-and it was time for the biggest snowfight Glenhue had ever seen.'

Immediately the blizzard cleared and Eric let go of her hand. She was no longer in her living room anymore.

Sonia found herself standing outside on a street she had never seen before. The street was lined with pretty detached houses, each similar yet unique. Everywhere around her was covered in snow. The cold seeped through Sonia's thin pyjamas and she could feel her lips turning blue.

Laughter filled the air and Sonia turned to see a boy and a girl, both around the age of 15 run down the road and join a group of other children. Those children looked exactly like...

She spun round to face Eric. He looked relieved, stunned and a little excited.

'You did it,' he said.

'This can't be possible,' Sonia whispered. It couldn't be. Glenhue was a village she made up. It belonged to a story that had been floating around in her mind for months now.

'Alex!' the 15 year old boy shouted at the girl. Alex was short for Alexandra. Alexandra Jane Ramsay to be precise who had a cousin named Glen who lived on the same street as her – Gardener's Lane. Sonia spun round and looked at the street post standing next to a hedge. Gardener's Lane.

Sonia was in her story!

'How is this possible?' she asked shocked to her core. Eric smiled softly, the madness finally erased from his eyes.  'We were just in my living room, and now we're here!  In a story I made up and wrote on my living room wall.'  Eric clasped Sonia's hand and gave it a small squeeze.

'Let's go, you look really cold,' he said.  Sonia didn't withdraw her hand. She was too shocked and speechless.  Alex and Glen looked exactly how she had imagined them.  Young, carefree and absolutely clueless to what Sonia had planned to do to them.

'It was a warm and gorgeous day at Lake Clair. The sun was hot and despite Master's foul mood, the air had a tint of joy and hope. The fairies jingled, dwarves sang and Phoenix's flew with pride, for it was Mid-Summer's Day...'