The Nightmare Man by Joseph Lidster

Chapter One
    The nightmare begins
    Luke Smith woke up to the sound of the radio on his alarm clock. It was Monday morning, but he didn’t have to go to school. Not any more. He stared up at the ceiling, listening to the local DJ talk about the weather and the traffic jams and house prices. But he wasn’t really listening. He was thinking.
    ‘I’ll only wake up in this room four more times,’ he muttered to himself. He looked around his bedroom. The familiar wallpaper. The pictures of his friends. His CDs, his computer, his chess set. The teddy bear he was too old for. It was his bedroom and he knew every inch of it. He’d woken up to the same ceiling nearly every day of his life. But all that was about to change.
    Because Luke Smith was going to university. At the end of the week, he was leaving home. He took a deep breath and threw back his quilt. He climbed out of bed and walked over to the window. Pulling back the curtain, he looked out at the familiar view of Bannerman Road. Across the road, Rani Chandra, one of his best friends, was shutting her front door. She saw him looking down at her and she waved. He waved back and she grinned before striding off down the road.
    Luke let the curtain fall back and he walked over to a mirror. He stared at his reflection. He looked like a normal human boy, but he wasn’t. He’d been created a few years ago by some alien invaders called the Bane. They’d scanned thousands of men, women and children and had created Luke as the perfect human being. This meant he was incredibly clever.
    When he’d been rescued and adopted by his mum, she’d sent him to the local school. Luke was always top of his class but sometimes it was difficult. Other children didn’t understand how he could be so clever and some of them thought he didn’t have to work hard. But Luke worked really hard and that was why now, this week, he was leaving home and going to university. All the other children he knew wouldn’t be taking their A-levels until next year, but Luke had already passed his. Which is why he’d only be standing in this room for another four days. After that, his whole life would change.
    He looked at his reflection and grinned. He was really excited. It was going to be a big, new adventure for him. But he was also scared. He was scared of leaving his friends and his mum and everything he knew. This time next week he’d be living somewhere else with new people, waking up in a new bedroom with a different ceiling. Feeling a little sad, Luke turned away from the mirror and left his bedroom.
    Upstairs, at the top of 13 Bannerman Road, was a huge attic. It was an almost magical place. Sunlight shone through stained glass windows and there were strange objects stuffed on to shelves and into every nook and cranny. Some of those strange objects were strange alien objects. This was because Luke’s mum, Sarah Jane Smith, helped aliens who crashed on Earth to get home. She also stopped lots of other aliens invading. Hardly anyone knew about what she did. Most people thought she was just Luke’s slightly weird mum. But she was so much more than that.
    As Luke pushed open the attic door, he thought about how he’d be leaving all that behind as well. No more aliens. No more adventures. He stepped into the attic and looked over at his mum. She was talking to what looked like a huge alien supercomputer in the wall. It looked like a huge alien supercomputer because it was a huge alien supercomputer. It was called Mr Smith.
    ‘Good morning, Luke,’ said Mr Smith as Luke entered.
    Sarah Jane turned to look at her son. ‘I was just going to call you. I thought we’d have scrambled eggs.’
    ‘I guess I should watch,’ Luke replied. ‘This time next week, I’ll be making my own breakfast.’
    Sarah Jane smiled at him but as she turned away, her smile fell. She was going to miss her son so much, but she was trying to be brave for him. She wanted him to go and have the best life ever and she was