Crunch
By Stephen, Age 12

"Why, sir," the elderly Frankenstein grinned. "Why not try this one?"
Louis stepped off the red-gold roundabout and into the tailor's shop. A hideous woman in a cat suit leered at him devilishly from the shelves as he measured his ankles. The tape measure crumpled in Frankenstein's hands as a bell somewhere sounded. DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNG.
Louis jerked awake with a grunt. What a strange dream. He slowly climbed out of bed and dressed into his uniform. Then again, he realized, he'd rather be at home than at school. He switched off his alarm clock and checked the time. Six-fifteen, he read, running downstairs.
His two plump, spoiled brothers, Donnie and Edward and his bossy, self-centred sister Marissa wouldn't be up yet. If he ate quickly, he'd be able to do what he liked till nine-ten. Donnie usually got up about eight-thirty, Edward got up about eight-forty, and Marissa got up at seven-thirty sharp. He poured himself a bowl of Sugary Sweet and ate it fast. He packed his bag, and sat on the sofa watching Breakfast Barnacles until he heard a slow, steady clump, clump, clump on the stairs.
Edward lounged in. He was the fattest, weighing nearly fourteen stone, and was red-faced and blonde. His twin Donnie waltzed in after him, absolutely identical in almost every feature. He snatched the remote and turned on Fatcook, Skinnycook. "Hey!" Louis said, outraged. Their mother came in. She was big, blonde and red-faced, a lot like the twins. Louis didn't really look like the rest of the family. He was tall and dark-haired with blue eyes and pale skin.
"Donnie just changed the channel!" Louis cried. "That's nice, dear," she muttered. Louis grabbed back the remote and changed the channel back. "Louis! Turn it back!" his mother ordered him.
"I'm going to school," Louis grumbled.
Slinging his bag over his shoulder, he ran out of the house. On the way, he saw his friend, Emma. "Hi," he grunted. "Hi," Emma said back. She was tall, wore glasses and had straight blonde hair in a ponytail. She spoke as if she was about to be crowned queen. "What are you so happy about?" Louis asked. "There's a new book in the Red Nick series out," she told him. "Fascinating." "What's the matter?" "Twinnie and Twinette." "Oh. Donnie Duck and Edward."
They passed the scrap yard on their way, but stopped to watch. Four men had unearthed a rather large car from the earth and had hauled it out. It was in surprisingly good condition; apart from the dirt, it looked almost brand new, all silver-blue and gleaming through the dirt. As they watched, one man opened the door and it fell off; however, there was a large metal object inside. The man took it out and examined it. It was about the size of a football, all scratched and dented.
Suddenly, it let loose a beam of green light that expanded and webbed all over, all over the junk yard. The sky suddenly clouded over; it went dark and purple and started to rain. The men were caught in the web of light and yelled as they were lifted off their feet. They struggled as they became entangled. Then a beam hit the car. The car was knocked back into the mountain of muddy junk and vanished behind an explosion of dirt and scrap metal. And then. It emerged.
Louis had seen an advert where a car transformed into a human shape and started dancing. It looked like that. Terrified beyond words, he gaped, wide-eyed. Its remaining three doors had become its body armour. Two of the seats were the arms. The bonnet was its head. It looked stupefying, tremendous. It threw back's it head and roared; an unearthly cry that set Louis's hair on end. Emma was hunched beside the fence, her hands clamped tightly over her ears.
The car was still for a moment. Then it reached down and seized one of the men. Ignoring his yells, it opened the bonnet; it's mouth, in a way - and tossed the man inside: CRUNCH! Then it ate another, and another, until they were all eaten. It reached down, and Louis saw in horror - it was reaching for THEM.
Emma shrieked and scrambled away, and Louis dived into the dirt pile, but they were seized in a tight, firm grip. Emma kicked at the hand desperately, and Louis tried to undo the fingers. It worked! They slid out from the hand. "Run!" Louis yelled, sprinting away. The car was buzzing with green beams of light that zapped things around them. Bikes and cars seemed to come alive when the rays touched them and as Louis looked back, he saw that they were being chased. A bus was driving down the road beside them. Louis looked and saw that Emma had leapt on to the side; she was hanging from a rail by the windows. Louis leapt for it and felt his arms attach to the rail. But the bus stopped. The doors swung open. To avoid the bikes and cars, they jumped in. The bus turned as soon as they were on it and drove off. It went down the road and didn't stop till they were at the town boundary.
"Phew," Louis wheezed. "Let's go thank the dri - the dri - the driver?" There was no one in the seat, and as soon as they saw this, the windows started to shake. No one could hear Louis and Emma scream.