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    The Best Of Be Afraid...: Strange & Scary Stories for Kids and Grown-ups
    The Best Of Be Afraid...: Strange & Scary Stories for Kids and Grown-ups
    The Best Of Be Afraid...: Strange & Scary Stories for Kids and Grown-ups
    Ebook116 pages2 hours

    The Best Of Be Afraid...: Strange & Scary Stories for Kids and Grown-ups

    By Zak Bellingham

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A space creature that won't let go, shadow monsters, strange impossible cities - and everything in between.

    These are just some of the strange themes and stories contained within.

    The Best of Be Afraid... compiles the most popular stories from volumes I to II

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZak Bellingham
    Release dateJun 25, 2024
    ISBN9781917293143
    The Best Of Be Afraid...: Strange & Scary Stories for Kids and Grown-ups

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    • 5/5
      This is a great book. Starting with an amazing 2001: Space Odyssey-esque story for kids, my family and I really enjoyed this quirky little book. Nice illustrations, very original ideas, made us think and discuss things afterwards. Deep messages, told simply. Thia book is really different to anything out there. My kids want me to get the trilogy from the same author and read them now. Great work!

    Book preview

    The Best Of Be Afraid... - Zak Bellingham

    The Best Of

    Be Afraid…

    Strange & Scary Stories for Kids and Grown-ups

    Zak Bellingham

    Illustrated by E J Rowland

    https://authorzakbellingham.com/

    Copyright © 2024 Zak Bellingham

    All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored, in any form or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author.

    This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

    The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

    ISBN: 978-1-917293-14-3

    Ebook edition

    The world isn’t as scary as we think it is;

    we just have to take it one step at a time.

    Fear and pain are just part of the process.

    This book is dedicated to everyone who has ever

    faced pain and got through it.

    Contents

    Spoctopus

    The Fear Feeder

    The Twin in the Cupboard

    The Train of Thoughts

    Squares

    Can’t Get Out Of Bed

    I Am Batman

    The Book that Wrote Itself

    The ‘I’m-Perfects’

    Little Isabella

    The Jab

    Khafayah the Brave

    The Fear Feeder Returns

    Little Isabella’s Adventure

    Spoctopus

    James, Alex, Taylor and Becs were best friends. They’d always been fascinated by astronomy and often talked about how great it would be to travel into space one day and discover new galaxies. They loved to go stargazing in the evenings; they’d sit in the park, looking up and wondering what might be out there.

    The kids were fifteen years old and spent much of their time people watching. They talked about how funny people were and what they might be thinking as they walked around living their lives, oblivious to how tiny they were in a universe that contained billions of galaxies.

    All four kids agreed that life might be much better and much more peaceful out in space away from the humans who always seemed to fight and make each other miserable.

    James was a sensitive boy and he often gave the group what he thought were inspirational speeches about the world while the group rolled their eyes and made fun of him.

    His younger brother Simon always made fun of him, too.

    Alex was the funny one in the group. He had a thing about joining two words together to create a brand-new word. He called cheese and ham sandwiches ‘cham’ sandwiches; he called his mum and dad ‘mad’, and he always had fun calling Taylor and Becs ‘Tecs’.

    Taylor and Becs were very clever. They often came top in science tests, and they spent all their time making private jokes about things that nobody else really understood.

    The summer holidays were just a month away. As the kids had all done well in their end-of-year exams, their parents decided to book them tickets to the Kennedy Space Centre, where they could spend all day looking at things related to space and astronomy.

    The kids couldn’t contain their excitement as they researched all they could about the Space Centre; they even planned their day so they would have time to see everything they wanted to.

    The day finally arrived. As they were quite sensible and responsible, their parents decided they could be left alone at the Space Centre to enjoy it with each other.

    After James’s dad dropped them off and they ran towards the huge entrance, patting each other’s backs with excitement.

    Inside the building they gasped as they saw the biggest, shiniest space shuttle they’d ever seen. They spent an hour looking at space suits, shuttles and astronomy-related equipment before going to the rocket garden. They’d never been happier; it was like a dream come true to be close to real space shuttles and rockets, and to see everything they’d only ever read about in books.

    They came across a new section of the Space Centre that they hadn’t read about on the website or in the brochures. It was called ‘AI and Robotics’.

    The kids were curious to see what was inside, so they walked swiftly through its shiny, transparent doors.

    Walking through this area, they saw everything from Artificial Intelligence powered shuttle cars and satellites, to watches and even books. As the kids walked past an AI book, Alex noticed that it didn’t have a cover. He picked it up and looked at the flashing microchip on the back.

    ‘What kind of a book is this?’ he asked. ‘It doesn’t even have a cover! I bet even I could write a better book than this!’

    At the end of the AI and Robotics area, there was a shuttle with a sign that read: Self-Driven AI shuttle – prototype.

    The sign said that this shuttle needed no rocket to leave Earth because it was self-propelled and could fly more than one hundred kilometres vertically from the ground into space in just under ten minutes.

    The kids were really intrigued and quickly went inside it. They looked around and pressed every button they could find.

    There was a huge screen with multicoloured pixels rotating across it making various shapes and patterns, as if it were alive. The sign below the screen read: Photonic Ocular Observation Panel.

    Alex couldn’t help laughing. ‘Look – if you take the first letter of each word, it spells POOP! Come over here and take a look at POOP!’ he said.

    The girls weren’t impressed by Alex’s joke but even so they came across and looked at the screen.

    They were quite exhausted from a long day walking around the Space Station, so they decided to sit inside the shuttle and rest.

    James said he felt like the captain. ‘Look at me! If this was my ship, I’d have a secret code word to make sure only I could launch it.’

    ‘What? Like navigator?’ asked Becs sarcastically.

    ‘No! Like … Odyssey!’ replied James excitedly. As he said that word, the doors of the shuttle suddenly closed and the engines started.

    They were all startled. ‘What’s going on? Did you press something?’ asked Alex.

    ‘I didn’t do anything!’ James protested.

    The kids shouted for help and pressed all the buttons they could find. They even tried to prise the doors open – but they couldn’t get out.

    They checked their phones but they didn’t have a signal inside the shuttle, and they didn’t know how else they could call for help.

    The shuttle started to shake. As the kids looked up through the moonroof of the shuttle, they saw the shutters on the space centre roof opening and they felt the shuttle slowly lifting off the ground.

    A sudden panic set in; they felt frightened and powerless as they sat back in their seats and looked at each other in shock. The shuttle was making so much noise that they couldn’t hear anything else. As it shook and rose towards the ceiling, they didn’t know what to do.

    ‘Put your belts on! Put your belts on!’ shouted Alex.

    Quickly putting on their belts, they held on tightly as the shuttle rose out of the building. They felt an

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