Strange Weather by Charlie

CRACK! BANG! Goes lightning on a dark and stormy night. Richard, trying to ignore the loud lashes of lightning, was using his new weather detector he had got for his birthday last week. Richard always wanted to be on TV, and he thought a meteorologist (someone who forecasts the weather) would be the best way. For the past week Richard had his eyes glued to the screen, reading all the signals. Quite often he would look at the clouds and see if the machine was right.

Right after his third check for the day, he heard a strange noise outside. When Richard got out of his room, he saw his brother, Tom, whimpering in the corner of the bathroom. Richard rolled his eyes and sighed. Richard had always been the braver brother. Tom made an excuse that Richard was only braver because he didn't see the world how it should be seen. Richard was always confused about that, but he thought it was because Tom had been watching strange conspiracies on the internet.

Richard grabbed Tom's arm and pulled him outside, but he noticed Tom's heavy breathing and
strain. Then Tom grabbed Richard by the hand and said "come with me. You're not safe here."
Richard just stared at Tom with a confused face. Tom waited a few moments, sighed and ran off, no
precise direction, he just ran. Richard went back inside and told his mum that Tom had run away. His
mum sighed and shooed Richard to his room. Richard sat on his chair and focused on the machine.
Strange signals were coming from Alice Springs, a 15-minute drive away. Richard looked at the clock. 4:36 pm, he had time.

Richard got on his bike and rode. The signal was coming from inside an old building. He parked his bike and sneaked inside. He looked up and saw a big pot and two people standing beside it. Richard slowly started up the stairs, when he got up the top he noticed the green liquid in the pot. He could feel the heat from way back where he was standing. He took out his phone to take a picture but he dropped it. Hitting the floor, the phone made a huge noise, especially in the echoey building. Both people turned around and looked straight at Richard. He made a dash for it, but one of the people grabbed his shirt. The person turned Richard around and said in a low voice, "You will never speak of this day or you will be sorry." The person shoved Richard down the stairs. Richard got on his bike and rode home.

Sleep that night was hard for him. The question, "what was that green stuff?" bounced around in his
mind. He knew he had to go back the next day. When he got on his bike the next day, he thought
about his brother, he wanted to see Tom again. He arrived at the building and walked up the stairs,
videoing the whole thing on his phone. He got to the top floor and looked around. Nobody was in
sight, just the pot. He put his phone over the pot and looked at the screen. The screen was black.
"Huh?" Richard said to himself. Then the phone started to melt. Richard's hands were burning, he let
out a scream. The two people came out of a room, They ran over to Richard. "Thanks for
volunteering!" they said with a smile. Then Richard was thrown into the pot.