Author: Alexander Fawn

The investigators were attempting to figure out what had led to the woman’s death.

She was laying on the loungeroom floor with the cord still around her neck. According to neighbours, she was a quiet sort, not known to have many friends visit her at her flat. Yet, here she was in the room. The door hadn’t been forced, indicating that she must have let the perpetrator in. Why would she do that? There wasn’t much to go on. The only eyewitness, a woman just a few doors along in the same block, had seen a man walk past her window. This hadn’t helped; all she could say was that it could have been a man. This had been a short time before one of the other tenants discovered the door open. Because of how private the occupier had always seemed, she called out and stuck her head in.

Later that evening, the woman who had been questioned by the police as a witness, was on the phone telling her mother about it. She thought it was all rather exciting and had her feeling like some kind of celebrity. She was still talking about it several minutes later, when the doorbell rang.

She said “Hang on a minute mum.”

A short time later she came back on. “Sorry, mum, there’s a guy here with car trouble and needs to use the phone. I’ll call you back.”

She looked forward to their weekly chats.

It was fascinating to hear about how it was going over there. He was a nice enough guy, but she knew there were some things he got really touchy about. Being aware of this, she did her best to steer away from certain sensitive topics. When this did happen, he would simply clam up. This meant that the opportunity to find out more about what it was like over there and hear more stories about what the people were like, would be lost. Some of the people there had truly amazing stories. It was almost a year since he left, but their nighttime chats kept them in touch. She sat looking at the clock. It was almost time to see if he was available. She understood that there were times when he wouldn’t answer, but understood his situation and would have to leave it for another evening.

On this occasion, she got through easily

He said, “Hi! How’s it going?” She smiled; he sounded quite chirpy.

After spending a few minutes, generally catching up with all the latest, she went on to describe recent events at work. She was telling him about the girl who worked in the same office, and how they had become pretty pally. She said, “We went to the club the other night. Wow! We certainly did a lot of dancing that night.”

After a pause, he said, “Yes, well, I miss that.”

She said, “Do you mean the dancing, or not being there?”

She sat, looking down at her lap with nothing happening. After a long-drawn-out silence, she shook her head.

With a sigh, she put the Ouija board back in its box and slid it under the bed.

For some peculiar reason, his coming across himself was not a surprise.

It had happened when he was perusing the CDs in his local music store. At first, he didn’t recognise himself, but turning the corner at the end of an isle devoted to reduced items for sale, they momentarily came face-to-face. However, it was surprising to note that his other self, showed no sign of recognition. As they passed each other, he caught sight of the items the other was carrying. At least, the title of the one that was showing. Lady Gaga? Surely not. Had he read it right? Of course, he was no fan of her music, being more of a classical man, himself. Lady Gaga, wasn’t she banned from some clubhouse in America for turning up only dressed in her underwear? Whereas, it was only a question of taste, but, Lady Gaga?

That encounter had a profound effect on him.

It was less than a month later that he was taking a shortcut through a park, on his way back to where he had left his car. That was when he spotted himself again. This time he saw that he had a dog! It was obviously him, and the dog was clearly his. He had never been fond of dogs. He hated it when they jump up at you, even worse, when they bark nonstop late into the night. He had a growing sense that he would not like this other self.

He found a seat and sat watching for a time as his other self kept throwing a ball for the animal to chase and bring back. It was then that it came to him. The music store and the park were quite close together, indicating that his other self probably lived somewhere around this part of town. He decided that he would not use this shortcut again.

In fact, in future, for his own peace of mind, he would stay away from this end of town, altogether.

It was only a few thousand years ago that they began to pop up.

They showed up in various parts of the world, once the general idea got spread around. They were called holy men. Their role was to be a religious leader. A holy man. A person who came to be recognised as such. Each achieving a status that enabled them to claim that their belief system was the one true faith, it being the religious concept that claims superiority over other religions. There’s the rub d’you see? Right there! Anyway, over time the number of followers of these systems grew. Some more than others. Each one worshiping their own forms of deity, while the dark one, he who worships none of them, but looks on from the shadows. Shadows cast by fire.

For him, the contest between those striving to assert their one true faith leads to competition, power and struggle. He who lurks in darkness grows stronger as rivalry leads to war…

It’s all a bit of a mess, really.

Just saying.

The five-year-old girl possessed two quite remarkable attributes.

The two qualities in question were bravery and circumspection. These powerful attributes had never been put to the test until the night she heard the whispering coming from beneath her bed. She hadn’t been in bed long and was just becoming comfortable when the hissing sounds began. Something down there seemed to be asking her to join it; whatever it was. Pulling the covers off a little, she flopped over the side with her head almost touching the floor. It being naturally dark under there, she could only just make out some small thing that appeared to be moving around. With a sigh, she reluctantly climbed out of bed. Opening a cupboard, she took out a torch. Crouching down, she sent the beam from side to side, until finally finding the source of the troublesome noise that had disturbed her settling down to a proper night’s slumber.

Shining her torch directly at it, she came face to face with a tiny creature no more than two inches high. It was wearing rags that seemed to be in tatters. It was frightfully ugly, with large pointy ears. It appeared to have talons extending from its fingers and a wide mouth full of an extremely large number of sharp, spiky teeth. Raising its little arm, once again it whispered its invitation to join it.

She clambered to her feet and stood thinking for a while.

Returning to the cupboard, she searched around the shelves before finding a small plastic bag full of coloured play blocks. These she tipped out onto the shelf, as quietly as possible. Back at the bed, she switched the torch on and put it down on the floor, directing the light to where she had seen the thing. She laid down on her front and peered in. It was there, glaring at her with a wicked smile.

What happened next took only seconds. Holding the bag open with one hand she scooped it up and threw it into the bag with some force. Then, squashing as much air out from around the wriggling thing, she spun it around to form a twist that allowed her to make a tight knot.

Not wishing to disturb her parents, she crept out of her room and made her way to the upstairs bathroom. The creature’s scrabbling around made only a soft rustling noise as she made her way by the light of her bedroom’s open door.

At the toilet bowl, she opened the lid and dropped it in. Hoping that she wouldn’t have to do it twice, she selected full flush and pushed the button. After a short spell of gurgling, it disappeared.

Back in her room, she settled down under the covers. After a brief consideration concerning the possible repercussions of the night’s activities, she closed her eyes… within moments she fell asleep.

Under the circumstances, her bravery was not in question; and her circumspection was evident by her deciding to keep the whole annoying business to herself!

Throughout his entire life he’d been plagued by the same dream.

He couldn’t remember how or when it started; it just did. It wasn’t a bad dream, on the contrary, it was the entrancing image of a face. A lovely face. It was the face of a beautiful woman. Occasionally, she appeared to be looking at him through bars. These appearances he found particularly disturbing. Surely, this couldn’t mean that she was looking out from a prison cell! A face like that could not belong to such a person. As time went on, he became less sure about his ideas concerning the images. Finally, in his old age and knowing that the end was near, with each occurrence of it, on waking, he would try harder and harder to make sense of it.

It only became clear to him during the brief moment he drew his final breath.

It was the face that smiled at him as she sat beside his cot.

The dimly lit bus shelter at the edge of town was empty as he approached.

It was a cold, dark night. His car had broken down and was now pulled up on the verge, some distance away, back along the lane. It was far too late to be hanging about for a tow truck. He’d catch the late bus home and fix it all up in the daylight. Being elderly, his eyes were no longer the best, and for him everything looked much better in the daylight. He sat down on the bench inside and checked his watch. By his reckoning, the last bus for the night would be arriving within minutes. After the walk from the car, his legs were aching and he thought about putting them up along the seat, just for a few minutes. He went to swing his legs up, when he got a fright. He thought he could make out somebody sitting next to him. Of course, he knew that was impossible. The place had been empty when he arrived.

He was squinting at the shape, when it moved!

In a small whisper, the figure said, “Do you think I’m here, sitting next to you, in this shelter?”

The man said, “No. Not really.”

With that, poof! It was gone!

Still shaking, he mumbled to himself, “Wouldn’t have happened in daylight.”

Within the darkness of a vast universe there is a great scattering of worlds.

Within one of these slowly spinning orbs, dotted with several lands, there is one mass that is speckled with the sparkling lights of many cities. Within just one of these cities is an old industrial area. Within this gloomy place there is a shabby street. Within this street of forgotten buildings there is an empty warehouse. Within this disused building is an uninhabited corner office. Within this gloomy room there is an old metal desk. Within this long-abandoned piece of office furniture there is a drawer. Within the darkness of this drawer is a cardboard box that once contained paperclips. Within this container there is a cockroach.

It sleeps… undisturbed.

The bus that had been standing at the stop for a couple of minutes, began to move.

There was a jolt. The engine had obviously stalled. The young man gazed out the window and checked the time, then relaxed. He had plenty of time to make his connection. Suddenly, he realised that he was staring at a young woman. She was certainly watching him. She was obviously waiting for a different bus. He found her attractive, but in a modest way. It was her eyes that held his attention. They were positively beautiful! He was almost embarrassed when he saw her quickly look away. Meanwhile, the driver had left his seat and seemed to be tinkering with something under the bonnet. Looking back, there eyes met again. This time, there was no looking away. Rather, they just held the moment.

The sound of the driver climbing back into his seat and apologizing for the delay, snapped his attention. The whole vehicle shook as the engine burst into life. With the happy mumblings of other passengers, also smiling with relief, he turned back to the woman. She was smiling, both with him and at him. He would never be able to explain the intense passion he felt in that moment.

He nodded.

She nodded back.

He would soon be boarding his flight. A flight that would take him home. His home, in another country.

The visitor sat in his friend’s lounge.

He hadn’t seen his longtime acquaintance for some time, having recently returned from working a two-year contract overseas. This time, his software programming skills had paid better abroad, but he was glad to be back home. The man he was visiting, like him, had the same programming knowledge, but a lot more besides. As a respected scientist, he had been heading up a research and development team in his own company, designing and building androids for over thirty years. Most recently, his work had broken through a barrier that he and his colleagues had been striving for. The robots they were now developing not only performed tasks after being given verbal commands, but were able to read the minds of those making a request, in order to fully carry out precisely what is required of them.

He had read about the scientist’s groundbreaking work in the press. He was not a fan. He could see all sorts of issues coming up with what was being created. He felt that a simpler program was sufficient; such as using a keypad to enter a code that corresponded with a particular task; the sort found on vending machines.

Despite this, the visitor knew the topic of these new, developing cyborg upgrades would come up. He didn’t like any of it and he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind on the matter. He was saying, “You know my thoughts on the subject. I’ve always considered that artificial intelligence could be taken too far for my liking; but this, this path is fraught with all sorts of hidden dangers.”

The scientist said, “Of course, there have been snags, but one by one they are being fixed with amendments being made to the code. We fully expected to have this sort of thing to deal with.” He grinned with pride. “Our marketing surveys have had a lot of positive feedback from several major organisations.”

The visitor shrugged. “Well, I for one,” he said, “would not be at all comfortable with some mechanical person having access to my private thoughts.”

“Really?”

His visitor smiled and shook his head. “Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but to be honest, I’d rather be dead than have one of these things in the same room as me.”

This statement was followed by his eyes closing, as he slumped to one side in his chair.

The scientist jumped up and felt for a pulse. There wasn’t one.

“Oh! dear,” he whispered, “another snag!”