Book 0- Part 1- Arthur West
It all started with him.
December 14, 1995
1.
It was a cold evening, the sky was full of thick, black clouds and it looked like it would rain. Arthur West was working on his computer in the office which was situated in the south part of the city. He was of medium height, slim and in his early forties. His brown hair had only just started to turn grey.
Arthur looked at the clock sitting next to the computer screen. It was 9:58pm.
“Just two more minutes and you’re free,” he murmured to himself starring at the tiny clock in the bottom-right corner of his screen.
The day wasn’t an easy one, as always. Being over forty and still having to work for 10 hours on a computer, made his job mundane and tiresome. Yet, the money was good and it was the only thing that kept him coming there over and over again. The time changed to 9:59pm.
“I’m done.” he mumbled enthusiastically, shutting down the program he was working on and then standing up.
There was only one woman inside the building working a few boxes further away. She looked at him and asked,
“Why so early Arthur?”
He looked at her with indifference.
“I’m done for the day thank god” came the bored answer.
“I have to stay until eleven. I have way too much work to do!” complained the woman as she got back to her work.
Arthur walked up to a hanger beside the door, grabbed his jacket, put it on and turned his head towards his colleague, saying,
“Bye Jane, see you later.”
“See you tomorrow Arthur,” the woman called as Arthur was reaching to turn the door knob.
He simply opened the door and left. However, at that time they both didn’t know that Arthur was here for the last time.
2.
The office was situated inside a tall skyscraper with a gigantic underground parking area. Arthur was walking along a lane in the parking lot heading towards his car; an old white mustang - his dream car. He put his hand in his pocket to take out his keys. They weren’t there. He nervously tapped himself in all the places and pockets where the keys might be, yet he found nothing.
“Not again,” he said with disappointment.
Arthur had no choice but to return to his office.
Of course they were there. Where else could they be? It happened a few times that month but he still didn’t learn his lesson. Not thinking much, he immediately turned around and rushed back to the lift. When he got back to the office, Jane was still working on her computer.
“Did you forget your keys again?” she asked raising her head from the keyboard.
“Yeah, as always.”
Arthur went up to his desk and his eyes scanned it carefully. The keys were next to an old printer. He picked them up and put them away into the inside pocket of his jacket.
“Bye again,” he said to Jane.
“Bye,” the woman answered with a silent laugh.
3.
Three minutes later Arthur got downstairs to his car. He opened it briskly and threw his suitcase onto the back seat. Then he got in shutting the door behind him. Although it was London, the white mustang had the steering wheel on the left side. He had bought it while he was in the USA in late 70’s to do some menial jobs. It was a clean renovated car with no scratches on it. The owner must have taken good care of it and he did too. Twice or three times a week, Arthur would polish and wax it. He loved this machine.
Arthur fastened the seatbelts and turned the key causing the engine to start with a loud, typical roar. Afterwards, he pulled back, switched the radio on, and headed for the exit.
“And here is the weather forecast for the British Isles,” a nice soft woman’s voice on the radio announced. “The wind is getting heavier that may result in a heavy storm with thunders,” the gentle voice continued.
“Storms in December, that’s weird,” Arthur said under his breath as his car emerged from the underground parking lot. “Forget this, I’m gonna listen to some music,” he yawned as he pressed a small button on his car radio to change the station.
Some sad song was being played.
“No, not this one,” he grumbled while pressing the button again.
A new station was playing some old rock song.
“Yeah, that’s more like it, oh yeah,” he said joyfully.
Arthur drove through the city then headed west outside London to get quickly to his village.
It was an addictive trend for the new rich to move outside London to the villages nearby. They needed to run away from all the city noise to the peaceful and quiet cottages. Although they lived in their desired silence, they still spent way too much time on getting to their jobs. Arthur was one of them.
As he was turning into the motorway, he spotted some dark clouds coming from the west. The tree branches started to wave faster and faster rustling with the remains of the leaves that hadn’t been taken by Autumn. A few minutes later, he was driving along a narrow country lane listening to some old rock hits. The darkness of the upcoming clouds covered the light of the rising moon. Suddenly, it started to pour. Big, heavy, thick raindrops attacked the windscreen.
“Fuck!” He screamed angrily frowning his high forehead.
Heavy drops of rain were banging against the car body and the strong wind was rocking the speeding Mustang. The bright flashes of lightning struck the trees of the forest around. The man focused his eyes upon the road ahead and slowed down. He could barely see anything through the wet windshield of his car. The windscreen wipers were flickering from right to left making the road visible only for a while, before the raindrops dripped it over. Suddenly, a massive tall tree that had been struck by lightning fell to the ground. Arthur pulled the wheel to the left as hard as he could trying to avoid the limb. Two tyres felt the rough gravel and the car skidded past the tree, skimming its branch and eventually got back on the road.
“Holy shit! That was a close one!” he sighed wiping the sweat from his forehead as his heart thumped. Having finished the sentence, he saw a shining sphere falling from the sky on the empty road ahead.
“What...the...fuck?” he wondered to himself pressing the brakes hard causing a loud screeching sound of the tyres that started to get out from under the chassis.
The back of the car started to turn but Arthur was still in control of the vehicle. The unknown, mysterious thing looked like a ball made of light, shooting white bolts in all directions. The sphere was no bigger than a basketball and it moved quickly towards the car.
“You won’t make it,” his mind raced, as he was trying to stop his speeding Mustang.
Moreover, he was moving too fast and as a result, the car and the ball bumped into each other with huge speed. The windscreen broke immediately and the ball darted inside making a horrible sound of electrical discharge. The tiny flashes of lightning spattered around penetrating Arthur’s body. He didn’t even have time to scream or to do anything as he had lost consciousness out of fear and shock. At the same, the vehicle made two spins filling the air with loud screeching and stopped on the gravel next to the road. The bolts were visible for a few seconds before the ball diminished and vanished leaving no trace after itself, only the half-destroyed car.
4.
A few hours passed. Arthur slowly opened his eyes and everything was blurry.
“What the hell happened?” he quizzed himself looking around his burnt car.
The seats were soaked. The windscreen was gone and everything was covered with burnt stains. First, Arthur gently checked himself looking for any wounds. His hands touched every part of his body, though to his surprise, there were hardly any bruises. No burns, no wounds, nothing serious.
“What the heck happened to me?” he tried to remember.
Then it hit him. He remembered the storm, the tree, the lighting and the mysterious sphere. But he also saw some sandy dunes and desert in his head. He slowly opened the door of his car and stepped out.
“Not my Mustang!” he whined grumpily contemplating his seriously burnt car.
The left headlight was smashed and the front was covered with leaves and smoke stains.
His precious car, his dream, was destroyed. He had been saving for this particular vehicle since it came out. And now? He would have to spend even more money on it than he spent in 77.
“My wife’s gonna fucking kill me,” he despaired resting his arms over the roof.
But then he wiped his eyes and got back into the car. He took a glance at his watch and couldn’t believe it was past midnight.
“No way, I must get back home.” He gently placed his palm onto the key and slowly turned it. The engine started with a roar.
“Phew, she still works,” he sighed with relief, pressing the gas.
Arthur left the gravel and headed back to the road. It was covered with leaves and broken branches but the sky was clear and no cloud was in sight. He still had a few miles to his home but now, he drove slower having his head filled with questions
“What was that thing, and why and how, for God’s sake, I’m not hurt?”
5.
The car arrived in the village about ten miles from London. There were only a few houses, and the light was off in almost every one of them.
“Everyone is sleeping, or the storm damaged the power cable,” he thought.
The car stopped in front of an old wooden cottage, surrounded by trees. The neighbours’ houses were far from this one. Arthur got out of the car and glanced over the vehicle shaking his head with sadness. Suddenly, he saw a light turning on inside and remembered that his wife was definitely worried sick about him. He locked the car door and rushed inside the cottage. As he was entering and taking off his coat, he saw a woman standing in the middle of the hall.
“Where the heck have you been? I was so worried!”
Alice, his wife, was a medium-height woman. She was a few years younger than him, but her face had begun to cover with wrinkles in the eye area. Her hair was nicely dyed blond, pinned for a night and her slim body was hidden underneath a green nightgown. Arthur was still in shock and didn’t know what to begin with.
“I-I-I was...” he tried to say something while hanging his wet jacket, covering the burnt hole.
“Are you OK? Did anything happen?”
“Honey...”
“You always call me when you’re late...” the woman interrupted “... always! I called your work, but Jane said you’ve already left. Then the downpour came and you didn’t come home. I thought the worse...”
Arthur spotted a few tears pouring out of her blue eyes. His shock faded. He knew he must tell her something, but what to begin with.
Alice, calm down. I thought I would be here by eleven, but the storm... the rain was so heavy... there was something on the road, some kind of a ball of light, or something, it hit me and I lost control of the car and... and... No, this version was too hard for her to bare. He couldn’t say it.
“The downpour... that’s why I’m late, Alice.” Arthur said calmly. “I couldn’t see anything through this thick, heavy rain, so I simply waited at the parking lot until it was gone.”
“Thank goodness you didn’t drive in such awful weather,” Alice smiled wiping the tears off her cheeks and turned around. “Come to the kitchen, I’ll make you something to eat.”
“Good, I’m starving,” he replied with relief.
He was surprised that Alice believed in his lie. She must have been in a small shock too because she couldn’t notice his torn jacket or maybe because it was soaked. Arthur took the shoes off, and then followed her, turning the light off in the corridor.
6.
One hour later, Arthur was finishing brushing his teeth in the bathroom. He couldn’t stop thinking about his lovely car and the mysterious sphere.
“What if she sees the car? She would definitely know I lied to her. Hmm... I know...I’ll just go to bed and try to fall asleep. No thinking. No talking. I’ll explain everything tomorrow.”
Suddenly, he heard the clock strike. It was coming from the living room that was situated downstairs. A few seconds later the second strike came filling his ears.
“Just great, 2 o’clock and only four hours of sleep to go.”
He quickly left the bathroom and headed for his bedroom where his wife was already lying waiting for him. The bedroom wasn’t too big. There was enough space for a double bed, a wardrobe and a table. The bed was placed against the wall, between the door and the wooden window with old-fashioned curtains.
“Please turn off the light,” his wife asked yawning.
Arthur reached to the switcher and pressed the button. The room became dark. He felt for the bed and laid down.
“I’m really tired after today darling,” he said covering himself with the quilt, “So let’s sleep and we’ll talk tomorrow babe.”
“I’m tired too. Good night then babe.”
“Good night.”
Arthur turned over to the other side and closed his eyes. The thoughts from that night hit him again.
What was this sphere? Some kind of UFO? Some governmental experiment? Why the hell am I seeing some sands?.
“You know what Arthur?” Alice whispered.
“Why do you always wanna talk when I want to sleep?” he replied angrily to avoid the lie to come out.
“I just wanted to tell you something what happened to me today,” she said calmly.
“Can’t it wait till tomorrow? I told you I was tired.”
“I know, but this was really strange. Just listen, will you?”
“OK...” his attitude changed immediately on hearing strange. Maybe it had some connection with what happened to him.
“Something weird happened to me today.”
Even though Arthur had a difficult and a weird night as well, he wanted to hear what his wife had to say. After a moment of listening to Alice’s breath, waiting patiently for the next sentence, he boomed, “Well, what happened to you?”
Alice took a deep breath and said,
“I killed a cat.”
“If you killed it with a spade or something then it would be strange” Arthur laughed silently.
“No!” Alice denied, “I accidentally ran over it when I was coming back home.”
Arthur overturned so he was facing his wife. He knew he had to end the conversation somehow.
“Everyone kills animals in their lifetime. There is nothing weird in it,” he explained casually.
“B-But, when I stopped the car and came up to the cat... to check if it’s alive, I saw that its eyes were different.”
“What do you mean?” Arthur wondered, as his interest rose.
“T-They were not like any normal cat’s eyes. I mean, they were not grey or brown, but red as b-blood.”
Arthur’s breath stopped for a while.
“Red?” he asked in disbelief. “Maybe they were soaked with blood?”
“But the worst thing was... I was getting back to my car and I remembered these two superstitions my grandma used to say.”
Not again, her grandmother’s superstitions. In the beginning of their marriage she was addicted to the superstitions. Don’t go under the ladder. If you break a mirror, you will have seven years of misery, or don’t open your umbrella indoors. But after her grandmother’s death, Alice learnt her way to live without them... well with the help of a psychiatrist.
“She used to say that if you kill a black cat, Devil will come for you, or you will see Devil before you see another black cat”
Arthur could sense fear in her voice but he was sick and tired of her grandmother’s superstitions.
“You know what I think of it right?” he said calmly. “Superstitions do not apply to your life.”
“Hmm, B-But...”
“No buts, Alice! I don’t want to go through it again!”
“Me neither, b-but those eyes... I don’t know.”
“Alice, please. Can we go to sleep now?” Arthur asked.
“OK!” the woman said irritated turning over to the other side.
“Good night and sleep tight.”
“Good night, you too.”
7.
The clock downstairs struck four times. Alice and Arthur were fast asleep. The light from Venus was falling into the room through the window, creating a hardly visible tree shadow on the floor which was gently moving as the wind blew. Suddenly, a sound of footsteps spread around. Alice woke up, turned over and looked at Arthur with her half-closed eyes. He was sleeping like a baby snoring from time to time. Her eyes closed again and she fell back onto a pillow landing back in her dream. Then she heard the silent footsteps again. She opened her eyes rapidly and turned over to the right side of the bed, towards the sound of the footsteps. What she saw worked on her as if she had drunk at least two coffees. Her eyes wide opened. Her heart started to beat twice as fast. There wasn’t any light at the bed yet she could see a clear blueprint of some humanlike shape. It was sitting on her side of the bed and was slowly scanning the room. When it turned its head at Alice, the top part of it met the weak light revealing a pale face with large, black holes instead of eyes. Alice immediately started screaming, as her eyes grew wide with terror. The ugly creature stood up and stepped to the shadows near the door. The scream woke up Arthur.
“What the heck happened?” he asked, then noticed the dark blueprint of the monster in the shadows. Arthur tried to get up and do something about it but he couldn’t move.
“I can’t move!”
Alice didn’t stop screaming. She caught her breath every few seconds and kept on shrieking.
“Oh come on!” the very low voice spoke. “Maybe the more familiar nature of mine will not scare you,” he added emerging from the shadows.
To everyone’s surprise the shape that came out from the shadow straight away changed into a human one. There were no black holes anymore and it looked like a fifty-year old man. Arthur couldn’t believe his eyes, neither could Alice. She stopped screaming but she still couldn’t say anything.
“Who-Who are you?” Arthur asked in a trembling voice. “Do you want money? It’s downstairs!”
The man sat back on the bed looking at the bed-ridden couple. He had short dark hair, a long face and reddish eyes. He was wearing a black suit with a black shirt underneath.
“Money? Ha, ha. I don’t want your money.”
“A-Are y-you d-death?” Alice whispered in a quivering voice.
“Death?’ the creature laughed. “I’m far worse than him.”
Arthur tried to release himself from the mysterious magical boundary that paralysed his every muscle apart from his face. Alice was sitting right next to him, not even being able to turn her head. She was soaked with fear, and deep down she knew what was going on.
“I was sent today on Earth to deliver something important.”
The dimmed light covered his eyes with shadow so neither Alice nor Arthur knew who he was talking to.
“... and you with your fancy car just ran over this body.”
“T-The ball of light?” Arthur stuttered still trying to free his body from the invisible force.
“The ball of light? What? No!” came a surprise answer.
“I didn’t come here for you,” the creature told Arthur, “I came here for her,” he added pointing at Alice.
“You know, Alice,” he moved closer to the scared woman. “Your grandmother was right”.
Her jaw dropped but nothing more could she do.
“Surprised Alice? Huh?”
The girl only nodded and her breath sped up.
“Don’t you know Alice,” the old man asked, “That devil will come for you if you kill a cat?”
Alice was trebling with shock. Arthur couldn’t believe his eyes and ears. “Isn’t that what she used to say?”
“A-Are y-you D-Devil?” Alice asked with a stuttering voice.
“Not THE devil, but A devil yes. Well, actually a demon but many a person calls me devil so I got used to it” he answered casually. “But you know, Alice, the cat you killed was one of my special ones.”
“What are you saying’?” Arthur hissed.
“Let me explain this simply: There’re many kinds of demons,” he started to talk fast as if he was saying it for the hundredth time, “Some of them are stronger than the others, blah, blah, blah. But those who’re weak can’t posses a human so they have to use animals, in that case a cat, blah blah blah. Anyway, when you hit me, you made me leave the cat’s body and I had to start over again. And you don’t even realize how long one has to wait in a queue to be sent here again. Luckily, I know a few powerful demons.”
“I-I’m sorry,” Alice wept.
“Leave her alone!” Arthur yelled with anger.
“Who asked you for your opinion?” the creature said irritably.
He pointed his dirty finger at Arthur while his red eyes became even redder for a split second, then they became large and black which caused Arthur to be pushed away with a magical force. Arthur landed on the floor between the window and the bed knocking over the table. He could feel that the magical force got stronger and paralysed his every muscle fixing his eyes on his wife and the demon. He tried to focus his thoughts but the same images popped into his head; the sphere, the unknown desert and his Mustang. Alice started to scream again.
“No way!” the creature complained rolling his reddish eyes. “You want to be silenced too?”
Alice shook her head and stopped screaming as her tears were running down her smooth, shaky cheeks.
“So please shut up already!”
Arthur wanted to do something but his whole body was paralysed. He couldn’t move and his eyes were frozen on Alice and the creature.
“P-Please l-leave us a-alone” Alice stuttered.
“Hmm I don’t think I can” the man replied indifferently. “You see, I was waiting for ten months to be sent on Earth. A cat was the best I got then. But on the other hand, if it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have got this body. Anyway, I don’t like you. Alice, I think you deserve some punishment.”
Alice was shaking her head crying silently “No, n-no.” Arthur could do nothing, not even move a muscle.
“I-I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
The man rolled his eyes again, “Typical behaviour.” He sounded is if he was having fun doing what he was doing.
Alice was staring in disbelief and stuttered her last sentence,
“B-But it was an-an accident.”
“B-B-B-But” the demon mocked her, pointing his finger towards Alice, then moved it quickly towards the wall.
The mysterious force raised and pushed the woman’s body and smashed it against the wall with the power so huge that it could be compared with the rushing train. The whole body spluttered and blood trickled everywhere covering the whole room in stains.
“Oh, that was also an accident,” the monster said amusingly.
Arthur was forced to watch it without a blink. The mysterious creature looked at him and said. “If anyone asked, I wasn’t here.”
Then he pulled back into shadows, turned around and left. Simultaneously, the mysterious force that was restraining Arthur from making any move vanished. He burst out with tears. He cried and howled releasing the sorrow accompanied by grief dwelling inside of him. He immediately stood up from the bed and rushed outside. The man was nowhere to be seen. As soon as he ran through the front door, he fell down on his knees leaning his hands against the ground. The tears were running down his cheeks like a stream.
“Alice!” the man’s scream combined with weep and howl spread around filling the area.
Yet, there was no one who could hear him. His voice echoed among the nearby trees. He couldn’t do anything at that point. Witnessing his wife brutal death was unbearable experience. But not only this, he was also a witness to supernatural activities and he learnt that demons were real.
8.
Another few hours passed and the sun began to rise. Arthur was lying cringed in front of his house. It was very cold but he didn’t feel it. His eyes were closed and he was asleep, unaware of the cold that was making him pale. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around. Suddenly, the memories of the previous night tragedy stroke his mind. He sprang up, went to his house, grabbed some money from jar in the living room, took out the car keys from his jacket and put another jacket on. Then he rushed outside and looked back at the window of his bedroom only to see that it was covered with blood stains. For a moment he closed his eyes to see the images again: Alice greeting him the previous night, making him supper, then being brutally turned into leaking pieces of meat and blood. He also saw the sandy desert again. Arthur opened his eyes and got into his car, started the engine and took off forgetting to shut the house front door. In fact, he didn’t even call the police or anyone else for that matter. He just simply left.
February 3, 1996
9.
Arthur found himself in Botswana, Africa. The sun was in the zenith and the heat was unbearable. He was driving an old jeep across Kalahari Desert. There was an old lane or rather a path that connected the two towns. Next to him, there was sitting a black man; a typical one for the region.
“Why exactly are we here?” the black man shouted in order to break his voice through the noisy sound of an old engine.
Arthur took a glance at a small picture attached next to the wheel. There was a young blonde woman in it, Alice. He glanced back at the man.
“Something tells me that here I would find what I am looking for,” he replied.
“Which is what?” The man asked again doubtfully.
Arthur looked ahead.