THE COLLECTOR
By Daniel I Russell
Copyright © 2012
Dark Continents Publishing
DarkContinents.com
Original Cover Art by James Powell
eBook and Cover design by Donnie Light - eBook76.com
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This book contains a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s creation or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
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For my grandmother, Lillian Taylor (1919-2009)
PROLOGUE
DARTMOOR, DEVON. 1980.
The landscape appeared prehistoric as the rising sun cast a golden hue across the ancient piles of rock. The tors resembled stone dinosaurs, jagged and huge, crossing the bleak terrain. The gently warmed dew had risen in a low mist.
Stanley Bennet yawned. He’d witnessed the majesty of the moors countless times. He shivered, despite a thick coat and tight blanket.
Beside him, Swanson dozed on.
“I’m getting too old for this shit,” said Stanley and reached for his pipe and tobacco tin. He opened it, pinched the brown shreds and poked them into the head of the pipe. Tobacco fell onto the camera that hung around his neck. The bulky piece belonged to Swanson. Stanley clamped the pipe between his teeth and lit up. He puffed and sighed, leaning back against the stone wall.
The two cold and wet men had camped beside a narrow road that wove a meandering route through Dartmoor. On one side spread the expanse of the moors. On the other, woodland seemed to lurk behind the wall.
Stanley stood, stretched his legs and looked to the forest. The first morning rays failed to penetrate the closely packed trees, and mist rolled out between the twisted trunks.
Swanson yawned and half-opened an eye. “What time is it?”
“Coming up to five,” said Stanley without looking at his watch. The words steamed before his face.
“Crap,” said Swanson, sitting up. “I guess I dozed off.”
“I guess you did.”
The two men looked out across the moors.
“I miss anything?”
“I would’ve woken you.” Stanley drew another puff from the pipe. “Looks like this has been a waste of a night. I could’ve been at Jane’s grave again instead.”
“Jane’s grave? A loved one?”
Stanley chuckled.
“More an obsession. It’s a local legend. A few miles from here, there’s a grave in the middle of the road. Every morning, fresh flowers are placed there by unknown persons.”
“How can they be unknown?” said Swanson and snorted. “Surely someone has staked out the grave.”
“I have,” said Stanley, “many times. If you so much as glance away, there they are: fresh flowers.” He chewed the end of the pipe. “Another little mystery that makes life more interesting.”
“Sounds good,” said Swanson, rummaging in the confines of his jacket. “More interesting than being stuck here.”
“I can’t believe we haven’t seen anything. The sheer number of reports, I thought we’d find ghosts queuing up to be photographed!”
Swanson sniggered. “Maybe they’re shy. They’re children, after all.”
“Show some taste, Swanson.”
“Sorry.”
Stanley turned away from the young man. The bus crash at the site a week ago had been full of children – fourteen to be exact. All of them had been mangled as the roof of the bus crumpled in on them. Swanson was right; the spirits of the dead should be young children. But the journalist had no right to make light of it.
“To be honest,” said Swanson, “I’m kinda glad the sun’s coming up. The things I’ve read…” He whistled. “Enough to make your skin crawl.”
“Voices…figures playing in the road…childlike screams?” said Stanley. “Yeah, I can see how that could freak an amateur out. Looks like the paper will have to run another story.”
Swanson nodded.
“I suppose. What about you? I thought this was going to be the feature investigation in your book?”
“It was, but now? I’ll have to come back. The Encyclopaedia of the Unexplained will have to wait. There has to be some kind of presence here. Too many people have seen too many things.”
“What about Bovey Tracy?” suggested Swanson. “I hear that castle is full of ghosts.”
“Old news,” Stanley replied. “This is something new…something special.”
“It might’ve been,” said Swanson, finding his cigarettes and lighting one. He blew out a cloud of smoke. “Whatever it was, it’s gone now.”
Stanley tapped his pipe against the stone wall, knocking out the spent ash. He groaned as he stepped away, his knees sounding like firecrackers.
“Ouch!” said Swanson.
“Oh yes, these old bones don’t like the cold.” He walked into the empty road, hands on hips and a pained grin on his face. “God, I’m stiff.”
Swanson rolled his eyes and took a drag of his cigarette.
Stanley turned, looking down the road.
“Swanson,” he hissed.
“What?”
“Get up here. Now!”
The young man climbed to his feet. “We got through the night without seeing a thing,” he said, walking over. “I don’t think that now…whoa…who the hell is that?”
Down the road, just around the first bend, a man in a black suit crouched by the wall. Shadow, cast by a bowler hat atop his head, concealed his face. He waved his hands over the road.
“What the hell is he doing?” whispered Swanson.
“You think that’s weird? That was the exact spot where the bus crashed,” said Stanley. “They moved the cards and flowers yesterday. I camped up here for the better view. What is he doing?”
Swanson nodded to the camera hanging around Stanley’s neck.
“Snap him!”
“What?”
“Snap him! Take a photo.”
“Why? He might be some crank. He might not be doing anything at all!”
The road in front of the stranger burst into flames.
The two men jumped back.
“Oh shit!” cried Swanson. “You see that? It’s…it’s…”
“Yes,” said Stanley, his mouth hanging open. “It’s a blue fire…”
“Snap it,” ordered Swanson, his eyes not moving from the lone figure. “You know what this is? It’s a man in black. The stuff of modern alien legend. Snap him!”
Stanley fumbled with the camera, raising it to his eye. He centred the man, still waving his arms over the strange flames, in the viewfinder.
“Do it!” said Swanson, almost bouncing with excitement.
Stanley pressed the button.
Click. Whir!
The man in black looked up, revealing blue, glowing eyes set into a pale, narrow face.
“Shit,” cried Swanson again. “He’s seen us.”
“Whatever he’s doing, I think we should go. Right now.”
“Agreed.”
They turned away from the figure and, leaving their few possessions behind, fled up the road. Stanley ignored the heavy
camera bouncing against his chest.
“Quick!” shouted Swanson, glancing over his shoulder. “He’s following!” His words echoed across the otherwise silent plain.
Stanley looked behind. The man in black walked up the road after them. The blue fire had vanished.
“The woods,” Swanson cried. “We can lose him in the woods!” He bore left, his frantic footfalls slapping against the road.
Stanley leapt against the wall, his legs kicking and propelling him over. Landing with a grunt in the dirt and twigs, he jumped straight back up.
Swanson, younger and more limber, leapfrogged the low wall and carried on running.
Stanley followed, entering the dark cover of the forest. He gasped for breath as the leaves whipped him. Twigs and branches scraped against his face. He stumbled, kicking up small stones and musty detritus.
Ahead, Swanson hurtled through the woods and disappeared within the darker shadows.
“Swanson,” Stanley called after him. “Wait!”
He pushed himself up and carried on, chest and legs burning.
Deeper into the trees, Stanley stopped. The woods appeared the same on all sides, with no sign of the reporter. He pulled the camera from around his neck and threw it on the floor, glad to be free of the weight.
“Swanson,” he shouted. “Swanson! Where are you?”
The forest answered with a series of clicks and chirps.
Stanley froze.
“Swanson?”
More noises echoed through the trees.
A cry rang out, and fingertips of ice scraped down Stanley’s back.
He ran in the direction of the scream, bolting through the trees on his left. Ahead, the trees thinned out into a clearing.
“Swanson!”
Stanley fell through the foliage into the small patch of open land. A stream trickled through the clearing. Beside it, several large rocks lay in a heap, as if neatly stacked by a giant putting his toys away. A small groan sounded from behind them.
Stanley dashed towards the rocks. He skidded to a halt on the leaf-covered ground.
Swanson lay on his back, arms by his sides. His fleece jacket had ripped down the middle and hung open, spread out like wings. Entrails hung out, like thick, bloodied worms. A patch of crimson spread from the reporter and stained the leaves around him.
“Oh God,” said Stanley.
Swanson lifted his head. Deep lacerations criss-crossed his face, and blood erupted from between his lips.
“Stanley…” he gurgled.
“Don’t move!” Stanley dropped to his knees beside his companion. “Don’t speak!”
Swanson coughed, spewing out a red geyser.
“Behind…”
“I told you!” Stanley shouted. “Keep still and don’t speak!”
“Behind…you…”
“What?”
Stanley turned.
The shadows between the trees moved, sliding over each other. More chirps and chattering echoed from within.
Stanley swallowed, his body trembling.
Hundreds of eyes, large and white, opened in the woods.
“Oh God,” he moaned again. “We have to get out of here!”
Swanson stared up into the dull morning sky, unmoving. Blood trickled from his lips and off his chin.
Stanley stood and backed away from the body.
The eyes watched from every direction.
“No!” he screamed.
The darkness flowed out of the trees, accompanied by a tremendous clicking and snapping.
“Nooo!”
PART 1
The Harpers
1.
The bright spring sunshine filled the windows of the classroom, which showed an impressive view of the staff car park. The pleasant weather did little to lighten Frank Harper’s mood. He sat in a stuffy room with thirty one greasy teenagers.
He picked up his worn mug, with the word STRESSED written across it in bold black lettering. The rim had a sizable chip in it, exposing the rough ceramic under the glaze. He’d heard such chips and cracks were a playground for bacteria. He decided to ignore the advice. He raised the mug to his lips and enjoyed two large and lingering mouthfuls of the steaming brew.
Mmmm…lovely.
Frank adored coffee. The magical elixir helped him through the arduous days, giving him the strength to cope with a heavy workload and irate kids. Anne complained he drank too much coffee. She nagged him that his blood pressure—already a worry—would sky rocket. Members of staff also had reservations over his caffeine intake. Less concerned about his health, more annoyed at his bare-faced cheek of drinking all the coffee they all had to pay for.
But he needed it more than them, so: end of discussion.
“Mr Harper?”
Frank sighed and replaced the mug on his desk, finding a free space between unmarked homework, worksheets and text books.
“Yes, Samantha?”
“It’s not working.”
“It never does, does it?”
He stood from his desk, exposing his whereabouts to the whole class. They paid no attention, all more concerned with doing their own thing. Kyle Heyes was making something out of paper, a plane probably, to be pitched at the girls sitting in front of him. Andrew Sneddon idly flicked through a glossy magazine. The cover showed a blonde in a bikini draped over a blue sports car. Helen Braithwaite sat on the back row talking into her mobile phone.
Her mobile phone, for God’s sake!
In front of each pupil lay the components of an electrical motor. Only the three girls on the front row seemed motivated to tackle the problem.
“Right, Samantha,” Frank said, walking around his desk. “What seems to be the problem?”
“It’s just not working, sir. I think the power pack’s dodgy.” Her partners nodded in agreement.
“Do you know for sure? I don’t want to bother the technician for a replacement just for you girls to say that it still isn’t working. Have you done a systematic check to be sure it’s the power pack that’s faulty?”
The girls looked at him like he spoke ancient Greek.
He sighed again.
Are these three really the brightest in the class?
“It’s the power pack, sir. They’re all dodgy. The school should get new ones.”
“I would love for us to get some new ones, Samantha, but it’s not that simple. We have budgets to adhere to, you know.”
“That’s not fair, sir.”
He longed for the exchange to end before his coffee cooled down.
“The Catholic school gets brand new equipment,” the girl continued. “And they get to play with lasers. And-”
“And it’s all stories,” he finished for her. “They’re on the same budget as us and have the same problems.” He glanced at the scattered pieces of motor on the desk. “Get building the rest of it. If it still doesn’t work, then I’ll call the technician.”
“Yes, sir.”
Idiot kids.
Frank returned to his desk and sat, the coffee cup instantly raised to his lips.
Physics had such a stigma about it, deemed the most boring of all high school subjects. Frank conceded defeat before the pupils had even walked through the door. He loved the subject. To explain the universe, to understand that the earth is hurtling through space and why everything doesn’t fly off fascinated him. Anne nagged that he spent too much time seeing the world through the eyes of a physicist. He confessed to her that while running a bath, he tried to imagine a model, a formula even, of the interaction between the rates of the water coming from the hot and cold taps. Combining this with the difference in degrees, he was confident that he could calculate the final temperature of his bathwater.
She said it was stupid.
But now she knows better than to speak back.
Frank glanced around his classroom.
Andrew Sneddon hit the girl beside him with his magazine, which had been rolled up into a more effective weapon. From overheard
conversations, Frank knew the Sneddon boy and the girl had slept together several times, despite being only fourteen. He hoped the little slut got pregnant, and Sneddon caught some nasty STD that turned his dick green. He chuckled. Swift justice. It really would teach them.
His classes never used to be this disordered. He’d once thrown a chair at a first year boy, and ran onto the football pitch during a school match to apprehend a pupil. Back in those days, reputation and hearsay kept classes in control.
Now, the kids had no respect for anyone: teachers, parents, not even themselves, as the Sneddon boy and his floozy showed. Teachers left like rats from a sinking ship.
But not me. No way.
He swallowed another gulp of coffee. Having already drank half, he dreaded leaving the class for a top up.
A loud smack! rang out from the rear of the class.
Frank looked up.
Sneddon brought the rolled up magazine down on the blonde girl’s head a second time. She cried out and shot him a vicious look, rubbing her scalp through her golden locks. The Sneddon boy grinned.
“Andrew!” Frank barked. “There is a time for pranks like that, and it’s not in my lesson. Do we understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
Other members of the class giggled and whispered.
Frank lowered his gaze to the contents of his desk again. The pile of coursework needed to be marked by the end of the week and-
Smack!
“Ow! Sir, tell him!”
Frank slammed the coffee mug down onto the desk. Some of the contents swilled out and stained a pile of freshly photocopied worksheets.
“I did just tell him, Patricia!” Frank bellowed. “This is your final warning, Andrew!”
The boy, sporting a cocky grin, let the rolled magazine drop to the desk top. It uncurled among the untouched motor parts.
“Okay, sir. Jeez, take a pill…”
Frank’s tension rose like the steam in a boiling pot. The beginnings of a dull ache inside his skull sharpened to a throbbing peak at the centre of his forehead. His hands pulled into tight fists to keep them under control. A quick breath whistled from his nostrils.
The Collector Book One: Mana Leak Page 1
