When Max had left for the
festival that morning, Shibby1 and Shibby2 were inside eating their
breakfast; they’d heard a strange noise coming from the back
garden. Shibby1 being the more adventurous of the two went out
through the cat flap to investigate. As he stuck his head out
through the flap, someone grabbed him, pulling him roughly through
the hole. An ugly man with a bad smell held him up by his scruff
and stared into his eyes, after awhile Shibby1 felt a tickling,
then a pulling sensation in his mind, it was not a nice feeling,
but for some reason he knew he must fight it, even though it was
proving difficult or his mistress would be in danger. He began to
lose consciousness and the nasty man holding him grew angry.
‘I can’t get anything from this
stupid animal,’ he said shaking Shibby1 roughly.
‘Just kill it then and let’s
get going. This probably isn’t the right place anyway.’ The man
holding Shibby1 had sharpened metal spikes sticking out from where
his finger nails should have been. He raked them down Shibby1’s
soft, furry tummy; Shibby felt intense pain and then a hotness
running down his body. The nasty man threw Shibby1 to the ground
and gave him no more consideration than a squashed bug.
As he lay dying, Shibby1
managed to call a warning to Shibby2 just before he poked his nose
out the cat flap. Shibby2 shot through the flap but the other evil
man was waiting for him and grabbed his tail as he ran passed,
twisting it sharply; Shibby2’s skin tore and the bone snapped; he
thought he would pass out from the pain but he kept running and
focussed on the large tree in the middle of the garden, it was his
only chance for escape. He reached the base of the tree and raced
as fast and as far up as he could, leaving a trail of blood all the
way up the trunk.
‘It got away,’ said the man to
his partner.
‘Never mind,’ said the first
one, ‘we can’t get any information from them anyway, they’re just
stupid animals.’ Both of the nasty men left.
Shibby2 knew he must not die,
he must stay alive until his mistress came home and took care of
him. He sat looking down forlornly at his dead brother, silently
thanking him for the warning that had saved his life.
Max and Jason arrived back at
the festival and wandered around looking at a few of the booths,
until they met up with Jason’s latest love interest. Jason looked
sheepishly at Max.
‘Don’t worry about me,’ she
said smiling, ‘I’ll be fine now, you go and enjoy yourselves.’ She
thanked him for looking after her, kissed him on the cheek and they
both said they would catch up again soon.
After Jason left, Max realised
she still felt a little light headed and so not wanting to pass out
again and cause a stir she decided to move away from all the noise
and smells and find a quiet place to sit and think. She walked off
in the direction of a small parkland area she knew and found a
beautiful shady tree to sit under. There were a few people around
who probably had the same idea, but not enough to become
annoying.
Going over everything in her
mind for the tenth time, she still partly believed the Janus thing
to be a prank but something kept telling her to remember, remember
everything she had been told. Janus had said people from another
world were coming to help her and she would know them by their
appearance. They would look like her but something about them would
be different and that was how she would know it was them. ‘All
rather vague,’ she thought to herself. Also she had to look out for
the followers of Anubis—no description had been given of them—who
would be trying to kill all of them including her. While she was
thinking about all this, the key Janus had given her found its way
into her hand, she took it from her pocket and studied it. ‘He told
me I would know when to use it,’ she thought. It was all very
strange.
Sitting quietly not looking at
anything in particular a flash of light in her peripheral vision
caught her attention; it was glowing and beginning to pulsate under
some trees off to her left. ‘What the hell is that?’ she thought
leaning forward on the park bench trying to get a better look. A
dog playing catch with its owner began barking excitedly and
distracted her for a second, when she turned back she saw three
people standing under the tree where the pulsating glow had been
two seconds earlier.
‘What the . . . where did they
come from?’ she wondered, ‘they definitely weren’t there before,
I’m sure I would have seen them.’ The closer she looked the more
she could see they appeared a little odd looking, to say the least.
All of them were tall, especially the men who would have been well
over six feet. The woman was close to six foot herself and had the
most beautiful coppery coloured curls that hung down to her waist
which, even from a distance looked rather dishevelled. ‘How
strange,’ thought Max, ‘the weather is so calm, yet she looks like
she’s been caught in a gale.’ Max could tell she was an extremely
attractive woman. One of the men was dressed from head to toe in
black and had long straight, shiny black hair, he was very slim
which the black outfit only accentuated; his black boots were muddy
and the hem of his cloak, which was encrusted with mud, had rips
and tears around the bottom. The other man who was standing with
his back to her suddenly turned around and stared intently in her
direction. If she had been speaking she would have been lost for
words, he was the most breathtaking man she had ever seen in her
life. She sat on the bench, mouth open, staring back at him. He had
shoulder length wavy hair, the colour of liquid mercury. She had
never seen hair that colour before. His build was muscular with
broad shoulders and chest to match. He had the ruggedly handsome
features of someone who spent a lot of time in the outdoors; tanned
and craggy. His long cloak thrown carelessly back across his
shoulders was dark forest green and blended in very well with his
surroundings. Like his companion’s, it too reached the ground and
was covered in mud and rips. They appeared rather exotic to Max.
‘How come I never get to meet exciting looking people like that,’
she thought.
They seemed to be lost, looking
this way and that, until they spotted her. The woman raised her
hand and excitedly pointed straight at Max as she spoke to her
companions, the silver-haired man nodded, his eyes never leaving
Max. Max turned around to see if there was anyone behind her but
no, she was alone, there was not one other person in the near
vicinity, even the man and his dog had vanished.
The three
strangers started walking towards her. They looked very excited.
Max felt a sudden urge to run, but being totally mesmerised by the
tall silver haired man, she stayed. ‘Oh my god, he’s so good
looking,’ she thought, ‘I wouldn’t complain if
he
swept me off my feet.’ He looked
straight at her, a small smile playing on his lips. She heard a
deep, slightly accented voice in her head.
‘Perhaps that can be arranged
Max Baxter.’ Her eyes widened in shock.
‘Oh god, it’s him,’ she
thought, ‘but . . . how?’
‘Yes, it
is
me,’ said the voice.
She watched the tall silver-haired man point to himself and
nod.
Could this day get any weirder?
Max decided to just “go with the flow” and see where it took her.
The three strange people reached the place where she was sitting
and all started talking excitedly.
‘I can’t believe we’ve made
it,’ said the woman. ‘This must be the place.’
‘And what a strange place it
is,’ said the man in black looking around, ‘nothing like
home.’
‘I don’t know, I think I could
get to like it here,’ said the silver-haired man smiling at Max.
She blushed.
‘I’m way too old to be
blushing,’ she thought.
‘But why, you look radiant with
your cheeks glowing like that,’ came another thought in her
head.
‘Please, can you stop doing
that,’ Max said to the silver-haired man, ‘it’s quite disconcerting
when you’re not used to it. I’m sure it must be very ordinary where
you come from, but it’s not here.’
She had come to the obvious
conclusion these must be the people Janus had told her about, the
people from another world. Was it all true after all?
‘Are you reading her private
thoughts?’ said the woman angrily, turning to the silver-haired
man. ‘How rude you are Haven. You haven’t even introduced yourself
yet and you’re already listening in to Maxine’s thoughts.’ The tall
man looked down at his feet in embarrassment.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said to Max,
‘it’s just your thoughts are so loud to me, it’s like you are
speaking them, not thinking them. And even though her name is
Maxine she is usually called Max,’ he said looking at the woman.
The man in black just laughed and then he bowed courteously to
Max.
‘Please forgive my friends Max,
they are just very excited to meet you, as am I. This is Daria,’ he
said indicating the copper haired woman and this charming fellow,
pointing to the silver haired man is Haven, but I think you are
already slightly acquainted with him, and I am Gilster,’ taking her
hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed it. Max looked from one
to the other not knowing what to say. So she settled on something
simple.
‘Hi, I’m Max, pleased to meet
you.’
‘Now we have the pleasantries
out of the way is there somewhere we can go to get out of sight
Max, it could be dangerous just standing here,’ said Daria looking
around, a worried expression marring her beautiful face, ‘we seem
to be attracting a bit of attention.’ Max looked around and sure
enough a small crowd was starting to gather.
‘It’s you three,’ she said
smiling, ‘you’re rather flamboyant for this neighbourhood, but
yeah, there is somewhere we can go, I’ll take you back to my place,
my cats must starving by now, but we must be careful, I suppose
you’ve heard there are people trying to kill us?
‘So, you know about them then,’
said Haven, his smile gone.
‘Yes,’ said Max unable to look
Haven in the eye, ‘but we can talk about all that when we get
home.’
She led them back through the
festival where they caused quite a stir with their appearance,
people assumed they were part of the entertainment and wanted to
know when and where they would be performing. Max smiled and told
everyone they were an acting group and would perform later on in
the day.
Finally they reached the
car-park, Max explained the concept of a motor vehicle as a mode of
transport and once they understood the basics, the three were quite
excited at the prospect of being “driven”.
Max was becoming self-conscious
around her new friends, especially Haven, she was frightened to
have any thoughts at all in case he was listening. Just before they
turned onto the road where Max lived she decided to ask some
questions. ‘Do you hear thoughts all the time or can you block them
if you want to?’ she asked, forcing herself to look at Haven in the
rear view mirror. She nearly laughed, he looked so large, squished
into the back of her tiny car.
‘Normally I don’t have a
problem with people,’ Haven replied, ‘I usually only hear people’s
thoughts when I am focussing on them, but with you it’s different,
I can hear you all the time, that’s how we found you in the first
place. But I can understand how it makes you uncomfortable, so I
will make an effort not to listen anymore . . . unless you want me
to,’ he added with a cheeky grin.
‘Thanks,’ said Max, not
convinced he would.
Unknown to her, Haven had
already tried blocking her thoughts but found it impossible, it was
like she was part of him; it would be like trying to block you own
thoughts, which was impossible. Still, he would have to be more
sensitive to her fears and pretend that he was not hearing her all
the time or she would find it very difficult to relax in his
presence and he didn’t want that. He found this otherworld woman
very interesting and he didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot,
but perhaps it was already too late for that.
When they arrived at Max’s
house is was getting on for late afternoon; the sun fast heading
for the horizon. A cool breeze had come up and the leaves in the
trees were rustling noisily. Max fumbled around nervously in her
shoulder bag for the front door key, finally finding it, she
ushered everyone inside.
The house was small and cosy
and the soft, feminine decor reflected its owner perfectly. She had
moved back to the family home after her parents had been killed in
a car crash, they had left it to her in their will. It had
originally been a working farm but Max had sold most of the land to
a neighbouring farmer, keeping only the house and ten acres for
herself.
‘Please, make yourselves at
home,’ she said. ‘I’m just going to check on my cats.’ Expecting to
hear a ruckus from the Shibby boys wanting their dinner, she was
surprised to find the kitchen silent and empty. Max flicked the
kitchen light on, ‘where are my boys,’ she thought, ‘something must
be wrong.’
The others had followed her to
the kitchen. Haven, picking up on her worried thoughts had started
looking around to see if he could locate the missing cats.
Although, not sure what a cat looked like made the task a little
difficult. Max opened the back door and stood there looking out,
calling the Shibby boys for dinner. She flicked the outside light
on and was just about to step outside when a firm hand gripped her
shoulder preventing her from moving.
‘I think someone has been here
already,’ said Gilster softly, as he looked down at the outside
step. Max followed his gaze and saw poor Shibby1 dead on the
door-step, the blood now a black congealed mass, surrounded his
soft little body. Max knelt down as the tears flowed.