THE UNKNOWN TITLE

[Pikachu3828]

Quite the daft tentative title I named this, it was an old piece of work I wrote once but have since given up in favour of writing a different story. This was to be a murder mystery/SF (science fiction) piece of literature. Looking back at it now I'm not too fond of it. For one thing, I certainly could have lengthened the first two chapters a bit more.

Chapter 1
It was a dark, stormy night. Rain was pouring down from the skies above as rain droplets collided with each other above in the clouds until they became too heavy and fell down to Earth under the force known as gravity. Thunder seemed to roll off the tongues of the clouds, with a low, deep note at first, becoming higher until it finally went out with a loud bang. On top of a hill sat a house. A large house, indeed, by conventional standards. It sat in the centre of a garden. It was a large garden, stretching in equal lengths from each side of the house to the gate. The gate itself was made up of iron gratings. From the outside, the house looked fairly odd. It consisted of what seemed to be like two bungalows on either side with a tower connected in the middle. What was odd about this tower, however, is that it always seemed to look as if it was leaning slightly to the right, no matter at what point you looked at it. On this particular night, the surrounding area was covered in a thick black blanket from which no light could escape, broken only by the occasional shard of lightening. What was even more odd was that the lone window on the tower stood out as a bright yellow light emanated from it.

Mrs Penny was a widow. Her husband had died bravely fighting for his country. Or, so she was told, anyway. She had been living alone for almost 15 years now. She was a secluded person; ever since her husband has disappeared she had refused to leave the house. This was a drastic change in character for Mrs Penny. Before the loss of her husband, she was an active socialite. She would mix with all the right people and go to all the right places. She had vast amounts of friends with whom she would spend the majority of her spare time.

15 years on and she now has not a single friend. This is not out of some sort of sudden abhorrence that had been developed for her by her friends. No, this was out of choice. She sat alone most nights, in the dark. Why bother with lights when you are in a state of perpetual mourning? It would clash with your dark clothes. This is why there was an eeriness surrounding the light coming from the tower. It was not an unusual light to many, simply from a standard light bulb, however under the circumstances it was a very unusual sight.



Chapter 2
Gil Everard was a criminalist and forensic scientist. His job was to study crime scenes for physical evidence which in turn could be examined to provide important answers to crimes, such as; Who? What? Where? When? Why was not such a question that could be answered with forensic science. Or, at least if it was, it was a technique Gil was not aware of. The “why” part of a crime was left to one of Gil’s partners, Brian Wade. Brian was a criminal psychologist primarily, though he did do forensic fieldwork. It was his job to turn the metaphorical key that unlocked the reasons behind a crime hid deep within the criminal mind.

Gil and Brian had been friends since an early age. That had both gone to the same school together, but they could not have been more different as children. Gil was the sort of kid that was thought of as an easy target. He was slightly overweight and as such every time he wore a t-shirt his stomach protruded slightly from the top of his waist. This was an obvious target for many a belly-slap as a child. He also wore two digital watches on his right-arm. One was set to the correct time, and one was twelve hours ahead. This was so that whenever the abuse from his peers became too great he could always glance at his second watch and have something to look forward to. The trousers he wore were plain black, but always seemed to be a bit too tight for him. They also came up slightly short at the bottom, where his shoes were located. His shoes were black converse with large white laces. They were fairly rough and dirty, with patches of dirt spotted around the shoes.

Brian wore flannel t-shirts, with the top 2 buttons never done up. He had slick, gelled black hair and sunglasses. He wore similar trousers to Gil’s, but his always seemed to fit better. His shoes were blindingly white trainers. Aesthetically, Brian was the epitome of “cool” and he had the attitude and friends to match. While Gil would be at home studying, Brian would more than likely be out partying while sporting all the latest fashion accessories. Brain would try to persuade Gil to go out to a party every now and then, the answer would always be a refusal. Yes, they were two entirely different people as children.

Back to the present, things could not be more different. The people who used to bully Gil as a kid now cried every-time he passed them in the streets. This was not because of regret for their past actions. They cried because Gil’s salary had significantly more zeros on the end of it than theirs. Gil now had a trim physique. While it was not abnormally muscly, it was far removed from his old figure. His hair had started to age as grey hairs were becoming increasingly apparent. At this current time Gil was dressed in blue overalls, with a “Forensics” logo emblazoned on the top of each shoulder and right breastplate. He still wore glasses (though this was not always a certainty, he was also the owner of several pairs of contact lenses), but now they were thinner and sleeker than before, and the frame was now a barely-noticeable silver strip.

“Brian, come here” shouted Gil. A figure appeared in front of the doorway and slowly entered. For clarity, this figure belonged to Brian. Brian was roughly the same height and build as Gil. Brian was wearing the same overalls. It should be said that everyone in the house at this point in time was wearing the same blue overalls with forensics logos, except two police officers that were securing the area. Unlike Gil, Brian’s hair was still the same hazelnut brown it was as a child. He did not require nor wear glasses and had a stubble. As Brian advanced towards Gil, his silver case occasionally glistened in the light caused by the occasional flash of lightning coming from a nearby window.

Gil was pointing a small patch of blood on the floor next to the left-hand side of a door. Brian set down and opened up his silver case. He took out a swab and took a sample. He took out a small pipet filled with phenolphthalein. As he trickled this over the swab it turned pink, confirming that it was in fact blood on the floor. Gil took some photographs while Brian dusted the doorknob and managed to lift some fingerprints off it. Brian then proceeded to open the door and enter the room with Gil soon following.




Chapter 3
The room from which the door led to was a home library. At this point it should be made clear that this library was one of the rooms’ which belonged to a large, odd shaped house, that seemed to look like two bungalows with a tower in the middle at an angle, and whose occupant had recently gone missing after letting out a blood-curdling shriek. The library was a vast room that rolled forward as far as the eye could see. Or, at the very least, it was a very, very long room. On each side of the house lay bookcases that stretched from the floor to the ceiling and from the door to far into the distance. The bookcases were stacked full of books. “At least she had something to keep her occupied” murmured Gil as he entered the room with his torch. “What?” said Brian. Brian was too far ahead to clearly hear what Gil had said, and was already engrossed on a book he found lying open on the floor. It was an old hardback book with green covers and aging pages. What interested Brian the most was the fact that it was the only book out of place, and, perhaps more importantly, the pages it happened to be open were covered with bloodstains. Gil walked over and took some photographs. “Cognitive Science. She liked a challenge” remarked Gil.
“You recognize it?” said Brian
“Yes, I’ve read it before. It’s a fascinating book, but it’s very complex. Not for just anyone”
“When you’re by yourself I guess any challenge is a welcome challenge”
Gil smiled and got back up off his knees. “Have you noticed that this is the only room in the house without any windows?” asked Brian, “how did she see what books she was picking up and placing down?” They both looked up at the ceiling. Brian directed his torch upwards. The beam of light coming from it pierced the darkness of the room and revealed a light, with a broken light bulb. On the floor below were shards of broken glass from the light bulb. “Better take some pictures” said Brian as Gil did so compliantly.

A voice could be heard from the door of the library. “Brian? Gil? Are either of you in here?” The voice belonged to one Rachael Wong. Rachael was of far Asian ethnicity. She normally had long, sleek black hair, but at the moment her hair was tied up in a bun.
“We found a bloody knife in the kitchen. It has fingerprints all over it.”
“That’s good” said Gil, “get them back to the lab so we can analyze them”
“Will do. Have you found anything?”
“Yes” interrupted Brian, “we have”
“Oh, Brian, I didn’t see you. It’s so dark in here. What have you found out?”
“We found some blood by the doorway and a bloody book on the floor. Have you searched the rest of the house?”
“No, we’re about to go upstairs once the police have cleared it. Want to come?”
“No thanks”
“I do” said Gil as he then proceeded to follow Rachael out of the library.

The two police officers gave the all clear from upstairs. Rachael and Gil made their way up the staircase. It was an old, creaky wooden staircase whose steps seemed to be made from wood cut at arbitrary lengths. Some seemed to be too long and hung over the edge while some others were too short. A lot of the wood had holes in it where it had been worn away through constant use. Some steps had clearly been used a lot more than others as the thickness’ seemed to vary also.
“Seems sort of like the classic haunted house, eh, Gil?” joked Rachael as she led the way upstairs.

At the top there were a short corridor with two doors on either side leading forwards that split off into two separate directions. On the floor was a green carpet that covered the floor. “Split up?” suggested Gil.
“OK, I’ll go left and you go right” said Rachael.

They each took to the designated side of the hall and both went in their nearest door. As Rachael advanced towards the door, she noticed it was slightly ajar. It may possibly have recently been used, if not for the fact that a spider web connected the door to its frame. Rachael shuddered as she opened the door fully. She was not a big fan of spiders. The room was pitch black inside, with no sign of any windows. But this was not what Rachael was interested in. She took out her torch and shined it into the distance. Old broken chairs, chests with rags draped across them and other random pieces of wood were all that were visible. Rachael doubted that there were any clues contained within this room, so she left in search of a room with more prospect.

Meanwhile Gil had found some very interesting things lying around in his room. What got his attention the most was a small patch of fluorescent green goo on the floor. It was almost water-like in viscosity, but was sticky like honey. He had never seen anything like this before in his life. This annoyed Gil slightly, as he prided himself in knowing a little something about everything. In all his years in his career there had only been a couple of instances where he had been struck dumbfounded. He took some photographs and collected a small sample to take back to the lab. This substance had truly got Gil’s attention. He was tempted to pick a bit up with his fingers and sniff it, but he knew this was a dangerous thing to do, especially with an unknown substance that was coloured fluorescent green. If he had the choice, he would stay and examine it longer, but he knew he had more rooms to inspect and that we would gain far more valuable information from getting it analysed at the lab than sitting there staring at it, so he got up and walked out the room, making sure to close the door on the way out. He headed down the hallway, turned right and counted the amount of doors he could see. Two on either side and one straight ahead. He decided he would work his way round clockwise.

Downstairs Brian Wade was getting ready to leave.

[katara9]

If you want my views i think its good

[pikachuimpressions]

4 pikas outa five!
Rating: