"The Claws of Time" Prologue : by Lemon Bloody Cola

The new official Ben Chatham Adventure "The Claws Of Time"

Prologue

Time flows like waves, leaving us drenched in the salty tears of experience that burn at our skin till they out of necessity become pregnant with new life. In a gorgeously furnished London flat, a pair of beautiful forlorn dark eyes do not survey the exquisite tasteful décor, nor the rare archaeological artifacts that adorn the shelves and walls, not even the faces of his closest friends Kyle Scott and Katie Ryan that hover over him like clouds fit to burst with the rains of compassion, a compassion they display in ways unique to their characters and backgrounds which though fall in a deluge can not wipe Benjamin Chatham’s soul clean of the most gruesome monster of all, the piercing crimson claws of time, the demonic many headed beast of memory.

The beautiful dark eyes that have seen the best and worst of what this universe have to offer, the dim candle of the past, the tremulous roar of the future and savage alien lands, now finally set themselves upon the sight of something they can not process. The face of a young boy, a young boy that acts as an all too acute magnified mirror reflecting back Ben’s own grief, fear and loneliness since the death of the lost sister he found only to lose again forever.

Craig Chatham stands alone as the day he was born, needing nothing more than the last link to his mother: the uncle who has saved the world so many times but finds himself as helpless as an eagle without wings when it comes to giving Craig the love and support he needs.
Kyle Scott has his own knawing melancholy to contend with, the mother stranded in the realm of addiction, but this is filed to the back of his head. He knows Ben needs him now more than ever, he must try and normalise the situation, to pierce though the wall of emotion separating Ben and Craig
“Ere so mate do ya like school?”Craig ponders and for a second is taken away from thoughts of his lost mother
“I guess it’s ok, I like art and I do okay in my lessons, but I’m always getting beat up cos of it.”
In the mind of Kyle Scott a distant memory awakens like a sleeping giant, only to be diverted from traveling to his lips by the sound of Katie's laughter.
“Ha how typical for a Chatham to get pushed around! It’s a tough world out there kid, you best toughen up or you’ll be grown up and letting some no hoper chav like Kyle here sponge off you while you lay around like a beached whale feeling sorry for yourself!”
If you could have cracked Craig’s stony face with a hammer of empathy you would uncover a world of bemusement and hurt at Katie’s statement but he so longed to stay with his Uncle Ben he changes the subject somewhat to avoid offending Katie "er actually, my best mate at School is called Kyle, he’s into art like me, he’s an amazing painter but he gets stick for it as well and his families like, underprivileged and don’t see much point in him carrying on with it so he’s thinking of jacking it in.”

Kyle can scarcely believe the coincidence in front of him but once again his attempt at speech is interrupted this time by a frantic banging on Ben’s front door so vigorous it even shakes Ben out of his prone haze of despair.“Good god, who the hells this? I can’t take any more unwanted bombshells today!”Ben answers the door to be greeted by none other than Captain Jack Harkness his face streaked by a dark shade of urgency.“Ben, something is very very wrong here, and if you don’t help me make it right it’s the end of everything!”

TO BE CONTINUED.