Wednesday 16 April 2014

"The Crystal Skulls of Halsinar" Part 2

Part 2 : The Goblet

Ben overheard Dr Lenton's offer to make him a wealthy man and he strode towards the door:
"Its alright Kyle, I'll take over from now on. Please come in Dr Lenton and sit down. I do apologise for my initial nonchalance, it has been a very tough day. Can I offer you a coffee, exclusive Columbian blue ridge?"
Ben let his hair flop down over his eyes and then gently flicked it back, coquettishly. Dr Lenton smiled:
"That would be very nice Mr Chatham, truely."
"Kyle, go and prepare the coffee for our guest. Go on, chop chop" Ben firmly stated. Kyle shot him an angry look before going to the kitchen.
"Now what is it I can do for you Dr Lenton?" Ben asked, giving the academic his best seductive glance. Lenton noticed that the newspaper on the sofa was open at the section devoted to the death of Steve Fletcher:
"I see that you have been reading about the death of that burglar in the grounds of Balliol College. The matter I wish to raise with you pertains to this incident. You see I was the victim of this young man's last 'job', as I think the criminal fraternity refer to their exploits. My house was broken into and three valuable items were stolen, crystalline skulls. They have yet to be recovered as it seems that this Steve boy had an accomplice."
"Isn't this a matter for the police? Let us discuss your comment about making me a very rich man" Ben replied.
"Mr Chatham, the two matters are interconnected. I have it on good authority that you and your associates have experience in investigating matters of an esoteric or paranormal nature. There are issues here which I do not want to discuss with the regular police. The crystal skulls to which I refered have certain properties. They are extremely valuable. Unique. I want you to recover them for me."
As he spoke, Kyle returned with the coffee on a tray:
"Ere, are you sayin' these skulls are alien in origin or summat? What's your game mate?" he interjected. Dr Lenton was bemused:
"I made no such claim young man. The Department of Archaeology and Anthropology have no explanation for the properties of these objects. However they are of great importance to our institution and we are prepared to reward Mr Chatham and his organisation very generously for their recovery."
Lenton pulled a cheque from out of his top pocket and held it before Ben. It was a cheque for £1million made out to Ben.
"All this needs is a date and my signature". Lenton put the cheque back into his pocket.
"But for now I'll just leave you with a little something as a token of Oxford's appreciation of you." As Lenton spoke he lifted up a bag and pulled out a silver goblet which he placed on the coffee table:
"This is Edward Longshanks' goblet. Unique. When the tomb of King Edward 1st was opened in 1774, this was found within the coffin. It is inscribed on the bottom with the design of his personal seal. It is yours to keep."

Joe Hannigan sat in the corner of his damp, cold bedsit room, his head resting on his knees. His nerves were shot and he shook uncontrollably. He stared with horror at the bag he had thrown down as he rushed into the room the previous night. He had drifted in and out of either sleep or unconsciousness, he did not know which. He kept seeing flashbacks of Steve burning up inside and felt the horror over and over again. Unable to stand he had unrinated himself where he sat and the dampcarpet around him exuded a pungent odour. As the darkness fell again, the room was bathed in the shimmering light of a full moon, which shone through the window. Joe drifted in an out of dark dreams, where he faces from his past, of people he hated, his father, teachers and girls that had rejected him. He sensed a presence in the room with him. Waking quickly he turned his head sharply to the right and saw a figure emerging out of the far wall. The figure was dressed in the mail coat and metal helmet of a medieval knight and carried a long sword. The figure approached the shaking Joe and reached out its hand to him. It spoke no words and yet Joe sensed that he was being offered power and renewal of some kind. He felt as if the anger inside of him was returning and that the powerlessness that had fueled this anger all of his life was about to be replaced with a chance for recompence. The figure before him seemed to be offering him a bargain, a pact of some kind. He had nothing to give and nothing to lose. Through the dark emptiness of utter hopelessness Joe reached out his hand and touched the figure......

Ben lay sprawled across his leather sofa eating a tub of dark olives and smiling to himself. Kyle was annoyed:
"Look Ben you can't trust that creepy geezer no way. Why does he need us to like find his skull things, why not the old bill? What if they are alien in origin?"
Ben lay his head back on the cushion and laughed:
"Oh come on Kyle, your indignation is so plebian. I very much doubt that a senior academic of Dr Lenton's pedigree is involved with alien plots. I have had experience in the past of crystal skulls of alien origin but these sound quite different. For one thing they were found in England, which is unique as most cystalline skulls originate from the Americas or the far east. Think of it Kyle, £1 million of Oxford University's money coming to a Cambridge graduate." Ben laughed and sipped his red wine from Edward 1st's:
"You know what Kyle, I feel so good that I'm going to phone Emma right now and tell her that she can serve me her wretched divorce papers. The tide has turned at last."
"Ben you ain't thinkin' straight. Are you sure you should be drinkin' from that rancid thing? Look I know we ain't talked much lately but I want you to know that I really respect you ok. What you've done for me , well I can't say how much it means, I've learned so much like from bein' here an' part of all this. I want you to know that Ben because for your own good like I'm gonna tell ya that you're behavin' like an arsehole. Not just with this skulls malarky but all the Emma shit as well Ben. How you've treated 'er is rank."
Ben looked up and smiled:
"Oh don't lets spoil the moment. I'm happy Kyle and I know that you could be to. Why be uptight and irritable?"
"I don't get you Ben. Why ain't you angry an' makin' condescendin' remarks at me? Didn't you hear right, I called you an arsehole."
Ben smiled:
"Its ok Kyle, I don't mind. Have some wine"
Ben held the goblet towards Kyle. As he dis so his features seemed to fade and change into those of a goat-like creature.......


............... to be continued.

Tuesday 1 April 2014

"The Crystal Skulls of Halsinar" Part 1

The Crystal Skulls of Halsinar


Part 1 : Death of a Thief

The cold breeze blew drizzle into the eyes of Joe Hannigan as he climbed onto the top of the garden fence and dropped down the other side. He was shortly followed by his friend and accomplice Steve Fletcher, a dark-haired and rather overweight youth of nineteen.
"This is daft Joe. I mean like how do we know there's anything worth 'avin' in there?" Steve moaned.
"Shut it whingin'. All you ever like do is bloody whinge an' whine. We're doin' this job because I'm sick of playin' it small ok? This could mean some serious dosh as well as gettin' one over the gownies of this shit hole town" Joe whispered back angrily.
"You an' that chip on your shoulder" Steve moaned.
"Fuck off, I ain't got no chip just a  whinging great slob next to me" Joe spat back.
However Joe Hannigan did have a massive chip on his shoulder and he knew it. A tall, slim youth with cropped blond hair, he burned with the strange, unfocused hatred of doomed youth. His father, whom he had met only once, was gas boiler fitter who had walked out before Joe was even born. His mother worked for a food packing company. Joe had a quick, agile mind yet his short temper had prevented him from aquiring the skills and discipline necessary to use this intelligence to get on. He had been expelled from one school for fighting, having glassed a boy in the corridor, and later from college for punching a Maths teacher. Joe hated the academics and university students of Oxford, where he lived. He despised their privileged backgrounds, assured confidence and aura of success. To Joe these people had never had to struggle or to cope with and real problems or issues in their lives. Joe was a loner, prefering the certainty of his own company to the compromises necessary to form friendships with the coseted and the shallow. The one exception to this was Steve. Bullied at school for being overweight, lacking in social skills, Steve was his comrade in outsiderdom. Steve was a highly skilled petty thief and Joe admired this greatly, despite Steve's lack of ambition and imagination.

Slowly they crept towards the house. One of thee downstairs lights was on, although the curtains were drawn.
"What if they ain't out after all?" Steve asked.
"Look, you said yourself that they'd probably leave lights on to make it look like someone's in. They do it in these posh houses right? I know what I overheard like. Waiting on the posh cunt and his snotty wife while all the time listening to them planning their weekend break in Rome. Dr Jeremy Lenton of Corpus Christie College Archaeology department. Married to the actress Brighette Jones. Didn't take much research on the net to find out where they live. No kids, no live in housekeepers from what I've like overheard. Dream job. She must have masses of jewellry and shit" Joe replied. It took Steve very little time to prize open the back door with a crowbar and his skill ensured that this made only a little noise. They searched around downstairs:
"Told you they were out" Joe said grinning. He picked up a bronze statuette off a side table and threw it at a large picture of Dr Lenton and his wife, smashing the glass.
"Hey what you do that for?" Steve exclaimed.
"Oh stop whinin'. Search upstairs!" Joe instructed.
Steve went upstairs and searched the main bedroom. He found a safe within one of the cupboards and fixed a small explosive device to it from his toolbag. He soon had the safe open and Brighette Jones' valuables in his bag, Meanwhile Joe had found Lenton's office and was searching around. He found a locked wooden cabinet in the corner:
"Hey, Steve, get here will ya!" he shouted. Steve arrived quickly:
"Get that cabinet thing open."
Steve prized the door open and they saw inside, arranged in a neat row, three crystal-glass skulls.
"Hey its only a load of crap Joe, we've got the jewellry, lets leg it", Steve said.
"Get them in the bag, I've read about these sorts of things. Something to do with lost civilisations in South America, Probably worth loads" Joe replied.
Steve reluctantly loaded the skulls into the bag and they left the house. They ran down the leafy close and took a shortcut through the park,  arriving out onto the grounds of Balliol College, Joe throwing his arms around and laughing:
"Yeah that stuff will fetch a lot of dough. We'll pass it on to Flannigan sell through his Amsterdam connections" he shouted. Suddenly Steve dropped the bag and started to stagger.
"Hey Joe... I feel... faint....."
He fell to the ground and started vomiting. Blood oozed from his ears and nostrils. As Joe tried to help him, Steve's head seemed to glow and change into a crystalline skull with eyes that glowed red. Joe was filled with a strange, visceral horror and he grabbed the bag and ran.......


In the Mermaid Wine Bar in Cambridge, Ben Chatham swirled the wine around in the glass before downing it . He stared at the empty glass, tears forming in his dark eyes.
"I can't believe that you would do this to me" he said with a mixture of anger and despair. Emma Chatham glared back at him furiously:
"Ben do you seriously think that what we have is a marriage? Really?"
 Ben looked up at her and took hold of  her hand:
"I've given you a home haven't I? I come and see you whenever I can. You knew when we started this that my work would mean we'd be apart for a fair amount of time".
Emma was furious:
"Your work isn't the damn problem Ben and you know it, its just the excuse. You're the problem. I don't have a husband, I have an absentee landlord. You sleep with men behind my back, and don't you dare try and deny it again, and refuse even to reply to my calls and texts. Look Ben, I know we kind of used each other in this, I know that. But I want out. I thought I could handle it but I can't. I guess I love you too much."
Ben poured another glass of wine:
"Ok Emma, what if I agreed to go on holiday with you and showed you some attention. The South of France maybe."
"I don't want a damn holiday, I want a husband!"
As they argued, Barry Tuck, the waiter, had arrived with their bill. He leaned over to Emma:
"Not gettin' much attention in the bedroom love? How about I help you out there. I bet you're a right little wriggler" he whispered.
"How dare you say that. Go away you disgusting, crude man" Emma shouted. Barry Tuck held up his hands in a gesture of protest:
"Hold on love. Bit of an over-reaction there. Lovely jugs though. Anyway there's you're fucking bill" he said before walking off. Emma became emotional:
"So are you just going to sit there Ben? Why arn't you going and demanding to see the manager of this place to complain about that creature? You heard him insult your wife and you just sit there."
"*sighing* Its only Tuck. He's like that with all the women. Everyone complains but his managers won't sack him. Don't let him get to you."
"Its not him thats getting to me its you Ben. You just don't care do you? Huh? Its all Ben, Ben, Ben, me , me , me."
Ben sighed:
"Emma you are throwing your toys out of the pram. Overly hostile behaviour on your part is both unfair and unworthy of you. Earlier you suggested that we should divorce. Therefore if anyone has a right to be upset here it is me."
Ben flicked his hair out of his eyes and wiped back tears. He picked up one of the wine bar newpapers from the side table and started to flick through it. Emma was furious:
"I can't believe that you'd sit there reading the newspaper at a time like this" she shouted. Ben ignored her. His eyes focused on a story several pages in:

BURGLAR FOUND DEAD IN ELECTROCUTION RIDDLE

A burglar has been found dead in an Oxford college grounds with all the signs of being electrocuted. Police have revealed that Steve Fletcher,19,  who had recently been released from a young offenders' institution had injuries consistent with exposure to a very high voltage however there were no signs of the likely source of this and no overhead powerlines....

A short time later, Ben arrived back at his apartment in Cambridge, without Emma. He threw himself down onto his leather sofa and sighed, burying his head in his hands:
"I'm shattered Kyle. I could just curl up into a ball on here and drift into oblivion" he said, languidly. Kyle grinned:
"Oh cam on Ben. You seen Emma I suppose."
"Yes I have Kyle, more's the pity. She wants a divorce."
As he spoke, the apartment door buzzer went. Kyle left Ben to his melancholy and answered:
"Er.hello. My name's Lenton. Dr Jeremy Lenton of Oxford University. Lecturer in Anthropology.  I understand that Ben Chatham lives here."
"Who is it Kyle?" Ben said mournfully.
"Some Dr Lenton geezer from Oxford, says he's a lecturer like in Anthropology".
"Oh I've heard of him. He wrote a book on the Mayans but I didn't think much of it. Tell him to go away, I'm tired." Kyle looked apologetic:
"Sorry mate, Ben gets like this sometimes. Try tomorrer". Dr Lenton frowned:
"Look, I want to see Mr Chatham now on an important matter. I can make him a very rich man indeed......."


.................to be continued.