Janus the Arrival (The Janus Trilogy Book 1) (19 page)

   
Forty minutes later, having only stopped
once to check the map, she pulled into a shabby looking council estate and
studied the building numbers displayed on the front of each block. Why on earth
do they always design numbering systems that require you to be a Mensa
candidate before you can understand how they work, she wondered? The flat she
sought turned out to be at the far end of the estate, but having parked in a
vacant space that she hoped would be safe, Dana promptly entered the building
then trudged up the stairs to the fourth floor. It appeared that the lift was
out of action courtesy of the local vandals. This, she assumed was probably
something that tended to occur on a regular basis, much to the annoyance of the
local residents, especially when they reached the lift with heavy bags of
shopping.
Rachel was pleased to finally meet
the detective face to face, having only ever talked to her over the phone. She
immediately passed on her condolences for her father’s death and was pleased
that it was well accepted without causing any sort of upset. It was never an
easy thing to mention at the best of times. Danny entered the room a little
while later and greeted Dana very politely for someone of his age. Her first
reaction was to shake his hand, but she hesitated quite clearly, as soon as she
looked into his eyes and saw Janus looking straight back at her. Rachel
couldn’t help but notice her strange reaction. Taking control of the situation,
she immediately asked Danny to go and play in his room while they sat and
chatted. Asking about her state of health, Dana was extremely pleased that
Rachel had managed to rebuild her life instead of following the same fateful
path that Debbie had chosen. Rachel then went into much more detail about the
attempted abduction of her son. She also noted the deep concern etched on the
caring face that listened on. It was really nice to feel that the attention she
was receiving was personal rather than just being another number. Dana then
took over and relayed the history of the case that her father had been working
on just before his demise. This was prior to explaining the reason for her
current involvement, and ending with a very informative and detailed summary of
events to date.
As she sat and listened,
Rachel initially found it very hard to take in at first. Yet, combined with
what she’d already known beforehand, she did have to admit, that this
far-fetched story seemed to make much more sense, especially now that so many
of the missing pieces had finally been explained in a language that she
completely understood.

   
Later, as she was being shown to the door,
Dana made certain that she advised Rachel, that she and Danny would be placed
under constant police surveillance from that day forth. Therefore, it was
imperative that they maintained their usual daily routine as much as possible,
in order not to raise any suspicions. Both women shook hands as they parted,
and before long Dana was sitting back behind the wheel of her car heading off
towards the Netherwood Sanatorium.

The
place was located in the beautiful rural area of Little Milton near to Oxford.
It was surrounded by 500 acres of agricultural land with extremely well
maintained forests, plus it commanded superb views over the adjacent river.
This stretched right across to the remains of an old rustic windmill, which
stood all desolate looking, but only added to the glory of the picturesque
backdrop, which never ceased to be jaw dropping to most admirers. Stone from a
nearby quarry had evidentially been used during the construction of the main
building, which had also made life a lot easier in many ways for the builders.
This had taken just over eight years to complete, due to the complexity of its
intricate design, along with the endless red tape and paperwork that went with
such large projects. The Sanatorium was considered a true work of art by those
in the know, and as a result, it had also been home to many noble English
gentry in times gone by.

    
Dana parked in a visitor’s space close to
the front of the building and stepping from the vehicle gracefully, she swiftly
walked across to the entrance marked ‘Reception’. Once inside she was
immediately greeted by a rather starchy faced receptionist, who didn’t come
across as very friendly, but pointed her towards a set of chairs that were
partially secluded by a large array of plastic plants. As Dana sat down beside
them, she started to think about the woman she’d just come to visit. From what
she knew, Rebecca had been dismissed rather unceremoniously from The Caring
Hands Fertility Centre not long before Dana had called in at the Harley Street
clinic to meet Janus, so therefore the two women had never actually met in
person. It had been Linda, one of the clinics more experienced receptionist’s,
who’d initially decided to contact Dana to express her concern about the
woman’s declining state of health. She had particularly emphasised that this
was both mentally and physically from what they could make out so far. During
their conversation Linda had explained how she’d dropped in on Rebecca at home
one evening and they’d then sat talking quite happily about normal everyday
girlie things at first. Yet as soon as she’d mentioned the disappearance of
Janus, Rebecca had gone totally berserk. She’d started running around the house
like a complete lunatic, until Linda had had no other option but to call in an
emergency doctor. On his arrival it appeared that he’d used a concoction of
drugs to calm her down, although it hadn’t taken too long afterwards to
diagnose that Rebecca was so stressed that she’d finally lost contact with
reality. Basically, the poor woman was suffering from some form of psychosis.
While Linda had been informing her boss about the results, Professor Edwards
had mentioned Dana’s call, soon after Janus had failed to turn up for work.
Therefore Linda, having already known about Dana’s line of work, wondered if
she could assist in getting Rebecca to recover from her zombie like state.
         
She really couldn’t think of any other
solution at the time.

   
Unfortunately for her, Linda was not
around, due to some sort of family sickness that day. Therefore, a very sullen
looking porter led her down a long, dull grey corridor, where a scream from one
of the rooms suddenly startled her, just as they were walking past. The noise
didn’t sound human at all, but the porter hadn’t flinched one bit and just
continued on. Dana found herself almost running just to keep up with the man as
he hurriedly disappeared around the corner into an adjoining hallway. Having
reached their destination in due course, he then muttered something about
returning in half an hour the fetch her back. He then lifted his finger and
pointed at a big red emergency button, before walking out, shutting the door
and sliding the huge security bolt firmly into place from the outside. It made
a very raw scraping sound as is did so, and sounded so clear-cut in its
purpose. The room itself appeared very dimly lit at first, but Dana’s eyes soon
accustomed themselves to the surroundings. She glanced over at a cracked
washbasin with a dripping tap in the corner just before noticing the figure
that was all huddled up at the far end of the room, sitting on a somewhat tatty
looking excuse for a bed. Rebecca’s once shiny blonde hair, hung all matted and
greasy over her shoulders. Dana noticed that she wore a soiled white gown,
which exposed her buttocks slightly in certain areas. She sat cradled with her
knees really pressed close up against her chest, whilst humming a few
mismatched notes, which she repeated over and over again without pausing for
breath. This may have been comforting for the poor girl, but within a few
minutes of listening to that insane drone, Dana was already beginning to wonder
if she was simply wasting her time even being there. Almost as if she was
reading her thoughts, Rebecca suddenly stopped, turned and lifted her face to
her visitor, who took the invite for what it was, approached the bed and sat
down beside her without delay.

   
Dana immediately studied her up close. She
felt quite saddened that the innocence that she knew had once existed in the
young girl’s eye’s, had most likely been replaced with a fear that lurked in a
hidden region, somewhere deep inside. This was set in the background somewhere
behind the blank expression that was currently etched on this sad, lost looking
face.

   
‘Hello Rebecca,’ she uttered gently, not
exactly sure how it would be taken, yet not wanting to sound condescending at
the same time.

   
‘My name is Dana, and I’m a friend of
Linda’s. You worked with her at the clinic. No response was evident at that
point, but Dana continued to try and get through. She really didn’t want to
walk away without anything at all.

   
‘I was also the girlfriend of Janus.’ She
added. At the sheer mention of that name, the poor girl went absolutely rigid
beside her. Dana was just bracing herself for Rebecca to go berserk in some
way, when she suddenly became animated and seemed to be stretching out her arms
to her in a desperate plea for help. Dana reacted instantly. She moved nearer
and held the frail figure as close as she felt she should. However, she was
completely caught off guard when the young woman spoke and a question was
whispered very softly in her left ear.

   
‘Why?’ It was all she’d needed to say on
this occasion. In response, Dana did the only thing she could possibly do in
the short amount of time she knew she had left. Cutting out certain parts of
the story that she felt would be far too distressing for her, Dana told Rebecca
the truth.

   
The porter was totally taken by surprise
when he returned and opened the door to find both women sitting and chatting
away like two old friends. Quick to react, he immediately shut the door again
and hurried off down the corridor to find a doctor. He desperately wanted to be
the first person to tell them the good news.

Doctor
Dale was beaming with great excitement when he entered the room just five
minutes later. What he discovered, was Dana busy cleaning Rebecca’s face with a
damp cotton handkerchief, as they stood by the small wash basin set over in the
corner. She was tending to her very gently and seemed determined to make her
look presentable.

   
‘I’m so sorry about the awful state of this
room Miss Sorbus. Patient’s such as Rebecca become so violent at times, and
sadly, we cannot afford to place them in decent surroundings for fear of the
room getting wrecked.’ Studying his face, Dana could see that the Doctor was in
fact being quite sincere. Therefore, she immediately warmed to the old man in
the white jacket who now stood before her.

   
‘I really have no idea what you’ve said or
done to our dear Rebecca, but it sure as hell worked, that’s for sure. Maybe we
should send you in to some of our other patients.’ He joked. They walked much
slower than before, back through the corridors together, while Rebecca was hurriedly
whisked off to the showers to be cleaned and dressed, having already said their
goodbyes. Once they were back in the reception area, Dr Dale thanked her very
gratefully for her help in setting one of his more difficult patients, back on
the road to recovery. He then showed her out through the main doors, before
waving as she walked across to her car.

He
stood close beside the bedside lamp. The light appeared to send out a blue
translucent hue, just about everywhere into the room. Approaching the woman
from behind, while she sat in anticipation with her back towards him on the
bed, the atmosphere was intimately filled with a mixture of both their needs
and expectations. Carefully sitting down behind her, he gently threaded his
hands beneath her arms and traced the outline of her beautiful body until he
finally reached the flimsy material of her bra. With this achieved, he then
manoeuvred it up, then cupped and manipulated each of her warm breasts in turn,
until they fitted more than comfortably into the palms of his hands. Just as
expected, her nipples began to respond with a certain amount of anticipation,
and they slipped with great ease between his fingers. Consequently, he toyed
around with them for a little bit longer, until they eventually stood fully
erect, just as he’d hoped. Working his fingers down over her well-toned
stomach, they continued to edge across the leather exterior of her short, and
very sexy mini skirt, then momentarily came to a halt at the upper part of her
long, stockinged legs. Taking a deep and much needed breath, he then allowed
them to search the silky confines of her inner thighs. Dana moaned out loud.
She gasped with sheer delight as his rough manly hands explored the patch of
bare flesh just above her stocking tops. Right at that exact moment, she
simultaneously felt the moistness of her womanhood starting to erupt in her
black laced panties. Reaching out with trembling hands, she fervently pulled
his trousers down from his waist, and was extremely pleased to find him totally
naked and ready for action beneath. With his enormous erection already gazing
longingly at her, she quickly shifted him into the position she required, and
after slipping her clothing to the side she immediately started to straddle
him. It was all going so perfectly well at first. The penetration was
wonderfully deep and her love juices flowed relentlessly as she lifted herself
up and down the full length of his shaft. Yet the moment she looked down at the
man beneath her, with his knees facing directly towards the ceiling, she
screamed out in sheer horror. Part of his appearance had physically started to
alter once again, into the familiar shape of Vicky. This time however, it was
different because only the facial features had transformed at first, before the
process continued and turned into that of a man shaped reptile with large
snake-like eyes. Fearing the worst, and unable to do anything about it, she
glanced down to find that she now rode an enormous, green scaly organ. Then,
just as she was about to panic, she felt a hot spurt of fluid being ejaculated,
which shot its way deep inside her cervix. At precisely the same instant, a
pair of razor sharp fangs latched straight onto the side of her neck, embedding
themselves deep into her bare flesh. It all happened incredibly fast and
skilfully severed the jugular vein along with the temporal and carotid arteries
at the same time.
 

   
Dana became aware of the warm sensation as
her own blood trickled down between her fully exposed breasts. She gasped
desperately for precious mouthfuls of air and realised that she’d be dead
within seconds, just as the horrendous vision finally blurred into a dark red
mass.

Her
bed sheet was totally soaked with perspiration as she gradually woke from her
nightmarish sleep. The duvet lay sprawled on the floor, having been kicked into
touch by her flailing legs, at some time during her torment. Dana had never
been so pleased to wake and see daylight again. She climbed exhausted from the
damp bed and reached down to gather up her dressing gown, which she quickly
draped around her nakedness in order to stay warm. Sixteen minutes later,
having showered and feeling much more refreshed, she gazed towards the hallway
as she heard a noise. She relaxed, knowing that this was due to her letterbox
making its usual attempt to snap off the poor postman’s fingers as he did his
rounds. Reaching the door soon after, she carefully bent over and retrieved the
letters that lay on the mat. Yet, after sorting through the usual quantity of
junk mail that tended to be a daily event, she found that the only two worth
looking at, would more than likely be bills. It was certainly nothing to get
excited about. Walking off and filing these, in what she classed as her well organised
letter rack on the kitchen work surface, she then turned around and filled the
kettle. Dana relied heavily on the successful infusion of those dried leaves in
their little white bags for her favourite beverage each morning, and she always
needed at least two whole cups worth, before being anywhere near capable of
facing whatever waited for her in the outside world.
  

   
As she sat on the sofa drinking from her
favourite mug, Dana suddenly shivered. A chill shot straight down her spine, as
she recalled every last detail of the dream she’d suffered. Thinking about
Rebecca’s frightful experience, that must have been one hell of a personal
nightmare for her, and one which had ultimately caused the poor young woman to
be shut away in the sanatorium. The outcome had nearly ended with her whole
life having been destroyed, and that had all been down to that damned creature
known as Janus. Dana had already gone ahead and made the decision without even
consulting the FBI agent’s, despite knowing that it ran completely against the
ethics of her profession. She’d totally convinced herself that this had been
very firmly based on a need-to-know basis.
They
certainly didn’t need to know any more than she’d already given them for the
time being.

   
Having waited until Tim had finally emerged
and then left the house, which now sat in complete darkness, Dana cruised
around for a further few minutes before deciding to park in a different place.
She really didn’t want to raise too much suspicion, plus it was never easy to
tell who may be watching in these tight-knit communities. Having gotten out of
the car and walked back in the direction of the house, she was well aware of
the intensity looming deep inside her. It was struggling to break free, and the
large amount of butterflies she could feel, were currently shooting around in
her stomach. Having decided to approach the house from the side alleyway, she
casually reached over the gate, then gradually moved her hand around from side
to side until she finally felt the cold metal catch beneath her fingers. With a
little more feeling around, followed by a sudden heave to the left, the bolt
eventually slipped sideways. This freed the gate from its bounds, and as it
sprung open, she couldn’t fail to notice that the garden had apparently been
untouched for what must have been a long, long time. The grass was dry and very
yellow. It was completely overgrown and reached well above Dana’s knees in some
places, but knowing that she had to be extra careful not to do any damage, or
leave any signs that she’d been there, Dana slowly ploughed her way through it,
even though she found the going to be quite hard at times. When she finally
reached the back of the house, she wondered if she was maybe playing it a bit
too cautious.

 
  
Basically, Dana had failed to notice a row of milk bottles standing by
her feet at the time, as she’d already been busy peering through some heavily
draped windows. Therefore, after clumsily scattering them all directions, she
realised that she’d pretty much managed to make enough noise to wake the dead.
Breaking and entering was definitely not her strong point, that was for sure.
On the positive side, at least she now knew the place was empty, because after
hiding behind the shed for a couple of minutes as a matter of precaution,
nobody had appeared from the house in order to see what the hell was happening.
Fortunately, the garden was not overlooked by any neighbouring houses, although
she could definitely hear the sounds of children playing somewhere in the
distance. This was probably coming from the playground that she’d driven by
earlier, and that was located near the end of the road, from what she could
remember. It was only by luck that Dana happened to try the handle of the
backdoor, and to her amazement it slid open to reveal a modern looking dining
room inside. The interior of the house definitely seemed far better than the
outside. Relying entirely on her police skills, and combined with a certain
amount of intuition, Dana worked her way methodically around the house,
starting with the downstairs first.
Most of
what she found told her that the house had probably been rented out on a short
term basis, although this obviously hadn’t happened for a while. This would
also explain the reason for the inhabitant’s lack of interest in the overgrown
garden at the back, but with a need to keep the inside up to a reasonable
standard. There was also a distinct feeling of sadness in the atmosphere that
surrounded the place. It almost seemed as if the house itself was a living
entity, that longed for a decent family to come and live inside, and bring some
sort of life back to the place. In the meantime, back downstairs, Dana came
across another door that when opened, led down a set of steep stone steps and
into a darkened cellar. The vibes from this room were not very good at all, and
after locating the light switch on the wall at the top, Dana started to search
the place inch by inch. After a lot of patience, she finally found what she
sought, and her instincts told her that she was absolutely spot on with her
detection skills. What she’d discovered was situated in a small crevice in the
floor. The black carbonated deposits were just as her father had described in
his diary, and now Dana was absolutely sure that young Jamie Green had been
held here against his will. She had already worked out that Vicky must have
finally disposed of him, and as far as Dana was concerned this was all the
proof she needed. This confirmed that despite what Vicky thought or said, she was
just as dangerous as Janus. Consequently, these creatures, or whatever they
were, were basically murderers, and in no uncertain terms they should be
treated as such. On her return up the steps, Dana turned as she suddenly heard
a noise just ahead of her. She stood rooted to the spot for an instant, before
finally letting out a huge sigh of relief as a black cat suddenly appeared from
the shadows. It gazed down at the intruder with accusing eyes, having obviously
been upset that its territory was being invaded by some unknown stranger. The
truth of the matter was that it wanted her to leave and let it have the run of
this peaceful place, just as it had for a while now.

He
followed the length of the path as it wound its way along beside the flowing
river. Jamie watched with great interest as the waters gradually changed pace
to suit the different widths, where it twisted and turned between the
overhanging edges on both sides. Not a single sign of life appeared to exist
within the shadowy depths of its many springs, but he also hoped that this
would soon become a thing of the past. Jamie looked ahead to a time when other
creatures would live in harmony alongside him. They would feed off the vast
abundance of lush vegetation that currently covered the limitless boundaries of
the Pagosian valley. Over the past few weeks, this walk had become a favourite
part of his daily routine, and although he loved the peace and tranquillity, he
still missed the enjoyment of being in the company of others.

   
Back at the cave, it was clearly obvious
that Jamie had been extremely busy. His living quarters were fully set up
inside, after an awful lot of sweat and hard work on his part. Whereas,
outside, from various materials gathered both in and around the forest, he’d
built a construction similar to that of a greenhouse, having used the
transparent skin of a leaf that grew in abundance around the place. It hadn’t
taken Jamie all that long to work out that the stuff could be easily worked and
then used as an almost perfect substitute for glass, once it had dried out. The
interior had been decked out to suit his needs, based on what was available,
and it also housed the fragile embryo’s, of which there were four in total. All
of these lay on their own individual boulder at the far end, and each one was
spread a short distance apart from the other. This section had a natural
opening in the roof, which thankfully provided much of the light he needed
during the daytime. At night however, this was a totally different story, as
Jamie had already become used to, and greatly welcomed, a
large numbers of tiny
 
luminous, fungi-type creatures that provided a
much dimmer light.
This was much more comforting for
him during the evenings, and they tended to cling together, mainly in groups of
three or more, above and around the whole cave. They tended to be quite shy,
and were mostly found attached to the walls and ceilings, with the majority of
them living in amongst the stalactites. They also made little squeaking noises
when disturbed, but Jamie usually left them in peace. He really liked having
them around as company, and therefore he really didn’t wish to upset these cute
little cave dwellers, especially if they got fed up and moved elsewhere. They
had been living there much longer than him, after all. He was the newbie
tenant, so maybe they could be classed as t
he landlords. The heat from
the two sun’s shone down directly from above through the large hollow. This in
turn, created an oven-like effect that appeared to increase the growth rate of
the embryos quite considerably. Yet, after only three weeks of being discovered
and unfrozen, they’d already assumed a similar appearance to those of human
ones at only twelve weeks old. They already contained very recognisable
features, such as eyelids, fingers and toes. The whole atmosphere of Pagos had
also not only increased Jamie’s physical strength twofold, but had also aged
him at a considerable rate, although this seemed to have finally levelled out,
much to his relief.