Janus the Arrival (The Janus Trilogy Book 1) (4 page)

Vicky Newman
was a stunning woman who turned heads wherever she went, without even trying. She
was tall with long, straight black hair and carried a rather striking elegance
about her. A fair number of the students at the university had jokingly called
her
Wonder Woman,
after the comic
strip heroine, and she was more than happy to play along with that on most
occasions. She recalled one particular evening when a few of the students,
having acted like a group of wild animals had been unable to hold their liquor
and ended up suffering the consequences. A couple of the boys had even
attempted to chat her up, with the main objective of being the first to get
into her knickers.

   
Fortunately, Vicky had caught wind of their
plan a few weeks earlier and therefore, utilizing her skills, with a little bit
of cunning, she successfully managed to come through relatively unscathed.

   
It was two weeks later at one of the student disco’s when one of the other
students, who went by the name Robert Hart, who she’d noticed looking at her
earlier in the evening, finally decided to approach her. He was extremely
handsome, tall, and blonde, built like a gladiator and held a long running
reputation as being the campus stud, along with being a much admired
sportsperson in a variety of events.
Vicky
acted quite evasive at first, but she soon realised that they had far more in
common than she’d first thought. Although everyone else had pretty much viewed
them as a perfect match right from the start.

   
Robert was more than happy to play the waiting game to start with. He was
fairly content with the way things were progressing, until one evening, during
a heavy petting session in the back of his car; Vicky finally gave way to his
charms. Unknown to him she’d already decided it was the perfect time to give up
her virginity, while Robert, who was almost coming in his pants, fumbled around
with the zip on his trousers and couldn’t quite believe his luck.
He could already feel her nipples standing fully
erect and begging for attention through her thin blouse, and it wasn’t long
before they were feasting hungrily
on each
other and doing what came naturally to youngsters like them.

The next few
years came and went, with several boyfriends in situ along the way. Robert had
inevitably moved on to other conquests, which hadn’t been too unexpected,
especially as they’d been drifting apart for a while, once he’d got what he was
after. Some people just seemed to go through life enjoying the chase and
initial benefits of a new relationship, rather than committing to anything,
although it was hoped that they’d finally grow up and see some of the hurt they
may have caused, in the end. After all the hard work and finally graduating
with a full honour’s degree in Psychology, Vicky decided she wanted to travel
the world, and really enjoyed a vast majority of the time that she spent abroad.

   
On her return to England however, having
finally run out of money, she was sadly forced to join the daily rat race. As a
consequence, Vicky soon came back to earth with a big reality check, much like
many others had had to do in the past. Her immediate and most obvious plan was
to use her degree in some way. As luck would have it, a friend of a friend,
just happened to know of a clinic that was due to open quite locally in
Surbiton, which was situated very close to Kingston on Thames in the county of
Surrey.

   
Having
been formally introduced, and following an interview with a wonderful Norwegian
lady named Leila, Vicky successfully landed the job just two weeks later. Then,
within a fairly short space of time, she’d already installed herself in a plush
new office, where they even allowed her to choose the decor before it was fully
refurbished from top to bottom.
Eight months
later, Vicky Newman BSc (Hons) Psych. was seen as a very valued part of the
establishment having built up an impressive list of clientele along the way.

A young man
called Janus Storm was her latest client, and although she maintained very
strict rules about becoming too familiar with her customers, something seemed
to develop between them from the very first moment the two of them met.

   
During their initial meeting, Vicky had
chosen to wear a long white dress to work on that particular day. It was very
fetching, highlighted her figure, and had remained one of her favourites from
the instant she’d purchased it, from one of the stylish boutiques close to
where she lived. Although it was the first time he’d met her, and hoping that
he didn’t come across as being too presumptuous, Janus had commented on how
angelic she looked. The fact that her voice was very softly spoken at times,
also helped to relax him quite a bit. Then, over the next couple of weeks that
followed, she eventually became the first person that he’d ever shown any
feelings for, ever since Amanda’s tragic death. Therefore, Janus was a little
more than surprised when just a few sessions later, Vicky acted very nervously
during one of his visits, before turning to him and providing him with a very
unexpected explanation for her strange behaviour.

   
‘The time has come for me to tell you that
you’re suffering with memories of a previous life and you needn’t worry any
longer, as you’ll soon outgrow the dreams you’ve been having.’ She then looked
him directly in the eyes and concluded with the words. ‘You no longer need any
further treatment from me, I’m happy to say.’ before getting to her feet and
dismissing him rather abruptly. Janus was a little bit confused and found this
sudden change completely out of character for the woman. Yet, after expressing
his concern to her, he was ushered from the room almost immediately. Judging
from the serious expression she’d had on her face at the time, he knew that all
was not well. He also suspected it was something that concerned him, but she
hadn’t really given him that much to go on.

It was during a
rain sodden evening, three weeks after his eighteenth birthday when Janus
suffered his worst ever dream. He sat bolt upright in his bed, shaking and
absolutely dripping with sweat. The letters
BNS,
which usually
frequented his dreams in one form or another, were so much clearer than before.
On this occasion, they also exhibited much stranger markings than they usually
did. Sitting still at the end of his bed, concentrating on his breathing and
focusing his mind, Janus suddenly noticed a slight difference from before. This
time around they seemed to be appearing as the letters
DNZ
. Then, as if
suffering some kind of premonition, the young man felt there was a certain
familiarity about them, that he just simply couldn’t place anywhere at all.
They’d always seemed to have the ability to draw him in deeper and deeper, each
time he visualized them in the past. Yet, somewhere deep down inside him, he
knew that sooner, rather than later, his whole life would definitely be about
to change. For better, or for worse? Was the question that jumped to the
forefront of his reasoning right now, but nothing made sense… Nothing at all.

From that
moment on, Janus kept pondering the situation over in his mind and was not
prepared to continue putting up with the dreams for much longer. What he saw as
a possible solution suddenly came to him out of the blue one evening. He’d been
busy looking through some paperwork he’d been putting off for a while, when all
of a sudden the answer appeared all too obvious. He then knew that he had to
get in contact with Vicky as soon as possible. There was certainly some sort of
link. It all made much more sense when he thought it over. The woman was
definitely hiding something, and he needed to find out exactly what it was, no
matter what she thought. He still resented the way that she’d rejected him, but
putting that aside, the fact remained that he desperately needed answers.

   
Having slept unusually well that night,
he was pleased that he’d finally made a definite decision. As soon as the
morning arrived, he leapt from his bed, showered and set about working out the
finer details of his plan.

   
It wasn’t until the following night that
the young man’s darkened figure climbed up over a gate and crept along a
well-used gravel path, as he set about his approach to the silent
house. Using a screwdriver that had been purposely placed in his pocket,
he entered the building through an old sash window, which led from the back
garden directly into the main bedroom. Having lowered his feet to the floor
without making any noise, Janus gazed at his surroundings and sensed a strange
familiarity with quite a lot of the artefacts lying around. He realized
immediately, that Vicky must also have studied the eastern cultures at some
time. This only helped confirm his suspicions about the woman even further, and
he then felt fully justified in the actions he was taking, as he settled down
and lay in wait for her eventual return.

   
Fortunately, the waiting didn’t last very
long, as ten minutes later he heard the distinct sound of a key turning in the
lock of the front door.  Having never been a great believer in beating
around the bush, Janus decided he’d go straight for the direct approach. The
instant the woman set foot in the room, he boldly strode over and stood directly
in front of her. The two of them faced each other in silence for what seemed
like an eternity, and although he’d half expected her to scream or react in
some form of protective manner, she never did. Janus found that extremely odd
behaviour indeed and automatically reached out to probe her mind to find out
why. Searching for some kind of answer, all he could sense at first, was the
fact that she’d been expecting him for quite a while. This in itself, explained
to a certain degree, why she hadn’t reacted to his intrusion, but he certainly
needed a lot more than that.

   
Once the pressure had finally eased off, Vicky casually turned and walked away
to hang her coat up in the bedroom before reaching under the bed to retrieve her
slippers. This was one of her simple pleasures in life, and she wanted to feel
more comfortable for what was about to occur.

   
On re-entering the living room, she found
that Janus was already sat at the far end of the sofa. Catching the look of
satisfaction etched across his face, which could easily have been interpreted
as one of extreme arrogance, she simply walked over and slumped herself down
beside him. It wasn’t long before they were deep in conversation, and they
spoke together as if they’d known each other for years.
 

   
Janus couldn’t help but notice how she
tried her best to avoid direct eye contact the majority of the time, while he
went ahead and updated her on everything that had happened since their last
meeting. However, it was the moment he mentioned the letters
DNZ that
the
expression on her face changed completely. This was immediately followed by a
slight hesitation before her next words were finally released.

  
  ‘I guess the time has come for you to know the truth. There’s not much
point in delaying any of this any longer.’  She stated.

   
Vicky then stood up and reached for a
somewhat ancient looking book from the bookshelf beside her, before blowing off
a layer of dust that had settled along the top of the cover.

   
What followed would have sounded
unbelievable under any normal circumstances, but this was a very unusual state
of affairs, and so Vicky sat back down and got ready to explain.

 
  ‘A large range of mountains exists along the Chinese, Tibetan
border, in which an unidentified flying object was reported to have crash
landed over twelve thousand years ago. For some unknown reason, the whole
incident was conveniently forgotten about until 1938, when a group of children
from a local village were playing around in a set of caves. Returning home,
they then talked about seeing some strange dead monsters inside one of the
chambers, which of course surprised the parents but got everyone talking. It
was only by coincidence that a group of archaeologists led by Professor Chen Lee
just happened to be in the local area conducting an expedition, when they first
caught wind of the story.’

   
Looking up, Vicky couldn’t help but notice
an inordinate amount of concentration, mixed with a total look of astonishment
imprinted on his face, just before she carried on.

   
‘Evidently the children were quite innocently playing a game of hide and seek,
when without warning, one of the boys started to scream and suddenly burst into
tears. Naturally the others ran over to where he’d been standing, and were
quite amazed to find he’d fallen into a hole in the ground. It appears that he
was trapped up to his waist surrounded by a large amount of earth, which seemed
to worsen every time he struggled to get free. The story explains that it had taken
all of their combined strength to pull him free and it was only at that point
that they noticed the
monsters
lying buried below. After tracking down
two of the older children, Professor Lee managed to retrace their steps, which
led him and his colleagues to a very complex network of caves. Once inside, it
appears that they eventually confirmed the story, having located a set of
partially hidden graves, which really motivated them all even further, as you
can imagine. A delicate operation followed from then on, with all sorts of
equipment being required to do the job properly. Fortunately the Professor had
excellent financial backing due to his previous successes and after many months
of careful digging, the graves and the surrounding areas were finally unearthed
and found to contain some very peculiar looking bodies.’ Janus was totally
captivated as she pressed on with the amazing story.