Janus the Arrival (The Janus Trilogy Book 1) (6 page)

   
‘Stop it Janus,
Please
!’ she pleaded as the pain increased and caused her to cry
out loud. In response to her request, the pressure gradually eased off. Then
his powerful hands enveloped her head and pulled it up against his chest, where
she could do nothing but lay in silence and listen to the roaring sound of his
heart. It wasn’t long before she felt his manhood begin to stiffen with
excitement, and feeling the need to respond, especially as she was already
growing damp down below, she readily accepted him inside her, Vicky clung on desperately
as if there were no tomorrow. She really loved things the way they were right
now, and really wished it would never ever end.

Janus
peered across and watched the second hand as it completed another circuit of the
clock face. It was still only four forty in the morning. Turning to check on
Vicky, who was sleeping very contentedly, he felt an instant stirring in his
loins. He wondered if he should wake her, before finally deciding she probably
needed the rest. Turning back to where he’d been facing originally, he gazed
across the room. Then, as he began to stare at the moon that shone directly
outside the window, a strange sensation suddenly overcame him without any
warning whatsoever. The harder he looked, the deeper the image of the moon
seemed to become, as it slowly started to alter its appearance and change in
shape. The room became very cold and unpleasant all of a sudden, and Janus felt
rather startled as a strange vision unexpectedly materialised directly before
him. The image he was visualising was the landscape of an exceedingly dark and
desolate plain from what he could make out. This stretched out as far as the
eye could see, and the whole thing had quite clearly been destroyed from an
intense heat of some sort. A temperature from which he imagined nothing could
possibly have survived. Something dawned on him just at that point and he
immediately seemed to understand its meaning.

   
Janus felt an empty numbness eat right
through him as he realised that this was his true home planet. What he was
looking at was the planet Pagos, and he knew that it was gone forever. Other
visions followed in rapid succession, including some from the Dra-Na-Zee Elders
that provided him with various instructions to guide him over the coming weeks.
There was also a promise that further instructions would reach him within the
fullness of time, whatever that meant. As the visions began to fade away, the
moon gradually regained its natural form, which left Janus with a certain sense
of calm and belonging.

As
morning arrived, a cold mist began to settle outside. Glancing over at the
figure sleeping nice and relaxed next to him, he noticed a lightly freckled
breast had teased its way over the top of the duvet. While trying to place the
thoughts of what lay ahead to the back of his mind, Janus reached over and
placed his mouth on the inviting red bud that soon stood slightly erect and
tantalising. They made love over the next hour and listened at the dawn chorus
as the sun rose up towards the heavens with the mist having eventually
dispersed. It shone directly through the window to where they lay, and Vicky
couldn’t help but notice him gazing with great interest. It almost seemed as if
they were communicating with each other, yet also appeared as if Janus were
waiting for some sort of signal. Sadly the woman would never realise how close
to the truth her thoughts had been.

A
short while later, while they were both getting dressed beside the bed, as soon
as the sun reached a certain point in the sky, Janus immediately sprang into
action and pushed her away from him. With a single stroke of his hand he’d
split her stomach completely open, before thrusting his arm up and under her
rib cage. The sensation of warm blood pumping over his arm only acted in
spurring him on, as he swiftly reached for the organ that would help complete
this vital stage of his evolution.

   
Vicky was totally shocked. She’d known that
her time was close, but had had no idea as to how or exactly when it would actually
occur. It was not unlike watching a film and she couldn’t comprehend quite what
was happening to her. She became very hot and nauseous having felt and heard
her skin tearing as his hand had caused irreparable damage. Vicky couldn’t find
the strength to struggle as blood trickled in spasms down her sides. Urine
began to squirt uncontrollably from between her legs as she slowly lost
complete co-ordination of her lower body. The last thing she felt was an
intense pain in her head followed by a sudden but welcoming darkness as Janus
completed his task by ripping out her heart. Throughout the whole ordeal, Janus
had linked his mind into hers. He’d sensed the blackness during the last of her
death throes, which were closely followed by the feeling of a long awaited
release. Janus had completed the final thrust and held the bloody organ high in
his hand like a winning trophy, leaving the mutilated body on the blood stained
bed before walking off to the shower.

The Dra-Na-Zee had required a human life to be sacrificed in
order to continue their bid for the survival of their race. Vicky for all her
troubles and all the effort she’d been through over so many years had finally
gained an extremely unusual form of immortality. The human once known as Vicky
Newman, now lived on inside the lifeblood of the being known as Janus.

It
was Leila who first contacted the police as Vicky had never been late for work in
all the years that she’d known her. She was the sort of person you could always
rely on, come rain or shine, and if something had been wrong, Vicky would have
phoned. At first she’d wondered if she was just being a foolish old lady, but
Leila had a bad feeling about the whole thing and her instincts were usually
quite good. On reflection, she had to admit that Vicky had seemed a little bit
on edge quite recently, something must have been bothering her. After informing
her staff about where she was going, she hurried off to call around in person
at Vicky’s flat. Her head was full of all sorts of obscure reasons for her
employee’s sudden disappearance at the time, especially as the police had
seemed so blasé, having informed her that people go missing every day. They’d
also asked her if she felt a crime had been committed, to which she had no
other option than to admit she didn’t know.
 

   
Having received no answer at the front of
the house, she then decided to try the back entrance and found the back door to
be slightly ajar. Stepping inside and calling Vicky’s name out loudly as she
entered, Leila knew immediately that there really was something wrong. The
bedroom no longer appeared to have a bed in it. Therefore she called the police
again, and this time she really emphasised the fact that she felt something was
seriously wrong.

   
Leila eventually waited for well over an
hour before a police car finally arrived. This was closely followed by a rather
beaten up looking Citroen 2CV that contained a rather funny looking man with a
set of cameras. She’d been watching as he’d parked up, stepped out, and
immediately tripped over, having missed his footing on the pavement. Leila had
struggled not to laugh as she was being approached by one of the policemen. He’d
turned back and shouted out something to a younger officer still standing by
the car as he’d walked towards the house.

    
Detective Inspector Dave Sorbus was a
rugged looking forty-nine year old who’d worked for the force since joining as
a youth. Having been called in to take a look, after the detective who’d
originally been given the task, had been called elsewhere. Dave politely
introduced himself first. Then he apologised for the delay, as the woman
appeared to look a little more distressed than he’d expected.

   
The
trouble with being around crime all the time is that it tends to harden you to
the extent where you almost forget how the public feel under such
circumstances.
He thought to himself.

   
The young officer then appeared, having
retrieved whatever he’d gone back to the car for. He went in first and was
closely followed by the man with the cameras, who it transpired, just happened
to be conducting a study about police duties as part of an article for the
local gazette.

   
Once inside the flat no immediate traces of
foul play appeared to be evident, although Dave did agree with Leila that he
found it very unusual for a fully furnished flat, usually inhabited by a
healthy young woman, to have no bed in it. ‘Just another missing person’s case for
now.’ he stated to the reporter, who took another couple of photographs and
then disappeared with all his equipment back to his car. Dave was relieved that
he was finally out of the way. He never could abide reporters at the best of
times. Turning back to Leila, he took down a few more details about Vicky
before walking her to the door. He then stood and watched her leave, having
promised to keep her informed if anything new developed. He certainly had a
strange feeling about this case. The hairs on the back of his neck had reacted
for a moment, and these were normally very reliable, as he’d discovered to his
advantage on many occasions over the last twenty years. Walking back into the
living room he took a little more time and studied the well-stocked bookshelf
that loomed ahead of him. That was when he noticed, from the surrounding dust,
that a fairly thick book had recently been removed. Yet after a good long
rummage around, he was unable to find any trace of the publication anywhere. As
part of routine procedures, along with his decision to do so, various articles
were bagged up and taken away for forensic checks. This also included two empty
glasses that had been located on a coffee table under which he’d also found
some black deposits of powder on the carpet. He’d very carefully scooped these
up and placed them in one of the small sealed plastic bags that he’d asked his
colleague to go back and get earlier.
 
It
was always interesting to see how other people tended to live their lives. You
could easily define the different classes of people just from their
surroundings, once you’d done it a few times. This particular house appeared
very homely. Yet it gave out a distinct feeling of loneliness. Having studied
numerous photographs of the missing woman since he’d arrived, he found it
extremely hard to believe that according to her boss, this attractive woman
didn’t have a lover. He’d certainly have been interested if he could’ve had his
days as a youth back again. Who was he kidding? She probably wouldn’t even have
given him a second glance.

Mike
Davies strolled along in a leisurely manner, without a care in the world, as he
headed towards the office. He only stopped at the newspaper shop in order to
collect a monthly copy of his favourite music magazine. It was a good quality
paper. It not only took him all month to read, especially as there were always
so many articles he’d read from end to end, it also updated him on all the
latest news that was going on. He recalled having befriended an older woman in
a local pub many years ago and then being absolutely stunned when he’d
discovered her true identity. Her name was Maggie Bell and she was so down to
earth, which was sometimes unusual for someone who many regarded as a music
legend. She’d sung the blues with a group called Stone the Crows during the
late sixties but sadly, they’d disbanded after Jim, her then boyfriend, had
been electrocuted on stage and died. Mike couldn’t remember the actual event,
as it had been a little before his time, but he’d looked up as much as he could
about the band, soon after meeting her. Maggie had eventually gone solo, having
eventually gone through the whole grieving process. Presenting Mike with some
signed albums a few weeks later, he soon realised how amazingly raw her voice
was and could clearly see why she’d been so successful. Maggie had been voted
top female singer for consecutive years in many of the top music polls by
endless armies of loyal readers. She was also a great story teller and
constantly kept him fascinated with tales about groups such as Led Zeppelin,
Yes, Pink Floyd, along with many others that she’d grown up and toured with. He
especially liked the one about a huge, open air festival in the early
seventies, where she’d alleged that specific members of one particular band had
filled a large cauldron with several bits of food that they’d all clubbed
together on. However, this also included a certain amount of illegal substances
that kept them all going for quite sometime, which was just as well in those days,
especially as they were all stony broke and struggling to make a living.
As it turned out, Maggie had been swindled out of
some of her hard earned money by a couple of devious accountants that had
worked for the record company. So after struggling to pay off a massive tax
bill and having to re-mortgage her house, she eventually moved to Spain. She
then met and married a Dutchman before finally relocating to Holland, where she
occasionally commuted around the world to do a spot of acting or singing from time
to time. Mike smiled as he continued to walk along the road. Good old Maggie.
He wished her well!

Mike
was the latest recruit at the police forensic laboratory, and he was still
trying to learn the ropes and meet the correct people. That meant the movers
and shakers in his book. That also included those from other departments, who
he’d no doubt be reliant on at certain times. He looked across at the piled up
in-tray on his desk, as soon as he reached it, and took the next job from the
top of the stack. This he noticed, from the type of packaging it had come in,
and would probably contain samples of some kind, with an accompanying
worksheet. Once opened, having grabbed a cup of tea from the kitchen first, the
items contained inside, were soon causing him major problems. It was very
rarely that he ever came across something that left him so perplexed, yet
following repeated tests on the black powdered deposits he’d been working on,
he could hardly believe his eyes. With no other option than to seek further
advice, and to clarify he wasn’t fully losing his marbles, Mike called over to
his boss to verify his findings.

   
Don Murray was the longest serving and most
senior manager down in the lab. He naturally assumed that Mike may have had a
problem operating the machinery, due to him being a newcomer and not being used
to it, but after repeating the tests he also became very excited. He double
checked the screen for the DNA results with Mike looking on and realising that
Don was getting exactly the same answers. Don had never witnessed such an event
in his whole life, and stopping to clean his glasses before refocusing the
image, he stood mortified as the green flashing message read:

   
‘
No
Match: Origin Unknown: Alien Source Detected.’
Don was like a kid who’d
been let loose in a sweet shop. He gave Mike a big slap on the back and then
ran around the laboratory punching the air and shouting at the top of his
voice. Everyone just stared in wonder. Desperate to see for themselves, they
walked across the room and took it in turns to look at the screen to see what
had sent their boss so completely off his rocker. Mike Davies was also very
pleased with the way things had gone. He’d really made an impression by the
look of things. Then, as per the instructions on the worksheet, he immediately
contacted Detective Inspector Dave Sorbus. The policeman answered on the third
ring and told him he’d be there as soon as possible. He’d also instructed him
to keep the whole thing under wraps for now, but Mike wondered if it was maybe
already too late for that.

Emma
and John both realised that the day would eventually arrive when their son
would want to leave home. It was and always had been inevitable. It was
something they both feared, yet they’d never really discussed the matter in any
great detail. As a consequence, they were not quite so prepared for it when it
eventually happened. During the last few days they’d realised that Janus had
been busy planning something, especially as he’d been acting completely out of character
from his usual everyday self. Something traumatic had obviously occurred. If it
was what they assumed it to be, then that would have required Janus to have
contacted Vicky Newman. Therefore, if their worst fears were correct, which
they both suspected as being the case, then the truth about his real identity
would have finally been revealed to him. Knowing that ignoring the fact would
only be putting it off and adding to their agony. It was Emma who finally took
the initiative and summoned up the courage to tackle Janus there and then.
Going upstairs, she literally stepped in his way as he strode from his room and
headed towards the bathroom, where he seemed to spend an extraordinary amount
of time lately.

   
‘Janus, please can we talk for a minute?’
 

   
‘Not now
mother,
I’m busy.’ He responded.

Emma
realised immediately, from the way he’d looked at her, and how he’d emphasised
the word mother, that the truth was finally out.

    
‘Please, Janus it’s really important.’ she
pleaded.

    
‘So is life!’ he retorted. Slamming the
door shut with such force, that it caused a photograph on the wall to spring
from it’s hook and crash unceremoniously to the floor. Emma bent over and
carefully picked it up, trying her best not to cut herself. Yet as she stared
at the picture before her, tears sprung to the corners of her eyes as the
happy, smiling faces of herself, John and Janus on holiday a few years ago,
appeared through the cracked glass. Deep down, yet not wanting to admit it, she
realised things would never be the same again. Everything was happening just as
they’d been told. The two of them would simply have to accept the fact that
Janus now belonged to the Dra-Na-Zee.

The
next day, Janus left the house without a single word. The whole day seemed to
drag by without that much being said. That evening, once he’d arrived back
home, Emma approached him and tried once again.

   
‘Janus we
must
talk!’ she insisted. He had his head down, yet she knew he’d
heard her. He was just about to climb the stairs to his room when he suddenly
turned and glared at her. It was an awful moment, and it was extremely
terrifying. Catching the immediate change in his eyes, the woman felt her knees
weaken under her. In that instant she knew what real fear actually meant. She
imagined that that was exactly how a person would feel if they ever had the
misfortune to come face-to-face with a wounded tiger.

   
‘All the talking is finished!’ he shouted,
as he started up the stairs. She watched and her shoulders sagged in despair,
just before he turned back to face her.