Introduction

 

It all began a long, long, time ago. Long before the Kings of England took their thrones and even further back through the sands of time than even the Roman Empire. The story of Felanishe began a long way back in time, back as far as the imagination can travel, to a time when man had barely begun to live in caves. That is where this story began. Yet what happened in that time, and the powers that existed in that dim and very distant past, lay hidden, waiting for the right moment to be made known once again. And now as this story begins the moment has arrived. For now is the time when Felanishe breaks through from history to the present day.

 

Chapter 1 - The Storm

 

In our present time, it all began one dark, stormy, Friday night. The air had been heavy all day and the weather forecasts had predicted thunder. As the evening passed, unseen above the dark, grey, clouds, a mighty pocket of trapped energy was gathering. Waiting for the moment of release the pocket swelled to bursting. Then, with the roar of several million volts, the energy was discharged, scything its way through the clouds. Searching almost in desperation for a contact, the energy raced towards the earth. In a moment it found its contact on the top of a house and discharged through the unfortunate aerial that had been selected.

Inside the house, the Carters were watching a cartoon on the TV. It was not a particularly memorable cartoon but it did serve to distract the children from the storm that was brewing outside. As the lightning connected with the aerial the television imploded, the screen disappearing into a million tiny fragments of glass. In the same moment of time a blue flame glistened briefly from the supercharged energy that passed through the electronic equipment. In a split second the complex electronic circuit boards melted and before the glass of the tube had finished falling into the machine a strong, acrid, aroma began to fill the room.

It took the Carter family some seconds to react to this unexpected intrusion. In those vital seconds, the circuit breakers that protect the home from electricity surges tripped. As they did so the whole house was plunged into an eerie state of darkness. In the moment of silence that followed the rain could be heard as it lashed against the windows of the house. And then, just as suddenly as the lightning had penetrated the house, so too the mighty roar of thunder slammed into the building making the windows rattle. As it did so, and because of the sudden darkness, the children began to cry.

'George, what's happened?' The woman's voice was clearly shaken.

'I don't know. It looks like we've been hit by the storm. Hang on, I'll find a torch.' The father left his chair and disappeared from the room for a moment. As he did so the two young children ran from the sofa to the chair in which their mother was sitting.

After a minute or so the father re-entered the room. The light from the torch picked out the frightened youngsters and their mother who was trying to comfort them.

'As I thought,' he started as he entered the room. 'We've been hit by the lightning. I think it's just knocked out the circuit breakers. I'll need a minute to check. Are you okay in here?'

The acrid smell of the burned-out television filled the room and the youngest child was beginning to cough.

'Yes, dear,' the woman replied, 'we'll be all right. Now, children, Daddy will have the lights back on in a moment. Shush, Mark, it's only a thunder storm.'

George Carter left the room and made his way to the cupboard under the stairs. He opened the door and shone the torch at the fuse box. All the little circuit breakers had tripped and smoke was still spiralling from one of them. He reached out a hand and felt the box was warm.

'Looks like we took quite a jolt,' he called out loudly. 'Everything's gone. I'll have to see what works for now, and then we'll sort out the rest tomorrow.'

He re-engaged the master switch. Inevitably, as all the separate circuits had tripped, nothing happened. Starting with the first breaker he pushed the trip button in. Upstairs in the master bedroom the radio clock sprang into life, the incongruous sound of static penetrating the eerie silence of the house. The second button restored lighting to the upper floor. Carefully, one button at a time, George Carter brought the house back to life. He passed over the seventh button, for the breaker was still smouldering.

'Well, dear?' Mary Carter looked at her husband quizzically as he re-entered the living room.

'Well, most of it is okay. But we don't have any sockets working on the ground floor. Have to get someone out tomorrow to have a look at it. Are you children all right.'

'Yes, Dad.' The young girl spoke first. Though tears of fear still streaked her face she obviously felt safe in her mother's arms.

'Mmm,' her younger brother seemed less convinced, and he still held his mother tightly.

'There's not much more we can do tonight. It's seven o'clock and you guys should be in bed.'

'But, Dad, I'm frightened.' The young girl spoke through muffled sobs.

'I know, Katrina, but it's only a storm and you're quite safe now. What happened was very rare, but thank God we're all okay. Now, we're only down the stairs aren't we, and tomorrow's a busy day, so you really must get to bed.'

'If you say so Dad.'

'That's a good girl. Now if Mummy takes you upstairs and reads you a story, I'll start to clear up this mess.' George Carter looked ruefully at the remains of what had once been the television set.

'Okay, then. Night, Dad.'

'Night, Dad,' her sobbing brother managed to stutter.

The children's father picked both of them up in turn and gave them a big hug and a kiss before sending them on their way to bed.

The second thing that happened when the lightning struck went unseen by the family. At the very moment the lightning contacted the aerial the huge imbalance in energy that was created instantly opened up a door. Not an ordinary door, but a door that protected a corridor. Not an ordinary corridor either, for the corridor passed through time, linking the present with some pre-ordained point in history. It so happened that in the millionth of a second in which the door was opened, the door at the other end of the corridor also opened and Felanishe passed through it.

As always happens in these situations, Felanishe was sucked through the corridor and passed through the door that had momentarily opened up in the attic of the Carters house. It is an unwritten rule that no being can be trapped in a corridor of time, for to be so trapped would cause an even greater imbalance of energy. So, in the millionth of a second that the doors were opened, Felanishe travelled the huge distance of time that had opened up.

As the door closed, Felanishe landed in a cardboard box in the attic where it lay, a faint green misty hue gradually fading into the night. And so, Felanishe passed unnoticed from the time of pre-history to the present day.

Downstairs, at the other end of the aerial cable, George Carter was sweeping up the fragments of glass that had once been the screen of the television. He had already disconnected the plug from the socket. To do that he'd had to use a handkerchief wrapped round his hand. The plug was still too hot to hold, but George Carter knew he had to unplug the television. The aerial cable had also been pulled from the wall. The cable itself was a sorry sight. The insulation had melted and pools of plastic had dripped onto the carpet. Again the cable was still hot and George Carter was very careful as he pulled the cable from the socket in the wall.

'Well,' he began as his wife came back into the room, 'that's the worst of it cleared up. The TV's a write off and I think we should get the aerial and the link cable checked out before we use it again. I'll have to get an electrician to check out the downstairs cabling. That was one hell of a jolt we took tonight. Lucky we didn't catch fire. Come to think of it, it's a bit weird that we took such a direct hit and we didn't end up with a major fire.'

'Well, it was quite bad enough, George. How much do you think it will all cost, and will it be insured?'

'It won't cost much if the electrics are all right. As for insurance, I doubt if we're covered. They're bound to say it's an Act of God or something. Still, the main thing is, we are all okay.'

'Yes, darling.'

Outside, the rain continued to lash against the house, and the thunder continued to roll around the town, though the rolls of thunder now sounded more distant than they had done earlier.

Up in the attic Felanishe lay on top of the contents of the cardboard box. The mysterious green hue had faded and now the strange object lay quite dormant, for all the world as if it had been in the box for as long as the other items. What did linger was a strange aroma, an aroma of charred wood mixed with something that was reminiscent of marshland. Felanishe lay there in the midst of the aroma. The moment it had been waiting for had almost arrived.