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Hi all you Embiggening peoples

Here's a new story I'm working on.

 

It's based on a classic Sci-fi Thriller starring Rock Hudson called Seconds.

It's pretty dark and the transformations will come I promise.

The First Chapter is expostion and setting the scene. Let me know what you think.

 

 

I have wanted to write this down for a long time. I was unsure of where to start, unsure that anyone would believe me.

Fear of ridicule and retribution were also a factor. There are people out there that I care for, I understand that now. People that can and will be harmed or worse if I breathe a word of this to another living soul.

That is why I am writing this down. So you, dear reader can make your mind up, and maybe never make the same mistake I did.

The organisation that I am involved with have such power, they are everywhere and could be anyone. Please be careful and more than that, be satisfied with the life you have, the life that you can control. Be the master of your own destiny.

Disinterest and Boredom can lead to loathing. Not raging hate but a deep and slow loathing where you find that you care about nothing.

 

My name is or was Elliot Shaw. I was the Assistant manager of a good-sized merchant bank downtown and was told I was the next in line for promotion when my current boss, a happily stolid man of 60 retired. I’d done my duty at the bank. Worked the late nights and did the weekend conferences. I’ve helped business and people achieve their dreams and grow for most of my working life and I had never had the satisfaction of having it for myself.

I am a man, old before my time. I am in my late forties and look older, my hair has greyed and thinned earlier than it should have as if it’s reflecting the dullness and decay I have inside me. Average size and build with a typical middle age paunch from the same home cooked bland food every night.

I left work on this mid-week night the same way I had done day after day, week after week, year after slow unending year. As I left the bank that evening and headed towards the station it started to rain. It was that slow annoying drizzle that manages to get everyone in it. It makes everything grey and blurry. Shades of grey amongst shades of grey. All the commuters in the city including myself trudged their way to their transport home. As it was the city centre I headed towards the main station as I always did. I had no umbrella, as usual. So I pulled up my collar and walked on through the rain.

As I neared the station the rain seemed to ease a little. I put my collar down and grabbed an evening newspaper from the seller outside the station entrance and walked in and joined the throng of commuters,

I was on auto-pilot. I had done this journey so many times before and didn’t really pay much attention to the world around me but as I headed to my platform I had a tap on the shoulder.

I stopped and turned and there was a man in front of me. It could have been me. He was the same as me really, grey, indistinct and unremarkable.

I was about to speak when he grabbed my hand and put a small piece of paper into it.

“Go to this address. Use the name Wilson.” He said and looked around briefly.

“Do not tell anyone about this or there will be consequences.” He warned.

I was about to ask him what he meant  but with that he turned into the flow of the crowd and was gone. I was a bit shocked for a second but as I looked at the paper the station announced the train was getting ready to leave. I put the small slip of paper into my pocket and boarded my train and found a seat for the 30-minute journey to my home station.

I sat and made myself comfortable. I folded my paper and found it on the crossword page, for some reason I had never completed this crossword. It was a metaphor for my life. Incomplete. My thoughts wandered as I looked up from the paper out of the window and watched the rain spackled windows and the grey suburban landscape beyond pass by.

I couldn’t concentrate, hadn’t been able to really since Monday night and the weird call I got. The guy with the slip of paper just added it’s ingredients to the general cocktail of weirdness. I really had this unshakable feeling that I was heading for a crossroads in my life.

I took the little slip of paper out of my pocket and looked at it. It contained one line of writing on it, an address. I took out my glasses and read it.

135 Hanover st

That was it. Nothing else. I felt a sense of weird expectation, I don’t know why. This one handwritten line was to change my life forever. I just didn’t know it yet.

I was dragged out of my reverie by the announcement of my station. I was surprised, had it really been 30 minutes ? I gathered my things and left the train and trudged my way through the rain to my small house that was about 10 minutes away from the station.

My wife was sat in the living room reading from a tablet, some novel or other. We both had our hobbies. She read romances and I usually went into the garden. We lived together in the same house and were fine as long as we didn’t have to actually interact much.

“It’s still raining hard out there.” I told her, stating the obvious just to have something to say to her.

She didn’t hear me, so engrossed in the 19th century bodice ripper was she. Either that or she was just ignoring me. I chose to believe the first one.

I took my coat off and dumped the now sodden newspaper on the stand in the hallway. I caught sight of myself in the mirror and look away quickly. I was grey. It was like the rain had just leeched all the colour and life from me. It was the same look I had every day and had done for the last few years.

I looked and felt old. I tried to shake the thought and entered the living room. She looked up then. She tried to smile in welcome but it stopped just before it reached her lips. Her eyes were still beautiful, as lovely as they were when I first met her all those years ago. They looked tired though. The last few years had been hard on her too. A loveless, dull marriage will do that. I did love her once, I loved her very much.

Not any more. It’s hard to love anyone when you can barely stand to look at yourself.

“It’s chicken for dinner.” She informed me.

“It’ll be ready in about half an hour.” She said and turned her attention back to the kindle and the world of gardeners and ladies of the manor.

We ate our dinner in silence. She was a good cook but it still tasted like paste to me. I still couldn’t shake this feeling of imminent…Something.

“What’s wrong?” she said.

“I..I had a weird experience on the way home.” I said. As I did the man’s warning came into my head.

“What was it?” she asked.

“Nothing. “ I lied

“Just a bum asking for change.” I told her

“Oh.” She said. I could tell by her tone she didn’t quite believe me.

“I thought it might have been another call like you had the other night.” She said

“No, nothing like that.” I said.

The call had been weird to say the least. First of all it was on a land line that we kept purely because the internet service had provided one with their hub. Also it was one of the few things we had decided together as we had wanted to keep the old phone number we had. This had been done some time ago when we felt sentimental enough about these things.

The rest of the night continued in silence as we both did our thing. She was watching some drivel on the TV and I browsed gardening ideas on the web.

As I did a notification popped up on the screen. I opened my email and it was from an anonymous address and I wouldn’t have opened it if it wasn’t for the email address. It was from an old friend of mine. We went to school together and then were roommates in college.

It was just a one line message it said.

ANSWER THE PHONE.

The phone, the house phone started to ring.

 

 

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I'm intrigued. Definitely a setup chapter, but I'm curious where it will go. Interested in the address and the friend/phone call. Please address my curiosity :)

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